BoloOfEarth

Like Clarion, Tony Hall remembers voices but they were ones he recognized: his brother Mike and sister-in-law Nicole, both blaming Tony for their son's drowning. As he lay comatose, Tony had nightmares of that fateful winter day on the lake, teaching his nephew how to ice skate. Hearing the echoing crack as the ice split. Seeing young JJ going underwater. Trying desperately to save his nephew and getting pulled into the water himself. The shocking cold of the water, robbing him of all warmth. And then the darkness, which never lasted long enough before the nightmare began anew. But eventually the continuous nightmares stopped, or at least paused. He awoke to find himself lying on a hospital bed, chilled to the bone despite numerous blankets piled atop him. The only background noise was the rhythmic beeping of various pieces of medical equipment. He tried to call out for help, but he could barely make a noise with vocal cords long-unused and half-frozen. He lay confused a few minutes until a nurse arrived. She seemed shocked that he was awake, and when she touched him, he grabbed her arm. Tony felt warmth moving into his hand, then up his arm. The nurse opened her mouth to scream, but it was quickly cut off as a rime of ice coated her completely. Tony maintained his grip on her arm until the warmth suffused his entire body. As he released the nurse's arm, he could see her lifeless eyes staring out through a thick coating of ice. As Tony took this in, another woman entered the room, followed by a young man. "You are awake," the woman said to Tony. "Good. Bartos, unhook our new friend." Tony couldn't place her accent, but her voice made his heart leap for joy at her calling him her new friend. He tried to croak out a 'thank you' but she waved it away as inconsequential. The woman glanced at the flash-frozen nurse, murmured something in a foreign tongue, and then turned back to Tony. "I am Clarion. This is Bartos. You will come with us now. You have been in coma for six years. Will be weak. We help you stand." As Bartos and Clarion each took an arm, Tony got to his feet unsteadily. "Your skin is like ice," Clarion said. Tony nodded and said, "Ice," but his dry throat hurt from the effort. "Water," he said, hoping for a drink to wash away the ache in his throat. "Ice Water, is good name," said Clarion as the trio left the room. "Come, friend, we have others awakening."

I think that, done properly, CLOWN and Foxbat would fill separate comedic niches. An adventure with Foxbat should be like participating in a Second City comedy improv routine. An adventure with CLOWN should be like participating in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Sorry, didn't see this until today. I don't see them crossing swords all that much. I can't imagine CLOWN thinking they can shame Foxbat very well. and I don't see how CLOWN would fit into any of Foxbat's "Master Plans"TM, patent pending (though anything possible in the fruit-loopy mind of Foxbat). I could see Freddy admiring something clever that CLOWN did and trying to imitate them, with disastrous results.

Kinda-sorta, I think. IIRC, original CLOWN mainly wanted people to loosen up in general. I got the impression their pranks were generally less focused and more scattershot, with a strong element of them just "having fun," often at others' expense - including the PC heroes, often without a good reason why CLOWN is targeting them except that they're handy targets. Hermit's version seems more goal-oriented socially and ethically, whenever possible trying to make the punishment fit the (perceived) crime. Here's the post I put up for Scenarios for CLOWN, which quotes Hermit's original post: http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/90140-scenarios-for-clown/

Stronghold Corrupted, Part 3: The lift lowers, but Honey Badger snatches the now-freed warden away so it goes down empty. After a few moments, they hear: Anti-Pope: Does Just Cause want to come down and plaaaaay? Honey Badger: I should totally put on the hat I took from him last time before jumping down. GM: Did you bring it with you? Honey Badger: (pout) Probably not. GM: Tell you what, I'll give you an INT roll to think about bringing it beforehand. (HB succeeds in roll) Okay, now you should realize that you took that hat before PRIMUS arrived, so they never got a chance to check it out. So they thought the Anti-Pope's powers were intrinsic. As you put his hat on your head, you realize that you're hearing the thoughts of all of the Corrupted members down below. Honey Badger: Does that mean I can teleport, too? GM: Maybe. You've never tried it before, but sure, go ahead. What's the worst that could happen? (evil grin; pause) Oh, and it might occur to you that if you're Mind Linked to them, they're all Mind Linked to you. And through Circe's Mind Link to the rest of your team. Honey Badger: (quickly takes off hat) Still, the brief connection allowed Honey Badger to know where the various Corrupted members are positioned. Their front-line fighters (Triptych, Father Hook, Shadow Paladin, and Unholy Warrior) are positioned around the lift itself, with Inquisition, Archbishop Licheus, and the Anti-Pope farther away. The heroes drop down the hole (except for Pops, who stays on the rooftop as his AP Teleport will allow him to get inside if they close the hatch) and engage the Corrupted. Father Hook takes on Honey Badger. Father Hook: Thou shouldst prepare to die, mortal. Honey Badger: (defiantly) Who are you calling mortal? Unholy Warrior is ripping into several heroes at a time with his enchanted weighted blades on chains (2m Reach, with 1d6 RKA Damage Shield, 2x Penetrating), causing BODY damage to several heroes, so Pops decides to take care of him. Pops: I look inside, and teleport him outside and off the rooftop as far as I can. I'm hoping the guards in the Zap Towers are paying attention and want to do a little skeet shooting. On the guards' next Phase, two of them take shots at Unholy Warrior as he's falling. One hits. Honey Badger: What are they shooting? Other than Unholy Warrior, I mean. GM: They're pulson cannons. Remotely operated, so there aren't actually any guards in the towers. HB: Pulsons? GM: In game terms, a 24d6 energy blast. Pops, would you like to roll 24 dice for me? Pops: 92 STUN. GM: Ouch. Please count BODY too, since he only has 20 total PD. (realized I forgot to roll Unholy Warrior's armor activation -- and get an 18) Um, never mind. It doesn't look like he's going to need an exorcism after all. One problem with Father Hook -- he gets a STR boost from a potion, which also makes his possibly go berserk in combat. Unfortunately for the Corrupted, he does go berserk, and the closest target is Shadow Paladin. Honey Badger: I was going to attack Hook, but I think I'll just let him have some fun for now. After taking a good poke from Hook, Shadow Paladin runs to the other side of Nexus. Shadowboxer: He doesn't have to turn fast, he just has to run faster than you. The Archbishop hits Honey Badger with a Ray of Enfeeblement (9d6 STR Drain), taking him down 22 STR (after Power Defense). After letting him suffer for a Phase or two, the GM has a moment of weakness himself. Honey Badger: That's it. I'm useless. GM: (to Honey Badger) It's too bad your team doesn't have anybody who can make something on the fly to restore your strength. Honey Badger: You mean, like, a Gadget Pool? (looks at Maker pointedly) Maker: Wait... I can do that? GM: (shrug) With a half Phase and a Gadgeteering roll, anything's possible. You'll have to drop your radar to make an Enervation Ray without losing your magnetic field generators, but it's do-able. Meanwhile, Shadowboxer notices that Anti-Pope's defensive teleport (additional DCV) is off, so he grabs the leader of the Corrupted. The Anti-Pope responds by not only teleporting himself away, but also uses Aportation to teleport Father Hook right in front of Shadowboxer. Shadowboxer: Ooo. Didn't see that coming. Pops: Yeah, us teleporters can be a pain, can't we? Inquisition is giving the heroes headaches (literally), so Pops opens a teleport gate next to Honey Badger, with the other end directly behind Inquisition. Honey Badger: (to Archbishop, who he's been fighting) Wait here, I'll be right back. It was a long fight, but eventually the heroes took down all of the Corrupted that were there. Leaving the incoming prisoner transport with War Nun and Mother Supreme, plus Ripper, Rad, and Major Justice. Maker: It's almost 11:00. Are we going to run that tonight, or next week? GM: Tell you what. Circe hasn't been doing anything this whole fight. No reason she can't have been Mind Scaning to lock onto Ripper, and then start piling on the cumulative Mind Control. As soon as Mother Supreme releases Ripper's restraints, he punches her in the face. Repeat until unconscious. Meanwhile, Rad and Major Justice can make short work of War Nun, then put Ripper back nighty-night. Malarky: Stronghold's going to need a new prisoner transport when they're done... I was a little sad that the heroes never got to face Mother Supreme, though. GM: I had a lot of fun naming her powers. Her defenses were A Hard Habit to Break. Her movement was Flying Nun. Nothing Gets Past Mother: +2 with all PER. Enhanced senses for Mother Sees All. Then there's her Multipower: Mother's Encouragement for an Aid, Mother's Loving Touch for Healing, Mother's Curse for an AP Mental Blast, Mother Says STOP for her Mental Entangle, and of course her Mind Control was Do As Mother Says.

Stronghold Corrupted, part 2: About 5 days after Necroma's exorcism, the hero team gets a call from the Stronghold warden's secretary (Deborah Torres), informing them that UNTIL agents in Nicaragua have located an item they believe had belonged to Tomas Guevara, the missionary possessed to become Inquisition. The item is due to arrive at Stronghold that night, and they'd like to perform the exorcism the next day at 2 pm. Since Circe doesn't know about such an item being found, they get paranoid and call Warden Wildman directly for confirmation. Their paranoia assuaged, they agree to travel to Stronghold the next day at 2 pm for Inquisition's exorcism. The next morning at 10:30 am, they get another call from Torres verifying they will be coming for the exorcism, and also letting them know that a prisoner transfer is en route to the Boston PRIMUS base with four of their past foes -- Abyss and Augur from A-Team, Stinger from Deathstroke, and Fat Cat from the Corporate Raiders. All are scheduled for trial within the next few days. Unfortunately, the heroes were never informed of any such trials. Cue more paranoia. They call the warden, who confirms what Torres said and lets them know who contacted Stronghold in the first place (Charles Bowen, a court clerk in Boston). The heroes then contact the Boston PRIMUS base for confirmation, reaching Lt. Det. Daniel Williams (not exactly the heroes' greatest friend). GM: Who's talking to Det. Williams? (the players all shake their heads and point at each other) Det. Williams: Hello? Who is this? Shadowboxer: All Williams hears is a bunch of whispered 'You talk to him,' 'Not me,' 'I talked to him last time, it's your turn!' Williams confirms the prisoner transfer and gives them Bowen's name as well, along with the case numbers for the trials. Shadowboxer: I call the court to confirm the case numbers. GM: You ask for Bowen? Shadowboxer: No, I want to talk to anybody but Bowen. GM: That's okay. He's not in today. But the clerk you talk to confirms the cases. 'Yep, case 9024836-B, Phillips, public indecency. Case 9033428-A, the Powells, disturbing the peace..." The heroes also learn that Bowen's body was found yesterday evening in his garage. Preliminary coroner findings are a heart attack five days ago. However, Bowen's coworkers confirm that he was in to work, hale and hearty, three days ago. They call the warden back to let him know the prisoner transfer was bogus. Malarky: Unless Fat Cat exposed himself during the battle at the mall and I just blocked it out, the case numbers don't match to those supervillains. The prisoner transport is already en route, so the warden puts them in touch with the pilot, who confirms all is peachy. Nonetheless, the heroes convince the warden to divert the transport vehicle to Fort Riley and arrange for PRIMUS agents to meet them there. The heroes teleport there and, once the transport lands, Honey Badger steps inside. Pilot: (opens cockpit door and looks out at Honey Badger) What's the deal? The prisoners are all behaving themselves. I even had Stephanie check on them just before we landed. (looks over at the cockpit seat) Tell him what you saw when you checked on 'em. (long silence, then pilot looks at Honey Badger) Okay? Honey Badger: Who are you talking to? Pilot: My copilot. (gestures at the empty copilot seat, sighs heavily) C'mon. (opens door to prisoner section, which is completely devoid of people) See? All okay. (walks back and checks on the restraints on an empty chair) Power suppression all in order. (looks at empty seat) Yeah, whatever, Stinger. You're not going anywhere but to trial, and then back to your cell in Stronghold. The heroes review video from the cameras in the transport vehicle. They see four prisoners and seven guards board the vehicle. Malarky: I'll bet those weren't guards with them. They were other prisoners. After taking off and reaching cruising speed/altitude, the guards remove their helmets and relax. GM: (pulls out map of transport vehicle and points to various seats, starting with the copilot and working back) Scatterbrain. Union. Agrippa. Requiem. Chiller. Shockwave. Daytrader. Over Amarillo, the transport slowed and dropped in altitude (supposedly due to turbulence), where Agrippa teleports away with the other villains. The heroes are convinced the Corrupted are involved in some way, since this is happening the same day as Inquisition's upcoming exorcism. Malarky: Have any of them worked with the Corrupted before? GM: Not that you know of. The only mystical one is Agrippa, and you know that he's Hunted by DEMON. Since the Corrupted have worked with DEMON, it's not likely they'd be chums. Honey Badger: (considering the villains who escaped) Are we the only heroes putting anyone into Stronghold? GM: No. In fact, during your tour of Stronghold after Necroma's exorcism, you saw a decent number of villains you've never met before. (pause) Odd, isn't it, how the the only villains to escape are ones that Just Cause captured? It's almost like someone arranged it just to piss you off. As the heroes prepare to teleport to Stronghold, Circe contacts them via the Mind Link. Circe: I just got the weirdest phone call from Rad [formerly A-Bomb of the A-Team but convinced by Circe to become a hero instead]. He's all geeked because he and Major Justice are accompanying Ripper to Stronghold. They stopped him from trashing a cathedral in Los Angeles last week. Anyway, Rad says that the church sent a couple of nuns to bless the transport, and they're on the flight too. Honey Badger: Crap. That'd be War Nun and... who's the one we haven't met yet? GM: Mother Supreme. Honey Badger: The gang's all here. Just Cause opts to head to Stronghold before the transport can arrive. Honey Badger: Do we really want to be fighting all of the Corrupted, plus Ripper? I don't think so. GM: The only Corrupted member they're bringing up for the exorcism is Inquisition. Honey Badger: Riiiight. All of them will be there. One problem: Stronghold has power negation systems. When the heroes toured the prison, they were given special magnetic field generators to wear that allowed them to retain their powers. Maker: Can I build one with my gadget pool? GM: Oddly enough, my notes do include a writeup for a "Maker Magnetic Field Generator". Change Environment, Personal Surface, Usable Simultaneously by up to 8 people... The heroes arrive on the rooftop of Main Security. The iris valve hatch opens and the lift raises with Warden Wildman. As they fill him in on the escaped prisoners, Nexus notices that he's not alone. GM: (to Nexus) You can see that the Warden currently has a spirit riding along with him. (Nexus makes a roll to recognize the spirit possessing him) It's.. that b**ch! Nexus: What b**ch? GM: The spirit who led you into that apartment to Charles Aching. The one who possessed the DA's wife to force him to throw the trail for Wight. Lamia. Nexus: Oh, that b**ch! Maker quickly builds a gadget to contain her, but due to the limits of her gadget pool and the fact that it has to affect Desolid, it's only a 3d6 Entangle. Pops: You know she's going to escape while we're inside dealing with the Corrupted. GM: Not necessarily. Lamia only has a 10 STR. Pops: So she pushes her strength. GM: Only if she makes her EGO roll. (rolls 3d6) Okay, she made it, but only just, so she can only push it 5 points, giving her 3d6 versus the Entangles 3 PD. Pops: She could still whittle it down. GM: (rolls 3d6, getting two 6's and a 4, doing 2 BODY to the 3 BODY Entangle) Maker: (to Pops) Shut up! You're NOT HELPING! (to be concluded)

Quotes (Part 1) from my Champions campaign, Stronghold Corrupted adventure: The news for the week had an article about members of Just Cause going to Stronghold to observe and assist in the exorcism of Necroma, one of the Corrupted supervillain group. (This was originally a group of a dozen missionaries in Nicaragua who had been kidnapped by cultists who then summoned evil spirits to possess the missionaries' bodies. The heroes know this.) I didn't actually run the exorcism before giving them the news sheets. Malarky: Did I miss something? GM: No, I'm going to start with the exorcism itself. Malarky: Well, at least we know up front that it worked. Discussing travel plans: GM: (to Pops) So, you're going to teleport everyone to Stronghold? Malarky: Even Maker? Pops: That's right. She keeps messing with the teleport. Maker: What? No, I'm not! That was some villain doing it. Pops: No, I can tell it's coming from you. You'll have to take a bus to New Mexico. Malarky: Yeah, you've got Teleport Herpes. Since they have a few days beforehand, Pops and Maker decide to first try tracking down what is causing Maker to misdirect Pops' long distance teleport. Maker builds a device to scan for energy effects that occur during teleportation, and they test it out. GM: How far are you teleporting? Pops: Just a few kilometers. GM: Okay. (has Maker roll 3d6) Pops, you end up where you targeted. Maker, you have to kick on her flight so you don't fall into the Charles River. Another test. GM: Again, Pops ends up where he targeted. Maker finds herself inside a self-storage unit in Cambridge. Shadowboxer: The important question is, did you pay your monthly rental fee? Maker: It's not my storage unit! Pops: I think next time I'll try teleporting across the country, see which state she ends up in. The particular energy signatures pinned down, Maker learns that not only is she kicking out this energy -- so is her costume, gadgets, even her entire lab. Maker: Is there anything I can do to get rid of this energy? GM: You can build something to remove the taint, as it were. It'll take about five minutes to scrub you and your costume clean. However, you notice that a little while after doing so, you begin accumulating that energy again, slow but sure. Pops: All I know is, when I leave her lab, I'm taking a long, hot shower. After a few days fruitless searching (and some really bad skill rolls), Maker finally determines that the broadcast energy from the bots she stole liberated from VIPER is causing the energy taint. Malarky: Looks like someone got pissed that you keep stealing their stuff. Maker: What? I only have two! GM: More like five. Maker: No, I have one old flyer bot, and one new one. Remember, the other new flyer bot got trashed by DEMON agents at the mall. GM: And the flyer bot you sent to the Cross-Rip dimension that never came back. Shadowboxer: Plus the Johnny Five [roller bot]. GM: And however many lab bots you took from that raid on the VIPER lab. Maker: (sulks) After shutting down the broadcast energy and complete scrubbing, they try another teleport test. GM: (to Maker) Okay, make another 3d6 roll. Maker: You've got to be kidding me! GM: Yep. Just messing with you. The teleport works fine. The heroes travel to Stronghold, and I hand them some printed info about the superprison as well as maps copied from the Stronghold sourcebook. Nexus: (sarcastic) Yeah, nothing's going to go wrong here. GM: What? The article says everything went fine! (pause) Should I pull out the hexmap of the area where they're doing the exorcism? Nexus: Did you make one? GM: Maaaaaybe. (grins) So, the deputy warden says that they'll either need to shut off the power negation systems there or do this on the rooftop, since they're not sure if the power suppression would interfere with the exorcism. Malarky: Shut off power negation throughout the prison?! GM: No, just on Level 6 of Main Security. Malarky: Well, that's okay then. Circe's player wasn't there yesterday, so there's some discussion on what the team mentalist will be doing. GM: Would Circe be using telepathy on Necroma during the exorcism? Y'know, to make sure the spirit really does leave her? Malarky: (heavy sarcasm) Yeah, be mentally linked to the possessed person when the evil spirit is forced out of that body, with nowhere to go. Can't see how that could go bad. Shadowboxer: That's the price you pay for not coming to the game. Despite that, we decide she will only establish telepathy after the exorcism is done. They're introduced to the priest, Father Joseph Bainbridge, who will perform the exorcism. Maker: Wait, Bainbridge? Don't we know him? GM: If so, it's a complete coincidence, because when I typed my notes for the game earlier today I just opened this random name generator booklet you gave me and (closes eyes, opens booklet to a random page, jabs finger at the page, and opens eyes) ...Joseph... (closes eyes again, jabs finger elsewhere on another page) ... Bainbridge! Malarky watches the exorcism (ceremony? ritual? not sure what term to use) from the POV of the student of magic he is. GM: The exorcism itself takes about 20-30 minutes, lots of prayers and statements in Latin, use of holy water and blessed incense, what have you. Malarky notes the various places throughout where he recognizes actual magical elements, with a fair amount of strictly religious elements that he's not sure are absolutely necessary. Malarky: Could I trim it down if necessary? GM: You could maybe do a short version in 3-4 minutes. Honey Badger: (quoting from Spaceballs) Right! The short, SHORT version! Do you? Yes! Do you? Yes! Good, you're married! Kiss her! Contrary to the players' paranoid expectations, the exorcism goes off without a hitch and is successful. Circe telepathically confirms that the former missionary (Lydia Chavez) is free from possession. However, all is not sunshine and roses... Circe: (through Mind Link to teammates) That girl is seriously messed up. All the things she was forced to witness and remembers doing while she was possessed... she's extremely depressed, borderline suicidal. Lydia: (to Circe) Please, is there anything you can do, take away those memories? I'd rather not remember any of that, ever. Circe: I'm sorry, dear, that's not in my wheelhouse. Yet. Pops: But she's working on it. The heroes are discussing finding the other items to allow them to exorcise the rest of the Corrupted, and the staff psychologist at Stronghold has a suggestion. Dr. Crawford: (to Circe) Is it possible Lydia could provide you information, from her memories of the time she was possessed, to tell you where the items were hidden? Or failing that, info that could help you locate the cultists, so they can tell you where to find the items? Having her actively helping free her fellow missionaries might help her get past the things she did while possessed. And you could telepathically help her come to grips with things along the way. (OOC) This is the GM's heavy-handed way of having Circe not be a direct part of this adventure, but still helping move the plot along. Pops: Circe, going down to Nicaragua by herself? GM: Well, the two UNTIL agents that brought the tainted first aid kit needed for Necroma's exorcism will agree to accompany her. Malarky: Two random UNTIL agents? GM: No, Lt. Truxillo and Sgt. Ishada. [note: these were GM-supplied characters played by Shadowboxer's and Maker's players the week before]. Malarky: Oh, that's okay then. They're good. GM: Plus, she'll maintain the Mind Link with the other Just Cause members. If she gets into trouble, you can always "Pops" down there and lend a hand. Pops: If I'm not too busy with that cellular regeneration project. After arriving in Nicaragua, Circe reports on her progress. Circe: We've located where the initial possession ritual was done. (pause) The Nicaraguan federales have a refreshingly accepting view of using mental powers on suspected cultists. (to be continued)

I'm using the concept posted on this forum, I think by Hermit (though my apologies if I'm wrong), where CLOWN is using satire and pranks to raise social consciousness and bring the high and mighty down a peg.

My characters loved to hate Deathstroke, especially Death Commando, so I ignored current CU history in their regard and kept the full team alive and intact, adding one member for my current campaign: Draconic. He's a good ol' boy who happened to find one of Dr. Draconis' old (1st-gen) battlesuits. It's worked out well so far.

Daniel Dickson did, IMO, a pretty good revamp of Professor Muerte and new minions (not necessarily Terror, Inc.) in Digital Hero issue #44. By having Muerte raised from the dead by Takofanes, his revamp even works within the existing CU history. Which reminds me -- I should probably introduce my players to the bad professor some time.

It's even more expensive than that. He was looking to combine 17d6 + 6d6 for a whopping 23d6.

Still going through it, slowly due to work/home stuff taking precedence, but here's a little more feedback, starting with positives. I like the inclusion of related side information (e.g. Astral Information with Dukhobor's writeup, or Alternate Histories for Chisel's country). The "Names, Names, Names" piece gave me about as much of a feel for the Cartel's member personalities as their writeups did, along with a feel for how they night interact. I think things like that really flesh out a work and make it fun to read, as well as potentially more useful. I also appreciated the "Optional Complications", with text explanations for each. As a GM, I'm fond of Plot Seeds to help me find ways to incorporate characters, and am pleased that Shared Origins: Dynatron looks to have plenty of seeds to sow. I also like the character Facts, with info based on skill roll made. The sample characters have a range of power levels, which is good. Since the Rainbow Cartel members are (barring Red Giant) all low-powered (300 points) by design, I'd have made all the other characters at least 400 points, but since Orb is the only non-Cartel 300-pointer, that's a fairly minor quibble. Haven't delved into the actual character writeups yet, so I won't comment further on those yet. And while the work is titled "Shared Origins," it does periodically mention ways that a GM could use the Dynatron beyond basic origin stories. I'd have suggested a separate section dedicated to this, but at least thought was given to continued / extra campaign use, which I appreciated. Another thought I had was, since the Dynatron can provide various power levels, perhaps providing one character with three writeups -- Low, Medium, and High Powered, highlighting appropriate differences based on the time spent in the Dynatronic process for each. Just a thought. Overall, I'm still enjoying reading it. Just wish I could dedicate more time to it.

Yep, that's what I was thinking.

Dark Knight gross profits (adjusted for inflation): $639 million Dark Knight Rises gross profits (adjusted): $496 million Captain America: First Avenger gross profits (adjusted): $269 million Captain America: Winter Soldier gross profits (adjusted): $192 million Avengers gross profits (adjusted): $662 million Avengers: Age of Ultron gross profits (adjusted): $461 million Going one-on-one, the Dark Knight wins quite handily. But if Cap has his friends along, Bats is going down.

59 elections, 340 candidates, 44 exploratory committees, 38 focus groups, and 218 debates later, we're still in the dark. In other words, the world may never know. [Note: The above numbers are as precise as any figures spouted by a political candidate. In other words, not at all.]

Continuing "A Village Corrupted" The group has figured out that some cultists must have summoned the demon hound to kill the villager, but why? When they figure out that another demon hound has been keeping watch on the clinic, and also find out that the dead man had reported seeing a demon hound near the clinic, some of them want to check the place out. Pedro asks Doreen to make a donation to the clinic in exchange for him getting some supplies for his first aid kit. GM: As a Red Cross worker, you have a pretty good field kit already. Pedro: Shhhh! No I don't! I'll need to pick up a few things, preferably while Doreen keeps the volunteer nurse busy so I can look around. Det. Fuentes doesn't trust Pedro and is following him around inside the clinic, pointedly flipping his handcuffs on his index finger. Pedro fails all of his Concealment rolls. Pedro: It's the handcuff thing. It's throwing off my concentration. The group decides to stay the night in the village. Sgt. Ishada, Det. Artega, and Sgt. Chamaro decide to "rough it" on the hill overlooking the clinic, while Lt. Truxillo, Doreen, and Pedro convince one of the local ranchers to let them stay in a bunkhouse on their property. Leaving Det. Fuentes to stay in his car overnight, parked within sight of both the bunkhouse and the clinic. Pedro: (to Det. Fuentes) You know, all alone like that, if this was a horror movie you'd be the one they go after first. But the detective isn't worried about getting attacked. Probably because, unbeknownst to everybody else, he is in league with the cultists (using his position as a fed to sidetrack or bury investigations into cult-related crimes). He also has use of an invisible spirit to do his bidding (TK, Flight, and deflect attacks ala Resistant Protection). And he knows an item is hidden in the wall of the clinic -- a stolen Mexican Red Cross first aid kit used in the summoning ritual that created the Corrupted. Thus, everybody's interest in the clinic, along with Pedro asking about Red Cross first aid kits, has Fuentes rather concerned. He sneaks away to arrange for the cultists in town to summon another demon hound to attack the group watching the clinic, while the cultists themselves set fire to the bunkhouse. Too bad Fuentes doesn't know about Pedro's precognitive dreams. Pedro: Doreen! Lieutenant! You must wake up! I think we are in danger! Lt. Truxillo: What? In danger? How do you know that? Pedro: Um... I heard something... outside... (mumble mumble) Doreen: Did you have a vision of something happening? Pedro: You really suck at keeping a secret. You know that, right? Truxillo radios Sgt. Ishada to warn her they're about to be attacked, and she spots a demon hound sneaking up to the rear of their position. Soon, the night's silence is broken by automatic gunfire and magical fire blasts as the battle is joined. Or two battles, as one group fights a demon hound while the other group fights cultists. The forces of good have taken down the demon hound and most of the cultists when Det. Fuentes notices something. GM: (taking player aside) You see a second demon hound heading toward the clinic. Det. Fuentes: What? Why? That wasn't part of the plan! GM: It looks like De la Cruz thought he'd be clever. Probably summoned a second hound and sent it to get the hidden first aid kit before the good guys find it. Fuentes: #&**@&^!*&^@!! Okay, if I see an opportunity, I'll use my TK to mess with the good guys' aim or whatever. Sgt. Ishada had hidden some micro cameras and bugs in the clinic earlier, so she sees the demon hound crash through a side window and head for the supply closet, just as they KO the first demon hound. Chamaro: Go to the clinic, I'll finish this one off. (pulls out grenade and sticks it into the creature's mouth) Ishada: At least wait until I'm outside the blast radius! Ishada, in her stealth suit, runs to the clinic and dives through another side window. GM: The creature turns to you and hisses. Ishada: How does it know I'm there? I'm invisible! GM: Maybe the window shattering inward was its first clue. Fuentes has climbed in the window broken by the demon hound and is looking through the doorway as Chamaro leans in the other window and takes aim at the creature with his assault carbine. GM: (rolls dice) As Sgt. Chamaro takes aim, he hears a "thunk" as his weapon magazine drops to the floor. You still have a round in the chamber, but that's all you have right now: one shot. He takes the shot, and Ishara jumps on the creature's back to try a Choke Hold, while Det. Artega runs to the front door to kick it open. However, (after the GM receives and quickly checks a text on his cell phone) Chamaro then notices something more worrisome: the pin from one of his grenades, floating away from him. Chamaro: What the... (BOOM!) Luckily, neither he nor Ishara take a lot of damage, though Fuentes gets hit with some shrapnel. But then Artega charges in and has remarkable luck with his pistol, taking the second demon hound down. Ishada: Be aware, there is someone around here using Mage Hand. Possibly invisible. Doreen: (to Pedro) Can you scan for minds? Pedro: I can try. (He uses his Mind Scan) GM: You only find the villagers, none nearby, plus the KO'd cultists and of course all of you. Of course, that only detects human minds... The good guys collect the hidden first aid kit (covered with magical sygils painted in blood) and call in backup to cart off the cultists to the nearest jail cells. They also search the vicinity, including using Doreen's Detect Magic spell, all without success. Unfortunately, before they can question the cultists the next morning, the three men are found dead in their cells. GM: It looks like cyanide. Fuentes: Heh. Serves 'em right. Truxillo: I searched them! Even their mouths! I wouldn't miss a poison pill in a tooth! GM: I know In fact, you're certain they didn't have anything on them when they were locked up, and checking them now, you don't see a fake tooth or anything. An autopsy later reveals the remains of a capsule in each cultist's stomach. Truxillo: So someone must have slipped them poison capsules when they were in the cells. Crap. I don't think the other players ever did figure out Fuentes' duplicitous nature. Should be interesting when the superheroes arrive...

I tend to tie my campaign to real time, with some wiggle room for multi-session or time-intensive arcs. I try to put out a news sheet (the Heronet Herald) each game session, which helps keep things on track. The hard part is incorporating major real-world events, or when the game world sometimes has major events that are decidedly not real-world (such as an alien invasion). None of my players is that hung up on the minutia of "why did X happen if supers can do Y" so I can hand-wave a lot of that stuff.

You know how some comic books will have a few pages involving people other than the main character(s) -- typically setting up the story for that issue. Every now and then, I pull that in my Champions campaign, having the players run a set of characters I generate. That is what I did Sunday evening. The temp PCs consisted of: Lt. Vicente Truxillo -- UNTIL Intel / Forensic agent originally from Spain Sgt. Shiiko Ishada -- UNTIL Surveillance originally from Japan, with stealth suit and stealth drone Detective Rodrigo Fuentes -- Nicaraguan federal police officer (20+ years on the force) Detective Alfredo Artega -- Nicaraguan federal police officer with luck powers 1st Sgt. "Oso" Chamaro -- Nicaraguan soldier assigned to protect the federales, primarily Det. Artega. Doreen Park -- wealthy US citizen who is magically adept Pedro Sandoval -- Nicaraguan Red Cross worker with minor psionic and precognitive powers, serving as a guide to Doreen Park During the first adventure of this campaign, the rest of the hero team had poked a little fun at Maker (a Chinese American) for being a ninja, with her repeatedly responding "I'm Chinese, not Japanese!" When I took each player aside to go over any secret stuff on their character sheets: Sgt. Ishada (played by Maker's character): (OOC) You made her Japanese and gave her Ninjutsu skills just to mess with me, didn't you? GM: Yes, as a matter of fact. Yes I did. Det Alfredo Artega: (OOC) If anybody gets hungry, I happen to be a tasty pasta dish. 1st Sgt. Chamaro: (OOC) This all takes place in Nicaragua -- do we have to speak Spanish the whole game? A respected farmer in a small Nicaraguan village reported seeing "demonic dogs" and then two days later died in mysterious circumstances. The UNTIL agents and federales meet at the police morgue in a nearby city, examining the body with the coroner. Dr. Cabarus: The lethal wound goes clean through the body. The murder weapon was triangular in size, about 4cm on a side entering the back, and tapering down to about half that exiting just under the sternum. Lt. Truxillo: How much force would be needed to do that? Dr. Cabarus: Oh, you'd need a good amount of force. Someone strong like... the sergeant there. (points to Chamaro) Det. Fuentes: You wouldn't happen to have a triangular-shaped spear, would you, sergeant? Chamaro: (whistles innocently while miming leaning on a large spear) Meanwhile, Doreen and Pedro arrive in the town to look into the strange murder. Doreen is looking for items believed to be connected to a ritual where evil other-world spirits were able to possess a group of missionaries, thus creating the villain team The Corrupted. The town is on her list of places to search. The crime scene is being watched by a local police officer, Raoul. Doreen: Is there any chance I can bribe him to let me check out the crime scene? GM: Let's see how honest he is. Lower is better for you. (rolls 3 on 3d6) I'd call that a "yes" on you bribing him. Raoul: You look thirsty. I'll just run over to the general store and buy you a drink with this fifty you gave me. Doreen: That's an expensive bottle of pop. The federales and UNTIL agents are discussing what kinds of vehicles each pair has. Det. Fuentes: How about this one? (shows picture of armored personnel carrier with MG, painted bright blue with "Policia" on the side) GM: I'm going to say... no. GM: The UNTIL agents will want something nondescript. Det. Fuentes: Like a Cadillac Escalade? The detectives and UNTIL agents arrive in town to see the crime scene unmanned, and a pair of civilians walking around nearby. Det. Fuentes: I believe Raoul will be looking for a new job soon... (to Pedro and Doreen) What are you two doing contaminating my crime scene? Pedro: No! No! The crime scene is over there! We are over here! Det. Fuentes: You know, we have some very interesting prisons here in Nicaragua. Doreen: (reaching for her wallet) Maybe for a hundred, we can... Pedro: NO! NO! (stage whisper) Senorita, you do NOT offer money to the federales! (pause) If they want some, they will ask. Pedro helpfully points out some unusual tracks he found about 6m away from the pool of dried blood and leading off into the woods. Pedro: Capitan? El general? Det. Fuentes: Detective. Pedro: El capitan it is. I found some tracks you might want to see... Det. Fuentes: Do they happen to match your boots? Pedro: Me? No! I have no boots! (mimes kicking off his shoes) I am barefoot, see? Pay no attention to those boots over there... The tracks definitely came from an animal and are consistent with a "demon hound" mentioned in a PRIMUS report shared with UNTIL. That creature had been summoned by DEMON brothers in the Boston area, and was used to hunt down and kill select individuals. The motley crew of federales, UNTIL agents, and civilians begin talking to people in town to see who knows what. Pedro discovers that his character sheet lists the ability to detect spoken lies. Pedro: This Rojas that the detective is questioning -- is he telling the truth that he didn't see the murder? GM: Rojas is lying like a cheap rug. Meanwhile, using her stealth drone to do an aerial search of the village, Sgt. Ishada notices more "demon hound" tracks on a hill overlooking the small clinic. Det. Fuentes goes to check it out, followed soon after by Det. Artega and Sgt. Chamaro. Chamaro: Maybe I can set up a booby trap for when the animal returns tonight. GM: When the animal gets a whiff of the detective's Aqua Velva it probably won't return there. Det. Fuentes: Please. It's Old Spice, just like my father wore. (more to follow)

Kinetik resolves to cut back on his caffeine. NT: You just won the Powerball jackpot and decide to use a chunk of the money to make a movie. What is it? (the more ridiculous, the better)

I revised the Corporate Raiders PDF with bookmarks and links.

He gave the approximate date (March 2013) and vote count (7-1) by the city council. I found a second source that gave the same info, and a YouTube video of a tv news report on the city council discussing the switch on March 25 2013, so I'm inclined to believe it.

Played right, VIPER agents can ruin a hero's day. (pause) Too bad I play them with the Cobra variant. Seriously, though, if running a Champions combat involving agents or thugs, I lump them into groups and use mass combat rules. Makes them much more effective against the heroes. They may still only last a few Phases, but they'll do some damage before they fall down.

"Hey, they're mostly poor people; we're probably reducing unemployment and the number of people on welfare! What's not to love?" Also BTW, they were originally getting their water from Detroit. Yeah, Motor City water was cleaner. And they switched back to getting water from Detroit back in October. While I happen to agree with the bulk of the article posted by Hermit, I find it interesting how it was carefully worded to completely bypass that. Though to be fair, I read another article that said that "there are concerns that lead problems persist due to damage the corrosive river water caused to the water distribution system." Also in fairness, I see that the (now ex-) emergency manager says the changeover was actually decided by the mayor and city council 7 months before the emergency manager took over.

BTW, the water changeover happened after a state-appointed emergency manager took over in Flint. To quote the Detroit Free Press:

Hey, it's not like they were written up by a lawyer, y'know.