Monster Hunting - An Advisor's Quest (Fantasy X-COM; CK2ish; Original) [Dead]

[Tempest Warden]

[X] Plan Info

 

[technotemplar]

[X] Plan Info​

​

 

[Enormodro]

[X] Plan Info

 

[Asael]

[X] Plan Info

 

[KnightDisciple]

[X] Plan Info

Bit of a one-dimensional protag but oh well, still looks interesting.

 

[ChaosCircle]

Voting Closed.

Vote Tally : Monster Hunting - An Advisor's Quest (Fantasy X-COM; CK2ish; Original) Original | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 21-30]
##### NetTally 2.2.3

[X] Plan Info
-[X] Teach your people how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks.
-[X] Teach MI9's guards how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks.
-[X] Get to know your Capture Team leaders and find out what they believe to be the strengths and weaknesses of their teams.
-[X] Experiment on supernaturals collected by your capture teams to discover their strengths. This will get re-voted into another action if all 4 missions fail.
-[X][RT-1] Aegis Amulets: You know to enchant things to protect against Corruption and Possession. Your research teams do as well. This will go to your capture teams first and may be taken multiple times to equip the rest of MI9.
-[X][RT-2] Experiment on supernaturals collected by your capture teams to discover their weaknesses. This will get re-voted into another action if all 4 missions fail.
-[X][CT-1] Hit a Cult of Asmodeus Safe House
-[X][CT-2] Hit a Cult of Bast Safe House
No. of Votes: 6
[◈] Plan: Info
[X] Asael
[X] Enarmodro
[X] KnightDisciple
[X] saganatsu
[X] technotemplar
[X] Tempest Warden

[X] Plan Infiltrator Proof
[X] Teach your people how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks.
[X] Experiment on supernaturals collected by your capture teams to discover their weaknesses. This will get re-voted into another action if all 4 missions fail.
[X] Teach MI9's guards how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks.
[X] Hire Chaplains to see to those who followed the true faith within MI9. The fact they might whisper in your ear was a bonus.
No. of Votes: 1
[◈] Plan: Infiltrator Proof
[X] Chaotic Good Elf


Total No. of Voters: 7

 

[ChaosCircle]

Spoiler: Winning Plan

[X] Plan Info
-[X] Teach your people how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks.
-[X] Teach MI9's guards how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks.
-[X] Get to know your Capture Team leaders and find out what they believe to be the strengths and weaknesses of their teams.
-[X] Experiment on supernaturals collected by your capture teams to discover their strengths. This will get re-voted into another action if all 4 missions fail.
-[X][RT-1] Aegis Amulets: You know to enchant things to protect against Corruption and Possession. Your research teams do as well. This will go to your capture teams first and may be taken multiple times to equip the rest of MI9.
-[X][RT-2] Experiment on supernaturals collected by your capture teams to discover their weaknesses. This will get re-voted into another action if all 4 missions fail.
-[X][CT-1] Hit a Cult of Asmodeus Safe House
-[X][CT-2] Hit a Cult of Bast Safe House

Spoiler: rolls

Teach your people how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks. (1D100+19 => 60 vs. DC 50) - Success, what lore the Exorcists possess has now been imparted to them.

Teach MI9's guards how to identify possessed and/or shapeshifting folks. (1D100+19 => 38 vs. DC 50) - Attendance was less than you hoped but those that bothered to show up hopefully learned something. Ultimately, it is not enough to upgrade the effectiveness of MI9's security this turn. Over time, the knowledge will filter in and they'll eventually get there. The Password approach gets employed pretty widely, at least. No one will be stripping down to their small clothes every time the enter the base. That is a little much in the eyes of the security personnel.

Get to know your Capture Team leaders and find out what they believe to be the strengths and weaknesses of their teams. (1D100+8 => 66 vs. DC 50) - Success, you know their capabilities. Team rosters/traits unlocked.

RT-1: (1D100+20 => 40 vs. DC 50) - The Aegis Amulets were created but can only be used for a couple hours due them slowly corrupting the wearer.

CT-1 (1D100+15 => 87) vs. Asmodeus Cult (1D100 => 41, 1D100 => 32) - No fiends summoned, captured cultists.
CT-2 (1D100+15 => 106) vs. Bast Cult (1D100 => 99, 1D100+10 => 95) - Captured a Weretiger with strong defensive magic, cultist captured.

You are Alexander Constantine and you had a job to do. The men and women of MI9 had no idea how to identify supernatural beings so you did what any sensible Exorcist would do and called a general meeting of the off-duty personnel with mandatory attendance for the members of your capture teams. You might not be able to compel the entire base to attend but that was an oversight on your superiors' part. Your priorities were the priorities that would keep MI9 alive in the long run. Why did no one appreciate how important your plans were?

The mess hall was the only chamber large enough to hold what you hoped to be at least sixty or seventy people. The rough-hewn stone walls left something to be desired but there was plenty of seating as the mess hall was intended to hold a hundred people at a time or about half of the base's personnel. It was a suitable location, even if it was a bit rough around the edges.

It started with a slow trickle of ones and twos as people wandered into the mess hall. You smiled and waved to the people as they arrived and engaged in pointless conversation that, frankly, was not memorable enough for you to care. The average guard in this place was not someone you would remember. You wished you could say you had a better memory for faces but frankly, it left something to be desired. The slow trickle slowed to a crawl when there was about thirty people in the mess hall and a third of them you had ordered to attend. You waited patiently, hoping people were simply running late, only to find your patience unrewarded as only two more people showed up while you kept the other thirty waiting for your instruction. Why were so many people willing to spend their lives cheaply because they lacked the knowledge to know an infiltrator from a human being?

You forced a smile at those intelligent enough to show up and said, "Welcome, to how not getting shanked by infiltrators. An important skill if you plan to deal with the supernatural on your day-to-day. The first thing to know about supernatural methods of infiltration is the fact that they are damned hard to spot.

Possession most commonly shows itself in the eyes. A bright light shined directly in the eyes will reveal black pools where the person's eyes should be, their sin soaking up the unwelcome light like a sponge. Ambient light is insufficient for the task at hand, you must use your flashlight to get the job done. Thankfully, you all have been issued one.

Another potential sign of possession are the stench of rotted flesh, as if the person had died and you were next to a corpse. This is rarer for the simple reason that pretty much everyone reacts to the stench of death. It might seem normal or natural after someone has gone through a horde of zombies or vampires for them to have that stench cling to them. Make them get a shower and come back before you let them into the MI9 facility. The barracks on base all have shower facilities. It might annoy them but better that then having a possessed person running around.

The last, and least reliable, method of determining if someone is possessed, or a shapeshifter, is to have a password of some kind known only to MI9 personnel. Unfortunately, many shapeshifters and Fiends possess telepathic attacks that would allow them to potentially pluck the password from the person's mind before they possess and/or kill them. So while it might seem like the obvious choice, I recommend not relying on such an option exclusively."

You paused to take a drink of water. This was more of a lecture than anything else but it was good to be aware of all the same. You continued, "Now, shapeshifters are very difficult to spot without stripping everyone who enters or exits. We may have to do that, frankly, just to be certain. Shapeshifters, generally, are unable to perfectly mimic a person just like I am unable to memorize every mole and scar on each of your bodies. They also tend not to strip people naked before taking their form, so the details they would emulate would all be visible fully dressed. Of course, asking you to memorize your fellows half-naked bodies is a recipe for disaster so there are basically two things that recommend themselves at this juncture. The first is just to use a password, which by itself will work fifty to sixty percent of the time. The second part is to have a concealed symbol drawn on one's body, somewhere beneath the clothing, that would change regularly. That symbol would most likely not be emulated by a shapeshifter in a rush to impersonate someone before someone sees them looming over a corpse.

The best method is long interrogation sessions for facts known only to the person that you are speaking with, given telepaths will have to have missed something given they are usually in a rush. You can trip them up that way as well but I'm not sure we have the manpower to engage in multi-hour interrogation sessions. Ideally, I'd like to implement that as well so that anyone who manages to get past the more failure prone methods of screening will probably fail this one. That said, I think its beyond our resources at present."

You paused to take another sip of water and continued, "Any questions?"

A blonde woman in the black uniform of a guard, Emily if you remember correctly, raised her hand and you nodded. She said, "Do you seriously expect us to have everyone strip down to their underthings every time they enter the base?"

You shrug and replied, "Well, if you want to be reasonably certain they are who they say they are? Yes. We are in this for the species and there is nothing under those clothes we haven't seen before. Sure, it is uncomfortable but we need to be real here. There is no one hundred percent reliable way to identify a shapeshifter with telepathic abilities. Our only hope is to trip them up with simple tricks like that. They do not get a total copy of someone's mind when they go ransacking someone's memories. They are rushing through there looking for specific things, like passwords. It is a race against time before they are discovered so they cannot afford a thorough search. There is a real chance they will miss an unusual security procedure such as strip searching every person that enters MI9 HQ. Hell, they might even miss the password too but a password is too common a security measure for it to be relied on. This other method is rare enough that no one anticipate it being tolerated as a security measure. The mere fact you object to it is proof of its effectiveness."

The questions continued in that vein, mostly arguments and trying to dispute the idea of strip searches. It made you sigh that they had to be difficult about the human body. It was not like you would get anything out of it, masturbation was a sin and sexual relations outside of marriage was forbidden. It mattered not a wit what they looked like under those clothes. However, you lacked the power to enforce important security measures.

As the questioning became clearly repetitive it also drew to a close and people began to file out of the mess hall, enlightened but unwillingly to do what needed to be done. Well, you had shared your brilliance with them and if they could not accept your wisdom there was little you could do about it. The Church should have put you in charge of MI9 but you gather they lacked that kind of pull with the current Labor government. You really wish it had been the Tories in power when this whole mess went down. They would have understood the position the Church deserved in these matters.

Your two teams did not file out with the rest of them but wandered over to you. They were all either in dark robes or in a soldier's uniform, about what you expected with MI9 drawing so heavily from the military for its personnel. Of course, who else would they draw from? It was not like the general public was rushing out to volunteer to fight monsters in the dead of night. Soldiers were the property of the government and could be reassigned at will. As it should be.

You smiled at them and said, "Well, that went poorly. So, in the field, I know this won't help you as much as I'd like. But that is what it is. If you wouldn't mind introducing yourselves again and your specialties? I'm afraid I was a bit distracted with all the people."

The first person to respond was a woman in her mid-thirties who wore black robe, "Captain Richards, leader of CT-2. I'm an ex-military Battle Mage. My Lieutenant and I have been together a long time and specialized in magical bombardments when we were in the military. Probably still useful, even if we are not trying to wipe out a company of soldiers at a time."

A young woman, probably mid-twenties, in a matching black robe added, "Lieutenant Goodwin, ex-military Battle Mage as well and Captain Richard's second."

The ladies' corporals were all in matching beige fatigues. A demolitions expert and two riflemen. Fair enough, nothing too particularly ground breaking there although if you needed to breach a wall to get into a place, they are probably the team you should pick for the job.

The other team leader was in his mid-twenties and wore beige fatigues as well, "Captain Grant, like Captain Richards, I'm an ex-military Battle Mage. Unlike Richards, I worked primarily in special operations. My team was built to suit that background and if you have any non-traditional operations you need doing let us know. Half my team is ex-MI6."

The next to speak up was a young woman in her mid-twenties in a grey robe, "Lieutenant Jaegar, Grey Wizard and of those ex-MI6 folks that Captain Grant mentioned. I specialize in making people disappear along with my partner Corporal Smith."

With that introduction, the good Corporal added, "I'm ex-MI6 as well, a Null specialized in close quarters combat. If you have a mage you need killing, you just let me know and I'll take care of it."

The other two corporals that rounded out the group were nothing special, a couple of ex-military riflemen. That seemed to be a common theme in what the military had sent, you riflemen and more riflemen. Unfortunate when you could really use some more mages.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You met with Chief Researcher Carl Sagan and he briefed you on the status of the Aegis Amulets. They were, unfortunately, not quite up to par. The devices would certainly protect against Possession and against most forms of Corruption. However, the longer a subject wore them the randier they got. It seemed two of his researchers had sex in the room where they were doing the enchanting. He reprimanded them of course but the damage had been done. He apologized for the oversight and promised it would not happen again. And if it did, well, he would fire the pair on the spot.

You had to be satisfied with that. There was nothing you could do to change the course of their efforts. The truth was it is about what you had to expect from inexperienced people trying to do complex jobs. They would fuck it up somehow and everyone would just have to live with the consequences of that particular fuck up.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are William Grant, Captain of CT-1, and you have been tasked with an assault on a Asmodeus Cult safe house. The structure was a simple row house made from red brick, one among many that made up the block. It was inconspicuous unless you were a trained operative watching it for a month. The turnover rate of residents was simply too fast for it to be any sort of normal housing arrangement. That was the main way MI9's intelligence branch had identified these places and the various factions they represented. Seeking out places with irregular turnover. It would not find a safe house passively sheltering a high value target but it was a useful technique for finding safehouses that were actively in use with regular guard changes as people take their days off.

You smiled at Lieutenant Jaeger and said, "If you would do the honors, lady. This is about as close as I want to get without your lovely cloak of invisibility. You can maintain it for the few minutes we need I trust?"

She simply nodded and then bent reality with her mind alone. And just like that three men and two women, armed to the teeth, disappeared from conventional sight. You just hoped that the Cult lacked any magical alarms that you might trigger by using magic so close to their safe house.

You could no longer see your compatriots, invisible as you all were, so you said, "Just move on the house. Lopez, Carpenter cover the rear. The rest of us will hit the front. Don't be afraid to withdraw if anything dangerous moves your way. Who knows what these Cultists cooked up in here. The rest of you are with me on the front door."

There was a chorus of "Yes, sirs" and the group moved out, or so you assumed. They were trained killers and their footsteps were as silent as the moonlit street was empty. This late at night, there was no traffic to be wary of.

The lights were on in the rowhouse, as one would expect from a place under 24/7 guard, but no one peered curiously into the night. The door itself was solid and if you were not a proper battle mage, impenetrable to a simple kick from a mere mortal. Of course, there were things stronger than mere mortals these days. One wondered why they did not do more to secure their main entrance. Oh well.

You blew the door off its hinges with a thought as the cloak of invisibility collapsed around you. The door landed at the foot of a staircase opposite the doorway and you momentarily wondered what kind of idiot picked a safe house with the main entrance directly opposite the only means of escape from the second floor. Too easy to hold the staircase, clear the first floor, and trap the rest upstairs.

"Smith, Jaeger, hold the staircase unless something truly problematic comes down."

There was no shouting, no sound of any kind. Odd there was so little reaction to a door being thrown twenty feet before it loudly crashed into the staircase.

The first floor was one giant room with a kitchen on one end and a dining space between it and the staircase that sat at the end opposite the kitchen. That was an odd arrangement for a house like this one. Normally the main living space was downstairs. You searched the kitchen quickly and came up dry, the lights might have been on but there was no enemies on the first floor. Odd, they were all upstairs?

You unlocked the back door and let Corporal Lopex and Carpenter into the house.

You nodded to the group and said, "I'll go first, Smith follow."

You raised your shields now on the assumption the top of the stairs would be a fortified position at this point. You advanced slowly up the stairs, one hand on the hand rail to brace yourself against a hail of gunfire. The shields might keep you alive but you could still lose your balance from the impact.

You arrived at the top of the stairs, truly mystified to the lack of organized resistance or noise of any kind. The second floor was organized into a series of doors along a hallway, likely the bedrooms and bathrooms for the household.

You said, "Stairs secure, move up."

There was no reaction to your words from the second floor. That was almost alarming now. Had they summoned something that had murdered them all? Would all you find is some monster chomping on their bodies? The mind tended to wander when it had no feedback to manage.

"Jaeger, Lopez, hold the landing. Carpenter, provide cover fire if anything moves into the hall. Smith, you are with me."

It would be a bloody mess if something moved into the hallway but that could not be helped, it was narrow enough that only two people could move through it at a time. Narrow enough Carpenter might hit you in the back of the head if he was careless with his cover fire. Fun thought, that.

You decided to start on the left and opened the first door to find a normal bedroom. A desk, night stand, bed, and dresser. Someone might hide in the closet you suppose. So you nodded to Smith and he checked for that. Nobody there. The rest of the left side of the hall continued in the same vein. Cautious checking followed by confusion as to the complete normalcy of the place. Had intelligence been wrong? Was this safe house empty or not a safe house at all, just some place with the occupants on holiday?

The right side proved weirder. The first room was an empty room with every surface had carved runes of a strange, unnatural nature. You scanned the room and every time the runes themselves seemed to have changed in the moments your eyes were elsewhere. It was almost like the runes were alive.

You stepped into the room and it all hit you at once. The scent of sulfur. The guttural chant of cult magic. The naked forms of the cultists. The unnatural light at the center of the room that burned without a visible fuel source. You were momentarily stunned but so were they.

Smith was the first to act, immune to the unnatural nature of the room. His sword had already decapitated one of the cultists before you regained your senses.

You willed the cultists to sleep and the two that still lived collapsed instantly.

The strange fire vanished as soon as the Cultists hit the floor.

You frowned at Smith and said, "Capture. Not kill. Remember that. They were no threat to us."

After that, it was just the usual clean up. Their robes were in one of the bedrooms and handcuffs worked on cultists just fine. They were not real mages. Real mages would need to be kept unconscious until they could be placed in a cell strong enough to hold them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are Captain Richards and you have a job to do tonight. The Cult of Bast had a safe house and it was your sacred duty to purge the heretics. It was too bad they had ordered you to capture, rather than kill, the fuckers. Perhaps you could show some skin and ask for a reassignment, the priest was probably hard up for that kind of action. You sighed. You really should focus on the task at hand as fun as teasing a priest might be.

The target was across the street and it was a house covered in plaster and painted white. It was one of several virtually identical structures, except for the color, on the block and hardly a unique creature that screamed "safe house". But a safe house it was. The best way to hide a safe house was to buy one of a dozen identical buildings and hide in the crowd. It was also the best way to avoid being noticed by distant observers. Fortunately, tonight that plan had failed and you knew they were in there to capture.

Your plan of assault was standard enough. Two on the rear entrance, three on the front door. Force entry from both ends as simultaneously as possible. You did not issue orders as you crossed the street with Weaver and Hamilton. Your people knew their business and useless orders was just a warning to anyone who might overhear. Even if there was little risk of that at midnight on a vacant London street.

The front door flew off its hinges as you stepped into the living room of what appeared to be a modest household, or at least from the street it would appear that way. Part of the heretic's cover you supposed.

You stepped into the living room in time to see the rear door slam into a male cultist and knock him unconscious. Or at least, it appeared that way from his closed eyes and lack of reaction to your presence. Goodwin and Potter followed the door into the room with their Webley revolvers at the ready. Good.

You debated killing the unconscious heretic but your orders were to capture not kill so you restrained yourself. Instead, you said, "Hamilton, cuff the bastard. One leg to one arm so he doesn't go anywhere. Then watch him. We'll clear as four."

He replied, "Yes, sir."

Good boy. He knew you hated ma'am. It reeked of double standards. Sir was good enough for men and it was good enough for women.

The four of you heard shouts of alarm as the household woke to the danger, maybe you would get to kill a heretic after all. Self-defense was a thing and you had captured your prisoner. You smiled at that as you left the living room and stepped into the dining room that contained the stairs to the second floor. The kitchen was on the far side of the dining room but it seemed unoccupied. Only one way to be sure tho.

"Keep an eye on the stairs while I check the kitchen."

So you checked the empty kitchen and was disappointed to find no heretic scum to set on fire. So you returned to the stairs and raised your shields as you braced yourself for your least favorite part of the job. Assaulting a probably fortified position with an unknown number of threats. Your people knew their business so you did not bother to tell them to follow you as you headed up the stairs, confident in that they would follow close behind their commander. You gripped the hand rail firmly with each step as...

You train of thought was interrupted as you were nearly knocked on your ass from a volley of pistol shots.

Thank God your shields held against the heretic scum's excellent marksmanship.

So you did what came naturally and set them on fire with your mind. Fucking heretic scum. How dare they shoot at you?!

Oops. That could have been a mission failure right there. Stupid "take them alive" bullshit.

Their screams were music to your ears as they collapsed like puppets with their strings cut, nothing but piles of charred ash and bone.

You proceeded the rest of the way up the stairs, happy the stairs had not caught fire.

A weight like a freight train slammed into your shields and knocked you down the stairs and you landed on your ass.

Sharp claws tore into your shields as your people opened fire at the monster that was on top of you.

It was unmoved by the bullets that slammed into its bulk.

Fuck.

You could feel your shields weaken as its claws slammed into your shields again and again.

Heat radiated through your shields for a moment as Goodwin set the monster on fire.

The fire vanished.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

You felt the tip of its claws graze your robe and draw a line of blood on your chest. You yelped in pain.

It collapsed on top of you, unconscious.

Thank God.

The monster on top of you slowly changed from a massive, tiger-like beast into a naked man. At least it could be handcuffed now. You made damn sure that both the monster and the cultist stayed unconscious until they were no longer your problem. Clean up or not, you had no intention of risking whatever the fuck that was changing again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

How do you move forward with the experimentation on the Weretiger?

[ ] Cruel. You needed results and you needed them quickly. You would use any means necessary to achieve that end. (+30 to Experimentation roll, -50 to interrogation rolls, ample evidence of their defensive magic for later study.)

[ ] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

[ ] Kind. You saw no reason to be cruel to supernatural creatures. They would be your guest for a long time and it was best to form a solid working relationship (No mechanical bonus or penalty. Will require additional actions to convince them to share their magic with you. Of course, a cooperative teacher is easier to learn from than studying the angry reactions of a person in pain.)

 

[saganatsu]

[X] Cruel. You needed results and you needed them quickly. You would use any means necessary to achieve that end. (+30 to Experimentation roll, -50 to interrogation rolls, ample evidence of their defensive magic for later study.)

We have two experimentation rolls coming up, no interrogation roll scheduled, and if someone want's to learn their magic, they're a heretic.

 

[technotemplar]

[X] Kind. You saw no reason to be cruel to supernatural creatures. They would be your guest for a long time and it was best to form a solid working relationship (No mechanical bonus or penalty. Will require additional actions to convince them to share their magic with you. Of course, a cooperative teacher is easier to learn from than studying the angry reactions of a person in pain.)

 

[Enormodro]

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

 

[Asael]

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

Knowledge is important to our long term endevours. At the same time, don't want to be any more of a caricature then we already are.

 

[Daemon Hunter]

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

Ethics are important at times.

 

[Angelazreal1]

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

 

[Nevill]

Is Captain Richards such a hardass because she gets knocked on her ass a lot?

[x] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

Where is Dr. Vahlen when you need one...

 

[veekie]

[X] Kind. You saw no reason to be cruel to supernatural creatures. They would be your guest for a long time and it was best to form a solid working relationship (No mechanical bonus or penalty. Will require additional actions to convince them to share their magic with you. Of course, a cooperative teacher is easier to learn from than studying the angry reactions of a person in pain.)

Not an easy capture, so try the honey first.

 

[CoreBrute]

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

 

[ChaosCircle]

Is Captain Richards such a hardass because she gets knocked on her ass a lot?

Click to shrink...

We'll just have to see won't we?

Probably will close the vote tonight.

 

[KnightDisciple]

[X] Kind. You saw no reason to be cruel to supernatural creatures. They would be your guest for a long time and it was best to form a solid working relationship (No mechanical bonus or penalty. Will require additional actions to convince them to share their magic with you. Of course, a cooperative teacher is easier to learn from than studying the angry reactions of a person in pain.)

 

[ChaosCircle]

Voting closed.

Vote Tally : Monster Hunting - An Advisor's Quest (Fantasy X-COM; CK2ish; Original) Original | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 21-43]
##### NetTally 2.2.3

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)
No. of Votes: 6
[X] Enarmodro
[X] Angelazreal1
[X] Asael
[X] CoreBrute
[X] Daemon Hunter
[x] Nevill

[X] Kind. You saw no reason to be cruel to supernatural creatures. They would be your guest for a long time and it was best to form a solid working relationship (No mechanical bonus or penalty. Will require additional actions to convince them to share their magic with you. Of course, a cooperative teacher is easier to learn from than studying the angry reactions of a person in pain.)
No. of Votes: 3
[X] technotemplar
[X] KnightDisciple
[X] veekie

[X] Cruel. You needed results and you needed them quickly. You would use any means necessary to achieve that end. (+30 to Experimentation roll, -50 to interrogation rolls, ample evidence of their defensive magic for later study.)
No. of Votes: 1
[X] saganatsu

 

[ChaosCircle]

Spoiler: Winning Plan

[X] Moderation. A certain degree of cruelty was needed to perform the task at hand. However, you would not ignore the suffering you would inflict. Pain killers and other methods of lessening the poor creature's suffering would be employed. (+15 to Experimentation roll, -25 to interrogation rolls, enough evidence of their defensive magic to study it)

Spoiler: Rolls

Modifiers for people w/o sheets you can see are hidden besides the modifiers you know. (i.e. the interrogation penalty from Moderation)
Dame Kemmler - Bast Interrogation - 1D100-25 => 74 - Passed; information obtained.
Dame Kemmler - Asmodeus Interrogation - 1D100 => 79 - Passed; information obtained.

Experimentation on Weretiger (1): 1D100+19+15 => 64 (DC: 50/100) - Weakness obtained
Experimentation on Weretiger (2): 1D100+19+15 => 127 (DC: 50/100) - Perfect memory of the use of defensive magic; initial research step skipped.

Random Event Rolls
1D100 => 88 - Awesome.
1D100 => 12 - Oof.

You are Alexander Constantine and the initial reports from your research team on the Subject was passable but not exceptional. They tested the traditional weaknesses for supernatural creatures such as cold iron and silver. The results of such tests was clear enough, the myth about Werewolves and the like being vulnerable to silver was correct. The subject could not regenerate injuries inflicted by silver, even when transformed. In addition, any penetration of silver into the flesh prevented the monster from changing forms. A useful detail given the myth that every full moon Weres underwent an uncontrolled shift. That and for security purposes it was best to keep the creature unable to change. Mages might be able to handle a Weretiger but the average MI9 guard could not. You issued the guards silver bullets anyway, just as a precaution.

The monster paced its cell like a caged animal, its angry eyes roamed to the guards and back to you as if trying to determine a means of escape. It was just as bestial in its human form as it was transformed. You could not find it in you to blame it tho, you would seek escape if you were caged as well. Perhaps the man within the monster and you had something in common after all.

Your eyes roamed to the containment circle that surrounded the metal bars that formed the creature's cell. It seemed correct but what did you know of such matters? You were no witch or warlock, trafficking with the creatures of Hell. It was bad enough "proper" mages learned such magic for pragmatic reasons given the path it could lead the unwary down. The runes were engraved into solid stone so that they would not be easily damaged by wear and tear. A good idea, you supposed.

You forced a smile as your gaze returned to the beast within the cell. A cell you, thankfully, did not have to enter for your experimentation. You said, "Beast, it is time for the next round of experiments. If you resist, you will be punished. If you cooperate, this should be the last round you of experiments you will need to suffer. My compatriots have already tested your resistance to base metals and the lesser magic of the magi. My test shall be one that tries both body and spirit. If you are found worthy, you shall suffer not at all. If you are found wanting, well, as John said, 'But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire.' Exorcists specialize in Baptisms by Fire. I hope you don't mind."

The monster's brown eyes locked on yours as it spoke, "Exorcist, as I told your research team, I am not your enemy. The Children of Bast seek to peacefully coexist with Mankind. We seek to keep this world safe from the Old Ones that seek to devour humanity. Even the sorcery of your god is a curse, a forgery created by powers that predate your Jesus Christ. You need to let me go to do what must be done, you have no idea the danger you have put us in. I was sent to warn them so that they could act."

A part of you wanted to set this filthy heretic on fire for his blasphemy but any intelligence of the supernatural was valuable, even lies often contained a kernel of truth to make them more believable. So, instead of fire, you forced a smile and said calmly, "Very well, heretic, what warning were you in the process of delivering that was so vital?"

The creature smiled back, elongated canines clearly visible, and said, "I suppose it could not hurt to tell you. The worst that happens is you throw your lives into the meat grinder and none of you survive. Adoketa's followers have summoned a fragment of its power to this world and infested a host with it. The human incubator will slowly grow in power until the fleshy host is consumed by Adoketa's power and an Avatar emerges. That is a horror beyond your ability to face. Even if you do not free me, at least pass the warning along to the Cult of Bast. They are far, far better equipped than a bunch of children who are still scared of the dark."

The creature seemed genuine in its belief that message was real. Whether this "Avatar" business was as serious as it made it sound was another matter. Whatever monster was birthed from this human incubation could be cleaned by the Holy Fire of God, as you were about to demonstrate to this unfortunate creature.

You genuinely smiled as you called out, "Guard, give the man his pills for the pain about to inflict on him. He can regenerate most injuries, let us see if he regenerates from Holy Fire."

The guard dropped a bottle of water and a paper packet of pills through the bars so it could have what it needed. There was no need to be pointlessly cruel to the unfortunate thing that was once a man. The damage your fire would do to the heretic was punishment enough. There was no need for it to suffer needlessly.

The creature removed the glass bottle cap and consumed his pills like any sensible creature should.

You said, "I'll be back in half an hour once the pills have had a chance to kick in. There is no need for a heretic to suffer needlessly."

------------------------

As soon as you arrive at the elevator for Subfloor 6, a guard in a beige military uniform found you and said, "Sir, you should be aware that one of Colonel Weaver's kill teams came back with one of its members possessed by some sort of Fiend. We had to shoot him repeatedly when he tried to flee. He seems dead but the Lieutenant would be comfortable if you could confirm that before we dispose of the body."

You nod and step into the elevator with the soldier. He seemed genuine but if there was one infiltrator there could be more. You kept an eye on him as the elevator ascended to Floor 1: Security. That was appropriate, perhaps the man was who he appeared to be.

The guard stepped off the lift without a glance back at you. A sign of trust and further proof the man was not trying to arrange your death. Probably.

You followed behind him, ready to rain Holy Fire down on everyone you met. There were several guards at the main entrance surrounding a body on the tile floor, blood still leaked onto the floor so it was recent enough that the guard was probably honest. You still were ready to kill everyone in the room just in case.

You had no intention of touching such filth so you did what any sensible Exorcist would do.

You said, "The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the they are taken away to be spared from evil."

You willed the body to burn and it did. That was proof of the righteousness of your cause. The holy inferno quickly consumed the body and left only ash behind. With a wave and a bit of wind, that ash passed beyond the doors of the Hounslow Armory and into the open air to be gone from your thoughts.

Your duty done, and satisfied this was not a trap of some kind, you turned your back on the men and proceeded to the elevator. You had paperwork to catch up on after all. The trials of the job.

------------------------

Your office was a plain affair with little more than a large mahogany desk and a comfortable chair. The desk it self was well organized with a stack of letters in a wooden tray for your perusal. The rest of the "mess" one might find on a person's desk was safely tucked away in the desk's drawers. Filed and organized as it should be.

You took a seat in the chair and started on the letters. They were mostly routine matters, bills and the like. However, one letter stood out among all the rest. A casual letter from an "acquaintance" in the Anglican Church. The name "Frederick Douglas" was the name under which the Church had planned to send you covert orders that they wished concealed from MI9's leadership. It seemed harmless enough to you, given your true loyalty was to the Anglican Church and not any secular institution. The letter was in plain English and appeared to contain nothing but harmless personal and contemporary news. In reality, if one had memorized a particular cipher as you had, the message was particularly alarming.

Dame Kemmler is an agent of Iscariot. Iscariot is the foremost Enemy of the Church. You must contain her as best you can to minimize the damage such a highly placed agent might cause.

The rest of the note was not much better given you almost believed the creature MI9 kept down in the cells. It had seemed so genuine.

The Cult of Bast must be eliminated as well. They claim noble intentions but they are cultists worshiping a false goddess who is truly a fiend in disguise. While not the priority that Iscariot is, they should be eliminated with haste. Ignore their lies about "combating the Old Ones". The Old Ones must be combated but they really just mean "Old Gods", of which Bast is one.

I understand that you might have expected better news or at least, one that did not require an immediate call to violence. Unfortunately, we live in violent times my brother in Christ.

Ultimately, I am authoring to break any edict, violate any oath, pursue any avenue of blasphemy in order to take control of MI9. We cannot be certain of any of your fellow councilors and control of MI9 through demonic possession, blackmail, or other means is the only route to England's survival.

MI9 had been infiltrated at the highest level and if one of them was an enemy spy, they might all be. Hell, you were the Church's spy after all.

However, as you re-read the message it gave you pause. They had just authorized you to use demonic possession to seize control of MI9, could your handler really be trusted? What kind of Priest would authorize such absurd, extreme measures? Was the situation really that desperate that any means would be considered acceptable?

You were terrified by those questions. Either the Church had been infiltrated and black was white or the Church had just given you a license to dabble in the summoning of fiends.

Fuck.

------------------------

Disturbed by your new knowledge, you returned to Subfloor 6 and the creature's cell with a heavy heart. The truth was you were still a bit distracted by the knowledge you had just acquired. Your heart just was not in the torture, for truthfully even with the painkillers that was what this was, of a monster. The burning of heretics seemed an appropriate response but you had just been ordered to commit heresy.

You stared at the beast in its cage and said, "Are you ready, beast? The pain killers should be at full effect now."

The beast smiled grimly at you and replied, "Get it over with."

So, you set his hand on fire.

It sketched a rune in the air with his other hand and the fire vanished.

The creature growled, "And you call us monsters. We would not set fire to a human being just to see if it would hurt it."

Your mind was focused on the rune the creature had drawn. It had banished holy fire, a feat thought impossible for a heretic. You had memorized it as best you could, hopefully that would be enough if you decided to indulge in your curiosity.

Its hand was unburnt. This fucking monster could ignore the holy flame of an exorcist as if it was not even there. What kind of fucking monster could do that?!

------------------------

Many matters now weighed on your mind given recent events...what agenda did you want to push during the next quarterly meeting of MI9's leadership? After all, if your secret orders and official orders were the same you would not need to split your focus to satisfy both. The top two will be chosen unless they are contradictory (i.e. De-prioritize vs. Target) in which case the third option will be chosen. One or none may ultimately bear fruit. This vote is by line.

[ ] The targeting of Iscariot. They were a mysterious organization with unknown supernatural ties but the nature of their name made it clear they were the Church's enemies and therefore they should be MI9's enemies as well. It might also confirm the intelligence about Dame Kemmler's true loyalties if she opposed you on it, even if the decision to target Iscariot was not implemented. It seemed a trace odd to target a group based on its name and what was likely few useful details but the Church's intelligence network was vaster than your own. Perhaps they simply withheld the reasons for a reason. Perhaps the reasons were ultimately irrelevant.

[ ] Inform Sir Thomas Hunt privately that you suspected Dame Kemmler might be a spy. It was a risk given he might be a spy for some other group as well but he needed to be warned that Iscariot has a spy in our midst. And that spy was the head of our entire intelligence apparatus which meant anything MI9 knew? Iscariot knew as well.

[ ] The targeting of the Cult of Bast. You already had hit one of their safe houses. They may not be the Church's priority but they were a target you knew you could beat. Even their supernatural allies, weretigers, were no match for your Mages. You are not sure why they were targeted by the Anglican Church but orders were orders. Heretics should be purged and they were certainly that. It just felt like an odd when the weretiger seemed genuine.

[ ] The targeting of Fiends and their cultists for research into possession given the recent attack. You have been ordered to consider demonic possession a viable strategy to take control of MI9. You would need to discover the weaknesses of various fiends with that capability before you dared to tread such a dark path. It would also open up avenues to research the methods the cultists used to summon these foul monsters so that you might do the same. It was a skill you would need to learn and so you might as well learn from the fools who summoned these creatures.

[ ] Ask to be authorized to institute anti-infiltration security measures with the force of law within MI9 HQ. Your voluntary training has shown fruit but recent events have shown you the enemy was interested enough to try regardless. You wanted to improve the security of the base and, frankly, you and your mages were the best equipped to handle the creation of such measures. That, and you could enforce things like passwords and secrets written on people's bodies. You cared about the Church's priorities but this was an urgent concern given recent events. It would also leave you with the perfect cover to devise a counter-strategy to these measures so that you could hide your own infiltrators within MI9.

[ ] De-prioritize the targeting of the Cult of Bast. You believed the Weretiger and your orders were suspect. Authorizing the use of demonic possession? Seriously? You needed to figure out a way to get a message sent to the Archbishop so that someone could question your "handler" to see if this was genuinely authorized. Those orders were genuinely insane. (This leads to no one hitting Bast safe houses or operations.)

[ ] De-prioritize the targeting of the Iscariot Organization. Your orders were nuts and you had no intention of following them. In fact, you intended to do the exact opposite. This nutter wanted you to hit Iscariot? Fine, you would do the exact opposite of that. Fuck this. You needed to get in contact with the Archbishop of Canterbury ASAP.

 

[KnightDisciple]

@ChaosCircle so are we voting a 1-X ranking of each item? Or each voter picks 2 items, and the 2 items with the most votes win?

 

[ChaosCircle]

@ChaosCircle so are we voting a 1-X ranking of each item? Or each voter picks 2 items, and the 2 items with the most votes win?

Click to shrink...

The latter

 

[KnightDisciple]

[X] Ask to be authorized to institute anti-infiltration security measures with the force of law within MI9 HQ. Your voluntary training has shown fruit but recent events have shown you the enemy was interested enough to try regardless. You wanted to improve the security of the base and, frankly, you and your mages were the best equipped to handle the creation of such measures. That, and you could enforce things like passwords and secrets written on people's bodies. You cared about the Church's priorities but this was an urgent concern given recent events. It would also leave you with the perfect cover to devise a counter-strategy to these measures so that you could hide your own infiltrators within MI9.

[X] De-prioritize the targeting of the Cult of Bast. You believed the Weretiger and your orders were suspect. Authorizing the use of demonic possession? Seriously? You needed to figure out a way to get a message sent to the Archbishop so that someone could question your "handler" to see if this was genuinely authorized. Those orders were genuinely insane. (This leads to no one hitting Bast safe houses or operations.)

 

[Angelazreal1]

[X] Ask to be authorized to institute anti-infiltration security measures with the force of law within MI9 HQ. Your voluntary training has shown fruit but recent events have shown you the enemy was interested enough to try regardless. You wanted to improve the security of the base and, frankly, you and your mages were the best equipped to handle the creation of such measures. That, and you could enforce things like passwords and secrets written on people's bodies. You cared about the Church's priorities but this was an urgent concern given recent events. It would also leave you with the perfect cover to devise a counter-strategy to these measures so that you could hide your own infiltrators within MI9.

[X] De-prioritize the targeting of the Cult of Bast. You believed the Weretiger and your orders were suspect. Authorizing the use of demonic possession? Seriously? You needed to figure out a way to get a message sent to the Archbishop so that someone could question your "handler" to see if this was genuinely authorized. Those orders were genuinely insane. (This leads to no one hitting Bast safe houses or operations.)

 

[veekie]

[X] Ask to be authorized to institute anti-infiltration security measures with the force of law within MI9 HQ. Your voluntary training has shown fruit but recent events have shown you the enemy was interested enough to try regardless. You wanted to improve the security of the base and, frankly, you and your mages were the best equipped to handle the creation of such measures. That, and you could enforce things like passwords and secrets written on people's bodies. You cared about the Church's priorities but this was an urgent concern given recent events. It would also leave you with the perfect cover to devise a counter-strategy to these measures so that you could hide your own infiltrators within MI9.

[X] De-prioritize the targeting of the Cult of Bast. You believed the Weretiger and your orders were suspect. Authorizing the use of demonic possession? Seriously? You needed to figure out a way to get a message sent to the Archbishop so that someone could question your "handler" to see if this was genuinely authorized. Those orders were genuinely insane. (This leads to no one hitting Bast safe houses or operations.)