X-Champions Issues

Issue #4 - The Story of the Trojan Kegs

Aela rejoins the group, apparently after some confusion wherein Eliot misunderstood she was heading out of town. 

Having just determined the best course of action is to see what happens at the church if "Isaac" shows up, the group heads there.  The Mermaid and Rodin pose as holy water and its receptacle, respectively, and care carried in by The Captain, who poses as a simple maintenance contractor.  As the group shows up they notice a few remaining plainclothes detectives comparing notes and taking a last look at the recently reopened crime scene.  The priest, along with a detective speaking with him, head over to see what the maintenance man is up to.  The detective believes (mistakenly) that he recognizes the maintenance man as someone related to someone in the Detroit PD and who works on their bathrooms.  The priest is confused but pleased to see someone already there to work on the damage from that morning's battle, believing, at the detective's prompting, that the work is being donated by the city.  At the same time Sammy, posing as Isaac, shows up, wearing the Troll's eye and carrying his ear along as well.  The Troll skulks into the shadows in the corner of the cathedral.

As time passes a vagrant-looking fellow comes in and rubs the holy water (Aela!) on his hands and splashes some on his face.  More offended by this than concerned about being discovered, Aela admonishes the man not to do this.  He seems confused, disbelieving that this water could be responsible, and wanders to a nearby statue and seems to strike up a conversation with it, muttering with it.

The priest comes across the Troll in the shadows; seeing the priest approach, the Troll turns back to Eliot Sihn, completing his transformation just as the priest taps him on the shoulder.  The priest inquires if Sihn needs any help and Eliot politely declines it.

As nearly an hour passes the priest checks up on the maintenance man/The Captain, who appears to be engaged in an unusually lengthy process of examining and measuring the damage.  The Captain indicates he has the info he needs and is going to study up on it, and in the meantime is going to sit by and pray a bit.  The priest asks him if he can help but The Captain confounds him with his stunning ignorance of Catholic tradition - explaining he's not familiar with the religion as he's from the "East side of town".  The maintenance man confuses pennance with pennants, and the priest indicates he has to start taking confession but would happily explain more later.  The Captain asks if he can then tell the priest about the trouble with his brother's dog and work that out.  The priest, a little hesitant, will gladly hear him out but indicates he must be truly repentant.  Then he excuses himself to start his work.  At this point the remaining couple detectives leave the church.

Shortly thereafter a well-dressed gentleman sits next to Sammy/Isaac and pulls down his sleeve to obviously check his purple swatch.  He looks at Isaac and gives what's obviously a code word masquerading as religious piety.  Isaac seems confused.  The man repeats it pointedly.  Isaac/Sammy begins to indicate he's been assaulted and escaped from his base but doesn't remember much other than he's supposed to come to this place, but even at that isn't sure why.  The gentleman suddenly pulls a gun from his coat.  Sammy dives.  The Troll bounds over, challenging him to stop, revealing his horrifying facade.  Meanwhile his eye pops out of Sammy and wanders up to the shocked man's mouth as he begins to freak out.  Rodin and the Mermaid change to their normal appearances, with Rodin beginning to turn the agent into a statue.  The Captain, seeing all is well at hand, stands by.  Shocked parishioners begin to flee or hide.  As the man is not yet stone, the Troll's hand rips off and jumps into his mouth, to prevent him from using a suicide tablet seen embedded in a tooth.  The hand breaks the presumed criminal's jaw as it yanks out the tooth with the suicide capsule.  Just as that happens and as the man barely begins to howl in pain Rodin turns him completely into stone.  

The priest comes out and is calmed, realizing these are the heroes who saved the church from a massacre earlier in the day.  He in turns begin to calm the parishioners as Hamlet pretends to call the police and The Captain, suddenly appearing as himself, flies off with the villain.  They actually take their prisoner to their headquarters.  

An interrogation finds the man too weak-willed to face the Troll, who is already gaining a reputation from that day's word of mouth among the gang as a gruesome cannibal or ghoul and whose disembodied parts seem to convey his unnatural hunger.  Hamlet plays this to his advantage and gains the man's trust, promising him to help him f he tells them what he knows.  The Purple Hat gangster indicates he'll only tell them his secrets in the swamps of Belle Isle, where friendly eyes will be watching and he can be assured they won't just kill him or let the Troll eat him after he gives in.  He wants to stay in the swamps because he does have some fugitive friends there he can contact for help - it's unclear if his friends are mutants though it seems so.  The team is not so sure at first, and it takes considerable debate among the members before they agree to consider this plan, though wanting to get him to reveal his secrets before going to the swamp.  Hamlet also quarrels bitterly with Aela, who insists on being present at the interrogation sessions.  He is concerned additional presences will disrupt his efforts, raising the concern and lack of trust on the prisoner's part.  Aela doesn't see why that should be an insurmountable challenges and insists on her rights as an equal.  As the argument appears irresolvable, Hamlet turns to Eliot and tells him that Aela is Eliot's responsibility and he'd better watch her.  Eliot shrugs the comments off by indicating that if it comes to it, Hamlet may have more to fear from Aela than vice-versa.  Finally Hamlet goes back into the interrogation room, closing the door abruptly behind him.  Four ears press to the door, Eliot's by itself as he goes down to his lab to get some work done. 

After negotiating, the man, Lemmy Bernstein, decides to trust Hamlet and the group and agrees he'll reveal his secrets before going to the swamp, but only if the Troll is not present and The Captain will give his word that they'll honor the agreement and release him on Belle Isle as requested.  The Hamlet opens the door and the three supers there almost fall in.  The Captain gives his word.  Eliot (as Eliot, not the Troll), joins the crowd shortly.

Lemmy, in a drugged haze from the painkillers and slurring his speech due to the make-shift jaw repair Eliot crafted, tells them how the Bernstein underground headquarters can be reached, via the bathroom at the back of the cathedral.  Apparently the church has been involved via a treacherous member of the Tucci family who has befriended the priest and is helping the Purple Gang, though without realizing the whole details of what he's enabling.  By the same token the priest doesn't know that he's a party to anything so deadly.  In any case, Lemmy also reveals that only those assigned to the Purple Hat Gang central headquarters is allowed in - those who show up without authorization are killed without question.  Anyone assigned to headquarters may bring two guests and only two guests at a single time.  Even to bring in multiple new agents it can require several trips, regardless of the level of authorization of the person bringing them in.  There is no central computer system.  He knows there are traps on the way in but doesn't know anything about them.  He also indicates that he was the personal contact for four of the cells (including the one they smashed) and where the three remaining ones are.  Lemmy, asked about the successors Sol referred to, also indicates that Levi's young son, Jakob, is a violent nutcase who probably would attempt to run the organization if Lemmy went down, though there's no clear line of succession.  He also mentions that the gang knew of the cell's collapse but little more from the arrests and thus he showed up at the church at the first good opportunity.  Finally he indicates the counter-password but indicates it's of little value in entering the HQ because of the personal recognition system used.  During this time Lemmy lapses into small details of his life, and even says he's glad he didn't kill himself, that life has much to offer.  He seems to have pride that he has a personal life beyond the Purple Hat Gang.

Eliot does some quick work to better fix Lemmy's jaw, Hamlet puts a bug on him and re-statueizes him, and they take him to Belle Isle.  They leave him as a statue until they're a ways off before Hamlet drops his strange temporary mutation.  Tracking his movements, they notice he seems to stay in the swamps.

They devise a plan whereby Sammy, posing as Lemmy, reenters with Marty Davis along posing as Isaac.  The Troll comes along posing as the only other member of the cell who got away.  They drag along a couple kegs, explaining the time they spent as in part getting some beer for everyone to enjoy.  The beer that's actually in one of the kegs is a brew manipulated quickly by Sihn using an extract from Bud Girl's brew, and is very powerful, packing a wallop eight times that of normal beer but without appearing to in the first few gulps.  Hamlet quickly dubs it "Spunky Dr. Sihn's Malt Liquor".  They hope to get some of the agents drunk and sloppy as they investigate and potentially confront them.  The other keg has something more special; it holds Aela in her water form and Rodin, who now confesses he has a new ability to turn to ice and be melted into water himself.  While his water abilities are much more limited than Aela's, he can remain cohesive and thus be transported.  So they proceed down into the sewers from below the church and into the salt mines quickly from there.

Sammy/Lemmy enters the strange underground base with Marty/Isaac and the Troll/cell member in tow.  Entering the base they are struck by the strange artificial park covering a large area.  They walk along a road that curves through it, marveling at the tacky artificial turf and plastic trees.  Beyond the park a massive, mostly wide open, headquarters presents itself, with several large rooms at each wall.  Off to one corner is a particularly huge "room", actually a small house.  In the middle of the base they see a huge strange electromechanical device, fenced off and with several warnings.

Before they get any further Levi hastily approaches and wants to know what's happened and what took so long.  He seems to have no suspicion of Sammy.  He recognizes Isaac as having met him at Yitzak's bar mitzvah.  The other cell member he's pleased to see survived.  However, he is upset to see the large kegs and indicates there's no real victories to celebrate yet and he doesn't want to see his men drinking just now.   He orders a nearby aide, Lefty, to bring the kegs to his office. 

As he intends to debrief with the two visitors and Lemmy, the three indicate they need to go to the bathroom.  Levi indicates he could stand to freshen up and they all end up going to the strictly utilitarian combination shower and rest room area.  At a moment where it's only the four of them and one other agent, the heroes quickly strike, knocking out a shaving Levi and the bystanding agent.   The agent gets a brief holler out.  They begin to disguise Levi as Lemmy and Sammy turns into Levi.  As they consider what to do with the agent, beginning to unroll drying cloth to ravel in him, someone comes to the door they've just shut and knocks and complains he wants to get in and doesn't want any jokes.  Sammy/Levi comes to the door and indicates there's a sensitive situation with a drunk, sick Lemmy and tells the agent to stand by.  They hastily make the two victims look the part, one of them covered in vomit, and they make a bee-line to Levi's office - fortunately labeled in a lucky break.

Meanwhile, the Mermaid has left her keg, and frees Rodin and tips his keg so he can run out of it and become human again.  They immediately inspect Levi's desk and immediate area.  There's no computer but they do find some papers indicating the HQ is currently staffed with 30 fighting men and a few support people as well as Levi's family.  They also find a large shopping list that is for "The Mutants".  It's unclear exactly who "The Mutants" are.  

They hear the door open and hide - but fortunately it's Sammy, The Captain, and Eliot.  They quickly duct tape and imprison Levi and the agent in Levi's large closet.

A gangster comes to the door and Sammy/Levi indicates all is well and he'd like the gangster to see Eliot (still as the escaped cell member) as he'd like this person to examine them.  The gangster is confused and hesitantly questions if he heard Levi correctly.  Levi orders him to take his new associate "now".  Politely, a bit scared of Levi's temper, the agent mentions that Levi's daughter wants to see him.  Levi/Sammy responds that he'll see her in a bit and thanks him for the info.  

Unbeknownst to our heroes, Sammy just failed an important test after having cast suspicion on himself.  First, no one is ever permitted to see the mutants or interact with them save Levi and one or two trusted associates.  This request for someone unknown to the headquarters and previously unseen with Levi seemed extremely suspicious.  So, the agent used a simple test used to determine if Levi was ever impersonated or otherwise under control.  He asked about a fictitious daughter.  

So the agent, knowing he couldn't trust what was happening, made an excuse to go get the proper keys from his office.  In the meantime he made a couple hand signals quietly indicating an emergency attack in the direction of Levi's office and, when in the office, hit a button that sounded a high level emergency within the base.  Based on those two factors some 10-20 agents converged on Levi's office.  This was not so unusual as the events of that day had placed the base already on extreme high alert and there was grave suspicion about either infiltration or a direct attack.  

In the office where the agent sounded the alarm, Eliot was faced with the guard pulling a gun on him, as another person in the office, startled, gathered his wits and made ready to back up his partner.  Eliot began his metamorphosis into the Troll, a time-consuming process taking 12 precious seconds.  

Meanwhile the other heroes were boxed in by the many agents.  Sammy heard a suspicious clatter outside with his sensitive hearing and the Mermaid used her powers to ascertain the rough number outside the door.  The agents demanded they come out with their hands up.  Giving only a second for them to do so, they immediately began to fire into and through the door.  The door, shattered by over a dozen bursts of fire, quickly gave way.  A few random shots hit the Mermaid, doing no damage, though.  Hamlet turned into the more-than-rock solid Rodin form, this time as a large battering object.  The Captain tossed him out into the agents, taking out a couple.  Sammy spit acid out, stinging some of them.  The Mermaid blasted them as well.  A strange woman appeared quickly, possessing lightning reflexes and wearing a strange gleaming metal suit, looking almost tinfoil-like.  Following a bit behind her a strange armored mutant appeared, bleeding through a face mask.  As Sammy leapt out to hit her he was surprised to find he just barely managed to get her.  She side-stepped him afterwards, stepping right into the middle of the gunfure.  The Mermaid fired a blast at her, which she reflected right back at the mistress of the sea.  As Sammy tried to slam her again, she deftly stepped out of his way.  

Eliot bided time in the nearby office, fending off the agents by grabbing the rifle off of the one who had escorted him and firing.  He found his non-Troll reflexes maddeningly impairing as he realized the nearby gunfire meant his comrades, including his wife Aela, were in trouble.

Just as the Captain pressed towards the reflecting woman with his mighty Rodin hammer, she hastily got in a few words that she wanted to escape and needed his help.  Just as he was doing this, she was standing in the open and he saw the agents firing at HER.  So he quickly changed his direction and rammed into a couple other agents and mentioned to his compatriots to only hit agents.  However, just as this happened they saw the agents' shots reflect off of her and towards Sammy.  Several of the shots hit him, winding him badly and knocking him down, dazing him. 

Still unsure of what to do, the heroes continued to attack the agents, but the strange bleeding mutant reflected a disgusting noxious blood-laden rush of "stuff" off of the reflecting mutant and onto the Mermaid.  That and a few gunshots also reflected later off of the woman, who revealed herself to be Sheila Shield, knocked the Mermaid out cold.  Meanwhile the Captain continued to concentrate on knocking out more of the guards.  Then Sheila Shield grabbed the bleeding armored mutant and started to appear to run away!

Eliot completed his transformation into the Troll just after a strange barely human-looking monster entered the office to attack him.   He made short work of the guards.

About then the Captain was hit as he kept up with Sheila, asking for her help.  The bleeding mutant suddenly fired at The Captain and could not be restrained by her.  With Sammy and the Mermaid down a second stretched into eternity as the agents warned The Captain to surrender or they'd kill his friends.  Sheila warned The Captain that she couldn't outright help him and simply whispered for him to duck as she presented herself to reflect more of the guards' bursts of fire - this time directly onto him!  The resulting damage knocked The Captain out cold as well.  But just then Sammy leapt into action, apparently having feigned unconsciousness for a brief few moments in order to regain his strength; he stunned a couple guards, attempting to event he odds, as they fired at him.  Off in Levi's office, the fallen Mermaid was shot in the head by an agent - but to his surprise her body shrugged off the physical damage.  The other agent began to restrain her.  

Rodin turned to Hamlet, endangering himself to try to administer to and revive The Captain.  It worked as The Captain started to come to.  Quickly Hamlet turned back into stone to stay protected and Sammy leapt over and grabbed him, bludgeoning the bleeding armored mutant just as Sheila leapt out of the way.  However, her concern for her mutant friend was her undoing as she kept attempting to revive him, to no avail.

Meanwhile the Troll bounded through the window of the office and down the hall to find Aela.  Winding a guard on his way, he burst in to find the Mermaid being restrained and shot at in the head.  He was relieved to see she was not in any real danger due to her toughness and quickly grabbed her out of harm's way and knocked out her main assailant.  A few reinforcements rushed into the office, though, and the Troll smashed them roughly with a large oak table, putting them out of the action.  Then he tended to the Mermaid, hoping she would regain consciousness soon.  Knowing that at least she was physically all right, he then leapt into the main fray outside the office.

The monstrous mutant pursued Sammy but with no luck, his flailing arms hitting only the wind.  The villains' attack began to lose steam as the bleeding mutant was knocked completely out and Sheila was distracted.  Despite being briefly winded, the super-reactive Sheila quickly regained her composure and seemed unbeatable - except by being turned to stone, as Hamlet put the whammy on her.

The ineffectual monstrous mutant left was not easily beatable though, amounting to a huge pain in the supers' collective rear as he seemed to withstand continued battering.  Sammy switched to using an insidious acidic attack and gradually, along with other batterings, the monster began to falter.  Hamlet shot one of the guards, bringing him down.  The Troll, upon going back into the office to visit the Mermaid who was gradually coming around, spotted the remaining guard in that room tinkering with a menacing gadget in the same closet Levi was in.  Apparently the guard was startled and dismayed to see the Troll - and the Troll could see why as he saw an ominous 10 second countdown begin on the contraption.  

Unexpectedly the heroes in the hall heard the Troll uncharacteristically calling for help and something about a bomb or something.  Hamlet rushed in as Sammy and The Captain held the remaining villains at bay and finally brought down the monster.   Meanwhile the agents began a disturbing trend of killing their fellow fallen peers, apparently aiming their shots carefully at a small section in back of the helmets, killing many of them instantly.  

Hamlet hurriedly examined the gadget and determined it to be a device with its own intelligence that was probably going to communicate the detonation via some wires, probably to the large device in the middle of the complex.  He realized that destroying the device, though stopping it, would set off some trip-wires in the back of it and they looked like they might trigger something equally bad.  He pointed excitedly to where the wires could be cut to keep whatever was going to happen from happening.  The Troll's quick reflexes enabled him to cut it off with 5 seconds to spare.  It appeared to work.

The remaining standing agents were mopped up before they could kill all of their peers.  Fifteen agents in all were captured, twelve were dead - all at the hands of their own.  Apparently three had taken off during the struggle, as had the few civilians there.  

After lengthy consideration, the heroes decide to bring most of the fifteen in to the police, Hamlet contacting his ADA friend to ensure they'd be held and not released by some corrupt police.  They hold on to and imprison in their own headquarters Levi, Lefty, and two right-hand men, Yitzak and Sheckie, along with the three mutants.  Apparently Jakob has gotten away and Hamlet frets that with the remaining cells and Levi's known psychopathic son on the loose, the Purple Hat Gang is far from out of business... 

[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...

Thoroughly defeating an inferior opponent - for stopping Lemmy's assassination attempt and capturing him - +.75 RPs for all, +.05 XPs for all

Thoroughly defeating a marginally inferior opponent - for getting info out of Lemmy but moreover for handling it in a way that gets his trust - more will come of this later, you'll see... - +3.75 RPs for all, +.25 XPs for all

Thoroughly defeating a marginally inferior opponent - for the smooth infiltration of the base - +.75 RPs for all, +.05 XPs for all 

Winning against a marginally superior opponent - for defeating the gang in the HQ - not awarded "thoroughly defeating" level because some got away, including potential leadership - +13.125 RPs for all, +.875 XPs for all

Session play - +4.5 RPs for all, +1.5 XPs for all

Totals:

The Captain +22.875 RPs, +2.725 XPs
The Mermaid +22.875 RPs, +2.725 XPs
Sammy the Slime +22.875 RPs, +2.725 XPs
Troll +22.875 RPs, +2.725 XPs
Rodin +22.875 RPs, +2.725 XPs

Totals to Date:

The Captain 144.375 RPs, 13.85 XPs
Mermaid 108.75 RPs, 11.2625 XPs
Sammy the Slime 125.625 RPs, 10.9875 XPs
Troll 139.875 RPs, 14.225 XPs
Rodin 143.625 RPs, 13.6 XPs