Adventure Ideas


For Villains & Vigilantes - Version .91 --- 6/7/96

This is still a work in progress. Please feel free to address any comments or suggestions to me at pandemonium@usa.net. These adventures are created for use in Mayfair City, a fictional city that I will provide campaign info on later, but they can be easily adapted to almost any campaign.
Would-Be Conquerors

Pharoah: A 4,000 year old mummy awakens in the local museum. He proceeds to take his staff and rainments from a sealed box in the museums exhibits and applies a curiously smelling mixture to two other mummies recovered from the same tomb. The also come to life and dress themselves in the rainment of Egyptian slave drivers. The Pharoah then leaves with his servants and begin to create havok. The whips used by the Slave Drivers allows them to take control of those they strike with them. At first opportunity they will use this ability to take control of S.W.A.T. officers, or National Guardsmen where appropriate. This gives them a good deal of additional firepower in a fight, and characters should be reluctant to strike back at the innocent slaves. The Pharoah may steal gold from local jewelry stores, or demand tribute from local officials. Any who do not bow to his demands are dealt with swiftly and severely. During his time in the museum he has been absorbing knowledge about the modern world, so he is familiar with current history and daily life, however he is still a megalomaniac bent on world conquest. As the time goes by the Pharoah will build up a good powerbase, both magical and technological. One of the suggested "upgrades" will be the addition of a pet hawk, which the character can enchant to make larger than a human during battles.
Stats needed for adventure: Pharoah, Slave Drivers, S.W.A.T. Team, National Guardsmen

Octopods Attack!!!: A group of Octopods are on a mission in the surface world! They must return the lost treasure of Lusca, a great Octopod warrior who ruled Atlantis in ancient times. The treasure is ??????. The Octopods are basically a group of barbarian adventurers. They are out of their element, but are perfectly capable of moving about undetected when the need arises.
Stats needed for adventure: Octopod Warriors (Thudo, Falchet,Busca,Vandeth)

Command and Conquer: A great roman military leader is back from the dead, and he plans to take over the world. Since he has to start somewhere, he plans to control Mayfair City first. Iron Tyrant is a formaer mental patient who believes he is a roman general who acquired immortality over 2000 years ago. Whether this is true or not Iron Tyrant is still a force to be reckoned with. He has a small group of supervillains in his control, and with their help he intends to control the water supply and power supply for Mayfair City, and can take control of the Harbor and main highway if needed. Brainkiller and Armorjack will take over the water system, and destroy it if they cannot hold on to it. Meanwhile Iron Tyrant and Gigawatt will take over the powerplant, again destroying it if they can't keep it. Players will be alerted once Iron Tyrant has control. He contacts the city government with his demand that they turn control over the city to him within 1 hour or he will destroy both power and water supplies for the city. The city government is adamant about not negotiating with terrorists, so the characters will have 1 hour to set things right. The police don't want to send in S.W.A.T. teams because one or two powerful individuals stand a better chance of stopping them.
Stats needed for adventure: Iron Tyrant, Armorjack, Brainkiller, Gigawatt
Total Chaos

Fir Darrig (Fear Dearg): He is an evil faerie that was wandering the world and decided to amuse himself in Mayfair City for a while. He likes fairly gruesome practical jokes, but works on some semblence of honor. He will give heroes a chance to stop him for a month by performing some difficult task. He is largely invulnerable, but his banes are Alder Trees, and Iron. He appears generally as a dark, monkey-like creature, with small batwings and glowing yellow eyes. To assist the characters who don't know, and don't want to learn about, Irish myth you can bring in a non-player character to help them. Sage is an Irish heroeine with bright red hair and an Alder staff. She can bring the characters up to speed on who and what Fir Darrig is, and what they may need to know to defeat him temporarily.
Stats needed for adventure: Fir Darrig, Sage

Slash and Burn: A demon is running loose downtown. When the old Centennial Building was torn down the demon, who was trapped in a cornerstone of the building by a sorcerer when the building was erected, was released. He is extrememly violent after his long interment. The only way to stop him for certain is to bind him in a cornerstone of the new Millenium Technologies Building being put up in the Centennial Building's place. If none of the characters are of sorcerous origins, then they can be assisted in this by the spirit of the sorcerer who originally imprisoned him, Lord Inverness.
Stats needed for adventure: Slash the Demon, Lord Inverness

Jurassic Park: Tyrannosaurs are appearing and disappearing in Memorial Park. They are actually mutant shapeshifters creating a diversion for the Purple Gang to rob banks and jewelry stores. The Tyrannosaurs will attract attention and look menacing, but will not hurt anyone unless provoked. When they recieve a signal from the Purple Gang they will desist, switch back to human under cover, and slip away in the confusion. If captured it really won't take much to make them talk.
Stats needed for adventure: Shapeshifters, Purple Gang

Army Ants Ho!: An ant-man appears attacking the city with a squad of wolf-sized ants. They were geneticly engineered by Millenium Technologies as prototypes for genengineered warriors to sell to the government as cheap soldiers.
Stats needed for adventure: King Ant, Animals:Giant Ants

Hostile Takeover: Armored corporate shock-troops battle it out on the top of the CyberWorks Building. Troops from Millenium Technologies are attempting to recover a prototype Energy Storage Module stolen earlier that night by a corporate saboteur. CyberWork troops are defending the building, and the stolen prototype. This is all, of course, illegal - but MegaCorporations don't usually bother to worry about the law. That's what lawyers are for.
Stats needed for adventure: CyberWork Troopers, Millenium Technologies Troopers

Reigning Cats and Dogs: The city is becoming a battleground. Two species of werecreatures are asserting dominance for control of the city. The two major players are a Were-Cat, named Devil Cat, and a Were-Wolf, named Blood Moon. Gangs of weres are roaming the city by night, leaving the citizens alone but getting into horrible conflicts whenever conflicting were groups cross paths. The characters may try to stop the violence, may be convinced to help one side or the other, or may try to mediate the conflict. Possibilities are extensive.
Stats needed for adventure: Devil Cat, Blood Moon, Were-cat, Were-wolf

Ninja Attack: A handful of ninjas are roaming the city, breaking into city offices at night, including the Department of Motor Vehicles. They are searching for an outcast from their clan named Jitsu. He is now a small-time supervillain who has just moved to Mayfair City. The ninjas want to capture or kill him for their lord. If players have a hard time tracking the ninjas, they can run across a skirmish between them and Jitsu. When the players intercede the other participants will flee. The player characters can then track Jitsu to his current hideout, a small apartment over a downtown hardware store. When questioning him the other ninjas will attack. It's up to the players and gamemaster what happens next.
Stats needed for adventure: Ninjas, Jitsu

Satyrical Laughter: Two satyrs are running loose in Gateway Park, dancing and playing their pipes. The music from their pipes is affecting everyone in earshot, making them dance and laugh with them. If the characters enter the park without taking some sort of precautions they will end up the same way. If the characters do manage to make it to the center of the park, all they need to do is stop the music to take away the satyr's pipes. If the characters take a more violent approach, they deserve what they get.
Stats needed for adventure: Satyrs
Villainous Happenings

Insect Kingdom Unite!: After the Army Ant attack, a supervillain named Stinger and his cohort Honeybee will take control of the remaining ants, taking them away from King Ant if need be. They will use the ants to attack a jewelry expo at the convention center.
Stats needed for adventure: King Ant, Animals: Giant Ants, Stinger, Honeybee

Grape Ape: An ape escapes an experiment in animal intelligence, creates an electronic voicebox to communicate better with humans, and takes control of a local group of armed villains known as the "Purple Gang". From there he sets out to create a base of power from which he can take control of Organised Crime in Mayfair City. Amoung his improvements to the Purple Gang wil be light armor and Hover Cycles.
Stats needed for adventure: Gorilla X, Purple Gang 2, Vehicle: Hover Cycle

Nether: An alien parasite has come to earth and is taking over a succession of hosts in its attempt to build a power base. When the parasite is in possession of a host it's body is encased in shadow, making it appear like a silhouette. This is a cool way to beef up a supervillain that the players were bored of beating up. Nether may go after the player characters because it wants one of them for a new host.
Stats needed for adventure: Nether

Don't Mess With Mother Nature: Four superpowered terrorists have been harassing the coastal area lately. First they dump a load of garbage on the city's Main Beach. Next they stop up the smokestacks of factories on the cities edge, then attack the factory in the middle of the night after the harmful emissions aren't cut. They will avoid hurting civillians where possible, but it is not their real concern. It is their disregard for people that makes them most dangerous. If players do not stop them things will escalate and the "Extreme Nature" organization will threaten to bomb the city into submission from their hidden submarine if their demands aren't met.
Stats needed for adventure: Zephyr, Ifrit, Ivy, Glacier, Vehicle: Sea Viper

Lost Children: Children are disappearing all over the city. It started a week ago, and there are over 20 missing so far. There is no pattern to the abductions except that there are never any witnesses. Children disappear from their houses, school yards, and walking on the street. After the characters begin to investigate the first witness will come forward. Two small boys were walking home together from school when a shadowy cloaked figure stepped out of the alleyway and tried to grab them both. One child was grabbed and disappeared with the shadowman back into the alley, the other child got away. Police have already checked out the alley, it's a dead end with no other exits. Characters will have to be clever to catch this villain.
Stats needed for adventure: Shadowman

Takin' Care of Business: The Privateers, a group of mercenary villains, have captured a local Cyber Works executive and are planning to ransom him back to Cyber Works. At what point the characters come in is up to the Game Master. They may try to foil the capture, or track the villains to their lair. Whatever the case the Privateers have access to several modes of transport to get the executive out of the city. A helicopter is recommended, but a plain white van is also acceptable. One point of interest is that the Privateers have already been paid for the kidnapping, by the kidnapee. He is taking the risk and will actually walk away with whatever ransom Cyber Works is willing to pay.
Stats needed for adventure: Privateers (Cobra, Microbe, Sasquatch, Golden Arrow), Cyber Works executive, Vehicle: Helicopter, Van
Complications

Glory Days: Some heroes are more famous than others. A famous hero, or group of heroes, may show up in town and throw a wrench in the character's plans. They may foil carefully laid plans by capturing a villain the character is after. They may even try to apprehend the characters if they seem villainous. Three such heroes are Solaris, Glory, and Extrano Muerte.
Stats needed for adventure: Solaris, Glory, Extrano Muerte
Villains & Vigilantes Campaign Headquarters

Created and maintained by Craig "Pandemonium" Griswold, pandemonium(at)elpasotel.net