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jkcarrierDC Villains
Episode 25:
"No Man Escapes the Manhunters!"
[Inspired by:
Justice League of America #140-141: "No Man Escapes the Manhunter!"/"No World Escapes the Manhunters!" by Steve Englehart
Detective Comics #443: "Gotterdammerung" by Archie Goodwin
Millennium #1-8 by Steve Englehart]
Roll Call:
Bucky
Captain Republican
Chemical Lad
Mr. Roboto
Enjoying a break from acts of villainy, the members of the Secret Society of Super-Villains were out enjoying the San Francisco weather, when they found themselves set upon by a quartet of imposing robots calling themselves "Manhunters". The Manhunters demanded to be taken to "the one who carries the DNA of Paul Kirk", and when the villains refused to cooperate, the battle began.
Despite their large size and powerful energy-weapons, the robots soon fell.
[Loot Drops: Manhunter's Mask x2 (Weakness Detection).]
The Society members took their remains back to the Sinister Citadel, hoping for an explanation from *their* Manhunter, the self-described clone of Paul Kirk. Visibly shaken at the sight of the robots, he gave them a brief history of the Manhunters: How they began as the original enforcers created by the Guardians of the Universe, long before they came up with the Green Lantern Corps. But the Manhunter robots proved both too free-willed and too harsh for the Guardians' standards, and they broke off on their own, enacting swift and brutal "justice" across the galaxy. On many worlds, including Earth, they recruited natives to join their cult. One of these recruits was Paul Kirk. He, too, found the Manhunters too cruel, and left them to fight for justice on his own. But the Manhunters never forget or forgive a betrayal, and since they couldn't get revenge on the late Paul Kirk, they had apparently set their sights on his last living clone.
The Kirk clone believed that the Manhunter robots had been wiped out years ago by the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps. Their return did not bode well for their anonymous master's plans for global conquest. He deduced that the only way they could know about his existence was if they had visited the laboratory where he was cloned. He suggested looking there for clues.
The team headed out to Australia, to the vast Gibson Desert, location of the former headquarters of "The Council", the group responsible for creating an army of Paul Kirk clones as part of their plans for conquest. The original Kirk had turned their weapons against them, destroying the facility (and sacrificing himself in the process). Examining the large blast crater, the villains realized that, deep underground, part of the old facility was still semi-intact. And to their surprise, another group was already sifting through the ruins:
Ninja master Asano Nitobe
Interpol agent Christine St. Clair
Weapons expert Kolu Mbeya
and the Privateer, another ex-Manhunter agent gone rogue.
Though their goals were largely the same, neither team stopped to ask questions before attacking. Though this new team was packing heavy firepower, and the expertise to use it, they ultimately were no match for the superhumanly-powerful villains.
[Loot Drops: Christine St. Clair's Pistol (Special Missile Weapon with Autofire), Privateer's Eyepatch (Heightened Defense, Heightened Senses).]
An interrogation revealed that these four were also on the trail of the Manhunter robots, and Privateer said that he believed they had returned to their former base in the Himalayan Mountains.
One marathon plane ride later, the Secret Society found the entrance to the old Manhunter post. The vast complex seemed largely abandoned, but in one corner, they found activity in what appeared to be a large factory. Within were multiple models of Manhunter robots:
The Highmaster, the 15-foot-tall commander and controller of the robot-making machinery.
Unfinished Manhunters, hastily-assembled soldiers with lesser capabilities than the standard model.
Also present were several of the more human-like models used to infiltrate and spy on various heroes:
Laurel Kent, 30th-century descendent of Superman
Pan, the Greek goat-god.
Rocket Red 07, Soviet armored super-soldier.
and Thor the Thunder Dog, canine companion of another of the Manhunters' human agents.
Also tucked away in a corner was a cage containing Doctor Sivana, the criminal scientist that the Society members had met back in their Suicide Squad days [see Episode #12]. Despite their previous antagonism, he seemed very glad to see them.
This battle was much more difficult than the previous ones, as the various "imposter" Manhunters were solidly built and carried impressive abilities. Laurel Kent was extremely durable, and scorched her opponents with Heat Vision [Light Control: Laser]. Pan clouded their minds with his magical flute [Mind Control]; once Captain Republican destroyed the flute with a lucky shot [critical hit], he switched to head-butting the villains with his wickedly sharp horns. Rocket Red blanketed the battlefield with energy-beams [Power Blast], while Thor took blindingly-fast bites out of Captain Republican and Bucky [Natural Weaponry + Super Speed].
The Unfinished Manhunters were not powerful, but started to become a problem as the Highmaster continued to crank out more and more of them as the battle progressed. Luckily, at one point Doctor Sivana managed to slip out of his cage and sabotage the robot-making machinery, so no more reinforcements were forthcoming.
Both Bucky and Mr. Roboto fell under the weight of the opposition, but Captain Republican and Chemical Lad rallied, and were able to take out the Highmaster (causing the remaining Unfinished Manhunters to collapse without his guidance). Then they managed to also defeat most of the Imposter bots as well, leaving only Rocket Red 07, who looked around at the wreckage of his comrades and opted to surrender to the inevitable.
[Loot Drops: Highmaster's Eyes (Disintegration Ray), Laurel Kent's Bikini (Armor), Unfinished Manhunter (Companion).]
Sivana admitted that this had been largely his doing. He found the Manhunter lair, full of robot spare parts, "and I did what any self-respecting mad scientist would do...I started putting them together!" But things quickly got out of hand, and the Manhunters took control and began pursuing their own agenda. The villains contacted their leader for instructions on what to do with Sivana, but the Manhunter clone advised them to let him go. "He's a force for chaos in the world, which will ultimately benefit our master's plans".
[The player characters earned 3 character points each, giving them a total of 175.]
Episode 25:
"No Man Escapes the Manhunters!"
[Inspired by:
Justice League of America #140-141: "No Man Escapes the Manhunter!"/"No World Escapes the Manhunters!" by Steve Englehart
Detective Comics #443: "Gotterdammerung" by Archie Goodwin
Millennium #1-8 by Steve Englehart]
Roll Call:
Bucky
Captain Republican
Chemical Lad
Mr. Roboto
Enjoying a break from acts of villainy, the members of the Secret Society of Super-Villains were out enjoying the San Francisco weather, when they found themselves set upon by a quartet of imposing robots calling themselves "Manhunters". The Manhunters demanded to be taken to "the one who carries the DNA of Paul Kirk", and when the villains refused to cooperate, the battle began.
Despite their large size and powerful energy-weapons, the robots soon fell.
[Loot Drops: Manhunter's Mask x2 (Weakness Detection).]
The Society members took their remains back to the Sinister Citadel, hoping for an explanation from *their* Manhunter, the self-described clone of Paul Kirk. Visibly shaken at the sight of the robots, he gave them a brief history of the Manhunters: How they began as the original enforcers created by the Guardians of the Universe, long before they came up with the Green Lantern Corps. But the Manhunter robots proved both too free-willed and too harsh for the Guardians' standards, and they broke off on their own, enacting swift and brutal "justice" across the galaxy. On many worlds, including Earth, they recruited natives to join their cult. One of these recruits was Paul Kirk. He, too, found the Manhunters too cruel, and left them to fight for justice on his own. But the Manhunters never forget or forgive a betrayal, and since they couldn't get revenge on the late Paul Kirk, they had apparently set their sights on his last living clone.
The Kirk clone believed that the Manhunter robots had been wiped out years ago by the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps. Their return did not bode well for their anonymous master's plans for global conquest. He deduced that the only way they could know about his existence was if they had visited the laboratory where he was cloned. He suggested looking there for clues.
The team headed out to Australia, to the vast Gibson Desert, location of the former headquarters of "The Council", the group responsible for creating an army of Paul Kirk clones as part of their plans for conquest. The original Kirk had turned their weapons against them, destroying the facility (and sacrificing himself in the process). Examining the large blast crater, the villains realized that, deep underground, part of the old facility was still semi-intact. And to their surprise, another group was already sifting through the ruins:
Ninja master Asano Nitobe
Interpol agent Christine St. Clair
Weapons expert Kolu Mbeya
and the Privateer, another ex-Manhunter agent gone rogue.
Though their goals were largely the same, neither team stopped to ask questions before attacking. Though this new team was packing heavy firepower, and the expertise to use it, they ultimately were no match for the superhumanly-powerful villains.
[Loot Drops: Christine St. Clair's Pistol (Special Missile Weapon with Autofire), Privateer's Eyepatch (Heightened Defense, Heightened Senses).]
An interrogation revealed that these four were also on the trail of the Manhunter robots, and Privateer said that he believed they had returned to their former base in the Himalayan Mountains.
One marathon plane ride later, the Secret Society found the entrance to the old Manhunter post. The vast complex seemed largely abandoned, but in one corner, they found activity in what appeared to be a large factory. Within were multiple models of Manhunter robots:
The Highmaster, the 15-foot-tall commander and controller of the robot-making machinery.
Unfinished Manhunters, hastily-assembled soldiers with lesser capabilities than the standard model.
Also present were several of the more human-like models used to infiltrate and spy on various heroes:
Laurel Kent, 30th-century descendent of Superman
Pan, the Greek goat-god.
Rocket Red 07, Soviet armored super-soldier.
and Thor the Thunder Dog, canine companion of another of the Manhunters' human agents.
Also tucked away in a corner was a cage containing Doctor Sivana, the criminal scientist that the Society members had met back in their Suicide Squad days [see Episode #12]. Despite their previous antagonism, he seemed very glad to see them.
This battle was much more difficult than the previous ones, as the various "imposter" Manhunters were solidly built and carried impressive abilities. Laurel Kent was extremely durable, and scorched her opponents with Heat Vision [Light Control: Laser]. Pan clouded their minds with his magical flute [Mind Control]; once Captain Republican destroyed the flute with a lucky shot [critical hit], he switched to head-butting the villains with his wickedly sharp horns. Rocket Red blanketed the battlefield with energy-beams [Power Blast], while Thor took blindingly-fast bites out of Captain Republican and Bucky [Natural Weaponry + Super Speed].
The Unfinished Manhunters were not powerful, but started to become a problem as the Highmaster continued to crank out more and more of them as the battle progressed. Luckily, at one point Doctor Sivana managed to slip out of his cage and sabotage the robot-making machinery, so no more reinforcements were forthcoming.
Both Bucky and Mr. Roboto fell under the weight of the opposition, but Captain Republican and Chemical Lad rallied, and were able to take out the Highmaster (causing the remaining Unfinished Manhunters to collapse without his guidance). Then they managed to also defeat most of the Imposter bots as well, leaving only Rocket Red 07, who looked around at the wreckage of his comrades and opted to surrender to the inevitable.
[Loot Drops: Highmaster's Eyes (Disintegration Ray), Laurel Kent's Bikini (Armor), Unfinished Manhunter (Companion).]
Sivana admitted that this had been largely his doing. He found the Manhunter lair, full of robot spare parts, "and I did what any self-respecting mad scientist would do...I started putting them together!" But things quickly got out of hand, and the Manhunters took control and began pursuing their own agenda. The villains contacted their leader for instructions on what to do with Sivana, but the Manhunter clone advised them to let him go. "He's a force for chaos in the world, which will ultimately benefit our master's plans".
[The player characters earned 3 character points each, giving them a total of 175.]
