We had a slight detour last month as I posted an adventure seed for Christmas instead of the second part of Songseeds. But it’s a new month (and a new year), so here’s the second installment of the songs as seeds column.

I didn’t get new suggestions, so I used some choices of mine again. Songs suggested by a RPGnetter are credited in the entry of the seed.

Here comes the rain again

Artist: Eurythmics
Subgenre: Four-color
Seed: One day, Atlantis (or whatever name the main submarine kingdom has in your campaign) stops being the only underwater realm (or the main one) in the planet. In a bright flash of light and rush of tidal waves, the island-nation of Lemuria returns to Earth after ten thousand years. Mystic heroes might know it disappeared when Atlantis sank beneath the waves. What they might not know (because current Atlanteans lost most of their history) is that Atlantis and Lemuria were engaged in a war of extermination using magic and advanced weaponry. Knowing the Lemurians had a weapon of mass destruction, the Atlanteans unleashed theirs first. However, the Atlanteans didn’t fully understand the power of their WMD. It caused massive devastation, ripping a hole in the fabric of time and space that sank Atlantis and sent the whole island of Lemuria hurtling through the dimensions of the multiverse (if you play in the DC/Wildstorm universe, it could end up in the Bleed). It took Lemurian sorcerer-scientists a whole year to bring their nation back to Earth. What they won’t realize at first is that for Earth ten thousand years have passed. Their first order of business will be to send their troops against Atlantis. Upon reaching the coordinates of their enemy and not finding it, they will assume the Atlanteans are using some sort of cloak and scan for them, finding the underwater city and the descendants of the Atlanteans. Battle ensues, with the Lemurians laying siege to Atlantis. If the world governments have not found out about Lemuria so far (kind of hard with the whole seismic/energy explosion), they will now, because the Atlanteans will yell for help of the international community, including super-heroes. If you are running an underwater campaign, like the one described in Superseeds #7, the characters’ first mission might be breaking the siege and contacting land-based governments and heroes. In a regular campaign, the PCs are sent -- or go by their own volition – to battle the Lemurians. This will finally alert the island nation that this is not the same Earth they are used to. Given the metahuman resistance, the Lemurians will first threaten governments and supers to stop aiding Atlantis or face their wrath. If help continues to be provided, the Lemurians will ante up the game, by using their advanced tech and magic. They will fire transcontinental energy cannons, summon creatures of the outer void etc. If the characters and other supers keep on defeating their weapons, they will threaten the whole planet by unleashing their WMD: a techno-magical weather control device that will cause apocalyptic climatic disturbances. We are talking megastorms, gigantic floods, force 5 hurricanes and much more all over the world. The PCs not only have to defend Atlantis and end the war, they also have to prevent the devastation of the planet. How will they do that?

In the air tonight

Artist: Phil Collins
Subgenre: Bronze/Iron age
Suggested by: Imaginos
Seed: Sovereign was one of the greatest super-heroes of World War 2, who fought alongside the other champions of the Freedom Alliance. At the end of the war, the Freedom Alliance had a massive battle with Doctor Devastation, its archenemy, which ended catastrophically when Devastation’s headquarters blew up in a nuclear conflagration, killing the Alliance, as well as the Doctor and his fellow villains. Only Sovereign survived, but that same night he left Earth for the stars. He became disenchanted with existence and humankind, that’s what everybody thought. Cut to the present. The PCs are foiling the schemes of one of their rogues, but this time their foe seems to have a leg up on them. Things are not looking good for the heroes, when suddenly Sovereign returns from the stars and makes short order of the characters’ enemy (this is a Bronze/Iron Age seed, so violence is expected – even so, make sure to let the ruthlessness of Sovereign’s action “bleed through” [pun intended] to the PCs). Sovereign will engage the characters in conversation and if they don’t know who he is, he will tell them and inform the heroes about the circumstances of his leaving Earth. Basically, he will confirm the disenchantment theory, but state that he’s better now and has returned to take his place among the world’s greatest heroes. All the while, he will ask about the current metahuman situation. Sovereign’s return will be a major media event the next day and the PCs will be invited to join the big guy in the festivities, since they were the first super-humans he met. At night, in the hotel penthouse where the city housed Sovereign, the Golden Age hero and the PCs will be attacked by unknown metahumans and hi-tech mercenaries intent on killing Sovereign. Once again, the hero’s bloodlust will be apparent, although he will restrain himself if he feels the PCs are giving him strange looks. Sovereign will kill any of the attackers, preventing an interrogation. If the characters investigate, they will discover this rogue group is commanded by Sonia Alvarez, granddaughter of another Golden Age hero: Occulto, the Occult Man. Sonia, after making sure the PCs are not Sovereign’s agents, will reveal the recently-returned hero is actually a psychopath that used World War 2 to get away with his murderous desires, all the while studying his fellow heroes to get rid of them. This opportunity presented itself during the battle with Doctor Devastation, when Sovereign detonated the villain’s nuclear bomb. The only problem was that Occulto’s spirit was still active, despite his physical form being incinerated. He confronted Sovereign about his evil ways and told the villainous hero he would use his own life force to cast a slaying spell on Sovereign that would kill him anywhere in the world. Being vulnerable to magic, Sovereign left Earth, but always popped back to test if the spell was still on. Last night, it finally collapsed. Now the PCs have to find out how to contain a psychotic godlike being that is already on the hunt for Sonia and her group, as well as the characters. With them taken care of, Sovereign can go about eliminating other metahumans that pose a threat to him and finally claim the planet as his playground.

Minha renda (My income)

Artist: Plebe Rude
Subgenre: Real world
Seed: This seed is for the early stages of a world where superpowers have just appeared. The PCs are approached by a representative of a large corporation owned by a rather extravagant CEO (kind of like Virgin’s Richard Branson). This CEO should still be interested in profit, but should not be commonly associated with unlimited greed. The representative offers the characters a dream contract to become the paranormal team of the corporation. When I say “dream”, I mean it. This should be an offer that no sane people would refuse. It includes astronomical salary, full benefits and then something, as well as protection, if required, to family members etc. If the PCs say no, the representative will go on making the offer better until they say yes. As the corporation’s supergroup, they will receive designer-created uniforms that have a common theme, but are customized for each PC. Their first few “missions” will be photo ops, PR events and the occasional rescue: construction workers dangling from high-rises, babies in burning buildings; all very convenient. Their first real mission comes a month or two after their hiring, when they are shipped to Alaska (or an oil or resource-rich state or province in the country where you are playing that is also problematic). Protestors have occupied the building site for the new oil pipeline and are threatening to blow it up, or at least that’s what has been leaked to the media. If the PCs ask why they are handling this situation, since the corporation has no interest in the oil industry (its main areas of investment are entertainment and aeronautics), they will be told the CEO is doing a favor to the governor of Alaska. When they reach the site, there will be violence and the events should force the PCs hand. After two or three jobs like that, the characters will meet a mysterious man during their time off. He will suggest they are being manipulated to strike at the corporation’s enemies and will promise to bring proof in their next meet. Unfortunately, he’s found dead the next day. The corporation liaison to the PCs will tell them he knew about their meeting and will provide a dossier on the late man showing he worked for a rival corporation (this is true). According to the rep, the man was trying to make them leave the company and go work for his employers. Finally, the characters will receive a mission overseas. It will be very hush hush and they will only be briefed when flying to their destination. And by a general, no less. Again, it will be said the CEO is doing a favor for the government. The mission is to retrieve a foreign scientist who’s been working on a secret military project for one of the nation’s enemy. The mission will not be smooth, mainly because the enemy country has a few paranormals assigned to protect the scientist. I think you get the gist of this seed. The PCs will be forced to perform increasingly shadier missions. If at one point they rebel, it will be made clear that they can’t leave. Not only are their family and friends utterly dependent on the corporation, but also unbeknownst to the PCs, their uniforms had several microcameras and recorders embedded in the fabric. These streamed in real time (or stored and then broadcasted to the corporation’s main office in bursts when a connection was available) everything the characters saw, heard and said, even when they weren’t wearing the uniforms. So now the corporation has lots of incriminating evidence on the PCs and may even know a few other secrets. The characters have to decide what to do. Do they bite the bullet and keep on working for the corporation or rebel and face the consequences? And what’s the ultimate goal of the corporation? Is the CEO in on it?

The Confessor

Artist: Joe Walsh
Subgenre: Gritty/Street level/(Maybe) Mystical
Suggested by: Imaginos
Seed: There’s a new vigilante in town: The Confessor. Nobody knows where he’s come from and what is his motivation, all they know is that he is relentless. He starts by going after petty criminals, but while a regular hero might patrol for a few hours at night, The Confessor works non-stop from sunset to sunrise. He’s fast, strong, tough and stealthy, but his codename (which was given to him) comes from his steely, cold stare that forces criminals through sheer power of will to confess all their crimes to him. At first, the PCs might welcome a new hero, but soon The Confessor proves to be more trouble than help. After two weeks, The Confessor has moved up the underworld food chain and is hitting organized crimes lieutenants, gang bosses, crooked cops and the like. Being an equal-opportunity vigilante, The Confessor harasses all criminal organizations: mafia, yakuza, triad etc. Soon, the leaders of these organizations are fed up with their loss of revenue and start actively going after The Confessor. They post rewards for any information on the vigilante and send more of their heavily-armed enforcers to find The Confessor. As a result, the situation on the streets deteriorates rapidly and the characters find themselves in a war zone. A month after The Confessor appears, he’s already moved on to the criminal middle management and is starting to expose the underworld’s connections to the city’s governments. The crimelords decide to hire metamuscle to deal with The Confessor. If things were dangerous before, now they are bleak. Supposedly, the PCs will not want to see their city go down in flames because of the Confessor’s crusade and will try to find him. This should be difficult because of all the violence on the streets and because The Confessor is really hard to track. If they can’t find him, he eventually reaches the top tier of the criminal world and associated spheres – meaning the mayor’s office. By then, the city will be in complete chaos. If they find him, he will talk to them, but will appear to be an almost emotionless automaton. Think a Vulcan Batman. He only talks about justice, his mission, smiting down evil and such. The Confessor won’t back down from his hunt and if the PCs try to force him or coerce him in any way, he will flee and proceed with his mission. If they attack, he will defend himself and flee. If they become a constant interference in his crusade, he will finally consider them part of the problem and deal accordingly. Assuming the characters located The Confessor’s “lair”, they will find him housed in a run-down studio in the bad part of town. The walls are covered with newspaper clippings of crimes, maps of the city and pictures of criminals. The only thing out of place is a business card of a rent-a-cop security firm. Investigating, they will find out The Confessor was just a regular security guard that was gunned down three months before trying to do his job (this was caught in a security camera and leaves almost no doubt he was killed). His body was never found, but somehow The Confessor is here and has a burning need for JUSTICE! How he came back is up to you. He may have been raised from the dead by the Spirit of Vengeance, or maybe his body was discarded in a landfill where it became soaked with life-reanimating fluids, or he didn’t die and through sheer willpower crawled back to life, swearing to take the fight back to the scum that tried to kill him (this “returning from the dead” schtick seems to be one of The Confessor’s quasipowers). Now the PCs have to decide how to deal with The Confessor and his mission. Will they help him finally bring down the corruption that has infested their city, even if it has to burn? Or will they stand in his way, hoping there’s a better way to clean their home?

I hope you liked it. Feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum. If you ever run this, let me know too.