Cardinal Posted January 15, 2010 Report Share Posted January 15, 2010 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Act III: Tomorrow I hope! Not to be a pain in the butt, but it is a little past tomorrow. I would love to hear how things ends. Great write ups and it sounds like you have a great group of players and campaign going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! *bump* Any Act III to post? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTemplar Posted May 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! /cast Raise Thread.... again! So it's been a WHILE but The Defenders are STILL fighting the good fight. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do the full-detail writeups that I've done in the past (nor do I have the memory to recall events from these sessions that were completed nearly 2 years ago now - hard to believe its been that long!) But, I'm more than happy to share some of the adventures the team has had since we last left them in Dr. Destroyer's clutches. As The Defenders battled with Dr. D in his control room, the JDL fought hard against the incoming agents to buy Tomorrow Boy time to jury-rig some complicated-looking gadget. TB had engineered a force field generator designed to syphon the energy out of the station's core, rendering the massive energy cannon inoperable. The field would contain the energy long enough for a quick evacuation, and then dissipate. The subsequent explosion would be enough to seriously cripple if not completely destroy the station. The boy genius succeeded in drawing the energy out of the cannon core, only to discover his estimate on the strength the force field would need to contain the energy was a little low. The force field began straining and cracking against the overwhelming rush of energy within. Meanwhile, The Defenders were locked in combat with the Doctor, who had dealt a nearly fatal blow to Rampant Lion. As Fantastic-Man, Warforge & Cromwell fought to keep Destroyer occupied, Nighthawk worked his way into the station controls to order other stations to power down and disable the cloaking field. Warpdrive had already teleported to the station hovering over South America to rescue the Atom Family & when the cloaking field over the Antarctic station went offline, she teleported in to evacuate The Defenders, Atom Family in tow. She got the JDL off as TB struggled to hold his force field together with his telekenetic powers. He had to buy enough time to get everyone, including the rest of The Defenders, off the station, though that would leave no time for him to escape. Before she said goodbye, TB finally told Vicki Atom who he was, and how he had been in love with her forever. He stole a kiss before her oldest brother forced her through Warpdrive's escape portal. Warpdrive then herded the remaining Defenders off, leaving Dr. Destroyer on board, shouting curses & vowing revenge. It wasn't until The Defenders were safely back at The Citadel that they realized TB was still on the station. As TB's strength faded and cracks proceeded to spread out all around his force field, a bright light erupted behind him and a gruff, older voice said "You don't die yet, boy..." a red-gauntleted hand reached through the light and grabbed TB by the scruff of his neck, & yanked him back into the light as the field collapsed and the station exploded. Tomorrow Boy reappeared in the Citadel's Danger Room as The Defenders rushed to his side, though he had no idea what had happened to him... or where he was...or who they were. His memory had been completely erased. So that wraps up that story arc. Some others that The Defenders dealt with in Season V included: - TB's attempts to piece his shattered memories back together & solve the mystery of his escape from Dr D's orbital base - Teaming up with NextForce to shut down a massive IHA operation involving mass production of Minutemen robots - Discovering that NextForce's aims weren't so heroic after all and that the evil group was actually working under the direction of Holocaust & Gravitar the entire time! In the Season V finale, it was revealed that the goal of NextForce's anti-Viper attacks had been to steal the Tennyson device for themselves, as it wasn't just a weather control device as they had believed, it was actually a power amplification device & had affected weather because Stormfront had been used to test the device. Gravitar's plan was to steal the device to amplify her own powers, making her unquestionably the most powerful metahuman on the planet, but as The Defenders closed in on them, she was betrayed by Holocaust, who with Gargantua & Brainchild, stole the device for themselves and kidnapped Icicle in order to cover the earth in another Ice Age that would ensure the deaths of billions of normals, leaving only the strongest and most deserving alive. The Defenders fought a 500 foot tall Gargantua in the frozen streets of Paragon City as the massive blizzard spread while Fantastic-Man made his way through the NextTower, confronting and defeating Holocaust and destroying the Tennyson device. After being betrayed by Holocaust, Gravitar agreed to help bring him down and was using her powers to hold back the beam of frozen energy extending from the top of the NextTower into the upper atmosphere causing the blizzard, but was lost in a surge of energy when the device was destroyed. Only the tattered remains of her mask were found afterward. The anti-metahuman legislation failed when it was revealed that its chief proponent was not only heavily involved in the IHA, but also the father of Holocaust himself & the general public gave The Defenders a pretty big "we're sorry!" after being so distrustful of them for most of this season. All in all from the time that FryDaddy started this game (which was in 2003, btw) & throughout my tenure as GM, the campaign has had more of a "DC" feel to it. The heroes are more or less beloved worldwide. One of the things I wanted to do this season was get a little more "Marvel" with it.. borrowing heavily from elements of Spider-Man, X-Men, etc. where the heroes are always the good guys but the public doesn't always see it that way. Overall, I think we had some really nice moments with it but at the end of the day I think we just generally prefer people throwing parades for our heroes rather than throwing produce at them. So, the feel for Season VI definitely reverted back to our old style of play. I'll cover some Season VI highlights in my next post. We are currently about 3-4 sessions away from the end of Season VI at which point we'll be changing gears and running a Star Hero campaign that I've been building ideas for for years now. Tomorrow Boy has expressed interest in GM'ing The Defenders for us as well, so while my time as GM'ing The Defenders may be drawing to a close, our group is certainly not suffering from a shortage of things to throw dice at anytime soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTemplar Posted May 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Season VI: Armageddon So we're near the end of Season VI currently but I'll get you up to speed on the highlights. Season VI began (in-game) in early fall 2008, Election campaigning in full swing. There have been a lot less one-off sessions in this season as the majority have focused on pushing the two rather MAJOR story arcs along. The first major story arc of Season VI has centered around the idea of Ascendancy. While the nation looks toward the polls in November to see who our new elected leader will be (the leading candidates being billionaire industrialist Judas Geddon and a senator who had The Defender's back throughout Season V) a mysterious new villain calling himself Apocalypse was busy with his own scheme. The Defenders foiled an apparent assassination at the Republican National Convention in Paragon City perpetrated by what they discovered to be Teleios clones disguised as VIPER agents. Meanwhile, Apocalypse assembled a team of The Defenders most hated adversaries - Black Harlequin, Black Paladin, Talisman, The Warlord & Cybermind. The 5 seemed focused on gathering powerful, ancient relics for some unknown purpose. They stole Mjolnir itself from its hiding place using magical gauntlets enchanted to fool the mighty Hammer into thinking that Black Paladin was in fact Thor (also during that session, Warforge gained a little Troll buddy. It was pretty funny.) They attempted to steal a powerful scepter believed to be given by Isis herself to a long-hidden city in Egypt, and even uncovered the remains of a massive Lemurian weapon in Antarctica - The Godslayer. Finally, the villains captured Warforge and using Talisman's dark arts, stole from him the Thunderbolt of Zeus which gave Warforge power. With these items, Apocalypse planned on forcing open the gates of Avalon to steal the captured essence of a defeated god imprisoned within (Season III finale) and use it to attain godhood himself. The Defenders took Warforge to his father, Hephaestus, to revive him (& he got a pretty sweet new body out of the deal) & then rushed to Avalon to stop Apocalypse. They got through his minions and stopped him as he was drawing the power from the crystal where M'Bomba's spirit was trapped. Tomorrow Boy warped the Crystal away into a secured pocket dimension and Apocalypse was defeated. Upon his capture, he was revealed to be none other than Republican presidential candidate Judas Geddon, but a strange device discovered in his helmet revealed that he had in fact been under the influence of a powerful form of Mind Control. The device was determined to be the work of Dr. Simian, an evil super-intelligent mad scientist who also happens to be a gorilla and a known associate of Teleios. Still not entirely sure of Geddon's innocence, the team continued to keep a close eye on him (including a Nighthawk in his house, going through files & computer info.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Woohoo! Updates! thanks! There's a lot of backstory here. Do you have a link to the season three fianle you mentioned? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTemplar Posted May 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! You know, I don't. That was back when Frydaddy was still running the campaign & I was but a humble speedster trying to make his way in a brick-eat-brick world. I didn't start running until just into Season IV. Long story short, we'd been skirmishing pretty frequently with this dude claiming to be none other than M'Bomba, the Zulu God of Death - turns out he was right! In order to stop him from destroying the world with a fleet of massive subterranean terraformers our resident mystical guy The Mac Bashtee travelled to Avalon to ask somebody (His mom maybe? I don't remember all that hocus pocus stuff... speedster, remember?) how to defeat M'Bomba & was given this ancient crystal with the power to restrain a god's essence. Of course we got a 2 for 1 as we also trapped the spirit of our Fire EP Crucible inside along with M'Bomba since it turns out Crucible had been working with M'Bomba for quite sometime and had stabbed the team in the back. This little twist was cooked up by FryDaddy & the player of Crucible, Jo-El (currently Warforge.) To this day no matter what genre we're playing, Jo-El's characters are always held in rather suspcious regard by the rest of the team. Ahh some good reminiscing here. Our final fight against M'Bomba? Took place in his secret lair which was in fact located in Sub-Basement 3 of our OWN BASE. You'd think Nighthawk's raging paranoia would've kicked in as to why we were never allowed to access anything below Sub-level 1. Yeah, I blame him. Thanks for the memories though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fry Daddy Posted May 27, 2011 Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Ahhh, sweet memories... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted June 4, 2011 Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! That whole sub-basement thing is also a running joke. Were sure Dr. D's base is some around sub-basement 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTemplar Posted June 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! You know this campaign started in 2003? I'd love it if anyone still has their original character sheets from when we rolled at 350 so we could see a then and now comparison. I know all of mine are long gone though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironhelix Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! WOW, that was a really good read. Best of luck with your next campaign and I hope to hear more of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! I had my original Tomorrow Boy sheet as of a couple weeks ago but I was cleaning out my game folder and might have thrown it away. I think TB is right around 500pts are close to it but i started later In the campaign, so some might be higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted October 12, 2011 Report Share Posted October 12, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Just a little note. While Templar has been running his Starcraft Star Hero campaign (which has been a blast) I've been working on Season 7 of the Defenders, since i'll be taking overas GM once we are ready to play some supers again. I've advanced the timeline one year and as soon as I get what happened in the missing year typed up i'll post it here also. I'll probably have to give a little summary of the Season 6 finale too, unless Templar would like to finish it up. Anywho, i'm kind of exhausted so i'll hit the sack and hopefully have some stuff later. Long Live the Defenders! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted October 17, 2011 Report Share Posted October 17, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Greeting Program, I am enjoying reading through your Campaign Story. More please. I wish I was playing in it. QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fry Daddy Posted October 22, 2011 Report Share Posted October 22, 2011 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! I wish I had kept better notes of the first three seasons. I could try to reconstruct them, but it just wouldn't be the same. Long story short, in seasons 1 - 3, the Defenders dealt with the return of Dr. Destroyer, the origin of Grond, the Thermians, Timemaster a couple of times (and inadvertently being responsible for his origin in their SECOND encounter), World War Two, being stranded in 1,000,000 BC, M'Bomba and the Vicious Circle, several VIPER plots, the formation of COIL, a couple of attempts by Foxbat to steal Christmas, a couple of cool horror-themed adventures around Halloween, abusing the heck out of Holocaust, several alternate reality stops (including Earth-Ape), stopping the arrival of a Great Old One back to our plane of existence, Mongrel and the Pack, the betrayal by Crucible...wow....that's a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matrix3 Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! How is the timetable for this shaping up? In the meantime, I'm going to go back and re-read this thread. Great writing about great adventures. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Hey, Matrix thanks for reading. I was originally going to write up what happened in the missing year and hand it out to the players before we played but they all voted to have that all revealed in game play. Their characters would have known about it but the player's themselves would just be learning it. So I'm afraid I will not be posting it here yet, to keep spoilers to a minimum. What I might do is open a new thread with keep out message for the players so all the fans here can be caught up. What does everybody think? On a brighter note, Season 7 starts up in two weeks!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! I was originally going to write up what happened in the missing year and hand it out to the players before we played but they all voted to have that all revealed in game play. Their characters would have known about it but the player's themselves would just be learning it. So I'm afraid I will not be posting it here yet, to keep spoilers to a minimum. What I might do is open a new thread with keep out message for the players so all the fans here can be caught up. What does everybody think? Works for me. I think it's great your players would rather learn the info in game. Reppage is due. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Dammit!!!! I just typed up a part of a summary of the season 6 finale, and when i went to post i had to sign in again and some how was kicked off! lost it all!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! To summarize my previous summarization: After the Judas Geddon deal, we traced the "mind control" signal to an anabandoned iceburg base were we rescue Gravitar, who had been missing since season 5, from a cloning facility. the self destruct activates and we escape with Gravitar who Fantastic-Man convinces to be good. Then Dr. Destroyer takes over China, Pakistan, and India, declares it one nation----Desturga and tells the UN to reconize it or else. We sneak into China believing he couldn't resist setting up his power base in the Forbiden City. We get betrayed by Rakshasha and fight Gigaton, destroyer bots, and chinese members of the Destugan army. We capture Rakshasha but Gigaton escapes when Dr. D. takes off with the top of Mt. Everest (I think) using it as a huge flying fortress. World War III begins with Dr. D's forces attacking multiple targets around the world. With PRIMUS' help we are able to create an alliance with Viper, some supervillians from Stronghold and The Warlord to fight back. Using The Warlords own flying fortess as a HQ we attack DR. D's flying mountain top as it heads for the coast of California. Gravitar is able to hold back the mountain with her powers for sometime before the strain is too much for her. Several other supervillians die in the assault and the Defenders assault the mountain base directly finally capturing Dr. D and Gigaton as the mountain top settles about a mile off the coast of California. Still skirmishes are being fought all around the world with Destroyers forces but before we can do anything about that: Istvatha V'han shows up:ugly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! I'll try to finish up tomorrow but there is still alot to get thru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer Posted May 28, 2012 Report Share Posted May 28, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Understood. Take your time. Clarification: Has Gravitar just died in your game, or did I misread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTemplar Posted May 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! a couple of attempts by Foxbat to steal Christmas' date=' ... several alternate reality stops (including Earth-Ape), [/quote'] Some very memorable favorites here. Also it's been like, what, 9 years? Nearly 3300 days later (give or take) and the very mention of Mongrel and the Pack still gets my hackles up. Thanks for wrapping up my wrap-ups, Doc. Very much looking forward to returning to the other side of the table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheTemplar Posted May 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Understood. Take your time. Clarification: Has Gravitar just died in your game, or did I misread? Not quite. She spent all her power keeping the combined wreckage of Dr. D's and Warlord's flying bases afloat until they had cleared LA and then blacked out. Basically pushed her powers every phase until she'd burned through END and STUN both - with a little GM-handwave action to adhere to the only rule that matters - the Rule of Cool. The in-game sequence of the Defenders attacking Destruga with all their allies came off pretty damn epic. That was a whole lot of fun to run. Fantastic-Man, Warforge, Viperia & Gargantua all pounding on the force shield surrounding Destruga simulaneously to break through it was pretty sweet. And seriously, the team beat the ever-living crap out of Dr. Destroyer. For all the ramp up beforehand, the fight itself was almost too short but it sure was impressive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fry Daddy Posted June 1, 2012 Report Share Posted June 1, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! November of this year will be a decade if I'm not mistaken. Talk about leaving a legacy --- you and the gang have taken this little world and really made it live. I'm really proud to have been the one to get it started and watch how it has evolved since I stepped away! I think it's time I got off my butt and started a campaign here. Anybody out there reading this in grand rapids, Michigan? Anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Hercules Posted September 30, 2012 Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Okay, its been a loooooooong time since i posted here in this thread. a lot of people probably thought this thing was on life support. Its been a busy, busy, busy summer. Heck, we hardly got together all summer as a gaming group because everyone was so busy. We only just finished the last session of Templar's Starcraft game two weeks ago, after it hung over our heads all summer. We did get three sessions under our belts for Season 7 though so hopefully I can start posting them soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.