Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

[Acroyear II]

Heroes,

 

I'm planning a Champions scenario for this Saturday (the 19th) and I need a bit of help with the plot. I'm using the Sonic Sqeezeplay plot idea from Villainy Amok. As per the plot, the villain's sonic device utilizes the city's infrastructure as resonance chambers to blanket the city in white noise. Where I'm stumped is how the heroes can determine where to seek out the villain and his device. The villain is blackmailing the city to keep the sonic device from being used (a million dollars a day into his Swiss bank account), so there is no drop off point for the money that the heroes can use to trap the villain or follow him to his secret base. I don't believe the villain would be so stupid as to build his device so that the heroes can simply "focus in on the center of the sonic waves" and locate his secret lair. Any suggestions on how the heroes might be able to track down the villain's lair that are not overly difficult but not too simplistic either?

 

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Are any of the PCs tech oriented and/or gadgeteers?

[Acroyear II]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Are any of the PCs tech oriented and/or gadgeteers?

 

Yes, one of them is a tech guy, but he cannot whip up stuff at a moment's notice (he has a cyborg arm and is very intelligent, and is an inventor to boot). The others are a brick/martial artist, a brick, and a powered armor wearing soldier.

[Chimpira]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Well just off the top of my head. A device this huge and specialized would probably need special parts. If the tech PC can grasp the concept of how it is made and works maybe he can run down scientist who are working on similiar projects, albeit not as nefarious, and see who makes these parts and start tracking down those supplied them. The list should not be that huge

[CBikle]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

An unforseen side effect of the sonic device could be that its sonic energies really irritate canines' sensitive hearing.

 

Perhaps one of the PCs might consider asking if police or animal control have received any reports of dogs disappearing, becoming aggressive or otherwise acting strangely.

 

With that info, they might be able to triangulate the location of the villains HQ based on the reported incidents.

 

Other routes of investigation could be:

 

- checking up on any warehouses that suddenly have spiked in their power usage (or dropped off the grid entirely if they're relying entirely on the same power source that runs the sonic deal).

 

- Looking into any recent unusual construction involving big purchases of sound baffling and vibration-reducing materials.

[Doc Tough]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Doc sez...

 

If the villain has thought of cloaking the location of the sonic device so that the heroes are unable to pinpoint's location by following the noise to its center, perhaps he failed to think about covering the energy trail needed to power sucha device. If the Villain jacked into the local power grid, then they'd be able to note sudden increases in a particular grid's draw and slowly pinpoint the location down to the block (and possibly the building/site depending on how generous you'll be).

If the villain went energy independent, say an isolated generator, then that generator would also generate a noticable heat signature (or radiation sig or electromagnetic sig).

 

Perhaps you could even go the complaining civilian route. This involves a number of average joes complaining to doctors (or police or utility companies or the media) that their pets are going crazy or they are having constant headaches/joint aches/toothaches etc. The heroes might note the statistical abnormality and have a neighborhood to investigate.

 

There is also the "Villain's Needs" option in which the daily needs of the villain at his secret HQ betray its location. If the villain calls for food delivery, word of a delivery guys leaving food at a remote location only to find the payment waiting there could reach the PCs' ears. (As a former pizza guy, I well know that we love to talk about odd deliveries, IE like ones I made to visiting celebrities, or the time I brought pizzas' to a midnight skinny-dipping pool party, the New Year's Eve couple celebrating the night in diapers only...)(God I miss those days ).

 

Also, how is the villain communicating his demands? Perhaps they can trace the method back to the area of the villain's lair.

 

Hope this helps....

 

Doc Tough

[assault]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

If the tech PC can grasp the concept of how it is made and works maybe he can run down scientist who are working on similiar projects' date=' albeit not as nefarious, and see who makes these parts and start tracking down those supplied them. The list should not be that huge[/quote']

 

Also, have any such scientists disappeared or been kidnapped recently?

 

Unless the villain makes a particular specialty of building sonic devices, there is a fair chance he would need to acquire specialist assistance and/or components. This could provide an opening for an investigation.

 

Plots like this work better with a bit of preliminary build up. Either the villain issues his threat ahead of time, or he demonstrates that his gizmo works and then issues his demands, or else he kidnaps scientists/steals equipment to allow him to build it in the first place. The PCs are under time pressure, but have at least a short period in which to investigate. Of course they won't locate the villain until the very last moment...

[McCoy]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

An unforseen side effect of the sonic device could be that its sonic energies really irritate canines' sensitive hearing.

 

Perhaps one of the PCs might consider asking if police or animal control have received any reports of dogs disappearing, becoming aggressive or otherwise acting strangely.

 

With that info, they might be able to triangulate the location of the villains HQ based on the reported incidents.

 

Other routes of investigation could be:

 

- checking up on any warehouses that suddenly have spiked in their power usage (or dropped off the grid entirely if they're relying entirely on the same power source that runs the sonic deal).

 

- Looking into any recent unusual construction involving big purchases of sound baffling and vibration-reducing materials.

These sound good. I would also look for unusual movements of rats and pigeons.

 

I was also thinking this would need a lot of power, so I would pinpoint the power substations, then look for an illegal power tap. Find one, follow it.

 

Ther's also the proverbial deal with the devil. Any former opponents who use sonics and who are now in custody?

[mikesama]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

even with the resonance chambers the white noise would have started in the center and worked outward, fast thinking/detail orriented supers can probably cut the search area into something resonable that they can actually search for the villans lair.

[The Monster]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Perhaps the device is not particularly accurate, so that the center of sonic attack must be "walked" to the target. So you would have a line of mild disruption for several minutes before an actual attack, then when the target is properly acquired, the power is turned to full (kind of like ranging in an artillery strike). Some sort of records (does the local university have a geology department with a seismograph?) might be consulted for guidance, and could be a source of tension as a new series of surges is reported. (Where's it headed? Can we get there and warn people in time?)

 

This could be especially amusing if the device is actually a set of sonic generators spaced about the city, so that the targeting run does not always start in the same place (though it always starts from one of the generators).

[clsage]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

As per the plot, the villain's sonic device utilizes the city's infrastructure as resonance chambers to blanket the city in white noise. Where I'm stumped is how the heroes can determine where to seek out the villain and his device. The villain is blackmailing the city to keep the sonic device from being used (a million dollars a day into his Swiss bank account), so there is no drop off point for the money that the heroes can use to trap the villain or follow him to his secret base. I don't believe the villain would be so stupid as to build his device so that the heroes can simply "focus in on the center of the sonic waves" and locate his secret lair. Any suggestions on how the heroes might be able to track down the villain's lair that are not overly difficult but not too simplistic either?

 

Hmmm. Well, in addition to the ideas already mentioned I have a nagging

idea which I just can't fully form. Basically tho' it deals with interference

patterns. My thinking is (and I just can't recall all the physics in question:think: )

a complementary sonic wave (inverted frequency to the white noise) should

potentially have a "deadening effect", especially if aimed into the same

direction as the source. So...

 

Heros build "anti-white noise unit" (or just run the signal thru a mixing system

and invert it). Heros then play this second sound into various parts of the

infrastructure. As it gets aimed more towards the source of the white sound,

the "silence" of the conteracting signals should increase. Triangulate the

various "dead zones" and where it is quietest....

 

As I said, just a thought, mainly based on the interference patterns in

optics....And it may all be "handwave physics" so YMMV.

 

-Carl-

[bigdamnhero]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Let's see...power useage? Already brought up. Traceable side effects? Covered. Trangulating with some sort of countermeasures unit? Check. What does that leave me...?

 

Depending on the characters and the villain, they might be able to use streetwise +/or contacts to find out where Dr. Bad is holed up these days.

 

Or maybe one of Dr Bad's henchmen was arrested several days ago, and might be willing to sqeal if it's cut his sentance. Or it might be funny if Dr. Bad's ex-girlfriend narcs him out, which is what happen 9 times out of 10 in RL.

 

As a last resort, some kids snuck into a "desterted" warehouse and saw this Mean-Looking Guy with a lot of computers, so they snuck out and called the cops (or the PCs). But you can save that one for if the players are completely stumped.

 

Assault is right IMO: those sorts of plots work better if you've already set some of it up before Dr. Bad pulls the trigger. That way you can throw the PCs a few clues ahead of time, even if they don't yet understand what they mean. Then when Dr. Bad turns on the device, it's an escalation rather than a starting point.

 

 

bigdamnhero

"This sounds like a twelve change-of-underwear trip."

[Cancer]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

You could have Dr. Bad threaten to up the ante from noise saturation to total destruction. Explanation: when he has his noise projectors broadcast with random phase, it's just noise. But when he cues them to broadcast in phase, it'll resonate with the subsurface layers and fluidize the material the city is built upon. A minute or so of this will make approximately every building larger than a single-family house fall over and/or fall apart.

 

That threat can be used to be Dr Bad's downfall. When you have a set of potentially resonant oscillators (which those sound generators will be), they have a natural tendency to have phase drift until they are all in phase. So to maintain the "just noise" setting and prevent it from drifting into "destroy city" condition, there has to be centrally-controlled phase instructions to maintain the out-of-phase condition. (Not that Dr Bad cares much about the city, but destroyed cities are notably poor at making their payments )

 

That means there must a central control unit somewhere, and those signals can be traced, and there's your entry key for the heroes.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Cops sometimes consult psychics in the real world - why not in a super-verse? They might get some images that give the PC's a lead.

 

Finding out how big the thing would likely be is a good starting point. If you find out you'd likely need something at least as big as a subway tunnel or aircraft hangar, that helps narrow down the places to search.

 

Perhaps the villain set it up that using the device's effects on the infrastructure itself would not be able to be used to trace it, but the PC's could introduce another element that could be used - like a network of linked tuning forks or somesuch in various tunnels that could be used to calibrate a source.

 

Also - be prepared for the PC's wanting to hop a flight to Switzerland to try to get info from the account, or just trying to hack into the Swiss bank.

 

How does he issue his demands and check if they are met? He might cover the trail of his device, but if he calls in threats on his cell phone (for example) that is another avenue to be tracked down.

[hooligan x]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Which area Home Depot is sold out of replacement window glass and cheap plywood? Perhaps the loud sonics have caused an rash of 31 yr old metal heads to lose what remained of their hearing, even though they were insulated by their parent's basement walls. Or something keeps blowing transformers in grid sector g47

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

If you're playing a '70s style game, or have a character with Luck (or even Unluck) consider one character having a loose filling.

 

Oddly, it happens to resonate with the subsonic waves.

 

"I wonder if he'd be so eager to replace it if he only knew it was that loose filling that saved Campaign City from Dr. Sonic!"

[McCoy]

Re: Need Help with Scenario ASAP!

 

Perhaps the device is not particularly accurate, so that the center of sonic attack must be "walked" to the target. So you would have a line of mild disruption for several minutes before an actual attack, then when the target is properly acquired, the power is turned to full (kind of like ranging in an artillery strike). Some sort of records (does the local university have a geology department with a seismograph?) might be consulted for guidance, and could be a source of tension as a new series of surges is reported. (Where's it headed? Can we get there and warn people in time?)

 

This could be especially amusing if the device is actually a set of sonic generators spaced about the city, so that the targeting run does not always start in the same place (though it always starts from one of the generators).

Seismographs are good, even without the walk-up.