102 VIPER Plot Seeds

[BoloOfEarth]

One thing I liked when I looked through Heroes Unlimited books is the 101 adventure scenarios for the featured characters or location.

 

Seems to me that we can do even better, especially for a great core Champions group like VIPER. So, how about it, folks? How about some plot seeds. I'll bet we can come up with 102 or more if we try.

 

I'll start:

 

(1) While the city is honoring the heroes for a recent victory, the local VIPER Nest Leader decides to make them look like fools. He hires/convinces/tricks some non-VIPER supervillains to attack the heroes during the award ceremony (almost any Hunteds would work), while covert VIPER agents wearing police uniforms sneak in to kidnap the mayor from under the heroes' noses.

 

(2) A recently captured supervillain (preferrably one the PC heroes brought to justice) is on trial, and VIPER has a grudge against that villain. What better time to rub out that villain then when he/she is cuffed and powerless? The attack can happen in the courtroom or enroute between the prison and court. (Note that most security will be geared toward preventing an escape, not protecting the supervillain from attack.)

 

(3) VIPER wants to lure a troublesome vigilante into a trap, and lets word "slip out" of a major arms shipment coming into town. The "shipment" is actually a bomb or a psycho supervillain captured elsewhere. Unfortunately, the heroes also hear about the shipment. Will they also get caught in the trap? And can they save the vigilante (who might not be so helpful, thinking they're trying to bring him in)?

[Ghost who Walks]

(4) Wanting to pull a major operation, VIPER decides to create a diversion. They blackmail someone to dress up in a costume identical in appearance to Doctor Destroyer. (or other major villain in campaign). The Pseudo Arch-Villain shows up in a public statement, and issues a series of statements designed to make fun of the local heroes, and challenges them to a fight. If the Heroes have any kind of official sanction, they will be ordered to the area. Non-Official Heroes may show up, if they are watching TV. While every cop in the city is closing off the area, and evacuating civilians for the oncoming 'rumble', VIPER does a major operation in another part of the city. The Pseudo Arch-Villain surrenders as soon as the heroes arrive. The Real Arch-Villain may show up at a later date, to punish the local VIPER nest, innocents will probably be threatened when this occurs.

[pinecone]

Don't know if this is really a Viper plot but in my campain Demon agents always waer Viper uniforms while on an operation

[BoloOfEarth]

(6) The local Nest is in an uproar because VIPER agents from another city (Pittsburgh, in my campaign) did an operation in *their* city without clearing it first. It turns out the Nest Leader in Pittsburgh was disfigured (and given superpowers) in a lab accident, and he took over / built / bought a Nest so he could wipe out the other scientists who worked on that project. (He believes the accident was the result of sabotage -- and he may be right.) Now, the heroes have two Nests of VIPERs to deal with, figure out why Pittsburgh is targeting those scientists, and save the remaining scientists.

 

(7) VIPER develops a vehicle with a prototype holographic and radar-absorbing stealth system. At least, they had it just long enough to verify the stealth system worked, but Foxbat stole it (along with all notes and plans). With his new cloaked Foxbat Flyer, the Cowled Crusader is embarking on a crime wave with decent success. However, VIPER is gunning for him big-time -- and the heroes get stuck in the crossfire.

[Enforcer84]

VIPER Daycare:

An ingenious VIPER commander comes up with the idea of creating a phony "elite" daycare center, getting the children of the local movers and shakers in their clutches seems abhorrent, but they don't do anything to the kids save for slyly pumping them for information regarding their parents. Blackmail, extortion, and if desparate, kidnapping capers insue.

[Chuckg]

If Only We'd Sold Short The First Time...

 

The Council of Thirty moves billions of dollars into selling short on various key stocks... and then stages a 9/11-sized terror event to temporarily crash the entire US economy. Again.

 

It's a big gamble, natch. If VIPER pulls it off, they make *dozens* of billions in profits *and* are in a position to buy large chunks of stock in everything. If they *don't* pull it off, they *lose* billions.

 

Which is why the Supreme Serpent's throwing everything he's got into the pool. Golden Serpent Agents, Viper-X, the best of Dragon Branch, everything short of Viperia.. and maybe even her, if they can figure out a way to point her precisely enough.

[Guest Celt]

10) Prominent citizens are being killed by a skilled assassin. The heroes are called upon to find the killer before more of the metropolitan elite fall.

 

In reality the killer is an ex-VIPER agent who some years ago tried to leave the local nest for a normal life. She was shot by VIPER agents and left for dead, actually spending the years in a coma. Waking, she has come to wreak her revenge, and the upper crust victims are VIPER agents who have turned their ill-gotten gains into temporal power and luxury.

 

Plot courtesty of Kill Bill, Hard To Kill, and various other revenge fantasies.

 

PS: Nice one, Chuckg

[Ghost who Walks]

(11) The Emerald Isle: A certain British General seeks to expand her influence, and has decided to target Ireland. A series of bombs are detonated around London, with the IRA getting the blame. The British military makes plans to retaliate. The unsuspecting IRA leaders want to reach out to VIPER in order to get additional weapons and supplies (the Generals plan all along). An Irish Hero, considered a villain to those outside of Ireland, is contacting outsiders, asking if they want to deal a major blow to VIPER. Will the Heroes help Shamrock drive the snakes from Ireland? Will Shamrock ever become a Catholic Saint? Can we ever reach 102 plots? Only time will tell...

[Asperion]

12) VIPER spends some time and resources building a new hotel that is actually nothing more than a test on the local hero team. Shortly before the hotel's opening the heros are invited into the hotel for whatever reason (especially law enforcement heros). As they go through the hotel, they are given several tests of different forms, some mental, some physical, some more ego-based. After several weeks have passed, VIPER will attack the heros with attacks specifically designed to destroy the heros. Either at the hotel or the following battle, the whole thing could be publicly broadcasted for all who desire to see it. Imagine how devistating things would be if every villain afterward would just know how to defeat the heros and possibly even have the means to use the knowledge.

[pinecone]

I may have posted this before...Viper buys and spreads a "Laser tag" style franchise into every major city....they use it as a training facility,agents play for free to bone up on tactics and accuracy,and they close the place for "private partys" and reconfigure the interior for full training sessions and to reherse jobs. if possable they will try to get plans for the hero's base.....

[Guest Celt]

13) Chuck Barris wasn't really a CIA assassin... but Elvis Presley was! During his career he picked up some secret materials that, if revealed, would be devastating even today. He hid the materials in one of his guitars. Now it's being given away as the top prize in an Elvis Impersonator pageant. VIPER has learned this and is planning on infiltrating its agents in the competitors, pulling a snatch and grab when the time is right.

 

Can the heroes sort out fake from foe? And is the King really dead or will he make a special guest appearance? Play it straight or play it silly, and don't forget to practice your hillbilly drawl and hip shake.

 

Thank yew. Thank yew verry much

[Enforcer84]

14) It beats the alternative....

 

A VIPER agent loses his stomach for the career, knowing what happens to deserters, he decides to fake his own death to get out of dodge. He plans on leaking information to UNTIL about a job and then make sure that he is seperated from the rest of his unit in the firefight.

He plans on killing a man of similar build who works near the target sight. Then he will put the man in his uniform and make his break.

The Heroes are attracted to the sound of the battle, can they intervine before an innocent man dies? Will they try to help the agent inspite of his horrific plan?

[Highwayman]

15) The PC’s get a tip that a startup biotech firm has obtained a sample of previously unknown alien DNA, and that Telios is sending his clone troops to steal it. However, in the midst of the battle with the clones in the company HQ, VIPER agents start popping up and shooting at everyone!

 

The company is actually a VIPER front and the DNA a fiction. The goal was to capture the clones, in the hopes that the study of live specimens can yield some of Telios’ secrets. To cover up the abduction, the agents plan to destroy the buildings (and the PCs) with a device that leaves traces pointing to one of the PCs as the cause of the destruction.

 

Alternatively, if you’ve got some NPC heroes you want to get rid of, the PCs could come in afterward. Then they would have to solve the mystery while protecting the comatose last survivor of the NPC team from Telios’ vengeance and a VIPER cleanup squad.

[Chuckg]

Re: number 14... while I can see a low-end VIPER agent doing that, obviously this guy is somebody who got passed over for Elite Agent Training.

 

(If VIPER /doesn't/ make an effort to get the fingerprints/DNA of dead agents from the morgue and check them out to make sure it's actually the agent in question, I'd be /extremely/ surprised. Faking your own death has got to be #1 on the list of "Ways to hopefully keep VIPER from hunting me down")

[The Watcher]

16. Crouching Viper, Hidden Dragon

 

Elite martial artists all over the world have come under attack by elite Viper operatives and even Dragon Branch members. It appears Viper is intent on maiming or killing as many superhuman level martial artists as possible.

 

What the PC's have yet to find out is that as the Tournament of the Dragon draws nigh Viper plans to have a member of theirs participate, a being genetically engineered in a Viper base located in international territory who's had the skills of some of the best martial artists on the planet programmed into him through RNA Memory Transfer.

 

The attacks on other martial artists served the dual purpose of winnowing the potential competion while gathering new genetic material from them to provide their agent with even more skills to increase his prowess. When the Tournament comes, Viper intends for him to win and then defeat the Death Dragon, thus making the Viper "nation" the new ascendent power of the next century.

[Guest Celebrin]

16: Get the high-tech goodie!

 

Hearing about a revolutionary new power-cell being unveiled for the first time at a science convention/seminra/forum, Viper arranges to have a group of local supervillains attack the convention in an effort to steal the device. Unbeknownst to them, Viper let slip that this group was going to do something so that the heroes would arrive to save the day. However, when they were busy with the supervillains, Viper agents snuck in under the cover of confusion to steal the device and kidnap the scientist who created it (settling for the scientist if they have to choose).

 

Darren

[Ghost who Walks]

(17) TimeViper: VIPER has been around a long time. A group that stopped them in the past, know VIPER will rise again. Using sorcery, they have placed themselves in a magical sleep, only to reawaken in the modern age. What will the PCs do, when sword wielding maniacs from beyond the mists of time storm the local VIPER nest, and put an end to those they find there...old school.

 

(18) MotorViper: All of VIPERs vehicles come from somewhere. A certain automobile company is unveiling a new car, with all sorts of nifty features. What will the hero's opinion be of...the Viper?

[Chuckg]

19 -- Nama, I Would Have Words With Thee!

 

VIPER suddenly starts going into paranoid-overdrive mode re: magical threats. Various prominent billionaires and politicians (Council of Thirty) members are mysteriously dropping dead. Several VIPER nests appear to have... vanished. Ice Station VIPER doesn't report in anymore, but an army of zombies in green is now marching south...

 

... good God, is that *Viperia's* skull on a stick?

 

... Takofanes the Undying has just found out that an old rival of his, Nama the Serpent God, still walks the Earth, and that VIPER is his cats-paws.

 

And the Undying Lord has unleashed the full force of his fury upon the servants of the Snake.

 

(Edit -- hey, VIPER and Nama working together took out Sharna-Gorak. Takofanes might be dead, but he ain't *brain* dead. Gotta get rid of the flunkies first before taking down the big boss. If you can kill them and then necro-Borg them into being *your* flunkies in the process, even better.)

If you've read Takofanes entry, then you know what 'the full force of his fury' means. *shudder* It *starts* with the sky going black at noon, and works up from there to rains of fire and seas of blood...

 

Four-color heroes have their hands full trying to stop one of the most dangerous beings in the entire history of the world from calling out one of the last true gods embodied on the mortal plane.

 

Grittier heroes can also angst about the dilemna of 'Is destroying VIPER worth the price of letting Takofanes go unchecked? Is finally putting the Archlich down worth the price of a devil's bargain with the Supreme Serpent?'

[OddHat]

20) A dimensional rift opens over New York, letting through an aircraft carrier sized airship filled with high tech vehicles and manned by red, white and blue high tech lunatics. Calling themselves "G.I. Guys," these new players claim to have been hit by a weapon developed in their reality by an organization remarkably like Viper; S.E.R.P.E.N.T! The GI Guys may be heroes, but what happens when they start wrecking NY state in a misguided war with Viper? What happens when Viper makes contact with S.E.R.P.E.N.T? And then just as the three way battle begins, along come dimension hoppers SPIDER and the girls from AUNTIE! Can your heroes get rid of all of these clowns before they blow up half the country? Or do the players want to fight along with some real American heroes?

[Highwayman]

21.) The local Nest Leader shows up at the PC’s HQ, claiming a group of hardcore snake cultists staged a coup and took over the Nest. To celebrate, they’re planning a wave of senseless violence to “dedicate the city to the Great Viper.†He says he knows how to stop them, but won’t tell unless the PCs’ let him go to regain control of the Nest afterwards. “I may be a criminal, but at least I’m sane. Who would you rather deal with?â€

[Tech]

22) A detective hero or any hero on patrol runs into VIPER agents that aren't interested in fighting but rather, in helping the heroes thwart a problem. An innately-powered villain is gathering technology to enhance his (or her) already formidable power. In return for not being taken in custody, the agents give the heroes legitimate blueprints of technology that could magnify his or her power several fold as well as the final location where the technology can be pieced together. They don't want this villain to take over the world; these agents have had enough of VIPER and this is a small way to repay for their deeds in being part of VIPER.

 

The heroes eventually show up and the fight ensures.

 

Although technologically expensive in losing the plans themselves, VIPER had planned this to get rid of the heroes and the villain in one massive attack. Will the heroes team up with the villain to defeat VIPER?

[JeffreyWKramer]

I'm just starting to introduce a VIPER plotline into my online (chat-based) Champions campaign, so I can't report on it here... yet. At least two of my players are regulars here. I gladly will later, though... unless, of course, it turns out sucking in actual play. Only time will tell.

[BoloOfEarth]

A bit late for Halloween, but what the hey...

 

(23) A costume ball is being held by a rich industrialist, and all the movers and shakers of the city will be there. The theme is "favorite villain", with the wait staff wearing credible copies of VIPER uniforms. The wealthy attendees will likely have pretty impressive looking costumes of supervillains, too. Of course, VIPER plans to crash the party and kidnap some influencial people. And the heroes have to see how well they can pull punches until they're sure who is who.

[Highwayman]

Holloweenesque...

 

24.) "What, so your saying some of our fearless VIPER comrades dug up some kind of shapeshifting alien in a flying saucer in the Arctic? I don't buy it, but why don't we ask the new guy? He just transfered down from Ice Station; nice guy, quiet though. Oh wait, he wants to talk to you alone..."

[Ghost who Walks]

*Bump*

 

(25) Shopping Spree: Viperia, Queen of Africa, has decided that she needs a palace. Only the best will do, and she starts showing up at various VIPER nests, ordering agents to commit crimes for her. Only the finest antiques, carpets, furniture, and servants will be fit for her palace. Will the VIPER leadership attempt to stop their most powerful operative? Will the Nest leaders revolt, when large numbers of their agents are in jail for commiting her crimes? Can the players stop a world-wide crime spree?

 

(26) Road Trip: A computer hacker has figured out a way to hack into the Serpentine network. Being unusually public spirited (and hoping for a reward), he phones the FBI and tells them what he can do. As the hacker resides in the campaign city, the players are drafted into transporting the kid to a secret government facility in North Dakota. There, the hacker will show the FBI experts the backdoor he has discovered. Unknown to the players, VIPER has discovered the breach in their security, and is unleashing the Dragon Branch to stop them. The FBI will provides the players with a white van, to allow them to drive to North Dakota. (the hacker has a fear of flying)

 

As a possible bonus complication: PRIMUS discovers the FBI's activities, and learns that VIPER is going to use the Dragon Branch to stop them. They don't inform the players however, as they hope to use this oppertunity to capture some of the Dragon Branch.