An End Is Just A Beginning...

[KnightDisciple]

All good things must, one day, come to an end. But sometimes, that ends comes sooner than one thinks.

 

Such is the way of the Mantle of the Raven, one of Freedom City's most iconic heroes. The Batman of the Freedom City setting, one that passed from Father to Daughter, and now is soon to pass from Master to Apprentice. 

 

Currently, Raven II/Callie Summers is the one actively holding that legacy. Aleksander Nakani, aka Nevermore, is slated to take up the mantle sometime this summer (after his graduation from high school!). But just passing on the cape and cowl because he graduated, that feels a bit lame.

 

So instead, I'm going to try to run a thread or three to pass the torch. I've hashed some initial ideas out, and I'm laying out the framework here. What I'm looking for is input on the NPCs, especially villains, to be involved, and then some PCs to have assist Nevermore.

 

My general thought on the setup is that Raven has been tracking some faint trails of clues that lead her to, I dunno, a warehouse or something with an electronic message left there. It's a taunting message from Dr. Sin, her grandfather, all wrinkly and evil and stuff, taunting her that she never faced him directly because she knew she would lose, and now she's getting old too. She keeps mopping up the scraps from his table. Can she leave him be? 

So the Raven goes after him...and runs right into a group of cowl-type villains (the likes of Blackbird, Fear Master, Red Death, Warden, Silencer, and/or others) led by a much-younger-looking Dr. Sin. Via some magic or super-science or something, he has not only maintained his life and health, but reversed his aging to be in the prime of his life (physically he looks maybe 30), and even granted himself some minor metahuman powers (probably just a light Paragon package or some such). The combination is too much, even for Raven, even wearing her most cutting-edge powered armor suit.

It turns out that Sin chose this moment to strike because he believed that before long, her advancing age would prompt her to create a suit powerful enough this plan wouldn't be guaranteed to work. But he had to wait until now to let age do some of the work. It was a delicate balance!

 

So she's captured, imprisoned, etc., not sure yet what he's going to do with her (probably taunt her father for a while, then brainwash her and give her the same rejuvination treatment he used, make her his chief lieutenant). Before he can taunt anyone, an automated timer and message alert Nevermore to what's going on.

 

Queue the Recruitment Montage! 

Nevermore takes an entire team to fight these guys, just enough that everyone gets a one-on-one matchup, and he gets to take on Dr. Sin one-on-one, and manages to beat him (dice willing!). 

Callie's been hurt and worn down enough by all of this that, while she can function in her civilian life well enough, it's too much of a risk to take up the Cowl again. 

So the story ends with Aleksander standing on a rooftop....

As the Raven. 

 

What I'm looking for:

Bit of help refining the ideas here.

Suggestions on which NPCs to have as additional villains.

Suggestions on pre-made sheets to use for everyone, and adjustments as we think necessary. 

Help figuring out who a good PC team to assist would be! I'm really wanting and hoping to keep this as a primarily-Cowl endeavor. That's not to say that no one on the mission can have any powers, just that I'm wanting this to be more the skill-y characters than the likes of our biggest, flashiest, most powerful heroes steamrolling the bad guys. Motivation among the Cowls is probably to "keep it in house"! 

 

So this is a combination of "putting the idea out for refinement" and "recruitment drive".

 

I'd be looking for 4, at most 5, other heroes. This won't all happen at once; I'm thinking maybe 1 "setup" thread, and 1 "action" thread.

 

Time-wise, I'd like this to be built up a bit, so the 1st thread probably happens in a month or two (and is forward-set a bit), and the next one after that one's wrapped. Maybe starting it in...April-ish? May, if that's how it shakes out. 

[Heritage]

Not sure if any of my PCs would fit for this (I've never done a proper Badass Normal/Cowl) but it sound very cool and epic! I will gladly offer you any other kind of help you need.

 

The transfer of a Legacy should always been done with respect; I like it.

[Tiffany Korta]

I must say I'm not keen on the whole idea of breaking the old Raven down to build the new one up, personally I'd prefer if she hand over the mantle realising that she's outmatched.

[angrydurf]

I tend to agree a bit with tiff on that.  Might be better than having Callie left broken by being beaten have her responsibilities stack up until she can't do it all.  Perhaps have her duties riding herd on the latest batch of claremont students distract her too much from the 'big picture' and Sin et. al. (in line with your original plan) grab some of the students (PC's or NPCs) as leverage against her.  She does hte noble sacrifice thing and turns herself over tot he Sin for in exchange for hte students, Nevermore figures out what's going on independently (proving he's keeping a better tab on the streets than her now) and launches a rescue of callie with the help of the PCs.  So it might be a few students maybe midnight II, teaming up with Nevermore, for the rescue and at the end Callie hands over hte mantle because he earned it and proved himself rather than because he's the only option now that she's been beaten down.

 

Also leads to a good two thread breakdown with one being the initial capture of Claremont students and the "rescue" by Callie while Nevermore figures it out on the outside and the second being the triumph when they go in to save her.  Makes it all very generational as well and lets her still be the goddamn batman with regards to claremont as headmistress but having narrowed her focus being able to leave the streets of Freedom to the New Raven.

[KnightDisciple]

3 hours ago, angrydurf said:

I tend to agree a bit with tiff on that.  Might be better than having Callie left broken by being beaten have her responsibilities stack up until she can't do it all.  Perhaps have her duties riding herd on the latest batch of claremont students distract her too much from the 'big picture' and Sin et. al. (in line with your original plan) grab some of the students (PC's or NPCs) as leverage against her.  She does hte noble sacrifice thing and turns herself over tot he Sin for in exchange for hte students, Nevermore figures out what's going on independently (proving he's keeping a better tab on the streets than her now) and launches a rescue of callie with the help of the PCs.  So it might be a few students maybe midnight II, teaming up with Nevermore, for the rescue and at the end Callie hands over hte mantle because he earned it and proved himself rather than because he's the only option now that she's been beaten down.

 

Also leads to a good two thread breakdown with one being the initial capture of Claremont students and the "rescue" by Callie while Nevermore figures it out on the outside and the second being the triumph when they go in to save her.  Makes it all very generational as well and lets her still be the goddamn batman with regards to claremont as headmistress but having narrowed her focus being able to leave the streets of Freedom to the New Raven.

 

Hm. That has possibilities as well. I certainly wasn't trying to just "break her", but I did kind of want to make it where we can't casually have people ask "but why can't Raven II show up and help since this is a Really Big Important Crisis?". Her being at the point her health simply won't let her handily cuts that off at the knees.

Also, some of the point is her being forced to acknowledge she's outmatched, Tiff; the Batman-types typically have to run into notable age or injury before that happens. 

 

That said, part of my goal with making it where she goes solo vs the villain group I outlined is that any one of them is chump change next to her. It takes all of them working in concert to actually take her down. So it certainly doesn't short-change her too much; Nevermore will be challenged taking on just Dr. Sin, never mind the rest of the bad guys. 

 

Still, the capture/rescue arc has possibility. I'd not be too picky about the participants of the first thread, but will honestly probably be working more actively on the second team's makeup. 

[Blarghy]

Unfortunately I don't have any Cowls either, but this does sound like a lot of fun, however you end up working it out.  I may not have characters that fit what you want here, but in the future, I'd like to work with the new Raven at least once.  Leviathan has idolized the second mantle-holder for most of his life; I'd like him to meet her eventually, but PCs are always more fun to play alongside.  Plus it could have some interesting undertones of "You're not my real dad Raven" if he encounters Nevermore. 

 

If you can't find enough proper Cowls, I could perhaps offer Adept as a backup.  Presumably AEGIS would have an interest in protecting both Claremont and one of Freedom City's most famous and respected heroes, and they'd probably want to keep it out of the press just as much as Nevermore. 

[Raveled]

If you need someone tracked down Blue Jay is still available.