From left to right
back row: Mikey Angelo, Adam Meyers, Young Sam, Annie Moreau, Mace & Edward Jeeves
Front row: Akira, Bethany Dalton & Banshee
Banshee, X-Ray, Akira & Celestus
The adventures of The Balance:
Akira, Banshee, Celestus, Chrono, Locker, Mace, Paragon, Young Sam and X-Ray.
Their ongoing exploits can be found under Guide to Episodes.
Thanks to the players of The Balance:
Blaine (Chrono), Jim (Banshee), Mike (Akira), Tristan (Young Sam & Locker), Justine (Mace), Adam (Paragon), Ant (X-Ray), Chris (Celestus)
Also detailing their secret headquarters, located beneath Container Town and Ivan’s scrapyard in Wessex, (The BASEment), their support team and their various Vehicles.
The Campaign (so far)
Episode 1 – Strangers in a Strange Land was an attempt to introduce the initial two players who were both new to the Mutants & Masterminds system to a very different parallel universe.
The idea was to a) make it clear the players were “not in Kansas any more” when the initial players find themselves having been accidentally transported to a parallel world, b) remove the primary existing UK team (The Protectors) from the scene via the mysterious disappearance of a part of Birmingham (known in-game as the Birmingham Incident) to make a gap in the superhero scene for the players to grow into and c) introduce a number of adventure leads that would play out later in the campaign.
It was too much to try and do in a single session, and it became a bit confused, so I attempted to take things back to basics and give the players a chance to settle in.
Raggedy Anne was a classic ghost story.
Episode 3 also introduced two new players to the group and I decided to initiate them gently. I used an adaption of a short Champions adventure and acquainted them with the Irish terrorist, Disunity Jack.
Unfortunately, following that episode, one of the original players had real life issues and could no longer attend, so his character had to vanish from the game, apparently kidnapped by his own future ‘self’.
We subsequently explored a couple of linked themes – my take on part of the Emerald City Knights adventure and the Silver Storm (which would be revisited).
Several issues later I ended that thread for the moment, and we explored some of the players backgrounds and an apparent one off encounter with a rather famous Tea Party, the Mad Hatter and his cronies, which introduced them to the Library and meeting the Black Chapter.
That led to the team visiting France and Carpathia (based on the Champions adventure Coriolis Effect), then to Gibraltar and finally to Israel (and my take on the classic ‘Time of Vengeance’ adventure).
Returning home, the team found themselves back in the UK hunting a monster through the sewers beneath the Dragon’s Gate district.
A trip into near space with an alien Prince led to a “Mission Impossible” style rescue.
They subsequently met Mace and encountered the Untouchables, headed to the Endeavour pub for a night of Karaoke and then met the Archangel Gabriel (“just call me Gabby”), Superior Rex and ‘auditioned’ before undertaking a rescue mission to Bali and returning in time to face the Krampus in a Christmas-themed adventure.
The team accidentally travelled forward in time to the destroyed city of Wessex, having rescued some people from a secret base on an island in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. There they discovered the Earth will be invaded by interdimensional Reivers known as Terminus and carried out a prisoner rescue before returning to the island shortly before they had left.
Witnessing their earlier selves, the Balance set out to rescue the rest of the prisoners and stop P.I.S.C.E.S. from destroying the island, whilst not being seen by their earlier selves and potentially changing time.
Back home, family and friends – Adam, Jean and Mai-Li – are kidnapped by the Gamemaster. To rescue them, the team had to agree to enter the Slaughterhouse.
After escaping, The Balance spent a few days recovering, only to discover there was a contract out on their heads. They met and fought a few past and future foes, and Akira had an epiphany. Then Sam and Annie headed to a Comic-Con.
With a rare mystical prize on offer, the team found themselves dealing with a couple of assassination attempts on their lives, had to deal with a prisoner escape and met an old foe.
The team returned to Ffrwd Dylluan where they again met the Oktoberkynde and were trapped by the witch hunter Hexenhammer and his recently enslaved ‘hound’, Abyss.
Does it still count as non-lethal if you ‘kill’ the undead?
They undertook a trip to rebuild a couple of orphanages in Sierra Leone whilst their lawyer Jimmy the Fish tried to repair their reputations. On their return, they were called in to help deal with a local street gang armed with alien tech and discovered a way to identify people infected with the alien control parasites.
A robotic ‘Saviour’ sent back in time to prevent an extinction event met the Balance. It was not a friendly exchange.
A visit by a Library researcher resulted in an assault on the building known as the Vault, and Akira’s family connection to the Fisher King was explained.
They were invited to visit the nation of Dakata in Africa. Whilst there, the Country was invaded, and they helped to defend it. In the process, Sam accidently destroyed the Raft, and they discovered the origin of vampires. Before leaving Africa, they agreed to transport a prisoner to Kenya, found themselves saving a sentient gorilla pup and worried about what was happening with Akira.
A transformed Akira vanished, and then a mystical call came in from the Library, only for the intruders to be revealed as ‘Akira’ and two others. In the end, the team find themselves trapped in the Faerie Realm with Akira’s evil Doppelgänger.
Whilst there they explored, made allies and participated in a Duello Arcane to replace the missing, believed murdered, Summer Knight only to subsequently find and liberate him, help to stop a war and promise to undertake a task for the Winter Court at some point. Then, while helping the Summer Knight to retain his title, the Palace was invaded by a Terminus Exploratory Force. They were finally sent ‘home’ only to be stranded without Akira in a dark city they didn’t recognise.
Discovering that the city was Wessex half a century after they had left it, they learned that the Terminus invasion had been (will be?) defeated by a cabal of dark mages and vampires. Now the world was controlled by them and the only way home seemed to be finding a certain Emerald Key of Power. The Topaz Key led them to the Library of the future, a building now devoid of books but filled with members of the Outer Circle of the Court of Shadows.
When they finally made it back home, Sam and Annie had some unexpected news for the rest of the team and Akira elected to take some time out. While at his ‘retreat’ he discovers a journal.
A few weeks later the newest member of The Balance, Locker was introduced to the public as the team faced an old enemy.
A series of pranks across London resulted in the team meeting Gabby again and trying to rescue the Prime Minister and her cabinet, now apparently turned into children, from some sinister clowns.
When a familiar robotic presence resurfaced, the team ended up fighting activated suits of power armour in the middle of an industrial dispute.
A friend goes missing and Akira and Banshee find themselves heading to France to deal with an imprisoned bride of Dracula, a covert group of vampire hunters and a clan of undead ninjas.
A quiet day ended with the world seemingly committing suicide. To save it, the team had to go back in time a couple of days and stop a temporal paradox from ever occurring.
In trying to rescue a teammate, they end up in London 1666, the evening before the Great Fire. A ‘witch’ was seen in the sky, a plot to take over the country is revealed and an ultimatum delivered. Escaping the fiery destruction of the city, they find themselves chasing the time-travelling vampire Boire again through time, only to find themselves deposited in Victorian London with an unconscious Locker.
It’s 1888, the Ripper is murdering women in the West End of London as the team try to discover what a certain Prince Drakul is up to and what his connection is to the murdered women as the team met Doctor Arthur Doyle, his cousin Bram Stoker and one Rabbi Shalach Ben Holmz (inspiration for a certain fictional character?), the ancestor of Rabbi Shallach in their own time period.
The Balance met with a very polite Jack the Ripper, team up with Professor Van Helsing and discover more about Drakul and his ambition to become Prince Consort and ensure the Sun never rises on the blood red of the British Empire.
At the request of the time cop Danni, the team undertook one last temporal mission and headed to London on New Year’s eve 1999 to prevent a world-wide disaster from a very different kind of Millennium ‘Bug’ before returning with the still unconscious Locker to their own era.
It becomes clear that Locker had been psychically programmed by Boire to assassinate the rest of the team and instead he had put himself into a self-imposed coma to combat the command. The ‘cure’ was to wipe any memory of his ever having been the hero Locker to allow him to heal naturally. His family and the team reluctantly agreed.
This was necessary as Locker’s player had been unable to participate in the sessions for some time and needed to retire the character.
Extraordinary weather over a village results in the remaining team members confronting three Bargainer-powered witches. Resulting in a ‘Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn’ fueled confrontation!
The Silver Storm was back, more targeted than ever and Stormers were disappearing immediately after their Breakthrough, the only clues are for The Balance alone to interpret. The team visited London Below, discover the secret behind the control parasites while rescuing a group of Stormers.
Guarding a march by ‘the Worthy’ through the city of Wessex The Balance find themselves fighting the New Knights of Camelot in the middle of a riot caused by someone making people lose control of their emotions (my take on the ‘Hate is a Four-Letter Word’ adventure).
With all communications blocked across the Northern Hemisphere the team are asked to head to the Arctic and rescue a missing ‘Heroes without Frontiers’ team, only to discover alien bug-like robots and an ancient base lost for millennia under the ice.
Back in the UK the Balance are forced to defend their reputations when they are apparently involved in theft, assault and endangering the public while losing (or stealing?) the Janus Mask.
A Call from Rätsel of the Bundesgarde results in Banshee and Akira rescuing the German Chancellor from Frankfurt after she is captured by the Czechian crime-lord Kaos.
In real life Covid 19 resulted in a lockdown in the UK stopping face-to-face team sessions.
Banshee heads to Éire (an united Ireland) to meet her pseudo-family and investigate her para-twin’s past when she encounters the Fomorians and a mage seeking an ancient mystical artefact.
Still in Éire, Banshee travelled to ‘her’ place of birth in search of the truth behind her para-twin’s powers and the creation of Abyss only to find herself transported to ‘Hell’ and under attack.
Banshee was back in England and had to deal with an old foe, lots of spiders and a missing pupil from Claremont Academy. Then while trying to identify the BASEment’s ghost, Banshee ends up travelling back to 1915 when a munitions factory is bombed and she encounters aliens.
Banshee meets up with the ‘Irregulars’;consisting of Mighty Oak and Seismic from the Cymru Dragons, Lance from the London Watch and subsequently Lady Door from London Below to try to stop a criminal gang from blacking out several cities to hold them hostage.
Banshee is asked by Young Sam and Annie to help them to find out what has happened to a mysterious hacktivist that has gone missing.
Later suspected of involvement in a brutal murder, Banshee stops an alien serial killer and rescues an alien youth while finally discovering the source of Mary’s new ability.
Following a change in lockdown restrictions, we restarted gaming sessions, only to find that Mace’s player was no longer interested in continuing with the campaign. Advertising for new players, we were joined online by ‘Peter Smith’ / Paragon as we started the Netherwars campaign.
Dealing with an alien battle transported to a shopping precinct and with Mace missing, Akira and Banshee find themselves supported by an unregistered powered newcomer.
Seven accidentally summons The Balance to deal with the Fomori and they end up travelling to the Netherworld to rescue Earth’s Master Mage only to find a near goddess, Una, planning to invade the Earth.
With Earth’s Master Mage no longer on Earth, his sanctum is invaded, and the Balance must risk wild magics to protect it from scavengers.
Paragon and the team manage to track down and rescue his adopted mother while stopping the distribution of a new, deadly variant of DNAscendant.
Ever since the worlds’ Master Mage, Adrian Eldrich, left to govern the Nether-Realms, dark magic had been on the rise in the world. The Factor Four return, trying to steal the five Hellstones of Vhoka, only to result in a chase around and beneath the world.
Stormers had apparently become suicide bombers, increasing anti-metahuman tensions as a result.
The Balance celebrated both Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night with an explosive horror adventure.
The Balance are fighting supernaturally-powered toys as they try to prevent mystical seals protecting the Earth from being broken, only to end up in the Dungeon Dimension.
A Christmas special.
Searching for the final seal, the missing Golden Mask, the team track it to Venice where they reunite with voodoo priestess, Madame O’Tando, and uncover a sect of Serpent People looking to permanently destroy the immortal, Atlantean lich, Malador.
Back in Wessex, the Defenders are in their skyscraper penthouse waiting for a call to action from the Mayor. Thanks to the efforts of brave, bold heroes like themselves, the city and its citizenry enjoy a sense of quiet security. Justice reigns supreme, so why does everything feel wrong?
In a final climactic battle to protect the Earth from demonic possession, The Balance must defeat the Triune at all costs.
The final episode of the Netherwars campaign is played out as the Triune of Medea, Malador and Una ascend to godhood.
With the Netherwars finally over, Peter meets the team’s patron as the team is asked to investigate sabotage of the Challenger-Wildeman’s experimental interstellar ship.
Following a possible link between the mercenaries in the recent attack and Spartacorps, the team prevent the theft of experimental powered armour and stop a possible future apocalypse.
Paragon learns more about about his ‘family’ before the team takes a summer vacation to the desputed territories between the country of Akkadia and the Babylonian Caliphate.
Earth is without a Master Mage and the Parliament of the Dawn have chosen Akira and Seven as potential candidates, assuming they survive the trials with their companions, Paragon and Cadet. In the process Akira and Paragon fulfil the Balance’s outstanding promise to Queen Maub of the Court of Winter.
Alien refugees are coming to earth fleeing an interstellar war only to subsequently vanish. The Balance are asked to investigate as the team heads into space. Arriving at the Ancient outpost of Starhaven, on Europa, they have to stop an invasion and find Daedalus.
Searching Starhaven, Akira and Banshee encounter monsters and their creator before returning home leaving Paragon behind to form the Starhaven Sentinels.
Paragon’s player departs due to a change in their work commitments.
X-Ray arrived in Wessex and encounters Mekha-Prime.
A new player joined the game over Skype – introducing X-Ray.
Back on Earth and celebrating Mary finally getting her pilot’s license, the Balance interrupt a Nightclub brawl, meet a new hero recently arrived in Wessex only to face the Green Man and the Brides of the Green.
The Balance is to receive the keys to the city for saving the people from the Green Man but first they receive a request to help guard a M.E.T.A. detention centre. In the process they see some old familiar faces as well as some new one’s.
The Emerald City Knights adventure restarts.
At the Award ceremony Dalton is apparently kidnapped by their old teammate now calling himself Tempus even as Dreadnought and the escaped Stormers attack the city as the motivation of the New Knights is questioned again.
Terminus Control Bugs are back, taking over Stormers again but zombifying them this time and forcing them to steal a container of Nanites – could the control bugs themselves be being controlled?
The team end up investigating a crashed alien starship only to find powered terrorists had got there first.
The Balance are asked to help transport a dangerous prisoner to Deep Six, a prison for powered criminals in the Highlands of Scotland only to be trapped when a riot breaks out and the prison complex is forced to go into lockdown.
X-Ray’s wife, Stacy is kidnapped and the Balance travel to Paris to rescue her.
The team undertake a covert trip to Russia to try and destroy the remaining stock of a weaponised virus before the Vampires can obtain it.
Seventy-seven months after Banshee bound the malevolent ghost of Raggedy Anne into a brain-dead girl, she’s back and this time she’s out for revenge.
Having had his DNA stolen, Akira with his teammates head to Amsterdam to meet Agent Wallace of M.E.T.A. to find out why and uncover a serious techno-threat.
The Balance meets Tempest again as they investigate Mannheim further as well as rescue some teens. They are subsequently transported across international borders to try and stop Tempest from gaining access to M.E.T.A.’s Registry and recruiting a team of his own.
The team must face Tempest, Frost and Quagmire at the Gravemouth refinery in Scotland before heading to a Fijian island to prevent an extinction event.
The Krampus returns seeking ‘naughty’ children and the team rescue the remaining kidnapped African children from Hong Kong.
History has changed and the Balance must travel back to 3,500 BCE to depose the immortal time travelling vampire, the God Emperor Boire
Power suits are being found inside disused warehouses around the country and the Balance must stop their destruction in order to fight a future invasion.
The trail leads to Zurich and Labyrinth but is the enemy of your enemy automatically your ally?
The theft of computer components and Iridium-rich meteorites lead to an invading army fleeing a Terminus invasion on their own world.
Akira’s extra-dimensional ‘flytipping’ comes back to haunt the team’s nightmares.
The Earth is invaded by Terminus and the Balance must defend the city of Wessex. They travel to the Terminus Dyson Sphere where they meet Wildcat of the surviving Protectors that vanished in the Birmingham Incident (see episode 1) and working together they destroy the portal generator and the dimensional directory before returning to their own Earth.
This was the players 100th face-to-face-to-Skype adventure (not including any of their many Bluebook sessions) and they finally came face to face with an enemy introduced in the first episode and a recurring menace as the Terminus invade Earth and they finally come face-to-face with Lord Omega, ruler of Terminus.
The Balance discover that there are a thousand survivors of the Birmingham ‘land grab’ (see episode 1) trapped in a collapsing pocket dimension who need to be rescued. The Balance must attempt to guide them home.
The Balance must investigate the disappearance of a convoy of donated blood that had just arrived in London only to confront Vampire Hunters as well as two powerful Mages from the Inner Circle of the Court of Shadows seeking to revive an army of Vampires buried by the team back in 1888.
The Balance meet the Goddess of Mischief Aité and her army of Gremlins as children around the world fall into a coma on Christmas Eve.
A brief hiatus takes place after Christmas due to personal circumstances after this adventure which was followed by several sessions of Golden Heroes run by Ant L.
After a quiet few months the Balance minus Akira head to Gibraltar to investigate an assault on Bethany where they meet and team up with Celestus, the exiled Vilani Prince.
Akira’s player had to take time out for personal reasons as a new player joined the group.
With Akira out of action, the team are contacted about a fight taking place between aliens on the Isle of Man. Joined by Celestus he receives an unexpected ‘gift’ from his dead mother.
We started our take on the Chrono Crisis series of adventures.
The team, including a recovered Akira, are ‘timenapped’ by Tempus and subsequently find themselves trying to stop a Nazi invasion of London in 1940.
It’s 1876 and they have been stranded in pre-isolationist America where the cowboys are riding dinosaurs as the team strive to put right what has gone wrong!
Tossed through time, the team find themselves in a cyber-enhanced pirate haven in the age of sail and then head to see the Time Vizier, the Pharaoh Amenemhet, in Ancient Egypt before travelling to a devastated future London under attack.
The team finally confront the architect behind all the temporal alterations and discover the secret behind the Chrono/Tempus/Dr Tomorrow connection, or have they?
Back home, the team discover that weapons abandoned during the Terminus invasion are disappearing from secure storage and the team are asked to investigate.
Labyrinth cyber-attacks the BASEment in an attempt to discover the team members secret identities while crippling the base.
The Balance must choose between a threat to destroy London’s power grid (though the E.M.P. ‘bombs’ are apparently all located in the Shambles area of the city) and attacks on the families of X-Ray and Akira .
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Superhero Adventures, UK Style 