EMERALD CITY KNIGHTS CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE THIRD EDITION MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS EMERALD CITY KNIGHTS INTRODUCTION This is the second in an adventure series for Mutants & of old-school violence as the heroes stop the first set of Masterminds Third Edition. The presumption is that most organized stormer villains from making a name for them- players and GMs will be running this adventure as part of selves when they attack an AEGIS (the American Elite that series, though there is advice included in the Getting Government Intervention Service) transport. the Heroes Involved section of the first scene for those groups that enter the adventure through avenues other than starting with the Prologue and Chapter 1 of this GETTING THE HEROES INVOLVED series. Further assumptions are that the player charac- ters are relatively new heroes, are power level 10, and Assuming this chapter is run for the players immediately are operating in the same universe as the Freedom City following Chapter 1: Life in the Aftermath, the heroes setting material provided by Green Ronin Publishing should be at MarsTech, Inc. interrogating Maximillian Mars (and are familiar enough with the setting that references after driving away the villains of F.O.E. can be made to NPCs and other setting-related material without too much explanation needed); again, notes are provided with advice on how to deal with other kinds of PROLOGUE player groups and characters, but the text and adventure Read or paraphrase the following to the players. primarily reflects the aforementioned assumptions. Text intended for reading directly to players will be noted Wreckage lies all about you, the aftermath of a as such and will be entirely in italics. battle you weren’t expecting. You weren’t the only ones with questions for the smartest man in the All that is necessary to play this adventure is a copy of city... and F.O.E. wasn’t keen on you being there. the Hero’s Handbook, a d20 (several would be better…), and a handful of player character heroes. You can get a Amidst the sound of settling debris you hear the set of ready-to-play heroes from the Green Ronin website: cracking of concrete and see a large bubble grow http://www.greenronin.com. out of the paved pathway. A second later it retracts and a voice calls out, “We should have known you couldn’t be trusted, Mars!” Standing inside the is ADVENTURE SUMMARY the Freedom League! Johnny Rocket, Bowman, Dr. Metropolis, and their newest recruit, Seven. Dr. In this chapter of Emerald City Knights, the player charac- Metropolis was the one speaking and he continues, ters have the opportunity to prove themselves against ”And now you’ll pay for what you’ve done!” Before members of the Freedom League. Following that wonderful you can reply, Dr. Metropolis shakily puts one hand comic book tradition of heroes fighting each other due to a to his forehead and yells, “Get out of my head!” misunderstanding, the heroes find they have a sponsor and With his other hand he points at Mars. Immedi- a swanky pad ready for them to move into. ately, the buildings come alive around you, steel and concrete flow like mud to form grasping hands Well, almost ready—the heroes get to be involved in the and swinging mallets, while the other Freedom final stages of construction of their new base. They also Leaguers quickly follow his lead and attack! get to do some relationship-building with the authorities, followed by defending their new turf from the Grandmas- Some days, it just doesn’t pay to put on a cape and ter’s Chessmen agents. This chapter concludes with a bit go save the day. “BUT, I DIDN’T RUN THE FIRST ADVENTURE…” If the heroes were not involved in the first adventure, they can still be brought to MarsTech’s main corporate campus without too much difficulty: The heroes have been investigating the Silver Storm and have followed the leads to RedShift Energies and from there to MarsTech, which owns the energy company, and Maximillian Mars. It’s bad timing they arrived just in time to give the Freedom League the wrong impression. They’ve been following the F.O.E. members for reasons unrelated to the Silver Storm and found themselves onsite after driving away F.O.E., just as the Freedom League arrives and assumes the heroes are villains. They’re onsite due to a more complicated reason—their secret IDs are tied to MarsTech and they changed into heroic ID after stumbling onto F.O.E., or the heroes went to question Mars after being asked to do so by AEGIS (who don’t want Mars to know that AEGIS is investigating him directly), or a mystic involved with the heroes has warned them of visions where the League finds themselves in trouble after arriving to confront Mars (the trouble is caused by Metropolis’ problems as detailed in the Playring Mars and the Freedom League section). Or any reason that seems reasonable for your group. 2 CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS EMERALD CITY KNIGHTS His teammates don’t have time to notice the odd SCENE 1: BIG LEAGUE TROUBLE behavior because Dr. Metropolis attacks immediately, plus their attention is on Mars and the heroes, who Scene Type: Combat the League members assume are his new crew. When Metropolis attacks, Johnny Rocket, Bowman, and Seven As the Freedom League arrives and suddenly attacks, follow his lead. They’re all accustomed to Metropolis the player characters all receive a hero point. This is very being the voice of reason, so they assume Mars and his important as it gives them a slight edge (it’s their comic cronies (the heroes) have mentally attacked their team- book after all!). mate. The characters have little choice but to defend themselves. Unbeknownst to the heroes, some of the technology at MarsTech is generating an odd sort of interference that very few people can even begin to sense, let alone be PLAYING MARS AND THE FREEDOM LEAGUE affected by. One of those people is Dr. Metropolis. He throws the first punch because of the unexpected effect MAXIMILLIAN MARS the interference has on him. It drives him to violence and he lashes out without thinking. He doesn’t know what it Mars is shocked and caught off guard by Dr. Metropolis’ is but it hits him the moment he arrives. (The feedback attack, but recovers quickly. He was expecting a visit would have affected him anywhere within a few miles of from the League (or, more specifically, Captain Thunder) MarsTech, but it’s especially strong on campus because of at some point, but is just as shocked at Metropolis’ the amount of tech in the vicinity). immediate violence as everyone else. He stays calm CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE 3 MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS EMERALD CITY KNIGHTS 4 CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE CHAPTER 2: OUT OF THEIR LEAGUE MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS EMERALD CITY KNIGHTS …METROPOLIS WOULD NEVER DO THAT! Well, not normally, no. There are extenuating circumstances. And the fact that the least hotheaded of the League is acting peculiar makes things all the more confusing for his teammates. However, you may not like using the good Doctor in this fashion and that’s okay. A couple of other options are available to you. The first is to use Captain Thunder’s son, formerly Bolt and now going under the name Thunderbolt. Or use Megastar. Both have graduated from the Claremont Academy and make excellent candidates for membership in the Freedom League. In Thunderbolt’s case, assume that his father has mentioned a story or two about the Commander and Thunderbolt has a score to settle with his old man’s old enemy. For Megastar, the MEGAS is Preserver technology and the same effect driving Metropolis over the edge also affects the MEGAS, but even harder. Stats aren’t provided for these alternate characters, but Thunderbolt can easily default to the Speedster archetype and Megastar to the Paragon (trading out two power points, one for the Alternate Effect off his Strength for a Ranged Damage attack and the other for the Feature (Guidance from MEGAS). and continues to try to defuse the situation even as the Regardless of tactics, the level of training and skill the Metropolis commands the building to attack him. League members show is impressive. The player char- acters are acutely aware that they’re facing very expe- BOWMAN rienced opponents, people who have stood against SHADOW and Omega and triumphed. An Expertise: A thrillseeker par excellence, Bowman loves being in the Current Events check (DC 15) allows a hero to remember middle of the fray and it’s obvious to observers that he that the majority of the League is off-world dealing with shifts from being surprises by Metropolis’ actions to being some kind of threat. able to barely contained excitement at the prospect of a Insight checks (DC 20) reveal a high degree of confusion good fight. While extremely well-trained, Bowman is still among Metropolis’ teammates over his behavior, regard- young and a show-off. He flirts with female opponents less of how smoothly they recover and follow his lead and fires off non-stop banter. when he attacks. DR. METROPOLIS It appears Mars is taking no offensive action towards the League. He’s defending himself, dodging attacks, and In this scene, Dr. Metropolis is a natural force erupting attempting to reason with Metropolis. An Insight check in violence at Mars and those around him.