LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: ACTION SCENE: APPEARING BEFORE CONGRESS
You have done your best to garner popular support for the MRA. Now the time has come to go before the congress and testify. Your testimony could make or break the vote; will they vote in the MRA, or will they scrap it and proceed to vote on the SHRA?
This scene, which is really a modification of ACTION: APPEARING BEFORE CONGRESS on CW56, has the heroes working to convince the assembled congressmen, treated together as three mobs, to pass the MRA instead of the SHRA.
Unlike in the original event, the congress is not split into two mobs, but rather into three: those who support the SHRA, those who support the MRA, and those who support neither and want to kill both bills. Change the statistics for each of the three Congressional Committee to TEAM 4D6 to represent the smaller size of each faction (if it offends your sense of realism that congress would be evenly split like this, by all means divide up congress unevenly; just make sure that you don’t unfairly cripple the heroes’ chances). Use the information in ACTION: APPEARING BEFORE CONGRESS on CW56 for additional information and for the stats for the members of congress. If you succeeded in getting a congressman on your side in an earlier Action Scene, treat him as a Resource for your side.
One of the three Congressional Committees is on your side, and provides support for you. The other two are opposed to you (and each other, so by all means play them off of each other). If you reduce one of the Congressional Committees opposed to you to 0D6, they switch sides and “respawn” to 4D6 in your favor. If a Committee on your side reduces to 0D6, it switches to the side that Stressed it out, respawning against the heroes. Once all three Committees are on the same side, the debate is over. The side that gained all three Committees gets its way.
THEIR EVIL PROVES OUR POINT
At some point during their testimony, the Watcher should spend a doom die to introduce Bushwacker to the scene. Like Nitro in the upcoming Stamford incident, Bushwacker has been given Mutant Growth Hormone by Walter Declun (through appropriate channels), and means to take out the heroes and as many congressmen as he can to ensure that the remaining members of congress vote in the SHRA.
You will find Bushwacker’s Datafile on page BR35 of the Breakout Event. Change his Solo Dice to 3D6, and up his MORPHIC GUN-ARM powers to D12.
SUSPICIOUS OF HIS POWER
Given that Bushwacker is so much more powerful than normal, the heroes may get suspicious, especially in later scenes after the Stamford incident if they also recognize that Nitro’s explosion was more powerful than it should have been. After Stamford, they may wish to question Bushwacker about his newly-heightened powers.
If the heroes use a Transition Scene to investigate how Nitro and Bushwacker got so powerful, they can create Resources with which to interview Bushwacker. Success in that interview (an Action Scene where they must inflict Stress Out the villain emotionally or mentally) reveals that he ingested Mutant Growth Hormone, which was supplied by the same source as Nitro. Bushwacker got his marching orders via written message in the mail. Bushwacker never names his employer, saying that he and Nitro always got their orders and drugs by mail, with no return address. The heroes will have to track down Nitro if they want to learn more.
When he enters the battle, he shouts “Equal rights for metahumans!” He then immediately aims towards a congressman nearest the heroes. All during the fight, Bushwacker acts like he’s fearful of the passage of the SHRA and wants to kill “the real monsters who want to make me a slave.” In reality he’s all for it, as he’s looking forward to the continued paychecks he was promised from his mystery benefactor.
If Bushwacker reduces a Committee to 0D6, they do not respawn; the members of that committee have either died or fled. Only the remaining Committees after the fight will vote on the MRA or the SHRA. Should all Committees be eliminated during the fight, the survivors will reconvene later and vote in favor of the SHRA. It is therefore imperative that the heroes protect everyone, not just those who support their cause. If the heroes defeat Bushwacker and none of the Committees reduced to 0D6 at Bushwacker’s hands, the heroes can use this as an excuse to create a I Saved Congress Resource before resuming debate.
NEXT: THE LAST POST IN THE WHAT IF? SERIES: WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
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