In one of the many uniform meeting rooms at Resolutes base sits a lean man in a well tailored white suit. Obscuring his pale visage are a pair of ever-present tinted sunglasses.
Belying his fastidious appearence is his mop like head of fiery red hair.
He regarded a high tech watch on his left wrist with a bit of a haruumph as he continued to strum the long manicured fingers of his right hand along the metallic table.
Spoiler:
OOC: This adventure will be loosely based on a Villians and Vigilantes module published in 1986. If you have been through this module please do not undertake this mission as it will spoil some of the fun.
Players: Rybaer (Kid Dinosaur), Bront (Gun Monkey), Rystil Arden (Circe), Hafrogman (Handsome), Salix (Titan)
Chip pokes his head into the meeting room. Upon spotting someone else, he continues in. His backpack is casually discarded in a corner and he drops his Pepsi and Cheetos on the table.
"Heya," he says cheerfully. "This the right place for the new mission? What is it? Rampaging mutants? Super villains stole some priceless artifact? Town infested with zombies?"
"Is that all of us then? Excellent..." he says in an even voice.
He stands, his expression inscrutable behind tinted lenses.
"My name is Mr. Scarlet. I will be briefing you on your current mission." he moves to the side of the table and the room darkens slightly. Monitors smoothly slide up from thier concealed location within the metallic table, one for each of you seated. A satellite photo of a small town can be seen on the view screens.
"This is Iridium Vale, Oregon. Iridium Vale is a small city surrounded by desert, formerly a mining town for the rare heavy metals once concentrated in the sand, now its the haven of America's leading high-tech industries, and a small university." scenes flip on your monitors to various mining operations, research labs, and sites around Iridium Vale, including the University. "Because of the possibility of high-tech accidents, multi-million dollar industrial espionage, and the theft of valuable materials the city employs two heroes, Epsilon and Serena, collectively known as the Valiants." the monitor shows two costumed figures. One man and one woman. Epsilon wears a metallic golden jumpsuit trimmed with black, while Serena wears a red and blue affair. Both complete with masks and a stylized 'E' and 'S' adorn thier chests respectively.
The images then turn to something rather bizarre. Various other costumed figures. Though some of the costumes are familiar, these are not the striking heroic figures chiselled form stone, but slightly overweight, mountain dew drinking fan-boys dressed in ridiculous attire. "Science fiction, role-playing games and comics are exremely popular among the university students, faculty and the local workforce, and a group has conglomerated itself to organize a convention, The Great Iridium Con, to be held between the city's largest hotel, The Sands, and the lecture theaters of Iridium University. About two-thirds of the attendees are locals, but many are from outside the city, even outside the state. The con is largely sponsored by the major industries, Heavy Metal Mining, Westech, JCN, Omniversal and Cyberworld, and by the University. Much of the program is designed to lure attendees into engineering, programming, etc. Other events, like the Masquerade, are far less seriously intended."
The lights resume thier normal illumination and he scans each of your faces. The corners of his mouth were ever so slightly upturned in what passes for Scarlet as a smirk. "I am sure you are wondering what this all has to do with the Resolutes. Wednesday, a bomb was sent to Valiants HQ. Serena was badly injured, but not incapacitated. She was taken into protective custody and is recovering at the Maximum Security Wing of the local hospital. Epsilon, who was absent at the time, was ambushed Thursday morning and was incapacitated. He is comatose in the same Ward as Serena. The weapons used in his assault were an energy pistol and a crossbow. That night, last night, Doctor Laura Stoner of Heavy Metal Mining, the Leader of the Deep-Scan research team, was attacked in her lab and killed. The weapon seems to have been a laser fired through the second story window. Nothing was missing from the lab."
He pauses for a moment before continuing. "If you aren't familiar with the Deep-Scan project. The intent is to build a portable Holographic Echo-location Emitter. Using oscillating waves it can map out a 3D image of terrain both underground and above. With such a device trying to find Fugitive Terrorists hiding in caves or pinpointing the recent problem we had in California would be a thing of the past. A prototype is scheduled to be presented during the Con. Your mission is two-fold. Investigate the recent attacks and protect the Deep-Scan Device from theft. You are to remain low-key and pose as Con-goers while at the convention. You already have rooms reserved at the Sands. Your contact there will be Dr. Michael Dupont; attending physician for the Valiants and an undercover agent working for us. He will meet you when you land. Your transport leaves in 15 minutes. Any questions?"
Handsome shrugs slightly as he mentally reviews the information.
"You really think someone's trying to steal this thing? Sounds more like they just don't want it getting made."
Mr. Scarlet lights a cigarette. As the smoke wafts across the room a slight spicey aroma is detected. Imported Cigarettes to be sure. "The prototype is already completed. It is going to be displayed sometime during the Convention. The Prototype is currently in the care of a Peter Varley who was also on the research team. All attempts to try to post-pone the live demonstration at the Convention has been rebuffed."
Who are the likeliest suspects? Anyone try to threaten the Doctor previous to her death?
"Both Valiants have a laundry list of enemies. Unfortunately as they were Free-Agents we dont have access to thier database. As far as we can tell Doctor Stoner had no enemies and was fairly well-liked among her colleagues."
"Both Valiants have a laundry list of enemies. Unfortunately as they were Free-Agents we dont have access to thier database. As far as we can tell Doctor Stoner had no enemies and was fairly well-liked among her colleagues."
Any local companies working on a product that does the same thing. Maybe they don't want to be second.
Scarlet allowed himself the briefest of smiles. "Good question. That was my initial thought. But the patents are already filed. No other company can market the product until the patent statute has expired."
"I didn't think smoking was allowed in here," Chip whispers to Titan while Scarlet is busy answering someone else's question.
"Well, seems obvious to me that someone powerful enough to drop two supers has something underground in the area that they want kept hidden," Chip says for the benefit of everyone in the room. "Let's go bust some bad-guy butt.
"And maybe there'll be some Firefly cast members there I can swap autographs with."
"I didn't think smoking was allowed in here," Chip whispers to Titan while Scarlet is busy answering someone else's question.
"It'a good to be the king', Titan says, quoting an old Mel Brooks movie in a whisper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rybaer
"And maybe there'll be some Firefly cast members there I can swap autographs with."
You'll be in disguise so you might not be able to swap. Any hints about who I should go as? I'm more of a jock than a sci-fi guy. Any girls go to these things?
Straightening up and trying to get a little more serious he says, "How are we going to get Gun Monkey around without him giving us away?"
Straightening up and trying to get a little more serious he says, "How are we going to get Gun Monkey around without him giving us away?"
"Only problematic outside of the Convention. I am told there are so many costumes at these things that no one would think much other then he had very authentic prosthetics. How you handle not having the press announce your presence otherwise is up to you. May I suggest a hooded sweatshirt and a trenchcoat though?"
*Before their eyes, Gun Monkey transforms into an ordinary-looking human. Sierra doesn't even blink or present any indication that she is involved in this.*
Handsome gives Gun Monkey's new appearance a cursory glance and nods acceptingly.
"Seems like that won't be a problem then. So this demo of the echo-thingy. Is it going to be on display all the time?"
"There's a good point. If this thing is on display at all points, maybe we should split into two teams. One for protection, one for investigation. Then again, maybe we should stick together.", Titan suggests.
Linear Mode
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