Astonishing Adventures: The Return of SHADOW (PDF) *NEW!*

Note: This revised classic adventure is not included in Astonishing Adventures Assembled!

When a Freedom City councilman is targeted by a high-priced arsonist mercenary, it’s time to call in the best to ensure the safety of him and his family. The investigative agents assigned to the task soon discover there is more than meets the eye to the situation, and that the threat to the councilman is just the beginning of a far more serious danger to Freedom City—and perhaps the world!

The Return of SHADOW is an investigative action-adventure for a team of four to six “agent-level” heroes, power level 6. Advice is offered for running the adventure with higher power level superheroes, but the adventure is primarily meant for agent-level play. Toward that end, we have also included M&M third edition versions of the eight agent archetypes from the original Agents of Freedom sourcebook.

SECRET ORIGINS

The Return of SHADOW was originally presented as a sample adventure in the Agents of Freedom sourcebook for the second edition of Mutants & Masterminds—authored by the late, lamented Scott Bennie—in 2007. This version is updated for the third edition of the game for both fans of the original and for current players of M&M who haven’t had a chance to make use of the original adventure.

Since the adventure is intended for agent-level characters, Gamemasters may want to run it as a “change-of-pace” one-shot for a regular superhero campaign, perhaps giving the players a chance to experience the excitement of being a skilled agent in a superhero setting like Earth-Prime. The adventure also offers some other options or alternative ways to run it as part of your Mutants & Masterminds game.