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

[Sirrocco]

I do like these.

For this one... I feel like it got a bit samey in places, though. Like, the "Wonderland Races" scope got too tight. It was the same venue, the same boss, often the same position, and notable similarities in narrators. It was interesting, but I feel like a slightly wider net would have been more interesting.

 

[Randino Treviani]

I do like these.

For this one... I feel like it got a bit samey in places, though. Like, the "Wonderland Races" scope got too tight. It was the same venue, the same boss, often the same position, and notable similarities in narrators. It was interesting, but I feel like a slightly wider net would have been more interesting.

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Problem is it's too early for a wider net because right now Chesire isn't interacting much with the wider west coast criminal elements, and instead focused on establishing the backbone of her empire in quality help. I'm looking forward to turn 33 when she probably opens the races in truth and we can get an idea of the broader response. Glad we kicked her the resources she needed, since she seems to have things well in hand without the limitations of funds.

Hmm. I'm a bit less sure about Talia on develop Alexandria now, as I'd hate for her to overly influence the outcome any. Maybe just jade then.

 

[King crimson]

Am i missing something? Are we going to do that?

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It's a reference to something Cheshire infamously did in the comics (she stole nuclear weapons from Russia and nuked the country of Qurac so people would take her attempt to blackmail the world seriously).

@King crimson Canon or not this was a fun read, and I love the emphasis put on the four big lessons Jade has learned. Be prepared for violence, teamwork makes the dream work, Loyalty is worth the cost, Presentation is what makes you super in people's minds.

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Happy to hear you enjoyed reading it, even if I'm not fully happy with how it turned out.

I do like these.

For this one... I feel like it got a bit samey in places, though. Like, the "Wonderland Races" scope got too tight. It was the same venue, the same boss, often the same position, and notable similarities in narrators. It was interesting, but I feel like a slightly wider net would have been more interesting.

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I agree with this broadly. I feel like I peaked with my first three or so POV's (the one I'm most happy with was Hana Park's as I think I managed to write an interesting character even if her end is a little jumbled). Towards the end I did get a bit repetitious. That was kind of symptomatic of me trying to reel in characters to make them more grounded and less over the top and out there.

I'll say that in early drafts one of the characters was an ex-cop who got fired for being overly brutal, "Ash" was going to have a more extreme story of working her way up, and "Remy" was a lot more overtly psychopathic and disturbing. Additionally an idea that was considered but ultimately dropped was having the thing that caught Hana being a younger sibling picking up the gun that she'd left in her room and accidentally killing someone with it (that idea got cut for being a little too dark). All of this stuff got cut mostly in the name of realism and trying to keep the characters a little more grounded of "okay these are the kind of people Jade would realistically be getting to work with her without too many issues".

I think I strayed in too close to similar archetypes and either a wider net or a more focused/more reviewed omake would have been stronger. It's a big downside of "I'm going to get this out of my brain" was that I didn't put my usual level of review into it and I think that does show in the repetition.

Problem is it's too early for a wider net because right now Chesire isn't interacting much with the wider west coast criminal elements, and instead focused on establishing the backbone of her empire in quality help.

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Going to have to disagree with you on this one, I think the omake has its good moments but it gets rough in the back half. It would've been better if I'd either been more focused or been more open to going and showing other characters that are a bit more different (I probably could have cut Ash's POV and replaced it with the marketing expert for example and it would have improved things).

I said it in the author's note above it, but I'm not fully in love with what I wrote, and I definitely think it's one of my weaker omakes.

 

[Negation]

It was the same venue, the same boss, often the same position, and notable similarities in narrators. It was interesting, but I feel like a slightly wider net would have been more interesting.

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Remy the poisoner could have been assigned the job of the Bartender for hilarity.

 

[drake_azathoth]

I'll say that in early drafts one of the characters was an ex-cop who got fired for being overly brutal, "Ash" was going to have a more extreme story of working her way up, and "Remy" was a lot more overtly psychopathic and disturbing. Additionally an idea that was considered but ultimately dropped was having the thing that caught Hana being a younger sibling picking up the gun that she'd left in her room and accidentally killing someone with it (that idea got cut for being a little too dark). All of this stuff got cut mostly in the name of realism and trying to keep the characters a little more grounded of "okay these are the kind of people Jade would realistically be getting to work with her without too many issues".

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I'm glad you reined it back a bit. I think Hana and Remy were two of my favorites, specifically because although their stories were dark they weren't exactly complete caricatures. Hana feels almost too realistic and relatable, I could easily see some of the people I knew as a dumb teenager making a similar mistake with a similar outcome. Remy's ability to keep himself in check and not reveal too much outward creepiness is also kind of fitting for a poisoner and while it detracts a bit from his 'comic-book scariness', if you will, it makes him scarier in some ways because it's much more realistic.

A lot of the more subdued pieces like Romeo and Ash were nice to read and very relatable too though... I think you pushed a good mix of suitably sleazy and dangerous people with more down-to-earth and relatively naive people.

 

[jonasquinn]

I'm pretty sure with our improve lasers action this turn the DC will be dropping.

And it was pretty low already. With an outstanding success, and the right subvote picks, it might even become auto success.

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That's true but it's still important enough that I'd rather not leave it up to a raw roll regardless of what the new DC ends up being. Whether it needs Frost or if someone else would do depends and we can decide once we see the new DC but I definitely think we should definitely assign someone.

 

[Randino Treviani]

That's true but it's still important enough that I'd rather not leave it up to a raw roll regardless of what the new DC ends up being. Whether it needs Frost or if someone else would do depends and we can decide once we see the new DC but I definitely think we should definitely assign someone.

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Hmm...-snap- Rose is back. Her learning is 13 and she has a high enough martial and enough experience to know what makes a good rifle from a bad one. She'll do.

 

[jonasquinn]

Hmm...-snap- Rose is back. Her learning is 13 and she has a high enough martial and enough experience to know what makes a good rifle from a bad one. She'll do.

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Fair enough, if Mercy ends up being free we could put her on it as well for a nice extra boost but that's a fairly big if.

 

[Kir the Wizard]

It took a single slight from WE and some setbacks for Bruce for the mood to go from "no step into Gotham" to "let's come for revenge", huh?

No need to be cocky. The business setback is quite solvable. The biggest problem so far is Batgirl running into Assassins with Atlantean pistols.

 

[jonasquinn]

It took a single slight from WE and some setbacks for Bruce for the mood to go from "no step into Gotham" to "let's come for revenge", huh?

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It's not just a single slight, it was a thuggish and blatantly illegal attempt to force us out of a market entirely through pure brute force.

Also many of us are still against going into Gotham, we just feel as if this provocation requires a response to ensure that Wayne Enterprises and others don't think they can get away with it.

EDIT: Unrelated to any of that it just occurred to me that we might want to meet with Zatanna at some point over the next few turns so that when we deal with the Church of Blood we can have some magical superhero support.

 

[King crimson]

Hana feels almost too realistic and relatable, I could easily see some of the people I knew as a dumb teenager making a similar mistake with a similar outcome.

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So I actually know someone in high school who on a bet tried to steal the gun of a security guard while in a foreign country. He didn't manage to pull it off (the security guard stopped him basically the moment he had a hand on the gun) but it was a bit of a shitshow so I can confirm that yes dumb teenagers would do something exactly this stupid.

 

[Fight Club 20]

This is another drawing of mine, about Mary Louise Dahl asking Fixit for help.

Spoiler: My Drawing

 

[Nicolay]

I have a question were does Trigon stand power wise compared to the new gods like Darkside or the lords of Order/Chaos respectively?

 

[King crimson]

This is another drawing of mine, about Mary Louise Dahl asking Fixit for help.

Spoiler: My Drawing

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It's always cool to see more fan art. I'll also say that this is probably the friendliest looking Fixit I've ever seen which is neat in and of itself. I know its ultimately a minor thing but I think the drones in the back were really well drawn, especially the quadrupedal one. It's a solid piece and you earn 500 exp for it. Do you have a name for this bit of fanart or do you want me to pick independently?

I have a question were does Trigon stand power wise compared to the new gods like Darkside or the lords of Order/Chaos respectively?

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I've spoken on this subject matter years ago but the answer basically comes down to "all of them are so absurdly powerful that any conversation attempting to powerscale them is meaningless". To put it bluntly all of the New Gods and Lords of Order/Chaos you'll encounter on the main earth of the quest are almost certainly holding back immensely as your only ever dealing with the avatar of the entity in question. All of these entities are multiversal and are insanely hard to kill. Even if you "kill" Darkseid for example, unless you killed the multiversal entity that exists outside of conventional universes, you have not actually killed Darkseid. Trigon's a similar story being a multiversal entity of absolutely immense power that's really, really hard to kill. In quest, the Trigon that people are worried about coming onto earth and ending the world? That's a fraction of a fraction of his full power.

Most attempts to say "who's more powerful" fall flat, because it's not clear cut. In a fight you basically always end in an eternal deadlock. In terms of versatility of ability it's a toss up between New Gods and Lords of Order and Chaos though I'd give the edge to Lords of Order/Chaos, in terms of ability to act upon the world it's pretty solidly New Gods (Lords of Order/Chaos need some kind of anchor point whether that be a familiar, a helmet or a body to possess and are kept in check by the opposing faction, and Trigon's imprisoned. New Gods are basically kept in check by the opposing factions of New Gods which means so long as they're able to hide their actions they can act freely), and in terms of being able to immediately blow up a planet I'd probably say Trigon wins that category.

As such there's not really a clear cut answer and "most powerful" ends up being entirely based on how you define "powerful" and any real fight between them at full power pretty much ends in an eternal deadlock.

 

[Fight Club 20]

Do you have a name for this bit of fanart or do you want me to pick independently?

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You can pick, and thank you for the exp.

 

[Nicolay]

Thanks for the answer but now i'm confused about how Raven's existence works since she is the daughter of Trigon is she a multiversal entity as well? And if she isn't one what exactly is she?

 

[Randino Treviani]

Martial
[ ] Improve LexCorp forces equipment
DC34
Rose+Mercy

[ ] Engage in superpowered crimefighting abroad
DC???
Mari+Beatrice

[ ] Continue preparing for Trigon's arrival
DC 32 (the higher the roll the better the result)
Roxy+Rebecca+Carl

Diplomacy
[ ] Speak with Selina Kyle
DC15
Paige

[ ] Meet with the League of Shadows
DC 14
Marie Luis Dahl


[ ] Meet with Chloe Decker
DC3

[ ] Begin marketing the rapid growth ration package
DC 64
Rene+Lucy+Lance

[ ] Give bonuses to employees
DC0

[ ] Sell close to home
DC9

Stewardship
[ ] Begin creating helicopters
DC3

[ ] Begin producing music
DC 10
Siobhan+Johnny Charisma

[ ] Begin production of auto-kitchen
DC14
Lana

[ ] Build another supercomputer
DC 51 (DC 40 if Felicity is assigned)
Felicity+Frost

[ ] Buy more Gingo fruits
DC8

[ ] Continue to attempt to repair various cities across the world
DC 14
Vivian+Constance+Tora

[ ] Develop and sell low fashion clothing
DC 2

[ ] Give Leslie Willis her own TV show
DC 33 (DC 8 if Leslie Willis is assigned to this action)
Leslie+Lisa

[ ] Design and produce small combat drones
DC 12

[ ] Continue to repair Metropolis
DC 27
Leonard+Sam+Mick

Intrigue
[ ] Assist Nightshade in tracking down the demon she wants to get revenge on
DC ???
Nygma+Meld+Eve

Learning
[ ] Develop a new standard laser rifle for General Wells
DC7
Kate or Helena

[ ] Learn about Kryptonite
DC 146
Lex+Meena+Carol

[ ] Learn about robotics
DC3

[ ] Improve necessary tech for the O.D.I.N. system
DC 24
Caitlin+Pamela+Karl

[ ] Learn about genetics
DC24
Catherine

[ ] Improve Enoch Brown's animal growth formula
DC 88 (48 if Enoch Brown is assigned to this action)
Brown+Villain

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The above list is a rough action draft for turn 33, using up 26 actions out of 35 with the Assumption of double down. It largely features actions we've discussed since results one, and I'm a bit short on time, so I'll focus on actions with heroes assigned that we haven't covered.

Cooperation score with Oswald Loomis: 1 (Oswald and Leslie are familiar with one another. Neither really likes the other even though Leslie does respect Oswald to a certain degree. They work together very well though, due to their shared language and overlapping skills, so long as it's not on either one of their own pet projects as then things quickly get personal between the two of them)

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It turns out that narratively, Oswald and Leslie have difficulty working together on personal projects, and I can't help but feel an action that Leslie lowers the DC on has to count. Fortunately, Lisa has TV/Movie experience and there coop means the two stewardship bonus is only a little short of Leslie and Oswald's would have been.

Kate or Helena have learning enough for Wells Laser, which let's me put the stronger team of Rose and Mercy on improving Lexcorp securities equipment, which should activates Rose's piloting related skill.

I think we'll need to drop Rene therapy if we want to advertise our ration packs or any similar high dc action.

We can pair up eve with Nygma and Meld for tracking down her trauma demon instead. It apparently has a chance to raise her loyalty, and increased loyalty is increased cooperation when Lexcorp sends her in for therapy later. Seems worthwhile.

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Now for the hero lacking action we haven't discussed.

Meeting Chloe decker is apparently easy and the action feels worthwhile, if for no reason than to check up on our investment.

Our employees have had a phenomenal year and a surpassingly good final quarter, so it only feels right to throw around some bonus's for the heck of it. Really, I think everyone has contributed to a outstanding or better success at some point this year, even lance and moon.

Never going to stop pushing for helicopters for our security forces. Would make evacuations much easier on us.

Regrettably, Meena is a chatter box, and Villain is a greedy snake. I wouldn't expect the secret of Gingo Fruit chemical to stay secret for long. Best to try and purchase what we can over the next two turns, like how star labs bought up Quixium. One bad turn deserves another.

Lana has also had a particularly good year, a success over 100 every turn despite lacking teams, including a solo crit. Might as well throw her an extra, and maybe it drops the DC to expand LL fashion a little.

I'm willing to take some risks to add to our arsenal with the Kryptonian invasion approaching.

We have data on sample tech on some of the finest Robots made Man, Kryptonian, and Rogue AI. Taking this action and succeeding should make our dc to improve certain tech examples drop by an appreciable amount.

I'm eager for feedback.

 

[Nicolay]

Were gonna do Raven's propaganda action this turn correct?

 

[Randino Treviani]

Were gonna do Raven's propaganda action this turn correct?

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Actually we are planning to do a diplomacy action to force socialize her with Cassandra, Jinx, and Starfire, binding her to Lexcorp emotionally rather than by brainwashing she would resist, in hopes of overcoming the coop issue raven and Jinx has so she can help jinx learn about Chaos magic and Shadow magic, and be helped in turn with wards and demonology in the event our new occultists don't quite measure up in terms of coop crit success likelihood.

 

[King crimson]

Thanks for the answer but now i'm confused about how Raven's existence works since she is the daughter of Trigon is she a multiversal entity as well? And if she isn't one how what is she?

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The basics is that a piece of Trigon got out of imprisonment and was able to manifest. In order for demons to manifest in the regular universe, they generally "fragment" themselves. Each piece of them then goes to a universe and acts independently before reconstituting back into the demon proper later on down the line when they've left those universes. I elaborate on it a bit more in my "A Layman's Guide to Hell and the Denizens within it" informational post.

Basically a piece of Trigon got a little loose and split itself in order to try and break into realities. One of those fragments then came into contact with Raven's mother and impregnated her resulting in Raven. Demon's don't have genetics, meaning Raven's status as a "half-demon" is more metaphysical than biological (you won't find any genetic information on why she can grow four glowing red eyes when tapping into her powers). Raven isn't a multiversal entity due to her mother making her not a full blown out and out demon.

Does that sufficiently explain things?

I'll also say as a fun fact, Raven is Merlin's cousin. She's not a full-blown demon but that should give you an idea of the advantages of not exactly being a regular vanilla mortal.

 

[Nicolay]

Actually we are planning to do a diplomacy action to force socialize her with Cassandra, Jinx, and Starfire, binding her to Lexcorp emotionally rather than by brainwashing she would resist, in hopes of overcoming the coop issue raven and Jinx has so she can help jinx learn about Chaos magic and Shadow magic, and be helped in turn with wards and demonology in the event our new occultists don't quite measure up in terms of coop crit success likelihood.

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Are those mutually exclusive couldn't we just do the socialize action later?

 

[Randino Treviani]

@jonasquinn I'm out of time at the moment and having trouble tracking down the action to malign hal as a reward to Carol for her performance this turn. If you don't mind, would you please tracking it down so I can compare it to the push propaganda action dc?

Are those mutually exclusive couldn't we just do the socialize action later?

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Special actions have more oomph, which makes an action to tie her to lexcorp emotionally a bit more of a priority. Like jade, Raven can have her values shifted towards Lexcorp ones over time by interacting with people who share them. This is sort of kick starting that by wedging raven firmly into Cassandra's social group. We can of course follow up later with an action to teach Raven Ideology or some such, or involve her in a cass special action with a similar effect, but for now this feels like the Best course of action based on discussions held since results one. It's important that we get the most out of Raven's last special action.

 

[Sirrocco]

I feel like releasing the autokitchen... isn't enough. We don't want people to think Lex has gone soft, and we let a lot of corporations get away with a lot of stuff in the aftermath of Brainiac. We need to hit them hard enough so that it actually hurts.

So... recruitment? I mean, there was that one doctor that we kind of wanted to poach, but that Bruce would have taken incredibly personally. That plus the autokitchen actually feels about right at this point. In the meantime, we get something that we want, and Bruce cant' say that he didn't have it coming. It'll take a decent team to poach them in spite of whatever hero support we'd run into on the other side, but I think it would be worth it.

Also, making use of the Bone Growth Formula is pretty much mandatory at this point, given how well we did with it. We absolutely should not wait on upgrading Karl, and we should seriously think about producing it for broader use.

 

[Fight Club 20]

So... recruitment? I mean, there was that one doctor that we kind of wanted to poach, but that Bruce would have taken incredibly personally. That plus the autokitchen actually feels about right at this point.

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I'm all in for poaching employees from Bruce. It definitely shows him what happened if he can't control his own company.

 

[Randino Treviani]

So... recruitment? I mean, there was that one doctor that we kind of wanted to poach, but that Bruce would have taken incredibly personally. That plus the autokitchen actually feels about right at this point. In the meantime, we get something that we want, and Bruce cant' say that he didn't have it coming. It'll take a decent team to poach them in spite of whatever hero support we'd run into on the other side, but I think it would be worth it.

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We can check out the dc on the action when it comes through and maybe put off the rations again. Until we see the dc we can't really plan around it. Though, if we give Barbara a few turns as the disliked girl the board is causing problems for because she participated in the pharmaceutical push which put Lexcorp at Wayne Industries level, maybe we can take this the turn after next.

Otherwise, I'm considering a smear campaign with push propaganda as a stop gap before we bring the heat with phones.

Also, making use of the Bone Growth Formula is pretty much mandatory at this point, given how well we did with it. We absolutely should not wait on upgrading Karl, and we should seriously think about producing it for broader use.

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Unfortunately we have obligation to fulfill and an amazing opportunity to exploit. We really should deliver a more refined version of Odin when it comes to our final product, which means taking an action to improve the tech involved.

At the same time, a strong success in learn about kryptonite action in which Carol participates has the potential to let her learn to use her Star Sapphire ring to generate the effects of Kryptonite radiation. This, taken turn 33, and followed by an action for her to train her powers turn 34, would make her an amazing anti Kryptonean combatant in the upcoming invasion, which would be very usefull for convincing people she is a superior defender in comparison to superman.

The problem is, for strong teams for both, we need Karl to assist Caitlin and Pamela with ODIN, while Lex and Meena work with Carol to turn her into the ultimate loyal superman opponent. I'd hoped to make use of the bones serum as well.

The bone growth formula has been a particularly thorny issue for quite a while now. Karl's magnum opus is now on its way to being made useable and viable for more than just grotesque combat capable creatures. It took quite a bit of work, and the work isn't even done, but you have managed to make significant strides forwards and finally have a viable product to make use of. It's a potential revolution in and of itself and you look forward to being able to make use of this particular new invention soon

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But it seems it may not be quite done yet, likely because moons "contributions" made as much work to reverse as there was to progress, and in typical fashion, a mix of too good Opportunities and Obligations have gotten in the way. As Lex Luthor, we must take the big picture into account, and prioritize Carol gaining the ability to pimp slap superman into submission with a bit of focus.