Since it seems there's some interest in adding to this thread, and not so much in using another medium right now, I'll post here for the time being. So, I guess I'll start further back in the campaign so that there's some context. If it seems like the campaign jumped around a lot, it's probably because it did. I was trying to get into the canon of the world quickly, and I may have taken some liberties. Don't judge
Also, this is a bit of a fast-forward campaign compared to what I was involved in when I was a kid. We don't have a lot of time to play, and I want the group to experience mid and high levels, as well as mid and high level equipment, so I'm fairly generous with experience, and just in general as a GM. My goal is to get them to level 10 in a year of "real" time, assuming one session every 2 weeks. My long-term goal with the group is Mechanoids -> something else for 6-12 months of "game" time -> Four Horsemen.
The group are all base humans (no Atlanteans or anything) and consists of a Miscreant Shifter, a Scrupulous Gunslinger, and an Anarchist Robot Pilot (Triax X-545 Super Hunter with some TW additions). The Shifter (player and character) is female, and the other two are male. All of us are in our mid-30s to mid-40s. The team dynamic is interesting to say the least.
It's spring, 102 P.A. The Gunslinger was trailing a different evil Shifter (The Man in Black - yes, I steal pop culture tropes). While hanging out in a town that The Man in Black had passed through near the ruins of Pittsburgh (Irvin; previously a steel mill, which was repurposed into an armor manufacturing and repair factory), the PCs saw a light shooting into the sky from a hundred or more miles away. This was the moment the Mechanoid rift was opened by said Man in Black and you-know-who (rhymes with "marchie"). I realize this is probably 6 months earlier than they appeared in canon, but it's just how it worked out.
They did some reconnaissance and discovered that the Mechanoid force is pretty hefty, and they can't take them alone, so they need to assemble an army. As luck would have it, they came across a couple (Jungle Elf Air/Water Warlock and Lemurian Ocean Wizard) who had escaped an invasion by Mechanoids in another dimension, but the Mechanoids destroyed their planet. The luck part is that living with them on their planet was none other than Poseidon, who now has a vendetta for the Mechanoids (this was taken from Poseidon's description in CB2). Using magic and clairvoyance, etc., they figured out that Poseidon is now in the Three Galaxies.
They rifted to Phase World, and that planet's central city, Center. They rifted in on one of the dangerous lower levels, and managed to work their way up to level 2, where the Spaceport and Gateland are. They figured out where they need to go in the Three Galaxies - Andropelous Three in the Anvil galaxy - and that they can rift there from Gateland. Andropelous Three is a tropical pleasure planet, with resorts and stuff like that. Their vision told them about a tiki bar called Olympus [GM note: Olympus is run by Dionysus, and Poseidon is hanging out with him there].
There's a side thing going on where I introduced the
Book of Heroes (The Mechanoids and Four Horsemen seemed like a good reason for it to appear, and who doesn't love super powers?!). The Gunslinger found it, and did a bunch of stuff with it like parrying laser beams and protecting a bunch of townsfolk from the Children of Doom cult. In addition to appearing to the Gunslinger, the book's Hero Mentor appeared to the Shifter and Pilot to try to convince them to change their evil (or selfish) ways. On a related note, the Shifter in the party has a supernatural pact with Mephisto. He told her he heard the book is on Rifts Earth and wants it for himself, and would greatly reward her if she gets it for him. So on one hand, the book is telling her to be good, and on the other her Deevil Lord sponsor is telling her to steal the book for him.
At this point I actually ran a short solo session with the Shifter while they were in Center to see what she wanted to do, and what her plan was to steal the book (so that I could orchestrate it if it involved NPCs or she didn't want to come right out and do it during a group session). Interestingly, when presented with the option to steal the book, which would have consequences (likely either she or the Gunslinger would die, as he wouldn't take theft of the book lightly), she decided to change her evil ways and switch alignments to Principled(!) because she didn't want to kill the Gunslinger. Knowing that not stealing the book for Mephisto would bring his wrath. I honestly didn't expect it to go that way, but was pleasantly surprised when it did.
Last session they managed to get to Andropelous 3, find Poseidon, and ask for his help. They were also granted super powers from the Book of Heroes (well, the Shifter and the Gunslinger anyway; I gave the Pilot another opportunity to become good, even after he knew there was a reward, and he still said no - he's Anarchist through and through). They then rifted back to Earth to find that the Mechanoids had destroyed Irvin and were converting the factory to produce Mechanoids. They managed to destroy the force there, and are now back to tracking The Man in Black because they (rightly so) believe there's a connection between him, the Mechanoids, and the "big brain thing" (they had previously run The Face of Evil from SB1).
In addition to The Face of Evil, they've encountered Archie/Hagan before. Prior to all this, they were doing some work with Robot Control (SB: Mercenaries), and Titan Robotics hired them to kidnap a Uteni (so that Archie could reverse engineer the Naruni tech). They never had any direct interaction with Hagan, but he was literally lurking in the shadows both during that exchange, and when they killed the "big brain thing" at the end of The Face of Evil. Frankly, at this point Hagan is cool with them - sure, they blew up a decoy brain (which Hagan thought was real but has since learned better), but they also did his dirty work for him by kidnapping a Uteni, and they've been actively fighting Mechanoids.
So... where is this going? Well, they will get to the Archie bunker where the Mechanoids were summoned from. I'm not sure if I'll let them in or not, but either way Hagan will have been tailing them and will stop and talk to them. Since the PCs are assembling an army, Hagan will work with them, and this will provide incentive for Archie to revolt against the Mechanoids. They will continue to recruit various factions and fight along the way, until the final battle against the Spider Fortress. I also like the idea of the PCs knowing about and working with/for Archie/Hagan, at least to some degree, rather than it just being some faceless source of constant trouble. My players don't really read source material, so if they don't learn about something through actual gaming, they don't know about it.
In a meta context, between sessions the Shifter and Gunslinger have selected their super powers, so the next session will be the first one where they actually have them. I'm a little concerned that I may have bitten off more than I can chew, as it seems like a singularity to me - nothing which happens after the super powers could have been predicted using any model that came before. For what it's worth, the Shifter selected Psychic Mind Controller and Super Martial Arts Warrior, and the Gunslinger selected Super Speed and Supernatural Being. So I'm hoping I'm able to at least continue to challenge them - Mephisto and the minions of Dyval are after them now, the Mechanoids, they're wanted by the CS, and have basically been making more enemies than friends. But the next couple of sessions are going to be a challenge for me.
I'm not actively looking for any additional input right now, but am totally open to ideas, side-missions, and sub-plots if anyone has any. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed the spam
