The run was originally intended to be
six sessions with two one off sessions using different characters in
the same setting and using the same rules provided by the game
master. I missed one of the regular sessions so that was shortened to
five. The first one off session was Halloween weekend and saw the
players taking on the role of Universal Movie Monster clones funded
by an unhappy Council. The other one off we played Worms: Armageddon
as not many showed up as it was Thanksgiving weekend, but it was
going to see the players as Walmart employees in Paragon City
reliving Black Friday in a Groundhog's Day scenario. I guess I like
horror themed one off games.
Volume One, we went with comic themed
naming for the game, focused on a ragtag group of heroes. There were
two sessions for world building (filling in holes in the GM's
knowledge of the game) and character building. The theme for the team
was, "Heroes need to pay the bills too." The players knew
going into the game what their general day to day lives would be
like, and they would have a sponsor that would provide them with
space for a headquarters in a strip mall in Independence Port. For
those not familiar with City of Heroes, this means a strip mall in
the docks district.
Some of the world issues were, "The
relocation of the Praetorians," and "Drugs for as far as
the eye can see." There was also an impending issue of, "The
Coming Storm" which refers to the Battalion and takes its name
from an upcoming issue title the developers mentioned which was
supposed to have an alien invasion of some sort or another. Praetoria
is an alternate dimension which is being consumed and the city is
attempting to find places for evacuees. The drugs part came about
because I knew the players would be in Independence Port where there
are a lot of illicit materials of various sorts being moved and the
villain groups with a presence there are known for dealing in drugs.
The Praetorians also had a variant version of a drug from the City of
Heroes Prime world that the withdrawal symptoms include a high
possibility of death so is something that might need to get made in
order to keep people alive, but is also a drug some of the criminal
elements might be interested in.
The main campaign began with the
players each receiving a personalized message through the Service.
The characters arrive at a roughed up strip mall to find a community
coming together to try to fund the heroes so they can have some local
protection. The Family (Mafia) previously protected the residents of
the area against the Tsoo (Triad). They had recently withdrawn that
protection with none of the residents knowing why. The heroes declare
they will protect the residents and are given room and board in the
very strip mall they were led to meet at. Issue one ended with them
fending off three Tsoo minions and being lauded as heroes by the
citizens of the area.
The next week was the Halloween one
off, but introduced the character of Pinnacle. For this session I
used a Fiasco playset to establish relationships for NPCs and was
happy with the results. Pinnacle was rolled up to be a town drunk and
takes his name from the server. Pinnacle was found passed out drunk
in a lake house by the players. It is revealed during the session he
is not only a drunk, but also a weak-willed Council stooge who
possesses super strength, high durability, flight, and a winning
smile that gets flashed on TV more than it probably should. The
player characters ended up holding him down under the lake (most of
the players were undead or could breath in water) until he passed out
while those that could not stay under water for extended periods of
time held off the Council so he had no assistance. The player
characters were intended as one time characters, but managed to
escape the Council and make their way into the city at large where
they observed brightly clad people heading in the same general
direction.
I am going to combine issues two
through five now as there were no further breaks in the story even
though there were a couple of off weeks in actual play. We follow up
on the 31st of August, 2012 with a televised news conference. The
city is looking to clear out and renovate Eastgate (the Hollows) and
are looking for heroes to help so they can cut down costs on the
city. Motivation comes in the form of some top tier teams looking to
expand their membership. Think something like if the Avenger's or
Justice League put out a call for auditions and the actual audition
was them observing how people handled cleaning up Eastgate. Heroes
looking to make a name for themselves or meet an idol funneled into
Eastgate from all other sections of the city. The player characters
also find themselves making their way there in their own time for
various reasons including one of the player characters (Shadow)
actually being from Praetoria and her family is in a camp waiting for
housing to open up. One hero (Mr Piggins) and his sidekick (Bad Luck)
are left behind at HQ as the others go about their day before getting
the news about Eastgate and has to face off against twenty ninjas by
himself while the others are away. He found a scroll with glittery
writing, an empty matchbook, and two gold on the ninjas.
The heroes that go to Eastgate first
find they have to wait in line to get in as the gates sectioning off
parts of the city after a previous alien invasion were designed to
handle scanning only so many IDs at a time. When they do get in, they
find heroes everywhere including extra contacts. One of those
contacts is Pinnacle who gave our first hero on the scene (Scarlet
Scarab) the assignment to convince some Trolls to leave a building so
the work crews can get in and begin renovation.
Scarlet Scarab was assigned to a group
and given coordinates. The group refused to go in upon arriving as
they insisted on waiting for a healer, so Scarlet Scarab went in with
a pity hero to tag along because I am a nice GM. Scarlet Scarab
managed to convince a few Trolls to leave peacefully, but he came
across some that were raging hard on drugs and a fight ensued. A loud
fight which got the attention of Trolls in nearby rooms. The pity
hero helped some, but was taken out fairly early. Another player
character, La De Da arrived while this fight was in progress and the
group waiting outside for a healer had picked up a couple more
members by his arrival. La De Da came in through a window and joined
the fight from a different angle. One of our heroes never made it as
he did not see the news broadcast and had lost a ninja that appeared
to be heading toward his home where his wife and child were. This
player character never really met the other player characters except
when attempting to observe them in an attempt to figure out who they
were before getting too close. Mr Piggins and Bad Luck were the next
to arrive after tackling the Tsoo at HQ. There were a dozen or so
heroes waiting for a healer by the time they arrived and they came in
through the front door. Last to arrive was Shadow as she had called
Scarlet Scarab to see where everyone was. There were more than twenty
heroes along with Pinnacle standing around outside waiting for a
healer to arrive. She brushed past them and entered to join her team.
Near the end of that fight the Trolls
began to panic and run. A couple even dragged the pity hero between
them thinking they might be able to use her as a shield or hostage.
The team put a stop to this and defeated the remaining Trolls in the
hallway and nearby rooms. They came to a makeshift cafeteria where
some Trolls were eating and there was an automated bookcase/library.
I was too lazy to crop an image of the giant glowie glass book case
from the game so used a children's bookshelf from a doctor's office
and said it had a glass front with a card reader to open it. One of
the Trolls helped La De Da fill out a library card. There among the
back issues of Highlights and Ranger Rick was a featureless
leather-bound tome with sparkly writing on the inside. The writing
was in Greek which Shadow could read, but the text kept shifting and
changing on her. Bad Luck recognized the text from the book matching
that of the text from the scroll he found on the Tsoo earlier. The
text shifted here as well, but Scarlet Scarab noticed the pity hero
standing just around the corner waggling her fingers and trying to be
inconspicuous.
The player characters confronted the
pity hero directly. The text no longer changed while read once she
had stopped. From what little the player characters could tell it was
a grimoire of some sort with a variety of spells and what appeared to
be a directory of supernatural beings. The pity hero came to the
realization she could not talk them into giving her the book and
scroll so she bolted after sidekick boy took a swat at her.. They
managed to stop her before she could get outside, but not before a
wave of water she created to get down the hallway faster had barged
down the front doors. A fight took place and she capitulated once the
heroes told her they were interested in talking. It was at this time
she slumped to the ground and attempted to appeal to their good
nature again. Once their guard was down she yelled out where the
doors used to be, "I found a healer!" and rabbited into the
oncoming crowd of wannabe heroes. The team decided to let her go and
left the incoming heroes to clear out the rest of the building.
Their next stop was Azuria at the
Modern Arcane Guild of Investigation (MAGI) in Atlas Park. The team
placed the book in her safe keeping but decided to hang onto the
scroll just in case and Bad Luck took a back scratcher from the
vault. Mr Piggins received an email the Tsoo were at HQ and the team
hurried back. They arrived piecemeal, but were all greeted by the
same site, the strip mall was even more torn up than before, and this
time included structural damage, not just damage to the facing. Our
heroes investigated and found the owner of the pizzeria next to their
HQ was still in his shop. He refused to tell them what happened, but
the heroes were able to determine that whoever did this caused the
destruction to cover up something rather than for the sake of the
destruction itself. Upon heading back out the heroes were confronted
by an approaching group of Tsoo along with a boss demanding the
return of the scroll. Before this fight was over, Family approached
from the East with a boss of their own. Lusca (giant octopus) arrived
with the pity hero from the Eastgate mission before the Family could
close on the heroes.
Chaos ensued. A couple of our heroes
lost parts of themselves in the battle. One lost a bit of his armour
which skittered off into a drainage pipe and refused to come back
while another had his tail chopped off. Lusca turned on the pity hero
when she was in a weakened state (the heroes had her down to one
stamina) and initiated a grapple with one of her tentacles on the
pity hero. Scarlet Scarab blasted the pity hero putting her in an
unconscious state at which point she began to grow. Scarlet Scarab
worked to help Lusca drag the growing form into the harbour. La De Da
took advantage of an allergic Mr Silk (Family Boss) violent reaction
to Mr Piggin's dander by using the force of his own sneezing against
him to slam his sword even harder into Mr Silk's face before joining
Scarlet Scarab and Lusca in getting the growing form of the pity hero
into the water. Between the heroes and Lusca's combined efforts, they
managed to push the growing pity hero into the water.
We pretty much end the story here.
There were personal stories along with smaller side stuff not
directly related to a single character. The characters each had their
own day to day events for instance and there were minor pieces I can
pick up the thread on later, but this is the broad strokes of the
campaign.
The Icons of Paragon City Series
Part Two: The Story of Icons of Paragon
City - This Post
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