ok, p4= "Monsignor FAntastique" is pure effing gold.

very lulzy. also, Dr Mercury overdosing on smart pills and disappearing.

I've been remiss in keeping these updated.

Here's one from over a month ago:

#358 – Chasing Apparitions – T.O.T.E.M. activities reportedly change, with a rebuilding of light and heavy shock troops and MS-13 making thefts of electronics and machine parts; an incident in Germany also links the organization to a robbery of World War II archival records.  Doctor Sudhakar Kaipa, on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough, is abducted by T.O.T.E.M.  An anomaly is found in the power emissions of the force field for the Guardians’ base.  Delphi returns with a replacement body.  After a meeting of the Council, Majestic, Kageryu, Scion, and Kubera respond to northern D.C. in the Guardian Angel, where new criminals called the Wingmen rob a Technology Depot.  Wind Shear and Shockwave lead ordinary thugs garbed with body armor and wings, taking hostages among the customers.  As the heroes rush in to help, most witness nine light shock troops arrive.  Kubera watches as his teammates struggle against foes that aren’t there (the T.O.T.E.M. androids), while all but one of the Wingmen use the opportunity to escape.  The vigilantes begin to believe Kubera, so Majestic teleports them back to the base, where they witness Quiasar, Compass, and Neutron also battling non-existent foes.  After all are calmed, team Doctor Raymond Kenveis informs them that recent dark events with Knight Shade destabilized the modifications made by the Gwai’ir nanites.  Over the next day all modified tissues are flushed from each affected person’s body, and all communication abilities gained from them are permanently lost.

#359 – Moments in Time – During a meeting in the Guardians’ base, Kubera, Compass, Araneae, and Enigma notice that the map in the background (on the feed from C.H.E.S.S.) is quite different; Germany appears to be much larger.  Waves of temporal flux impact the building, and each time they do historical details change.  The Beatles and Elvis announce reunion tours, John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe attend a fundraiser for Nancy Pelosi, and Archbishop Mindbender is seen alongside Leech.  Troop movements of Psi-Prime are witnessed, and they learn that D.C. and most major cities have been obliterated by nuclear strikes.  All inside the base (which includes Neutron, Razor, Warp, and pilot Hammond) move through time inside a temporal bubble while things continue to change outside.  Doctor Apocalypse was killed before he acquired his gem, leading to the Demonic Wars.  Many paranormals and organizations are gone, and the T.O.T.E.M. symbol replaces the one for CNN on their monitors.  The heroes learn that Hitler was assassinated during World War II; Goering took over, but he too was struck down and replaced by someone unknown.  Later, Psi-Prime was killed by Adalwolf, and Mindbender became King of C.H.E.S.S.  The vigilantes also observe massive robots patrolling death factories just outside the rubble of New York City.  Tracking time distortions to Corvo Island in the Azores, they construct temporal shielding for themselves and the Guardian Angel and Hammond flies them there.  The adventurers invade a facility underneath a caldera, taking out Bjorn and many light shock troops and shutting down esoteric equipment.  As they analyze the strange gear, they realize that they must use it to go into the past, setting things right for their proper timeline to exist.  Neutron powers up the technology and sends the seven champions to Germany in July of 1944!

How long has this game been going on? Sounds like a ton of fun.

I should note that we ALL take turns running (being the GM), even though I oversee everything to make sure it all fits together and works within our own continuity.

Each player has at least a couple of active PCs at any time, some even more than that.

It's been going so crazy long that we're starting to see villains retire and even occasionally have to deal with their progeny/descendants.   

Reposting this (which I also put in the GuardianCon 10 thread):

#361 – Twists of Time – Little is known about history before the Eternal Empress.  After Justice Force disbanded, a great leader rumored to be from the future stepped into the power vacuum, using technology to overcome all opposition.  Her Enforcer bots monitor all human behavior and terminate the rebellious.  A collection of heroes evades disintegration in a factory by stepping through a portal.  Quiasar, Ragnarr, Enigma, Goliath, Spartan, Contagion, Kick Puncher, and DragonHeart emerge onto a strange, oversized game board opposite the Empress and her bots.  A Time Guardian informs the group that their timeline is wrong and that only defeating the Eternal Empress will stop the threat.  They travel through a shimmering portal to the first battle of the Guardians, where Dr. Desist, Entropy, and Crocodile fight the Midnight Men (Apollo, Stormstress, Black Empress, Detonator, and Noose).  Unable to interfere in the decades-old battle, the vigilantes battle Robot, Semdifor, and T-479, who guard a hidden and shielded Empress (actually Time Thief).  After they take down the villainess, time fast-forwards and the original Guardians are defeated.  The adventurers are pulled into a temporal vortex and find themselves on the game board again.  The earlier encounters seem like a dream, and they now remember being part of a resistance against the Crimelord/Organizer, who wiped out the Guardians and C.H.E.S.S. with the aid of other criminal organizations and Destroyer bots.  The Time Guardian warns that something is manipulating reality on a massive scale, and that Time Thief was not the true threat.  The travelers activate a portal and arrive in the midst of a fight in an underground base.  Crocodile, Entropy, Shadow Knight, and Hematite face a series of challenges while they are opposed by the Organizer, Noose, Black Empress, and 2166.  Robot and Detonator are also present, but respond against the new arrivals.

You might notice that this one matches up with the last group of pictures taken at GuardianCon 10 (and this entry is duplicated there).

#363 – When Worlds Collide – Three witches show the vampire Malek visions of him ruling.  Feeling invincible after resurrecting his wife, he uses a magical ring to cross dimensions, then discovers that a relic called the Doombringer (destroyed in his world) has never been unearthed in this one.  Hidden long ago in a pocket dimension by King Arthur, he locates the necklace in a now underwater temple overgrown by jungle, and after numerous attempts wrests it away from gigantic golem-like robot guardians.  Many superheroes respond to a robbery at PNC Bank in Washington, D.C.  Ragnarr, Witness, Makeshift, Magnet Master, and new hero Magman arrive to find the Vindicators (from Malek’s dimension): Rockasaurus, Frost Bite, Dr. Overwatch, Goldeneye Girl, Serpent, and Magic Man.  After initial mistrust, the two sides decide to work together to stop the evil mastermind.  The large squad follows clues to the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, where Magic Man opens what remains of a small portal.  Inside, they find themselves underground in an ancient temple, and Witness translates runes that depict Malek’s recent retrieval of the artifact.  After discovering a large holding cell (believed to be for a gigantic demon), they find another tiny portal.  When opened, it leads the two teams into another pocket dimension, where they find that Lord Malek is constructing a castle and large army.  The adventurers fight an epic battle with villains Whirlwind, Shrew, Jackal, Inferno, and Everto, while also struggling against zombies (raised with the Doombringer) and large piranha.  Once all of his minions are defeated, Malek confronts those still standing, gloating that he will conquer both worlds.  The champions devastate the undead overlord with a flurry of attacks, but the vampire telekinetically tethers himself to Frost Bite and Rockasaurus.  He warns all that killing him will also kill the pair, but they both valiantly insist on his destruction.  Frost Bite plunges a grenade into a gash in Malek’s neck, and the three disappear as they are sucked into a dark portal!  The pocket dimension begins to collapse, and the large party retrieves their allies and flees home via a portal by Magic Man.

Last Saturday's game finished off (for now) the storyarc, though as you'll see it openend a can of worms that will have serious ramifications on the U.S. (and the entire campaign) for some time to come.

After dealing with some other stuff (like a missing teammate), the team set up an ambush down at the docks, in a warehouse with large shipping containers.

They knew that "Madame A" was supposed to show up, but were surprised when Arachnia (an old villainess) was revealed to be Madame A.

Fun story fact on Arachnia.  She's actually only ever made one appearance in the campaign, 9 years earlier.  She was rolled up as a possible PC, but when I put the nix on that (she was way too powerful), the player turned her into a villainess that could take on an entire team (and wipe the floor with them!).

She was also accompanied by Dark Clown.  It's possible that the team (six PCs) could have taken either one of them, but not both.  Arachnia is a deadly HTH fighter (who also has webs), and is also the little sister of one of the PCs (the player who made her).  Dark Clown does a ranged Emotion Control attack that leaves others laying on the ground, laughing hysterically (very Joker-like).  Both villains were souped up on these new drugs, making them even more powerful!



The red rectangle is the portal that the two just stepped through, and the box behind Arachnia was a large container of drugs that she was holding.

Some of the vigilantes approach the pair of villains as Arachnia monologues and discusses things with her little brother, Araneae.

A wider angle shot of the battle.  Surrounding Dark Clown is a large metal "tent", which Compass fashioned (magnetically) by ripping apart one of the cargo containers. 



If you look closely you can see that Rune (on the left side of the picture) is actually a stack of counters.  That's because Rune created his magical spell of multiple Mirror Images of himself.

Arachnia has used webbing to remove the "tent", and I believe she was struggling also against her older sibling.  Compass has moved over to try to aid Ragnarr, who is on the floor laughing, affected by Dark Clown's Emotion Control.  Unfornately, he was unsuccessful in snapping him out of it.

Underneath Arachnia is the box of drugs, which nobody was able to wrest away from her.

And more of an overhead view.



The red portal this time is one formed by Rune, that he'd hoped to knock/push the villains through.

Unfortunately (for the Guardians), they were soon all unconscious or on the floor laughing.  The villains then departed, taking two of them (Goliath and Ragnarr) with them.

#366 – Ancient Evil – Ragnarr resigns.   Enigma, Rune, and Goliath attend a G.I.A.N.T. conference in nearby Kingstown, Maryland, and meet up with old friend Sigurd (former Head of Security for U.S.A. Robotics) as they check into their motel.  The next morning, the main speaker at the conference, Dr. Floyd Capek, suggests that the four investigate the scene of a recent burglary, where a paranormal named Slithe was mysteriously incapacitated.  Allies Angelus and Summoner arrive and join them, and at the home the group discovers an ancient spearhead with magical powers.  The party is unable to convince the homeowner, Roy Ronson, into surrendering the Spear of Daedalus for further study.  Summoner spends the day fashioning a shaft for the blade, while Angelus seeks out local occultist Robin Todd and visits the intolerant Revelation Church, meeting head pastor James Gregson.  Throughout the day Angelus senses a growing feeling of dread, and as the weather deteriorates Warp arrives to assist.  At night the team divides and covers the town, then responds to a break-in at the Ronson home.  They arrive to find a young, strangely-clad girl, Seraide, held at gunpoint by Roy.  She explains that the magical item is needed to defeat Profundis, a mythical being that Todd mentioned to Angelus; Sigurd confirms this information based on his own recent dream.  Ronson finally agrees to surrender the artifact to the party, and Summoner fashions it into a spear.  Seraide joins the heroes, and as the group begins to return to their posts they are attacked by Psyclone, Necroscope, Mnipre, Animus, Cannonmouth, Gutter, and a swarm of rats.  Goliath fells many of the villains, but Cannonmouth arouses hatred in a number of the Guardians, turning them on each other.  Angelus swipes the Spear from Summoner, but is then pulled (along with the enchanted weapon) into a Hellmouth portal created by Psyclone!

I just added the following, which I realized I had left out of #367:

The Spear is given to Summoner, who fashions facsimiles of it for his duplicates.

I see that I missed this summary from a session a few weeks ago.  This one had a lot of characters involved, and resulted in both the wrapping up of a really old plot thread (children of the PC Leech being revealed from his indiscretions with clones of another PC years ago) and the voluntary depowering of a PC who had become too beastly (Scion).

#369 – Razor’s Edge – Neutron confirms that Kubera was indeed killed while on a routine mission for A.R.T.  After the Vai’Kesh make numerous attempted incursions through the Alpha Site gateway, Neutron alerts the Guardians.  Scion becomes sick for the first time and is examined by Phase and team physician Dr. Kenveis.  A message is received from the Vai’Kesh, and Rune is able to use Latin to decipher that “emissaries” want the “false prophet Leech”.  Paradigm returns and flies in the Guardian Angel with Araneae, Goliath, and Compass to Alpha Site.  Meanwhile, Scion begins compulsively building a machine, so the team quarantines him in a research room.  They soon ascertain that his DNA is in a state of flux.  He finishes creating the strange device and begins speaking in another language.  Majestic and Kageryu meet with Leech at Foundation Headquarters and tag him with one of Araneae’s trackers.  Phase alerts the others that Scion, who continues to change, is becoming more primal and instinctual.  Portal and Rune assist in assembling a squad, and after Scion jams a second device into the console of the Guardian Angel, Jerry Hammond flies Majestic, Quiasar, Phase, Scion, and Neutron to a small island in international waters off the Atlantic coast.  Razor, in contact with his mentor Watcher, joins them there.  The heroes follow Scion into a small shack, and the whole party descends into an underground facility, where Razor’s scarred and wheelchair bound contact reveals himself to be Mindbender (formerly Nemo/Black Talon).  He explains how he used the crashed ruins in the past to build a cryo-unit; it wrecked his body but allowed him to survive until the present.  During the last year he has been secretly aiding the Guardians and monitoring the N.I.D. and Freedom of Chaos.   He shows them the original prototype Havoc, and Scion attaches a device to its underbelly.  The five adventurers board, and Scion uses his constructed machinery to pilot the craft into space and across the galaxy!  Razor is questioned about why the Vai’Kesh might want him, but reveals little.  They travel through a dense nebula and land on a volcanic planet.  The Havoc cuts a hole into a dome, allowing them to drop into a huge city underneath the surface, and an energy dome reforms over them.  They follow Scion into a building, where he lays on a bed.  Energy crackles over him as his DNA is resequenced and reset.  As Neutron and Majestic explore (and learn that the planet is a giant ship), the travelers interact with a holographic human who explains that Scion has been away for too long.  The ancient city begins to crumble around them, and five Vai’Kesh warriors and a cloaked man approach.  Phase and Frostpaw get the unconscious Scion into the Havoc as the others square off with the threat.  Razor is told that the young man is his son, and when his daughter joins them they learn that the two humans are the emissaries that were spoken of.  The pair implores Razor to return to the Vai’Kesh, but he rebuffs them.  They warn that the Vai’Kesh are coming, but Majestic responds that when they do they will be destroyed.  The aliens leave, and the champions depart as the planet/ship self-destructs.  Scion recovers, but is found to have new abilities.

#371 – The Universals’ Truth - The superhero Azwraith, accompanied by numerous ninjas and monks, informs the Guardians that “shaeds” have entered both his world (that the Vindicators came from) and theirs from the pocket dimension where Lord Malek was defeated months earlier.  Numerous Guardians lend aid to the battered east coast after Superstorm Sandy.  Kingstown, Maryland honors Summoner, Angelus, Goliath, Enigma, and Rune for their heroics three months earlier; Warp is invited but chooses to watch from a distance.  Afterwards, (as Dale Max), he approaches the other adventurers at a diner, then takes them (as Warp) to Inova Fairfax, a Sanctuary Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.  He introduces the others to the supervillain Dr. Squallus, who tells them all about a deadly paranormal named Doc Negation.  Dr. Squallus’ former teammate Shocker succeeded in protecting his children from the menace in Japan, but this left him in a coma.  Dr. Squallus himself barely escaped after a number of Doc Negation’s Proto-Corpsmen attempted to apprehend him.  He warns the Guardians that this new threat is active in the area and after Enigma.  He directs the team to a recently robbed tech firm, Particle Futures, in Richmond, Virginia, and clues there lead them to Gravimedical Technologies in Washington, D.C., where acquired parts could lead to weaponized gravity equipment.  Racing there, the heroes battle the Universals: Miss Mass, Fetch-Fire (formerly Boogeyman), A.C.E., Brightshade, Chem, and Twisted Man.  Miss Mass’ density powers surge out of control when Rune slows her with a spell, and she proves impossible to harm, so they focus on other targets.  One by one the villains fall, and Rune draws a magical doorway under Miss Mass, stranding her on a Greek island.  Brightshade flees, and the heroes secure the scene and aid downed civilians.  A.C.E. awakens, but escapes by running off before he can be taken out.  F.I.S.H. then arrives and takes the other incapacitated thieves into custody.

#373– Return of the Queen – Neutron flies Quiasar to the planet with the Host, and the Queen informs them that she needs to retrieve something back on Earth; the pair returns to discuss things with the Council. Intel is learned from Oscar Standish that others (Russians and a mysterious organization) appear to be interested in what the Queen left behind. C.H.E.S.S. provides information that Miss Mass escaped custody and that the freed Evelyn Epoch is grateful, but also angry about how the standoff was handled by the Guardians; she continues to work with Apollo. Warp meets with the Council and reluctantly agrees to register and make some changes to become a member of the team again. Scion, Majestic, Neutron, Warp, Goliath, and Enigma escort the Queen, two Princesses, and many drones to the former N.I.D. base in Alaska. Neutron and a small contingent of the aliens and A.R.T. personnel remain there while John Smith transports the Queen, a Princess, and some drones as well as the others (now including Rune) to the southern coast of Iceland. The Host leads the party into an offshore underwater cavern, where they are assailed by Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio, and Aquarius of the new Zodiac (who each bear magical symbols). During the struggle, the Queen breaks through a wall into a hidden chamber, but the new Princess and the drones that emerge from it attack her and her forces. The underwater environment proves to be a challenging battleground for the heroes and sets Scion aflame. Rune makes a portal to an airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, which he and Majestic use to get fire extinguishing equipment. Enigma absorbs Pisces’ powers and appearance, convincing her to surrender.