Ugly Ghost Squad #4 recap
Mar. 6th, 2016 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jkcarrierUgly Ghost Squad #4
"Organized Crimes"
Played 3/5/2016
Roll Call:
Black Panther
Captain America
Hulk
Martian Manhunter
Experience Level: 2
Enemies Fought:
The Organizer and his Midnight Men:
Apollo
Black Empress
Detonator
Fleur De Lys
Kill-Bird
Noose
Siren
Stallion
Stormstress
Stuka
Terra-Rizer
Wereworg
Circus Perfomers:
Dog-Faced Boy
Fat Lady
Flying Reynaldo Brothers
Fortune Teller
Kooky Clowns
Strong Man
Sword Swallower
Tall Man
Various thugs
Other NPCs:
None of note
Adventure Modules Used:
Villains & Vigilantes: "Organized Crimes" and "Super-Crooks & Criminals", both by Ken Cliffe.
Synopsis:
On their way back from another mission, the Ugly Ghost Squad stumbled across a car chase in the streets of New York that turned into a shoot-out between police and a group of thugs. The heroes quickly put down three of the criminals, but the fourth turned out to be a shape-shifting beast called Wereworg, who took a bit more effort to defeat.
A matchbook in the pocket of one of the crooks led them to the supposedly-abandoned Vanguard Shipping warehouse, which turned out to be a storage space for stolen goods that were being shipped out to parts unknown. The operation was being supervised by a pair of supervillains: The acrobatic Stallion and the bat-winged Stuka. After bringing those two (and a dozen or so henchmen) down, the heroes discovered a notebook that laid out the details of several previous robberies, as well as plans for 3 more set to take place over the next few days.
The first target was a jewelry store, and the Squad staked out the premeses. At midnight, a group of thugs led by the high-tech warrior Fleur De Lys attempted to break in, but the heroes thwarted their plans and captured them.
The second robbery was to be a daring daylight assault on the Bank of New York. But this time, a larger squad of the so-called "Midnight Men" appeared, led by the archer named Apollo. With him were the darkness-powered Black Empress, the weather-controlling Stormstress, and the hypnotic-voiced Siren. The Siren briefly managed to take control of the Hulk, but soon regretted it as the other heroes turned their attention to her in order to free him. As the tide of the battle turned, the Black Empress attempted to teleport away with Apollo, but Captain America and the Black Panther followed through her tele-portal and finished the fight. The extremely vain Apollo was mortified when the heroes discovered his secret: that beneath his handsome skin, he was in fact a robot.
The other Midnight Men remained tight-lipped, but Stormstress, jealous of Black Empress' close relationship to Apollo, spilled the beans on their employer, the crimelord known as the Organizer. She tipped the heroes off to the location of his cargo ship, the Sea Dragon, which made regular trips to carry stolen goods to his secret hide-out.
The Ghost Squad snuck aboard the ship, heading for the engine room with the intent of disabling it. There they fought more of the Organizer's thugs, as well as the three remaining Midnight Men: Kill-Bird (and his flock of killer crows), the lasso-wielding Noose, and the armored Detonator. With his comrades defeated, Detonator activated his self-destruct mechanism, hoping to take the heroes out with him. But they survived, and the main thing he accomplished was crippling the ship. The heroes rounded up the rest of the crew, with the exception of the Organizer himself, who slipped out in the confusion. But not before taunting the heroes over the ship's radio and promising that they'd meet again.
While all this was going on, Black Empress used her teleportation powers to free herself Apollo from police custody. But Apollo was angry that the Organizer had left him to rot in prison, and decided to turn against him. He appeared before the heroes and informed them that the Organizer had likely gone into hiding in a small circus that he owned that was set up in Central Park. Once he'd passed on the information, the Black Empress teleported him away, and this time the heroes did not try to stop him.
When the Squad went to investigate the circus, they found themselves attacked by the sideshow performers -- in reality, more of the Organizer's gang: The Strong Man, the Fat Lady, the Dog-Faced Boy, the Fortune Teller, the Tall Man, the Sword Swallower, the Flying Reynaldo Brothers, and the Kooky Clowns. They proved to be mere speed-bumps on the way to the ultimate confrontation: the massive stone creature called Terra-Rizer. Wielding a large chunk of the circus' ferris wheel as a club, the beast delivered pounding blows to the heroes, while they slowly whittled it down. The Martian Manhunter was knocked out of the fight, but his teammates rallied and finally smashed Terra-Rizer to bits. And as the monster crumbled to dust, they saw that controlling it from the inside was the Organizer himself. With no henchmen and no resources left, he immediately surrendered. His plot to unite the gangs of New York under his rule had been thwarted by the Ugly Ghost Squad.
Memorable Quotes:
"I insert arrows into various orifices." - Captain America, adding insult to injury after defeating Apollo.
"How many orifices can he have? He's a robot." Martian Manhunter
"(Unintelligible yelling)" - Black Panther
Sources and References:
No Marvel or DC references this time, as I stuck strictly to the characters as they appeared in the adventure module (plus added a few from another supplement written by the same author). It was less work, since I didn't have to come up with the villains' statistics, and probably didn't make any difference from the players' point of view. But it was also less fun for me, so count on seeing the comic book trivia return in future sessions.
The module, as originally written, had some strange pacing issues. The main villain team, the Midnight Men, appear early on, and then mostly vanish for the rest of the adventure, replaced by hordes of generic thugs and then the evil circus performers at the end. Which seemed like an anti-climax to me, so I spread the Midnight Men out over several encounters, keeping them present throughout the story, leading up to a "boss battle" with Terra-Rizer.
I kept some of the thug army, thinking that the players might enjoy being able to easily tear through a bunch of cannon fodder. But in practice, I think it ended up just being tedious. Having fewer but more powerful villains seems to make for the most interesting and challenging fights (and is easier for me to run, to boot). But I'll continue to try different combinations to see what works.
Feel better soon, Thanatos!
"Organized Crimes"
Played 3/5/2016
Roll Call:
Black Panther
Captain America
Hulk
Martian Manhunter
Experience Level: 2
Enemies Fought:
The Organizer and his Midnight Men:
Apollo
Black Empress
Detonator
Fleur De Lys
Kill-Bird
Noose
Siren
Stallion
Stormstress
Stuka
Terra-Rizer
Wereworg
Circus Perfomers:
Dog-Faced Boy
Fat Lady
Flying Reynaldo Brothers
Fortune Teller
Kooky Clowns
Strong Man
Sword Swallower
Tall Man
Various thugs
Other NPCs:
None of note
Adventure Modules Used:
Villains & Vigilantes: "Organized Crimes" and "Super-Crooks & Criminals", both by Ken Cliffe.
Synopsis:
On their way back from another mission, the Ugly Ghost Squad stumbled across a car chase in the streets of New York that turned into a shoot-out between police and a group of thugs. The heroes quickly put down three of the criminals, but the fourth turned out to be a shape-shifting beast called Wereworg, who took a bit more effort to defeat.
A matchbook in the pocket of one of the crooks led them to the supposedly-abandoned Vanguard Shipping warehouse, which turned out to be a storage space for stolen goods that were being shipped out to parts unknown. The operation was being supervised by a pair of supervillains: The acrobatic Stallion and the bat-winged Stuka. After bringing those two (and a dozen or so henchmen) down, the heroes discovered a notebook that laid out the details of several previous robberies, as well as plans for 3 more set to take place over the next few days.
The first target was a jewelry store, and the Squad staked out the premeses. At midnight, a group of thugs led by the high-tech warrior Fleur De Lys attempted to break in, but the heroes thwarted their plans and captured them.
The second robbery was to be a daring daylight assault on the Bank of New York. But this time, a larger squad of the so-called "Midnight Men" appeared, led by the archer named Apollo. With him were the darkness-powered Black Empress, the weather-controlling Stormstress, and the hypnotic-voiced Siren. The Siren briefly managed to take control of the Hulk, but soon regretted it as the other heroes turned their attention to her in order to free him. As the tide of the battle turned, the Black Empress attempted to teleport away with Apollo, but Captain America and the Black Panther followed through her tele-portal and finished the fight. The extremely vain Apollo was mortified when the heroes discovered his secret: that beneath his handsome skin, he was in fact a robot.
The other Midnight Men remained tight-lipped, but Stormstress, jealous of Black Empress' close relationship to Apollo, spilled the beans on their employer, the crimelord known as the Organizer. She tipped the heroes off to the location of his cargo ship, the Sea Dragon, which made regular trips to carry stolen goods to his secret hide-out.
The Ghost Squad snuck aboard the ship, heading for the engine room with the intent of disabling it. There they fought more of the Organizer's thugs, as well as the three remaining Midnight Men: Kill-Bird (and his flock of killer crows), the lasso-wielding Noose, and the armored Detonator. With his comrades defeated, Detonator activated his self-destruct mechanism, hoping to take the heroes out with him. But they survived, and the main thing he accomplished was crippling the ship. The heroes rounded up the rest of the crew, with the exception of the Organizer himself, who slipped out in the confusion. But not before taunting the heroes over the ship's radio and promising that they'd meet again.
While all this was going on, Black Empress used her teleportation powers to free herself Apollo from police custody. But Apollo was angry that the Organizer had left him to rot in prison, and decided to turn against him. He appeared before the heroes and informed them that the Organizer had likely gone into hiding in a small circus that he owned that was set up in Central Park. Once he'd passed on the information, the Black Empress teleported him away, and this time the heroes did not try to stop him.
When the Squad went to investigate the circus, they found themselves attacked by the sideshow performers -- in reality, more of the Organizer's gang: The Strong Man, the Fat Lady, the Dog-Faced Boy, the Fortune Teller, the Tall Man, the Sword Swallower, the Flying Reynaldo Brothers, and the Kooky Clowns. They proved to be mere speed-bumps on the way to the ultimate confrontation: the massive stone creature called Terra-Rizer. Wielding a large chunk of the circus' ferris wheel as a club, the beast delivered pounding blows to the heroes, while they slowly whittled it down. The Martian Manhunter was knocked out of the fight, but his teammates rallied and finally smashed Terra-Rizer to bits. And as the monster crumbled to dust, they saw that controlling it from the inside was the Organizer himself. With no henchmen and no resources left, he immediately surrendered. His plot to unite the gangs of New York under his rule had been thwarted by the Ugly Ghost Squad.
Memorable Quotes:
"I insert arrows into various orifices." - Captain America, adding insult to injury after defeating Apollo.
"How many orifices can he have? He's a robot." Martian Manhunter
"(Unintelligible yelling)" - Black Panther
Sources and References:
No Marvel or DC references this time, as I stuck strictly to the characters as they appeared in the adventure module (plus added a few from another supplement written by the same author). It was less work, since I didn't have to come up with the villains' statistics, and probably didn't make any difference from the players' point of view. But it was also less fun for me, so count on seeing the comic book trivia return in future sessions.
The module, as originally written, had some strange pacing issues. The main villain team, the Midnight Men, appear early on, and then mostly vanish for the rest of the adventure, replaced by hordes of generic thugs and then the evil circus performers at the end. Which seemed like an anti-climax to me, so I spread the Midnight Men out over several encounters, keeping them present throughout the story, leading up to a "boss battle" with Terra-Rizer.
I kept some of the thug army, thinking that the players might enjoy being able to easily tear through a bunch of cannon fodder. But in practice, I think it ended up just being tedious. Having fewer but more powerful villains seems to make for the most interesting and challenging fights (and is easier for me to run, to boot). But I'll continue to try different combinations to see what works.
Feel better soon, Thanatos!
