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

[Negation]

So we still need to deal with Whale somehow... At the least we need to find the blackmail.

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I'd rather we deal with him after we create FaceBook. This way, we have control of Social Media and it will have the effect of lowering the DC of buying the Daily Planet just like in real life.

Meanwhile we can cut into his profits by cracking down on crime....dammit. It'd be too good of an opportunity next turn and I really want to spend it recruiting capable Hero Units.

 

[Reader of all]

So what actions should we put mirrorman? I am thinking solar pannels or holograms for him as those two fields seem mirror related.

 

[Negation]

So what actions should we put mirrorman? I am thinking solar pannels or holograms for him as those two fields seem mirror related.

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Sam found it kind of funny that he was working security of all things but he wasn't complaining. Especially since his boss was Mercy Graves and she was H-O-T hot. Like Sam normally went for blonder chicks but sometimes you just saw a work of art and felt the need to marvel at it.

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He's under Mercy and his Intrigue score is excellent. Lets pair him with Mercy to do either of:

[ ] Investigate inside the company
DC 45 You can never be too paranoid. Investigating inside the company would let you root out spies and figure out if anyone is siphoning money away from where it is supposed to go.

Or

[ ] Plug the leaks
DC 42 You have discovered that many workers in your company are too loose-lipped about the details of what LexCorp gets up to and a few even outright give journalists any information they are looking for. Ensuring that your employees know to keep LexCorp's secrets and plugging the leaks will make sure that this never develops into a problem.

 

[Reader of all]

He's under Mercy and his Intrigue score is excellent. Lets pair him with Mercy to do either of:

[ ] Investigate inside the company
DC 45 You can never be too paranoid. Investigating inside the company would let you root out spies and figure out if anyone is siphoning money away from where it is supposed to go.

Or

[ ] Plug the leaks
DC 42 You have discovered that many workers in your company are too loose-lipped about the details of what LexCorp gets up to and a few even outright give journalists any information they are looking for. Ensuring that your employees know to keep LexCorp's secrets and plugging the leaks will make sure that this never develops into a problem.

Click to shrink...

While tempting I really want access to the mirror dimension and the benefits that comes with it like teleportation as well as the cloning tech.

 

[Negation]

While tempting I really want access to the mirror dimension and the benefits that comes with it like teleportation as well as the cloning tech.

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Yeah. Me too but his Trait is literally a gacha so I'd put it on hold until we get Heat Wave so we'd have Leonard + Mick + Samuel together on learning the same Learning Actions so their Co-Op scores & Traits can mutually support each other.

 

[LollipoPReapeR]

Gotta agree with Negation. At the start we didn't put much thought into plugging leaks and it almost bit us in the ass. Plug dem leaks. Shore up our foundations before we start expanding again. Plus there are tonnes of options left still.

Edit: I am wondering if we should reserve an action every turn to build a new LexCorp building? It sounds like a good idea.

 

[Simon_Jester]

So we still need to deal with Whale somehow...

Click to shrink...

...Why? I mean, why is it necessary to "deal with" him instead of just leaving him to groan and nurse his bruises for a while, keeping well away from Metropolis?

At the least we need to find the blackmail.

Click to shrink...

Can we first build a big, highly efficient spy network before trying that? Because Whale will have made it hard to do that, and if we do it in an amateurish way, it's just going to convince him we're at war. Also, he may be keeping copies in several places, distributed widely.

Meanwhile we can cut into his profits by cracking down on crime....dammit. It'd be too good of an opportunity next turn and I really want to spend it recruiting capable Hero Units.

Click to shrink...

If he's cutting back his operations in Metropolis, we won't be able to affect him much (if at all) by cracking down on crime, an action that only affects Metropolis.

Now, "crush all criminals" might actually be a good choice in Metropolis next turn, but that's for reasons that have nothing to do with Whale. It's because his absence from Metropolis will leave the criminal element less organized and with less leadership, and because a strong success will leave very little crime for Superman to fight within the city.

He's under Mercy and his Intrigue score is excellent. Lets pair him with Mercy to do either of:

[ ] Investigate inside the company
DC 45 You can never be too paranoid. Investigating inside the company would let you root out spies and figure out if anyone is siphoning money away from where it is supposed to go.

Or

[ ] Plug the leaks
DC 42 You have discovered that many workers in your company are too loose-lipped about the details of what LexCorp gets up to and a few even outright give journalists any information they are looking for. Ensuring that your employees know to keep LexCorp's secrets and plugging the leaks will make sure that this never develops into a problem.

Click to shrink...

That is not actually a bad idea at all.

Gotta agree with Negation. At the start we didn't put much thought into plugging leaks and it almost bit us in the ass. Plug dem leaks. Shore up our foundations before we start expanding again. Plus there are tonnes of options left still.

Edit: I am wondering if we should reserve an action every turn to build a new LexCorp building? It sounds like a good idea.

Click to shrink...

King crimson has pointed out that there are issues with having the company expand too far and too fast, so we may not want to start a new HQ every turn, but we should do it frequently IMO. Along with hiring more workers- LexCorp has something like... 10-20 thousand employees depending on how you count, which is pretty small for a company aspiring to be another Google or Amazon AND that has significant involvement in manufacturing.

 

[LollipoPReapeR]

...Why? I mean, why is it necessary to "deal with" him instead of just leaving him to groan and nurse his bruises for a while, keeping well away from Metropolis?

Can we first build a big, highly efficient spy network before trying that? Because Whale will have made it hard to do that, and if we do it in an amateurish way, it's just going to convince him we're at war. Also, he may be keeping copies in several places, distributed widely.

If he's cutting back his operations in Metropolis, we won't be able to affect him much (if at all) by cracking down on crime, an action that only affects Metropolis.

Now, "crush all criminals" might actually be a good choice in Metropolis next turn, but that's for reasons that have nothing to do with Whale. It's because his absence from Metropolis will leave the criminal element less organized and with less leadership, and because a strong success will leave very little crime for Superman to fight within the city.

That is not actually a bad idea at all.

King crimson has pointed out that there are issues with having the company expand too far and too fast, so we may not want to start a new HQ every turn, but we should do it frequently IMO. Along with hiring more workers- LexCorp has something like... 10-20 thousand employees depending on how you count, which is pretty small for a company aspiring to be another Google or Amazon AND that has significant involvement in manufacturing.

Click to shrink...

We should deal with Whale because he himself said he wants to come back to Metropolis at some point. I never meant to do it ASAP but something to definitely put on the back burner.

 

[Simon_Jester]

Hmmm.

You know, Samuel+Marie on intrigue would be a pretty strong combo with a +35 on the die roll. Marie Dahl has pretty high Intrigue (15), and a co-op score greater than one. If she's not assisting Ivo next turn, I think we should seriously consider tasking her on that.

Then again, her doing PR work selling products is also desirable.

...

Also, statistical analysis. Samuel Scudder's Man of the Mirror trait grants a +10 bonus 40% of the time and a +40 bonus 10% of the time. This is functionally equivalent to him having, on average, a +8 bonus on the die roll; if he rolled a great many mirror actions, his bonus from the trait would average out to +8.

That gives us a rough idea of how good it is. It's good, it's worth directing Scudder to 'mirror' actions if there are incentives to do those actions anyway... but it's not so good that we should be planning everything he does around the bonus, or that we should take actions specifically to exploit the bonus. Compared to, say, Oswald's +15 on anything related to TV, or Carol's +15 on anything related to airplanes, it's relatively small potatoes.

We should deal with Whale because he himself said he wants to come back to Metropolis at some point. I never meant to do it ASAP but something to definitely put on the back burner.

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OK but in that case, "deal with" might make more sense in terms of "convince that just plain staying out of Metropolis is a good idea."

There are plenty of other US cities for him to play around in. Unless we have some kind of extreme ambition he's in a position to undermine (e.g. President Luthor) at a specific time in the future, letting him exist peacefully but elsewhere minimizes risk to us.

Whale's internal monologue says "Tobias was going to let Metropolis cool off for a good long while before he even began to think about heading back. With the way the wind was blowing keeping all but the most profitable and hard to trace businesses out of Metropolis was probably the way to go."

That is NOT Whale saying "I specifically plan to go back to Metropolis." It's "I am pulling a ton of stuff out of Metropolis, not returning to the city personally, and staying that way for the foreseeable future." He's not going to stop being a crime lord, but that doesn't mean he has to be in Metropolis.

 

[LollipoPReapeR]

No it isn't but the fact remain he has blackmail on us. Very damaging blackmail. Leaving it in the wind is the kind of thing that'll bite us in the ass. Again. It doesn't even to have to be him that uses it. If someone 'persuades' Whale to hand over the blackmail that'll also be a problem. The whole point was, this matter is not over. It's a ceasefire only temporarily. We shouldn't be happy until we remove his leverage even if Whale remains alive.

 

[Negation]

No it isn't but the fact remain he has blackmail on us. Very damaging blackmail. Leaving it in the wind is the kind of thing that'll bite us in the ass. Again. It doesn't even to have to be him that uses it. If someone 'persuades' Whale to hand over the blackmail that'll also be a problem. The whole point was, this matter is not over. It's a ceasefire only temporarily. We shouldn't be happy until we remove his leverage even if Whale remains alive.

Click to shrink...

Can we first build a big, highly efficient spy network before trying that? Because Whale will have made it hard to do that, and if we do it in an amateurish way, it's just going to convince him we're at war. Also, he may be keeping copies in several places, distributed widely.

Click to shrink...

I gotta agree with Simon in this Pop, since we want to get our hands on the material, it's best to set up our infrastructure 1st to lower the DCs and Enemy Units Trait factors 1st. "Almost got him" is not something we want to happen again.

 

[binaryGiganto]

yep also agree with simon , plus a spy network is a must for any self respecting supervillain and is useful for all sorts of pursuits.

 

[LollipoPReapeR]

I never disagreed with that. I was just justifying the need to still go after Whale. The two options are not mutually exclusive.

 

[King crimson]

Then again @King crimson, will Leonard's Trait trigger on a Diplomatic roll if they do cyogenic research?

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No it doesn't however both Leonard and Samuel's recruitment will open up options designed to deliberately trigger their traits (learn about cold and learn about mirrors respectively)

@King crimson do holograms count as mirrors?

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No because they are currently light projected elsewhere rather then light being bounced from one location to another.

 

[King crimson]

So this is a relatively small update but it tells you a whole lot of information and hints at more. I also had some trouble writing this because Atlantis is one of the few things I thought was done pretty well in the Prime Earth continuity and the New Earth continuity has its own weirdness to it. As such the depiction of Atlantis given here is a mix of those two depictions like nothing else was. Aquaman is a full blooded Atlantean, the Curse of Kordax is a thing and the overarching nature of the place is true to the New Earth continuity. On the other hand, Orm is a full blooded Atlantean, Vulko and Krush are characters, Mera is Xebellian and Atlantis has anti-surface sentiments. As such while this post is small it tells you a lot about the state of Atlantis in quest and now and gives you a lot to think over and consider. I hope that the three perspectives I chose (traditionalist close to the seat of power, manipulative progressive who is aware of the hidden side of politics and a criminal) give a good illustration of Atlantis' thoughts right now. If you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know.

Atlantis Interlude: A Changing Current
Orm Marius
His father, the king was dead. And yet the world moved on like it was nothing. King Orvax, first of his name, was dead, killed by ignorant surface dwellers. And worse yet he was denied his birthright. All his life he had learned that he was the rightful heir to the throne of Atlantis. The thought of being able to wage war on the surface dwellers who had dared to kill his father in such a cowardly way soothed him in his darkest moments and blackest rages.

Yet his mother had lied to him. Apparently he was unfit to rule the throne of Atlantis and he wasn't even the first-born prince of Atlantis. No instead, his mother had given birth to another child and abandoned him due to the Curse of Kordax. Yet this ignorant child who was raised amongst the surface dwellers was going to be made king instead of him? He was being passed over for someone who knew nothing of Atlantis and its people because his mother thought him too temperamental and prone to violence to take the throne?

Fine then. If being like a surface dweller was what she was looking for in a successor to his father then he would behave like a surface dweller and engage in treachery. He'd undermine this Arthur at every turn while pretending to be his friend and get rid of his mother and all those who would stand in his way. The Xebellians would aid him and with enough patience he could spring his trap and claim his birthright. All he had to do was wait.

Eventually with enough time he would win his throne and be able to exact vengeance upon the surface dwellers and remove those who would seek to deny him his birthright.

Vulko
It was clear that Arthur did not want to be king. He knew nothing of Atlantis and its politics. He was unskilled and surprisingly naïve. Still Vulko had managed to convince him to take the throne by warning him that if he did not do so, the more militant factions in Atlantis would declare war on the surface. Arthur, kind hearted man that he was agreed to do so if only to help those on the surface.

It was too early to tell if Arthur would be a great king or a terrible one but he had the potential to be either. Still he was almost certainly better than Orm. Orm's anger over the death of his father clouded his judgement and would have brought about the destruction of Atlantis. Orm was a warrior not a scholar so he could be forgiven for not knowing of the terrifying beings that hid amongst the surface dwellers. Atlantis could wipe out the surface dwellers but in doing so they would be destroyed by the various beings that were amused and entertained by humans. Vulko had no interest in seeing Atlantis attract the wrath of a god or of a Lord of Chaos.

Arthur was charismatic enough that he could probably make it through the first few years of his reign without too much interference on Vulko's end behind the scenes. The delegate from Xebel, Mera was currently rather charmed by Arthur's honesty and forthright nature which stood in contrast to the vicious, deceiving character of previous rulers. Arthur could probably talk down Xebel from their own more militant ideas and get them to focus on taking down the mysterious Manta Ship.

The Manta Ship was a problem. No one knew who it came from or way but they did know that it used a mixture of Atlantean and surface dweller technology. Whoever was piloting the mysterious vessel had conducted terrorist attacks on Xebel and Atlantis and abducted a few of its citizens. Vulko shuddered to think of what the secret behind it really was.

Krush
Well the king was dead, long live the king. In all honesty this was an opportunity. A new king meant that Krush could push against his boundaries and take more territory. Crime in Atlantis was best kept quiet but refusing to take opportunities that were handed to you made you little better than chum when the tides turned.

This new king was a soft surface dweller in nearly every way that mattered. Krush would be able to make a killing before the king either grew wise enough to learn to deal with him or was deposed and replaced with a more agressive king. Either way Krush was going to make the most of this and consolidate his power as the kingpin of all crime in Atlantis.

This would be the fourth king's reign Krush would be living through and he intended to make the most of it in every way possible. And there was always a chance to grab more power in chaos.

 

[Negation]

So should we be play straight with Arthur & Vulko? Pamela & Mari to Diplo Atlantis, murderhobo Black Manta, Rebecca & Cerise to counter Orm's machinations & black market with Krush (We know nothing about Atlantean trade customs! We were decieved!)

 

[King crimson]

This was a really weird one to do. There is no fight just yet but a lot of events are set into motion. I really liked the Five Inversions and had ton of fun giving them some characterization. This was also a lot of fun since the prophecy is true but the wording of some bits leads to misinterpretations by the characters in universe (like Sinestro believes that his home refers to Korugar when in actuality it refers to Oa and the Five Inversions don't mention that the reason why Sinestro fails to stop the civil war is because he is the cause of it). On top of that there was tons of foreshadowing here that was great to work in there. The Death of Abin Sur will have about three more entries before culminating in the death of Abin Sur and Hal Jordan's becoming a Green Lantern. I hope you all enjoy this one cause I had a lot of fun writing it and am hyped about continuing this series as a lot of twists have been set up and this is a ton of fun since you the audience already know how it ends (Hal is Abin Sur's successor, Abin Sur is killed by Atrocitus, Sinestro becomes the greatest of the Yellow Lanterns etc.) giving it all this great tragedy feel to it that I don't get to do as much elsewhere. Enjoy!

The Death of Abin Sur Interlude: Prophecy and Portents
Abin Sur
Abin Sur was for the first time in his long and storied career unsure of himself. He had been called out of his sector to deal with a minor crisis. Apparently a small Ungaran ship had crash landed on Ysmault, the former seat of power of the now destroyed Empire of Tears. When a team of Green Lanterns was called in to investigate and ensure the survivors didn't disturb any of the empire's remnants they all vanished. An Oan solar cycle later their rings flew off to find new hosts.

As such Abin Sur was brought in to deal with this. Alongside him was his young protégé Sinestro. Sinestro had an indomitable will but he had not seen the horrors of the Empire of Tears nor of the destruction the Manhunters had brought forth. Abin Sur did not know if Sinestro was quite ready for what they would face on Ysmault but the young Korugaran was brash and headstrong and refused to leave Abin Sur to deal with the problem on his own. And so they pressed onwards deeper into sector 666.

The flight there was solemn and silent. The whole sector felt dead and lifeless. The dusty red empty plains of Ysmault did little to assuage the feeling of wrongness that accompanied this place. Sinestro and Abin Sur searched for days and nothing was found. On the sixth night the silence was broken by the sound of a shrieking cackle. In his time as a Green Lantern Abin Sur had heard many sounds but none chilled him to the bone quite like this did. The high pitched noises seemed to scrape against his very soul and filled him with dread.

Sinestro and Abin Sur stood up and readied themselves for a fight, the green light of their rings eerily illuminated the night. Out of the dark stepped five monstrous individuals each one of them horrifying in their own twisted way. The leader was a massive red skinned reptilians creature who loomed over both Abin Sur and Sinestro. To his left stood a creature with an elongated snout with eyes on the end of it and a mouth in the center of its chest with flesh that looked burnt and twisted and to that creatures left was a vaguely female looking squid-like humanoid with mottled skin, tentacles where a mouth should be and a mouth in its stomach. To the leaders left stood a creature with green skin a gaping maw and a long tentacle in place of a tongue, it's skin was misshapen and craggy and three beady eyes stared out from the top of its face. To the very left stood a spindly creature with two mouths on its head and eyes nestled in between them with sallow purple skin. All in all the looked like a menagerie of nightmares. These were the Five Inversions a group of notorious terrorists.

"What do you want?" Abin Sur called out. He wasn't sure he and Sinestro could take out these five in a fight as they were all crafty killers with more than a little strength to them. They were some of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy.

The creature with long snout laughed that eerie laugh that had been heard before and then responded.

"The Guardian's little puppet wants to know what we want" The creature chortled "Isn't it funny Atrocitus?"

The red creature smiled but said nothing. Instead it was the feminine looking creature that answered.

"Now, now Qull, it's not their fault they can't see what is right in front of their faces" The creature mockingly chastised.

"True enough Roixeaume" The now identified Qull answered "But that doesn't make it any less funny"

Qull began laughing again and Roixeaume let out an indulgent sigh. Abin knew they were playing games but stalling for time would allow him and Sinestro to better prepare themselves for a fight if it broke out. He slowly edged his way toward his protégé. Sinestro did the same until they were close enough to cover each others backs.

"Can I eat them?" The green skinned creature with the tentacle in place of a tongue asked in an almost childlike voice. "They look so pretty and I want to see it their insides are as red as their outsides. You think they taste like the Guardians they serve? Green Lanterns always have this special flavor you can't find anywhere else."

"I bet it would send a message if we kept killing Green Lanterns" The spindly creature rasped out in a shaky voice "The Maltusian's love their puppets so we'll send them back with all of their strings removed. It's not quite vengeance but the so called Guardians would get the message then"

Abin Sur tensed. It looked like a fight was going to break out. Then the red skinned creature, Atrocitus, raised a hand and calmed down his comrades.

"Worz, Kultonious, I know that you are hungry and seek righteous vengeance but these Lanterns are important. They are integral to the War of the Light and our ultimate vengeance upon the Guardians" Atrocitus said in a calm placid voice "As for what we want Abin Sur we merely want to answer a few of your questions. There is no need for us to fight right now, we'll even let Sinestro ask questions as well"

"And you expect us to believe that you are just doing this out of the goodness of your heart?" Abin Sur asked disbelieving of the situation "You expect us to believe that you wouldn't take every opportunity to extract vengeance on the Guardians?"

Qull broke out in hysterical laughter and the tall creature gave out disturbingly high pitched giggles. Atrocitus just smiled indulgently. Something was wrong. The Five Inversions were infamous for being violent terrorists who would happily massacre anyone and anything affiliated with the Guardians.

"Little Lantern" Atrocitus began, his voice unmoved by his comrades amusement "Why would we want to kill you the two of you will do more damage to the Green Lantern Corps than any of us ever will"

"You lie" Sinestro hissed out, his ring beginning to glow.

"Me and my comrades have a talent for prophecy" Atrocitus calmly responded "We know everything about you two, forwards and backwards. After all we know about Abin Sur's son and your own daughter. Do we need to give you her name before you believe us? Or would you like me to predict something else to prove ourselves"

Abin Sur took Sinestro aside and consulted with him. While he believed that the Five Inversions had some sort of prescience Sinestro reacted badly to what he perceived as threats and a fight with the Five Inversions was not something they were capable of winning easily right now.

"We cannot afford to let the survivors of the crash die because we were too busy instigating fights" Abin Sur reminded Sinestro. "We'll take them down later when we have back up, right now innocent lives take priority so we might as well humor them"

Sinestro grunted his assent to Abin Sur's plan even if he wasn't happy about it.

"So how does this work?" Abin Sur asked as he turned to face Atrocitus.

"Each of you will get five questions which we will answer truthfully to the best of our abilities" Atrocitus replied.

Abin Sur and Sinestro pondered what to ask.

"Were you responsible for the Ungaran ship's crash?" Sinestro asked.

"No" Roixeaume answered "We merely knew that you would come and that the crash would happen but we didn't cause it to occur"

"Did you kill the Green Lanterns who arrived before us?" Sinestro continued asking.

"Kultonius ate them" Atrocitus calmly answered as the green skinned creature smiled and waved. Sinestro tensed up in anger but Abin Sur put a hand on his shoulder. They could avenge their comrades later when they were more capable of winning the fight handily. Right now innocent lives were the priority.

"Did you kill any of the crashes survivors?" Sinestro continued asking.

"We let them starve and kill each other out of desperation" The spindly creature, apparently named Worz, rasped out. "We were not the direct architect of any of their deaths and could only have been argued to have killed them by inaction much like you Green Lanterns really"

"Are there any survivors?" Abin Sur asked. Sinestro was letting the creatures get to him.

"I saved a little girl" Atrocitus admitted. Sinestro looked shocked as though he suspected some kind of trick.

"Why?" Sinestro asked in incredulity

"Because she did not deserve to die and she is the necessary leverage to get you to talk to us" Atrocitus explained. Abin Sur wasn't sure why they wanted to talk to them so badly. The Five Inversions had shown nothing but contempt for Green Lanterns so why were he and Sinestro an exception.

"Why are you so interested in talking to us?" Abin Sur questioned.

"Because the other Lantern Corps are needed for the War of the Light " Qull answered.

"What other Lantern Corps?" Abin Sur questioned.

"Seven colors make up the emotional spectrum and each must have its own champions" Atrocitus answered "And you two shall be responsible for the greatest champions of three of them"

"What will cause us to create these champions?" Sinestro asked in anger, demanding an answer.

"Abin Sur will search the cosmos knowing that his greatest successor will surpass him and save the universe in its darkest hour." Atrocitus responded "While you Sinestro will be driven to become your truest self once your home is thrown into civil war and you fail to stop it"

"What is your aim by telling us this?" Abin Sur asked.

"The universe needs you to play your parts in the war of light" Kultonius' childlike voice chimed in "Else we all will get swallowed by the Black and that's no good"

Abin Sur was caught off guard. Apparently this war of the light had something to do with the fabled Blackest Night. He had been researching the event in secret in the hopes that he could prepare the universe for it but he was shocked that not only was it a real and major threat that would come soon but that it needed his contribution for the universe to be saved.

"What happens after we finish asking you questions?" Abin Sur asked using up his final question.

Atrocitus smiled and Abin Sur felt a chill run down his spine.

"We'll give you the girl and let you go free as now you know enough to fulfill your destiny for the War of the Light and save the universe from the Blackest Night that comes after"

Abin Sur was stunned. He and Sinestro took the girl and left Ysmault, returning her to her home planet. Abin Sur returned to Oa reinvigorated. He was needed to save the universe. The Blackest Night was not just a fairy tale but it was a real warning that the Green Lanterns would need to stand up against. Sinestro told him not to listen to the Five Inversions, that they were nothing but liars but Abin Sur knew better.

Everything lined up with what he had been learning on his own, seeking out various mystics throughout the galaxy. He had to find his successor who was destined to save the universe or all hope was lost.

 

[King crimson]

The next update will come in two days time as I get some stuff sorted out. I'll give my post looking back on what I feel is the first major arc of this quest tomorrow. If anybody wants to spend their remaining exp now is the time to do so.

Also on an unrelated note I'm curious which purchased omake people enjoyed the most and which point of view character people want to see more of.

Also the legion of superheroes creative writing contest is still ongoing so feel free to try and enter into that.

 

[Simon_Jester]

The Oa and Atlantis interludes, in that style of switching between several viewpoint characters and basically just giving each of us a few paragraphs of their internal monologue, didn't really work great for me. Any or many of the characters might have been interesting if they DID something, but not so much when they're effectively just sitting in a chair reflecting on recent events. That said, they serve a useful purpose of providing information so I don't feel disappointed as such. I'll look forward to plenty of those characters again, it's just kind of unsatisfying to go 'flip flip flip' between them like that. Getting information on Atlantis was very interesting, especially since it's information we may actually be able to exploit.

The JSA, "Death of Abin Sur," and Citizen Abra interludes were all quite satisfying in their way.

Sheer unfamiliarity with the setting made it a bit tough for me to understand what was going on in the Abin Sur story- I've actually never heard of any of the Five Inversions except Atrocitus before, and the 'cosmic' aspects of the Green Lantern Corps and their activities are relatively little-known to me. But I approved of it, it worked.

The JSA interlude was rip-roaring two-fisted action with a good deal of 'pulp' feel to it, which I think was good. Having it confirmed that Wildcat has some kind of 'nine lives' power that makes it survivable for him to keep charging into fights with metahumans using only his fists was kind of nice.

The Citizen Abra thing was just... kind of wacky in an amusing way. Citizen Abra comes across as being kind of this entertainingly neurotic guy who's mostly in it for profit, with an interesting approach to problem-solving even if I question some of his choices for temporal recruits.

 

[King crimson]

I've actually never heard of any of the Five Inversions except Atrocitus before

Click to shrink...

To be fair all of them but Atrocitus are dead (with the possible exception of Qull) long before they become relevant. Like literally everything about them is a virtual unknown besides their designs (and whoever designed them really liked stomach mouths which are good when used sparingly but look kind of dumb when overused).

As such a good amount of the Five Inversions is my own take on them. When only two of a group of five are really relevant you've got some characterization problems so their personalities are a good deal of research and improv on my part.

The JSA interlude was rip-roaring two-fisted action with a good deal of 'pulp' feel to it, which I think was good.

Click to shrink...

The JSA interludes have been some of the consistently hardest to get down since I'm trying to strike a balance between the horrors of world war 2 and that old fashioned golden age comic feel and I'm glad to see I've managed to make the opening genuinely fun and capture some of the style I was going for.

I will say that while it will retain it's feel, the tone will shift to get darker and more dismal as things continue.

It's also the interlude that has a most obvious sequel in the form of the T.O. Morrow stuff and that's a lot of fun to play with since I'm attempting to make the tone of the T.O. Morrow bits be the natural evolution of the JSA bits which is tricky but rewarding to try and get it to work.

The Citizen Abra thing was just... kind of wacky in an amusing way. Citizen Abra comes across as being kind of this entertainingly neurotic guy who's mostly in it for profit, with an interesting approach to problem-solving even if I question some of his choices for temporal recruits.

Click to shrink...

Citizen Abra was a ton of fun to write and he has this sort of madness that's a lot of fun to play with.

Like he is not the Joker who is so crazy that he is inhuman but Abra is just crazy enough that he can still be related with to an extent. He just has fun stories to write (I look forward to writing when he goes and teams up with his past self because while it is murder on the pronouns seeing Abra interact with himself is a treat).

 

[Negation]

I am an idiot. We don't need Bane.

When we buy Bito's stuff, once we have reverse engineered them, he is no longer relevant.

We turn Wane-phones into sonic bombs and have them planted via our service bots (which will also have their CPUs mysteiously self destruct by sonic explosion obviously by "Bito" to cover his tracks).

The tragic death of the young Queen of Latvia orchestrated by the "Mad Republican Bito".

 

[Kkutlord]

@King crimson: Any chance we can snag some samples of the Intergang-Enhanced Venom serum? Though, that does remind me... will the Venom-derivation Titan show up? Even if not naturally, well... we do have Poison Ivy on payroll, so that's half the problem solved.

 

[Simon_Jester]

I am an idiot. We don't need Bane.

When we buy Bito's stuff, once we have reverse engineered them, he is no longer relevant.

We turn Wane-phones into sonic bombs and have them planted via our service bots (which will also have their CPUs mysteiously self destruct by sonic explosion obviously by "Bito" to cover his tracks).

The tragic death of the young Queen of Latvia orchestrated by the "Mad Republican Bito".

Click to shrink...

I mean, we could just have someone assassinate Wladon directly? We don't need some intricate plan to create a sabotaged technological device that will kill him. That's just needlessly complicated on several levels.

Though... we don't... really... need to... kill... Bito Wladon, do we?

Like, why would we want to do that? I would think our experience with Tobias Whale should illustrate to us that it's inadvisable to be too enthusiastic about killing off people we've had past dealings with to "tie up loose ends" or whatever. We're not guaranteed to succeed. And it turns people who wish us well, or at least are indifferent to us, into either enemies or corpses.

 

[King crimson]

@King crimson: Any chance we can snag some samples of the Intergang-Enhanced Venom serum? Though, that does remind me... will the Venom-derivation Titan show up? Even if not naturally, well... we do have Poison Ivy on payroll, so that's half the problem solved.

Click to shrink...

Yes there is a chance (it will be an option available next turn)

Titan will not show up naturally unless you actively push towards making it.

 

[Negation]

I mean, we could just have someone assassinate Wladon directly? We don't need some intricate plan to create a sabotaged technological device that will kill him. That's just needlessly complicated on several levels.

Though... we don't... really... need to... kill... Bito Wladon, do we?

Like, why would we want to do that? I would think our experience with Tobias Whale should illustrate to us that it's inadvisable to be too enthusiastic about killing off people we've had past dealings with to "tie up loose ends" or whatever. We're not guaranteed to succeed. And it turns people who wish us well, or at least are indifferent to us, into either enemies or corpses.

Click to shrink...

No no no, we are not killing Bito. Lady Vic is going to claim his bounty. It'd be perfectly ironic since he hates the aristocracy so much.

Also the the modified Wane-Phones are not for killing Bito, they are for pinning the assassination of the Queen of Latvia on him if we meet with Count Vertigo as a favour.