WWYCD:The Artifact

[SilentMan]

This is for mid-level (X-men,Fantastic Four) and high-level(JLA,the Authority) teams.It does not concern street-level.

 

Your team gets massively powerful Artifact as a gift from extraterrestials.What will you do with it ?

 

1. Exact function of Artifact depends on your campaign world.("roll dice,get item from artifact table"). It is ultra-valuable in any case.

 

2. Artifact is beyond anyone´s ability to damage in your world.

3. Various secret conspiracies find about it and do nearly anything to get it.

 

Original idea: This happened to Mandrake the Magician´s ancestors.Travelers from space gave them the crystal cubes with "infinite power to light the earth - or split it".

[Great Beyond]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Natasha would go "keen!" and put it on her pile of other artifacts of ultimate power. For a while there, she was using the Holy Grail as a pencil holder on her desk, had an atomic bomb in her closet and a ton of arcane, world shattering stuff tossed under her bed. While the house did get ransacked once or twice, nothing was ever stolen. Nobody ever bothered to consider that the Lost Ark of the Covenant would be currently in use as a laundry hamper.

 

Great Beyond has a similar (lowered powered, mind you) collection, but treats it with considerably more respect. She currently stores all that mystical stuff in the back room of her magical arcane shop. Again, going with the "hide in plain sight" belief, she keeps them in the safe, but under no more protection that everything else of the other items reasonable value. She's got a pretty good security system - certainly enough to deter the determined burgler, mind you - so its not like their just lying around or anything.

 

Scarlett Arrow - Being relatively new at the hero game, this is so far out of her league, she'd pass the buck to a more experience superhero to deal with as quick as she could.

[Captain Liberty]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

This is actually happening in my M&M campaign, based around the excellent scenario The Zodiac Ring.

 

The main problem is there is a powerful ghost-sorcerer whose existance depends on the ring (which cannot be destroyed) and all attempts to imprison him have failed in the long term. So they buried the ring on the Moon (where one team member has a base), and the ghost attacked them. They locked it away under a spell to foil the ability to find it, and the attack of a relatively unrelated foe broke the spell. They broke it in half unintentionally and attempted to take their half to Alpha Centauri. When they left Moon orbit the half disappeared and appeared where the bad guys could find it.

 

Currently one of the PCs and her super-powered (through the Ring) roommate keep it in their apartment refrigerator freezer compartment and just try to be alert. The PC's friends stay on call. Something must be done, and that particular plot thread is on its way.

[hfergus]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Olorin would go "Not another one! >sigh<" Back in his dimension, where he can't go right now, he'd protect it and use it as necessary. Lots of luck others would have getting it there. Where he is now, he'd put it into a pocket dimension and use it if necessary - and pray it can't escape on its own.

 

Every other character I have would go "What do I do with this?" and try to find somewhere safe to stash it until needed.

[clsage]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

This is for mid-level (X-men,Fantastic Four) and high-level(JLA,the Authority) teams.It does not concern street-level.

 

Your team gets massively powerful Artifact as a gift from extraterrestials.What will you do with it ?

 

1. Exact function of Artifact depends on your campaign world.("roll dice,get item from artifact table"). It is ultra-valuable in any case.

 

2. Artifact is beyond anyone´s ability to damage in your world.

3. Various secret conspiracies find about it and do nearly anything to get it.

 

Original idea: This happened to Mandrake the Magician´s ancestors.Travelers from space gave them the crystal cubes with "infinite power to light the earth - or split it".

 

It also sounds a bit like The Miracle Machine from The Legion

Of Super Heroes (Silver Age version).....My $.02US.

[Trebuchet]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Zl'f would pilot MidGuard's Rigellian-built starship (another "massively powerful Artifact [given] as a gift from extraterrestials") and get rid of that sucker forthwith. Who needs the grief?

[Fireleaper]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Avatar: Oooh look, it has a button on it. Should I press it Zero?

 

Orca: Will give it to Vitas to store with the other powerful artifacts stored about the building.

[OctoberRaven]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Mister Nonsense- Ooooh! Shiny! Let's see what it does!

 

Shift- I don't trust magic items. Find a place where it'll be safe and put it there.

 

Emerald Dragon- Figure out what it does, use it if it's not one of those 'really bad side effect' items. Otherwise, stash it.

 

October Raven- If I can figure out what it does, good. If I can't... well, it's too powerful to be in anyone's hands, good or evil. Put it somewhere nobody will find it.

[saiyanslayer]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Ashley would never be able to touch it, since Phiddipus would grab it and ensure Ashley couldn't play with the godly toy. It's for the best though.

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Avatar: Oooh look' date=' it has a button on it. Should I press it Zero?[/quote']

 

Umm.. Go ask your father. (at the very least if anything bad does come out it'll be appearing somewhere near the heart of the sun)

 

Orca: Will give it to Vitas to store with the other powerful artifacts stored about the building.

 

"I'm going to need a bigger cupboard"

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Your team gets massively powerful Artifact as a gift from extraterrestials.What will you do with it ?

 

1. Exact function of Artifact depends on your campaign world.

 

well, Vitus is already safe-gaurding a hugely powerful dimensional gate control. the artifact could be from anywhere. The Green Lantern, the uber-brain of Elvis, The Head of Vecna....

 

2. Artifact is beyond anyone´s ability to damage in your world.

 

That's OK, we know plenty of other worlds...

 

3. Various secret conspiracies find about it and do nearly anything to get it.

 

Book out a large section of the local pauper's cemetary, in advance. Warm up the more lethal magics.

[BcAugust]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Cyrande: Hmm... that would be a complex one. If it's mystical, Horus would likely get it. If it's technological, Cyrande would likely want to work on studying it, especially since it would have to be Progenitor tech. The enemies thing is what they have to deal with anyway.

 

Nox: Well, either her or Horus hide it away(She has her own dimension, he's got a secret hidden city) though the indestructible part would likely be in question, if they had to get rid of it.

 

Artemis: Well, if it's her team getting it, lots of weird stuff happens as they try and deal with it, then either Xenos locks it in the closet or a time traveler manages to convince us to let it go. In the meantime, Artemis probably keeps a hold of it. (While she's easiest to trick, she's also the toughest, and can keep it inside her body, so no one can snitch it.)

[Zeropoint]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Special Agent Trent would hand the item over to the government, which has a special agency just for things like this. It'll be studied by top men.

 

Top. Men.

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Cyrande: Hmm... that would be a complex one. If it's mystical, Horus would likely get it. If it's technological, Cyrande would likely want to work on studying it, especially since it would have to be Progenitor tech. The enemies thing is what they have to deal with anyway.

 

Nox: Well, either her or Horus hide it away(She has her own dimension, he's got a secret hidden city) though the indestructible part would likely be in question, if they had to get rid of it.

 

Artemis: Well, if it's her team getting it, lots of weird stuff happens as they try and deal with it, then either Xenos locks it in the closet or a time traveler manages to convince us to let it go. In the meantime, Artemis probably keeps a hold of it. (While she's easiest to trick, she's also the toughest, and can keep it inside her body, so no one can snitch it.)

 

Or option 3: Hermes figures out how the thing works, and then gates open up as every major NPC in the setting tries to kill him before he uses it for. . . something.

 

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Jake the Troll - "Hey, I thought I had lost that thing. Thanks!"

 

Icon - Give it to the ACPD Special Cases squad, or else hand it over to the Argonauts. If that option is unavailable, store it under her bed for the time being. Get the good folks at BobCo ("Tomorrow's half-baked ideas, Today!") to have a look at it. For her power level, they've got the best (read "most annoying") security around.

 

Shinji Miromoto - Probably the most qualified to analyze and deal with stuff like this. However, he's employed by the Municipality of Denver. Assume that there's some sort of connection with the federal government, and thus the feds would likely end up with it.

 

Widower - "Oh, great. More pseudo-Kryptonain crap." Jake already knows his plot line, and so would probably have some sort of simple solution in hand for when he gets his hands on something like this. Which wouldn't work, as his plotline is immutable (to his chagrin), but he'd give it the old college try before grumpily going off and using it however he's supposed to.

[psychonaut_raz]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

ohh there's bound to be trouble.....

 

Icestar inherited an artifact which is the only thing preventing Ymir from bringing a new ice age to Earth, and what did she do with it? She threw away the accompanying warning and decided to wear it as a fashion accessory. Then she became a superhero by drawing on Ymir's power, making it easier for him to come back to Earth again...

 

She doesn't have the best history with this priceless artifact of great power business, eh....

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Special Agent Trent would hand the item over to the government, which has a special agency just for things like this. It'll be studied by top men.

 

Top. Men.

 

 

Cue, Raiders of the Lost Ark music, and some guy in a warehouse.

[SatinKitty]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Unless my Character was a Mystic versed in the safe and proper use of such things, she would probably try to destroy it, or failing that, send it to the Trismegistus Council or someone else she thought could keep it out of naughty hands.

[SKJAM!]

Re: WWYCD:The Artifact

 

Mask of Justice: The team will split up, each member fighting a different menace trying to steal the artifact. At the end of the story, the artifact will be used for its proper purpose and vanish back into the mists of time.

 

Calculus: Being a genius, will hide it really, really well. So well, in fact that it will take another thousand years to find it--or until the hero that needs it is ready.

 

Rock Bottom: Will defer to the team leader. He's a rookie hero, after all, and doesn't have the experience to know all the precautions needed.

 

Kira Midori: Will defer to her team's resident mystic, unless it's future tech, in which case she'll recommend turning it over to a proper lab for study.

 

Talion: Would gladly use the artifact himself, if it has any crimefighting properties. Unfortunately, what will happen instead is that She-Cat will grab the artifact to wear as jewelry--and lose it at a dance club.