Characters re-assemble at the library public room early one evening in response to a text message from BusyBody telling them that one of the East Coast Protectors will be visiting with a mission for them. They arrive to find BB and Vinny already there, along with a man in a heavy, dark cloak and robes. A hood seems to hide his face in shadow even in the brightly lit room, and something about the way he holds himself gives the impression that under all those thick layers he’s gangly and frail.
BB: “Heroes, this is Moomberbar of the East Coast Protectors!”
Mor: “Morumbar.”
BB: “Mooroogar, of the East Coast Protectors!”
Mor: “Mor. Oom. Bar.”
BB: “Mor. Oom. Bar. The East C-”
Vinny: “Okay, we get it!”
Mor: “There’s some activity in this area that needs looking into and the rest of the ECP are off-planet right now, so Captain Generica suggested I contact your group to offer you the chance to get some real-world experience on what should be a low-stakes operation.”
<If asked why he’s not with the others, Mor says “I lost an arm in battle last month and it wasn’t regrown yet when they left. The regen gear wouldn’t fit in our space-capable vehicle so they left me here to finish healing. (Waves left arm.) I’m better now.”>
“Firstly – examinations of the individuals you fought last week revealed concentrated doses of a chemical we haven’t encountered before. Analysis of it is incomplete but its primary effect seems to be that it acts as an invasive neurotransmitter in the pre-frontal cortex – essentially disabling the victim’s reasoning ability and leaving them open to suggestion. It was introduced into their systems at the political rally they attended through bottled water that was handed out at the event. We’ve no evidence to tie it to the event organizers themselves, and we don’t know where the bottles came from; they were present on a long table with a ‘free water’ sign that was set up before the rally began. You’ll need to watch for any zombie-esque behaviors in the area that might provide us with further leads.”
“That, however, is not the reason for my visit – though it’s possible the two are related. My team has a number of high-level intel sources and we’re seeing multiple reports that there’s been increased chatter about this area among several crime families and syndicates, as well as coming from some potentially hostile foreign governments. You don’t need to know those specifics at this time. What we don’t know is why the sudden interest in an otherwise relatively quiet region – most of these organizations operate in cities where wealth and population are concentrated, or out in the country if they need a base of operations away from prying eyes. Middle-class suburbs simply don’t make too much business sense. It could simply be that an organization has made an arms sale or drug deal in the area and its rivals are paying more attention because of it… or it could be something that they’re all going out of their way to keep secret even in encrypted communications on private networks. Perhaps this new chemical.”
“What we do know is that there’s a meeting between an InterCrime rep and a local low-level Super representing some party or parties unknown, tentatively scheduled for tonight at the storage rental facility just a few miles from here. InterCrime has gear that will block the best listening devices we currently have available, so we’ll have to go in person and try to observe the meeting to learn what we can.”
“We will only fight if we’re discovered, or if I make the call that whatever negotiations are happening are something that needs to be disrupted right away. Our primary goal is to learn what we can without letting them know we’re on to them.”
“One more thing: If the mission goes south I will most likely not be able to help you in combat. My powers have a… cost… that unfortunately makes them less than reliable without the presence of one of my teammates who can dampen the side effects.”
(Interlude: characters and Mor find themselves in the Busybody minivan sitting in traffic. BB has Christian easy listening music on the radio. Mor taps fingers impatiently, asks if there’s a better way to get there. BB says no. “I can fly, you know. Maybe I could… meet you there?” “Just relax, Mister Mornabarn, we’ll be there soon enough!”)
<Characters arrive & park by a business near the storage facility, then approach from an angle out of view of its (unlocked) gate. Mor flies them one by one over the fence into a dark corner and they’re able to approach unseen to where two people are standing along an open area near the center of the complex.>
The facility is ringed by a fence with the gate on the left, a single black SUV parked outside. Area is dark, with most lights in the complex off, broken, or flickering. Characters can see a form in full-body armor already in conversation with a woman who appears to be wearing a spandex-and-cape outfit; colors not really visible in current lighting.
Overheard conversation:
Woman: “What are you, then, some kind of middle manager?”
Armored man: “A trainee, actually. Management Trainee Higgins, at your service, Miss, uh…?”
Woman: “Caustic.”
Higgins: “’Miss’ Caustic, or just ‘Caustic’?”
Caustic: “Well, it wasn’t ‘Miss’, but I like the sound of that – kind of young and carefree. ‘Miss Caustic,’ then. Or maybe ‘Lady Caustic’, that sounds more mature. But anyway we’re done here, if the infamous InterCrime thinks I’m going to do business with some bureaucrat over an item of this nature. It’s an insult.”
Higgins: “Frankly I’m taking a risk even bothering. Our analysts don’t think your organization even has the object, and would try to use it themselves instead of selling it if they did.”
Caustic: “My organization does plan to use it… but my plans differ from theirs.”
Higgins: “That’s a problem, too. We’re team players here at IC, and we don’t trust traitors. No, my superiors dismissed your invitation . I’m only here because if the slim, slim chance of acquiring the alleged item actually pans out, I’m guaranteed a promotion. ‘Young go-getter on the ladder to success’ kind of thing.”
Caustic: “I’m leaving. We’ll see if the Atlanteans, or one of the family syndicates, will take this more seriously.”
Higgins : “I’m afraid we can’t just let you walk away. Damaging to my career if word got leaked outside of my department that I’d used resources in pursuit of a dead lead.”
Caustic: “We? You were supposed to come alone!”
Higgins: “Team players, remember? You really are new at this, aren’t you?”
Caustic: (Smiles) “New, but not naive. I didn’t come alone either! Jaggoleth!”
(A creature like the floating head of Rush Limbaugh if he sweat phosphorescent green emerges from hiding, spits acid at Higgins)
Higgins: (laughs) “That’s your backup? Show yourselves, boys!”
(Lights around the compound all come on, making whole area visible. Storage doors open on the units marked on map with hidden troops & they all come out)
Caustic: “Fly, Jagg!” & sprints toward gate. Jaggoleth zig zags between buildings & gets away. Some troops follow, but others close on PCs
Mor: “Run! Get out of here! There are too many!”
Team must escape. Because it’s an emergency Mor will activate powers to try to keep most opponents feared/slowed/dark for now so PCs only need to get through one squad initially. Others are circling around to approach them so they need to take them down quickly & get out to not be overwhelmed.
As characters escape, they hear Mor scream and see him fly away; all enemies not chasing Caustic are now focused on them. More vehicles are heard pulling up by the gate. BB “prime” will send her three copies charging back in to cover their escape. Pursuit ends when all PCs leave the edge of the map as sounds of new combat come from inside the compound.
Team makes it back to BB’s van & are attacked by Caustic & Jagg, who are hiding behind it.
Caustic: “Why were you spying on me? Who do you work for? I can’t have you giving me away!”
(On defeat, Jagg disappears with a POP!)
After Caustic’s defeat, Higgins arrives with 5 troops: “There you are, and you’ve conveniently defeated the girl and her homonculus for me. I’d heard there were some new heroes in town, so I suppose I can salvage something out of this fiasco by eliminating all of you before you have a chance to become a nuisance to my organization.”
(More fighting)
Police show up, chars meet Lt Starks. He takes in Caustic (etc), says they’ll search storage area but he’s not sure how long he’ll be able to hold anyone because the testimony of unregistered heroes won’t hold up. “By law I should probably file charges against all of you for operating unlicensed, but the fact of the matter is that you’re the reason I got this promotion… so I’m not in a hurry to chase you off the streets. Besides, I know what it’s like getting started – I used to be a superhero myself until I took an arrow to the knee.”
When adrenaline wears off, BB wanders off from group & collapses to curb. When asked what’s wrong: “I felt them all die – the other ‘mes’. We’re all connected. I was killed three times tonight. I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”
At this point Mor has returned unnoticed & speaks up: “For some of us our abilities are blessing and curse. Every time my magic strikes terror in a foe, I experience all the weight of their fear as they do. Sometimes, like tonight, I’m overwhelmed by it. I can’t promise you this will get easier, but I don’t think you’re the sort who will let it stop you.”
(Looks at group) “So what we’ve accomplished tonight is to learn that some un-named organization may or may not be in possession of some object it may or may not be using to gain power for itself, and some individual is trying to sell the object out from under them… one would assume for her own personal profit. It’s not much to go on, but it’s a start. I’ll see what information Protectors’ contacts might have about this Caustic person and who she might be trying to swindle, and we’ll monitor to see if there’s any new chatter on the dark web in the wake of this incident. In the meantime, keep an ear to the ground for any local news or rumors that might provide any leads.”
Notes
Yes, the title is another opaque Tolkien reference. Morumbar is a character name I’ve used in a number of online RPGs over the years, and his name is Tolkien-y as well: it’s from Sindarin Elvish (not that high-fallutin’ Quenya stuff!) and translates roughly as “dark fate”. It’s my go-to name for angsty characters with mysterious pasts. In COH he was a “dark/dark”… er … either defender or controller, I can’t remember which – and this incarnation of Mor is loosely patterned after that one.
On the map above I indicated a number of five-man squads of InterCrime troops. This was a somewhat arbitrary number as the overall intention was to keep pressure on the players to get out of there by constantly implying that there were many more on the way. These henchmen were still generated as “normals” in terms of their base stats, but were equipped with some body armor and blaster rifles to make them more effective than the ones last week, and because of the layout of the area it was easy to make more of them appear from around a corner for instance if the players are mowing through them too fast. I created a whole sheet full of them for some reason, though I only made something like 12 tokens for them.
How it Played Out
Relegating the powerful NPC to a somewhat “off-screen” presence during the fight was a good idea; this time around the initial hench-heavy fight was more challenging without being overwhelming, and being able to have a few more low-level enemies show up periodically helped add to the sense of urgency.
The ambush at the BB-mobile went rather badly for the characters. When Caustic popped up from behind their van and hurled an area-effect acid vial at the group, all but one of them failed their surprise check, so they weren’t able “roll with” the attack (an MP mechanism whereby characters can absorb some damage into their “power” points to lessen the effects of an attack). Every single one – except the one character who was not surprised, and who further rolled a check to jump clear of the acid – took damage equal to half or more of their current hit points. In MP, that’s a knockout blow.
The remaining character was able to take out Jaggoleth quickly (he’s a squishy little guy) and survive against Caustic for a few rounds while some of the others gradually passed their rolls to wake up at round’s end. Once she was down I allowed them time to wake everyone up and rest just a little bit before Higgins showed up. Though they were mostly at half health and short 3 BusyBodies, they were able to stand up to him in spite of another brush or two with unconsciousness on the parts of a couple of characters.
Lessons Learned
- BB is still too powerful. Most of the attacks flung against her are kinetic, and at this level her six points of kinetic resistance make her tough to hurt. With fewer of her, concentrated attacks from several henchmen could wear down her Power (limiting her ability to “roll with” damage that gets through her resistance) and eventually start doing real damage. But with four of her, it’s hard to keep even a big group of henchmen alive long enough to take more than one of her down. I’m using story points to mitigate this somewhat for now, but have some other plans for her that will be revealed in time. (Muahahahaaa!)
- The element of surprise is a powerful thing.