So I began the Necessary Evil Plot Point Campaign tonight.




WARNING:  THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!





TURN BACK NOW!




LAST CHANCE!




OKAY...You were warned.





The group is two PCs and three Wild Card allies (to make up for the low number of players.)

Mindstorm – a telekinetic, weather controlling mutant, with a forceful personality but also a superiority complex - (played by my friend Kenny) is scraping by on the streets of Star City when he's scooped up by the Fins on a patrol.

Angel's Bane (played by my friend Tommy) is a demon on Earth, forming a cult due to people willing to latch onto anything in the face of the alien invasion for aid and comfort, even a walking Hellbeast.  An alien sweep wipes out his cult and subdues him.

They are put on a transport with some other captured criminals, including Belladona, a poisonous seductress, Bully, The Bull That Walks Like A Man, and a mysterious Atlantean sorcerer.

The transport is zipping along Central Avenue, when it was violently attacked!  The transport flips end over end, crashing to a halt...Earth's most infamous villain, Dr. Destruction, enters the craft and asks, simply: "You want to live?"

The PCs quickly agree, and board his transport.  As the carrier heads north, Dr. Destruction informs them that he wants them to become a new cell in his terrorist movement: Omega.  All they have to do is rescue an imprisoned Omegan named Mindjack and bring him back to Dr. Destruction alive.  Then he dumps them out of the carrier, plummeting to the earth, with 7 seconds to tell him whether or not they wish to join up.  As they agree, their nullifiers are obliterated.  Both PCs can fly, and Mindstorm rescues Belladonna from her fall.  Bully crashes through the roof of a prison guardhouse.  The sorcerer floats to the ground, while Angel's Bane zips through the hole.

Inside, four drones – captives that have had all their will subjugated by V'Sori implants and covered in armor – are taken completely by surprise at the bold assault.  Angel's Bane unleashes his Fear aura...except the drones are immune, and his own teammates are not!  Bully and Kale (The Sorcerer) are unfazed, but Mindstorm is Shaken and Belladonna is so traumatized that she gains a Minor Phobia from it!  Bully and Angel's Bane close to attack in melee, while Kale and Mindstorm unleash ranged attacks on the drones.  Unfortunately, nothing sticks and the next round, eight more drones join the fray!

Belladonna hangs to the back, unable to use her poisonous abilities on something covered head to toe.  One of the new drones misses Bully with an energy blast and blows a hole in one of the drones fighting Bully, causing the first casualty.  Kale decides to "borrow" some magical power from the Elder God that grants him his abilities, to cause an electrical surge to overload the drones...and instead overloads himself, gaining a level of fatigue and losing access to his sorcery for a whole day!

Mindstorm takes his cue, however, and unloads with the electrical surge on the group standing in the back firing, and rattling half of them.

One well-placed shot nearly brings Bully down, giving him three wounds, but sending him into a berserker rage!  He gores one drone, ripping him apart, and charges the group firing at them!

Angel's Bane grips the face of one drone, causing the visor to Decay away, while Mindstorm keeps zapping drones with electrical bursts.  Belladonna and Kale help Angel's Bane gang up on the drone he exposed, and she's able to use her poisonous touch to bring him down.  Kale and Angel's Bane both get shot and wounded, but Mindstorm's last surge wipes out the remaining firing drones, and leaves the Omega cell hurt but standing.

Now deciding to look for Mindjack, they find his cell and Mindstorm fruitlessly attempts to use Telekinesis to get the door open, when Angel's Bane finally laughs him off and rots the cage door down.

A Latina woman in another cage introduces herself as Valerie Ramirez and says she can make it worth their while to get her free, but Angel's Bane has no interest in doing anything other than what he agreed to, and flies out of the complex with Mindjack.  Mindstorm and Bully work Valerie's cage door over, until Mindstorm finally shocks the lock free.  Other prisoners begin screaming for release, but Mindstorm ignores them and leads Kale, Bully, Belladonna and Valerie out of the prison.

Dr. Destruction returns to them as promised, and scoffs at the extra passenger, but allows her aboard.

His carrier drops them off at Southtown, a rough neighborhood largely free of V'Sori activities...and informs them that they are now an Omega cell, whether they like it or not...and that he'll be in touch.

Mindstorm, making the best of things, starts kicking around team names, suggesting "The Evil Sideliners" in an in-joke nod to our Marvel SAGA game (Mindstorm here is an evil version of Kenny's character from that game)...while Angel's Bane shakes his head and walks away.  Bully offers up "Bully and His Bad Boys", to which Mindstorm and Belladonna react in bewilderment, and head in their own direction.  Bully is left fairly oblivious in the street as the new cell all head their own ways.

Notes: This was Kenny's first session with Savage Worlds and he was quite pleased with it.  Tommy and I had been playing it the last two Sundays, and have a pretty good hang of things.  There were a handful of times over the course of the fight that things looked scary for the Omega cell...but when Mindstorm started unloading with Electrical bursts, things got ugly fast for the drone.  Tommy has decided that Angel's Bane needs a bit of refocusing, first when his Fear had no effect on the drones and then when he couldn't get a drone to fail the Vigor roll to take a wound from Decay...so he's thinking something big and scythe-y now.  Tommy has also assured me that Angel's Bane's refusal to cooperate is all in the spirit of the game and not passive-aggressive sabotage, as he and Kenny had a grand ol' time playing villains instead of white hats for a change.  Kenny and Tommy have latched onto Belladonna and Bully already, which surprised me.

Kenny is notoriously hard to get to try new things, so I was surprised at his complete buy-in for the game, even providing boxes of HeroClix minis and maps for gameplay.  Both guys (and myself) are looking forward to next session...with anywhere from 1-3 more players POSSIBLY joining the mix.

Nice!

Hey, I'm kind of skimming your posts to avoid spoilers, but I do go to the end to see your general conclusions.  I'm curious as to how your group reacted to the initiative cards and how you feel about the plot point style adventure.  If you feel like going into it a bit...

Good to see! I'm glad to see how well and smoothly its going. (Did you use the archetypes as a base? I'm wondering because the so called super strength Brick one is WAY off.)

Quote from: walkerp;240009Nice!

Hey, I'm kind of skimming your posts to avoid spoilers, but I do go to the end to see your general conclusions.  I'm curious as to how your group reacted to the initiative cards and how you feel about the plot point style adventure.  If you feel like going into it a bit...

We have played a ton of Deadlands Classic, and (The Other) Tommy and I had been playing Savage Worlds for the last two weekends to learn the system...so the biggest adjustment was only having one card to work with per round.

I like the Plot Point campaign, myself...the structure is a nice change of pace from the typical supers game, since you're largely PRO-active instead of RE-active.

Plus, there looks to be enough leeway to play around with missions that aren't pre-written, should I feel so inclined.

Also, I am now the target Savage Worlds player: I have a dayjob, kids, plus other side endeavors (pro wrestling and writing comics) and I want to hang out with my friends and roleplay, and I don't have TIME for a bunch of work...we made two characters and played Chapter One in about 4 1/2 hours, and that's including a snack run, on a night that two of us had to get to bed early so we could go to work on Monday.

Savage Worlds is MONEY in my book.

Quote from: Silverlion;240185Good to see! I'm glad to see how well and smoothly its going. (Did you use the archetypes as a base? I'm wondering because the so called super strength Brick one is WAY off.)

Only for the NPC Sorcerer.  Everyone else was made from scratch.  Mindstorm was a ground up rebuild of Kenny's Saga character, Angel's Bane was a grounds up build from Tommy's concept, and Belladonna and Bully were just me sitting down with the books and my notes from my Sideliners comic book project that has been sitting dormant on my computer for a while.

Dumb question alert! So, could you use the NE rules to do straight up supers?

Quote from: Aos;240378Dumb question alert! So, could you use the NE rules to do straight up supers?

So far, looks like it.

Aside from the fact that they were meaner than any supers I have ran a game for, it wasn't that different.

Power level looks like it's skewed a lot lower, if you're starting at Novice.

I had read something about a possible SW Supers Toolkit which, I would assume, would use NE as a base and build from there.

Session 2!

Though the team basically scattered at the end of the last session, when they all found the commlinks Dr. Destruction gave them upon dropping them off, and he came a-calling with news that he needed them to find the villain Terron's secret lair, and to take a power relay at the warehouse he left them at with them, they all convened on their drop-off spot.

Angel's Bane toyed with Belladonna some more, and they discovered that only Bully was strong enough to carry the massive relay.  Dr. Destruction had told them at the Undergrounders living below the city probably knew where Terron's lair was at, and Angel's Bane recalled an abandoned pump station on the coast of the South Point that had a sewer entry large enough to bring the relay.

The squad (dubbed Buster Squad 5 by Mindstorm) headed underground, and wandered aimlessly in the sewers for an hour and a half before Mindstorm found a passageway into some underground caverns that had been poorly hidden...little did they know, but they barely missed a roaming pack of G'roks, these mutated lizards the V'Sori unleashed into the sewers years ago.

The villains made their way into their caverns and were quickly spotted by The Undergrounders, and ten of them met the villains, offering to take them to their leader.  The villains, on their guard because of how easy this was, were surprised to find the leader of the Undergrounders was Valerie Ramirez, whom Mindstorm released from a cell during the Mindjack jailbreak!

Crediting them for the fact that he's back with her people, Ramirez dispatched scouts to take the villains to Terron's lair!  As they prepared to leave, a young child was Angel's Bane and got greeted with a fang-filled smile, but impressed the heck out of Angel's Bane by not flinching! (Aced the heck out of a spirit roll to resist Intimidation!)  They arrived at a drainage pipe that feeds out from the lair...which was large enough for them to enter, but too small for the relay!  Upon hearing about other, collapsed entrances to the lair, the squad decided to leave Belladonna to guard the relay while they entered the lair.

Upon entering the lair, they spied the powersource...saw a pile of dead g'roks...and were attacked by the robot guardian left behind by Terron!

Bully went straight into battle with it, while Kale, Mindstorm and Angel's Bane launched attacks from afar.  Kale had a spellcasting slipup that left him shaken, while Mindstorm's lightning and Angel's Bane's fire left the thing unscathed.  The guardian drove its massive scythes into Bully, gashing him open and leaving him very, very hurt.

Angel's Bane launched fireballs at the legs of the robot while Mindstorm shot lightning at its head, but again the robot was undeterred.  Kale got desperate and tapped into darker powers, teleporting behind the robot, grabbing it and teleporting it outside one of the collapsed entryways.

Having neutralized the guardian, the team was still left to figure out how to hook up the relay...so Angel's Bane began decaying the tunnel, widening it out.  When it was wide enough, Bully hauled the relay up and they hooked it up, completing the mission.

And then things went south.  Angel's Bane decided he needed a weapon, and wanted to remove the scythes from the robot guardian...so he used his Decay power on the collapsed entryway...Bully, wounded bad enough, bailed out on this, while Mindstorm (with the Loyal hindrance) grudgingly stuck around.  Kale hung back, watching on.

Angel's Bane and the robot were immediately locked into melee, while Mindstorm tried to use electrical control to drain the robot, but only succeeded at small shortages.  Kale cast Malfunction and disabled it for a moment, but it recovered...so he summoned the earth to surround it, only to have it break free.

Kale, deciding the whole thing was quite idiotic, bailed out, joining Bully and Belladonna...while Mindstorm and Angel's Bane continued fighting.  Angel's Bane gut gutted by the robot, and it chased Mindstorm down, nearly getting him as well!

Angel's Bane rolled a critical failure on his stabilization roll...and died alone on the floor, near the g'roks in Terron's lair.

This led to a break in the game session, as Tommy (Angel's Bane) took a smoke break and brainstormed a new character, and we whipped him up...a human-badger nicknamed Socks (because of the white fur on his limbs).  We quickly devise a backstory that actually dovetails nicely with the next adventure I have planned, and viola!

Dr. Destruction informed Buster Squad 5 of the news that the power source had worked, and that he had tapped into Alpha Force's (think JLA or Avengers) computers!

A few days later, Dr. Destruction drops off a "Sorry About Your Dead Demon" card for the poor recovering villains.

They receive a communication from the Doctor, informing them that the V'Sori are breeding a new form of hybrid somewhere in Southpoint, Warhounds that can track superhuman energy signatures!

He then introduces them to Socks, who is being dropped off at their warehouse by his minions, a human-badger experiment that escaped from the V'Sori.  Then he issues his next order: Find their lab, codenamed The Dog House, kill everything inside, and burn it down.

Quick introductions are made, and Buster Squad 5 depart, with Socks attempting to track his own movements back to the Dog House.

The villains discover they are being followed...and being sized up by a hyper-drugged gang!  The gang decides that Bully's the only real threat, so they emerge and announce that they are members of the Southpoint Slashers.  Socks immediately recognizes them as a street gang known for snitching out supers to the V'sori, in exchanges for better weapons such as vibroblades!  Combat begins, with Bully quickly goring one, and Mindstorm calling down lighting on another.  Kale disorients himself with a spell gone wrong, while Socks burrows into the concrete and emerges with a brutal sneak attack on a third!  The fourth is quickly smashed and the fifth runs for it, outpacing Socks...but can't outrun the lighting as Mindstorm strikes him down.

Mindstorm takes two vibroknives for his trouble, as Belladonna quietly retrieves a vibrosword from the leader.

Socks is confronted by a crazy old bag lady who is complaining that her dog Wolf was stolen by the blue men in the flying car, points to the south west, and disappears into a wall.  Socks picks up the trail and guides the team to the old Hazel Cannery, which has been converted to a lab!

Socks darts straight into the building...which is loaded down with V'sori scientists, Fin soldiers, a dozen drones and a pair of Warhounds!

The scientists immediately headed for a Barracuda transport outside, but Socks popped up on one of them and gutted him.  Bully wiped out a drone, while Mindstorm zipped into the cannery and unleashed an electrical burst on a cluster of men.  Belladonna surprised her teammates by striding into the building with the vibrosword and beheading a drone herself!

Kale teleported into the cannery and took a defensive position as he began to subtly glow and hum with energy!

A Warhound stalked Socks but, as it tried to pounce, a drone attempted to fire pointblank at Socks and Socks redirected his cannon...blowing the Warhound's head off!

Mindstorm hung back, popping off burst after burst, while Kale exploded...to unfortunately little effect.  He did take out a V'sori scientist, and Mindstorm got one himself with another electrical burst.

One scientist made it to the transport...but Socks burrowed under the building and popped up on another that almost made it, tearing him apart before he could get there.

The drones had a disastrous round of combat, accidentally killing a handful of their own number as well as a Fin!

Kale got gutted by a Fin, and went down hard...while Bully crushed one Fin himself.  Mindstorm unleashed a powerful burst on the cluster near Kale and wiped out another scientist, as well as two Fins.

The second warhound attacked Socks on the transport...but couldn't breach his parry and got killed just as the last scientist bordered the transport!

Belladonna nearly had a mishap with a fusion grenade taken from a dead fin, but it exploded out of the way instead of between her and Bully.

The last scientist recognized Socks as V'sori handiwork, and spat that the inferior freak could not stop him...unleashing a mental blast!  Socks held firm!  The scientist attacked again...but Socks shook it off and tore him apart!

Inside the building, Bully, Mindstorm and Belladonna finished breaking the drones, while Kale lapsed into a coma.

The crew looked over the building and their options...and Bully, of all people, figured out the weak points of the building and placed 9 fusion grenades...and Mindstorm unleashed the worst lightning strikes he could muster, exploding the grenades and bringing the building down into a fiery heap!

Kale recovered from his coma, severely injured, at the end of the week...about the time Dr. Destruction congratulated the cell on their work in obliterating the Warhound project and ominously informing him that he would be in touch soon.

Notes:  I think Tommy (Angel's Bane and Socks) was dissatisfied with his first character and sabotaged himself against the robot guardian in the first adventure, getting himself killed.

Now, Necessary Evil has much less lethal rules than Savage Worlds, but I let Angel's Bane die for two reasons: 1) the sheer stupidity of going after an enemy that they had not hurt for something as silly as a trophy and 2) he did roll a critical failure on his recovery roll.

That said, he's much happier with the new character, which had impressive debut in the big battle at the Doghouse.

That brings me to my next point:  The Doghouse battle.  5 Wildcards (2 PCs and 3 NPCs) vs 5 V'Sori scientists, 5 Fins, 2 Warhounds and 12 drones...and man it played so smooooth.  29 minis on the map and the whole thing just keeped moving at such an even clip...it impressed the Hell out of me.

I'm saddened by the loss of the storyline potential of Angel's Bane's death...the eventual betrayal between him and Belladonna (whoever turned on who) was going to be fun, and now will not happen...but I think "Socks" is going to work out lovely for Tommy and that's what matters.  Similarly, I was going to work that Undergrounder kid that was unintimidated by Angel's Bane back in, but that would be a bit of a stretch now.

Second session was quite successful, with the realities of the resistance sinking in, after burying one member of the cell and two more coming dangerously close to dying...(under normal Savage Worlds rules, Kale would be dead, instead of spending nearly a week Incapacitated with a permanent injury).

Hopefully, I'll be back with more next week.

I really enjoy reading this thread. This and the other thread in the main discussion area are what got me to buy the Explorer's version of the game. I'm especially giddy over the fact that you rean such a huge battle and it went smoothly. The FFF factor SW has is its main appeal to me, so it's heartening to know that the system holds up under huge battle stress.

Is that Decay ability from another book (like the superhero book you're using)? I'm curious as to what it is but it isn't in the EE book.

-=Grim=-

Quote from: GrimJesta;243694I really enjoy reading this thread. This and the other thread in the main discussion area are what got me to buy the Explorer's version of the game. I'm especially giddy over the fact that you rean such a huge battle and it went smoothly. The FFF factor SW has is its main appeal to me, so it's heartening to know that the system holds up under huge battle stress.

Is that Decay ability from another book (like the superhero book you're using)? I'm curious as to what it is but it isn't in the EE book.

-=Grim=-

Glad I could help push you into buying it!  I am getting so much enjoyment out of Savage Worlds right now that it's nuts.  It has reignited gaming for me in a way I haven't experience since...um...since my Deadlands group fizzled out, probably.

Decay is, in fact, from Necessary Evil.  It's more useful as a non-combat power, unless you're facing an opponent with low Vigor...(contact causes a wound on a failed Vigor roll).

Session 3

After Kale was nursed back to health, and decidedly weakened from the attack (lost a die in Agility from his injuries), the team were surprised to discover that their Commlinks now gave them a "V-MAP" or V'Sori Military Activities Profile.  Their options included a Recovery Mission in The Docks, a Recruitment Mission in Aruba and a Search and Destroy Mission in Downtown.

Socks immediately latched onto "Aruba"...and so the team was briefed on Sugrot, a Fin who had been active on earth since the initial invasion and had recently turned on the V'Sori after taking down a human weapons depot, slaughtering the V'Sori with his unit, hijacking three M'Buna craft and headed for Aruba.

The team rendezvoused with a just-departing Omega Cell in The Docks, taking over a stolen Barracuda from the cell.  None of the team being experienced pilots, there a moment of much concern until Mindstorm and Socks (with very good unskilled rolls), figured out how to pilot the thing and the team set off for Aruba.  Kale stood, silently, in the cockpit with them as they went.

The team exited the Barracuda once they hit the beach and were immediately attacked by Warspheres, which is what happens to V'Sori victims that don't leave enough to turn into drones...these Warspheres had been modified with fins welded onto their tops...making them quite distinctive.

The team quickly took them apart...Bully storming in and smashing one first, Mindstorm summoning a storm to bring down lightning on them and Socks ripping them to pieces.

Socks, being the tracker, quickly picked up on the path of the Fins and the team picked their way through bombed out hotels and a nearly deserted island...making their way to a water park where Sugrot stood with his company of fifteen battle-hardened Fins.

Mindstorm opened the parley, asking Sugrot if they were the Fins that went rogue...to which Sugrot asked "What of it?"  Mindstorm gleefully offered him the opportunity to join Omega..but Sugrot turned them down, having no interest in continuing the fight for nothing.

When pressed further, he pointed out that they "Went mercenary, not charity".  Belladonna made the effort to sway them, but Sugrot was unmoved by her feminine wiles.  When things got desperate, Kale whispered to Mindstorm to promise them the location of an Atlantean vault off the coast of Aruba...and Mindstorm used his adventure deck card, (which granted him a d6 in any skill he didn't know until the end of the session), to soften Sugrot's stance with an amazing Persuade roll!

Sugrot invited the squad to feast with them while Kale and a detatchment of Fins embarked for the vault.  Once they returned, dripping with jewelry and news that there was more down there, Sugrot said they were officially "in negotiations"...then pointed out that while Bully looked tough, the rest didn't look like much...and until one of them showed they could stand up to him in one on one combat, he had no interest in dealing with Omega!

Socks quickly stood up to the challenge, and both sides lined up to watch, Buster Squad 5 ready to attack if any funny business occurred.

Socks outdrew Sugrot on initiative, tearing into the massive Fin, but Surgot would not be rattled.

He lashed out with his massive jaws, but Socks blocked them...and deflected him to the side!  Sugrot continued the spin, coming around with his claws, but Socks was ready for those as well!

Socks chipped away at Sugrot, drawing blood this time...but Sugrot lashed out and seemingly eviscerated Socks (three wounds!)  Instead of even trying for the soak, Socks dropped his adventure deck card (Second Wind) which removed all wounds and shaken status!  The villains winced in dismay and the Fins cheered as Socks went down...but when Sugrot dove for the bite to finish him, Sock rolled away and let him crash on the ground (critical failure!)

The Shaken Sugrot got blind sided by Socks, but the attack just shook Sugrot out of his daze, and Sugrot bit hard on Socks' shoulder, drawing a stream of blood and leaving Socks Shaken and Wounded!  Sensing the end, Sugrot lunged with a claw, but Socks batted him away, even in a daze!

Impressed, Sugrot said "You win.  I don't know about them (Buster Squad 5), but I'll fight with you."  Then he turned to his men and said "Boys, we've just entered the resistance business."

The team returned to the mainland, feeling accomplished...and Dr. Destruction was QUITE pleased.

After a couple of days rest, the team decided to launch an attack on a weapons depot at The Docks, and were excited to discover that it was lightly guarded...half a dozen drones and a single V'Sori!

The V'Sori instantly realized that an Atlantean (Kale) was present and sounded the alarm!  He and the drones moved in and he prepared a mental blast...but Socks burrowed under the ground and popped up on him, staggering him!  Bully rushed out toward the drones while the V'Sori blasted Kale, Belladonna and Socks with a mental blast, to little effect.

Suddenly, a portal opened up and, um, Bully burst out, wiping out a drone!  He was followed by Belladonna, who ran for the weapons depot...and Angel's Bane, who emerged cackling, hurling fireballs at the V'Sori!  Another man dove out of the portal and shot a drone, while Mindstorm came up in the rear, unleashing an electrical burst on the drones!

Buster Squad 5, entirely pleased at first because they just assume its Omega Cell backup or something, proceeds...right up until the gunslinger asked "Can I shoot Bully?  I always wanted to shoot Bully."  He did...but Bully survived with a minor scrape...and the other Bully laughed about it.  Kale, remembering Belladonna's phobia with Angel's Bane, warned her to back off, and he took mental control of the other Bully, who had just started raging after being shot by a drone!

The drones had been largely picked off at this point, but the raging Bully lunged at the lone remaining drone, missed, and the drone gutted him!  The Other Mindstorm expressed some concern, but Angel's Bane shrugged it off as he Decayed the V'Sori's head (critical failure on the Vigor roll).

Bully charged in between Belladonna and Angel's Bane, while Socks misjudged a burrow attack and popped up off his mark.  The Mindstorms traded lightning bolts, with Mindstorm inflicted little damage and Other Mindstorm missing, calling it a "Warning shot."

Angel's Bane tried to use his Decay on Bully, but got hammered in a double-team by Bully and Socks, and collapsed in agony!

Badger (as Mindstorm called the gunman) opened fire on Kale, but he shrugged it off!  He unleashed radiation on Kale and Other Mindstorm, with little effect, while Belladonna chased Other Belladonna inside the weapons depot.

Other Mindstorm blasted Mindstorm with lightning again, after Mindstorm wiped out the last drone, but the lighting bounced harmlessly off of Mindstorm's telekinetic sheath.

Mindstorm lashed back, nearly frying Other Mindstorm with lightning, and hit a sweet line: "We may have the same name, we may have the same powers...but I don't fire warning shots."

Other Mindstorm, wounded internally, questioned whether or not they really needed the alien technology available on this planet, and departed through the portal.

Belladonna pinned down Other Belladonna inside the weapons depot, but Other Belladonna turned on her with a large rifle...which Belladonna laughed at, knowing what a lousy shot she is.

Kale bore down on Badger, a fury rising in him, and he dug inside Badger's head, wrenching control of his mind.  He ordered Badger to swallow his own gun and take his own life.  Badger tried, desperately, to resist...but Kale's will was unshakeable.

Mindstorm saw on the horizon that the V'Sori were coming to investigate the attack on the depot, and the Cell was forced to scatter...Mindstorm flying between the buildings, Socks burrowing into the sewers with Bully, and Kale grabbing Belladonna and teleporting her away.

As the V'Sori scoured the warehouse, they found Angel's Bane barely alive and gasping for his team...upon scanning him and realizing his supernatural origin, the V'Sori ordered him to be prepared for an exploratory vivisection.  After capturing Belladonna, and recognizing that she matched their database (Belladonna is wanted for infiltrating North Point and murdering several human agents of the V'Sori while working as an escort), they called for her execution!

The Cell returned home, feeling downtrodden about their loss, but found out through the grapevine that while the V'Sori moved on the depot, their naval base had apparently become compromised by another cell...

Notes:  Two adventures tonight.  The first one totally validated the concept of the adventure deck, as both players got something they could use.

They also had to learn a valuable lesson at the weapons depot that they may not always succeed at every task.

I softened this blow for them by giving them reports that leaked out about things that went on while they were ambushing the weapons depot, a couple of which were precursors to future adventures.

Their..er....other evil counterparts was cute fun, and I mixed things up by tossing in a pre-experimentation version of Socks (Badger) as well as leaving Kale off the team and putting Angel's Bane back on the team.

And now: Character sheets

Name: Evil Mindstorm (Carmichael Stevens)
Rank: Novice
Race: Human (mutant)

Agility d8
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d4
Vigor d8

Pace 6
Parry 5
Toughness 8(3)
Charisma 0

Skills
Fighting d6
Intimidation d8
Notice d6
Shooting d10
Survival d4
Throwing d6
Taunt d6

Edges
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Power Points
Strong Willed

Hindrances
Clueless
Loyal
Small
Enemy (Minor)

Gear
2 Vibro Knives Str+1d6, AP 2

Powers
(6) Telekinesis (Str d8)
(3) Attack, Ranged (2d6 damage, Heavy Weapon, Trappings: lightning from hands)
(5) Energy Control (Elemental Trick: Electricity)
(6) Storm (Lightning Bolt)
(3) Armor (Requires Activation, Trappings: Telekinetic Sheath)
(2) Flight (Trappings: Telekinetic self-levitation)

Name: Socks (Jonathan Slade)
Rank: Novice
Race: Human (V'Sori Experiment)

Agility d6
Smarts d4
Spirit d6
Strength d10
Vigor d8

Pace 6
Parry 8
Toughness 6
Charisma 0

Skills
Notice d4
Tracking d6
Guts d4
Fighting d12
Survival d4
Stealth d6

Edges
Arcane Powers (Super Powers)
Sweep

Hindrances
Distinctive Appearance
Curious
Illiterate
Overconfident

Powers
(6) Attack, Melee (d10+2d6, AP 2, Trappings: Claws)
(5) Burrowing (Super Tunneler)
(2) Dark Vision
(2) Heightened Senses (Tracking)

Name: Bully, The Bull That Walks Like A Man
Race: Human Mutation

Agility d4
Smarts d4
Spirit d8
Strength d12+3
Vigor d12

Pace 6
Parry 5
Toughness 11
Charisma -6

Skills
Climbing d6
Fighting d6
Guts d8
Intimidation d8
Notice d4

Edges
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Berserk
Brawny
Nerves of Steel

Hindrances
Illiterate
Mean
Outsider
Ugly
Stubborn
Distinctive Appearance

Powers
Attack, Melee (d12+3d6+3, AP 3, Knockback, Trappings: Gore)
Growth 1 (Monster)

Name: Belladonna
Race: Human

Agility d6
Smarts d8
Spirit d8
Strength d6
Vigor d10

Pace 6
Parry 5
Toughness 7
Charisma +4

Skills
Fighting d6
Healing d8
Knowledge (Chemistry) d12
Persuasion d8
Repair d4

Edges
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Very Attractive
Healer

Hindrances
Heartless
Vengeful (Major)
Wanted (Major)

Gear
Vibro Sword d6+d10, AP 2

Powers
Infection 4
Paralysis

Name: Kale
Race: Atlantean

Agility d4 (crippled due to injury)
Smarts d8
Spirit d8
Strength d4
Vigor d6

Pace 6
Parry 5
Toughness 5
Charisma +2

Skills
Fighting d6
Guts d8
Knowledge (Arcane Lore) d8
Notice d6
Spellcasting d12
Swimming d6

Edges
Aquatic
Tough
Telepathy
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Power Points
Charismatic

Hindrances
Servitor
Vow (Avenge Homeland)
Heartless
All Thumbs

Super Powers
Ageless (Very Old)
Awareness (Requires Activation)
Fear
Gifted
Jinx
Super Sorcery (3)
Super Skill

Name: Angel's Bane (R.I.P)
Rank: Novice
Race: Transformed Human

Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d8
Vigor d4

Pace 6
Parry 6
Toughness 6(2)
Charisma 0

Skills
Fighting d8
Throwing d8
Intimidation d8
Guts d6
Notice d4

Edges
Arcane Background (Super Powers)
Brawny

Hindrances
Distinctive Appearance
Allergy (Minor, Holy Ground)
Delusional (Major: Believes he's a demon lord)
Code of Honor

Powers
(2) Ageless (Very Old)
(1) Fear
(4) Fly
(3) Decay
(3) Attack, Ranged (2d6 damage, Trappings: Tossing fireballs)
(2) Armor

Session 4

An Omega Cell consisting of Magnetic North (with a sense of direction and a little magnetic power), Arachne (mutant mistress of webs), Mercury (a bladed super speedster), Miss Nemesis (a firebreathing badgirl) and Kevin Wade (a veteran of Afghanistan with unnatural healing abilities) were sent into a chemical factory on The Docks to blow it up…when they were taken by complete surprise.  Mercury was sniped, a grotesque man-spider named Lycosa pounced on Arachne and ripped her apart and a scorpion-like beast-man named Deathstalker murdered Magnetic North.  Kevin Wade and Miss Nemesis holed themselves up in an office and screamed for assistance over their commlinks…and Dr. Destruction responded by sending Buster Squad 5!

Socks, Bully, Kale, Mindstorm and Belladonna arrived as Lycosa, Deathstalker and half a dozen drones moved in while a Fin and a pair of V’Sori watched on.

The V’Sori sensed the arrival of Kale, and left with the Fin to investigate.  Meanwhile, Kevin Wade unloaded with gunfire in the general direction of Lycosa, Deathstrike and the Drones.  The Drones moved in, but quickly cannibalized their ranks with friendly fire, while The Fin and the V’Sori closed in on Buster Squad 5.

Mindstorm, who has been rather lucky in combat lately, was targeted by the Fin with a Fusion Grenade…but the pitch went wrong and he exploded a V’Sori!  The Fin immediately laughed, angering the other V’Sori, then made a half-hearted effort to deflect the blame onto Mindstorm…giving Socks time to rip up between them and bring them down with a brutal sweep of his claws.

Wade was shot and hurt badly, but managed to heal part of it and made a break for Mercury.  Lycosa webbed him up, but he threw himself on top of Mercury.  Deathstalker moved in on Miss Nemesis, but she spewed flame at him, nearly igniting him, and he yelped out, activating a warp shunt and disappeared!

Buster Squad 5 moved in, but as they helped wipe out the drones and Miss Nemesis torched the remainders, Lycosa also decided to skin out.

Wade used his power to restore Mercury to life, but Mercury was nearly insane, screaming about Hell and his time on the other side.  The squad set their charges in the factory and exploded it…but not before Wade made sure a certain set of poisonous chemicals were released…with catastrophic consequences for a poor, nearby orphanage.

Dr. Destruction helpfully recommended the two cells combine, especially with Mercury insane and Arachne too far gone to be resurrected.

Notes:
INCREDIBLY short session this week, as we added two new players at nearly the last minute, and previous scheduling arrangements got bounced around with no notice…so this entire session was meant to introduce Kevin Wade and Miss Nemesis to the group…it was a nothing session, meant to set up the new status quo.

I won’t be posting the new sheets this week, as I realized I forgot to let them take their free edge for being human, but here are the concepts.

Miss Nemesis is a firebreathing supervillainess, a walking flamethrower with halitosis, who is quite crazy…apparently.  See, she talks to her Dad…a lot…in fact, he’s taught her everything she knows about tons of things…the only thing?  He’s dead.  Has been for some time.  I mean, she has to be crazy…right?  But if she is…then how did she know what was behind that door?

Kevin Wade was a corpsman in Afghanistan, until the death and destruction forced him to desperate measures…overwhelmed with the desire to save people, Wade made a deal with the Devil and gained the power to heal grievous injuries and even raise the dead.

The catch?  For every life he saves, he has to take one.

Wade has justified that by finding “bad guys” to kill, or killing anonymously…such as releasing a horrid toxin into the air in a crowded neighborhood.

Next week, the campaign marches on.

Okay, so its six months later.  Here's a short recap of the mission that nearly killed the game.  And this will be a very short recap, really.

Mindstorm was indisposed, on a secret mission for Dr. Destruction, leaving Bully, Belladonna, Socks, Kale, Kevin Wade and Miss Nemesis as the operating cell.

They were dispatched to the Hoover Dam, southeast of Las Vegas, where a V'Sori scientist named Magon was developing a secret weapon.  The Las Vegas cell went to recon the dam and hasn't been heard from since.

The absence of Mindstorm was immediately noticeable as Socks is not a thinker, and the whole group ground to a halt as Miss Nemesis and Kevin Wade argued over and over again about what to do and how to do it.  After nearly an hour (real time) of this, they acquired a high powered telescope to scout.  Seeing the heavy patrols in the air around the reservoir where the camp was set up, another lengthy debate broke out that ultimately culminated in a protracted poisoning of the camp as Socks burrowed deep underground and brought Belladonna to the reservoir so she could work her magic, poisoning the water supply (and God only knows who all else).

This weakened the camp to manageable numbers for an assault, and Bully, Socks and Wade provided a distraction while Kale, Belladonna and Miss Nemesis attacked the superweapon.  Miss Nemesis ultimately used her flame powers to inflict irreparable damage on the unarmored device, destroying it and robbing the V'Sori of a powerful asset to their arsenal.

The team scurried away, hijacking an M'Buna and making their escape, the damage done.

Notes: Again, this is incredibly short, partly because of the months long gap from play to write-up, and partly because the session did repeatedly grind to a halt as the real life husband and wife duo basically refused to agree on anything ever.  I killed the group two weeks later.

Dr. Destruction welcomed the team back together, Mindstorm included, and informed them that Kevin Wade and Miss Nemesis had been sent back to Las Vegas to attempt a rebuilding of the Omega Cell there.  He also told them they had another urgent mission, this time outside of Missoula, Montana.  V'Sori agents had struck at the "normal" resistance and captured Julia, Jana and Mary Wilson, the wife, daughter and granddaughter of the (deceased) President of the United States!

This needs to be handled quickly, so Buster Squad 5 immediately sets out to bring the family back to the resistance!  Luckily for the team, the alien forces were running light on security, with half a dozen drones guarding an M'buna.

Out of character note: The adventure card drawn for Socks allowed him to convert his bennies to experience points...which he used at the start of the adventure to take an advance and boost his Strength up to a d12.  This also left him with no bennies.

The team decided that Socks was more than a match for half a dozen drones and he burrowed in, springing up to surprise one...but it blocked his attack and the others opened fire, leaving him Shaken!

Mindstorm and Bully charged into the conflict as Belladonna and Kale crept toward the barracks.  Bully smashed into the drones, but two K'tharen guards charged out and inflicted massive amounts of damage, leaving Bully badly hurt but in a berserker rage!

Kale took advantage of a storm that Mindstorm had previously summoned, and blasted one of the Fins with a bolt.  Socks failed to get his head clear, but managed to fend off any further attacks.

Another Fin emerged, and got hammered down by the enraged Bully.

Hearing the battle raging outside, Shavak – a V'Sori warlord – stalked out of the barracks with six more drones dragging the First Family, and another elite Fin guard!  The Fin smashed into Kale and Belladonna and left Kale wounded...but Kale got the last laugh when he dug deep inside the fin's head and turned him against Shavak!

Shavak unleashed his mental powers on Bully and Socks, but Bully shrugged them off in his fury!  Meanwhile, Kale's mindcontrolled Fin was chewing his way through drones, trying to get at Shavak.

Mindstorm tried to strike down Shavak and drew his full attention...but when Mindstorm got the better of Shavak (who was burning through bennies to stay focused), Shavak switched to desperation tactics and tried to shoot Mindstorm down but couldn't penetrate his force shield!

Socks burrowed up underneath the First Family and yanked them underground, and Mindstorm unleashed an electrical surge on the drones!  Savak, seeing his moment of triumph fade away, swore vengeance on the team and activated a warp shunt, vanishing into the ether!

While Kale, the Fin, Bully and Mindstorm ripped through the remaining drones, Socks kept hitting on the First Lady, thinking that if he could get her to marry him, he would then become the President.

Buster Squad 5 hijacked the M'buna, with Kale forcing the controlled fin to pilot one of them, and they headed back to Star City with their prizes in tow!

Dr. Destruction was QUITE pleased to see Jana had made it back, and said he had a great many questions for her...then congratulated Buster Squad 5 on their victory and said he would be in contact soon.

Notes, thoughts and observations: Socks REALLY regretted cashing that card in at the beginning of the session, as he spent half of it Shaken.

Kinda short tonight as one of the players had somewhere he had to be, but we have now hit Episode 3 in the Plot Point campaign.  Next session, I am going to try to peel back just a bit from the "mission-combat" pattern and delve a bit more into the roleplaying aspect.  Also, Mindstorm's player's roommate was observing tonight, and may be trying his hand next week as a player...so we'll see.

The story began in the thick of the action...

Flux, a half-Atlantean hybrid was running through Southpoint, being chased by a group of monstrous, muscular warriors.  Flux, incredibly hungry, had stolen a Burger King bad that one of them had set down, and before he got a chance to enjoy it, had been spotted.

As they chased him to a park near Buster Squad 5's warehouse, Kale – who had been meditating – since the distraught hybrid nearby and quickly roused the team to action!

Okay, not quickly...as he had to convince the squad why it was worth risking their necks to save someone else...ultimately, he convinced Socks and Bully that they would get to hit a lot of stuff, which Socks somehow translated into they were going to be finding a pet monkey.

As the eight gang members surrounded him in the rundown park, he finally got a good look at their colors and their vibro weapons and let out a deep sigh...because he fully recognized the Southpoint Slashers.  Before the Slashers could get their prize, Bully and Socks charged a pair of the gang while Mindstorm flew into position to begin firing bolts of electricity from his hands.

Belladonna was complaining the whole way, just not clear why the team was even getting involved.  She picked on Mindstorm, who blew her off, referencing his rough childhood with an abusive stepfather and stepbrother.  When she asked what that had to do with blue aliens, Mindstorm pointed out that the aliens hadn't killed his stepfather or stepbrother.

With Socks, he was in no mood to talk...just to slash things to ribbons.

Kale, when questioned, informed her that his sole reason for being is avenging Atlantis...it is why he sold his soul to The Leviathan, and it would all be worth it once he saw the V'Sori empire in ruins.  Kale then assumed control of Horace, one of the gang members, and used him as his instrument in the fight.

Bully was slashed deep by one of the drugged up thugs, and was quickly sent into a mad rage.

Flux was slashed by the gang leader, but he shook it off and summoned a huge twister that sucked two of the gangsters up, including the gang leader, who was hurled through the air and impaled on Bully's horns!

Kale and Mindstorm both saw it, and were both in awe.

Belladonna slipped in beside Bully and grabbed one of the thugs, then smiled as she saw her poison rapidly take effect...

"Do you know what that feeling is?  That first feeling is your arms and legs...going away, that is.  That second feeling is the pounding in your heart at realizing Bully is in complete rage, and you can't run away from him."

Horace, under the control of Kale, slashed his way through two more thugs, one of whom was quite confused at why Horace was killing him!

Thug:  "Horace?  Horace!  Why do you kill me, Horace?  Is this about the drugs?  I would share!  I would share!  Horace!"

Kale (As Horace): "Horace isn't home right now..."

Flux sent his twister after the second thug he had thrown, but the thug scurried away.

Bully gored the paralyzed thug with an astonishing 53 points of damage and turned large parts of him into a red mist.

Kale stepped up to Flux and began to introduce himself, when Dr. Destruction broke in on their commlinks and ordered them to lay low for a while, as a pair of cells were busted recently and he thinks that, due to their last mission being so high profile, they may be targets.

Flux started to introduce himself as "V—uh, Flux."...but Bully – who was savagely killing Horace - latched onto the "V" sound and was convinced he was actually the old villain Volt.

Socks began ranting to Kale about there not being a monkey around.

Mindstorm quickly dismissed Bully and Socks back to HQ, and Bully was ECSTATIC because he had planned for Movie Night anyway!  He had The Day the Earth Stood Still, Independence Day, War of the Worlds, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and E.T.!

With Socks and Bully out of the way, Kale, Mindstorm and Belladonna began talking to Flux and finding out a bit of background on him, before offering him the chance to return to their HQ with him...at least offering him some food and place to lay low for a while.

Flux agreed, and the team returned to their warehouse.  Mindstorm was actually going to suggest dinner, when Bully's stomping around about movies and popcorn interrupted things.  Bully then began arguing that Flux couldn't join the team, because then they would have six members, which would then mean that someone would die!  Mindstorm argued with Bully about this for several minutes, pointing out that they could always just change the team name...but Bully didn't see just how changing the team name could change fate like that!  Mindstorm finally sighed and went to the roof to play with the weather.

Kale explained the basics of OMEGA to Flux, and began to ask him about his heritage (sensing the half-Atlantean part) while Bully and Socks watched movies.

Belladonna joined Mindstorm on the roof and asked him to take her out for dinner...to Chick's Café over on Westpoint.  Mindstorm agreed, deciding it might be a good idea to get away from the rest of the team for a bit.

Bully choked on his popcorn when he saw Belladonna, dressed to the nines, enter the room...and she and Mindstorm headed out for the night.

Bully – excited about the part where the buildings blow up in Independence Day – threw a fit when a power outage hit their grid!

Kale tried to contain Bully and Socks, who went back to screaming about monkeys and grew agitated when Kale told him that the zoo had closed because all the monkeys had died...and Socks responded by throwing the refrigerator out the window.

Mindstorm and Belladonna were walking by "Heroes" when something infuriating caught Mindstorm's eye: An action figure two-pack of him – in his old "Oddball" persona – and The Aquarian.  This annoyed him because 1) he was making NO money off of that...2) he had never even MET The Aquarian and 3) Mindstorm was quite embarrassed by his Oddball persona and costume.  Mindstorm went inside to purchase the two-pack, to get it off the shelves and out of the window.

They then went on to Chick's Café, with Belladonna needling Mindstorm about his old outfit the whole way.

Inside the Café, Mindstorm and Belladonna quickly felt uneasy, as they recognized Deathstalker (who they encountered a few missions back) at the bar with a pair of V'Sori officers.  This added some extra tension to the meal, as Mindstorm and Belladonna tried not to draw attention to themselves.

Outside the warehouse, the remaining crew heard the sounds of looting starting up.  Socks convinced Bully they should go, because stealing from a looter is like a victimless crime.  Kale apologetically told Flux that he can't let them go alone, because they will get into a whole mess of trouble.

Mindstorm and Belladonna snuck out of Chick's Café, and when they came up on Heroes, saw that it was being by a gang.  The gang members saw Mindstorm and Belladonna...and quickly moved in, to Mindstorm's surprise!

As Socks, Bully, Kale and Flux headed to the streets, they saw something odd: There was no one around.  A voice nearby ordered them, on behalf of SOCorp, the Special Operations Corp, to surrender!  Kale and Flux realized that SOCorp agents were perched on the roof, guns trained on them!

Socks snarled and lunged at the SOCorp elite, who scoffed and deflected his attack...then ordered the men with him to swarm Socks...but Socks fought them all off, even with their numbers advantage!

Mindstorm wrapped himself in a telekinetic field as the thugs closed in, but one did manage to knick him with a vibroknife!

One SOCorp agent prepared to fire at Kale, who turned and gave him an evil stare that caused the gun to jam and explode!  Flux smiled and whipped up a twister that ripped all three agents on the warehouse through the air and scattered them in the streets!

Mindstorm, who had been forming a storm overhead just in case, lashed out with lightning on one of the thugs.

Socks unleashed a guttural howl that completely froze his attackers in their tracks!

Belladonna grabbed Mindstorm, whirled him around, and kissed him deeply...then she bit his lip and kneed him in the groin!  Mindstorm, shocked, slumped to his knees!

"Do you know what the feeling is, Mindstorm?  That's your arms and legs...going away.  You know what that other feeling is?  That's you realizing what I have done.  I have heard everything you have ever said about me...every time you have ever mocked me...but little old Belladonna?  She just cut the head off this team."

Mindstorm couldn't even respond as Belladonna smiled and told the thugs "Thanks for the distraction."  She turned to a figure in the shadows and said "Put the nullifier gauntlets on him...now."

Mindstorm, in a daze, had shackles slapped on him that eliminated his powers...but he recognized the face of the man that was locking him up!  The man smiled, as Belladonna leaned against him, and spoke:  "Hello, dear brother...long time, no see."

The rapid strike by Buster Squad 5 had shook the SOCorp, as Belladonna broke over the team's commlink: "Oh no...something has happened to Mindstorm.  It is very awful.  Please...you MUST come quickly..." before she broke the connection.

To be continued...

Notes: First session with a new player, and this story is a big deviation from the Plot Point Campaign, bringing in the new PC and providing a massive twist in the team as Socks and Mindstorm near Seasoned rank.

The new player's character has a lot that wasn't shown here, both stat-wise and under the hood.  I was VERY impressed, as he's never roleplayed before, and he hit me with a strong concept as well as a good backstory that defines some stuff and leaves me room, as the GM, to play around.

Mindstorm's player and I both wanted a bit of a break from the "mission, mission, mission" style play, hence the shakeup here with a very RP heavy session...which is very definitely to be continued next week, as I take the team to a part of the city they thus far haven't ever been, and run them into a few more elements of the setting that are either glossed over in the Plot Point or are never touched on at all.

Should be fun.