Game Recap - The Alternates Episode #4 ("Falling Star")

Here's a recap of the latest session of my Sentinels RPG campaign "The Alternates"! As per usual, there's a narrative recap (written as if it was in-metaverse) and then I go over the actual running of the game, and any lessons I learned as the GM.

If you're lost, you can catch up with these: Game 1 Recap, Game 2 Recap, Game 3 Recap

Brief Description of the Game: In the meta-verse (where Sentinel comics is a published comic book multimedia empire), there is a premium cable computer-animated (in a style similar to “Into the Spider-Verse”) television series (which itself is based on a comic series called "The Alternates"). This RPG campaign represents that show, with each game session (ideally) representing one hour-long Episode of the show. The recap below is written in-metaverse as if it was an article on a popular website that posts recaps of episodes.

The PCs are Cytoblast, Dr. Comet, Jersey Devil, Kid Radical, and Quasar Kid. The characters Bouncer and Starshadow are featured NPCs. Enjoy!

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The Alternates Episode #4 Recap:
“Falling Star”

By Eddie Jaczerkowski

Episode #4 of “The Alternates” - titled “Falling Star” - is here, and the utter chaos in this alternate Sentinels comics timeline continues to unfold! As always, spoilers for this episode follow (but no spoilers for future episodes).

Episode Recap

As Episode #4 opens, we’re treated to another character flashback. Last episode started in the 1940s, but this episode begins in the distant future (sometime in the 30th century). The earth is idyllic and utopian, with beautiful trees lining futuristic streets. In this bright future, a sprawling silver retro-futuristic building towers in the midst of a shining city, complete with rings and domes.

The camera tracks through the door of the building, which has a familiar logo on it. The symbol is an “F” much like the one the Freedom Five uses, but it is surrounded by rings with small circles in each ring, like planets orbiting the sun or electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom. (For those unfamiliar with this symbol, it represents the Freedom Legion, a league of superheroes who exist in the far future.)

Inside the building, the staff of the Freedom Legion rush around busily. There are hundreds of people in colorful tunics and black slacks, as well as a dozen or more young people in superhero costumes. The camera pans upward through the many floors of Freedom Legion headquarters to an office in the upper floors.

In this office, a grizzled man in a uniform decorated with medals sits behind a desk. An assistant enters and tells the man (called “Commander Shepard”) that “the kid” they sent to Vosgoron Prime has reported an emergency. The Commander cracks that he sent the kid “on a milk run” and “he’s as green as Yaploxin tomatoes” and, finally, that the kid “is probably calling because he couldn’t find a bathroom.”

The screen activates, and it’s none other than Quasar Kid on the other end! Quasar Kid greets the Commander and tells him there’s a large number of “thaumaturgion” particles on the planet. The Commander seems doubtful, but Quasar Kid assures him that he calibrated his instruments and it’s a real measurement. This shocks the Commander, who tells the kid to get his “patootie” off-planet immediately.

The camera cuts to Quasar Kid on this purple alien world, where the young hero says, “Sir, I can handle this.” But a deep, growling voice behind him says, “No, you cannot handle this.” Quasar Kid whips around to see a man wearing no shirt, with a cybernetic arm, a bionic eye, and big, black mechanical wings on his back.

Quasar Kid gasps and shouts the name “MechApostate” - this is a future cyborg version of the well-known 20th-century villain Apostate. (He’s obscure, sure, but MechApostate first appeared decades ago in comics featuring the future with the Freedom Legion.)

Quasar Kid immediately takes a boxing stance and tries to sock MechApostate in the jaw. He misses. He swings with a left hook and misses again. He finally throws an uppercut that MechApostate effortlessly catches in his hand. Quasar Kid’s punch explodes with energy, but MechApostate is unfazed. He casually throws Quasar Kid through the air, into a magical red portal swirling nearby.

Quasar Kid tumbles through a tunnel in reality, but he twists himself and tries to break through the “walls” of his strange magical wormhole. This move launches him into the upper atmosphere of the Earth, approximately in the 1990s. He falls (like a “falling star”) through the sky, and lands in a suburban neighborhood, right on someone’s compact car. The car’s alarm starts going off with a loud klaxon.

A man in a lawn chair in front of the nearest house stands up, mouth agape. He holds up a remote and clicks a button, turning off the car alarm with a “boop boop”!

The show then cuts back to Rook City, where the protagonists - Cytoblast, Dr. Comet, Jersey Devil, Kid Radical, and Quasar Kid - stand near the fallen bodies of Heritage and Haka, along with Bouncer and Starshadow. The remaining heroes gather around - Absolute Zero, Argent Adept, Harpy, Legacy, Naturalist, Setback, and Tempest.

(The last episode ended with the reveal of Grand Warlord Voss standing and overlooking Rook City, but that was a reveal for the audience. None of the heroes are aware that he’s nearby.)

Cytoblast delivers a short eulogy for Heritage on the spot, talking about how his sacrifice saved this world. The other heroes stand silently for a moment. Argent Adept breaks the silence, suggesting the heroes search the city to make sure no more of Oblivaeon’s forces remain. The heroes all nod.

Starshadow tells the others he’s going to investigate Oblivaeon’s machine (referring to the giant Oblivion Engine that towers over Rook City). He asks Dr. Hemlocke (Cytoblast) and Dr. Aster (Dr. Comet) to accompany him.

Jersey Devil tells his team that he wants to pursue Oblivaeon and destroy him, but Starshadow tells him he has no way to go wherever Oblivaeon is, and no way to destroy Oblivaeon, either. Jersey Devil teleports off to the Oblivion Engine, examining its structure and makeup as he teleports all over it.

Starshadow, Cytoblast, and Dr. Comet study the Oblivion Engine. While they’re messing around, a self-destruct sequence starts, and massive energy begins to channel into the machine. As the scientists start working to fix it, Quasar Kid spots some apparent enemies approaching - ape-like creatures that resemble bigfoot, wearing some sort of skintight suits! The team is clearly puzzled by this twist, and a battle begins!

In this scene, each member of the team goes from trying to figure out how to deactivate the Oblivion Engine to fighting the ape-beasts, back to helping with the Oblivaeon Engine. Jersey Devil teleports around, attacking the apes. Then, Kid Radical mimics his movements, and somehow pulls off a similar attack without teleporting (just by bouncing around the street on his skateboard). Dr. Comet deciphers the Oblivion Engine’s controls, then unleashes her magical ice attacks on the sasquatch monsters.

Jersey Devil teleports away from the scene, retrieving one of the giant swords left behind by the Scions Judge and Jury. He then leaps from a building, using his teleportation (and conservation of momentum) to perform a powerful charging slash that cuts through the ape-monsters. Quasar Kid siphons power out of the Oblivion Engine as it begins to deactivate, then unleashes that power on the ape-beasts.

At this point, Quasar Kid and Cytoblast realize that these “ape-creatures” are actually Gene-bound Humans, meaning Voss’s gene-binding technology is to blame. Is Voss nearby? The heroes don’t have time to ask!

The show then shifts to another part of Rook City, where we see Grand Warlord Voss walking through the rubble. Voss has clearly become a Scion of Oblivaeon. The alien conquerors has crystal shards protruding from his back (where previously he had bony protrusions), and his form crackles with power.

The scene zooms out, and we see the Ennead, the Egyptian gods themselves, have surrounded Voss.

Voss says, “I expected to see the same old Earthlings rising to defend their world once again, but I see none of them here. What are you, then? Costumed performers? Are you here to dazzle me with one of your world’s dramatic plays?"

Clearly indignant, Atum replies with a booming voice, “Would-be conqueror, you face the gods of Egypt!"

Voss smiles and says, “Then show me what meager power passes for divinity here.”

The Ennead closes on Voss, magical energies flaring.

And the show cuts back to the team, deactivating the Oblivion Engine. Cytoblast uses his plant-monster form, turning his fingers into long, root-like tendrils, and sucks away the power from the self-destruct sequence. He then is able to reach into the technological innards of the Oblivion Engine and deactivate the self-destruct sequence.

The heroes breathe a sigh of relief, but they see a bright flash off in another part of the city, so they rush to investigate. As they move through the ruins, they find the bodies of all the Ennead, beaten and dead, strewn about a ruined block of Rook City.

They cross through another street and reach a massive pile of rubble that was once City Hall. Sitting atop the pile of rubble is Grand Warlord Voss. Around him, the fallen bodies of the other heroes - Absolute Zero, Argent Adept, Harpy, Legacy, Naturalist, and Setback - lay bloody and broken. Before Voss kneels Tempest, still alive but severely hurt.

Voss insults the heroes, telling them he doesn’t even recognize any of them except Starshadow. He gloats about the defeat of all the heroes, and offers the protagonists a spot in his army. (He promises he won’t even gene-bind them.)

Starshadow rushes Voss at top speed, but Voss is prepared and runs him through with a short crystal blade. The crystal dagger disrupts Starshadow’s form, and his body begins to dissolve into the black dots that make up the signature visual effect of his power.

Voss asks Starshadow, who is coughing as his body comes apart, what his “contraption” did, and how he defeated Oblivaeon. Voss reveals that he intended to betray Oblivaeon, but now Starshadow has cleared the way for Voss to conquer Earth… and the universe!

Starshadow disintegrates, leaving behind only a burst of black bubbling dots as he fades from the world. Voss, still gloating, waves his crystal blade at the remaining heroes, telling them that he will delight in killing each and every last one of them and conquering their planet.

“But I’ll admit,” he finally says, “I will have help.”

Voss points to the sky, and we see dozens of “falling stars” - drop ships bringing Voss’s invading army down to the surface of the Earth.

The credits roll as “Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como plays.

Final Thoughts

What?!? Starshadow died? Well, that is not a thing that happened in the Alternates comic book series. I guess we’ll have to see where that goes. Maybe this version of the story is going to go a different way.

The flashback story for Quasar Kid was fun, and gave the episode a nice, comical beginning before we dove into yet another set of tragedies.

Speaking of tragedies… I can’t believe they killed the rest of the heroes off-screen, especially Legacy! I get that we were supposed to assume the flash of light was Voss fighting the Ennead, and that was a little story twist, but seriously… you can’t just end the Legacy line off-screen! That’s awful!

Each episode gets more desperate, somehow. This story was all told through flashbacks in the original comic series, and there weren’t an abundance of detail. How do the Alternates defeat Scion Voss and his entire genebound army? I don’t know. But I guess we’ll find out next episode (or else this series is going to be tragic and short).

Finally, I can’t believe they brought MechApostate into this show. Even as a very short, tongue-in-cheek reference, this scene has probably quadrupled the number of people who are aware of MechApostate’s existence.

That’s all for this week! I’ll be back next week to review Episode #5, titled “The End of the Beginning.”

Eddie Jaczerkowski is a staff writer who loves comic books and writes about television.

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Running the Game

First off, the genebound humans were multiple waves of lieutenants, and I learned DON'T DO THAT. Lieutenants take a while to grind down, and it gets very boring to fight lots of them. They're just too resilient. I should've just had one group of lieutenants attack them, and some minions... I mean... a flock of genebound geese would've been better than making them fight all those lieutenants. Anyway, I slowly revealed hints that these weird "space apes" were actually genebound humans, and my players guessed it before the scene ended, so that was great.

That's my only game-running thought right now, but I did want to talk about timelines!

Timeline Nerdery

If you're like me, and you enjoy worldbuilding and lore and stuff, then this section is for you!

So, in this timeline, Mad Bomber Baron Blade succeeds in blowing up lots of Megalopolis and killing loads of people. This makes him snap (he doesn't actually expect to kill a bunch of people), and he flees to a secret space base. Legacy and Starshadow pursue him into space, where an enraged Legacy subdues him. In the issue of Disparation in which this story is written, the reader is left to wonder if Legacy is about to kill Baron Blade (gasp!), but he backs off. Starshadow, being a bit more morally flexible than Legacy, disintegrates the Baron on the spot.

The focus of the story is really Legacy nearly killing Baron Blade, but ultimately choosing to spare him. The fact that Starshadow disintegrates Baron Blade in the original Disparation story was a minor thing at the time, but that Disparation story turned into the Alternates comic series, which turned into The Alternates animated television show!

Without Baron Blade, there is no Vengeance. Without Vengeance, there are no regression darts for Nightmist. Without the regression darts, this timeline's Nightmist's powers go out of control. She ends up institutionalized (don't do Cthulhu magic, people) and her magical powers are locked away by other magic-users so she's not a danger to everyone. With Nightmist's magical powers locked away, the main universe's Nightmist can't open any Mist Portals to this timeline. Without Mist Portals, this timeline ends up pretty isolated from all the craziness of the Oblivaeon Event.

This world also lacks Oblivion Shards, for the most part - the Captain Cosmic and Infinitor of this timeline had them, but Void Guard never got them. This timeline's Voss wasn't banished by Nightmist in the same way - he was just sent to the other end of the universe with no means of return. When Oblivaeon came to this Voss, he didn't fight - he immediately agreed to become a Scion, for whatever reason. He is, therefore, a very different Rainek Kel'Voss than the one who kills Oblivaeon.

If you didn't notice the heroes missing from this story so far, here's the list!

• The Southwest Sentinels, later calling themselves the Void Guard, left earth, and haven't been seen lately.
• The Scholar and Guise are heroes and buddies in this timeline, but they haven't been seen on Earth lately.
• Sky-Scraper is missing from the story, and no one on Earth has ever heard of her.
• This timeline's K.N.Y.F.E. hasn't been seen since Progeny was defeated.
• This Earth has seen the villain Deadline, but hasn't heard of the hero Lifeline.
• Akash'bhuta never became Akash'thriya... but she's not Akash'bhuta anymore either.
• La Comodora has only visited this timeline one time, as hinted at in Episode #2
• Tachyon isn't in the story... yet!
• Nightmist is still institutionalized, so she wasn't available for the Oblivaeon Crisis... and she didn't become a Mist Portal.
• Luminary is... well, I mean, I just talked about how Baron Blade was very definitely disintegrated! Sure, once Baron Blade was declared dead, someone did step forward and take over Mordengrad, and that guy calls himself "Luminary," but it's definitely not Ivan Ramonat, because Ivan Ramonat was very definitely disintegtated in space decades ago, for certain.

That's all from me for this week! Except I did finish my drawing of Kid Radical!