Superhero Adventures, UK Style

(Adapted from the published adventure by Dennis Mallonee)

Later that morning, despite Annie’s sudden departure only a few hours before, the Raft piloted by a very quiet and subdued Adam took off with the team bound for Northern France.

Dr Avery had a remote mansion in the Ardenne where he lived with just his granddaughter Donna.

Adam had tried to contact Dr Avery but he didn’t appear to have a phone and Adam hadn’t managed to track down any form of online presence so they weren’t sure what form of reception they would receive on their arrival.

He informed his passengers that he had discovered that Dr Avery had to use a wheelchair due to an injury shortly after discovering the Casket of Ch’Andarra – which lent belief to the legend that the Casket was cursed.

The Raft flew over dense forests, a range of fairly small mountains and several steep-sided valleys carved by swift-flowing rivers. The region appeared sparsely populated.

As they flew, Adam informed them that Jeeves’d had to register their presence in France with  La Sûreté Nationale’s Bureau Delta since they were here in an official capacity; just in case.

It seemed France has two major superhero teams, the Nouveaux Chevaliers de Paris and L’Avant Garde based in Marseille. There were no local team linked to where they were heading however.

It was early afternoon before the team arrived at the Avery estate. The weather was overcast, and temperatures were beginning to drop quickly. They could sense the aura of impending danger that hung over the estate; were these indications that Calypso was approaching?

The building in front of them was a sprawling two storey building set in overgrown and badly tended grounds. Looking at it from where they had landed the Raft on the front lawn, the ground floor looked occupied and lived-in but the upstairs looked deserted except for a single room at the front that was well lit.  The front entrance with its steps seemed to be rarely used. Hardly surprising given the owner was restricted to a wheelchair.

A garage entrance with an open door lay to the side. That entry was all on a single level and looked more frequently used.

As they stood on the lawn they felt a stinging sensation that denoted that the property was mystically protected. To Akira and Sam it was a familiar feeling – it felt very similar to the hearth spell they had experienced in Wales, in FFrwd Dylluan…

Adam decided to stay huddled up inside the Raft. The others had a quick chat about how best to approach Dr Avery which ended when Akira decided he’d scout the land first.

Akira turned invisible and walked towards the front porch but as soon as he stood on the first step the spell vanished. In the sky the approaching storm seemed to hit the edge of a giant protective bubble that surrounded the property but couldn’t gain entry.

An elderly bearded man in a wheelchair wheeled himself through the main door; beside him stood a middle-aged woman. The two exchanged a few words and then the woman left, glowering at the team as she rushed off, down the road towards the village and presumably her own home.

Akira tried to introduce them in French but the Doctor just welcomed them into the parlour in English.

Inside, Dr. Avery suggested he made them some tea and asked for their assistance. Sam went with him to his kitchen which had dozens of different tea caddies from which Avery chose a particular blend. He poured tea and then returned with Sam to his parlour, both carrying trays, his balanced on the arm of his wheelchair.

Inside the room stood a massive oak desk covered in ancient scrolls. While he poured their tea, Dr Avery asked why they were here.

They explained they had come to protect a particular scroll, the fifth scroll to be precise. Avery nodded and insisted that the scroll was safe with him. When asked what it contained he explained that it was about a non-human race that ruled the Earth long before mankind, a serpent people that died out. The scroll claimed to be able to bring them back.

Sam explains that he also had an interest in history, particularly Celtic and early English history and was aware of tales about the a non-human race called the People of the Worm.

Sam then mentioned a myth that the snake people were actually behind the Illuminati who secretly ruled all humanity.

Avery nodded, not totally in agreement and continued to explain that before mankind walked upright a race of snake-headed individuals fought a war and ended up hiding underground. The spell in the scroll could resurrect the race as a weapon that some people thought they could control.

The scroll was best kept away from others, including the Library. He made it clear  that he especially didn’t trust them.

As dark clouds gathered outside and a heavy storm broke against the shield around the property, four figures walked across the lawn, passed the Raft, towards the door.

The wind howled and the branches of an old oak tree banged against a couple of the upstairs window panes. There were flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder.

As they turned to look at the door; Dementia and the Black Dragonkin stood in the doorway accompanied by two of the dark-clothed guards.

Calypso might have been prevented from entering the estate by the mystical bounds set by Dr Avery but it couldn’t stop the lady of Ice and her companion and she had given orders to subdue anyone who attempted to leave the house.

The two guards stayed outside (one heading back to the Raft and the other round the back to the veranda) and whilst Lady Dementia stepped inside the parlour, picked up a tea cup and sipped at the tea in appreciation, Black Dragonkin vanished into the house.

She turned to Mary and said “so auntie, was it you that set the Abyss on us..?” The others look surprised but Mary had already started to realise the possible link. When Mary failed to reply she turned her attention to Avery, “So where’s the scroll, old man?” Sam picked up a scroll off the desk and held it out to her. Dementia smiled and reached out her hand. A flash of ice stretched across to the scroll fast-freezing it and shattering it to pieces. “Tut, tut” she muttered as gave a feral smile.

Dr Avery spoke: “I should have sensed you were the power behind this evil long ago.”

She took another sip of her tea and grinned, “But you didn’t! You’ve failed, Doctor. You and your kind are always the same, all wrapped up in sickening goodness and wishful thinking to such an extent that it blinds you to the truth.”

It was obvious to all the observers that Avery and Dementia, despite the girl’s apparent youth, were very old enemies.

As she smiled again, a young 14 year old girl entered from the stairwell. In her hand, aimed at her right temple, was an ancient Luger. She was trembling with fear.  Beside her, whispering was the Black Dragonkin obviously using his draconic influence on the girl, who was presumably Avery’s granddaughter Donna, to persuade her to put a gun to her own head.

She started to beg her shocked grandfather to give the woman the scroll and in a trembling voice threatened to kill herself unless her grandfather did so.

He begged them to not hurt her as he wheeled through to his study, a grinning Dementia put down her tea cup and waltzed through after him leaving a triumphant Black Dragonkin and a trembling Donna holding the shaking muzzle of the Luger pressed to the side of her own head. . . .

As soon as Dementia had left the room, Akira used his theurgical-kinesis to try and levitate the gun out of Donna’s hands but only managed to direct the barrel up and away from her head. She held on with her finger on the trigger as a bullet fired into the ceiling.  Donna, under the Dragonkin’s influence continued to try and pull the gun back down to her head.

As this was going on, the Black Dragonkin unleashed a fiery blast from his hands. To the surprise of the team, the blast deliberately missed all of them but struck the hearth instead causing it to start to burn. The protective field around the house immediately started to fade. It was an attack that would allow Calypso entry, if successful.

Mary turned into Banshee as she dived forward and grabbed at the gun in the girl’s hand, turning insubstantial as she did so. Both the gun and Donna turned insubstantial with her. Sam used the turmoil to flap his wings hard so as to extinguish the fire. Almost instantly the protective field strengthened again, driving Calypso and the storm back.

With Donna momentarily safe, Akira fired off a mystical blast at the Black Dragonkin who moved quickly out of the way so the blast hits the desk causing it to hit the rear wall. In response, The Black Dragonkin grabbed the edge of the desk and flung it back across the room.

Watching this, Donna finally relinquished her grasp on the gun and as she dropped became substantial again and crashed sprawling on the ground.  At that moment there was a sharp crack and a bullet grazed Akira in the arm. The guard who’d moved round to the back of the house was firing through the window.

Adam screamed over their earpieces “Ah guys, is there a reason why this scary guy’s holding a rifle to my chest?” On the lawn out front the other guard has dragged Adam out of the Raft and was holding him hostage.

Then it hit. From the study came an icy wave of despair and darkness that momentarily caused them all to lose their conscious thought.

Banshee unleashed a terrorising shriek at the guard holding the rifle on Adam with such force that it dropped both of them unconscious while Sam flew straight at Black Dragonkin, forcing him through the parlour windows and straight into the shooter on the veranda.

Akira tried to calm Donna whilst dealing with his wound. Outside Black Dragonkin slammed his fists into Sam, stunning him.

Stepping out of the study, the open door showed a slumped body in a wheelchair, Dementia walked towards the parlour with the scroll in her hands quietly whistling to herself. Another icy aura of despair and forgetfulness overtook both Akira and Banshee knocking them both to the floor.

As she walked passed, Banshee managed to recover enough to unleash a shattering shriek aimed at the scroll causing it to disintegrate. “Damn you auntie!!!” she screamed turning on Banshee with sheer anger in her eyes.

Outside Sam tried to rise as the Black Dragonkin walked through the smashed windows and met with Dementia. Sam shouted through his comms unit to Akira, “Teleport yourself and Donna out” and was rewarded as there was a flash of light and Akira pushed Donna through the portal.

Teleporting blind, he reappeared upstairs in the room with the light; Donna’s room obviously going by the various posters which he momentarily noticed as he emerged in mid-air and both crashed to the floor.

Downstairs, Black Dragonkin unleashed a fiery blast at Banshee; the heat of which scattered her particles and partially melted the windows.  Whilst this was going on, Dementia gathered the darkness in the room into a single point – a total absence of light and stepped through leaving a distressed Dragonkin behind.

The darkness receded leaving an after-image of a jackal-like head. The mark of Setekh!

As the Dragonkin cried in despair at his abandonment, an angry Young Sam flew through what remained of the parlour windows, hitting him from behind and knocking him to the floor leaving him unconscious. Outside the remaining conscious Setekh guard did a runner for the forest as the storm retreated.

Upstairs, the darkness formed into a pool of despair as Dementia reached through and pulled a distraught and despairing Donna out of the room and away before Akira could do anything. Only the stench of sulphur and liquorice remained and a grinning mockery of a jackal-like face scarred onto Akira’s retinas.

Akira tries to use his astral projection to follow but was left with only an impression of a direction; towards Eastern Europe and Carpathia.

He headed downstairs where he met with Banshee and Sam as they headed into the Study with its open, ice-covered safe and the slumped body of a Doctor Avery bereft of life.

Akira attempted CPR and for a few minutes managed to bring him back. With his dying breath he imparted that Donna must has been captured by the Seminarium Sinister of Setekh and the Court of Shadows and that the serpent people had a weakness for cold which is why Dementia has gained control over them before he died.

There was a sudden angry psychic push as everyone, including an unconscious Black Dragonkin were physically forced out of the house. It seemed the house itself was grieving.

With the Dragonkin and the other guard bound and rammed into the rear storage area of the raft (with a few kicks to make sure they fitted inside ‘safely’), The Raft set off. There was a brief discussion as to whether to take their prisoners back to the BASEment, but they elected to comply with the local law and deliver their prisoners to the French authorities.

As soon as they revealed to the Sûreté Nationale that one of their prisoners was a meta-human (or at least acted like one) they were directed to meet with the Nouveaux Chevaliers de Paris at the meta-prison located deep beneath the Bastille Experience.

There they met Aramis, Jongleur, Solitaire (who Akira took a bit of a shine to), Absinthe, Le Grand Bleu and the speedster Fugue. They formally arrested the Black Dragonkin and the guard as accessories to murder and arranged for the local Gendarmerie to go to the scene of the crime.

As they headed back to the Raft to return home, they found a shaken Adam who merely pointed to the back seats. Inside the Raft’s interior was a shadowy faceless figure sitting in the shadows. It made no sound and then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished.

When they get back to the BASEment, they found the same ghostly figure sitting cross-legged in the White Room, hovering above the floor apparently ignoring them. Akira realised that the best way to make contact was to do so astrally and recognised the ghost as the essence of Doctor Avery who informed him that his spirit would not rest until his granddaughter was safe. As soon as they were ready he would open and keep open a gateway to the Seminarium, confirmed that cold was the best way to deal with the serpent people and when Akira asked the best way to deal with Dementia was rewarded with a single name; “Abyss”.