[V&V Adventure Idea] THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY

[Omuraisu]

Here's a rough idea I had for an adventure. It is far from finished but I thought I would post the basics in case someone wanted to run with the idea.

Treasured artifacts have disappeared all over the city! First it was the Hedström Diamond (that disappeared a week ago from its high security museum exhibition room), then it was the historic statue of General Cutter (at city hall), and finally a collection of Leonardo DaVinci manuscripts that were on loan to Central City museum. Where have these treasures disappeared to? What treasure is next? Who is behind this?

A ruthless Time Thief is on the run from a trans-temporal organization known as the Time Hive. He has been looting historic sites for their treasure and then selling them on the temporal black market. The PCs will stumble across one of his heists only to encounter his motley gang of temporal raiders.

The Time Thief’s base of operations is in his own time (Delta 3.2 Million Yar'lons, aka the far, far, far future). He first steals minor treasures to get the hero’s attention. Eventually the thefts will grow in size until they encounter the PCs. Eventually he will challenge the Heroes by stealing something out of their HQ?

This could turn into a time chase through time as the PCs attempt to capture the Time Thief. They could be aided or hindered by the Time Hive Agents.

Cast of Characters:

PARAGON: THE TIME THIEF [Torus Makeeve] Ex-Time Hive agent turned renegade and temporal blackmarketeer.

ANKH OF ANDROMEDA [Arja K’tchert] An avian species (humanoid body with a hawk-like head) from an alternate ancient Egyptian-based society. Wears elegant robes, and prefers to be equipped with the finest jewelry, which hides the hidden body armor underneath. His Hawk’s Staff is a powerful blaster rifle. Ex-soldier, part-time assassin, part-time grave robber, full-time fugitive.

THE GHALDAR OGRE [Jalik Karneel] The aged, enduring Champion of Ghaldar Six who escaped his planet’s arena with his life. He is an awkward rabble-rouser fighting against a culture that won't allow him/her to have children (Arena gladiators were frequently neutered before they enter training, but Jalik Karneel escaped his particular fate). He is now in his fifties, with a dozen wives scattered across the Pan-Dimensional Divide. He was sold to the Time Thief by his original Ghaldar owners.

HELLFURNACE [Adama Helspont] The lonely xenoarcheologist – one of the last neohumans in the far future. This albino race evolved in a arctic region on one of Earth’s colonies. The race has small ears and yellow thick skin with dark red cracks. The race also possesses pyrokinesis.

RAZOR CARAPACE [Valjala Kantai] Indian male with an elaborately decorated armoured suit that spins to become a deadly top of blades. Blood-thirsty.

WILDCLAW [Tingra Jaari] The unpredictable, moralistic cyberneticist infected with nanites. Tingri is a Moji – a race that evolved from a wild cat. The race has humanoid feline features. Physically, this race possesses enhanced endurance. The race is known for their paranoia.

TIME HIVE AGENTS [Varies] Human, neohuman, alien time agents who police the dimensional barrier known as the Trans-Temporal Divide.

Neohumans are the descendants of humanity that have gone on and mated with other alien species/evolved beyond the normal human baseline.

I do have a write-up of Ankh that I will post soon.

Cheers,
Tim

[Omuraisu]

ANKH OF ANDROMEDA

Identity: Arja K’tchert
Group Affiliation: Paragon's Time Raiders
Base of Operations: Paragon's Chrono-Sphere
Side: Evil
Sex: Male
Age: 32
Height: 6' 4"
Hair: Black and white feathers
Eyes: Black
Level: 9th
Experience: 44,000
Training: +1 Endurance

POWERS:
1. Animal/Plant Powers (Avian Powers): Ankh of Andromeda is a member of an interdimensional avian race (humanoid bird-like species). He has the following abilities:
a. Heightened Agility A +10
b. Heightened Endurance A +12
c. Wings: Large Bird-like wings. Maximum Speed 1050"/turn (239 mph), PR 1/hour.
2. Armour (Type B): Andromedan Body Armour that provides ADR 84 and the Adaptation Power (24 Charges, 1 charge lasts a hour).
3. Heightened Expertise: +4 to Hit with his Special Weapon (Hawk's Staff)
4. Special Weapon (Hawk's Staff): Ankh carries a Hawk Staff that is a common weapon among his people. It is a seven foot long metallic staff that can be used in hand-to-hand combat (+3 to Hit, HTH +1d6 Damage) or can fire bursts of Plasma Energy: Attacks as Power Blast; Range 15"; +2 to Hit (includes Training Bonuses); and does 1d20 +2 Damage (includes Training Bonuses).

CHARACTER DATA:
Weight: 212 lbs.
Basic Hits: 5
Agility Mod: Nil
Strength: 15 (includes Training Bonuses)
Endurance: 25 (includes Training Bonuses)
Agility: 28
Intelligence: 11
Charisma: 15
Reactions from: Good: -5 Evil: +5
Hit Mod. (1.4) (3) (2.8) (1) = 11.76
Hit Points: 59
Damage Mod.: +3
Healing Rate: 3.5
Accuracy: +5
Power: 79
Carrying Capacity: 623 lbs.
Basic HTH Damage: 1d8
Movement Rates: 68" ground.
Det. Hidden: 8%
Det. Danger: 12%
Inventing Points: 9.9
Inventing (27%):

Knowledge Areas: Military & Religion/Mysticism (Ancient Egyptian Mythology)
Origin and Background: (Interdimensional Alien) An avian species (humanoid body with a hawk-like head) from an alternate ancient Egyptian-based society. Wears elegant robes, and prefers to be equipped with the finest jewelry, which hides the hidden body armor underneath. His Hawk’s Staff is a powerful blaster rifle. Ex-soldier, part-time assassin, part-time grave robber, full-time fugitive.
Training Bonuses:
2nd Level: +1 Strength
3rd Level: +1 Endurance
4th Level: +1 Strength
5th Level: +1 to Hit with Special Weapon (Hawk Staff's Power Blast)
6th Level: +1 Damage with Special Weapon (Hawk Staff's Power Blast)
7th Level: +1 Damage with Special Weapon (Hawk Staff's Power Blast)
8th Level: +1 to Hit with Special Weapon (Hawk Staff's Power Blast)
9th Level: +1 Strength

Legal Status: Citizen of the Andromedan Aerie with a criminal record.

[Ivory Paladin]

Love the ideas you have there - strangely enough I've been working on something similar recently myself - I'll post up the stuff I was working on ( as soon as I get a chance ), maybe it can help flesh out some of the details a bit ( or not hehe ).

Great job :th_dblthumb2:

[baldingfatman]

Couldn't the Time Thief steal the same treasure over and over again? Less legwork for him. Basically, he only has to have one master plan he could use over and over again.

I.E.: He could travel to today and steal the Hedström Diamond. Then he could travel to yesterday and steal it again. Now he has two. Then he could travel to the day before yesterday and steal it again. Now he has three.

It could be an interesting adventure if the first time the player characters encounter the guy they have this weird sense of deja vu. He escapes with the loot, then you surprise the players by rolling back time by one day and having the thief strike again, with the players (but not the characters) knowing they have already met the guy. One character may be an exception, somehow. Maybe he has a weird aura whatever, but he has some kind of foreknowledge that they have already met Time Thief before.

I guess the feasability of that depends upon how time travel works in your campaign universe.

[SD Anderson]

Unexpected twist.

The Time thief hires minions to grab an item that's low on the priority list. It's a distraction, one of SEVERAL simultaneous raids on marginal items. (Basically if the thugs succeed great, use them again. If they fail, he hasn't lost anything of importance.)

Now one of the operations succeeds too well. The thugs grab additional loot and throw it into the time box. It poofs.

One of the extra bits of loot was a magical artifact, related to a Time God. Putting it into the time stream without the proper rituals and invocations and prayers was NOT the brightest of ideas.

Time rips appear. You have knights and dinosaurs and post nuclear survivors from some future all popping in and around the city.

This leads to a two session hiatus while the PCs deal with the oopsie visitors. When they've straightened out the mess, Mister Paragon has had time to perfect a new master plan.

But the Time God has had his/her attention brought to the here and now.

Done right you should be able to make this an 8 session epic adventure.

[Mouser]

There's also the opportunity for the heroes to find out what their future fate will be and how them and their actions will be regarded by future generations.

[Omuraisu]

Couldn't the Time Thief steal the same treasure over and over again? Less legwork for him. Basically, he only has to have one master plan he could use over and over again.

I.E.: He could travel to today and steal the Hedström Diamond. Then he could travel to yesterday and steal it again. Now he has two. Then he could travel to the day before yesterday and steal it again. Now he has three.

It could be an interesting adventure if the first time the player characters encounter the guy they have this weird sense of deja vu. He escapes with the loot, then you surprise the players by rolling back time by one day and having the thief strike again, with the players (but not the characters) knowing they have already met the guy. One character may be an exception, somehow. Maybe he has a weird aura whatever, but he has some kind of foreknowledge that they have already met Time Thief before.

I guess the feasability of that depends upon how time travel works in your campaign universe.

That is what I was thinking. My first reaction was such a tactic of going back a day before and stealing something you already stole could cause a paradox. Hmmm... there's an idea. Instead of calling him the Time Thief, maybe I should call him the Paradox King. ;)

The way V&V treats time travel (aka dimensional travel type 2) is the character travels to an alternate reality that is very similar to our own so perhaps the paradox idea is possible. That's how Marvel used to do time travel in the old days (up to the mid 80s or so - I don't know about now).

Cheers,
Tim

[Omuraisu]

There's also the opportunity for the heroes to find out what their future fate will be and how them and their actions will be regarded by future generations.

Or if you add the idea of crossing dimensions, they could meet alternate versions of themselves. Now there is a comic staple (cliche?) if I ever heard one. ;)

Cheers,
Tim

[BlueNinja]

I hate time travel with a burning passion.

But that's mostly because time travel storylines suck. This looks marginally interesting.

One point though. Why is he stealing unimportant items? it doesn't seem like they'd be worth very much money (or latinum or whatever).
Second point. Disruption to the timeline anywhere?

[Omuraisu]

I hate time travel with a burning passion.

But that's mostly because time travel storylines suck. This looks marginally interesting.

I love time traveling stories but then again I'm a history/archaeology buff so it is right down my alley. I'm a HUGE fan of the Paratime stories of H Beam Piper and they had the biggest impact on my original idea.

One point though. Why is he stealing unimportant items? it doesn't seem like they'd be worth very much money (or latinum or whatever).
Second point. Disruption to the timeline anywhere?

First point: who said unimportant items? I was thinking historically important items which may or may not be worth a lot during contemporary times but may have value in the future when said items are historic relics. What's common today could potentially be the future's one of a kind treasure if the right conditions are met.

Second point: Disruption to the timeline - that's half of the fun. LOL!

Cheers,
Tim

[baldingfatman]

The way V&V treats time travel (aka dimensional travel type 2) is the character travels to an alternate reality that is very similar to our own so perhaps the paradox idea is possible. That's how Marvel used to do time travel in the old days (up to the mid 80s or so - I don't know about now).
Oh, I know how V&V does it the rules, but that's not necessarily how you do it. How time travel works in one's own campaign universe seems to be one of those personal decisions every GM makes for himself.

I don't really like the way time travel is treated in the rulebook and I don't use it that way.

[SD Anderson]

There's also the opportunity for the heroes to find out what their future fate will be and how them and their actions will be regarded by future generations.

By the RAW, no. You can travel to alternate possible futures via V&V's time travel rules.

[SD Anderson]

Couldn't the Time Thief steal the same treasure over and over again? Less legwork for him. Basically, he only has to have one master plan he could use over and over again.

I.E.: He could travel to today and steal the Hedström Diamond. Then he could travel to yesterday and steal it again. Now he has two. Then he could travel to the day before yesterday and steal it again. Now he has three.

It could be an interesting adventure if the first time the player characters encounter the guy they have this weird sense of deja vu. He escapes with the loot, then you surprise the players by rolling back time by one day and having the thief strike again, with the players (but not the characters) knowing they have already met the guy. One character may be an exception, somehow. Maybe he has a weird aura whatever, but he has some kind of foreknowledge that they have already met Time Thief before.

I guess the feasability of that depends upon how time travel works in your campaign universe.

If someone else goes back to Tuesday and steals it before you can go back to Friday, it's not there for you to steal. Doing it to yourself should have the same effect. Plus paradox headaches.

There may be a statute of limitations effect however. You can affect the object's history every X years or decades without headaches. This means the guy could with a 1 century Paradox Statute, rob someone of that diamond in 2008, 2108, 2208 or later. Attempting to alter the history of the item sooner causes feedback.

Similarly you can't leave it and another of it in the same time frame. Given actual physics and conservation of mass this has all kinds of realism problems but it's time travel. Realism schmelism.

[baldingfatman]

If someone else goes back to Tuesday and steals it before you can go back to Friday, it's not there for you to steal. Doing it to yourself should have the same effect.
Actually, if you stick to the V&V rules as written, you can. The rules explicitly state that you don't really travel back in time when you "time travel." You actually travel to an alternate reality that simulates the past. So, you're not really in the same reality when you travel back to steal the diamond on Tuesday when you've already stolen it on Friday.

That's one of the reasons I don't use the V&V time travel rules as written. I don't like that interpretation.

Similarly you can't leave it and another of it in the same time frame. Given actual physics and conservation of mass this has all kinds of realism problems but it's time travel. Realism schmelism.
Time Thief is planning to sell the items on the black market for time travelers. That could exist in some limbo outside of the time stream (ala Marvel's version of Limbo), so the two items would not technically be in the same time frame.

[Ivory Paladin]

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I have a Cloak and Dagger type duo that I think fit right in with this discussion - Paradox and Slipstream.

Paradox is the time traveling brains behind the duo's criminal operation and Slipstream is the brawn. These two super crooks are meant to work in tandem with each other and could easily hold their own against an entire group of superheroes if used by a clever and creative ( not to mention sadistic lol ) GM.

My apologies if these two seem a little sketchy or come across as needing a little more work, but they're still a work in progress for me.



PARADOX

Name: Dr. Lawrence Baer
Age: 32
Sex: Male
Side: Evil
Level: 4th

Powers

1. Dimensional Travel ( Time Portal ): Paradox is able to open a dimensional portal to any point within Earths time line with a 99% chance of success. The intended place and time of destination must be specified before the dice are rolled. The portal is 1" square which anyone may use simply by going through it. The portal's area may be increased by 1 square inch per point of Power specifically spent for this. The portal will last until the end of the turn in which it was established, then wink out of existence. While it exists, characters can move back and forth through it as desired. The portal requires one full action to create and has an initial Power cost of 10.

2. Heightened Intelligence: +18

3. Heightened Senses:
A. Temporal Sensitivity: Paradox is always aware of his exact spatial and temporal positioning within the physical universe, PR=0

B. Precognition: Paradox has the ability to see into the very near future. Essentially Paradox gets a ‘reverse echo’ type of effect from the next few moments in time. This never ending form of déjà vu provides him with a +2 to hit with all of his attacks, a -2 to be hit by all attacks, and a three times greater then normal Detect Danger percentage.

Aside from the obvious combat advantages of this ability Paradox can use this glimpse of the near future to execute some rather brilliant tactical maneuvers. An example of this would be – knowing that a large truck will be rounding a nearby corner any second, Paradox runs across the street knowing that Captain Video will chase after him . . . PR=0

4. Temporal Stasis: Paradox is able to open very small and localized temporal rifts within 74" ( Range = I x 2" ) of himself. He can use these rifts to trap targets between moments in time. Attacks as Gravity Control, PR = 7 per shot. A successful hit will immobilize the target without Hit Point loss. Once a victim has been placed in temporal stasis they’re allowed a wake-up roll to return to normal.

Successfully hit targets will not age or sense the passage of time while in temporal stasis. Once a victim of this power returns to their normal state it will feel to them as if only a single second has passed.


Weight: 196 lbs.
Basic Hits: 4

Strength: 10
Endurance: 10
Agility: 15
Intelligence: 37
Charisma: 11

Reactions from: Good: -0 Evil: +0

Hit Points: 12
Power: 72

Healing Rate: 1
Damage Mod.: +5
Accuracy: +2

Carrying Capacity: 196 lbs.
Basic HTH Damage: 1d4
Movement Rates: 35" ground
Det. Hidden: 26%
Det. Danger: 90%
Inventing Points: 14.8
Inventing (%): 111%

Gaming Notes: Paradox is a thinker and a planner - he will avoid physical confrontations if possible and will rely on his great intellect, precognitive powers and temporal stasis ability to defeat his opponents. He and his partner Slipstream have learned to exploit each others abilities to the others benefit and each knows their place in their partnership - Paradox does the thinking and Slipstream does 'the heavy lifting'.

If faced with an extremely difficult opponent(s), a truly sadistic GM could have Paradox use his time portals to trap a PC hero(es) somewhere in time. A good example of this would be to have Paradox sprint around a corner and place a portal directly behind himself so that any pursuing heroes would run right into / through it. Now I don't necessarily recommend this type of tactic, but in the right campaign this could be a possible spring board into other adventures.



SLIPSTREAM

Name: Michele Gwynllyn
Age: 23
Sex: Female
Side: Evil
Level: 2nd

Powers

1. Heightened Agility: +23

2. Teleportive Combat: When engaged in combat Slipstream can use her Teleportation power to execute quick and accurate HTH attacks. While using this ability she has a movement value of 800" and when figuring her initiative, Slipstream goes every 5 phases instead of every 15.

3. Teleportive Defense: Slipstream ( when conscious and mobile ) can use short, repeated and rapid bursts of her Teleportation power to appear 1d4 feet randomly away from her last stationary position several times in one phase. These quick teleportation “hops” make her very difficult to be hit ( - 4 to be hit ), PR=0

4. Teleportation: Slipstream is able to instantaneously transfer her body from place to place at the speed of thought. She can teleport additional mass up to twice her normal carrying capacity ( 332 lbs. ), but trying to move an object too large would cause her ( and the object ) not to move at all. Maximum range = current Power Points x 10,000", PR=5.


Weight: 126 lbs.
Basic Hits: 3

Strength: 11
Endurance: 13
Agility: 36
Intelligence: 12
Charisma: 11

Reactions from: Good: -0 Evil: +0

Hit Points: 18
Power: 72

Healing Rate: .9
Damage Mod.: +5
Accuracy: +6

Carrying Capacity: 166 lbs.
Basic HTH Damage: 1d4
Movement Rates: 60" ground
Det. Hidden: 10%
Det. Danger: 14%
Inventing Points: 2.4
Inventing (%): 36%

Gaming Notes: Slipstream will use her ability to appear in a million different places at once to her advantage. When fighting outside she will mix up her attacks between HTH and firearms should she have one available. If she has a firearm she will use her teleportation power to take shots from the best vantage point possible, roof tops, through a small window behind her target, or even from the top of a street light where she can shoot straight down at her target. When using HTH attacks she will fight in much the same manner, taking full advantage of rear and side attacks.

If an opponent proves to be rather tough or extremely difficult to defeat she will simply teleport right next to them, grab them and then release them a mile or two above the ground. She has even used this same technique to place opponents inside cages, in front of buses, on the tops of buildings and so on.

Equipment: Slipstream normally conceals a Walther PPK 7.65mm somewhere in her costume. GM’s option to give her any other ranged weapons he feels are appropriate.

Walther PPK 7.65mm: +3 to hit, 1d8 damage, 27" range, can fire a maximum of 3 rounds in one phase, 7 rounds per magazine ( she carries a spare )