This is a campaign log for a Mutants and Masterminds campaign.
Ep 1: The Medusa Sanction
May 7, 2016 (session 1)
July 1974
Sign on the door says “Cooper Investigations.” Present: Pierce Cooper (Justice), Elsa Shaw (Tank), Murle Cairn (Revenant), Jane Arthur (Avalon), Peter Miller (Anamnesis), and Clair Miller (Omen).
Lunch orders are placed for everyone but Claire. Officer Michael Montenari, a former marine and local beat cop, enters the office and brings lunch and flowers for Claire. “I can keep these alive for 5 days!” He offers her and Peter tickets to the Tigers game with him that evening. Claire doesn’t seem to notice this is a chaperoned date and they agree to go.
The camera pans over to Cairn, who sees a figure in the window across the street. Mephisto is standing there waiting for a conversation with him. Cairn exits the detective agency and heads over. Mephisto warns Cairn that some minions of hell are up to no good. Also, could he have some of the blood of the prophetess? It’s worth a lot. Cairn refuses.
Back at the agency, Claire says, “Cooper it’s for you” and then the phone rings. Charli Maneli is on the line. She’s an old flame of Pierce’s and she needs his help. She was attacked and lost limbs in the assault. Could he come to the hospital?
Cooper rallies the team. Brief confusion ensues as Avalon dons her magic armor, then the teams decides to go in street clothes.
At the hospital, they see an agent of Charli’s standing guard outside her room. They go in and talk to her. She’s lost three limbs. She wants Cooper to recover a package she was carrying when she was assaulted. Charli used to work for the CIA, but she’s probably a private contractor now. We are to meet her employer there at the Brush Street Station with the package in four days.
Meanwhile Claire and Peter wait in the hallway. The hospital is overwhelming to their 6th senses. Peter is called in to perform psychometry on Charli’s clothing. He has a vision of her attackers, including ones with symbols on their faces, and the Bagley Public Book Depository. When they emerge, Claire does tell Cooper that Charli will be taller than him soon.
The team gets in the van and heads to Bagely Ave and Sixth Street, Bagley Public Book Depository (off I-75). The team asks Peter to draw the symbol he saw, but he’s driving so Claire draws the thing he was going to draw later. Revenant and Avalon recognize it as the symbol of Gaap, a fallen angel. He’s associated with a gang, the Angels of Torment.
The team pulls up to the front of the building and sees two bikes. Revenant messes with the spark plugs of the bikes. Justice picks the lock and sneaks in. Avalon makes noise. Fight!
Cool fight stuff: Tank and Justice take on a bunch of mooks. Avalon discovers they have firearms. Revenant does spells. Omen charges in and dodges bullets. Anamnesis sneaks up behind a guy and causes him pain. Avalon cuts down some strung up bikers, and she and Revenant take out the woman with the M-16.
(part 2)
May 21, 2016
Anamnesis uses his power on the leader, “Lucifer”
Ashley Wang, Bobby Jo’s squeeze. She lives 3 blocks from here.
Omen cuts down the bikers and they go.
We take the woman sabbath in the van. She says she belongs to “Lucifer” (the leader).
On the table, bent spoon, cotton swabs, gray-haired skeletal female passed out.
At the dining room table there is a 15 year old asian girl sitting at the table. Justice reaches her before she screams.
We find Bobby Jo in the bathroom, Anamnesis confirms his identity. He’s in an ice bath, curled up and panting.
Bobby Jo has taken a shit-load of hospital-grade antibiotics.
Microft. He can get anything. They traded the canister for the antibiotics.
We head to that building. 6th floor.
nice carpetting in the hallway. Anamnesis touches the door-handle and sees a man in a fedora.
Cool fight stuff: Tank bull-rushes Avalon. Shocker blasts but Tank interposes herself and takes the brunt, absorbing it. Justice gets in Shocker’s face. Dan attacks Anamnesis. Tank pulls out the rug and knocks people over. Omen knocks the guns out of Anamnesis’s hands. Omen dives on Anamnesis to keep him from being blasted, Tank takes it full on this time. Avalon takes out Ox using Excalibur. Justice uses his sleepy-gas on the upstairs room. Omen takes out Dan because he tried to hit her brother. Shocker blasts his way out of the wall 6 stories off the ground. Avalon gives chase by sliding down the wall, but Tank leaps out and lands on top of him.
(part 3)
May 28, 2016
Mycroft tied to a chair in his apartment.
Tank zip-ties shocker’s hands.
Justice wakes up Mycroft, who doesn’t want to be in the apartment when the cops arrive. He can tell us who he sold the vial to and what it is.
Anamnesis used the term “vibe!” He sits in Mycroft’s office chair and starts a vision. “Lang” (a name). Expression on her face is like she’s talking about an old lover. She leans in closer, ominously threatening, she gives him a case full of money. $60k.
Justice asks about the woman. Her eyes are strange. He thinks she’s a sophiticated android. Her name is Jo Nes.
Canister is from a European firm called “Abraxis.” It had a seal. He had “the Korean” look at it. She said it’s nanobots. They are designed to simulate a biolotical agent, like bubonic plague but orders of magnitude worse.
Abraxis is a cutting edge medical company. Justice has heard rumors this company was in leage with international crime syndicate or AIM. Maggia.
Claire has a vision, that the canister is going to be dropped. “the EMS sounds.. TVs waring about the quarentine….Men in white suits. Bodies, many many BODIES. A dead little boy with a Detorit Tigers hat on”
Justice uses the phone to check messages and there is a message from Officer Montenari that he’ll meet us at the game.
Justice calls contact at SHIELD. Conrad Lang. His work is cover for AI, androids that think like a human. Androids developed moral compass, outraged at having been made slaves. Justice surmises that androids are trying to eliminate their human makers.
Justice is mistaken for a reporter “Allen”
Tank sees 2 guys “checking air quality” or something and follows them.
Session 4:
7/16/2016
Pierce puts the canister of Medusa virus in Elsa’s coffee canister for safe keeping. We still have secret documents from Mycroft’s safe. He and Sabath were released.
Peter wakes up, notices the power is out, and that Claire was very anxious. He barges into her room, and finds her knees up, shaking. Peter comes over and succeeds in touching her with his hand. He gets a vision of himself (POV) covered in blood and holding a knife. He tries for another touch, and she runs out the door in her night gown.
Elsa is laying back on her chair with her feet up on her desk. Avalon is staring out the window like the terminator. Cairne (player absent) steps out and indicates the perimeter is safe. Pierce was looking over the Mycroft files, definitely not sleeping.
Cairne has a bad feeling. Cairne has seen some bad signs of forces aligned against the team. There is a call, Pierce answers. Agent Hagan knows Agent Weston. (Hagan is an assistant to Fury’s subordinates.) Claire says Weston is dead and Madame Masque is gone.
The crew loads up in the van and heads to the meeting location. The area is blocked off by a “water main break.” Anamnesis pulls up and has a vision while still driving (not how it normally works). Weston’s been killed, his gun emptied, something choked him, and there is a wet ripping noise.
Agent Dumdum Dougan walks up, wants to know what’s going on. Pierce tells him about the case file. On the van stuck in the metal is a 4-inch claw made of keratin. Abraxis was selling the canister. Robot people were the buyers. Madam Masque sent enforcers plus Shocker to express their displeasure to Mycroft that the package was intercepted. Then AIM showed up.
(The Maggia is marvel’s version of the Mafia. Organized crime meets Hydra. High tech solutions, hire mutants. If they operate in town, they have supporters.)
Elsa sees a homeless-looking guy holding a camera. He turns and runs. She launches after him, and catches up with him on the landing. He shoots her. Then she takes out money and trades him for the camera (with some threat of force).
They return to HQ. Peter developing the film on the camera.
Montenari knocks on the conference door and talks to Claire. She turns back to her painting she is starting on the conference walls. He gives her a peck on the cheek. Claire didn’t see that coming. She freezes in place, and then is so distracted that Tank startles her too. She checks that her power isn’t broken, but it seems fine.
Pierce and Peter render most of the nanites inert and then hand a subset of functional nanites over to shield.
Revenant has some information. Avalon found blood at the scene, and he’s got a way to find the owner. He’s at the warehouse! We go there in the evening, in costume. Two guys in on the roof.
Cool stuff: Justice quietly shocks the first guy, but Omen & Anamnesis’s bickering draws the attention of the second. He fires his rifle in front of tank. Justice throws a sleep grenade down into the warehouse. Mr. Creed (in the future known as Sabertooth) breaks out of the back of a truck. He attacks Cooper but Tank takes the hit, mostly brushing it off. Omen dives into the water after Madam Masque, sees the submarine waiting, and grabs her. Avalon hauls them both up. Creed exchanges some blows with Elsa and Tank. Omen says Creed’s line to Avalon and Peter (and Madame Masque?) before Creed says it. Creed escapes by diving into the water.
Summary: SHIELD has canister. Madame Masque has been recaptured. Creed got away. Submarine got away (and Pierce let’s SHIELD know about the sub).
Episode 2: Come to Father
8/20/16 (Session 5)
August 1974
Opening: nighttime, panning thought Detroit, 70s music, urban blight, angry loud police vehicles, faint calls of gulls. Ships in the harbor. On one access roads,
In the van: Anamnesis, Justice, Tank, Omen. Revenant and Avalon are scouting from a different position. Avalon watching the area intently. Warehouse is near the docs. Activity. Black Cadillac.
Episode Title: Come to Father
Around the office, there is a disconnect between Peter and Claire. Officer Montanari has been coming around and Claire has not been as standoffish as previous. She bunks at Tank’s place.
Avalon has revealed that she is anachronistic. Avalon and Revenant have indicated they have a connection, he is her guide.
Presently in the van, we have a folder with photos of members of the Mafia. Detroit families are called The Partnership. There have been a rash of missing person reports that we are looking into. We discovered usual suspects are gone too, upper echelon missing. The 4 capos are here, but all the rest are missing.
Omen looks out the window and asks “what’s so funny?”
Cars pull around to the lot next to the warehouse. 10 men get out with assault rifles dressed in light jackets. The walk around and scan the rooftops. One pulls out a CB radio and speaks an all-clear into it. Nicer car pulls up. Big Paulie gets out (car lifts noticeably). He’s wearing body armor. Warehouse doors. Paulie is meeting a different guy, who is Asian. Soldiers do not look concerned. Police scanner had no activity in this area. They have a crate with Heroin (and at this time it’s very expensive). Longshorman walk in and Asian and big Paulie get out.
Omen hears the laughter increasing in volume. She feels burning, then full fire, screams, jumps out back of the van. “She said it wouldn’t burn, but it’s burning.” Anamnesis jumps out to grab Claire, who becomes lucid after he grabs her.
Action! Revenant stepped between the van and the guards. Avalon takes out two thugs using Excalibur and her shield. Justice flips out the window and throws a flashbang. Revenant sees the longshoreman and the Asian and his partner flee. Big Paulie fires a law rocket at Tank, and she takes it to the chest. Her jacket is strategically ripped, but she’s okay. Omen sees a lady with Auburn hair touching Anamnesis on his face, “it’s all in the eyes, isn’t it.” Omen tries to see if she’s real but she disappears. Avalon senses a magical coldness coming. Revenant sees fire on Lake Huron.
Flaming motorcycle pulls up and Ghost Rider gets off. He looks pure white with a dark core to Revenant. “I see you old man, and the dead king who walks again. I see blood and sin on your hands.” He wants Paulie. Tank steps in front of him and demands a reason. “I am the spirit of vengeance.” Justice asks him some questions, he’s not responsible for disappearances, but he sees Justice is trying to distract him. Ghost Rider brushes past him and Justice attacks to no effect. Avalon interposes. Ghost Rider explodes in fire and Avalon takes the brunt of it. (She burns!) Omen walks up and asks him “If I sin, will you come for me too?” Ghost Rider looks at her and points. Avalon speaks again telling him to let us question before he executes vengeance.
Ghost Rider says Paulie knows where the Book of Kathan is. Revenant recognizes it as “the dark hold,” an encyclopedia of all that is dark. It can be used to bring back Kathan. Other mages have used it to try to gain power. Morgan LeFey used it, and King Arthur stood against her. Revenant knows it can’t be destroyed and always returns. It is being used in the city for fell reasons. They have taken innocents. Ghost Rider wants them to serve penance. Revenant says they can help each other, and Ghost Rider agrees.
Anamnesis shows everyone a vision from Paulie seeing a vampire killing the bosses. Paulie says Papa John has the book. There are vampires approaching, it’s a bunch of mafia.
Omen tells Remnant about the auburn haired woman, who sounds like Morgan LeFey.
Vampires come. Tank interposes to protect Justice. Avalon takes the head off one and damages a second. Tank headbutts a vampire.
Blade enters and takes out the last vampire. Ghost Rider and him almost exchange nods.
We head toward Gross Pointe, where Papa John lives.
Omen has a vision of a black flame in Gross Pointe. “We are heading in the right direction. The darkness is converging.”
Ghost Rider told us to “destroy the source.” Then he leaves and draws attention. Blade leaps the wall. Everyone follows. We hear shouts and shotguns in the distance.
We believe that the rituals happen in the basement, go in some black glass to the cellar (including Blade). Find a room with a pool table. Anamnesis is hit by a vision of prisoners being walked through the mirror on the wall. Anamnesis goes toward it, but Omen pulls him back before he gets pulled in. The mirror slides mysteriously apart and reveals Morgan Le Fay. Morgan waves her hand and everyone but Justice is frozen in place. She touches Anamnesis and looks into his eyes. She calls him a Seer, says it’s all in the eyes. She comes up to Avalon, “Your humiliation has just begun.” Justice slams her under the chin with his telescoping staff destroying the illusionary duplicate of Morgan Le Fay.
A horde of vampires comes in. Justice grab’s Blade’s UV flashlight and shines it on the vampires. Everyone gets motion again.
Fight!
Omen rushes one holding a pool table, it’s the blonde vampire from Anamnesis’s vision. Tank stakes him and he goes stiff but doesn’t disappear.
Morbius appears and tells everyone to run. Blade attacks him.
Justice pushes past Morbius and maneuvers into the room. The old man Papa John is there, Morgan is behind him. Avalon pushes in, feints at Morgan and attacks the book. She slices through the book and he’s consumed by black flame. Morgan drops back from him like he’s diseased.
In the billiard room, Morbius gets possession of himself. Ghost Rider comes down the stairs on his motorcycle. “The witch is mine.”
Morgan appears behind Anamnesis. Omen screams “Nooo!” and lunges at her. She pushes Morgan into the wall and accidentally makes eye-contact. Omen gets up, but her eyes look different. Morgan possesses Omen’s body! Anamnesis uses his power on Morgan and makes her look into the mirror and she separates from Omen and disappears. While possessed, Claire is in a gibbering nightmare of horrors and maniacal laughter.
The vampires were all summoned here by the book and under its control.
Cut scene to a parking lot near the lake, the van. Ghost Rider is gone. Blade clasps everyone hands (except Omen who is still a mess).
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