Last month, I described the first part of the first act of the campaign. In this installment, I’ll describe the rest of the story and some of the opposition the PCs will face.

Chilling out in Alussein

At the end of the first act, the PCs found themselves in Alussein, a secret community of paranormals located (at the time of the adventure) near Springfield, Colorado. Alussein is a good place to lay low, what with the characters being wanted for murder and all.

This is an excellent time for you to let the PCs explore their abilities and learn more about them. Old Man Prophet and the other inhabitants of Alussein will help them.

Of course, the PCs may not take well to being cooped up in an underground lair and will probably venture into the city for a beer. Springfield is a small town and any strangers will be instantly recognized as such.

The Springfield population is aware there’s something strange going on in the old cemetery just outside town, where the entrance to Alussein is located. Some think it’s haunted, others think it’s a satanic cult that has set up shop there, and a few believe there paranormals have a camp there.

So, if the PCs arrive in town without bags and suitcases, as if they live close by, but nobody has seen them before, the people from Springfield will be suspicious. If the characters go to a bar, it’s almost certain they will be harassed by the locals and a brawl will break out.

If the PCs use their powers, winning the fight and/or escaping should be easy enough, but will also confirm the Springfieldeans’ suspicions that their town is the “target” of paranormal mischief. Some inhabitants – thanks to alcohol-induced bravery – may decide to follow the characters, armed with shotguns and such, to teach the PCs a lesson.

Whatever the result of these events (it doesn’t need to be a bar fight, maybe the PCs went into town to buy groceries), someone in Springfield will call 911 and they will alert the FBI’s Department of Paranormal Investigations (DPI). A few days later, the DPI field squad will arrive in town.

Enter the DPI

The DPI is only a few months old, but it has proven quite useful to the FBI already. It mainly collates information on paranormal activity and offers support for missions involving super-humans, but it also has a field team comprised of four paranormals:

Tracy Prentiss: the only member of the field team who was a FBI agent before gaining powers, Prentiss is the leader of the squad. She is a locator, i.e., she has the power to find other super-humans. Scott Burner: the main offensive agent of the team, Burner is superstrong, tough, can fly and shoots laser from his eyes. Henry Ishimura: the stealth operative, Ishimura can shrink down to two inches. El Diablo Colorado: Jose Rivera resembles a classic demon (think Hellboy). He is also a brawler, although not a strong or durable as Burner. However, his looks give him a big advantage in the intimidation department. Rivera also likes to pretend he has other demonic abilities so as to convince civilians and other paranormals to cooperate.

If the PCs still go to town after the fight, Prentiss will find them and try to negotiate their surrender. A refusal will lead her to engage them with the rest of the DPI squad, if she thinks they have a shot at subduing the characters. If not, she will round up the local police department and any other forces, like National Guard members, and raid Alussein (detecting it’s location is easy, as it shines like a beacon for her due to the concentration of paranormals).

Old Man Prophet has foreseen this and will start the evacuation using Door to teleport the inhabitants to another place. The PCs have to decide if they will stay and face the DPI or flee with the other paranormals. Depending on their powers, escaping – or even fighting through -- the DPI assault may not be so hard.

The Indian guide

During their stay in Alussein, the PC with astral projection, telepathy, clairvoyance, super-senses or any other kind of awareness-related power will be visited by visions of a Native American man (if none of the PCs have these powers, choose one or have all of them experience the vision).

At first, these visions will be brief and cryptic, but eventually the man will ask for the PCs help. He will say he’s being held captive in a secret government base near Truth or Consequences, in New Mexico, and need to be broken out or he will die.

If the PCs are not convinced they should help an astrally-projecting stranger, he will tell them he knows the truth behind the appearance of superpowers and also has to warn them of a grave danger to the planet. He can’t do that though the visions, because that will take time and the longer he spends projecting, the easier it’s for his captors to realize he’s contacting someone.

In further manifestations, the man will provide additional information so that when they arrive in Truth or Consequences, they will be able to locate an out-of-the-way entrance to the secret complex where he is held.

Breaking in

Now, invading a secret government base may seem out there, especially when I made a point, in the last installment, of stating the PCs should be regular people. Odds are there’s no “infiltration specialist” among the characters. But that’s OK; it is as it should be.

Remember the PCs have two things going for them: the Native American information, which allows them to find the base, and their superpowers. Even though there are some details that make this world not exactly a “real” one – like a secret underground base --, most everything else is as in ours. Full-on superpowers are a recent thing, so even a high-security military base won’t have defenses against most superabilities. No power neutralizers, for example.

In the original campaign, the base was complex enough to register as a small city, so the PC who could talk to cities was able to convince it to temporarily make its security systems blind to the characters, while the density manipulator allowed them to get to the place where the man was being held by crossing walls and floors.

The dragon’s lair

This secret base is a multilevel complex built underground about 20 miles outside Truth or Consequences. It resembles the lair of a James Bond villain and hosts labs, firing ranges, barracks and a C&C center.

It is also the headquarters of Majestic 12.

Yes, the secret underground base in New Mexico belongs to Majestic 12 (more about them in the next installment), which was formed after the Roswell incident on July 8th, 1947. But the PCs probably won’t realize that.

Here and there they might see a badge (it’s never seen outside the base) with a sorcerer’s hat and the letters MXII. Players who know Roman numerals may translate it as 1,012, but others may realize it’s actually M XII, or M12.

Anyway, aside from seemingly more advanced high tech equipment, the only other thing that will be different – and significant for the PCs – will be the Alpha agents. They dress in the typical agent jumpsuit you see in comics (think SHIELD) and carry sidearms.

The Alphas are special forces soldiers that are at peak human condition, like Captain America. They also possess minor psionic abilities. Their strongest power is a limited form of precognition that translates as a danger sense, making them very good at dodging attacks and difficult to ambush.

They also have a sort of empathic communication power between themselves (if you attack one of them, the others will know) and are very good at perceiving other people’s emotional state, which allows them to know when someone is lying.

The Alphas will be relentless in trying to stop the PCs, once they find out about them, but odds are they can’t really prevent the characters from getting to the man, unless something goes very wrong (like kicking down the front door and fighting all the way in, instead of opting for stealth first). However, they should pose a credible threat, since they are highly trained and there are more of them than the PCs.

My name is Furiirr

Eventually, the characters will reach a biosafety level 4 lab deep within the base that is guarded by Alphas. That’s where the Native American man is contained. The problem is that when they get there, they realize he’s not a man exactly.

Furiirr is his real name and he’s an alien. He looks like a reptilian humanoid and is inside what appears to an isolation bed within the lab. Even though the PCs are not familiar with alien physiology, it should be clear that Furiir is not well. He will telepathically apologize for not mentioning he was an alien and thank the PCs for coming to help.

Escaping the lab with Furiir will be a bit more difficult, because the base has now been alerted to the invasion and is in lockdown. Plus, all the other Alphas and regular agents have been sent to deal with the PCs. Fortunately, there’s a way out.

While the PCs are debating what to do, a glowing white disc will appear before them and a piece of paper will fall through with the message “Jump through” written on it. If the characters take their chances with the portals, they find themselves standing on a beach. Next to them is a black man who introduces himself as André Elahi, a paranormal who can see the future and open gates.

The big reveal

Furiir is dying, but before he expires he tells the characters that he belongs to a psionically-active and biotechnology-savvy species called Shiara'garr, which has been conducting a genetic experiment on Earth for the past 20,000 years.

Their goal was to test the Ultimate Psionic Metadiscipline Theory, which postulates that all psionic abilities are aspects of one general discipline. They genetically manipulated several population clusters, or strains, around Earth, introducing psionic abilities into the human gene pool.

Furiir's clanline, the Bura, thought they had attained their goal 2,000 years before, when the latest offspring of one of their more successful strains, a carpenter’s son, displayed a variety of psionic abilities, some never before witnessed by the Shiara'garr, who only knew telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and pre- and postcognition.

The carpenter’s son not only surpassed the alien's expectations, but also changed their way of thinking. Convinced that their experimentation on another sentient species was ethically wrong, the Bura launched a campaign to end the program. The prestige of the clanline gave power to their cause and initiated a debate that lasted for two millennia on their homeworld in the Barnard's Star system.

Surprisingly, the Bura received the support of the oracle clanlines, which had believed the experiment a great danger to the survival of the Shiara'garr. The alliance was decisive in shifting the balance in favor of the Bura's cause, but the result wasn't exactly what they expected.

The Shiara'garrruling council decided not only to stop the program, but to terminate all its subjects. Orders were given to the Shiara'garr base on the dark side of the Moon to launch a missile carrying a exterminator virus that would kill all the alussein -- the “humans (aluss) that were ready (ein)”, i.e., the paranormals.

At the same time, Furiirr was ordered by the Bura elders to intercept the missile. He complied by stealing a ship, which was followed. Furiirr destroyed the missile, but was engaged by the pursuing ship. With his vessel damaged, he overloaded its telekinetic slave brains and generated a massive TK pulse that blasted his pursuers out of the sky and bathed the planet.

This event was the Skyplosion. The TK pulse triggered the appearance of paranormals by activating those that had the correct genetic configuration (much like David Boyle, from the last installment, does). Furiirr crashed near Florida and was captured by Majestic 12.

After telling his story, Furiirr, pleads with the characters with his last breath to protect Earth from the incoming Shiara'garr attack.

Final decisions

Elahi tells the PCs that theShiara'garr have sent a ship to wipe out the paranormals of Earth, but it will take years to reach the planet and there’s nothing they can do right now. Besides, there will be other challenges along the way.

He suggests they lie low for a while and states he will contact them when there’s need of their abilities. Finally, he offers to send them wherever they want. The first act ends when the characters go about their (probable) separate ways.

Next month, I’ll give more details about Majestic 12 and the Shiara’garr, as well as the full story behind the superpowers. Also, I’ll describe briefly what were going to be the second and third acts of the campaign.

I hope you liked it. Feel free to share any comments, suggestion and criticisms on the forum.