Results from Previous round votes:

 

3 Votes: Plan Talon of Antares (SV thread)

 

One Vote: Plan CCC on my blog

 

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Winning Plan:

 

[X] Seek Target Information

-[ ] Company

 

[X] Seek Transportation

-[ ] By Trade with Existing Owners

 

[X] Builder: Seek Target Information: [Subtracter]

 

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Day 13 Log:

 

8 AP at start of day (7 at end of last day +1 for full night’s sleep)

 

-2 for Seek Target Information (Company) (6 AP)

 

Roll 6, Success

 

+1 for Success (7 AP)

 

-2 for [Evening] Seek Transportation (5 AP)

 

Roll 9 for Strong Success

 

+1 for Success (6 AP)

 

End of day, (6 AP).

 

Builder Seek Target Information: [Subtracter]

 

Roll 1 for Critical Failure

 

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Seek Target Information: Company

 

It wasn’t hard to access the Company’s data on the Ultras of Ar Harbor.  I’d simply walked in and demanded them, and the Company Man behind the counter had gone and fetched them.

I’d been expecting that it might take a while for them to find what I was looking for, but he was back within a few minutes, handing the dog eared printouts over with the soulless grace that such beings were known for.

 

Condensing down the entries from the Company’s distinct vernacular, they were as follows:

 

Imbuer (King Arthur): Can empower willing humans, at will, with Ultra Strength, Speed or Toughness.  These champions keep their gift until he retracts it.  The blessings effectiveness varies inversely  depending on how many people he is maintaining it on.  More targets means that it is less powerful.

Any given human can only have one of their aspects imbued at a given time, so he couldn’t allow a human to manifest Ultra Strength and Toughnessat once, for example.

He acquires no control over his clients save for that allowed by the threat of withdrawing his gift.  He is unable to maintain his blessings while he sleeps.

 

Vanisher (Merlin): Vanish’s gift allows her to focus her gaze on a solid or person, and subtract or steal away the object or person’s presence from its environment.

She can make inaudible guns, invisible walls and turn her enemies into powerless shades, unable to touch the world ever again.  Her gift’s modifications to the world seem to be permanent, although precedent suggests that her death would reverse them.

Her gift only works on about half of the Ultras who have Ultra Toughness one, and even when it does so it takes notably longer than it does for ordinary humans or objects.  Her gift requires visual contact to activate.  Her gift has no obvious limitations involving number of targets that she can sustain effects on, it seems as though once made the changes are self sustaining.

 

Igniter (Guinevere): Igniter’s gift allows her to cause objects or people to spontaneously combust, and also permits her to exert telekinetic force on anything that is on fire.

Ignition is proximity based, she seems to have a radius of approximately a thousand feet in terms of what she can set on fire, but she can control burning objects or people at several times that range.

Igniter also possesses Ultra toughness two, although it is the suspicion of this testing body that this may only be the case when she is in the midst of a veritable inferno, and that smaller amounts of nearby fire would yield lower ultra toughness.

 

Battler (Lancelot): Battler’s gifts are entirely straightforward.  She possesses Ultra strength, toughness and speed, all at the first degree.

 

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Seek Transportation

 

It had been a while since I’d been out of the city, on my own, Troubleshooting.  A simpler time.

One thing I would never forget was the world’s sheer size, the way that horizon gave way to horizon, without end.  The people of the Lair might think themselves the center of the world, but they were less than a pimple on it.

To bring a fifty souls to Ar Harbor in the time I’d been granted demanded vehicles.  I couldn’t depend on many of my followers being able to drive.  I’d need busses, trucks or similar.

That had presented a huge problem, since there were very few such vehicles still in working condition, fewer still that didn’t already have a strong owner.  I hadn’t been looking forward to the bargaining, had budged and presumed that a significant fraction of my month might have gone into it.

That had all been before I got Builder into my Posse.

While working vehicles were precious, broken down ones were junk.  Junk that the people of the outer sections of Shington were eager to trade to a Warlord for trinkets and baubles brought out from the Lair.

I traded batteries and foodstuffs, clothes without holes, shoes without too many holes, and similar trinkets.  I got, in exchange, the rusting and damaged hulks of a pair of old school busses, and a trio of dump trucks, one of which looked like it might literally be repairable even without an Ultra’s gift.

I estimate that if I tell her to take a few days to work out what goes where Builder should be able to fix my transportation worries.

Not a bad few hours.

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Debrief Builder [Seek Target Information: Subtracter]

 

“So how did it go?” I asked her.

Builder frowned, looking down at her hands.  I expected her to reach for the bag of chips, but she didn’t move.

She didn’t so much as twitch.

After a long moment, she looked back up at me.

“I think I might have messed up,” she said.  “I’ve been thinking about it ever since I got away from her, and I’m more and more sure about it.”

I winced.

It had been a gamble, sending Builder to speak with someone like Subtracter.  She had no edge to her, no combat power at all.  I’d been hoping to do a sort of social martial arts thing, matching Subtracter with someone who would never confront her, no matter what, but that had its own risks.

“She didn’t even really let me talk about the target at all,” she said.  “She was so scary!  I was certain that she was going to kill me, right then and right there.”

“She threatened you?” I asked.

It was entirely plausible.  Subtracter bullied and coerced as a way of life, but I couldn’t really think of anything Builder might have that she could want.

“Not in, like, direct words or anything, but she kept throwing stuff right past my head.  I felt like she was just making sure I knew that she could take me out in an instant.”

I nodded.  I’d had some of that treatment early on, before Subtracter had realized just how useful I could be.  It was like talking to someone who casually pointed a gun all around your head and shot bullets past you, mid sentence.  It could have broken the nerve of people a lot more stalwart than Builder was.

“What happened?” I asked.

I didn’t want to ask ‘what did you do wrong’ directly, if I could help it.  Builder seemed to be in a bit of a fragile state right now, and the last thing I needed was to get her scared of me as well.

“She wasn’t interested in the main mission at all,” she said.  “Didn’t even mention Ar Harbor.  She was all about your trip to Dephia, pressed me on details about how that had gone.”

Had gone?  But I hadn’t done that yet…

“Yes,” I responded, “I can see hwo that would be awkward.”

“Yeah,” she answered instantly, matching agreement with agreement, “It was the worst.  I was feeling so pressured and…I took a guess.”

“Took a guess,” I repeated, a sinking feeling settling in my gut.

“I know you are very skilled, right?  So I figured if you were doing something it would have to have worked out great.  So that’s what I told her.  I told her your trip had been a huge success, that it had definitely achieved everything it was supposed to.”

I froze for a second, plausible future paths erasing themselves before my eyes, and this calamity settling firmly into their place.

This was the dark side of Posse members, the reason I tried to be so careful.  They were presumed to be operating under your instructions, people would generally believe that they were carrying out your will.

Even when they did something so phenomenally dumb as lie to Subtracter’s face.

“Is that ok?” asked Builder.

I thought it through, trying to understand how this had happened.

Subtracter had just assumed that I’d already taken care of the Delphia thing.  She was naturally impatient, she’d said a few weeks, and it had been thirteen days.

Builder had had no reason to suspect that Subtracter, the general of the Regime and the big boss of everyone around here, under Her, could be so dumb as to not know what I was up to, so she’d taken the fact that I’d already done the Delphia thing as written.

She’d intended her lie to be far smaller, more like a case of putting the best possible face on something.  If I’d actually carried out my task then presenting it as an incredible success would be basic office politics, essentially routine.  The Regime, like many other despotic states throughout history, liked to present its story as a series of inevitable triumphs.

“It will be,” I answered, voice thick with reassurance.

I hated to lie to a Posse member.

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Day 14:

 

Days remaining: 17

 

AP available: (6 end of last day + 1 for 6 hours sleep) = 7/10

 

Prestige: 3

 

Timeslots available: Crisis

 

Builder Timeslot Available: Crisis

 

Posse: 1 out of 3 slots filled

 

Force size: 0

 

Condition: Healthy

 

(Ultra format: Role, Ultra Strength/Speed/Toughness, other gift description)

 

Posse:

 

Builder — 0/0/0, a woman who can alter objects for miles around into other things, blessed with a ‘Bulletproof’ blend

 

Ultra Allies:

 

Owner – housemate, 0/0/1 operates an imaginary firm, with real effects on the world,

 

Maker- Friend, and protégé of Snitcher, 0/0/1, can summon the spirit of things

 

Clawer – Ultra fighter 2/0/1, melee combatant, deadly hooks for hands

 

Stopper – partner of Clawer, 0/0/0, steals form’s velocity by looking at them

 

Sticker – Did dentistry for her brother, 0/0/2, Creates slime, can choose its stickiness

 

Grower – 0/*0/1, an outside Ultra I sponsored into the Lair, has a bullet blend from me, can rapidly increase the size and mass of objects

 

Joker — 0/2/0, a woman who can change what other people/herself look like

 

 

Ultra Enemies:

 

Masher- Enemy, and fellow protégé of Subtracter, 3*/0/3*, trades off strength and durability as she moves or stays still

 

Picker – First Fist protégé, 0/1/0, ‘selects the outcome of things’

 

Ultra Acquaintances:

 

Tracker – Running buddy, 1/0/1, Creates tracks, and can move things on them

 

Shower – Adder’s protégé, 1*/0/1*, gains strength and durability from witnesses

 

Echoer – Singer I am a fan of, 1/1/1, can duplicate any action that she sees

 

Bubbler – Operates Ultra clinic 0/0/?, traps things in bubbles that heal and move them

 

Sucker — Ultra entertainer, ?/?/?, pulls objects/people towards her at incredible rate

 

Gunner — 0/0/1, she shoots tracking Ultra Blasts at roughly Ultra Strength One

 

Chiller — 1/0/1, can freeze any object she touches, leaving them brittle and easily broken

 

Cutter — 1/1/1, she is a brutal front line combatant

 

Smasher — 3/0/1, a woman who is billed as the strongest Ultra fighter of all time

 

Swimmer — 1/0/1, she can ‘swim’ through solid surfaces

 

Burner — 0/0/1, she can summon Ultra fire from anywhere that she can see

 

Maxxer — 0/0/0, she can augment the gifts of other Ultras, pushing their gifts

 

Puncher — 1/0/1, her strength and speed both go up when she repeats her movements

 

Replayer — 1/2/0, she can ‘step back in time’ to undo damage that she takes

 

 

Faction Rankings:

 

Regime 7

 

KEM 8

 

Pantheon 2

 

Union 4

 

Resistance 9

 

Prevailer 3

 

Knights 3

 

 

Crisis:

Blender’s life and goals are in imminent threat, due to the Builder/Subtracter situation.  She is putting all else aside in order to handle this matter.  You may only take the following actions, and you must specify a choice for both of them.  Blender’s AP at the end of this will be determined by how well it goes, and to what degree she feels at peace with her choices.

 

[ ]Mollify Subtracter by:

-[ ] Explain misunderstanding

Motive: If I go immediately to Subtracter and explain that Builder was mistaken, and that I am about to go and take care of the Delphia situation right now, then I might be able to get past this with a minimum of damage.

Concerns: Subtracter HATES being fooled.  She may kill Blender, and she may kill me.  I will certainly lose standing in her eyes, at least until another minion makes a similar error.

 

-[ ] Kill Builder

Motive: Builder in the one who has done wrong.  If I kill her I am demonstrating my strength and excusing myself of her crime.  Subtracter will not lose respect for me, and certainly will not kill me, and my mission can continue.  Every Monster, ultimately, includes the kind ones.

Concerns: Builder’s gift can repair the world, or at least a substantial portion of it.  She is as kind an Ultra as I am likely to find, and she trusts me to lead her into battle.  Killing her would be a vile deed.

 

-[ ] Do not interact with Subtracter, leave immediately for Delphia:

Motive: There is no good outcome from a talk with my boss at this time.  Instead, the right thing to do is to make Builder’s words into the truth, and rely on the Regime’s basic disorganization and Subtracters stupidity to let the exact timing of the matter fade into irrelevance.  Once I’ve taken care of things in Delphia I should be safe enough, Subtracter is a dim witted brute, not the sort who would carefully remember on what day she knew what.

Concerns: Every hour that goes by is a risk that Subtracter finds out about the lie from someone else.  If explaining that you’d fooled her is risky, it is still far safer than her working it out on her own.  If she discovers this issue herself then Builder will be killed, and I would be in immense jeopardy.

 

-[ ] Write In

 

Recruit Delphian Ultra candidates by:

-[ ] Taking Only Volunteers:

Motive: The Process is, 29/30 of the time, simple murder.  I did not take this job on in order to be party to the slaughter of the populace.  They are the ones I am trying to protect.

Concerns: It is unlikely that there will be enough volunteers, and Builder gave Subtracter the impression that this mission had been a resounding success.  It would be a discrepancy, absent excellent fortune from the Process, and that could have consequences, depending on how I deal with Subtrater.

 

-[ ] By Snatching People Up:

Motive: The only way to guarantee Ultras is to keep on processing people.  If I want this mission to succeed, then this what I need to do.

Concerns: This is what Subtracter did to my village.  Doing this would mean becoming everything that I’ve ever despised.

 

-[ ] Write In