Capitol City - The Landing Page for Superhero Campaigns

[UPDATE 2 on 29 September 2026 - moved Four Summoners in order]

Because my superhero campaigns have all been relatively short, rather than do one landing page for each I'm creating one page for them all.  These include:

Four Summoners

A villain campaign wherein we learned our group of players don't actually make very good villains.  This will include some fiction I wrote after the campaign ended.

Sessions: 

Session 1: Bitburg Beatdown

Session 2: Snatching TURTLES

Session 3: Thoughts on the Missing 3rd Session

Fiction:

Written as a series of shorts when I had some downtime at work. 

Summoner Leaves Base [with a background recap]

Summoner Approaches Bank

Summoner Robs Bank

The Morning After

Field Test in Capitol City

The Bold and The Determined

Two campaigns in one, an experiment in running a high-level and a low-level campaign at the same time in the same city.  The high-level campaign introduced the superhero team SABRE.  This campaign covers preparation from July 2009 to September 2009 and then monthly sessions from September 2009 to February 2010.

Countdown to Campaign - Two Months

Countdown to Campaign - 7 weeks

Countdown to Campaign - 6 Weeks

Countdown to Campaign - 5 weeks

Countdown to Campaign - 1 week

Campaign Session 1

Campaign Session 2

Campaign Session 3

Campaign Session 4

SABRE

The most recent campaign, featuring a newly reconstituted SABRE, several years after the previous campaign.

SABRE, Issue #1 – Pistolero Ambush!
SABRE, Issue #2 – Act 1: Books and Beat Downs
SABRE, Issue #2 – Act 2: The Hunt is ONT

General Campaign Posts

Not campaign specific, but about creating these campaigns and Capitol City.

Champions Pre-Campaign Data 1 – Superhero Timeline - Campaign background

Champions Pre-Campaign Notes: Scale Matters! - not all cities are the same

Capitol City Neighborhood Descriptions - short descriptions of the neighborhoods

Running Superhero Campaigns - some thoughts after 20 years of experiments

SABRE, Issue #2 – Act 2: The Hunt is ONT

[This session happened March 5, 2016, and continues Issue #2 from the previous game.  Due to an error on my part, The Terrapin Avenger’s player didn’t know we were playing on that day, so his character faded into the background for this session.  Sorry, Bryan.]

PCs
Mars – super-powered ex-professional wrestler
Mnemesys – teleporting martial artist with no official name, yet
Black Light – light manipulator with withering attacks
Sentinel – combat armor-wearing inventor
The White Shade – mentalist with a Pulp style
Aces – the team’s “Sorcerer Superb”

NPCs
The Terrapin Avenger –model and spokesman for TURTLE Armor™ line of battlesuit products
Max Power – President and CEO of FutureTech Systems and sponsor of SABRE
Chance Morway – PR representative for SABRE
Detective Alana Petrey – Detective in the CCPD Metahuman Crimes Division



Thursday, January 19th, 2012, Capitol City
The day after the kidnapping of Professor Bates and the attempted theft of the codex with him, The White Shade discussed the German prisoners captured on the University of Southern Maryland campus with Detective Petrey of the Capitol City PD metahuman Crimes Division.  Detective Petrey asked what evidence did SABRE have on the Germans, as most of what CCPD had was circumstantial.  The suspects were claiming they were just visiting the university before being attacked by the superheroes, without provocation.  The suspects were: Marko Nacht [the red-headed leader], Gunther Metz, and Eckhard Breiner.  When shown the video of the other members of their group dragging away Professor Bates, the Germans suggested that perhaps the professor had been attacked by the heroes as well and their friends were merely taking him to a hospital for medical treatment.  They also demanded to speak with someone from the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., and CCPD had contacted the Embassy.

The White Shade told Detective Petrey about the recording from Aces communicator where the Germans threatened both Professor Bates and Professor Wilson.* [*Secretly the super hero Aces! –Ed.]  The White Shade offered to have the recording sent over and Detective Petrey accepted the offer, stating the recording would allow the case to proceed and help prove to the German Embassy that the suspects were actually criminals.


Later in the morning, Aces met with forensics experts from the CCPD [to maintain proper chain of evidence] in the evidence vault in SABRE Tower.  Under their watchful gaze [and SABRE Tower Security’s], Aces started reading through the codex, looking for a reason for the attempted theft and the kidnapping.  A few hours in, Aces received a call on the phone his secret ID uses.  He stepped into a private area to change back into Professor Wilson via a spell and answered the phone.  A man with a German accent started explaining that he had Professor Bates, but Professor Wilson cut him off, demanding proof that Professor Bates was alive and then hanging up on the kidnapper.  He then transformed back into Aces and returned to the Evidence Vault to resume reading the codex.  [The Evidence Vault is a large, well-lit chamber with armored walls, an armored door with serious locks, and a display table for viewing evidence.  It also has several cameras, to prove continuity of the chain of evidence, and can be filled with knock-out gas at a moment’s notice.]


Thirty minutes later, a faxed picture of Professor Bates holding today’s paper arrived at SABRE Tower.  The members of SABRE were called together to the meeting room to discuss the situation.  Aces attended via speaker phone.  During the discussion, a call for Max came in from the kidnappers.  The White Shade volunteered to take the call and handle the negotiations and Max accepted her offer.  The White Shade answered the call [on a different phone than the one Aces was listening in on] and used her interaction skills to keep the kidnappers on the line for a trace and to subtly pump them for information [use of the Conversation skill].  The White Shade was able to pick up that the Germans were part of a group named the ONT, they seemed to be improvising, and that they did not care about the physical condition of the codex, only that they got it back soonest.  The exchange was set for Midnight at the Haridover Building, at 8705 King Edward Place in the Brickberg district of Capitol City.  Professor Wilson was to bring the codex, alone, and deposit it in the mail chute in the building’s lobby.  Professor Bates will be released shortly after.

Aces recognized the ONT by reputation as a magically active sinister group in Europe.  Mnemesys remembered more from his days as a PRIMUS agent.  Mnemesys remembered ONT stood for Order of the New Templars and that they were part of a larger group known as DEMON, a criminal organization apparently seeking dominion over the world through magical means.  DEMON has a cellular structure, with each cell utilizing whatever magic works for them.  The ONT specializes in Rune Magic, which explained the anti-teleport runes on the History Building the previous day.

The call was traced to a land line in the Monastery Hill district.  Black Light volunteered to go investigate but needed a lift to get there quickly.  Sentinel volunteered to fly her there, so they took off from the SABRE Tower roof, Sentinel holding an invisible Black Light.  Sentinel flew over and past the Monastery Hill district and an invisible Black Light dropped away to locate the source of the call.

The source of the call. [Image from The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo webcomic, used without permission.]

Black Light flew around the house that was the source of the call to investigate it.  She observed what she believed to be magical alarms and/or traps on all the doors and windows.  While trying to decide what to do next, she observed one of the German thugs they were looking for exit the building and start walking away.  She pursued him closely, trusting in her invisibility to keep her safe.  The thug walked deeper into the Monastery Hill district.  As the thug entered Little Marrakesh, the streets became narrower and started having sun shades covering them [see below] and Black Light had to follow him closer to avoid losing him.

Little Marrakesh, Monastery Hill District, Capitol City – notice slats providing street shade

Black Light followed the thug through a narrow side alley to a small, square courtyard.  The thug walked to a small door and knocked.  A speak easy opened and a voice asked for the password.  Black Light moved in close to hear the password and heard, “She’s here, drop the nets.”  Realizing this was a trap, Black Light tried to fly up and away, but a fine and anchored net she had not seen dropped on her and gas started filling the courtyard – she was captured!  An hour later SABRE received a faxed picture of an unconscious Black Light with the day’s newspaper being held in front of her.  It was the same chair and wall as in the picture of Professor Bates.


While Black Light was being led off into the trap deeper in Monastery Hill, Mnemesys arrived at the townhouse that was the source of the call.  He also observed what appeared to be magical security on the doors and windows.  He set up a surveillance spot across the street from the unusual town home and waited.  Once the faxed photo of Black Light arrived at SABRE Tower, Sentinel rigged up the radar unit on his battlesuit to treat SABRE communicators as transponders [comic book physics – go with it].  He then flew over the Monastery Hill area and determined that Black Light was being held at a different location than the one Mnemesys was observing.

Mars suggested that as they could not locate where Professor Bates was and the kidnappers had made no additional demands after capturing Black Light, the group instead go to the exchange location and set up an ambush there for the kidnappers.  This plan was quickly agreed upon.


9:00 PM
Mars, Aces, and The White Shade arrived at the Haridover Building, which was an old four-story, brick-faced, office building that is now abandoned [like large parts of Brickberg].  They entered the building through the service entrance doors in the back, which led down to the basement.  They explored the basement a bit until they found the Mail Room, where the mail chute would deposit mail into a hopper.  This was clearly where the Germans would set up.  Inside this room they spotted a trap door leading to a brick-covered tunnel and explored that.  The tunnel led to an old iron door that was obviously barred on this side.  After standing around and trying to decide what to do next, they heard the loud and distinct sound of a city subway car go by in an adjacent tunnel, just on the other side of the metal door!

The trio returned to the building basement and re-closed the trap door, confident they knew how the Germans planned on escaping.  They located a storage room across the hall from the Mail Room and Mars and The White Shade hid themselves there.  Aces returned to SABRE Tower and magically duplicated the codex.  Mnemesys maintained surveillance at the town home in Monastery Hill and Sentinel did periodic aerial sweeps across the city to keep track of Black Light’s position [and to make certain no one else disappeared].


10:00 PM
During one of his flyovers, Sentinel reported a team of toughs walking up to the Haridover Building, led by one of the Germans [still wearing his distinctive Euro-style fashionable suit].  The toughs started setting up equipment in the building, including wireless video cameras.  One of the toughs discovered Mars and White Shade hiding in the store room, but a quick mental illusion by White Shade convinced him that he was mistaken.


11:30 PM
Sentinel detected that Black Light was in motion, heading towards the exchange point in a SUV.  Sentinel flew over to Mnemesys and picked him up.  The two of them followed the SUV to a place two blocks from the exchange point.  There the occupants exited the SUV and walked over to the back entrance to the Haridover Building.  Mnemesys and Sentinel could see the second German leading this group and a blind-folded Professor Bates.  They could not see Black Light directly, but a noticeably strong tough was lugging a person-sized duffle bag that likely contained Black Light.  Mars and The White Shade noticed the group enter the building and then the Mail Room, but could not get a good look at them without exposing their own position [and White Shade REALLY wanted to get a line of sight on them].

Sentinel noticed that several of the rooms in the building were blacked out to everything in the sensor suite in his armor and reported this.  Aces and Mnemesys postulated that runes were being used to do that to obscure which rooms had snipers in them.


Midnight
Aces, as Professor Wilson, arrived at the front of the Haridover building in a SABRE Response Vehicle with a driver and the duplicate codex.  Professor Wilson exited the SUV and walked up the steps to the main lobby of the building.  The lobby was dark, but a voice called out for him to stop and to place the codex into the mail chute on the wall to his left.  He did so.

Down in the basement, as soon as he heard one of the toughs state he had the codex, Mars charged through the wall of the storage room, across the hall, and into the doorway of the Mail Room, bellowing for the toughs to “SURRENDER NOW OR FACE THE MIGHT OF MARS!”  [This was a Presence Attack made by Mars on all the toughs, which achieved the maximum effect on the Presence Attack Table.  And the player bellowed it at volume, at the table, for extra effect.]

Everyone in the Mail Room was stunned by this turn of events [and the volume Mars made his demands in].  While they were standing there gob-smacked, White Shade stepped up through the large hole Mars had made in the wall and placed an Improvised Telekinetic Barrier over the trap door to the subway, blocking off all routes of escape.  Once the toughs found their voices, all the locals immediately surrendered.  The two Germans used their bronze wands to destroy the [duplicate] codex and then demanded to be arrested.  Above ground, Sentinel and Mnemesys took out the mooks with sub-machine guns ready to snipe out the upper floors.  This included the tough hiding in the lobby attempting to shoot up Professor Wilson.  [Sentinel also took a moment to suggest to Max Power via SABRE radio that Max buy the building quickly before anyone made a claim based on the damages Mars was doing in the basement.  Max concurred.]

Once the heroes verified they had rescued all of the hostages and bound up all the toughs, they called in the CCPD to take possession of the criminals for processing.  Max (now the new owner of a slightly damaged abandoned office building in Brickberg) and White Shade discussed what to do with the codex and agreed that the best thing would be to let the ONT continue to think they destroyed the codex and turn the real one over to the German government as a national treasure, one they should keep secret.  Max called people he knew at the State Department to get the diplomatic ball rolling.


Friday, January 20th, 2012
10:00 AM
The White Shade and Mars attended the dedication ceremony for the Star-Spangled Singer Memorial Statue in Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park.  Also in attendance were:

• Indigo Flame (the event organizer) – she is a local solo hero (energy projector)
• Ivette J. Miller – she is the Head of the Friends of the Singer Charity (Normal)
• Senator Catherine E. Pugh – she represents District 40 in the Maryland Senate (Normal)
• Walker – she is from Special Unit One in Annapolis (animal-based shape shifter)
• Fire Ant – he is from Special Unit One in Annapolis (pyrokinetic)
• Dr. Katana – she is from the Damocles Society in Virginia (British accent, martial artist)
• Dr. Shield – he is from the Damocles Society in Virginia (force field projector)
• Moonsword – she is from the Sentinels in Washington, D.C. (super mage)
• A small crowd of 30-40 Baltimore citizens who were either personally helped by the Star-Spangled Singer or were superhero boosters/groupies

There was also a small crowd of protesters off to one side, about 20 of them.  Baltimore PD had the protesters contained in a taped-off area and were standing by in case the protesters got rowdy, but they were not expecting any real trouble – after all, members of Special Unit One were there.  Signs in the crowd included:

• “Heroes” aren’t COPS!  COPS are COPS!
• REAL Humans NOT metahumans!
• Beware the coming threat!
• Remember the REAL victims!
• Major Victory was a THUG!

The event consisted of a short ceremony where Indigo Flame, Ivette Miller, and Senator Catherine E. Pugh stood up on a low stage next to the draped statue and made a speech.  Once the senator finished her speech, the drape was removed from the statue, revealing the life-sized bronze underneath.  The crowd respectfully applauded and the event finished.


8:00 PM
All of SABRE attended the WWE event at the Reyes Aerobank Arena in Capitol City, making use of the VIP box seats Mars was gifted and shared with the team.  A good time was had by all.

End of Session


[Thus ended Issue #2 of SABRE.  This issue had much more in it than Issue #1 as I had a better idea what the characters looked like and how they would interact.  Everyone had something to do that contributed to the overall story and everyone got time in the spotlight.]

[Story-wise, this issue was self-contained, as will be the next couple or so.  I prefer to start this style of campaign relatively low-key until the players get a feel for their characters and knock all the design kinks out.  Plus, it gives me a chance to see the characters in action and spot where things might be broken and need some fixing.  This is the HERO System, so sometimes unusual interactions between powers and actions can lead to unexpected results that are disruptive to the game.  Luckily for me, my players are willing to work with me and are learning to trust I won’t mess them over.]


Issue #1

Issue #2, Part 1


Issue #3 [Not Yet Written]

SABRE, Issue #2: Books and Beat Downs

[This session happened February 27, 2016, and is the second session with the newly revitalized superhero group SABRE.]

PCs
Mars – super-powered ex-professional wrestler
Mnemesys – teleporting martial artist with no official name, yet
Black Light – light manipulator with withering attacks
The Terrapin Avenger –model and spokesman for TURTLE Armor™ line of battlesuit products
Sentinel – combat armor-wearing inventor
The White Shade – mentalist with a Pulp style
Aces – the team’s “Sorcerer Superb”


NPCs
Max Powers – President and CEO of FutureTech Systems and sponsor of SABRE
Chance Morway – PR representative for SABRE
Detective Alana Petrey – Detective in the CCPD Metahuman Crimes Division


Tuesday, January 17th, 2012, Capitol City
A few days earlier, The White Shade received an invitation to the memorial service for The Star-Spangled Singer, the first victim in the Cape-KRAKEN War two years ago.  A life-sized statue would be dedicated at the ceremony on the 20th.  The White Shade agreed to be there and since then calls from the press for her started coming in.  Most of the calls focused on her previous relationship with the martyred hero Victory Eagle and whether or not White Shade was dating again.  Secretly knowing that Victory Eagle’s death was not as heroic as everyone else believes, White Shade found she really could not deal with these kinds of questions.  She asked the team’s PR representative, Chance Morway, to field the calls for her.  As the invites included a “+1”, White Shade started giving thought to who she might invite that wouldn’t immediately start insinuating questions from the press.


As a result of the video footage of the team’s fight with the Pistolero Brothers (see Issue #1 for the exciting details! –ed.), DanCo., The Terrapin Avenger’s sponsor, insisted on a mandatory upgrade to the defensive capabilities of the TURTLE Armor the Avenger wears.  They sent the Avenger’s personal field technician, Stan Volkov, to deliver the upgrade that morning and to run a system diagnostic test on the suit.  This test took up the rest of the 17th.  The Terrapin Avenger and Stan spent most of the day discussing what new weapon and defensive options were being worked on back in R&D and which might benefit the Terrapin Avenger most.


Sentinel had a morning meeting with Agent Rick Dicker, his liaison with the US Marshals Service.  Agent Dicker asked that Sentinel be a little more careful about invoking the US Marshals Service when working as a member of SABRE.  While Sentinel is still a deputy US Marshal, no one else on SABRE is and sometimes local law enforcement gets territorial about cases.  Agent Dicker also praised Sentinel for the team’s quick work taking down the Pistolero Brothers the previous week, pointing out that the Pistolero’s themselves had arranged for the traffic copters to be right there.  Instead of getting evidence they are “the real deal”, they provided all the evidence necessary to convict them for the armored car robbery.


In the afternoon, Mnemesys received a call from Nancy Nicholson at the DA’s office.  She told him that all of the evidence from the Howard Payne case had disappeared from the evidence locker a couple of days ago.  Worse, Payne’s lawyers seemed to be aware of it as they asked to see some of it.  When the evidence could not be produced, they immediately filed a motion to have the case dismissed.  The DA had to let it go as now the only evidence against Payne is Mnemesys’ testimony and a teleporting superhero with a bomb disposal history as the only witness would make it way too easy for the defense to instill a reasonable doubt in any jury.  The Capitol City PD Internal Affairs Department is aggressively looking into the disappearance.

Mnemesys decided to go over to the City Jail to pay Payne a visit before the mercenary bomber was let free, but Payne refused to see him.  Mnemesys decided to spend the next several days dropping in so Payne would know Mnemesys was watching.  [It wasn’t creepy or anything at all.]


Mars received notice that a WWE Smackdown event would be happening at the Rayes Aerobank Arena in Capitol City on the 20th and the WWE wanted Mars to do some interviews and color commentary at the event.  Mars readily agreed (being an ex-WWE member) and started working out the schedule for the pre-event interviews.  The WWE provided Mars with a number of tickets and VIP passes for the event, enough that Mars “and his team” could view the event from a box seating suite.  Later in the day, White Shade asked Mars if he would attend the memorial service for the Star-Spangled Singer with her on the 20th.  A quick comparison of schedules showed that both could attend the memorial service that morning and get back to Capitol City in time for the promotional work for the Smackdown that night.  Mars agreed and White Shade was relieved to have a safe “+1” to take to the service.


In her secret ID as Julie Burton, Black Light was setting up her next experiment at the Luneburg Optics Building on the University of Southern Maryland Main Campus in Capitol City.  This experiment was a preparatory experiment for her primary investigation into using light waves for epigenetic manipulation of cancer cells in order to force the body to correctly identify cancer cells as foreign bodies in need of destruction.  Set up for the experiment would take several days, even with the small team of grad students at her disposal.


Aces, in his secret ID as Professor William “Bill” Watson, was contacted by a colleague from Germany, Professor Maximillian Bates of Bielefeld University.  Professor Bates had an 8th century codex on Saxon pagan practices that he needed authenticated before he could get funding for a restoration and would Professor Wilson be available tomorrow to look at the codex?  Not having anything pressing on his schedule, Aces agreed to Professor Bates’ request and they agreed to meet at 9:00 AM the next day (the 18th).


Wednesday, January 18th, 2012, Capitol City, University District, 9:00 AM
Professor Bates arrived at the office of Professor Wilson (Aces) at precisely 9:00 AM, announcing himself with a firm knock on the door.  Professor Wilson’s office is on the Ground floor of the History Building on the University of Southern Maryland Main Campus.  Due to the hilly nature of the terrain, this floor is below ground on the east end of the building, where the main entrance is, but at ground level on the west end.

After an initial greeting, Professor Bates pulled the codex he wished Professor Wilson to authenticate out of a satchel.  It was in a hard-shelled carrying container, which the professor opened.  Inside, wrapped in protective plastic was the codex.  While unwrapping the codex, Professor Bates explained that the codex was found in a private book collection that was recently donated to Bielefeld University.  The inventory indicated a few stone figurines belonged with the codex, and Professor Bates had those with him as well.  The codex appeared to be a previously unknown compilation of letters by Alcuin (a preeminent 8th century scholar in the court of Charlemagne).

Just as Professor Wilson was finally getting a chance to look at the codex, he heard the door to his office quietly open and someone attempting to be quiet enter the office.  Pretending to not notice, Professor Wilson (with gloved hands) picked up the codex and turned in his chair so he could see the door out of the corner of his eye.  Three men were standing there, two in black and one in brown, one of the ones in black was quietly closing the door.  The man in brown, who also had red hair with a single white streak, spoke with a slight German accent, saying “Good morning, professors.  I will be taking the codex from you now.  We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but the hard way involves the two of you learning if the American health system is as good as its reputation.”  He smiled at his own witticism.

Professor Wilson carefully turned back to his desk to set the codex back down in the plastic wrapping.  While doing so, he covertly triggered the SABRE communicator in his jacket pocket, knowing the signal was monitored back at SABRE Tower.  Maybe he could stall long enough for someone on the team to arrive…



Back at SABRE Tower, the PA system chimed and all members of SABRE in the building were requested to go to the Communications Center, a message that repeated twice more.  Inside the Tower were White Shade, Terrapin Avenger, Mnemesys, and Sentinel (who was doing maintenance on his armor suit).  White Shade, Terrapin Avenger, and Mnemesys went to the Communications Center while Sentinel used the intercom to listen in while reassembling his armor.

The Tech on duty explained he was receiving signal from Aces’ communicator and was hearing a threatening conversation.  White Shade asked for him to play it on the speakers and the team heard a German voice saying, “Thank you for accepting the easy way as I have doubts about the efficiency of the American health system.  Take the codex.”  White Shade asked the tech where Aces’ communicator was and the tech pointed to a map of the city on a monitor with a flashing light at the University of Southern Maryland.  Tapping a couple of buttons zoomed in the map to show just the university campus, with the blinking light in the History Building.

After a quick consultation with Mnemesys and Terrapin Avenger, White Shade issued orders, Mnemesys would teleport her and Terrapin Avenger to the University, Sentinel would follow as soon as he and his suit were ready, and the Duty Technician would contact Black Light and Mars to alert them to the situation.  Mnemesys, Terrapin Avenger, and White Shade then headed to the roof so Mnemesys could see the university to teleport them there.



Meanwhile, one of the German thugs wrapped the codex back into the plastic and retrieved it from the two professors.  During the scene Professor Bates whispered to Professor Wilson that he knew someone was following him but not who, which was why he came to the States.  Professor Bates was not able to elaborate on that confession before the thugs moved too close to whisper safely.  Once the thugs had the codex they left quietly, without harming either professor.  After giving them a 30-count to leave, Professor Wilson moved to the door and peeked outside – no sight of the thugs.  He told Professor Bates they should split up so they wouldn’t both be caught in case they ran into the thugs again.  He directed Professor east, telling him more students would be that way and should negate any potential violence.  Once Professor Bates was out of sight, Professor Wilson ducked back into his office, said Three Words of Power, and transformed into Aces.

Aces attempted to teleport to the main entrance of the History Building so he could capture the thugs before they got too far.  His teleportation spell failed.  Completely failed.  He tried it again and got nothing.  This started freaking Aces out – he thought his powers had no limits but his imagination!



After a couple of teleport hops, Mnemesys, White Shade and the Terrapin Avenger arrived at the front entrance to the History Building.  Classes were in session, so there were very few students wandering the campus at that moment.  The trio looked around for Professor Wilson’s office (Aces had finally gotten on the communicator and blurted out bad guys had stolen a book from Professor Wilson).  Mnemesys and Terrapin Avenger noticed a directory just inside the front doors and the trio moved in.  Mnemesys also noticed a rune written in ink beside the door, but didn’t give it immediate thought, having no context to put it in.  Inside, while Mnemesys and Terrapin Avenger were looking at the directory, White Shade noticed a man in black clothes step around a corner, notice the heroes, and then immediately turn back, waving off someone back around the corner.  White Shade threw a mental entangle at the person and alerted her compatriots.



Several miles away, Mars was giving a promotional interview for the WWE when a female voice called out, “Hey, Mars! Heads up!”  Mars was then slammed by a Cacophonic Blast from Katerwaller, a female villain from his rogues gallery.  While Mars is very strong and has the bone structure to support that strength, he is vulnerable to sound-based attacks, like everything in Katerwaller’s arsenal.  Additionally, Mars will not strike a woman, a hold-over from his upbringing.  Recognizing what kind of trouble he was in, Mars immediately put in a call for help over his SABRE communicator.

Sentinel, finally in his armor, knew that Mars almost never calls for help, so if he was, Mars really needed it.  He acknowledged Mars’ request and informed the rest of the team that he was going to the arena instead of the university.



Back at the university, Mnemesys attempted to teleport to the hallway corner so he could see what was going on there and couldn’t teleport.  This surprised him but did not stop him, so he ran to the corner instead.  Around the corner was the man White Shade has paralyzed.  Way down the hallway, running towards the doors at the far end, was another man in black and a red-headed man in brown.  Terrapin Avenger stepped around the corner and fired an Expanding Plasti-web ™ from his Ballistic Polymer Multigun ™.  This wrapped the two fleeing individuals in quick-hardening polymer strands that hardened immediately.

The man White Shade paralyzed broke free of the mental entangle, but was knocked unconscious by Terrapin Avenger.  Mnemesys, suddenly linking the rune outside the door with his inability to teleport went back outside and used a rag to erase the rune.

Inside, the red-headed man suddenly broke free of the polymer bonds, catching Terrapin Avenger and White Shade by surprise.  He ran to the far door with White Shade flying in pursuit and alerting Mnemesys to the issue.  Mnemesys teleported to the far end of the building, finding the red-headed man just outside the History building.  Mnemesys ordered the man to surrender.  Instead the man pulled a bronze wand from inside his coat and fired a lightning bolt at Mnemesys.  Mnemesys performed a passing teleporting throw on the man, dropping him back inside the History Building.  Terrapin avenger, down at the far end of the hallway popped another shot into the red-headed man to keep him down.  [This was a bit excessive.]  Aces finally showed up once the fight was over, just in time for campus security to also show up and try to arrest everyone.



Back over at the arena, Mars and Sentinel knocked out Katerwaller, but Mars took more than he gave in the fight, with several broken bones and swaths of disrupted tissue.  Aces was called for and a quick teleport later was using healing magic to repair the damage to Mars’ body.



White Shade worked with the police once the Metahuman Crimes Division arrived.  White Shade and Detective Petrey, the head of the MCD, collected statements and both noticed that the statements from Aces and Professor Wilson (once he finally showed up) did not match up very well.  They also reviewed video tape, discovering that there had been two more men in black suits in the building and they had kidnapped Professor Bates while the fight had been happening in the building.

End of Session


[After the game, we discussed how things went.  The players were pleased with the story and how things played out.  I was very pleased with the overall level of role play and specifically by Mars, Aces, and White Shade.  Both Aces and White Shade have their own reasons to be a bit paranoid, each having secrets to hide.  Mars faced an adversary he was particularly vulnerable to and responded appropriately.]

[In future games, I think I’m going to require any power with the Mega Scale advantage also have the Additional Time disadvantage with a minimum additional time of 1 minute.  Mega Scale teleport (Mnemesys and Aces) and Mega Scale Flight (Sentinel) means that the heroes arrive at any scene almost as soon as they are aware of it.  This causes problems with certain types of story elements and tropes and is vaguely dissatisfying to me as the GM.  Plus, it tends to lead to “hurry up and tell my character where the action is so I can get in on it” activities, which complicates scenes and nullifies what may have been a spotlight scene for the character who found the action.  The opposite (the characters can never get to a crime scene before the villains are long gone) is also no good.  I’ll have to experiment some more and have the villains adjust to what the heroes can do.]

[Also, Katerwaller can create a wall of pure sound, hence her name.  She was designed specifically to be an occasional foil for Mars without having to roll out something that would crush the rest of the heroes.  That’s still coming.  ;) ]

Issue #1


Issue #2, Act 2

SABRE, Issue #1 – Pistolero Ambush!

[This session happened January 16, 2016, and is the first session with the newly revitalized superhero group SABRE.  This is a different group of players than the Shadowrun game, which has continued happening – I’ve just been swamped for the last month.  Shadowrun Session reports will resume next week.]

PCs
Aces – the team’s “Sorcerer Superb”
Mnemesys – teleporting martial artist with no official name, yet
Black Light – light manipulator with withering attacks
Mars – super-powered ex-professional wrestler
Sentinel – battlesuit-wearing inventor
The Terrapin Avenger –model and spokesman for TURTLE Armor™ line of battlesuit products from DanCo
The White Shade – mentalist with a Pulp style

NPCs
Max Powers – President and CEO of Futuretech Systems and sponsor of SABRE
Chance Morway – PR representative for SABRE

January 10th, 2012, Capitol City, Downtown
At the end of a six months selection, testing, and training program, the newly revitalized SABRE was meeting for a briefing for the press conference on Thursday the 12th of January.  [A convenient fiction for me to have the PCs all in the same place and to provide a short description of the characters to the players.]  Mars, Sentinel, and The White Shade are long-standing members (although only Mars has continuous service since the founding in 2006), but Aces, Mnemesys, Black Light, and the Terrapin Avenger are new to the organization.

Max Powers was discussing the agenda for the press conference when Chance Morway stuck his head into the room and said, “You need to see this.”  Chance activated the wall monitor and set it to show the Channel 8 News Team working a breaking story.  Video from a traffic copter was showing a group wearing black tactical armor hauling deposit bags out of an overturned armored truck and placing them in large duffel bags.  Several people recognized the location listed in the bottom scroll as very close to SABRE Tower, where they were right then.  In fact, after opening the blinds, the scene could be clearly seen from the conference room floor-to-ceiling windows.

Sentinel immediately recognized the group as The Pistoleers, a temporary group periodically formed by the Pistolero Brothers, criminals he has run into multiple times.  The Pistolero Brothers are known to be smart, disciplined, and working to improve the technology at their disposal.  He shared this information with the group.  Openly attacking an armored car barely a kilometer from SABRE Tower seemed suspiciously arrogant even for them and the team suspected a trap of some sort.

The heroes split into three groups: Aces, Black Light, Mars, and the Terrapin Avenger for the first group, which would be teleported to the site by Aces; Sentinel and White Shade who flew there (Sentinel carrying White Shade); and Mnemesys, who teleported himself on site.  Aces put the lead team directly adjacent to the criminals, which surprised both groups as he failed to mention he was doing so to the other heroes.  Sentinel and White Shade flew left via a balcony and arrived directly over the scene, albeit roughly 10 stories above the scene.  Mnemesys arrived safely on the roof of a nearby business.

After the initial surprise of the suddenly appearing heroes, things got frantic.  Ray Pistolero backed up to some minor cover and plugged The Terrapin Avenger with a Lightning attack from his high-tech pistol.  The huge discharged knocked The Avenger out [although he would wake up quickly after a couple recoveries].  Jay Pistolero shot Aces, stunning the mage but failing to knock him out.  Black Light faded to invisibility and then unleashed a weathering attack at the fire arms all of the gunmen were carrying.  This destroyed the guns of the mooks, but only damaged the superior weapons of the Pistolero Brothers.

The mooks were divided into two groups.  The first group threw SlickFoam Grenades ™ at Mars, covering everything up to 10 m around him in low friction foam [6d6 Suppress vs Running and Leaping].  The other group fired spotlight bombs from launchers at The White Shade, blinding her for 10 seconds [10d6 Flash, Area of Effect: 1 hex].  Then Cybermind [criminal hacker with machine telepathy and control] stepped out of the armored car and commanded Sentinel’s suit to fly down to the ground.  It responded to Cybermind’s control, shutting Sentinel out of control of his own battlesuit.

This was the high point of the villain’s fortunes.

Mnemesys teleported amongst them, knocking Cybermind down and nearly unconscious.  Mars successfully grabbed two of the mooks and slammed them together, breaking bones and knocking them unconscious.  Aces recovered from being stunned and cast a healing spell on The Terrapin Avenger, bringing him back into the fight.  Sentinel, once again in control of his armor, used quick-drying foam to bind Ray Pistolero.

It was too much for the mooks who activated their jet boots and started jet-assisted hopping for the hills.  All but one was stopped or captured by the heroes before they could successfully escape.  The Terrapin Avenger stopped Jay Pistolero from escaping with a large area of effect goop ball.  Black Light used her weathering attack to destroy the jet boots on two of the mooks (she actually arrested one and the other was picked up barefoot by a nearby CCPD patrol car) and Mnemesys “ran” a third down.  Only the one Mars was chasing managed to escape, and then only due to a ready escape plan.

After gathering the criminals back together, they turned everything over to the Capitol City Police Department, providing statements and the captured evidence.

Later, The White Shade and Chance had a “discussion” about the text of the press conference on the 12th.  Having observed the advantage of criminals being unfamiliar with the powers of the new team members, Shade wanting to eliminate all description of the powers of the new team members.  This discussion went around several times, but eventually Shade was able to win her point.

Local and state news were all about the incident and speculation about the heroes fighting alongside SABRE for the rest of the day.  Are they new members of SABRE or did they just happen to be in the area?  Are they the new SABRE and the old team is retiring?  Who are they and what are their actual powers?


January 11th, 2012, Capitol City, Downtown
Sentinel (SABRE’s designated law enforcement liaison and contact point) received a preliminary report on the materials taken from the attempted armored car robbers.  All the weapons were extremely weathered [Black Light’s doing] and the police doubt they would have been a threat.  Attempts at test firing the weapons failed.  The weapons from the Pistolero Brothers were still partially functioning, but also showed signs of extreme weathering.  The foam weapons and the flare weapons are of different manufacture that the rest of the gear.  No serial numbers or locations for serial numbers and only one identifying mark: a stylized set of teeth/fangs in white framed by a white square.  No matches have been found in any database tried so far.

January 12th, 2012, Capitol City, Downtown
The press conference went off without a hitch, introducing the newest members of SABRE.  Chance and White Shade shared speaking duties, deflecting or redirecting questions about the new SABRE members’ powers and abilities other than to say they are “trusted and contributing members to the team.”

End of Session

[This was the first session with these characters and was all about getting a shake down of their powers and an introduction to the campaign.  It also helped me get a better feel for the characters so I can judge threat levels better as the GM.]

[After the game, we discussed how things went.  I requested that Black Light’s weathering power be modified as a 20” cone on the map was overwhelmingly huge and well beyond her power descriptions in her backstory.  The power was vital, so I wanted her to keep the power.  We agreed that either Area of Effect: One Hex would fit the bill much better, so she’ll be changing that.  This will let her do her thing while not warping the game on a meta level.]

Issue #2, Act 1