Lord Liaden

For Organization #2, DEMON. Nearly as venerable as VIPER, and under 5E was developed as the snakes' supernatural counterpart. I agree with Opal that you need to add Mechanon to the iconic villains list. He's (it's?) been there since the first edition of Champions, even before Dr. Destroyer, and in the core rulebook through Fourth Edition. Also UNTIL for organizations, unless you were confining your list to villainous orgs. It's hard to settle on "iconic Champions heroes." Defender is really the only one who's had any staying power. Marksman got a comic-book write-up but has never been statted in any edition of the RPG. However, I will nominate Seeker both for his infamy, and for having been the central character in Watchers of the Dragon. I also have to take a little exception to your "dishonorable mention" category. There's an implication of subjectivity there that won't necessarily be shared by other Champsfiles. I for example am very fond of VOICE.

This is probably an appropriate place to mention The Phenomena Department, a Hero System urban fantasy campaign setting developed by our long-missing colleague, Michael "Susano" Surbrook. By his own assertion it's inspired by the X-Files, Delta Green for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and the anime Silent Möbius.

I was being quite literal. Teddy in particular was not shy about personally thrashing scalawags.

Teddy Roosevelt would not be standing next to Donald Trump and smiling. He'd punch his lights out.

Even the history of Dungeons and Dragons, biggest gorilla in the zoo, is littered with original, quality settings which fell by the wayside. Al-Qadim. Birthright. Dark Sun. Eberron. Hollow World. Planescape. Ravenloft. Spelljammer. It's not unusual for originality to work against you.

I think Aarn having established some permanent settlement near the Ettinstone to transfer cargo between vessels on the Ordring and Loskell rivers, could give us the best of both worlds in one book. We can have Aarn for everyone wanting big-city adventure, but we can also have the smaller border town that Spence has ably defined the usefulness for. And if the Ordring-Loskell system is a major trade and transportation route, that would also have the story advantage I postulated for Ishthac on the Shaanda River, of people from many lands passing through the town. The border the Ettinstone is on is between Szarvasia and Thurgandia, specifically Thurgandia's problem child, Verlichten. That has to lead to trans-national complications.

For the most part, humans are like ants to these creatures. But when Godz noticed the ships in SF Bay he might have interpreted them as large animals, which he avoided because he didn't need to hurt them. Whales, for example, have been seen to be careful in their movements around smaller creatures, including human divers.

Like the lines at the end of KOTM: "Good thing he's on our side." "... For now."

I get what you're saying in terms of anthropomorphising the Titans, but these creatures have never been depicted as no more than animals. They're intelligent, they fight tactically. Ever since Godzilla pried open the MUTO's jaws and poured fire down its throat, it's been clear he has imagination. Kong displayed creative thinking repeatedly on Skull Island.

Hiddleston looks like he's having a lot of fun chewing up the scenery.

Right now we're seeing Republican administrations in states across America trying to suppress access to voting, because votes mean victory, and they're terrified that without cheating they won't win. We're also seeing broad-based corporate pushback against that legislation, which they're framing as a matter of principle; but there's no reason to expect corporate America as a whole suddenly developed a conscience. They know these laws are unpopular with the majority of Americans, and if they don't get onside condemning them their sales will suffer. So now the bought politicians have to answer to their corporate owners. The American public does have power, even over those with money, because that's ultimately where their money comes from. The public just has to be smart enough and committed enough to exercise it.

Well, more than half the people polled here are in favor of a major city, with both Aarn and Tavrosel well ahead of the other choices. OTOH only 22 people have responded, which is not a statistically significant sample. So we may still be in best-guess territory. In relation to the Eltirian-Talarshand linked concept, one thing is worth pointing out: nearly every city on the Vornakkian Peninsula is "frontier" to some extent. They're pretty widely scattered, most only controlling nearby territory. The peninsula is broken up by mountains and jungles, and home to hostile humanoids, barbarians, bandits and pirates. There's more than enough trouble for adventurers to get into not far from their city's walls. The text for Eltirian also points out that the city suffers from the lack of an accessible port, requiring merchant ships to dock at smaller towns on the Vornakkian Gulf coast. There's justification for Eltirian to attempt to build its own small port city there, which could become a home base for adventurers. In a variation on that idea, on the Turakian Age thread which spawned this discussion, I described an additional city-state at that location which I invented for my own games, Sargyllium. Perhaps elements of that could be adapted to a new city.

I think it's possible to find a compromise between the "major city" idea, and the "two opposed cities" idea. Eltirian is supposed to be one of Ambrethel's largest cities, typical of the fantasy urban trade center in many ways, but with some unique features, and a big mystery beneath it ripe for expansion. Talarshand could be developed as a sequel and companion to Eltirian's book. It has more than enough stuff going on to justify its own separate source-book treatment. Eltirian also has both extensive trade relations and potential conflicts with Kurum-Sathiri, which is in turn concerned over potential aggression from Talarshand; so if those first two books were successful that third unique city could also be explored, creating a large linked urban adventure zone.

When it comes to evil people with power, that's endemic to the whole world. I would say America is much less susceptible to that than the majority of countries. The system is a good one, but it's been subverted by many of those tasked with preserving it who just want to exploit it for their own benefit, and a public which hasn't been assiduous enough in holding those people to account.

You have a strange and wonderful imagination, archer. Okay. You make reference to UNTIL and Uluru, so I'm guessing this adventure is intended to be set either in the official Champions Universe or some adapted variation thereof. My suggestions will be colored by that assumption, but if it's otherwise please correct me. If it is set in the CU, that would simplify the stats issue, as you could use characters from Champs publications. As you're NPC patron is Baba Yaga, and the target areas of the invasion are all sites of mystic significance, it would be most logical for the threat to be magical in nature, with the final confrontation at Uluru implying that it's from another dimension. If you don't mind my saying, it kind of sounds like you're shooting your whole wad at the Egyptian encounter. You have the main threat, the intervention of the angry fae, a major Egyptian god, and an NPC who becomes a new superhero. The fae roe, in addition to the spell staggering the encounters, has to be carried to the king's chamber in the Great Pyramid. My suggestion would be to spread these elements out a bit more. Stealing the roe and fighting the fae can be one encounter. I'd recommend leaving the fae out of the pyramid fight, unless you want them to show up wherever in the world the PCs go next, which I admit could be amusing. I'd also leave the emergence of Thoth and the creation of Sarcopha-Guy until the Pyramid fight is done, otherwise you have to justify the god just showing up in the middle of a major mystic invasion, then leaving and doing nothing to stop it. I'd also leave the roe as either key to staggering the encounters, or to preventing the invasion event. In the latter case it could be carried to the other sites, i.e. reaching the summit of the Devil's Tower or penetrating to the heart of Uluru. For the fae I'll make reference to the Hero System Bestiary for ease of reference, although if you don't have access to the 6E version my suggestion would be in Monsters, Minions, And Marauders for 5E. These fae are clearly aquatic in nature. If you want them to provide a straight-up fight for the heroes, and particularly if you want them to follow the heroes to other drier parts of the world, I'd use the "water" version of the Troll from HSB. They're tough without being overwhelming but can be upgraded, with several customizing options to give them a variety of abilities and appearances. I have a couple of other suggestions in mind if that wouldn't work for you. The sites you chose for the fight don't have any mythic connection, so I wouldn't pick an Earthly god as the "big bad." My recommendation would be Tyrannon the Conqueror, from Champion Villains Volume One. Invading and conquering other dimensions is his main deal. The range of physical qualities, power levels, and appearances of his many forms means you can easily scale the level of immediate threat to each encounter of the adventure, and every one can look and feel different from the others even though they're all part of the same megavillain. If none of this is helpful to you, please specify your concerns and I can try again.

The guy's an entitled frat boy. Don't let him upset you more than he's worth. Console yourself with the knowledge that his behavior is catching up with him. He's too dumb to keep avoiding consequences.

Seeker did get a costume modification for the cover of Watchers of the Dragon that's more practical, all things considered. It also popped up on the cover of Adventurers Club #25.

From p. 5 of the CDC PDF that unclevlad linked to: "Currently available live attenuated viral vaccines are measles, mumps, rubella, vaccinia, varicella, zoster (which contains the same virus as varicella vaccine but in much higher amount), yellow fever, rotavirus, and influenza (intranasal). Oral polio vaccine is a live viral vaccine but is no longer available in the United States. Live attenuated bacterial vaccines are bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG—not currently available in the US) and oral typhoid vaccine."

If you're under siege, an edible fortress is both good and bad.

And yet I hear from people who had significant side effects from the first dose of their vaccine, with little to no effects from the second dose. Biology seems to have more random factors than can be conveniently accounted for.

I don't think he needed half an hour to explain why he thinks she's the best goddess. I got that without even playing the video.

The ones with cats lunatic enough to wear them.

Um, that's from the official Champions Universe. Uluru is the location of the Well of Worlds, a portal to many other dimensions. It has a magical guardian, the Wanambi Man. That's already baked into the setting, hence appropriate to use to justify an evolution of the setting. If one was doing a completely original super Australia, then of course your criticism would be justified.

It's currently in two movie theaters in the Greater Toronto area where I live, but only in outliers that are time-consuming and costly for me to reach. I'll wait to see if it gets closer when more things open up.