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Combinatorial Explosion (Worm/Original)

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Shadestyle said:
Taylor gave Danny a magically powered device running on a power supply that cannot be shut off, and is known to emit detectable energy, which was given to him with the express purpose of him keeping it on his person even while in public and at his job.

The unwritten rules wouldn't really factor in, in my opinion at least, as he isn't meaningfully implying anything more than a client-supplier relationship between Sage and others.
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Neither giving a personal gift (as indicated by it being personal equipment he's not using in his role as a public figure) nor taking a government contract count as "available to the public" if it's not in her store, it's not available to the public and using Danny as proof that it is is a dishonest argument that leverages her secret identity and family against her to get her to do what he wants. Since it's basically either "agree to something untrue and violate your principles while pretending you dishonored yourself" or "reveal your personal connection to this man, thus jeopardizing your secret identity". Using Danny as literally the only relevant datapoint to call her a liar is leveraging her secret identity against her. It might not be breaking the rules, but it's certainly leaning hard on them.
 
So, who's the fluffball?
Is he a very powerful mage or a kid who did something stupid with his Masters Magical stuff?

Either way this will be entertaining.
 
Hmm, well this is both somewhat interesting and somewhat worrisome. I'll put up some things I'm considering.

I might propose;
[ ] [Accord] We'll need to think long and hard about this. It is not a decision to be made lightly without thoroughly considering the consequences, which is not something we can truthfully be expected to do in under fifteen minutes.

But we don't know if Accord would take indecision as just being a refusal. Still, honestly? Sage is a bit young and inexperienced in this kind of dealing to be making a decision like this on the spot without consulting knowledgeable people. Accord almost certainly knows this. Whether he's trying to manipulate us, impatient, or probing, we don't know. Too little information to make a fully informed decision. We can't afford to bend to any villain that makes a subtle threat, but at the same time we have to acknowledge that it is inevitable that some of our stuff might end up in villainous hands through middlemen. Maybe it's time to consider things like copy-protection and device security. Actually, can we metaphysical-biometric-lock our stuff somehow?

[ ] [The Source] Who's Skitter? I'm Sage. What's your name? And why did you send us a summoning-letter in the first place? Though it has been neat to play with the magic it gave me. Though some of it seems horrifically dangerous...

Let's be polite, but at the same time we do have some big questions.
 
hmm might i suggest something of a compromise? we point out that it's (probably) not illegal to sell what he want's from us to a random citizen who happens to want exactly what he want's. @Shadestyle is this a viable course of action?
 
Quite simply, we can't allow any villain to walk into our store and demand we do something for them. However, Accord is a very influential person with lots of parahumans under his command, who could make Taylor's life a pain in the ass. Plus, he not so subtly threatened Taylor's identity/dad and (meta-knowledge) can really hold a grudge for even minor things. I vote we refuse his offer now, but offer to fulfill the installation of a private generator if asked by a wealthy individual in the future. (Really, his power might allow him to walk in without any surveillance, but Taylor has to assume that someone might have seen this and can't agree without potentially destroying her reputation.)

[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
-[X][Accord] Suggest you would be willing to do house renovations in the future for a high enough price.

[X][The Source] "Who is Skitter?" Find out who (and what) the raccoon is, and what the world he is from is like.
[X][Business] Set up a website, or some method of contacting Sage for consultations.
Doing a business vote since Accord brought this up now, but it might be worthwhile waiting until the next weekly vote to hire somebody to do it. Or (this sounds like a terrible idea) Taylor could just magic a website into existence like she did the app on Lisa's phone.
 
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[x][Accord] He just threatened us! Threaten the little manlet back, make sure he knows exactly how easy it is for us to annihilate matter. More specifically the matter that constitutes his short soon to be non-existent corpse.
 
edja said:
hmm might i suggest something of a compromise? we point out that it's (probably) not illegal to sell what he want's from us to a random citizen who happens to want exactly what he want's. @Shadestyle is this a viable course of action?
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Keep in mind, he is asking for multiple installations done by Sage, rather than just a mana engine, which he could have stolen.

Mordiggian said:
Quite simply, we can't allow any villain to walk into our store and demand we do something for them. However, Accord is a very influential person with lots of parahumans under his command, who could make Taylor's life a pain in the ass. Plus, he not so subtly threatened Taylor's identity/dad and (meta-knowledge) can really hold a grudge for even minor things. I vote we refuse his offer now, but offer to fulfill the installation of a private generator if asked by a wealthy individual in the future. (Really, his power might allow him to walk in without any surveillance, but Taylor has to assume that someone might have seen this and can't agree without potentially destroying her reputation.)
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To be frank, I'm currently on the verge of removing the entirety of the scene and retconning the encounter.

The scene doesn't work without Accord pointing out that public individuals and government agents have access to Sage's technology, but his intent isn't to threaten Taylor's Father or Identity, as he explains at the end of the scene, he insists that Taylor be mindful of "one's self and business", not "one's family and business".

The only singular reason I haven't totally gutted the chapter of any Accord references already is that it requires me to admit that I can no longer threaten the main character without attacking their identity, as it is so threadbare and poorly hidden that even casual threats and demands CANNOT avoid also threatening her identity.

It's likely that, should other people complain about the scene and Accord's bending of the Unspoken Rules, I will simply retcon the encounter away.
 
[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
Accord is smart enough to know he should have stayed with proxys, especially since we are a rogue who does contract work for the government.


Also we can't let villains bully us into doing what they want.
 
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[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)

[X] [The Source] Who's Skitter? I'm Sage. What's your name? And why did you send us a summoning-letter in the first place? Though it has been neat to play with the magic it gave me. Though some of it seems horrifically dangerous...
 
Shadestyle said:
It's likely that, should other people complain about the scene and Accord's bending of the Unspoken Rules, I will simply retcon the encounter away.
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It's not a complaint. I thought it was in character and indicative of priorities that have been established in other ways.
[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
-[X][Accord] Even if you were willing to perform custom installments for civilian businesses once the technology has been further refined, you cannot, in good conscience knowingly sell valuable tinker tech to a villain. *wink wink nudge nudge but actually no winks or nudges because you don't want to compromise deniability or insult his intelligence by being too obvious*
 
Shadestyle said:
Keep in mind, he is asking for multiple installations done by Sage, rather than just a mana engine, which he could have stolen.
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Okay? i don't see the problem with a random dude with a lot of cash spending however much he want's and if said dude wanted exactly what Accord wanted that well that just happens to be a big ol coincidence in my book

@Mordiggian if you wouldn't mind editing your vote from 'mana engine' to 'installations' i will vote for all of your vote
 
Shadestyle said:
The only singular reason I haven't totally gutted the chapter of any Accord references already is that it requires me to admit that I can no longer threaten the main character without attacking their identity, as it is so threadbare and poorly hidden that even casual threats and demands CANNOT avoid also threatening her identity.
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The main problem is what is Accord's plan? It seems his main goal is to get Sage to install a generator and maybe remodel his house to reduce his OCD, but if so this doesn't seem to be the best way to go about it. If he had sent an Ambassador who requested the same service of Sage for an "eccentric millionaire," Taylor would be more likely to agree. Even Lisa's influence of maybe knowing it would be for a villain could be worked around or more subtly dealt with (perhaps implying that contacts besides heroes would be useful, or otherwise persuading Taylor). By personally showing up, he could be pushing for Sage to do more than just his house when she "inevitably" (due to his thinker power) agrees, particularly with presenting knowledge of her dad. The problem is there is no way that Accord didn't put together "only Daniel Hebert owns a mana engine and the only other one is being sold to the PRT" with Sage being Daniel's daughter.

I think the easiest solution is to switch the example from Taylor's dad to Lisa (who has a mana engine in her phone), to avoid the direct threat to her family but also make Taylor aware her mana engines can be tracked. Then the encounter could be presented as Accord wanting to personally meet Sage before hiring her, but his OCD triggered enough that he got annoyed and went with a different planned path that included a harder offer. And also decided to give Sage some business advice on his way out as a slight apology and to avoid that from happening again.
 
What if we give Accord a Mana Generator that is set to fall apart into scrap after X days? Or one that Sage can turn off at a distance. In the meantime we go full Big Brother on him, investigating every inch of his base(s), employees, and resources cooperatively with the Protectorate. They will then perform a home invasion with multiple teams of heroes and capture Accord or at least ruin his operations.

Then he is defeated and he has bigger things to worry about than Sage's device breaking down.
 
I like the idea but I would not want to try that.
Still, we need to look at remote casting, control, and other useful techniques to prevent unwanted use.
 
edja said:
@Shadestyle If it's not to much trouble how much would you say mana is helping with his ocd/power?
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Accord's power drives him to homicidal rage due to the perception that minor details influence his plotting a course through the future. In an ambiance field, the butterfly effect is dampened. I'll leave it as an exercise to the players in discovering why ambient mana prevents minor details from triggering drastic future changes.

Mordiggian said:
I think the easiest solution is to switch the example from Taylor's dad to Lisa (who has a mana engine in her phone), to avoid the direct threat to her family but also make Taylor aware her mana engines can be tracked. Then the encounter could be presented as Accord wanting to personally meet Sage before hiring her, but his OCD triggered enough that he got annoyed and went with a different planned path that included a harder offer. And also decided to give Sage some business advice on his way out as a slight apology and to avoid that from happening again.
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Consider it done.


The chapter has been edited accordingly, everyone.
 
[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
-[X][Accord] Suggest you would be willing to do house renovations in the future for a high enough price.

[X][The Source] "Who is Skitter?" Find out who (and what) the raccoon is, and what the world he is from is like.
[X][Business] Set up a website, or some method of contacting Sage for consultations.
Doing a business vote since Accord brought this up now, but it might be worthwhile waiting until the next weekly vote to hire somebody to do it. Or (this sounds like a terrible idea) Taylor could just magic a website into existence like she did the app on Lisa's phone.
 
[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
-[X][Accord] Suggest you would be willing to do house renovations in the future for a high enough price.
 
...So, I think we should get something better than just money from Accord, if we're going to sell to him. We can get money from so, so many sources. High-powered Thinkers? Incredibly rare on the ground!

If we're giving him something of our power, why not ask for a use of his? Power for power.

[X][The Source] "Who is Skitter?" Find out who (and what) the raccoon is, and what the world he is from is like.
 
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[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
-[X][Accord] Even if you were willing to perform custom installments for civilian businesses once the technology has been further refined, you cannot, in good conscience knowingly sell valuable tinker tech to a villain. *wink wink nudge nudge but actually no winks or nudges because you don't want to compromise deniability or insult his intelligence by being too obvious*
 
[X][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)
-[X][Accord] Even if you were willing to perform custom installments for civilian businesses once the technology has been further refined, you cannot, in good conscience knowingly sell valuable tinker tech to a villain. *wink wink nudge nudge but actually no winks or nudges because you don't want to compromise deniability or insult his intelligence by being too obvious*
 
[X] we point out that it's (probably) not illegal to sell what he want's from us to a random citizen who happens to want exactly what he want's.
-[X][Accord] Suggest you would be willing to do house renovations in the future for a high enough price.

This is also an opportunity to have him get hard to obtain materials or stuff she wants to have but have no record of
 
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