If the Duchness moves, it will be to make things worse and to consolidate her own power. As for getting people to passing laws to reduce crime , how would that work? The person who makes the law is the same person who is deliberately making crime worse and the only person she answers to is Emperor Arthur himself. If things get out of hand, it will give the Duchness the excuse to use her high diplo, intrigue and stewardship to crack down on her opponents and those who would oppose her whilst increasing the corruption and her own powerbase. You live in an aristocratic nation and your enemy is only a single step down from the top dog and calls the shots in the entire duchy (duchy sort of equals US state in the Holy British Empire if there was a lot less checks and balances and the governor directly answered to the president and not to anyone else).
Vote closed. Vote Tally : Original - Alt. History - Superhero - Second Age of Heroes (Mutants and Mastermind Quest) | Page 11 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 270-270] ##### NetTally 1.9.7
[X] Talk
-[X] Why? How does he benefit from saving us? No. of Votes: 1 Hannz
Total No. of Voters: 1
As a heads up, I am going to implementing the heroes point mechanic so that if Knight Errant gets knocked out or otherwise defeated in an encounter, she can attempt to avoid it once.
***
[X] Talk
-[X] Why? How does he benefit from saving us?
***
This 'Mastermind' is clearly dangerous and if his words are truthful, which you have no doubts that they are, he has supernatural powers like you.
"Why did you save me?" you ask, "How do you benefit from doing so?"
"Have you considered that I might have just wanted to save you because it was the right thing to do?" asks Mastermind with a gentle smile towards you and your cheeks go red at the embarrassment of not considering something like that.
After all, you would go to the aid of another hero without question if they had been bested by criminal scum on your watch.
"That said," continues Mastermind, "I do have some other reasons for why I am in the area. Having discovered my own powers, I have been looking for others with abilities beyond what is mundanely possible. You are the third one that I am confirmed as a superhuman."
"Superhuman?" you repeat.
"A supernatural human or a human with supernatural abilities," explains Mastermind, "I thought about metahuman, parahuman or megahuman, but I settled on superhuman due to 'super' being included in the word supernatural. Continuing that association, I am thinking out calling our newer supernatural abilities 'superpowers' to differentiate them from the older supernatural abilities."
"What older stuff?" you ask.
"Whilst clearly different, having supernatural abilities isn't unprecedented," answers Mastermind, "The Emperor is immortal either through god or magic, there was his Indian advisor who lived for a few centuries before death finally claimed her, the Child of Satan and his Three Witches in the fifteenth century and there are several others if you know where to look. I am pretty certain that I have found a witch or some other female magic user living in Innsbruck.
However, these older 'magical' abilities appear to be different to the newer abilities that have been suddenly and rapidly appearing such as yours and mine. Whilst there is some noticeable consistence with the magical abilities, including being able to be taught or otherwise available to be used by others, superpowers appear to be random and static, unique to a person once they got them, not changing and unable to be taught to others by the dint of their very nature."
"I see," you say, noting down that information for future reference, "So how exactly do you know that I have powers?"
"I know for certain because I watched you display abilities beyond what a normal human is capable of," replies Mastermind, "Furthermore, I used my own abilities to confirm that you had powers of your own before waking you. As for how I know to seek you out, I have been paying attention for information of those who might have supernatural abilities so when I have of the exploits of Knight Errant, I came to Orleans to investigate your first hand."
"And now?" you ask, wary of what this man wants.
"I wish to offer a deal of mutual benefit and assistance," answers Mastermind, "While my focus is broadly spread across the globe, a variety of things have drawn my attention to the city of Orleans and shall keep it until they are resolved.
For starters, I wish to study your abilities alongside those of others so I may gain a greater understanding of how superpowers work and how they compare to older supernatural abilities. This would be done with your consent of course. In exchange for said consent, I am willing to exchange favours, offer resources or otherwise provide help to you.
Additionally, if the rumours are true, I would like to hear your accounts of the half-machine pair you fought the other day. I would also like it if you could introduce me to Swashbuckler so I can assess if she has any superpowers or not and offer the same terms to her as I am to you.
Otherwise, I believe we have some mutual goals to dealing with this city and the sin within it. I have no desire to let organised crime overrun a city or plunge it into a corrupt, festering mess. For that, I wish to break the backbones of the criminal gangs in Orleans and bring the Duchess to justice. I believe we can help each other in bringing about that conclusion.
And finally, I wish to get a sample of this Apex Juice so I may attempt to figure out how it works and perhaps replicate it for myself.
What do you say Knight Errant?"
How does Knight Errant respond?
[] Accept Mastermind's offer. (Select which parts of it)
-[] All of it.
-[] Let him study your abilities.
-[] Tell him about the half-machine combatants.
-[] Introduce him to Swashbuckler.
-[] Accept his assistance against the criminal organisation of Orleans.
-[] Accept his assistance against Duchess Gwenhwyfar Rhys of Orleans
-[] Help him gain a sample of Apex Juice.
-[] Write-in.
[] Reject Mastermind's offer.
[] Write-in
***
Speaking to Mastermind:
Persuasion vs Persuasion Test: 12+12+5 vs 5+26 = 29 vs 31, Mastermind wins by one degree.
[X] Accept Mastermind's offer. (Select which parts of it)
-[X] All of it.
--[X] Except introducing him to Swashbuckler
I'm not sure how keen she would be to meet this Mastermind guy (and from before with how much she wants to be involved in what we do), and we could always introduce them later if Chloe is ok with it
Vote closed: Vote Tally : Original - Alt. History - Superhero - Second Age of Heroes (Mutants and Mastermind Quest) | Page 11 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 259-282] ##### NetTally 1.9.7
[X] Accept Mastermind's offer. (Select which parts of it)
-[X] All of it. No. of Votes: 3 Hannz RideTheWalrus veekie
[X] Accept Mastermind's offer. (Select which parts of it)
-[X] All of it.
--[X] Except introducing him to Swashbuckler No. of Votes: 1 Blueshift
Total No. of Voters: 4
[X] Accept Mastermind's offer. (Select which parts of it)
-[X] All of it.
***
"I accept," you answer Mastermind, "It is a good deal and nothing that I disagree with. However, I would like to warn you ahead of time that Swashbuckler doesn't have any powers, just a lot of skill."
"I will see," replies Mastermind neutrally, "Either way, it would be useful to know her."
"She is my friend in both identities," you warn Mastermind.
"Noted," replies Mastermind, "I assume you are here looking for information? There is nothing else here worth looking except for getting a taste of combat against an opponent on Apex Juice to see what they are capable of and there are better ways to acquire that."
"I am looking for information," you confirm, "Care to help?"
"As you wish," says Mastermind, "I have other information that I can share with you, but I see no reason not to aid you in finding some information here. No reason to leave without finding something of value now that we have secured the building."
"Thank you," you reply before the two of you head off further into the building together.
By the time that the searching is done, you are extremely grateful that you had Mastermind to assist you. Looking into the main office section of this Forces of Iron outpost, you failed to find anything worthwhile, only some information which didn't seem relevant or you didn't understand.
Mastermind on the other hand is able to systematically look through the office room, the living quarters and unconscious bodies of the gangsters. Doing so, he collects up a number of different files and pieces of paper along with a couple of notebooks and a journal.
"You have an eidetic memory like I do right?" says Mastermind as he begins to look through the papers, "I recommend that we look through these files and then place them back, using our perfect recall to remember them. Doing so will allows to retain the knowledge, but will keep our foes from knowing what we looked at and what information we have."
"That sounds like a good idea," you agree.
"I have also found a couple of vials of Apex Juice on one of the thugs and a half a canteen of the stuff in a locked trunk," says Mastermind, holding up a glass vial about as long as your finger.
A white substance is contained within the vial, with orange swirls scattered about the murky white liquid within.
"If you do not mind, I shall keep them for further study," continues Mastermind before pocketing the vial, "Now, if there is nothing else that you wish to do here, shall we be off?"
"There's nothing left to do here," you reply and Mastermind holds out a hand for you.
You accept it, grasping his hand with one of your own. You jump in surprise as the world around is suddenly replaced in a split-second.
You let go of Mastermind's hand as you stagger backwards in shock, looking around to get a bearings on yourself.
You are no longer inside the building belonging to the Forces of Iron, but are instead standing on top a rooftop in the open night of Orleans.
What just happened?
You hear Mastermind say something, but you aren't really paying attention to the words coming out of his mouth. Instead, you attempt to process what the heck just happened?
Thor's Whores, you were one place one moment and then somewhere else entirely the next.
"Excuse me," you mutter to Mastermind before turning around and spilling the contents of your guts onto the rooftop.
"Are you okay Knight Errant?" asks Mastermind.
"Yeah, I just needed a moment," you reply after you are done, "Anything else?"
"Just an apology for the discomfort that my teleporting brought you," says Mastermind, "Goodbye for now."
And with that, Mastermind is gone. One moment he was there and the next he is gone without a trace.
With that on your mind, you head home as you begin to mentally plan your next move to take down the Apex Juice production.
So I've been reading the Mutants and Masterminds rules whilst coming up with a new NPC character and it turns out that the minions you have been fighting have been super OP. Had I been applying the rules properly, Knight Errant wouldn't have gone down in the last fight like she did. This mistake will be fixed in the future fights.
So I've been reading the Mutants and Masterminds rules whilst coming up with a new NPC character and it turns out that the minions you have been fighting have been super OP. Had I been applying the rules properly, Knight Errant wouldn't have gone down in the last fight like she did. This mistake will be fixed in the future fights.
I was going to put points in fighting, but apparently the reason we keep getting punked is that the OP misread the rules (which I can totally sympathize with) so I think putting points into socialing harder is better.
You notice over the next couple of days that you feel different. With your perfect memory, you are able to note that you are able to react faster than you have with superior reaction times and better combat reflexes.
You also note you are attracting more attention than usual. Whilst your looks draw a lot of stares, some of the men seem to be more entranced than usual. They hang on to your every word, especially when you attempt to use your looks to your advantage.
And it isn't just men either. You are getting more attention from your own sex as well and some of it is from those you know aren't into the ladies like Knight Errant is.
With this in mind, you decide to test out you can do by leveraging your looks.
You first attempt this with Father Fionn, attempting to woo the old veteran with your beautiful looks.
That goes poorly for you as the Irishman just berated you for slacking off and acting inappropriately. You also got some extra chores to do out of the mess.
The second attempt want arguable better as while you were able to seduce the heterosexual Chloe, it creeped you out. While it was just harmless, friendly teasing at first, having your friend just willing to do what you wanted, including stuff she wouldn't normally do.
You might have want to get your hands on Chloe's chest, but not when the girl wasn't in her right state of mind. That's just wrong, no other way about it.
That said, you don't mind charming strangers or foes into doing what you want. You just have to be careful of how they react once the spell they are under wears off, especially if they decide to blame you and take action against out a desire for revenge, misplaced or not.
However, that isn't important right now. What you need to focus on is taking out the production of the Apex Juice. That stuff is dangerous as it can make the thugs provide a serious threat, even to you and while that isn't too much of it out on the street right now, that will undoubtable change soon.
If Apex Juice starts being used large scaled by organised crime, the city guard will be unable to contain them. That would result in a crime wave and make Orleans a much more dangerous place to live.
Of course, if things got too out of control, Imperial attention would come down on the city and the Duchess so you feel confident that the Duchess won't let things get too bad if only to protect her own butt.
However, she could use the failures of the city guard to keep order to replace its current leadership with her own people. And then since they would be in the whole corruption thing that the duchess has going, crime rates would drop gain and an illusion of justice and order would be restored, validating the duchess' people as being best for the job.
And the duchess' power would be entrenched as one of the key parts of the city would become corrupted and would no longer be resisting her. Furthermore, the city guard being in her pocket would allow her to put a lot of pressure on any other authorities local to the city that are resisting her sinful regime.
That wouldn't be the end of the matter either as the duchess would be able to limit the amount of Apex Juice in the city be selling it to other criminal organisations outside of Orleans.
Or she could she could stockpile it so that she could give it to her corrupt military forces such as the Orleans Ducal Guard, the Orleans City Militia or the Orleans City Guard. Apex Juice would give an edge to any soldier using it even if skill, technology and sheer numbers can prove to be enough to overcome it.
But all of that remains theoretical and it shall not move beyond the stage of theory if you have anything to say in the matter.
Now you just have to decide on how to deal with the matter.
***
How is Knight Errant going to take down the Apex Juice production?
Please now that you can pick multiple options so if you want to do things stealthy and prepare for it by getting some new gear and looking for allies, you can do that.
[] Prepare for it. This will be a risky endeavour and properly preparing for it will be vital.
-[] Get new gear. Some new equipment may prove useful for this operation.
-[] Seek out allies. Having an extra set of hands helping out or another pair of eyes watching your back would be invaluable.
--[] Mastermind. Your fellow superhuman has an expressed a willingness to help out, but you will need to find him first.
--[] Swashbuckler. Your vigilante partner might be willing to help out, but she may also shy away from a dangerous fight like this one.
--[] Look for new potential partners or allies in this endeavour.
[] Direct. Hard and fast will be your best bet. You have learnt from your past mistakes and the explosives will give you the extra punch that you need.
[] Stealthy. While it isn't your strongest point, stealth will provide useful to avoiding a fight and getting to the objective.
[] Write-in.
***
Frederica Allures Father Fionn:
Will Check, DC11: 18+10 = 28, Passed Test,
[X] Prepare for it. This will be a risky endeavour and properly preparing for it will be vital.
-[X] Get new gear. Some new equipment may prove useful for this operation.
[X] Stealthy. While it isn't your strongest point, stealth will provide useful to avoiding a fight and getting to the objective.
[X] Prepare for it. This will be a risky endeavour and properly preparing for it will be vital.
-[X] Get new gear. Some new equipment may prove useful for this operation.
[X Stealthy. While it isn't your strongest point, stealth will provide useful to avoiding a fight and getting to the objective.
[X] Prepare for it. This will be a risky endeavour and properly preparing for it will be vital.
-[X] Get new gear. Some new equipment may prove useful for this operation.
[X Stealthy. While it isn't your strongest point, stealth will provide useful to avoiding a fight and getting to the objective
Vote Tally : Original - Alt. History - Superhero - Second Age of Heroes (Mutants and Mastermind Quest) | Page 12 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 293-295] ##### NetTally 1.9.7
[X] Prepare for it. This will be a risky endeavour and properly preparing for it will be vital.
-[X] Get new gear. Some new equipment may prove useful for this operation. No. of Votes: 3 Hannz Penguinmuster veekie
[X] Stealthy. While it isn't your strongest point, stealth will provide useful to avoiding a fight and getting to the objective. No. of Votes: 1 Hannz
Total No. of Voters: 3
[X] Prepare for it. This will be a risky endeavour and properly preparing for it will be vital.
-[X] Get new gear. Some new equipment may prove useful for this operation.
[X] Stealthy. While it isn't your strongest point, stealth will provide useful to avoiding a fight and getting to the objective.
***
You decide that you will use stealth for this operation. The men and women that the Forces of Iron will have guarding the place will be well-equipped and experienced, most likely drugged up on Apex Juice. Whilst you are beyond what a normal person can accomplish, you are not strong enough to take on those sort of numbers, especially if they have the quality that you are expecting to find from them.
No, stealth will lead to a greater chance of success than using brute force.
You also decide to not seek any aid for the mission. Swashbuckler has already made her stance on doing dangerous stuff like this clear. Mastermind might be willingly, but you have no easy way to get in contact with him.
As for seeking out new allies, you just don't have time for that right now.
For this mission to be a success, you will need to prepare for it. After all, your plate armour has proven itself to be hinderance for stealth, something you note isn't exactly a surprise when one thinks about it.
A shield might also be useful, and you've seen how useful it can be having fought against foes who used a shield against you.
There are also other possibilities. Some brass knuckles are common amongst the street thugs of Orleans and if you are going for some stealthier armour, you might want some of your own.
You could get some more weaponry, but you are best with your sword and your fists. A gun might be of some use, but it would conflict with your nonlethal style.
Some non-fighting equipment might prove useful such as a torch or pair of binoculars. The only problem is that your abilities render both of those not as useful as they are to a normal person.
You can already see well in the dark as long as it isn't total darkness, so a torch would only be useful in said total darkness and while binoculars might still let you see further than you normally can, you can already see things at much greater distances than a normal person with your own eyes.
Some new armour will have to come from a trusted source, so you will go to Father Fionn for that while new weapons or gear can be brought from any shop of your choosing.
***
What will Knight Errant get?
5 Points available.
[] Attire
-[] Stealthy Clothes - 1 Points
-[] Leather Armour - 1 Point
[] Weapons
-[] Brass Knuckles - 1 Point
-[] Light Pistol - 3 Points
-[] Heavy Pistol - 4 Points
[] Equipment
-[] Torch - 1 Point
-[] Binoculars - 1 Point
[] Write-in.
***
Short update. You get to pick some new gear before the attempted stealthy infiltration begins.
