Steve

You know, "Champions of Sin City" would make for an interesting supplement...

One of the things I am importing into Las Vegas from elsewhere in the CU is the Card Shark organization. I am currently considering the Vegas group as a franchise operation from the Hudson City main group. Their gambling theme seems like a great match to Las Vegas to me.
 
Since VIPER only has a Minor Nest, this also gives me another costumed group to work with.

Another idea dump...
 
Elvis impersonators are rather common in Vegas. Vegas is protected by one of the greatest ones, Graceman. Graceman is a very religious man who uses his holy granted power to fight the forces of mortal sin in sin city.
 
On the other side is Blue Swade Shoe, a criminal martial artist specializing in Savate. A greedy sob who can be murderous when TCOB, do not underestimate him.

I don't have a game, but I do have some ideas...
 
Deathdealer is a professional assassin who operates from Las Vegas (at least part of the time, as he also calls Atlantic City, Hudson City, and the entire country of Monoco home). His trademark weapon are razor sharp metal blades disguised as playing cards. He is a member of a loose supervillain group named The Gamble, who are based on various gambling props, games, and whatnot.
 
Another member of The Gamble is The One Arm Bandit, an enforcer for the local mafia there. His right arm is artificial, and contains various weapons of various effects, from lasers, to drills, to mace heads and whatnot.

The only specific Hero publication reference to Las Vegas I could find is from DEMON: Servants Of Darkness p. 37-38. That describes the personal sanctum of Luther Black, aka "The Edomite," secret founder and leader of DEMON. His sanctum, dubbed "the Thirteenth Floor," exists in an extra-dimensional space contiguous with the Las Vegas Strip, and accessible via sundry hotel and casino elevators, when the Edomite wills it.

It is with great sadness that I announce my good friend, David Stevens, aka Hyper-man passed away last week. He fought a courageous battle against brain cancer.   He was a Huge fan of the Hero System, and has a very impressive collection of products he was very proud of.
 
One of the last things we talked about was his collection, and his wishes for it.   It is literally only a couple of books short of having Every product printed for the Hero system, including Kickstarters.  He really wanted to try to keep the collection together.
 
I'm interested in everyone's opinions,
Do you think anyone would be interested in purchasing such a large collection?   
I could bring it to Gencon and try there, but am not willing to let it go for pennies on the dollar.
Would EBAY be the best way to try to sell?
 
Any other unique ideas on what to do with the collection?  (Doesn't have to be sold)
 
Thanks !
 
 

President David Sutherland has now become a feature of my Champions campaign, and his origin story is a shadowy reflection of one of the PCs (Valient), sort of like how Belloq is to Indiana Jones. Valient is a very popular Public ID superhero and was offered a cabinet position in the Sutherland Administration as the Secretary of Superhuman Affairs. He chose to accept at the conclusion of the session last night, and his getting the position is pretty much a lock after the team had just rescued about thirty senators from imprisonment in Faerie, each of them replaced by fetches of themselves answering to Morgan Le Fay and Black Paladin.
 
A newer, tougher version of the Superhuman Registration Act is being considered by congress and is supported by Sutherland, since he has a Public ID.

President David Sutherland has now become a feature of my Champions campaign, and his origin story is a shadowy reflection of one of the PCs (Valient), sort of like how Belloq is to Indiana Jones. Valient is a very popular Public ID superhero and was offered a cabinet position in the Sutherland Administration as the Secretary of Superhuman Affairs. He chose to accept at the conclusion of the session last night, and his getting the position is pretty much a lock after the team had just rescued about thirty senators from imprisonment in Faerie, each of them replaced by fetches of themselves answering to Morgan Le Fay and Black Paladin.
 
A newer, tougher version of the Superhuman Registration Act is being considered by congress and is supported by Sutherland, since he has a Public ID.

President David Sutherland has now become a feature of my Champions campaign, and his origin story is a shadowy reflection of one of the PCs (Valient), sort of like how Belloq is to Indiana Jones. Valient is a very popular Public ID superhero and was offered a cabinet position in the Sutherland Administration as the Secretary of Superhuman Affairs. He chose to accept at the conclusion of the session last night, and his getting the position is pretty much a lock after the team had just rescued about thirty senators from imprisonment in Faerie, each of them replaced by fetches of themselves answering to Morgan Le Fay and Black Paladin.
 
A newer, tougher version of the Superhuman Registration Act is being considered by congress and is supported by Sutherland, since he has a Public ID.

Like the major comic-book publishers, the current official Champions Universe has mostly followed the history of real Earth, aside from the impact of the presence of superhumans. That includes real-world political and social trends, and often analogues to actual public figures, although there are differences.
 
At present the real United States of America is undergoing political and social turmoil, catalyzed around the sitting President, Donald Trump. He's become a major polarizing figure, with supporters applauding policies they believe are necessary and overdue, while his detractors accuse him of attacking American values and even laying the ground work for fascism. Questions of President Trump's moral qualities and even mental stability have also been raised. I have no desire to get into a debate about that here (and we already have a thread for same on the NGD forum). However, that kind of upheaval sounds like a ripe field for story lines and role playing as part of a Champions campaign, in a supers world going through analogous events. Yet the very divisiveness surrounding this President, and the lack of clarity regarding the true motives of himself and those around him, and where all this will ultimately lead, could make many GMs wary of using an "alternate" Trump in their games.
 
Then it occurred to me that our Champions source books provide an appropriate alternative figure actualizing all the worst suspicions and fears about this administration, with no question as to his private motivations, morality, or competence: Representative David Sutherland, formerly the "superhero" Invictus (Champions Villains Vol. 1: Master Villains).
 
Long before the most recent presidential election, Sutherland had been subtly and shrewdly working to forward his political ambitions. His superheroic career accomplished much good and built a strong positive reputation, but it was all a show to accumulate support for an ultimate Presidential campaign. Since being elected to Congress he's been the most prominent superhero-turned-politician in America. For years he's maneuvered to place people sympathetic to his goals in positions of influence. Considering how tumultuous the last election was, it's not hard to imagine someone so famous, charismatic, and capable winning through to the Oval Office.
 
Sutherland's true goal is to turn America into a modern Roman Empire, incontestably dominant around the globe, with himself as de facto Emperor. Once in office he's likely to very deliberately and calculatedly do things that detractors of the real President accuse him of attempting: install people personally loyal to him in important government roles; discredit and suppress media that criticize him, while promoting outlets that support him and attack his enemies; challenge the validity of laws and constitutional authority that restrict his ability to do what he wants; foster radicalized divisions within American society to mobilize more militant support behind him; disrupt international stability with confrontational policies asserting American dominance over global affairs, while cultivating foreign allies he can bribe or coerce. As for his morality, he's unquestionably corrupt, hedonistic, and ruthless, to a degree more epic than the relative banality of what Donald Trump has been accused of.
 
For Champions gamers who would like to work some of the implications of the climate in America today into their games, but are wary of using an alternate of Donald Trump, David Sutherland is an unambiguous "villain" to oppose for heroes who know the truth about him; but with all the complications and challenges of opposing such a villain who's also the lawful, popular, and very capable occupant of the most powerful political office in the world.

A quote from tonight’s Champions game, presented without context: Flowers For Mechanon.

A quote from tonight’s Champions game, presented without context: Flowers For Mechanon.

A quote from tonight’s Champions game, presented without context: Flowers For Mechanon.

If she’s never going to be in combat with anything, maybe you could try building her as an AI (which only have a few characteristics) and then add a few powers to affect the real world.

If it’s something that needs to be learned, then doesn’t that mean someone would need to pay character points for it? Anyone can use a Strike maneuver, but you need to pay four points to know Martial Strike and gain the additional combat bonuses it gives.
 
To me, free maneuvers are something anyone can do. If you want a character to know how to do something in combat that not everyone knows how to do, paying a few points for such abilities seems in line with how the system functions.
 
it sounds to me like you could create a few ranged martial arts maneuvers to accomplish a number of things being discussed here, even adding in limited amounts of Lightning Reflexes effects. If you don’t like calling such maneuvers Gun Fu, maybe call them Enhanced Firearm Control instead.

If she’s never going to be in combat with anything, maybe you could try building her as an AI (which only have a few characteristics) and then add a few powers to affect the real world.

If she’s never going to be in combat with anything, maybe you could try building her as an AI (which only have a few characteristics) and then add a few powers to affect the real world.

If it’s something that needs to be learned, then doesn’t that mean someone would need to pay character points for it? Anyone can use a Strike maneuver, but you need to pay four points to know Martial Strike and gain the additional combat bonuses it gives.
 
To me, free maneuvers are something anyone can do. If you want a character to know how to do something in combat that not everyone knows how to do, paying a few points for such abilities seems in line with how the system functions.
 
it sounds to me like you could create a few ranged martial arts maneuvers to accomplish a number of things being discussed here, even adding in limited amounts of Lightning Reflexes effects. If you don’t like calling such maneuvers Gun Fu, maybe call them Enhanced Firearm Control instead.

Pathfinder: The Mummy Mask : Have Shovel, Will Tomb-raid
Dramatis personae

Zenobia the Gnoll, a cleric of the goddess of healing, Sarenrae. She used to be a butcher, which is alarming since her species has a not undeserved reputation for eating their captives. No doubt it was the kindness of some missionary of Sarenrae that set her on a different path, especially since many priests of that faith are obliged to give healing to complete strangers at least once a day, and all of them obliged to try and redeem the evil. Saving the life of a gnoll butcher would certainly qualify, and leave quite the impression on a more thoughtful gnoll.

Nemat of Valat - At least, that's the name he gave on the legal paperwork. He rarely (and to none of the PCs as yet) gives out his real name of Nemat Merituzat. His family maintains a shrine to the Old Gods out in the desert, which is why he usually goes by the other name. For some reason the current Osirion dynasty don't care much for the old religion - and it's not like THAT will ever bite them on the arse, amirite? A thoughtful and quietly observant individual, and well educated in the history and culture of his country.

Asrian al-Adjir: Probably not human. Given she goes around veiled head-to-foot all the time, the rest of us aren't sure, but we're not going to pry. After all, as Zenobia the gnoll has said at some length, the world is full of all kinds of people and the goddess said we have to give them all the benefit of the doubt, at least the first time.

Onka the Half-orc: "Irori Helps those that Help Themselves." Onka had those words beaten into him more than once by his Shaman Teacher as he grew up in the Jungles of Mwangi. Eventually he escaped to his Mother's Homeland of Thuvia where he became a Spell Sage. The rumour of the opening of the tombs and the temptation of long forgotten artifacts of power have brought him to Osirion, because Irori, after all, had to start somewhere on the road to Godhood.

Our newly-formed adventuring party, the Covenant of Wati, have come to the desert city of the same name to participate in some state-sanctioned tomb-robbing. We have various motivations, ranging from ‘money’, to the desire to prove one’s worth to the Goddess of Sunlight by bringing light into dark places such as probably-undead-infested ancient tombs. At least we’re all professional enough to know the basics, and have appropriate equipment - mostly.

Asrian: You'll need to buy lockpicks. I can't afford them.
Nemat: They were in your backpack. Which was stolen.
Asrian: … Onka, where did you get THOSE lockpicks from?
Onka: From a market stall. Luck favors the prepared.

The ceremony to assign adventuring teams to various tombs is overseen by the the cult of Pharasma (Goddess of Fate, Death, Prophecy and Birth, but not in that order) and her High Priestess of the Mausoleum.

GM: Sebti the Crocodile (not an actual crocodile).
Asrian: *spluttering with suppressed laughter*
Zenobia: ?
Asrian: In old Osirian ‘Crocodile’ is slang for accomplished fellatrix
Nemat: Well, this is good to know.

Zenobia OoC: So, part of the town got rezoned ‘Undead’?
Nemat: That’s a gross simplification. Hundreds of years after the Plague of Madness the Pharasman priests designated the abandoned part of Wati as a necropolis, partly to contain the ongoing undead problem, and partly as a memorial.
Zenobia OoC: If some of the undead are nobility, does that count as gentrification?

Sebti the Crocodile: By order of the Pharaoh Khemet the Third, the exploration of the necropolis will be open only to permitted explorers, and not...
Zenobia: Opportunistic grave-robbers?
Sebti: Quite.
Onka: We call them ‘queue-jumpers’ today.
Nemat: Shush.

Of course, we can’t go in and just ransack the place. We’ll lose our grave-robbing license if we do that. The first group to get assigned their random assignment are the ‘Crypt-Finders’, a very standard-looking adventuring party. The ‘Daughters of the Desert’ has a human-looking bard leader, who looks surprisingly Scandinavian.

Zenobia: And they call themselves the Daughters of the Desert?
Nemat: Probably for the same reason we’re called the Covenant of Wati - they got here, were told they had to come up with a name, and panicked.

There’s also also halfling ‘Dog Soldiers’ ( “With a pack of good doggos. All 12 out of 10” ), elven ‘Sand Scorpions’, and many other less notable groups. The party’s gnoll cleric chooses to interpret this as good planning on behalf of the organisers.

Zenobia: If we’re all going into different buildings, there’s no chance of conflict with these other parties.
Asrian and Nemat: LOL

The last team before we get our own assignment call themselves The Scorched Hand.

Nemat: Well, that doesn’t sound ominous at all.

The Scorched Hand’s representative is apparently quite upset about the random assignments, and instead demands access to something called the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye. She doesn’t get her way, and stomps off. Of course, we are all paying different amounts of attention to our possible rivals - as determined by perception rolls. Some of us seem to be developing a trend in the rolls.

Asrian OoC: I’m strongly beginning to suspect I’m gay.
Nemat OoC: Apparently I’m not paying attention to what she’s saying. Why is it every character I play instantly becomes a Lothario?

Nemat: Which of us is going up to draw our assignment token?
Asrian: I’ll go.
Zenobia: Good idea, you’re the local girl.

Our group gets assigned the Tomb of Akhentepi. Time to do some research, before the gates of the Necropolis get opened in the morning. We’ve also been assigned rooms at at nearby inn, the Tooth and Hookah.

All: …
Onka: That was ‘Hookah’, and not Hooker, right?

Akhentepi was a military leader interred shortly before the Plague of Madness. Next to nothing else is known about him. Nemat and Asrian go around to have a polite chat with the Scorched Hand representative, and counsel patience. After all, this Sanctum of the Erudite Eye might be in the next round of of assignments, and the random assignment is explicitly the will of the gods (or Pharasma’s priests anyway).

Zenobia: Try not to freeze up when you meet the attractive human female again.

Asrian’s self-description includes a Turkish-style helmet, with a veil hanging down around her face, and silver white threads of hair sticking out here and there.

Zenobia OoC: So you look like a bulb of garlic?

The predictable cloud of hashish smoke and other flavoured vapes in the Tooth and Hookah is not doing Zenobia and her sensitive snout much good.

Nemat: I’d better stick close to Zenobia, just in case something happens.
Zenobia OoC: Yes, like somebody yelling GNOLL! And attacking.
Nemat OoC: Exactly.
Zenobia OoC: We are in a bar with dozens of stoned adventurers after all.
Nemat OoC: ‘Yes, it’s a gnoll, didn’t you notice the Symbol of Sarenrae?’
Asrian OoC: ‘Do you have a PROBLEM with non-humans?’
Nemat OoC: ‘And how badly do you want to piss off every cleric of Sarenrae in town?’

The inn also has a mascot - a very small crocodile that lives in the well.

Onka: But we get drinking water from that.
Zenobia: So? Proves the water is clean - if it’s good enough for a crocodile, it’s good enough for us.

We circulate with the other adventuring parties, getting to know the more loquacious ones and mobbed by the halflings’ good doggos. Nobody appears to have any information on this long-dead general we can use, but then none of them are locals.

Nemat: I’m not local, but I’d at least heard of him.

The temple of Pharasma sends messengers to wake everybody in time for the dawn unlocking of the Necropolis. To our surprise, there are actually businesses that operate in the Necropolis, at least during daylight hours, and at least operating from buildings that used to have a similar purpose. The ancient dance hall now appears to be dedicated to the horizontal rumba, for example. But even these people, for whom the cultural strictures against entering the Necropolis don’t seem very effective, avoid going into the northern end of the Necropolis. Guess where the Tomb of Akhentepi is.

Nemat: Interesting - this date on the tomb says he died more than a decade before the Plague of Madness. But I’d thought he’d died shortly before it. Apparently 11 years is ‘short’.
Zenobia: This is Osirion - eleven years is yesterday.
Nemat: True enough - we’ll have to get used to the fact that we’re dealing with thousands of years of history around here.

Nemat is also suspicious that the mortar around the door has already been chiselled away, but that might just mean the priests of Pharasma were being helpful in the lead-up to the exploration date. He’s also careful to dig all the sand piling up around the door away - after all, we may have to leave in a hurry, and slam the door behind us. Asrian pitons the doors open, out of similar paranoia.

Onka: History is filled with idiots that got stuck in tombs.
Asrian: So are tombs.

Nemat and Asrian also set up a tripline across the doorway. Again, just in case. Zenobia gets out her tomb-raiding gear, which includes a candle helmet. Onka and Nemat just get out their IOUN torches.

Zenobia: ?
Nemat: You know how there’s burnt-out IOUN stones, and all they can do is circle around your head? Somebody went ‘Continual Light’ and had a permanent light source that circles your head.
Onka: And they even work underwater.
Zenobia: Huh. Well, I’m setting up my candle anyway, just in case.
Nemat: I’ve got candles too - as you say, my friend, just in case.

The dust in the antechamber shows that the Pharasmans didn’t actually open the doors once they’d chiselled the mortar away - and nobody else has been in here in a long long time. Nemat reads the hieroglyphs, which include blessings from Anubis, one of the old gods, AND warnings from Pharasma, who had worshippers even back then.

“The Only Thing The Lady Of Graves Despises More Than A Graverobber, Is An Unsuccessful Graverobber. Turn Back While You Can.”

Nemat: This is fascinating - if only I had pen and paper to record it. They were clearly playing the odds when they prepared this tomb.

Nemat and Asrian wrestle the enormous rolling stone wheel from across the inner door - Asrian is MUCH stronger than she looks, and probably isn’t human under all those robes and veils. Zenobia pops back outside to find some loose bricks to keep it open, and steps over the tripline at the same time a large Ghost Scorpion come in UNDER the tripline. A certain amount of fancy foot ensues, as Onka tries to dodge the rush of a child-sized giant translucent arthropod. Zenobia attacks the beast from behind, and apparently the goddess Sarenrae approves since her scimitar lights up with holy flame as she does so.

Asrian: I thought that was my trick.

The scorpion is somewhat outclassed, and is soon an ex-scorpion. We proceed deeper, and down a deep shaft, with all due caution. For example, we don’t trust the piton and rope already set up at the top of the shaft. A wise decision, since the rope has perished from decades of decay. A thought occurs to Zenobia, as she is looking back up from the bottom of the shaft, set in the middle of the ceiling, and completely inaccessible if not for the ropes we left in place.

Zenobia: What happens if we need to get back out in a hurry?
Nemat: Don’t be in a hurry.

There are depictions of the late general on the walls, which probably means this is where offerings in his memory would have been left. There’s also a body, that’s been down here long enough to naturally mummify. It looks like he fell down the shaft and shattered both legs. No doubt the rope and piton were his work. But who replaced the mortar around the door when he didn’t come back?

Nemat: I’m expecting the traps to start in the next room.
GM: Have you been reading this module?
Nemat: No - but this room was set up for authorised visitors. The next one won’t be.

He’s right, too. Onka’s careful prodding with a ten-foot pole triggers a pressure plate, and darts erupt from the wall.

GM: Duck.
Nemat: What?? He used a pole!
GM: I know. The darts are coming ALONG the corridor, not across it.
All: FUUUUUUU-

Injuries are minor, the trap is disabled, and we proceed. Weirdly for an ancient Egyptian expy, the next room has a tapestry, depicting some kind of family scene, and a couple of carefully placed mummified cats, which probably isn’t weird for Osirion at all. The fact that the cats aren't reanimated tomb guardians is surprising, though. But back to the family portrait.

Zenobia OoC: Is it a trapestry?

Apparently not. The family on the tapestry are much younger than we know Akhentepi was at the time of his death. Perhaps that implies his family passed on long before he did. As Zenobia observes, this might explain why the tomb was sealed too - no family left to come and remember him. The next room has a chariot, military frescos, and a large chest that screams TRAP.

Nemat: I can understand why that chariot is down here, but how did they get it in?
Zenobia: In pieces.
Nemat: Ah. Of course.
GM: It looks like the chariot was meticulously restored, dismantled, and reassembled down here. But time has taken its toll, so you wouldn’t be able to drive it out of here.
Zenobia: Well you couldn’t fit it through the doorway for a start.
GM: There is that.

Asrian can’t find any traps on the chest. Highly suspicious. The trap, a poisoned blade, is of course designed to stab a thief in the hand while he or she is fiddling with the lock. The chest is filled with a couple of potions and gold-plated metal sheet books.

Onka: Remind me - we are allowed to walk off with this stuff, right?
Asrian: Certainly are.
Onka: Rightio *reaches in*
Asrian: Just a moment - I want to check the contents for contact poison first.
GM: *sigh*
Zenobia OoC: These players more evil-minded than the module designers, are we?
GM: Yep.

It’s true - that dart trap and the poisoned blade were cunning, but as the gnoll observes, a really cunning trapsmith would have put another trap under the chest, in the event it was ever moved.

The book is military biography - interesting to historians, but not as interesting as, say, prophecies that some great evil will resurface at the end of the week. We cart it all back to the shaft, for later sale to the government, and head deeper to continue our free-market archaeology.

Look at the rules for Boostable Charges.  Burn through your charges faster to increase your damage.  You can also Rapid Fire an attack.
 
So let's take Joe Average Cop.
 
Dex 12, Spd 3.  Weapon Familiarity pistols, +1 OCV w/ pistol.
 
He's got a 9mm pistol with 17 rounds in it (technically a +1/4 advantage, because 16 rounds is the max for a +0, but we'll give him a freebie).  Let's also slap on the Boostable Charges advantage (+1/4).  Now he can burn through 4 extra charges to give himself 4 extra damage classes.  So his D6+1 RKA 9mm pistol will go up to a 3D6-1 RKA if he uses 5 charges.  He'll get a 15- Activation Roll on the gun after that (so it might jam up), but he can really put the hurt on somebody.  Now let's say that he decides to Rapid Fire as well.  It's a full round action, but he can shoot as many times as he wants at -2 OCV per attack.  The 5th edition book suggests limiting it to maybe 3 shots to prevent abuse.  So he's a 5 OCV normally, so now he's down to a 1 OCV.  With a full round action, he's shooting 3 times at Bob the Criminal, DCV 3.  Each shot uses 5 charges, he needs a 9- to hit, but if he hits it'll be 3D6-1 RKA each time.
 
There you go.  A completely average cop can virtually empty his magazine in one phase.  That's probably a little faster than he should realistically be able to do it.  If he begins the combat with a held action (which he probably should have), then he's already got his gun out and ready.  Cops also use the "cover" maneuver (i.e., point your gun at the guy and keep your finger on the trigger).  So if Baseball Bat Guy starts to move towards cop, that activates cop's held action and he gets to fire before Baseball Bat Guy takes two steps.
 
The only thing this required was putting Boostable Charges on semi-auto firearms, which I already do for my characters.

Up until a few years ago, the Hero Games website hosted a wide variety of book excerpts, supplements, and game aids for free download. However, with the most recent website upgrade, most of those items were considered not resource cost-effective to maintain, and were discarded. As a result most new Hero gamers are unaware they ever existed; and even some of the veterans may have missed the treasures they contained, or have since lost something from the collection they once had.
 
However, thanks to the magnificent Internet Archive Wayback Machine, virtually all those items are still obtainable if one knows where to look and what to look for. But since many people don't know, I thought it would be helpful to provide links to representative archived pages.
 
These downloads cover many areas: maps (from published books or supplementary), book excerpts and introductions (including supplementary info about the published official settings), wallpapers, color covers to PDF books, character sheets and hex maps, items cut from books for space (including supplementary forms mentioned in various books), adventure modules, character outlines for illustrations (under "Character Sheets and Hex Maps" for some reason), illos for cardboard mini figures, apps and utilities, graphics and sounds, and more. Many of these were generously created by Hero fans.
 
Because the website has gone through several revisions over the years since DOJ bought the Champions IP, and each version has made changes to the downloads it hosted, I'm including links to Free Stuff pages from different years to cover as many of the varied offerings as possible.
 
https://web.archive.org/web/20061201152750/http://www.herogames.com:80/FreeStuff/freestuffherogames.htm
 
https://web.archive.org/web/20071013030046/http://herogames.com:80/freeStuff.htm
 
https://web.archive.org/web/20110516165152/http://www.herogames.com/freeStuff.htm
 
NOTE: Sometimes a file linked to on one of those pages would not actually have been saved on the particular day that page was crawled by Internet Archive. At the top of each page you'll see a graphic representing how many times the page was crawled on various dates. Clicking on that to get to another date will bring up another page, on which the item you want may have been saved.
 
I recommend exploring. There's much there to enjoy.

* Amelia is the party's faceman. A former heir that didn't approve of how her family earned their fortune, she broke away in order to create a legacy more in line with her own ideas.
* Nicholas is one of those cinematic scientists that is broadly competent. Almost too broadly to be realistic, actually.
* Faris is a modern day swashbuckler that minors in, ahem, "practical archaeology". In his own way, he was critical in helping Amelia gather the courage to sever ties with her parents.
 
--- --- ---
 
The group's most recent escapade involves them attempting to acquire an old estate title for a property passed down through a family whose lineage stretches back to the time of the Mexican-American War. Eventually, they surreptitiously discover that the title doesn't simply concern a regular sized house of sentimental value, but what their client calls a "small mansion". Naturally, this revelation does shed some light on why the obstacles encountered during their quest have been unusually arduous. "Profit" soon comes up as a topic of discussion. They were, after all, paid a pittance compared to what the actual difficulty of their task demands of them.
 
 
Amelia: "Oh, a small mansion. How delightfully deceptive of him. You'll note there are certain things which command attention no matter their size. Small heart attacks, small stars, small breasts, small diamonds, small spiders..."
Nicholas: "It is a common misconception that the larger arachnids are more dangerous than their smaller brethren. Scarier, maybe, but that is rather subjective."
Amelia: "Pardon?
Nicholas: "'Well, I would be much more worried about a brown recluse or funnel-web than your garden variety tarantula."
Amelia: "Ah. Alright. But you get my meaning. Correct?"
 
Faris is off to the side and lounging comfortably in a loveseat while he sharpens a prized dao. It is at this point in his teammates conversation that he decides to chip in with an observation.
 
Faris: "Leave it to an academic to fixate on the wrong kind of biology."

Pathfinder : Mummy's Mask : The Covenant of Wati
Since the Streets of Magnimar Campaign is ended, we’re starting a new one - Mummy’s Mask. Since it’s a published adventure path, unlike the more sandbox setting of Magnimar, there are bound to spoilers over the coming months. Not that there’s any shortage of sand in Mummy’s Mask, since it’s set in the Pathfinder equivalent of Egypt. Think pyramids and you’ll get the basic idea.

I was strongly tempted to bring Vitus the Gnoll back for another go.

Previous GM, Weldun: … No. Vitus brings too much baggage. But it would be funny to see him spat out from Champions reality to Osirion, depowered.
Me: And no doubt having a bit of a tantrum ‘Fucking AGAIN?????’
Weldun: But then he’d look around, and see all the sand, and somebody would say ‘Good morning, gnoll’.
Me: Clearly a civilised reality. And all the sand and pyramids makes it much closer to home than Call of Cthulhu or Champions. Punch the air with both hand - ‘PLUS!’

Still, playing a gnoll again would be fun. I’ve played enough of them over the years. Thus -

Zenobia - gnoll cleric of the light goddess Sarenrae. There must have been a really persuasive missionary at some point in her backstory.
Nemat - Inquisitor of Wadjet, one of the Old Gods. And probably the only reason Zenobia didn’t get chased out of the smaller towns.
Asrian al-Adjir - a Suli Dervish dancer with silver eyes and white hair.
Onka - Half-orc Spell-sage.

A party of state-sanctioned tomb-robbers in the town of Wati, in Osirion, sent out to explore an assigned tomb by the Ruby Prince Khemet the Third. Funnily enough, despite setting out to make a balanced party, we all ended up making some flavour of combat-orientated magic-user. Which is balance of a kind, I suppose.

The characters meet each other when Asrian is robbed blind just before the campaign started, and the rest of us wandered over to see what the commotion in the marketplace was, and find Asrian chasing the thieves down the street with a scimitar. Onka is impressed.

Onka: I heard a woman’s noises, and they weren’t screams.
Zenobia: And chasing down people who have wronged her with a large scimitar is the kind of thing you appreciate in a woman.

The priests of the death-goddess Pharasma aren’t exactly happy about the sheer scale of this state-sanctioned tomb-robbery, but are willing to let it slide as long as they get to control the registration process. Adventurers have been pouring into town from all over.

Nemat: Asrian’s gear probably ended up being sold from an adventuring supply stall. Probably a bunch of different stalls.

We eventually agree on a name for our group - the Covenant of Wati - and get a wooden token from the priest in charge of registrations.

Nemat: Asrian, you are not holding this.
Zenobia: Oh? Why’s that?
Nemat: She did just get robbed of her backpack while she was distracted by someone lifting her money-belt.
Asrian: It’s a fair point.

Pathfinder : Streets of Magnimar - And the Bad Guys Win
Harshal: I don’t want the clan finding out about my more interesting nocturnal activities.
Gillert: Yes, you’re already a lawyer.
Harshal: That’s daytime activities.
GM: And quite bad enough - You’re already a killer of words
Harshal: *hiss* I wish you wouldn’t put it that way - I can’t deny it, I just wish you would phrase it like that.

One item of interest in Magnimar - a series of mugging around the docks, made with poisoned blades - and the poison is oddly slow-acting. And standard anti-toxins made the symptoms worse. In fact, it looks like somebody is trying to inoculate the population with a new plague. Zin suspects Filth Fever, a distemper normally spread by rats and ghouls. The odd thing is how many people are coming down with it, and how few people are getting over it - it’s not one of the more virulent plagues.

Ys: Now there’s a thought - what if somebody has had the same idea we did?
Gillert: You’ll need to be more specific - we’ve had a few.
Ys: What if somebody is trying to lower property values around the Irespan?

Harshal’s inquiries don’t turn up any obvious moustache-twirling villains, but there is an unusual shortage in certain alchemical supplies - mostly because of thefts.

Ys: And it wasn’t even me.
GM: And most of the supplies are the kind they can’t report to the authorities.
Harshal: Ah - so the kind where they can’t go to the City Guard and say ‘they stole my crack, arrest them!’

Ys speculates that the poison on the blades is a combination of constitution-lowering drugs and the filth fever organism - but Zin points out that the poison wouldn’t be any good for the germs, either.

Harshal: A puzzle - time to catch one of them at it and employ some lead pipe Legilimency.
Ys: I just want to watch them in action.
Gillert: Professional interest.
GM: The problem is how to stake out a crime like this?
Harshal: Indeed - random muggings across the docks district.
GM: Well, not completely random - the targets have to look like they’re worthy mugging.
Harshal: Zin, you’re our trap and disguise expert, can we dress Gillert up as bait?
Gillert: F**k off…. I want plate armour.

Harshal consults his Little Blue Book for likely waterholes the muggers will target.

Harshal: Although since it’s the docklands, I’m not expecting any five stars on the Michelin Index.
And if we ALL wander around on the rooftops, half of us can’t see anything in the dark anyway.

Harshal: At least from the rooftops we can see the Bat Signal.
GM: That’s another problem - if you’re all spread out across the rooftops there’s more chance you’ll run into a certain vigilante.
Ys: We had a perfectly civil conversation with her, last time.
Gillert: That doesn’t mean anything - I’ve had perfectly civil conversations with you.

After a week of sneaky sneakers sneaking, we don’t catch any muggers, but do confirm that there’s at least three of them at work on most nights, spread out between the Wrecks and Underbridge. As the new moon approaches and it gets so dark that Harshal and Gillert can’t see a damn thing, they switch to checking for any connections between the victims. Ys and Zin continue lurking.

Ys: The more nights I spend up here on the Thieve’s Highway the more likely I’m going to mugged myself.
GM: Eh, maybe not - anybody else you run into up here is going to avoid you.
Harshal: Professional courtesy.
GM: Not so much - anybody else up here might be up to something even darker than you.

Harshal: What we really need in this group is somebody whose name starts with with X - then we’d have an X, Y, and Z.
Gillert: I’ll be over here.
Ys: Wimp.
GM: Well, there’s your W.

Gillert: We need a bloodhound.
Zin: Well, we DO know a vigilante.
Harshal: Are we really going to have to invent a Bat-signal?
GM: You’d have to keep changing it every time she grows a new tail.

Eventually Harshal berates Gillert into attempting an augury using the Harrow deck, with the simple question ‘Where will these mystery muggers strike next?’ It’s not a very happy reading - lots of past obsession, mental enslavement, random disaster, and untrustworthy brute power. It also strongly implies that Ys is involved.

Harshal: Well, going by that card of The Bear, we’re never buying Ys a unicycle.

Zin suggests the card means the next attack will be in a place of worship.

GM: I’m very glad these screens conceal my face - I know what’s going on and these cards are freaking me out.

GM: These cards don’t mean evil as much as hindrance. It’s not evil, it’s differently motivated.

The cards for the past indicate a secret we already know, mental compulsion, and obsession. The present cards of the Bear and the Avalanche suggest that some power that CAN be harnessed is threatening to run amok. And the future card imply a momentous and powerful change requiring preparation is coming. None of it is as clear as ‘The corner of Moon Street and the Shambles’.

It MIGHT mean the Filth Fever is going to run out of control, but it’s still a terrible choice for a bioweapon - nobody has even died yet, and it doesn’t spread from person to person.

Harshal: At least plague masks will conceal our identities.
Gillert: And scare them off. And maybe start a new panic.
Harshal: Good point.
GM: That might be what the cards are warning you about, Harshal. In fact, most of them are warning you. The Bear and the Avalanche - be cautious in your actions. The Keep and the Big Sky - be prepared to move or stand firm, but if you choose carefully big changes will come.

Zin enlists Iria for her medical expertise, and we go to interview and examine the victims, who are agreeable as long as they don’t have to pay. Iria finds the cases MUCH more interesting than she expected, she she finds clear signs of bite marks
the knife wounds. And recognises them as rat bites.

Gillert: Well, we did piss off the wererats.
GM: And imagine what’s going to happen on the next full moon.
Harshal: F**K.

The were-rats have been cunning indeed - the poison and the filth fever reduce the victims constitution, leaving them more prone to the curse of lycanthropy. Which would explain the mental compulsion too. And some of these people were stabbed weeks ago, which rules out most of the lesser lycanthropy cures. And if we inform the authorities they will be a violent purge of the docklands, and we don’t know if all the victims reported their injuries. And if we inform the Nightscales half the Docklands will go up in flames.

Gillert: Well, look on the bright side, there will be more vacant land afterwards.

But the wererats thrive on secrecy, and rampaging wererats are pretty conspicuous.

Harshal: Well, that makes it obvious - the wererats are going to use the chaos of rampaging wererats to get out of town surrounded by all the other refugees, while the lycanthrope hunters are busy.
GM: It is pretty cunning of them. I’m quite proud of this plot.

Zin: If we don’t tell anybody and try to hide out during the next full moon, all three results will happen.
Harshal: Mass arson, violent purge, AND lots of victims.
Gillert: And meanwhile I’m down at the docks selling passage on all these ships out town.
GM: And some of the refugees will probably be wererats.
Harshal: ‘You smell familiar - why don’t you come with us on the trip. Halfway.’

There is no good answer to this dilemma - even rounding up all the victims in a hospital ward we can bar from the outside won’t work, because we don’t know how many people are hiding the fact that they’re ill, thanks to the last plague.

Gillert: Maybe we should just burn our own stuff down and leave town for three days.
GM: You can’t avoid an avalanche - just endure it.

And the next religious festival is the Moondance Festival, a usually private act of devotion towards one of the goddesses. Imagine the fun if one of the devotees was infected.

GM: At least the symptoms would be easy to spot.

Gillert does another Harrow reading - which is about as unambiguous as it could be, reinforcing the fact that there is an avalanche coming, trying to profit from it or warning anybody would be disastrous, and we’re all bastards anyway. We get out of town, taking Zin’s kobolds with us, using the moonlight festival as our excuse.

Kobolds: Yay! We’re taking moon-radishes!

GM: Moon-radishes are a big thing for kobolds - they’re basically f**king Fraggles.

Alas, this will be the last session for Magnimar - without Tannis Olberech around as a long-term driver for group goals, our GM has been running low on ideas for the party - especially since most of us are content with where we now stand. So let us raise a toast to these villains - may they always get what they need, but never what they deserve.