SPOILER: Issue

The Museum is an introductory adventure for the Mutants & Masterminds Superhero Roleplaying Game designed for 3-5 PL 10 heroes, set for our campaign BEYOND FREEDOM - some 50 years in the future (2054ad). The heroes must thwart the CHESSMEN, a mercenary/heist "family" of villains attempting to rob Freedom City's Museum with the aid of their pawns (mind controlled citizens for muscle). Hired by Galatea, a robot created as mate to Talos long ago. No one knows her unltimate plan is to steal the art from the museum that includes the bronze "statue" form of her one-time husband Talos (now inert for 25+ years). Galatea looks to reactivate Talos and ultimately find their son Argos (set adrift in the Terminus).

GETTING THE HEROES INVOLVED

Some of the heroes might be visiting the museum in their secret identities. They are there when the villains show up and have to figure some way to slip away from the action long enough to change into their superhero identities. Having two or more of the heroes duck into the same storage closet to change into their costumes can make for an amusing scene and an interesting introduction for heroes who haven’t met before.

Alternately, the heroes may be patrolling the city, on the lookout for trouble, or just going about their business in their heroic or secret identities. They either hear the museum alarm, pick up word of the robbery on the police band, or are alerted by the authorities and asked to help out, depending on the heroes’ activities and relationship with the law.

Benefactors

• Current: Agent Ray Gardner II, their human benefactor.
• Patriot, BF: Jack Simmons, contacting them through Gardner of AEGIS.

• • KARL: terminus connection - Mentak Atom seeks to open a portal to find his way back to his children not knowing them dead... He writes the Terminus Equation and delivers it. A machine from the Atom Family lab, the Nucleus is on display at the Museaum. Rather than learning about it - he's drawn to it!! (a Terminus Engine)
  • SAM: His real body is in the building next door. Patriot's body was severely damaged by a powerful female robot (Galatea), and the original builder and blueprints were lost. Now Patriot's mind is housed in a computer system without any remote body to use. He is approached by Simmons to build a new body so that one day he can help lead a new line of heroes. His contact will be Current, Agent Ray Gardner II. They tell him to watch any events or contacts involving Daedelus technology for crime... (a false lead to Talos at the museum)
  • CAT: He's heard rumors (gather info) about something going down at the museum, specifically he knows of the C-Tier crook called Old Glory (and perhaps his sometime partner Remlock) is rumored to ready to hit the museum.

STEPS to Adventure & MAIN Players

• the PCs learn of the Museum Heist
• the CHESSMEN Cometh
  • the Chessmen PAWNs take the "field" controlling the museum
  • the Rooks take the inner areas, hauling the loot onto their boards
  • the Bishops roam the inner halls and outside walls
  • the Knights hold back as cavalry and last minute teleporters
  • the Queen protects her King as he surveys the field (meaning the loot) supporting the inner Pawns and Rooks.
• Chance meeting with Old Glory: OG is "casing" the Museum for a run at it on the weekend, not aware of the CHESSMEN plans. He will fight to steal items as things get chaotic.

BACKSTORY

Daedelus and Talos had some titanic final battle, and at the end, Talos was a deactivated and frozen statue. Now, after years of being inert, his body is being displayed in a museum tribute to the Freedom League. Soon after, Daedelus once again left the Earth to explore the universe, and thus began the dissolution of the Freedom League. Galatea has always had a way to restart Talos' system if it ever failed. She never felt the need to use it or even let anyone know about it (who could use her to restart the "evil" Talos). Now she is lost and malfunctioning, she has had to wait until Talos' body as been removed from the mega-security under which it has been kept. Her moment to act is now with the museum exhibit. After the bad break with Patriot, she goes off someplace and just stews, thinking about her life and what she should do with herself now. She broods more and more on her betrayal of Talos and feels bad that she sold out her creator and mate, and starts reflecting on every bad experience she's had with humans. Eventually she decides she wants another shot at making a life with her "family" and sets about ressurecting Talos and preparing to rescue Argo. She doesn't really want to destroy humanity and repopulate the world with machine life like Talos wants, she wants to be loved and understood again and thinks it will work out this time with Talos and Argo. She could become horrified at his actions again and help the PC's defeat them again.

These bots are manipulating her into taking actions she normally would not do. in this, galatea is the reluctant villain. she doesn't like what she's doing at all, but to gain the foundry's help in saving argo, she's got to bring talos back. and that means hurting a lot of people in the process.

EXHIBIT

Beyond Human Museum: notes and exhibit info.

ACTION

The Freedom City Museum is the largest in Freedom City. The CHESSMEN have eight armed thugs the CHESSMEN PAWNS with them, mainly to keep an eye on the museum patrons and to help carry the treasures. Bishop tries to make an example of anyone that defies her or tries to make a break for it, using her sonic shout to stun or knock that person unconscious. Heroes who act quickly when the Pawns first enter the museum may be able to slip out of sight before the CHESSMEN enter, otherwise they’ll have to come up with some sort of distraction to get away unnoticed. Clever uses of powers and the Bluff skill are encouraged here. If the players really seem stuck for an opportunity, let one of them spend a Hero Point to get a suitable distraction, such as a foolhardy museum guard trying to shoot the villains. They take him out easily, but it provides the heroes with the distraction that the heroes need. If unopposed, the Pawns begin loading various relics on their boards while the CHESSMEN fan out to locate objects of immediate use. A couple minutes later, the villains flee the museum with their ill-gotten gains, getting onto larger hover vehicles to speed away.

THE FIGHT

Of course, the heroes may want to intervene before that happens. When a hero takes action, roll initiative. A hero or heroes who manage to sneak up on the villains (successful Hide check vs. their Spot checks) may get the drop on them. Otherwise, everyone acts in order of initiative, with no surprise round. The Pawns open fire on any heroes at will. King and Queen are expert strategists, they work well together.

Queen Side Knight may use his energy blasts to try to bring the ceiling down on one or more of the heroes, making a surprise area attack (good for potentially nailing high-Defense but low-Damage save heroes).

THE ESCAPE

If things start to go badly for the villains, they’re likely to either try taking the museum patrons and employees hostage or creating a distraction for the heroes so they can escape. If more than 3 of the Chessmen are incapacitated, the Pawns may try taking hostages or they may simply flee, splitting up in hopes of some of them getting away. If the Knights are still conscious, they combine their powers and damage the structural supports of the building, making it start to collapse. Then they make a run for it. It requires a carrying capacity of at least 200 tons to hold up the damaged building, and 10 rounds to evacuate all the people (5 if the heroes have some way of moving people outside faster). Heroes can use Super-Strength, Telekinesis, or similar powers to hold off the building’s collapse while the civilians escape (possibly with the aid of the other heroes). Heroes working together combine their carrying capacities. Keep in mind that a player can use extra effort to double a hero’s carrying capacity for one round, and can spend a Hero Point to ignore the fatigue of using extra effort, possibly allowing a single weaker hero to hold up the building long enough.

PURSUIT

Rather than confronting the villains inside the museum, the heroes may choose to wait until they leave, then pursue them. The Pawns use two escape hover haulers - a hero with 4 or more ranks of a movement power and the super-movement power stunt. The haulers are hardness 10, but their hover vents are only hardness 3 and taking one or more of them out stops a hauler. The Pawns shoot at any pursuing heroes and those Chessmen with Telekinesis may use her powers to cause heroes to careen off into buildings or to crash into the street (where they may get run over, DC 15 Reflex save to avoid, DC 25 Damage save if that fails). If a hauler is stopped, the villains try to flee on foot, although most Chessmen will stand and fight if the heroes confront them. Finally, the heroes may try to follow the villains to their lair, an old estate home in Wharton Forest, with higher powered security. This requires three successful Spot checks (DC 13, though you may modify this up or down to reflect traffic at your option) to keep the haulers in sight or the use of appropriate powers (or perhaps a means of tracking the villains at a later time, like a tracer planted). The heroes can then confront the villains in the estate without any civilians around.

MODIFYING THE ADVENTURE

The Heist is designed as a simple adventure for a group of four 10th-level heroes. You can modify the adventure to suit a larger group of heroes or a different style of play, if desired. For larger hero groups, add another super-villain for each additional hero above four. You can simply take one of the archetypes from the Mutants & Masterminds core book, give the new villain a name and description, and assume that Rant and Rave have formed their own gang of super-criminals. The Battlesuit, Martial Artist, and Powerhouse archetypes are particularly appropriate, but any of them are suitable. Alternately, rather than adding more villains, you can make Rant and Rave’s thugs more effective. Supply them with high-tech blaster rifles (+8 stun damage) and body armor (+4 Armor) and use the Combined Fire rules from Chapter Eight of Mutants & Masterminds to their advantage. For a group of low-powered heroes (power level 8 or lower) either reduce Rant and Rave’s power levels accordingly (so they’re equal with the heroes), or eliminate one or both of them, leaving just the thugs for the heroes to deal with. For a somewhat different challenge, you can have the villains take the people in the bank hostage and have the heroes arrive on the scene afterward. They have to figure out how to get at the villains without risking the lives of the people in the bank, which calls for at least some amount of subtlety on the part of the heroes.

FURTHER ADVENTURES

While it’s possible (indeed likely) that The Heist is a simple case of a super-criminal bank robbery, you can also make it into the introduction of a longer and more involved adventure, if desired. Rant and Rave may be robbing banks to collect money for some other scheme, either of their own or for a master criminal working behind the scenes. Perhaps various other heists take place in other parts of the city, maybe even at the same time so that the heroes and the authorities cannot respond to all of them at once. The money from the robberies might be going into the coffers of a criminal organization or a master villain. It might be used to buy weapons or technology on the black market or further research into creating superhumans. Rant and Rave are likely to hold a grudge against the heroes responsible for busting up their plan and putting them away. They might come looking for payback at some point in the future.

GALATEA PHASE TWO

Galatea can move to phase two, manipulating the worlds stock markets, political processes, media outlets, etc. to transform humanity into what *she* wants them to be, all out of boredom, and a programatical imperative to control and manage and streamline everything that falls under her purview...

• Phase Two could present the heroes with an interesting dilemma, too. Galatea is manipulating humanity in order to optimize their efficiency, and to provide herself with an endlessly variable source of entertainment. Now, imagine that her research determines that the most optimal solution to achieve her goals involves keeping humanity productive, happy, and steadily improving, socially, scientifically, and so forth. In short, she's going to be steadily moving humanity towards a type of utopia, where the standard of living, rate of improving knowledge, level of exploration, level of happiness, and most other factors of life are far better than they have ever been in human history. War is almost forgoteen, as it is inefficient, and therefore Galatea steers political bodies around it. Starvation is a thing of the past. Everyone has access to a high-quality education and a good life. Humanity doesn't even feel oppressed or manipulated, as no one knows what she is doing.
• The dilemma: do the heroes stop her, possibly bringing about a new Dark Ages as her fine-woven threads shred, but freeing humanity from the entity that has been directing them for ages, or let her continue her work?
• picture Doctor Daktylos (Rorschach-like hero) coming across this plot and pursuing it doggedly to it's horrid, ugly end. "Hurm... current global peace efforts...plot to end famine...all related to one conspirator... humanity being comandeered by one sentient.. robot? crazed god? illuminati? Must find and expose this conspiracy." --Doc Dak

ROBOTS

File:Galatea.jpg

• Galatea:  ??
• Talos:  ??
• Argos:  ??

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BEYOND FREEDOM