Lt. Starks contacts the team: “We’re trying to keep a lid on this to avoid a panic, but I thought you should know – somebody’s been killing supers. Two in New York last week, one in Philly yesterday – which means he’s moving south and could be in the area. Seems to be going after CUSP members primarily, like he’s preying on the weakest of powered individuals. He runs his victims through with a sword and then cuts what looks like some kind of arcane symbols into their skin as they die. I wish I could tell you more, but there are no reported sightings yet and no suspects. Just be careful and keep an eye out for… well… anything dangerous, I guess.”
DLers need to choose who’s on patrol.
While on patrol, the sound of metal on metal can be heard. The sound goes away before they find the source, but they will come upon Sentinel 3 standing over the corpse of Weeble on a back street, his sword drawn and dripping blood. Weeble was clearly downed through a deep gash in his stomach. His shirt has been torn open and a rune carved into his chest.
(Sigil is the actual culprit – he’s killed Weeble and absorbed some of his density increase. Sentinel 3 found Sigil immediately after the killing and fought him briefly, wounding him.)
With his sword still out, he looks at the newly arrived heroes and says, “This was not my work. I have no quarrel with you – I hunt the one who did this. Do not interfere!”
He’ll try to run away toward where Sigil went. If attacked or blocked, he’ll fight with non-lethal force and keep trying to move away to pursue his quarry.
If he’s defeated and picked up by police he’ll escape their custody. Whatever the outcome of their first encounter, he’ll show up a day later at DLHQ to somewhat reluctantly ask for their help.
“I am called Sentinel Three – third in rank among an honored force of guardians on my world. Sentinel Two is the man I seek – he discovered the secrets of one of our greatest fallen foes and used them to gain power for himself! He betrayed our order, slaying Sentinel One, my friend and mentor, and stealing some of his strength for himself. The rest of the Sentinel rose up against him, and he fled to your world using a device that opens portals through the fabric between universes. The portal device was damaged, but we took the risk of using it nonetheless. I was the first to come through; no others have followed, so I must assume the device is no longer functioning. The burden of justice falls on me, but the need to elude your world’s law enforcement makes my search more difficult.”
Describing Sentinel Two: “He is a tall man, broad in the shoulder, head shaven clean. He bears a sword like mine, but no longer wears his sentinel armor.” (It was damaged in fighting before he left his world.) “He will have several sigils carved into his skin – it would look to you like foreign writing.”
With news of S3’s capture and escape from police custody or eyewitness reports of the D-Listers’ encounter with him, CHESS has dispatched a Rook + 4 agents to the area to oversee the hunt for the murderer. He’ll show up at HQ while S3 is present, to interview the D-Listers about their encounter with the person who is still assumed to be the murderer.
If S3’s presence or the team’s cooperation with him are noticed, the Rook and his team will demand his surrender and attack if he doesn’t give in. S3 will try to slip out the back but two agents back there will spot him and call the Rook. Rook will call in CUSP, who will arrive and try to fight the team, and the police, who will take a while. Meanwhile Rook will run off after S3.
When the police arrive, Starks will get out of his car and shout for the fighting to stop. “The blood on the sword wasn’t Weeble’s! He’s not the killer!” – if S3 was captured initially, or “A big bald guy with a sword was spotted on the other side of town twenty-five minutes ago! We have a second suspect!” if not.
Rook will lose S3’s trail and be surprise-attacked by Sigil, who will kill him and steal some of his heightened ST. Characters in pursuit might spot him, but with police sirens blaring in the area he’ll flee rather than facing anyone else.
Notes
I’d built Sentinel 3 and Sigil a while ago and knew more or less what I wanted to do with them, but the actual scenario was thrown together fairly quickly and maps were improvised on-the-fly based on places in the local area.
I modified the Rook just a little for this outing. I’d originally envisioned him as getting all his abilities from powered armor, but the pair of figures I found to represent Rooks weren’t quite as heavily armor-clad as I’d envisioned, so I decided based on their look that their strength came at least in part from physical enhancements. This also made a rook a
How it played
When contacted by Lt. Starks, the team immediately requested photos of the sigils on the murderer’s victims but weren’t able to identify the markings despite several of them having backgrounds in the arcane. They didn’t think to ask about who specifically the victims were.
Circe was in her wolf form when they came upon Sentinel 3 and managed to knock him down. Alexa, who was with her, caught up while he was down, but they noticed he was only striking them with the hilt end of his blade; when he told them he wasn’t the killer but rather was looking for the real culprit, they believed him and let him get away. The delay was enough for the police to get into the area, however, and he was captured “off-screen”, so to speak, after taking a point-blank blast from Starks’ energy weapon.
He escaped and made his way back to DLHQ. My wife and I have occasionally talked about our shared disdain for the over-use of multiverse concepts, so when S3 started to explain where he came from, she exclaimed, “Its a multiverse guy! Kill him before it’s too late!”
Of course CHESS showed up and a battle ensued when the agents at the back entrance spotted S3 slipping out. The Rook went after S3, who continued to run to draw him off, and ended up ambushed. CUSP showed up to assist CHESS against the D-Listers, who they now believed were aiding and abetting their teammate’s murderer. Vinny succumbed to Mantra’s power and was briefly taken out of the fight, and a hurled-through-the-window Sleeper slammed into Aria, causing knockback and a knockdown. Alexa was immobilized by Mr. Bubbles, though Circe’s disintegration field protected her from the same effect. Succeeding at a CL save that was fairly difficult due to the CUSP members’ anger, the team convinced them to stop and talk.
The ensuing conversation did not go so well, though, and it was likely the Mantra was on the verge of either taking her team to hunt Sentinel 3 or resuming combat against the D-Listers. But the pause was long enough for Starks to arrive with the news that the blood on the sword did not belong to the victim.
With Velocimancer, along with Circe in wolf form, ran ahead of the rest of the group in the direction in which a wounded CHESS agent said his companions had run. Instead of finding S3 with Rook, they came upon Sigil just as he was absorbing strength from Rook’s body. He briefly considered fighting them, but heard the approach of more heroes and instead used his leaping ability to outrun his pursuers.
At The Weeble’s funeral, the coffin kept popping back upright.