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.
We resume with Kale, Bully, Socks and Flux arriving in Westpoint outside of Chick's Café where Belladonna told them they had been attacked...only to once more find themselves surrounded by SOCorp Operatives!
Kale sneered at the order to surrender, teleported behind two of the Operatives, his eyes began to glow red, and he yelled with a watery roar: "You dare order a servant of The Leviathan to surrender? I shall crush all of you!" One operative immediately ran as far away from Kale as he could, right into the clutches of Bully and Flux, while another's hair turned white under his helmet! The third in the area loudly proclaimed that he wasn't afraid of Kale, when Socks tore up through the ground and ripped his face off, helmet and all.
Flux began to form his whirlwind, while SOCorp operatives opened fire on Bully and Flux. Flux' air shield fended off bullets while Bully just shrugged as the bullets impacted him.
The SOCorp Elite attacked Flux with a stun rod, hoping to disrupt his concentration, but Flux fended him off.
Meanwhile, on a transport rapidly heading toward Northpoint, Vincent Blevins – stepbrother of Mindstorm – and Belladonna kept taunting and tormenting him...informing Mindstorm that they would be torturing him for information on OMEGA before turning him over to Warlord Shavak! The whole time, Belladonna kept asking Vincent if he was "sure" that the V'Sori could get her "home".
Back in Westpoint, Socks tore through the ground at another SOCorp Operative who DID see him coming, but Socks still tore him apart.
Bully found himself battling ineffectively against the SOCorp Elite leader, who was just a much better fighter...he just couldn't hurt Bully!
Flux got shot but quickly shrugged it off, and his cyclone erupted into existence, whipping one of the SOCorp operatives down the street as the frightened operative running from Kale was accidentally gunned down by his own men!
On the transport, Vincent continued to ridicule his brother, mentioning that his father was now Governor of Maryland as appointed by the V'Sori. Mindstorm asked him why he should care, with Vincent replying that he just wanted Mindstorm to know that he and his father were still successful while Mindstorm wore a ridiculous costume and was an ineffective terrorist. He then pointed out what a pathetic leader Mindstorm was for not even knowing his own teammate had been replaced! When Mindstorm looked stunned, Belladonna filled him in – explaining how she had traded places with the "real" Belladonna back in the ammo depot several missions ago! She told him not to feel TOO bad...after all, Bully and Socks were insanely easy to pump for information. Vincent called them "the stupid ones" and laughed about how they were being gunned down in the streets right now.
Back on the streets, the newly-white haired SOCorp Operative shot Kale in the back...and he grimaced, then spun and glared at him...telling him he would drink his soul! A blue aura with bizarre, alien tentacles began to surround Kale and he pounced on the SOCorp operative, who screamed out in agony as he died! The SOCorp elite, getting desperate, distracted Bully while Flux drew his cyclone closer to the conflict!
Mindstorm was loaded inside an interrogation room at SOCorp Headquarters, where Vincent began demanding blowtorches, acid, knives...all kinds of implements with which to torture his brother!
Kale teleported between two more the SOCorp Operatives, and his bizarre aura pierced their souls and sent them screaming into oblivion! Bully sneered, turned, and impaled the SOCorp Elite with his horns, ending the fight.
Belladonna inadvertently saved Mindstorm right off in the torture session, when Vincent tried to electrocute him, but she told him Mindstorm couldn't be hurt by electricity (he can when his powers are nullified)...apparently confusing Mindstorm's willpower for resistance to that method of attack. So Vincent returned with spike knuckles with which to beat Mindstorm.
A shadowy figure called to Kale, Socks, Bully and Flux from an alley, saying "Come with me if you wanna live...I've always wanted to say that!" He introduced himself as Izzy, and informed them that he worked for Willy the Fish, a local crimelord that Socks remembered, from somewhere, for some reason...but he couldn't quite place it. Izzy told them that reinforcements were coming, and they needed to get out of there!
Flux and Kale began to discuss the ambush telepathically, with Kale suspecting that Belladonna had been forced to draw them there. Meanwhile, Socks and Bully began an open dialogue, with Bully suggesting that he just take over as team leader. Izzy chimed in, informing them that Belladonna betrayed Mindstorm, as Izzy had been watching things once word got to Willy the Fish that Vincent and Belladonna were hiring gangbangers for some plot.
Back in the police station, Vincent had beaten Mindstorm into a bloody mess, but Mindstorm still wouldn't break. He taunted Vincent, telling him to let him go and they could fight this straight out, since Mindstorm was CLEARLY inferior to Vincent. Unbelievably, the taunts got the better of Vincent and he let Mindstorm out of his nullifiers and shackles! Belladonna swore under her breath and moved in on Mindstorm, but he dodged her and electrocuted her and Vincent, leaving his all-too-human brother in bad shape! The SOCorp Operative moved in as well with his stun rod, but Mindstorm shrugged it off! Vincent ran away, as Mindstorm blasted Belladonna, but she managed to paralyze him again!
Izzy led the team to a safehouse where Willy the Fish appeared on a monitor. Socks again seemed like he should be remembering something, but he couldn't quite place it...Willy pointed out to the crew that they had a common enemy, and he wanted to help them get their friend back. He gave Izzy a map through the sewer system to get underneath the SOCorp HQ, and a dozen men – ready to die if need be – would rendezvous with them under Downtown. Willy gave them explicit orders: Get in, get Mindstorm and get out. His men were prepared to die to accomplish this, but it couldn't be for nothing. Socks asked Willy if he knew him, and Willy honestly said he couldn't recognize the face. Socks asked if he knew the name – Socks' real name Jonathan Slade – and Willy looked surprised. He studied Socks for a moment and said "Huh. Didn't expect that." When Socks admitted he didn't remember everything that happened before the V'Sori experimented on him, Willy said he wouldn't want to push things, but that they would have to have a long talk in the future.
Belladonna and the guard shackled Mindstorm again and slapped on the nullifiers once more, and Belladonna ordered more guards. When he left the room, she dropped a bombshell on Mindstorm: She is, in fact, "his" Belladonna...once she saw the "alternate" Belladonna captured in her place, she decided to pose as the "alternate" Belladonna in hopes of escaping to HER reality, where the V'Sori hadn't taken over and she wouldn't have to deal with the whole stupid war. She told Mindstorm that the only reason she was telling him this was because she wanted him to know, undeniably, who had betrayed him. She said, as she prepared to leave, that she would wish him and OMEGA luck against the V'Sori...but really, it wasn't her problem anymore anyway.
As Mindstorm rested, beaten in his cell, a cop entered the room. A small, African American woman named Office Lila Jackson of the SOCorp. She ordered Mindstorm to his feet and started marching him to the door...and told him that she needed to get him out of there right away! Mindstorm asked her what was going on, and she told him she was a double-agent working for Dr. Destruction!
Under the city, Buster Squad and Willy the Fish's men had traveled without incident...until they came right under the police station where they found a dozen Drones, and the superhuman operatives Deathstalker and Lycosa! Lycosa and Deathstalker were apparently up to something else entirely when they saw the approaching force! Kale leapt into action, causing an earthquake that shook up Deathstalker (as well as SOCorp HQ)!
Flux began summoning his cyclone, while the Drones got into position to attack, and Izzy led Willy's men into doing the same!
Socks tore through the ground and ripped into a drone, then came face to face with Lycosa! Lycosa asked if they had met before, to which Socks replied that they had, and he was looking forward to this! Lycosa pounced at Socks, but Socks fended him off...but this was only a set-up for Deathstalker to skewer him with his tail!
The Drones and The Fish's Men traded projectile fire, with the drones largely getting the worst of it. One of the Fish's Men got shot hard and went down, but the drone that did the damage was quickly taken apart. Socks dove into the ground to get away from Lycosa and popped up between Deathstalker and four drones in a desperation move! The boldness of the action caught them unaware, and Socks struck HARD (playing the Final Blow adventure deck card) and obliterated the drones as well as instantly tearing Deathstalker's throat out!! Lycosa turned, stunned, to see his partner and ally brought down...when one of The Fish's men fired and blasted him in the head, sending the murderous Spider to his grave as well! Mindstorm and Lila Jackson entered the tunnels seconds later, just in time to see The Fish's men swarming on the remaining drones to finish out the opposition.
Bully proudly announced that he led the team there to bring Mindstorm home, and bragged about his success in guiding the team to victory in the sewers. Lila sent them on their way, then returned to SOCorp.
When Warlord Shavak arrived at HQ demanding to see the leader of the Cell that had disrupted his plans, he was sheepishly informed by agents that the prisoner had...escaped. Officer Jackson helpfully offered a report, about how Governor Blevins' son Vincent had been taunted into letting the prisoner out of his nullifiers and lost control of the situation. Belladonna almost interrupted...but she herself had grown sick of Vincent's arrogance, and let it go. Shavak, not surprisingly, was FURIOUS.
Notes: Socks officially hit Seasoned at the conclusion of this, with Mindstorm right behind. A ton of character stuff was laid here, especially for Socks and Mindstorm. Next session, we should be back to mission activity, with the next Plot Point dropping when Mindstorm hits Seasoned (he's only one point away right now). At or around that point, we will take a brief 1-2 week interlude playing some other game, then resume Necessary Evil.
New Session!
Izzy and Bully showed up at HQ with good news for Socks: His new, modified Fin armor should only be about a week out, as Izzy's guy in Downtown was working hard on it. Mindstorm pulled Kale aside to ask him what he knew about the new guy, and whether or not Flux was trustworthy...not wanting to have another "Belladonna" incident.
Bully continued touting his success as a team leader, when Dr. Destruction updated their V-MAP with news that a missing villain had been found in Japan, a sabotage mission was required in New York, and recon was needed in the sewers under Beachhead. Mindstorm pondered splitting forces, sending Kale on recon, Socks and Bully on the sabotage and he and Flux heading to Japan, but thought better of it. Bully pointed out that he wanted to flex his "men-tic-al" muscles and go to Japan, but they all wound up heading to Tarrytown, New York anyway.
Buster Squad 5 met up with Tula Michaels, a human resistance fighter who had been fighting the V'Sori in Tarrytown since the invasion. Her people had been on the run recently, after the V'Sori unleashed their Terror Gas, a fear toxin designed to target human physiology.
Sock quickly took the opportunity to inform the attractive freedom fighter that he was very much single, though the President's Wife was hitting on him.
Tula told the villains how the V'Sori had set up shop in Marymount College's science building, where they had begun developing their nastiness. She said she would lead a strike team into the steam tunnels under the college and into the science building, though the tunnels would be too large for Bully. She also said she had a diversion in place, with her people attacking the barracks on campus.
Mindstorm said that Socks and Flux (using his Earth control) could widen the tunnel for Bully while he and Kale summoning a vicious storm as a distraction. Bully smiled softly at Mindstorm, slapped him on the shoulder, and said there wasn't room for two leaders: Bully was going to lead the human assault on the barracks!
Kale and Mindstorm stood in view of the science building and summoned a nasty storm, Kale tapping into Leviathan's wells of power to form a massive downpour over the area. Tula led Socks and Flux underground, Socks hitting on her the whole way.
Flux and Socks both felt the hair rise on the backs of their necks and turned, just in time to see a G'Rok rising through the pipes! Tula spun and shot it, but the blast bounced off! Flux summoned the earth to grasp the G'Rok, but it snarled and faded through the ground, emerging behind Socks! Socks sneered as it bit him, but he shrugged it off and ripped its jaws wide open, then tore its heart out! Tula, used to fighting alongside fully human fighters, was quite surprised at the whole thing.
The wind howled and battered the science building, as Tula brought Socks and Flux to the basement of the science building.
Bully told all the superpowered guys to "join me in the frontal assault, the rest of youse play clean-up" and they attacked! Well, Bully attacked. Since he was the only one there with powers. One of the men radioed to Tula that the barracks were now under assault, and she led Socks and Flux inside.
Heading to the second floor, they immediately came face to face(s) with half a dozen drones still patrolling the building, as the alarms ripped across the campus! Two V'sori scientists inside the science lab sensed the half-Atlantean presence of Flux and headed for the hills, rounding up Terror Gas while calling for reinforcements! Flux began summoning a cyclone inside the building as Tula took a shot at the Drones and they returned fire! Socks scored first blood, charging the first two drones and slashing them to ribbons.
Two drones extended vibro-blades from their arms and advanced, but Socks batted them away and Tula shot one of them down. Socks polished off the other as the V'Sori made their escape upstairs.
Socks charged the final two drones just as the cyclone came into effect, and six more drones charged down the steps, led by two Fins! The cyclone failed to move the drones, but Socks was able to get one of them. As reinforcements moved in, the cyclone caught Socks and the other drone he was fighting, and whipped them hard into a wall, with Socks being hurt badly (3 wounds initially, soaked into 2 instead).
One of the Fins sneered and moved in with four drones trailing him, as the other Fin marched on with two drones behind him. Flux was disappointed to see the Fin wasn't affected by his cyclone, and finally thought he might should move into different tactics.
Lula was shot by a drone but stayed in the fight, while Socks batted back the attacking Fin. Luckily, that crack drone programming kicked in, and the Fin exploded in a mass of burning and body parts as one of the drones accidentally shot him in the back! Flux sent flames erupting in the hallway, but the Fin caught in the fire just shrugged it off and moved in where his brother had left off on Socks.
Tula shot the drone next to Socks, taking it out, as two more drones moved into the hall and opened fire on Flux and Tula. Tula was shot again and wounded very badly (now at 3 wounds) but Flux' air shield held up to the assault. Socks played defense as the Fin pressed the attack. The Fin was momentarily distracted when Flux unleashed a huge burst of wind in the hallway, throwing two drones past the Fin and through the wall!
Socks capitalized, killing the surprised Fin with a brutal assault before being shot! A second shot on the wounded, off-balance Socks caught him in the face and he went down in a smoldering heap! Tula screamed in outrage and ran to his aid despite her wounds, opening fire on the drone and killing one. Flux ran down the hall and placed himself between her and the drones, buffeting the remaining drones with air. This went back and forth, with Tula killing another drone, when Flux unleashed fire instead and actually caught a drone on fire, before Tula shot it in the head.
Outside, visibility was crap in the rain, but Kale's telepathy sensed a V'Sori presence on the roof and he alerted Mindstorm! Kale uttered a spell and soared through the air with Mindstorm, the two landing on the roof as the scientists tried to make their way to their parked M'Buna! Mindstorm, without a word, unleashed a burst of electricity that did little to one, but nearly seized up the heart of the other! The remaining scientist turned and opened fire with the Terror Gas, but Kale and Mindstorm dodged, and Kale called forth lightning from the Heavens that sent the V'Sori to Hades!
Bully broke over the commlink and announced a status update: That he was now "covered in glory." He was overheard commending the unpowered resistance fighters for making up for how their superpowered fighters chickened out.
Flux and Tula were on Socks, trying desperately to save his life as Mindstorm kept breaking over the commlink asking for an update! Kale finally contacted Flux via telepathy, and told him that he and Mindstorm would be down to retrieve Socks and Tula, and told Flux to use his control over the elements to "bring Hell to this facility".
Socks, conscious but hurt badly, was cracking jokes about the whole attack, even while Flux was commenting on the burnt scar running across his face. Tula smiled, touching it lightly, and commented that "chicks dig scars".
As Mindstorm, Kale, Socks and Tula bugged out, Flux summoned a massive firestorm inside the laboratory, sparking a huge explosion centered on the second floor. Flux strode out of the building with purpose, Mindstorm and Kale noticing that his duraweave costume had taken on a bizarre red glow that it hadn't previously had...
As the two cells went back underground, Tula told Socks that what he had done, charging head on into the enemy forces, was "not cowardly"...and she asked him, a little sheepishly, if perhaps he wouldn't come back to Tarrytown...sometime.
Dr. Destruction broke over the commlinks, interrupting the moment, and told the cell that he had an urgent mission for them, stemming from his conversation's with the President's family!
Meanwhile, word spread very quickly about how the mutant terrorist Mindstorm led a vicious surgical strike on Tarrytown, New York, wreaking havoc on V'Sori forces there, and setting back their efforts at combating human terrorists. Warlord Shavak, annoyed, pondered out loud: "Now where I have heard THAT name before?"
Notes: Mindstorm broke the squad up this mission, and I don't think it worked out well at all...and I don't think he thought it did...well, aside from Kale and Mindstorm being in prime position to intercept the V'Sori scientists. Socks and Tula are developing a bit of a connection, thus adding another NPC element to the tapestry for the players, which is cool. Socks was officially Seasoned going into this, and saw a slight evolution in his powers: He beefed up Toughness and Parry, while also adding Wall Crawling (claws). Mindstorm officially hit Seasoned at the end of this session, and thus I am moving the team onto Episode 4 in the Plot Point campaign. Flux, after nearly killing a teammate with his cyclone, finally decided to shake up his tactics a bit, utilizing his other powers.
The adventure deck was used to great effect: Socks drew two cards, one of which was Second Wind, which he used fighting the G'Rok. Flux wanted the Relic card played, since he didn't use his card the last time, so his dramatic firestorm inside the lab has left his armor/costume with unusual properties (to be determined). At the last bit, Socks swapped his second card with Mindstorm, giving Mindstorm a +1 charisma for his "amazing deeds"...so I ruled that word spread quickly about this assault...about Mindstorm in particular...who is EASILY the face of this cell. Next week, we play on Saturday...most likely doing Necessary Evil again, with the possible scheduled break coming the week after.
New Session!
Izzy and Bully showed up at HQ with good news for Socks: His new, modified Fin armor should only be about a week out, as Izzy's guy in Downtown was working hard on it. Mindstorm pulled Kale aside to ask him what he knew about the new guy, and whether or not Flux was trustworthy...not wanting to have another "Belladonna" incident.
Bully continued touting his success as a team leader, when Dr. Destruction updated their V-MAP with news that a missing villain had been found in Japan, a sabotage mission was required in New York, and recon was needed in the sewers under Beachhead. Mindstorm pondered splitting forces, sending Kale on recon, Socks and Bully on the sabotage and he and Flux heading to Japan, but thought better of it. Bully pointed out that he wanted to flex his "men-tic-al" muscles and go to Japan, but they all wound up heading to Tarrytown, New York anyway.
Buster Squad 5 met up with Tula Michaels, a human resistance fighter who had been fighting the V'Sori in Tarrytown since the invasion. Her people had been on the run recently, after the V'Sori unleashed their Terror Gas, a fear toxin designed to target human physiology.
Sock quickly took the opportunity to inform the attractive freedom fighter that he was very much single, though the President's Wife was hitting on him.
Tula told the villains how the V'Sori had set up shop in Marymount College's science building, where they had begun developing their nastiness. She said she would lead a strike team into the steam tunnels under the college and into the science building, though the tunnels would be too large for Bully. She also said she had a diversion in place, with her people attacking the barracks on campus.
Mindstorm said that Socks and Flux (using his Earth control) could widen the tunnel for Bully while he and Kale summoning a vicious storm as a distraction. Bully smiled softly at Mindstorm, slapped him on the shoulder, and said there wasn't room for two leaders: Bully was going to lead the human assault on the barracks!
Kale and Mindstorm stood in view of the science building and summoned a nasty storm, Kale tapping into Leviathan's wells of power to form a massive downpour over the area. Tula led Socks and Flux underground, Socks hitting on her the whole way.
Flux and Socks both felt the hair rise on the backs of their necks and turned, just in time to see a G'Rok rising through the pipes! Tula spun and shot it, but the blast bounced off! Flux summoned the earth to grasp the G'Rok, but it snarled and faded through the ground, emerging behind Socks! Socks sneered as it bit him, but he shrugged it off and ripped its jaws wide open, then tore its heart out! Tula, used to fighting alongside fully human fighters, was quite surprised at the whole thing.
The wind howled and battered the science building, as Tula brought Socks and Flux to the basement of the science building.
Bully told all the superpowered guys to "join me in the frontal assault, the rest of youse play clean-up" and they attacked! Well, Bully attacked. Since he was the only one there with powers. One of the men radioed to Tula that the barracks were now under assault, and she led Socks and Flux inside.
Heading to the second floor, they immediately came face to face(s) with half a dozen drones still patrolling the building, as the alarms ripped across the campus! Two V'sori scientists inside the science lab sensed the half-Atlantean presence of Flux and headed for the hills, rounding up Terror Gas while calling for reinforcements! Flux began summoning a cyclone inside the building as Tula took a shot at the Drones and they returned fire! Socks scored first blood, charging the first two drones and slashing them to ribbons.
Two drones extended vibro-blades from their arms and advanced, but Socks batted them away and Tula shot one of them down. Socks polished off the other as the V'Sori made their escape upstairs.
Socks charged the final two drones just as the cyclone came into effect, and six more drones charged down the steps, led by two Fins! The cyclone failed to move the drones, but Socks was able to get one of them. As reinforcements moved in, the cyclone caught Socks and the other drone he was fighting, and whipped them hard into a wall, with Socks being hurt badly (3 wounds initially, soaked into 2 instead).
One of the Fins sneered and moved in with four drones trailing him, as the other Fin marched on with two drones behind him. Flux was disappointed to see the Fin wasn't affected by his cyclone, and finally thought he might should move into different tactics.
Lula was shot by a drone but stayed in the fight, while Socks batted back the attacking Fin. Luckily, that crack drone programming kicked in, and the Fin exploded in a mass of burning and body parts as one of the drones accidentally shot him in the back! Flux sent flames erupting in the hallway, but the Fin caught in the fire just shrugged it off and moved in where his brother had left off on Socks.
Tula shot the drone next to Socks, taking it out, as two more drones moved into the hall and opened fire on Flux and Tula. Tula was shot again and wounded very badly (now at 3 wounds) but Flux' air shield held up to the assault. Socks played defense as the Fin pressed the attack. The Fin was momentarily distracted when Flux unleashed a huge burst of wind in the hallway, throwing two drones past the Fin and through the wall!
Socks capitalized, killing the surprised Fin with a brutal assault before being shot! A second shot on the wounded, off-balance Socks caught him in the face and he went down in a smoldering heap! Tula screamed in outrage and ran to his aid despite her wounds, opening fire on the drone and killing one. Flux ran down the hall and placed himself between her and the drones, buffeting the remaining drones with air. This went back and forth, with Tula killing another drone, when Flux unleashed fire instead and actually caught a drone on fire, before Tula shot it in the head.
Outside, visibility was crap in the rain, but Kale's telepathy sensed a V'Sori presence on the roof and he alerted Mindstorm! Kale uttered a spell and soared through the air with Mindstorm, the two landing on the roof as the scientists tried to make their way to their parked M'Buna! Mindstorm, without a word, unleashed a burst of electricity that did little to one, but nearly seized up the heart of the other! The remaining scientist turned and opened fire with the Terror Gas, but Kale and Mindstorm dodged, and Kale called forth lightning from the Heavens that sent the V'Sori to Hades!
Bully broke over the commlink and announced a status update: That he was now "covered in glory." He was overheard commending the unpowered resistance fighters for making up for how their superpowered fighters chickened out.
Flux and Tula were on Socks, trying desperately to save his life as Mindstorm kept breaking over the commlink asking for an update! Kale finally contacted Flux via telepathy, and told him that he and Mindstorm would be down to retrieve Socks and Tula, and told Flux to use his control over the elements to "bring Hell to this facility".
Socks, conscious but hurt badly, was cracking jokes about the whole attack, even while Flux was commenting on the burnt scar running across his face. Tula smiled, touching it lightly, and commented that "chicks dig scars".
As Mindstorm, Kale, Socks and Tula bugged out, Flux summoned a massive firestorm inside the laboratory, sparking a huge explosion centered on the second floor. Flux strode out of the building with purpose, Mindstorm and Kale noticing that his duraweave costume had taken on a bizarre red glow that it hadn't previously had...
As the two cells went back underground, Tula told Socks that what he had done, charging head on into the enemy forces, was "not cowardly"...and she asked him, a little sheepishly, if perhaps he wouldn't come back to Tarrytown...sometime.
Dr. Destruction broke over the commlinks, interrupting the moment, and told the cell that he had an urgent mission for them, stemming from his conversation's with the President's family!
Meanwhile, word spread very quickly about how the mutant terrorist Mindstorm led a vicious surgical strike on Tarrytown, New York, wreaking havoc on V'Sori forces there, and setting back their efforts at combating human terrorists. Warlord Shavak, annoyed, pondered out loud: "Now where I have heard THAT name before?"
Notes: Mindstorm broke the squad up this mission, and I don't think it worked out well at all...and I don't think he thought it did...well, aside from Kale and Mindstorm being in prime position to intercept the V'Sori scientists. Socks and Tula are developing a bit of a connection, thus adding another NPC element to the tapestry for the players, which is cool. Socks was officially Seasoned going into this, and saw a slight evolution in his powers: He beefed up Toughness and Parry, while also adding Wall Crawling (claws). Mindstorm officially hit Seasoned at the end of this session, and thus I am moving the team onto Episode 4 in the Plot Point campaign. Flux, after nearly killing a teammate with his cyclone, finally decided to shake up his tactics a bit, utilizing his other powers.
The adventure deck was used to great effect: Socks drew two cards, one of which was Second Wind, which he used fighting the G'Rok. Flux wanted the Relic card played, since he didn't use his card the last time, so his dramatic firestorm inside the lab has left his armor/costume with unusual properties (to be determined). At the last bit, Socks swapped his second card with Mindstorm, giving Mindstorm a +1 charisma for his "amazing deeds"...so I ruled that word spread quickly about this assault...about Mindstorm in particular...who is EASILY the face of this cell. Next week, we play on Saturday...most likely doing Necessary Evil again, with the possible scheduled break coming the week after.
Seasoned Play Begins! (or, Plot Point Episode 4!)
Kale spent a few days magically mending the wounds of Socks, removing most of the damage done in the last mission. Flux, feeling quite disoriented from his flare-up of power when he destroyed the Science Lab in Tarrytown, took off for a while, though Kale assured the team (or tried to) that he would be back.
Dr. Destruction gave them their next mission, which was two-fold: Make contact with a disgruntled V'Sori battlelord at his communications outpost and gain his aid, then assault the V'Sori occupied base of Hydra, the Mutant Mastermind. The team was quite pleased to discover that the Warlord occupying the base was Shavak, who they had dealt with in the past. Dr. Destruction's orders were to find a device that looked not unlike a silver and blue phone booth, and to destroy the base.
The team quickly learned through Dr. Destruction's debriefing that Shavak and the communications officer, Ikaran, had some bad blood between them because Shavak had publicly dressed Ikaran down and demoted him.
Some common knowledge rolls later, and the team deduced that Hydra was actually the father of the President's grandchild (which kinda impressed me).
Before they set out, Bully announced "as team leader" that he'd arranged back-up for them: Human resistance fighter Tula Michaels, whom they had aided in Tarrytown! Socks was quite pleased to see Tula, and Bully helpfully suggested that they should "be one unit", to which Mindstorm replied "I didn't know we were splitting up" and Bully asked "Whose talking about the mission?"
The team was surprised to discover that Ikaran was holed up in a tenement about two blocks away and took off to meet with him. They found signs of a recent struggle, where Ikaran had fended off some dregs that had tried to attack him. The team went right to him and confronted him, with Socks quickly telling him they were after Shavak and wanted his aid. Socks dropped the Turncoat adventure card here, and Ikaran quickly rolled over and offered to kill communications at the base, if they would kill Shavak and show them his silver pendant, which was a sign of his demotion.
With that helpfully resolved, the team stole away in a submarine to the mainland and Hydra's compound. As they approached the compound, they decided to have Socks burrow his way under the compound, taking Kale, Bully and Tula with him. Mindstorm brought in storm clouds and headed into the skies, trying to get recon.
Unfortunately, he was quickly spotted by a pair of Warspheres, which took to the skies opening fire on him. Mindstorm lashed out at them, unleashing the fury of the storms on them and trying to gain a closer look.
Meanwhile, Socks led his crew under the compound, awaiting word from Mindstorm about the layout.
Mindstorm flew in for a closer look, but saw four more Warspheres and two more headed deeper into the compound! He sent out the order to Ikaran to shut the communications down, and tried to chase the two retreating Warspheres but had to deal with the four that were heading at him! Only singed by one of them, Mindstorm shrugged it off and blasted the four Warspheres out of the sky. He got a layout of the land and relayed it in detail to Socks, but had no time to rest before four more Warspheres attacked! Once more, Mindstorm handled their assault, then headed toward Hydra's mansion.
As he moved in to land, his heart sank: A dozen Drones, four Fins and Shavak were waiting on him. Shavak mocked him for walking straight into their hands like that all alone, and blasted him with a mental assault, then ordered his Drones to open fire. Kale cast an ineffective earthquake, but Socks, Tula and Bully popped out of the ground, with Socks tearing his way through Drones, Tula blasting one in the face and Bully pounding another. Shavak was annoyed by this, but the Fins moved in, three opening fire with rifles while one made the mistake of slashing Bully and sending him into a rage.
Shavak blasted Socks with a mental assault, but he shrugged it off and slashed the Warlord, wounding him. Tula and Bully tore their way through Drones while Kale electrocuted a Fin. Mindstorm, wounded from a blast fired at him, found his concentration shaken as he tried to summon lightning to attack his foes.
Kale took control of a Fin and sent him after the nearby Drones to no effect while Shavak physically assaulted Socks and was outmatched. Mindstorm pitched the silver pendant to Socks, who caught it and said "This is from Ikaran...and so is this" before slashing the Warlord down. Shavak, his voice filling with blood and death, screamed at the travesty that a warlord such as him could be brought low by a pathetic traitor like Ikaran and insignificant bugs like these villains (Mindstorm played the Villainous Verbosity card to prevent Shavak from attacking or escaping). Mindstorm lashed out with another bolt of lightning, blasting Shavak into unconsciousness...Socks sneered and ripped his throat out, saying "I hate V'Sori."
Kale, Bully and Tula cleaned up the Drones, then the team went inside to find the tube. Deciding to look around before finishing the place off, they spied Hydra, floating inside a chamber filled with green liquid! Bully smashed it with a headbutt, and they freed Hydra! Hydra, upon seeing Bully, was convinced that he was in Hell! However, Mindstorm explained the situation to Hydra and Hydra agreed to leave with them, to meet with Dr. Destruction. Before he left, he set the base's self-destruct mode, which blew Socks' mind. Hydra's response? "Of course I have a self-destruct. I'm a SUPER-VILLAIN...what are you?"
As the villains escaped in their sub, the cliff-side base erupted in explosion.
A few hours later...
Socks knocked on the door of Ikaran's communications outpost. Ikaran opened the door and said "Oh. It's you." Socks offered "I have something for you," and tossed him Shavak's head. "Now I want yours," Socks said with a sneer. Ikaran looked taken aback, then blasted him with a mental assault that Socks was seemingly immune to. Socks advanced and Ikaran yelled "Do your worst!" Socks brought the battlemaster low with a brutal assault, then parried Ikaran's sword attack. Ikaran, sensing his end said, with a sigh, "Go ahead then, kill me...it's worth it, knowing Shavak is dead." Socks brutalized Ikaran with a claw full of gut, but stopped short of beheading him as well. He did pick the blaster and vibro-sword off of Ikaran before departing, leaving the dead V'Sori in his tenement.
15 minutes later, another V'Sori communications outpost tried to raise Ikaran repeatedly...an hour later, a detachment of V'Sori strode to the top floor of the building and looked disappointed to see Ikaran dead. One offered "Check the feeds...this building is wired...it was probably dregs that did this, let's find out for sure."
And at the wreckage of Hydra's base, an Mbuna landed, releasing its crew to the carnage. As they spread out, their leader remarked "Scour this base...seek out any clues. This is becoming far, far too common."
Notes: The honeymoon is over. Mindstorm is a known commodity among the V'Sori, and now their repeated tactics as finally being noticed...plus, Socks went "off the reservation" a bit and killed Ikaran in his own tower, albeit before Ikaran could alert anybody...however, Ikaran's death (and manner of death) has not gone unnoticed.
Flux' player flaked out on us at the last minute. No idea if this is going to be a common theme or not. Socks and Mindstorm are both Seasoned now, and I am changing the dynamics of the setting on them a tad. We're off next week (still getting together, just doing a game of Slasher Flick instead of Savage Worlds, but we're back in two as we resume Necessary Evil...hopefully with Flux (now wearing the Flame of Atlantis) in tow.
New Session!
After returning from a hiatus brought on by flood and rescheduling due to Mother's Day, Buster Squad 5 returned to action.
Flux emerged from his sabbatical, having discovered the secrets of his armor, The Flames of Atlantis. He rejoined the team just as Izzy informed the squad that word on the street had it that Capone's safe had been found...by the government of Star City! Izzy gave them the details as he knew them: That the government would be transporting the safe from Star City PD to Warlord Grypon at dawn.
Mindstorm, Bully, Kale, Flux and Socks prepared their assault at dawn...the plan being that Kale would cause the armored truck to shut down...Socks would tear through and get the safe, hand it down to Bully, and Flux would shift them through the earth to get away.
Everyone got into position...Kale zapped the truck and shut it down...Socks decided to attempt to be stealthy in removing the safe...and he rolled a 12 versus both the Drones and the SOCorp Operatives critically failing their Notice rolls! Socks managed to remove the safe from under the truck without being noticed! Everyone was so distracted by the truck shutting down and a potential outward assault, that Buster Squad 5 was long gone before anyone saw it was missing!
Bennies abounded for that, from participation in a perfectly executed plan, as well as Socks pulling off his sneak-steal without winding up in an unnecessary fight.
Kale got the safe open and the crew was surprised to find $200,000 in gold bars, a map to Capone's hideout and a note from Capone, revealing that before his execution in 1959, Capone used a yogi mind trick to jump into a cloned body of Capone! Buster Squad 5 saddled up in a sub and headed toward the coast of Maryland, where Flux avoided V'Sori patrols and guided them to the cave entrance. He widened the cave entrance so Bully could enter, and the group found an Atlantean sarcophagus with a body inside. Kale quickly opened it, and Capone rose from the sarcophagus! He asked the team if they were here to kill him, but Mindstorm assured him they were not, and that they had found his note.
Capone, content with that answer, told them he had a hidden weapons cache inside the cave. Mindstorm asked how long he had been in the cave, and Capone asked what year it was...did the math...and said it had been 45 years.
Mindstorm gave him the good news and the bad news: The good news being that superheroes were no longer a problem, the bad news being that alien invaders had taken over the planet! Mindstorm tried to recruit Capone for OMEGA, but Capone brushed it off. He gave Buster Squad 5 his weapons cache, which included Energy Knives, Octo-Bombs and Palm Blasters. Kale took the Palm Blasters while Mindstorm loaded up with the rest...and Buster Squad 5 found themselves better armed with a tentative ally!
Notes: Before the session began, Socks used an earned Advance to take the Bring It On edge from a Martial Arts supplement that allowed him to diminish the Gang Up bonus for attackers against him. The force on the armored truck was a dozen SOCorp Operatives and four Drones which was hardly insurmountable, but Socks' stealth and their botched Notice rolls made that laughably easy. Rather than find an excuse to get them into combat, I let the whole thing go smoothly, giving them a well-earned moment of a well-executed plan. At the conclusion of this adventure Mindstorm and Flux earned advances, with Mindstorm taking Power Points (adding Force Control with Telekinesis trapping and the Gale Force modifier for Storm) while Flux revealed his previously unknown Streetwise skill.
That having gone so smoothly, we launched into a new mission.
Dr. Destruction, pleased at the news from Buster Squad 5 about their mission, told them that he had (yet another) double-agent working for him infiltrating the V'Sori, an Atlantean named Lucian. Lucian had been supplying superhumans for an underground fight club ran by a V'Sori Warlord named Darb, who was – sources said – due for a promotion! Destruction, not wanting his brand of barbaric entertainment to be spread further, ordered Buster Squad 5 to infiltrate the club and assassinate Darb. The plan was for two of the team to pose as prisoners and enter the arena, while the other three would disable the transports from the arena and try to free the prisoners.
Bully fell all over himself trying to volunteer as a prisoner, and Socks – of course – was eager to volunteer as well. Socks and Bully beat each other up to make their imprisoning look legit, while Flux, Mindstorm and Kale formulated a plan to sneak into the club. Mindstorm threw an Octo-Bomb at the back entrance of the club while Kale cast a spell to gain Darkvision and tried to sneak in with Flux (using their telepathic link to guide him through the darkness)...Flux tripped up and drew the attention of Drones inside the facility, but Kale blasted one and another fell from a stray shot into the darkness fired by another drone.
Flux charged one Drone and caused flames to erupt around him, but it didn't seem to affect the Drone. Flux, Mindstorm and Kale looked rather helpless against the Drones, not really being hurt, but not stopping the Drones either. Kale gave up and moved on into the cells, where French thief Cyber-Burglaire kept calling for him to release him! Kale made his nullifier shackles malfunction, and Cyber-Burglaire unlocked the prison door from the inside!
The two men released Rictus, the Undead Clown of Crime, who quickly bolted for the exit. They next released Brimstone, who cackled and teleported away.
Mindstorm finally electrocuted one of the remaining drones and Flux burned the other one down, putting them to rest, while Kale and Cyber-Burglaire freed the jingoistic vigilante/villain Patriot, the Darkforce manipulator Shadowcaster, the angry Elven warrior from Asgard known as Sarveen, Hiro – a martial artist who had fought Mindstorm before, and Lycan, a werewolf hero.
Cyber-Burglaire, Shadowcaster and Sarveen (especially Sarveen) were eager to do whatever it took to bring this down, while Patriot seemed reluctant to go along with it, and Hiro and Lycan weren't sure they trusted the villains...still, the lot of them finally agreed to join forces and ambush the V'Sori transport crews.
Socks and Bully entered the arena, where Darb watched on surrounded by Drones. Two Groks were unleashed on them, but Socks and Bully fended off their attacks, with Socks wounding his and Bully dropping his with a single blow!
Darb looked confused at just what had happened, so Bully sneered, grabbed Socks, and launched him through the air at Darb! Socks snarled and tore through the force field that was supposed to protect Darb, and came to rest at his feet! (This was accomplished through the Teamwork Adventure card, and some very nice rolls from Bully and Socks).
As Socks prepared to battle Darb and his drones, the V'Sori Internal Police arrived and ordered everyone to surrender...but Darb refused and ordered his men to fight! Seconds later, Socks tore most of Darb's face off (a vicious attack combined with a botched Soak roll).
Bully battled the remaining Grok, but Drones and Warspheres were advancing on him, and a V'Sori fired a well-placed shot at Socks that would have been QUITE brutal, but Mindstorm's player played the Lucky Break card...Socks turned, holding Darb's body still, and Darb absorbed the shot! Socks dove off the platform and burrowed into the ground, coming up under Bully and yanking him to safety!
Outside the arena, Kale made the big pitch on behalf of Mindstorm to the villains (and heroes) that they had rescued.
Cyber-Burglair and Shadowcaster quickly agreed to join forces, while Sarveen swore he would aid OMEGA to the end against the V'Sori. Patriot seemed unsure about working with Omega, while Hiro and Lycan, reluctantly, decided that perhaps OMEGA was just what the world needed...a necessary evil.
Notes: Again, another rousing success for the team. I have done away with the random mission selections, picking and choosing the missions as I think it will benefit the campaign. Other than the embarrassing 5 rounds it took to beat the two drones inside the facility, this sessions was very good to the villains, going a long way toward letting them feel suitably awesome.
Next week, they battle a pair of black marketers and, if time permits, the next plot point in which Socks' actions in the last plot point will come back to haunt the team.
Exterminate!
Change of plans with the next session.
The session began inside the team's HQ, where Dr. Destruction had arrived surrounded by his guards. He told the team that he had a very urgent mission for them: Another cell of OMEGA terrorists had broken from the organization and Dr. Destruction now considers them to be huge threats to the future of OMEGA. His orders? Hunt them down and kill them.
Dr. Destruction gave them team personnel dossiers on all five members of the team: The powerhouse Crunch, the Voodoo Master known as Curse, the fearmonger known as Effigy, energy controller Vesper and superspeedster Zephyr. Mindstorm asked if any of them could be salvaged, to which Destruction replied "Doubtful". Mindstorm quietly contemplated that answer as he stared at the files. Destruction said he would leave them to it, trusting in them to finish the deed.
First up was Crunch, an insanely powerful brick who had been tracked to a summer camp, and – Destruction believes – is planning on swimming from Star City to The Arctic. Mindstorm made a plan: Bully goes in first, Kale, Flux and Mindstorm use supplemental powers to slow and stop Crunch while Bully fights. Socks' role is to hang back and help out if Bully got outmatched. Flux, controller of elements, was also told to keep Crunch from escaping if he hit the water.
Bully snarled and charged Crunch as Kale and Flux got into position around him. Crunch flinched at the charging Bully, but shook it off when Flux summoned the earth up around him. Crunch broke free and hurled a chunk of rock and soil, smashing Flux and staggering him. Mindstorm and Socks got into position around Crunch as well, Socks burrowing under a cabin and Mindstorm flying to a roof.
Crunch surprised everyone by leaping through the air and truing to crush Bully, though he missed and Bully spiked him with his horns...which did no damage to the horrific creature. Mindstorm tried to bind Crunch, but wasn't nearly strong enough. Kale summoned Socks to his side, putting Socks in position to rip up through the ground and lay an attack on Crunch that left him Shaken. Flux surrounded him in rock and dirt once more, this time holding him tight. Crunch tried to break free, but failed. Kale, once more channeling dangerous levels of magic, unleashed a power bolt of eldritch energy, but Crunch was still only barely harmed. Socks assaulted him as well, while Mindstorm tried to telekinetically reinforce Flux' grip.
As they pushed hard to keep him from escaping, Bully roared and drove his head and horns deep into the earthen tomb until blood and dirt began to run down his face...then he pushed again harder. Crunch stopped struggling, and Flux and Mindstorm released their grip.
Kale summoned Healing magic and restored Flux...not a moment too soon, either, as word came that Zephyr and Effigy were robbing a bank and Dr. Destruction did NOT want them falling into V'Sori hands.
Notes: First target down. Mindstorm laid out a plan and it mostly worked. Good thing, too, because Crunch's Strength was growing every round. The huge difference maker was Flux successfully binding Crunch in place so he could be whittled down.
Buster Squad 5 descended on Star City Bank where Effigy was keeping the bank staff and customers cowed and Zephyr was rapidly emptying the vault. Socks tore his way up through the vault, with Mindstorm and Bully behind him. He tried to attack Zephyr, who heard him coming and was far too hard to pin down...so Socks moved on through to block the door. Mindstorm zipped in and swooped past Socks, sealing the vault so Zephyr couldn't escape...but was immediately targeted by Effigy, who unleashed nightmarish thoughts of Belladonna on Mindstorm, but the leader of this squad's will was too strong to be broken.
Flux and Kale entered the bank from a side entrance, and Flux spewed flame at Effigy, who initially freaked – but calmed when it had no real effect. He snarled about how "All the heroes are supposed to be dead", and Kale replied "If we were heroes, you wouldn't have anything to worry about" before launching a fireball at Effigy that erupted and set him on fire. Zephyr just laughed at Socks and literally ran through him, the vault door and Mindstorm, then out the door with two bags of money while Bully charged up into the vault, confused to find himself sealed in with Socks.
Kale reached out with his mind and forced Zephyr to come back and face them, while the burning Effigy shrieked in terror and unleashed his Fear power in the bank. The staff and customers, as well as Mindstorm, ran away from him, while Zephyr freaked and fell to his knees vomiting. The most unfortunate effect came from Kale's heart seized up and the Atlantean wizard fell to the ground in cardiac arrest.
Socks burrowed his way under the vault door and ripped into the blazing Effigy, tearing the constructed scarecrow apart. Bully came up through the same tunnel and charged the Shaken Zephyr, smashing his spine and breaking the fragile speedster apart.
Flux immediately dove onto Kale and worked feverishly, trying to provide medical aid to keep Kale alive. With a lot of luck and some natural talent (Healer Edge plus bennies), Kale was stabilized, but the V'Sori were en route to the bank. Mindstorm ordered a retreat, since their goals were accomplished...and turned when someone grabbed his arm. A bank teller, frightened but grateful, thanked Mindstorm and the rest of the team for saving them...Mindstorm, obviously taken aback by this, pulled his arm free and they escaped.
Notes: Wow. Second fight in this mission down, and Kale is in bad shape. This took Kale out for the rest of the session...though Flux definitely saved Kale's life. Effigy's desperation Fear effect totally changed the complexion of this fight, setting up Zephyr (total glass ninja normally) to be taken out by Bully since he was Shaken. I gave them a 6 round time limit on this one before SOCorp would show up and turned it into a three way battle.
Back to the game...
Socks came up with the idea of contacting Willy the Fish, and Flux did just that with his Streetwise skill. Izzy, henchman of Willy, told them he would meet with them to pick up Kale and get him some help.
As the Squad met with Izzy outside a gas station, they were stalked by a villain-killing vigilante named Blind Justice! Justice opened fire on Mindstorm with a Nullifier gun – which had no effect – and pitched a grenade that came awfully close to the truck they had just loaded Kale onto. Socks dove onto the grenade and absorbed a ton of shrapnel into himself...but kept the grenade from further harming Kale. Izzy dove into the truck and fire it up, trying to get Kale away. Bully charged Blind Justice, who snapped a katana free from its sheath and slashed into Bully...but Bully's tough hide deflected it (really, Flux played an Adventure Card that kept Bully from behind harmed in that one attack)! Bully attacked and missed, but Mindstorm wasn't playing around and wrapped him in force bands. Flux tried to ignite him, but Blind Justice was too well protected. Bully smashed Blind Justice with a brutal headbutt that ended his resistance. When Mindstorm drew a knife and walked over to finish Blind Justice off, Bully stopped him...saying that he had suffered enough from guys like them. Mindstorm looked at Bully, then told Blind Justice that if he came at any of his people again, Mindstorm would kill him...even as Dr. Destruction provided information of a rendezvous between Curse and the V'Sori.
Notes: Just a bit of an interlude with a Punisher-type vigilante attacking the team. Socks made a huge sacrifice, risking life and limb to keep Kale safe from the grenade. Blind Justice could have given any one of them a run for their money, but the team was thus far gelling really well together.
Buster Squad 5 approached the park where Curse was planning to meet with The V'Sori. The team began to move in, unaware of the fact that Curse sensed them coming and was summoning zombies as well as preparing to copy Socks' burrowing ability to sneak attack them. Mindstorm swooped in first (first round, got a Joker) and Curse smiled from ear to ear..."I was expecting you...saw you all com—" Without a word, Mindstorm summoned a bolt of lightning from the sky that ripped through Curse! An impressive 32 point attack dropped Curse where he stood (a soak roll provided no successes, and I decided just to run with it).
The team considered, for a moment, waiting for the V'Sori to arrive, but thought better of it.
Notes: Wow. This one was supposed to be BIG...Curse was summoning Zombies, he Copycat and Danger Sense, and the V'Sori were arriving in 3 rounds to provide backup...but Mindstorm, his closest ally on the shelf, was very, very angry.
Dr. Destruction sent only coordinates for the final target: Vesper. The team arrived in a residential area, but seemed rather confused when they couldn't find their target. Examining the area, they all realized at once who they were looking for: The woman across the street unloading groceries with her kids.
The jaws around the table dropped at this final target.
Taking a moment to compose themselves, Mindstorm opted to fly over to her and called out her real name, Theresa Hammond. Seeing Mindstorm floating in the air, she told her kids to go inside. Mindstorm was brutally honest: He told her he was there to kill her...but that he didn't want to. He asked her to come back to Omega so that no one would have to kill her.
She countered by pointing out that someone WOULD kill her if she went back...she would get sent on some stupid mission where some teammate would be too slow and she would pay for it. She told Mindstorm that she's the only thing her kids have, and she can't risk that being a part of OMEGA again.
Mindstorm quickly offered a compromise: Mindstorm told her he would have her added to his team's roster, but she would remain at her house in Westpoint with her kids, and would remain off the active roster except in circumstances of dire emergency. She hesitated, weighing her options...and realized how few she had. Finally, she agreed to his terms. Mindstorm, before leaving, pointed out to her that if OMEGA failed, she and hers would pay as bad a price as they will if they don't fight.
On the way back to HQ, Mindstorm informed Destruction that Vesper was back onboard, as an inactive member of his team. Destruction asked if Mindstorm was now dictating terms to him, to which Mindstorm said no...just that he hoped Destruction would trust him on this. After a moment's thought, Destruction told Mindstorm he would abide by Mindstorm's decision.
Notes: I intentionally tossed this one out there for the team to decide what to do...there was no wrong answer, even from Destruction's perspective. He intentionally did not tell them any circumstance about Vesper's situation, in order to surprise them and see their reaction. He figured that if they killed her, they were loyal footsoldiers. If they didn't, they may yet be compassionate enough to be the world's saviors. The plan Mindstorm came up with, I thought, was rather brilliant.
Incidentally, out of character, the players commented that they can't wait until the V'Sori are defeated so they can bring down Destruction.
One thing the guys seemed to like is that I typed up the personnel dossiers on the cell, and handed them out at the table when we began to play...they really rather liked that.
I also helpfully pointed out two more things about this mission: 1) This is what happens when people leave OMEGA and 2) Destruction clearly has files on all of them as well. That's actually what prompted the comment about bringing him down.
Next session, I believe we are now going to tackle those black marketers, and then Plot Point 5.
New session!
The tale began with Kale still in the clinic, and Mindstorm visiting. Mindstorm was approached by the owner of the Heroes shop, who revealed himself to be retired hero The Hippocratic Oath! He had a situation and he explained it to Mindstorm: The clinic needs supplies, bad...and The Hippocratic Oath offered his services as a healer to Omega, if Mindstorm would resupply the clinic. Mindstorm agreed, then began planning an assault on the Atlantic General Hospital, calling Cyber-Burglair to tap him for the mission. Immediately after making the call, Mindstorm was contacted by Dr. Destruction, who was concerned due to another cell in Southpoint having gone dark. Mindstorm gathered his team, and they headed out for the other cell's HQ.
When they arrived, they found a dozen dead drones laying around, and the cell all having been killed aside from one member, known as The Shifter (in reality, a V'Sori double agent known as The Sleeper). The Shifter only had a shoulder wound, which instantly made Mindstorm suspicious. He and Flux talked it over, and contacted Dr. Destruction who told him to take The Shifter on board until he could find a new cell for Shifter. Mindstorm agreed, but decided to tell Shifter nothing, not even being willing to take him back to their headquarters.
Flux, mulling things over, remembered that there was a doctor at the Atlantic General Hospital that was known to help street people with medicines, and that Willy the Fish ran a pretty big underground medical supply trade. Mindstorm took Bully's phone (Bully was talking to Willy's compatriot Izzy) and had Izzy arrange for a meeting with Willy. Izzy told them to come to his safehouse, and they set up a teleconference with Willy.
Willy agreed to sell them what they needed for $25,000, which Mindstorm agreed to (they still had the gold from Capone's vault), but Willy offered to save them some money if they would just take out one of his rivals, a new face on the scene named Oswald.
Mindstorm agreed, and the team decided to approach Oswald at his set-up in Downtown, and spring a trap for him.
Flux and Bully approached, with The Shifter hiding ON Bully as a suit. Mindstorm and Socks burrowed beneath the ground.
Flux tried to talk out an arrangement with Oswald, while Mindstorm suggested that Socks try to use stealth to get in under the truck and steal supplies.
Oswald and Glaive (his bodyguard) heard them.
Oswald suckerpunched Flux, but had no effect, and Bully lunged forth (with Shifter melting off of him) and attacked. Glaive was too much for Flux or Bully to hit, but Mindstorm summoned lightning that messed Glaive up! Socks jumped into melee, and realized that he knew Oswald and Glaive as the former villains Longarm and Cutter: Former members of Omega whose cell had been killed! What Socks DIDN'T know, was that their cell was killed by the guy lurking on their team: The Shifter!
Glaive repeatedly fell short with his weapon, when The Shifter stabbed him in the chest with a spear-arm and brought him down. Socks ripped into Oswald, and Bully finished him off. Impressed with themselves, Buster Squad 5 raided the supply truck, then took off back to the clinic. Upon returning, they were relieved to see Kale up and around, having been healed by the Hippocratic Oath!
Hippocratic Oath expressed his thanks, but the Squad had no time to rest as Dr. Destruction revealed that he had discovered what Hydra's device was missing, and had made arrangements to acquire the items! He sent the team to the Farmer's Market on The Docks to meet a woman named Hardcore and get the items!
The team, Kale happily in tow, headed to The Docks! A mysterious figure hit them up regarding some kind of necklace, that he wanted a cool $10,000 for. Socks offered him $10.
Kale, trying to take the necklace from Socks, sensed that magic emanating from the necklace! Mindstorm quickly paid off the cloaked man with gold, and gave the necklace to Kale.
The team made contact with Hardcore, and she took them to a warehouse, where they came face to face, in the flesh, with Willy the Fish! Willy, with bodyguards in tow, told them to have a seat! He offered them something to drink, they began talking with each of them...about the pasts, their powers...he started to tell Socks a little about his past, but held off, still for fear of traumatizing him.
After a good long spell of conversation, he told them they could grab the crate with Dr. Destruction's goods and they could go!
As Socks moved in to retrieve it, there was an explosion and the place was surrounded by a dozen Drones, a dozen Warspheres and a dozen Fins!
Everyone moved into a defensive position, with Mindstorm summoning a storm and Flux summoning a whirlwind!
Buster Squad 5 was quicker on the uptake than Willy's crew, launching into action. Kale stalked into the middle of the Drones and Warspheres, surrounded first by fire, and then ice, dropping them. Bully snapped into a rage and began wading through the villains. Socks took the crate underground and hid it, while one of Willy's bodyguards was murdered by a Fin. Willy shocked the team by sprouting horns, and goring the Fin!
The remaining bodyguards blasted away, gunning down anything they could! Mindstorm unleashed lighting into the crowd, followed by electrical bursts. Flux unloaded with his cyclone, sending targets scattering! When one Warsphere wounded Flux, Willy burrowed through the room and came up in front of him, then lashed out at a Drone.
A Drone seriously injured The Shifter, while Kale teleported back into the building to get away from approaching Fins. Buster Squad 5 and Willy's men were handling themselves well...until six armed men approached. They opened fire from a distance, blasting Mindstorm and Flux. One of them laughed, opening fire and wiping out Willy's guards. Two of the Drones, bolstered, futher injured Flux and wiped out The Shifter.
Willy ordered a retreat, telling the team the box was more important, and he charged the newcomers...Mindstorm ordered the team to pull back, but Bully – in a full rage – charged them as well. Another of the newcomers laughed and lunged at Bully with a katana. Bully smacked him down, but he came back up in a rage, now wielding a chainsaw! The gunmen kept firing at Bully, bringing him down further. Socks tried to burrow under Bully and bring him underground, but the fighter drove his chainsaw into the ground and tore up Socks as well. He nailed Hardcore a moment later when she got too close...and one of his compatriots shot Bully down while another threw a grenade on the pile, injuring all of them.
The team hurting and now clearly outmatched, tried to pull back to the box, and Kale cast a spell, reaching out for both Bully and Socks...when only Socks responded, Kale teleported him close, shorting out his powers in the process.
Mindstorm, reluctantly, ordered Socks to dig them to freedom, while Flux closed the path behind them.
Willy told them "Run! For my blood runs through your veins! Use it wisely!" as he shifted into a giant monster and tried to block their retreat.
Word spread quickly...the V'Sori had trounced Willy the Fish AND one of the terrorists, Bully. Bully's body was paraded through the streets as an example.
As the team returned to headquarters, Dr. Destruction asked for the status of his contents, then told them a team would come pick the box up.
He then showed the hurting team what he had been told just minutes before: That the V'Sori had been tracking them since they returned from Hydra's base, and how. He showed them the footage of Socks killing Ikaran at his outpost, and the V'Sori showing up to check on them.
Destruction told Socks, simple: "You cost this organization an asset in Ikaran, and a very loyal and powerful operative in Bully. Your stupid vendetta jeopardized this team and this organization. I only pray that what's in this box was worth the price we paid for it."
And of course, the team never realized that they had been being tracked for weeks and were sitting right there in their base...SIGH.
Next session will be uglier still.
Notes: This "Very Special Episode" puts the team on the defensive. The elite team I dropped in was led by Mindstorm's brother, Vincent Blevins, though Blevins was in a mask and hasn't announced his presence yet. That'll be next time. The remaining team is actually led by field leader Murtha, and consists of gun-monkey Baldwin, mystic Cervantes, paranormal specialist Dante and psycho Jacko. They lost popular (and powerful) NPC Bully, as well as NPC ally Willy the Fish. I figure they'll be about due for some serious revenge not long from now, though.
After a month-long break...
We picked up shortly after Dr. Destruction's goods were picked up by another team. Mindstorm, furious at the current situation, immediately called for a team meeting. As the four remaining members of the team gathered together, Socks gave a touching – and hilarious – eulogy about departed "team leader" Bully, and placed Flux in charge of the team. Mindstorm ignored him. As Mindstorm tried to consider options for new team members, they all detected a sound...beeping...all around them.
Socks reacted first, burrowing into the ground...Kale, Flux and Mindstorm followed as their headquarters blew sky high.
Socks made the effort, as he burrowed into the ground, to strategically collapse the tunnel as he went, hoping to choke off efforts to follow them.
Dr. Destruction contacted the team quickly with coordinates, and they made their way under the city to a boarded up KFC full of Atlanteans.
Mindstorm pulled Socks aside and chastised him for everything his recklessness had caused them. Then he took the dossiers of the OMEGA defectors they had hunted down a few weeks back and threw them at Socks, asking if he remembered them. As Socks stared at the dossiers, Mindstorm pointed out that they were defectors who the team had to hunt and kill. He told Socks, in no uncertain terms, that if he ever makes a move that stupid again, he will kick Socks off the team, tell Dr. Destruction Socks defected, and then hunt Socks down and kill him.
Socks was left with his jaw hanging open at the boldness of Mindstorm's statement.
Sarna, the Atlantean running the safe-house, informed them that Dr. Destruction had told them they were to remain only for an hour, and then they were to strike a local hidden naval base and hijack a minisub...at which time Dr. Destruction would contact them with further instructions.
She also told them that Destruction had told them to change their appearances as well as their tactics...the V'Sori were about to be claiming victory, and Destruction's thought was to let them have it.
The team found some raggedy clothes, and Socks dyed his hair purple. They pondered what to do about Kale...who summoned his magic and transformed into a V'Sori...then promptly wondered why he hadn't ever thought of that before.
The team headed to The Docks, to hit the naval base, and saw about half a dozen V'sori and half a dozen Drones on site. Flux snuck to the sea and dove in, making his way under water to the sub...while Kale, as a V'Sori, simply walked across the base and to the sub, passing inspection by all that saw him! One V'Sori wandered too close to Mindstorm and Socks, so Socks suckerpunched him and broke his neck!
Kale made his way up to the sub, where one of the V'Sori finally began to question him, so he summoned more power from Leviathan and took the V'Sori's mind, entered the sub and had it lowered into the water. He picked up Flux, and they later rendezvoused with Mindstorm and Socks!
Notes: I was floored...FLOORED...with how flawlessly this plan played out. I mean, THEY thought Flux would sneak onto the sub, Kale would slip away and Mindstorm and Socks would have to fight for a distraction, but it went WAY better than that. Back to the game.
Flux and Kale were piloting the sub, as Dr. Destruction contacted the team once more and told them about a Hydro-Base a mile under water! A strike team had been sent down two days earlier, and while communications from the base had ceased, so had communications from the sub, aside from a distress beacon. The team headed toward the base, with the goals of finding out what happened to the team, and to make sure the base was disabled.
As the sub approached the base, Socks spotted the other sub in a docking bay, and saw a second bay that the team could use. Flux veered the sub into the bay, and the team entered the base.
Mindstorm sent Socks and Kale one way, while he and Flux went the other...ordering Flux and Kale to remain in telepathic contact in case of trouble, while also giving each side a ranged fighter and a melee fighter.
Mindstorm and Flux entered the base's living quarters, finding blood and signs of struggle everywhere...blaster marks on the walls, overturned furniture, etc. They also found, on the walls of the base, timed explosives that had not yet been set. In addition, some kind of strange, muddy substance on the floor.
Kale and Socks entered the main corridor, finding the center of the base and more blood and signs of conflict. The weird, muddy substance was there as well, heading off into one section of the station, while a bloody trail led the other.
The team regrouped and decided to enter the other sub, where they shut off the distress signal, but saw no other bodies or signs of life. Getting weirded out and kind of frustrated, the team headed deeper into the base, first following the trail of blood into the mess hall. Again, signs of struggle, overturned tables, etc...in the back of the hall, they found large stores of food.
The team then followed the muddy trail, encountering a V'Sori hanger. They then entered a lab, where they suspected the purpose of the base truly lay. Mindstorm searched for journals, while Kale summoned the power of Leviathan and began to work the controls while reading V'Sori aloud! He dug through file after file, experiment after experiment until he said aloud, in English: "What's a Protean?" Then, he turned to the team and told them that the V'Sori had tried to meld a K'Tharen with a Protean! Before the team could ponder what that meant, a large, muddy, malleable, Fin-like creature stalked into the room, snarling!
The Proto-Fin lunged at Socks, who managed to avoid its attacks, while Mindstorm jolted it. Flux followed lightning with fire, and Kale summoned eldritch bolts, which did little.
The Proto-Fin lashed out at Socks with a bizarre attack, but he luckily dodged at the last second! Flux unleashed flames once more, and scorched the beast badly! Kale tried to follow fire with fire, but his had little success...then, to the horror of the team...the Proto-Fin began to heal!
Socks roared into life, unleashed a furious series of attacks, hammering deeper and deeper into the heart of the Proto-Fin. As it collapsed, Mindstorm hacked at it with Energy Knives, cutting its head off! While Socks tore its heart out and devoured it, Mindstorm threw the head to Flux and told him to incinerate it, which he did.
Kale, having just studied the Proto-Fin, relayed that the Fin was apparently trying to breed with Socks, and that it had been absorbing the bodies of its prior victims. Not waiting around to see if it recovered, Kale told the team to head back to the submarine as he moved from room to room, triggering the explosives and letting the base erupt in explosions.
As the team departed, Mindstorm contacted Dr. Destruction about the mission, with pleasing news that Kale had managed to copy the data from the experiments before they blew the base, and asked about their return to Star City...but Destruction told him that they weren't coming back to Star City! He told them that the V'Sori had just pulled two humans, an Atlantean and a half-Atlantean from the wreckage of their base, and that the team was to stay as far away as possible! He directed them to Florida, where they would then take a flight to Japan...to recruit: The Monolith!
Notes: A much better mission after the downer of the last go-around. Socks picked up his last Seasoned advance, gaining Brawny after his body underwent bizarre changes from eating the Proto-Fin's heart. Flux boosted his Strength from a d4 to a d6, hitting his second Seasoned advance. We decided to continue on with the game, so I sped things up about a week, with the team in Japan, hiking through the woods to find the Monolith.
As the team hiked toward the Buddhist Monastery where The Monolith was believed to be held at, Mindstorm filled them in on Monolith: Dr. Karl Antaeus was an environmentalist with the power to transform into a giant stone man...and over time he had become more radical and unbalanced. He had went to this monastery after being defeated by Champion and The Alpha Force, and Champion had sworn to take up the mantle of the environmental causes driving Monolith. Now, the orders were simple: Bring Monolith out of retirement after ten years.
The team (now tentatively using the codenames #1 (Mindstorm), #2 ( Kale), #3 (Flux) and Doesn't Matter (Socks)), walked up the final path toward the monastery. Several monks milled about, but about ten in the courtyard met them at the path.
Mindstorm said they needed to speak to Dr. Karl Antaeus, and they were rebuffed by the monks.
This went back and forth, with Socks and Flux joining in, trying to convince the monks that they had to see Antaeus, and that the Monolith was needed to beat back The V'Sori. The team was repeatedly rebuffed.
Mindstorm grew annoyed, while Flux and Socks were in his ear begging for a fight. Mindstorm began to suspect that Monolith was being held against his will, but the monks denied this. Mindstorm said they were hiding something, the monks said they were merely protecting Antaeus.
The conflict slowly boiled to a head...and finally the monks attacked because Mindstorm and the team would not leave!
Flux controlled a stone barrier and wrapped it around one monk, while two others attacked him! Mindstorm had been summoning a storm throughout this, but did not bring it into play yet, trying to fight in a calmer manner. Intead, he telekinetically moved one of the monks away, though he came charging back. Socks even refrained from using his claws, slugging it out with another monk, who was giving as good as he'd gotten. Kale cast a spell with one hand, transforming a giant Buddha statue into a walking ally, while blasting one monk with a palm blaster.
The team played very nice, Flux trying to Bind opponents, Mindstorm telekinetically moving them and Socks using fists over claws...until one monk hammered Kale with one brutal attack, then dropped him with life-threatening injuries with a second!
The kid gloves came off, and Mindstorm began unleashing lighting bolts, while Flux – who was taking hits on all sides – began using fire to bring down the monks. As soon as Mindstorm got clear of him, Socks went for a Sweep on three of them, and made it an Omega Strike, wiping out all three!
The one that brought down Kale went after Mindstorm, while Mindstorm freed Flux to go save Kale!
Socks, tired from the Omega Strike, ran down one of the monks while Flux and Mindstorm cleaned up the rest.
With Kale down, Socks fatigued and wounded, the team were glad it was over...until the ground began to shake!
The monastery collapsed and Monolith, enraged, emerged! He charged the team, unleashing shards of earth that ripped Mindstorm to shreds and nearly brought HIM down!
Mindstorm unleashed a bolt from the sky, striking Monolith...and doing squat. He retreated behind Flux and Socks.
Socks tried to burrow, but the constant earthquake made that sound like a BAD idea...so he lunged at Monolith...and failed to harm him. Monolith formed a stalagmite, and began slashing away at Socks. Flux tried to meld Monolith to the ground and make him fall over, but Monolith's control was far greater! Mindstorm pleaded with Monolith to stop fighting and join them, and was crest-fallen when it seemed to have no effect. Flux and Socks, however, sensed that someone wasn't quite right...Flux decided to get inside his mind, and he reached Dr. Antaeus, who was out of control and frightened! Flux could also sense the overwhelming swell of energy being output by Monolith, causing the earthquake!
The team was getting very desperate, with Socks finally about to give in when a little pink-haired Japanese girl popped in next to Mindstorm and said Dr. Destruction had sent her...then gave him a little mechanical device that she said was designed to bleed off the excess energy in Monolith's body. Mindstorm telekinetically flung it at Monolith, hit, and drove the powerhouse down! The team quickly subdued him, and headed out for a rendezvous, so Monolith could be indoctrinated into OMEGA!
Notes: We had to wrap up very quickly, as I had just received news of a family tragedy. Mindstorm had played "The Calvary Arrives" moments earlier, so I popped in a little Japanese girl-genius to help stop Monolith, though I made sure the decisive blow as in the hands of the PCs.
Kale, in a non-Necessary Evil game, would be dead. That said, he has sustained grievous injuries once more. Kale, The Magic Eunuch, anyone?
I gave out one more XP, which pushed Mindstorm into Veteran, and he took Power Points, with one power being Telepathy, which is how his Leadership Edges are now going to begin effecting Wild Cards.
I think, in the future, the team will make their way to the Protean crash site in Siberia, to learn just what a Protean is and what that means to them...it will probably be some time before I bring them back to Star City.