The Plot / Adventure Idea Game [for Gms]

[arcady]

Remember when we had the 'name game' going here?

Well, let's do something like that for plots [adventure ideas].

Each person posts a short adventure idea -one paragraph or more-.
Each idea has a short description, a hook, and one twist or red herring. Optionally include a sentence on one or more potential scenes that may or may not happen.

Finish this up with the title of two to three other adventure ideas.

The next person can then choose any adventure idea not yet detailed and expand it out to a short idea as above. Hopefully having more than one will leave a lot of extras in there to keep it from stalling from bad titles like the Name Game did.


Here's Idea one [I'll try to be more detailed than needed so people know what can be done with this. Ideas don't need this much detail though.]:

The Heartstone

A young girl kidnapped has managed to escape into the hands of the heroes. Villains took her as they believe she is the key to finding the Heartstone - a magical stone that will bring love to it's owner. The villains think they can use it to gain control over the emotions of love. Unbeknownst to everyone, the stone is the girl's actual heart -she is lacking an organic heart. As a second twist, there is a second batch of thugs out to get the stone because their hapless and misguided [but not really evil] leader desires true love. This group also knows the girl has some connection, but not the true nature of that connection nor the fact that the girl is actually their leader's lost daughter [and thus the true love he/she actually seeks].

Potential Scenes:
Scene one: Girl finds heroes just as villains catch up to her.
Scene two: At a place the Heartstone was rumored to be, a three way battle to get the girl [who was the only one able to open some seal to grant entry to this place].
Scene Three: Heroes must team up with one villain group to get the girl back from the other. If this was the wrong alliance to make [bad villains] betrayal will occur at some point.

New Titles:

Playing With Dolls [I'm currently writing my own version of this title]
Whatever Happened to RedStone Manor?
Tossing The Timecapsule
The Glass Eye Affair
The Prospector's Daughters


[hopefully that should be enough to get this going]

[Crackerjack]

Whatever Happened To The RedStone Manor?
Forrest Redstone is one of the world's most eligible bachelors. His father, the oil tycoon Clive P. Redstone, is desperately searching for a match for his son. Clive knows that soon he will pass on, and he wont be able to take his money with him. So the greedy old man wants the next best thing-to leave a lasting legacy the world will never forget! Forrest RedStone, for his part, always wanted to meet Dad's expectations, but always seemed to fall short. He's smart, atheletic, graduated in the top percentage of his class at Harvard, but none of that seemed to please dad.
Three days ago the senior RedStone held a huge masquerade ball at their desert estate, inviting the world's smartest, most attractive, and most succesfull women. The intention was to find the perfect match for his son. However at noon of the second day the manor's gates closed and the security systems went active. Since then no one has gotten in and out. The local police have pulled all stops but cant get past the high tech security system. Is something wrong? Are they being held hostage by some maniac mastermind? Or is it just one of the elder RedStone's eccentricities?

In reality RedStone has taken all the eligible guests hostage, cultivating their DNA with-in fact- HIS and not his son's DNA. He wants to create the perfect RedStone, by himself if he has to. You see, the elderly RedStone is more than he seems. He is in fact the retired supervillain known as The Tinker, the insane manipulator of genetic force. He is using traits from the best looking, brightest, and physically strongest female specemins in the world, combined with his own more "average" genetic structure as the base, and then using genetic tinkering that he is best at to give his new "son" a full host of powers, creating the perfect man, a monster like the world has never seen before!

The PC's will have to not only infiltrate the robotic securities of the manor, fight their way into the underground labs, but also stop the Tinker before he finishes his "new son", and without letting the Tinker kill any of his female hostages.
Forrest is in his room, in the upper part of the main manor, feeling impotent but also apathetic. However if the PC's bother trying to convince him to help them, he can tell them his father's weakness- The Tinker has manipulated his dna so many times that it is unstable, and every few hours he must "re-configure" his superscience created enhanced genetic structure, inside of the machine he calls "The Fulcrum". So, if the PC's can somehow use their wits to stall the Tinker, he might weaken and open himself up to attack.


Next:
Feet of Clay, Wings of Fire
Hail Caesar!
The Most Dangerous Game

[/u]

[mgg]

The Prospector's Daughters

The Propector's Daughters are two naturally occuring nuggets of gold, discovered during one of the 19th century's gold rushes. With one weighing in at 88 pounds and the other at 73 pounds, though not exactly priceless, they are worth a fair sum of money and completely untraceable if melted down. They are also on display for a limited time at one of the city's museums, and the heroes should expect crooks to flock to the museum like flies to mule droppings.

The heroes should arrange to be on hand, either working openly for museum security or working sureptitiously in the background. Their fears prove well founded and a team of gunmen hits the museum in broad daylight, led by the until then unknown supervillain, Yukon Joe. As his name implies Yukon Joe comes complete with miner's pickaxe and Yosemite Sam mannerisms, and his crew wears bandanas and black cowboy hats and six shooters. They also throw bright red sticks that look like dynamite but create smoke screens, emit knockout gas or other tricks. Some sticks are really dynamite, just to keep the heroes on their toes. The fight should be fierce, but with true grit our heroes will emerge triumphant-- almost.

The truth is Yukon Joe is a fall guy. Maybe he is under the influence of mind control, maybe he is a petty crook given temporary powers, maybe he is a robotic construct. During all the confusion, alarms, and explosions, the mastermind goes after the real target-- several artifacts in the antiquities section, as a lead in to future adventures.

New titles:
Freight Train Blues
The Diamond Gambit

[palehorse]

Tossing the Timecapsule

While stopping a routine crime (bank heist, armored car robbery, etc), the heroes and a group of second-string supervillains cause some major property damage to a fairly old (at least 50 years, more if your campaign city has been around that long) building. The building must be demolished completely, and a new one will be erected later on. In the rubble of the foundation, a hidden time capsule is found, placed there when the foundation was first poured. Inside, its empty, except for... a CD!?! The characters are contacted by the finder of the CD, as it contains a message for them. The quality is poor, the message garbled... but it appears to be one of the player characters, at least 20 years older than at present, but recording a message in the past! The characters catch the words 'danger', 'disaster', 'hundreds dead', a location in the campaign city, and a time and date: only 1 hour from present. They'll have to hurry! Once they get there, it seems to be a trap; they find a group of villains up to some nefarious deeds. In the course of the battle, the villains let slip that they recieved an anonymous message to come here, with the promise of a big heist... Once battle is joined, the disaster strikes, exactly on schedule. (It may be a fire, flood, earthquake, giant monster from the sea, whatever you feel like. It should be big enough and bad enough that the characters will have to let the villains go in order to help out.) Use this opportunity to let the PC's use their powers to save people for a change, not just shoot villains. When all is said and done, the characters investigate the CD, to discover that its a fake: it was created within just the last couple of months, using some pretty advanced digital artistry (and the fake static in the message) to make one of the characters seem older, then hidden in the foundation (a variety of means for this; teleportation, incorporeality just to name two). At the end of the day, they're nowhere nearer to finding out who went to such elaborate trouble to set them (and apparently the villains they fought briefly) up.

Next:
Prometheus Bound
On Angel's Wings
Last Rites, Last Wrongs

[Novac]

I'm not a GM, but I can do THIS...
*BUMPDOKIN!*

[TheDayKnight]

Prometheus Bound

Angry at humans for their lack of worship of the Old Gods, Dianna goddess of the hunt and Mars, the red war god decide to take away humanities most precious gift, fire.

The two gods capture promethues and once again chain him to thePrison rock. There they set a vulture to guard and torment Prometheus.

Now the worlds fires are slowly dying out.


Scene #1: Investigate into the disappear of fire, deal with any rescue operations due to lack of fire. Any characters with fire-based powers will see their abilities reduced...but for this adventure they have more hero points than normal which they can use to exert extra effort to use their fire powers.

Scene #2: Travel to Olympia to free Prometheus from the Prison Rock. Deal with the gods to find the exact location of the Prison Rock. Fight off the Giant Vulture who guards Prometheus.

Scene #3: Dianna and Mars show up to see who has freed Prometheus. Big Battle! Prometheus is too weak to fight.


Next:

The Children of Kali
Alice in TortureLand
The Portal of Planet Void

[palehorse]

The Children of Kali

"Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her only clothing is a girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband." - exoticindiaart.com

In the course of a single blood-soaked night, over a dozen high profile murders are committed in the campaign city. The murders are ritualistic in nature, incredibly brutal, and are focussed on religious leaders in the community. Investigation into the crimes will point to a Kali-cult, previoulsy unknown in the area. They are led by a woman who believes herself to be the living embodiment of Kali on earth, who has come with a new mandate: she may not be able to kill the gods of man, but she can kill their messengers, spread the cult, and eventually become the one and only Goddess of Earth. Let the players believe that she's simply a mind-controlling four-armed mutant of some kind for as long as possible; in point of fact, she really IS possessed of the spirit of the goddess Kali, though while on earth she must take on a physical form. So while she's here, she can be beaten, though she is a powerful (PL15+) opponent. She does have considerable mind controlling abilities, and will have any number of cultists working for her in a very short period of time. These will include normal citizens, police officers, and even some mid to low level supervillains who've fallen under her sway (some voluntarily). Once her physical form is beaten, the spirit of Kali will escape, vowing vengeance, and all those she once controlled are freed.

Next (courtesy of t.s. eliot)
A Heap of Broken Images
What are the Roots That Clutch?
Where the Dead Men Lost Their Bones
Fear in a Handful of Dust

[mgg]

What are the Roots That Clutch?

Miles Montgomery, the lumber baron has passed away at a fine old age. Now someone is killing of the heirs to the Montgomery fortune. Miles' only living son is strangled while jogging in the park. His oldest granddaughter is 'accidentally' poisoned eating mushroom soup. Is the Green Man exacting brutal revenge upon the family, or is this just old fashioned murder for money's sake?

More titles (stolen from Lori Anderson):
Thin Red Line
Sharkey's Day
Strange Angels

[Novac]

Sticky, sticky, make this topic sticky

[Stickman]

Fear in a handfull of dust

A Warlock, possibly an old enemy of the heroes, was banished to a Hell dimension years ago. Now he has returned, clutching in his palm a handfull of dust from the dry bed of the river Styx. This dust summons nightmares to life and gives form to terror. The Warlock plans to send this dust wide over the city to bring it to it's knees, but first needs to get airbourne. This weekend sees the maiden voyage of The Swan, a new Zepplin that tours over the city as a luxury vacation spot, hosting partys for the rich and famous.

Once the dust gets free, what will occur? The nightmares of ordanary folks are awful enough, but what horros lie in the darkest corners of a heroes mind? And what will the Warlock do once he has subjugated the city?

Scenes:

1) A disturbance at a local cemetary marks the Warlocks return to this world. The swirling maelstrom of the netherworlds is dragged through, causing reality to warp. As the heros investigate, horrors turn up. Quite possibly dead people rise to claw at the heros (it *is* a graveyard). An old extra or minor NPC could be one of the undead. Once defeated the undead dissolve leaving undisturbed graves around them. For a longer scene a local gang the was hanging in the cemeterary may temporarily (or permanently) gain suitable powers from this encounter.

2) The Zepplins inaugral launch, with associated fanfare. The owners have brought 6 battle suits to create an 'armed guard' against any kind of supoer interferance. These 'Golden Hawks' are somewhat over eager and give the heroes a hard time if they try to mess around with the launch. With the movers and shakers of the city here, they had best be on their best behaviour

3) As the dust is released the heros have to face up to their fears. Old villains come back to ahunt them, their powers fail, crowds turn against them. A good opportunity for some rp in here. Maybe one of the raised villains stays alive at the end of this to return to the campaign, maybe the heroes face fell creatures or demons instead depending on your campaign


Next:

A shining band of gold
The world can change in a moment
What price, victory?
Paying the devil his dues ..
Too much, too young?

[palehorse]

Sharkey's Day

Note: You'll have to preface this adventure at least one session in advance, to introduce the character of Mick Sharkey. He's a typical goon, one of many that the characters beat the holy hell out of on their way to fighting a REAL villain. Sharkey stands out a bit from the crowd - he's not really any tougher than the other goons, but he's particularly determined, says something funny, gets in one good shot on the heroes, whatever it takes to make him at least slightly memorable. He vows his revenge before he gets knocked out cold.

Next adventure. Just before midnight, the characters are beating up some typical evildoers; perhaps they're breaking a smuggling ring down on the docks, or kicking in the doors on a major drug warehouse. Regardless, they're having little trouble cleaning up the place. Thats when Sharkey shows up and begins trouncing the heroes soundly. Sometime between getting carted off to jail and showing up here, he's gained some major superpowers. He's not interested in killing or seriously hurting the heroes; not yet anyway. He's got 24 hours worth of awesome powers at his disposal, and he's going to savor every minute of Sharkey's Day. If the characters have already beaten a big-time villain of some stripe and sent him off to jail, you can make that villain responsible for Sharkey's powers (he's arranging an early release from prison with his lawyers; it'd be more humiliating for the characters for him to get out early than to simply invest the powers in himself and break out). If you don't have a suitable villain, then Sharkey has sold his soul. Regardless, he'll make the most of his day, getting back at everyone who ever crossed him. The characters can follow in his wake and attempt to eventually wear him down, or do some sleuthing to determine either the source of his powers, or other possible targets of his wrath to try and get ahead of him (or both). While they might not be able to beat him outright, they can at least draw him away and keep his rage focussed on them until Sharkey's Day runs out.

Next:
Luck of the Draw
Ace in the Hole
Dead Blind
Raising the Stakes

[Stickman]

Luck of the Draw

It all starts on a Friday. Sure, it's the 13th but no one believes that old junk right? Only this Friday 13th turns out to be bad luck for everybody. A new lottery has opened in town, run by the mobster Joe 'Lucky' Whiley. However, this is no ordinary lottery. Lucky Joe has altered the tickets so that when they're sold the buyers luck is transfered to Joe, via a mystical device in the form of a bookies balance book. With his new found good fortune he's nearly unstoppable as almost every circumstance goes his way. The group will have to engineer circumstances to try to drain off his luck by putting him in greater and greater danger.

With a little forethought this can be a perfect chance to wheel out all of those 'Final Destination' uber traps, especailly to any hero unlucky enough to actually purchase a ticket. Heroes don't play the lottery you say? So make it for charity

Once the players have survived the first unlucky deathtrap (and possibly insert another adventure or scene full of darned bad luck), they figure out the source of the bad luck (talking to others, spotting the old ticket stub). Tracking down Joe proves difficult, but then the luck he has in getting away!

Finally they can start breaking down his luck in order to catch him. The group can devise all sorts of fiendish schemes to force Joe to use his Luck powers, pushing them to their limit in order to escape, until they finally have him and can destroy the book. Still, what where the chances of the Heroes arch nemesis turning up at that exact moment?

Next: (thanks U2!)

Sunday Bloody Sunday
Angel of Harlem
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Silver And Gold
Where The Streets Have No Name
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of

[spatulalad]

Ace In The Hole

As the heroes' team becomes more and more famed, prospective members come from every corner hoping to prove themselves worthy of their mantle. After a scene in which many NPC heroes are interviewed and perhaps even tested by the PCs to see if they have what it takes, the PCs vote on which to let into their ranks. Whomever they choose, however, they're actually an Ace In The Hole.

Genetically crafted by the Mastermind (or another villain) to provide him eyes and ears within the team's ranks, this character operates in the next adventure as a trusted comrade, even displaying signs of affection for one or more of their teammates. They are witness to many of the secrets behind the scenes, and might even learn the identities of the more close-mouthed heroes. Proving their worth in the adventure, the duplicitous NPC hero starts to reconsider their deal with the Mastermind.

Finally, when confronting the Mastermind's latest plot, the PCs find their every move countered, their weaknesses exposed. They may at first chalk it up to their nemesis' incredible tactical genius, but when finally confronting him, they learn the truth. Will the Ace in the Hole remain loyal to their creator? Will they turn on him after a battle with their conscience? How will the PCs treat them when they learn of the betrayal?

Next:

Just Another Manic Monday
Two-Fer Tuesday
Ash Wednesday
The Man Who Was Thursday
Freaky Friday

[TheDayKnight]

The Man Who Was Thursday

Thursday Thursday was born on a Thursday, of course. So had his parents, his grandparents, and after searching out his geneology so had every ancestor back as far as he could trace his heritage.

One day (a Thursday, naturally) it happened. The Man Who Was Thursday wished that he was rich beyond belief. And then he was! The next Thursday he became King of the World. The Thursday after that he was dating the most beautiful women in the world. But his power lasted only for one day a week. Then Thursday had an idea. The next Thursday, every day in year strangely became a Thursday. No more weekends. No more casual Fridays.

Thursday is a plot device...he has every power he wants. His slightest wish is his command.

Scene #1: This takes place before Thursday wills every day to become a Thursday. He wishes to do battle with the heroes to test his might in a giant roman arena. The stands are filled with world leaders, famous people, and beautiful women. The battle takes place close to midnight and when the clock strikes midnight everything disappears except for the PCs and Thursday.

Scene #2: The PCs confront Thursday who has declared himself ruler of the universe. His opulent palace floats over Freedom City. The Man Who Was Thursday summons the universes most powerful villians. "Teach them a lesson, but don't kill them." Thursday utters.

Scene #3: PCs must figure out a way to defeat Thursday. Ideas on how to defeat the invincible Thursday include having his name legally changed, travelling back in time to delay Thursday's birth for one day, having the entire world change the name of Thursday to something else, travelling back to Wednesday, administering a knock out drug that will keep him out cold for an entire day...do this every Wednesday, etc.

Next:
Blue Depths, Yellow Sign
Horsemen of the Asteroid
Honor Among Theives

[palehorse]

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of

How fast is too fast? The characters are about to find out.

The characters are called out to/end up at a raging, five alarm fire. They're in the process of rescuing the victims when, one at a time, they start experiencing micro-bursts of MAJOR superspeed, with no control over it whatsoever. (Example: one of them runs into the flamaing building to grab a victim, only to find him/herself crashing through the back wall. Another finds himself acting out everything that crosses his mind the instant it occurs to him, before he's even able to fully process the idea, flitting from room to room so fast it seems like he's teleporting uncontrollably.) If there's already a speedster in the group, they might be able to figure out whats happening, but will still be powerless to stop it.
Send the characters through a variety of mundane rescues, beating up thugs, etc, with the superspeed becoming more pronounced, lasting longer, and less controllable with each encounter. Note, too, that it sometimes comes with none of the protections that speedsters usually have (Example: one character moves so quickly that the air resistance tears off any loose clothing and starts any other clothing on fire!).
The superspeed bursts are leaving the heroes fatigued/exhausted/unconcious, and its only a matter of time before one of them has a heart attack. In the last burst, all the characters are hit simultaneously, while in a closed room, and they are now so fast that they cannot even interact with the world around them: they can't pick things up, open doors, etc, and they're forced to spend a (subjective) 24 hour period trapped, unable to eat, drink, or sleep, all between two ticks on the wall clock (i.e., in less than 1 second of real time).
All this has nothing to do with superspeed, however; its really about time. (Include references to time throughout the adventure; clocks, watches, etc; after 24 hours staring at the wall clock one of the smarter characters should start figuring it out.) Someone, somewhere, someWHEN, is altering the timestream around them. Its not a villain, though, its another hero, in another time (past or future, up to you) trying to bring them to his own time to help him fight a particularly nasty villain.

Next:
Simon Says
Ring Around the Roses
My Fair Lady

[Stickman]

Horsemen of the Asteroid

Through scientific contacts, amatuer astromony or news media the group becomes aware of the approach of an asteroid, one that has not been seen for nearly a thousand years, Wormwood. Mentioned in the Revalations, Wormwood's appearance is meant to be a herald of the End Times. Scientists predict with great accuracy that the asteroid will miss the Earth by a 'safe' margin, which is does.

On the night of the passing however, four great lights appear in the sky, as four meteroids crash down in parts of the nearby landscape. Within hours rumours are flying that these marked the arrival of the Four Horsemen, and panic begins.

In actual fact Wormwoods passing has disrupted a ionosphere research lab for Chemicon, a multinational that was doing top secret research into nanotech. As the malfuncitoning lab entered the denser atmosphere it has broken up into four chunks that crash to Earth. The exploding 'meteors' have lead to four random civillians being coated with top secret nanotech .. that can't be good

How will the population react to the Rapture arriving at their doorstep? Can the heroes keep the news teams away from the four beings whilst they take them down? Each of the new powers has reacted differently to nanotech, but all share a single weakness, inherant to the nanotech itself. Can the group discover this before it's too late?

War: Mind controller, war is capable of driving people mad with aggression. How do the heroes stop a rampaging horder of civillaiins without any casualties?
Death: A cloud of locusts that forms into a humanoid (cowled, of course). The being appears almost unstoppable with it's intangibility, multiple bodies. Can the group work out it's weakness?
Famine: A gross, bloated humanoid that is capable of eating anything. Add in a sort of 'vorpal bite' and a lashing tongue that extends several meters and you've got an 'appetite for destruction' heh .
Plague: A computer vius given form. Electronics fail, computers crash or behave oddly. This one's gonna be a problem for Armoured guys and gals as their armour goes screwy.

Next:

Fight fire with fire
Ride the lightning
And justice for all
Of Wolf and man
Disposable Heroes
Damage Inc

(thanks old school Metallica )

[Demada]

Of Wolf and man

Nicholas T. "Wolf" Wolfram (I sincerly hope I'm not stealing that name, it seems familiar somehow) is famous, in the right sort of circles. He's the trouble shooter of the stars, the billionairs image-butler, and he does his job well, and gets paid even better. He is absolutely trustworthy, and has never used any of his scandalous knowledge to his advantage... until now. With a large supply of cold cash (in as many forms as you can imagine), and an intimate knowledge of the figurative and literal skeletons in the closets of the elite, he can make the city (whatever city you feel like) dance at his fingertips. Wolfram is, however, not stupid. In a world of super-police who can fight off an army and laugh off gunshot wounds, it pays to be unobtrusive. Nicholas consildates his power. Eventually, the Police department is on his payroll, the mayor might as well be Charlie McCarthy, and the heads of the Mob familes are cooking his meals. The Wolf is above mere man in the city, he is a god in the shadows, the playwrite of a massive drama called everyday life.

Wolfram is, obviously, not going to be the kind of villain the PC's get in a fistfight with. He is far more insidious. Their reputations will be ruined, their scandalous secrets revealed, or, if need be, made up, far before they actually meet face to face with Nicholas T. Wolfram. In fact, most of the time the heroes probably would never learn of Wolfram's existence. This can be dealt with in several ways. If you have a campaign dealing with more mundane villains, organized crime, corrupt businessmen and politicians, etc, it would probably come to their attention that there seemed to be a cohesiveness in the actions of the city's elite. If you are running a more Silver Age camaign, Nicholas' immense power could be driving him insane, and beginning to believe he actually is above normal man, and is, in fact, some kind of god. In this latter sort of campaign, if you have been having a lot of straight beat-um-ups, this could be a good change a pace. Suddenly the heroes can't just punch their enemy, they have to be far more subtle.

Next:
The world in the head of a pin
Meetings with remarkable men
The Mystery of the Diamond Butterfly
Death comes to Riverside Estate
Revenge of the Son

[Stickman]

Ba-Bump

[palehorse]

And Justice For All

His skill is legendary. His name is spoken only in whispers. His brutality has no equal. He is Justice. And he has gone completely insane.

Justice is the Punisher to the 10th power; he's currently a suspect in over two hundred murders (all criminals) across the country. When his career began, he went after only the most heinous offenders, but as time progressed, he meted out his particular brand of vengeance to even petty criminals at every opportunity. As if this wasn't far enough, he's now gone even farther. After a rapist is released from prison on parole, Justice kills the rapist, the parole board who let him go, then hunts down the judge in his trial and makes a hit on the DA who prosecuted the case (though the DA survives). He's going after the defense attorney next, and the jury after that. The characters will have to try to get ahead of him and stop him; not an easy task. Justice is a superbly skilled tactician, and will always have at least half a dozen ways out of any situation, right up until the final confrontation. After a pitched battle, they learn the truth: Justice is wracked with guilt for all the killing he's done, but can't face going to jail. He began killing innocents (well, as innocent as lawyers can be...) in a desperate attempt to draw even more attention to himself. The previous fights have all been in preperation for this, to get them mad at him, mad enough to take the final step: He wants the players to kill him.

This adventure will present a moral dilemma to lighter, more Silver Age-y characters. To grim & gritty characters, Justice is a mirror held up to the characters: this is what they could become if they allow themselves to go too far.

Next (thanks Donald Westlake!):
The Seventh
Slayground
Butcher's Moon
Plunder Squad

[TheDayKnight]

Revenge of the Son

(a nod to Kurt Busiek and Astro City)

"So, father you are the reason why the Earth lies in ruins!"

With those words, the son of one of PCs launches his attack. He has travelled back in time to prevent the destruction of Earth by his father. He has brought with him a team of trained killers with one goal on their mind. Destroy the father and those who would protect him.

Before defeat, the son utter prophetic words, "Don't kill the president!"

[Mucknuggle]

Slayground

Children in the city are mysteriously disappearing. Rumours of a kidnapper spread quickly and have everyone in the city in a panic. The heroes are called on the investigate the mysterious happenings. The players investigations leads them to believe that Bonko the Clown is the one behind the kidnappings. The players follow Bonko to a run down playground in the slums of a city and watch as he enters a secret lair.

Inside the subterranean lair the heroes find the Bonko in the process of cutting up a body. Jars line the walls, all filled with body parts. Upon defeating the clown, the heroes discover that the bodies belong to mising people from around the country from the past several years. But where are the children? The heroes quickly learn that Bonko was the robot creation of a kid super genius, who also happens to be the leader of a children's utopia where the missing children all seem to be living...

New Titles:

Fishing for the Past
A Heart of Stone
Tribbles Part 3
Inspector Gadget?
A Boy and His Blob

[Sam]

A Boy and his Blob

When the meteor landed in 7 year old David MacClay's backyard, he thought things couldn't get any cooler than they already had. Then that blue goo started to pour out of it, moved toward him like some kind of giant amoeba and enveloped him. At first he was terrified... and then, suddenly, he realized that he wasn't suffocating, he could breathe, and he could feel everything the blob felt! He'd merged with it somehow -- he'd become the blob, and the blob had become him. And this alien blob has some pretty impressive powers... (Think lots of Elasticity, Shapeshift, Protection, Super-Strength...)

Suddenly there's a new superhero on the block. The Mighty Plasmo has foiled several petty crimes, and even stopped the Power Corps from robbing a bank! However, there is growing concern at the violence of the attacks -- this new guy doesn't seem to realize his own strength. A number of the criminals he's caught have been severely injured. One is in critical condition, and may never walk again.

David doesn't quite realize just how powerful he is... And 7 year olds can be remarkably cranky when you tell them to stop doing something they're having fun with. When the heroes try to talk some sense into him, not realizing that he's a child, he throws a temper tantrum, with about the results you'd expect.

And just when things are getting chaotic, the Grue Imperial Guard shows up and begins attacking the big blue wad of goo. The heroes will probably assume that they want their superweapon back, and help David defeat the alien soldiers.

In actuality, the blob is a sentient -- and sociopathic -- alien criminal who escaped from a Grue prison world. Meteoric impact temporarily rendered it into a state similar to unconsciousness, leaving only its autonomic functions... one of which was to bond with the nearest carbon based entity. Eventually, it's going to wake up.

And if you thought David had a bad attitude before, wait until his mind merges with that of an ancient extraterrestrial serial killer...

----

Other titles:

This Accountant... This Monster!
The Night the Lights Went Out in Asgard
The Coming of Nebulos
Infinity Squared
High Crimes and Misdemeanors

[TheDayKnight]

Oooo...that's a good one Sam. Consider it nicked for my campaign!

[arcady]

The Mystery of the Diamond Butterly

Issue #157 of Freedom League Adventures covered the Diamond Butterly caper. It was a mysterious gem in the possession of Dr. Nefarious who used it in the 60s to wreck havoc on the League until his untimely death. The Diamond now rests at the Super Museum, where it is kept on hold and has not been displayed to the public since 72.

The villains are a group of mystics and mutants who have decided to do a diamond heist and gain the power of this rare item. On a day when the PCs are at the museum in civilian identity a bunch of goons take hold of the offices while using gas grenades and men in clown masks to confuse the public and security in the galleries where the PCs are. They are unable to find the diamond however, and instead kidnap Penny Goodman - a museum curator and local socialite.

They ransom her for the Diamond, but the Freedom League is out on a mission to Dimension X, the PCs must intervene as nobody can find this diamond...

The problem is that it simply doesn't exist. While the comic series is a license that is supposed to cover the real adventures of the League, it took liberties in it's early issues and still does from time to time. The author of the issue in question passed away six years ago from natural causes, and proving the forged nature of his issue can only happen if the PCs track down his original script - now held in the basement of his grandaughter who lives out in the Fens.

A second problem is that Penny Goodman herself is a super villainess with the means to effect her escape, but the desire to keep her identity secret. At some point in the adventure it should come about that the PCs discover they are working to rescue and old foe, and that failure to do so might in some way compromise their own identities - perhaps she is a relative of a PC.

Penny Goodman has an ability to permanently create objects - she could deliver the diamond into their hands but knows that doing so will unleash a power she does not wish to face. However as the clock ticks she may begin to reconsider her options. This fact could be revealed by the discovery of a journal in her office. One which begins with her taking the museum job as a way to learn enough about the diamond to be able to recreate it, and then ends with her realizing the dangers of doing so. While the journal also gives away that she never could find the real diamond, she did manage to see the original comic authors notes and combined that with a study of the museum's diamond collection.

The villains think they merely have an important staff member, somebody valuable enough to effect this ransom. They do not know what they truly possess.

But others do - people who will work to stop the heroes attempts at investigation and rescue. A clandestine group of mystics who have come to the conclusion that Penny knows the secrets of many of the museum's occult treasures - they want her and they don't want competition.

But they're going to have it anyway, as Penny -like any good supervillainess- has her own goon squad. Two villains: one who can turn into a living diamond, the other with powers themed around moths and butterflies. Their presence and nature only serving to complicate just what is going on with this stone.

These two know they have to protect the boss' true identity and get her back to safety. They are unknowns who will lure the PCs into a false sense of alliance and then spring a trap at some point designed to wipe the PCs memory of Penny's identity.


And what about Dr. Nefarious? He did exist, and he did battle the league and in fact die mysteriously. He was known to refer to his 'trusty butterfly' - but no effects or even body was ever found...



Next:
Dog Day Afternoon.
A day in the life.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse
Mellow Yellow

[Crackerjack]

This Accountant... This Monster![/i]

William Prescott Lowman was a man that the world never saw. Not an impressive physical specimen, Willy was short, overweight, and balding in his old age. His purpose in life? He was an accountant. Not a great man, not even a great accountant by any means, but that was his sole purpose in life. In his old age he would reminese about the days of yore when he was the accountant for millionaires and entrepeneurs, but those are just the daydreams of a tired and lonely old man.
As unremarkable as he was, Willy didnt deserve to die. But die he did, of fright, as he walked as he did every day to Apartment 304. What could he of seen that scared him so much that his heart burst? It could of been anything, said the police. He was a paranoid, smallish, and frightened old man. And no one remembered him aftewards. The neighbors had hardly knew he existed and they only barely aknowledge the odd and secretive man who took Willie's old apartment, room 304, afterwards. Oh yes, theyll admit, he is a much more interesting tenant than poor old Willie. Oh yes, but he's a queer fellow indeed. Wears a trenchcoat and fedora indoors, has spectacles that are all steamed up. And he breathes so heavily, like he was some sort of beast. But most strange of all, late at night he listens to weird tunes on his record player, tunes that have no rhyme or reason but just play on and on in haunting melody.
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One of the PC's lives in apartment 302, two doors down from the former apartment of Willy Lowman. In fact, the PC may have talked to Willy once in a while, but doesnt remember anything that important about him. Use this as a backdrop to your existing adventure. After a long hard day of crimefighting with the other PC's, this PC gets home to room 302 and is kept awake by the haunting tunes from 304. After a few nights of GM described restless sleep, that impairs the PC during the day when crimefighting with the other PC's, the PC should be ready to investigate. If he knocks on the door at day, no one is home. At night the strange man lets him in, and makes idle chatter, still dressed in full trenchoat, hat, and glasses. He's a pale man, and disturbing, but seems absolutely harmless. However, each night after speaking with the man in 304, the PC in 302 will have nightly visitations that he beleives are dreams, and during the day might find those same weird tunes in his head. The PC slowly descends into madness, and the other PC's must find out why and stop it. To do this they must stop the Monster in room 304.
The man in 304, is in fact, the embodiment of all the supressed feeligns of worthlessness and self loathing that Willy Lowman had. It will select a victim, and hence after slowly drain them of all purpose in life, making them live the way Willy did. Its goal is suffering, not causing death, but it itself is nearly invulnerable to physical harm. If you want to hurt him, you must make him known. Fight him in public, in front of hundreds of spectators, and give him the attention Willy never got. Only then will he be vulnerable to your might.

New Titles-
The Imp of Perverse
The Still Beating Heart
The Raven