Hook, Line & Sinker – The Darker Side of Being a Superhero

This time in Hook, Line and sinker we will do some more vigilante hero plot lines.  These are ideally suited for Dark Champions, GURPS: Hero, and Mutants & Masterminds campaigns with a darker edge to them but can be used in most other games with a modern setting.

Hook #1

Hook – Museums and private collections are being broken into.

Line – It appears nothing is being stolen in the break into but it appears that the areas that hold items that have occult value are being ransacked.

Sinker – The break-ins are being committed by a cult that is looking for a specific object of power.  Their research has led them to believe that the object is located somewhere in the city but not exactly where.  The object of power is used in rituals to summon a powerful demon.  The cult hopes to force the demon to make them more powerful.  Will the heroes stop them before they can get the object?  If they do not, will they be able to prevent the demon for escaping into the world to cause untold pain and suffering?

Hook #2

Hook – A number of children have disappeared from poor neighborhoods in the city.

Line – The police are baffled by the disappearances and assume the children are runaways until the body of one of them shows up.  He was badly beaten before his death.  To make matters worse an at risk youth that the heroes know (a DNPC if possible) has just disappeared.

Sinker – The children are being taken by a Jekyll and Hyde type villain who believes that he is helping them.  All of the children that have been taken are from broken home or have abusive parents.  Both personalities want to help the children but hate the system that is in place to help the children so they have taken things into their own hands. 

Unfortunately, the conditions that they have created are much worse than anything the children would have found in the system.  The children are being held in cages until they are brainwashed into believing that the villain is working in their best interests.  Add to that the volatile personality of the Hyde side which has already beaten one of the children to death and you have a recipe for disaster.  How will the heroes react when some of the children try to harm them for taking them from their new parent?

Hook #3

Hook – There is a new vigilante in town that has been taking on organized crime.

Line – The vigilante has been taking down drug dealers and prostitution rings but most of the time the evidence that would keep those that lets live off the street goes missing. Also there does not seem to be a drop in the amount of drugs on the streets to match what this new vigilante has taken.

Sinker – The vigilante is actually a super villain looking to start his own organized crime empire. He figures the best way to do that is to take down the competition with the help of the city’s hero and police community and finance his new empire form the old organized crime families.  This will get him an inside track on how the heroes and police fight organized crime and provide him an advantage when he finally changes sides.  Will the heroes figure this out before that or will they inadvertently create their own worst enemy?