Final Fight for Freedom (City)

[nighthunter]

That was totally wicked.

I can't wait for the payback. Hope to see some Kill Bill style action there lol.

[Libra]

Charles, I must admit that I thoroughly enjoy this thread.

I keep hearing the voices of Julian Sands as Steel Dragon, and Michael Clarke Duncan as Savage.

Just so you know.

[Charles Phipps]

The players method of vengeance was frankly shocking to me. It also shows that they are Iron Age heroes, even if they're the best of the bunch.

Adventure Four: Break into Prison for some Allies!

And good voice choices, though Michael Clarke Duncan is a bit deep for Savage's witicisms.

[Libra]

Perhaps, but just imagine him saying "Sweet Christmas!"

Besides, Savage would be a rather sizeable gentleman, if he's as similar to Luke Cage as he sounds. . .

I actually had a very strong mental image of the "Confrontation with the Roman" scene. If you would like to hear my thoughts - Filtered for human consumption, of course - I'll be happy to post them.

[Charles Phipps]

Go for it, please.

I'm all ears and really want to hear any and all.



Adventure Four: Assault on Precinct 42

The player characters found themselves in a peculiar safehouse in the Old Liberty league headquarters. Deciding there was no other place on the planet that Moore's Men would want to visit less, they break in and take up residence there.

Steel Dragon: Damn, we're screwed.
Nick Savage: Not necessarily. We've got a few possibilities.
Steel Dragon: Like what, we just blew up a billion dollar facility and Moore has us for terrorism now.
Nick Savage: You're right, we HAVE blown up a billion dollar facility. We've also put down August Roman and Olivarti.
Colleen: Technically, Force Ops put down Olivarti.
Nick Savage: Hush girl. What we gotta do now is take the fight to City Hall.
Steel Dragon: You mean attack City Hall?
Nick Savage: Eventually, but I mean we go all Daredevil on Kingpin.
Steel Dragon: I'm sorry, I'm a Spiderman fan.
Nick Savage: I mean, we dismantle this whole network. ANY WAY WE CAN.
Wendy: I'm a cop, I can't be party to this.
Nick Savage: Hello, the corrupt cops helped kidnap you!

Guardians Inc. then makes a reluctant vow to do whatever it takes to deal with Mayor Moore's corrupt network and force him out of office. Frankly, they're pretty close to that already though I don't tell them this. A mob war has already begun with Olivarti's death (which the player characters are blamed for), August Roman's sudden nervous breakdown immediately set his lieutenants against the "piddling little Mayor", and SHADOW wants to know where their product is. Not to mention Overthrow is displeased about losing their entire cocaine shipment for the next month.

I expected the player characters to honestly just go after Mayor Moore at this point but they had other plans for this. It was nice to see the player characters sieze initiative from the gamemaster anyway.

Their first act I had to play by ear.

Steel Dragon: So what's our target?
Nick Savage: Precinct 42.
Steel Dragon: Wait, hold up. We're attacking the Police?
Nick Savage: I know whose dirty and whose not here. This is the heart of Internal Affairs and Dispatch in the city. It's also where everything crooked goes down across the city. We go here, we find out whose on the take, and we send a strong message we're not afraid of them.
Steel Dragon: Or we get permanently branded as lowlifes.
Nick Savage: You forget, the FBI loves to show the local police that they suck. We find evidence and we take them down.

The player characters then proceed to drive up to the police station and then promptly pass by two cops they take down. I'll never forget the mental image that I had at that point of Nick Savage walking in with a shotgun over his head.

Nick Savage: YO! THIS IS A RAID!

From there, I had to pretty much go to Kiss of the Dragon for describing things mixed with other Assault movies. There was a slight continuity issue with Steel Dragon knocking away bullets left and right as he spent his PP on 'Chi Force Field' but it worked.

Steel Dragon: What's the shotgun for.
Nick Savage: *blows up dispatch system* Getting people's attention. *slugs a man across the face with the butt of it*

One of my favorite momments was Nick Savage tossing a molativ cocktail into the evidence room.

Steel Dragon: The DA is going to hate us for that.
Nick Savage: Check the tags on that stuff.
Steel Dragon: Set for Resale!? WHAT THE HELL...
Nick Savage: Like I said man, don't even try to hide it. They leave it to the cops to sell to kids.
*Steel Dragon promptly head butts the next policeman he sees*

The Big Mass Melee occurs in the Precinct Gymnasium as a dozen of martial arts trained Police pretty much attack and for no reason whatsoever, there's all sorts of kung fu weapons on the ground. Steel Dragon gets speared in a shoulder during it even as he he does the Neo thing when they dog pile him and spin kicks the instructor. We get a hint of Nick Savage differentiating his moves as he mostly describes wrestling moves like suplexes, body slams, and pile drivers.

Nick Savage: You alright man?
Steel Dragon: No no, I have a stab wound from a sword. Some chai, some feng shui, and incense...I'll be fine.
Nick Savage: Really?
Steel Dragon: Hell no!

Finally, they end up on the top where they face the Police Comissioner of Freedom City....whom just to AMP UP THE CRAZY has a chain gun on his desk that he has his secretary feed ammo for. Both players hit the deck in the elevator as he tears into the sides around them.

Comissioner Fields: *in the meanest french accent I can come up with* Yu filthy little svine. You make me sick. You think you can just waltz in here and vuin years of work. Death is too good for you.
Nick Savage: Yeah, one more thing ass****.
Comissioner Fields: What?
Nick Savage: I got a gun too. *He shoots the chain gun*

From there, they pretty much throw down the corrupt leader of the city and force him to start coughng up information as they break fingers. The Police Station is surrounded by more cars even as they barricade the door and Steel Dragon cuts the elevator cables. With some spot and investigate checks, they get a whole bunch of files on computer and physical proof that will implicate a good third of the cops in the city of racketeering/extortion/trafficking.

How do they escape? I'll just let the players describe it.

Steel Dragon: Wait for a Police Helicopter to come up, then leap in to kick the pilot in the head.
Nick Savage: Damn, all these cops and not one Playboy slutty corrupt cop girl.
Steel Dragon: We already met your sister.
Nick Savage: Just drive blind man so I can kick your ass when we get down.

[Libra]

All right, I'll post it tomorrow, if I can. It's getting late in the evening on this side of the Pond you see and I do need my beauty sleep you know.

Every little bit helps, after all. . .

[Charles Phipps]

Okay, I edited up a new part above if you have some time to give parting thoughts on the latest adventure installment.

[Libra]

Brilliant. I would love to see the reactions of various parties to this reign of destruction.

For example FORCE-Ops: "Why didn't we think of that?

<A series of grunts.>

Oh yeah, we decided it was too pacifistic."

[Jongluer]

That is pretty good, I like the phrase "Amp up the crazy" need to remember to use it.

[nighthunter]

That was one of the most awesome sessions of Mutants and Masterminds I've ever read. Keep it coming. I'm loving this story hour alot.

[a.k.a. Legion]

This is Amazing.

I love the dialogue between the characters and the action sounds great.

If only I could get my players to RP like that.

[Charles Phipps]

.Final Adventure: part one

Well this marathon session was just completed and I'm very pleased with the result of it. Sorry it took so long to get to it but it ends our mini-campaign and sets up the creation of the modern world of Freedom. When last we left our characters, they had successfully gathered enough information to indict a third of the Freedom City police force. It wasn't enough to convict them all but if Mayor Moore went down then they'd turn on each other for states evidence faster than Johnny Rocket.

Scene One: Prison Break

Our two heroes had a rather 'Squadron Supreme' like solution to dealing with the evils of Mayor Moore. As Nick Savage put it...

Nick Savage: Sometimes, to get to Heaven, you've got to raise a little Hell.

Well, actually it was the Ozarks who sang that first but that's beside the point.

Their plan was simply to head to Freedom City's maximum security penitentiary and liberate three master criminals in Magpie, The Freebooter, and Crimson Katana. With no superheroes left in the city, they believed that the best way to deal with the current problems in the city was to release people that they knew could be deployed against Mayor Moore's armies. It was a difficult decision for the pair to make but they believed that it was the only way to actually take down a monstrosity like the Moore Administration.

Colleen: Wow, what a pair of superheroes you are, you're breaking loose a bunch of supercriminals.
Steel Dragon: While in the British SAS, I dropped fire on encampments of Argentian soldiers. What I do here will safeguard more lives for less cost.
Wendy: Great explanation....not.

The four proceeded to sneak into the prison with fairly easy stealth rolls but the irony was that they didn't realize that the prison had much larger problems to deal with at the time. Effectively, the player characters actions had resulted in Mister Infamy determining that his corrupt little Empire required a revivification by the injection of new blood. So the Mayor sent in one of his minions....carrying a deadly virus that killed everyone in the prison but the criminals in their air tight vaults.

(This is the Iron Age after all and criminals are a hell of a lot more vicious than normal)

The criminals, no longer having anyone regulate their controls then proceeded to start busting out on their own and the makings of the biggest riot in Freedom City history was about to begin. The result was the player characters immediately finding themselves in something not too disimiliar to the meeting of the New Avengers. Unfortunately, they weren't the New Avengers but they COULD possibly be the Heroes for Hire.

Upon seeing the gathering of the HUGE numbers of supervillains down below in the main hall.

Steel Dragon: All I can think of, minus the fact we're about to get our asses kicked, is....why exactly do they imprison them in their costumes?
Nick Savage: And with their equipment?
Colleen: Mayor Moore decreed that it would be psychologically damaging and inhumane otherwise.
Nick Savage: .....oh COME ON.

The two immediately start moving to call for AEGIS backup and end up in the hall against Devil Ray.

Nick Savage: You actually think we're supposed to fear a guy in a diving suit?
Gamemaster[b]: Devil Ray's Diving Suit immediately pops out a chain gun from the side as it starts glowing with an energy field.
[b]Nick Savage: OH COME ON!

Colleen as a Chinese Wudan swordsmen, pierces Devil Ray's armor and smashes the chain gun. Steel Dragon then whammed onto his force field numerous times as I described Devil Ray smashing his head into the side of the walls with his super strength, which Dave only survived by the use of his chi. Wendy Savage then used her own metallic arm to distract the monstrous sea man

Nick Savage: You think you're real funny aren't you?
Devil Ray: Right now, the only thing that's amusing to me is imagining how I'm going to fillet your women after I take them by force. If this fight goes on much longer, it won't be in that order.
Nick Savage's Player: I spend a hero point and smash that ponce's field with one blow.
Steel Dragon: Count me in two for a double punch of hero point special.
Gamemaster: The resulting doube blow of chi and voodoo magic shatters his field as he's thrown down. The man immediately goes for his harpoon gun.
Steel Dragon: He got an air valve?
Gamemaster: Yes.
Steel Dragon: I cut it.

And with that Devil Ray collapsed and they only let him breathe again after being sure he was out cold.

Steel Dragon: How ya feeling?
Nick Savage: Like I have about eighty bee stings on my chest. Ow...Ow....Ow.....
Steel Dragon: It's a real revelation the Crime League is actually pretty damn tough.

Getting away their message to AEGIS and sticking Devil ray in a closet. the pair immediately get a rather humorous complication. An unexpected guest walked in on them in the communications room....

Superior: YOU! FOOLISH MORTALS!
Nick Savage: Oh s***.
Superior: Identify yourself!
Nick Savage: Uhhhh.
Steel Dragon: I'm Iron Claw! The Evil Master of Kung Fu!
Nick Savage: Yeah and I'm.....Black Power.
Superior: Bah! C-listers. Kneel before Zed!
Nick Savage: And do what?
*Steel Dragon elbows him*
*the pair kneel down*
Superior: Bah! You two will be the first recruits to my army to conquer the Earth and get my revenge on that damned fool Centurion!
Nick Savage: Did he actually just say that?
Steel Dragon: SHHHHhh.
Nick Savage: How many goddamn Nazis are in this city anyway?

The players are amusingly lead amongst the masses of supervillainy being assembled by Kal-Zed as he causally begins organizing everyone. It's rather annoying that no one recognizes the four because they're such low ranking members of the totem pole and the prison doesn't have television. I portray Kal as a bit like a really bored version of Hitler, going through the motions about how they'll achieve world domination and describing his plan to take over the city.

Nick Savage: What do we do now?
Steel Dragon: I got an idea.
Nick Savage: Oh man no....
Steel Dragon: Why should we follow you Superior?! Doctor Stratos is just as powerful and he won't just screw us over to AEGIS like you did your last partners!
Doctor Stratos: *not wanting to go up against Superior* Silence you fool! I want to hear what he has to s...
Superior: YOU DARE!
Doctor Stratos: Yes, these fools...
Superior: YOU PITIFUL LIGHTNING HURLER DARE CLAIM THAT YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN I?!
Doctor Stratos: *looking rather reluctant* That's not what they sa....
Superior: DESTROY THIS FOOL!
Doctor Stratos: You.....INSOLENT NAZI POSTER BOY!

Doctor Stratos wasn't really in Kal-Zed's league but he had a lot more friends even as Hell Queen quickly jumped to his defense along with Medea who blasted him quite nastily. Superior immediately started hurling other people at him and those on his side started brawling with the rest as the heroes tried to make their way out.

Nick Savage: Great plan Genius.
Steel Dragon: Thank you.
Nick Savage: That was sarcasm! We're going to get ourselves wasted in this mess.

Brawling their way out, they immediately found themselves being sniped at by Silencer whom had taken up the 'Clocktower vigilante' business. He was picking off criminals one by one even as the players involvement in the brawl drew his attention. With the expenditure of another Hero Point, Nick Savage pointed he got his power from sound and claimed he was immune to Silencer's powers, allowing him to promptly punch his lights out.

Which allowed me to also do this....

Maestro: Oh dear, this isn't going to go well for me is it?
Nick Savage: Yeah, sorry man, I'm a Bruce Springsteen fan.
*WHAM*

The adventure ended as they proceeded to find Magpie and Crimson Katana (also killing criminals) together. Together, they freed the Freebooter whom couldn't really escape on his own. No sooner did they do so when they came to the attention of Force Ops returning in a teleportation bubble.

Archer: Huh, I knew you guys were rotten. Force Ops....KILL THEM!
Steel Dragon: You know, I'm really starting to hate these guys.

[teleportingbassist]

I just read the entire thread and it's great. Can't wait to see the rest! You get 10,000 cookies. You reeeaaaaallllllllyyyyyyy like chainguns, don't you?

[Charles Phipps]

I admit, they got overused but they had an intimidating effect that didn't run dry completely by that point.

I should probably have used a rocket launcher.

[nighthunter]

Perfectly over-the-top, can't wait to see more!