Hell

After that last stunt, the Night Shift will most likely be intent on shutting down the SCV once and for all. (If not, the Night Captain will tell them to get intent on it.) Their only lead is Benjamin Ward, and he's not difficult to track down. The crew can catch up with him at his office or his home.

He's easily intimidated and (since it's already too late to stop it) he'll be happy to tell the PCs all about his "great work" with the Dustech. The SCV is going to wall off downtown Gotham and remake it into a fairy tale wonderland. From dawn 'till dusk, it'll be their private playground.

Sounds pretty innocuous, but then the power goes out. Everywhere. Water and sewer, too. Under cover of darkness, walls of Dustech rise up around downtown. While the SCVies play, the rest of Gotham riots.

By the time the Night Shift can get on the scene, the walls already tower over nearby buildings. Getting through will require clever negotiations with the Dustech "spirits," judicious application of Hoodoo, or some crazy plan involving hang gliders or zeppelins or something. However, try not to let them bring an automobile; you'll want them on foot until they happen across the Batmobile (see below).

The offices and apartment buildings on the other side have be transformed into mountains. Their occupants are entombed, but sporadic ventilation shafts will keep them alive. It takes the rest of the evening to walk through the streets/canyons and reach the heart of downtown.

They'll find their first SCVies in Gotham park. They've broken up into small groups, each with one "wizard" in Dustech mirrorshades. This particular group is engaged in a fantasy fox hunt. The PCs can ruin their day any way they like.

Ambushing SCVies and confiscating their mirrorshades takes most of the day. I recommend running this scene as a montage. Assign a single Threat Rating to the entire enterprise and run each round as a separate encounter. One of them should involve a pair of teenagers joyriding in the Batmobile. Once the round is over, it'll be the PCs' turn to take it for a spin.

As the sun sets, the crew will notice two things. First, the Dustech is still in place; the SCVies aren't putting everthing back like Benjamin Ward said they would. Second, the fairy tale characters start to take on a more ominous aspect. In particular, they may find themselves pursued by a flying Jaberwocky or a Big Bad Wolf who lives up to all three parts of his name!

Only one stop remains: SCV HQ. They've transformed City Hall into a medieval castle, complete with moat and drawbridge. Anyone wearing mirrorshades will see gargoyles and demons crawling all over its surface. (This, too, is a departure from the rather pleasant "spirits" they've encountered to date.) However, there's no actual security, so the PCs can walk right in.

What they find inside is a carnivale of horrors. The Joker has taken over and recreated his childhood memories: A Dustech knife-thrower carves up the SCV leaders' faces in one corner, women and children are locked in a cage with a Dustech lion, and Batman hangs upside down from the trapeze. He's encased in a Dustech cocoon (the original SCVies' doing) and drugged out of his mind (Joker's addition).

Dethroning the Joker will require securing the loyalty of the "genie:" the control program for the entire Dustech network. The PCs can negotiate with it, but it cannot violate any order its master gives. Joker will pull out all the stops to beat the PCs down: Dustech armor, Dustech blades, Clayface knife-thrower, lions, tigers, bears, whatever!

When it's all over, Batman will reclaim his car and take the Joker back to Arkham (if he's still alive). A nod of thanks to the PCs might be in order, but he's a man of few words. Putting the city back to rights is as easy as asking the genie to make it so.

All in a night's work.

Recommended Opener: The Batmobile flies over the camera and races down a desert canyon! A winged horror or enormous, anthropomorphized wolf thunders past, in hot pursuit! We cut back to the Batmobile and find the Night Shift at the wheel! (I made sure to stick a gas station in the middle of this chase, just so it could end in fire.)