Morpheus Unbound  |  Villains & Vigilantes
Hero System

Mollusk Men on Vacation

A group of strange looking aliens is wandering the city and accidently getting into all kinds of trouble.

A group of Mollusk Men has come to Earth looking for their cousin Jones.  (q.v. They Might Be Characters Volume 1) Unfortunately, they got his address wrong and ended up in the wrong city (either the PCs' home city or a city they are visiting at the time).  The aliens don't speak the language and Jones isn't answering his phone (the communicator in Reg is temporarily on the fritz but should be ready in a day or two).  (This may be easier if the PCs have met Jones before, or this might be a way to introduce Jones into the game.)

Eventually, the heroes arrive. The police may have called them or they learned about it on the news, or whatever.  The aliens and heroes may fight, but the pantomime communications should provide for some fun.  At some point, THAMF (or some other rabid anti-ET group) arrives and starts shooting everyone.  THAMF was tipped by the local Intercrime (q.v. They Might Be Characters Volume 5) office who are loading the alien space ship on a truck and stealing it. (They can't open it yet, but they'll take it to their base and do that.) The ship is actually a small shuttle (which is why it fits on a truck) and the main ship is in orbit, hiding behind the moon.

Once communication is established (if necessary, allow the aliens to have a language translator device that finally learns the language) they have to find the ship and get it back.

Intercrime will keep the ship hidden in an unused parking garage in the seedy part of town. Intercrime agents and technicians will be guarding it.  A street gang may take offense at the heroes and aliens being in this part of town (or Intercrime may be paying the gang to keep people away from the garage).  THAMF may still be tracking the heroes and want a rematch.

The Mollusk Men may have a way of finding their ship, but it should really be up to the PCs to find it ("Look, tire tracks!").

In the end, the Mollusk Men still want to see their cousin...

THAMF will have one person per hero and one per Mollusk Man (there are four Mollusk Men). THAMF members are all basically normal people and should have characteristics from 9 to 11 (or 7 + 1d6 if the GM is willing to do the math). They carry rifles, pistols, shotguns and bulletproof vests. The heroes should remember that THAMF members are just normal people with serious bigotry problems and so the heroes will hopefully restrain them rather than pummel them mercilessly (tempting as it may be).

The Mollusk Men have energy weapons that are about the size of a deck of playing cards. These attack as either Energy Pistol (q.v. V&V rule book) or Paralysis Ray (q.v.). They have 15 shots of either type per recharge. The Mollusk Men do not have armor.

Intercrime has 12 ground agents, 1 agent commander, 1 close combat specialist, 10 technicians and 1 Terminator. The Terminator is at this small base (in the parking garage) as a stopover to another, larger base. It was rerouted here immediately on discovery of the alien craft. The GM may lay out the Intercrime base in the parking garage or nearby in whatever fashion best fits the campaign.

If at any time the heroes get too beat up, then either slow the action or let the heroes call for help.  Ways to slow the action include a delay in how long before the Mollusk Men discover their ship is missing ("We parked it right over there under that tree!"), reducing the frequency of encounters (perhaps THAMF does not pursue the heroes), or dropping the numbers of opponents (perhaps the Terminator did not arrive in time).

[ If running a Champions game, use Genocide in place of THAMF and consider replacing Intercrime with VIPER. THAMF is drawn from the GURPS IST Supers campaign setting by Steve Jackson Games. Intercrime is drawn from the V&V rulebook and further elaborated upon in They Might Be Characters Volume 5. ]


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last updated 29 October 2004 by Patric L. Rogers.
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