--[X] [Martial] Rent out your PMC (Khan) [CoS 100%] (Crit threshold 91+/0)
DC 100
73+21+55+12+11=172
Success
Your PMC was snapped up for 'security solutions' in New York. It was about a week in that they realized they had been hired by the mob. Khan and his men spent their time guarding apparently abandoned warehouses and watching over streets with no apparent reason. Up until five men with dragon skulls on their heads tried to break into an apartment in Astoria.
It seems that Bill Sykes has been extending his 'protection services' to the other New York underground, and wanted to make absolutely sure nobody made him a liar this month. The issue was 'dealt with' in short order with Khan's usual efficiency, and your men did not shoot anyone, so you suppose it's fine.
Reward: +3 funds, -5 living Huntsclan
Bit annoyed that it was *Sykes* of all people who paid us for Khans services for his "protection racket", but at least it caused some grief for those Huntsclan assholes.
So in the end I am happy about the money.
--[X] [Diplomacy] Recruit Cruella De Vil (Technor) [CoS 93%] (Crit threshold 92+/1)
DC 80
84+18+33+14+4+4(XP)=157
Success
Technor's interview with fashion designer Cruella de Vil went very well. The woman was indeed looking for new horizons and opportunities to expand into new markets. Possibly due to an implied but not acknowledged loss of face in the French underworld. What sealed the deal was the opportunity to work for a company known to be at the center of the Cape scene; and thus, one that gives her the opportunity to get one over on famed Super designer Edna Mode, who she apparently despises.
The woman seems sane, if a bit amoral (TECHNOR stated VERY amoral but you know that guy, psychoanalyzing everybody), and apparently has an intense love of furs.
Cruella De Vil has been recruited!
And so we got our own in-house fashion designer we can fall back on in endeavours pertaining to that field (including maybe the Company Dress Code next turn? Would be thematically fitting at least) independent of and even nursing a grudge against Edna Mode (still a bit bummed out at our first contact with her having gone so badly, but what can you do?)...not bad at all.
As for Technor calling her "very amoral", not too concerned about that yet.
--[X] [Diplomacy] Collaborate with Olympia (Doof & Goofy) [CoS 100%] (Crit threshold 91+/0)
DC 30
95+23+18+14=150
Critical Success!
--[X] [Stewardship] Rebuild Sinatron (Monogram) [CoS 95%] (Crit threshold 92+/1-)
DC 70
52+24+16+13+2+10(XP)=117
Success
To be continued in Interlude: Nice Work If You Can Get It
Very nice that both our Olympia-related succeeded (the Collaboration offer even Critically so), meaning that even with us being unable to Shore them Up, Winston should have enough support from us to fend off anyone trying to stab at him.
That and us going outta our way to get Sinatron back into the game should endear us to whom I expect to become Winstons "Mirage" in a way (main Diplo/Intrigue goon).
--[X] [Stewardship] Implement Large Herbivore Exhibits (Roddy) [CoS 71%] (Crit thresholds 94+/3-)
DC 120
13+24+29+15+13+10(XP)=104
Failure
The sheer degree of expansion needed to move from raptors and parasaurolophuses to animals larger than a bull elephant has proven a little too complicated for two month's work. Roddy is nonetheless not one to leave work half done, and is ready to get back at it.
Sucks that we failed at this option since it´s on kind of a timer, but at least A) we showed effort to FG, so he might cut us a minuscule amount of slack there and B) nothing bad happened aside from it just not working (no raptor breakout on Roddys watch, thank you very much)
--[X] [Stewardship] Buy out a rival corporation: Hopper Food Group (Moseby) [CoS 96%] (Crit thresholds 92+/1-)
DC 95
66+24+36+13+5+3+10(XP)=157
Success
To be continued in Interlude: Mr. Moseby's First Day
Nice that it worked out - that way we finally make an *actual* entry into the [Restaurants] sector since Bueno Nacho still requires us to do some PR for it to exist on more than just some piece of paper.
Next turn, we *could* try grabbing Wynndcom as well both to have Bragging Rights for cleaning out the list at one point and mybe as jumping board for any space stuff we might be interested in in the future (still want to Collab with David on something approaching my old Asteroid Resto idea, you know?)
--[X] Max (Job shadow Moseby)
60
To be continued in Interlude: Mr. Moseby's First Day
..And Max continues rolling pretty well on Stewardship-related actions.
He definitely seems to have a knack for that kinda stuff narratively...not against it at all, even if a TOON being good at ADMINISTRATIVA does sound a bit weird.
...Might be some kind of Meta gag, now that I think about it.
--[X] [Intrigue] Root out high-level moles (Mezmerella) [CoS 74%] (Crit thresholds 94+/3-)
DC 120
93+18+31+17+5+10(???)+3+10(XP)=177
Excellent Success
--[X] [Occult] Search for Agent Unknown (Gomez) [CoS 82%] (Crit thresholds 93+/2-)
DC 80
47+19+12+19+2+10(XP)=99
Success
To be continued in Interlude: Find Fantastic Part 1: Clean Slate
---[X] Chat with the Bossman (Coyote) (-10)
63-10=53
To be continued in Interlude: Find Fantastic Part 1: Clean Slate
Very good - would rather not know the other Kings know about our more high-clearance widgets if we can prevent it.
Pretty weird and even concerning though that there seems to be some kind of connection with THIS:
--[X] [Learning] Study weird object (Jumba) [CoS 72%] (Crit thresholds 94+/7-)
DC 140
3+38+39+20+5+10 (XP)=115
Critical Failure!
To be continued in Interlude: Find Fantastic Part 2: So That's What It Feels Like
...We are just not having any luck with Jumba and this option, huh?
No idea how the two "Find Fantastic" interludes are supposed to play together - you guys got some ideas?
EDIT:
Apparently us Looking for Russ and Coyotes Bossman are playing into that mess as well - more specifically, the *Rooting our High-Level Moles* one...
Very peculiar...
--[X] [Intrigue] Interrogate Michael Yagoobian (Tobe) [CoS 92%] (Crit thresholds 91+/1-)
DC 80
27+18+25+17+2+10(XP)=99
Bare Success
Tobe wasted several days searching for Michael Yagoobian before finding him having colonized the boiler room. The man then proceeded to tell a completely insane story involving time travel machines, a hat named Doris, a spaceship that delivers pizza, far too many supporting characters, and a visionary genius named That Boy who he considers himself to be in an eternal rivalry with. Most of it is a little thick even for you, and you can tell that the man editorializes wildly. However, what you can manage to glean for certain out of the weirdo's confused rambling is that InventCo may in fact be subordinated by the very hats they create, and that they are a serious threat you probably don't want to ignore. You're not sure if 'rogue AI' is better or worse than 'mind control corporation', but you are now very certain you don't want them in your territory. Given the only way that you know of to create an intelligent AI, this may also be a sign that 'humanization' does not guarantee a nice person by the end of it…
Tobe, for his part, totally believes the man's story and has promised to 'inform the proper authorities about this clear violation of time travel law', a statement which he refused to elaborate on when you asked before then jumping through a window. He has declared Yagoobian to be a 'brilliant mastermind' and encourages you to hire him before he is snapped up by a rival.
You… you're not going to do that. But regardless, you do need to do… something with him.
[ ] Let him stay in the boiler room
The man hasn't caused much trouble… yet. No one really likes him, but you can relate to that, and the nemesis thing. Let him stay where he is.
Outcome: Goob remains within the best protections a boiler room can provide
Goob remains mostly free and able to act.
Goob becomes a Tier 1 Secret
[ ] Lock him up somewhere
It would… probably be dangerous to let this guy wander around, including to himself. Might be best to just… unlawfully imprison him. If his story's true there's no record of his existence anyway!
Outcome: Goob is placed somewhere as safe as you can get him.
Goob becomes a Tier 2 Secret
You commit what is technically a crime but come on, who'd blame you, really? Goob. Goob would blame you, and if he ever got out he'd probably kick a rock. Maybe throw an egg at your building.
[ ] Throw him out
Yeah, this isn't your problem. Well you mean the hats, yes, that is your problem, but not this guy. He's not. Now that you have what you need, toss him onto the street and let him find his own way to… wherever he's going.
Outcome: Goob is no longer your problem.
There's a 24 hour moratorium on this to encourage more discussion of the turn.
You have recorded the details of an unbelievable story and discovered more about InventCo and its goals.
InventCo related intrigue actions DC reduced!
Some councilors have changed their stances!
...Goob managed to *out-weird (and weird out as well) frigging Dr. Doofenshmirtz*? Ok, now I am worried...
Anyway, those infos are a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, us knowing just how bad the situation regarding the Helping Hats truly is should making pushing for a Dress Code as a measure of security easier within the council at least (maybe be also should talk to David about InvestCo? Granted, since he "shares a border" with them and IS FRIGGIN XANATOS he probably already knows, but him knowing that we know should help things similar to how talking to him about Toffee did). On the other hand, us knowing that Sentient AI can backfire that hard makes me expect some new Council pushpack against our ideas for "AI Paedagogy".
As for the vote, I am fine with him hunkering down in our boiler room for now - the other options in comparison are just too much of a hassle for soemone that isn´t even a risk to us.
--[X] [Learning] Decode Odd Transmissions (Lizzy) [CoS 79%] (Crit thresholds 93+/6-)
DC 120
80+38+32+20+4+5 (Whale-Translate-Inator)+10(XP)=189
Success
Lizzy didn't know anything about the study of linguistics or translating things in general, so you had to do the bulk of the work while she provided moral support. For some ineffable reason, your whale-translator-inator actually made things easier! It made no logical sense, but it seemed to turn the horrific garbled transmission into something resembling Old Japanese! Clearly, your genius exceeds even your own grasp! From there, it was a painstakingly long process of looking through actual books from the library and consulting a bunch of experts from overseas, but the end result of it is that you finally have an idea of what those transmissions are saying!
"Triangulate the Odd Transmissions" action unlocked! It sounds like there's someone on the end interested in meeting people, maybe? The technology used to broadcast it certainly is mysterious.
FINALLY!
Now let´s just hope that *Triangulating* won´t be quite as hard DC wike than that.
Also, the friggin *Whale-Translate-Inator* once more comes into play for some reason...that little thing really is starting to grow on me a bit.
…I wasn't expecting Fireball and I'm hindsight I'm not sure why not.
It´s always been stated that Fireball is a part of both Gridlocked as a whole and DQ in particular.
--[X] [Occult] Basic Magic Theory (Janna) [CoS 90%] (Crit thresholds 92+/1-)
DC 75
1d6=5 (no wander)
13+4+17+12+19+3+10(XP)=78
Bare Success
Janna's seminar on magic was notably lackluster, you could tell that her heart really wasn't into it. As it turns out, being a teacher is no better than having a teacher, and she had to do both of those things to make sure your whole occult division was up to speed, yuck. Regardless, Feldrake loves to yammer, so you mostly got what you wanted.
"Magic is a fundamental aspect of reality that allows individuals to apply force to that reality through their willpower. There are two main ways to obtain that force. Those with an innate magical reservoir, such as dragons, demons, and certain lucky ducks… or humans, can draw upon their own power to do magic, and often in fact have inherent or instinctual ways in which that magic can be used. For the rest of us, we have to use a Focus of some kind to channel magic power from the world we inhabit. Magic flows from the World Heart across the world via leylines.
"There are dozens of magical traditions across the globe, none of which are right but some of which are righter than others. All of them are in effect frameworks made to understand and manipulate an inherently ineffable force. You can think of it like gravity. General Relativity may have supplanted Newton's laws, but it still can't explain everything. And if you want to, say, calculate the speed of an apple, you'd really rather be using Newtonian Acceleration than trying to figure out relativistic frameworks.
"Some traditions may insist they are the one true path to magic, for practical or moral reasons. All bunkum. You can have the Morganian Star or the Kandrakarian Elements, whatever. Pick and choose your way to ultimate power. Heck, you can even use the Merlin Circle if you want, so long as you ignore all those namby pamby moral restrictions. Sometimes more flexibility for less power is a good tradeoff! Not often, but sometimes!"
Basic Study Magic personal action unlocked, look into magical people online action unlocked, hold a magical seminar action unlocked, track magical creatures action unlocked, look back through your magic stuff action unlocked, Map Leylines action unlocked. Study specific traditions actions available but locked behind gaining a reliable source on those traditions (Merlinian, Morganian, Kandrakarian, etc)
*nods*
"Janna is not meant for ADMINISTRATIVE Occult stuff"...got the message, RNGesus.
But yeah, now we can finally get to researching Magic and its Lores a bit more deliberately.
...Say, would the "Lore" traits of either Khan or Kitsune help us with the associated Traditions? What do you guys think?
-[X] Personal Actions:
--[X] Doof:
---[X] Accept Bellwether's Invitation (-10)
77-10=67
--[X] Kitsune (Spread Chaos)
6
Kitsune had fun.
To be continued in Interlude: Storms on the Horizon
...So our "dinner" with BW went pretty well, but Kitsune rolling pretty shittily on her Chaos interfered with it somehow?
Please don´t let the fallout be too bad for us...
---[X] Do some introspection about Norm (+40)
22+50-10=62
Despite being distracted by recent events, you set aside some time for yourself to really think about Norm and what his relationship with you actually meant. You looked out of your office window down on the street, idly bouncing a ball against the wall of the building, then blowing it up with heavy ordinance. You were never really looking for a son when you built him, but with your recent revelations about AI, you kiiiiiinda have a responsibility now? You think? Your interactions with Norm basically turned him from a dumb AI into something that does think he's your son, so… So. Regardless of what you originally thought, you're pretty sure that you've got a responsibility now.
Doof now acknowledges Norm as a child he created.
"Spend Time With Norm" Doof personal action unlocked.
"Spend Time With Father" Norm personal action unlocked.
Nice - it seems that us Introspecting on Norm right after the I-I Interlude truly was fortitous for us, since it netted us a HUGE narrative point bonus for it, without which we would never have pulled through.
Very happy about that.
It´s pretty obvious to me that we should take those two *Spend Time with X* actions in conjunction for maximum narrative payout.
---[X] Activate Automatic Potion Brewer
The following potions have been added to your list of stuff:
Potion of Polymorph (random polymorph for the duration of a quest, could make quest easier or harder)
Red Liquid: (When the holder is to be defeated in a quest, they aren't. Alternatively, if someone would be hospitalized or disabled for a turn, they aren't. If the injury is very serious, it will help to mitigate it but won't remove it entirely.)
So we got a Polymorph Potion (could we lob it at an enemy to hopefully polymorph them into something harmless?) and what sounds like a generic Health Potion.
Pretty useful, even if the PM Potion is *Very* situational and random, meaning that we should either tread very careful around it or simply sell it to a fence for some small cash.
--[X] Norm (End your obsession with platypodes)
38+10 (Spark)=48
For the first time, Norm attempted to tinker with his own internal processes dictating his primary purpose- to hunt platypi. You're unsure what spurred him on now of all times, maybe some of that molasses got stuck in there deeper than you thought. While he obviously didn't have much experience with programming, much less self-modification surgery, he still did his best to try and divorce himself from his platypus-hunting core. The modification wasn't a complete success, but perhaps in this instance the attempt was more impressive than the result.
Norm no longer feels compelled to obey Doofenshmirtz on a fundamental level!
Time will tell what comes of this.
Could go either way, depending on A) what our orders were and B) how/why Norm decided to disobey.
We´ll just have to wait and see.
--[X] Dennis (Train with Maui Mallard)
71
Dennis continued practicing with Maui Mallard when he could manage it. From the sound of things, progress was slow but steady. Maui finally stopped making him wax his surfboard and went on to allow him to clean up Hernae's shop!
Progress revealed: 141/250
Sounds good enough.
--[X] Wasabi (Organize your Workstation) (148/150)
88
Progress revealed: 150/150
Wasabi spent two. Literal. Months. Trying to find an optimum arrangement for his pencils. Two. Months. You think he… enjoyed it.
Wasabi gains 1d3+1=2 Stewardship!
Wasabi gains +5 Loyalty!
While it is a bit annoying that so much overflow might be wasted, I´ll definitely take the "free" Loyalty and Stew.
Gift horses and all.
--[X] Alan (Transfer files off of DoofOS)
7
Alan successfully transferred everything he wanted off of DoofOS onto DaedalOS. It was a bit menial, but relaxing in its simplicity.
Everything is fine.
ALAN P L E A S E
I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF DARK GOD YOU PISSED OFF BUT FOR GOODNESS SAKE MAN SACRIFICE A GOAT!
...Pretty sure he´d need a whole HERD of them to get rid of his shitty luck at this point.
At least nothing outright bad seems to have happened.
--[X] Juniper (Dance Practice)
40
Juniper spent the bulk of the month keeping her routines in tip top shape. She's still part of your kickline first and foremost, so it's good to see her commitment to the craft.
(Progress revealed: 40/100)
Slow and steady wins the race, gal.
--[X] Tom (Search for Star)
56
Tom's search for Star was only marginally successful. He's ruled out a few locations, particularly on the interdimensional scene, further cementing your suspicion that Star is somewhere on Earth. Of course, those questions might eventually get back to other ears…
The global DC for 'Hunt for Star' has been reduced by 5!
...*Very* slowly in that particular case, but I am not really complaining.
--[X] Marco (Train with Macbeth)
69
Marco remained tight-lipped about what he did in New York. You get the sense he was satisfied with it though, and may be nearing a conclusion.
(Progress revealed: 230/250)
*nods approvingly*
Soll he´ll be finished with his training with MacBeth, which will most likely increase his prowess a lot.
--[X] Activate Inator:
Pause-Butt-Inator, Subtype Bad: Inator stops time for only Dr. Doofenshmirtz and perhaps a select few henchmen. By the time they emerge from the pause effect, whatever task they were trying to accomplish is now considerably more difficult due to deadline pressure or enemies taking advantage of their inaction. One randomly selected action has a -10 to the raw dice roll. This effectively raises the critical failure chance by 10, and correspondingly reduces the critical success chance by the same amount.
Yeah, Inators seem to still be cursed even after Kats sabotage was discovered.
Maybe we SHOULD table them until we can reliably Tinker again.
