ooc Viva Val Verde (OOC)

[Sophistemon]

This is the OOC thread for Viva Val Verde.

Edited February 9, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Heritage]

Boop!

[Sophistemon]

@Blarghy

You could have Adept make a Knowledge: Current Events roll to see if he remembers hearing of any recent Val Verdean news.

 

Otherwise, Becker will just fill you in.

[Heritage]

Would it be okay if Gretch did a Current Events roll, too? Lynn tends to jump in feet first, but Gretch likes to do her research; even if she came up with something bad, she'd still go along.

 

EDIT: I went ahead and did the roll, just in case you're okay with it.

 

1d20+5=10

 

Hmm; doubt that gives her much insight, but you never know. Maybe the equivalent of going a Wikipedia search?

Edited February 12, 2017 by Heritage

[Blarghy]

Current Events: 1d20+5 8  Heh.  We're off to a great start, here!

[Sophistemon]

@Blarghy

You know that Val Verde is a small island nation off the northwestern coast of Mexico, somewhere southwest of California.

 

@Heritage
Handling this as an online search is a good idea; it's not as though she doesn't have time to look things up. With that in mind, here's what she discovers about their destination:

Spoiler

• Discovered in 1523, two years after the fall of Tenochtitlan and the conquest of the Aztec Empire, the island that would come to be known as Val Verde was colonized by Spanish missionaries. Pleased by the natives' passive acceptance of Catholic doctrine, the missionaries constructed a church in the primary village. As it was built on the banks of a natural harbor, the missionaries called the village 'Puerto Azul' in reference to the sapphire sea. Things were going well until a gristly misinterpretation of the Eucharist led to conflict between native and outsider, and that conflict led to a massacre. The missionaries fled, only to return with a contingent of Spanish soldiers who quickly brought the natives to heel and incorporated the island into the Spanish Empire. Puerto Azul was renamed 'Puerto Rojo' to honor those who died in the brief but bloody war and the island, now called 'Val Verde,' was used primarily to grow cocoa, sugarcane, tobacco, and other tropical crops.
• Val Verde achieved de jure independence in 1831, but it had gained de facto autonomy for several decades prior as a result of the Empire's waning control. With Spanish attention focused on larger, more profitable holdings, the citizens of Val Verde quietly declared their independence and kept on as they had for the past 300 years, until the great upheavals of the 19th century sent the island spiraling into chaos. Always diplomatically neutral, Val Verdean politics developed the habit of backing the wrong horse at the wrong time. During WWII the government was overthrown by fascists, who reduced civil liberties and arrested, imprisoned, and executed dissidents and undesirables. During the Cold War the fascists were overthrown by Enrique Perez, a charismatic young socialist who promised to turn Val Verde into a worker's paradise. He was assisted in his coup by General Gallo, a true believer in the dream, who led a sizable army of the discontent against their oppressors.
• Perez's government would be characterized by a reduction of civil liberties and the arrest, imprisonment, and execution of dissidents and undesirables. The nation's farms were used to grow cocaine, marijuana, and heroin poppies; most sold abroad, some kept at home to maintain a sedate and passive population. Val Verde's banks became tax havens used to launder the wealth of foreign criminals, and the cost of doing business kept the island's economy afloat during its increasingly common 'rough patches.' Gallo's army was used more to police the populace than to defend them from invasion, and the General himself was kept isolated, far removed from the suffering of the people he had sworn to protect. Things reached a boiling point a few years ago, and it was Gallo himself who led yet another revolt against presidential corruption. Perez was exiled, his supporters stripped of their power, and Gallo assumed the office of the President of the Republic of Val Verde.
• General Gallo appears to have abandoned his previous socialist stance and embraced the ideals of free-market capitalism. He has ceased the nation's reliance on the drug trade and so that Val Verde's farms can end the hunger of its people. He has worked to stamp out corruption and opened the country to foreign investment. He has seized the criminal wealth hidden within Val Verde's secret bank accounts and used it to fund a modernization campaign that includes the reconstruction of crumbling neighborhoods and backwater villages as well as the founding of new schools, hospitals, and libraries. Not everyone is pleased by his apparent change of heart. He has survived three assassination attempts so far and the price on his head keeps rising, raised by the former criminals who've lost their fortunes. A socialist insurgency let by Perez's former cronies threatens to undo everything he hopes to accomplish and have resorted to terrorism to see their goals to fruition.
• With all that said, the beaches are quite nice.

Edited February 15, 2017 by Sophistemon

[Heritage]

Oddly enough, thst might make the place "more* appealing to Gretch, in a morbid, Hunter S Thompson kind of way.

[Blarghy]

I toyed with the idea of actually having Warne speak Spanish, but mine is rusty at best, and I'd be relying on Google translations more often than not.  "El Presidente" is about the most you're likely to get.  Maybe an "hola," or "si," if you're really lucky. 

[Sophistemon]

I know just enough Spanish to ask where my beer is.

 

I don't drink, which means I don't know any applicable Spanish.

[Sophistemon]

Heritage, would you mind rolling two Notice checks for Lynn and Gretchen?

[Heritage]

One for each of them, or two each for a total of four?

[Sophistemon]

Agh, I knew when I typed that it wasn't accurate.

 

One for each, if you please.

[Heritage]

Lynn: 1d20+15=34

 

Gretchen: 1d20+10=14

[Sophistemon]

Oh, that's perfect. Thank you. Please read the spoiler below.

Spoiler

While Samuel spoke to her, Lynn spotted something through the window behind him. At first, she thought it might be a bird -- but that delusion vanished when it got closer and she saw the thin, wispy plume of smoke that trailed behind it. It was a rocket, albeit a small, man-portable one. Nevertheless, even small rockets pack a powerful punch.

 

[Heritage]

Oh jeez, an incoming missile attack! Is there any sort of Initiative order? Lynn is probably the fastest person in the car, but there's only so much she can do in a short amount of time.

 

My first thought is for her to shout out a warning, and then conjure up a protective shell around the limo with Create Object; it would look a bit like a turtle shell, and cover the whole car except for the front windshield so we don't crash. Its would be Toughness 6 added to whatever the limo already had, and it would probably only last for a few seconds; damage from the impact to Lynn will be very painful due to her Feedback, but I don't think Feedback can kill, just knock you out.

 

Does that sound feasible, Soph?

Edited March 22, 2017 by Heritage

[Sophistemon]

Absolutely. Because Lynn spotted the missile, consider this her 'surprise round,' in that her immediate actions will occur before the 'combat' of impact.

[Heritage]

Okay, so yeah, I wrote it up that way

[Sophistemon]

I noticed; I just wanted to make it clear that I approve.

 

Nice description on the shell, by the way. I've described Presto's as being mildly opaque and opalescent, but I like your synthesis of various biological components.

[Heritage]

Since it's a thing that Lynn can't make metal, I typically limit her Create Object-based conjuring to natural stuff like wood or stone, or treated natural things like leather, cloth or glass. She can make something close to plastic, but I imagine it's properties might be weird.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Heritage

[Sophistemon]

Ah, because plastics are a petroleum byproduct; I get it.

 

It's a cool hook. It derives from the sidhe aversion to iron, right?

[Heritage]

Yep! Back in the day before my leave of absence, her only problem was she couldn't make metal very strong; it was Supercape who suggested adding the weakness, in part inspired by The Thing, and I tied it in with her now having a stronger link to her glamour, which i think is pretty darn cool

 

I just charge in and started working on my next post; is that okay? I decided Lynn is still a bit stunned by the Feedback pain, which gives Gretchen a chance to shine!

Edited March 22, 2017 by Heritage

[Heritage]

Forgive me, but I went ahead and posted it; the place I'm at is about to close, and I couldn't risk losing it. If it's any problem, I can edit it or delete it as necessary.

[Blarghy]

...Gretchen is awesome.  I feel like she and Warne might actually sort of get along (after they probably clash upon the initial meeting). 

[Heritage]

Thanks, Blarghy! I write Gretchen as an INTJ and Lynn as an ENFP, which seems to work well.

[Blarghy]

They're a neat pair.

 

On a related note, you've had at least one thread in the past about AEGIS investigating Lynn.  Does that mean that they might have files on her?  Perhaps that's worth considering, Soph, for when we all meet up.  Warne's got a pretty nice Gather Info bonus at this point, so if AEGIS knows who Grimalkin is, then he probably will too, although I'm not sure if he'd be able to recognize her on sight, or if she'd have to do something heroic first to jog his memory. 

 

Might be something to think ahead about, if you want to factor that into the plot.  I'm fine with her taking him by surprise if you'd rather do it that way, too, but as we're discussing in another thread, this might let Warne reference some outlandish rumor from her past when they join forces.

 

It also would perhaps let him realize from the start that she's powerful enough to shred him into confetti if she wants, which isn't something he's come up against yet in play.  I'm not entirely sure how he'd react.