I didn’t mentally have all the pieces together for the next session in our ongoing storyline, so I threw something quick together based entirely around having a villain named Beelze-Bob…
D-Listers are contacted by Lt. Starks after a call about a monster of some sort rampaging through an office park out on Levels Road at the headquarters of a company called 21st Century Promotions. With a successful “routine” (+2) IN save (or if they ask UVG) characters will recognize the name as a local success story featured in a number of newspaper and magazine articles as well as some regional TV news reports. They’re a social media marketing company that started with three friends doing small-time work for local businesses out of an old house on Broad St. a few years ago. They unexpectedly landed a huge contract with a textile firm that was introducing its own fashion line, and grew explosively, landing more big contracts after the news broke and expanding to over 150 employees in the space of a year.
(Starks can’t help because he’s in New York with CUSP to do a TV interview about successful police/supers cooperation…)
Arriving on the scene, the team sees that something seems to have smashed its way out of the building – something big enough to punch a hole up to the roof of the two-story building. The local fire department is hosing down the area as there appears to have been a small amount of fire damage as well.
The team is greeted by a woman named Terri Ortega – black hair pulled back tightly into a bun, wearing a business suit/skirt – who introduces herself as one of the founders. The incident started somewhere in Accounting, and while no one appears to have been hurt so far, three of her employees are missing – Joanna Simmons, Nora Brooks, and Robert Downer.
The employees who were in the area will tell of a great horned devil or demon who appeared suddenly on the first floor (tearing a hole through the ceiling as he did) near Bob’s office, where Joanna and Nora had been speaking to him. In the confusion, panic, dust, and smoke, nobody saw exactly what happened, but after a few moments the creature roared and smashed its way out of the building, running eastward.
One employee, Dale Keller from the mail room, looks like he has more he wants to say. He’s kind of the local gossip, and with a CL check he can be convinced to talk. “Rumor has it that Bob was hitting on Nora – like, a lot, and being kind of a jerk about it. Not taking no for an answer, finding her home number and calling her there, that kind of thing. When I passed by with the mail cart I heard the three of them arguing in Bob’s office – Joanna and Nora are BFFs and they went in together to tell him to cut it out or they were going to report him to HR.”
Robert can be found about a mile away, wandering through a parking lot looking confused and disheveled. “I was talking to Nora and Joanna, and all of a sudden they looked terrified, like something frightening was behind me. Then there was a crashing noise and everything went black. I’m sorry, I just don’t remember anything else until I woke up here a few minutes ago.
Robert fits neatly into nearly every category of bad accountant stereotype. He’s a meek-looking middle-aged man, a little pudgy in the middle and with a hairline quickly receding in the front in an attempt to meet up with the bald spot in the back. He will, however, start trying to hit on a random female member of the team – mildly at first, e.g. “would you like to get some coffee sometime?” – but will get more insistent.
Eventually he’ll start to get angry, and will shout “You’re just like the rest!” (His face starts to get red.) “No appreciation for what men do for you!” (Really red – unnaturally so!) “No acceptance of your role in a patriarchal society!”
At this point he’ll turn into a demon and attack. He’ll shout “I’ve prepared a special hell for women like you!” and start using his teleport power to send the female members of the team away.
Those teleported away will find themselves in what appears to be an old house on broad street. They can see out the windows, but no one outside can see or hear them, and they appear to be trapped inside some sort of force field. (The field itself can be taken down with enough damage, but takes ¼ damage from non-magical attacks and can absorb 200 hits before coming down!) Nora and Joanna are here and can confirm the story about confronting Robert and that he turned into the demon/devil and sent them here. Joanna will confirm that this is the house where the company started.
The room is decorated with red streamers being blown by little fans to simulate fires. The unreachable thermostat is set up fairly high, making the room uncomfortably (but not dangerously) warm. From somewhere comes the sound of one of those Halloween sound effects reels – creaking noises, thumps, the occasional scream, etc. A TV is set up just outside the force field, looping Alex Jones Infowars videos. An oval kitchen-sized table in the middle of the room bears at its center a stone idol shaped like demon-bob.
After some time, a ray will shoot from the idol into an empty space, and Bob – in demon shape but not full height – will appear, bearing two pizza boxes which he’ll sit on the table.
“I’m sorry it came to this and I’m afraid I can’t ever let any of you leave here, but I won’t starve you or anything. Eventually you’ll realize how much you rely on me and you’ll start to appreciate me.”
Bob can pass through the force field at will as long as he’s in demon form, so if the idol gets destroyed he’ll walk in the front door. If a fight ensues and it’s not going well for him, he’ll step through the field into a corner and start darting in to attack and darting back out again.
How It Played
Poor Vanny took some serious damage when Bob first turned on demon form and expanded while being driven to the hospital for evaluation. Fortunately it was mostly to sheet metal, and a good body shop will fix that right up.
When the inevitable fight broke out in the house, Bob started going down more quickly than I’d though he would, so he ducked out behind the force field pretty early. I decided to make it a little more challenging by declaring that the house was catching on fire from Bob’s attacks and having the players roll increasingly difficult EN saves every round to avoid taking a small amount of damage from the heat and smoke.
The characters noticed that only magical attacks seemed to do much damage to the shield, so they switched to a tactic of having the non-magical pair hold their turns to be ready to attack Bob whenever he stuck a limb in to make an attack, while the magic-based pair pounded at the shield until they were nearly exhausted.
In the end, as the force field flickered a warning that it was about to give out, Bob went sprinting away. Between Velocimancer‘s saurid running speed and Vinny’s arrival in a damaged-but-functional Vanny to the scene of a reported fire in 21st Century’s old headquarters, they were able to run him down and finish him off.
He now resides in a prison where his internet access is monitored.