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Medical Maladies (OOC)


Raveled

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Now that he knows the situation, Jube's immediate reaction is to do some research. Which, thanks to his Timeshift, means a few Take-20-on-information-skill rolls. Jube's got Knowledge skills for Business (+8), Current Events (+8), Technology (+9), and Theology & Philosophy (+9), hence all these Take 20 'rolls' will beat a DC of 25, while failing against a DC of 30.

Business: Looking for any new biotech companies that might reasonably be working on the pathogens of interest. Also, looking for any existing companies which might own, or have acquired within a suitable time-frame, the kind of lab equipment that would be needed to cook up the sorts of bugs we're seeing now.

Current Events: Looking for any special event (movie premiere, socialites' party, etc) at which any/all of the known victims would have been present, whether as guests or staff or whatever else. Bonus points for any such event which was only attended by the known victims. That is, eliminate some possibilities for the vector of infection.

Technology: Looking for any specific techniques that would have been necessary in order to create the bugs we're seeing. This information isn't likely to be directly useful, but it could help us narrow down the list of suspects.

Theology & Philosophy: Looking for any cults or sects whose funky beliefs might lend themselves to infecting innocent people with deadly plagues. Again, this is more for narrowing down the list of suspects than anything else.

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Business: Looking for any new biotech companies that might reasonably be working on the pathogens of interest. Also, looking for any existing companies which might own, or have acquired within a suitable time-frame, the kind of lab equipment that would be needed to cook up the sorts of bugs we're seeing now.

Nothing new. Existing companies with this sort of capability? The Lab, ASTRO Labs, ArcheTech, WHO...

Current Events: Looking for any special event (movie premiere, socialites' party, etc) at which any/all of the known victims would have been present, whether as guests or staff or whatever else. Bonus points for any such event which was only attended by the known victims. That is, eliminate some possibilities for the vector of infection.

The only connection seems to be that they all take public transportation to work.

Technology: Looking for any specific techniques that would have been necessary in order to create the bugs we're seeing. This information isn't likely to be directly useful, but it could help us narrow down the list of suspects.

WHO keeps samples of most of the bugs currently wrecking havoc, so someone could hypothetically steal a sample of those. Recently though, there is a researcher up at Tufts Medical College that has hypothesized a metavirus that could hypothetically disguise itself as any given virus or bacteria.

Theology & Philosophy: Looking for any cults or sects whose funky beliefs might lend themselves to infecting innocent people with deadly plagues. Again, this is more for narrowing down the list of suspects than anything else.

There's something on the Internet called "the cult of the dripping pox." The main tenant of the cult seems to be that since virii have outproduced humanity, they are the true masters of the planet, and humans should simply be happy to be host to as many diseases as possible.

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Have posted to the IC thread. The obviously-relevant info hath been passed along to the rest of the crew. Have given the name "Terrence Highfollower" to that bloke at Tufts with the meta-virus hypothesis; if you had a different name in mind for the bloke, say the word and I'll edit my post so that different name is used instrad of my placeholder name.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm. Highfollower is clearly attempting to get Jube and YB out of his office as quickly as he can possibly manage, while at the same time providing a minimum of information. This could be as innocent as Highfollower being embarrassed and therefore just not wanting to talk about it; then again, it could also be a sign that Highfollower knows, and is trying to actively conceal, a lot more about the Freedom City outbreak than he's letting on. Also, is he telling the truth when he mentioins "that VIctor guy" and so on?

This is a job for... Sense Motive skill!

Jube has Sense Motive +7. I'm pretty sure Jube can Take 20 on this; Taking 20 on a skill roll normally means you're taking 20* more time than a standard skill roll, but since Jube has Quickness, he can bring the time expended back down to normal. Thus, Jube gets a Take 20 'roll' of 27.

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I don't think you can take 20 on Sense Motive. Taking 20 means doing the task however many times you need to to get the best result. You can't do thar with Interaction skills because you can't be sure that you did your best job until you see the result.

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Alright… Jube's Sense Motive (1d20+7=10) is clearly inadequate, so I want to burn a Hero Point for a re-roll. Hero points haven't been mentioned yet, as far as I know, so this may well not be possible. If I can burn a Hero Point, the new result is Sense Motive re-roll (1d20+7=15) -- but the Improve Roll option (pg 121 of the Core Book) says you get to add 10 to the total if the re-rolled dice comes up in the range 1-10, so the result of 8 on the re-rolled dice means the re-roll ends up at 25.

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Of course you can use Hero Points. Why wouldn't you be able to use Hero Points?

Highfollower doesn't appear to be lying. He seems a bit worried that his research has been used for evil, and he's a bit thunderstruck to be talking to actual superheroes, but he seems essentially honest.

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The main reason that Jube could be incapable of spending a Hero Point, is if he doesn't have any HP to spend…

Okay, Highfollower is a good guy, just a little discombobulated about *H*E*R*O*E*S* in his office. His responses thus far haven't been all that helpful, other than the pointer to "Victor at FCU"; Jube will spend a little time inquiring for more details. Since Jube is (a) more knowledgeable on these topics than the average man in the street (see also: Jack of All Trades) and (B) nowhere near as well-informed as Highfollower, perhaps Highfollower may slip into 'professor mode' and mention some other information that could help us narrow down the possible range o suspects & etc. Or not.

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