Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest

What sort of tone should I shoot for with this Quest?

  • Go as crack fueled as you can we want Ambush Bug, Snowflame and Duckseid

    Votes: 30 7.7%
  • Go for something silly but keep a little bit of reason

    Votes: 31 7.9%
  • Adam West Camp

    Votes: 27 6.9%
  • Balanced as all things should be

    Votes: 195 50.0%
  • Mostly serious but not self-involvedly so

    Votes: 73 18.7%
  • Dark and brooding but with light at the end of the tunnel

    Votes: 12 3.1%
  • We're evil and we don't want anyone to be happy

    Votes: 22 5.6%

  • Total voters
    390
  • Poll closed .
So this isn't quite what was asked of me but it is something I think is interesting and would be engaging for people to hear about. I initially wanted to answer the "ideal pet" question, but too often I found myself completely stumped as to what animal they enjoyed, or thought that the person should not be responsible for an animal (Roxy for example).

There were two big exceptions to my struggles. The first was Jinx, where I actually feel like the ideal pet for her would be something like a large albino patternless Burmese python. Not only is it a pet she'd enjoy a lot and would think is cool, but it's reasonably easy to care for and can be used as a familiar of sorts to enhance her magical capabilities. Broadly speaking (though not universally) familiars generally work by blurring the line between the magic user and the animal, allowing some traits (including symbolic ones) to be copied over from one to the other. The closer the individual associates themselves with the animal, the easier it is to form that link, hence why an albino patternless variant is great for Jinx.

As such there's actual really useful abilities having such a familiar would confer onto Jinx, ranging from increased flexibility and strength to more symbolic things like being able to tap into the rebirth and medicine associations of a snake to metaphorically "shed her skin" and heal from injuries.

There are other animals that could be used as a familiar but this specific type of python is one that I see her having no problems caring for and generally bonding and enjoying having one.

The other character who was technically an exception to my struggles was Cassandra. She's not an exception to my struggles because I couldn't think of any animals she'd enjoy, but because I couldn't narrow down the list to find a single animal I'd consider ideal. Only now are we getting past the preamble where you can realize what this post is meant to be and that's a short list of just some of the options available to Cassandra under the "get a new pet" option that she would have no issues with and a potentialy name (the quest would get to vote on it but this is one default name option). Keep in mind that this is a shortlist, and I don't consider it spoilers because it lists possibilities but doesn't say the actual dice roll needed to get one of these as pets
  • A Grizzly Bear cub
  • A large amount of Great Grey Shrikes
  • Asian Giant Hornets
  • An over 50 year old Spider Crab
  • The Inland Taipan
  • A pair of Secretary birds
  • A Goliath Bird Eater spider
  • Bombardier Beetles
  • A Tasmanian Devil
  • A Saltwater Crocodile
  • A Stellar's Sea Eagle
  • A pack of African Wild Dogs
  • A Komodo dragon
  • Wolf Eels
  • A tiger shark
  • A school of Lionfish
  • A live rat king
  • A mob of meerkats
  • A ukari
  • Three Leopard Seals
  • A Scarlet Macaw
  • A bighorn sheep
  • A Great Horned Owl
  • A baby Tapir
  • A Coquerel's Sifaka lemur
  • A foosa
  • A maned wolf
  • A bongo antelope
  • A red kangaroo
  • A young male mandrill
Suffice to say Cassandra really is cool with a bunch of animals to the point where it's really difficult to narrow down an ideal pet.
 
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Maybe an overview of what Ozzyland is like? Or a better idea of what the Vlatava/Markovia border looks like?
I'll see if I can get the Ozzyland stuff but the "better idea of the Vlatava/Markovia border looks like" will be tricky to do in a manner that's meaningful (I can barely describe the California/Nevada border through text and I've seen that multiple times IRL).
A panda which she trains in kung fu.
Personally I'd be more inclined toward Kuma Shinken
 
Personally I'd think it'd be interesting for Cassandra to develop an interest in splicing when we get it so she can have some fun making chimeras. Maybe as a hobby. She's already interested in Enoch's work.
So this isn't quite making chimeras but I will say that I did have an omake idea set some time in the future that had Cassandra getting involved with splicing and ending with her making herself some kind of spliced monstrosity.

The general monstrosity was something like a mix of a crocodile's maw with a pit viper's sensory organs and tongue that can smell, eight eyes like a spider with a mix of different animal eyes (with only eagles being immediately identifiable), big swiveling serval ears, poisonous spit like a spitting cobra, a body plan more like a capuchin monkeys (meaning she could be a quadruped or a biped without issue, retractable claws like a jaguar, think scales, built in poison injectors made of modified assassin bug parts that can pop out of the wrist, a second set of two scale mantis shrimp arms coiled at the stomach, and a long thick prehensile tail with a stingray-like barb at the end.

It wasn't intended to be canon and it's not quite making chimera's in the way you were describing but it is an idea I have played with at least a little bit.
 
If it makes anyone more comfortable, I changed plan peaceful solutions to remove the special economic zone and replace it with a joint war recovery fund that Vlatava and Markovia will need to put money in to fund reconstruction and the enforcement of their agreement (such as having Serial Peacemaking guard the border for example)

The idea is to take money from Markovia to prevent them for having enough of it to fund an army, while being less involved than trying to subvert their entire economy.
 
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Personally I'd think it'd be interesting for Cassandra to develop an interest in splicing when we get it so she can have some fun making chimeras. Maybe as a hobby. She's already interested in Enoch's work.

i wonder what will enoch teach her this turn

If it makes anyone more comfortable, I changed plan peaceful solutions to remove the special economic zone and replace it with a joint war recovery fund that Vlatava and Markovia will need to put money in to fund reconstruction and the enforcement of their agreement (such as having Serial Peacemaking guard the border for example)

The idea is to take money from Markovia to prevent them for having enough of it to fund an army, while being less involved than trying to subvert their entire economy.

most of the most ruined places were conquered by vertigo so it's a money transfer from markovia to vertigo and us pretending to be a joint fund and it's really clever
 
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If it makes anyone more comfortable, I changed plan peaceful solutions to remove the special economic zone and replace it with a joint war recovery fund that Vlatava and Markovia will need to put money in to fund reconstruction and the enforcement of their agreement (such as having Serial Peacemaking guard the border for example)

The idea is to take money from Markovia to prevent them for having enough of it to fund an army, while being less involved than trying to subvert their entire economy.

I like this one more. Especially restrictions on spending money. But what would be the reason to suggest lenient tax and banking policies meant to encourage investors if it does not benefit us directly then? It looks like left overs from economic zone to me. Without economic zone it is even worse if it is applied to the entirety of Markovia.
 
I like this one more. Especially restrictions on spending money. But what would be the reason to suggest lenient tax and banking policies meant to encourage investors if it does not benefit us directly then? It looks like left overs from economic zone to me. Without economic zone it is even worse if it is applied to the entirety of Markovia.

You're right that since there is no mutual economic zone there is no need to craft economic policies for it. I removed it.
 
[X] [Negotiation] Plan Peaceful Solutions

[X] [Incoming] Have Edward pass on his analysis and conclusions to the Metropolis police department, making no mention of Toyman or "Captain Ironfist," and then order them to only evacuate citizens and to let the demonstration proceed unimpeded.
 
I want Marie as an op diplomacy and other stat hero, not a Supergirl with unfamiliar powers and physical might to adapt to and none of the combat training to leverage them the actual Supergirl has. Like, we have a very simple way to use Diana feeling she owes us one for the warning and Kara feeling she owes Diana one for the rescue to recruit Supergirl in truth, subverting the incredibly high odds of an eventual reversal of any mind swap we engage in with Supergirl.
 
what if we use the lasso of truth to learn about zod and then find his deal with brainiac in the brainiac archives and use it to convince supergirl to become our double agent
 
We can certainly take actions related to brainiacs archives, but there is no guarantee we have the specific database the brainiac/zod deal was stored on. Winning immediate salvage plan picked computers once, metropolis three times, and a single intact ship fished from the pacific ocean.
 
I want Marie as an op diplomacy and other stat hero, not a Supergirl with unfamiliar powers and physical might to adapt to and none of the combat training to leverage them the actual Supergirl has. Like, we have a very simple way to use Diana feeling she owes us one for the warning and Kara feeling she owes Diana one for the rescue to recruit Supergirl in truth, subverting the incredibly high odds of an eventual reversal of any mind swap we engage in with Supergirl.

In which case we owe Marie a way to help with her body issues, We nigked Ivo, etc we have habit of rewarding loyality. @King crimson can we have action for Lex to try to figure something out, we practice Englightened self interest.
 
In which case we owe Marie a way to help with her body issues, We nigked Ivo, etc we have habit of rewarding loyality. @King crimson can we have action for Lex to try to figure something out, we practice Englightened self interest.
We have one, we just need to develop Life model decoy tech a little further, and we can provide her with a adult robotic body that looks human, specifically like herself without her condition. We can see about getting a team together next turn.

This method also has the benefit of boosting her stats based on the difference between her learning stat and fixit's learning stat.
 
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We have one, we just need to develop Life model decoy tech a little further, and we can provide her with a adult robotic body that looks human, specifically like herself without her condition. We can see about getting a team together next turn.
I think LMD's can look however we want to right now the issues as I understand it are their brains can't act humans and the big issue of we haven't developed a robot version of some of the senses. You don't realize how much you miss something like tasting ice cream or feeling a cool breeze until you can't do it anymore.
 
In which case we owe Marie a way to help with her body issues, We nigked Ivo, etc we have habit of rewarding loyality. @King crimson can we have action for Lex to try to figure something out, we practice Englightened self interest.
I'm not fully sure of what you're asking me for.

If you are asking me for an option literally just for Lex to try and figure out a solution to Marie's body image problems, the answer is that no I will not give you one.

I can already think of three separate solutions of the top of my head to Marie's issues using actions and resources you already have without involving the mind swapping device. Randino above me mentions one of them and I don't believe the other two solutions I'm thinking of were ever meaningfully discussed by the thread.

Keep in mind that the three solutions I'm thinking of are solutions that I think you could easily shoot for now instead of something like learning enough about genetics to alter Marie's genetic code to alter her current body to basically rapidly grow into that of a more typical adult woman's, or training Ace and growing close to her and empowering her so she gets reality warping capabilities and using that to solve the problem. The solutions I'm thinking of aren't necessarily one turn fixes but they are solutions I do not think would be especially onerous for the thread.
 
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I'm not fully sure of what you're asking me for.

If you are asking me for an option literally just for Lex to try and figure out a solution to Marie's body image problems, the answer is that no I will not give you one.

I can already think of three separate solutions of the top of my head to Marie's issues using actions and resources you already have without involving the mind swapping device. Randino above me mentions one of them and I don't believe the other two solutions I'm thinking of were ever meaningfully discussed by the thread.

Keep in mind that the three solutions I'm thinking of are solutions that I think you could easily shoot for now instead of something like learning enough about genetics to alter Marie's genetic code to alter her current body to basically rapidly grow into that of a more typical adult woman's, or training Ace and growing close to her and empowering her so she gets reality warping capabilities and using that to solve the problem. The solutions I'm thinking of aren't necessarily one turn fixes but they are solutions I do not think would be especially onerous for the thread.
Is one of them magically transferring her soul to another body? I've already thought of that I just can't remember if I've mentioned it yet. Plus Fixit and the lmds have already given us an obvious and marketable option.
 
The thing about the mind switch device is that the government knows about it. Eiling and Diana know about it.

Even if we could convince the shadier people like Eiling to let us use it to mind switch Supergirl with what he'd view as an unreliable civilian as opposed to a trustworthy pawn of his own, it would ruin Diana's trust in Lex if she found out, and it would provide Eiling with blackmail on Lex.

We'd be better off just summoning up a demon to resolve the situation or using the Life Model Decoy and Fixit's trait.
 
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Robotic Conversion
Fixit's ability to convert a biological creature into a fully mechanical one holds interesting philosophical implications for the ship of Theseus problem and is a way for you to upgrade people past the limitations of humanity. While Fixit has proven to be capable of sanity and his methods leave people with a fully functional body, he has not yet fully mastered making robotic bodies that appear fully human, making this enhancement noticeable, and it seems to have affected his personality, though it's unclear how much of that stems from him suddenly having a radically different life thanks to being a robot and how much of that stems from a flaw in transferring the mind. This option is permanent and cannot be undone. This option cannot be combined with any other option.
This is method by which we would be making Marie into a robot.
Marie Louise Dahl: Marie can take this option and is vaguely aware of its existence. She is heavily considering this option and sees a lot of appeal in it. Admittedly she is a touch unhappy with what her body would end up like after robotic conversion, but she is slowly coming around to the idea that it might be better than her current body. If Marie were to take this option, she would undoubtedly want to be upgraded to match up to her more idealized robotic body after the first treatment.
This is how Marie feels about it, which is why we are pursuing LMD so we can combine fixits conversion with robot bodies roughly indistinguishable from a human being from typical observation.
 
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