Superhero Fast-Track

## Premise

Just across the river from the peaceful and idyllic Wellspring City, trouble is brewing, and five teenagers are about to stumble across it entirely by accident.

## Cast

* Zen (DM)
* Tailwind (Tallest)
* Nikola N. Change (Authorticity)
* Kat Afka (Lordlyhour)
* Shaun (Verl)
* Brittney Megan Bronson (Talatala)

## Plot Summary

It's a normal day in Wellspring City, and Tailwind's uncle is at the mechanic's for the day to get his truck fixed, leaving Tailwind unsupervised for the afternoon. Tailwind decides to take the opportunity to explore Endsville and try to loot some valuable materials, but they will need some help to carry their spoils. Tailwind first recruits new kid Nikola, and then their friend Kat, and convinces both to meet them at the bridge to Endsville in a couple hours.

Kat approaches Brittney and convinces her to join him on this excursion by blackmailing her with pictures of her childhood birthday party. Shaun notices Nikola looking at a map to find directions to Endsville and warns them about Endsville being dangerous, but offers to come along because it sounds entertaining. Kat and Brittney both attempt to recruit Shaun as well, resulting in Shaun being triple-recruited.

Two in-game hours later, the five teens meet up at the bridge to Endsville. Tailwind explains that they will be crossing the bridge to go loot mechanical components from Endsville. Brittney protests against the idea of going to Endsville, and says that by recruiting Shaun she's done enough, but the group decides that Shaun recruited himself and Kat continues to hold blackmail over Brittney's head. Shaun refers to Endsville as "the city that kills people", which makes Nikola concerned, but Tailwind and Shaun convince them this is normal. Tailwind grabs a wheelbarrow from the junkyard and the group cross the bridge into Endsville.

Nikola asks what happened to Endsville to make it abandoned. Tailwind doesn't know, but Kat explains there was some kind of disaster decades ago and the town was abandoned after. Shaun clarifies that Endsville was abandoned before Wellspring City was built. Nikola asks Kat about his mask, and the group travels deeper into Endsville by montage while Kat explains the process of making his mask.

As they get deeper into Endsville, Shaun, Brittney, and Kat hear a loud car engine approaching. A tow truck comes flying past, then turns around to approach the teens. Kat ushers everyone into a nearby subway entrance, pulling Tailwind in by their tail. Shaun advises them to check if the rails are still electrified. Kat tries to touch the rail, but Tailwind stops him. Tailwind pulls out a flashlight to light the tunnel and the gang sees that the tunnel is blocked by a stopped train in one direction.

The group walk down the track without the train on it. Nikola tries to talk to Brittney, who blows them off, but Kat convinces Nikola they just need to try harder. The tunnel the players are walking down is blocked by a previous cave-in, but they find a smaller tunnel split off from the main one and walk into the smaller tunnel. The smaller tunnel twists and turns but eventually opens out into an abandoned science lab. There is a vat of green slime in the middle of the room, the walls and floor are covered in dried green goo and discarded science equipment, and Kat notices the outline of a toon on one of the walls in a patch of the goo. Kat investigates the outline on the wall and determines that a toon was flattened against the wall. Tailwind and Shaun investigate an old computer in the room, which has an open document talking about Catalyst-V. Kat suggests they leave and Brittney agrees, but Nikola goes to investigate a vat of green goo in the middle of the room, which explodes and splashes the teens.

Tailwind grabs a jar of the goo to investigate later and prompts everyone to leave, but is overwhelmed by their new superintelligence and isn't able to help the others. Everyone else did worse on their wisdom saves and is panicking and not able to leave. Shaun starts melting, Kat starts dissolving into smoke, the goo is mixing into Nikola's lineart, and Brittney is unresponsive. Shaun starts roasting Kat to cope, and Kat recovers and approaches Brittney to try and help her. Brittney lashes out with Arms of Hadar, surprising both of them and shocking her out of her catatonia.

Tailwind prompts everyone to leave again, and Nikola is still unresponsive, so Kat goes to try and help them. Nikola looks uncanny and casts Cause Fear on Kat without meaning to, causing Kat to scramble away, and asks if everyone is okay in a creepy voice. Tailwind and Brittney book it out of the room, leaving Nikola, Shaun, and Kat behind. Nikola and Shaun are upset at being left behind, and Nikola drops concentration on Cause Fear. Kat runs back over to check on Nikola again. Kat explains that Nikola looks creepy now, and Nikola unintentionally reads his mind to get a picture of what they look like and they are disturbed by it. Shaun tries to climb onto Nikola, who pulls a bucket from hammerspace for him to climb into.

Kat helps support Nikola as they carry Shaun out of the room in the bucket. They find Tailwind curled up just outside the room, trying to cope as their thoughts race. The four of them climb a set of stairs to street level, where Brittney has been trying and failing to head back to Wellspring City on her own. The group head back for the bridge together, but hear the tow truck again. Tailwind fails a Stealth check and attracts the attention of the truck, which pulls onto the same street as the gang and turns out to be a living, mutant tow truck.

In order to avoid being attacked by the tow truck, the teens disguise themselves as normal street objects. Nikola fails to read the truck's mind and accidentally reads Tailwind's mind, which is racing, and tries to comfort them. The tow truck is convinced by the group's disguises and drives away. The group heads back for the bridge, and Shaun and Kat turn back to normal, and Tailwind gets better control of their thoughts. Brittney splits from the group, and Kat and Shaun start trying to convince themselves it was all a hallucination while Nikola is still transformed and standing right there. The remaining members of the group split up to go home, and Nikola turns back to normal on the walk home while lamenting how they're going to explain this to their grandparents.

## Notes

The blackmail Kat uses against Brittney is a picture of one of her childhood birthday parties, "the one with the cake".

The bucket Nikola uses to carry Shaun used to belong to their mother.

While trying to hide from the tow truck, Tailwind dives into a garbage can.

The tow truck is a reskinned Ankylosaurus.

## Art Gallery

Title card for the sessionMap of Wellspring City and Endsville