It’s been a few weeks since our last MP session, mainly because I’ve been sitting on a number of new characters and bits of storyline I’ve been wanting to introduce, unsure of how to weave them together. This chapter represents my attempt to jump right in and get the story moving again even if I’m not yet totally sure where I want it to go.
The session begins with the news that Vinny has taken a short leave of absence. He’s mentioned in the past that he cares for a younger brother, Anthony, who has epilepsy. Tony takes medication that staves off seizures most of the time, but when they do occur, it makes them worse… and he recently had a serious one that left him hospitalized for two days and in need of increased home care for a while as he recovers. Vinny has taken time off to spend with his brother and hasn’t been in contact in about ten days.
The last few weeks have been slow ones, but the team continues to run daily patrols around town. Meeting back at HQ for a shift change, with Velocimancer and Alexa coming in Circe and Aria heading out, the D-Listers are informed by Uncanny Valley Girl (now existing inside their base computer system) of an important mission: re-stocking office supplies. Coffee, sugar, and paper products are all running low, and it would also be a good idea to pick up a replacement PC keyboard because somebody has worn out the space bar by playing Minecraft a little too vigorously. She reminds the team that there’s a Walmart gift card around that someone gave them the week before as a reward for finding her lost dog, then suggests the next patrol team should take Vanny and stop for the necessary items during their rounds.
The Perils of the Megastore
As the characters shop, have them roll an IN save; success means they notice a shoplifter slipping a necklace into her purse at the jewelry counter. The culprit is Invisigoth, a teenaged girl with hair dyed ebony black with green highlights, black lipstick, powdered, pale skin, and layers of dark-colored clothing showing bits of black lace. If confronted by players, she’ll distract them (“I’m sorry, please don’t turn me in, my father will kill me!”) while trying to touch the nearest one to drain power from her.
At this point she’ll try to get away, attempting a vanishing act by diving into a clothes rack, going invisible, and flying away. If she’s grappled, she’ll continue to drain strength from anyone touching her until she’s strong enough (and they’re weak enough) for her to break free.
If the characters don’t see her or choose not to confront her directly, they’ll witness a similar altercation between her and a security guard who spotted her on camera.
As the team is searching for Invisigoth, they’re interrupted by the sound of something crashing through the roof overhead. That something a man named Jim Gaudet, agent of the Crescent crime family, who has stolen an experimental suit of powered armor from rival InterCrime. It’s unclear whether his flight system has malfunctioned or whether he simply isn’t very good at flying it; in any case, it propels him uncontrolled through the ceiling to plow through several rows of shelves, finally noisily coming to rest at the base of a checkout counter. He takes 4d6 blunt kinetic from the crash and his propulsion system is damaged beyond functioning, limiting him to ground movement.
The characters have a few moments for action while he recovers – this would be a very good time for them to call for backup. In fact, if they don’t, UVG will call them, saying she’s detected an alarm and asking if they need the rest of the team. She’ll recall Vanny to pick up their teammates and bring them to the store – they’ll arrive as fast as traffic allows.
Once Gaudet is up, he’ll look at them and say, “Heroes, already? How did you get here so fast?” – at which point he’ll attack and start making his way toward a door.
<Allow a few rounds of combat before the rest of the team arrives – enough to impress on them that their opponent is dangerous.>
Just as the rest of the D-Listers show up, so too will the pursuit from InterCrime – four men wearing armor similar to Gaudet’s, one of them painted in blue. The familiar voice of Management Trainee Higgins (newly promoted to Junior Project Manager, and equipped with some serious hardware upgrades) calls out from within the blue armor: “Take him down, but try not to damage the armor too much!” He’ll notice the D-Listers and say, “You people again? We’ve got the firepower – bring down the heroes too!”
Gaudet will recognize the IC troops as the greater threat and will turn his attention to them, firing as he continues to retreat. Initially two of the enemies will focus on him while the other two fight the heroes.
The IC troops’ armor, force fields, and damage abilities will make this a difficult fight. Based on how it goes, judge how long to wait for more intervention to arrive. Invisigoth is still lurking about, invisible, to see what the commotion is about. She’ll be quietly siphoning small amounts of power from shoppers hiding around the store or fleeing for cover; when she feels strong enough, she’ll obtain a metal Louisville Slugger from Sporting Goods and start attacking the armored individuals. She’ll flee if detected, however, including anyone being lucky enough to hit her by firing in the direction of her attacks.
Help arrives in the form of CUSP. Give them a round of surprise attacks for dramatic purposes, then have them roll initiative and join in on the next round normally.
“Tremble in fear, evildoers,” Mantra shouts dramatically, “for you face the unconventional might of CUSP, local chapter 14, serving New Castle County and surrounding areas!” Then she directs her companions: “Stilts, Mister Bubble – take the one on the left! Weeble, protect (whichever D-Lister looks most injured)! Sleeper and Lefty – go right! I’ll take the leader!”
Bubble will use his bubblekinesis to inject liquid inside one trooper’s armor, squeezing him for damage and forcing him to undo the front of his helmet so he can breathe. Stilts will grow to full height (his growth will look impressive at first, but less so when it stops after only about a foot of growth), then leap to attack Bubble’s target. He’ll try for double punches to the head (with ambidexterity) while the mask is open.
Sleeper is already asleep, so Lefty will swing him at the target assigned by Mantra, hitting with the damage stats of a large club.
Weeble will stand so as to block attacks against an injured D-Lister, if possible, otherwise he’ll run up and punch (probably ineffectively) at an opponent.
Mantra will attempt to use her mind control power to disable Higgins, pointing at him and saying, “I feel bad for disrupting retail commerce!” If she’s successful, he’ll drop into a seated lotus position and repeat that phrase until he takes damage or makes a successful save to shake off the mind control.
Lt. Starks and the police will, of course, show up just in time to for the aftermath of the battle. He’ll greet the CUSP team enthusiastically: “Great to meet you! We got word last week that you were coming to town – glad to have you around! Great work here!” He seems considerably less excited to see the D-Listers for some reason: “Oh, hey, guys. Thanks to you, too.”
If they wish and any of their attackers are still conscious, characters can roll influence checks to interrogate them to find out where the armor is being built/tested. (Give -6 on check vs. Higgins, -3 vs. IC troops, but +3 vs. Gaudet, who at this point figures he can’t take the armor to his bosses so depriving InterCrime of it is the next best thing.) They’ll provide the rough location of a warehouse outside Philadelphia.
When players return to HQ to rest and recuperate, they’ll get a phone call.
“Hello, um… I’m actually not supposed to know about you guys, so I waited a long time to call, but, uh, my name is Tony – I’m Vinny’s brother. Er, have you seen him? Because he went out to get milk five days ago when I got home from the hospital, and he hasn’t come back. I figured he was out doing some of his secret superhero stuff, but if not… then he’s missing.”
How it played
The initial encounter with Invisigoth turned out somewhere in between the two scenarios I’d planned for. Rather than ignoring her or intervening to stop the theft directly, they approached her and said in conspiratorial tone, “You’d better put that back. If we could see you, the security cameras did too.”
I made the IC power-armored troops probably a little more dangerous than I should have. The players and some of their NPC allies spent a fair amount of time trying to revive one another after being knocked out by double energy blasts from opponents who were themselves difficult to damage. Only the sheer number of heroes present, along with the armored troopers’ prioritization of Gaudet as a target, kept the encounter from being disastrous. Mantra’s mind control power was also critical to victory, as she was able to temporarily take enemies out of the fight for a few rounds on several occasions.
I’ve been anxious to exploit my newfound obsession with making gaming terrain, but I haven’t yet built anything modern-themed (and in any case I’m not very likely to build Wal-mart-themed terrain). I wanted to do something a little different from our normal crude battle-mat sketches, so I improvised:
The checkout lanes were drawn in (badly). Dungeon walls became rows of product shelving, and a collection of bottle caps and dollar-store tea lights became clothes racks. Also shown are my makeshift flight platforms, depicting Higgins and his henchmen hovering near the ceiling after smashing their way in through a skylight.