Hudson City Campaign Session 1 Recap

[Mark Jones]

Players: John (Blake Anderson), Kenn (Roderick Thrope), Patrick (Connor & Cale Crowe)

The PCs were having lunch (separately) at the Golden Dumpling chinese restaurant. A police helicopter crashed in the street outside. The PCs tried to help, discovered that the pilot was convulsing--and melting! ("Like ice cream on a hot day" was the exact phrase, which caused some confusion as the players seemed to think he was on fire, but no--just melting.)

Blake found a fire extinguisher and hosed him down, to no avail. Meanwhile, the chopper's other occupant, the observer, was pulled out of the wreckage shaken but unhurt. He soon leaped up, stripped off his clothes, looking sweaty and flushed, became agitated and attacked Connor when he tried to calm him. The observer then burst into flames and fell down screaming. Blake used the extinguisher on him, but it didn't help. He died. The fiance of a friend of Blake's (they were also at the restaurant) spontaneously started bleeding from her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, nailbeds..and eventually bled out and died.

Another bystander died of Bone-itis (see Futurama for details). Blake, a career criminal, decided to leave before the cops showed up. Thorpe and Crowe helped bystanders as best they could, including rescuing occupants of an overturned bus. When Connor touched his brother Cael, they became stuck together--and slowed merged into a single being in a long, painful process.

Blake's walk across the bridge to his own neighborhood revealed an almost invisibly fine mist falling over the city, and countless people dead or dying (mostly horribly disfigured) all around him. He considered taking refuge in a building, but saw the same thing happening to people in shleter too, so he returned to his apartment--to find a large, brutish man ransacking it. The man turned out to have a gnarled club of a right hand the size of a smoked ham. Blake beat him senseless in short order (and turned his card, discovering his powers in the process). He then left on foot to try to escape the city, which was in chaos and probably under (or would soon be under) quarantine. A couple of hours of walking and observing convinced him escape wasn't an option.

Cael called his sister, a medical student, who was at a nearby hospital (not a nurse or a doctor, just a student, but the hospital was overwhelmed so everyone was pitching in), and walked to there check on her. Thorpe commandeered an abandoned vehicle to transport injured to the same hospital, where they met again and worked together to help as best they could.

Chaos reigned in Hudson City for about three days. Rumors ran wild. Hospitals were overwhelmed. The phone system was overwhelmed. Martial Law was declared and the city was quarantined until it was ascertained that the emergency was over. Of the 5.6 million people in Hudson city, over 700,000 died, and around 70,000 survived with visible disfigurements ranging from minor to debilitating. A tiny handful appear to have acquired unprecedented abilities never before seen outside of comic books and the movies.

Blake went to Pappi's Gym, where he looked up Roderick Thorpe (aka Kid Dynamo the wrestler, who had also turned his card and become--when he wished--a metallic golden figure calling himself Talos). They sparred a bit--outside--and Blake discovered he was invisible to electronic devices. Cael showed up as well and demonstrated his own newfound ability. While he was there he received a frantic phone call from his sister, saying that something was happening at the hospital--before the call abruptly ended.

Blake, Talos and Cael arrived at the hospital in Talos's expensive sportscar--which was destroyed by some kind of energy blast as soon as they emerged from it. A figure on the hospital rooftop responsible for the blast told them to stay away. Talos accepted the challenge and hurled the remains of his vehicle at the figure, who was badly injured as a result.

Blake spotted several other figures inside the Emergency Department doors, as well as a crowd hostages (patients, visitors, staff) being held at gunpoint by hospital security guards! And a man in a suit sitting at the nurse's station observing everything.

The bad guys emerged from the hospital to face our heroes--and the fight was on! Talos made sure the rooftop guy was out of action, bounding up onto the roof and putting him in critical condition, before rejoining the fight in the parking lot. Blake took out a guy wielding sonic screams inside the ED. A security guard shot at him on the suited man's orders. Blake disarmed the guard and subdued the mentalist before returning to the brawl outside.

The battle eventually ended with our heroes victorious--though the rat-man escaped--and then they heard a gunshot from inside! The security guard had acquired a gun from another guard and murdered the mentalist with a headshot. Blake disarmed him. The cops arrived (and Blake departed, pursuing the bad guy who fled the scene, but lost him when he entered the sewers). Thorpe cooperated with the police. Cael lied about the extent of his involvement, which the police picked up on, but with no evidence he had committed any crimes, they let him go once they identified him and got his statement.

The Bad Guys:

Slasher - a tiger-man (he refuses to give any other name), currently in jail.

Ronjos Ronjoson (Ronald Johnson) - blue-skinned and very strong, currently in jail.

Howler (Angus MacLeod) - A Scottish national, currently in jail.

Rat-Man (name unknown) - A rat-man. Whereabouts unknown, active warrant.

Dr. Donald Blake - alleged mentalist. Deceased.

Three security guards - arrested for kidnapping, one for murder of Dr. Blake. In jail.

All of the bad guys are claiming they were mind-controlled to commit their crimes, but the police are skeptical. (Not as skeptical as they'd have been a week ago, but still...)

Plot Threads: Someone used military drones to spread a bio-weapon virus over Hudson City. Nobody yet knows who, or why. Blake is investigating, as are the authorities.

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[Mark Jones]

I forgot: one other bad guy:

Radiation Ravager (Barry Body) - In the hospital, under arrest.

[Kenn Durrence]

Thrope? What's a Thrope? LOL It's Toombs. Roderick Toombs or just TALOS, the Man of Bronze. :) 

[Kenn Durrence]

Hey guys,

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but my other group (online game on Roll20/Discord) is looking for another player or two for our games on Sundays at 4PM to 8PM Pacific time. Might you know anyone who could be a potential candidate? We are currently playing Champions, but also play other games, including a concurrent 5e D&D game.

If you know anyone, please let me know and see if they mind if you introduce us.

Thanks!
Kenn.

[Kenn Durrence]

I forgot to say that I found a whole bag of cardboard cut outs of all of the vehicles and stuff that you could have used last time Mark. I made sure put them all together for you. 

[Mark Jones]

If you make a habit of throwing cars around, they'll come in very handy.

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‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

[Kenn Durrence]

I'll photocopy more then...

[Gotham]

reading through this again I noticed - 

"Three security guards - arrested for kidnapping, one for murder of Dr. Blake. In jail."

My character? 

I have some cars we can use on the mat if you want me to bring them. Will you need anything else to be brought to the game this Saturday? 

[Chris B]

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019, 3:02 PM Gotham <portlan...@gmail.com> wrote:

reading through this again I noticed - 

"Three security guards - arrested for kidnapping, one for murder of Dr. Blake. In jail."

My character? 

Will you need anything else to be brought to the game this Saturday? 

Sounds like the arrest warrants will be provide for you.  Do you have anything to wear in international orange?  :)

[Mr. Infernal]

As a professional wrestler by profession for the last several years, why yes, my character does in fact have a range of things in international orange. :) 

[Gotham]

I do but I'll be saving that for our Sunday game :)