MAY 23

Soothsayers speak of the return of the Phoenix. What's the phoenix? Besides Albus Dumbledore's pet? No one really knows, but the oracles are predicting something that'll threaten all life as we know it. On a completely unrelated note, many psionics in Kingsport have reported a strange feeling, as if being watched. One a different completely unrelated note, mediums have reported that something seems amiss on the other side. How strange.

FROM: Initiative
TO: Heroes
The Initiative have located a (perhaps the?) hideout of a crime syndicate in Arkham. Avoid lethal force if possible, and exercise caution. Many of them are the surviving test subjects from a supersoldier experiment. Few of them have developed any supersoldier-esque abilities, but all of shown some sort of mutation, some of which are monstrous. Ideally, targets will be captured for our research department. If capture is not an option, do what you must.

FROM: Initiative
TO: Heroes
There will be an attack in Old Town two weeks from now. No details are currently known. We are gathering a team of heroes to counter the threat. Anyone familiar with the area and able to respond with immediacy and versatility to a sudden threat, please respond to this notice if you're willing to join a patrol team.

The word on the street is that there's something ugly in the works for Old Town--not this week but next week. Not all vigilantes have information sources to rely on, but the buzz for this one is loud and insistent. Everyone knows. Surely the Initiative is already preparing a response, but maybe you should investigate.

They're closing off a block in Sentinel Hill for the annual Spring Festival in K-Town, where local farmers show up to make lots of money. What sets it apart from a typical farmer's market is the food stands, ranging from fresh organic smoothies, warm slices of pie, a multitude of cheese, bacon on a stick, steak on a stick, pork belly on a stick, all sorts of meat on a stick, scotch eggs (on a stick?), and more besides. With a bit of live music and wine sampling, they're expecting a sizable and pleasant crowd.

JUNE 14

A delivery went awry in Arkham. Truckloads of a new hallucinogen called dust were lost in an accident. While the effects of dust are potent and surprisingly affordable, very few people are aware that its use drains spiritual energy from your body. A week of regular use kills you dead. But where does the energy drain to? Who's gathering all this energy? It can't be for anything good, that's for sure.

Savage Video Game Cup is an annual fighting game tournament hosted in Sentinel Hill. It's considered a major for various games, providing circuit points and a total prize pool over $1,000,000. Savage draws a massive crowd and almost everyone there is a contestant themselves.

The Borgata has realized that there's a small group of cheaters in their regular clientele. They're not sure how the cheating is done--perhaps by superpowers--but they're certain it's happening. They've contacted the Initiative for help sorting things out, but they've also quietly made it known that they will pay $500,000 to any vigilante that "fixes" the problem for them.

Oricon has contacted the government and the Initiative with 1) an apology, and 2) extremely bad news. Their ultra-secure copy of the blueprints to the Atlantic Penitentiary are gone--stolen. They fear the worst, a potential jailbreak, but they've tried to reassure everyone that even with the blueprints, breaking into or out of the Penitentiary is no small feat.

JULY 07

There's a fireworks display--nothing unusual for the Fourth of July--but these fireworks weren't set off by anybody. When the police showed up, they went to the rooftop of a foreclosed building, and it was obvious that no one had been here for years. Those with more of a clue than the cops are calling for exorcists before these ghosts get up to more serious trouble-making.

A political rally in Kingswood goes sour. Demonstrators became angry and rude, and the campaigners retaliated. The Initiative arrives to helicopter a candidate to safety, but otherwise the Initiative leaves the dirty work to the police. It's not a riot yet, but it's close. The police need help--or just the right push for everything to go to hell.

A cryogenics lab has a problem with the walking dead. They've gone on full shut-down because, well, all the corpses they've frozen are up and moving again. You'd think they'd shatter if you smacked them, but instead they seem made of impervious ice. Their touch is frostbite, and their cold unlife seems... contagious.

It's yet another super-soldier serum. Like many others before it, it only sort of works. Researchers have quietly begun searching for a second round of willing test subjects. What happened to the first round? They died of old age. They became superhuman, but they also aged at about a year per day. Here's to hoping the refined formula has less severe side effects.

JULY 22

Something peculiar has been happening in Bayou Morgan. The scent of magic, of something foul, seems to fill the swampy air itself, and its manifesting itself in scales and water. The creatures of the swamp, with the gators in particular, have become very aggressive and nocturnal, threatening the citizens in the surrounding area. People have asked for help, for investigations, but so far those that have gone within at night haven't come out...

The Honey Den of Lafayette has always been... questionable, at best, known to a select clientele for its opiates, but something else seems to have come up. The hallucinogen known as dust, previously finding its way into Kingsport, has been traced to the Louisiana area, particularly to the Honey Den itself. A discreet investigation has been launched; simultaneously, the criminal underworld is looking into it for lucrative reasons.

The estate now known as Sanctuary is already running into a minor issue; both citizens and heroes alike are raising complaints of noises in the night, movement in the halls. The staff hasn't reported any of this, but they have asked for help in dealing with whatever is spooking the residents and patients alike.

A researcher at SenTech was reported missing; the third one this week. The missing three all have the same thing in common; they were all working in one of the newly established robotics departments, but any cursory research into the topic brings up red tape and locked files. The police are at a loss; just where are these people going, if they aren't leaving the campus?