>>20111739
Is there any way we can opt out of an 80th quest thread?

>>20111739

Oh, cool. I've always like Geoff Johns take on the Rogues, in the Flash.

> What is your name?

Smith Sterling.

> You didn't expect turning the power source on to be quite so violent, but hopefully the machine is working properly. (Gadget Origin)

Alien

>>20111746

No.

>>20111739
> What is your name?
Name? That is a human concept. You can't eat a name, so we have no use for it.

>You knew you should've recalibrated the equipment for Earth gravity before you fired it up! Oh, well, at least you got through the atmosphere in one piece. (Alien origin)

>>20111739

Terrible at names, but let's go for
> Gadget

origin.

WORKIN' CLASS CRIMINAL HERE.

I take it the alien option is more in the vein of green men with ray guns than anything else?

>>20111817

Sort of getting that feeling. How about a MUNDANE ORIGIN? We'll be sort of like Charles Atlas.

>>20111817

The origin has little enough mechanical effect that I won't really have to change anything if you go with "basically like a Tyranid or something" as the Alien option. The options for skills and powers are the same either way.

The game does assume that you'll be speaking the same language as the locals, though.

>>20111757
Seconding.

Alien and Gadget are tied, so let's vote again and roll a d100 this time. We'll let the dice decide.

Name:

The Engineer of Evolution AKA Dr. Robert Robertson

Origin:

Experimental
"

>>20111739
Name: Benedict Swift


>Apparently the magical ritual you were attempting hasn't gone quite according to plan... (Magic Origin)

Well that ritual should have worked. Wait, god damn it. I knew I should have found a magic tome with better handwriting.

rolled 81 = 81

>>20111863
Rollan for Gadget.

Guess we're going Gadget, then.

You are SMITH STERLING. Having discovered a large-ish, empty series of tunnels on Catalina Island, you've been using it to engineer your inventions where the prying eyes of the public would not be disturbed (and, more importantly, report said disturbance to the police). Likely these tunnels were originally part of the construction of the Catalina Towers, a special prison for super villains not far from here. The locals are rather worried what impact being so close to so many excessively dangerous criminals might have on the tourist industry. Maybe you should give them a real problem to worry about sometime...

>>20111923
Looks like it's Gaget.

>There are seven skills, which spell out ACTIONS. These skills are:

>Athletics, which determines your ability to climb, jump, swim, and also almost all forms of combat.
>Cunning, which covers your ability to bluff, lie, and manipulate emotions.
>Technology, which covers your ability to do Hollywood hacker things and use gadgets (however, building gadgets falls under powers, not skills, those are next)
>Insight is your ability to see through lies and read people's true motives. It's what's used against Cunning.
>Observation is used for both investigative purposes (though primarily by your opponents) and to spot things.
>Nefariousness is your ability to concoct and execute evil schemes. Unlike other skills, it's almost exclusively used in the strategic gang management sub-system.
>Stealth is, of course, your ability to sneak around. It's opposed by Observation.

In addition to these, there is Health and Power. You gain 2 free Health to start with, even if it's your dump stat. Power determines how often you can use your powers before you're exhausted/have to reload/are out of mana/whatever, and you gain 3 Power Points for every Power.

Now:

>Which of these nine stats is your biggest strength?
>Which other two are you also good at?
>Which is your biggest weakness?
>Which other two are you also less good at?

Important note: Your Power score does not affect how many individual super powers you have, only how often you can use them.

>>20112004
We're best at Technology.

The other two we're good at is Power and Cunning.

Our biggest weakness is Stealth.

The other two we are less good at is Observation and Nefariousness.

>>20112004
Best: Nefariousness
Good: Cunning, Insight
Okay: Technology, Observation, Power
Bad: Health, Athletics
Worst: Stealth

We'll be having others (read: robot minions) do our dirty work while we sit out in the open, model citizen. Like a good super-villain.

>Which of these nine stats is your biggest strength?
Tech (We can use science to cover our weaknesses)
>Which other two are you also good at?
Cunning, Observation (Always important)
>Which is your biggest weakness?
Stealth (Stealthsuit anyone?)
>Which other two are you also less good at?
Athletics and Health (Can someone say power armor?)

Oh, forgot to say we should definitely be rolling for this. Too many variables, almost nobody will be voting for the exact same build as someone else.

rolled 28 = 28

>>20112088
If we can't compromise, this is the roll for >>20112056.

rolled 10 = 10

>>20112053
Rollan this because it is what I was going to say anyway

rolled 48 = 48

>>20112058
They are similar, but not quite the same.

rolled 45 = 45

>>20112053
Rolling for this.

rolled 39 = 39

>>20112088
1d100? Rolling for NEFARIOUSNESS.

>>20112110

Okay, then, Smith's starting statline is going to look like this:

Health: 1 (3)
Power: 2 (6)

Athletics: 1
Cunning: 3
Technology: 4
Insight: 2
Observation: 3
Nefariousness: 2
Stealth: 0

As you dust yourself off, you see the device in the certain of the area. It seems to be working properly despite its explosive start-up. You should probably look into fixing that...But then again, Apple and Windows both have their respective little jingles whenever their machines boot up. Yours is far more exciting.

>The powers list is gigantic, so I'm just linking to a paste bin.
>http://pastebin.com/VbnAkDVq

Also, considering the incredible size of the powers list, I imagine it might take a bit before power selections turn up. Please roll a d100 with your selection like with the skills, I'll be back in about twenty minutes.

Oh, also, also, feel free to refluff some of the powers if you like. One of the heroes uses "Energy Powers" for his sonic blast abilities, for example, just because I was too lazy to make up a new power set when I decided to add in a sonic blast hero. So long as the mechanics are the same, it won't make a huge difference.

rolled 45 = 45

>>20112242
How about unlocking Machines and Duplication, to get Terminators and Doppleganger? Or is that too full-on Dr. Doom?

>>20112242
Machines: AIs

Psychic Powers: Telepathy

rolled 54 = 54

>>20112389
Forgot Dice.

>>20112389

This one is leading so far, but keep in mind your combat and sneaking ability will both be completely shot if you go with it.

rolled 47 = 47

>>20112291
Machines: Terminators

Necromancy: Ghost Whisperer

We get muscle from the Termies and informants from the ghosts.

rolled 54 = 54

Cogito; something went extremely wrong with the blast, destroying your body yet somehow preserving your intellect. You manifest yourself as a cloud of pink particles with a Top hat, groucho-marx glasses and a cane. Thankfully, your knowledge in Engineering&Computing allows you to "posses" numerous machines(technically override their programing with your malevolent intellect), greatly enhancing your Physical aptness. All your hosts, however, retain one distinctive aspect of your true form; the pink cloud, the top hat, the glasses or the cane.

POWERS:

Machine:
-Skynet(***)
-AI(*)

Density Control:
-Phase Shift(**)

>>20112552
2 XP per star, sir, with 6 XP at chargen.

rolled 27 = 27

>>20112546
Also eventually we can get Cyberzombies, imagine the posibilities.

>>20112552
It's 6 xp worth of stars, not 6 stars. Sadly.

rolled 83 = 83

If I have to, I'll scrap mine at >>20112347 and vote for >>20112546, since Machines/Necromancy seems fun too.

>>20112561
>>20112564
Well, I guess then I'd keep Skynet then. But I would be happy to go with any of your ideas, really.

>>20112603
OP, what if we wanted to only unlock 1 power set (like this)? Do we get more XP for the powers within it?

>>20112621

No. Then there would be no reason to ever go with just the two power sets. Being able to unlock an extra power set at chargen is a fluke of the XP system, not an actual advisable strategy.

That blast was really extremely tame, considering you've got an unlicensed nuclear reactor in the room. The Ecto-Reader hums to life in the center of the room, a device near as big as you are which, if your calculations are correct (and when are they not?), should allow you to contact ghosts, the psychic imprints left behind by the sudden cessation of consciousness...

The bare bulbs attached to the concrete ceiling are flickering slightly from the immense power drain this thing requires, but it's on. You can contact any dead person within miles of this location, so long as their ghost is still coherent...Which means anyone within months, at least. Some of these things can last for centuries.

>What stats do you want your robot minions to have? The standard 2s across the board statline?

>>20112657
Well I can't see them getting much use out of Nefariousness, drop that to 0 or 1 and bump Athletics to 3 or 4.

I can see the rest of the stats having uses so I'm not going to fiddle with them.

>>20112657
Same ACTIONS stats? How about
H3 P3 A3 C0 T3 I0 O3 N0 S3

>>20112657
Couldn't we have two brands of robots? A mainline Warrior and a servo-research one?

I assume we can upgrade them later on. Anyway;
Athletics: 3
Cunning: 1
Technology: 2
Insight: 1
Observation: 3
Stealth: 2

Meh, forgot to mention two important things about them...

First off, unnamed minions are banned from using their Nefariousness stat to help you out in the gang management sub-system. So dumping that is a good idea.

Second, people without powers automatically have a Power stat of 0, and your terminators don't have powers.

>>20112710

Yes, you can. Since you currently have six robots, you could technically have six different distinct machines, but you probably don't need that many varieties.

>>20112726
Does the Power stat of 0 affect the average?

>>20112741

No. Powerless people just don't have a Power stat.

>>20112730
How about...
4 Warriors at H4 A4 C0 T3 I0 O3 N0 S2
2 Info Gathers at H0 A0 C2 T4 I2 O4 N0 S4

Any thoughts?

GRUNT Type Droid(2):
H4 P0 A4 C0 T0 I2 O4 N0 S4
Pretty standard kick-the-door grunt. No subtlety.
Maintenance/Spy Droid:
H2 P0 A2 C3 T4 I2 O2 N0 S3
Can a robot even use bluff? General utility robot.

>>20112784

Minions don't get a Power stat. Yes, this wasn't exactly what I said earlier, so I goofed up a bit. Apologies.

>>20112782
Technology would be wasted on a frontline warrior, unless you want them to macgiver something at the last minute. However, a high Technological score also makes our troops more "mobile", the lack of dedicated droids means maintenance can be done by anyone.

I guess I'd go with your numbers.

We should have a group of heavies, an agile robot, and an infiltrator robot that looks human.

>>20112782

I guess we'll go with that. It seems popular enough.

As the power continues flickering from the drain on your jury-rigged nuclear reactor, you disconnect your robotic minions from their chargers. They're just about topped off anyway, and your hyper-efficient batteries and hydraulics means they can go for days without needing a recharge.

And now for perhaps the most important part of a super villain...

>What is your motivation? Why do you want to take over and/or destroy the city/world/universe?

>>20112810
Perhaps
GRUNT Type Droid(3):
H4 A4 C0 T3 I0 O2 N0 S3
SCOUT Type Droid(1)
H2 A4 C0 T2 I0 O4 N0 S4
INFILTRATOR Type Droid(2)
H1 A2 C3 T1 I3 O4 N0 S2

Stealth is mainly for ambushes and the like. We got Ghost spies too, don't forget.

Should "Technology" affect how gadgets integrate with the models?

While we're still talking about the robots, I'll note that you can switch around their stats basically any time they aren't actively in use. You can always just rebuild them, after all.

>>20112824
Seems like those meatsacks haven't done such a great job with the world. Let's hand the reigns over to the non-living. Robots and the undead are patient enough, anyway.

>>20112824
We're smart enough to know that taking over the world isn't a practical decision, way too big, way too many people, heroes and villains would get involved.

But carving out a good chunk of the city for ourself, making a pile of money, that's doable.

Why we need the money, well there's experiments to run, science to advance, robots to make, undead to fiddle with. What else could you want in life?

Also all the best scientists, all the people we looked up to as a child were mad scientists, we've always wanted to be able to discuss the finer bits of the Ethereal Sciences with Dr. Spectre and get a look at Herr Panzer's labs.

>>20112857
Agreed; the world is in a terrible state of disarray due to conflicts born out of Hedonism and Nepotism; countries war over readily-available resources instead of developing new technologies, men want to secure better positions for their genetic spawn; as if they where "worthy" or "entitled" just because of their blood ties. Our goal is to right these wrongs. Tapping into the purest forms of mind and body; we will lead the revolution that will end the misery of the Human Condition for once and for all!

File: 1343726435592.jpg-(405 KB, 430x636, taskmaster_is_such_a_bro.jpg)

>>20112657
>unlicensed nuclear reactor

Excellent. You have your powers and your motivation. Now there's nothing left to do but get started...

>Wat do?

>>20112907

Read the newspaper to learn of any technological events that might pique our interests. Also the obituary to see if there's anyone recently deceased to chat up.

Twirl mustache.

In case you've forgot, you're currently located in an underground lab out on Catalina Island, a lightly populated island south of the city, whose only two population centers of any note at all are Avalon (pop. ~3,000) and Two Harbors (pop. ~300). Yes, these places are very small. Subverting the local criminal element and police force should make for a good warm-up before tackling the fifteen million strong city up north.

>>20112907
Hmm. First things first, are there any shipments of anything interesting coming into town, famous expensive artwork, gold, phlebotinum, unobtanium, anything like that?

What would be a good place to heist? Any vulnerable banks, museums or anything like that?

What other villains are there in the area? We might want to get on good terms with them.

Look through the obituaries see if anyone interesting died recently.

Are there are super villains who are known to have died within the area that our Ecto-Reader covers? We could call them up and get some tips, advice, maybe in exchange for a favor they'd tell us about safehouses and the like.

We need a name and a costume! How could we have forgotten?

>>20112917
Yep. Brand new robots and brand new ghost powers are gonna need a test run before we try anything that could have repercussions. Send the 'bots down to the grocer, figuratively.

>>20112907
Our long-term goal should be to create the League of Eternals; a group of the greatest minds ever alive granted breath once again thanks to our powerful necromantic&robotic advances, Think what Plato would be capable of given a body that knows no tiredness or hunger, what Tesla could achieve with an aphid body that shoots electrified bees!

We'd need funds, ancient necronomical treatises, perhaps the death call machine that sucker Edison invented. We should secure a power base first, make further breakthroughs in robotics and necromancy, invest in our own energy source, but above all; funds.

To this end, we should stage an insurance fraud. Using replicas of ourselves and our immediate family, we'll stage the greatest BBQ fire ever!

>>20112929

I'll give answers for the city at large. Catalina Island itself is home to basically nothing important at all (there are two sets here, the Avalon Goblins from the Goblin Gang and the Moretti Outfit from the Family, but they're both kind of places you get sent to get you out of the way when you're not quite a big enough fuck-up to just murder, and Catalina Island is otherwise basically completely unremarkable).

The county (which is about half taken up by the city) just so happens to have more museums per capita than any other in the world. Unfortunately, none of these are quite Louvre or Museum of London level archives of priceless historical artifacts, however the J. Paul Getty Museum is staffed with quite a few Greek and Italian antiquities from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are both primarily local galleries, but if you steal in bulk you can still likely make a profit of millions off of them. Even a local gallery is pretty valuable in the creative capital of the world. The Psychiatry: An Industry Of Death Museum is operated by the Church of Scientology and it might be fun to raid it just on principle. The Museum of Jurassic Technology probably doesn't have anything worth more than a few thousand, but it might be fun to just go there.

Continued, long response is long.

There are plenty of specialist schools about, but unfortunately only the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science specializes in something USEFUL. All these stupid Hollywood drama schools clogging up the campuses...Like they'll ever develop anything worth stealing. Anyways, the Charles R. Drew is pretty good with medicine, you might want to keep an eye on it for developments in the "making dead things alive again" field. In terms of robotics and basically anything else, UCLA is also within arms reach, and you never know when they might invent something interesting.

Most banks in the area are vulnerable in the sense that the cashiers will probably give you as much money as you want if a squad of killbots march in and demand it of them. Worth noting that the City Bank Tower is in the area, and while it doesn't have any vaults, it does have boardrooms full of what are probably some of the most valuable ransom targets in the world.

No dead villains lately, unfortunately. Heroes and villains have a sort of unofficial moratorium on killing one another as a general rule, and the ones who violate this tend to become outcasts even among their own team (though there are occasional exceptions made for a guy who murdered your girlfriend or if you were longstanding nemeses or similar exceptional circumstances, and of course if you're powerful enough you can kill whoever you like and don't even have to care what the other supers say about it).

Other villains in the area are primarily associated with the major gangs. Daimyo Okata, for example, runs the Ronin, who control Downtown, and Dead Eye and Strike are both assassins who mostly work for the Family up in Hollywood. There's also some independents, like the Cat, an infamous art thief, and Asrael, a former super hero who slowly slid into more brutal vigilantism and then into outright terrorism as he grew more and more disillusioned with society.

Only interesting news right now is that local defense company EdenTech is apparently working on something big for the US government.

>>20112949

Why do you need replicas for the family members?

Also, I apologize for the lull. Big long response took a while to compose.

>>20113118
Okay, let's summon up some GHOSTS!

There's a few things I'd like to do with them. First keep an eye on the competition for a few reasons, first it means we can meet them should we choose to, I'd like to forge good relations with them, second I like knowing when someone like Asrael is going to go apeshit.

So have them scout for us, keep an eye open for any overt action, and if they find one of them to keep an eye on them.

They ought to do the same with heroes if possible.

If anyone has ghost defenses they should however just leave them alone.

Would it be possible to set up a meeting with the local Gangs, make sure we don't step on each other's toes.

Also have ghosts check out EdenTech, see how their defenses are, if they don't have ghost wards they can investigate further, maybe get us data on the big thing they're working on.

While they may not be cooperative we can offer them an exciting job, we can help them put to rest anything they need done, and provide conversation with other ghosts instead of interminable boredom.

We can supplement this through using our high technology skill and our assistants to datamine and hack local databases looking for information, interesting projects, correlate hero/villain sightings and get a pattern.

>>20113239

Turning a few knobs and dials on the Ecto-Reader, you summon up a few ghosts using the obituaries in the newspaper. These ones are lurking about mostly because they haven't faded yet, your having selected specifically to avoid angry spirits who might insist on haunting for sentimental reasons rather than taking whatever job you throw at them just because hey, why not?

After a few minutes of convincing them that working for you is better than the only alternative of floating around and being unable to communicate with the living or locate any others of the dead, you send them out to scout the local hero and villain population. One in particular, a likable enough fellow named Clayton Pelley, you send to look into EdenTech.

Some of your scouts report back a few hours later, having failed due to various ghost-related defenses. The Chimera terrorist cells in Long Beach have some kind of ghost-repelling technology, and both the Family in Hollywood and the Goblin Gang in Santa Monica have arranged to have some sort of supernatural ward placed on their hideouts, which makes villains associated with the two of them hard to locate. Asrael is simply too difficult to track and locate even when you can fly and pass through solid objects at will, likewise with the Cat. All of EdenTech's labs have the same ghost-repellant technology as Chimera, so no dice there either, but from observing employees in the area, it seems like some kind of major anti-terror project, made for urban conflict.

The ghosts sent after the other villains and heroes haven't returned yet, presumably because they're having more luck and are observing their movements. Unfortunately ghosts can't use cell phones.

In order to arrange a meeting with set or gang leaders, you're going to have to be someone they care about. If you do them a favor specifically, that will definitely bring them to the table.

In local news, the Avalon Goblins and the Moretti Outfit apparently do not get along. The Moretti Outfit apparently lost two associates to a Goblin Ganger, but the Goblin Gang says they tried to mug her on their own turf. Naturally, they intend to resolve this with the sort of refined poise and spirit of mutual understanding that only criminals can muster.

>>20113313
Start figuring out how to make ghost cell phones, this is a rather serious issue.

Try send the ghosts out to follow the visible members of these gangs to see if we can build an understanding of their general movements and their main turf.

>>20113330

Did you mean particular gangs, or did you just want a general read on the city's underworld?

>>20113341
Mainly the gangs, the average criminal isn't of much interest to us but organized groups can and will be dangerous if we aren't careful.

>>20113323
They don't have cell phones yet. We can work on that.

Start researching the Ghost Repelling Technology, considering what we've already done we should be able to learn about it pretty quickly and maybe even develop workarounds. Though the Goblin Gang Wards might be outside our expertise.

Also start getting an idea of the local cop situation, how corrupt they are, how effective they are, response times, we can do this with a combination of ghosts and our own research.

Get more information on "The Psychiatry: An Industry Of Death Museum", fucking Scientologists, they shall be our first targets.

>>20113354
Agreed, we shall destroy the scientologists out of scientific principle.

Maybe ever make it our running thing, every time they go to rebuild it we knock it down.

File: 1343732895113.jpg-(294 KB, 969x764, Los Angeles (SVQ).jpg)

>>20113350

There are eight gangs in the city, and each is comprised of several of sets (technically there should logically be like a hundred sets in each gang, but for the purposes of abstraction there are about five sets on average for each gang in this game). A Google Maps image of Los Angeles is provided for reference.

Santa Catalina is split by the aforementioned Goblin Gang and Family sets, neither of which the main gang cares about very much at all.

The Nine Rollers are a laidback gang of mostly drug dealers who control the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the beaches just to the north.

Chimera, a well-funded terrorist organization of vaguely European origin, operates out of Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, and other Gateway Cities.

The Goblin Gang, a gang of slightly unstable types who wear Halloween masks whenever committing crimes to obscure their identities, live in Santa Monica and its environs.

The Family, which, as you might imagine, is a mafia family, operate out of Hollywood and nearby wealthy cities.

The Ronin are a foreign gang and notably one of the most violent in the city, they control the Downtown area, which on the map is mostly just labeled as "Los Angeles."

Compton and nearby areas are split between the Stalkers and the Hounds, thug life types who hate each other's guts.

Finally, the Eastside, which includes mostly Monterey Park, West Covina, and Pico Rivera, is controlled by the Santos Espada, a hispanic gang with strong overtones of Catholocism, especially with regards to Santa Muerta, "Saint Death," a grim reaper-type figure seen as an alternative to the traditional saints, who haven't done much for Mexico lately as near as anyone can tell.

>>20113405
The single best thing about this plan is that no one other than them is going to object.

No hero in town is going to rush off to save it, they might saunter over for appearance's sake, but it's the fucking Scientologists, nobody likes them.

>>20113419
>Mexican catholic gang
>worships the reaper

I think we have found our first unwitting minions that we can wow with our mastery of unlife.

>>20113427
Hell I would be surprised if they didn't lend a hand or make us an honorary hero.

Until we start going full evil of course, then they will just be a bit more lenient on us for our continued civic duty.

>>20113437
Mr. Sterling, also known as (We still need to think up a super villain name), what have you to say in your defense?

They were Scientologists.

Very well, I declare a mistrial on the basis of this not actually being a crime.

So we're agreed on hitting the Scientologists first? You're going to need a villain name at least before striking out, just for narrative purposes. If you want, you can just use your street clothes as a costume for now (or send the bots autonomously like a proper mastermind, which is probably wiser anyway), but you'll probably want a full-on villain costume eventually.

Exactly what do you plan to do with regards to this crime? The exhibits are of little value except as scrap.

>>20113487
Send them autonomously. Once they get there they should blare out some messages about how this is the first act of super villainy of "THE IRON MASTER".

Then they go around, smash stuff, steal the most valuable things while blaring messages about how Tom Cruise is a false profit and all who heed Xenu shall be crushed beneath us.

We'll direct them from afar and have ghosts scout the area around it so we know when someone is coming.

>>20113487
We record it and sell the thing as a pay per view event, no one will know exactly what it is until they see it start and we will announce ourselves as [Insert Name].

I am thinking we should go for a mega mind sort of feel where we do our crimes with high technology but also presentation, it distances us from our real identity which is a quiet type of guy and it gives us something to set us aside from the various psychopaths that make up the average villain roster these days.

I am not implying however that we wear black leather and have rock music going for our appearances, unless we decide that as a group

>>20113515
I mean prophet, I should get some sleep.

Also have things about how L. Ron Hubbard has deceived people but through the power of TECHNOLOGY they shall be set FREE.

We should ham it up to an absurd degree, chew on the scenery, have our voice, modulated of course, come out from the lead killbot which we modify to look different and more human. Perhaps even make people think we're there.

You program the terminators for the crime and then send the data from your secret control center, via ultra-secure triple-encrypted feed of course, to your home computer, just in case any last minute changes need to be made to the plot. You really appreciate the times when you have some extra time to set aside for your TRUE purpose in the world.

Your secret identity, though. When you emerge from the tunnels, where are you headed? Do you live in Avalon, the tiny tourist town, or perhaps back at Long Beach, publicly employed by some engineering firm? Maybe you live out of Santa Monica, with some non-descript office job, or you own a small chain of local stores or other small businesses managed and operated by others? Or are you only leaving the tunnels to pick up some milk, as you have dropped off the face of the earth and become a fulltime super villain, and the computer you're sending the feed to is actually just in the room over, where you've hacked some free wifi and set up a living room?

Also, are we going with the Iron Master for the name?

>>20113534
Yeah but do it with showmanship as well. Have our kill bot be a massive monster of a thing and a humanoid replica that looks like us in a metal mask etc.

Basically a body double I guess is what I am trying to say.

>>20113562
I can't think of anything I like so sure.

Still waiting on an answer as to what your secret identity is.

>>20113562
I'm thinking Long Beach, we work from home for some computer or engineering company, the works easy, the pay is quite good.

Our neighbors think we're often called in for something or spend a lot of time out and about having fun when we're instead in our lair.

We're friendly with our neighbors, spend a good amount of time at the local parks and beaches. General nondescript, friendly, slightly nerdy guy.

>>20113627
We have square glasses that are actually our own design to let us magnify and focus on fine detail work but have no real mechanical effect otherwise.

You begin walking back towards Avalon, not too far from here. Your car, of course, is still on the mainland. Once you reach Avalon, the streets quiet now that the sun is going down and the tourists are losing interest in the beaches and returning to their hotels in the city proper, you see someone who looks a bit familiar...And he shouts and waves as you recognize him. He's Lance Callicoat, one of your neighbors.

"Smith! What are you doing out here, I thought you were heading out to Griffith Park this weekend!" he says, crossing the street.

You smile and give a small wave back, and say "I was, but then I realized I hadn't been out to Catalina Island in a long while, I thought I'd come back out."

"Yeah, it used to be you were out here just about every weekend, it seemed," Lance says.

You pull out your iPhone, jailbroken and heavily modded of course, opening up the Terminator OS. "Yeah, ever since they started building that prison, though, this place hasn't felt the same," you say. The terminators can move about pretty much however they want underground, but those tunnels don't extend too far...Under cover of night they can move around alright, but they can't fly and you haven't got them waterproofed yet, so you'll need to find some way to get them over the water.

"I know, especially since they finished the first tower and started moving inmates in? Did you know they have the Artificer in there now?" Lance says.

Well of course the Iron Master knows where they're keeping the Artificer, the supervillain whose mechanical minions terrorized first Europe and then the United States for decades, the man who'd done the one thing Frightener couldn't and had successfully killed the original Paragon! "The Artificer, really?" you say, "I hadn't heard that."

"Yeah, it makes the place feel so much less safe," Lance says, "and you really have to feel bad for the locals, tourism is going to take quite a hit with so many dangerous people so close."

"Yeah, it is too bad for them," you say absentmindedly while opening up your contacts. You don't have any proper henchmen yet, but when a super villain needs to get something done for general criminal purposes, there's always Whisper, free lance manipulator of societies, economies, and bureaucracies throughout southern California.

"Well, I don't want to bother you," Lance says, "it was nice seeing you though."

"You, too," you say, waving a bit and then punching the button to dial Whisper.

"Yes?" he asks immediately.

"I need some merchandise moved from Catalina to the warehouse at Long Beach," you say, "it has to be quick. It's for a show, and that show has to happen tonight."

"Chimera's going to be very interested in your sort of merchandise, Mr. N," Whisper says, "I'd recommend some place else." Whisper assigns codenames using random letters to his clients who don't yet have an official alias.

"Palos Verdes, then?" you say, "just so long as it gets there fast."

"How many?" Whisper asks.

"Four units, my mainline units," you say.

"I'll make it happen, Mr. N," Whisper says.

"That's no longer my name in the business," you say, ducking down an alley and glancing both ways to make sure no one's looking. Your end of the conversation is about to get sensitive.

"Ah, so you've finally got a proper name?" Whisper says, "what is it?"

"The Iron Master," you say, and then hang up without waiting for a response.

THE IRON MASTER

ISSUE #1: ARROGANT BEGINNINGS

You've hardly walked another twenty feet when a club, what's probably the only club in this tiny little town, suddenly explodes across the street. Even from this distance, the blast is enough to make you stagger. You notice a man in a pinstripe suit smile and get into a car, speeding off before you can recover from the shockwave. Looks like a Family hit.

>>20113792
The artificer? The nutjob with all the fancy gadgets? That spells trouble.

Make a mental note to waterproof our bots ASAP.

File: 1343737494779.jpg-(56 KB, 760x535, Episode-9-Jesse.jpg)

>>20113562

Long Beach, work as an engineer, be somewhat insular, look like this.

Alright, time for more rules-dump.

Every turn of the gang management game (which is used for all longterm strategic choices, even though you do not technically control a gang yet) lasts about a week. You get a number of actions during each turn equal to your Nefariousness plus the Nefariousness of all of your current henchmen. Note that henchmen are specific named characters who work directly for you, not random minions or occasional allies. Right now, you have none, but that should change soon enough.

The important thing is that having you or one of your henchmen commit a crime requires an action (even if, like this raid on the Scilons, it's important enough to pull off in detail). Each crime has a purpose, which is usually either decreasing the Morale of a rival set, increasing the Morale of your own set, decreasing the Heat of the local police, or gathering resources. A crime has two stages: First a pair of skill checks and then, if it's important for whatever reason, the actual crime itself. As a super villain you will be committing a LOT of crimes, so we will be skipping the second stage often. Fighting off a token police effort is just not exciting after the first couple of times.

Resources are mostly used for upkeep of your sets, but usually those take care of themselves, since sets also generate resources at a steady rate with their criminal activities (there's some strategy to do with the positioning of sets for maximum income vs. placing sets in tactically important areas for gang warfare or police suppression, but I'll get into that when you actually have a set and need to worry about it). Excess resources can also be spent on other things, most notably right now, XP. As a gadget hero, you are presumably spending these resources on building awesome new gadgets. The first XP costs 1 resource, the second XP costs 2, the third costs 3, etc. etc. These costs never reset, so eventually buying more XP this way will become more or less impossible. Fortunately, however, you can also gain XP by completing events, so be sure to chase those down when they pop up. Events are typically things like a super hero deciding to track you down personally, a rival gang declaring all out war on you, or aliens invading the city.

So, yeah, resources are cool. Anyways.

>wat do

>>20113930
Let's boot up our terminator vision feed and set it to running through our computer while we design ourselves a supervillain costume ( thinking a metal looking bodysuit with a fully enclosed helmet ) and maybe a longcoat / labcoat sort of thing over it and design a robot to be our body double. He will be used for most times we need to be visible so that we can protect ourself from our enemies and distract the police / rivals

>>20114002
I must insist on adding a gas mask to that suit. Preferably with two filters and maybe glowing eyes.
>>20113930
What is a set?

>>20114014

Basically a franchise of a gang. Gangs and businesses are run with frightening similarity. In game terms, one set can occupy one neighborhood, so it's like a unit. A pack of tiny men who sell drugs for your profit and beat up your enemies.

>>20114031
I get it. Now let's go to our base and prepare and supervise our robots as they do their thing.

>>20113930
I reckon we start contacting murder victims with our lovely little machine, using their knowledge of various to blackmail their murderers into paying us large amounts of money/work for us. It also would be nice to contact and ally with one of the gangs, perhaps the mexican gang, as we seem to be quite in touch with the dead, something they may admire.

>>20114014
Sure, the main point of the fully enclosed face was so we can use the body double bot with less trouble.
I had though something like the dark eldar metallic helmets that is just a sealed reflective helmet.
( wish I had a pic but I can't find one ) that had a gas mask / scuba set up installed

From the comfort of your Long Beach home, you begin orchestrating your brilliant scheme. The feed on your terminators is almost pitch-black...It seems they're in some kind of shipping container, but you can hear voices outside.

"Delivered express, no questions asked?" one says, "I don't care if it's a nuke. The pay is amazing."

"Yeah, I hear that," another voice says, "I'm hitting the bars tonight, plenty of extra cash to spend. You wanna come?"

The doors fly open as your robot minions burst out and begin moving towards their target. The two dock workers shrug their shoulders and walk away, whistling.

The target is on the north side of the city, far from Palos Verdes, so it will take some stealth to get there undetected by the police. Booting up your companion AI (probably you should name that thing at some point), you instruct it to help you patch yourself into the police database, getting up-to-the-second feeds on all police cruiser locations, which you're able to use to slip your bots through the city without drawing police attention.

It takes longer than you were expecting, however, and by the time you arrive there are few patrons left in the museum. Damnation. You might have your bots attack anyway, or wait until tomorrow and try again. Or you could abort altogether, rather than risk losing the bots in a confrontation with the police.

>>20114099
Hey OP, can I make a gang map of the city and post it in here?

>>20114128

Sure, that would be awesome.

>From the comfort of your Long Beach home, you begin orchestrating your brilliant scheme.

While drinking tea and eating cookies, right? Bite sized cookies too, we don't want crumbs all over our computer/workspace.

> Booting up your companion AI (probably you should name that thing at some point)
Right now, I'm thinking his name is Mick and he has an Australian accent.

>You might have your bots attack anyway, or wait until tomorrow and try again. Or you could abort altogether, rather than risk losing the bots in a confrontation with the police.

Do we have a place nearby where we can hide the bots while we wait for tomorrow?
If we don't we will probably attack today rather than sneak through the police routes all over again.

>>20114099
hack the camera feeds and find out the locations of any objects that look like they could be vaguely important to the scientologists or useful for our necromancy (because scientologists would totally have that)... then wait till the place is entirely closed and stage a breakin... also smash up as much stuff as possible if we are discovered in the process, wouldn't want the scientologists getting to keep any of this stuff, justice simply wouldn't have been served.

>>20114142

Unfortunately there is no place to stash your bots overnight, as it's very far from your usual territory over in Catalina Island.

Attacking now, then?

>>20114160
I'm going with this plan

File: 1343741511398.jpg-(226 KB, 1450x1500, 1333743059870.jpg)

>>20114098
That made me dig through my eldar folder for an appropriate looking costume and how about something like this, but more practical. And with a gas mask, ofc.

File: 1343741658660.jpg-(572 KB, 1755x1275, Villain Quest.jpg)

>>20114141
Thanks.

>>20114215
Ooooh, nice job anon.

>>20114200
Yeah something like that but I meant this type of helmet in the top picture.
It can have a gas mask etc as part of it but it gives us full anonymity

http://z11.invisionfree.com/Work_In_Progress/ar/t17443.htm

(fucking apple products don't let me post images)

>>20114283
Yeah, that seems suitable.

You flex your fingers and set about hacking into the museum's security systems. It takes only a few minutes before you have access to the entire facilities camera feeds. You wait about another half-hour, your machines hiding themselves in dumpsters or sewers or wherever else no one would ever want to look, until finally the place is closed completely. Emerging from the hiding places and quickly cleaning themselves off, your machines break into the museum. Smashing displays, you take anything that looks remotely valuable (mostly your rip out some valuable hardware from electronic displays and make off with it), and what's too big, too bolted down, or just too worthless to bother stuffing into the santa sacks, your robot minions just smash.

While the three grunt bots are busy looting the place, you send your double into the nearest bar, several blocks away. Everyone grows hushed as a clearly super villainous man walks in. You walk up to the bar and say (in your modulated voice) "I, the Iron master, would like one full bottle of the most alcoholic drink available." Slowly and silently, the bar tender pulls out the bottle and slides it down the bar to your double. You pull out a pair of fifties and put it on the table and say "keep the tip. In exchange, though, do me one favor?"

"What?" the bar tender asks quietly.

"Give me that rag you're using to wipe the counter down," you say.

"Sure," he says, tossing it to you.

"Excellent," you say. Then you turn to one of the other patrons, the one who looks most sober, and say "you look like a designated driver. Am I right?"

"Y-Yeah," the man stammers.

"Wonderful. Might you lend me a few minutes of your time?" you say.

The man looks aside to his friends, and then says "sure, okay."

You have him take you out to his car and open up the hood, where you dip the rag in motor oil, and then request that he drive you down a few blocks to the museum. As you drive, you roll down the window and open the bottle of booze, dumping out small amounts and squeezing some of the oil out of the soaked rag into it until you achieve the best balance you can, under the circumstances, at which point you stuff the rag inside. "Thank you," you say, stepping out of the car upon arrival "you can get back to your friends now."

As he drives off, the museum begins to go up in flames.

Since you're already plugged into the police network, you know exactly when your minions need to make their getaway before the police arrive on the scene. With your minions gone around the corner by the time the cops arrive, there's nothing for them to chase. You'll just pass the stolen goods along to Whisper to fence and make a cool profit.

>>20114215

Awesome.

The bit in the bar didn't come off nearly as bombastic as it wanted to. Oh, well.

So far, everything is proceeding as planned, so time to get our bots out of there.

Watch out for superheroes and whatnot, they might be covering the routes the police won't.

Since the bots aren't waterproof, where can we send them? We need a place where we can deliver the stolen goods to our fence from.

>>20114367
I think it came out interestingly
Sort of halfway between the patrons being used to random villains walking into the bar and half stunned at the casual tone in which he walked in bought a bottle of alcohol instead of just stealing it then asked for a lift.

You direct your bots to escape to one of the secret drop points where Whisper collects his goods. It takes a few hours to get there with the police (and, no doubt, super heroes as well) scrambled in response to a super villain, but you're able to make it undetected. The fence collects your goods and then boards up your machines for the night. He'll be able to keep them safe indefinitely...So long as you don't make an enemy of any other gangs or villains. Whisper is neutral and he won't harbor equipment that's going to be used for fighting other criminals (although he'll still fence things for you even if you pick a fight with another gang or villain).

The haul is a disappointing one resource, but the news reports in the morning more than make up for it. Scanning the headlines of the local news site, you see the headline "Iron Master: Villain or Vigilante?" tucked away in the corner of the front page, while "Catalina Island Bombing" takes up the center stage. Hrmph. Damn Moretti Outfit hogging the spotlight.

>>20114372
We could use shipping containers, which we then sink into the dock, only to be pulled out by a ship with a large magnet before we want to deploy them, noone will suspect we have an entire horde of bots held underwater until it is too late....

>>20114451
Water proofing our bots would work as well but I like the idea.

>>20114430
>you see the headline "Iron Master: Villain or Vigilante?"
I lol'd.

>>20114451
After we waterproof them, we might as well just leave them on the bottom.

Anyway, time to plan a new undertaking.

Someone mentioned taking over those religious mexicans, so how about gathering some info on them to figure out how to approach them?

>>20114475
Yeah that was me.
We will have to be careful how we deal with them though because while they might worship the reaper they might see the undead as wrong.

Either way we can try

>>20114475
Perhaps we adjust our costume to one that resembles saint death or whatever or make a bot that looks like him. We could also find out if any of the heavy hitters in the game have recently dead family members or homies and then contact them, convincing the gang that we are some avatar or death.

File: 1343744635203.jpg-(27 KB, 399x300, Santa Muerte.jpg)

>>20114504

For reference, Santa Muerte looks like this. Mexicans aren't very creative, I guess.

>>20114475
I like taking over the Santos. I think that our knowledge of ghosts means we can talk to some Espada members that have died recently to get more information about the gang's workings. But at the end of the day they're still a gang, and gangs respect territory an being able to bring in money.

So after we get information and we can set up as a subsidiary to the Santos [I like Iron Ghosts as a gang name/purple-gray as color], we can try to intimidate one of the minor gangs bordering Santos territory like whatever set runs Hacienda Heights [see map] to follow us as leader. We'll offer to kick back some cash to the Santos leaders for a bit of autonomy until we're big enough to take over.

Long post but I have to go to California so hopefully the thread will survive.

>>20114529
Make a skull mask, get a glittery coat and scythe and I think we could pull it off then.

That moment when you realize santos means saint... and you realize that we are trying to take over the saints...

>>20114568
I never played that game, but fuck yeah anyway.

We will make a robotic representation of us and that thing will tank damage like the boss does.

It takes only a small amount of digging to find the names and faces of Santos Espada members who've died within the past few months. They drop off like flies. What exactly are you going to ask them, though?

>>20114647
A) we should get some personal details about them so we can actually prove that we spoke to their ghost? perhaps locate their missing body, or find some personal effect that would prove us?
B) we can collect their last requests or find out who killed them, to incite the gang to attack other factions, or perhaps tell the santos gang their dead homies requests in order to build some trust and respect with the gang. Perhaps trade the dead's word for favours?
C) we could ask the gang members for details on who killed them in order to blackmail their killers, possibly gain some leverage over some of the other gangs that don't want to have a bunch of pissed off cholos destroying their shit.

>>20114686

A) Typically not much is missing from them. They're killed in extremely densely populated areas, and not by ritual murder or whatever but by amateur urban warfare. Some of them die in the hospital. You can pretty easily get them to open up about their personal lives, though. Even if you have to keep Google translate handy for when they very frequently slip into Spanish.

B) It's usually pretty clear who killed who, at least in the general sense. About 80% of the time it's the Ronin. The Ronin and the Santos Espada do not get along at all. The rest of the time it's some random other gang, Hounds or Chimera or whoever.

C) Again, it's usually pretty obvious who killed who in general, and the sets don't know each other well enough for the Santos to point out specific names of their Ronin murderers.

>>20114744
Ask them if they want to get revenge on the Ronin then have them go to their family and say that an avatar of Santa Muerte will help them in return for assistance.
Then we turn up in the Santa Muerte outfit ( as the robot double ) and see what they think.

Maybe see about creating a streaming translation device so that we can have most languages translated to English on the fly.

>>20114744
Here's how I want to use the ghosts:
First, we can ask them questions about important people in the gank. Personal questions, like additudes, beliefs, what they do in their spare time, who is connected to who etc.
Second, we can let the gangmembers talk to their deceased friends. If we are the only person who can offer this service to them, we get points towards setting ourselves up as a central figure. More specifically, a mysterious central figure in awesome eldar black reaper-like armour.
From there, we can expand our influence towards more direct control over the gang.

So, ask those questions - who are the leaders and what are they like, what are the people in the gang like, what are their beliefs like etc.

>>20114803

You're able to find out generally what the different sets and their leaders are like. Some of them are populated by near-fanatical religious zealots, and these ones are the guys who tend to rack up a lot of bodies, particularly with the Ronin, saying they're feeding Santa Muerte. Most of the sets are more regular dudes who feel like they've been cheated by society and that Santa Muerte's blessings can bring death to their enemies rather than them. They're all fairly anti-traditionalist despite being staunch Catholic, believing the official church is corrupt (particularly since back in Mexico the church officials are doing their best to shut down the worship of Santa Muerte) and has perverted God's will. Some of them speak of Santa Muerte as though she were the deity, but whenever you ask they always make some token reference to how the trinity is supreme and what-not.

Activity has dropped off, so thread is archived here:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20111739/

I'll still be around for a while if activity picks up again, however.

got interrupted earlier

So, do we know what our chances of making the fanatics follow us, either as an avatar of Santa Muerte or a high priest of sorts?

>>20115514

Not really, no. It's obvious that at least half of the gang will follow Santa Muerte, and the other half will just go with it because groupthink is really, really common in gangs. What's uncertain, however, is whether or not you'll be able to pull off convincing them you're an avatar of Holy Death in the first place.

You DO have a decent Cunning score, though.

>>20115606
Alright, time to prepare for convincing.
Here's my plan: give our body double bot the proper decorations and get one of the ghosts to tell the leaders that a high priest of SM will be coming soon.

Then, send the bot there and use the summoned ghosts of their dead members to back up our story and get them to accept us as their (at least for now) spiritual leader or advisor.

Ater that, depending on how they react, we can either take direct control and get to work or work on solidifying our control over the gang.

>>20115742

If ghosts could just talk to people, you wouldn't need to run an illegal nuclear power plant out of an abandoned construction project to have this conversation.

Also, I apologize for delayed responses. This thread is slowing down so I'm not checking it quite as often.

>>20115931
So, we need to get them to come to our place to talk to the ghosts?

So, set up a reception area and have our bot talk to them, proclaiming itself a priest and tell their leaders to come to our reception area so we can talk to them further.

We will then talk to them through the bot.

The best thing to do would be to just convince them to join up without having them talk to the ghosts

...I am hesitant to give away the location of the hideout to random outsiders based on the word of a single anon acting in vacuum.

>>20116156
What range can we speak to the ghosts in? Can we set up an area in a warehouse above it or something in order to do it?

I don't think we should give away our hideout location ever, it is our secret hideout

>>20116156
Bad ideas inc.
That's me.

Just dress up our bot like santa muerte and send it over to their place.

We can hopefully talk it out with them. If not... well, depends on what they tell us, I guess.

>>20116189

The problem with the Ecto-Reader is that it requires such an enormous power source, which makes it difficult to set up another one elsewhere. That said, this is more of an incidental limitation because of your origin than a weakness built into the power for balance reasons, so I'll say that you can rig up a software program that can transmit the feed from the Ecto-Reader to wherever your PDA happens to be. Phone calls from beyond the grave. Also supports texting.

>>20116275
Nice. See if we have any ghosts who want to have a chat with their living friends or family, then send the bot with a phone or something more appropriate.
Maybe a holoprojector if we can make one.

>>20116308

The very first Santos Espada ghost you call up is more than willing to chat with his former set, the Santos Espada Noveno. You spend the night working on your bot to give it more elongated proportions and a face and hands that look like a proper human skeleton instead of something robotic, then throw the robe on it. Now...How are you going to get this thing to Eastside?

>>20116417
Can we move it through the sewers to get there? Otherwise see about using a truck or something that we can have a bot drive.

Waterproof it and have it walk over?
If the water is too deep, so the pressure would crush it, give it some buoyancy and have it move under the surface of the water.

If all else fails, get a boat and have it paddle over during the night.

The problem is less "getting it across the water" and more "this thing is going to draw a whole lot of attention." Unlike your regular robotic minions, who are obviously super-gadgetry but not immediately threatening to bystanders, this thing is going to get police reports. Its white Santa Muerte robe and golden scythe and globe make it easier to spot than your regular iron-grey bots, too. The design of the thing you're imitating is meant to attract attention.

So, we have to hide it and have it talk to the leaders in private?

So, have it hide in an abandoned building in their territory and call them over for a meeting?
That's all I can come up with right now.

>>20116660

Sure, but how's it going to get there? People are going to notice if Santa Muerte walks over from Long Beach to Eastside. There's a lot of space between those two points.

>>20116731
Express delivery service of some sort?
Put it in a box, pay someone to take the box someplace nearby and then our bot walks over to a suitable meeting place when nobody is looking?

Preferably pay someone who either already knows us or won't ask who's paying

>>20116595
So we throw it in a van and truck it over there?
I am sure it wouldn't be that hard to get it done

>>20116859

Right. I feel kind of stupid for not realizing that myself.

You spend the day redesigning one of your boat's exterior to appear as Santa Muerte, and that night you have the tireless machine paddle over to Long Beach, where you're waiting with a van for it to crawl into. You back the van into an abandoned warehouse (every halfway decent super villain keeps track of which warehouses are not currently in use), and then have Santa Muerte emerge and wait. Then you drive back to Long Beach to your home, where once again you will command from a safe distance. Using a cell phone given you by Whisper, and thus untraceable, you give a call to number two from the Santos Espada Noveno. As soon as he answers and confirms his identity, you ask him if he'd like to speak with Eloy Guerras. "What is this, Eloy's dead," he says.

"Santa Muerte is capable of many miracles," you say. There is no response. "Come to the warehouse on twenty-third street," you say, "and see for yourself."

Through the cameras on the Muerte-bot's eyes, you can see the man arrive, with a pair of his thugs, no doubt for protection in case of ambush. Their eyes widen a bit when they see the Muerte-bot.

>What do you say?

>>20116987
Greetings gentlemen, I am an avatar of Santa Muerte.
I have been dispatched here at the behest of my master because some of your brothers wish to speak with you and Santa Muerte has decided to allow them as a reward for their faith.

>>20117030

He spits out something Spanish in response. You sigh and have the Muerte-bot lift its head in an ambiguously menacing manner, creating a pregnant pause while you pull up Google Translate again. Apparently he's said something along the lines of wanting to speak with Eloy, and also if this is an impersonation then the person behind it is going to apologize to Santa Muerte in person.

rolled 35 = 35

>>20117164
Lets summon up Eloy then, and respond with something like "No actuar de manera arrogante, al hablar con la personificación de la muerte."

Jesus, OP, where do you live? I was following this thread until I passed out at like 4:30AM and you're still going. Gonna try my best to monitor these threads, however.

We really need to get working on that streaming language translation system

>>20117309

My sleep schedule has been doing all kinds of weird gymnastics lately.

>>20117204

The guy looks skeptical even when he hears Eloy's voice coming through the PDA. He asks a few personal questions, though, and a few minutes later his face is confused and fearful. "Santa...Santa Muerte? It really is you?"*

*In Spanish. I'm not going to bother translating every sentence. I don't speak the language fluently.

>>20117349
Yes.
And I am here to help you but I cannot do it without your assistance.

Nope, we are a servant of Santa Muerte.
Passing ourselves off a god can backfire horribly.

>>20117405
Good point, say something like we serve her much like they do.

He hesitates a moment, and then asks "what do you need?"

So, how do we go about this?
Organize them into a church and direct them that way?
Or do we go with a more gang approach - tell them that we are here to lead them and put them in contact with their deceased?

Or something else?

>>20117496
Leave them as a gang but use them to cause havoc and petty crime I think.

Maybe lead them against the ronin and give them assistance to beat them back.

>>20117496
Maybe start by building off their rivalry with the Ronin and helping them avenge their dead friends and family (who we can conveniently talk to), building up into their Santa Muerta worship and assuring them that even in death, they may still serve him (her?). Of course, this will be shortly after we gain some cooler necromancy powers. Not sure how we can work tech into it for them, though.

>>20117561

Santa Muerte is female. Also, diversifying power origins (i.e. little bit of gadgets, little bit of magic) is fine so long as it makes sense. What exactly are you going to say to Mr. Santos Espada who I should probably name sometime soon, though?

This is one of those threads that everyone wants to read but nobody wants to summon the brainpower to write anything.


Tell them we are a servant of Santa Muerte and we have come to guide them, both to revere her and in more mundane matters.

>>20117721

"O-Of course," the Espada ganger says, still kind of stunned, "the Santos Espada are always willing to serve Santa Muerte."

Excellent. We will move into a more suitable location later, but now, let's let him have a chat with one of the ghosts.

>>20117836
I don't think we have anything planned for them at the moment, so let them know we might call on them for something. Are we agreed that it will be against the Ronin? Maybe drop a hint that it'll be about that.

You have the Muerte-bot stand ominously in the background while allowing Eloy and his old boss catch up a bit. You eavesdrop a bit and try to teach yourself some Spanish by punching things into Google Translate, until your AI Mick pops up. "Alert, boss, motion sensors tripped in the hideout!" he says.

"Bring it on screen," you say, remembering just in time to flick the microphone off so your voice doesn't come through the Muerte-bot. A window showing the feed from your workshop in the tunnels pops up. A group of men in casual outdoor clothes are moving through the tunnels, but they're carrying pistols and SMGs. "Just give it up, Julio," they're saying, "make it easier on yourself."

"Did we catch Julio?" you ask.

"We did, lemme show you, mate," Mick says, the screen rewinding to show a man in a suit, presumably Julio, running into the tunnels. He's holding an AK-47, and his expression is at once grimly determined and verging on total panic.

"Where is he now?" you ask.

"Hidin' out," Mick says, switching the feed to another camera. He's in one of the small, unused rooms off to the side of the tunnel entrance. Since it's so close to the entrance, you'd left it empty, fortunately, but he's braced the door with some scraps left behind by the construction crew. If the other men try the door and decide it's locked, or that it was already jammed when this "Julio" entered, they'll explore deeper in...And they could stumble across something you don't want them to see.

"We've still got a pair of terminators and your double down there, mate," Mick says, "plus the two maintenance bots in a pinch. I think we can take 'em."

Prepare an ambush.
Have our bots hide on a route they would need to take in order to see stuff they are not supposed to see. Arm them with tasers if available.

If they just dick around places we don't care about, let them. Otherwise, capture and interrogate.

Apologies for the delay, Firefox crashed.

The thugs try to force the door to Julio's hiding spot, but give up after a few seconds. "Come on, we know he's in here somewhere," the leader says, "you stay and guard the entrance, the two of you come with me. I hope there's not another way out of this place..." The group begins moving down the tunnels, closer to your sensitive areas.

Immediately, you pull up your terminator OS, carefully placing the Muerte-bot into your "standby" tray so you won't give any commands to it by mistake, and then send the other three bots into action, preparing an ambush around a bend in the tunnel just before the hall that leads to your workshop.

It takes them a solid ten or fifteen minutes (you tab back to the Muerte-bot's cam to make sure nothing's up with dearly departed Eloy and his buddy every now and then), but eventually they make their way to the ambush.

Unfortunately, one of the thugs catches a gleam of light coming off of one of the killbots. "Hey, what's that over there?" he asks, lifting his pistol towards it.

>Wat do?

>>20118329
incapacitate if convinient, murderize otherwise.

Ideally, move both bots at the same time so they can't react in time.

>>20118329
Is it obvious with which gang these thugs are affiliated?

Your bots spring from their hiding places and attack the thugs, who open fire in response. The two thugs with pistols are caught and disarmed, the bots rushing them taking only light damage, and then the two of them are quickly subdued. The thug in the middle, however, empties his clip into your double, mangling it completely. The remaining bots pounce on him, however, and quickly subdue him as well. Too bad about that bot, but he can be replaced...

There's still the guard at the entrance, who looks visibly shaken and has clearly heard the gunfire. He's raised his SMG in response. Plus there's still Julio, hiding out in the barricaded room.

>>20118598

Not immediately, but you can rule out a lot of them immediately. They're not Goblin Gangers because they don't have masks, they're not Santos Espada because they're not Hispanic, they're not dressed in thug life gangsta clothes, so they're *probably* not Stalkers or Hounds. Could be Chimera, Nine Rollers, or the Family, but Catalina Island isn't like other places in the city in that you can't just wander in there, which means these guys are probably working for the Family. But they're with the Family's losers outfit.

Ah, well, send the bots off to hunt down the last guard down after hauling these off to someplace where we can interrogate them.

Your bots rush the final thug guarding the door. He gets a free shot at them as they close the distance, but he fires wild and blind and goes wide. The bots yank the guns out of his hand and give him a solid knock to the head, then drag him off to the same room you've locked the others into while he's still dazed.

Barring Julio holed up in the unused room, the place is clear now.

>Wat do?

>>20119003
Do we even know who Julio is?

If we don't, we might as well get him too.

>>20119003
Sent in a bot to each of the two rooms, interrogate both parties at the same time. See if we can't get them to corroborate the truth between the them.

>>20119047

Nope. Only reason you know his name is because the other dudes shouted it on the way in.

When the bots force the door to Julio's hiding spot, he immediately opens fire, showering the area with bullets. Your bots duck behind the concrete walls, then rush in while he reloads, quickly apprehending him as well.

Meanwhile, the conversation between the Santos Espada leader and his departed friend continues. You've apprehended all of the invaders to your hideout.

>Wat do?

Focus on the el santos leader, make sure the intruders are secure.

When we are done talking to him, interrogate them

>>20119236

Did you want to ask the Santos Espada leader something else? He's just talking to a dead buddy right now.

>>20119411
NOthing I can think of.

I'm off to sleep now, have a good thread

Alright, looks like we're done for today, then. Thread is still archived here:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20111739/

Will pick up again tomorrow, but probably later than today.