24 terrorists from up-to-then-unknown "United Front for Wakanda Liberation" have attacked the Manhattan seat of the Hellfire Club, taking 50 hostages (including Emma Frost, secretly a mutant and a member of the Inner Circle, and maybe other members of the Inner Circle). As the Inner Circle is trying to not reveal their mutant powers (and Frost's telepathy is useless against the four terrorist leaders), the Police is called; but, as the terrorists seem to be very powerful, the Police asks superheroes for help. The terrorists are making demands of ten million dollars and a escape route, and allow for a hostage who was having a heart attack to leave. Any direct attack against the four main terrorist automatically fails, and no magic or radiation is detected from them. The leading terrorists are simply wearing thick padded uniforms with weird gadgets or pendants that seem to provide them powers; the other twenty terrorists are only wearing urban camo and typical guns, and are being paid in Krugerrands (a South African coin).
The villain behind this plot is illusion-casting Mastermind, who wanted to get even on the Club for rejecting his application to membership. Mastermind, hidden in the building, is trying to force the Inner Circle to reveal their mutant powers, so that they'd lose their status and discredit the organization (however, even if succeeded at this, any exposed Inner Circle member would simply create a new identity for him or herself, then re-join the Circle), by creating four false terrorists that were immune to everything - but the hostage situation was taking too much time, and he was getting impatient, leading to Mastermind's illusions becoming too raving and exorbitant, thus giving hints to his enemies. The other twenty terrorists are New York thugs, paid in fool's gold.
The heroes may ally with the Inner Circle against Mastermind (but the Inner Circle is treacherous). Mastermind is apprehended but the police, unaware of his real skills, simply use a Stane International invisibility-nullifying harness to keep him under control. This device is useless against Mastermind's powers and, unless kept on a close watch by superheroes, the villain would escape before reaching a more-prepared cell.
Notes
A
The notes suggest using the Armstrong Hotel from the Advanced Set .
role-playing game adventure published in Dungeon magazine #25 (September/October 1990), intended for the Advanced Set rules, with art by John Statema. The cartographer was not credited.
No player characters are suggested for the adventure, but an illustration by John Statema seems to suggest that Hawkeye, Moon Knight and Daredevil may fit the plot.
The rules recommend using the Deluxe City Campaign Set maps, placing the Hellfire Club, for purposes of the game, in the Fifth Avenue between 48th and 49th street; if that set is not available, the text suggests using the Armstrong Hotel from the Advanced Set map, in the corner of 8th Avenue and "Johnson Street" (which is not in Manhattan).
_from_Dungeon_magazine_25.jpg){kind=link}
