"Enter - Safeguard" I start actually challenging the characters

So in this two-part session (both talked about here..most sessions I am running seem to go across a two session arc), I would finally get the chance to hit the characters with some actual power. Not just a handful of Rank 3 "terrorists" but also with a new Supergroup of Rank 4 potential foes. As a reminder, the characters are Rank 3. There is a decent difference in those numbers. But all in all, the party did not get in as big a punch-up with them as I would like. But getting the characters out to a public place to face foes with high tech weapons, and foes with strong powers, was something I was working towards. 

After the Night Clubs scenario, the PC's had a about a week to do their own thing. Which included moving out of the Justice Incorporated offices. Ultimately they had a choice between a small but luxury apartment in a Kyono owned corporate residential skyscraper.  Or a larger single building to stay at and consider a safe house. Seraph was the only one opting for a nice private studio unit.

Kind of the perfect crib for a flying girl, and better than the 
old warehouse she was crashing at before this 

Meanwhile a small shipping and receiving building in "Japan Town" (ethnic neighborhoods and tourist area), at the end of a short street between a Japanese restaurant and a tailors building, had some of its small office converted to bedrooms, and stocked with TV, fridge, and other living essentials. The Paladin player Andrew whipped up a map for it between these couple of sessions as Paladin and Igneous moved in.

I started calling him "Iggy" because
I keep calling him Ignacius rather than Igneous

At some point during the week, Seraph was flying above the city like she is want to do. I had her spot another flyer, which you don't see that often in the city (except maybe above mutie town). It was a young Japanese woman in ancient traditional dress, and she was flying on a giant white feather the size of a canoe.

The woman did not notice at first when Seraph followed, but she did at some point and used a Japanese fan to summon huge blades of wind that shot towards Seraph. She backed off as the woman disappeared among the skyscrapers. 

Kagura is from the anime Unuyasha, which I posted about last year.  She is my favorite character on that show, and I created her in Demiplane last year while I was practicing making NPC's and decided I could use her for this. She woke up in this era and fell in with Boliver York of York Industries, and his sponsored superteam "Safeguard."

I found some cosplay/AI of her and I 
may start using these for her tokens

I pushed to have this little solo encounter not take a long time (lf you have read a couple posts back then you might understand why I would be concerned about things like this taking more than 15 minutes). 

So Friday came around and Kyono asked for a meeting at the Justice Inc. offices (more often than not she showed up on a video screen conference call). She said that her data monitoring department has gotten rumor of a possible violent attack possibly occurring Friday night at the Metroplex Mall, the second largest indoor/outdoor mall (largest I guess is in Japan). 

With little other info, the group hung about in the corner of the mall where things were maybe going to go down. Yeah, I know. Easy set up. Indeterminate occurrence at so and so time. Not every set up has to be complicated in comics!

The "terrorists" who do eventually show up on the scene are using advanced tech personal weapons, either rifles of some type or melee-based weapon.

The weapons also projected a light personal force field (Sturdy 2, but dropped to 1 after first hit of more than 10 points health) and also fortified the body with Mighty 1 and some extra health. So two of each, bo staff guys, armored arms guys, and laser rifle guys. 

Also this was where we introduced a new player. He was brought in by player Will (Iggy) so unvetted by me but turned out to be a good guy. He is running a Nova corps member. Calling himself Nova, because, well he's a Nova. With all those good powers such as flight, hard skin, and some pretty heavy energy blast stuff. This battle is where he would meet the other characters. In the heat of combat. 

A little Nova in the comics background. I have no idea what goes on with Nova stuff in recent decades. As a kid I collected a comic called Nova. He could fly, was hard to hurt, and had energy blasts. 

He was basically an attempt to recreate the success of Spider Man. A teenager gets powers out of the blue and has to deal with that and his new heroic life. I remember little else. 

But this new Nova is a bit different. Same power set. Fly, energy abilities, some Sturdy. He is also kind of dances to his own beat. 

He likes to decorate his military helmet,
kind of like the marines in Aliens. 

The party dealt with the terrorists fairly well. Iggy had grown to giant size (though not full size because of the close packed stores) but managed to take a couple of heavy hits from the laser rifle guys. Paladin really mixed it up with them. 

The couple that got knocked out were teleported away somehow, along with the couple of others when "Safeguard" showed up. 

Clockwise from top left is "The Wind Sorceress," "Mastodon," "Spider-Max," "Blackwolf," and "Aegis." 

So quick history lesson. Back in the day (and in the setting currently between 12-20 years ago overall) I had two major global industrial organizations in Haven called "York Industries" and "Kyono International." 

York Industries was the company of Bolivar York. I had a great mini for him back in the day. I might still have it. It was a David Bowie Goblin king mini. Since I had Bolivar be a Hellfire Club lord much like Marvel Comics Sebastian Shaw I had painted it to look a bit like him in terms of clothing he wore behind the scenes.

Was not this, but similar

York was the evil company. Sort of a Lex Luthor thing. He used tech, and people he swayed, for all kings of mayhem. Characters in The Protectors and Justice Incorporated (and maybe the Future X-Men thing I did for a while but forget if they met him).

Patricia Kyono and her corp were the good business. She put together Justice Inc and often interacted and helped the Protectors. After some years of various campaigns (and an alien invasion that I think I am going to retcon away in this new thing) , they all managed to prove Yorks's crimes and get him a lifetime in prison. 

For this new era, I have it that York's son, Boliver jr., has taken over the company. And of course he has evil intent, especially to those who harmed his father and the corp. He is a handsome, well educated chad with charisma, and often when he says his father was framed by the Protectors, Justice Inc, Kyono, and the Science Police, some people listen. 

Business in front, party in back

 a more casual look I have yet to use

So in the 10 years or so there has not been super groups around or heroes in geneal in public, Bolivar jr. put together his own superteam that has recently been seen out and about stopping crime, and BY has had a press conference or two about them, with them in attendance. He called them "Safeguard." And of course they will be used to his evil ends. 

A yokai sorceress from feudal days
who has powers over wind.

Mastodon is part of an ancient race the remnants of live
in a city of science in the south pole. He is Mighty 3 and 
can grow up to 100 feet. I created him to go against Iggy.

I got the idea from a Red Letter Media/Noiselund video...

Spider Max is a 15-year-old with Spider Powers. And orphan. Have not
decided yet if he is a Peter parker clone, or a clone of Bolivar sr. with
Parker DNA in him. 

he is a Canadian hipster who can turn
into a large super wolf. 

Aegis. Power armor with many functions.
Secretly Boliver jr (he will be in there 
sometimes and sometimes it will be
a Life Model Replicant of him.

Tank built by Mastodon. He usually drives.

We did not a get a big fight between the group. Wind Sorceress swooped into the courtyard to attack Nova out of the blue with her Crescent Wind attack. 

Spider Max webbed up Seraph in mid air, causing her to fall from 50 feet. The kid realized she was heading for the fall, and swung in to get her to the ground gently. "Sorry lady." So maybe these are not bad guys?

Seraph has already been nabbed in a net
by her arch foe Blimpkrieg two times. So
that's three nettings in several sessions. 

I forget if any more attacks went down. I really wanted Iggy and Mastodon to grow huge and go all Kaiju fight. But Paladin was yelling at Aegis that they were not the enemy, and Aegis, who was on top of the tank, was forced (cameras and possible film crews are always around) to talk it out. 

That was it for possible violence. I did get to introduce an NPC from the old days I used for comedic value. He was a police lieutenant back then, but now he is a police captain. His name is Louie DePalma, a name you might recognize if you like old sitcoms. I had him be an asshole back in the day and hate superheroes, and now at probably 69 years old he's grumpier than ever. Characters always hated him, and I think these new ones do too. 

Back in the day I remember a player came up with a song about him. They started singing it when he showed up on the table (I think I used a hobbit mini that had a hat). It was sung to the tune of the old song "Louie Louie" and I think some it went:

Loo-ee loo-i

Oh whoa every where he goes

Soo-per-he-rows

Loo-ee loo-ay

Oh whoa every where he goes

they both-er him

Same actor in the role.

Science Police also showed up. Both groups had reason for being here. Because both Kyono and York had lawyers nearby ready to intervene when shit quieted down. 

Here's the thing. Safeguard claims to be employed officially as security for York Industries. the Kyono lawyers argue that Justice Inc, as private contractors working in security and investigative capacity for Kyono International. With some of the properties in the Metroplex Mall being owned or its product related to these companies, their security forces have a right to intervene in terrorist situations. 

So the characters finally got into a little conflict with another group. I really wanted to see more of them mixing with them. See how they do with Rank 4 foes. But Safeguard is playing at being good guys and have to watch their step. I sort of fantasize about a full fight at some point and hopefully the Rank 4 Safeguard beat the hell out of the Rank 3 Justice Inc. Then have a training montage and JI comes back Rank 4 for payback. 

Just a word on the Science Police. The concept goes back to Superhero 2044 where they primarily started as nuclear watchdogs after WW3, eventually moving in the future to overwatching strong or illegal science, and meta humans. During the heyday of my campaigns, with the Protectors, whoever was in Justice Inc, and Kyono would fight against frequent York Industries agents and schemes. Whatever it was, for those years the SP was an important agency and often involved in the meta human chaos (though usually show up after a fight). Now, with a decade or so of peace and few super powered beings causing trouble, they have less staff and agents than they used too and mostly monitor mutant issues (mutantgs have a large neighborhood of low income and HUD housing). The SP being a bit weaker these days will be a running theme in upcoming games. 

So Seraph went after Nova and invited him to the office, where he met everybody and of course got a job offer. Rather than go to the safehouse, Serapah invited him to stay at her small apartment. I would have some fun with that. But that is a story for another day! Stay tooned. Cheers.

Children of Trouble - the D&D Suicide Squad

 So, my Isle of Dread campaign has been going well for months, running almost every week. A couple of months ago we were missing an important player and the discussion began about an alternative I would run when somebody needed could not attend but we still had enough for a session. One player shot down my idea of just starting another secondary campaign starting at 1st level. He wants to start higher, and that does seem to be the trend these days. The other players were fine to start at 1st, but then I started wondering if I wanted another standard campaign starting at 1st. 

So I started pondering. Then the idea came out of the blue, Well, maybe not so out of the blue. Over recent years I had considered this campaign, but the idea was a bit off the beaten path for me. Almost all of my campaigns in my homebrew world I started as a kid happened in or around the west coast kingdom of Tanmoor. Almost 120 years of character continuity there. But for this I thought outside the box. Why not a campaign set in the Acherian Empire on the east coast?

The free kingdom of Tanmoor started over 800 years ago as a colony of Acheria, the first city of the lands of Acheron, based heavily on ancient Rome. A fantasy Roman Empire where they hate non-humans and magic types that were not clerics.

A few decades ago Tanmoor gained independence after many battles across the lands and in Tanmoor itself. A new age of kings and queens had begun in the west. Even during the centuries of Acherian Governors Tanmoor had evolved to be a city diverse in terms of non-human presences (due to proximity to the Wood Elf forests) and in contrast to the Empire proper, Tanmoor was like any DnD city chock full of wizards and all that. Big mages guild and all. 

But in the Empire, an age of decline began after the loss of Tanmoor. Now, Acheria itself was mostly just a place far away that Tanmoorians hated. I never had games set directly in the empire. Or on the upper east coast period. Well, now I am. 

So during those times decades ago when Acheria was sending troops to the west to secure their hold on Tanmoor, and them mostly being trounced in large part due to high level player characters taking part in the struggles, they came up with a specialist group they called The Children of Trouble to send in and counteract the diverse, magic wielding character parties that were devastating the troops. This group was made up of criminals of the empire. Wizards and non-humans. They were given powerful magic items and sent west to challenge the west and its player characters. 

This was way back in the 90's, and I had based the concept of The Children on a group of violent mutant hunters that appeared in X-men comics called The Marauders. The Children of Trouble presented a real challenge for the player characters. The Acherians considered it a successful strategy. But they were a product of their time.

But lately the notion hit me. Why not tap into the concept for this alternate campaign.  So I presented it as having been inspired by The Suicide Squad. They knew the movies, but I collected the comics back in the day, and it made sense. I would run it like that.

Will "Slappy" Smith

Oddball characters, either nonhumans or illegal magic users, who had run afoul of the Empire and earmarked for death in the colosseum but taken into a special prison and inducted into the new Children of Trouble program. 

I started them at 4th level, but would quickly put them to 5th. I gave them some decent starter magic items. Unarmed, dressed in wool prison togas, they were escorted by many guards with war dogs and removed from the regular prisons (where they had anti magic collars, and to an old abandoned and ruined ancient part of the city (as I say the Empire was in decline) where some very old academic buildings were being used as this special prison. 

The Warden. Brutal high level fighter.

Mentor, a high level Wizard and a former
member of the old CoT. He's their handler
at the prison. Fairly kind and somewhat helpful,
He represents the "benefactors" of the CoT
program. In a way he is as much a prisoner
as they are. 

Led into the main building, still partially in ruins and being restored, the characters are shackled, have anti magic collars (created by clerics), and are dressed in light togas. well armored guards and lots of barking guard dogs surround them, as they were told the deal: serve the empire out of the prison and they will find their circumstances improving more and more. If they agree (otherwise back to the main prison and prepped to die in the colosseums) they fight in a testing room lightly armed against archers, and then sent to their tiny crappy cells they will be in until after they are fully proved. Also, they are told that if they escape they have temporary tattooed "glyphs" on the back of their necks that will allow Orcus clerics to cause a demon to be summoned next to them to attack. That takes care of the "exploding collar" type situation the Suicide Squad members are in. 

The demon glyph. I also use it as the home
page image for the campaign. The symol
for the CoT, if you will. 

They get their first mission pretty quick. An area called "the Prefectures" between the twin cities of Acheria and Achium, a once vibrant suburban area fallen into some disrepair like much of the Empire, where a growing bandit gang called The Bloody Red Caps is taking over entire neighborhoods. 

So they went to Sarnath prefecture neighborhood where a couple dozen members of the gang had taken over. They were to send a message by destroying them as brutally as possible. This gang of freaks were certainly very horror show. I had named this session "The doom that came to Sarnath" or "the Bloody Red Caps have a bloody bad day"

The Mastodon, an old school Acherian troop 

transport used to transport CoT when outside 

the city proper. Drawn by warhorsed and driven 

by a pair of half ogre prisoners. 

The assault on the gang in the taverna was one of the most violent sessions I have ever run. My intention in the campaign was to have these mostly combat sessions, with a sort of over the top DnD combat parody vibe. Fantasy Tarantino. Not all the characters are evil, but they are all capable of coming off as terrifying. 

An elf from the Shadow Realm

A death goddess worshipping Dragonborn

An Asian female shape shifter assassin

Goblin artificer, raised by dwarves

Her mechanical familiar

Paladin Aasimir angel sort of character. She has
a halo that can come down over her face and it 
has eyes on it. She is imspired by Nephlim or
something. One of the few non evils

So it was a bloodbath and lots of fun. The CoT went back to the prison and were given access to after mission open air bathhouse with massages, and nice clean linens and better and warmer wool prison tunics, and an hours access to the meal hall for all kinds of decent food and drink. After their next mission they are given a dorm building to habitat, though still well guarded. 

Not only was this Children of Trouble idea and session super fun, but the players came up on their own with a secondary group to run for. Group B. 

A whole 'nother pack of freaks. 

And I have run an intro session for these monsters. Good Golly. I may post about them next, though I can't let the main campaign, Isle of Dread, get lost in the shuffle. This was supposed to be an occasional thing to run. But you gotta give the players what they want. 

Cheers.