BASH synopsis

## Main Campaign

### Introduction, The Mall Incident

MERIT has Cerebella reach out to recruit new heroes and dispatch them to the *Eastern Stroll*, a mall located in Northeast Megapolis. The rescue operation quickly turns into a large battle, with heroes and newcomers consisting of Space Dandy, Hackerman, Bubberducky, Tremor, and Surge facing off against a group of terrorists with stolen exo-suits, as well as a mysterious attacker, assailing them from the shadows. A then-unidentified hero recovers the only undamage exo-suit and flies away.

### The Strawman Argument

The group investigates a break in a Agritech, a famous agricultural and research company. What is initially a search and rescue for the researchers at Agritech turns into a battle with Strawman. He attempts to steal information within Agritech's database in order to destroy their businesses as revenge for the state of his life. Strawman manages to evade capture, while the heroes manage to save countless employees. The heroes soon find a connection with Agritech and Jugal.

### The Pride of MERIT

The heroes continue following up on the most recent investigation as well as the stolen exosuit from The Mall Incident. The combination of an arrival of an unknown entity and Space Dandy activating his spaceship while on the Sky Fortress causes the Sky Fortress to begin to crash. In the ensuing chaos, the heroes fight this unknown assailant with Von Stroheim electing to fight him at a different location. The Sky Fortress crashes, with the majority of heroes managing to survive.

### Investigating X-Ray

While MERIT continues to recover from the catastrophic loss of the Sky Fortress, the heroes are given a new case. There is a new criminal who has been robbing banks and melting vault doors with a high powered laser, and has taken a young girl as hostage. Surge, Cerebella, and The Jet Black Wings investigate and are backed up by Venom. Their investigation leads them to several places throughout the surrounding area, while Cerebella and The Jet Black Wings follow up an investigation at the Ekstrom residence. The Jet Black Wings manages to sneak past all security and investigate a suspicious shed. The party learns that the kidnapped girl is Abigail Ekstrom, daughter of Raymond Ekstrom. After a short conversation and a failed mind reading of Raymond Ekstrom, Cerebella leaves the property with The Jet Black Wings. The party shares their information on the whereabouts of Mrs. Ekstrom and Raymond Ekstrom and returns to the Ekstrom residence shortly after. They plan to question Raymond as the top suspect in the investigation and possibly recover the kidnapped Abigail. During their investigation Raymond equips a powered helmet and reveals himself as X-Ray, the dangerous criminal that they were searching for. After a brief, but destructive battle with X-Ray, Raymond Ekstrom is killed. The heroes attempt to console Abigail with the loss of her father, and continue investigating the household. The shed, previously investigated the The Jet Black Wings, leads them to an underground laboratory lined with carbodanium. They recover a similar helmet to X-Ray but are unable to find a power source. Additionally, they find plans for a new energy source which is assumed to be what powers the helmet. The heroes elect to keep the helmet, as it is also lined with carbodanium.

### Corporate Conversations

The heroes decide to investigate into Agritech and Jugal further, following up on Strawman and the late Raymond Ekstrom as well as his daughter, Abigail Ekstrom. They discover a connection between the two companies as well as the unknown energy source being produced thanks to a tip from Solara, who has been investigating Agritech on her own. With the promise of more clues being unearthed, the heroes follow Solara's tips and speak to the CEO of Jugal. He is currently livid with the accusations, as well with dealing with the merger of the two companies and the new CEO. The party meets the new CEO and is surprised to find Abigail Ekstrom as the emerging head of the companies, under Jugal, Inc. She tells the heroes to leave, as she wants nothing further to do with heroes, citing her father's death and the futility of heroes. Outside of Jugal, several creatures with 4 arms attack the group, demanding the data that they recently acquired. The creatures are swiftly defeated, save for the last one who elects to kill himself. The heroes continue their lead into Agritech and slip into a research facility. Recovering the data along with Solara's previous information, Solara is given updated information on the new energy source, and promises to return to the heroes with the results of their efforts as soon as possible.

### One Man's Trash

A few of the heroes are tasked by MERIT to retrieve information and equipment from the crashed MERIT Sky Fortress. After disabling the defenses, they manage to board the wreckage and begin retrieving data. Not long in their search, they are attacked by a powerful psionic meta-human. The assailant manages to walk away with data and defends itself against the party's attack. After the party sends Cerebella to return the information gathered to MERIT, the rest of the party decides to contact Space Dandy, as he is the only known way to contact Solara.

### Crytorium

The heroes and Solara meet a few weeks later, having had time to process their information. Surge and Beau are able to decipher some elements in the odd energy source, as well as a few unknown elements. Once properly combined, they form a new type of energy source: Crytorium. The Crytorium is named after its forging process involving cryotic technology. Solara's half of the information confirms that one of the few organizations that are capable of using this technology is Agritech. The party follows Solara's information and successfully gathers the materials and components needed to recreate a limited form of crytorium. Using the unique energy source from crytorium, Beau is able to begin working on a system to track crytorium energy sources around the world.

### Heroes of the Past

The heroes become more acquainted with MERIT staff, including some veteran heroes. They have some conversations with Silverback and Kriegsmarine, and briefly run into Tigerman. Riptide is questioned as the artifact that summoned Stratos was sent in the mail to her. The heroes, thanks to Beau and Cerebella decrypting the information taken from the Sky Fortress. Among this information is files pertaining to Solara when she was an active hero. Further digging reveals that Solara was one of the first enhanced meta-humans, with top scientists and researchers such as Gregory Roberts coming up on the list. Cerebella volunteers to read through more of the information as the heroes enjoy their downtime.

### Ley Lines Return

During their downtime, Surge and Beau are given enough time to analyze the crytorium information. Using this information combined with newly-gleaned research involving Solara and Roberts Industries, the group comes to a conclusion that the crytorium crystals are able to be activated by attacking it with a similar, or more powerful abundant energy source. Thankfully, Dandy has been identified as a being of infinite energy and becomes a catalyst for the reopening of the ley lines.

### The World That Was

The heroes awake to find everyone alive and well. They begin to test out their new abilities and figure out their new limits and capabilities. Meanwhile, it has been reported that an energy surge ignited the atmosphere and spread throughout the globe, causing mass panic.

### The New Humans and the Old Enemies

The reopening of the ley lines, as well as the energy surge through the earth's atmosphere causes humanity to advance the metahuman gene. Several people have enhanced abilities, as well as humans with no previous powers exhibiting various levels of metahuman abilities. The heroes investigate and try to maintain peace within Megapolis with new metahumans causing various crimes. Meanwhile, MERIT struggles to catalogue all the changes in humanity. Cerebella finds some important information regarding Solara.

### Premeditated Revenge

The heroes notice the lack of communication with Cerebella and decide to track her down. Similarly, Solara's communication with Surge and Beau goes quiet. The heroes track Solara to her apartment, where she is being attacked by Cerebella. Solara is suffering several continuous mind blasts, as well as asphyxiation from Cerebella. They ask Cerebella to stand down, to which she ignores them. A struggle ensues, and the heroes manage to disable Cerebella, giving time for Solara to escape. During their interrogation, they learn that Cerebella came across information that links Solara as the cause of the fire that killed her family. Solara, in her guilt, refused to fight back. The heroes demand that Cerebella does not go after Solara, and she seems to agree to stay away from her.

### Strings and Strands

Following the previous battle, the heroes take time to heal and analyze the situation. During this time, they come across some very disturbing details involving Divinera...

### Missing People, Missing Pieces II

The party follows their latest lead looking for Max's mother. They take a portal to an unknown base and manage to locate the booster. She has been converted to a literal living weapon as a wearable booster pack. The party liberates her and eliminates the lab. Before leaving, they discover some details of the landscape outside of the underground base. Upon examining a plant that seemed alien, it is revealed that it is a true chimera plant, matching plants on Earth. Citizens on the surface of this place refer to their location as Earth II. The moon apears to be shattered, with only a quarter of it remaining. The heroes ponder whether this was a portal to another time or another planet.

### The Bystritsky Solution

The heroes recover Beatrice Blakowitz, the booster. They perform a group dive into her mind and simultaneously create an ultrasound to bring her out of her coma. Beatrice explains the night of her husband's murder and her ability as a booster. The party theorizes that her desperate attempt to save Maxwell may have given him his speedster capabilities. Beatrice once again boosts herself, restoring herself physically. She warns Maxwell that a booster should never boost themself, as it could cost them dearly.

### Blowing off Steam

Seeking to make use of their downtime during discoveries, the heroes locate another of Paradox's underground fighting tournaments, and engage in a friendly bout with The Iron Vest. 56 and Surge have a lengthy battle, and Maxwell gets to unleash more of his power. Meanwhile, Blakewell unknowingly chats up Puppet Master, and Ressica Jabbit is reunited with Surge.

### Shelving the Puppet Master I

The breakthroughs in the medical field for Blakewell lead him to push progress on the cure for the Paradox drug. Meanwhile the group learns information from Umbra about Puppet Master's vulnerability. They enact a plan involving several heroes and outsiders, including 57 and 56. 56 reveals her brother's location as well as 57's identity and the group puts together a plan to stop Puppet Master once and for all.

### Shelving the Puppet Master II

Learning about Puppet Master's weakness of needing to recharge at crytorium towers, the group learns from 56 and 57 about his next whereabouts. He is in 4 locations at the same time. As such, the group splits into teams to simultaneously deal with Puppet Master in a joint strike. Team Germany is comprised of Surge, 56, and Kriegsmarine. Team Japan is comprised of The Jet Black Wings, Ressica Jabbit, and and 57. Team Brazil is comprised of The Golden Shepard, Cerebella, and Maxwell. Team Megapolis is comprised of Blakewell, Silverback, and Solara.

Team Germany destroys a corporate building due to no small part of Kriegsmarine. In the ensuing chaos, Surge saves 56. Team Japan quickly assassinates their Puppet Master and suffers a brief mind control inflicted on 57. Team Brazil has Maxwell grab Beatrice in order to boost Cerebella back to meta-human form in order to have her and the Shepard mind dive their Puppet Master. Cerebella exhibits some new ice powers along with some of her old psionic abilities and they successfully mind dive Puppet Master, who is able to operate his body and still fight in his mind. Meanwhile, team Megapolis rushes their Puppet Master with Silverback taking the lead, destroying him. All teams successfully get the jump on their Puppet Master, but some of the teams are caught in a force field/tractor beam and being pulled towards Germany. One of the only two remaining Puppet Masters in Brazil reveals that the tractor beam is pulling them towards the alien ship over Germany. He truthfully explains that he is working as a double agent to the aliens on behalf of Paradox, uploading doctored information to crytorium towers. Unfortunately the ritual was interrupted, and the aliens are summoning all of him based on their suspicions.

Kriegsmarine and Surge joint attack the force field pulling their Puppet Master to safety (subsequently obliterating him), and Kriegsmarine's all out attack reveals an alien spaceship peering out of a dimensional tear high over Germany. Surge pushes through their force field, utilizing the weak point where Kriegsmarine shot and makes his way onto the ship. He quickly notices the four-armed aliens as the Demons of the Astrowaste. A hand quietly grabs his shoulder to spin him around, revealing Tigerman.

## Prelude Campaign

### Festivities and Fanatics

In the summer of 1943, Megapolis holds several festivals celebrating the dawn of metahumans and their role in America's recent success. During the festivities, Senator King gives a controversial speech about the problem with the recent trend of vigilantes. During the speech a young boy is seemingly assaulted by random metahumans. Several heroes intervene to help him, and their presence is noted by local MERIT agents. Elsewhere a MERIT agent shirks her duties, leaving Mr. 8 to do her job. Mr. 8 hands out flyers from MERIT urging them to join for the good of their country. Among those present include veteran hero Luminore, celebrity Ressica Jabbit, and local vigilante Spinerette.

### How Now Brown Cow

Shortly after the festival, the group of heroes expands to include Coldfinger, Luciana, and a young Nemesis. A Swedish hero named The Winged Hussar explains that he is (unsuccessfully) searching for his arch nemesis. After his departure, the group is approached by a MERIT recruiter who unconvincingly introduces himself as "Bob". Mostly uninterested in the offer, the majority of the group (and "Bob") follows after Nemesis to his favorite spot, "Pal's". Sal, after much distraction, explains his predicament to Nemesis, but is soon interrupted by the Brown Cow gang. The majority of the party that is present at the bar engages them in combat, killing all but two of them.