Over in the Fortress of Solitude, I had a thread detailing Exploits, which is our "comic" that covers mostly solo tales and issues with (usually non-mainstream) heroes from the campaign that don't really fit into the regular issue title(s).  So if one hero or two go on an adventure, it usually falls there.  Likewise, when a collection of heroes tackles an adventure, but they mostly are made up of non-Guardians (and if the story doesn't fit into the larger Guardians campaign tapestry), then I put it into Exploits.

Over on the thread linked above, I detailed out the first 17 issues.  Now that I'm going back and finishing up some old notes and getting this project complete, I will be revising some of that.  Three new issues are being inserted, and I hope to have that done in the next few days.  So for now I'll post issue #16, and then what was posted before as issue #16 "Blackjack" and #17 "To Catch a Thief" will be renumbered to #19 and #20, respectively.

This adventure was a converted one, and the original was made for the James Bond 007 RPG.  It was one of my favorite modules for that game (called The Midas Touch), so I had fun adding supervillains to it and converting it for play with V&V.

This group was affectionately called "The Misfits" by all of us, but they were never really a team.  They went on this adventure (which led them all around the world) and then a couple of years later a number of them reunited for a Con adventure centering around minor league baseball ("Misfits of Summer").  This goof troop was a barrel of laughs (mostly due to the odd collection of characters) and I'll have a funny story to relate when we get to the finale (hopefully in a few days on issue #18).

When we recently ran through In Broad Daylight, that group was eclectic enough that it reminded some of us of the Misfits, but only one of those former members was a participant.   

#17 – Teotihuacan – ToonMaster and L-Force check out Xochimilco and briefly spot Aztech before being chased by criminals in speed boats through the exotic, flowered canals.  The pair takes out the hoods and dunks Aztech’s boat, but the villain flies away again and the thugs know nothing of his plans.  During dinner at the hotel the entire team keeps an eye on Somerset and his beau, Satin D’Or (actually an undercover French secret agent) and Thunderbird deduces that he is going to a secret rendezvous at the ruins of San Juan de Teotihuacan.  Later that evening the group tails him to the ancient ruins north of Mexico City. After a Light and Sound Show, they again follow the professor, and in caves underneath the Pyramid of the Sun he meets up with a man named Esteban Diamante.  As the heroes spy on the pair viewing and discussing Aztec hieroglyphics (forged) that tell of transmuting gold, Aztech suddenly traps them in the cave with a large rock.  They break free, but hear the duo kidnap Somerset and mention someone named DuLac as their next target.  The adventurers race upstairs, only to run into Shee-Ariel, R.A.M. 101, Psi-Phon, the god Quetzalcoatl (an illusion), and mercenaries Death Adder, Sam Winds, and Niles Foxworth.  The two sides clash, and the severely outmatched vigilantes are forced to flee.

#19 – The Midas Touch – The team flies to Ankara, then drives for a few hours until they reach the small Turkish village of Dobrosk in the mountains.  Townsfolk draw a map to the Cenotaph of Midas, which they believe to be cursed.  The group drives to the River Pactolus, then journeys on foot along a trail through clearings and forest.  As they emerge into a large meadow and approach the ancient ruins of the monument, the watching guards are confused as they observe Mischief acting strangely; ToonMaster and CyberKing also mimic her silliness.  The squad evades alarms and finds a hidden elevator, which the six heroes take down into an underground base.  They make their way through the complex, but Venefica uses a spell to instantly age and incapacitate the invaders.  Nightshade then boasts about how she has discovered a way to transmute iron into gold, but the clever champions don't fall for the ruse, and when given the opportunity to escape refuse to run and warn the authorities.  They confront and swiftly decimate Nightshade, Aztech, Venefica, and many guards, and also capture Abrest (who had been misleading them for Nightshade all along).  Nightshade's plot to artificially affect the price of gold is uncovered, the brainwashed scientists are rescued, and C.H.E.S.S. secures the facility.

Issues #20 and #21 were already posted before (see the first post in this thread), so I'll skip right through to issue #22.

#22 - …and the Children Shall Suffer – A wave of kidnappings claims several children of U.S. Senators and Representatives; the ransom demands are for America to release prisoners held under the Patriot Act.  When his son James is kidnapped, Dr. Desist (the King of C.H.E.S.S.) gathers a team to assist him.  Joined by Dr. Mercury, Fourarm, and Lin Pei, the group figures out that the children are being held by a neo-Nazi, white supremacist group at a compound in rural Idaho.  They hit the place hard, and using broad powers granted under the new legislation Desist and Mercury crack one of the members, learning that they are but patsies and that the kids are held by an occult group in the Swiss Alps.  The heroes rush to the mountain castle and fight their way through the cultists, some of whom wield eldritch magic.  They reach the basement just in time to save the children, who were about to be sacrificed in an unholy ceremony.

#24 – Misfits of Summer – Thunderbird and Maccane (from Sleeper’s Paranormal Detective Agency) go undercover to investigate possible illicit activity at the International League tournament in Buffalo, New York.  Joined by Mischief, L-Force, and Enigma (playing for the Ottawa Lynx in his civilian identity, Phil Campbell), the adventurers enjoy the minor league baseball and spy on those behind the scenes.  During the semi-finals, the entire Buffalo Bisons team (heavily favored to win the event) comes down with food poisoning, leading the sleuths to suspect that the games may be fixed.  The Russian mafia (gambling on the Durham Bulls) then attempts to eliminate Campbell, and Maccane foils an attack by paranormal Yakuza mobsters (backing Ottawa).  The heroes make their presence felt at the championship game to prevent further trouble, where Durham (led by a Johnny Maxwell) beats Campbell’s Lynx to win the Governor’s Cup.

I set the date on this next one as back in 2007, but we just played them over the last few weeks (you might notice some villains that only just came out).  So in other words, I back-filled them into the campaign.   

#26 – Supernatural Foes – Enigma happens across Boogeyman wiping out rival gangsters in the streets of the Bronx.  He takes out two blinded criminals, then dispatches the Irish supervillain after absorbing his flame attacks.  C.H.E.S.S. agent G-Force responds to a robbery of a bookstore in Nantes, France.  He confronts the mystical Hellons: Styx, Phelgathon, and Lethe, but is knocked out by Styx’s magical scythe.  He awakens and follows a trail of bodies to a nearby shopping center, where he swiftly takes out all three terrorists and recovers the ancient book they had stolen.

It's nice being completely caught up with every summary for our 20+ year old campaign.  This one is the most recent entry in Exploits, even though it's only a partial issue (at this point).

#28 – A Dish Best Served Cold – After a rampage in which she took out a number of police officers, Ebony Angel is quickly dispatched by Sir Rathos inside a mini-mart.

#29 – Vindicators, Guardians, and Villains, Oh My! – After a rampage in which she took out a number of police officers, Ebony Angel is quickly dispatched by Sir Rathos inside a mini-mart.  Guardians Kubera and Knight Shade and ally Mr. Electric find themselves transported into a dimension that resembles their own.  They form an uneasy alliance with vigilantes Rockasaurus, Stone, and Frostbite, and together the heroes take down Lord Malek, a powerful vampire.

#31 – Spyderwebs – The prototype weapon is replaced with a fake, and Rune, Avenger, Sgt. Stone, and Southpaw (newly arrived from the same dimension as Makeshift) stake out a laundromat across from the strike point.  Shortly after the armored truck arrives, a spherical hovercraft appears on scene, and Spyder, Annihilation, Fire-Fly, Kachandra, and her pets T-479 and Semdifor spill out and hammer the force field protecting the vehicle.  The vigilantes counterattack, only to find that a massive Earth Monster lumbers their way, causing massive destruction!  After a lengthy slugfest, Spyder is forced to flee, but all of the others combatants are dispatched or surrender.  An exhausted Mirage (unseen by the heroes) also escapes, and her illusion of the Earth Monster disappears as well.

Though both of these are included in the GuardianCon 10 thread, I figured I'd update them here as well:

#33 – Signs of the Zodiac – Multi-millionaire business tycoon Andrew Topple honors Oz, Sir Rathos, and Spartan (and many other civic heroes) at a lavish Inspiration Celebration aboard his yacht, the Rebel.  After they depart from Baltimore, the ceremony is held, then Topple baits the heroes into expending lots of energy showing off, Sir Rathos gets drunk, and a disguised Scorpio and Virgo slowly poison each of the adventurers.  Meanwhile new vigilantes Wraith and Contagion investigate a strange break-in at the Crowley skyscraper downtown, where earlier Cancer had stolen plans for Topple’s Equalizer armor from a secure vault.  The two follow the yacht in a motorboat to a distant sand bar, where most of the passengers observe from land as Topple is confronted on the docked Rebel by Taurus, Pisces, and Cancer.  The new Zodiac criminals had conspired with Topple, but decided not to throw the fight after learning he planned to betray them.  Wraith and Contagion arrive and join Equalizer (Topple’s bodyguard) and the other three in contesting the villains, who swiftly decimate all who oppose them.  The six members of the Zodiac (including the hidden Capricorn) flee with the money Topple was supposed to pay them, spoiling the CEO’s clever plan to spotlight his Equalizer armor.

#34 – Knight of the Seductress – The Freemason Alpha Team flies to Tokyo, but are unable to contact team leader Brit.  Hacker, Tool, Father, Stalker, I.C.E., and new members Silversmith and Ghost find clues in his hotel room that lead to a private underground night club run by Anneke.  At the club, where humans are herded like cattle, they take out many vampires, but Anneke escapes.  Notes lead to the Matsura corporate building, the base of the Bloodsworn in Japan.  Bypassing elaborate security, the group finds Brit under Selena’s sway.  They battle the Contessa, her werewolf, Phillipe, Gideon, and many vampire minions and defeat nearly all of them.  Only Gideon and Selena escape, with Hacker under her control.

I'm posting pictures in its own thread, but I started out a session for two of my PCs by running them through "No Crime like the Present" (from "Always Outnumbered"), and then folded that right into "Mind Over Matter" (the mini-adventure in the back of "Vigilantes International").  Here's the part we've done so far:

#36 – No Crime Like the Present – Dr. Augustus Swakhammer visits an evening show at a planetarium in Orlando.  When the criminal Miz Happ fills the building with clouds to mask her theft of meteorites from the exhibit hall, he races outside to enlist his car (and extraterrestrial companion) Halley, becoming the superhero Perihelion.  New vigilante Psypher happens by and joins in taking down the villainess and her getaway driver, Farce.  Numerous members of the media question Perihelion, but Psypher chooses to avoid the exposure.  Soon after the pair leaves in Halley, they happen upon robbers exiting a bank.  In short order they disable their van and dispatch the Squire and a half-dozen thugs.  Meeting with Commissioner Rollands at the mid-town precinct, they learn that a crime wave has been taking the shape of a capital letter “C” across the city, and agree to stakeout the bank believed to be the next target.

Finished up playing "Mind Over Matter" this last weekend:

#37 – Mind Over Matter – Psypher and Perihelion stake out the bank for two days.  When it is robbed on the second night, they tail the gray sedan of the crooks across the city.  The car disappears into an alley, but the two sleuths find a clandestine door leading into an underground basement.  They make their way to the roof of the McGregor Building and find the six thugs in a penthouse office speaking to company president Scott McGregor.  The thieves confess without prompting, but suddenly the villain Ironmane springs from a secret elevator and attacks the pair!  The vigilantes double-team the attacker, inadvertently killing their foe.  During the fight the villainous Conscience descends in an elevator from an adjacent hidden office into a secret garage in the basement.  Determining that McGregor and the robbers appear to have been mentally controlled, the investigators search the plush office and find another hidden door into the Conscience’s headquarters.  They discover that the mentalist was running a criminal empire from within the building, which he had built to his specifications.

Thanks, Matt! 

Like the Guardians issues (our "main title"), they're a combination of printed or published adventures and stuff made up by us.  We all take turns running, so that provides a lot of variety.  Right now there's 7 regulars, but at one time we had 10 active participants, with each of them having GMd before (some more than others, but all multiple times).

Thanks for that, Matt.  I really appreciate it! 

I wish I'd spent the time to spotlight more of the individual characters on our website, but alas, there's so many so it's a big project.

You can see a few of them here.  It's got to be hard to keep all of the (many) characters separate!  Feel free to ask if you have any questions about any of them, as I love talking about them! 

#40 – This Nut’s Not Sweet – Just as Wraith and Contagion meet newly awakened pirate Blackbeard at a café in Baltimore, the Spirit of Christmas appears.  The ghost asks them to stop an imposter who parodies the champion of Christmas in their city.  Racing to Casey’s, a nearby department store, the group learns that children have been taken hostage inside.  The trio efficiently defeats Santa Claws, Raindeer, and the madman’s Noels, his eight minions dressed as Santa’s reindeer, and rescues the captives.

And here's issue #41, played a week ago at GuardianCon 13, that I originally (accidentally) posted in the Guardians thread:

#42 – Firestorm – Aries, Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra of the Zodiac Syndicate ambush a military convoy transporting classified prototype technology in rural Chesterfield County, Virginia.  Libra secures one of their objectives (prototype X269, a serum), while Leo leaps on a Humvee escaping with the other (X312, a miniature battery/energy projector).  Leader Aries, not wanting Leo to secure their other target by himself, rams the vehicle, which leads to an intense argument between the two supervillains.  As they bicker, the four soldiers in the damaged Humvee escape into the nearby town of Fairview.  Libra proposes a contest: the others in the Zodiac will not allow the military to escape Fairview as Aries and Leo track down the other prototype.  Aquarius hits the local three cell towers with lightning, cutting it off from the rest of the world, and the rest of the Zodiac spread out around the community.  F.I.S.H. calls in available heroes from the area, and Partisan, Tank, Psilight, Galahad, Blackbeard, and Z-Spiker respond, meeting on the helipad at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.  They are briefed by Army Major Shane Ellis en route to the ambush site by helicopter, then find a wounded combatant along the path to Fairview.  Lieutenant Alber provides more details on the raid before losing consciousness.  They continue into the small town, which is pelted by heavy rains.  Psilight swiftly reconnoiters the area and the group splits up, visiting the police station and Holy Trinity Church.  They discover that Father Jerome has provided refuge to another of the four, a burned Captain Gibbons, who gives them more information.  They decide to take out a lone sentry on the eastern edge of the city, but when they arrive they find the Zodiac ready for them.  The two sides battle, and eventually the heroes drop Leo and Aries.  The others manage to flee, and the team learns that Lieutenant Max Pincombe was transformed by the forearm bracer (the other prototype) he put on as he fled.  Nanoids have transformed the soldier into a paranormal!

[Edit: Changed #41 to #42]

I love reading your exploits.  I've grabbed a few of the ideas for my own. 

Also, when I read 'exploits' as the title, I thought this would be a thread about things like combining Heightened Speed and Ice Powers, or Size Change larger and Heightened Endurance lol.  Glad I was wrong.

I finally did a summary of the event at this year's GuardianCon (in June), which I didn't play in.  My son and another friend were co-GMs, and it was a massive, sprawling tale with an extremely intricate plot (even with the details of this write-up, there's lots that was not found out by the players).  They are considering doing a sequel, to explore more of it.

[Editor's Note: Delta is the name of my son's 'universe', for his V&V campaign.  So this was a "crossover" even with PCs from both games/universes, the Vindicators and the Guardians]

#43 – Excavated Evil – Prologue: In Delta, twin brothers battle each other for centuries, Aelmar eventually taking the form of a paladin and Belarious that of a large dragon.  A magical curse causes them to switch bodies; the paladin calls himself Valgar and the dragon Pendragon. In the present, Ryoma Okita (Kensai) fights off strange ninjas at his work office, but drops after being poisoned.  Galahad dispatches a number of street punks, and a mysterious man claiming to be a servant of Merlin asks for his help.  In Delta, heroes Archon, Ad-versus, the Damned, Anomalous, and Nox are assembled to confront a great evil: Archon takes out a purse thief, but the victim knocks him out with a weapon.  Ad-versus is summoned to the dean’s office at his community college; he declines a robed man’s request for help and in turn is rendered unconscious.  At a laundromat, a man appears and gives Ricky Wilson (the Damned) an airline ticket to a fantastic resort island.  A woman convinces Anomalous to leave a bar, but before he can depart he passes out from his poisoned drink.  Nox investigates the kidnappings of various paranormals, and soon finds himself alongside the missing four, Kensai, and Galahad on a plane headed to an unknown destination overseas.  A disturbance jars the aircraft as it passes between dimensions (back into Delta), and many of the adventurers suddenly observe different people sitting next to them.  As the craft is rocked by more turbulence, the bewildered vigilantes unsuccessfully struggle to repair the vessel, but cannot keep it from crash landing on an island!  The heroes aid the injured, but most of the passengers are found to be dead.  As the others set up a camp and gather survivors while tending to the wounded, Anomalous and Archon explore an apparently empty compound to the north.  The camp is attacked by zombies, who prove to be much stronger and faster than expected.  The champions fight off wave after wave of the undead, allowing the innocent civilians to flee into a cave.  Just as they are about to be overwhelmed, the zombies stop, becoming completely motionless!  Unnerved, the party moves north to the encampment, resting on the roof of one building and sharing with each other how they each came to be on the plane.  Ad-versus explores, and in an excavation tent encounters Pendragon.  The reptile admits to controlling the undead, and commands Ad-versus to break an ancient obelisk to the north.  The hero attempts to comply, but is stopped by the others.  The group continues to explore, discovering state-of-the-art equipment and facilities.  Notes from head researcher Dr. William Huxley hint at a recently unearthed dragon that controls zombies.  In the most extravagant room of the compound they meet Valgar, who tells them the evil dragon must be destroyed, not the obelisk.  Pendragon communicates through Ad-versus, but the team refuses to listen to him.  They search more, and in a cave find the obelisk, as well as stone tablets that tell of a battle between a paladin and a dragon millennia ago.  Pendragon (Aelmar) tells the explorers that the paladin Valgar (Belarious) is not to be trusted.  The Damned confirms with the cosmos that they can believe both, but Galahad senses evil in each of them.  The superheroes discuss their options in depth, and then break the obelisk (against Belarious’ wishes, freeing Aelmar). Galahad offered Aelmar freedom, but, overcome with rage, instead of leaving, he attempts to kill his captor instead, and the pair continues their ancient fight.

Now for recaps of the MP games run at GaryCon X.  This first one, "Daughter of Dagon" was 8 hours, so I broke it down into two separate issues.

#45 – Attack of the Cyber-Squid! - Revivicator, ColdSnap, Apparition, Quake, Foggy, and Nightstalker respond when a giant squid attacks the pier at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.  Apparition paralyzes the beast, and the group finds that the creature’s lower half is mechanized.  Inside the Cyber-Squid they discover empty seats, and the language of the interior technology reveals an Atlantean dialect.  Police Lieutenant Black asks for assistance from the vigilantes when armored soldiers begin searching the city.  That night the makeshift team rushes to an underground rave, which partygoers spill out of in terror.  They make quick work of a squad of six Lemurians, and afterwards one explains that they are searching for the missing Princess Rel.  After learning that Rel has been singing with a local band called Afros and Tattoos, messages are left with the band’s manager, Zero.  The adventurers try to convince the underwater dwellers that force is not the answer to recovering the missing girl, and continue to coordinate with Black to keep the city safe.

By the last day of Gary Con (Sunday), everybody is pretty wiped out and exhausted.  This last game wasn't that great, as the GM was entirely winging things.  It was pretty obvious to all of us as we noted that he never wrote anything down, looked at notes, or consulted any rules.  We hustled to get to the event at 9 in the morning, but then spent more than 1-1/2 hours as two players created characters.  Then we played the adventure, which was the GM improvising the whole time.  He seemed like a really nice guy and was extremely entertaining (would be a great guy to grab a beer with), but he also was distracted super easily, and got off on tangents without much effort.

Eventually in that first encounter, I figured out that we were dealing with an illusion (another player should have had a chance to learn this when he Siphoned Power from it).

In the end, the GM apologized that he didn't know the game system better, and said he hoped to learn more about it before he runs it at Gamehole Con.

#47 - A Not So Secret War – In Milwaukee with F.I.S.H., Rejuvenator, ColdSnap, Nightstalker, and Apparition respond alongside Magnatron and Pero Syte to a massive multi-car accident on Interstate 94, including a large truck embedded in the side of a building.  The heroes watch as a small, blue creature in the midst of the chaos is hit by lightning and grows in front of them.  Their attempts to reason with and attacks on the strange being prove futile, as it gets bigger and changes with successive electrical strikes.  Eventually the assembled adventurers deduce that most of the scene, including their opponent, is an elaborate illusion.  Magnatron rescues the crashed truck.  ColdSnap recovers a small, mechanical sphere, which brings a young male paranormal to the scene to recover his technology.  The teen explains that he caused the accident and illusions in order to steal materials needed to save his dying sister.  He summons a remarkable vehicle, which he flies everyone in to Columbia Saint Mary’s Hospital, where they learn that he was telling the truth.  Using the recovered items, a cure is attempted, but the girl transforms into a winged, horned monster and flies away!