Team Determination: Pool of 8 points (1 point from each member, plus a point from DarkStorm’s leadership and minus one point for a base of operations in abandoned subway station)

Qualities:

• Allied with the mystical Conclave
• To defend Hamilton, Del.
• Reality is relative

Challenges:

• Enemies: Organized crime — Italian Mafia, Russian mobsters, Latino gangs
• Hidden mastermind
• Trying to stop the Fatima Project in the Annex, sponsored by P.J. Sharif

“The Eighth Legion,” Player Characters for Jason E.R.’s “Glassworks: the Devil’s Den” superhero scenario, using Icons (previously DarkPages and the Cortex: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game), as of spring 2014:

• “Kyle Martins / The Cloaked Quarrel” [Gene D.]-male human college student and legacy crime fighter with mystical crossbows

• “Tim Gray/DarkStorm” [Bruce K.]-male metahuman, experimented upon by the government, amnesiac weapons designer for Oryx Industries, armored vigilante, and team leader at subway base

• “Rain Tomotowa/Thunderbird” [Sara F.]-female Native American, exiled demigod able to change into a giant eagle, onetime park ranger now working in a pet shop

• “Matthew Shanks / Merlin” [Josh C.]-male incubus sorcerer and occultist with an ancient family legacy

• “Samuel Adams Jackson/ The Stranger” [Beruk A.]-male human Buffalo Soldier released from Purgatory, time-displaced bounty hunter with dark force manipulation and shadowy steed Gabriel (from Gene’s Mutants & Masterminds: Drake’s Port" and Josh’s Dresden Files: “Dallas” scenarios)

• “Erwin Schrodinger/ Erwin72” [Brian W.]-male replican, law enforcer from an alternate timeline with the ability to tap alternate dimensions

• “Empty Spoon” [Rich C.G.]-male metahuman, Tibetan refugee with mystical air control (apologies to Avatar: the Last Airbender/Legend of Korra) and speed, seeking revenge for the destruction of his monastery

• “Adriana Novak/ Phantasm” [Brian S.]-female metahuman, former magician’s assistant turned permanently invisible; used the power of illusions to commit crimes but trying to turn over a new leaf

[ From before Session 3.4, “30 January 2014”/17 March 2014: ] I intended this mini-series to be less convoluted, but I clearly have a difficult time not layering on complexity. To that end, in lieu of a summary, I thought perhaps this list of questions and mysteries may prompt your party planning:

• How did Frank Zorn create video games based on future people and events? Where is Frank Zorn? Is he the “mastermind”?
• Why did the “mastermind” kill all of the prisoners in the JTV Correctional Center?
• Who exactly are the other inmates at the Korean War Memorial?
• Where did the SIRC security robots take the vending machine that dispenses Indian Head candy?
• Why is the birthdate of 2/27/1933 important? Why is that so familiar? Who else was born on that day besides Harvey Thorne?
• What are the quantum reality equations hoping to achieve?
• Why are banks of computers analyzing the animate skeleton (“kydtayn siacca”) spell?
• Why did the “shadow” sub take the Technoluminati to a sunken WWII U-boat? What are the “shadows” and are they independent or are they being controlled?
• Why did Red Right Hand show mercy to Harvey Thorne? Whose bloody handprint is on his incriminating manila folder (it’s usually the victim’s…)?
• How does Harvey Thorne know so much about the clandestine projects of Oryx Industries, the Eden Institute and D.J. Sharrif?
• Why are the eldest members of the Conclave retiring and leaving Hamilton?
• Who destroyed Empty Spoon’s monastery? The “Legend of the Four Winds” video game implies it was the Shadow Queen. Any relation to the 1960s-1970s cat burglar, Josephine Young, a.k.a. The Shadow Queen?
• What exactly are anomalies from the alternate Hamilton? Is Maxwell’s Demon unique?

>>Thanks, Jason. Clearly, the “Eighth Legion” has its work cut out for it! Those of us still in Hamilton, Del., have a lot of questions to answer, and I hope that our friends in Lepton City can find their way home soon. The device that the metahuman mobsters are chasing might be helpful.

In the meantime, here are the “Cloaked Quarrel’s” recommendations:

• The submarine: Since the escaped shadows took it and the Technoluminati to the site of a sunken U-boat, we’ll have to see what we can learn about that shipwreck and if it’s possible to get someone down there.
• Harvey Thorne and Frank Zorn: I do think that it’s worth questioning Thorne (and Red Right Hand) further, but we should have a solid list of questions first, like double-checking on that birth date. We believe that Zorn — or his alternate from "Erwin72’s dimension — is the mastermind, but we have yet to find him or directly connect him to the unfolding scheme.
• Corporate intrigues: Kyle believes that all of the big companies in Hamilton are up to no good, but “DarkStorm’s” connections with Oryx Industries might help us figure out what D.J. Sharrif, the Eden Institute, and SIRC are up to. “Phantasm” and “Erwin72” would also be good for infiltration and interrogation on several of these fronts, as well as figuring out the candy machine connection with the Devil Dolls, etc.
• Prison perils: We should talk again to the warden of the regular jail where inmates were killed — perhaps they could be used for necromancy like that animate T-Rex spell. Blogger Conchita Melendez or the Red Right Hand might be able to tell us more about the names we saw in the secret facility under Hamilton’s Korean War Memorial.
• Magical mysteries: “Thunderbird,” “Empty Spoon,” the “Stranger,” and “Merlin” are definitely needed to contact the Conclave. Whether it’s the connection between the video games, a destroyed monastery, and past criminals or the animate skeleton spell, we need to quickly figure out what’s going on and prepare countermeasures.

Everybody on both squads should think about these and other lines of inquiry over the next week — the sooner we can get answers, the sooner we can clobber the bad guys! -Gene

>Thanks Jason! As is typical, I honed in on 2 or 3 of these things (mainly Frank Zorn and the computer programs) at the expense of all the other open threads.

The significance of 2/27/1933 should be obvious: it’s the birthdate of Football Star Raymond Berry, who went on to lead the Baltimore Colts to two Super Bowl victories. Clearly someone wants to change history and have another football team win! (Oh, Feb. 27, 1933 was also the day that the Reichstag fires occured, which set events in motion that caused the Nazi party to solidify their stranglehold on the Weimar Republic, leading to the short-lived rise of the Third Reich — but I think Raymond Berry is the more convincing theory). -Brian W.