A Men and Supermen Adventure Outline
http://www.menandsupermen.com/
Copyright 1995 Jerry Stratton
January 24, 2013
The Snowman has organized a small group of supervillains for the purpose of taking over the world (if Freon and Nightshade do not appear capable of doing what has been planned, 1 or 2 villains of your own may be added). Fourteen days ago, Snowman had Freon steal the rune dagger from an inexperienced North African cult group. The cult had not even understood the true nature of the dagger.
Three days ago, using a simple ritual, Snowman unleashed part of the power of the rune dagger to create his ice castle and the five statues in the arctic. This is to be his base in the attempt to control the world. The ambient energy of the dagger is powering the storm surrounding the castle.
Snowman now believes that he can use technology to increase the size of the storm to surround first the northern hemisphere, and then the world. His plan is sound. With a little searching, and some help from his obscure contacts, he discovered the existence of Professor Leslie Jo Hutchinson. Yesterday he dispatched Nightshade to offer the Professor a ‘job offer.’ The professor refused, and ran. She had a few defenses in her lab which Nightshade hadn’t planned for, so she escaped.
If they have an HQ, the prof will arrive there about 2 AM today. If not, and one of the heroes has a publicly known residence, she will go there. Otherwise, she will hide out until the daytime, and after one (or more) of the heroes make a public appearance (because of an unrelated supervillain appearance or a previously planned public interview, etc) she will run up to them and ask for help.
When she finds the heroes, she will seem genuinely scared (because she is), and slightly eccentric (also, because she is).
Kidnap Plan A.0: Within an hour after meeting the professor, the heroes will meet Freon—he will attack them while they are in a building, blasting in with his Power Beam. If possible, he will then grab the professor and take her away while the heroes are surprised. Freon will try very hard to not fight. He simply wants to leave with the professor. If he succeeds in leaving before being attacked, he will fly up above the building and go over it, out of sight of the heroes. Immediately, Nightshade will try to hit them with an illusion, making the heroes believe that the entire city has been covered with snow (if it is already winter, put an even 6 meters/20 feet of snow on the ground). After hitting them with the snow illusion (and hopefully surprising them with it), he will hit them with the illusion of a huge abominable snowman bursting from the street or snow (by this time, the heroes who have not saved vs. the illusion may be getting used to being surprised). The snowman does 2d6 damage, and will attack the heroes. Once Freon is well out of range, Nightshade will drop the illusion and teleport out of the area, back to the arctic.
Kidnap Plan A.1: If Freon is not able to leave without fighting one or more of the heroes, the plan changes. Freon will devote all his energy to fighting the heroes, trying to keep them occupied, while Nightshade will use telekinesis to lift the prof out, after hitting people with the illusion that the prof is staying right where she is. Once he has Professor Hutchinson in his grasp, he will teleport away. On his next action, Freon will also leave, either by flying or dimension travel.
Kidnap Plan A.2: If the heroes have protected the professor too well for either of the previous plans to work, Nightshade will join the battle, using his psychic blasts and a telekinetic shield. If they manage to capture the professor, they will take her to the arctic. Neither Nightshade nor Freon are against taking hostages (innocent bystanders or even the professor if possible) in order to escape with the professor. As soon as either villain is destined to lose, he will take his next action to leave. In Nightshade’s case, this means Teleportation, and in Freon’s this means Universe Travel.
In case of failure: If the direct approach proves ineffective, Freon and/or Nightshade will try subtler methods. First, if either Freon or Nightshade was captured and the other is not (or was able to escape), the free man will attempt to use his special abilities to free his partner. Then they/him will try whichever of these plans seem most likely to produce positive results:
Retry Kidnap Plan A: If the battle was lost by mere chance or barely, perhaps a little better planning could produce different results a second time.
Kidnap Plan B: Nightshade can teleport into whatever place the professor is being kept at, then teleport her out. Freon will be on hand outside in case Nightshade needs some backup. Note that Nightshade is not powerful enough to teleport with Professor Hutchinson: he’ll need to Push his PR with Teleport (if you allow that sort of thing to players), and even then he won’t be able to teleport very far.
Kidnap Plan C: Nightshade can use his illusion ability with voice to make the professor think her father or mother is outside (outside her window on the street, outside the door, etc) calling to her. When she leaves the safe confines of the building, Freon can grab her and take her away. He might be able to Push his PR with Universe Travel in order to get her away from the heroes.
Kidnap Plan D: It is possible that another plan will become possible because of the actions of the heroes or their special defenses and abilities. If any such plan evidences itself, and seems to be a profitable course of action, the villains may try it. Nightshade is a relatively intelligent villain.
Kidnap Plan Z: If all of these prove ineffective, Snowman will have to take action himself. He will begin to treat this as more of a vendetta than a simple kidnapping. He will send engraved invitations to the heroes, either at their headquarters or to the local Sunday insert section of the newspapers. “The Snowman cordially invites these insects (here list the heroes who have been involved in keeping the professor from the Snowman, and the professor) to his secret headquarters. Please be at the (insert a runway near the city the heroes are headquartered in) at 0500, (the next morning). Your appearance will be greatly appreciated.” Snowman will charter a plane and paint the windows. If Freon is still around, he will fly the plane. Otherwise, Snowman will hire a flunky. When the plane takes off, it will fly northeast for about a minute, then the pilot will execute about 1 minute of loops and turns to confuse the passengers. The pilot will then fly in the correct direction, towards the castle.
If the Snowman is able to capture the professor, Nightshade will be able to convince her to use her scientific knowledge to create a device to do what the Snowman wants. It will take her 48 hours to build it, and Snowman has access to all the parts she will need. (He’ll send Nightshade and Freon to steal them, probably from such suppliers as Jasmine-Carlog Electronics). After the device is built, the storm will increase in radius by 24 kilometers per day.
There are many ways for the heroes to discover where the Snowman’s hideout is, some of which will depend on what powers the characters have. Listed here are some less obvious methods:
1. the water dropped from Freon and Nightshade includes organisms and dirt in combinations that point to the arctic.
2. there is a strange meteorological disturbance in the arctic (this is the storm centered on the castle). It hasn’t made news, but it is of interest to scientists. It will make headline news once it starts expanding.
When the heroes travel to the arctic and discover the storm, they will probably be confined to one of the five non-windy paths. Once someone steps past one of the statues (see the map and description), the rune dagger will warn snowman that someone is approaching. He will dispatch Nightshade and Freon to investigate, if they are there. If these two don’t think they could defeat the party, they will retreat back to the castle.
Once the party enters the castle, if Nightshade is there, he will create an illusion that the castle is empty (i.e, Freon, Nightshade, and Snowman aren’t there). Freon and Snowman will attack immediately, and Nightshade will use his next action to attack with Psychic Blast, and will use his Telekinetic shield.
If the Snowman ever believes he will lose, he will direct a blast at the center of the castle floor, and blast the rune dagger out of its position beneath the castle (and beneath the weather control machine if Professor Hutchinson has had time to build it). Once the dagger has been moved, the magical connection with the castle and the storm will be broken. The castle will fall to pieces. Treat the falling debris as if from an explosion with a bonus of 15 to the Combat Pool, and doing 2d6 damage. Anybody in the castle will be covered in 2-3 meters in snow. The Snowman will not take damage, having disappeared during the confusion by falling through one of the many secret ice holes that were in the floor of the castle.
There is no reward out on any of these villains. However, if the characters were able to defeat Snowman without a direct confrontation, add .5 to the Training Point Multiplier of the characters involved.
If the players fail and Snowman does cover the world with his storm, you’ve got a new world. If the characters are defeated in the castle, any survivors will be set loose in the arctic—200 kilometers from nowhere. The Snowman has no need for prisoners. Any part of the world that is covered by the storm is cut off from everywhere else. The storm will only have 60 kmph winds outside of the arctic area, and the temperature will vary from -20 degrees to 2 degrees celsius . All roads will be closed. Planes will be grounded. Power lines will go down, as will most outdoor antennas. The world will be thrown into chaos as the storm grows wider and wider. I’m sure you can take it from there.
Leslie Jo Hutchinson: Professor Hutchinson is a very eccentric person. She is the eldest of a large family. She has 6 sisters and no brothers. She is always tinkering. If she has nothing to tinker with, she’ll be drawing designs, in the snow if she has to. She has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and building a machine to cover the world in snow falls under wrong.
Freon: Mark Jillian has always had the ability to travel between the three worlds of Earth, Dacana and an uninhabited ice world. He’ll use that ability as if it is second nature. Freon is not used to being hurt: his Skin Temper and Ignore Damage stop most normal damage. He loves flying, and will almost always fight from the air if he can. He rarely uses his Cosmic Awareness, and is a little scared of how it feels. The universe is a very cold and empty place.
Freon will usually continue fighting as long as he has companions (Nightshade or Snowman). But he’s not stupid, and he can usually leave whenever he feels like it, using his power to travel to different Universes.
Nightshade: Nightshade is a ruthless and powerful villain. He’ll most often use his telepathy illusion abilities to get his way. He’ll only directly confront an enemy when it’s necessary to get the job done. When he does, he’ll try to use the illusion to gain surprise. He’ll use his first attack as a Psychic Blast at full power, but will then hold back to conserve EP (1 EP per use). He will not endanger himself, even for Snowman, and will use his teleportation to leave as soon as he feels he is in real danger. He will certainly leave if he takes any DP damage.
Snowman: Snowman is a bitter creature. He holds everyone else (with the possible exception of Nightshade) in contempt. He will use his ice blasts at minimum EP use (1 EP per use). If he feels it necessary to use more powerful blasts, he’s just as likely to run away.
Snowman wants to either control the world or throw it into confusion and then control it.
1. Outer Shell and Paths: The outer shell is the normal radius of the storm. The winds of this storm reach 130 kmph, and will increase to 200 kmph after the ritual is performed to increase the size of the storm. The wind does d6 damage. The temperature is -50 degrees Celsius, -15 degrees celsius in paths. There are five paths marked out. Each path is 3 meters tall and wide, and somewhat circular in appearance—as if the winds were swirling around an invisible tunnel.
2. Ice Statues: At (2) in the paths is a statue—1 statue for each path. The statues are pure ice. Once someone steps past any statue, the dagger will warn Snowman that someone is approaching. The statues are 2.43 meters tall and resemble mythical demons—enormous black serpents possessing batlike wings.
3. The Castle: The dagger is marked in the center of the castle. It is 2 meters below the ice. The castle is one room surrounded by a circular hallway. There are dozens and dozens of secret holes under the castle that only Snowman knows about. The ice of the castle is generally about 3 meters thick. The temperature in the castle is the same as that in the paths: -15 degrees Celsius.
The rune dagger is a relic from the far past. It first appeared in the hands of some Vikings who worshipped a dark, evil god unrelated to the adventurous gods of most Vikings. Anyone with knowledge of the occultic rituals necessary to loose the dagger’s power can use it. The dagger controls and creates cold, chaotic storms. It can create the formless castle in the center of its storm. Wizards are allowed a Magic Perception roll to recognize this dagger as evil and extremely powerful. Characters are allowed a History of Magic roll at half their Knowledge Score to realize that the dagger is connected with Elder Gods long banished from the Earth. (Anyone who actually has direct knowledge in the Elder Gods will be able to roll vs. twice their Knowledge Score.)