File: 1351537449168.jpg-(1.45 MB, 1600x1162, Villain Quest Gang Map 3.jpg)

THIS QUEST IS NEWBIE FRIENDLY

This plot summary:

>ironmaster.wikia.com/wiki/Plot_Summary

Will get you caught up on the quest without having to read the entire archive. If you want to read the entire archive anyway, you can find that here:

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 4 (12)

Athletics: 2
Cunning: 3
Technology: 5
Insight: 2
Observation: 3
Nefariousness: 2
Stealth: 1

Powers: Super Strength, Super Speed, AI, SynthSkin, Model T, Mobile Dolls, Ghost Whisperer, Deathless

>Link to rules (including powers list): http://pastebin.com/cVXaZb4x

Action Points:

The Iron Master: 2/2
Julio Pedone: 3/3
Rica Rivera: 2/2
Red Death: 2/2

Resources: 39
XP: 9

Asrael is trying to win Team Blue over, territory is being shuffled around.

Note: The map is way out of date. Santa Monica, which is split between the Iron Guard and the Ronin on the map, should be under Family control now, while Compton, shown as split by the Hounds and Stalkers, should be split between the Ronin and the Santos Espada. Long Beach, currently controlled by Chimera, should now be controlled by the Iron Guard.

>>21343703
Have the alien use the Mesmer's device to learn what the message was. It is telepathic creature, so it should work.
Since our doctors aren't doing much, have them always research cloning and relevant technologies while they are idle. We could have the alien help out, I mean, it should have some knowledge about this since it required so many bodies, no?

Forgot to paste the archive. Here it is:

>http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Super%20Villain%20Quest

Also I have a twitter account called IronMaster @MCJohnnyQuest where I post updates to let people know when the quest starts. Typically I run daily at 14:00, but real life sometimes interferes.

>>21343703
And we have one XP, not 8 because we bought monster form. So, about the meeting, kestral should try to point out, that Asreal's snide sarcasm aside, the whole "work with Asreal in secret so we don't get kicked to team black " lasted all of five minutes. Which 1: doesn't inspire me with confidence for the rest of your plans and two: means that that part of the plan won't work.

>>21343782

Oh, yeah, here's that updated:

THE IRON MASTER
Health: 1 (3)
Power: 4 (12)

Athletics: 2
Cunning: 3
Technology: 5
Insight: 2
Observation: 3
Nefariousness: 2
Stealth: 1

Powers: Super Strength, Super Speed, AI, SynthSkin, Model T, Mobile Dolls, Ghost

Whisperer, Deathless, Monster Form

>Link to rules (including powers list): http://pastebin.com/cVXaZb4x

Action Points:

The Iron Master: 2/2
Julio Pedone: 3/3
Rica Rivera: 2/2
Red Death: 2/2

Resources: 17
XP: 1

In response to Kestrel: "You really think that White Mage is going to ditch Las Vegas for a week so he can go and murder a bunch of super heroes because a villain famous for misdirection said they hooked up with a member of Team Black? The Iron Master can send voice recording, video tapes, a dozen signed witness testimonies and my birth certificate to Team Blue not a single goddamn one of them will believe him. For that matter, if any of us ever has a bad night and kills a half-dozen civilians in a fit of rage, we can just say it was one of the Iron Master's robotic doubles and completely skip all the irritating PR fallout."

>>21344127
wait, you're not going to narrate the monster form upgrade?

Come on, man.

>>21344189

We are in the middle of something else right now. Unless you plan to transform into a monster in order to stare at the monitor harder, it's not particularly relevant at the moment.

>>21344127
>For that matter, if any of us ever has a bad night and kills a half-dozen civilians in a fit of rage, we can just say it was one of the Iron Master's robotic doubles and completely skip all the irritating PR fallout.

Well, at least something good came out of this. Kestrel will be shocked to hear this (probably) and move further always from Team Blue.

>>21344200
It can be done after this. I'm not saying to do it right now just that it is incredibly boring otherwise. We've had bunch of upgrades that went without so much a sentence and it is really underwhelming.

Also, are you going to fluff it as some kind of a suit upgrade or are we actually going to transform into a monster?

>>21344127
>In response to Kestrel: "You really [....]"

Who said this?

>>21344127
"Right, they won't believe him. Until you kill him. As for your other "suggestion" I'll simply point out that we've never seen a superpowered bot that is under 8 feet. Or one that can burst into flames (point at Asreal), Manipulate time (gesture to Kronos), produce sonic blasts (amp), or Fly. Neither has anyone else."

>>21344244
we should be careful with Kestrel defending IM so adamantly, it might make them suspicious that she is in league with us and trust her less.

>>21344237

Kestrel and the rest of Team Blue are speaking with Asrael right now.

>>21344244

Kestrel has no immediate vendetta with Asrael. Having her go after him as doggedly as Amp is not only suspicious, it's out of character. If nothing else, she's scared one of those folders might be labelled "Kestrel is totally working for the Iron Master, yo" and she's not eager to give him an excuse to pull it out.

>>21344227

You've been looking into genetics a lot, so I'm thinking of fluffing it as an actual monstrous transformation of some kind. Branching out into different aspects of SCIENCE!, you know?

>>21344268
She's not defending him. She's taking potshots at Asreal. And bringing up legitimate points. It's one thing to be confident that no one will believe you when a villain provides evidence that you're going to murder him. It's another thing to think no one will put two and two together after you go ahead and murder him after he's told the world you are going to do it.

>>21344389
I actually prefer the transforming suite. Its more stylish.

>>21344392
Told you so >>21344389

Besides, these arguments are not going to accomplish anything besides putting her in a worse position. We should be focusing on having her convince other members of the Blue to not trust Asrael, not to "make potshots" at Asrael which, again, amount to nothing.

>>21344389
>You've been looking into genetics a lot, so I'm thinking of fluffing it as an actual monstrous transformation of some kind. Branching out into different aspects of SCIENCE!, you know?
Alright. As long as you fluff and narrate it, it is satisfying to read those bits, you know?

>>21344429
Are we ever going to take up Super Vehicle?
Just curious.
We could fluff it as a super-upgrade for Swordman suit.

I really want to have a power-suit for the badass factor that it gives but I do not know if it is useful for us mechanically speaking.

what I think we should do is to take Kestrel's suit and install super-high-tech SCIENCE! bug into it, so that we know what they will be talking about in their secret meeting.
Now, the bug should NOT transmit anything, instead it should save the material on the the suit, because I am sure that Asrael with have a way to detect transmissions and block them, but unless he makes the meeting without speaking then he cannot block a microphone recording the conco on the hard-drive.

After the meeting is over, we can send a signal to the suit to have it transmit the data.

>>21344448
Super vehicle allows you to buy powers from a different set that you haven't currently unlocked. So what powers do you want?

>>21344448

I thought about power armor while making the system. Ultimately I decided that it was basically just fluff whether or not you want to have powers from power armor or just have powers, since all my alternatives were either really clunky or else made power armor clearly inferior to regular powers.

>>21344565
I really don't know. I didn't read through the rules thoroughly enough to determine the effectiveness of each power and their usefulness relative to our character. I just want an awesome power-armor

We can also likely get Cat to sneak a bug onto Behemoth as well, Kestral 'uncovered' and harmed? We pop up later with information on the meeting after she left, 'Then how'd he know?!'

But yeah, we're going to need to put out some Supers soon, look over our own sets for men while taking the Ronin Applicants as well. He wants to attack soon, then we'll be ready for him.

Can we do this now? >>21343729

>>21344797
Thirded. Get the SCIENCE team to work, and move them to a safer location.

>>21344794
As long as other gangs provide resources, we can make supers. We should call them up about this.


Also, objectively, if Asrael is telling the truth, he does not seem that bad of a guy, does he?

>>21344794
I thought that she disappeared? Or at least stiffed us. By my count, the only member of team red not working for us or in prison is Strikes old friend.

File: 1351543585664.jpg-(1.38 MB, 1600x1162, Map_totally_professional_Again.jpg)

Im like... still a big deal man.

>>21344824

Alright. You bring Eidelos and his hobo host, who seems to be doing better for having been bonded with the experiences of a being that's lived a hundred generations, along with Drs. Rud and Iveson, to secured lab to work on developing cloning technology. Eidelos wants to bond with one of the scientists, the same way he did with the hobo. When bonded with directly, individuality isn't destroyed by the collective, but added to it, which means that it can be separated out again at a later date (though the unbonding experience is extremely unpleasant). It's a far more efficient method of communicating technological differences, which is important since Eidelos' developmental history is completely different from yours. They've invented computers with the capability to predict space travel with extreme precision, methods of artificially reproducing their natural habitat (which means they will eventually be able to make more of the bonding spike dealies), and all kinds of genetic modifications, but they never invented AI, the internal combustion engine, or rocket fuel. They might be more advanced generally, but they happened to miss a lot of things along the way.

>>21344934

Awesome! Thanks again.

>>21344854

You haven't heard from Cat since she failed to show up at the big brawl in Compton.

>taxions windows

I think Captcha just gave me the plot of the next Super Villain Quest.

>>21345102
wait, don't forget to have Eidelos use that telepathic thingamajig.

....Or are you ignoring this because it is dangerous for it and don't want us to lose him doing something stupid?

>>21345102
As for the meeting, I'm not sure what else to say. If we can't point out flaws in Asreal's logic, I'm not sure what we can say to affect the course of the meeting. (And the whole "blame everything on the Iron Master, even when it involves superpowers he doesn't have" is a pretty big hole.)

>>21345102
Well, if the doctors want to bond, let them. We shouldn't force them to do something like this if they don't want to.

>>21345196

Not only is that an extremely trivial sidepoint to what Asrael is actually asking for, you've gone out of your way to prevent people from actually knowing what sort of powers you have.

>>21345195

Oh, yeah. That. Sorry, forgot about it.

Eidelos can't fully interface with it either. They have mind control powers, but not actual telepathy, hence why they had to possess some other dude to actually talk to you. What they can glean is mostly stuff you probably could've guessed anyway. Asrael turned up, kidnapped Mesmer's girlfriend, then later came back for him. He wants Mesmer's cooperation for something and is apparently okay with threatening loved ones to get it, but even Mesmer isn't sure of the details. Reading Asrael's mind is painful and distracting, like looking into a light bulb that's much too bright, which limits Mesmer's ability to figure out what's going on. It was most definitely something to do with you, though. He planned on using Mesmer against you.

>>21345293
Okay, we have a better lead.
Lets set Red Death on continuing searching for Mesmer's GF. But give him a cancer serum beforehand. We came painfully close to losing him, don't want to repeat that.

Or would IM be better suited for that job with his new monster upgrade (which you haven't narrated yet)?

I do not want Mesmer to be used against us.

Can we get out AI to lookup ways to resist Asrael's flames and Mesmer's telepathy?

Hey, since we are on more or less friendly terms with Santos Espada, we can investigate more freely in their territory, right?
We should continue investigation and try to find Mesmer's girl.

Also, we need to know what happened to Whisper.

Did we ever get data on Chimera's walker-tanks?

Drs. Rud and Iveson have refused to bond with Eidelos. Not much of a surprise, really, the two of them are rather cowardly in a number of ways. This is much to Eidelos' frustration, as they are quite certain that if they could bond with a suitable intelligence directly, their ability to advance your technological understanding, particularly with regards to genetics, would tremendously increase. As it is, the hobo's diagrams and articles have resulted in a procedure that will fundamentally alter your DNA. Such procedures were commonplace for Eidelos, and they have hundreds of different transformations ready to go for several different species from their homeworld, modifying them to be more useful and then possessing the bodies. This is largely the reason for their relative lack of mechanical advancement. With animal host bodies so freely available, there was never much incentive to starting over and creating machines from scratch rather than just finding a way to alter or augment the host bodies already available.

Regardless, they've recreated the procedure for a human body. As you requested, it is a combat-based evolution, turning you into a tall, muscular, but lithe and thin creature, with a slightly elongated, conical head. Thin to the point of appearing gaunt, but deceptively powerful, and with musculature which is pound-for-pound even more efficient than that of a human...Which is quite an achievement, as humans are already possessed of some of the most efficient musculature on the planet.

The insertion of the nanobot that will rewrite your genes is so small you actually can't feel it. You are reassured that you are now telepathically bonded to this machine, which, over the course of about 72 hours, has rewritten your DNA to the point where you can hypothetically trigger the change at-will.

The transformation itself is painful, muscles stretching bones lengthening, your body warping into its new shape, and leaving you with a constant buzzing rage just underneath the surface. Your judgement is clouded, your vision is hyper-focused, but your warped and now vaguely snout-like nose can smell lies.

>>21345455

Pro-tip, any request that comes out to "can we have something that normally costs XP for free" is never going to be granted. If you want protection from Asrael's fire, get durability powers. If you want protection from Mesmer's telepathy, boost your Cunning.

>>21345546

There's not much to learn. They're like your mechs, except bigger, slower, more heavily armored, and way more interesting to the federal government.

Meh. Problem with narrating the acquisition of new powers: There is no inherent conflict, most powers don't have much impact on any particular character arc, and generally speaking there is nothing there to narrate. I'm guessing this is why no one ever roleplays their D&D characters learning new things when they level up.

>>21345971
Not really sure what to say at the meeting with team Blue. Asreal is basically using our philosophy (kill few to save many) to justify teaming up with him. And since he's basically murdered everyone else on team red, there is no one else on the range but us to deal with. The only parts where his logic is weak are the petty stuff, mostly revolving around the secrecy of this team up. If we can't use his weakest argument to cast doubt by association, we've got nothing

>>21345477

The Santos Espada aren't actively trying to murder you, but that doesn't mean you have any kind of friendship.

>>21345971
For some reason I figured we'd need to learn that in character or some shit but that works too.
To the powers list!

>>21345989
I find it interesting. I like it.

>>21346098
But we can freely investigate in their territory, right? Or maybe we could bribe them with some resources so that they leave Red Death alone while he investigates? Would be easier for him as he wouldn't need to worry about Espada mooks.

>>21346081
The meeting is pretty much over as far as I am concerned, we should focus on other things for now.

Anyway, lets send Red Death to investigate further.

We should improve some of the neighborhoods too, which ones are the best suited right now?

And the vaporized neighborhood, has the city repaired a part of it? We could start fixing it up now.

>>21346204

The Espada aren't just going to let you poke around their territory, no. How do they know you're not spying on them? A bribe might convince them of your sincerity, though.

>>21346081

Again, there is no one more keenly aware of how wrong this train of thought is than the person you're saying should be endorsing it. There were persistent rumors about her working for you, as well as some decent evidence to back it up, it was obviously true that she'd robbed EdenTech, and putting all of that to rest mostly came down to trolling Swordsman on live television. She didn't make a single point during any of that. She didn't even deny that she was working with you. She just covered it up with a bunch of sarcastic ad hominem and associating Swordsman with the people who'd just got 2,000 citizens killed in a chemical weapons attack, neither of which had a goddamn thing to do with her innocence or guilt. The idea that the same thing wouldn't work again with "working with the Iron Master" swapped out for "working with Asrael" absolutely does not hold up, she knows it, and saying otherwise gives Asrael several good reasons to prove to everyone that she is, in fact, working for you. Considering how much he knows about you, there's no reason to think he can't do that.

Wait... is IM pretty much the only Team Red super left in the city right now?

Sheeeet

>>21346473
Well, there's Red Death but he's on our dime as it is.
There's that friend of Strike, but who knows where she is now.
Rica is plenty super herself
Cat? We dont know where she is, maybe Asreal killed her too.

Our good hope is to Ascend some level headed Legion and Guard guys, as well as some Ronin (they have the money and been amicable to helping us) to superhuman levels.

>>21346473
Yes, and team blue is effectively intact. Which is somewhat less sweet.

>>21346561
Then there's this painful they combat capable build that the aliens are offering us. We could have a test bed of a few of our Legion or Guard guys go through with it.

>>21346384

The Compton neighborhoods are easy to improve, but you're supposed to be vacating five out of six of the ones you own in the immediate future. There's an Arms neighborhood in Long Beach that would benefit from being upgraded to Hookers, and if you put down a Droids Do in the Long Beach Extortion neighborhood that's only one shift away from being bumped up to Robbery.

The city doesn't really have the spare funds to be rebuilding the vaporized neighborhood, which means it's still basically gone. They've started the interminably slow bureaucratic process of getting it rebuilt, but that's not going to bear any fruit for a long, long time.

>>21346430
Seriously, just bug Kestrel's suit and have her go to the meeting.
There is nothing we can say to Asrael and imo, we have said too much already. The suggestions previous thread were stupid too.

If you want Kestrel to somehow influence this, have her talk with Amp and Behemoth later on and convince them to not trust Asrael.

>>21346585
Don't bug her suit.

>>21346577
Someone else, who is better at this than me, will probably decide what neighborhood to keep in Compton.
>There's an Arms neighborhood in Long Beach that would benefit from being upgraded to Hookers, and if you put down a Droids Do in the Long Beach Extortion neighborhood that's only one shift away from being bumped up to Robbery.
Okay, lets do these. We make Droids Do company in Long Beach, Julio upgrades Arms in Long Beach and that extortion neighborhood to Robbery.

>>21346605
Bug it according to this >>21344542

It wont send or receive any signals. Will be hidden far inside, hardcoded and emp shielded.
Unless Asrael transmits his meeting directly into the brain, then he cannot do anything to prevent recording the meeting.

Unless you have some other reasons for not doing it.

>>21346628
If we have money left after this, then lets start rebuilding that neighborhood.

>>21346473

With Chimera pulled out, Mesmer and Cat vanished, Bounce shipped to Hong Kong, Okata, Made Man, and Dead Eye all killed, Whisper silent...Yeah, you and your buddies are basically Team Red. Whereas Team Blue has suffered repeated defeats and humiliations, but other than Swordsman's death and the near-collapse of the LAPD, they haven't really lost any material.

>>21346628
Is it even our turn yet?

>>21346670
You forgot Tarrot.

>>21346662
Because
1. it takes time.
2. it can be detected

Hey, when we turn on our monster form, how do we stand up to other super heroes?

>>21346713
It cannot be detected without disassembling the whole thing, that is the idea behind having it write shit on the drive in the suit instead of transmitting it.
Are you forgetting that we are SCIENCE! super? Anything they can do to detect it with tech, we can circumvent it.

...I think.

Though, if you're so against it, I wont push the suggestion.

>>21346722
Well, our build strategy relies on skimping on certain ACTIONS to take advantage of how possession works.
So in our current body: meh
In a clone of Swordsman (who's genetic Data we stole): Powerhouse

>>21346689

Yes. It's the second week of June. Happy birthday, Kestrel. We got you not martial law!

>>21346704

Oh, yeah, forgot about him. So Team Blue has taken a loss to their super firepower.

>>21346722

You've got 3 actions per round and a total of 9 Athletics and 4 Insight. Your Cunning and Observation are shot, which means Asrael can make trouble for you by sneaking up and dropping a holocaust at point-blank range. Amp might be able to get you caught in a stunlock if he's lucky, but otherwise you should be able to flatten him. Behemoth has healing powers you don't, but you also have a huge action advantage, so it's hard to say who wins there. Your new set of powers doesn't really have an answer to the fact that Kronos gets to know exactly what you're going to do six seconds before you do it six times a day. Finally, Kestrel can try her hit-and-run tactics, in which case it really comes down to whether you can catch her and whittle her down with your extra actions before she deals you a death of a thousand cuts (which shouldn't be super difficult, since she has enough Strength to ignore mundane armor and you don't have a ton of health).

>>21346820
>>21346840

Cool. So we need a better body then.

>>21346753

Partly it comes down to luck, in that if your Tech roll happens to be really low it'll be detectable. But this is Tech vs. Tech and your Tech is, in fact, the highest in the city right now.

>>21346899
I see.
Well, I'm not really passionate about that suggestion anyway, if the other guy doesn't want to do it, then I'll concede.

I have to go do that thing I do on Mondays in about twenty minutes. Are we bugging the suit or not?

>>21346840
What does cunning have to do with fighting with Asreal? We use our high insight to defend against his attacks. Also about Kronos: our empathy might let us know when he has been time traveling, but we would need a good range of data first.
Regarding the Bug: how many people would get to make a tech roll? Because if every super gets to try, we will run out of luck eventually. I would recommend trying to sneak a bunch of Pidgins and other mechanical spies into his base, to give Kestral cover.

>>21347082
I guess not.

No more updates today?
Oh, and how much would Santos Espada want in bribe to leave us alone while we go around snooping in their territory?

>>21347082
Dont bug it but place a tail on Behemoth. He isnt as perceptive, he'll be our in. Either bug him or dont, but tail his giant ass.

>>21347162
>I would recommend trying to sneak a bunch of Pidgins and other mechanical spies into his base

I am going to be that this is not going to work. Asrael is probably prepared for any known tricks that we posses.

>>21347190
Oh, it's not supposed to work, But we have to make the attempt or people will wonder why we're not doing it.

>>21346840
We have seven Insight. You aren't counting the three we get from empathy.