Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

[Theron]

Today kicked off my first attempt at running Champions in about three years. My last one ended up turning into a short-lived M&M campaign that fizzled out after about four sessions.

 

This time out, I have a better mix of available players. After the last disaster, I came to the conclusion that I'm simply congenitally incapable of playing Champions on any sort of sustained basis with people who don't regularly read and enjoy comics. I'm a genre fiend and I play my best with other folks who share my passion. That's just how it is: I'm 45 years old and I've no desire to change my ways.

 

Fortunately, the current crew are comics fans, so that's one hurdle cleared.

 

The next was figuring out what I was going to run. I decided pretty early on to make extensive use of published settings, adventures, and characters. I'm busy with work and family, and I don't have the time to spend months crafting an intricate backstory before we roll the first die at the table. I also wanted to keep things simple in terms of basic information. After all, George Lucas used less than 100 words to kick off the Star Wars saga. The rest is discovery in play.

 

After a lot of deliberation and going back and forth, I ultimately decided to use Bay City from the New Millenium setting. However I have no intention of slavishly following that version of the CU. I like the city, I like the GUARD far better than I ever liked UNTIL or PRIMUS. I'm not fond of the Proprietor War, but it's fairly easy to ignore if I'm not worried about the backstory.

 

As to the campaign premise, I'm using "Second-String Supers" from the Truth & Justice RPG. In it, Dragon Knight, the local protector is called upon to join the Earth's premier heroes (who I've named The Sentinels) to fight off an invasion from space. It's a long term assignment, and someone needs to watch Bay City in his absence, so he's recruited some of the lesser-known local talent to fill in while he's gone, provided he DOES make it back.

 

(The alien invasion is not public knowledge. It's happening far away and the Sentinels want to keep it that way.)

 

Here's the opening bit, mainly consisting of flavor text and a bit of backstory to get things moving.

 

The Dragon Knight crouched on the spire of the Transamerica Tower, surveying his city, as his spoke to his friend on the nearby observation platform. “I hate this, Galsworthy. Abandoning her. I’m supposed to protect her from harm.”

 

The mage looked up from the dossier he was reading. You will be protecting her, DK. You’re not abandoning her, just…expanding the perimeter.” Galsworthy’s eyes flicked back towards the file in his hands. “This one has potential.”

 

The Dragon Knight scratched his chin with mail-covered fingers. “But no real experience.” He sighed. “I have to leave her in the hands of retirees, tyros, and second-raters. Present company excepted, of course.”

 

Galsworthy waved the comment away. “We both know I can’t dedicate my time to doing what you do, given my” – the words turned venomous – “Grand Destiny.”

 

“Speaking of that, I’ve been wondering: any one of these look likely to be your future student?”

 

Shuffling the files in his hands, Galsworthy shrugged. “Reply hazy, try again. Provided you can help the Sentinels keep the front lines as far away from Earth as possible for as long as possible, there is a chance one of these potential heroes may become my pupil. A slim chance.”

 

The Dragon Knight looked back out to the skyline. “That’ll have to do.”

 

 

The year is 2005. You are a superhero operating out of Bay City, a municipality that grew up after the 1995 earthquake destroyed much of the San Francisco Bay area. In the grand scheme of things, you’re not in the big leagues. A few days ago, you crossed paths with Dragon Knight, Bay City’s greatest protector. While he didn’t have time for a detailed explanation, he asked you to meet him here, on the (top) 50th floor of the Henderson International building, at 3 PM this Saturday. He gave you a card to get into the building and access a special service elevator...

 

Our Heroes:

 

Oracle, secretly Dr. Alexandria Booker, a Classics professor at UC Berkeley. She possesses a cloak woven from the wool of the Golden Fleece, and channels the powers of the goddesses Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite. Dedicated to the protection of women, she has a reputation of being a radical feminist that's not entirely undeserved.

 

Rex Radium - The Atomic Detective. An anomaly. A man out of time and out of place. Radium looks and acts for all the world like a classic two-fisted film noir detective. So long as you ignore his glowing yellow skin and the low-levels of radiation he constantly emits. Rex is a refugee from an alternate timeline, a retrofuturist world of SCIENCE and airships and flying cars with fins. As such, he makes his way in a world he barely understands, solving crimes with two glowing fists and his geiger vision.

 

Byte Torrent is the living embodiment of the internet. He appears to be a semi-solid mass of electricity and floating data images. Little is known of his true origins (the player is unfamiliar with the game system, so I did a tentative write-up based on a 50 word concept he pitched to me via email). He's got Cyberkinesis and Cyberpathy, can shoot an electrical blast and teleport through electrical lines. He also has access to massive amounts of information (a multipower with the Universal Translator, Universal Scholar, Universal Pilot, and Universal Scientist talents).

 

The heroes arrived in the lobby of Henderson International at the appointed time. All are in their costumed identity. Rex notices that the security staff is pointedly ignoring them. After some brief introductions, they take the secure elevator to the 50th floor. They come out into what appears to be a penthouse apartment which has been converted into s a high-tech command center. Computers and monitoring equipment cover every available surface. The center of the main room is dominated by a large conference table displaying a holographic map of Bay City. Also displayed over the areas they normally patrol are holographic readouts of our heroes and some other NPCs/PCs to be added later. Seated at the table is the Dragon Knight.

 

More introductions are made and DK begins to explain why he called them here. At this point, he's interrupted by an alarm going off. He activates a communication link.

 

“Dragon Knight here. What? But no! Wait!”

 

He begins to vanish in a bright light. The last thing he says is, “Too soon! Galsworthy will have to explain. Keep her safe…”

 

(Since Byte Torrent has high range radio perception as a sense, I allowed him a chance to "overhear" the conversation. Essentially, it was Ultrawoman of the Sentinels telling him he was needed immediately and to prepare for transport. So the PCs knew something was up and that he hadn't just been disintegrated by an unknown assailant.)

 

After a few moments of looking things over and floating theories about what was going on, (The Great) Galsworthy arrived. Once he calmed down from the realization that DK (as he calls him) had already left without explaining things, he took a stab at it, informing them that Dragon Knight had left the safety of Bay City (the "her" in his last words) to them. Along with this nifty base of operations.

 

Just as they were starting to settle in and survey the surroundings, there was an audible BOOM off in the distance. Looking out the magnificent view, they saw a plume of dust and smoke rising from Altacraz. Clearly, something was afoot.

 

Which led to the first serious issue confronting the new-formed team. Namely, how to GET to Alcatraz. Byte Torrent could teleport there. But Rex had only his running speed, and Oracle can only fly very slowly in her Aphrodite aspect. Fortunately, the GM had noticed this and prepared for just such an eventuality. Galsworthy said, "This isn't going to be fun, but grab my arm." He winced, gulped, closed his eyes, and the team vanished in a flash of green light.

 

Only to appear an instant later in the exercise ground at Alcatraz. Galsworthy immediately passed out from the strain of the teleport while our remaining heroes took in the scene of sheer chaos. Tourists were fleeing in panic from a large impact crater in the middle of the yard. A crater occupied by an enormous four-armed green figure that was roaring in anger.

 

Grond. The strongest and angriest thing on the planet.

 

Oracle, ever feeling the need to prove herself, leaped into action as Athena. Because of the fleeing tourists, she couldn't reach the monstrosity in a single half-move, but decided to engage him directly to keep him off the less durable members of her team.

 

Meanwhile, Byte Torrent pulled up everything he could find on Grond, including his known vulnerabilities to fire and ego attacks. Conveying this to Oracle, she shifted to Aphrodite and hit him with an ego blast. While it hurt him, it didn't do enough to stun him, much less shut him down. He retaliated.

 

On the plus side, Oracle can now boast that she's taken a full on punch from Grond and survived it. On the down side, she did fly back over 100 feet, hit a concrete wall, and briefly lost consciousness. Rex found all but his most taxing atomic blasts ineffective against the behemoth, but tried to get it's attention, to little avail.

 

Realizing his electric body was a perfect defense against Grond, Byte Torrent went desolid and charged the great green goon. Grond swiped at him, his massive fist passing harmlessly through Byte Torrent. Which made Grond madder.

 

While Oracle recovered, Byte Torrent led Grond on a merry chase away from the remaining tourists. Once she got her bearings, Oracle shifted tactics and used Aphrodite's mind control on Grond, calming him down and putting him in a cooperative frame of mind. Rex used his substantial Persuasion skill to talk Grond into sitting down to eat in the cafeteria (shades of a Hostess Fruit Pies ad) while Byte Torrent contacted the GUARD, who had already been alerted.

 

The GUARD arrived with their heaviest containment unit. Guard Agent Rica Jankowski took command over the situation, awestruck that the damage from Grond had been limited to under six figures. "That never happens," she said, eying the heroes closely, "What did you do?"

 

(GM's Note: At this point, the players had rather neatly circumvented what I'd expected to be a MUCH longer combat. We'd been playing for less than ninety minutes and clearly, I needed to advance the plot. Problem was, I didn't have more plot yet. I knew Grond was a distraction. But I had no idea for what or who had dropped him on Alcatraz. Time to improvise.)

 

Once Grond was dealt with, our heroes turned their attention to trying to figure out what happened. Witnesses reported a low-flying jet aircraft dropped something over the exercise yard. When it hit the ground, there was a substantial bang and Grond emerged from the crater. The rest, they knew.

 

Byte Torrent hacked his way into the local Air Traffic Control grid and found a radar trace of a fast moving aircraft passing over Alcatraz at the appropriate moment, then flew to a location over Silicon Valley before vanishing from the radar.

 

Convinced that Grond was merely a distraction for something bigger, our heroes return to their command center to do some more research. They discover an odd police call still being worked. A break-in at (flips through Bay City sourcebook) Neuroscape Computer Systems, Inc. But a very strange one. There was an initial intrusion report, followed by a nearly immediate "false alarm" call to the alarm monitoring service, followed twenty minutes later by a call to the police reporting a break-in. NCSI is within 100 yards of the radar track of the vanishing aircraft.

 

Before the heroes can commandeer Galsworthy to teleport them to NCSI, he has enough presence of mind to mention the van Dragon Knight provided for them. (This was me as the GM realizing we had some serious mobility issues at hand and looking for a quick fix. Also, using Oracle's Prius would jeopardize her secret ID.)

 

Arriving at NCSI, Rex discovers the crime scene is under the supervision of his police contact, Detective Sergeant Lubbock of the BCPD. After a bit of traditional Cop/PI banter, Lubbock fills them in. The intrusion occurred on the twelfth floor. Ingress was achieved by cutting a hole in the safety glass window, presumably with a high-energy torch of some kind.

 

Byte Torrent decides to attempt to enter the building via the network only to find himself...somewhere else. He's in some corner of Cyberspace (treated as an extra-dimensional space) and finds himself conversing with someone or something calling itself "Aiken." Aiken asks him if he's from "outside," and when Byte Torrent says yes, Aiken replies, "Father doesn't want me talking to outside." Byte Torrent finds himself out in the parking lot, standing next to his teammates. Less than a second has passed.

 

A Maserati Bora pulls up, driven by a tall, slightly dangerous looking woman. The passenger steps out. It's Peter Stephenson, the genius founder of NCSI. After quick introductions, he attempts to contact Aiken to see what happened. Byte Torrent eavesdrops again (he has a PyschLim about his belief that all information should be free) and gets caught. In a brief conversation, he earns Stephenson's distrust, but learns the following:

 

1) Aiken is a rudimentary Artificial Intelligence Stephenson is developing.

2) Aiken's own security monitoring was blocked by whoever entered the building.

 

Stephenson agrees to let the heroes examine the crime scene, as long as Byte Torrent stays out of his network. Before they enter the building, Rex notices an odd energy trace in the parking lot with his Geiger Vision. A large area, roughly the size of a private jet is emitting some strange residual radiation. The texture of the parking lot is also slightly different. Unfortunately, Rex doesn't have the analytical chops to draw any conclusions about the energy trace.

 

Entering the crime scene, Stephenson quickly determines that the only thing missing is a newly developed isotope used in their medical imaging equipment. The isotope acts as an energy amplifier. In small amounts, it provides exceptional power efficiency. In large amounts, it could produce a truly terrifying yield. While it's not a significant amount, it is enough to raise alarm bells.

 

At this point, we called it a day. The PCs have several leads to follow up on and I've got a bunch of information I need to generate for Byte Torrent's player. All in all, a decent start. We play again in two weeks. Hopefully by then, I'll have the rest of the story plotted out. As it is, I do know who the bad guy is and what happened to the plane, so I figure it's good enough.

[penemue]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Very nice report of a solid first adventure. The two week (tweeks) schedule is sometimes frustrating as people forget what happened, who they are playing, etc., but this write up is excellent. I've been trying to get better at recording events, mostly to maintain continuity (what heroes met what villains, etc.) It can get frustrating.

[Tom]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

As it is, I do know who the bad guy is and what happened to the plane, so I figure it's good enough.

 

That's about all I ever use for a start point. After that, I try to give myself a couple of possible ideas of how the players might discover what's next based on what they're capable of and a clue-by-four just in case they need one...

 

(now I just need to figure that much for my own ftf group -- things tonight ended up a little more mixed up than usual...)

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Very nice report of a solid first adventure. The two week (tweeks) schedule is sometimes frustrating as people forget what happened' date=' who they are playing, etc., but this write up is excellent. I've been trying to get better at recording events, mostly to maintain continuity (what heroes met what villains, etc.) It can get frustrating.[/quote']

 

Honestly, every two weeks is a better rate than we got out of our last long-term Champions game, so I'm hopeful about it. I got in the habit of writing up adventure summaries, which helps a lot in the continuity department, but I'm also not too worried about it at the moment. I'm kind of taking what the Theory Crowd would call a "Sandbox Approach" to the campaign at this point. In a true Sandbox, you have a lightly sketched out world and the PCs tend to drive the direction the definition is added through their interests and actions. This is easier to do in a fantasy or SF setting, since both of those genres can easily focus on the results of proactive PCs driving the direction of the game. Superheros tend be a bit more reactive (it's the nature of the genre), so I'm still going to be inflicting plotlines and story elements on them, but I'm trying to keep the initial setting and backstory more fluid so the details come out during play. That's something I often find tiresome about published superhero settings: every little detail in the backstory is already nailed down, quantified, explained, and done so by someone other than the PCs. What little is left in the PCs hands feels like table scraps. I want the players to have the joy of discovery, the feeling you get as a comics reader when you see something new for the first time, looking over the shoulders of the protagonists. It's far more interesting that way.

 

This is why, even though I'm using Bay City, there are no Champions. I'm not sure there was even a Proprietor War. When I decided Byte Torrent shouldn't be able to get into NCSI without bouncing off of Aiken, that was a spur of the moment decision. Yes, it's in the old Bay City sourcebook, but none of my players have read it (well, one might have, but that was years ago). The fact that there's a rudimentary AI operating at the Bay City equivalent of Microsoft was revealed through the story instead of the background. It took the players by surprise and they enjoyed it, and even though it was just a bit of a throwaway moment, it's probably going to lead to future stories, as Byte Torrent tries to figure out what's going on.

[Chris-M]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Sounds like a great campaign springboard to me, and I like your approach. I have to say that I, too, have given up running classic four-color supers unless my whole group are true fans of those kinds of superhero comics.

 

Byte Torrent is the living embodiment of the internet.

 

So he steals music, consumes mass quantities of pron, and accuses other people of being "Nazis" when they disagree with him?

 

(And is he hunted by the RIAA? And how do you build "Logic Resistance?" )

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Sounds like a great campaign springboard to me' date=' and I like your approach. I have to say that I, too, have given up running classic four-color supers unless my whole group are true fans of those kinds of superhero comics. [/quote']

 

For many years, I was blessed with a group consisting entirely of "Genre Fiends." If I wasn't our primary motivation, it was certainly a secondary. Then, that group came apart for various non-gaming reasons. My attempt to get a new game together a few years ago was enlightening. About half the players were from the old group. The other half were area gamers I'd met online, who expressed some interest, though they said they weren't really into comics.

 

The first new player had to explain to me what a "Solid Snake" was and then we had to do all sorts of tweaking to get him into anything resembling a reasonably four-color super. It really never got better from there. I realized it just wasn't going to click when, a few adventures in, a description of something as "A Norse Thor's Hammer pendant that's been drawn by Jack Kirby," got three knowing nods with grins and three utterly blank stares.

 

I've gotten a lot more picky about my recruiting since. That's probably one reason why it's taken me so long to run again.

[bubba smith]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

don't get too discouraged theron, it took me a while to get interested in watching football it'll take them a while to get interested in a silver-age campaign

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

don't get too discouraged theron' date=' it took me a while to get interested in watching football it'll take them a while to get interested in a silver-age campaign[/quote']

 

I think you misread me here. The group I had problems with was three years ago, not the current bunch.

[bubba smith]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

oops sorry no offense to you current players

[Mark Rand]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Great stuff, Theron. Repped.

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Session Two:

 

(I intended to call today's episode "Short Handed," to emphasize that the team are a little weak in the firepower department and to set up the addition of new PCs and players in the near future. As things turned out, well, see for yourself.)

 

Continuing from last time, ByteTorrent put together a list of known Bay City supervillains who had the means and motive to pull off the isotope theft at NCSI: Brainchild, The Overbrain/Brain Trust, Technocrat, VIPER, Exo, and Mantisman. Based on Grond's mention of "Brain Guy," the heroes focused on Brainchild and the Overbrain as possible leads. A fair bit of investigation and streetwise later, they had the general location of Brainchild's "shop," where he provides "tech support" to supervillains.

 

ByteTorrent detected a significantly higher than normal level of net traffic coming in and out of a non-descript building in an industrial park. He decided to infiltrate the system and easily gained access (he did really well on his various machine control and telepathy rolls). However, had a choice: go as deeply as he could into Brainchild's computer system and set off alarms, or take a less intrusive approach and avoid detection. Since ByteTorrent has a psychlim about hating secrets, he went in all the way. As a result, while the heroes were idling in their van outside the building, Brainchild got the drop on them, putting a hole in the side of the van with a remote energy weapon and beginning his escape plans.

 

ByteTorrent teleported to the roof and attempted to seize control of the point defense turrets that had sprung up on the corners of the building. Oracle shifted into Artemis mode and tried to shoot the guns, while Rex Radium blew in the front door and entered the building.

 

A fairly inconclusive set of actions followed. ByteTorrent was struggling with the gun system and Artemis had trouble hitting the gun for much damage. Meanwhile, Rex found the building was basically an abandoned light industrial plant. Behind the reception area was a large warehouse space full of stacked crates and junk, which made spotting somewhat difficult. But he could hear something mechanical happening in the middle of the room.

 

Around the time Oracle/Artemis shot out one of the guns, Brainchild emerged from an opening in the floor of the warehouse, heading towards an overhead skylight. Before he made it all the way up, another more ponderous form sprang up and smashed through, landing on the roof with an enormous crash. It was Ankylosaur (who'd had the bad luck of being present for a 'tune up' when the heroes crashed the party). He landed on the roof and dropped a flash-bang grenade right in front of ByteTorrent, blinding and deafening the virtual hero.

 

Rex drew a bead on Brainchild and tagged him. It wasn't enough to hurt him badly or knock him down, but it did shove him around a bit and got his attention.

 

Blinded and deafened, ByteTorrent decided to use his nifty other senses to teleport to BrainChild's command center and seize control of it. It seemed reasonable, and he wasn't going to be any use on the roof, so I allowed it. Meanwhile, Ankylosaur took a shot at Oracle, narrowly missing her (she aborted to a dodge and it was just enough).

 

Brainchild fired his disintegration pistol at Rex, but it bounced off his ED without doing any damage. Rex decided to retaliate with hit hard radiation attack (a 5d6 NND); the resulting damage knocked Brainchild out momentarily, sending him crashing to the floor.

 

ByteTorrent successfully took over the security system and trained the remaining gun turrets on Ankylosaur. I ruled that he only had to make one roll to hit and the extra guns would simply add to his OCV. As it was, he hit easily, and the 4d6 RKA staggered Ankylosaur (only 12 Body, but 48 Stun). When Oracle got back on the offensive, she used Artemis' golden bow to shoot him, doing sufficient stun to just knock him out, but more importantly, sufficient knockback to send him back through the skylight and down into the basement lab.

 

She then shifted into Athena mode, traversed the roof and dove down after him, landing (unfortunately) just within his reach. Assuming Ankylosaur was well handled, ByteTorrent turned a security gun onto Brainchild, not taking into account a) the guns were powerful RKAs, and the newly-recovered Brainchild hadn't reactivated his force field. It hit, for 10 Body and a lot of Stun, dropping him instantly. ByteTorrent has a lot to learn about the fragility of human beings. He's also got a brand-new shiny arch-nemesis.

 

Playing possum, Ankylosaur managed to get a good whack with his tail on Oracle, bouncing her off an electronics console and stunning her, but not knocking her out (even Grond didn't one-shot her). Rex retaliated with another hard radiation blast, which put Ankylosaur down long enough for the heroes to divest him of his armor and tie him up for the GUARD, who were already en route.

 

As it was, their mission was only a partial success. While they'd managed to capture Brainchild, and got Ankylosaur as a bonus, Brainchild was too badly injured for them to interrogate. ByteTorrent found evidence that Brainchild had been hired to steal the isotope, but the identity of his employer was not in his files. They did learn that he was supposed to take the stolen goods to a dead drop at the San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio.

 

At the cemetery, they found the dead drop. Rex verified the isotope had been there, but no more. Examining the area revealed some additional information:

 

An area of scorched grass in the area that could have been from Brainchild's jet pack.

 

An area of odd background radiation near the dead drop. It was about the size of a car. Rex recognized it from the parking lot at NCSI and ALSO from the ray Brainchild shot at him.

 

Taking an aerial vantage as Aphrodite, Oracle notice the pavement where Rex saw the radiation seemed somewhat cleaner than the rest of the roadway.

 

Under questioning, one of the groundskeepers revealed that the day before (while he was getting drunk), he thought he saw a man make a car disappear then fly away.

 

At this point, with no further obvious leads, the heroes returned to their base, hoping their associate Galsworthy could put them in touch with someone who might have alternative means of gleaning information. As things turned out, they were right.

 

Galsworthy was already there, accompanied by an oddly dressed fellow, who's ensemble consisted of motley street clothes. Instead of looking ridiculous though, he seemed to carry it with quite a bit of style. He constantly shuffled a tarot deck. Galsworthy introduced him as The Magician, another occasional ally of Dragon Knight, and protector of the Haight-Ashbury district.

 

(NOTE: This was a new player who joined on very late notice. I didn't know what sort of character he was going to play, so the fact he wanted to play a mystic type was really a spectacular coincidence. We needed one, and the tarot schtick is really cool. The best part? This was the actual conversation regarding his name:

 

Me: So what are you going to call him?

G: That's what I'm still agonizing over.

Me (Joking): You could be Major Arcana. Or Fortunato.

G: I think, in the spirit of the character, I'll let the cards tell me his name. (He cuts the tarot deck he brought as a prop). Ah, "The Magician." That works.

 

The heroes give The Magician a rundown of the story to date. He offers to see what his cards have to say on the matter. The resulting prophecy is something like:

 

The one who opposes you alters his plan

In the place where dead heroes are remembered

You will find danger and answers

 

(I suck at prophecies, by the way.)

 

The Magician then suggests they go back to the cemetery. He has a small bit of postcognition, which may provide some answers. Focusing on the scene, he fills in a few gaps: Brainchild drove to the cemetery, put the isotope in the dead drop, then disintegrated the vehicle and flew off on his own power. A half hour later, a woman wearing a black and green costume appeared out of nowhere, recovered the isotope, and vanished again. The Magician had no idea who the woman was, but ByteTorrent suggested they review the databases of known criminals to see if he could pick her out.

 

When they returned, they found Galsworthy gone, but a white notecard on their conference table, bearing the logo of Henderson International. It read:

 

Latitude: 37.6675 : Longitude: -122.44944

Wednesday 10 PM

We should talk.

-H

 

And so we ended this session. Experience was awarded for the first two sessions. It went pretty well, considering I hadn't planned on adding a player today. He's a good match for the group though and I'm glad to have him with us. We've still got one more player to add in a few weeks, and then things will be where I want them. I didn't expect the PCs to do quite so well against Brainchild and Ankylosaur, but they earned it.

[Tom]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Session Two:

 

...

 

Me: So what are you going to call him?

G: That's what I'm still agonizing over.

Me (Joking): You could be Major Arcana. Or Fortunato.

G: I think, in the spirit of the character, I'll let the cards tell me his name. (He cuts the tarot deck he brought as a prop). Ah, "The Magician." That works.

 

...

 

Gotta love it when random generators cooperate...

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Episode 3: "Terror in the Treasures!"

 

We open at the Overstreet Museum at evening. A banner over the door reads, "Trevor's Treasures: The Archaeological Legacy of Trevor Stevenson." Inside, the gala opening is well underway, and the rich and powerful of Bay City are sipping champagne, oohing and aahing over the collected artifacts. Standing in front of a beautifully preserved Greek war galley is Dr Trevor Stevenson, Archaeologist, holding court for the starstruck crowd. Next to him, his partner and girlfriend, Dr Alexandria Booker (who is secretly Oracle) bristles as he once again completely overstates his contributions to the world of archaeology and completely fails to treat her as anything other than his "Girl Friday."

 

In another part of the museum the hero known to the viewers only as The Magician is touring the exhibit, with a wealthy socialite on his arm. From their conversation, it's clear she's his client and he's acting as a sort of spiritual advisor or the like.

 

Meanwhile, out in the parking lot, Rex Radium is on a stakeout. He's been working this divorce case for the past few weeks (even a superhero has to pay the bills), and tonight looks like he's finally going to get the evidence he needs.

 

Or he would if, at that moment, he hadn't spotted a group of suspicious figures leaving the parking lot and making for the museum across the grounds. Especially since one of them was far larger than a human being should be. And glowing slightly.

 

Rex calls ByteTorrent who teleports to the parking lot and the two of them shadow the mysterious figures, reaching the edge of the game map just as...

 

A massive armored figure wrenches open one of the fire doors on the back of the museum. A colorful figure phases through the wall. "Depart vermin! Zorran the Artificier stands before you! Allow me my prize and none need be harmed!"

 

Alexandria hides behind the ship and transforms into Oracle. The Magician escorts his date into another room, only to find their path blocked by Talisman. He begins pointing people towards the emergency exit and moves to confront the villainess.

 

Talisman attempts to mind control him and fails miserably. Zorran creates images of serpents and demons to frighten the crowd away, and succeeds mightily. Rex makes it to another fire door as Byte Torrent teleports to the main entrance.

 

As Oracle leaps up to the prow of the galley, another figure enters the picture: a large man, wearing ancient Greek armor, but with a shirt made of an animal pelt rather than a breastplate. She recognizes him instantly as Argonaut, her personal nemesis. "Well, well," he says with a menacing grin, "The Sisters are here. And I thought tonight would be a total loss."

 

With that, the fray is well and truly joined. Rex Radium gets momentarily dropped when Zorran suppresses his strength to less than nothing. Oracle and Argonaut fight to a stalemate (he has the tactical upper hand, but can't hurt her). ByteTorrent and The Magician manage to catch Talisman in a crossfire and she's unable to do either of them lasting harm (she rolled horribly). Caught between The Magician's Tower Card (a powerful lightning attack) and ByteTorrent's energy blasts, she goes down rather quickly.

 

The Lemurian Golem (the large armored construct) crashes its way into the heart of the exhibit, and tears out the case containing the centerpiece artifact, a crystal globe that Stevenson has named "Merlin's Orb." Never mind that it was found in Turkey and has nothing to connect it to Arthurian legend, Stevenson knows good promotion when he makes it up. As it exits the room, The Magician pulls the Devil from his deck, binding the behemoth in magical chains.

 

Rex and Zorran trade blasts of energy and while Rex hurts the Lemurian "swami" (Rex's term - he has a congenital hatred of swamis born from being a pulp hero), Zorran is clearly the more powerful and leaves Rex unconscious in the corner before turning his attention to freeing the bound Golem. And utterly failing to do so.

 

Oracle cleverly shifts into her Aphrodite aspect and moves the battle with Argonaut from the physical to the mental. Her ploy works and at the same moment, Hera shines a bit of her disfavor upon Argonaut (his Unluck kicked in). The railing of the galley breaks, spilling him to the floor. Sensing the turn in the battle's tide, the Olympian warrior chooses discretion over valor and slips out into the night.

 

Giving up on freeing the Golem, Zorran snatches the crystal orb and its base from the display case, shouts "Kill them!" to the Golem, and teleports away. Oracle and The Magician note that he seemed much more interested in the base and referred to it as the "Wondralor" or something like that.

 

Finishing off the Golem takes a bit of time, but not much effort. An intangible ByteTorrent distracts it while Oracle and Rex finish it off at range.

 

The police arrive and take Talisman into custody. Surveying the wreckage, Trevor is initially distraught until his eyes light upon the now inert Golem. Declaring it the new centerpiece of the exhibit, he immediately begins spinning the night's events into a fanciful account of his own personal heroics. Oracle transforms back into Alexandria and attempts to tell him off, but it's water off a duck's back.

 

Revealing her identity to her teammates, Oracle tells them what she knows of the stolen artifact's history. It was found in a cave in Turkey. It was not excavated, as it wasn't buried, but simply found, sitting unmolested. To date, no indication of how it was created or by whom was known, and Stevenson had not allowed her to do the necessary research to determine its origins. She's never heard the term Wondralor, but will begin researching it.

 

With no further leads at the moment, the team turns their attention to keeping their appointment with Donald Henderson. ByteTorrent determines the coordinates are a location on Treasure Island, an artificial island in the bay, largely occupied by Henderson International facilities. The Magician pulls the Chariot card from his deck, providing his teammates with easy transportation in the form of, well, a flying chariot.

 

The location proves to be an abandoned hillside, where brush has recently been cleared, revealing a large metal plate set in the ground. As the heroes arrive, the plate slides open, revealing a well-lit tunnel. Following it, the heroes come to a door marked with a stylized letter G. This door opens as well, onto a 70s-style command center right out of a James Bond movie. Donald Henderson, a tall, vital-looking man in his 60s, invites them to sit down.

 

His proposition is simple: Dragon Knight and the Sentinels are likely to be away far longer than expected. It's clear that superpowered crime is on the rise, so it's safe to assume the bad guys have figured out something's going on. If the new heroes intend to step up and fight, then they need the best resources available. And this base, once home to the world-famous Guardians, represents the best Bay City has to offer.

 

Oracle asks how he came to acquire the base. Henderson smiles wryly, "Sentimental reasons. I'm a wealthy man, with many connections. And I've lived an interesting life."

 

As they tour the base and see a picture of the Guardians, Rex notes that the head of his cane appears to be a high-tech pistol grip. It doesn't take much more than that to connect Henderson with the Marksman, but no one dares ask him.

 

The heroes accept his offer and Oracle declares they'll be known as the New Guardians, to the general acclaim of the others.

 

We end with a news report about Talisman escaping custody with the apparent assistance of the Black Paladin.

 

To be continued in two weeks...

[Mr. R]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

OHH, foreshadowing, the mark of quality literature.

 

Kudos, if you can figure where the quote comes from.

 

Grrr, How much rep DO I NEED TO SPREAD? ARRRRGGGGG!!!!

[HatchlingDragon]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Now if we could only convince the GM to start taking Quote Notes and scattering them about further posts/summeries...

[CoreBrute]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Wow this is a great campaign. But I have to ask, how does The Magician have all these powers? Is it a VPP or an extremly large Multipower? because there are 22 cards or the Major arcana cards.

[concord]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Thanks for the campaign session summary... it is nice to see what others are doing in there campaigns...

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Wow this is a great campaign. But I have to ask' date=' how does The Magician have all these powers? Is it a VPP or an extremly large Multipower? because there are 22 cards or the Major arcana cards.[/quote']

 

It's a really big Multipower. All ultra slots, so he's simultaneously versatile and vulnerable. Also, I don't think he has powers for all of the Major Arcana at this point.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

[CoreBrute]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Thank you. You have been Repped.

[gorillaboss]

On Tooting And Horns

 

Now if we could only convince the GM to start taking Quote Notes and scattering them about further posts/summeries...

 

 

Well, when getting his first good look at Zorran The Big Bad Magic Man, Rex Radium--Atomic Detective did lament...

 

"Swamis. Why'd it have to be swamis?"

 

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Episode 4: "Welcome to the Big Time, Guardians. Now, Die!"

 

(Note: This was our first session back together after Hurricane Ike disrupted lives and routines. We also finally had our fifth and final player join up. THIS WRITE-UP CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR Champions Battlegrounds.)

 

Things started in the middle of the action, with the New Guardians arriving on the scene of a potential disaster (or superheroic origin): a school bus had collided with a truck carrying radioactive material. As their VTOL craft, the G-Wing hovered over the scene, they were confronted with an overturned bus full of screaming children, a van leaking a dangerous-looking greenish fluid, and fire everywhere.

 

As the heroes descended, Rex Radium made an important observation: appearances notwithstanding, the radiation levels were no different from the surrounding area. But before he could reveal his suspicions, all hell broke loose! The bus transformed into a makeshift fortress, the screaming children abruptly vanished, replace by VIPER agents, loaded for bear.

 

The next twelve seconds were filled with occasional blaster fire, and lots of violence directed to the agents. Oracle channeled Athena and carved a swath through them with her enchanted spear. The Magician used the Sun card to blind a number, and Rex Radium blasted left and right. Meanwhile, ByteTorrent attempted to pin down their command frequency to see if he could eavesdrop on their tactics.

 

Just as the tide seemed to turn entirely against the boys in green, ByteTorrent picked something up: "Deploy Stage Two!" Rising from a hatch in the back of the "wrecked" van was Halfjack, flanked by a pair of agents. Artemis shot him, but Halfjack leapt from the van leveling a blast at Rex Radium, knocking him halfway across the street.

 

Just then, a strikingly handsome young man broke through the police lines, shouting, "Hey ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" and slamming into Halfjack with a full-on Move-Through.

 

(GM's Note: A STR 60 Move-Through on a 12" leap PLUS an already injured Halfjack PLUS a blown activation roll on Halfjack's Armor EQUALS a LOT of potential damage. Or real damage in this case. Plus knockback into the van.)

 

Standing over the crumpled and unconscious form of the cyborg Villain, the young man (who several heroes recognized as the popular movie star who calls himself Bard) shouts, "Who's next?" The VIPER agents, already depleted, surrender to a man.

 

The heroes meet Bard. Yes, that's his name, it's even on his SAG card, so it must be. Bard is, indeed, a movie star, having just completed Rambo V with Sylvester Stallone. But he's also a superhuman. Nay, a child of the gods, being the son of Baldur of Asgard.

 

(Or so he claims. None can doubt he's definitely superhuman. And personable. And oh, so dreamy!)

 

He also had a pack of paparazzi in tow who immediately want to know if he's dating Oracle.

 

Before they could get beyond friendly introductions, an emergency call comes in. Park Police at Memorial Park have found a bomb in the memorial statue garden!

 

(Yes, I'm running "A Walk In The Park" from Champions Battlegrounds. As planned when I first started this campaign, I intend to milk my vast repository of published adventures whenever possible. Even though this was a second ambush on top of the first, I decided to run with it, since it's pretty combat heavy.)

 

The heroes make it to the park in about five minutes, landing the G-Wing within a few hundred feet of the Statuary. Rex attempts to study the security measures on the bomb, succeeding in resetting the timer from five minutes to ten seconds. The bomb goes off with a resounding...poof?

 

The heroes are hit with the allergen spray losing 26 END apiece. Up to this moment, I'd never really considered how limiting a serious END drain could be. It completely colored the ensuing battle, even though the Guardians came out on top.

 

As per the adventure, as soon as the bomb went off, Ogre leaped into the fray. ByteTorrent identified him and tipped the Magician and Oracle off to his vulnerability to mental powers. Two ego attacks later, Ogre was both Berserk and on the ropes. Utility triggered a gas bomb which had no effect on Bard (he's nigh-invulnerable). Lodestone then used his powers to wrap Bard up in the remains of the park gate.

 

While Bard was wrapped up, Rex took a potshot at Ogre, knocking him back and buying a bit of time. Meanwhile, an invisible (and sonically muted) Herculan appeared seemingly out of nowhere, grappling the Aphrodite-form Oracle (and who wouldn't want to?) ByteTorrent began scanning the area for remote electronics and discovered the entire area was crawling with remote devices of uncertain type. He began monitoring radio frequencies to see if he could pin them down and was rewarded when another gas bomb went off at his feet. He reproduced the signal and set off another one, which told Utility that someone was onto him.

 

Oracle shifted to Athena form and broke Herculan's grasp before he could drain her strength. Then the Magician played the Devil card, encasing the alien gladiator in infernal chains. Rex took one of Mirage's Flash attacks in the face while Bard managed to break most of the way out of Lodestone's entangle. But not entirely, which allowed the magnetic villain to lift him about 40 feet in the air.

 

Bard broke the rest of the entangle while Herculan continued to struggle. ByteTorrent began calling up information on the alien, while Rex waited for his eyes to clear. Lodestone tagged the plummeting Bard (among the powers he doesn't have: flight) hitting him just before he landed, slamming him into one of the statues. Seeing the hero off-balance, Ogre took the opportunity to launch into him with a move-through that yielded 17d6 initial damage followed by 12d6 knockback damage from slamming him into the statue.

 

Amazingly enough, Bard managed to take the shot. It HURT (a lot), but he wasn't KO'ed and he barely avoided being Stunned. Ogre was left with 4 Stun after the assault, which allowed Rex a really cheap shot to finish him off. Meanwhile, Lodestone decided to try to free the struggling Herculan. He broke the Entangle, but not without injuring his teammate (the Devil's Chains transmit damage to the target as well).

 

At this point, we were coming up on the end of the planned assault. Utility quietly slipped away, having never been directly confronted or detected. Mirage, similarly undetected, shapeshifted into the form of a jogger and made her getaway. Lodestone had enough range to fly off unmolested, and a combined mental assault from the Magician and Aphrodite brought down Herculan.

 

With the crisis averted and two villains to interrogate, the Guardians questioned Herculan who, thanks to some magical mojo from the Magician, folded like a cheap tent. He told them he'd been hired by Utility and that they were supposed to meet up at an abandoned warehouse in six hours.

 

Rex noticed the heroes and other bystanders caught in the bomb "blast" were emitting an unusual low-level radiation. Clearly, the plan was to track them! But who is behind this? Perhaps Utility knows. Maybe it's time to lay an ambush of their own.

 

To Be Continued...

[bubba smith]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Episode 4: "Welcome to the Big Time, Guardians. Now, Die!"

 

(Note: This was our first session back together after Hurricane Ike disrupted lives and routines. We also finally had our fifth and final player join up. THIS WRITE-UP CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR Champions Battlegrounds.)

 

Things started in the middle of the action, with the New Guardians arriving on the scene of a potential disaster (or superheroic origin): a school bus had collided with a truck carrying radioactive material. As their VTOL craft, the G-Wing hovered over the scene, they were confronted with an overturned bus full of screaming children, a van leaking a dangerous-looking greenish fluid, and fire everywhere.

 

As the heroes descended, Rex Radium made an important observation: appearances notwithstanding, the radiation levels were no different from the surrounding area. But before he could reveal his suspicions, all hell broke loose! The bus transformed into a makeshift fortress, the screaming children abruptly vanished, replace by VIPER agents, loaded for bear.

 

The next twelve seconds were filled with occasional blaster fire, and lots of violence directed to the agents. Oracle channeled Athena and carved a swath through them with her enchanted spear. The Magician used the Sun card to blind a number, and Rex Radium blasted left and right. Meanwhile, ByteTorrent attempted to pin down their command frequency to see if he could eavesdrop on their tactics.

 

Just as the tide seemed to turn entirely against the boys in green, ByteTorrent picked something up: "Deploy Stage Two!" Rising from a hatch in the back of the "wrecked" van was Halfjack, flanked by a pair of agents. Artemis shot him, but Halfjack leapt from the van leveling a blast at Rex Radium, knocking him halfway across the street.

 

Just then, a strikingly handsome young man broke through the police lines, shouting, "Hey ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" and slamming into Halfjack with a full-on Move-Through.

 

(GM's Note: A STR 60 Move-Through on a 12" leap PLUS an already injured Halfjack PLUS a blown activation roll on Halfjack's Armor EQUALS a LOT of potential damage. Or real damage in this case. Plus knockback into the van.)

 

Standing over the crumpled and unconscious form of the cyborg Villain, the young man (who several heroes recognized as the popular movie star who calls himself Bard) shouts, "Who's next?" The VIPER agents, already depleted, surrender to a man.

 

The heroes meet Bard. Yes, that's his name, it's even on his SAG card, so it must be. Bard is, indeed, a movie star, having just completed Rambo V with Sylvester Stallone. But he's also a superhuman. Nay, a child of the gods, being the son of Baldur of Asgard.

 

(Or so he claims. None can doubt he's definitely superhuman. And personable. And oh, so dreamy!)

 

He also had a pack of paparazzi in tow who immediately want to know if he's dating Oracle.

 

Before they could get beyond friendly introductions, an emergency call comes in. Park Police at Memorial Park have found a bomb in the memorial statue garden!

 

(Yes, I'm running "A Walk In The Park" from Champions Battlegrounds. As planned when I first started this campaign, I intend to milk my vast repository of published adventures whenever possible. Even though this was a second ambush on top of the first, I decided to run with it, since it's pretty combat heavy.)

 

The heroes make it to the park in about five minutes, landing the G-Wing within a few hundred feet of the Statuary. Rex attempts to study the security measures on the bomb, succeeding in resetting the timer from five minutes to ten seconds. The bomb goes off with a resounding...poof?

 

The heroes are hit with the allergen spray losing 26 END apiece. Up to this moment, I'd never really considered how limiting a serious END drain could be. It completely colored the ensuing battle, even though the Guardians came out on top.

 

As per the adventure, as soon as the bomb went off, Ogre leaped into the fray. ByteTorrent identified him and tipped the Magician and Oracle off to his vulnerability to mental powers. Two ego attacks later, Ogre was both Berserk and on the ropes. Utility triggered a gas bomb which had no effect on Bard (he's nigh-invulnerable). Lodestone then used his powers to wrap Bard up in the remains of the park gate.

 

While Bard was wrapped up, Rex took a potshot at Ogre, knocking him back and buying a bit of time. Meanwhile, an invisible (and sonically muted) Herculan appeared seemingly out of nowhere, grappling the Aphrodite-form Oracle (and who wouldn't want to?) ByteTorrent began scanning the area for remote electronics and discovered the entire area was crawling with remote devices of uncertain type. He began monitoring radio frequencies to see if he could pin them down and was rewarded when another gas bomb went off at his feet. He reproduced the signal and set off another one, which told Utility that someone was onto him.

 

Oracle shifted to Athena form and broke Herculan's grasp before he could drain her strength. Then the Magician played the Devil card, encasing the alien gladiator in infernal chains. Rex took one of Mirage's Flash attacks in the face while Bard managed to break most of the way out of Lodestone's entangle. But not entirely, which allowed the magnetic villain to lift him about 40 feet in the air.

 

Bard broke the rest of the entangle while Herculan continued to struggle. ByteTorrent began calling up information on the alien, while Rex waited for his eyes to clear. Lodestone tagged the plummeting Bard (among the powers he doesn't have: flight) hitting him just before he landed, slamming him into one of the statues. Seeing the hero off-balance, Ogre took the opportunity to launch into him with a move-through that yielded 17d6 initial damage followed by 12d6 knockback damage from slamming him into the statue.

 

Amazingly enough, Bard managed to take the shot. It HURT (a lot), but he wasn't KO'ed and he barely avoided being Stunned. Ogre was left with 4 Stun after the assault, which allowed Rex a really cheap shot to finish him off. Meanwhile, Lodestone decided to try to free the struggling Herculan. He broke the Entangle, but not without injuring his teammate (the Devil's Chains transmit damage to the target as well).

 

At this point, we were coming up on the end of the planned assault. Utility quietly slipped away, having never been directly confronted or detected. Mirage, similarly undetected, shapeshifted into the form of a jogger and made her getaway. Lodestone had enough range to fly off unmolested, and a combined mental assault from the Magician and Aphrodite brought down Herculan.

 

With the crisis averted and two villains to interrogate, the Guardians questioned Herculan who, thanks to some magical mojo from the Magician, folded like a cheap tent. He told them he'd been hired by Utility and that they were supposed to meet up at an abandoned warehouse in six hours.

 

Rex noticed the heroes and other bystanders caught in the bomb "blast" were emitting an unusual low-level radiation. Clearly, the plan was to track them! But who is behind this? Perhaps Utility knows. Maybe it's time to lay an ambush of their own.

 

To Be Continued...

and the reptonfa swings again

[ringer]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

thanks for posting the adventure summaries. they are great reading, and this looks like a pretty fun campaign to be a part of.

 

question for ya. what point level did you start your "2nd string" heroes at? I have been thinking of something similar as a side adventure for the group i am in, and was curious what you were doing.

 

thanks!

[Theron]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

thanks for posting the adventure summaries. they are great reading, and this looks like a pretty fun campaign to be a part of.

 

question for ya. what point level did you start your "2nd string" heroes at? I have been thinking of something similar as a side adventure for the group i am in, and was curious what you were doing.

 

thanks!

 

I started them out at 350 points. They're second-string only in the sense of the plot. If I were to stat out Dragon Knight, he'd probably be 500+ points, but that's not likely to be necessary.

[pinecone]

Re: Theron's Bay City Mash-Up

 

Serious coolness...I like the write ups...