Mission Log
Date: December 28, 2011
Report Number: 0011
Filed By: Agent Cameron Chase
Mission Location(s): Central City, Keystone City
Mission Target: Gorilla Grodd
Mission Details: In another bid to conquer humanity and rule the Earth, Gorilla Grodd (see metahuman file #25) manipulated a maintenance company to place and activate a device in Keystone City Hall that released a chemical gas into the ventilation system. This gas, designed specifically to devolve humanity to its primordial roots, turned many of the building’s occupants into ape-men. While not 100% successful, enough people were affected that Grodd was able to control the devolved city workers as a small makeshift army. This army was then used to wreck havoc in the streets, throwing the city into disarray.
The army made a clear path for the bridge that leads into Keystone’s sister city, Central City, and while Keystone’s police were busy cleaning up the mess left in the army’s wake, Central City Police Department were alerted to the incoming threat. CCPD set up a barricade on their side of Central Keystone Bridge and prepared to repel the controlled ape-men with extreme force.
An unknown team of metahumans (see attached metahuman files #162-166) who identified themselves as members of the Justice League arrived on the scene at this point and aided CCPD in neutralizing the ape-man army. They utilized a combination of knockout gas from the ground and sonic assault from a flying craft which stopped the invading force with zero casualty to both sides. After the bridge was secured, they boarded the flying craft and engaged with Gorilla Grodd at Keystone City Hall, where they fought and incapacitated him outside of the building. One of the metahumans who later identified himself as The Traveler started a fire in the building’s record room, which triggered the sprinkler system and neutralized the lingering devolution gas inside the building.
At this point, D.E.O. arrived on the scene and secured the perimeter around City Hall.
After the metahuman team departed with their flying craft, I supervised the Knightwatch troops in containing those individuals who were caught in mid-transformation on the scene, though the effects appeared to be wearing off. The reverted people had been injected with nanites programmed to attack and reverse the chemical agent causing the devolution effect, no doubt a creation from the metahuman team. Blood samples have been collected and sent to the lab for further analysis.
Gorilla Grodd was restrained and fitted with a neuro-scrambler to nullify his mind control capabilities. Due to a double injection of tranquilizer from the metahuman team, Grodd was incapacitated throughout his trip to Iron Heights Penitentiary, where he woke and revealed that he was not, in fact, Gorilla Grodd. Torvash (see attached metahuman file #161) is a member of the Simian Scarlet, a Gorilla City cabal pledged to aiding Grodd in his world conquest schemes. He volunteered to act as Grodd’s agent in this mission, willingly giving Grodd complete control of his mind and body. Upon Torvash’s incapacitation, however, the mental link was severed. Grodd’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
As for the metahuman team, files have been opened on each of them and will be updated as more information is discovered about these would-be superheroes. It’s clear that they are far from the Justice League’s usual caliber of heroes, and yet witnesses described the teleportation effect used to place them at the bridge as the same effect the Justice League has used so many times in the past. One might be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt considering how well they handled the Central Keystone area situation, but heroes have been used as the pawns of those with un-heroic motives before (see Superman file #012, Ultimen file #A15 and Hawkgirl file #092, for starters). A surveillance team has been assigned the task of monitoring their activity to discern what their true purpose is.
The first mission of the Justice League Alternates!
In true Justice League fashion, I threw the assembled heroes right into the deep end, against an established villain and his mob of minions. Despite the heavily combat-oriented nature of the mission, this session was fairly rules-light and I gave the players leeway to describe how their characters were going to manage an army of apes, something that I encourage anyway from those who play in my games. For me, the focus is always on telling the best story possible and using the rules only so much to support that experience. Dice determine the outcome of only the most dangerous or crucial actions, which is how a superhero game should be run anyway. Making players roll to climb the ladder into Jonathan Else’s flying headquarters, The Phoenix, seemed unnecessary to me. Making them roll to resist Grodd’s mind control, however…
Speaking of Gorilla Grodd, those who have seen the final few episodes of Justice League Unlimited know full well why Grodd shouldn’t be here. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about his fate in the series when I decided to use him, until one of my players reminded me what happened to him. (No spoilers here!) As a Game Master, however, I’m well accustomed to explaining away contradictory information in my games by creating plot lines on the spot. Some quick brainstorming resulted in a plausible reason as to why he’s still active that 
snowballed into a major piece of the mystery behind the missing Justice League that will eventually lead our heroes to [SPOILER REDACTED]! (See? No spoilers!)
As for Agent Cameron Chase, I wanted a government agent to be a foil/ally of the group, someone who’s an established name. Because of the Cadmus arc, any names that were already used in the series would be under suspicion by those who knew their JLU episodes. Instead, I pulled Agent Chase and the D.E.O. into the game as the government’s newest means of monitoring and managing the heroes and their villains. Expect to see her pop up again in future stories.
With their first win under their belts, what challenge awaits our heroes next? Find out in next week’s Story Mode: Justice League Alternates! And feel free to inquire about any aspect of this series in the Comic Booked Forums!
Tags: Cameron Chase, Central City, DC Adventures, DC Comics, DCAU, DCU, DEO, Green Ronin Publishing, Hawkgirl, JLU, Jonathan Else, Justice League, Justice League Alternates, Justice League Unlimited, Keystone City, Knightwatch, R. B. LeMoyne, roleplaying, RPG, Simian Scarlet, Story Mode, Superman, tabletop gaming, The Phoenix, Ultimen
About the Author
Written by R. B. LeMoyne
R. B. LeMoyne has way more comics than boxes to store them in, and more action figures than shelf space to display them, and he keeps buying more of both. He spends his free time blogging about his life as a writer at rblemoyne.blogspot.com or gaming with friends.
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