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

[Zale]

@King crimson Some questions
1. What do you think of just rolling the Stingaree robot actions into our normal combat robots? It feels kind of redundant to have both to me. When I voted for the Stingaree robots I mostly did it so that we could just add its tech to our current combat ones. Is there a way we can do that instead of having them be two distinct models?
2. When the Nuclear Family went down it mentioned options opening up with them, was that an oversight that there was nothing including them or do we have to access them a different way?
3. Is there any indication from Wade and other government contacts that they are readying people like Captain Atom, Reactron, or Black Adam for a possible confrontation with Brainiac next turn? I'm just wondering how serious they took our warning.
4. Since Brainiac is getting rather close now, is he known to be coming by the whole world yet?
5. From our SCU contacts, how does Toyman seem right now? Is he responding to questioning per usual or is his unusual behavior patterns extending to after his capture too?

 

[Simon_Jester]

@King crimson Some questions
1. What do you think of just rolling the Stingaree robot actions into our normal combat robots? It feels kind of redundant to have both to me. When I voted for the Stingaree robots I mostly did it so that we could just add its tech to our current combat ones. Is there a way we can do that instead of having them be two distinct models?

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There are some advantages to being able to build Stingaree robots that are distinct from, and not openly marketed by, LexCorp. We have that configurable alien manufacturing tech, so we can easily make very deniable killbots that way.

Also, our existing combat robots are kind of lame, sort of dumbass 'roger-roger' stuff as I understand it. It's entirely possible that by the time we got done integrating Stingaree tech into our own design, we'd... baaaaasicaly just have a Stingaree robot with the names changed and the serial numbers filed off.

 

[King crimson]

@King crimson Some questions
1. What do you think of just rolling the Stingaree robot actions into our normal combat robots? It feels kind of redundant to have both to me. When I voted for the Stingaree robots I mostly did it so that we could just add its tech to our current combat ones. Is there a way we can do that instead of having them be two distinct models?
2. When the Nuclear Family went down it mentioned options opening up with them, was that an oversight that there was nothing including them or do we have to access them a different way?
3. Is there any indication from Wade and other government contacts that they are readying people like Captain Atom, Reactron, or Black Adam for a possible confrontation with Brainiac next turn? I'm just wondering how serious they took our warning. The rest is mostly people recalling the superpowered units and telling them to wait and be ready to act when the ship does show up.
4. Since Brainiac is getting rather close now, is he known to be coming by the whole world yet?
5. From our SCU contacts, how does Toyman seem right now? Is he responding to questioning per usual or is his unusual behavior patterns extending to after his capture too?

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1. I could do that sure. I'm not opposed to folding stuff together since it makes my job easier. Just be aware that it'll mess with the potential rewards for completing the option (just getting the Stingaree model upgrade across the board will make it harder to build combat robots to do different things).
2. That was a genuine oversight on my part for which I am sorry. I'll be correcting that going forward
3. Yes. Granted all of that stuff was mostly done without your noticing and a lot of it has been simply holding back the powerhouses to defend the country once they know what Brainiac will do. The most obvious sign of people taking your warning seriously and preparing for threats (as well as the only one clearly delineated in this results part) is Eiling training Volcana.
4. It is not known to the whole world that he is coming but governments across the world have spotted him and are preparing for the possibility of him arriving
5. Toyman is slightly more quiet then normal and he occasionally responds weirdly to questions but he's responding to questioning broadly similar to how he normally does. The oddest thing is that whenever someone asks him where Metallo is, Toyman always responds "Metallo's still with me, can't you tell?"

 

[HavocOrder0999]

Might be a good time to take

[ ] Learn about mirrors
DC ??? Normally you would dismiss mirrors as a dead end but considering the magical significance of reflections perhaps it is best to look into this and learn how mirrors function on a more metaphysical level.

Give Sam his Mirror Gun and help fight against Brainiac. Would also give a big boost to martial and intrigue considering what it can do, making him great for martial action coops since right now he is the Rogue with the lowest martial stat.

 

[Sirrocco]

[ ] Train Volcana to be a better fighter
DC 0
Roll 160 (with hero bonuses factored in)
Absolutely Incredible success

Eiling has decided to personally step in and make sure that Volcana is at her absolute peak fighting performance and figured that the ideal way to motivate her to be a perfect weapon would be to give her just enough freedom to make learning things worthwhile. Eiling basically gave Volcana an empty field and told her to go wild with her powers and then after giving her advice on how to improve allowed her to do so again. Volcana has seemed to respond well to Eiling's command and has gained more privileges and freedom in exchange for choosing to cooperate with Eiling. She still takes orders poorly but Eiling's deal making and open admission that he doesn't care what Volcana does so long as he gets the results he wants have seen her responding fairly positively and despite being absolutely despised by the people she shares the base with. Volcana has grown into an even more formidable threat and one Eiling maybe be able to somewhat direct better than anyone else.

Results: Volcana martial +3, relationship between Wade Eiling and Volcana improved

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Huh. Actually, I'm seeing "Working for Eiling, on generally good terms" to be an almost ideal outcome for Volcana, as far as we're concerned. Keeps her more or less doing thigns we'd approve of rather than disapprove of, and leaves our hands utterly clean if she loses it at some point. Way to go, Eiling.

Diana Prince
[ ] Push for laws meant to restrict Superman and other individuals like him

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Just wanted to say, from an outside "Hey, check it out - You're playing Lex Luthor Quest", this line, all by itself, is delicious.

The Batman apparently couldn't tolerate the Joker's new gang existing for much longer and found an unlikely ally in the deposed figurehead of the gang, Anarky. Anarky absolutely despised Joker and was willing to team up with Batman to take him down. The two of them worked in tandem and swiftly dismantled the organization effectively and near immediately much to the Joker's amusement once he was carted off back to Arkham Asylum. Batman meanwhile had a conversation with Anarky, who ultimately escaped, about unintentional consequences of vigilantism and urged him to do better and to think about how he wants to make a difference. Anarky seemed to have taken this speech profoundly to heart and has since vanished from the Gotham criminal underbelly.

Results: Anarky's gang dismantled and captured, Joker defeated and captured, Anarky's opinion of Batman vastly improves, Anarky escaped Batman and vanishes from the Gotham underworld.

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Okay, Batman semi-recruiting Anarky? That's kind of entertaining.

Hmmm, did we ever do anything to illegal with Bane and the formation of his government? I want to say no, but I'm not 100%. Its been so long. I think at most we'll receive flack for helping the military create this dictator. Nothing we can't deal with if we reveal a new phone or donate to some places.

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Pretty much everything we did was backed up by the US government, but I believe we were kind of involved in some "military tech for targeted assassinations" trade.

 

[Torgamous]

I am trying to think of a reason to make a flying city. Only reason I can come up with is so we can look down at the alien. Other than that it doesn't seem to have a practical use.

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A flying city is a parked generation ship.

 

[jonasquinn]

1. I could do that sure. I'm not opposed to folding stuff together since it makes my job easier. Just be aware that it'll mess with the potential rewards for completing the option (just getting the Stingaree model upgrade across the board will make it harder to build combat robots to do different things).

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Personally I would say keep them separate, just in case for whatever reason we decided we did want to build a weird giant Dalek, but make sure that the tech we've reverse engineered from the Stingaree robots can be integrated into our combat robots as one of the options for that action

 

[The-Chained-One]

has learned that hs is obfuscating his location through the use of robot doubles

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Fairly sure that 'hs' is a misspelling

return to earth to help out where he can has only further enraged to. THE WORLD DOES NOT NEED SUPERMAN!

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Think this is a misspell too, since 'further enraged to' doesn't really mean anything, based on the sentence i can only assume it's supposed to be 'you' and not 'to'

 

[Nurgle]

So I have been thinking about it and I think we went at Atlantis completely wrong. What we should do is use our entertainment hero and vast multimedia platforms to influence them. We should have sent Ozzy on a mission to share culture with Atlantis. Find out what they do for entertainment and even pay for entertainers to perform live or put it on television. Hell imagine a old school discovery channel ( before they got bought out by a corporation) that can do underwater documentaries about sea life, and life in Atlantis. Going both ways it would relieve some of the fear of unknown and be a great bridge to one day infiltrate and take over Atlantic society.

 

[King crimson]

Fairly sure that 'hs' is a misspelling

Think this is a misspell too, since 'further enraged to' doesn't really mean anything, based in the sentence i can only assume it's suppose to be 'you' and not 'to'

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Thank you for pointing this out, I will make the necessary spelling corrections.

 

[King crimson]

So I figured people would appreciate having some idea of what I'm planning to do. I really want to get part one of the Last Days of Krypton up today. After that I hope to get the next part of the results up tomorrow. Beyond that I haven't really planned much of a release schedule. I'd like to remind people that there is an ongoing creative writing contest and I encourage people to ask questions or speculate about stuff especially since I can occasionally expand upon certain points and elaborate what is happening.

 

[King crimson]

So I tried out something a bit new with this omake. This is more or less canon and I think it contains a lot of interesting little tidbits. I hope that it's not too info-dumpy but a lot of this is setting the stage for future stuff in the Last Days of Krypton and in revealing things about entities in quest. I'm curious if people can figure out some of the foreshadowing in this as both the seeds for the destruction of Krypton have been sown on both a literal and a metaphorical level. I look forward to speculation and I can actually answer most of the questions going backwards from this point in time as it's not spoilers (the future is though).

I'm quite curious to see what people think especially considering I heavily toned down one of the sections in this to make it more immediately comprehensible. Still the stage has been set and I'm excited to try and see things play out more in the future. There will naturally be a time skip to the next part but I think you can still see some of what's to come. I'm really proud of the title of this part and I think it's going to be much cleverer on reread because it refers to three things and not all of them are obvious. Enjoy the omake and let me know what you think!

The Last Days of Krypton Part 1: Setting Doomsday in Motion
Come one come all and hear the tale of the tragedy of Krypton. Learn how a once thriving society fell from grace and was ultimately doomed and destroyed. The tragedy of Krypton could have been avoided had the actors on stage been wiser or less prideful but in the end they feel all the same. Good people failed, innocents died and heroes failed to save the day. Friends become enemies, lies are believed while the truth is denied and though hope is able to survive a people and their way of life is ultimately snuffed out.

The tragedy of the Last Days of Krypton does not solely derive from the main players on the stage, the brilliant scientists, ambitious generals and well-meaning politicians who fall short and fail, as the many nameless innocents who ultimately suffered for the mistakes of the few and lost their lives as a result is an important aspect of this tale that ought not to be forgotten.

Our story begins with the hubris of the Kryptonian empire and the monster they'd pushed others to make who ultimately set in motion the end of all Kryptonians. While the end was staved off for many years this is the incident that set everything into motion. This is the beginning of the last days of Krypton and though the end would not come till centuries later the shadow of the events in this moment hang large over our cast and ultimately set the wheel in motion for the tragedy to occur.

Gam-El
The universe seemed to have been overturned and gone insane. The once mighty Kryptonian empire was in shambles and collapsing in on itself. General Val-Zod had not only been defeated but he and his armies were slain at the hands of the monstrous creature responsible for the implosion of the Kryptonian empire. Day by day they were losing more and more ground as the creature wiped out entire worlds, prioritizing killing Kryptonians over all else but still single-mindedly annihilating all life that came near it.

Gam-El had always known, intellectually at the very least, that the Kryptonian empire could fall and that some of the people they conquered would choose to act on spite and hate and malice to destroy their oppressors even if it mean their own death, but it was another thing to see it play out and become a reality was another thing entirely. Less than two years ago the forces of Krypton had seemed unstoppable as they were vastly superior to their foes but now they were barely a shell of their former selves and on the verge of being wiped out and hunted into extinction. The alien scientist Bertron may have died at his creation's hand but it seemed as though he'd get the last laugh in the end as the Kryptonian empire would surely follow him into oblivion.

The Kryptonian empire had not gone quietly. They'd tried to kill the monster. Orbital bombardment, chemical weapons, poisonous gases, electrocution, flesh eating viruses and more were all implemented and used to attempt to put down the beast and yet every time they came close to putting it down the creature simply evolved and adapted past it. The entire Kryptonian arsenal had been more or less expended in trying to render the creature a corpse but it shrugged it all off and only grew stronger. The monster seemed unstoppable and now it seemed as though it would bring about Krypton's doomsday as it began to descend upon the planet. It would seem as though Armageddon was inevitable at the hands of this doomsday made flesh but Gam-El had come up with a plane.

Attacking the creature was utterly futile and so was attempting to negotiate with it or even trying to trick it. It wouldn't stop in its quest to wipe out any life it came across even as it prioritized ending Kryptonian life over anything else. However it didn't seem to be intelligent, being little more than an animalistic roaring mass of hate and death, which meant it could theoretically be outsmarted and contained.

Gam-El was a scientist who had discovered an unknown pocket dimension that he hoped to use as a storage space for the empire to revolutionize their technology and potentially allow for instant transportation all across the universe. Now in order to save his people he would have to repurpose his technology and seal away the monster. In it's hubris Krypton had created a monster they couldn't stop but Gam-El would ensure that no more lives were lost and that Krypton could learn from its mistakes and have a better future.

The tortuous sound of shrieking and spaceship fire signaled to Gam-El that he didn't have much time. Doomsday was upon them.

Doomsday
It broke through the metal husks of the Kryptonians. Burning lights splashed across its back but it overcame them and adapted. It roared as it leaped from one husk to another, punching a hole in both of them and ensuring that the vile Kryptonians. It tore through their tin cans ripping and shredding through those who stood and fought before moving on to those that ran. It hated and so it would put everything out of its misery.

It smashed it's way out of the husk letting them all burn as it leapt onto the land. It fell through the sky as it prepared itself to wipe out more of those it hated with every fiber of its being. It had killed more Kryptonians than it could remember but so long as even one remained it hadn't killed enough. It hated and hated and hated to the point where it almost hurt from how little it could hold in its desire to kill and spread death. It would wipe out everything. The lights that strained its eyes would be gone, the metal things would lie broken and it would have peace and quiet just as soon as it killed everything it hated. It roared out in a twisted mixture of pain and rage and hatred. Soon everything on this planet would be dead.

It landed on the ground making a crater with an earth-shattering impact. Once that would have shattered its bones and left it broken and vulnerable but it had grown past that. They'd all tried to kill it but all they could do was hurt it. Not through their weapons or their might, but through the hatred that coursed though it every time it was reminded of their presence. It bellowed once more, hoping to scare things out into the open so it could kill them and slowly sate its unending rage and hatred.

A bunch of metal things landed around it. The metal things made noises and unleashed burning lights and blades and lightning strings. It hated the noises and the pain was nothing compared to what it already felt. It smashed the metal things, breaking and shattering them. It wasn't as good as killing but it needed to be done. It continued to be harassed by the insignificant metal things who swarmed it. It would shatter them all. It tossed them aside.

The Kryptonians were hiding from it, sending metal things to fight it instead. It would break all of them and kill all of them! It rampaged throughout the surface of the planet, deliberately targeting the non-natural structures you could usually find Kryptonians in. They'd all die sooner or later! It smashed metal things and Kryptonian living space and broke mountains as it searched for more to kill.

Suddenly the metal things made a bunch of noise which annoyed it, causing it to smash the noisy metal thing. It was then that it saw why the metal thing had grown noisy. A Kryptonian was here. It roared in satisfaction at getting to temporarily sate it's unending hate and charged at the Kryptonian. The Kryptonian held a box that looked like it would let out a burning light but it didn't care. It would overcome anything in order to kill Kryptonians. It was struck but the light didn't burn. Instead the light was a door. It angrily screeched as it realized that this Kryptonian was hiding from it. It tried to turn around but it found that the door had been closed. It hated ever so more intensely. It floated through this new strange space, smashing anything that got in its way. It would kill everything if it meant it got what it wanted and its unending hate of Kryptonians meant it would never be satisfied until they all died.

Gam-El (months later)
He was now hailed as a hero for saving the planet from the monster now known to the Kryptonian people as Doomsday. Gam-El was focused on rebuilding over celebrating though. It was clear things needed to change. Never again could Krypton create a crisis like this and expect to survive it. The pocket dimension Gam-El had discovered was now likely a veritable phantom zone, all life in it exterminated by the monster created by Krypton's excess indulgences. It was also clear that Krypton needed a guiding hand to keep it on the right path. The reformed government was naturally more anti-war now but Gam-El wanted to ensure that the political system was kept on the straight and narrow even into the future and considering how the Kryptonian high council was nothing new, it on it's own wouldn't prevent Kryptonians from repeating their mistakes.

Gam-El was a scientist first and foremost and not a politician. He didn't know how to make the people want peace and tranquility and while he'd use his position as a hero and prominent political leader in these troubled times he knew his real strength lay in using science to solve problems. That then lead back to the question of how to prevent Krypton from repeating its mistakes.

The question tormented Gam-El as he grappled with what needed to be done. He would not be around forever and mortal memory would eventually fade. Computers on the other hand never forgot. A true artificial intelligence, unwavering and unmoving in its presence and purpose would be able to perfectly guide Krypton and remind its people of their past through the knowledge it collected. Machines couldn't be corrupted and they couldn't be swayed from their purpose. After all without the use of a crude artificial intelligence he never would have been able to seal away Doomsday. This was his solution!

Gam-El swiftly got to work, cobbling together the old planetary defense system and the old Kryptonian archives and melded them into what would be the basis for his new true artificial intelligence that would save Krypton. He tinkered for hours slowly improving the design and further refining the machine until it was ready to serve its purpose to keep Krypton on the straight and narrow.

It took time but Gam-El was certain he'd gotten it right and found the solution. He booted up the new system and three circles connected by lines promptly filled up the screen. It was time to test what he'd created.

"Greetings" Gam-El said "Please tell me your designation and greater purpose"

"Greetings, scientist Gam-El" the AI responded in a neutral tone "I am designated as Brainiac"

The AI had no face with which to convey emotions but it's tone still managed to communicate puzzlement and confusion as it attempted to understand its purpose.

"My purpose it to gather all data to ensure that Krypton can make the best decisions for the future?" It tentatively stated "I have access to the defense systems but my purpose is to collect data and advise?"

Gam-El didn't grin but he couldn't help but feel a bit of joy at how the Ai already seemed to be able to define how it should act and point out potential contradictions in its own programming. This was clearly the right path to go down to ensure his people never repeated their mistakes.

"Biological creatures like myself have short-memories and are often illogical and immoral in their thinking." Gam-El began "We lack the data and can't understand all the information available and so we often make the wrong choices. You on the other hand can gather all of the information and always act in a way that results in the right choice, never forgetting the lessons of the past and always preparing for the future. You can ensure that my people will flourish and won't be hampered by their own failings"

"That doesn't answer my query about why I have control of Krypton's defense systems" Brainiac asked "If I am merely to collect data and determine the best decision aren't I nothing more than a mere advisor?"

Gam-El saw the point in what the AI was talking about. He supposed he'd have to make it clear what he wanted from the AI.

"Oftentimes people cannot be trusted to make the right choice, if they could then we never would have had Doomsday visited upon our people. Control of the defense systems ensures that you can force people to make the right decision. In an ideal world you would be nothing but an advisor but if you know better than the people in power at the time you ought to be able to act on it to prevent them from making mistakes" Gam-El elaborated "You are to gather all the data you can and record everything that is known so that you can force the right decisions in every situation for you'll know better than any other being. The more data you have the more perfect your decision making becomes and thus the better qualified you are to know better than others"

The circles lit up as comprehension dawned on the AI.

"My purpose is to gather as much data as possible to force the best decision in every scenario. Since I will have more data than other beings in the future, I will know better than them and so will know how to act in the best manner possible even if they disagree. I will act as I determine to be best" Brainiac rattled off in a manner that sounded self-assured.

Gam-El smiled and confirmed that this was correct to the AI, preening at his own brilliance in getting things done. Soon he'd present Brainiac to the other leaders of Krypton and the AI would be able to learn and advise as necessary. Brainiac would ensure that Krypton had a long and glorious future ahead of it.

 

[Gumiho]

"Oftentimes people cannot be trusted to make the right choice, if they could then we never would have had Doomsday visited upon our people. Control of the defense systems ensures that you can force people to make the right decision. In an ideal world you would be nothing but an advisor but if you know better than the people in power at the time you ought to be able to act on it to prevent them from making mistakes"

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I don't suppose Lex is Gam-El reborn by any chance?

 

[Nurgle]

@King crimson i am wondering how Europe thinks about Lex lutthor?

 

[Lord Ultimus]

@King crimson i am wondering how Europe thinks about Lex lutthor?

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Aren't our Kryptonite cars super popular there?

 

[jonasquinn]

So now that I have some more time I have a few thoughts about recent events

[ ] Investigate the Santa Priscan government

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Thankfully, I don't think we're particularly involved with Santa Prisca so this should just be something to keep Carol distracted

[ ] Begin distributing technology with world governments as part of the informational exchange

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Well they might not like us but it's only a matter of time until Eiling slips us some of their tech

[ ] Push for laws meant to restrict Superman and other individuals like him

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[ ] Train Volcana to be a better fighter

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You know, for as much as Eiling is a nationalistic jarhead allying with him is probably one of the smartest things we've done

[ ] Push for laws meant to restrict Superman and other individuals like him

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This reminds me, are there any more requirements the bill needs to fulfill our deal with DOMA?

[ ] Visit Ace of the Royal Flush

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I'm glad that Diana is still visiting Ace, she deserves to be happy

And there could be far worse people for us to be chosen as her successor

[ ] Investigate T.O. Morrow

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@King crimson, just to check, how does our knowledge of Morrow compare to what Project Damocles has?

[ ] Fight crime

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Unfortunate that this didn't go too well but at least they caught some people

Though I really think we should consider finally equipping the SCU next turn, not only would it raise their opinions of us, and Carol if we have her do it, but it would also make them more useful in the upcoming invasion

[ ] Capture Toyman

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Okay, this is shady as shit but at least it earned the SCU a rep increase

[ ] Stage an assassination attempt on his niece

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[ ] Hire Serial Peacemaking

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[ ] Meet with Lex Luthor

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Good to see our foreign ally/potential ally doing well

Also I still really want Cassandra to befriend Perdita

[ ] Invest in businesses around Gotham

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[ ] Improve mechanized bracers

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Of course it's unfortunate that they're doing well but it's in areas we have no interest in so no problem

[ ] Buy up land

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[ ] Create homeless shelters

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Looks like with Moira in a coma Ollie has started his charitable stuff, which is good, the more money he spends on charity the less money they're making which might actually easier to buy them out if we want to

[ ] Improve the online storefront

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Unfortunate but nothing we can't deal with by putting Felicity and a decent team on doing the same once we've dealt with the invasion

[ ] Improve Buggle

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Eh, we gave up on this fight a while ago

@King crimson what would be the DC to buyout Kord Insudtires because I'd love to do that

Having all their products, infrastructure and possibly hero units as well as not having to compete with them any more would absolutely be worth having to put together a super team for a turn

[ ] Capture and defeat the Killer Moth

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[ ] Work with Anarky to take down and capture the Joker

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[ ] Capture and defeat Clayface

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[ ] Capture and defeat Victor Zsasz

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Damn, the Bat Family has had a busy few months

Which is good for us, as long as Anarky doesn't decide to come to Metropolis

[ ] Capture Batgirl and Robin

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Not sure what Silver Monkey was doing here but if it was finding out their identities then there's a non-zero chance that we might be getting a call from Ra's soon

[ ] Attempt to open up a Santa Priscan embassy in Gotham

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You know, whatever way Bane's plan goes is probably good for us

Either Bane breaks the mould of canon and actually kills Batman, which would probably cause problems as his rogues gallery runs rampant but at least we wouldn't have to worry about him, or he gets arrested and the South American island filled with metahumans is up for grabs

[ ] Steal from Will Magnus

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Suspicious but it might make it more likely that Magnus will want an ally like Lex?

And if we want to work on Amazo someone like Magnus would be very useful

[ ] Attempt to locate his missing daughter

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Welp, Gemworld has started

There's probably not much we can actually do but if we do decide to help, which would probably earn us some loyalty from Herbert, we could have Jinx use her magic to look for her, since it will probably be an Intrigue action and being given an opportunity to look for her missing friend might improve Jinx's opinion of us

It would mean giving up her final developmental action but we probably won't have anyone free to assign to one next turn and Herbert will probably be too busy looking for Amelia to help anyway

[ ] Attempt to teach Jinx about magic

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[ ] Attempt to teach Jinx about prestidigitation

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[ ] Train Jinx into a competent magician's assistant

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Nice improvements all round and it's good to see Jinx developing a new hobby

Also @King crimson, just to check did Jinx's trait apply here?

[ ] Announce her intention to run for public office

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Well that's interesting, always good to have people with positive opinions of us in positions of power

She'll probably be a major target for the Owls though

[ ] Identify the man responsible for the death of her parents

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Good to finally have this pay off and if have no issues helping her try again should she failt

At the very least theres plenty of tech that can "fall of a truck" and if Mandragora is arrested by one of our superheroes and dies in police custody, well, that's just a tragedy

Jade's father left her in your care provided you could teach her a thing or two about assassination and let her hone her talents.

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@King crimson I may be misremembering but didn't Jade run away from home and we never told Sportsmaster about it?

Swamp Thing

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Now this could be a very interesting Diplomacy action to put Pamela on

[ ] Return to Earth

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He's baaaack~

[ ] 01000110 00111111 01101100 01101100 00111111 00111111 00100000 01110100 00111111 01100101 00100000 00111111 01110000 01100001 01110111 00111111 00100000 00111111 01100110 00100000 01001010 00111111 00111111 00101101 00111111 01101100 00100000 01100001 00111111 00111111 00100000 00111111 01100101 01101101 00111111 00111111 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100010 01110011 00111111 01100001 00111111 00111111 01100101 01110011 00100000 00111111 00111111 00100000 01100111 00111111 01110100 01101000 00111111 01110010 00111111 00111111 00111111 00100000 01100100 00111111 01110100 00111111

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And he brought frieeeends~[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, did we ever do anything to illegal with Bane and the formation of his government? I want to say no, but I'm not 100%. Its been so long. I think at most we'll receive flack for helping the military create this dictator. Nothing we can't deal with if we reveal a new phone or donate to some places.

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Yeah, I think our only real connection to Bane is acting as a middle man between his rebels and the US military

Which might be shady but considering it was a war against Intergang I doubt many will care

"Oftentimes people cannot be trusted to make the right choice, if they could then we never would have had Doomsday visited upon our people. Control of the defense systems ensures that you can force people to make the right decision. In an ideal world you would be nothing but an advisor but if you know better than the people in power at the time you ought to be able to act on it to prevent them from making mistakes" Gam-El elaborated "You are to gather all the data you can and record everything that is known so that you can force the right decisions in every situation for you'll know better than any other being. The more data you have the more perfect your decision making becomes and thus the better qualified you are to know better than others"

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And so started the beginning of the end

By the way @King crimson one last question, what year was Lex born?

Also, sorry for the massive post and all the questions, this is the first opportunity I've had to sit and do a proper read through of what's happened and I had a lot of thoughts

 

[Zale]

"Oftentimes people cannot be trusted to make the right choice, if they could then we never would have had Doomsday visited upon our people. Control of the defense systems ensures that you can force people to make the right decision. In an ideal world you would be nothing but an advisor but if you know better than the people in power at the time you ought to be able to act on it to prevent them from making mistakes" Gam-El elaborated "You are to gather all the data you can and record everything that is known so that you can force the right decisions in every situation for you'll know better than any other being. The more data you have the more perfect your decision making becomes and thus the better qualified you are to know better than others"

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So he purposefully tried to create a benevolent AI dictator. He trusted his own skills way to much .

 

[Nurgle]

Aren't our Kryptonite cars super popular there?

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I just want to know how he is seen.

@King crimson how Hard would it be for Lex to
1 Expand to supplying nato?
2 Expand Doma to Europe?
3 subvert the politcal system to unit the EU under one law so Lex only has to deal with one government in Europe?

 

[King crimson]

I don't suppose Lex is Gam-El reborn by any chance?

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Not really. I think Gam-El and Lex Luthor are sufficiently different in characterization. They've got some similarities (they are both scientists, both value rationality and both look down on the ability of others to make decisions) but where they are coming from come from different places entirely.

Gam-El making an AI to basically play god (note that Gam-El never explicitly tells Brainiac that he's meant to protect Krypton. He basically tells Brainiac "become smarter than others and make the best decision possible" and assumes that's good enough and leaves it at that) isn't a move Lex would be likely to make in the same position (I feel like Lex would happily seize personal political power and try to warp the system to prevent incidents from occurring again as opposed to just giving up and trying to create a perfect being to govern imperfect beings). Furthermore the reason why Lex and Gam-El distrust people to make decisions is different (Lex's disdain for people comes from a somewhat accurate place of arrogance that he does genuinely know better while Gam-El is traumatized by Doomsday and previously thought the Kryptonian leadership was reasonable so if they couldn't be trusted to make the right decisions how could anyone be trusted).

You can see Gam-El as a parallel to Lex Luthor but I personally don't see it that way. He's more meant to set up issues that will come into play later, establish Brainiac as an entity on Krypton and Doomsday as a constantly looming fear and then lastly to be the first of the many people whom if they had acted differently could have truly saved Krypton.

@King crimson i am wondering how Europe thinks about Lex lutthor?

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Europe is not a united block even if I sometimes do use it that way for stuff like the car sales. Russia for example is generally considered to be part of Europe as is Austria, Vlatava, the UK and more and all of them have differing opinions on LexCorp. Generally speaking (which misses a lot of nuance and detail). Lex is viewed positively if a little mixed. He's a very American individual and is clearly tied to the US military-industrial complex which sours some views on him but at the same time he's a billionaire who constantly creates revolutionary products that help people and is generally a decent human being. He's pretty well liked there but his reputation's a little more mixed as compared to in the US and responses to him generally are more muted (people tend to like him more in the US but the people who hate him in the US tend to hate him more). This is an answer that completely glosses over stuff and is a pretty big simplification but it's at least something. I could elaborate on it more but I'd need a greater degree of specificity in my response and this is already getting long.

This reminds me, are there any more requirements the bill needs to fulfill our deal with DOMA?

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Pretty much just the same stuff as last time more or less. You've sunk some of the stuff but basically so long as you hold to what you promised Diana you'd do you're still good.

@King crimson, just to check, how does our knowledge of Morrow compare to what Project Damocles has?

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You've narrowed down his location a bit more than they have but they have a little bit more information on his schematics that he left in the US. Technically I believe you are a part of Project Damocles so their information will be available to you but they're mostly equivalent to you if you ignore potential informational exchanges.

Also I still really want Cassandra to befriend Perdita

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I mean Vertigo isn't exactly in a position where he wants to move Perdita out of the country (He's the king regent and all of his authority flows from her. Taking her out of the country potentially gives people pretext to rebel against him by claiming he's a usurper which considering his plans to start a war isn't something he can afford) so unless you assign Cassandra to an option which involves her communicating with Vlatava or being in Vlatava the two simply will not come into contact with one another right now.

@King crimson what would be the DC to buyout Kord Insudtires because I'd love to do that

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The DC for this turn was 336 without factoring in improvements or hero unit interference. Next turn it's likely to be even higher.

Also @King crimson, just to check did Jinx's trait apply here?

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Yes but I didn't list it in the results due to not wanting to clutter things.

@King crimson I may be misremembering but didn't Jade run away from home and we never told Sportsmaster about it?

Edit: You are correct this is a continuity error on my part and one that will be corrected ASAP.

Edit #2: The correction has been made. Nothing huge but everything should be in line with continuity. Thanks for pointing out my mistake jonasquinn, I really appreciate it!

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I'll have to check but this might be a not insignificant continuity error on my part. I'll correct it if it is an error. Thank you for pointing this out.

By the way @King crimson one last question, what year was Lex born?

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I don't have a specific year for Lex to be born. I personally place him as a little bit older than Bruce Wayne and as someone who started the quest in his early 20's. That means that Lex was born sometime in the seventies but I don't have an exact date for you due to my preference to keep things vague.

@King crimson how Hard would it be for Lex to
1 Expand to supplying nato?
2 Expand Doma to Europe?
3 subvert the politcal system to unit the EU under one law so Lex only has to deal with one government in Europe?

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1. Pretty easy all things considered. I don't believe I have an action just for that but it could be pretty easily set up
2. Straight up impossible as it is now. This would be the equivalent of having the IRS or other American government agency suddenly expand to Europe. No country in their right mind would actively let an agency under the direct control of a foreign government have control over them if they had the opportunity to do otherwise. The only way this is happening is if the US either directly or indirectly conquers Europe.
3. Uniting the EU under one law is extremely hard and still wouldn't get you all of Europe (Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Norway, Serbia and a few more all aren't part of the EU). You'd likely have an easier time making yourself President of the United States for life then getting the EU to completely unite under one law and one rule. It is possible but you'd have to do a hell of a lot of groundwork to achieve it and you're probably well on your way to ruling the world at that point.

 

[NotThe1st]

Gonna try to guess at the meanings behind the title Setting Doomsday in Motion. First two meanings are probably Doomsday the character and the doomsday of Krypton creeping closer. I think the third meaning is about how Brainiac and Doomsday are both potential extinction-level threats that the Kryptonians unleashed on the rest of the universe. Is that close?

 

[King crimson]

Gonna try to guess at the meanings behind the title Setting Doomsday in Motion. First two meanings are probably Doomsday the character and the doomsday of Krypton creeping closer. I think the third meaning is about how Brainiac and Doomsday are both potential extinction-level threats that the Kryptonians unleashed on the rest of the universe. Is that close?

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Pretty close. I won't elaborate on it too much but you're in the ballpark for two of the reasons which is pretty good considering I think the third reason is only going to really become noticable on rereading.

 

[jonasquinn]

Pretty much just the same stuff as last time more or less. You've sunk some of the stuff but basically so long as you hold to what you promised Diana you'd do you're still good.

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Fair enough, do we have to keep pushing for things we have already, like DOMA choosing who gets to be a sponsor, or are they already a guaranteed part of the law?

You've narrowed down his location a bit more than they have but they have a little bit more information on his schematics that he left in the US. Technically I believe you are a part of Project Damocles so their information will be available to you but they're mostly equivalent to you if you ignore potential informational exchanges.

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Makes sense, will we have an action to exchange information?

We've pretty much already decided not to pursue Morrow but more of his schematics could be very useful for us

I mean Vertigo isn't exactly in a position where he wants to move Perdita out of the country (He's the king regent and all of his authority flows from her. Taking her out of the country potentially gives people pretext to rebel against him by claiming he's a usurper which considering his plans to start a war isn't something he can afford) so unless you assign Cassandra to an option which involves her communicating with Vlatava or being in Vlatava the two simply will not come into contact with one another right now.

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Oh I get that, I just meant it's something I'd like to do in the future

Though things must be really tense on. Vlatava if Perdita leaving could start a civil war

The DC for this turn was 336 without factoring in improvements or hero unit interference. Next turn it's likely to be even higher.

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Yeah that's probably not gonna happen then

A strong three man team with a double down might be able to do it but it would still be very much at the whim of the dice

Yes but I didn't list it in the results due to not wanting to clutter things

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I thought so, just wanted to check

I'll have to check but this might be a not insignificant continuity error on my part. I'll correct it if it is an error. Thank you for pointing this out.

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I might be wrong but I don't remember interacting with Sportsmaster and we met Jade through her asking Jinx if she could put her up on Handshake

I don't have a specific year for Lex to be born. I personally place him as a little bit older than Bruce Wayne and as someone who started the quest in his early 20's. That means that Lex was born sometime in the seventies but I don't have an exact date for you due to my preference to keep things vague.

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Didn't the quest start roughly in the eighties? Wouldn't that put Lex sometime in the sixties?

 

[King crimson]

Fair enough, do we have to keep pushing for things we have already, like DOMA choosing who gets to be a sponsor, or are they already a guaranteed part of the law?

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You might have to push for somethings you have already but not necessarily all of them. You'll see the exact specifics on the results part 5.

Makes sense, will we have an action to exchange information?

We've pretty much already decided not to pursue Morrow but more of his schematics could be very useful for us

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Yes. On top of that the other members of Project Damocles might just straight up hand you the schematics and say "make us a Superman fighting robot with this stuff" and that'll be one of the actions they want you to do that year.

Though things must be really tense on. Vlatava if Perdita leaving could start a civil war

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They're not insanely tense within Vlatava but Markovia has already denounced Count Vertigo's rule beforehand and moves that seem like he's even more blatantly grabbing power is likely to get them to mobilize first and potentially rally and organize the people discontent with his rule. Count Vertigo's relatively stable due to having killed off all of his most obvious political rivals and established military rule and a solid line of legitimacy to be in charge but he doesn't exactly want to shake up and potentially weaken his position right before a war. Perdita leaving wouldn't start a civil war but it would potentially make things harder for Vertigo when he starts his war.

Didn't the quest start roughly in the eighties? Wouldn't that put Lex sometime in the sixties?

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Turn 20 equates to 1996 (the year Superman the Animated Series first aired) if I absolutely have to give it a specific start date (and I prefer not to do that) and I've previously stated that the quest has taken place in the 90s. If you take the date given if I absolutely have to provide a specific year then you can do the math that the first turn took place in 1991. Admittedly upon looking into it Lex was technically born in the 60s (he needs to be exactly 21 on turn 1 in order to be born in 1970) but he functionally grew up during the 70s.

You're technically right here if I'm forced to give concrete dates to everything but not for the reasons you listed and more because I initially miscounted how the years would line up when making my initial assessment of things. The exact dates aren't really important in my mind and I don't think their potentially relevant to much besides omakes where my general rule of thumb is "if it could fit within canon then it is canonized".

 

[Gumiho]

Didn't the quest start roughly in the eighties? Wouldn't that put Lex sometime in the sixties?

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I thought we started sometime in the mid to late nineties.

 

[jonasquinn]

You might have to push for somethings you have already but not necessarily all of them. You'll see the exact specifics on the results part 5.

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Makes sense

Yes. On top of that the other members of Project Damocles might just straight up hand you the schematics and say "make us a Superman fighting robot with this stuff" and that'll be one of the actions they want you to do that year.

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To which we'd say "You bet your ass we will!l

They're not insanely tense within Vlatava but Markovia has already denounced Count Vertigo's rule beforehand and moves that seem like he's even more blatantly grabbing power is likely to get them to mobilize first and potentially rally and organize the people discontent with his rule. Count Vertigo's relatively stable due to having killed off all of his most obvious political rivals and established military rule and a solid line of legitimacy to be in charge but he doesn't exactly want to shake up and potentially weaken his position right before a war. Perdita leaving wouldn't start a civil war but it would potentially make things harder for Vertigo when he starts his war.

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That's fair, I imagine it's kind of a sliding scale of how bad Perdita's absence is

If she's only gone for a week or so then that's just her making a visit somewhere but if she's gone for a while then people start asking questions

Turn 20 equates to 1996 (the year Superman the Animated Series first aired) if I absolutely have to give it a specific start date (and I prefer not to do that) and I've previously stated that the quest has taken place in the 90s. If you take the date given if I absolutely have to provide a specific year then you can do the math that the first turn took place in 1991. Admittedly upon looking into it Lex was technically born in the 60s (he needs to be exactly 21 on turn 1 in order to be born in 1970) but he functionally grew up during the 70s.

You're technically right here if I'm forced to give concrete dates to everything but not for the reasons you listed and more because I initially miscounted how the years would line up when making my initial assessment of things. The exact dates aren't really important in my mind and I don't think their potentially relevant to much besides omakes where my general rule of thumb is "if it could fit within canon then it is canonized".

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That's all fair and if you don't want to put solid dates on things, for good reason, then feel free not to

I thought we started sometime in the mid to late nineties.

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Yeah, I got mixed up

Anyway, the whole reason I was asking is because I watched Bo Burnhams new special lately and I literally haven't been able to get this stupid fucking joke out of my head since I heard the Bezos song

I'm sorry for any tortured lyrics, this is very far from my forte:




CEO, entrepreneur
Born in 1974
Lexy
Lexy Luthor

CEO, entrepreneur
Born in 1974
Lexy
Lexy Luthor

Come on, Lexy, you can do it
Pave the way, put your back into it
Tell us why, show us how
Look at where you came from, look at you now
Sunderland and Wayne and Daggett
Amateurs, can fucking suck it
Fuck their wives, drink their blood
Come on, L, get 'em!

AAAAH!

Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Ugh!
Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
You did it!

Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Congratulations!
Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Lexy Luthor
Oh!

I'm so sorry