I’m going to go into a little more depth with this summary, mostly for greycrusader/John, who is someday going to hopefully publish some of the following in an adventure he is writing.  Most of this first session was set-up, so little of that would potentially be used, but one of the characters here (Miss Mass) was made by him.

Over the last few years I’ve learned to slow down and let the pacing flow as the players (and their characters) dictate.  Whereas years before I might have pushed them on to advance the plot, I’ve now learned to do that only when things grind to a halt.

My fist dilemma with this adventure was getting our resident anti-hero Warp involved.  I threw out the call by email to my players, and one-by-one as they responded I realized that it was the exact same group as played in “Ancient Evil” a few months ago.

So I came up with a plausible scenario for gathering that same group (only half of them were actually members of the Guardians team): the city that they saved – Kingstown, Maryland – would hold a ceremony in their honor.

But Warp’s player responded via email, stating that Warp wouldn’t attend such a hearing (instead noting that he would spy on it from a distance).

My goal with the first session was twofold:

1) To have them get some information from the powerful supervillain Doctor Squallus (formerly Aquarius of the Zodiac, and before that Stormlord of the Crushers)

2) To show how deadly and dangerous a new adversary (Doc Negation) could be

So I contacted Warp’s player privately, to see if he could play go-between.  Years before Warp had gone undercover in a paranormal fight club, and two other members of that fight club were Goliath (a newer member of the Guardians, and one who would be going on this adventure) and F.I.S.T., a former teammate of Dr. Squallus’ in the Crushers.  He agreed, but tried to wrangle money for his aid (agreeing  finally to do it for a favor, instead).

So during the session we played through the first scene pretty quickly.  The town was very appreciative, and during the meet and greet afterwards when a check was given to them, all involved asked that it be given back to the town to aid in repairs (some heroes even asked if they could help aid in repairing things like the parking structure that was damaged in a battle).

Warp spied on the others, but did not contact any of them.

They went to a diner afterwards, and Warp decided to stop by, but chose to go in civilian guise (as Dale Max) rather than iced up as Warp.  To do this he played the part of an “eager fanboy” excited to get some autographs.



I didn't draw the diner, simply using a pencil and calculator to show the edges of the building.

Continuing the story...

Warp took the others to Inova Fairfax in Falls Church, VA. It's what is known as a "Sanctuary Hospital" (a new concept I just introduced; a "sacred ground" concept like churches were in "Highlander"; a place where nobody need fear those of the opposite alignment). He introduced them to Dr. Squallus, a world-class supervillain who originally was known as Stormlord, and who for years also served in the Zodiac as Aquarius. Dr. Squallus looked quite injured, and he explained that he barely escaped with his life when strange beings called Protean Corpsmen attempted to capture him for someone called Doc Negation. The villain then had them sit, as he had a tale for them:

His old ally Shocker (a teammate in the Crushers), who had been deported years ago and was more or less retired from the supervillain game, had settled down in Japan with a wife and kids. He'd been making a semi-honest living doing bodyguard work (mostly for yakuza types) and managing a seedy nightclub. But when his kids started exhibiting variants of their father's electrical powers, Doc N decided he would like to abduct them for study. Shocker and a yakuza squad held off Ruinscape (one of Doc Negation's Universals) and several Protean Corpsmen long enough for Shocker's wife to escape with the kids, but Shocker himself was beaten so badly as to be rendered comatose. Before he went down he had put out a call to his old friends.

Shocker's family was now in some sort of "witness protection" for the friends and family of supervillains, their expenses footed by a fund set up long ago by the Crushers. Unfortunately, as Doc Negation was searching for the children, his curiousity was piqued by Dr. Squallus, a legacy superhuman who also had electrical powers.

Laird also told the Guardians that he had two more pieces of info that they would find interesting. He had heard that Doc N was also interested in their own Enigma (a man with perfect genetics). And his sources had alerted him about a recent break-in at a tech company in Richmond.

The team headed to the tech firm, a company called Particle Futures (see the villain Rune for more info). They had been robbed only hours earlier, and the security footage showed what appeared to be Boogeyman (the villain Enigma had gained his Flame Powers from) and a female that was a likely match for Miss Mass, one of Doc Negation's Universals. Doc N and the Universals had mostly been active in the Pacific Rim and across the globe until recently, and it now looked like they were truly operating closer to home.

The visit with Dr. Squallus reinforced the intention for which that scene was put in: to make the PCs realize how deadly Doc Negation could be!

The three scientists at Particle Futures were mostly helpful, and one of the scientists, Karen Mayflower, explained how her cousin, Karla Truesdale (the late Jovia, from "Opponents Unlimited") had worked with similar technology. Mayflower warned that tech like what they were experimenting with could create a monster like the Twisted Man (from "In Broad Daylight"). The PCs asked where the other parts the villains might need (based on what was taken from Particle Futures), and learned of two possibilities, one in L.A. and the other in D.C. (the company name - Gravimedical Technologies - is the name of the company that Twisted Man used to work for). When the vigilantes raced there, they found unconscious scientists and a half dozen paranormals had broken in!

Fetch-Fire ignored Angelus and sped to face his old enemy Enigma (Enigma had bested him years earlier, and the reason Enigma now had Flame Powers was because he absorbed/mimicked the ability from Boogeyman).  Unbenownst to the Guardians, Fetch-Fire is trying to prove his worth to be part of the Universals.

The Twisted Man (captured nearly two years earlier during "In Broad Daylight", but who escaped in the massive prison breakout shortly after that) came around the corner, and the heroes could see that they also faced Chem (last seen nearly a decade ago as one of the young villains in "Education in Terror"), Miss Mass (who they had recently learned was one of the Universals) and A.C.E. (Advanced Cyborg Experiment, from "Enemies At Large"), another enemy that they have never faced.

#371 – A Dangerous New Adversary - 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 about a deadly paranormal named Doc Negation.  Dr. Squallus’ former teammate Shocker succeeded in protecting his children from the menace, but this left him in a coma.  Dr. Squallus himself then barely escaped after a number of Doc Negation’s Protean 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 tech firm, Particle Futures, in Richmond, Virginia, and clues there lead them to Gravimedical Technologies in Washington, D.C.  Inside the heroes battle Miss Mass, Fetch-Fire (formerly Boogeyman), A.C.E., Brightshade, Chem, and Twisted Man.

A.C.E. made his way out into the main area where the others were fighting, while Rune cast a spell on Miss Mass which slowed her down.  Miss Mass has a really cool weakness that  - IF she ends up being incapacitated, mind controlled, or the like - has a variable (random) result.  So get this: Rune casts a spell that successfully causes her to slow down significantly.  I decided that this was enough to potentially trigger the weakness, and rolled randomly.  I ended up getting something very similar.  Her density power surged out of control, her mass increased significantly, and she was even further slowed down!

Fetch-Fire is taken out, as Angelus flies through the walls and knocks him flying! (that's his counter upside-down near the top of Goliath)

The real Summoner worries about the Brightshade (in darkness), while his duplicate deals with the cyborg.  Meanwhile, Warp attempts to freeze Miss Mass from the inside, but even that doesn't seem to harm her!

Warp teleported into the back and anchored himself near the roof, while Chem again tried unsuccesfully to grab the non-corporeal Angelus.  Miss Mass was so slowed down she couldn't do much of anything.

After multiple strikes, the cyborg fell (but he is only incapacitated, not unconscious).



The battle will conclude this Saturday!

Miss Mass was drawn by her creator (and really the author of most of this story), a friend named John (who decades ago wrote a magazine article for V&V).  John has also had numerous things published for M&M.

Here's the art he sent me, and I simply colored it and turned it into a counter.

After dropping him, they directed their attacks at Chem and sent him flying as well.

Galaxy Boy wrote on Dec 6^th, 2012 at 11:37pm:


The idea for me when I did the sketch (rather quickly admittedly) was the accident which turned Miss Mass from a demure 130 lb scientist into a powerhouse gave her the enhanced musculature and heavy bone structure (including jawline and cheekbones) of a superheavyweight female bodybuilder/strength athlete; the character tries to compensate with excessively "girlish" hairstyle and make-up.

(Which is something I have sometimes seen in hardcore female competitors who use anabolic drugs and extreme diets during training for a contest, but Miss Mass is stuck with the look permanently, which makes the character sullen and angry.)

Also, female super-villains tend to either all look like gorgeous femme-fatales or else be obviously scarred/alien/monstrous, with nothing in between. I try to mix things up with my characters' appearances a bit  more).

And yes indeed, I got my article published in Dragon back when I was a high school sophmore, which really only made me a couple years younger than Jack and Jeff when they published V&V itself for the first time.

All my best.

With Warp watching from high above, Summoner tried doing a spectacular maneuver, generating a radius of ball lightning in an effort to drop the elusive Brigtshade.  He had saved his action, and somehow decided to move on action phase 13 (not knowning that Brightshade, who had failed his morale roll, would be escaping on phase 12!).  Summoner had something like a 63% chance to succeed, but rolled a 64!  The lightning came within inches of Brightshade, but didn't quite hit him, and on 12 he used his Non-Corporealness to escape down and away into the Earth!

The battle now over, the group called in F.I.S.H. to take the captured villains.

The four heroes and a duplicate of Summoner (he gets his duplicates from another dimension) all went to Rune's Sanctum, which is a magical pocket dimension that appeared to all as if they had arrived in a spacious mansion.  Time goes by faster there, so they were able to heal up quicker.  They were able to rest and recuperate at a huge banquet table with a huge spread of food; in this case his Sanctum appeared like a rich sheik's palace.

They were a bit puzzled as to what to do next (as they knew they had foiled the attempt by the Universals to put together a weaponized gravity device).  Angelus then pointed out that they would need access to current information to figure out more about the villains they had faced (or would face).

Here's a picture of the sheet of paper that showed a bit of what the locale looked like (so the brown blob in the middle of the map above was a caveman sculpture, and the blue rectangles are the glass display cases with skeletons, etc.).  On the top of the map is the large diorama/display of an elaborate prehistoric scene.

Here you can see that Jared Jackson has transformed into the hero Angelus!

Finally battle commenced!  The Proto-Corpsmen raced at Engima, but Angelus interrupted, leaping in front of Enigma to take the hit in his place (to absorb it).  Here you can see that Doc Negation wears a costume and cape with bright red and gold highlights.  The group is battling around the caveman sculpture.

To quote John "The rather arcane symbol on (Doc Negation's) mask/headgear is a stylized Greek letter Gamma, which is also used as a symbol of evolutionary change; in physics it is a symbol of dynamic fluidity".