Legendary Edges in Necessary Evil

No, this isn't a general, all-purpose fan thread about suitable Legendary Edges for Necessary Evil. This is about the Legendary Edges that I gave my PCs and their NPC teammates when the campaign reached Legendary. Had some folks ask me about it, found the notes recently, thought I'd post them.

Since there are spoilers for Necessary Evil, the Edges are after the jump so no one gets it spoiled for them on the front page of the blog.

Savage Worlds...and Why I Keep Coming Back

Started a new Savage Worlds campaign last night. This one, to the surprise and apprehension of many, is an adaptation of Greg Stafford's classic RPG King Arthur Pendragon.

Yep, I went there. Been hard at work on an adaptation that captures the cooler elements of Pendragon while still providing the same mechanics and gameplay my group has known and loved for years.

But, y'know, why?

Why adapt King Arthur Pendragon?

I mean, Savage Worlds is one of my two favorite in-print game systems (with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition) and one of my three favorite games of all time (with 5e and Marvel SAGA), but still...

Why go back to Savage Worlds again, for a medieval fantasy game, with domain management at that? It's not like Savage Worlds can do that. Savage Worlds is for crazy pulp action and tactical skirmishes, not political intrigue and knights being driven by their personal values.

We'll get back to that in a minute.

#RPGaDay Day 8: Favorite Character(s)

I could name a few of these, and they are all actually NPCs (given how little I actually play).

Tanjlock Sarlon is a Wood Elf Fighter from AD&D 2nd Edition who ultimately came to be known as much for his mental instability and his "road to Hell being paved with good intentions" as anything else. The art above is from my friend and partner in crime, Johnnie Johnson, for what is intended to be an illustrated novella series featuring Tanjlock.

Bully, The Bull That Walks Like A Man was an NPC in my Necessary Evil game and the first NPC that, when I killed him off, nearly set off a riot at the table. My players were FURIOUS. When he showed up later as a Super Drone, they were furious a second time, but one of the PCs managed to wrench him from his brain washing and bring him back to their side. He will be migrating to comic book form in my upcoming PALADIN: AGENT OF KRYPTIC comic.

Lastly would be Former US Marshal Ezekiah Joseph Kidd, my first Deadlands character. He began as an ugly, self righteous US Marshal who ultimately became Blessed and gave his life in pursuit of stopping Ravenites from doing bad, bad things. After I took over as GM of the game, his deputy (one of the remaining PCs) made it his life's mission to find Kidd. When he discovered Kidd was actually dead, he invoked the blackest of magic to return Kidd to life against his wishes.

Kidd is not presently slated to appear in any fiction.

Necessary Evil: A Retrospective

Necessary Evil was the first Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign I started...and, eventually, it became the first Plot Point Campaign that I've finished.

Shortly after we decided we liked Savage Worlds enough to make it a regular game, I ordered the Necessary Evil setting book and we got to work. When we started, it was myself and two players: My friends Tommy (no relation) and Kenny. Getting Kenny to play new games is hard. Getting Kenny to play new supers games is harder. His favorite RPG is Marvel SAGA (and with good cause), but we got him to give it a go.

I'm used to groups that are smaller than the assumed party size, and luckily we would discover that Savage Worlds handles NPCs *very* well. Playing the Plot Point straight (in the beginning), our team took shape:

Mindstorm: The alternate reality supervillain version of the first supers character Kenny ever created, for Marvel Classic many years ago, who underwent multiple changes through that campaign's life, and into Marvel SAGA. He did a fairly faithful reconstruction of Mindstorm, even if we found the Savage Worlds supers powers to be a tad more restrictive than what we were used to.

Angel's Bane: Tommy played around with concepts and powers in the book to make a man mutated into a demonic form, believing himself to actually BE a demon. This character only lasted two sessions, which may have saved the campaign...

Belladonna: An NPC with Poison powers, taken from an outline of mine for a superhero comic that'll never see the light of day. The second shortest lived of the founding members of the team. (Though she is presently believed to be alive, just didn't stick around long).

Bully, the Bull That Walks Like A Man: Another NPC taken from the aforementioned outline, a mutated man-bull in the mold of a minotaur.

Kale: A third NPC, taken directly from the Archetypes in the Necessary Evil book. The name came from a Sorcerer villain NPC I created and used one time in a Marvel SAGA adventure.

Angel's Bane died quickly, and I've long suspected it was a bit of player-directed suicide, but Tommy really wasn't happy with his character and how some of the powers work...but his second character proved quite suitable...

Socks: A bloodthirty melee fighter who was part man, part badger. Mutated into that form by V'Sori experiments, Socks was not a good guy, but he had ample reason to hate the aliens. Personality-wise, he was fairly friendly when not in combat mode, as opposed to the diabolical and manipulative Angel's Bane.

With his arrival, the core of the team was set: Mindstorm was the leader, Kale was the Swiss Army Knife, Socks and Bully were the sadistic, happy-go-lucky tag team that inflicted a LOT of damage over the campaign. The fifth slot rotated out throughout the campaign, but for the bulk of it, those four were always there.

Some Big Moments

Some of my favorite campaign highlights are included below:

• Bully being killed by the Black Ops Squad and paraded around in the streets of Star City, sparking one of the saddest and most emotional responses I have ever seen from a group after an NPC's death.
• Mindstorm recruiting Vesper instead of killing her as ordered, taking that first, tangible step from villain to hero.
• Socks standing toe-to-toe with the K'Tharen rebel Sugrot (thanks to an Adventure Card), leading to Sugrot forming an alliance with the team that was paid off again at least twice more in the campaign.
• The team rallying a Russian village to go to war against an approaching Drone army, ending in Socks stalking down and killing the V'Sori warlord that had crippled Asia.
• Mindstorm's player spending all of his bennies, at the beginning of combat, to help Kale Soak. He failed. At the end of combat, he uses an Adventure Deck card to utilize his Electrical powers to heal Kale.
• Socks refusing to let Bully remain a Super Drone, talking him back to his senses.
• Mindstorm confronting, and killing, his step brother as one of his last acts of war...all without powers.
• Socks defeating an Atlantean God in hand to hand combat.
• Mindstorm electrocuting himself to fry the same Atlantean God...and Kale using his newfound powers to resurrect his fallen friend.
• The custom HeroClix figures that Kenny made of the team.

Again, just some of the big moments I loved.

On Plot Point Campaigns

I loved the basic plot of Necessary Evil, but the campaign began to bog down early on when we were jumping from mission to mission. That's when Plot Point Campaigns really began to "click" to me: It's not a whole campaign that you run straight out of the book, it's a strong skeleton to hang your characters' subplots and hopes and dreams and allies and enemies on. The moment that the campaign really began to sing, I thought, was when I ran the first adventure that was entirely off of my notes: When Belladonna betrayed the team, turning Mindstorm over to his brother. From there, we took all kinds of crazy twists and turns, weaving in and out of the written campaign, including the major trek to Russia, where they learned more of the backstory about the setting (including the ultimate source of superpowers in the NE universe), as well as the above mentioned Mass Combat in which they led Russian villagers against a Drone army.

I transplanted one Savage Tale from Star City and dropped it into London, England, and a tied a major canon NPC death into the same recklessness from Socks that led to Bully dying.

I also learned that, as we reached the end of the campaign, that I could have kept running games in the NE world for years. I would have gladly expanded the war with Leviathan out well past the one session wrap-up we did, but time was not permitting with Mindstorm's player moving to Boston.

Interestingly, a common complaint I've heard about Necessary Evil has to do with its mission based structure...but most supers games tend to wind up with the PCs reacting instead of acting, due to genre conventions.

Going forward, Necessary Evil will be my benchmark for measuring Plot Point Campaigns.

There IS Life After Legendary

By the book, the campaign is supposed to wrap up somewhere in Heroic rank or so. Our campaign reached Legendary, and will continue sporadically as Mindstorm's player is able to visit Oklahoma.

What I learned is that Legendary PCs are tough...but they are still beatable. Not actually knowing if we would continue the campaign sporadically, I gave each PC and NPC a unique Legendary Edge that helped them accentuate their primary schtick in the game...but I made sure that each Edge was something I could live with in an ongoing game.

I hope I get to run another game into Legendary...and beyond. The PCs are more capable and have more options, but are also not indestructible juggernauts, nor does the book keeping change dramatically.

Savage Worlds Is Super...But How Does It Do Supers?

As much fun as I had here, I can't imagine ever doing another supers campaign with Savage Worlds. While Savage Worlds doesn't have the same steep "zero to hero" climb as, say, D&D does...the fact is that it does build from a weaker base into a much stronger one that doesn't really emulate most supers characters. Comic book characters grow and change, but rarely do they do stair step progressions over time, ala Savage Worlds advancements.

Additionally, we found the powers system to ultimately be too rigid for our liking for a full blown supers game. That being said, I would gladly adapt that same powers system to, say, a Savage Buffy the Vampire Slayer game. No Power Stunt option, and a few of the Powers are either too low powered or limited to really work in a supers setting for us, even for a lower powered one.

"Droned: To mistakenly strike your ally..."

While playing Savage Midnight, I was amused when Socks' player referencing being "Droned", in which one character takes out an ally with a mis aimed ranged attack, so named because of my horrible ranged attack rolls with Drones in this game.

Pick A Card

The Adventure Deck can be a tad polarizing at times, but we are all pretty big fans of it, as the Adventure Deck directly led to great moments like Socks shrugging off Sugrot's blows, Mindstorm being able to lead the Russian villagers in combat, Mindstorm being able to heal Kale, Flux gaining an Atlantean Artifact while being caught in a burning building and more. Not saying you should always leave every card in the deck every time, but even in our Midnight game the Adventure Deck is sticking around, given what a staple it became in this campaign.

Final Thoughts

Deadlands hooked us on Savage Worlds, but Necessary Evil made us fall in love with it. This was the most memorable campaign I have ever ran, and I'm both looking forward to, and intimidated by, continuing it sporadically when Mindstorm's player comes and visits.

I've heard that you can't have "meaningful roleplay" in neither Savage Worlds nor supers in general, but I am very glad to say that our experience was the complete opposite. We told an epic tale of redemption as low level criminals and henchmen rose up to become the saviors of the world, with a lot of comedy, drama and tragedy along the way...and, with the exception of the very first mission, the PCs told the story. I may have provided signposts, but they decided where they went and what they did, often sparking the story in unexpected directions (Mindstorm's player became the king of setting up a seemingly innocent action that played into his bigger plans), and I just tried to make sure I had as many of my bases covered as possible.

I've never had a campaign reach any kind of definitive conclusion before, and it's kind of a great feeling. I'm especially glad to share that time with Tommy and Kenny, but also the other players that sat in at points, like Brian, Jack and Ellie. I'm also glad that Clint Black and crew wrote this thing...it helped create some of my favorite gaming memories.

Anyway, keep watching the blog. I'm currently hip deep in World of the Dead editing, but we have more Savage Midnight coming, and I promise to try to get back on track with reviews very, very soon.

Keep the dice dizzy!
Tommy

To read any of the previous Necessary Evil Session Reports, see below:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

Volume 13

Volume 14

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 14

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

Volume 13

The Omega Contingency

A week late, but better than nuthin’, right?

We left off last week, jumping ahead a year into the future, when Dr. Destruction left the team a prerecorded message, telling them how to find The Overmind, to launch one final assault against him. This led directly into the team reuniting, with Steve the Atlantean in tow, to plan their attack.

Talos got right to work on repairing an Atlantean Teleport Tube to transport them to the V’Sori homeworld, and Bully marched through first, with Mindstorm right behind him. As the team entered one by one, they emerged in the bizarre mediation room of the Overmind, who sneered that he had planned for this eventuality, before unleashing three V’Sori/K’tharen hybrid bodyguards on the team, as well as drawing forth manifestations of the team from their own subconscious minds to torment them.

Socks wasted little time in shredding the demons of his teammates. In fact, the Twisted Talos was the only one who really did much of note, as the team made short work of their duplicates. The bodyguards, on the other hand, inflicted a lot of damage. The Overmind’s force field shorted out quickly (due to an Adventure Deck card), and Steve kept opening fire on him, but couldn’t see for sure that it was having an effect. Bully went into a rage and killed one of the bodyguards, but Kale was badly wounded in the fight. Talos also suffered injuries at the hands of the hybrid bodyguards, but the combined might of the team took the remaining bodyguards down and Bully marched to the Overmind, hurtling him from his stand and splattering him against the wall. The team thought they had won.

The roof tore open and the Omega Contingency revealed itself: A 50’ Drone body with the Overmind’s face on it! The Overmind had been transferring his consciousness into the body and was attacking wildly! Talos tried to hold it in place magnetically and failed, so Mindstorm tried Telekinesis instead!

Socks had Bully throw him at the face of the Overmind, and he began to hack and tear, trying to claw inside of its head! Talos sprang up to join him, but had less success! Talos and Mindstorm also tried to literally disarm the Overmind, but had no luck with that, either, and it repeatedly smashed at Socks with a massive vibrosword. Steve fired multiple deadshots at the Overmind, with minimal effect. Socks burrowed into the head of the Overmind and began looking for something to destroy inside…when a new plan emerged: Kale ran ahead of Bully and began casting a spell…as Bully charged in a rage…and Kale grabbed him, teleporting the two of them eye to eye with the Overmind…sending Bully crashing right through the head of the Overmind, disabling his robot body and destroying his transferred mind!

As V’Sori entered the meditation chamber to see what had happened, the team was surprised at what happened next: The revelation that the V’Sori had been being influenced by the Overmind for untold years…and that many of them were now shaking that influence, though there were plenty of others who bought into the V’Sori way fully and completely. The team saw what was coming…a V’Sori Civil War…and they immediately made a decision: They would stay and help the peaceful and repentant V’Sori fight for their lives and their culture. Talos pointed out that they could lay low and escape back to Earth with the V’Sori neutralized, but Mindstorm and Socks both agreed that this just one more necessary step in finishing the war that they had been fighting…but that they needed to send communications back to Earth to direct their organization regarding what would happen next.

NOTES: I shouldn’t have waited a week to type this up. It was fun, and satisfying, but after the deeply personal moments in the Battle of Star City and the previous conflict against Leviathan, we may have set the bar too high. That said, I was honestly kind of surprised at how willing the team was to help the “good” V’Sori. Heroes indeed.

If real life weren’t ending this group, we could EASILY have continued on from the end of the Plot Point Campaign (for starters, I would have stretched out the Leviathan plot), despite entering Legendary.

I gave each member of the crew a unique Legendary Edge that I wrote up for that character, taking an element of each and amping it up just a bit. I want to do more Legendary.

And lastly…I lied again. The current plan is that when Mindstorm’s player returns to visit (first scheduled visit is in November), we will pick up the campaign in shorter mega-adventures, the first of which will be The V’Sori Civil War.

Best campaign ever indeed.

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 13

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

In the aftermath of the Omega victory over the V’Sori, the world had been thrown into chaos. Mindstorm, Kale and Talos were working feverishly to utilize Dr. Destruction’s resources to better the world, while Socks, Bully and Steve the Atlantean spearheaded the hunt for the remaining V’Sori around the world.

Cyber-Burglaire decrypted Destruction’s information for Mindstorm, granting him unfettered access to the structure of Omega. Meanwhile, an Atlantean Blood Cult following Leviathan began making a lot more noise.

One evening, while working, Mindstorm stumbled across the file on Talos…and it suddenly clicked: Talos had been in the hands of King Meros, who was posing as Dr. Destruction…and Meros knew nothing about robots…meaning that, all this time, Talos was moving around on this team without the proper programming. He read closer and learned that Talos reactivated himself and Meros went ahead and deployed him to the field, hoping for the best. All this time, Talos was running around, not bound by his programming. As Mindstorm tried to reach out to Kale, Kale told him that the Atlantean Blood Cult was making a move, threatening to blow up an Earth Unity rally! Mindstorm swore under his breath and contacted Steve to pick up him, Kale and Talos, and take the six of them to the rally.

As they closed in on the rally, Mindstorm scanned the crowd to find the rogue Atlanteans and detected a couple in the audience, so he whipped up a VICIOUS storm to try to disperse them. He regretted that moments later when a lightning bolt ripped from his own storm and blasted the ship, injuring Bully. Steve the Atlantean struggled to put the ship down safely, but managed to do so without killing the team, even though the ship was toast. As the team piled out of the ship, a sneering Atlantean stared down at them from a rooftop, sword in hand. As the rally scattered, the Atlanteans among the crowd drew their weapons as well and prepared to fight.

Mindstorm asked Kale if he knew anyone here, to which Kale replied that he knew Samor, the priest that seems to have commanded Mindstorm’s own storm against him. Mindstorm asked him what he knew about Samor, and Kale replied “That he was never this strong. But selling your soul to Leviathan will do that.” Steve sighed as he looked at the Atlantean cultists advancing on them, and said “So now I take up arms against my own people,” before readying his blaster pistol. “Alright, then.” Kale noted that Samor might be their best hope of finding out how to find and stop Leviathan. Talos did a quick count of the Buster Squad and asked “Isn’t six usually a bad omen for you guys?”

Mindstorm instructed Kale to neutralize Samor, the Atlantean Sorcerer teleported to the building Samor was on, grabbing the Priest and attempting to strip him of his abilities…but Samor laughed, swatted his hand away saying “Leviathan loves me best,” and slashed him with his sword.

Talos lunged into the onrushing Atlanteans and asked them if they were ready to die for their God, before crushing one of them and muttering that he really doesn’t understand religion. And then the Atlanteans gangpiled him and did a surprising amount of damage to him. Mindstorm sent an Electrical burst that fried several Atlanteans, while Bully and Socks rushed into combat…but did surprisingly little damage. Steve, on the other hand, was a crack shot picking off cultists left and right.

Mindstorm attempted to Telekinetically bind Samor and failed, but Kale used Samor’s own trick and stole Mindstorm’s summoned storm to blast the Priest with lightning. The cultists were giving Talos, Bully and Socks all they wanted and more, but Steve was still inflicting damage when he commented to Socks that his heart just hadn’t seemed “in it” since the war with the V’Sori ended…which was promptly followed by Socks shredding Atlanteans. Mindstorm finally bound Samor with his TK, and Kale magically paralyzed him.

With the Atlanteans fallen, Kale picked into Samor’s mind for the location of the bomb, which was beneath the city! Socks burrowed down to find it…while Talos followed! Socks and Talos found the bomb and Socks asked Talos if he could disarm it. Talos said “No,” and grabbed it tight, then leapt out high into the air. He yelled at Mindstorm to make a Telekinetic platform and landed on it, then leapt higher…taking the bomb high into the sky, where it exploded in the atmosphere.

The team began questioning Samor for information on where Leviathan was being summoned, but Samor laughed at their threats…until Bully and Socks made a VERY persuasive case of intimidation (the “Spill the Beans” Adventure Card), as Mindstorm flew into the air looking for Talos.

Samor laughed that Leviathan was HERE and Socks, Bully and Steve were struck in their tracks (Shaken)…as Kale disappeared and LEVIATHAN loomed over them! The massive God took the form of a Sea Dragon and sneered at the meager opposition in front of him, swatting Steve with his tail and lashing out at Bully and Socks…but Socks, the little science freak that should not be, blocked his attack!

Socks screamed out to Mindstorm that they needed help NOW and he struck Leviathan, drawing blood on the Atlantean God! Steve lined up what seemed to be the perfect shot to take Leviathan out, but his blast had no effect, and Bully was hammered to the brink of unconsciousness. Socks kept attacking relentlessly as Mindstorm returned to the field of battle…just in time for Leviathan to revert back to Kale!

Kale BEGGED the team to kill him, because he had forced Leviathan back down inside of him…but that he was healing quickly. He told “Mike” (Mindstorm’s real name) that this was their only chance, and that he was sorry for everything. Mindstorm took his hand and said “I won’t leave you. Bring Leviathan back.” Kale said he was sorry once more, and Leviathan returned…holding Mindstorm’s hand.

Mindstorm raised his other hand to the sky and lightning surged down into his body, traveling into the Atlantean God. The eruption of power blew Socks, Bully and Steve away from the field of battle. It blew out every window in Star City. It blew out the power grid in Star City. Mindstorm cooked Leviathan from the inside out, killing himself in the process.

As Socks struggled to recover, his nose and ears led him to the smoking pit that was Leviathan and Mindstorm. When his eyes finally adjusted, he saw the very still body of Mindstorm floating in the air. Then he heard the soft speech in Atlantean and saw Kale standing at his feet, surrounded in mystical energy. The Atlantean speech grew into a crescendo until he finally spoke English: “By the Power of Atlantis, I command you to live! Live, damn you.”

And Mindstorm’s breath broke the silence.

Socks, Bully and Steve walked to the edge of the pit as Kale brought the very damaged, but living, Mindstorm out. As the Buster Squad returned to Dr. Destruction’s base, a back-up of Talos came online. Talos and Kale got back to the business of repurposing Omega while Mindstorm healed and Socks, Steve and Bully traveled the region, putting warlords, V’Sori, rogue Atlanteans and former Omega operatives gone rogue. Talos came to Mindstorm one night and confronted him about Mindstorm knowing Talos hadn’t been reprogrammed. Talos explained that all this time, he’s not been bound to reprogramming by Dr. Destruction, but that he had made a choice…and Mindstorm would have to trust him like he trusts the rest of the team. Mindstorm said that’s why he fought so hard for Talos…Talos said that’s why he blew himself up to save Star City.

As the months drifted on, Mindstorm went back to work. A few more heroes came out of the woodwork, and many of the Omega operatives had come to believe in the cause, truly. Kale made the team nervous at first, because he was now absolutely overflowing with power…but he was no longer drawing it from Leviathan. Mindstorm felt Leviathan die…but that power had to go somewhere, and it seemed as though it stayed in Leviathan’s chosen vessel. The team had to separate, because the world is a lot of ground to cover, and the Buster Squad no longer operated in tandem anymore…until, a year after the fall of Dr. Destruction, their V-MAPs flared to life for the first time in a very long time. It was an automated message from Dr. Destruction, explaining to them that the Earth will never TRULY be safe until the V’Sori Overmind is defeated…and that the Atlantean Teleport Tubes can be calibrated to take the team straight to the Overmind. He explained that they had the ability and resources to resolve this once and for all, but that he was no longer in a position to give orders or command…but that it was up to them to decide: Stay on Earth…or take the fight to the heart of the V’Sori fleet and end this for good.

And so the team prepared for that one final push to ensure that Earth is free from the V’Sori threat forever.

COMMENTS: I lied. This was NOT the final adventure. Next week really will be.

I promoted Steve the Atlantean to Wild Card, and Socks’ player does all the rolling for him and Bully, while Mindstorm’s player handles Kale and Talos.

I wanted the fight with Leviathan to be BIGGER, but we were in kind of a time crunch…but I had the “Kale turns into Leviathan” thing in mind going into it, with three outcomes: a) Leviathan wins, everyone dies…b) Leviathan turns back into Kale, they kill Kale, Leviathan and Kale die…or c) they refuse to kill Kale, Leviathan comes back completely healed, and if they defeat him AGAIN, they get Kale back, with Leviathan’s power but without being bound to him anymore. Of course, I should never underestimate Mindstorm’s player’s absolute refusal to leave anyone behind (especially since he truly began crossing that barrier from villain to hero), and he intentionally held onto Kale’s hand in hopes of him turning back so he could fry Leviathan. He rolled insanely well on damage, and I made it worse by applying the damage to him as well, giving him 7 wounds to soak (which he failed to do). In the aftermath, with Kale back, he got to make Kale’s spellcasting and Healing rolls, and he was literally rolling for his own life…barely rolling well enough to save himself.

Bully and Talos were largely non-factors in this mission, but Steve made for nice ranged support…and Socks got to cap off his career with the ultimate melee performance…he stood toe to toe with an Atlantean God and not only drew first blood, but inflicted three wounds by himself (he took Giant Killer in anticipation of this fight, and utilized No Mercy to make a bad damage roll come out MUCH better).

Ultimately, one more big moment in a campaign that has been full of them…and next week we say goodbye, as Mindstorm’s player is leaving at the beginning of April and the last weekend of March, we are playing in a larger group than usual for International Tabletop Day.

Oh…and now the characters are Legendary.

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 12

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

The Penultimate Session

As the team made its final preparations, Dr. Destruction said he was working on repairing Talos, and Kale was floating in something that resembled a Bacta Tank from Star Wars. Mindstorm asked if Kale would be ready for the mission, Destruction simply said that it would be up to Kale.

Mindstorm went to see Kale, who began speaking to him telepathically. Mindstorm told him he needed Kale to stay behind, in case Dr. Destruction made a big move. He told Kale that Vesper and Flux would be alerted to the situation, to give Kale back-up. In Kale and Talos’ place, Mindstorm recruited…Cyber-Burglaire. Mindstorm told Kale that they would handle the V’Sori…and Dr. Destruction…and Leviathan. Kale mused that Mindstorm had become a lot more optimistic.

Talos, speaking through the walls of Destruction’s base, said he was working on acquiring a new body as they spoke. Oh, and that he was totally going to kick Bully’s butt.

Mindstorm, Socks and Bully met with Dr. Aden, Cyber-Burglaire and two V’Sori, which made the team nervous…until they realized that the two V’Sori were really disguised Atlanteans. The group departed for space.

Mindstorm and Socks told Cyber-Burglaire to find a way to ensure that Bully survives the deactivation of the Drones, and Burglaire stuck his fingers up Bully’s nose and jacked in, Cyborg to Cyborg, in hopes of an answer. As they neared the satellite, he reluctantly said that he had no way of saving Bully…not with as little time as he had to work with.

Aden bluffed the team’s way onto Satellite 15, and told the V’Sori technicians that greeted them that they had prisoners but that their ship was malfunctioning. They bought the bluff, and the team made it on board.

As the team attacked the control room, they made short work of the technicians inside…but Fins arrived, the first of which managed to hold Cyber-Burglaire in his spot! As Socks was finishing off one of the technicians, another Fin busted in, moving super fast! Socks, Bully, Mindstorm, Burglaire and the two Atlanteans were trying to battle these two Fins when a third Fin and several War Spheres entered the control room…and the new Fin immolated one of the Atlanteans!

The remaining Atlantean (dubbed “Steve” by Socks) acquitted himself well, shaking off attacks from War Spheres and dropping a couple of them. The flame throwing Fin went after Bully, but his attack missed and he blasted Socks and the Gravity controlling Fin, killing his ally! Cyber Burglaire managed to initiate the Drone Shutdown command…which also caused the War Spheres to collapse, but caused Bully to collapse as well! Then an ominous message flashed up saying “Champion Ultimatum Enabled”.

Burglaire struggled…and managed to isolate Bully’s programming, giving him one final command…”Live”. Bully came to, and spoke for the first time since his return. Mindstorm told Socks, who had explosives strapped to him, to go set the explosives on the power core of the satellite! As Mindstorm left the command room, he found the wounded Dr. Aden, who had taken his captors by surprise and forced them to attack each other, but was mortally wounded when they fought back. He told Mindstorm to win and it would all be worth it. Mindstorm took Aden to the shuttle but could not understand the controls to alert Dr. Destruction. Aden used the last of his power to direct Mindstorm through the V’Sori controls before passing away.

The team boarded the shuttle and flew away as the satellite exploded.

Notes: “Steve the Atlantean” became a dark horse favorite for handling himself so well in the fight.

As the team returned to earth, they caught the news that the Earth had erupted into full-blown war, with resistance pockets battling all over the planet. The V’Sori military presence in Japan had been sabotaged, and 4-Star and Lucky had emerged from hiding in New York to lead a battle in the streets. In Star City, Dr. Destruction was raising the call to arms when he was consumed in a wall of dust and the signal went out.

The team flew to Star City and began departing the shuttle. They caught wind of a red and blue blur, but couldn’t make sense of it yet. On the way down, Mindstorm was blasted and suddenly lost his powers, crumpling to the roof of a building! As he struggled to recover, he heard the sound of a basketball beating on the roof, and turned to come face to mask with the leader of the V’Sori’s Death Squad, who said it was time for a little “one on one”…and removed his helmet to reveal that he had been Mindstorm’s brother Vincent Blevins all along!

Mindstorm gave Vincent a pretty big “You Suck” speech, punctuated by a crack of thunder, which nearly caused Vincent to wet himself. Mindstorm, powerless, attacked Vincent with a vibro-knive! Vincent and Mindstorm went back and forth, with Mindstorm eventually drawing first blood. Vincent alternated between trying to shoot Mindstorm and trying to pistol whip him, and Mindstorm kept wearing him down with repeated stabs and slashes, before stabbing Vincent in the chest and pushing him to the rooftop. Sneering at Vincent, he carved his heart from him chest before commenting “Huh. I guess you had one after all.”

Meanwhile, Socks and Bully were surrounded by Fins, to which Bully quipped “Not enough Fins.” The two partners were back to back, battling the Fins, when the wandering warrior Hiro attacked one Fin and the elven swordsman Sarveen battled off another.  Socks, Bully, Hiro and Sarveen made short work of the Fins, when the Death Squad arrived, punctuated by Jacko’s chainsaw firing up! He charged at Hiro with it, but Socks intercepted him and forced the chainsaw up high…holding him in place for Bully’s vicious gore! The Death Squad stood shocked at the devastation wrought on one of their own, by the monster they helped create. Baldwin, Cervantes, Dante and Murtha entered the fray, but Kale teleported to the scene and gave Murtha a horrible sneak attack, giving him an immediately lethal infection, putting an end to the leadership of the Death Squad right away.

Cervantes dared Kale to battle him, saying he could absorb his magic, but Hiro dropped him with a huge martial arts kick. As Bully ended Dante, Socks pulled Baldwin to Hell. Socks squeezed the life out of Baldwin, who begged off, saying he was only following orders. “So am I,” was all Socks offered in reply.

Mindstorm stumbled upon a crater near the rooftop where he faced his brother and found Dr. Destruction laying inside. To his utter shock, Destruction’s helmet was cracked open to reveal King Mero of Atlantis…the hero known as The Aquarian! Mindstorm, stunned, immediately telepathically summoned Kale.

The team entered the pit and Mero coughed, smiling weakly at them. He telepathically reached out to them and showed them everything that had come before…how he had been rescued from a V’Sori attack by Dr. Destruction, only to have Destruction pass away quietly from a stroke. How he took over the mantle of the Dr. How proud he was when Mindstorm told him that he refused to kill rogue operative Vesper, taking her under his protection. How he grew to trust the team more and more, not just as foot soldiers, but as heroes that the world needs. He explained how he could never tell anyone…because the V’Sori were mindreaders.

And then, the spectre of death fell over the team…and Buster Squad 5 (er, four), found themselves staring off with Champion…the long dead hero of Earth, killed in the initial V’Sori invasion, now turned into a powerful failsafe Drone by the V’Sori, activated when the team shut down the Drones. The squad prepared themselves for combat…when everything froze. A flash of light erupted, and everything went black.

When their vision was restored, Kale, Bully, Mindstorm (who had his powers restored) and Socks found themselves standing alongside Dr. Destruction (who had been healed), a reconstituted Talos, Tula Michaels, Sugrot the rogue Fin, Vesper and Cyber-Burglaire…the force selected by the mysterious Outsider, creator of Star City, to battle for the planet Earth. The group had been transported to a barren, moonlike area filled with large skeletons.

Socks spotted Champion coming in the distance.

As Champion swooped in, the team put their heads together to figure out how to stop him, with Meros pointing out that he is vulnerable to Gamma Radiation. Mindstorm asked Vesper if she could create Gamma Radiation. She said no. Kale said he could.

Kale summoned energy from the depths of Leviathan’s power, unleashing a bolt that rocked Champion and left him with two Wounds. Sugrot opened fire and managed to harm him further, while Dr. Destruction unleashed his Ray of Destruction and finished him off! A huge opening salvo for the forces of Earth!

The remaining V’Sori team, led by Shocklord H’reed, arrived behind the fallen Champion. Talos immediately joined Destruction and Sugrot near the front lines, with Bully and Socks joining as soon as they could. Tula, Mindstorm, Kale, Vesper and Cyber-Burglaire tried to get into position to attack from a distance.

The V’Sori and their allies focused their attacks on Dr. Destruction, revealed to them as not only the leader of OMEGA, but also as the King of Atlantis. A well-placed blast from a Fin killed King Meros, enraging Earth’s defenders. Sugrot immediately executed the Fin that made the killing shot, gaining some measure of vengeance.

The final battle was otherwise not close, nor was it dramatic. Earth’s defenders were too strong and too determined. Fittingly, the final combatant for the V’Sori was first Shaken by Socks, then struck down by a bolt of lightning from Mindstorm.

Everyone returned to Earth. Champion slumped to the ground, defeated. King Meros lay dying in the pit, reaching out one last time, explaining that The Outsider had shielded the Earth from the V’Sori as a result of the conflict on the moon, then allowing the team to see how he had tried to help each of them, before softly uttering his final words: “Thank you…for proving me right.”

The V’Sori that could, escaped. The V’Sori that couldn’t, went into hiding. Many of the Fins broke ranks, joining Sugrot and forming a K’tharen island nation. Socks vowed the hunt the remaining V’Sori to the ends of the Earth, while Mindstorm reminded the team of one last goal…one last promise…to free Kale from the grip of Leviathan’s control. Socks asked, to no one in particular, what might happen if he ate an Atlantean God’s heart.

NOTES: Bittersweet, but only one session remains. If I had known that Champion was going to go down in the first round of the final battle (Kale’s opening attack hit for 44 damage, due to Champion’s weakness to Gamma Rays), I would have beefed up the final V’Sori contingent, maybe keeping the Death Squad alive until the end, instead of having them attack Bully and Socks in the streets.

We took the week off for Christmas, but the plan is to wrap it all up next weekend, as the team faces off with an Atlantean God.

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 11

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Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Return From Space!

The team returned from space, after Talos magnetically froze up Cyber Burglaire’s jaw, over three days after leaving…and returned to their base to find someone was inside. Socks prepared to pounce, before realizing that he recognized the scent of human freedom fighter Tula Michaels! The team relaxed until she walked out of the kitchen eating potato chips, which infuriated Talos. Mindstorm had to telekinetically hold him back.

Socks bragged that he blew up a satellite, which made Tula jealous. Word had been spreading that resistance was growing world wide, with the V’Sori losing their grip on Africa thanks to a surge of magic powered by primal spirits. Tula mentioned that she had been in South America, busting an old Nazi lab that had V’Sori connections. Seems V’Sori agents had been working with the Nazis all that time. The Buster Squad 5 were glad to be home…when their commlinks flared to life and Dr. Destruction told them that the V’Sori had been hard to work on trying to salvage something off the coast of Newfoundland. The team, plus Tula, loaded into their ship and headed to Newfoundland.

As they arrived, Kale had the ship hover in place over a salvage ship, which had an old submarine on it. Socks recognized it as being a US submarine from 1944, though he didn’t know WHY he knew that. It still had large chunks of ice covering it. Talos and Socks dropped to the salvage ship below and Mindstorm flew Tula to the deck. The team missed the Fins lurking on the upper deck of the ship, and two more emerged. A slimy V’Sori voice told the team that they wouldn’t disrupt THIS salvage like they did the last, and D’Bloc emerged from the submarine…flanked by World War II legends 4-Star and Lucky, presumed dead since 1944! The two men had a faraway look on their faces and D’Bloc ordered his men to attack!

Mindstorm, who was already summoning a storm before he left their ship, dropped a bolt of lightning on D’Bloc, frying him where he stood! (I made multiple Soak rolls and D’Bloc never came close to surviving.) 4-Star and Lucky seemed to shake off the Mind Control, but still looked confused as to what was going on. Mindstorm said they would explain later!

Kale teleported to the deck as Talos grabbed Socks and jumped to the upper deck to fight the Fins up there, Socks and one Fin trading blows while Talos shrugged off attacks from the other. Tula was shot by another Fin, and Socks wisely made it a point to yell out “Die, you Nazi bastards!” while chanting “USA! USA! USA!” This caused 4-Star and Lucky to pause and consider the situation before attacking, and Lucky charged one of the Fins and dropped him with a superpowered punch. 4-Star fired his Shooting Stars at another, dropping that Fin. Socks and Talos finished off their fins as a new figure tried to escape the submarine!

Mindstorm saw the escaping figure and told Kale to stop him, which he did with a well-placed palm blaster. The figure, Japanese super spy Shugenja, summoned an illusory attack that startled Kale momentarily. Lucky tried to attack Shugenja, ending the fight that began on the sub back in 1944, but Shugenja dodged him. Talos also attacked and failed, while Kale managed to wrap up Shugenja in inky darkness.

Mindstorm read Kale carefully and saw that he was about to kill the super spy, and ordered Kale to back off. Mindstorm then began to tell 4-Star and Lucky what had happened over the time they had been frozen…that it was now 2005. That Japan and the United States eventually became allies…until the V’Sori crushed both nations. Talos explained the fall of the Japanese empire to Shugenja, draining the fight from the patriot. Tula explained that OMEGA was the only resistance left…and the three frozen legends put aside their fight to leave this boat with the Buster Squad 5.

Arriving at a rendezvous point with Dr. Destruction, he seemed pleased that The Buster Squad had provided him with “two and a half” legends (which Lucky objected to). He led the men to his own ship and they departed, leaving the team to their own devices.

NOTES: We took a mission break here. Socks took Improved Frenzy as his advance, finally putting him on even par with the Fins, attack-wise. The mission is designed to have a fight with 4-Star and Lucky, but Mindstorm got a high card and rolled well, wiping out D’Bloc and putting an end to the mind control before it became a problem. I was going to have them attack everyone out of fear and confusion, but Socks made it a point to call out the Fins as Nazis and scream “USA! USA! USA!” so I gave him the point for effort. Then we carried on…

Tula asked Socks if he would maybe want to get some disguises and go to a movie and he said yes! Talos said he would shrink down and go with them, to Socks’ dismay. Another goofy argument erupted between Socks and Kale (happens once a mission or so) and Kale finally crossed the rubicon and actually mind controlled Socks and forced him to leave the headquarters and go to the movies.

Talos was stunned. Mindstorm said he had it coming.

Red flags also went off, at least with the players, because the last time an NPC female took a PC out on the town, Belladonna betrayed Mindstorm.

As the others left, Kale solemnly told Mindstorm that he was scared. He says that, with all due respect, he was never like the others…he was a kind and peaceful Atlantean until everyone he loved was killed before him in a V’Sori attack, and he gave over his soul to Leviathan for the promise of power…and revenge. He knows that he won’t survive this war…and he knows that his soul is damned. And now, it frightens him. Kale goes on to say that he is slipping. Socks is a killing machine, but he is literally what the V’Sori made him to be. Kale has access to all this power, but is moving towards the quickest and most lethal solution to any problem. He’s moving from not caring if people die…to becoming their executioner. He says that as the team has gotten better…he has only gotten worse.

Mindstorm says that maybe it’s not too late. That they can find a way to save him from Leviathan. Make a new deal.

As Socks, Tula and Talos leave the movie theatre, there is a commotion in the streets and the bloodied form of The Patriot, who Buster Squad 5 recruited some time ago, stumbles up to Socks and collapses against him. Spitting up blood, he tries to explain that his Cell is dead, that Drones did it…and says something about Supers before Patriot dies in his arms. Socks picks up a big whiff of fluoride off the body and contacts the rest of the team. Talos grabs Patriot and leaps back to HQ while Socks and Tula return on foot.

 It occurs to Socks that Patriot wasn’t saying “Drones and Supers”…but that Patriot was saying they had Super Drones! They examined Patriot’s body and found deep cuts and large bruising all over his body, with the fluoride being at its heaviest there. Socks said he could trace Patriot’s trail back to their headquarters and maybe find the Drones. Tula said she would take care of Patriot as the team headed out.

Socks picked up the trail…only to have a Super Drone open fire from a rooftop…and another Super Drone, wielding swords, charge out at Kale and cut him deeply! Kale crumpled to the ground, dying! (It should be noted here that Mindstorm’s player was rolling Kale’s Soak rolls and, using Common Bond, burned through EVERY benny he had trying to save Kale…and failed.)

Talos jumped to the rooftop to take out the Blaster Super Drone, while Socks shredded the Sword Wielding one. Mindstorm tried to attack the Blaster Drone with ranged attacks with little luck.  As Socks ran to the ladder access to the roof, a third Super Drone sped out of the darkness and hammered Mindstorm with multiple blows! As Mindstorm crumpled to the ground, he recognized the former OMEGA operative Zephyr – now part cyborg and a quite twisted Super Drone – standing over him! Socks managed to kill the Blaster Super Drone and jumped off the rooftop, hitting the ground running and charging at Zephyr…

…when the fourth Super Drone arrived, and Bully – fallen teammate of Socks, Mindstorm and Kale – intercepted Socks with a gore. Socks managed to roll with the hit and absorb it, but the shock to his system was much worse. Zephyr grabbed Mindstorm and began to pummel him repeatedly. Socks attacked Bully and only drove him into a Berserker Rage (which seemed curious that a Drone could do that), and Talos leapt down to attack Bully…only to get gored and smashed to pieces.

Seeing the thus far very resilient Talos shattered rattled the players…but Socks grabbed Bully by the horns and screamed at him.

“You’re still in there! They can’t take Bully away! Nothing can take Bully away! Not even death!” (Paraphrasing, as my memory is cloudy…but he did this while playing the Sidekick Adventure Card.)

Socks then turned away from Bully, exposing his back to him, and went to Zephyr, horribly wounding the Super Drone. Zephyr, who had momentarily sneered at Mindstorm, seemed to have a glimmer of recognition as Bully’s shadow fell over him and the hulking minotaur-like Super Drone crushed the speedy, Shaken Super Drone.

Mindstorm immediately dropped to Kale and began using his Electrical Control to cauterize the wounds, and try to shock Kale’s system back into operation. (He played “That One Issue Where…” Adventure card to gain Healing). To the surprise of everyone, Kale’s body began to respond to the efforts.

Before the team could process all of this, loud, clanking footsteps filled the streets and the team looked up to see Dr. Destruction standing in the streets! A ship began to hover over him and he said “This one is mine. The next one’s won’t be. GO.”

As the ship’s ramp lowered to the ground, Mindstorm telekinetically grabbed as much of Talos as he could while carrying Kale in his arms up the ramp. Bully, at their insistence, grabbed the rest of Talos and he and Socks ran past Dr. Destruction as a large cannon appeared in his hands and he opened fire on the Drones and Fins that were beginning to swarm in!

Destruction entered the vessel as the ramp raised and he dropped the cannon on the floor as he told Socks “You know how to fire a ship’s guns, correct? Fire at will.”

Mindstorm joined Socks, using lighting bolts to attack their pursuers as Destruction’s ship flew away from Star City…before plunging into the ocean.

Mindstorm finally had a chance to face Bully…and he simply hugged the giant, saying “I’m sorry.”

Destruction informed the team that the time was upon them…they could take three days rest, no more…because Dr. Aden had come through for them. OMEGA finally had the key to shutting down the Drones – worldwide – once and for all.

Notes: A very emotional session. Seeing one of my players use Common Bond to spend EVERY benny he had, at the beginning of a fight, to save an NPC is a sight I will not soon forget. My other player’s use of Sidekick to counteract the Super Drone programming for Bully, I thought, was a nice touch…you want character development in an RPG? Socks, a mindless killing machine, used the power of friendship to bring his best friend back. Mindstorm’s player told me, when Bully appeared, that he wanted to punch me. I call that a success, folks.

At the end of the session, Mindstorm took Shooting d12. I figure we only have a couple of sessions left and this campaign will draw to a close.

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 10

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Volume 9

New Session!

With the team laying low and Talos integrating into the group, the squad witnesses The Junk Yard Dog, an OMEGA member, being executed during a battle with Fins by an orbital satellite! Dr. Destruction breaks into their signal and informs them that the V’Sori have put a new weapon into play above the Earth, and that the team needs to take it out. Fast.

The requisite brain storming session begins, with the team trying to figure out how to find the satellite and how to get into space. With some thinking, they realize that space craft should be located at the airport, but will likely be heavily guarded, and they still don’t know where the satellite is. Kale and Mindstorm try to telepathically reach out to Dr. Aden, but fail, so Kale taps into the Omega resources to get word to Aden. Aden responds pretty quickly with the coordinates for the satellite! Still left trying to figure out how to get into space, inspiration strikes Kale. He tells the team to meet him at the airport…and he prays that they forgive him.

Mindstorm, Talos and Socks arrive at the airport, and Kale telepathically nudged them, saying that he was behind a hangar. When the team reunited, Kale refused to look them in the eye, saying that he knew they didn’t really have the right skills or resources to pull this off…so he made a deal with the devil. The team seemed unsure about how they should take this, when French thief Cyber-Burglaire said he would assist them! The team groaned, having dealt with Cyber-Burglaire before (in fact, having been directly responsible for Burglaire joining OMEGA), and Kale got some glares. Burglaire quickly broke into the hangar and the team surveyed the hangar, seeing the ship surrounded by about 25 drones. Mindstorm asked Cyber-Burglaire what he knows about satellites, which wasn’t much, but he said he could learn via the internet. Mindstorm asked him if he could reprogram the satellite, and Burglaire said yes.

The team tried to figure out how to get into the ship without fighting their way in, and Kale told Socks to sneak in from underneath, thanks to Mindstorm using Telekinesis to open the ship’s hatch. Kale and Mindstorm telepathically guided Socks to his destination, and Socks successfully slipped into the ship. Kale, riding Socks’ mind, saw the inside of the ship through his eyes and teleported into the vessel, then drew the other three teammates in as well. Burglaire hacked the hangar’s flight logs and inserted a scheduled flight for this vessel, and the team burst off into space, spying a V’Sori Warlord stalking around the hangar!

Kale piloted the vessel while Socks explored it. Before the team could even get a visual on the satellite, it opened fire on them! The vessel was sent spinning out of control and Kale only barely righted it before it came to a dead float in space! Mindstorm yelled at Burglaire for allowing the ship to be shot, but Burglaire countered that he had no idea the satellite would even try to fire that early! Talos grimaced and began to magnetically propel the ship forward..at an alarming speed, bringing the ship close to the satellite while Cyber-Burglaire hacked the satellite and temporarily disabled its gun! (Socks had an Adventure Card that boosted the group’s travel time in a day, making this quite fortuitous. As the team pulled in close to the satellite, Talos began to institute repairs, but they were going to take a loooooong time. Burglaire grimaced as the satellite tried to fire again, blocking the attack from firing. Socks found the ship’s guns and attacked, but did nothing. Kale rose from his seat in the cockpit and called on Leviathan, whose reach extended even here, and Kale hurled a mystical bolt through the ship’s viewport, blasting the satellite and causing explosions! Mindstorm closed his eyes and focused his Telekinesis, placing a shield in front of the vessel! (This was accomplished by an Adventure Card that allows a PC to gain 5 Power Points worth of Powers for one session, which Mindstorm used to gain Deflection.)

The satellite popped off a shot that narrowly missed the ship thanks to Mindstorm, and Kale ripped into the satellite again, while Mindstorm joined him by hurling Telekinetic bolts. Socks got ready to fire off another shot, but Mindstorm told him to take his time with this one.

Cyber-Burglaire locked the satellite down again and Kale fired off another bolt, this one doing nothing. However, Socks fired again and this time the well-placed shot set off a chain reaction of explosions that obliterated the Orca Death Ray satellite!

The downside? The repairs by Talos were going to take more than three days to fix because the ship was still crippled. Cyber-Burglaire offered a “Go Team!” but was rejected. Still, the team had won. Counts for something, right?

Notes: This one is straight from the NE book, and I could see it royally sucking for some groups, but everyone involved managed to find some way to contribute, even in the fight from the spaceship. Socks was firing unskilled from the ship and missing repeatedly, but rolled really well with the Aim maneuver, and then rolled even better on the damage roll (a damage total in the 40s, as I recall). Despite 7 Adventure Cards between the two PCs, they were complaining about how useless their cards were…then managed to use both to great effect. So great, in fact, that as Mindstorm crossed Heroic, he took Power Points and the Deflection power.

Buster Squad 5: A Necessary Evil Actual Play Volume 9

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Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

New Session!

The players got off to a good start by successfully recapping most of the previous adventure, scoring a bonus benny each for doing so.

With newly reprogrammed Talos on board, the team was sent headlong into Plot Point Adventure 7, in which Dr. Destruction sent them a pre-recorded message telling them to attack a lab on the Docks, where a V’Sori scientist would be waiting with his hands over his heads. The team was to kill everyone else in the lab and make it look as though the scientist, Dr. Aden, had been killed. Socks asked if they could kill the scientist afterward, but Kale threatened to do horrible things to Socks’ mind.

As the team set out to converge on the Docks, Mindstorm asked Kale to disrupt the power to the facility. Kale dug deep within and summoned the depths of his Atlantean Sorcery to short out the V’Sori power fueling the lab. Talos followed suit by magnetically ripping the doors from the lab. None of the team could see inside, Mindstorm told Kale to generate light. This caused me (as Kale) to comment on being asked to kill the power and then generate light, when Mindstorm replied with “I want to kill communications to the place.”

*facepalm*

Socks rushed the lab to find a lone V’Sori standing behind a table with a blaster, and Socks hurled machinery in his general direction but missed. Talos leaped in and crushed another figure that moved, but it turned out to just be a janitor.

Talos was still gleeful about his kill.

Mindstorm and Kale entered together and Kale was shot by the V’Sori, hurt but narrowly avoiding SEVERE injury. Mindstorm summoned lightning through the skylight of the lab and took the scientist out.

Mindstorm told Kale to heal himself while ordering Socks to dispatch two other V’Sori scientists who had been cowering in the fight. Meanwhile, Mindstorm found Dr. Aden and told him they were there to retrieve him. He ordered the team to depart, but Talos stopped and began to magnetically reach out to the metal frame of the building, ripping it loose and dumping it into the ocean before escaping through the skylight.

The team met with Dr. Destruction’s operatives, a pair of heroes that they had saved many missions ago named Hiro and Lycan, a wandering martial artist and a werewolf.

NOTES: The plan for the adventure is that a silent alarm is set off, dropping Drones, Fins and War Spheres on the place, but Mindstorm’s orders were designed to prevent that, and went off without a hitch, so I rolled with it and let the team have their flawless victory. Socks took Improved Sweep and we took a short break before mounting a new adventure.

The team was met in their headquarters by Dr. Destruction and a very angry half-Atlantean woman named Deja Nal. Destruction explained that he needed the team to return to Atlantis and locate a Geomantic Chamber that the Atlanteans once used for a powerful energy source. He explained that Deja Nal’s father was the Keeper of the Well before his death (and the Ruin of Atlantis), and that he was training Deja Nal to be his replacement. He went on to explain that she is a powerful sorceress herself, and will be able to use the power of the Well to destroy an orbiting V’Sori Man’O’War and then destroy the Well itself. He noted that the teleport tubes around the area have been destroyed, so he would provide them with a submarine.

As Deja Nal led the team to the submarine, she explained that the only reason she is doing this is because a Man’O’War routinely holds 3,000 or so V’Sori…and she’s going to snuff them all out in the blink of an eye.

As the team located the sub, they instinctively dove for cover as gunfire erupted around them!  Talos lunged into combat, and a cold chill went up the spines of the team as a chainsaw roared to life…just like it did the day Bully died. Talos laughed off the chainsaw and deflected gunfire, but Mindstorm was shot and Kale was clipped. Despite realizing they were facing Bully’s killers, Mindstorm made the call for everyone to run to the sub. Kale attempted to teleport in but misjudged and was deflected back to his starting point. Deja Nal summoned a swirling barrier to block the way and the team fell back, with Socks grabbing Kale and running to the sub. Talos was fighting the attack squad to a stalemate as Deja Nal teleported into the sub and Socks yanked Mindstorm and pulled him in. Talos turned to depart, but was cut down by the chainsaw. Jacko, the psychopath with the chainsaw, gleefully moved in for the kill, but Talos managed to his amazing Leaping to hurtle himself for the sub as Kale brought it down into the sea.

Talos began the arduous task of repairing himself, while Deja Nal used her magic to heal Mindstorm. Deja Nal and Kale deftly avoided Atlantean patrols, and the team entered the ruins of Atlantis. Finding the passageway blocked to the tunnels below, Mindstorm used his Telekinesis from the sub to clear the way, and the team used the airlock to descend into the tunnels.

Finding the tunnel to be covered in a glowing fungus, Socks felt the need to get a taste. As the team entered the Geomantic Chamber and saw the Well at the center, they saw a V’Sori explorer and his Fin bodyguards on the other side! The explorer, D’Bloc, said he and his men would be the only ones leaving the Chamber alive, but Deja Nal ran for the well! Talos lunged at the Fins and got swarmed, but laughed away as they tried to take him down. Mindstorm and Kale flanked the Well and Kale tagged one of the Fins ineffectually…before being attacked by Fins himself. Socks moved in to make the save and the energy from the Well began to grow.

Mindstorm was blasted and wounded again, while Socks proclaimed himself an ally of Sugrot and would kill all those who didn’t swear loyalty to Sugrot…getting no takers, he began the slaughter.  With two Fins down, Kale unleashed a power he rarely uses, in part because he saw what happened when Angel’s Bane unleashed it all those months ago…and he moved next to Talos and unleashed his Fear power! He sent the Fins scurrying from the chamber in fright, giving Talos a free shot on one of them, taking him down! Being left with five Fins and all of them in retreat, D’Bloc triggered a Teleport Shunt to disappear, infuriating the team.

Deja Nal channeled the power of the well and sent it hurling through the depths of the ocean and into space, destroying the Man’O’War! Then the chamber began to collapse! Mindstorm retrieved the unconscious Deja Nal from the Well as Talos grabbed Kale and Leaped to safety. As the tunnels began to collapse around them, Kale and Talos became trapped, but Kale asked Leviathan for power and took himself and the robot deep into the tunnel and near the sub. Mindstorm, still holding Deja Nal, dodged the collapsing tunnels but debris came down in front of Socks…who burrowed through it.

The team got into the sub and Kale summoned all of his might into boosting his natural Piloting skill (he’s Gifted, so he doesn’t actually HAVE it) and deftly piloted the sub through the collapsing ruins as the team watched a massive crater opening under the building…and an explosion consuming a mile’s worth of Atlantis.

NOTES: The team TOTALLY got saved on the new Savage Worlds rule of Spirit being used for Fear checks instead of Guts, since none of them ever took Guts, because Kale's Fear radius covered them as well. The Fins just rolled very badly. Socks came out of this session the best, as he ended with 7 bennies and an Adventure Card that allowed him to cash in his bennies for XP, becoming the first PC ever in our games to cross Heroic. He took the Counterattack and No Mercy Edges. Mindstorm also got a new Advance, raising his Smarts die to d8. I also gave them considerable props for coming face to face with Bully’s killers and choosing the bigger objective over revenge. That’s okay…I’m sure they’ll get their chance sooner, rather than later. With the PCs crossing into Heroic, we are very close to the end now. OH...I should mention that Kenny brought over some sweet, sweet HeroClix that he had modded for Socks, Kale and Mindstorm...a piece for Talos may be coming, and a piece for Bully's memorial will be as well.