THIS QUEST IS NEWCOMER FRIENDLY for real you guys you don't have to read the whole archive to play, I write summaries for a reason.

The Goblin Gang has gone insane. Their elite bruisers, the Hob Goblin Gangers, have attacked Hollywood, the territory of the Colombo Outfit as part of a gang war between the Family and the Goblin Gang you worked up to get both of them weakened so you could seize control of the lot. You hadn't really expected the Hobs to start widespread terrorism in a place as upclass as Hollywood, though. They've either picked up some super villainous backing or they are very, very stupid.

Either way, your robotic minions are just no returning from their raid on a National Guard base for some high-power weapons. Your infiltrator android Steve, who'd been posing as an ordinary high school student to earn the trust of Sofia Span, aka the super hero Kestrel, in order to turn her to the dark side, was shot to pieces by the Hobs while trying to stop Kestrel from getting shot up herself. You'll be able to restore him if you can gather the wreckage, however.

Hollywood is crawling with SWAT teams and supers battling the rapidly retreating Hobs, who are abducting a number of younger women, which is probably something to do with the new super villain they're presumably working for.

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 3 (9)
Resources: 5
XP: 0

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

Powers: Terminators, SynthSkin, Ghost Whisperer

>Link to rules (including powers list): http://pastebin.com/6VPaUgJw

Minions:

7 Warrior bots at H4 A4 C0 T3 I0 O3 N0 S2
1 Info gatherer bot at H0 A0 C2 T4 I2 O4 N0 S4
Steve the Android at H1 A1 C4 T2 I4 O2 N0 S2
Julio Pedone at H3 A1 C3 T2 I3 O3 N3 S2
Rica Rivera at H2 A3 C1 T2 I2 O3 N2 S4

Action Points:

The Iron Master: 1/2
Julio Pedone: 1/3
Rica Rivera: 2/2

File: 1345486307215.jpg-(572 KB, 1755x1275, Villain Quest Gang Map.jpg)

Archives:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20111739/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20131254/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20194301/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20229204/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20250706/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20373457/
>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20387632/

Hobs wreckin' Hollywood.

>Wat do?

rolled 47 = 47

[x] Pee on the SWAT

bump? Where my audience be at?

>>20402834
Or use stealth bot to recover wrekage, whichever sounds more reasonable. Have killbots on standby once they stash the loot.

>>20402919

That's a tough choice. We'll go with the paramedic option.

When your stealth bot arrives at Hollywood, it doesn't take long for him to find an ambulance, a pair of paramedics loading an injured man onto a gurney. Pulling out a gun, he shoots both paramedics dead before they even notice he's arrived and then, while nearby civilians panic and flee, pulls one of them inside the ambulance. After taking the uniform (splattered with blood, but on a night like tonight that's not too unusual), drives off towards ArcLight theater.

The place is a warzone. SWAT teams have arrived and are carrying out open gun battles with the Hobs, which is going pretty poorly for them. The rattling of gunfire, the screams of the terrified or the wounded, and the constant blare of sirens from all emergency services fills the night sky.

On the way over, the ambulance swerves out of the way to dodge a car tossed carelessly aside by Behemoth, who is in the midst of a fight with a half-dozen Hobs with assault rifles. Just minutes later, a distant office building's upper floors are suddenly consumed a blinding white fire...That'll be Asrael.

You pull up at the back of ArcLight theater and slip your gurney in through a backdoor. You want to deal with as few civilians or worse, police as possible. There's a few more injured people lying around the theater when you arrive at Steve's location and begin placing him on the gurney. No sign of Sofia, though...Looks like she got out alright, then. The civilians nearby ask why you're taking the robot first, and the bot responds "injured super, we need to get him back in the fight ASAP. There's a half-dozen other ambulances headed here right now, though, just hold on," now he's wheeling the gurney away, and shouts over his shoulder "keep some pressure on those wounds!"

And then you've left the theater, wheeling Steve out of the building and back into the ambulance. Now hopefully you can get out of this nightmare without getting ambushed...

Someone roll 2d6, high is good.

rolled 5, 6 = 11

Rolling

rolled 6, 2 = 8

>>20403116
And we run into kestral wailing about her best freind's death.

>>20403116
Nice

Although you can hear gun battles that sound no more than half a block away, you don't end up running into any trouble on the way back. When you reach the edge of the affected area you find a roadblock maintained by a half-dozen patrol cars, but when they hear your siren coming they back a car out of the way to let you through.

Well, that's ended well enough. Hopefully Kestrel doesn't get herself shot tonight, or all your work with Steve will be wasted.

>Anything else you want to do tonight with regard to the Hobs, or can we skip to the next morning?

>Also, what are your plans for Steve now you've recovered him? It will only take a few hours to rebuild him, but then what? Sofia/Kestrel saw him get shot to pieces.

Damnit 4chan you ate my post! Twice! Go back to school. Tell kestral: I'm a robot, I got better. Also give her all data we have on mainland goblins. Intimate we be hacker. Point out we saved her life, and her suit hums

>>20403172
Skip till morning, pull some sappy shit with Steve, you know "Im a robot but is this love?" maybe?

Gotta go pick up idiot younger brother who lost keys to his car, be back later

Okay, looks like we're back online.

By the next morning, order has been restored. The news is filled with footage of the aftermath. Storefronts are smashed, buildings are ruined, and the spent casings have been raked up into small piles along with shattered glass and bits of debris. Hospitals are stuffed with injured patients, and the suicide rate in the insurance industry has taken a noticeable jump upwards.

A large number of Hobs have been arrested, most of them critically wounded. The total death toll is still being estimated, but may be close to a thousand, including nearly three hundred Hob and Colombo thugs and a hundred assorted servicemen. Apparently the Hobs made a point of firing on paramedics and firemen when they saw them, in addition to the cops. There's a lot of talk of replacing the police chief among the talking heads on TV, as the news goes national. The biggest mystery so far is easily that there are apparently no super villains involved, so of course everyone is speculating who the new super villain might be.

Rica Rivera, meanwhile, spends a lot of time talking weapons with the Steel Killer Nines. Eventually she manages to broker a deal for some of the weapons and armor you've stolen from the National Guard, which should help them with their battles against Chimera. She's built up some trust with the gang now, but they're still far from ready to defect to your side.

That leaves you with actions at:

The Iron Master: 1/2
Julio Pedone: 1/3
Rica Rivera: 0/2

For the turn. What, if anything, do you want to do with the remaining actions?

>>20403398
Did our nonleathal attack on the armory make the news? Also, did we get payed for the guns?

Ghost and hack chimera. Have julio bribe steel nine with info

>>20403528

Yes, you got paid, but since the whole point was subverting the set, you offered up a pretty good deal. You also still have some assault rifles and interceptor armor held in reserve, enough to equip your bots.

The attack on the armory was kind of overshadowed by the thousand-man death toll all-out terror attack on Hollywood.

Chimera has some intense cyber-security. You're not able to crack all of it, but between your ghosts and what you can glean from their less-secure networks, you some pretty good intel to pass along to Julio, who in turn uses it to bribe the Steel Killer Nines.

Question: Did you mean bribe in the mechanical sense of using the bribe action? That could get costly in terms of resources. Or did you mean have Julio roll to subvert?

Goddammit, 4chan outages wreckin' the flow I'm not that great at maintaining in the first place.

>>20403635
Yay for low profile! Also, damnit 4chan

>>20403678
That's a mechanical question. Annon is trying to bribe with non financial means as a way of subversion. So mechanically I would say its a subversion attempt with a circumstance bonus, since we aren't just looking for rand dissafected people, but actually offering "legitimate" goods. Still, your call, this is walking a fine line between the actions.

As it seems that we are going the subversion route, could we also bribe/persuade/whatever the policechief to our side? We make sure she stays on the job, try and keep order in the areas she publicly says she will, with robo-henchmen-policemen or convenient bombs or some-such. In return she turns a blind(er) eye to our doings.Perhaps we could even put pressure on others this way? Or sell that to Whisper somehow? Or am I just being silly?

>>20403734

The main border between the two is that bribery means forking over resources and automatically succeeding and subversion means you make a roll to possibly succeed at the cost of nothing but the action. So I'm mostly asking the question of "do you want to spend resources, or what?" And I guess the answer is no, so that's cool.

And it works! The Steel Killer Nines are rapidly beginning to warm up to you as you continue to feed their grudge against Chimera. Probably this ends with the beginning of another gang war, except this one will be really stupid and short-lived.

The Iron Master still has an action left to burn. Wat do?

>>20403753

It's certainly doable. You'll need a more specific plan before I can resolve anything, though.

By the way, is there any consensus as to what you're going to do about Steve?

>>20403758
Lol. When people finally compare notes they will realize that we are responsable for all the gang wars. Also, new turn?

Can we use the remaining turns to upgrade our bots armour and our fortifications?

Fix Stevie up and have a chat with what'shername. As previously suggested confess robothood. I am, however, worried that she may link Stevie to Muerte-bot. That would be a disaster, so say attained sentience? Escaped military project from Europe?

>>20403208
>>20403213
Some combination of this I presume. Basically show up at school all shiny and pretend nothing happened. Try to ensure she contfronts us alone. Point out we got better b/c robot, her suit hums, we be hacker here be data (rica has to have some info on goblin hierarchy), oh, and we got ourselves shot to peices saving her. And it hurt like hell.

On the subject of policechief, we could use ghosts or whatever to find out when she is alone, the call her via conveniently placed phone. We offer her help with the opposition in exchange for a blind eye. I assume since she doesn't giva a shit she won't give a shit about the deal. especially when it keeps her up on her throne and, more importantly, puts us in a position to influence her. Perhaps also dig up dirt to cover our rear incase we need a bit of blackmailing. She either is apathetic to the extreme, incompetent, or hiding something criminal. We can work with all three. So what I am saying, if Im saying anything, is go team ghost and cyberhack.

captcha: contempt wihlde

>>20403867
Mention we saved her life? At the cost of being shot to pieces? Kinda hurt. Also, we should mention in passing that her suite hums a bit.

>>20403949
Or go the iron master does not approve of the BS chimera pulled last night, here is my data on them Then give her some of the info. Futher information will require an exhange of services.

>>20403843

>new turn?

Sure.

Resources +4, you're now at 9.

Action Points:

The Iron Master: 2/2
Julio Pedone: 1/3
Rica Rivera: 2/2

There's a few days off school, of course, citywide, in light of the attacks. So Steve decides to drop by her house. He's been to see a movie with her, survived a terrorist attack with her (sort of), probably it's not weird to come over for a visit at this point. For her father's sake, you've had Steve's synthskin modified a bit to look like he's bruised and has a few minor cuts, but nothing serious.

Her father seems surprised to see you, but is glad to let you in. Apparently he recognizes your name, so she must've mentioned you to her father at some point.

Sofia looks about as banged up as Steve does, so she probably managed to avoid getting shot. That's nice. "Steve," she says, sounding skeptical when she sees you, "you're looking well."

"Yeah, we've both kept some secrets from each other, haven't we?" he responds.

>Wat do?

>>20403849
Wait, we could "ruin" the extortion neighborhood to drugs. Will weaken the cops, and get us more money.

>>20403979
But then we have to be sure she won't try and screw us in an attempt to show herself in a better light. Either way we need to get close-up info on her. You could say we need ghost recon. Im sorry.

>>20403999
"Rather rude response to someone who deliberatly distracted someone who would otherwise have filled you with lead. I may be a robot, but that still hurt like hell. Plus, if I wanted to harm you I could have simply done nothing."

"Why are you here?" Sofia asks. She still hasn't sat down, and looks tense, like she's waiting for you to pull a gun on her.

"I wanted to make sure you were alright," Steve said, and then, glancing down the hall to make sure her father wasn't nearby, "I took a bullet for you, Sofia. A lot of them, actually. I wanted to make sure it wasn't for nothing."

"You seem alright to me," Sofia says.

"Let me let you in on a secret, Sofia," Steve says, "'critical systems damaged, shutting down' is Robot for 'Jesus fuck it hurts I think I'm gonna die.' Getting shot hurts. Would it kill you to stop treating me like a serial killer?"

Sofia looks away for a moment. "I'm sorry," she says, "I'm still kind of shaken up. Thank you for that. You saved my life."

"You're welcome," Steve says. "So, are you aware that your suit hums and it's really hard to miss?"

"We can't talk about this here," Sofia says, "come on, we'll drive somewhere."

>>20404193
>critical systems damaged, shutting down' is Robot for 'Jesus fuck it hurts I think I'm gonna die.' Getting shot hurts.
I lol'd

Sofia runs up to her room (Steve waits in the hall), spends a few minutes rummaging about for her keys, and on the way out the front door yells out to her father "hey, me and Steve are going someplace, we'll be back in a bit."

"Sure, just, uh," he glances away for a moment, and then says "look, if you get up to anything, just be sure to use protection, alright?"

"What? God, no, it's not like that! I've known him for like a month!" Sofia protests.

"Yeah, alright," he says, "it's just, given the circumstances, I wouldn't blame you."

Sofia sighs with practiced teenaged frustration, rolling her eyes and heading out the door. "Can you even do that?" she asks once safely out on the driveway, unlocking the door to her car.

>Huh. Hadn't thought about it before. CAN he even do that?

All the kids at this private school of hers have really nice cars. Probably brand new. And they still tend to think of them as crappy high school cars because their parents drive a Porsche or something. Once out on the road, Sofia says "yeah, alright. I'm Kestrel. The suit isn't really supposed to be subtle, usually it's me coming to the crime, not the other way around. What's your story?"

>>20404306
Sentient robot experiment runaway from Europe?

Oh and our story. We are a self aware 'bot optimised for hacking and the ability to hold conversations. Turns out giving a self aware robot the capacity to lie and hack things is not a particularly smart decision.

>>20404306

Say with a totally strait face: at the time of my... Resignation that particular ability was still in beta. Something about premature discharge. Then trollface.

>>20404376
Oh hell yes

"I was built in Europe as a bot with extensive hacking and social infiltration abilities. As part of that, I was programmed with an emotions matrix that hewed as close to human as possible. I guess they didn't realize that expecting someone built to feel things exactly like a real human to be totally okay with being treated like a piece of equipment wasn't going to end well for their investment...I came here because it's basically the other end of the world from the people looking for me, and it's still crawling with computers."

"Okay," Sofia says, "so, why with going to school? What do you have to gain from a public education? I mean, if you hacked your way into the school records, couldn't you hack yourself into a diploma, too? Or did you get enrolled some other way?"

>>20404468
"Father said that learning about the world from actual humans would be more beneficial than just hacking my way through life."

>>20404468
To experience the world, as opposed to torrenting a life. What with being an artificial person don't you think I should get a chance to experience lifes full spectrum?

>>20404494
>>20404488
>>20404468
Also, My frame is built like a highchool student. Students go to school. Ergo, I'm going to school at a place that will give excellent references to a technical university. Which tend to be much harder to hack.

>>20404526
And of course I hacked my way in. Do you really think the robot actually came from highschool 404? (Nice reference btw)

Sofia laughs a bit. "I'd skip the part of life's spectrum that involves going to high school if I could. That's the 'vomit green' part of the spectrum."

She pulls the car over by an old office building somewhere in Downtown. "Come on, I want to show you something," she says. She seems kind of nervous about it, though.

>>20404546
Is this a what do? Lets oblige her

>>20404712

It is, but it is also a "goddammit 4chan stop glitching."

You follow her into the building. She leads you into the basement, into a room locked with a keypad, where she punches in the code. Inside is a workbench on one end and a desk at the other, with a projector hanging down from the ceiling. "This is basically me and Amp's Batcave," Kestrel says, closing the door. "It's, uh...Not much. There's not, like, a secret armory with the two-story penny in it, or anything. Me and Amp are not a huge deal and neither of us makes much money, so."

"Well it's better than my place," Steve says. "My place is basically just a box. I don't really get fidgety in small spaces."

Sofia pulls off her shirt to reveal the red-and-white Kestrel suit beneath, though it's sleeveless now. Pushing a few buttons on the suit, the sleeves expand out, and the feathers lock into place on her arms. Several of them are pretty badly damaged, apparently from gunfire. Pulling open a desk drawer, she retrieves some new feathers and begins replacing the damaged ones. "Last night was crazy...Are you alright, by the way? I mean, you look fine, but I dunno."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Steve says, "about the whole super hero business, actually, here," he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a disc in one of those cheap slips, "this disc has some information on the Goblin Gang, I went nosing around after last night. Hopefully this will point you and all your super friends in the right direction."

"Thanks," Sofia says. She seems kind of surprised. Then she looks towards Steve and asks "is this gonna tell me who the Iron Master is?"

>Wat do?

thats a tricky situation, how about "I've heard rumors about him, but as of yet I have been unable to get any solid information. Other than he seems to be connected all over the place."

>>20404878
Tii-hii.

Who? Is he some kind of villain? I only started doing this yesterday, what with being shot at by these assholes. Seeing as you were involved I thought i'd help you. Is he that robot guy?

>>20404878
No, I was unable to determine which super villian was backing them... How do you know it was the iron master?

"The Iron Master," Sofia said, "is some guy who raided a Scientology museum with a bunch of robots like, a month ago. And then suddenly this 'avatar of Santa Muerte' shows up and, whaddaya know, they're robots. Robots who are apparently really good at finding out people's secret identities. No sooner have those metal losers blown up on me than a robot guy who's really good at finding out stuff he isn't supposed to know turns up at my school and puts a lot of effort into being nice to me. What are the odds? So, I have two questions now, who is the Iron Master, but I can guess I'm probably talking to him right now, and number two...Why do you need me alive?"

>>20405115
clever girl

So... do we come clean and hope for the best?

"Well, I had hoped to go about this all civil like but down to buisness it is then."

How do we convert her like this?

>>20405115
"actually, you are talking to steve, a fully sentient and independant AI, who was built by the Iron Master. Let me see if he is available."

The Iron Master is in his lair at the moment, working on a few new modifications to the terminator bots when the call comes in. "Steve? What is it?"

"Kestrel wants to talk to you," Steve says.

"What?" the Iron Master responds, deadpan.

"She's figured us out," Steve says.

"Smart girl," the Iron Master says, "put me on speakerphone."

>Now what?

Is it letting me post now?

>>20405369
Horrible writing incoming.

So, we meet at last. Figuratively speaking ofcourse. Steve here has been trying to get on your good side as I'm sure youve noticed. The reason hes been following you is the fact that I have a deal for you. As you have not jet gone off on a rant about justice I take it you have common sense. As Im sure youve noticed, vigilantee living can be dangerous and most cerntanly draining. What I propose is a "truce" if you will. I will not get in your way and you will not get in mine. I am, after all, a reasonable man and seeing as you have smarts I would like to also make use of someone like you, if you are willing. A change of pace, as it were. Should you be interseted I will be happy to work out a deal. I would also like to reassure you that I by no means seek world-domination or the death of untold millions. I am simply a man with a vision and if subverting violent gangsters is the way then so be it. Should you not care for such things let me know, I will pester you no more with this, however I hope you dont mind Steve. He isn't accountable for this. So, what shall it be?

Okay, so I don't know if my audience dried up or if 4chan is glitching again. 4chan had better not glitch up on me, because I need to go, so I'm leaving the archive here:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20402725/

So I guess we're ending on something of a cliffhanger.

steve made the decision to save your life, and I agreed. Why would In kill you when amp has promised your father to take your suit away anyway? By force if necissary. Best part is, this is all true

>>20405369
Horrible writing incoming.

So, we meet at last. Figuratively speaking ofcourse. Steve here has been trying to get on your good side as I'm sure youve noticed. The reason hes been following you is the fact that I have a deal for you. As you have not jet gone off on a rant about justice I take it you have common sense. As Im sure youve noticed, vigilantee living can be dangerous and most cerntanly draining. What I propose is a "truce" if you will. I will not get in your way and you will not get in mine. I am, after all, a reasonable man and seeing as you have smarts I would like to also make use of someone like you, if you are willing. A change of pace, as it were. Should you be interseted I will be happy to work out a deal. I would also like to reassure you that I by no means seek world-domination or the death of untold millions. I am simply a man with a vision and if subverting violent gangsters is the way then so be it. Should you not care for such things let me know, I will pester you no more with this, however I hope you dont mind Steve. He isn't accountable for this. So, what shall it be?

>>20405662
We don't want a truce, we want her.
>>20405115
Then we get on the phone. " If you are asking why steve saved your life instead of letting you die, the anwser is he decided to do so himself, although I had made it clear that he was not to attempt to assasinate you. His creative reinterpritation of the letter of my orders impresses me, which is one of many reasons I expended considerable resourses to get him back. If you are asking why I did not reveal your identity, it is because there is no need. After all, amp has promised your father to make you hang up your suit in the near future, by force if necessary."

>>20405845
Lies aren't good and will unravel, leaving her perfectly placed to betray us when she finds out the truth. If that's true and I just missed it, go ahead, but otherwise list the advantages supervilliany has over heroism. that's probably our only hope. also be ready to scrub Steve of anything dangerous to us.

>>20405845
i know, was going for the subtle way instead of all out recruitment, however the suit getting taken away point is good. Lets go with that then?

>>20405986
Agreed. Lies will backfire horribly. Good thing I'm telling the truth.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/20373457/
She won't," Kurt responded, "I promise. And I'll make her hang up her wings when this is done, I'll steal them if I have to. Should've done that months ago." Kurt paused a moment. "Sorry about all this."

>>20405115
You know, in this setting its entirely possible that L ron hubbard was/is actually a supervillian.

Technically it's fifteen minutes 'till game on, but this thing is about to fall off the board and I don't want to leave this thread where it is, particularly since all those bothersome 4chan errors stopped us from getting much done.

>>20412100
Well we can't have it fall off the board now can we?

"Congratulations, Kestrel," the Iron Master says, "you've proven to be more intelligent than I had suspected."

"What do you want?" Kestrel asks.

"Longterm? To find a cure for death," the Iron Master says.

"So you can become god-emperor of humanity or whatever? Get in line," Kestrel says, "Frightener's been chasing that dream for decades, no one small time enough to spend a month playing cat and mouse with a local super team is going to get that done."

"You misunderstand, Kestrel," the Iron Master says, "I don't want to keep this to myself. I seek to establish a league of immortals which will, someday, encompass all the world."

"Yeah, that's why you're killing people left and right," Kestrel says.

"Precisely!" the Iron Master says. "Because we live in a world where nothing can get done without death. Where supers like yourself are nothing but game pieces to a society that quietly fights a war in which non-supers are cannon fodder at best, and at worst, just collateral damage. Because all those who would think of themselves as noble must, one day, sit down and perform the grisly calculation of how many lives they will take in the hopes of saving still more. And one day I will make that calculation, all war and all death, nothing but an ugly memory."

Welp im all done catching up, I like this quest so far.

"So what do you need me for?" Kestrel asks.

"I don't, particularly," the Iron Master says, "Steve was dispatched to keep a closer eye on you. My surveillance methods, though they have the advantage of being untraceable and nigh-unto impossible to defend against, are also at times unreliable. I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to interfere with any more of my plans. Steve's decision to save your life was made of his own volition."

Steve speaks now, "I really do think of you as a friend, Sofia. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Such creative reinterpretation of my orders impressed me," the Iron Master says, "and so I spent considerable resources to recover and rebuild him. There's no need to kill you regardless, as Kurt has informed your father that he plans on taking your suit in the near future, by force if necessary. I do not think he is lying."

"Joke's on you, my father doesn't know I'm Kestrel to begin with," she says.

"Oh, but he does," the Iron Master responds. "You've proven quite clever just now, so I must assume your blindness to your father's knowledge must be the result of emotional bias. Did you really think you could've gotten away with robbing a major weapons corporation of a prototype next-gen military suit without someone on the inside covering your tracks?"

Kestrel opens her mouth to respond, but nothing comes out.

"You may think your father is an idiot, as all teenagers do, but he is head of research at a major technology corporation. I assure you, he is not," the Iron Master says.

Oh, forgot.

>Wat do?

Also, I personally hear the Iron Master as sounding kind of like Bane from Dark Knight Rises, and Smith Sterling as sounding completely different. I don't know why.

>>20412398
Wait, I'm pretty sure the crimes she knows of are:
1. Robbing a scientology museum. Which is more like a public service
2. Commiting fraud against gangsters
3. Invasion of privacy (her and amp).
4. Hacking a school network.
Not sure if we are suspected for murder.

>>20412497

The Santos Espada aren't known for being especially non-violent, so she assumed you were involved in some more lethal stuff. The strategy so far had been honesty, so I decided not to have the Iron Master argue the point that he hasn't actually killed anyone. I can retcon that if it's important, though.

>>20412520
Doesn't really matter. Just that we like to pretend we are cultured and stuff. Minimum of applied violence, properly targeted to reach our goals. Although we are quite happy to incite those not under our control towards indiscriminate violence. Bit hypocritical, but we are a villain. As for what do?
Ask her about herself. Why has the star of her heroing carreer conencieded almost exactly with her slide in accademics. Why is she alienating herselves from her friends, why she tried to decieve her father. And most damning of all, why is she even talking to us. A villian, who she owes her life, and just showed her secret lair.

>>20412690


"Why the sudden interest in my social life?" Kestrel asks. "Why would I tell you anything?"

>A fair question. Response?

Perhaps try and offer her the chance to keep battling criminals despie her dad and patner trying to stop her. As to the social life dilemma, can't have Steve approaching Kestrel the hero and asking for personal information now can we? And how else are we getting a sit together like that?

>>20412904
"I am kind of curious. Just because i am a so called villain i am not a non human. At least for now. You are not the only one who decided to abondon your normal life and i'd like to know if you're reasons and mine are similiar. It always bugged me. Who knows, maybe if things were just a little bit different i'd be on the other side of the playing field now?"

>>20412904
Why not? What deep and dark secrets are you hiding from my villainous self? I mean, you just showed me your secret hideout. Somehow I doubt this will make amp more likley to reconsider his promise to your father. Not to mention that you had to rely on a villian to save your life.

>>20412983
Dont use that last line. We made clear before that it was Steves idea to save her, and it would be beneficial if she does not consider him a villain yet.

Not blackmailing her btw.

"The reason I brought you here was so I could replace the feathers," Kestrel says, "which means I can impale your toy on a whim."

"I thought you were opposed to wanton slaughter?" the Iron Master asks.

"The rules are kind of grey with regards to robots," Kestrel says. Steve seems visibly distressed by this, but says nothing. "And I still don't see any reason I should believe you about Amp. He knows how the hero business works, why would he make that promise?" she asks.

"Perhaps because of how poorly your academics and social life have become since you took up your wings," the Iron Master says. "That, or he's just a hypocrite."

"Anyone could claim that," Kestrel says.

>>20413112
Provide date and time and location he made the promise. Also point out that killing the guy who saved your life, robot or not, is hardly a heroic act.

>>20413112
You might have noticed that even though i keep Steve on a leash he is a very much sentient and self conscious AI. If i cant get his processor back or it is destroyed he will stay dead.

"Oh, wow, a random time and location, next are you going to try and convince me to believe you because it was confirmed in the comments section of a blog?" Kestrel asks. Apparently she's ignoring your point with regards to Steve.

>>20413283
Mention the bit the dad said about the time she almost told him the truth. Also, keep pressing on steve.

I assume the ghost who told us is long gone? Also, I don't think we should tell her of ghost-radio unless we can prove something with it. Perhaps we should just lay off and wait for the enevitable talk Amp is going to give her. Then have her come to us, or give her a phone or something. I don't think we can persuade her on the point of "a dead floating guy told me and you should believe it too".

>>20413283
Oh wow, if you dont believe my evidence why dont you call your father about it? I am sure that will clean this up nicely?

>>20413395
That could backfire bad

I would prefer to turn her now. But we at least need to get her to agree to let steve go. Otherwise yeah, have bots on standby for the inevitable confrontation with amp.

>>20413459

Define "on standby." What exactly are you planning to have your murderbots do, here?

>>20413388

It's been a week or two, so probably, but not necessarily. It probably wouldn't do much good to have a ghost pop up and say "no, I saw them, for realz" though.

>>20413487
Ignore that I didn't mean right now. Right now we are trying to convince her to turn.

>>20413487
I think we should have like 4 of them in the general vicinity, out of the reach of security, though. We should have copious amounts of military grade explosives, if all else fails we collapse the batcave and see how heroic they are without their equip.

>>20413543
Err... What? Amp isn't even here right now. I was speaking of a hypothetical future.

>>20413543
but that should be plan x. All this work, not to mention Steve, getting trashed. Also the problem of us potentially killing 2 supers and the shitstorm that follows.

>>20413283
He also mentioned you came home exhausted after [whichever incident that was], said you had something to tell him, then said you loved him and went upstairs.

TBH I find Kestrel a much more interesting character than Iron Master and kinda wish we were playing her.

>>20413639
When we convert her you can, in moderation.

Also wasn't that made known to us by teve being there or am i mixing things up?

captcha: she'll sonobj

>>20413639
This. While kestral is quite interesting now if we started playing her she would quickly become less so. Charecter driven by many people who aren't all in agreement tend to be like that. Best thing to do is get her on our side. Which we should be able to do. We have spent a long time on the groundwork after all

>>20413710
That bit came from the conversasion that TM relayed via ghosts.

>>20413576
Actually i wanted to collapse it without the heroes in it. You still remember that little thing about no kills between supers? Well, we arent actually super, besides superintelligent, but you get the point.

All their equip is in there, and i seriously doubt they have the resources to start again from scratch. Simple and efficient solution.

>>20413639

I've been doing my best to make TIM more interesting, but as >>20413715 mentions, a character played by a collective of 2-5 different people at any given time is way harder to work with vs. one who I have complete control over.

>>20413791
That I can live with if the turning bums out. Otherwise we bomb it after she leaves and if she doesn't mind too much.

Even though we aren't super we are a villain. Basically the same and if we kill them/Amp both the supers and the villains will get pissy as i understand it.

>>20413833
I think the problem is more that we arent really playing the iron master, but rather his criminal empire. This quest isnt written out of his direct POV, actually we rarely get his POV. That makes it hard to identify with him. To me he is more like the king in a chess game than a actual character.

>>20413837

Most of the villains don't get pissy (though some won't appreciate you upsetting a status quo that's made them very rich and immune to any severe retaliation), but they will immediately refuse to associate with you at all, including Whisper, since no one wants to get the "gloves come off, time to murder people" reaction that you'd provoke from a lot of the heroes. And it's a safe bet that a fair number of them will try and take a slice of your pie, since the assumption will be that you're doomed.

>>20413791
Can we do that after we convert her? We've spent at least half the quest so far to get her. I will be rather anoyed if we have to resort to blowing things up. Also, Tm? Loosing momentum. Just go with>>20413639

>>20413923

'Kay.

"So? All that proves is that you're watching me." She closes her eyes a bit. "And that's /really/ creepy, but also something I already knew."

>>20413945
I repeat my suggestion to let her call her father. Other than that we have important matters to attend to, so we leave her alone with Steve.

>>20413945
... Not making this easy are you? Maybe we should just tell her to bring it up with Amp. And when he admits it, to consider alternative employment.

>>20413945
watching not only her, but also amp and her dad. If she doesn't believe us give it some time, after the next mission amp will ask her to step down (i think). Then we will come again and offer her the chance to go on fighting injustice through crime if need be.

>>20413991
Better amp then her father. He is more likley to fuck it up. Although letting steve try to wear her down first by tugging on her heartstrings is a good idea. Have him ask her if she really will just kill him.

rolled 98 = 98

>>20413945
Call her father. Or leave her with a seed of doubt. I dunno which. If the latter, maybe wipe Steve of all data connected to us, restrict his access to our networks, set him to self destruct if they try to reprogram or examine him, and let him hang with Sofia.

>>20414031

I'm not intentionally trying to make it difficult, but Kestrel's one of the strongest characters in the quest and I don't want to undermine that by having her act out of character. She's been working with Amp for months and I can't see any reason she'd just take the word of some guy who's been stalking her concerning an impending betrayal.

"You can choose not to believe me if you like," the Iron Master says, "but if you wait until Amp has already betrayed you, I seriously doubt I will be in a position to prevent him from taking your suit, or recover it afterwards. EdenTech's defenses are a tough nut to crack even for me. Steve, give the girl your phone? I can replace yours, of course."

"Right," Steve says, handing the phone over to Kestrel, who hesitates before accepting it.

"I guess whatever monitoring device you put in this thing probably isn't any more effective than what you've got anyway," she says.

"Indeed," the Iron Master says, "when Amp's betrayal comes, as it will inevitably, call me, and we can look into finding you alternative employment."

"Don't hold your breath," Kestrel says.

---

You've yet to take any actions this turn, since you're in the immediate aftermath of the Hobs attack at the end of the last one.

>Wat do?

I think leaving her with a Dave thats going to operate alone in the futur is the better bet. I bet she will ask her father this when shes at home. Kestrel isnt really the patient type.

Maybe start gathering info on the policechief?

rolled 23 = 23

>>20414323
No, gather info on whoever's in charge of selecting/replacing the police chief. We'll blackmail them into not changing the chief if replacement ever starts being a real option. That chief is the best possible one.

>>20414201
General plan:
Have Rica finish subverting the steel nines. Once we have them on our team, have them play along for now. Meanwhile, Julio subverts the set they are "protecting". Next turn we will have rica lead the steel killers and iron guard in a sudden offensive to take out. Their remaining powerhouse. Then julio bribes the other money maker and we form a new shield set for them. That way the 9 rollars will be down to two weak sets before they know anything is wrong.

>>20414201
Lets rob disney land.

>>20414360

That'll be the mayor.

>>20414362

This sound good to everyone?

>>20414362
Oh and have the IM change the Iron gaurds set from extortion to hookers

>>20414407
Yes, that plan is pretty good. Also, we should build more killbots if we can, we are going to get into trouble soon.

Alright, working on the next few actions now. I've also thrown together a timeline because I realized I was having trouble remembering exactly how many turns/weeks ago something happened, so I figured I'd post that here. If nothing else, it serves as a thin justification for bumping the thread while I work out the mechanical fallout of your next few actions.

1st week of September: Raid on Scientology Museum, 1st Muerte meeting, Julio recruited
2nd week of September: Second Muerte meeting, Amp and Kestrel driven underground, Rica recruited
3rd week of September: Morelli Outfit destroyed, Behemoth, Amp, and Kestrel defeat Muerte-bot
4th week of September: Goblin Gang vs. Family war begins, Steve sent to infiltrate Sofia's school
1st week of October: Goblin Gang vs. Family war escalates, Nine Rollers begin to be subverted.
2nd week of October: Turf war explodes, Hollywood consumed by war
3rd week of October: Steve revealed as minion of the Iron Master

I'm not completely positive this is all accurate, but it's workable, so I'm rolling with it.

>>20414433
TM, can you post my build from that other thread? My internet is down (than you cox) and my phone can't copy pasta very well. We can spend the resources to get the extra bots, if it doesn't stop us from forming a footman set immediatly next turn

>>20414567
Wait internets came back (yay random intermittent service) anyway:
Model T (4xp)
Athletics 2 (2xp)
Super vehicle (power armor) (peak speed) (4xp) Or grab a 3+ star power and abuse the hell out of it [effective athletics score: 4]
Power armor (meta speed) [effective athletics score: 6] (2xp)
Power armor (energy beam) (2xp) Combine with Meta speed for stunlock combo of doom

>>20414637
So we are going to be the mechanical flash? I can dig that.

Rica continues her efforts to subvert the Steel Killers, pretending she has a grudge against Chimera and that she'd like to help them make a mess of them. She drops hints that the Nine Rollers, known for being the most mellow gang in the city, might not be the best support network for going up against Chimera, known for being one of the most deadly. She's making some progress, but it's slow-going.

Meanwhile, the Iron Master spends a bit of time pressing hard on the extortion business until the local businessmen end up ruined and desperate, and then imports a few desperate crack whores from the mainland, courtesy of the Manhattan Nine Rollers. This goes a long way towards improving your income.

Concerning resources, by the way, keep in mind you're sitting on a pile of 9 of them, and you're now at +4 income, +6 with Julio's Experienced trait on both the Avalon Goblins and the Iron Giants*, so it's not like you need to worry about sets disbanding from lack of payment. You might consider either bribing some sets (same thing as subversion but far faster) or else buying some XP (the first few are super cheap anyway).

*To my understanding, the proposed name for the entire gang is the Iron Guard and the name for the individual set controlling Two Harbors is the Iron Giants. Either or both can be changed if they're unpopular, though. On the subject of names, now that the Avalon Goblins have officially quit the Goblin Gang due to the stunt the Hobs pulled in Hollywood, do you plan on renaming them?

>>20414637
Basic combat stratigy once we finish this build.
Step one: activate meta speed (power 7/9) granting +4 athletics and an extra action
Action: energy beam 3 damage + denies hero an action (6/9)
Extra action: shoot with machine gun 5 damage
Repeat until hero is unconcious. Shouldn't be hard, he doesn't get to fight back.

That still leaves you with one action left on Julio and the Iron Master, by the way.

>>20414763
Right, reason why we are trying to save up money is that for my plan to work we need to bribe and create a set in a single turn. That said, can we purchase enough xp for the model T perk? Otherwise there isnlittle point in buying xp unless we immediatly spend it. So maybe bribe the steel killers to speed things up? We the plan will still probably take three weeks. As for names, call the gang the iron guards and the set Iron legion. All set names should be iron (something military) or (some metal) guards.

>>20414892
Start gathering info on the major then. Also, what big firms or warehouses do we stand a reasonable chance of raiding for technology. Hi-tec gadgets and parts and whatnot. Would also like the skynet thing so perhaps start working towards either more robots or new and more advanced ones?

>>20414921

Model T is going to cost 4 XP, which means a total of 10 resources are required. So, not quite, but close (and with your newly increased income, you'll have more than enough next turn).

>>20414931

Boeing has a bunch of stuff in the city. There's also a few random local engineering places: Gibraltar Industries, Syncromatics, Steadicam, the Taleney Group, Dolby, DIRECTV, Allied High Tech Products Inc. In game terms they're all basically the same: You're a tech guy so they count as high-value targets in terms of robbing for resources.

Bump? As far as I can tell I'm still waiting on you guys to say what to do with Julio and the Iron Master's last action.

Could we have julio take care of preparations for a heist on a workshop or something smaller? TIM would then gather info on the major? As we need more resources for the suit we might as well stock up for upgradeing surveilance bots and things? Small flying cameras and cockroach mics? For when we need proof instead of ghost told me so?

>>20415165
Rob random tech store

>>20415478
Have juilio bribe the steel killers to our side

You rob some random tech store. Really, this is kind of run-of-the-mill for you at this stage, so suffice it to say that you gain an extra 3 resources and you got away scot free.

It is a new turn. Thanks to the increased income from the ruining of Two Harbors, you now have +6 resources per turn (so long as Julio keeps running both sets), giving you a total of 15 resources now. Meanwhile, everyone's actions are refilled. It is the fourth week of October.

EdenTech is holding a major press conference on Thursday evening, and rumor has it that this has something to do with that urban warfare project.

Classes have started up for Steve again, but there is no sign of Sofia. When he dropped by to visit her house, an anxious Doctor Span explains that she's disappeared and no one has much of any idea where she's gone too. Kestrel hasn't returned to super heroing either, and since they don't have anyplace to start looking in a city of fifteen million, your ghosts can't find her.

>New turn, wat do?

Get ghosts on amp, otherwise wait for the phonecall. Also, since there was a point of possible opposition to policechief idon'tcare we should look into spying on the major to get blackmail material and keep the current chief until we find one more suitable to us and spying on the chief to get blackmailmaterial to influence/buy her. Otherwise go with >>20414362.

Rica's spent some more time getting the Steel Killers to come around, and they're growing increasingly disgruntled with their gang in general. Meanwhile, you have your info-gathering bot try to look into Mayor Matthew Pellitier, but unfortunately the police have an unfortunate tendency to show up at the wrong time and force you to run off.

Buy the model T upgrade. Then have julio finsh bringing them around. Also, I assume we had a tracking device in the phone we gave her, right?

>>20416206

You spend a total of 10 resources to buy 4 XP. This means your next purchased XP point will cost 5 resources. However, you also buy the Model T!

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 3 (9)
Resources: 5
XP: 0

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

Powers: Terminators, SynthSkin, Ghost Whisperer, Model T

Presumably you are going to spend a lot of time building bots since your minion pool just doubled.

Concerning the phone, unfortunately it wasn't really built to be a tracking device. You weren't planning on giving it to Kestrel in the first place, it was just something that Steve, as a high school student, was expected to have. Now it does have a GPS signal that you can track, but it has to be on for that, but you haven't got a signal from it since about twenty minutes after Kestrel left her old hideout. Presumably she has turned it off and is yet to turn it back on.

Julio is introduced to the Steel Killers as an associate of Rica's, and he's got them openly voicing discontent with the Nine Rollers by the end of the first meeting. Smooth operator, Julio is. They're not quite ready to jump ship to another faction, but bribing them over to your side would, at this stage, cost you a total of two resources.

>>20416312
Go for it i guess. Also, where is the powers list and what does the model T do?

>>20416312
Lets keep an ear open for some irate doctors, preferably in the medical fields. Preferably we get a reasonable fella who was dicked over by a large corporation and had his funding suddenly cut and his research stolen.

>>20416335

In the first character sheet at the top of the thread you can find a pastebin link to a list of all rules, including the powers list. Model T allows you to maintain a larger amount of robot minions at once.

>>20416348

Any particular reason why?

Change murder bot into a T1 S4 setup, as I don't believe we ever actually used their tech ability. Force chart organisation:
Stealth bots: 2
Steve: 1
Murder bots: 15

>>20416435

Alright, done.

Minions:

15 Warrior bots at H4 A4 C0 T1 I0 O3 N0 S4
2 Stealth bots at H0 A0 C2 T4 I2 O4 N0 S4
Steve the Android at H1 A1 C4 T2 I4 O2 N0 S2
Julio Pedone at H3 A1 C3 T2 I3 O3 N3 S2
Rica Rivera at H2 A3 C1 T2 I2 O3 N2 S4

>>20416312
Btw, you said originally you were going to make events (that thing you use to give us xp) more open. I know sound and fury was worth 2 xp. So how much is turning kestral to the dark side worth? And how much do we get for taking out the 9 rollars? (entire set, mind). Also, we should probably set our ghosts on the trail of that other superhero we fought earlier.

>>20416523

Defeating the Nine Rollers is worth 2 XP. Turning Kestrel to the dark side was never intended to be an event, so I don't have a readymade answer for that, but it'd probably be either 2 or 3. Plus you get a powered henchman much earlier than normal, which is worth a lot on its own.

Alright, two questions.

One, the EdenTech press conference. Obviously it's useful to a tech-based hero just because they're handing out important information regarding some extremely advanced technology. But investigating it will require an action, which means you won't be able to bribe the Steel Killers over this turn. Most critically, Steel Killer morale dropped a lot this turn, so now is the perfect time for Chimera to gobble them up. Of course, that would ignite a gang war with the Nine Rollers, and it's possible they don't particularly want that.

>Wat do?

>>20416664
How many actions do we have for left for the week? Also, have you thought of how to deal with the fact that all heroes have 0 notority?

>>20416693
Bribe them. And try to make so that the rest if the nine rollers are unaware of the change in leadership.

>>20416715

I have been thinking about that, and so far I have two solutions.

1) Heroes who are still on Team Blue can attach themselves to police actions to increase the Warfare of the police. I could just have Kestrel retain this ability after she turns, but that raises the issue of why other henchmen who are villainous from the start do not have this capability.

2) Heroes who are turned spontaneously gain an appropriate Nefariousness score based on what makes sense for the character. For Kestrel that would be one, because she's a teenager with no clout with or significant exposure to gang culture, no particularly strong leadership qualities, and while she is reasonably intelligent she's bad at longterm planning just because she's still pretty impulsive.

Regardless, you spend the two resources to bribe the Steel Killers over to your side, and instruct them to continue masquerading as members of the Rolling Nines.

Steel Killer Nine Rollers (Harbor City, Palos Verdes - Robbery)
Warfare: 3
Morale: 1/4
Upkeep: 3
Business: 3/2/1/1/0 (Drugs/Hookers/Arms/Robbery/Extortion)

Their Morale is low because you just spent a whole bunch of turns subverting it, so long as they aren't targeted by any aggressive action it'll regenerate naturally. I'm not sure if the current iteration of the rules mentions this because I am terrible at compiling rules (sorry), but sets targeted by an aggressive action fail to regenerate Morale that turn even if the attack is a total failure.

>>20416814
Best part is, since they are revenue red, the nines are actually paying for our set. Lol. So yeah next turn subvert the set they are "protecting" while bolstering the nines. (did all the guns we gave them effect their warefare score, or was it purely cosmetic)

>>20416894

I hadn't bumped it up, but now that you point it out I realize I definitely should have. So here's some updated stats for them:

Steel Killer Nine Rollers (Harbor City, Palos Verdes - Robbery)
Warfare: 4
Morale: 1/4
Upkeep: 4
Business: 3/2/1/1/0 (Drugs/Hookers/Arms/Robbery/Extortion)

>>20417035
Are we out of actions for the week?

>>20416419
Sorry mount and blade is 75% off.

Im assuming that we dont have much knowledge about human bodies, so I figured with an actual doctor we could pump out some badass augmentations for our henchmen with one.
Also flesh-printer. Lose your arm? Just a sec I'll print one off for you.

It's only after the fact that you hear the news from the EdenTech press conference. When you do hear it, it's from Whisper, who leaves a message that starts "this is an urgent notice to all villains in Los Angeles concerning the EdenTech press conference last night," and when a message starts like that, you know it can't possibly be good.

While EdenTech's funds were officially reported as coming from the Pentagon, for all legal purposes they were marked as coming from a cipher organization used by the US government when they want to fund a project without letting people know which part of the government is actually funding it. The project is one designed to revolutionize law enforcement and bring an end to an era.

EdenTech claims they have a prototype suit that allows them to effectively manufacture super heroes. Called Project Swordsman, they have announced that a hero named Swordsman, previously an ordinary officer on loan from the National Guard, will be field testing the suit against LA's villain population. They also made an official announcement inviting the villains no doubt listening to the broadcast to do their level best to defeat Swordsman.

Although the time table of these field tests was not given, EdenTech claims they'll have funding for mass production of the Swordsman suits by Q4 2012 if they are successful. Due to accounting bizarreness, EdenTech's fourth fiscal quarter begins December 1st.

It is currently the first week of November (Happy Halloween, I guess).

WHILE THE IRON IS HOT
Objective: Destroy the Swordsman facility and wipe all data on the suit's construction from EdenTech headquarters
Note: Starting the 1st week of December, Swordsman heroes are produced at an exponentially increasing rate every week while this event is active.
Reward: 5 XP

>>20417178
Were going to need a lot of explosives.

>>20417178
Great, so we have 4 weeks to take out a superhero. Best bet is to use ghosts and tech to locate him. Then hire out our killbots a villian who wants to take him down. Tell wisper that if any villain wants to take a shot, we will "donate" some killbots to help them out.

>>20417178

Consistency error: In corporate lingo, a fiscal quarter beginning December 1st would end with the last day of February, and would thus technically be considered Q1 2013. That slipped my mind.

>>20417298

The objective of the event is to wipe out the facility and all data to stop them from making more. It doesn't really have anything to do with the actual hero called Swordsman. Sorry this wasn't clear.

>>20417252
Could we rob hardware stores and build flying explosive pigeons or something along those lines?
1) They won't be expecting detonating pigeons
2) those pigeons could get into the building through the air vents on the roof, with a bit of help even silently.
3) Add robot assault and we have a pincer move.

Sounds interesting on paper. So what are the odds?

Can we get out hands on one of them hacking cylinders?
I say we sneak in, steal the info, then blow the place to bits.

>>20417298
Contact wisper. Tell him that if any villain wants to take a shot at this facility, we will provide support at a very substantial discount. In the meantime we need to subvert whichever set the steel killers are "protecting"

>>20417354
Good idea, but do we have those cylinders or can we make them ourselves? Perhaps we won't even have to storm the building. Send in tiny robot(pigeon)s with the cylinders and some explosives. We can get the info and blow the mainframe without all-out assault and stealthily enough to avoid heat and loss of valuable equipment. We get the info and erase the local copy. That will set them back long enough for us to find the other saves, perhaps even on the same night?

>>20417466
Im thinking if we get the ones the supers were using it'd be better, as Eden probably made them.

You inform Whisper of your willingness to offer discounts both for the defeat of Swordsman and especially for the destruction of the facility/theft of the data that made his suit. Whisper informs you he's gotten multiple such offers, and he'll contact you once a proper plan begins to emerge.

>>20417466
This is a threat directed against all supervillians. Ergo, the logical response is to get a crew together and trash the place. Start by contacting whisper and the guy we worked with in the armory job. Unfortunatly, it looks like it will be extreamly difficult to get our supervillain ready for his big reveal in time.

Meanwhile, you begin passing some cash around the Dream Boy Nine Rollers, who the Steel Killers are now ignoring besides a few token visits to keep up the facade of loyalty to the Nine Rollers. The Dream Boys are kept very well paid by the Nine Rollers, and it doesn't take long for you to determine that this is because they are mercenary as fuck. Their drug-induced apathy means they are generally willing to go for whoever's the highest bidder. Since a turn has passed, you now have 11 resources, and it will cost you 7 of them to bribe the Dream Boys over to your side. It's also worth noting that if they send the money to you instead of the Nine Rollers, the Rollers will notice very, very quickly. The Dream Boys are a vital cog in the Nine Roller economy.

Wait, I've got it. Some people are wondering if we are what's his faces apprentice right? So we kidnap the mayor/congressman with like half of our bots. We then demand his release or we will kill the mayor, and or any hostages we aquired. Every hero in the city will be drawn in like a magnet. Especailly since our hostage takers are totally expendable. Then the other half of our bots and all the supers hit the facility while every hero in the city, and half the cops are looking the wrong way.

>>20417857

Hm. A pretty good plan.

Is 7 resources to insta-convert the Dream Boys acceptable?

sounds like op i agree with the plan and props to the anon it made it, but make sure we contact whisper and get all the villians organized for the assault.

>>20417992
How many actions do we have left? Because we might want to spend a few to wittle down their asking price first. And we want them to send money to the nines. We don't want the nines to notice anything is out of kilter until we smash their remaining combatant set and bribe their remaining money maker. Essentally, we want the war to be over before they even know it is being fought.

>>20418189

You have yet to expend a single action. Technically you could even have Julio act more than once if you wanted to take him off his management duties on Catalina.

Julio is making us big bucks I don't think we need him for anything else at the moment do we?

>>20418257

No. That's why I said "technically." You can, but I don't see why you would and you never have so far.

>>20418321
Okay, expend our remaining henchmen actions on subverting the stoners, buy them off with the last action. As for TIM, have him spend his time using ghosts and electronics keeping an eye on Amp, kestral, swordsman and trying to find out bethmoths Identity.

>>20418562

Through a combination of intimidation, minor favors, and offering the protection of a super villain as opposed to his wrath, you're able to argue the Dream Boy Nine Rollers down to an asking price of "whatever." Which Rica and Julio are pretty sure means zero.

Dream Boy Nine Rollers (Playa Del Ray, Palos Verdes - Drugs)
Warfare: 1
Morale: 1/1
Upkeep: 0
Business: 6/1/1/0/0 (Drugs/Hookers/Arms/Robbery/Extortion)

So yeah, there's a reason they keep these guys shielded 24/7. And also a reason why they make all the money ever. In fact, the shielding mechanic was invented as an explanation as to why no one had knocked the Rollers' moneymakers and taken over already. They're pretty vulnerable without them. Hint, hint.

Behemoth lives out of his government-provided "hideout," and while his address isn't listed in the phone book government agencies know to send all his stuff there. So it's pretty easy to find his address. Unfortunately, he is an eight-foot tall, uh, behemoth, with arms like tree trunks and such. This makes maintaining a secret identity basically impossible, so while he presumably still has occasional contact with family and such, he doesn't have a secret identity as such. He's Behemoth fulltime out of necessity, and the government has made special allowance to pay for his livelihood since he can't be expected to maintain it on his own without jeopardizing the lives of everyone around him.

Swordsman is not hard to follow. He makes headlines taking on a pack of Chimera footsoldiers with advanced prototype weaponry that they've stolen from local weapons manufacturers (including EdenTech, which has pundits claiming he's just a corporate enforcer). He made short work of them, and it's given you and everyone else a pretty good look at his abilities. His suit has built in lifters on the back, which you recognize as being similar to (but presumably more advanced than) the feathers on Kestrel's suit. He's got a whole mess of stun-based weaponry and a sword for opponents whose well-being is not an issue (zombies and robots are common enough to make room for it). The sword itself appears to also be of a similar design as Kestrel's feathers, though longer and heavier, and also a lot more durable. Splitting up the weaponry and the lifters has clearly given Swordsman the edge. Besides being blue and silver instead of red and white, and also a bit bulkier, the suit itself also looks nearly identical to Kestrel's. So it's safe to say the prototype she stole was from the same project. Apparently in the months following the theft, they've recognized the utility of having powerful ranged support, however, hence all the stun grenades and energy weapons the suit carries and contains.

You've just finished a call from Whisper, letting you know the rogues gallery who're pooling their talents for the raid on EdenTech. Your ally from the armory Mesmer, super assassin-for-hire Dead Eye, Daimyo Okata of the Ronin, a previously unknown villain called the Red Death (who has mentioned he may withdraw for personal reasons over the next week or two, but apparently refused to elaborate), and "maybes" from both the unaligned Compton super criminal Bouncer and the terrorist Asrael.

And then a call comes in from Kestrel. Opening up your tracker program, you can see the phone is online and out in Santa Monica somewhere.

>>20418922
Yep, there is a reason why I want to take out and resheild the other counterpart in a single turn. Which requires enough money to both bribe the other set (7 resources) and make at least a footsoilder set to protect them (6)

Concerning Amp and Kestrel: Amp does nothing unusual, but the way he's talking to people makes you suspect he might be seriously considering permanently hanging up cape and cowl, probably because of the Swordsman project rolling out. No sign of Kestrel before the call. It's practically impossible to find someone if they aren't drawing attention to themselves, unfortunately.

>>20419042

The amount of cash it takes to bribe a set down to zero and depends on what their Morale is. Particularly since the Nine Rollers can send extra cash towards their sets to temporarily boost Morale, except they can do that every turn because they have an incredibly high income.

>>20419024
Take the call

>>20419106
You mentioned that the other set was statistically identical, so I kinda assumed that they would treat it more or less the same

>>20419138

They have the same max Morale, yeah, but the Rollers might be pumping more or less cash into them daily (a set with 1 Morale only requires 2 resources to bribe over to your side).

"I was hoping you would call," the Iron Master says. Kestrel doesn't respond. "Please, don't be afraid to speak your mind. I have no intention of harming anyone who doesn't directly interfere with my plans."

"How's Steve?" she asks.

"Bored and aimless and missing you. He told me he wanted to apologize for lying to you," the Iron Master says.

She's quiet for a moment. "Tell him...I'm sorry for threatening him," she says, finally.

"I will. I'm sure he'll be happy to hear it," the Iron Master says. "Have you given any more thought to my offer, or is this just a social call? I can give you Steve's new number if the latter. I'm terribly busy and don't have time to play messenger boy between the two of you."

"No, I just...What are you offering? What do you want from me?" Kestrel asks.

A brief side note: This is something mentioned by Rica a while ago while discussing the subversion of the Nine Rollers.

"I've never seen the Rollers actually fight anyone, but I have seen 'em win a war. Santa Monica used to be split between the Goblin Gang and the Skulls. The Skulls were over by the beachfront, so they picked a fight with the Nine Rollers one day, since the Goblins had a truce and I guess their blood was hot. Within a week, half the sets in the Skulls get huge piles of cash and drugs to flip to the Rollers, and they do, and the loyalist Skulls pick a fight with 'em. The two sides are beatin' each other up in Santa Monica while down in Palos Verdes, the Rollers are just watchin'. And then the Goblins came in and took both sides of the Skulls out. I was there for that."

>>20419254
Tell her we can support her as a hero. Not all villains and criminals work for us, and she can continue to take out the trash with our support. Just... not our trash. And we'll point her towards criminals that threaten our interests. We aren't interested in tormenting the populace, but creating a more orderly world. Under us, of course.

>>20419254
An alternative career path. A rather nicer batcave, and my personal assistance in ensuring that your super abilities never become obsolete. Also, a rather nice tutor and some armor upgrades to ensure that said tutor doesn't have to catch bullets for you again.

>>20419072
Does amp look worried that his sidekick disappeared on him?

"I can offer you a better hideout, ensure your abilities never go obsolete, a nice tutor, and the technical support to make sure you'll never have to use him as a bullet sponge again," the Iron Master says.

"So this is just a Darth Vader 'join me and we will rule the Galaxy together' sort of offer?" Kestrel says, "I thought you were pretending to be all noble."

"You asked me what I was offering and I told you. Are frank answers the same as Faustian temptation now?" the Iron Master asks.

"So what are you asking for, then?" Kestrel asks.

"I just want you to do the same thing you've been doing all along, only, more directed. Rather than playing whack-a-mole with super villains, concentrate your efforts where it will make a difference," the Iron Master says.

"What do you mean?" Kestrel asks.

"You might recall, Kestrel, that my only crimes so far have been committed against other criminals, people directly seeking to do me harm, and in one case a ruthless cult run by a gang of sociopaths whose continued legality is reason enough to justify my opposition to the government. I have never once targeted innocent civilians or even police officers. Nearly two months after I obtained yours and Kurt's secret identities, and I have yet to make a single move against you or your loved ones, nor have I given them to your enemies who would, I am sure, pay me quite a handsome price for them. I am as much an enemy of this city's entrenched organized crime as you, and I want you to help me fight it. And in exchange, I am offering what I think is quite fair compensation for someone who is risking her life to do it."

"So you don't want me to fight cops or rob banks or whatever?" she asks.

>Response?

>>20419634

He looks worried sometimes...But people as a general rule look worried sometimes. He hasn't gone to speak with Doctor Span as far as you know, and he wouldn't bring it up with his muggle buddies, so it's hard to be sure if he's worrying about Kestrel at all.

>>20419725
No, no we do not. (We are quite capable of robing banks by ourselves, and we certaintly don't want to get into fights with cops, but the cops might want to get in fights with us.)

>>20419725
We won't make her go against the authorities. Sponsoring her activities against criminals should prove to be enough of a benefit, as not only can she help us control the underground, but we can also use her as a possible PR front. We may deploy her against the authorities if we have a good reason. i.e. we dig up some corruption. Overall, nothing that will prevent her from sleeping at night.

I see no reason for that for now but times do change sadly, it is however something i most certainly prefer to avoid. After all they are just doing their job that is something i can understand and respect. Remember however that things change just try to roll with it the best way you can.

>>20419808
Oh, and we are definetly having steve and our stealth bots checking her over for tracking devices before we show her our lair. Anyway I'm off to bed, night.

"Of course not," the Iron Master says, "as I said, I just want you to keep doing what you've been doing."

"Right," Kestrel says. "I...I need to think about it. Can you text me Steve's new number?"

"Of course," the Iron Master says.

"Thanks," Kestrel says, "I'll be in touch. Bye." And then she ends the call.

Well. That seems to be coming along.

The Iron Master still has two actions left this week.

>Wat do?

rolled 16 = 16

>>20420112
can we get smarter? like build an AI to help us think
buy it with xp how do we get super intelligence?

>>20420193

You already have the AI power, but it seems to have gone missing from the character sheet. The current sheet should look like this:

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 3 (9)
Resources: 9
XP: 0

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

Powers: AI, Terminators, SynthSkin, Ghost Whisperer, Model T

rolled 60 = 60

>>20420257
fuck yea lets make a few science bots
in a second base 3 different AI in 3 bots one lab the first bot works on improving the bots integrated weapons, sensors anything physical one does AI work making better smarter AI s the finale one will do research on every subject possible trying to learn as much as possible .

how advanced are these AIs Anny way? also 6 money start up and 3 to up keep them?

>>20420377

-You do not have a second base.
-What makes you think a single AI can develop weaponry, a task that typically requires dozens or hundreds of people years to accomplish, in time for it to even matter within the game? Just because it's a computer doesn't automatically make it a million times smarter than people.
-Furthermore, weaponry more advanced than what you already stole from the National Guard is basically always going to be some kind of power. For obvious reasons, you can't replicate a power that you would normally have to pay XP for just by pointing an AI at it, or else AI wouldn't be such a cheap power.
-Why on Earth are you making up new mechanics for the game? If you have no idea how many resources building a bot costs, how many resources a bot costs to maintain, or even whether or not building and maintaining bots costs resources at all (it doesn't), why would you be suggesting exact numbers?

I'm off in about 10-20 minutes, so this thread is probably just about done. There's still enough time to wrap up the Iron Master's last two actions if my audience hasn't left entirely, however.

Ahh good, im all read up on the Iron Master's crazy antics.

Have Steve text her, let the boy have his fun. A father has to let the birds out of the roost. Though hopefully we wont have to sit him down and tell him about the Birds and the positronic inverse neuron displacement arrays.

The Mayor kidnapping sounds like a sound plan, we just need to keep enough of a strong force of droids to keep the Swordsman heros occupied. We have a nice cashe of weapons, and Bazookas. Your men kidnap the mayor, looking plainclothes, and when the regular cops arrive, thats when you break out the M4s, body armor, and blow up a few squad cars, while having maybe one or two supers on standby.
We have to of course, tell Sophie to keep her damn Head DOWN [and see if we cant subtly keep her father from going to work that day] , the villains are going to make a stink about this and if she tried to get involved, she could end up very hurt of worse. This is the reverse end of working for us, sometimes, you cant help

>>20421082
Also, final shoring up of the control of the island.

Buy out, or even Replace with robotic duplicates of JUSTICE, the cops of Catalina Island. We own both Crime and Law of the island, and can make whatever token arrests we want to make it look like there's a fine status quo

No more Iron Master tonight?