Edsel

Originally posted by Eosin

Phobos was a PC.

 

That was the guy who played for a little while but did not really like Hero. I think he was unemployed in the 2-3 months he played with us. He called one week to say he would not be playing and then just disappeared...I think he and his wife had moved from Amarillo...or something. He was a big guy if I recall.

 

Yeah, your right now that I think about it. I believe that the whole Timbaler Tommy senario called for a local guide/ally and I had originally intended to use an NPC. Then he showed up so I used his character in that role.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

BTW: is Uriel the only "normal" member of the team to die? I know Wildcard, Phobos, and Snapshot did, but two seemed like fill-in characters and Snapshot was a GM fiat.

 

Uriel was Eosin's original character. He died in a firefight with the mercs called the Arsenal. Wildcard was the quickly thrown together replacement he ran. When he made up Specter/Savant he wanted to bring in that character so he got with me and we cooked up a fitting end for the character. Phobos was an NPC from the start and never really a member of the team, just an ally. Snapshot's player left the campaign (moved away) and I had to get his character out of the action (it was good shock value).

 

Also, which members of the team were founders? Im pretty sure Hippocrates, Nightstick, Uriel, and The Remittance Man were but I'm not 100% on that.

 

Actually, a complete list of the roster of members, plus support people like the base-mechanic guy would be useful.

 

Finally, was Dancer an actual member or an ally?

 

Founding members

Hippocrates (PC)

Uriel (PC)

Nightstick (PC)

The Remittance Man (PC)

Gunner (PC who left shortly)

Dancer (NPC, full member)

 

Other Members

Predator (PC)

Snapshot (PC, brief)

Widow (PC, brief)

Pax (PC)

 

Allies

George Bell (Omega Base Handyman)

Valerie Steiner (DNPC Girlfriend of Savant)

Debbie Taylor (DNPC Girlfriend of Hippocrates)

Alfred (Bulter of Savant)

Another Butler (don't remember the name, he worked for Dr. Thomas James but was killed when Shonto came after him)

 

Neutrals

Crusade (Psycho, loner Vigilante)

Harbinger (Grossly Powerful, loner, Vigilante)

Plain Jane

PRIMUS (lot of stuff in archived computer files, they were nasty enough to go toe to toe with the Cabal/DEMON)

 

Villians (that I have paper copies of0

Bogeyman

Demoness

Red Cabal Agents

Black Cabal Agents

Black Cabal Assault Agents

Hail Mary (female Gang leader)

1st Generation Followers of Reverend M (plot just starting as campaign ended)

Mr. S (powerful Ninja)

Ninja Genin

Tenderheart (trans-sexual psycho)

Three power levels of generic Street Thugs

Generic Terrorists

VIPER Agent Commander

VIPER Agent Commander (Air)

Standard VIPER Agents

VIPER Elite Air Cavalry

Merritet (Thutmose was basically the same, Common Memphian Mummies)

 

The Pack

Mongrel (leader of the Pack)

Doberman (he ain't dead)

Hell Hound (formerly Ashtray Art)

Dog of War (replacement not encountered by campaign end)

The Pack's Battle Van

 

The Cardshark Organization

Cardshark

Pokerface

One-Eyed Jack

Blackjack

Deadman's Hand

Jack of Diamonds

The four Aces (Diamonds, Clubs, Spades, Hearts) (Officers)

Spade Face Card Agents (Sergeants)

Space Combat Deck Agents (Troops)

Other Face Card Agents (Non-violent Crime Specialists)

Other Deck Agents (ditto)

 

There is probably more that this but its late and I'm supposed to be somewhere tomorrow.

Re: Witch Hunter Robin

 

Originally posted by badger3k

Didn't know where to post this, so I'll go here.

 

I've only seen a few episodes, and the stuff at Adultswim.com, and I feel that the setting could make an intersting low-power modern campaign (like I don't have enough to work on ). However, I have a few questions on it that haven't been solved from the few sites I've looked at:

 

1) I came to the series thinking it was magic, but to me it looks like the powers are psychic (I don't know the reasoning, but mutant-hunter robin sounds a little worse title-wise). So far I haven't seen anything that says otherwise (ie - the genetic "witch factor" (my words) points toward mutation). Is this the case, or is there more to it?

I'd say its definately genetic. In a couple of the episodes they look into the past generations of suspects to determine if there are "whitches in their genes" so to speak. I don't know if I'd call it purely psychic powers. The doctor with the ability to transfer health (transfer). The girl in the park is doing some sort of invisible RKA. I'd say Robin has a VPP with fire. I believe that they are all essentially mutants though.

 

Kind of odd how the STJN seems to work though. If you are a mutant and work for us fine. Otherwise we'd better lock you up in "the factory" for the good of mankind. Perhaps they only go after a witch if they use their powers in abusive ways. I have gotten the idea that they are keeping tabs on a lot of witches out there. In one scene they made reference to pulling data on know witches. That seems to indicate that a lot more are running around out there that they are not after.

 

2) In Hero terms, it looks like a heroic or low-super level. I figure maybe 150-200 points for characters, with powers maybe 40 or so active points. Does that sound about right or in the ballpark? Except for the take-life/give-life power from last night, most seem relatively low power (in superheroic terms).

Let's see there was the TK kid who tears up cars and was able to squeeze his uncle between two box cars. I'd have to do math to figure this out and It's too late and I'm too sleepy to get a correct answer. Taking a guess I'd say you are about right.

 

Out of curiosity how would you represent Robin's vision needing correcting only when using her powers. Maybe a -2 OCV or RMod side-effect, countered by a +2 based on an OAF glasses?

 

Other than that, I'd just say that its interesting. Some of the writing doesn't quite work for me, and the main character (Robin) seems to be doped up all the time (maybe it's supposed to show that she's only 15 and reserved - IIRC that's what the website said about her character). Anybody have any comments on it?

She was raised in a monistary. A pretty dull and proper place to spend your formative years. In some of the later episodes I believe they will do some flashbacks to her earlier life. She does seem awfully dour though. Perhaps if Amon will ever show some emotions Robin will lighten up as well.

This is a link to a DEMON Agent (in this case called Cabal Agent) that I recently posted on another thread. I think he kind of sums up the sort of thing I am looking for in DEMON.

 

DEMON / Cabal Agent

Black Cabal Agent

 

Follow this link to see an agent of the Black Cabal. A true warrior of that most foul organization. The Red Cabal are the public presence of the Cabal. The agent linked here is one of the hidden, true, members of the Cabal. This is a standard agent without their version of assault equipment. I will post an agent with full combat gear tomorrow (if I can). If you think this one is bad wait until you see the assault agent. I am particularly proud of their equipment.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

By the way, just FYI, to the best of my knowledge Vaclav is a Czech name, not Russian. Or at least that's what my wife claims.

Yeah, it does sound Czech now that you mention it. I don't recall where I got the name at but I'm think I got it from some of the old "official" 4th Edition Dark Champions stuff.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Other Allies

?

Rogues Gallery

The Omega Team have faced off against some heavy hitters in their short tenure, although due to the nature of the team the membership that has faced any particular foe differs.

 

Most Powerful Villain: Demoness. Though If I had ever finished making up other members of the Cabal she might not have been. Demoness, as written for 4th Edition, was 500 points even.

Most Hated Villain: I was the GM, I didn't hate any of them. They were my children.

Most Disgusting Villain: Timbaler Tommy was probably the most disgusting looking one, though the two mummies might have given him a run for his money.

Most Elusive Villain: Tarot, a Cabal member that Dancer was hunting and hunted by. They never encountered her (mainly because I never completed her character sheet).

Also rans: The Bogey Man, Deadman's Hand (of Cardshark) and Hellrazor were all pretty fearsome foes.

Faces in the crowd: There were lots of early thugs that the team literally put on slow boats to China. They began to fear a backlash of Hong Kong Action Theater type thugs returning for revenge.

 

EGO Board

Body Count: I'd have to agree that the good doctor (Hippocrates) would get the award for the highest body count. Some, like Predator & Snapshot, were pretty blood thirsty but their effective careers were too short to surpass the doctor's tally.

Most Respected By The Media And Feds: Savant, because he granted interviews which became trendy.

Least Respected By The Media And Feds: Snapshot. But of course the authorities didn't really get him identified. His attitude and tactics were a big reason that the VAIS unit came into existence.

Most Amusing Quotes: Alas the game is too far gone for me to remember much about famous quotes.

Most Controversial: There were several episodes where one player or the other would feed the ovens (base incenerator) to make room in the cells. The group usually had some "quiet moments" of uncertainy whenever this happened.

Most Damage Dealt In A Single Fight: My bet would be when Nightstick cut loose on the Black Cabal cultists in the Bayou. He decapitated quite a few in that fight. Of course the use of fully automatic assault shotguns did a number on people during the attack on Retro's stronghold too.

Most Damage Dealt In A Single Hit: I'd guess this also goes to Nightstick on one of his uncommon killing attacks. Of course when the Remittence Man got head-shots with that laser rifle he used it was awfully messy.

Most Damage Taken In A Single Fight: Hippocrates head shot during the Bayou fight. He came within a pip or two of making a new character. Uriel actually surpassed this total but died because of it so I guess that doesn't count.

Most Damage Taken In A Single Hit: Gotta be the head shot the Doc took.

Most Insane Perseverance: Hippocrates abduction by Mr. S in which he ended up abducting Mr. S in turn. Then disappeared on the group, operated on the captive, evacuated one of their bases, set it on fire, dumped Mr. S at a motel 6, etc. The rest of the group though he'd gone mad.

Most Heroic Actions Taken: Wildcard's sacrifice save of the child.

Most Well Spoken: Savant.

Most Fun To Have In Group: The Remittance Man, because of the player Duncan. BTW, He's just made Lt. Colonel in the USAF, I still keep in touch with him.

Most Flexible: Well, the least flexible was Nightstick he was a pure melee monster. Hippocrates and Savant were both well balanced. Hippocrates just had an experience edge.

Most Skilled: Savant seemed to have made the best use of his skills. Several of the team were skill heavy.

Most Well Rounded: Looking at the character sheets I'd say Hippocrates. Of course with that many XP its no wonder.

Most Surprising: Any time you run a game the players are always surprising you.

Follow this link to see a write-up of the Remittance Man.

 

Attached is the character's HDC file.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Cool, thanx! Nightstick, Edsel?

I'll go over the list tomorrow evening and probably be able to give you some feedback on it. I should also have the Remittance Man entered in to HD tomorrow. I already started him a few days ago, just need to finish. After that I'll start working on some of the villians as I get the time.

What's Next?

 

Why did the campaign end at this point?

I had been running the campaign for almost two years at this point. We played every week and rarely missed secession. Frankly I had gotten pretty burned out by this point. The campaign logs cover only the relevant events that we had to keep track of to continue the story. Many encounters and minor battles took place that was never entered into the campaign logs. They just didn’t want to play anything else and we could not get to a “good stopping place”. Of course since I had such a serial game going at this point there never was going to be a “good stopping place.”

 

By the end of the campaign, Nightstick had the most experience (107), followed by Hippocrates (104). This was averaging 2 or 3 XPs each time they were awarded (which was not every session). A character averaged 1 or 2 XPs per night of gaming.

 

Is this the end of the Omega Team?

Probably. I could run some more games for them. Heaven knows there are enough loose ends. The three core players are still with my gaming group (Eosin, Nightstick and Hippocrates’s player (who has no computer or internet access)). It has been around 3 years or so since we played this and I have many new ideas of things I could do better. We will probably try something new (a campaign I intend the call the Conclave) when I start my next Dark Champions campaign (several months away).

 

Other Campaign Logs

Eosin is getting ready to start his Fantasy Hero Campaign ( Echoes of Glory ) (in about 1 month). He has vowed to maintain a campaign log for this campaign and I’ll encourage him to post it. My own character (a yet unnamed bard) will also be maintaining a personal journal, which I also hope to post. Eventually when I start my Conclave campaign I will definitely keep a log for it as well.

Part 23, Final entry

 

Part 23, the final chapter.

 

Toward the end of this part you will find some sections in red text. These entries were the fragmentary notes I had made of the unfinished log of the final secession(s) of the campaign. I have tried to reconstruct what happened at that time, both from my own memory and from talking with some of the players.

 

June 16, mostly late night

The team decides to place the museum and Applebee under surveillance all night tonight. They use a sophisticated laser listening device to monitor Applebee’s room on the 4th floor of the Cordoba Hotel. Pax disguised as a FedEx deliveryman with Gateway Computer boxes smuggles the equipment to the roof of the office building across the street. That night Hippocrates, Nightstick and Dancer keep an eye on the Hotel while Pax, Widow and Savant maintain the vigil at the hotel. (The equipment works by focusing a laser beam on a window and uses it as a diaphragm. By measuring the vibration of the window it can recreate the sounds within the room.)

 

Applebee arrives at the hotel about 8:00 that evening. At about 10:45 Pax hears what sounds like a muffled, short, chant in Applebee’s room, then all is silent. At about 11:45 a cab delivers Applebee and two other men to the museum, Hippocrates reports this to Pax and the group at the hotel. Applebee has not been observed leaving the hotel. Widow picks the lock to Applebee’s room and discovers that he is indeed gone. The room contains only a few changes of clothes, which seems to be very little for a man who is living out of the hotel. The room seems to smell unusually musty. Widow leaves the room as she found it to avoid tipping off the absent occupant.

 

Applebee is seen leaving the museum about half an hour later. About 10 minutes later Pax hears a sizzling noise from Applebee’s room and then the noise of somebody moving about. The team decides to meet at Applebee’s hotel and confront the man.

 

The team proceeds to Applebee’s room with the exception of Pax who readies himself to rappel from the hotel roof and enter from the balcony window. The team, most in combat gear pound on Applebee’s door and rouse several nearby guest who take one look out into the hall and then rapidly close their doors. When Applebee opens the door he hurriedly ushers the vigilantes inside and seems very worried and frightened about something besides them. He urgently utters about how “its beyond my control†or some such thing. The room suddenly is pitched into darkness about the same time Pax comes crashing through the balcony window. Applebee screams in terror and then a body can be heard hitting the ground, something bites Savant on the leg and general chaos ensues.

 

In seconds the lighting is restored. Applebee lies dead on the floor with an expression of terror on his face. A gurgling noise can be heard coming from the kitchen area. Pax investigates in time to see a formless black mass with a single baleful eye disappear down the drain in the sink. The team quick gathers up the body of the old man and rappels out the window to their waiting vehicle across the street. The few stunned pedestrians who are out at this time of night watch the para-military group rappel out of the lighted front of the hotel with the body of an old man. They then scramble across the street and speed away in a FedEx truck.

 

The team hurries back to the base and Hippocrates starts an in-depth autopsy of the corpse of Applebee.

 

No firearms were discharged within the room. There is no blood in the room either (the bite on Savant’s leg was very minor). From the description given by witnesses the police believe that this was the Omega Team. They find out that Applebee was renting the room and they are now unable to locate him. Witnesses said that the Omega Team was carrying a person with them (nobody knew whether he was dead or just unconscious). The police are mystified as to why the Omega Team would kidnap this unassuming old man. The ropes and some of the repelling gear are recovered but they are not really traceable and no fingerprints are found since all were wearing gloves. The female (Widow) may or may not be a new member of the Omega Team. The team is known to have a female member but the description of this woman seems a little different.

 

June 17

Hippocrates’ autopsy on Applebee reveals that the old man apparently died of a massive heart attack, his heart literally bursting within his chest (a severe thrombosis). Applebee’s body is locked away in one of the drawers and several tissue samples are locked in the medical freezer.

 

After a team discussion, Pax decides that to try and find out what Applebee did at the museum last night. Investigation into Applebee’s past has drawn a blank (no records). Pax and Nightstick return to the museum in the afternoon with the goal of obtaining the security tapes from last night. They succeed in obtaining the tape but must flee when the alarm is sounded (blown Security Systems roll). Examination of the tape reveals a blank spot of about 20 minutes length last night after midnight. On the way out of the museum, Applebee is spotted by Nightstick. He is apparently alive and well. (No, you don’t get extra experience points if you kill him again).

 

Nightstick quickly informs the rest of the team of his Applebee sighting. It is quickly discovered that Applebee’s body is missing from the base lab. The few tissue samples that remain seem to have taken on a great age (desiccated). Hippocrates arranges for the samples to be sent out for radio carbon dating.

 

That night Dr. Thomas James has another dream:

 

Dr. James finds himself on a busy city street with a hot sun glaring down upon him. The many people that move around him are dark skinned and wear Middle-Eastern clothing; the men are bearded and the women veiled.

He begins to cross the street. Halfway across the squeal of tires is heard. He looks up to see a black automobile bearing down upon him. It has no driver.

 

A medieval mace appears in Dr. James’s hands. Just as the car is about to flatten him, he dives out of the way and slams the mace into the vehicle’s side. The car shatters and pieces of black metal fly everywhere.

 

The car’s hood ornament lands at his feet. It’s a bizarre animal of chrome, a creature with a lion’s body and a hawk’s head. Lying next to it is a scroll. This seems important, but as he reaches for the scroll a large black bird swoops down and grabs it in its talons. The creature flies off and its screech sounds like mocking laughter.

 

June 18

Mummy attacks at Omega Base. Yep, that’s the only note I have for this paragraph. The history here was not finished. I just never got around to elaborating and now it’s been years. Of course this means that a mummy actually attacked the team at the base. I believe that it did not fare too well since they had access to all their weapons. I do not remember who was at the base at the time of the attack (I think it was only a couple of people). I know that no Omega Team members were killed or seriously injured and the mummy eventually left (it could not be slain with what they had available to them at this time). The mummy was either after something, or gave up trying to kill them since it had to keep regenerating.

 

While in route to Hudson City, Dr. James Atherton contacts Andrew Hobbs, collect via air phone. The cost does not trouble Savant since he has so thoroughly infiltrated the Phone Company computers that he actually makes money on these types of calls. An arrangement is made to talk personally with Dr. Arherton after he finishes his lecture tonight.

 

At the lecture and slide-show the team learns of the existence of a sphinx statue a creature with the head of a hawk and the body of the lion. The statue was found inside the tomb of Thutmose and is currently in the Cairo Museum of Antiquities. An inscription on the sphinx reads “I hold the secret of Thutmose’s eternal deathâ€, a curious statement since the ancient Egyptians goal was eternal life. They quickly resolve to travel to Cairo to obtain the scroll they feel must be hidden within the statue. Extensive research and obscure occult texts tell that a mummy can only be truly slain if its creation scroll is read backwards at the spot of its creation, the team feels that this scroll must be what they are looking for.

 

At their meeting with Dr. Atherton arrangements are made for the team to visit the sight of the tomb, the team plans a side trip to the Egyptian museum. (I do not believe that they took Dr. Atherton into their confidence. They likely made up some research excuse and promised a big cash grant for cooperation.

 

June 19, Wednesday

Mummy appearance on the Plane. Another almost meaningless note. I know that the mummies had a mystical ability to locate a known enemy wherever that enemy might be. They could then teleport to the vicinity and attack at the most unexpected times. They could not teleport into sight of anybody, but had to come from around the corner or through a door or something similar. If I recall correctly the mummy came out of the airplane’s lavatory and attacked. I believe that the Omega Team were using a chartered jet for the flight and so there were not a lot of civilians involved. They had made arrangements to have some of their weapons smuggled into Egypt. I think they had chartered a Lockheed Starship for the flight to Cairo. Though this was a tense flight, what with the danger of firearms inside a plane, nobody was seriously hurt. The team successfully made it to Cairo International Airport.

 

In Egypt

 

Battle at the Museum. After arriving in Egypt the team heads to the Cairo Antiquities Museum. They are in search of the Sphinx statue (the one with the lion’s body and hawk’s head). They find the sphinx after a brief search. As soon as one of them touches it, the sphinx animates and attacks them. Bullets have little effect and Nightstick’s three section staff seems to be the most effective. Some of the team remembers a pair of crossed maces just outside the door of the room in which the sphinx resided. They grab the maces and eventually the team manages to shatter the living statue. From the broken remains they recover a pair of ancient burial scrolls. Dr. James studies them briefly and confirms that these are the scrolls they need to destroy Thutmose and Merritet.

 

By now it was quite obvious that there were two mummies. Merritet, the former priest, was the first to be animated, he took on the guise of Applebee and eventually managed to raise, Thutmose the Elder, his master. Since the team had the two scrolls they needed they next had to head to the site of the pyramid, in the desert, to perform the ceremony to destroy the two mummies.

 

Of course the battle in the museum with an animated statue drew a lot of attention from the few people that were present. Most fled in terror when they saw what was happening. By the time authorities arrived the team was long gone. The few people who hung around told a fantastical story of an animated sphinx attacking a group of western tourists who proceeded to break it up with staves and maces. A lot of this is attributed to people’s eyes playing tricks on them. The Egyptian government comes to believe it was a terrorist attack of some sort aimed at the country’s heritage.

 

June 20, Egypt

 

Dust storm and the Corbies. On the trip through the desert in jeeps, with a guide named Ali Misfin (a native Egyptian archeologist). The team encounters a pair of Corbies. Corbies are vulture-like servants of Thutmose. The Corbies threaten the team (they can talk) to no avail. They then command a group of vultures to attack the party (a lot of birds get shot). And finally summon up a sand storm (which is pretty harrowing). Eventually the team makes it to the dig site.

 

At the Tomb. The last scene. The team arrives at the pyramid. Here John Miles, assistant to Dr. Atherton, greets them. Miles is expecting them due to their previous arrangements. At first he is a little skeptical about letting them into the site since its all a little irregular but Ali confirms that these are the people that Dr. Atherton wanted access given to.

 

When they move toward the entrance to the pyramid the two guards at the door step out and block their path. The men toss aside their weapons and instantly transform into the two mummies. Chaos ensues. The workers, Miles and Ali flee in terror as the mummies move to attack. The Omega Team reveals their weapons and start blazing away at the mummies. Though the mummies cannot be slain by normal means, they can be blown apart. This forces them to disappear in a swirl of dust and sand, only to reappear seconds later coming around any nearby corner or other out of view location.

 

The team quickly fights their way to the burial chamber and Dr. James begins reading the scrolls backwards to destroy the mummies. The rest of the team spends their time blasting away as the mummies constantly attempt to reach Dr. James and the scrolls. Dr. James is nearly forced to abort to a dodge several times (which would have forced him to start the reading over again). The team takes a few knocks but their luck and ammo hold out and with a baleful moan the mummies collapse in a heap of dust which is then scattered by a fierce wind that blows through the pyramid.

 

Thus ends the mummies, Thutmose the Elder and Merritet his vizier. Sadly this also ends the campaign logs of the Omega Team campaign.

Part 22

 

June 8

The day starts with the various team members taking care of personal business and otherwise covering their secret identities.

 

A review of the newspaper yields two items that could be the target of the, expected, 4-of-a-kind crime by Cardshark. SIMCORP will be doing a demo, for the press, of their new Turtle powered armor suits. They will demo four sets of the armor with different options. Armbruster Industries is taking delivery of four industrial diamond-making machines. Both of these, the delivery and the demo, are to take place on Monday afternoon.

 

Since it is such a beautiful day Andrew Hobbs takes his girlfriend, Valerie Steiner, to the Hudson City Regatta that is taking place in the bay today and tomorrow. At about 5:00 PM the boat is seized by a multitude of tentacles. The sailboat and occupants are then pulled out of the bay and southward down the coast. Savant is able to alert the rest of the Omega Team, except Dancer who fails to answer the emergency call, and they race to the coast to try and help.

 

The boat with Savant and Valerie approaches the entry to the Black Bog. The rest of the Omega Team (minus Dancer) is able to overtake them using a commandeered motorboat. They are able to kill the giant squid (at least that’s what the guess it is) using a five-gallon can of gasoline and a well-placed shot from Pax’s battle rifle.

 

GM NOTE: The Black Bog is located south of Hudson City. It has a sinister reputation. Many ghost stories and tales of the occult (witches, etc.) make-up the tales of the Black Bog.

 

The team has a short debate and, over the protests of Hippocrates, proceeds into the swamp to locate the Cabal presence that they suspect is behind all of this. There is a great fear that Dancer may have fallen into their hands and if this is the case they dare not tarry for her life could be in jeopardy.

 

Their fears are well placed. They encounter a Cabal ceremony with Dancer as its centerpiece. In an extremely close battle the Omega Team prevails, only Savant is left standing. Five Black Cabal and a Dozen Red Cabal agents are dispatched along with a Nightgaunt. The woman/creature known as the Demoness is also encountered here but escapes unscathed. Nightstick is left with some long-term psychological effects (got a nasty spell cast on him) and Pax has had his life force partially sapped (Demoness got hold of him briefly) but both should make full recoveries, given time. Dancer is rescued and Hippocrates is revived after being knocked unconscious during the battle.

 

GM NOTE: This is the epic battle that Eosin had eluded to earlier. Several times it came down to the team hoping someone would wake back up before the rest of the team were knocked out. I believe that every member of the Omega Team was unconscious at least once during this battle. It took place in a large clearing in the bog and started with the classical “save-the-naked-sacrifice-from-the-alter†scenario. In the end they were just lucky that the Demoness saw no reason to take any risks. Since the ceremony was shot anyway she had no real reason to stay. I hope that Eosin or Nightstick can elaborate on this battle.

 

June 9

The day passes rather uneventfully as the team catches up on its rest and does not go looking for trouble.

 

June 10, Monday

Today the team decides to cover two different things that they believe could be the four-of-a-kind crime target. They send Dancer to cover the demo of the four sets of Turtle Armor that SIMCORP will be holding. The rest of the team along with the widow will keep an eye on the new industrial diamond-making machines as they are delivered to Armbruster Industries.

 

The Widow has contacted the Omega Team and is interested in throwing in her lot with the team. She has been unable to contact Knight, her partner since just after the VIPER encounter on Friday (June 7th). His whereabouts remain unknown and even her contacts with the chessmen are of no help. Knight has the means to contact Widow via cell phone (and she he) but he does not answer when she tries to contact him. His fate remains unknown for the present.

 

GM NOTE: The Chessmen are an international, mysterious and very knowledgeable cartel that, seemingly, works for the cause of righteous. Widow & Knight are but two of vigilante types to whom they provide information and convert support in order to further their goals. (Eosin ran a short campaign in which we played members of the Chessmen).

 

Dancer’s surveillance of the Turtle armor demonstration is uneventful. She notices a heavy PRIMUS presence that may or may not be in response to an anonymous phone tip made by Savant that warned of a possible theft attempt.

 

The rest of the team meets the freight train hauling the diamond-makers 50 miles outside of town. They shadow the train and eventually the inter-modal trucks that deliver the machines to Armbruster’s facility. The team then sets up a stake out of Armbruster’s facility.

 

Their vigilance is rewarded when a Cardshark team arrives, apparently intent on stealing the machines. In a sharp battle the more numerous Cardshark team is ambushed and put to flight leaving several spades agents and a wrecked helicopter at the facility. The Omega team has to flee the area quickly as a nearby Hudson City Police car attempts to give chase only to be foiled by the Omega Truck’s smoke screen.

 

The police are able to take 10 Cardshark agents into custody and recover a 7.62mm mini-gun from the damaged helicopter on the roof of the factory. The helicopter is missing all identifying exterior markings but is a Bell Jet Ranger reported stolen several years ago from a small private airfield. The mini-gun is believed to be one that turned up missing in a National Guard inventory six years ago. The pilots and passengers of the helicopter are believed to be the only Cardshark agents that escaped. The police know that the Omega Team is responsible for foiling whatever Cardshark was up to. A pair of patrol officers arrived in time to witness a lot of the fight. The Omega Team escaped in a Truck that is equipped with a smoke screen and is apparently armored since bullets from the Cardshark team bounced off of it. The truck is described as about the size of a large UPS truck, dark in color and painted as a commercial vehicle belonging to “Perfect Diesel Engine Repair,†the company turns out to be non-existent. The shell casings recovered at the scene confirm the officer’s reports that the Omega team was using Assault shotguns and submachine guns. The patrol car’s dashboard camera also captured the truck’s tag number which also proves to be a non-existent number (3KL-24B3). Several chunks of solid rubber from the truck’s tires are also recovered indicating that the vehicle uses solid, bullet resistant, tires. A reasonable tread pattern can be discerned from the fragments and tracks left on a grimy patch on the road surface.

 

Later that night Hippocrates has a dream . . .

 

June 11

Hippocrates dream:

 

He is watching from outside of the dream, as if in a movie. He travel up a deserted street in a suburban town lit by tall street lamps and stop before the door of a small white house. The door opens and he goes inside.

The room is dark, but a shaft of light from the open door slices through the shadows. Several decaying bodies lie on the floor. As he move closer he discovers that the bodies are his and his fellow Omega Team members! Their eyes and mouths are open, frozen in looks of terror.

Hippocrates’ body holds a scroll to its chest. A hand swathed in rotting bandages reaches out from the darkness and takes the scroll. A low chuckle is heard from the shadows.

 

This basically unnerves everybody.

 

Knight reappears. He is unable to account for his whereabouts for the last couple of days; in fact he claims to have a complete blackout regarding what has happened to him. When he thinks of contacting his partner, the Widow, a street address flashes into his head, the address of the Omega Teams secret base and the current location of the Widow. He then makes contact with the Widow and hence the rest of the Omega Team.

 

June 12-13

George Bell is mugged, but not seriously hurt, by a group of four street thugs who were looking for cash with which to buy ICE. The Omega Team tracks them down and intimidates them into checking into a substance abuse center. While taking care of this business they overhear, on police scanners, that the Pack and resurfaced and attacked an alleged crack-house on the far side of town. The scanner report tends to indicate that there were at least 4 attackers.

 

Nightstick receives a phone call on his Omega Team cell-phone. On the other end of the line is a mechanical-sounding voice that says, “ask the kids about the thing in Radcliff manor.†The connection is then severed. Nightstick believes, as do other Omega Team members that this was the long silent Machine.

 

Nightstick observes a couple of cops shaking down a junkie simply to steal his stash of ICE. Nightstick becomes enraged over the dirty cops and beats them severely before leaving them in the street. The incident results in some poor publicity for the team as the cops lie about attack by the “crazed vigilante†and are believed due to lack of witnesses. Captain McPhearson, commander of the new VAIS squad, is said to be handling the investigation of the attack on the two HCPD officers.

 

These events, and the discovery that street crime related to ICE has risen by over 50% in the last two weeks, leads the team to make elimination of the ICE source their number one priority. They hatch a plan to place two outlaw biker bars under surveillance: The Skids (hangout of the Highway Mobsters) and the Thirsty Hog (hangout of the Asphalt Kings). Dancer and Knight infiltrate the Skids and Widow and Pax take the Thirsty Hog (GM NOTE: I am having a hard time remembering who went to which bar, anybody remember?). There is a close call at the Thirsty Hog as the Harbinger of Justice carries out an execution of three suspects in front of the disguised vigilantes.

 

The team is finally able to shadow an ICE deliveryman from one of the bars. They loose him when he crosses in front of a train into a residential neighborhood. The team is eventually able to determine that a currently abandoned home in the area was once owned by a family named Radcliff. The neighborhood in question has numerous children in it and the team soon decided that this matches the cryptic message that Nightstick previously received. On the night of the 13th the team hits the manor and eliminates the ICE lab and its mastermind.

 

GM NOTE: Here is another fight that I did not record the details of. Eosin or Nightstick can feel free to provide details, if they remember. I have noticed that here, toward the end, I was getting sloppy in filling in what the police gathered in the way of evidence. I take this as a sign that I was starting to get burned out of running the weekly game.

 

June 14, Friday

The King Thutmose exhibit opens today at the Hudson City Museum of Anthropology and Natural History. The members of the Omega Team all have tickets and so they go to view the mummy and accompanying artifacts. Upon viewing the mummy of King Thutmose both Hippocrates and Savant become uneasy and sense an almost tangible evil about the corpse of the pharaoh. Besides the mummy itself a fragment of his sarcophagus is also on display and the writings upon it catch the eye of Dr. James. The writing, as translated by Dr. James is below (Dr. James has been actively studying ancient Egyptian writing (hieroglyphics & regular script) for several months now. He has become relatively fluent with the dead language). Anyway on with the translation:

 

I Thutmose curse thee, Osris! Thine servants did come and embalm me. Thou did embalm these my members, for I would not perish and come to an end [but would be] even like unto the divine type that never saw corruption.

 

My hiding place will be opened, my hiding place will be opened. Though Spirits fall headlong in the darkness, the Eye of Horus hath made me unholy, and Merritet hath prepared me. I will hide myself among you, I am not a man to whom violence can be done. I shall not die a second time in Het-Ka-Ptah (The Ancient Egyptian name for Memphis).

 

I am like unto a god, and my members shall have being everlastingly. I shall not decay, I shall not rot, I shall not putrefy, I shall not turn into worms, and I shall not see corruption before the eye of the gods. I shall have my being, I shall have by being; I shall live, I shall live; I shall flourish, I shall flourish, I shall flourish.

 

I am eternal. At the appointed time, again will I walk among men. No one can lift a hand against me.

 

While at the museum, Joe Dishwasher encounters a curious little old man named Applebee who sells Thutmose souvenirs. Nightstick thinks the man is a little odd and talks to one of the souvenir shop employees about him. He learns that Applebee makes the trinkets he sells himself and that he travels from place to place with the exhibit. Applebee wears a couple of cat buttons, one reads “Meow Power†and the other says, “I [LOVE] My Cat†(the love being a heart). The girl from the souvenir shop says that Applebee gives her the creeps.

 

Andrew Hobbs, pretending to be a wealth philanthropist attempts to arrange a private meeting with Dr. James Atheron, the archaeologist who is the discoverer of Thutmose and who has lead all of the digging. Dr. Arherton is due in town on Tuesday to give a fund-raising lecture. Though he is currently at the dig sight, arrangements are made to have him contact Andrew at the earliest possible time.

 

That night Nightstick stakes out the museum, for a couple of hours, and watches the changing of the security guards shift. Eight guards leave just after six fresh guards arrive.

 

June 15

This morning it is discovered that another marrow murder has taken place in Hudson City. (Did I ever mention the first one?). The team becomes very worried about what might be going on. Through some checking with a police contact they discover that the panic system for the museum’s alarm system has been wired to alert PRIMUS directly incase of trouble, this has apparently been done at the insistence of PRIMUS.

 

Nightstick again observes the museum this night and stays until past midnight but the evening is uneventful.

 

This ends part 22. Next in part 23, you can’t keep a villian under wraps. Sadly it looks as if part 23 will be the last part. It is fragmentary as well but I’ll try and flesh it out some before I post it. It may take me a little bit of work to do that. I’ll post it as soon as I can get it ready.

List me as one of those who thinks Strength is fine just as it is.

Part 21

 

May 29-30

Dancer arrives at the base and finds, Hippocrates and Savant there, she announces that she has been out some this morning and found a familiar face near Diamond Lil’s place (an upscale gentlemen’s club operated by Cardshark). She managed to determine that Cardshark has suddenly raised the contract on Daniel Sanders to $500,000. Savant contacts his FBI contact to determine if there are any local ‘talents’ who would be up to such a contract and also if their have been any suspected hit-men enter the city in the last several hours. His contact will have to check up on it and call him back in a few hours.

 

Savant, who has been doing some analysis on Snapshot, soon realizes that Snapshot would probably go and play Go somewhere to sooth himself. Savant calls Pax and Nightstick, who are at Zhu Hsaio’s and they immediately start looking for Snapshot at the local, Chinatown, Go parlors.

 

He is soon located, but before the rest of the team can arrive a distant sniper kills him, with a shot to the head, as Pax and Nightstick look on. The rest of the team arrives and about that time Savant’s phone rings. It is his FBI contact that informs him that a man named Thomas O. Enock entered the country last night via a sleeper flight from Paris. Enock is a suspected I.C.E. member and assassin (International Consortium for Execution).

 

GM NOTE: Kind of an abrupt end for Snapshot, but the player had left the campaign with no chance of returning.

 

The team quickly gathers any evidence that could link Daniel Sanders (a.k.a. Snapshot) to the Omega Team and depart with Mr. Sanders vehicle.

 

They next head to Mr. Sander’s residence and eliminate any evidence there and discard his car. Snapshot’s Blue Ford Explorer is still missing, as is the mini-gun. The team surmises that he must have left it at a safehouse know only to him.

 

As the team returns to base they sight a biker, wearing the colors of the Murder of Crows biker gang, selling drugs to some young school kids. Pax beats him senseless and gives the kids a quick talking to. They then pursue the seller’s lookout and abduct him for questioning. He is currently lockup in cell #1 at the Beta Base.

 

May 31, Friday

Advanced Tickets go on sale for the King Thtumose exhibit. Hippocrates gets 1st day tickets for all the team members.

 

GM NOTE: At this point in the campaign we quite using conventional dates in favor of G.Y., for Game Year. Since the campaign was actually proceeding slower than life (we’d get a day or two of game time to pass per secession, but we only met once a week). As a result the game was now taking place about a year in the past compared to the real-world date. By going to G.Y. time I could take advantage of current world events better.

 

June 1, Saturday G.Y. 2

The Harbinger of Justice hits a Chardshark safehouse and kills two Cardshark agents. He also frees one of the captives that Cardshark was holding.

 

June 2

Cardshark exchanges their remaining hostages for ransom at many separate, simultaneous, exchanges scattered all across the city.

 

Pax lands a job, in his civilian ID (Lex Bratheon), as a bouncer at the Blue Moon, a gentlemen’s club (another classy strip joint, no known affiliation with the Harbinger of Justice, a.k.a. Blue Moon Killer.). (I don’t know what the deal was with this group and nudie bars).

 

All hostages are now free with the exception of Ms. Clairese Waterford whose parents were working, secretly, with the police. Apparently, somehow, Cardshark discovered the money drop was a trap and nobody showed. No further ransom demands or contact has been made with the Waterfords.

 

June 3

Pax beats up a mugger who is high on ice. He interrupts the mugger’s attack on an elderly couple.

 

The team decides to hit a biker bar called the Roost. It is the hangout of the Murder of Crows, outlaw biker gang. Hippocrates has been keeping the place under surveillance for a couple of days. The gang is one on the known groups that has been selling the new ice on the streets. It appears that a deliveryman just made a drop-off so the team moves in quickly. They are not quick enough to catch the deliveryman on the premises, however.

 

The bikers are taken by surprise and don’t stand much of a chance. The five vigilantes make short work of the fifteen bikers. They leave the lot unconscious and bleeding. They abduct the gang’s leader for interrogation at the base.

 

Dancer and Hippocrates interrogate the biker chief (Earl Torkman) and find out that the Murder of Crows sells their ice in within a fixed turf inside Hudson City. Torkman says that other biker gangs are doing the same. They take delivery of the goods from a biker they know only as ‘Jake’. Jake delivers to them about once a week and sells them the stuff for about half the normal price of regular meth. The stuff Jake provides is really pure and potent stuff and at these prices it is getting very lucrative and the customer base is growing rapidly. Jake wears no gang colors but he is definitely and experienced biker. Jake seems to only be a deliveryman but they do not know who Jake works for. Earl suspects that Jake or possibly other deliverymen have the same sort of arrangement with the other outlaw bikers in the area. They have been buying from Jake for about a month now.

 

June 4

Hippocrates heads to the Hudson City Museum of Natural History in an effort to obtain more information about the up coming King Thutmose exhibit. After looking over the museum’s standard Egypt exhibit he is lucky enough to arrange to talk with Edward Grizzley who is affiliated with the Thutmose exhibit.

 

Dr. James finds out that the mummy has just finished a display in London and is heading to Hudson City via freighter. The exhibit sponsors feel that a freighter is safer than a plane and the great many heavy articles would cost a lot to ship by air. The exhibit will unload in Boston and travel to Hudson City by rail since the underwriters wish to avoid any hazards that the Hudson City piers may offer. (Perhaps this is due to several ships having met violent ends at the Hudson City Piers and Hudson Bay recently).

 

Dr. James inquires why some of the material was already in Hudson City and is told that there are great many artifacts, and that the public would probably find some of them to be redundant. There are really two exhibits. The first exhibit was in Paris for a month and the materials from the second exhibit were shipped to London to reduce the turn-around time on setting up the displays. The original materials from Paris were shipped to Hudson City ahead of time while the exhibit was in London for the same reason. In this manner only the most spectacular and permanent items of the display have to be shipped at once and the exhibit is able to operate more economically.

 

Dr. James is told that the item stolen on the evening of May 26th was one of a great number of “burial scrolls†that were found in the tomb. It contained mystical/religious passages from some of the ancient Egyptian writings and had something to do with life after death as many such scrolls do. His only explanation for the theft is that there are a lot of rich eccentric collectors who will pay outrageous prices for such items. The thieves probably opted to steal something easily smuggled and therefore left some of the more valuable artifacts.

 

Dr. James finds out that the tomb of Thutmose dates from the Old Kingdom. His tomb is a small pyramid that was miles away from the Nile, deep in the desert. It had lain buried in the sands for thousands of years until a sandstorm, a few years ago, partially uncovered it. Dr. James Artherton led the team that has excavated the sight and the work is still progressing at the sight. Apparently Thutmose was a reviled ruler who along with his closest advisor, a high priest named Merritet, worshiped the equivalent of an Egyptian demon. Thutmose was a ruthless and bloodthirsty tyrant who was entombed alive after being captured in a coup that overthrew his reign. Though Thutmose and Merritet were supposed to be entombed in the pyramid only the body of Thutmose was found. Perhaps Merritet escaped into the desert and perished there but nobody knows. Next to the tomb of Thutmose was is a crowded tomb that holds his servants and followers who were all killed and entombed in mass.

 

After the death of Thutmose and Merritet the Ancient Egyptians struck their names from the records and they lost to the ages until Dr. Artherton excavated the pyramid last year. Despite how hated Thutmose was, he was buried as a pharaoh and many valuable artifacts have been recovered from his un-robbed tomb.

 

Dr. James inquirers about any curses that are associated with Thutmose’s tomb and is told that nothing out of the ordinary was discovered, nothing more serious than the curses that were discovered with Tut. Dr. Artherton is scheduled to give an evening lecture about the discovery on June 18th, four days after the exhibit opens in Hudson City.

 

June 5

During the day Joe Dishwasher (a.k.a. Nightstick) encounters Chan Li, an information merchant that hangs around the Chinatown area. Chan informs Joe, for a proper fee, that the Idea men are rumored to be planning an Armored Car heist. The cargo is diamonds from South Africa. A company called Hanson Couriers, a specialty diamond delivery service, is to pick up the diamonds and deliver them to Goldberg Diamond Importers in the Bankhurst district. Later that day Dancer announces that she has heard, from street talk, that the Idea men are going to hit an Armored Car on Friday.

 

June 6

Today Dr. James, in his new identity goes to the new pharmacy that he has acquired. Various carpenters and cabinetmakers are working over the inside of the shop getting it ready so that it can be stocked next month.

 

GM NOTE: Neither I, nor the player of Hippocrates, can seem to recall what the name of his new identity was.

 

While there a man comes by and starts up a conversation. It quickly becomes evident that the man is offering to purchase various types of controlled substances from Dr. James. He offers to pay triple market price in exchange for no questions asked.

 

Dr. James invites him to lunch to talk it over. The man agrees and is soon shoved into an alleyway and beaten senseless. Dancer quickly arrives and they take the subject to base in lock him in cell #3 for later interrogation about his contacts. This leaves only two cell vacant at the base, the biker who was involved with dealing drugs to children has been disposed of.

 

June 7, Friday

The Omega Team has determined that Hanson Couriers will pick up a shipment from pier 29 some time shortly after noon today. They proceed to the scout out Hanson Couriers and the pier 29 area, and finally set up at the pier with the intention of acting if the robbery occurs there. If not they will follow the armored car to see if anything happens.

 

At noon the pick up occurs and the robbers are seen entering the area. The Omega Team acts and soon discovers that the robbery is a sham to allow a VIPER ambush of the Team. The fight is tense and could have proven disastrous for the Omega Team if it were not for the intervention of two new vigilantes Widow & Knight.

 

VIPER is sent reeling from the failed ambush and about a dozen agents are seriously wounded or killed. Three members of an Air Cavalry 5-Team are shot from the skies as well. Many grenades are used and much damage is done to the cargo containers on the dock. Many surrounding buildings are damaged by shrapnel from the explosions. The freighter waiting at the pier is set afire as well. Fortunately the ship will not sink and suffers only minor damage. The Omega Team makes contact with Widow & Knight and makes arrangements for renewed communication. The Omega team comes away from the battle with a damaged Air Cavalry Jetpack and a Fat Lady Rifle of VIPER manufacture.

 

The jetpack proves to be an improved version of the standard Jetpack VIPER has been using. The weapon is a sonic rifle that does a 6d6 AVLD attack against Hearing Flash Defense.

 

VIPER had apparently seized control of the ship while it was several days outside of Hudson City. The crew is unaccounted for and PRIMUS has taken over the investigation. PRIMUS has arrived in time to prevent VIPER from recovering all of its personnel and several wounded VIPER operatives are known to have been taken into custody by PRIMUS.

 

End of Part 21, part 22 tomorrow. Next time: Savant and his girlfriend go for a boat ride. Too bad the Cabal decides to join them.

Our group has six core members. Two of us are GMs and alternate campaigns. He runs his game for 4 or 5 months, then I do the same. We only get to meet every two weeks though.

Omega HQ Floorplan

 

I originally did the floor plan with an old version of MicroStation (a professional CADD software package). Unfortunately the electronic file is long since history. I do have a single hard copy on a piece of 11"x17" paper. I have used my digital camera to make a photograph of the original. It is attached below.

 

Edit: The stairs in the southeast corner of the building lead down to the gun range. The floor of the gun range is about 6 feet below the normal floor level.

 

Edit2: The elevator provides access to the, unused, second floor. The central spiral staircase also lead provides access to the roof. The garage usually houses one, of the two, Omega Trucks, and an Omega Cycle or two.

 

I'll have to post the base's AI computer (Big Red) at a later date (I haven't put it in Hero Designer yet).

Omega HQ

 

The Omega Team base is located inside of an old warehouse. The team is careful to keep up appearances so that nobody will suspect that the "run-down old warehouse" is the nerve center for the notorious vigilantes. The team has lost two bases in the past when enemies have destroyed them or the team has (to prevent discovery).

 

Currently the Omega Team has two bases within Hudson City, both are identical with only cosmetic differences.

 

The attached file is the Omega HQ updated to 5th Edition rules.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Well, Im sure it'll will be up to the same standard. Maybe you should start up a "Dark Champions" web site thats a sort of generic Dark Champions resource, and then have Omega Team and the Conclave as two different examples of putting the sites resources in action. That would be cool and its easy to do.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

 

By nature I'm a lazy bum. The hardest part will be getting myself to put in the effort. I've only done a website once, years ago, and briefly. I guess I could try and talk Eosin and/or Nightstick into showing me how to use frontpage. Then maybe figure out how to get a domain.

 

I don't know... sounds suspiciously like work to me.

Part 20

 

May 25

The team covers all three events today (the three possible full house crime targets). It is not until that evening, at the Go Reception, that they face the Cardsharks.

 

About 100 people attend the Reception at the Vanderberg Mansion. Daniel Sanders (Shapshot), Eden Blake (Dancer), Nightstick (Joe Dishwasher) and Andrew Hobbs (Savant) are attending the reception in plain clothes. Daniel Sanders has won the tournament and thus must attend in his public identity. Eden Blake has been acting as Daniel’s sign language interpreter and also needs to attend. Andrew Hobbs attends separately to allow another set of eyes in the mansion. Joe Dishwasher attends since he has been a regular spectator at the competition and is best able to fend for himself with out many weapons. Predator (Dutch Watkins), Hippocrates (Dr. Thomas James) and Pax (Lex Bratheon) sneak onto the mansion grounds and stealthily climb to the roof and then into the, presently empty, third floor of the mansion.

 

The team is taken by surprise when the catering staff suddenly reveals themselves to be Cardshark agents. Before the team can draw a breath there are around 30+ Spade Agents in control of the guests. Things go badly for the team but fortunately the Cardshark agents are equipped with blaster carbines that generally are much less lethal that firearms. Three large Semi-Tractor trailer rigs arrive soon after the take over starts. However, the hidden vigilantes on the third floor disable two of the three rigs. The Cardshark agents render Savant, Hippocrates, and Snapshot unconscious but are forced to abort and flee the mansion when they are informed by Pax (he shouted) that the police have been summoned. Cardshark flees minus three of their agents who are unconscious and unable to flee. The Omega Team who flees shortly after the Cardshark agents depart takes the three unconscious Cardsharks captive.

 

Cardshark does not leave empty-handed, however. When they flee the mansion they hurriedly pick out 23 people whom they abduct (probably with the intention of ransom). Among the group taken is Eden Blake (Dancer). What little equipment Dancer had was in her purse, and the Cardshark agents rapidly gathered all purses and wallets. The Omega Team flees back to Alpha Base with three Cardshark agents in custody and without Dancer.

 

The situation is pretty chaotic for the police. There are many people who left the reception as soon as the Cardshark left so that they would not have to be inconvenienced by having to interview with the police. It will probably take the police the better part of a day to determine just who was kidnapped and who simply left on their own. Several guests tell of tell of shouting between the Cardshark agents and somebody upstairs and it seems that this is what convinced them to leave. Nobody in attendance at the reception saw any of the Omega Team and there is no real evidence that the Omega Team was involved. (Only Omega Team members in civilian clothes were in public view). It is evident that a firefight erupted between the Cardsharks and persons unknown who were hold up on the third floor of the mansion. The drivers of the Trucks are found and questioned but it is apparent that they were unaware of the probable hijacking that awaited them when they arrived at the Vanderburg residence. The trucks were from a freight company, which had been paid to have them arrive for a cargo pickup at this unusual time and place. The persons who placed the order were fictional and the police have no luck uncovering them. The Omega Team left none of their equipment or any trace of their presence at the scene. The Omega Team was unable to locate Dancer’s purse before they left and the police do not find it either. Apparently the Cardshark agents took it, along with many purses and wallets.

 

GM NOTE: Yet another brief account of what was, in this case, a pretty epic battle. I remember that Savant got beat up by a Spades Agent (humiliated really). Perhaps one of the players will be able to elaborate on the events at the Vanderburg Mansion. Spades Agents, by the way, are the primary combat operatives of the Cardshark organization, they handle kidnappings, murders, armed robberies, etc.

 

May 26, Sunday

The team gathers early, however previous obligations prevent Nightstick or Pax from attending the meeting. The team makes plans for the meeting tonight at 8:00 PM at the Blue Diamond Lounge (a classy strip joint) located in the Strip. They agree that one person will go in alone (Savant) and the others (Predator, Snapshot and Hippocrates) will wait outside in the Omega Van, armed to the teeth. As part of their preparations Savant contacts Alexander Hayden (The former Remittance Man) to see it they can get hold of a minigun (M-214 5.56mm). Alexander is glad to help and flies out the weapon personally in a corporate jet that afternoon.

 

At 8:00 PM Savant (in a civilian disguise) enters the Blue Diamond Lounge. At first he has a little difficulty getting inside since the doorman, who is good at this, suspects that the ID he has is phony. Andrew Hobbs is only 19 and the Blue Diamond serves liquor and has nude dancers (age limit 21). By showing the doorman an Omega Card he is quickly able to get in. After setting through a couple of acts he notices one of the waitresses obtain an object from a patron near the far side of the bar. The same waitress then circumnavigates the tavern so as to approach from the opposite side of Savant. She places a cellular phone on the table along with a drink for Savant. Savant observes the man leaving just after passing the phone onto the waitress.

 

The cellular phone soon rings and Savant has a short conversation with a man who identifies himself as Jack (a comment he makes about “keeping my eye on you†leads Savant to believe that this is One-Eyed Jack). Savant does not let on that they are missing one of their team members and makes no mention of Dancer. He negotiates to trade the three captive Cardshark agents that they hold for “the nine least valuable hostages that Cardshark took from the Vandenburg Mansion.†Jack is agreeable to this and arrangements are made to make the exchange at an old warehouse near Centre Street and Day Avenue, tomorrow (May 27th) at 9:00 PM.

 

GM NOTE: I don’t recall how the meeting at the Blue Diamond lounge was set up. I assume that it was hastily arranged between Omega Team and the Cardsharks just before both groups fled the Vanderburg Mansion. Either that or they somehow managed to contact the Cardshark organization after the battle. Perhaps one of the players recalls.

 

On the way back from the Blue Diamond Lounge the Team drives past a secure warehouse and spots unusual activity. When they investigate they encounter Cabal agents. A battle ensues. During the battle the Omega Truck is shot up but remains road worthy. One of the new Omega Cycles has its back tire shot off and the new minigun is destroyed before they get a chance to use it. A radical maneuver with the back door of the Omega Truck open and out the minigun tumbled. Hippocrates is seriously wounded but is able to do a pretty good job patching himself up (but he’ll still spend hours in the bio-regeneration tank at the Alpha Base). Before the Omega Team can manage to fight their way past the agents outside the warehouse, some of the Cabal agents in the warehouse make off with whatever they were attempting to steal. A broken open storage bay (#3B) is noted as well as a shattered crate with the code A-EGY-OK-01211M stenciled on it. The Omega Team revives the mind numbed guards (security guards who had been under mind control) and then they flee back to the Alpha Base.

 

GM NOTE: I guess I need to enter some of the Cabal agents and their equipment into Hero Designer and post it. Cabal is just another name for DEMON. I used the name Cabal because it seems to fit a “low-powered†game better (players may take exception to the term “low-powered). The Cabal agents used Cthulhu-mythos based weaponry and equipment as well as magic. Very nasty customers. A lot of biotech stuff. It seemed to scare the hell out of my players. Of course if any of the players wants to post a more detailed account of this battle, I’m sure it would be appreciated.

 

A little research and hacking with Big Red soon reveal that the warehouse bay in question was storing materials for the Hudson City Museum of Natural History. The broken crate’s code translated as A (Artifact), EGY (Egyptian), OK (Old Kingdom), item 01211, M (Mystical). It contained a burial scroll that was inscribed with the cartouche of the Pharaoh Thutmose. The King Thutmose exhibit will be visiting Hudson City starting on Friday, June 14th.

 

The police do not know what to make of the break in at the secured warehouse. No alarms were triggered even though all of them were in perfect working order. There are reports that power failed in about a one-block area about the time of the incident, but the warehouse had back up power of its own that should have powered the alarms. The two guards claim that they were “mind-controlled by starfish on their heads†and that “dark robed satanic-types†fought a battle with the Omega Team here. Nether guard's Breathalyzer tests were positive. A wrecked van his here but it seems to be untraceable (built from parts of over a dozen vans listed as destroyed in accidents). Skid marks are on the pavement and white paint chips indicate the color of the missing vehicle. Smaller skid marks indicate that a motorcycle was involved as well. Burns from energy weapons are evident and numerous 5.56mm casings are lying about. The two guards are being held on suspicion of complicity during the robbery but their past records do not indicate any criminal activity. Unless real evidence is uncovered the guards will most likely go free.

 

May 27, Monday

The Hudson City Police Department officially announces the formation of their VAIS unit (Vigilante Activities Investigation Squad). Captain Lyle McPhearson will head the unit. The investigative unit will take about a week to form and over the next several months selected SWAT team members will undergo training to act as the enforcement arm of the VAIS unit.

 

The team spends the morning covering their secret identities and performing other tasks that cannot wait. By around 2:00 PM Savant is working at the Alpha Base when the door buzzer sounds. The visitor is Alexander Hayden (a.k.a. the Remittance Man).

 

Alexander did not leave Hudson City yesterday after he delivered the mini-gun to the Omega Team. Knowing that Dancer, his old teammate, was in danger he resolved to see what he could do. He followed the Omega Team to their meeting at the Blue Diamond. When the agent left the club he heard Savant’s brief radio signal to the rest of the team. When he realized that nobody was going to follow the departing suspect, he did. He followed the man to a downtown warehouse and then followed a couple of men that the agent met with. The two men lead him to a small industrial park in the northern suburb of Arcadia. With nightvision binoculars he observed the place for several hours and became convinced that one of the building, belonging to Hudson Entertainment Supplies, was in fact a Cardshark facility of some sort.

 

The Remittance Man was up late (until about 3:00 AM). As soon as he was awake and ready he headed to the Omega Team’s Alpha Base to inform them of what he had discovered. The team goes to the industrial park during a driving rain and is able to plant a couple of listing devices via the roof. They also check out the local storm sewers for use as a possible avenue of attack or escape.

 

The sewers prove to be to flooded for use and the bugs give only limited information. The information they get is enough to convince them that several captives may be being held here.

 

The team decides to make the meeting at the warehouse tonight, to exchange the captive Cardshark Agents for 9 hostages. They hope that Eden Blake will be among the hostages exchanged. The whole team (Nightstick, Savant, Snapshot, Predator, Pax, and Hippocrates) goes to the meeting and they are joined by the Remittance Man. The Cardshark contingent at the meeting consists of One-Eyed Jack, Deadman’s Hand, and Blackjack and about a dozen Spades Agents.

 

The hostage exchange goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately Ms. Blake is not among the hostages released. There is some brief and minor verbal sparing between Savant and One-Eyed Jack (trash talk).

 

The Omega Team quickly and gently questions the hostages that they have liberated and then drop them off about a block away from a convenient police precinct house.

 

This surprises the police. The hostages all tell similar stories about how the Omega Team is responsible for their release. The police are able to locate the warehouse where the exchange took place but no physical evidence has been left by either side.

 

The Omega Team, plus the Remittance Man, immediately proceeds north to Arcadia to raid the suspected Cardshark facility, just before midnight. The raid goes off very well. Dancer and another captive (Inspector Harold LaGrange of the State Bureau of Investigation) are rescued (Dancer wears only her undergarments). Over a dozen Hearts Agents are left unconscious and only a hand full escape. The team quickly scavenges the base for any useful materials and then departs after calling the Arcadia Police Department. They stay in the area until the Arcadia Police arrive and then head back to the Alpha Base.

 

GM NOTE: Here is another battle that a player may wish to elaborate upon. The Hearts suite of Cardshark agents is responsible for information gathering, interrogation, spying, etc.

 

The Omega Team obtains very little of informational value. The computers in the building had all been slaged by internal thermite charges and any important papers had been burned (flash paper is normally used by Cardshark for paper records).

 

The police round up all of the Cardshark agents and call neighboring communities for help (the Arcadia Police Department only has less than a dozen officers on duty at one time). Before assistance can arrive a mysterious black helicopter arrives and drives the police away with machinegun fire. Cardshark successfully rescues its agents.

 

As in most incidents involving Cardshark and the Omega Team little or no useful physical evidence is left at the scene. Spent casings, bullet holes, etc. There is illegal equipment in the building, for wiretaps, hacked computer files, etc., even what appears to be an interrogation room of some sort. All of this was Cardshark stuff, but there is nothing to lead to the identity of the Carshark agents who worked here.

 

Situation Report:

Mongrel and the surviving members of the Pack seem to have gone to ground. Cardshark’s plans are still probably viable. They still hold 12 hostages somewhere. The King Thutmose exhibit is due next month and the Cabal has stolen a sacred burial scroll from the museum. Daniel Sanders has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the kidnapping of the guests from the Go Tournament Reception. The Carshark has issued open contracts in the amount of $10,000 each for members of the Omega Team and a $25,000 open contract on the life of Daniel Sanders.

 

May 28, Tuesday

A cryptic message arrives at the Beta Base via email. It is apparently from Predator and simply reads, “Must be away for an unknown length of time on government business – Predatorâ€. Dutch Watkins has apparently left the scene for the time being.

 

That evening while the team is scattered around town an police report is overheard on scanners that indicates that someone has shot up the Blue Diamond Lounge (a known Cardshark operation). Listening to the reports it is soon realized that this is a pretty major happening. Hippocrates attempt to reach the various team members to check up with them in reguards to what has happened. He is unable to get Snapshot to answer. He tries to call Snapshot’s cell phone in hopes of using a tap into the celluar system to locate his general whereabouts. He soon realizes that the phone is ringing inside the teams armory. When he checks out the armory he finds Snapshot’s cell phone and realizes that the mini-gun is missing but several damaged parts are still here. He quickly realizes that Snapshot must have repaired the gun and then carried out a vendetta against Carshark. Hippocrates quickly informs the other team members and rushes to the scene of the shooting.

 

The police are already thick in the area so he is unable to approach very closely and can only get a very general idea of what has happened. From the amount of spent brass on the ground and the number of bullet-holes it is fairly evident that the mini-gun has been used here.

 

Hippocrates goes to the house of Daniel Sanders but he is not there and he is not able to make much headway.

 

The police realize that a mini-gun was used here. The few witnesses that they can find indicate that a large dark-colored SUV was used, but that’s about it.

 

End of Part 20, part 21 tomorrow. Where is Snapshot? Has Snapshot finally snapped? Perhaps we’ll find out tomorrow.

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

All good things must come to an end, but Eosin says you are going to run more Omega adventures soon?

I am sure some of the players would like to see it restart but it has been years and the campaign died in mid-stream. It would be hard to ressurect it.

 

I guess it could be done but, I am working on a new Dark Champions campaign right now. The characters will be different. They will be working for an organization called the Conclave. The Early NYC Vigilantes thread gives some information about this.

 

There is so much of the old campaign that I want to rework now. Things I think I could do better. I would rather have a fresh start than try and revive the old Omega Team.

 

Of course I'll use a lot of the old Omega stuff in the new campaign. I'll just overhaul a lot of it and bring it up to 5th Edition standards. Plus I've got new things I want to try out. I want to forge ahead and not rely on my past sucess.

WOW!

 

I really need to learn HTML and XML so I can do things like that. Really cool stuff. Thanks KS!

 

I think I have a hard copy of Predator. I know I have almost all of the villians. I'll try to convert one per day or so.

 

I also have the full write-up of the Omega base. I have a hard copy of the floorplan which I originally did in MicroStation (a professional CADD package). I don't know if I still have an electronic copy (doubtful), if I can find one I can convert it to a jpeg and send it along with the base write-up.

 

This has been a fun run on the forums but I think we only have three or four parts left before we hit the end of the campaign history.

I, like a lot of us apparently, have been playing Champs since the 1st Edition. Balancing a game has always been more art than science for me. I have never much liked the various mathematical schemes that have been proposed to balance games. That's just a matter of personal taste.

 

One of the biggest unknowns in the game is the quality of the player's tactics. Players vary in their tactical apptitude and then there are always those nights that they think more or less clearly.

 

I rarely run one-shot games. Usually I have an adventure build-up with lesser encounters at first. This gives me a chance to guage the power and capabilities of the player characters. I find this to be critical in a new campaign. After a while I get a pretty good sense of just what the players can and can't handle.

 

I am not above fudging a few things if I necessary to help out the play balance, but I only do this if it is apparent to me I have screwed up the power level. I fudge as little as possible and not at all if I can help it. If a villian or team that I have devised mops up the players I try to make sure that in subsequent encounters conditions have changed. Perhaps there just happens to be a condition that hurts the villian and helps the players during their next encounter. Perhaps a weakness is discovered.

 

On the occation that I under power my villian. Perhaps he is actually the front man for the villian they'll meet next week. That wasn't Doom it was a Doombot.

 

There is no easy answer.

Perhaps a variation on Danger Sense. The character is so attuned to their team mates that they can sense their attacks just in time to avoid them. Require a Danger Sense roll.

Perhaps a telepath with a psychic bond to team mates, who also happens to have desolidification powers?

 

Its a pretty cool idea but I'm with rjcurrie on this one. How can you justify it?

Edit: Well I saw the first attempt you made at posting the Omega Truck, briefly. Since your post just went away I guess I you are still experimenting with export templates. I'll have to check back tomorrow and see how it has turned out. BTW I like the truck picture you found. That is just about perfect.

 

FYI: When the campaign ended they had an upgraded design on the drawing boards that would have boosted the armor slightly (upto 12) and addeed a 7.62mm minigun in a retractable turret. Very nasty weapon.