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

[H2F2]

[X] [Park] Ozzyland

[X] [Name] Silver Symphony Records

[X] [Arrange] Hand over Metallo and Dr. Michaels to Waller and have Carla get hired to assist the DOMA

[X] [HIVE] Inform Queen Bee that you'll potentially arrange for the investigation and elimination of the unknown individual to be handled by an Ally of Lex's who will remain unnamed(the League of Shadows) to avoid garnering there attention yourselves, while looking into the European cult yourself. Encourage Queen Bee focus on rooting out as much potential spies and information leaks as possible.

 

[PickleJar]

Thank you for the update!

The three first options don't interest me as much and with Eiling's stuff in particular there seems to be a general agreement. I will say that we are building a Zeta Tube in Biyalia so cutting communications with Queen Bee isn't a necessity, but I'd appreciate a write-in that introduces her to the technology and limits all direct communications to it.

This is also a bit random but per our agreement with Queen Bee, we probably should tell her what we know about Black Manta since our agreement involved sharing information about Atlantis.

I am hesitant to offload them to the League of Shadows since it would require tilting things too much in Ra's favor, but if we do then we need to meet him either next turn or the one after that - I'd prefer it if we did it on turn 33 since by then we would end up accomplishing a few things for him and it might make negotiations more favorable.

We probably should meet with Diana next turn as well if we can manage it. If not then the turn after that - it isn't urgent at this point, but she should be kept informed Between Supergirl and these new developments.

In theory we should start looking into the cult next turn but that would require giving up the action to investigate Richard Dragon and as such I'm not okay with that.

@Void Stalker btw you should change Caitlin's coop with Louise to 0 and Pamela to 2.

and the one strong metahuman we found we informed Diana of instead of recruiting, for some reason. I wasn't around when the choice was made so I don't know.

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I wasn't in the game back then either, but I did manage to dig up Amy's profile

Chain Lightning (New Earth)

Chain Lightning was a lightning-wielding enemy of the Marvel Family. Amy was born with the mutant power of absorbing electricity, but never learned uses for her power until a mysterious benefactor gave her a powersuit that let her channel the electricity she stored. At about this time she began...

dc.fandom.com

The way I see it, the upside with Amy is that she is massively powerful, I'm talking Supergirl-Livewire level of power, but the downside is that she is potentially heavily mentally unstable and it might lead to some serious complications down the line, and she needed a specialized suit in the comics to harness her powers though granted that might've just been a compensation for her lack of training.

I think that it was the correct decision.

 

[Void Stalker]

@Void Stalker btw you should change Caitlin's coop with Louise to 0 and Pamela to 2.

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The info sheets are still showing 1.7 and .5? Can you link the action it changed?

 

[Randino Treviani]

This is also a bit random but per our agreement with Queen Bee, we probably should tell her what we know about Black Manta since our agreement involved sharing information about Atlantis.

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I think she has bigger concerns right now. No point wasting time sharing information she is to busy to act on.

I am hesitant to offload them to the League of Shadows since it would require tilting things too much in Ra's favor, but if we do then we need to meet him either next turn or the one after that - I'd prefer it if we did it on turn 33 since by then we would end up accomplishing a few things for him and it might make negotiations more favorable.

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I don't quite like it, but what is the alternative? Risk QB being compromised and having her handle Europe while we go after this very secretive and hidden individual in a position of influence with the US government, on top of Trigon, The Kryptonian invasion, and probably directing our superheroes against Kobra? This situation calls for some delegation, or we'll be overwhelmed.

 

[PickleJar]

The info sheets are still showing 1.7 and .5? Can you link the action it changed?

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[ ] Learn more about space
DC 19
Roll 64 + 19 (Caitlin learning stat) + 9 (Louise Lincoln learning stat times coop score with Caitlin rounded up)
Total 92
Outstanding success

Caitlin has managed to make significant headway in your attempts to learn more about the final frontier. While her relationship with Louise Lincoln continues to disintegrate, her work remains top-notch and you've managed to gain quite a bit of knowledge on the subject matter. If this keeps up you'll be able to move forward into that great dark beyond and begin properly putting Earth on the interstellar map. It'll come with time but slowly inch by inch, moment by moment, space is becoming yours to conquer.

Results: Learn About Space subvote, Caitlin coop score with Louise decreased by 0.5, Caitlin coop score with Pamela increased to max

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I don't quite like it, but what is the alternative? Risk QB being compromised and having her handle Europe while we go after this very secretive and hidden individual in a position of influence with the US government, on top of Trigon, The Kryptonian invasion, and probably directing our superheroes against Kobra? This situation calls for some delegation, or we'll be overwhelmed.

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You're probably right. It does circle around to the idea of getting too many obligations.

[X] [Park] Ozzyland

[X] [Name] Silver Symphony Records

[X] [Arrange] Hand over Metallo and Dr. Michaels to Waller and have Carla get hired to assist the DOMA

[X] [HIVE] Inform Queen Bee that you'll potentially arrange for the investigation and elimination of the unknown individual to be handled by an Ally of Lex's who will remain unnamed(the League of Shadows) to avoid garnering there attention yourselves, while looking into the European cult yourself. Encourage Queen Bee focus on rooting out as much potential spies and information leaks as possible.

I would've liked to talk with Queen Bee a bit about the Zeta Tube but given how it's going to be complete and under her control by virtue of being in Biyalia, it isn't much of an issue.

 

[King crimson]

So since this is relatively low effort, I figured you all would appreciate being able to have an informational post on this. I'm not exactly going to be covering the ins and outs of Norse Mythology and instead this is more meant to be a definitive rundown on all of them and their nuances, but rather just a basic rundown of their characters/characterization as I'll be doing them in this quest.

The Norse Gods
A lot of the things said in my previous post about the Greek gods are equally applicable about the Norse gods only they grew out of a different region of the world's conceptions. Likewise they too have adapted a bit to the modern world but remain very much tied down to their ancient roots. Unlike the Greek gods however, Norse gods are a lot more flexible in what is and isn't a "god" and there are distinct camps of different entities. For the purposes of this post, I will almost solely be focusing on the Aesir even though there are other figures who could be construed as gods.

Here's the basic list of what to expect from some of the biggest names amongst the Aesir and the Vanir

• Odin: Odin is the king of the Aesir and goes by many names and many faces. He is an immensely wise individual skilled in magic and has strong ties to many domains, including but not limited to, royalty, healing, knowledge, wisdom, madness, war and the runic alphabet. His domain is not clear cut but rather he rules over a wide array of domains. Odin has calmed down a fair bit since his youth where he was a lot more rambunctious and adventurous. Upon losing his eye and gaining knowledge of Ragnarök, Odin has become a lot more focused on preparing the Norse pantheon for the end times. He can magically disguise himself and has a thousand different names and a thousand different faces. He rules from Asgard and is currently married to Frigg. The Valkyries are technically under Freyja's command but she follows Odin's orders. In addition to this Odin has a legion of magical hunters that he occasionally leads in expeditions though he's generally left that to subcommanders as of late.
• Frigg: Odin's wife and a goddess associated with marriage, clairvoyance and motherhood. She and Odin initially had a fairly rocky marriage, weakened in part by Odin's many extramarital affairs, but they have since grown closer and remained strong and united despite this. She is very protective of her children with Odin, and his death at Loki's hand has irrevocably poisoned all interaction between the two. Frigg despises all frost giants and malicious tricksters and hates Loki over all others.
• Balder: Balder is the child of Frigg and Odin and was Frigg's favorite son. Balder is associated with beauty and light. As part of a scheme Loki arranged to have Balder inadvertently killed and then through further trickery consigned him to remain in the land of the dead. Balder likes mortals and can greatly empathize with them.
• Bragi: Bragi is Odin and Frigg's other son and is controls the domain of poetry. Bragi has severe issues with his mother due to her favoritism for Balder and she in turn finds him frustratingly similar to Loki. The two do manage to have a cordial relationship. Bragi likes mortals and enjoys challenging them and seeing what they can come up with.
• Idun: Idun is Bragi's wife and the keeper of the apples of immortality. She is amongst the most powerful and influential of the Aesir and effectively acts as Odin's most important subordinate. Idun is very wary of mortals attempting to cheat her or steal from her due to their own limited lifespan. She's not outright hostile but she's very cautious.
• Hodr: Hodr is Balder's twin brother and is the god of darkness. Hodr is blind and is very technically the killer of Balder, having been tricked into committing the deed by Loki. Being tricked into murdering his twin by an individual he considered a surrogate uncle has left Hodr very bitter dour and untrusting. Hodr is a pessimist who sees the worst in people, especially in mortals whom Loki previously delighted in leading around by the nose. Hodr does not hate frost giants but instead hates everyone equally.
• Hermod: Hermod is the messenger of the gods and an illegitimate son of Odin. Hermod is dutiful and bold and does his best to treat everyone respectfully and fairly. He gets along well with most of his family and isn't much of a free-thinker, instead preferring to follow orders to the best of his ability.
• Tyr: Tyr is a god of war, representing more of the physical side of combat as opposed to Odin's more tactical and strategic side, and is an illegitimate son of Odin. Tyr is amongst the bravest of all the Aesir and is immensely skilled in combat. He lost his hand in assisting with the capture of Fenrir. Tyr is fond of combat but doesn't revel in it or seek it out, treating it more as a necessity and a duty. Tyr doesn't think highly of individuals who shirk their duties and is relatively straightforward.
• Thor: Thor is the god of thunder and the illegitimate son of Odin and a giantess. Thor is loud, bold, boisterous and adventurous. He constantly gets into fights and adventures and is eager to take on any and all comers willing to take him on. Thor and Loki were remarkably close to one another but have since drifted apart. Thor is a bit of an oaf and will never back down from a bet but is also loyal and a good fighter. He has an intense dislike of snakes and serpents and is fairly uncaring of collateral damage.
• Sif: Sif is Thor's wife and is tied to the earth and the harvest. She is a lot more calm and level headed and tends to balance out Thor's more aggressive and mercurial side. She and Thor have two children and they each have one illegitimate child from outside of their marriage. despite this she and Thor remain together and strongly in love.
• Heimdall: Heimdall is an absolutely bizarre and inscrutable individual who watches over the Bifrost and holds domain over the senses, especially sight and sound. Heimdall is cryptic and quiet and enjoys collecting odd epithets and titles and seeing how others react to them. Amongst his titles include such gems as "son of nine mothers", "the whitest of the gods", and "emerald toothed". Heimdall has a large collection of magic items. Heimdall generally thinks very little of mortals and as the god credited with inventing social class amongst humans, he generally views all mortals as beneath all gods.
• Freyr: Freyr is an incredibly powerful king of the Vanir with a wide array of domains and is the twin brother of Freyja. He is very closely allied with Odin and the Aesir. Freyr is incredibly crafty and diplomatic and prefers intelligence and caution to violence though he'll engage in it if necessary. Freyr is proud and intelligent but he also tends to view the long game and the big picture over individual matters.
• Freyja: Freyja is a Vanir and is the twin sister of Freyr. Freyja remains unmarried and is the leader of the Valkyries. She serves under Odin as a pseudo-lieutenant and is loyal to the Aesir even if she technically remains apart from them. Freyja deeply admires combat potential and has a somewhat romantic view of the world, finding great respect for those who can life up to heroic ideals.
• Loki: Loki is a half-giant who became the adopted brother of Odin and a surrogate uncle to Odin's many, many children. Loki holds the domains of lies, chaos and fire. He's immensely unpredictable and is capable of shapeshifting and incredible feats of magic. Loki had close bonds with many of the Aesir but his ill-conceived prank that resulted in the death of Balder resulted in Loki being banished from the Aesir and eventually being consigned to endless torture. Every so often Loki manages to slip his bonds and influence the other realms. The torture Loki has received has thoroughly turned him against the rest of the Aesir and the Vanir and now he seeks to bring them down by any means possible. Loki knows that Ragnarök would result in his own death but considers it worthwhile to go out on his own terms and put an end to the story rather than perpetuating forever. Loki is an immensely unusual god in that he's incredibly fond of mortals and believes that mortals don't need gods and would probably be better off without them.
• Angroboda: Angroboda is Loki's wife and the mother of Fenrir, Jormungandr and Hela. Angroboda is a lot more patient then Loki and a lot more caring, being a stable individual for him to return to. She actively acts to reduce his pain and torture as much as she can and wants to help Loki. Angroboda is unaware of the implications of Ragnarök, but does want to bring it about to bring down the Aesir and the Vanir for how her family has been treated. Angroboda is not a great mother, focusing on taking care of and assisting Loki and his plans over helping any of her children.
• Hela: Hela is the youngest child of Loki and Angroboda. She alternates between being calm and rational when placated, but when stirred she becomes aggressive angry and liable to throw tantrums that end in armies of the dead rising up to kill whatever irked her. Hela is immensely powerful and incredibly possessive of anything that she deems as "hers" namely all of the dead she is able to claim. Hela wants to claim as many dead souls as possible. Hela has a strained relationship with her parents, acknowledging that both of them are not great people but simultaneously wanting their love and approval. She's relatively playful around mortals and will frequently say that she wants everyone to die peacefully, albeit primarily because she wants to "collect" them. Hela has learned ways to maim and mutilate an individual to leave them right on the verge of death in order to ensure they enter into her realm when they do expire. Hela is immensely fond of the modern world and has learned how to blend in very effectively.

 

[Schehera Zade]

biggest names amongst the Aesir and the Aesir

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A Pantheon so nice, ya' had to say it twice.

In all seriousness, pretty sure you meant to say Vanir.

 

[King crimson]

A Pantheon so nice, ya' had to say it twice.

In all seriousness, pretty sure you meant to say Vanir.

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I'll fix that, thanks for pointing it out.

There's actually a kind of funny reason why that mistake exists. I originally had it written as both the Aesir and the Vanir but I accidentally called Odin, Idunn and Tyr "Vanir" when they're Aesir. As such I replaced all instances of "Vanir with "Aesir" leading to the issue you caught.

 

[King crimson]

Also some stuff that's less solid but I'm currently considering/cooking up for the Norse gods. This is less canonized and more just general thoughts of mine so it's not going in the informational post.

• Hela's lower half resembles a rotting corpse. When disguised amongst the mortals Hela covers this up not by shapeshifting but by wearing pants and shoes that completely cover her lower half
• Hela genuinely loves hanging around hospitals and medical centers
• Odin has multiple brothers
• Odin is on good terms with Santa Claus
• Odin dislikes the magic user Wotan who he feels basically stole one of his identities, but tolerates it since it allows Odin a fairly convenient disguise to act in the mortal realm, is a somewhat reviled one
• Thor is a redhead in the quest
• Sif is blonde in quest
• Odin has many more illegitimate children who were not mentioned in this post
• I don't know if it's something I want to go into but I think there's a potentially a really great comedic potential in making Heimdall act like a stereotypical WASP elitist. I think between his title as "the whitest of the gods" and the originator of social class in mortal humans (both things derived from mythology) it plays into it really humorously. I don't know if I would go this direction, but it's an idea I had and I think it could be funny if handled well.
• Loki and Angroboda are both bad parents who don't really raise their kids all that well
• Tyr is technically handicapped due to missing his dominant hand but is so skilled at combat generally (due to being a god with that domain) that it doesn't really bother him

 

[Negation]

Odin is on good terms with Santa Claus

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How? I thought Santa would gift him coal every year?....wait, that's Zeus... nvm.

Odin dislikes the magic user Wotan who he feels basically stole one of his identities, but tolerates it since it allows Odin a fairly convenient disguise to act in the mortal realm, is a somewhat reviled one

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I prefer Wodan Ymir myself.

 

[PickleJar]

@King crimson can we send Jade to Keystone Motors to learn about cars and such? Also, a completely unrelated question, has the thread ever done anything so completely out of your expectations that you were genuinely taken aback, be it good or bad? Something that you just plain didn't foresee at all.

I will also say that Lex has been pulling Diana's ass out of the fire so much in this quest that it's kind of hilarious.

 

[Passiveone]

[X] [Park] Ozzyland

[X] [Name] Silver Symphony Records

[X] [Arrange] Hand over Metallo and Dr. Michaels to Waller and have Carla get hired to assist the DOMA

[X] [HIVE] Inform Queen Bee that you'll potentially arrange for the investigation and elimination of the unknown individual to be handled by an Ally of Lex's who will remain unnamed(the League of Shadows) to avoid garnering there attention yourselves, while looking into the European cult yourself. Encourage Queen Bee focus on rooting out as much potential spies and information leaks as possible.

 

[jonasquinn]

[X] [Park] Ozzyland

[X] [Name] Silver Symphony Records

[X] [Arrange] Hand over Metallo and Dr. Michaels to Waller and have Carla get hired to assist the DOMA

[X] [HIVE] Inform Queen Bee that you will pass on her information about HIVE's US ties to a trusted ally in the government with insider knowledge of the involved parties while you and a separate ally shall investigate the European cult and the Kobra situation. In the meantime she should focus on rooting out spies and information leaks within her own ranks.

Here's my plan for the HIVE situation, is this okay @King crimson?

As I've already said I am completely against not involving Diana in this not only because she is an actual expert in the field but because she has personal reasons to care about HIVE getting their hands on both Benjamin Love and Amos Fortunes research and would be fucking furious if she learned we knew about it and didn't tell her. Not to mention my doubt that Ra's would care or necessarily be able to deal with the situation especially since if it's someone like Director Bones then Diana is one of the few people who could get him to stop.

Plus I just really don't like completely ignoring the Kobra situation especially when the League is far more likely to care about that IMO.

It's more creating a risk when we don't need to. Plus wasting an opportunity. If we could have done a bit of opsec and not just share the information we could have Queen Bee gain more on HIVE assets and clues on this unknown backer. Yet, we told Diana who then told Waller who then goes immediately nuclear.

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Alternatively without Waller's decisive action HIVE would have continued to grow and become an even greater threat and potentially discovering what Queen Bee was up to.

The problems I see generally in Quest including this one is the assumption our allies wouldn't act without our say so. This time the related one was Diana informing Waller making a quiet infiltration turn into a mad scramble to avoid detection , and most recently with Talia acting on her own building her hidden faction within us.

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I don't think that's necessarily fair, we didn't assume that we'd be briefed on the plan to deal with HIVE we just didn't quite expect it to be as effective as it was.

What I am pressing here is the need to not overcomplicate things when it is unnecesary. I am pretty sure Queen Bee wouldn't appreciate the fact of how we encourage her to infiltrate HIVE only for us to let loose Waller on it.

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I would very much argue that cutting Diana out is what would overcomplicate things. We'd be depending on the League to do a lot of infiltration and espionage to get access to information that she likely already has.

No she has not. Diana entered "Man's World" during the course of the quest. By all metrics she has not been part of the US government or engaging in spy games longer than Lex has been alive.

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Huh, fair enough. I was operating under the assumption that we were going with the "Diana has been around since WW1" origin but okay.

I don't quite like it, but what is the alternative? Risk QB being compromised and having her handle Europe while we go after this very secretive and hidden individual in a position of influence with the US government, on top of Trigon, The Kryptonian invasion, and probably directing our superheroes against Kobra? This situation calls for some delegation, or we'll be overwhelmed.

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The alternative is letting Diana in on the situation so she can conduct her own internal investigation, allowing us and the League to focus our efforts elsewhere while avoiding the shitstorm of her potentially learning we'd kept this a secret from her.

The Norse Gods

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This is apropos of nothing but something I've always liked about the Norse pantheon is that depending on your interpretation Loki is either just a jackass or was almost completely justified to kill Balder.

Either he just decided it would be funny to kill his adopted nephew for shits and giggles or after centuries of being the Aesir's whipping boy and all his children being subjected to horrible fates decided to give Odin a taste of his own medicine.

Of course that ignores the "Loki is a facet of Odin" theory.

 

[iamweirdo]

[X] [Name] Silver Symphony Records

[X] [Arrange] Hand over Metallo and Dr. Michaels to Waller and have Carla get hired to assist the DOMA

[X] [HIVE] Inform Queen Bee that you'll potentially arrange for the investigation and elimination of the unknown individual to be handled by an Ally of Lex's who will remain unnamed(the League of Shadows) to avoid garnering there attention yourselves, while looking into the European cult yourself. Encourage Queen Bee focus on rooting out as much potential spies and information leaks as possible.

 

[AizenMD]

The alternative is letting Diana in on the situation so she can conduct her own internal investigation, allowing us and the League to focus our efforts elsewhere while avoiding the shitstorm of her potentially learning we'd kept this a secret from her.

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She and Waller failed to investigate this last time. It's better for someone else to get things going and update her after we have some names and evidence and some people she can trust.

[X] Fghubyygvb

 

[Simon_Jester]

Leslie figured it was fine to merely take the one vial instead of multiple and hopefully hide that aspect of the sabotage.

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I'm not sure that'll work out according to plan.

Collecting blood samples from Superman probably isn't easy, so Hamilton probably isn't casual about his supply of them. Also, I'm pretty sure a certifiable genius like Hamilton knows how to count.

Lastly was dealing with the big man in the sky's suits. Leslie initially wanted to steal them but she quickly realized that there was no way she wouldn't get caught trying to take one of these massive suits outside.

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Besides, I strongly suspect one of the key innovations in designing environmental suits specifically for Superman is that the wearer literally does not care if the suit weighs half a ton.

Which in turn makes (for most infiltrators) stealing the suits something of a "yeah, good luck with that" proposition.

Emil didn't know how he was going to explain this to Superman. The kryptonian had placed a good amount of trust in Emil by providing biological samples and working closely with him. Emil now had to explain that a lot of things were damaged or gone due to negligence on the part of himself and his coworkers. At least the various suits he designed to help Superman in more extreme environments and situations seemed to be intact.

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I'm disappointed if Emil doesn't do a systems check to confirm that the armors weren't somehow damaged.

I'm also disappointed in him if he doesn't follow up, at least in hopes of figuring out which of his colleagues blew the circuit breakers, so that he'll know who to shout at.

How? I thought Santa would gift him coal every year?....wait, that's Zeus... nvm.

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Well, there's some speculation that Santa Claus is actually very loosely based on certain aspects of the Odin/Woden/??? divine persona, sort of creatively remixed and reimagined by Christianity.

But I'm not qualified to say if there's any support for that, mythologically speaking. Still, maybe they're cousins or something.

When it comes to screwing with Superman, Leslie Willis is truly the master.

Seriously, give this woman a raise.

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Leslie: "Hey, I was trying to find this guy's secret weakness before it was cool!"

 

[King crimson]

@King crimson can we send Jade to Keystone Motors to learn about cars and such?

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You could, though I don't guarantee it'll happen if you assign her to the action (Jade can still go "no I'm doing my own thing now").

Also, a completely unrelated question, has the thread ever done anything so completely out of your expectations that you were genuinely taken aback, be it good or bad? Something that you just plain didn't foresee at all.

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I think the big one is the current coop score system. The original coop score, as I came up with it wasn't very good and it was actually the thread that went and revamped it into its current form (which I like a lot more). I don't know if I'd say it was something that took me aback but it was a moment where the thread caught me completely by surprise and I didn't see it coming.

Another thing that really surprised me is when I found out that people found Marie and her struggles with "living in the wrong body" kind of allegorical for the trans experience. Going into writing her, I very much did not have that in mind but on getting it explained to me I found it really impactful. It kind of actually ended up shifting a bit about how I thought about writing the character and it has influenced other stuff.

In general I really didn't foresee the reaction/popularity this quest ended up having. I'm not going to get too into this but for a bit of context, this quest was initially written as a sort of "fine I'll do it myself" type of deal when I got frustrated with how other people were running their quest, and I was on antidepressants/in a worse state of mind. It's really neat seeing how big this thing I made get over the years. I'm really grateful to everyone who has stuck with me throughout it all even as I continue to grow and evolve and the quest continues to grow and evolve as well.

[X] [HIVE] Inform Queen Bee that you will pass on her information about HIVE's US ties to a trusted ally in the government with insider knowledge of the involved parties while you and a separate ally shall investigate the European cult and the Kobra situation. In the meantime she should focus on rooting out spies and information leaks within her own ranks.

Here's my plan for the HIVE situation, is this okay @King crimson?

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Yes that is okay.

Huh, fair enough. I was operating under the assumption that we were going with the "Diana has been around since WW1" origin but okay.

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So to potentially clarify a little bit, Diana has been alive longer than since WW1 but she has been off of Themyscira for less than a decade.

This is apropos of nothing but something I've always liked about the Norse pantheon is that depending on your interpretation Loki is either just a jackass or was almost completely justified to kill Balder.

Either he just decided it would be funny to kill his adopted nephew for shits and giggles or after centuries of being the Aesir's whipping boy and all his children being subjected to horrible fates decided to give Odin a taste of his own medicine.

Of course that ignores the "Loki is a facet of Odin" theory.

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Loki is a really messy god to adapt because what we know of Loki is heavily warped. He's been heavily syncretized with Satan, there's a very similar fire god named Logi, and there's also a giant named Utgar-Loki. There's a lot of room to make Loki a lot of different things because we just don't know enough about him to really solidly pin down who he is and what he's about.

In adapting Loki, I tried to balance the more malicious side of Loki with more positive attributes as well. I wanted to write him in such a way where there's not really a clear cut "bad guy" amongst Norse Pantheon.

Well, there's some speculation that Santa Claus is actually very loosely based on certain aspects of the Odin/Woden/??? divine persona, sort of creatively remixed and reimagined by Christianity.

But I'm not qualified to say if there's any support for that, mythologically speaking. Still, maybe they're cousins or something.

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If you look at stuff like the Wild Hunt and its origins, Odin has fairly strong ties to figures like Oberon, King Arthur and more via them being considered "leaders" of the Wild Hunt. Odin's arguably been remixed into massive amount of stuff (Wednesday's are named after him).

I'm not an expert but just looking at the guys list of names (List of names of Odin - Wikipedia), it's clear that he's massively tied to a lot of different stuff. Father Christmas and by extension Santa Claus don't really derive from him as far as I can tell, but they've incorporated a lot of aspects of him considering that Odin's been sitting around Western Europe collecting names for centuries.

Edit: Also Odin has a good number of brothers who don't really do all that much after helping to kill Ymir. If I wanted to go full syncretism, I'd probably have the Santa Claus connection arrive from that angle.

 

[jonasquinn]

She and Waller failed to investigate this last time.

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They didn't fail to investigate it they just didn't know about it and considering that it's seemingly HIVE's best kept secret I can't really blame them for that especially when the League isn't really any better.

It's better for someone else to get things going and update her after we have some names and evidence and some people she can trust.

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Except that it will probably take a lot of time and effort to get access to even half the information Diana has about her own organisation never mind actually filtering through it to try and figure out who is responsible.

Not to mention that this is again assuming that Ra's is willing to devote the necessary resources and that we'd have to justify it to Diana after the fact.

I'm not sure that'll work out according to plan.

Collecting blood samples from Superman probably isn't easy, so Hamilton probably isn't casual about his supply of them. Also, I'm pretty sure a certifiable genius like Hamilton knows how to count.

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Hopefully the fact that it just so happens to be a freak power surge will disincline him from reading too much into it and with all his other samples ruined he might just dump them without thinking about it.

Besides, I strongly suspect one of the key innovations in designing environmental suits specifically for Superman is that the wearer literally does not care if the suit weighs half a ton.

Which in turn makes (for most infiltrators) stealing the suits something of a "yeah, good luck with that" proposition.

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Somewhat ironically Leslie is one of the few infiltrators that that probably wouldn't effect since she can probably just hijack the suits.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Hopefully the fact that it just so happens to be a freak power surge will disincline him from reading too much into it and with all his other samples ruined he might just dump them without thinking about it.

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All I'm gonna say is that if Emil doesn't follow up with the lab trying to figure out who's responsible for the power glitch and doesn't count his blood vials, then man is his low Intrigue really costing him.

Somewhat ironically Leslie is one of the few infiltrators that that probably wouldn't effect since she can probably just hijack the suits.

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No see, that's the thing.

If you forge a half-ton suit of environmental armor for a normal man, then that armor necessarily has motors and power assist and electronics. Livewire can then pilot it like a mecha suit.

But if you forge a half-ton suit of environmental armor for Superman, then why does he need powered motors to move around in it? He's Superman! In which case it may simply not have any control circuits or anything of the sort, and Livewire may be no more able to hijack those suits than she would be able to 'hijack' a pile of concrete.

 

[jonasquinn]

All I'm gonna say is that if Emil doesn't follow up with the lab trying to figure out who's responsible for the power glitch and doesn't count his blood vials, then man is his low Intrigue really costing him.

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Fair, though the energy experiments being done in the building make a good scapegoat for the former.

No see, that's the thing.

If you forge a half-ton suit of environmental armor for a normal man, then that armor necessarily has motors and power assist and electronics. Livewire can then pilot it like a mecha suit.

But if you forge a half-ton suit of environmental armor for Superman, then why does he need powered motors to move around in it? He's Superman! In which case it may simply not have any control circuits or anything of the sort, and Livewire may be no more able to hijack those suits than she would be able to 'hijack' a pile of concrete.

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I would argue that it's smart to lean on the side of redundancy. It's better that the suits have motors that Superman doesn't need 95% of the time than for them to not have it and the one time he's not strong enough to move it for whatever reason he's just stuck there.

 

[PickleJar]

Speaking of power armor, when are we going to invest more into creating them, as well as more specialized suits and weapons? Hopefully, the answer is "as soon as Rose gets back", or maybe after we fulfill some of our other Martial obligations (last line, missles for Richter). It's also something that Leslie would benefit a lot from doing and would be naturally good at doing.

Because if you look at the parameters of some of ours suits then they are very good, with specialized suits like the Ravager custom being particularly noteworthy:

• Basic Exosuit: Can be attached any humanoid unit that can be deployed without any other prerequisites, gives whatever they are attached to Martial 8 at close range, Martial 6 at medium range, Martial 0 at long range, Intrigue 3 and Health 15 while keeping all other states the same. Will trigger piloting bonuses
• Myrmidon Exosuits: Can be attached to any humanoid unit that can be deployed without any other prerequisites, gives whatever they are equipped to Martial 12 at close range, Health 16 and Intrigue 2 while keeping all other stats the same. Gives any unit they are equipped to flying and armored properties. Will trigger fire weaponry and piloting bonuses
• Ravager Custom Exosuit: Can be attached to any humanoid unit that can be deployed. If the exosuit is attached to a unit that is not Rose Wilson than a -50 penalty will be added to every roll that wins and -10 to every roll that is a loss. This gives the unit it is attached to Martial 28 at close range, Martial 20 at Mid and Far ranges, Intrigue 3 and Health 18 while keeping all other stats the same. The Ravager exosuit is inherently defended against magical based attacks, can trigger fire, hellfire, kryptonite and piloting based bonuses and can fly allowing it to disengage from non-flying units with no penalty.
• Equalizer Exosuits: Can be attached to any humanoid unit that can be deployed without any other prerequisites, gives whatever they are attached to Martial 10 at all ranges, Health 18, and Intrigue 3 while keeping all other stats the same. Gives any unit they are equipped to flying properties and allows them to freely disengage from any non-flying unit with no penalties. Equalizer Exosuits give bonus +20 at the end of rolls when fighting in the air and can trigger piloting and kryptonite bonuses.

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Wearing her custom suits bumps Rose's Martial to 48 when fighting in close quarters and 40 when stuck in mid and long range, and it triggers a lot of special bonuses as well (Kryptonite, magic, etc) when used, effectively turning her in a powerhouse. The other generic models are also very good.

We should also probably get to improving our exosuits in general as well.

@King crimson What's the difference between the "Develop a custom battle suit" action (DC 5) and the "[ ] Create another advanced armor" action (DC 40)?

 

[jonasquinn]

Speaking of power armor, when are we going to invest more into creating them, as well as more specialized suits and weapons? Hopefully, the answer is "as soon as Rose gets back", or maybe after we fulfill some of our other Martial obligations (last line, missles for Richter). It's also something that Leslie would benefit a lot from doing and would be naturally good at doing.

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As far as custom exosuits go I wanted to make one for Kate before the Braniac attack and would still like to do so at some point.

For both that and just improving our general exosuits I think it would be good to do it relatively soon but there are other weapon based things I'd rather do first so for now I'm happy to wait till Rose gets back and hopefully her and Leslie get along well.

Also as a side note, we already did the missiles for Richter iirc.

Wearing her custom suits bumps Rose's Martial to 48 when fighting in close quarters and 40 when stuck in mid and long range

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Iirc it actually doesn't. KC has said in the past that the Martial of anyone in an exosuit is locked at the Martial of that suit rather than it being additive.

@King crimson What's the difference between the "Develop a custom battle suit" action (DC 5) and the "[ ] Create another advanced armor" action (DC 40)?

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Obviously I'm not KC but my understanding is the former is creating an exosuit for a hero unit and the latter is creating more of the personal body armour Pamela invented like, way back at the beginning of the quest.

 

[King crimson]

So I just thought it was funny to note cause I realized this while walking to a meeting but for people talking about Leslie's results when going after Superman, remember that even ignoring how her mind got messed with by Pamela,a key component of Leslie's job is quite literally to hate on Superman.

I would argue that it's smart to lean on the side of redundancy. It's better that the suits have motors that Superman doesn't need 95% of the time than for them to not have it and the one time he's not strong enough to move it for whatever reason he's just stuck there.

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I don't want to get too into it but the biggest problem for Leslie stealing the suits is not just whether or not she can hijack them, but also if she can do so unobtrusively. The suits are big heavy and have a giant Superman S on the front, if she were to steal/hijack them, her cover would be blown, since it's a lot less covert than her Sophia Sage disguise. It's not practical for her to steal the suits unless she wants everyone to track the theft and be aware of exactly what happened.

@King crimson What's the difference between the "Develop a custom battle suit" action (DC 5) and the "[ ] Create another advanced armor" action (DC 40)?

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Jonasquinn talked about it above but I'll clarify and confirm. One's a customized exosuit for a hero unit, the other is creating a more general armor that can be given to any unit. The DC on one is higher than the other because it's a lot more splashable (hero units and regular units can benefit from it in one go as opposed to just a single hero unit).

 

[PickleJar]

As far as custom exosuits go I wanted to make one for Kate before the Braniac attack and would still like to do so at some point.

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I was thinking about putting a magic user on the action as well. It also gives Leslie practice with machines and such which is really good.

If I had to make a list of other units who would benefit from a specialized armor/suit then it'd be something like:

• Lex - At some point he has got to get his own specialized armor. Either that or become the armor itself via A.M.A.Z.O or whatever
• Carl - His specialized armor could be a lot of fun, and I like the idea of the armor giving him control over the security systems and letting him control his traps and general defenses from afar. I think that it's really cool
• Leonard and Mick - Between their excellent coop scores and their traits, I can easily see Leonard and Mick being a massive force to be reckoned with
• Caitlin - Something to let her control our snow drones would be extremely cool, turning her into her own snowstorm and dealing terrain damage to enemies just by virtue of being in her general area, kind of like in Pokemon
• Elaine - Having our own original take on a suit that's dedicated to assassination would be very cool
• Leslie - I love the idea of creating a giant mecha that's completely and utterly unwieldy and effectively not functional and just having Leslie brute force it into working.

Also as a side note, we already did the missiles for Richter iirc.

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I can't find when we took the action and I still see it on the obligations list.

Iirc it actually doesn't. KC has said in the past that the Martial of anyone in an exosuit is locked at the Martial of that suit rather than it being additive.

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Yes, that was my mistake, I misread it.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Fair, though the energy experiments being done in the building make a good scapegoat for the former.

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Yeah, but he'd still at least want to know who to shout at, which would mean looking into who might have been responsible for such a power surge.

I would argue that it's smart to lean on the side of redundancy. It's better that the suits have motors that Superman doesn't need 95% of the time than for them to not have it and the one time he's not strong enough to move it for whatever reason he's just stuck there.

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In theory, yes. On the other hand, making the suit powered adds a lot of cost and time and complexity to the task of maintaining the suit. Which could cause other complications. For instance, it might mean Hamilton is unable to make spares, or unable to have a separate prototype for each of the three functions Superman wants.

Furthermore, two of the three suits are designed for situations where Superman losing his powers would probably be a death sentence anyway (at the bottom of the ocean or in the depths of space) unless the suits are SO capable that they're fully competitive with our exosuits, if not better. Which they might be, but is Hamilton really in a position to duplicate and then 'lap' our work so easily?

Also, powered motors that aren't in use most of the time are relatively likely to get bent, damaged, or broken if Superman exerts himself too hard. A suit of passive metal plates strapped to his body will be harder to damage and easier to repair if it does get damaged.