Scott Ruggels

Sounds good.  Very interested in hearing about how this works out.

You see a Mexican Indian dressed in historical garb including a red cape. He says, "My name is Kentlclarkl, but you may call me Super Mayan."

Opening the session with a long conversation that started with giant river otters, detoured through the convergent evolution of dagger-faced felinoids and the Cold War’s contributions to continental drift, and ended with the mammal-like reptiles of the Permian.
 
GM: Shall we begin then?
Rajira’s player: Let us. And possibly tomato. 
 
The lower levels of the slavers’ lair is entirely flooded - fortunately we prepared some methods to deal with underwater tunnels early. Unfortunately the tunnels are inhabited.
 
Civilla’s player: We might not know what Skum are - which knowing this party is an interesting sentence. 
Civilla OoC: I believe I can speak their language - and am no doubt disappointing Terzo by knowing languages that are only spoken in dark places.
Rajira OoC: I’m probably just confirming his opinions about me.
Terzo OoC: Actually… hanging around in dark places and learning a secret language isn’t ENTIRELY unheard of for Terzo, for reasons he is keeping to himself.

GM:... You may have just skipped the entire dungeon.
Civilla: By not being murder-hoboes and actually behaving like civilised beings?
 
Civilla: If you have no ill-intentions towards the land-dwellers we have no ill-intention towards you. We have more problems with the maker of stupid laws - have you HEARD the stupid laws?
 
Since we seem agreeable and seek peace, they offer to take us their chieftain.
 
GM: There’s a lot of inscriptions you can’t read unless you know Aboleth.
Civilla: …Um. I’m sorry, but once you run out of dead languages that actually make sense you start looking into the weirder stuff. 
 
The carvings on the wall are written in the eerie language of the aboleths, relating various observations of human activity in Kintargo over the past several months—this is how the leader of the skum scouting tribe has kept notes on their observations. The name “Menotheguro” is mentioned several times in cadences of awe and respect, but the messages do not make clear what this creature is. Also, the fame of the Ghosts of Kintargo has even spread down here.
 
Terzo: I’m feeling mixed emotions about this - I’ve dreamt of this kind of fame and now I can’t even use my name. 
 
Civilla notes that among the Stupid Laws Thrune has enacted, is one that would give the Skum a lucrative opportunity to ship materials and messages from ship to shore, without risk to the ships’ various captains. The Skum seem cautiously diplomatic, despite their suspicion about overlanders.
 
Chieftain: How do you feel about.. Well, it’s probably easier to just show you.
Civilla OoC: OK, now I’m getting nervous.
 
There’s a Drowning Devil in the next chamber. Very unpleasant.
 
Shurshogot: *telepathically* Ungol-pagh! What have you brought me today?
Ungol-pagh: *in Undercommon* These adventurers may be able to help you, sir.
Rajira: *in Infernal* It’s certainly possible - if we have good enough reason.
Shurshogut: *in Infernal* Finally someone I can talk to!
 
The negotiations are even more cautious than they were earlier, not least because some of Civilla’s patrons would be annoyed with her making deals with a Devil, but Shurshogut was bound here by the Grey Spiders and he offers us some boons if we can get find that contract, destroy it, and set him free. Civilla will make sure that the new contract she negotiates includes the order that it immediately returns home as soon as our business is done. 
 
Civilla: It CLAIMS that it wants to go home, but it might be lying. 
 
Civilla actually has quite a few advantages over your average Chellaxian diabolist - for one thing she’s more flexible about where she looks for power. 
 
Shurshogut does offer some potentially interesting information - somewhere in Kintargo is a corruption in the River of Souls. A Soul Anchor. That someone could theoretically use to retain their memories after they die, and become a lingering genius loci. 
 
Rajira: Pharasma won’t like that.
Civilla: Pharasma doesn’t like immortality, period. 
Shurshogut: May I suggest ‘Not return to the Material Plane for a year and a day’? 
Civilla: Acceptable.
Shurshogut: I mean I don’t WANT to stay, but everyone always wants it in writing.
 
Civilla OoC: Under most versions of contract law, the Little Mermaid had an out on her contract. 
Ayva OoC: Hmm?
Civilla OoC: She closed her eyes and looked away when she signed. Although there’s a limited pool of arbitrators that could contest it for her. King Triton is out of the question, of course.
 
Shurshogut: The guildmaster that bound me here went into his strongroom, closed the door, and didn’t come out. 
Rajira: So he’s probably hungry.
Shurshogut: Or dead. 
Rajira: I was assuming dead, as well as hungry. 
Ayva: We have that kind of luck. 
 
After we’re well out of telepathy range of the devil, Terzo speaks his mind.
 
Terzo: We REALLY need to figure out exactly what Thrune is doing in the opera house.
Civilla: Oh, you think? But why is the Soul Anchor HERE?
Rajira: There’s a lot we don’t know about Kintargo.
 
Civilla explains where she actually gets her power - by making small deals with a wide variety of eldritch beings.
 
Civilla: I do favours for them, they do favours for me.
Terzo: *nodding approvingly* Good social networking.
 
Unfortunately the traps on the strongroom door are quite vicious, and poor Rajira nearly gets bisected like the Skum that tried earlier. 
 
Terzo: *patching her up* Watching you trying to pick that lock wasn’t doing my blood pressure any good, but it doesn’t seem to have done yours any good either.
Civilla: That is a REALLY good lock.
Ayva OoC: Just so you know, we’ll be stealing the door and taking it home. And hanging it up as a trophy.
Civilla OoC: Are you kidding? We’re going to set it up as the entrance to our base under the old livery. 
Rajira OoC: Inside a small anti-magic field. 
Civilla OoC: ‘sure you found the secret entrance, sure you come down the ladder, now you come around a corner and find a big F*** OFF door.’
 
The Grey Spider’s strongroom contains three heavy iron chests sit against the north wall of an otherwise empty room—empty, that is, save for the desiccated corpse of a human woman with eight long spidery legs protruding from her back, and the shambling, continually bleeding, skinned skeletal corpse of Guildmaster Baccus, his eyes rolling in his head as he seeks his prey. It would nice to get more opponents like Thrune's late, unlamented, rumoured-to-have-fled-the-city-i-have-no-idea-who-starts-these-rumours bodyguard. She went down with one stab. This thing is considerably more of a problem, but eventually succumbs, and indeed has the devil's contract on its person. 
 
Civilla’s player: Does Pathfinder have stats for a falx?
Terzo’s player: This isn’t D&D and Gygax listing every kind of pole-arm.
Civilla’s player: Glaive, Guisarme, Glaive-guisarme, Guisarme-voulge, Bill-guisarme -
Terzo’s player: Spam, spam, spam, spam -
 
The Drowning Demon tells us that the Soul Anchor is at the bottom of a lake. That lake with the apparent nuclear reactor on the grounds of the Victocora estate. Civilla’s letter to her family, weeks ago, to buy up the estate before anybody else can is suddenly much more important than we knew. Apparently there's been quite a bidding war over the remains of the estate, not that any of that would stop Thrune just stepping in and seizing it if he needs to. 
 
GM: And you have all that loot to carry home.
Rajira’s player: Just as well we have more hands now.
Terzo’s player: Minions are good for that. 
 
It’s nice to have a new potential lair and hideout - especially with live-in security in the form of the Skum. Unfortunately, we all also receive personal invitations from Barzillai Thrune. A very public invitation for us to join him before the Kintargo Opera House, to receive honors for their outstanding service in promoting safety on the streets of Kintargo, and for rescuing a pair of young men from a group of kidnappers!
 
Ayva: We need to decline this honour.
Civilla: We can’t.
Ayva: We need an escape plan.
Civilla: We can plan one, but we still can’t avoid this. It will also put a spotlight on Terzo for the first time in a long time. 
Terzo: True true, there is that bonus.
Civilla: It’s not a bonus. Terzo, you need to understand, you’re on the stage playing a role, and that role is ‘sneaky bastard’, not ‘flamboyant git’.
 
We dress in our best outfits - although avoiding Thrune’s Proclaimation about embroidered clothes in public - and take care to carry no more weapons then decorum insists upon. After the bells on the Church of Asmodeus toll once for each of us, Barzillai emerges into the plaza with full entourage, and studies us with an intensity that belies his political smile. He’s looking a bit more haggard than he was when he arrived in Kintargo.
 
Civilla notes that Thrune’s symptoms are those of somebody who’s been the personal blood bank of a vampire for a while. Rajira points out that those are also the symptoms of prolonged stress. 
 
Terzo: Can’t imagine what has him so stressed.
Civilla: Maybe all those rumours about his bodyguard fleeing the city.
Terzo: Or the ‘Let Dogs Beware’ graffiti on his front door.
 
Thrune: Well done, well done! Would that more of the citizenry were as keenly observant and helpful as you intrepid citizens! I’ll have my eye on you, trust in that, for I have no doubt you have great works still ahead of you. Perhaps you may again be of service to your government. Please take these gifts from the city of Kintargo as Thrune’s thanks to your services rendered, and please continue to work to ensure, as I do, this grand city’s safety and proud legacy.
Civilla’s player: … and now come the Bluff checks.
Terzo’s player: Yes, or my face will be going through some interesting contortions.
Rajira: Master Thrune, thank you for this honour. Please call on us if there is anything we can do for the city.
Thrune: Perhaps I will, but for now I must return to my other duties.
 
The gifts are stat-increasing belts and headbands. They're not cursed, and they’re not marked with any symbols of Asmodeus. What they DO have are symbols of ravens, done in silver. 
 
Civilla: IDENTIFY
 
Barzillai might have suspicions. Especially if he has access to the same kind of spells that Civilla has been using in her own activities. 
 
Terzo: Maybe he’s hoping we’ll panic.
Civilla: So let’s not. 
 
The raven sigils could certainly be used as a target in a Locate Object spell, but Civilla is confident that won’t help him find our safehouses. Locate Object is blocked by sufficient amounts of soil, rock, or metal.
 
Civilla: So we’re going to get these gold-plated. 
 
And some cloth-of-gold to use as a sash over Rajira’s new Belt of Dexterity.
 
Civilla: You know that Murder Kit I came up with? As cute as it is, I want to include Oil of Decompose Corpse. That way I can melt the flesh off Huge corpses and reduce them to a skeleton in minutes. Much easier to compact and dispose of. Although the skeletons will be a bit juicy. Although you can get everything for the basic Murder Kit is a small village. 
 
Terzo: If Thrune is so busy, we really need to know what he’s actually up to in the Opera House.
Rajira: The bigger question is ‘How Do We Find Out’?
Terzo: We still have no idea what happened to the previous Mayor or the Songbird of Kintargo.
Civilla’s player: That reminds me, GM, are you ready to cry? I have an ability called ‘Planar Contact’
 
Rajira has also recruited a team she’s calling the Dacoits. It’s unclear just what she intends to do with a gang of armed robbers. 

Hardlight has investigated the PSI-mooks equipment, and happily none of it was rigged to explode if dismantled. It includes some rather nifty autoheal stuff.
 
Hero Shrew: Smart supervillains don’t piss off the Goonion. 
 
Hero Shrew: You could always patent the Goo Gun and sell it to police departments across the country - what are the inventors going to do, complain?
Flux: Do you want to get sued by evil lawyers? Sorry, evilLER lawyers.
Magus: How much do you want to bet that they did patent it, and it got ‘stolen’. 
 
GM: The gun only worked for Scooter because he’s always thinking violent thoughts.
Flux: ‘I could murder a mealworm bar’?
GM: He’s also thinking happy thoughts, and it’s not an imbalance, just weird. 
Hero Shrew: “Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
 
GM: I don’t know where Hardlight got the idea this equipment has organic components.
Hero Shrew OoC: Well, don’t blame me.
Flux OoC: Yes, it’s not a Scooter Filter problem this time. 
 
Hero Shrew’s player: *to the cats* You two, behave yourselves!
Flux’s player: That's a perfect impersonation of Fireflash when she finds out what we have planned.
 
GM: As a reminder as to how you got involved with the clinic, that's because it's run by E-G Employment, the subdivision of Erikson-Gulsvig Logistics GmbH. The corporation you're setting Loweltech to sue so you can progress the Moreau issue. They’re providing the Moreau the suit will focus on. I’m resisting the impulse to make them a lamb. Or goat. 
 
Getting the financial records of the company turns out to be more difficult than we might have anticipated - the clinic never applied for charity status so the records aren’t easily available. We eventually get the records anyway - which are sent over in hard copy. Hundreds of thousands of pages. Including huge amounts of irrelevant material. 
 
GM: At least they didn’t do the old trick of non-standard formatting as well. But it’s still three whole semi-trailers of loose paper. 
Flux: We’re going to need office space.
Hardlight: We’re going to need a warehouse. 
 
Even with a team of accountants from LowellTech and a device Flux invents to digitise it all, it’s still going to take weeks to go through it with a fine tooth comb and find anything that might interest the District Attorney. Beyond the factory that was making psi drugs instead of destroying pharmaceutical waste. 

Hero Shrew: Circular economy.
Hardlight: What?
Hero Shrew: Make powerful drugs, sell the pharmaceutical waste to this company, who make different powerful drugs. 
 
Sending over all the records in paper form isn’t an admission of guilt, but it’s certainly evidence that Erikson-Gulsvig Logistics GmbH is annoyed with us. It almost certainly means they won’t want to help with the Moreau situation anymore. We hand the investigation off to the FBI.
 
GM: They have people that get off on going through this kind of paperwork.
Fireflash: Remind me next time - don’t ask, just break into their system. 
 
At least we’ve put a major crimp in PSI operations. There’s not many places they could hide manufacturing on that scale.
 
Magus finally gets a copy of The Whispered Paths, although the person that found it for him was so annoyed by the experience they’re going to charge any future mystic customer double. Unfortunately it’s in Fucine, an extinct language once associated with witches. Someone was very upset that somebody was after the book, and increasingly upset the closer it got to Edge City. The bookhunter tells the Magus that for free, because he didn’t try to stiff her, which is apparently a problem with mystic types. 
 
GM: There’s apparently a book that can help you translate Fucine to Latin, but it’s rare, because why would anybody need to read Fucine?
Magus: Well, I’ll try Amazon first. It seems I’ve embarked on Book Hunt 2.
Hero Shrew: Now there’s a phrase you need to pronounce carefully. 
 
Although the author of the journal, P. Lanzo Geovanny Renzo Aberto Geomar Alfredo Pasquale Conti, is best known for going completely mad. 
 
Flux: That’s never a good sign. 
 
Flux: To be fair all penguins are man-eating, they just don’t often get the opportunity.
 
Magus: I have a nasty suspicion who has the journal.
Fireflash: If it’s who I’m thinking of we did deal with their local cult.

GM: You have to be a special kind of wrong when even the Descending Hierarchy of Hell wants nothing to do with you.
Flux: ‘We’re evil - but YOU are CRAZY’
 
APPARENTLY, a copy is in the possession of septuagenarian antiquarian Angilia Eleonora Dubois, who is old Monterey money. It’s highly suspicious that such a rare book is present in a city that someone wanted to keep The Whispered Paths far away from.
 
Hardlight: Are we pulling a heist? I'm all for a heist.
Fireflash: I am entirely against doing a heist! I’ll just ask her if we can borrow the book for a few days, for the public good.
 
Dubois’ entire family were killed in the disaster that turned Monterey into Edge City, so Fireflash turns her attention to the Dubois family lawyer. Said lawyer points her towards the collection’s curator, Liberty Kendra Brown. 
 
Hero Shrew OoC: You might want to assure her you’re not letting me anywhere near the collection.
 
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/215759724728156160/967384043790430228/unknown.png

 
Dubois is in her 70s, but barely looks it. Apparently she came out as a mutant 20 years ago. . She has pointed ears and a slightly lengthened lifespan. Some of us suspect elf ancestry.
 
GM: Do any of you have Architecture skills?
Hero Shrew: I do! *looks at building* Yep, that’s architecture.
Flux: He’s eaten enough of it. 
 
Her house is original Spanish, by the look of it.
 
Flux: I’m impressed it’s survived this long.
Magus: Any building over 60 years old has survived three alien invasions.
GM: Dude, this one survived a zeppelin assault!
 
Ms. Dubois: No need to be so formal, people keep forgetting I was a young woman in the 60s. 
 
She doesn’t remember the journal at first, but recalls the auction she acquired it at. And starts seeming a little concerned as Fireflash and the Magus explain their interest. She needs to make a phone call, and has Liberty take them through to the densely packed library.
 
GM: She has one of those old-fashioned phones.
Magus: One with a cord?
GM: Thanks for that, now I feel old. 
 
As Fireflash and the Magus make digital copies of the journal, Hardlight waits out in the car, since he felt weird about going in in costume. One of the staff brings out refreshments.

Fireflash: These days if you scan a demon into the internet it’s back 30 minutes later, whimpering and asking to be put back in the book.
GM: ‘I tried the worst things I could think of and they kept suggesting improvements!’
 
Flux gets a phone call on his Chris Jones phone, from Bob in accounting.
Bob: Hey, Chris, have you been making some strange friends lately? This jacked surfer-looking guy came in asking questions. Wanted to know if you’d made any new friends lately. Have you?
Fluxt: Not really, you know what my social life is like.
Magus: Funnily enough ‘good-looking surfing dude’ is a good description of me, when I’m not wearing other faces. 
 
When we get back to the base, we’re very glad we uploaded the images already, because the new camera we used to take the images has mysteriously vanished. 
 
Hero Shrew: Well, if the book deletes anything that it’s copied onto, we probably shouldn’t have uploaded the images to the internet. 
 
On the other hand, if somebody else wanted the contents of the book, there didn’t seem to be much actually stopping them raiding the collection directly. 
 
Flux is cautiously checking his apartment, just in case the jacked-surfer-dude is a threat.
 
Flux: It’s a bit embarrassing, I’ve been successfully kidnapped once, and we failed to get Fireflash kidnapped twice. 
 
Fortunately he doesn’t need to rely on the Mk.I Eyeball. Whoever was hanging around is magical, but not a flavour he’s familiar with. But his apartment is so small that sending more than one of us in to check is honestly difficult. There are other issues too, of course. 
 
Flux: Maybe don’t have two or three costumed superheroes STANDING AROUND OUTSIDE MY SECRET ID 
 
Fireflash goes in disguised as a civilian, instead of wearing her usual string bikini. She gets comfortable and uses Retrocognition.
 
Flux: Ah. It’s just occurred to me that this is my personal living space.
Fireflash: Fortunately it's vague and unclear and that is very small so we don’t have to worry about it. 
Flux: I really have to stop asking my friends for help. 
 
Whoever was here seemed very interested in the traces of Flux’s magic, and entered and left through the wall. 
 
Hardlight: Maybe they were just here to recruit you into some kind of magical school?
Flux: I’m allergic to owls. 
 
Magus tracks the magic back to Little Haiti, then loses him in the magical hotspot there. But it would appear from there it leads straight to, and into, Lake Effinger.
 
Magus: Ah. I wonder if it’s whoever rang me, after I left my number there. 
Hardlight: You left your phone number on the Tesseract???
Magus: Of course not. I left it on the outside of the cave the Tesseract was in, after we sealed it. 
 
The jacked-surfer-dude is indeed at the underwater cave, with waterproof bag and swimtrunks. He’s just ignited a torch. 
 
Fireflash: That’s a neat trick.
The Magus: That’s Atlantean fire magic. 
Atlantean: *cheerfully* Magus! 
 
He surfaces to talk to us. 
 
Atlantean: My apologies for intruding on your private identity. 
Flux: In future, I have an email address, a phone number, and a doorbell. 
 
The Atlanteans didn’t MAKE the tesseract, but they do consider it their responsibility. 
 
Fireflash: *sigh* What are the odds we’re going to have to go through it before we can shut it down?
Atlantean: My people did try to sense what lay beyond it when we first discovered it. We detected only fear and death. So hopefully not?
Magus: The thing’s the drain for most of the magical energies in the city, so that can’t be good. 
Flux: Why did Magus get a phone call?
Atlantean: He left a card. 
Flux: Note to self - graffiti more walls.
Atlantean: Please don't.
Flux: ‘For a good time call’
 
The explosion that created Lake Effinger WAS intended to create a dimensional breach, although given the ‘fear and death’ aspect it might not have been the original intended destination. 
 
Hardlight: At least we don’t have to get hit by a truck if we decide to Isekai.
Magus: We could build a Dimensional Damage field into the Quadraphibious Qruiser.
GM: Please don’t. 
 
GM: Well, that went much more peacefully than I expected.
Magus OoC: ‘What, there were no misunderstandings? Bulls***, what is this comic!’ ‘And then they talked like adults about it and went home’
 
GM: There’s one thing protecting Captain Planet from a reboot is that it was created by Ted Turner.
Hero Shrew’s player: So it won’t be so much resurrected as recolourised.
 
Flux’s player: Buy Demolition as a skill.
Hero Shrew OoC: People keep telling me not to do that.
 
GM: I had this picture I was going to use a neat stadium, then realised it was from Pokemon. And I don’t want to put Hero Shrew in a pokemon arena. ‘What do you want me to do?’ ‘Beat up this cock-fighting seizure monster’ ‘ Well, OK’
Flux OoC: ‘You weren’t supposed to eat it!’
Hero Shrew OoC: I don’t want to speculate what Scooter would evolve into.
 
The organisation that's monitoring Fireflash’s superhuman metabolism has a problem regarding the moreau medical analysis program they are involved in with Allanah, but it's not something they want to worry her about until they’ve dealt with it themselves.
 
Fireflash: Well, that’s a sentence guaranteed to make me worry. 
 
Some of the biosamples they’ve been taking of her are going missing. The samples are all supposed to be destroyed, but the residue numbers aren’t adding up. And the security about the samples is enough that it has to be some kind of superhuman stealing them. 
 
Hardlight: Biotechnology isn’t my strong suit - what could somebody malicious do with these samples, if they had them?
Hero Shrew: Make an army of clone soldiers? We’ve already had that one. 
 
How can we do our own security inspection without giving the culprits time to hide the evidence?
 
GM: At least you know if it looks like they’re hiding evidence, it’s evidence their security organization is compromised.
Flux: ‘oh look, somebody fled the building a minute after you told security you were coming’.
 
Hero Shrew’s player: Back, what did I miss?
Flux’s player: Firelash’s player brought up Dimetrodon and broke the internet. It was probably punishment for all the puns. He didn’t SAY any but was probably thinking them.
 
Flux’s player: Their audio sounds like GladOS dying. I know it’s disrupting the game but it’s hilarious - like GladOS and SHODAN  having a conversation about Dimetrodon in the background. 
GM: HoWWWWs my -a—--DIO nooooooooooWWWwwwW
Flux’s player: Still GladOS having a stroke.
Hero Shrew’s Player: And now you sound like someone using a taser on a Cybertronian.
 
Fireflash’s Retrocognition reveals the fact that a known shadow-manipulating and teleporting superhuman, Ghost Shadow of the Six Teens, messing about on the site. It looks like he’s stealing a bunch of feline samples now.
 
Magus: And now you have to go apologize to Security for being kind of a d*** when you showed up.
Fireflash: Sorry, we’ve been dealing with all sorts of aliens and psychic shapeshifters for the last few months, we've got kinda paranoid.
Head of Security: Psychic shapechangers? Now I’M going to be paranoid.
Fux: Try not to think about it too much - they’ll know.
 
Hardlight is a bit uncomfortable about the big greenhouse dome in the middle of the facility.
 
Magus: He was once stuck on a flight where the only entertainment was Biodome starring Pauly Shore, and it had a lasting effect.
 
One suggestion we have for security is blinds on the inside of the warehouse windows, to stop our teleporter friend easily getting in and out.
 
Hero Shrew: Are we going to have to go into the big glass dome they’ve been pumping mutagens into?
GM: What?
The Magus: There probably aren’t any mutagens, no.
Hero Shrew: Oh good, so I don’t have to retroactively ask for today off.
GM: How did you get the idea that the dome is full of mutagens?
Magus: He saw a suspicious biotech company with a big greenhouse. Hero Shrew is the kind of person who bases his understanding of science on Saturday Morning Cartoons.
 
Hardlight: Are we going to have to worry about cat-themed supervillains now?
Hero Shrew: Maybe he just wants to make a pet for his girlfriend?
Magus: The only cat-themed supervillain I can think of works for Teleios, and he wouldn’t need the help.
Although Flux does recall one Lynx, who works for the Overbrain. She’s also a huge anime nerd.
Magus: Probably explains how she knows Ghost Shadow.
GM: They probably met at a convention. ‘That’s a really good Ghost Shadow costume.’ ‘Costume? That’s a really good fursuit.’ ‘Fursuit’?
 
We determine that the samples are being stolen in-between sampling and destruction, while they’re in the queue until there’s a full load for disposal. So Ghost Shadow must have access to the full schedule on the disposal chain, since he’s going straight to the right canisters, and we already know the Six Teens have good tech savvy, since the first time we met them they were ransacking a server. Hopefully he hasn’t noticed we've been to the site yet, and we can plant some samples that Flux and the Magus can track and wait in ambush.
 
Ghost Shadow is well-known enough to us that we know he claims to carry his own ‘internal shadow’ as a power source. 
 
Magus: Any chance we can go beat up Black Paladin and steal his sword?
Fireflash: ‘Now you don’t HAVE a shadow, Bwahaha.’
Fireflash: Do you have any more of those tracers, like the ones they stuck into me?
Magus: We know their group has a tech expert as well as a magic user.
GM: The Black Warlock?
Magus: Hmm. Well, if we ever meet him I’ll try to refrain from any comments about being a proper warlock. 
Hero Shrew: So, this Overbrain, does he have a humanoid exosuit?
GM: No? He doesn’t need one, he has minions.
Hero Shrew: Sorry, still thinking about mutagens and Saturday Morning Cartoons.
 
Hardlight: Well, we still need to make this fake sample. Scooter, pull up your shirt.
Flux: Let’s NOT give them a sample of an actual biological superhuman, ok?
Fireflash: For one thing we don’t know what they’ll do with it.
GM: Indeed - Steiners are rare, as well as having innate psychic abilities.
Magus: Scooter is innately capable of determining what the people around him are thinking and knowing exactly the wrong thing to say. 
 
Magus: So let's set up our trap
Fireflash: And hope it doesn't turn into a cat-astrophe.
Hero Shrew: I’ve got a bad feline about this.
 
We track Ghost Shadow and a single other person, to a makeshift lab in an abandoned warehouse.
 
GM: Supervillain Hideout #3
 
And the other person is a Moreau that Scooter recognises - a Moreau that never needed to be caged back at the Genesys labs. A Moreau that helped the scientists. The one the other Moreaus called Lab Rat. Scooter is not happy about this. Of course if we are going to grab him, we have to deal with the teleporter first. Flux Flashes them, and the Magus and Hardlight try to bubble them. To the GM’s shock, this works.
 
Hardlight: Flawless Plan!
Magus: Feels wrong, doesn't it?
 
Unfortunately Lab Rat hit a panic button. More unfortunately, Scooter grabbed and shook Lab Rat, who goes limp after an audible crack. Magus hurried heals him, while Fireflash hurls much deserved abuse at Scooter.
 
Flux: World of cardboard, Scooter, world of cardboard!
Fireflash: If you keep doing this Scooter you’ll kill somebody and end up in prison.
Magus: And I’m neither fully aware how nor entirely willing to heal death.
Ghost Shadow: *hacking away ineffectually at the walls of the bubble* F***!
Flux: Oh, sorry, I forgot you were there.
 
Flux manages to stop the harddrives being overwritten, as well as stop the countdown to some other kind of precaution. We call in the ECPD, and do a quick search of the building for anybody else. We’d better be fast - it turns out that Hardlight’s bubble will be exhausted in under a minute, unless he drops everything else he’s doing, including moving around.  
 
Ghost Shadow: We were trying to help a friend. And the ragdoll over there was the only Moreau with the skills we needed. Your bat friend is capable, but she’s not a geneticist.
 
Another problem is that it’s not Lab Rat doing the bulk of the work - Lab Rat was just doing the preliminary work for Dr Steinbeck, the creator of Moraeus with superpowers. Who wasn’t in Edge City.
 
Fireflash: It would be incredibly unwise of him to be in Edge City.
Ghost Shadow: Or incredibly clever. I don’t think he’d want to be far from his children. 
Magus: I hope you don’t mean that literally.
Ghost Shadow: What? EW. EW.
Fireflash: We do know another geneticist that might help. But we still want to know why you need the help. 
Ghost Shadow: Like I said, I just want to help a friend.
Magus: Is it Lynx?
Ghost Shadow: What. How did you kn-- No, of course it isn’t!
 
He admits it’s her. Apparently the Overbrain has screwed up her enhancements, and his control of Lynx leaves something to be desired too. Fireflash offers to help, if she hands herself in.
 
Ghost Shadow: Why do you heroes always go this route? Why can’t you just tell me if you know another geneticist?
Fireflash: We do - it’s Allana?
Ghost Shadow: She does know genetics? Cool! See ya! *teleports out of the bubble*
 
Allana the Bat Moreau might well offer medical help anyway, regardless of whether they’re a hero, civilian, or villain, but that won’t stop her throwing people through walls if it becomes necessary. Lab Rat gets handed over to the authorities before Scooter glares him to death, and hopefully without any other Moreaus finding out. 
 
Duty Officer: Lab Rat? Lab Rat? Wait, THE Lab Rat?? Oh hell, Duty Detail, NOW. Get him into one of the high security cells and sit on him, and do NOT take him past the Kennels - I mean the Moreau cells. 
 

Once I get the hang of sculpting in Blender, get back to me on STL Mini files.  Progress is a bit slow, however, at least at this time (summer).

^ When you botch your Spot check but ace your Dexterity check.

That is precisely "it".   Separate things back out into separate games (but keep the base mechanics nearly identical).  Using figured characteristics keeps things in the same bands of capabilities within the "game", and keeping the amount of points down so as not to aggravate math anxiety, or necessitate the need and use of Hero Designer.  Before budget necessities  had Hero adopt the square (perfect) bound spines for game books, they were saddle bound and came in a book with accessory materials, and a set of tiny blue dice.  I am not sure books are the way to go in the current market, but if so, having the rules and two adventures, and a paper map, inside might be the way to go.  Like this?

 
3rd was well supported back then:
 

 
The problems I see that are an anathema to young gamers is the tool kit approach, the amount of reading, and the lack of  Adventures.  have to keep things simple, even pencil and paper simple. So, low page counts and Adventure Path style adventures.

Good point Hugh. One of the things that the Paizo model does that seems foreign to Hero is that each Adventure Path uses a new set of characters, generated at the beginning and advancing to the conclusion. Perhaps Hero should adopt this model. Then after 3-5 paths make a "Crisis" type module that would start at the level the basics finished so older characters can be used. Hero scales better that almost any game out there so consistent writing would be the biggest obstacle.

Quoting this because it is the only real point of disagreement.
 
How many characters just stick to the Figured Characteristics?  Speed was always rounded up, if not increased, regardless of genre (and a breakpoint every 10 DEX would be painful if you could not).
 
PD and ED are typically raised, in my experience anyway.
 
Especially outside Supers, you could likely get by with Figured STUN, END and REC.
 
However, we could also get by with a base character for, let's say, a Fantasy game having:
 
STR, DEX, INT, EGO, PRE starting at 10 and purchased as stats.
 
CON and BOD are 15; STUN and END are 30; PD and ED are 5 each; SPD is 3 - unless you buy a pre-built ability to increase them (for example, "Sturdy" - +5 STUN Threshold (which might as well be what we call CON)), or "Will to live - +5 BOD", or "Tough as Nails" - +10 STUN, +2 PD, +2 ED, +3 BOD and +3 CON or "tireless - +10 END and +5 REC" or "Fast Reactions" - +1 SPD).  Maybe we have weaknesses as well, such as "Wimp - minus 3 BOD and CON" or "Fragile -2 PD, -2 ED, -5 STUN, -1 REC" or "Slow to react - minus 1 SPD".
 
In other words, rather than using some stats to guide other stats, just set baselines for some stats, with exceptions being exceptional, not standard character builds.  Much like D&D characters with bonus movement, or damage reduction, or energy resistance, or natural armour are possible, but are not the norm.
 
Like D&D, Hero basically got out of Adventures in the early 2000s/late '90s (they were not revenue drivers; D&D published Dungeon Magazine as a substitute, and Adventurers Club had a few adventures).  Paizo proved adventures could sell, and basically created the Adventure Path as a "campaign in a box", now much more universal.  That, in my view, was the huge appeal - DIY adventures were no longer needed.  Inexperienced gamers didn't have to figure out balance, and experienced gamers didn't have to spend the time to craft these from whole cloth.  Hero was, by then, much less prolific, and never got on the Adventure Path track.
 
Picture a package with Superhero rules, dials set, typical DCs, defenses, etc. set, some characteristics standardized, and powers selected from a pre-fab list (maybe in increments allowing for +2d6; maybe with, say, an 8 DC, 10 DC and 12 DC variation to choose from, and those are your choices, period, done).  It comes bundled with an adventure including some brief city descriptions, a few key NPCs, the start of a plot and maybe half a dozen encounters, including a "Gathering the Heroes" encounter.
 
The next volume of the AP introduces some more locations (in the context of being part of the adventure), some more NPCs (ditto) [that is, building the world slowly], expands  the plot and maybe provides some new pre-fabs, focusing on expanding the earlier pre-fabs for more powerful, experienced heroes.  If 6 volumes can take D&D characters from L1 to L18-20, 6 volumes of Hero AP should see similar growth (at least at the non-Super level; Supers might scale up slower).
 
This starting AP, and rules set, could exclude some elements.  Maybe it does not allow for VPPs (the first thing I would cut) or maybe they appear in AP Vol 5, with suggestions on how especially versatile characters could be re-built at this stage of their character growth to shift to a VPP. Maybe it leaves out Killing Attacks and Resistant defenses entirely (make claws with Armor Piercing; bullets can be Blasts - it's four-colour so people are durable). Sure, the broader "anything you can imagine" Hero system would allow for these options, but this specific Hero-Powered game does not.  For a Modern Age game (cops or spies or mercenaries), maybe we leave out END entirely. 
 
You might buy the Full System (2 volume 6e + APGs) if you really want to tinker and customize the game(s) you bought, or if you want to design your own.  But I think experience shows that the marketplace is not filled with demand for such added complexity, no matter how much we might love "build anything you can imagine" in theory.

I want to suggest it will be a gold man-kinni!
Yeah I just saw it on cable. Was very "meh" for me. The acting and cgi are top notch, but the story just did not work for me somehow.

That is precisely "it".   Separate things back out into separate games (but keep the base mechanics nearly identical).  Using figured characteristics keeps things in the same bands of capabilities within the "game", and keeping the amount of points down so as not to aggravate math anxiety, or necessitate the need and use of Hero Designer.  Before budget necessities  had Hero adopt the square (perfect) bound spines for game books, they were saddle bound and came in a book with accessory materials, and a set of tiny blue dice.  I am not sure books are the way to go in the current market, but if so, having the rules and two adventures, and a paper map, inside might be the way to go.  Like this?

 
3rd was well supported back then:
 

 
The problems I see that are an anathema to young gamers is the tool kit approach, the amount of reading, and the lack of  Adventures.  have to keep things simple, even pencil and paper simple. So, low page counts and Adventure Path style adventures.

Maybe this file? 
 
 

I can only dream of something like the folks behind Chivalry and Sorcery were able to achieve. Stunning products, true to the game, with an ever-expanding roster of new content. If HERO could do something like that it would be a good start. And I don't see any reason C&S would have an advantage over HERO in terms of the ability to do things like that.
 

I have no sales info on Champions Begins, but I'll ask and see if I can't get some info.  I believe Champions Begins needs a followup simple campaign with "how to build characters" in it.  Just a campaign arc of say, 5 adventures with a couple of basic adaptable character story adventures offered as well to weave in.  The easiest way to do that would be to have adventures out that people can then grab and drop into their game as the campaign directs.

A low level "psionic vs hi-tech normal" world (like GURPS Psionics) could work.
 
Western Champions (low level old west superhero campaign).
 
A mecha campaign much in the vein of Mobile Suit Gundam. No aliens, no outrageous space empires. Just corporations, mecha, pirates, and asteroid miners.
 
Horror Hero. Power limited to NPC monsters.

I'm just going to do my own thing, honestly. Yes the focus is on attaching newer players because otherwise, to put coldly? Its a dead game in the eyes of the public and way harder to go anywhere.
 
I buy whatever title folks publish as long as I can get it pod, but otherwise I don't expect much anymore

It's becoming apparent in this thread  that what would work is a 3rd. Edition Hero book with modern layout and formatting. Even while Duke has had success with 2nd edition with his youth group, a "powered by Hero" type game with 3rd edition rules (Low complexity, low page count), and a simultaneous release of a minimum of two adventure books (magazines ala Adventure paths?), seems to be the Optimal path.  Anything after 3rd edition is pushing the page count  too high.  Leave the toolbox approach to the core rules that already exist, and incluse only what the genre requires.

What sorts of games?  Well Champions of course as it's the most active. Fantasy could work.  Modern Action would work. It basically become a "Streaming Television game". What else might work, if one remembers that we can have no licenses, and no large page counts?  Try to think about what would sell to people that game on line and don't have a lot of time for prep, rather than your "favorite" genre.  Also how wide or narrow does one go for the genre? No tool box, but a little flexibility might be nice.

It's becoming apparent in this thread  that what would work is a 3rd. Edition Hero book with modern layout and formatting. Even while Duke has had success with 2nd edition with his youth group, a "powered by Hero" type game with 3rd edition rules (Low complexity, low page count), and a simultaneous release of a minimum of two adventure books (magazines ala Adventure paths?), seems to be the Optimal path.  Anything after 3rd edition is pushing the page count  too high.  Leave the toolbox approach to the core rules that already exist, and incluse only what the genre requires.

What sorts of games?  Well Champions of course as it's the most active. Fantasy could work.  Modern Action would work. It basically become a "Streaming Television game". What else might work, if one remembers that we can have no licenses, and no large page counts?  Try to think about what would sell to people that game on line and don't have a lot of time for prep, rather than your "favorite" genre.  Also how wide or narrow does one go for the genre? No tool box, but a little flexibility might be nice.

It's becoming apparent in this thread  that what would work is a 3rd. Edition Hero book with modern layout and formatting. Even while Duke has had success with 2nd edition with his youth group, a "powered by Hero" type game with 3rd edition rules (Low complexity, low page count), and a simultaneous release of a minimum of two adventure books (magazines ala Adventure paths?), seems to be the Optimal path.  Anything after 3rd edition is pushing the page count  too high.  Leave the toolbox approach to the core rules that already exist, and incluse only what the genre requires.

What sorts of games?  Well Champions of course as it's the most active. Fantasy could work.  Modern Action would work. It basically become a "Streaming Television game". What else might work, if one remembers that we can have no licenses, and no large page counts?  Try to think about what would sell to people that game on line and don't have a lot of time for prep, rather than your "favorite" genre.  Also how wide or narrow does one go for the genre? No tool box, but a little flexibility might be nice.

Maybe perhaps most of us don’t have them the time like we did in HS and college to do more heavy writing. A job. Spouse. Kids. Other responsibilities eating up most of the time and we want to enjoy our hobby rather then it being a second job.
 
whichbis why things like pathfinder, 5e, M&M and other games take off because a lot of that work is done. Hell even the OSR community has tons of support.
 
you might not mean to hate, but that attitude is one of the reasons hero sinks. Unwillingness to see what others do right and blame the base

The books are too dry. Look at the formatting that Scott and I posted and tell me what Hero book looks like that? 6e did not look anything like it. It was a move in the right direction, but only 1" in the Megascale market that exists. Nothing against Steve, but many of the books are inflated that really don't need to be. In today's marketplace, a book needs to grab customers visually as well as mechanically. 
 
 
Oh, it's not just the artwork. In fact, the times when someone has said, "that artwork sucks" and I was privy to it, I was more than happy to confront the poster (both on and off these boards). My honest problem is how approachable the community is as a whole. I used to be able to come on here and ask a build question and get some fun answers and discussion. Now I get "you shouldn't do that in your game" or some other snarky response because someone doesn't like a playstyle. Screw that. Why would I ever ask a rule question again? So I can watch a simple question turn into a lecture on playstyles? Or the "right way to play your game"? No thanks. It's one of the reasons I don't post here as much and left the Discord community. 

It might be taking advantage, but I know several Russian digital painters, classically trained, looking for work. 
 
 
 
Maybe, maybe not.  But there are non hacks out there. Just need to look at a lot of stuff and compare rates. Art Station, Deviant Art, Polycount, there are plenty of places to look.  

Not everyone can write well.  Fewer can draw well.  Noticing a problem is valuable, but not everyone can create a solution.   

I want to do one more retread of 80s stuff (Escape from Stronghold) because in my opinion it is lacking and can be done better, and updated.  But I agree, new stuff is ideal.  I think Hero really ought to update and reprint their older adventures so they match 6th and are packaged in a manner that is more modern, but newer stuff is very desirable as well for older players.
 
But, I agree a lot with both Steriaca and Scott: if you have the ability, do it yourself.  If you want to see something published, and you can do it, then its time to make it happen.

I've been arguing this for a while.  Give me something to *do* with all these tools.  I don't need an Advanced Players Guide 3 or the big book of Talents.  I need some adventures.
Battlegrounds was *great*, but it was also published in 2003.
The Island of Doctor Destroyer was republished a few years ago, but its a retread of something from the 80s.
 
Let do some adventures!