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.

Specific Ideas:

• KARL: terminus connection?
• SAM: His real body is in the building next door. What about a "robot" connection?
• CAT: He's heard rumors (gather info) about something going down at the museum

Museum Ideas

• Super Tech, weapons, equipment, memorabilia exhibit?

ACTION

The Eastern Seaboard Bank is the largest in Freedom City. Rant and Rave have eight armed thugs with them, mainly to keep an eye on the bank patrons and to help carry the loot. Rant tries to make an example of anyone that defies him or tries to make a break for it, using his sonic shout to stun or knock that person unconscious. Heroes who act quickly when the thugs first enter the bank may be able to slip out of sight before Rant and Rave 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 bank 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 thugs begin forcing the bank tellers to put money into bags while Rant and Rave use their combined powers to dissolve the bank vault door, literally melting it into a puddle of liquid metal. Then the thugs also begin to loot the vault. A couple minutes later, the villains flee the bank with their ill-gotten gains, getting into two vans waiting outside and driving off.

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. Rave uses her powers to distort the heroes’ perceptions, making it more difficult for them to act, while her brother strikes with his sonic blasts. Rave’s Obscure power effectively gives the villains and their minions total concealment from the heroes, meaning that the heroes’ attacks have a 50% miss chance and the villains have a +2 bonus to hit them. Heroes with the True Sight feat are unaffected. The thugs open fire on any heroes as well. Although Rant and Rave aren’t expert strategists by any means, they work well together. Rant may use his sonic 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). Rave may distort things so that some of the heroes look like her and her brother, causing the heroes to hit each other.

THE ESCAPE

If things start to go badly for the villains, they’re likely to either try taking the bank patrons and employees hostage or creating a distraction for the heroes so they can escape. If Rant or Rave (or both) are incapacitated, the thugs may try taking hostages or they may simply flee, splitting up in hopes of some of them getgetting away. If Rant and Rave 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 bank, the heroes may choose to wait until they leave, then pursue them. Overtaking the villains’ two escape vans isn’t difficult for a hero with 4 or more ranks of a movement power and the super-movement power stunt. The vans are hardness 10, but their tires are only hardness 3 and taking one or more of them out stops a van. The thugs shoot at any pursuing heroes and Rave 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 van is stopped, the villains try to flee on foot, although Rant and Rave will stand and fight if the heroes confront them. Finally, the heroes may try to follow the villains to their lair, an old warehouse building in the Greenbank neighborhood of the city. 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 vans in sight or the use of appropriate powers (or perhaps a means of tracking the villains at a later time, like a tracer planted on one of their vans). The heroes can then confront the villains in the warehouse 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.