Actually, and this is mildly off topic here, I almost forgot because of how long the interlude was, but we haven't gotten back the results on how:
[ ]Plan: Dinosaur Castle Fighters
-[ ] Combat organized crime
-[ ] Reach out to Xanatos
-[ ] Attempt a Hostile Corporate Takeover
--[ ] Insuricare
-[ ] Investigate Echo Creek
-[ ] Bring Back The Dinosaurs
--[ ] No Feathers
-[ ] Research Flubber
-[ ] Study Historical Magic Systems
Hmm.... do you guys think that this sudden Giant Baking Soda Volcano (capitalization necessary) that's popped up in our territory could be the result of a failure in combating organized crime?
Given that we tasked Genghis Khan to the action, I would be very surprised if we got a Critical Failure given that we're starting from a +12+55 or +13+55 on the die roll. Then again, this may just be a
low-scoring failure.
Erhm... mysterious forces combating each other aside, if we attribute this sudden Giant Baking Soda Volcano to one of those three mysterious forces, that would at least give us a direction to go towards in looking into where it came from. Said direction being right at what remains of organized crime in Doofania. Even if we don't find the perpetrator or a lead to finding them by investigating/cracking down on organized crime in Doofania, at the very least we can finally stomp that out, so it's a better place to start than anything. Well, aside from investigating the Giant Baking Soda Volcano itself, but we can multi-task.
We certainly shouldn't continue to tolerate large numbers of mysterious forces simultaneously operating in Doofania. That's a recipe for disasters even worse than Giant Baking Soda Volcano!
We do, however, have the ability to assemble a rudimentary profile of the perpetrator(s) based on the skills/know-how they would need to possess to pull this off in the first place.
New Most Hated Enemy TBA Profile-inator
...
[salutes]
Our New Most Hated Enemy TBA, or NMHETBA for short, likely fits the following requirements based on what we've seen here.
1a. A high intrigue stat + high Learning stat-
[*]We were not at the Gala for more than a day to attend it and get back at shortest. Maybe Away for a day to get to Vegas and then a day to go to the Gala and do the heist. If we want to be utterly pessimistic, then at maximum 3 Days spent away from Doofania is the amount of time that NMHETBA would have to set up the Giant Baking Soda Volcano and create the giant ants to go with it. They probably had a high enough intrigue stat to either set this up under our noses or get into our territory with all their necessary equipment if their learning is high enough to make something powerful enough to not need extensive set up and transport. Get in, do their message, get out.
Hypothesis: This may have been the work of an
enemy quest/heist. That is to say, a coordinated team operation by multiple hero units working together to combine their strengths, making it easier to overcome high event DCs and excel in multiple areas such as Learning and Intrigue.
2. NMHETBA likely did this via Learning based means instead of Occult ones-
[*]I mean, Giant Baking Soda Volcanos staples of science in general. Also, what kind of spell summons a giant baking soda volcano instead of a real one? Also, there are giant ants and not giant magical terrordeath beasts or whatever magical monstrosity you can think of. For an occult based villain, why would you go for up-sizing ants versus summoning something more effective and terrifying? It just feels too... basic and science-y to be the work of someone with literal arcane power at their finger tips.
True. I'm sure a magician
could have done this, but it seems unlikely that something so seemingly mundane would be their chosen method of operation if they were already accustomed to solving problems by magical needs.
3. Not Doom Approved-
[*]This action is far too toon like for Doom to ever willingly stoop to much less support. If he wants to get back at Doof, there are plenty of other ways to do it. Go after his employees or his employee's loved ones. Mickey and Donald are somewhere out there and I wouldn't put it above Doom to find them to use as a hostage with a threat to Dip them included if he ever wanted to really Kick the Dog in the form of going after us through Goofy. Something like that is far more up Doom's ally as a way to antagonize us if albeit something I can't see him doing unless he's ever in a position where he's desperate for some form of leverage against us. The potential worldwide backlash from such an action would make it not worth it as anything but a last resort threat. Right now Doom probably just thinks of us as an highly annoying toon ally more than anything resembling an actual threat to him. Although he has spent quite a few actions on trying to sabatoge or get dirt on us... so we might be higher on his threat list than I thought or Doom has enough freetime on his hands for vanity actions to crush hope for toons even if they escape the hell he's been trying to turn his territory into, and doesn't appreciate a safe haven popping up so close to him.
Ehhhh. Remember that Doom sent Sleazy the Weasel, a toon "assassin," to 'send a message' using a pistol with a 'BANG' flag.
Doom's not above using 'toony' antics against enemies as a false flag operation.
4. Maybe a toon or at least shenanigans prone-
[*]This entire set up reeks of being a hilarious joke at Doof's expense. It doesn't look like anyone got hurt so far and all that has been done is add a giant hated structure that mocks Doof's past trauma to the landscape. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the ants were unintentional and just caught up in a Growth Ray or something when the Giant Baking Soda Volcano was enlarged.
All quite possible. Note that we haven't heard from the Inquinator for a few turns; it may well be that he laid low to break contact for a while and then set
this in motion somehow. Or found someone else to help him do it.
5. Knows of Doof's history with baking soda volcanos. Or at least that he hates them. Which happens to be the only thing Alonzo Hawk learned about Doof when he investigated him for Doom.
[*]Not a particularly hard thing to find out, what with Doof's penchant for loudly cursing out his grievances, but looking into who Alonzo could have sold his information about Doof's baking soda volcano fixation to might be worthwhile. Although since we were able to intercept most of the information supposed to go to him, who's to say the baking soda volcano information couldn't have been intercepted as well? If we're going by the idea that a toon might be behind this, a large amount of Toon Villains have just moved into Doom's territory and are starting up a permanent outfit. Doing an insult like this to Doof might be these toon villains attempt to get slightly on Doom's goodside.... for like 0.5 seconds. It's unlikely that these are our perps.
Notice that if we're seriously willing to consider the hypothesis that someone
working for Doom put in motion a plan to do this to us indirectly, we should be seriously willing to consider a hypothesis that cuts out the middleman and has Alonzo Hawk himself do this directly, with or without Judge Doom's approval?
[/QUOTE]
What's going to happen to Syndrome? I mean sure his nation was taken over by his own creation but what's going to happen now?
Is he..... recruitable? Able to be led on? Exchange tech for resources?
Remember,
legally, Syndrome is still the leader of Kronos Corporation. Assuming he can escape Sinatron's immediate clutches, he's got plenty of resources and bases that officially belong to him.
The only scenarios in which he doesn't remain a player (if a weakened player) is if Sinatron kills him outright, or if he's coerced into signing over
everything to Sinatron and if this is somehow accepted by all his employees and so on.
It's definitely possible but you also have to consider that Hegos loyalty gets a +10 just from him believing that nobody is truly evil, another +5 just from Doof being a really good boss and a bonus from letting him go off and be a hero last turn plus it's possible we could get a little extra loyalty from him from establishing better relations with his sister
OK, but we just saw Sinatron flip a bunch of Shego's minions with relative ease, and I doubt that Voyd (for instance) had a big stack of negative loyalty modifiers for working with Shego
originally.
The point is, we shouldn't assume that it would be easier for the leaders of a 'heroic' resistances against the 'evil' Doof to turn Hego against us than it was for, say, Sinatron to turn Shego's mercenary supers against
us.
For actions like "crush the resistance," you really really want a comparatively
amoral hero unit. Someone like Mirage or Genghis Khan.
He would need to either find out about Doofs Mountain-out-of-a-molehill Inator and steal it or invent his own and transport it to Doofania and be willing to go through with such a Toonlike plan
Again, it bears remembering that Doom has already engaged in toonlike plots against us- as a false flag operation.
I will be very surprised to find Syndrome survived the night.
Consider:
Syndrome's human, non-robotic security forces had at least a few minutes of free time during which Sinatron was busy chasing
us and all his supers were chasing us too. This would have been a very good time for them to grab Syndrome's unconscious body, put him in the back of a flying car, and get him the hell out of there.
Even if this did not happen, Sinatron desperately needs
resources. His money is limited- more so than he thought! He has no recognized legal ownership of anything. He has the loyalty,
for now, of a group of supers who have a proven track record of deserting their employer whenever anyone else offers them a bigger paycheck. After all, that's how they ended up working for him.
Sinatron's only remaining 'ace in the hole' is that he has Syndrome in his power. Ransoming Syndrome back out of his own custody may be the only way for him to obtain enough money or resources to remain in control of Las Vegas. As such, he needs Syndrome alive, at least for long enough to figure out another plan that
doesn't involve ransoming Syndrome.
He also has limited non-robotic backup. I can see a Super or the family of a Super that he killed deciding they can't risk him waking up again.
Yes, but then they have to get to him. As long as Syndrome is in Sinatron's power, he's a valuable hostage and Sinatron will likely protect him. And if Syndrome escapes, he'll have enough security that no lone attacking super is likely to be able to get to him.
