Arcana Thread

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

For Cory, Feickert and Ray!

Now that all three of you have joined one of the enemy organizations, the question becomes: What will you do?

Spoilers and confidental data ahead! Eyes only! Black, Mario, Brian, Cassidy, Franco, Casey, Kevin, etc... eyes off!

[eyolf]

Become a pirate! yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!!!

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Right.

The balance you guys are playing as double agents is very delicate. You have to give just enough information, work, and resources to make yourself remain valuable. But you also have to insure that some of the Major Arcana fail so you can take their place. You might have to start with the Aces of the respective suits - with three of you, one each can be an Ace. And you have to find a way to assist the main team at the same time, as well as pursuing your own avenues to taking down the Dealer.

So: What's the plan?

[eyolf]

How about we eat 50 eggs in a hour. YES that will do the trick yes yes it has to work ha ha ha ha ha ha ha


The plan is we get as much training as we can from any of the cards that suit us and go from there. Because we need more power to advance right? Then we can challenge them to a duel and kick there butt! ha ha I do have plans ha ha

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Cory, you could eat 50 eggs in an hour NOW.

The problem is that the Arcana members won't train you unless they trust you, which they have no reason to do at the moment. It could be that some are not as loyal as they seem, but that would ALSO have to be discovered by trust.

[eyolf]

so how would someone such as myself gain this trust they need? Do I need to go around and kill people or what? Do I just need to feed someones cat?

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

The Arcana have very particular goals.

Repeat: This thread is not for the main group! Only Feickert, Ray and Cory allowed!





First: They need more numbers. The Dealer does not want to step outside of the card theme. That having been said, he has no problem with any card members having apprentices, assistances, bodyguards, pets, etc. Further, he wants to develop an army.

At the moment, that is being carried out by the Trumps. These are sophisticated mobile doll-type robots that can potentially be mass produced. But at the moment, the Dealer only has a few thousand. True, they have among the best technology available. Their armor can repel all but the greatest attacks, their design is such that they are immune to most simple anti-electronic countermeasures (EMPs, lightning attacks, water attacks, etc.), and their offensive capacity is nasty. Justice has them coordinated by a hivemind AI, so that each destroyed robot's experiences are uploaded. Each new robot will be designed with counter-measures against particular enemies, creating an array of models that are imperceptibly different to the naked eye but practically unique. And the Dealer can enhance them from a distance, bringing them to the level needed to battle a foe.

BUT the Dealer can't mass produce enough. The materials are expensive and the factories he uses can't just be seen pumping these out. He can bridge some of the gap with his Imagination Force, but that is a limited asset (though he doesn't admit this out loud).

So, at the moment the primary goals of the organization are:

1. Recruitment. The Dealer is very satisfied with his Major Arcana choices. But he wants a stable of replacements for the almost inevitable event that some are defeated, turned or killed. Further, he is not so satisfied with the number cards. Except for the Aces and some of the numbers above Eight, the number cards are comparative fodder. (That's why you guys so quickly were Knights and above). Even with their Tarot power enhancement, the strongest of the Arcana Task Force [PCs] can destroy them. So he wants to replace the number cards with stronger Kin.

Further, as noted, he wants small squads below each card in the deck. At the moment, almost none of the cards, even the Major Arcana, have any retainers or lieutenants. With 78 cards in the deck, even with five man squads being standard, that's 390 people to recruit.

And he wants to expand his manufacturing capacity so he can build more Trumps as well as expand the variety of his automated and mechanical units.

2. Coercion: The Dealer has admitted privately that he has no intention of leaving governments be for the year. True, he will not unleash his full measure of destructive capacity. But whatever you can do to grease the wheels for any nation, corporation, NGO or other group to accept his authority is all right.

3. Defeating the Arcana Task Force: This is a no-brainer. For now, the Dealer doesn't know exactly what Fred and the rest are doing, but he suspects that they won't be still for long. When he does find out the true extent, he will want them destroyed.

Luckily, he can't just order you to do so. It would be a suicide mission for you and stupid for him. Four powerful energy sources seem to protect the building, and that's merely an unconscious layer of defense against his wiles. Putting that aside, the team has the Mammon Machine, the Hogyoku, all of the good Gramercy Island escapees, most of their trainers, L, Kurama, Panda, Whistler, Darth Bitchious, M'uru, Noitora, Grimmjow, the protection of Soul Society... While the protection they have doesn't extend far past the building, it is real inside of it. L's funding alone makes it so that any attack would have most of the nations of the world sending military forces within a second of the first strike.

4. Neutralizing Other Threats: At the moment, the Dealer has shifting alliances with a variety of factions. But his end game leaves no room for any other faction, which means that most of them are going to end the alliance at some point.

Any of the threats the main team is facing are forces that the Dealer wants to "neutralize". That COULD mean "kill", but it can also mean pacify, dismantle, make into allies permanently, etc. The main team currently is working on battling:

*Organization XIII
*Sanctuary Eight / Slaughterhouse Seven
*The Carnival of Slaughter / The Fun Bunch
*The new Sith Lord
*Aizen / Las Noches [stealing the Hogyoku put them on Aizen's shit list]

And there are other forces that the team is not aware of that stand against him. For example, the Dealer knows that the eco-terrorists who destroyed Brian's house have more going on than meets the eye...

5. Investigating the Seam: The Dealer detected that there is a seam in reality, some point where events changed drastically. He wants to know what transpired. Though the Dealer does not say this out loud, Feickert gets the sensation that the Dealer has found something that even he can't fathom, some mass usage of the Imagination Force.

6. Enhancing Power: The Dealer needs to get stronger with the archetypal power of the Arcana and with himself.

7. Propaganda: Setting down the legitimacy of the Dealer's rule will take more than force. Any guerilla marketing, Agitprop, etc. that you can do to get his cause out there and get acolytes will be useful.

That's the way one would acquire trust. Problem is, most of the things that would get any trust are also independently quite bad. And the innocuous things, by their very nature, won't acquire you any trust. For example: Beating up Espada won't ingratiate you to the Dealer too much since it so obviously benefits your friends as well. And a little propaganda is something that's easy to reverse; it's a minor contribution.

Thus, you have a conundrum. What can you do, or seem to do, to get enough trust to actually be able to harm the organization?

[eyolf]

Ok that helps out a lot. what about all the money we are farming out in the shadow realm? could that help out the dealer with his meka? I would be willing to take a squad of 2-5 off his hands to get the hive mind better training. I could also just find kin right and try to talk them into joining. Is there a way for me to find kin?

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Not really. To purchase the supplies and such that is needed to produce the Trumps would cost quite a bit more than you're currently making. Further, he wants invisible money. You guys have loans and investors - not much, certainly, but enough oversight. And since Fred is involved with the project, he wants you to keep as much information as possible away from that project. But he also wants you to keep Fred in the project: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. He needs factories that no one will pay attention to and that can't easily be destroyed. The Shadow Realms aren't a bad place to put such things, but that does require dealing with the constant threats there. [Thanks for reminding me about the Shadow Realms, BTW, I'll post that. Tell Evan to post!]

And the point is that he doesn't HAVE a squad of 2-5 to take off his hands. Also, the hivemind isn't a property of the Arcana, but of the Trumps. You could, I suppose, take some of the lower Minor Arcana members. As the Knight of Swords, you have a little bit of authority over everyone who is not a face card within your suit. But nominally, even the lowest 2 of Swords is supposed to be treated with respect. This makes the task of getting them to agree to training a difficult one, requiring diplomacy and tact. How ironic that the card that you 'picked' is awful at precisely that .

There ARE indeed ways to find Kin. No one's developed a Kin 'radar' yet, certainly not one that can detect such a wide variety of powers and account for counter-measures, though some technologies like X-Men style Sentinels can look for particularly pernicious genetic mutations. But as a werewolf, you are uniquely good at tracking down a variety of spiritual signatures. Further, part of the Arcana 'package' of basic abilities is power sensing. And then there's just good detective work. Very few Kin successfully keep their powers from everyone. Most of the time, at least parents and friends suspect something. And anyone who is worth your time has to have spent their time USING their skills, which means they've gotten some attention and probably made someone's watch list.

Kin often cluster in gangs, fraternities or sororities, cliques, biker gangs, groups of friends, etc. So going after such groups is a good way to recruit. Problem is that a lot of people already TRY to recruit such Kin. You'll have to appeal to them since they already have a natural distrust of recruiters.

[eyolf]

yes but are they kin them selfs? Oh I talked to evan about posting and he said no... so yea. What I want to do is kinda do what prof exaver did. start with low level ones and help them develop there power. To me that is not a evil thing, just dirty at most. So would that be a problem?? I can take them to the shadow relm for trainning and living cause we all ready have the land.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Are WHO Kin themselves? Remember that the only people without powers who aren't Kin are a) people who somehow are badass enough to get powers without using the Imagination Force , b) born aliens [another tiny portion of the population] or c) natives of other dimensions [trainers and so forth]. All of the Arcana members, Minor and Major, and the Dealer are all Kin. Despite inhuman appearances, all of them five years ago were relatively ordinary humans. Death looks like he's a Nightbane, Strength some manner of lion woman (whether Bastet, mutant animal, or what not is unknown), and Sun has a variety of alien characteristics.

Remember that, while developing power is not a bad thing, developing it to work with the Arcana is. Further, because the Arcana process improves on existing powers and then locks them, training weaklings is not the preferred action for the Dealer. But Cory might be able to convince him that these will be his underlings for now, train them, and hope that by the time they're well-trained enough to be Arcana members the situation will have resolved itself.

[eyolf]

tell me about the guys under me as far as the cups go. see if I can talk to one.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

The Cups? You not being a Cup but a Knight means that you don't have a lot of sway.

Nonetheless: The Two of Cups is actually held by two twins who are very... "friendly" with each other. They specialize in positive and negative ki, and also know some Twin Magic spells.

The Three of Cups is a drunken fratboy who's managed to cobble together something of Drunken Kung Fu paired with savage superhuman strength. He's been "inspired" by the "supervillain" The Savage Fury, who was himself once a frat boy who unwittingly was transformed by a roommate's science experiment.

The Four of Cups is a Chi Gung Seng Ren / Nei Chia Wu Shih. Like the youth sitting under the tree in the actual card, he became bored of the life of meditation and learned to combine ki with a meditative battle state. His aborted Buddhist training may limit his upward mobility, but he's got some promise.

The Five of Cups was once a funeral home worker. Like the man in the Five of Cups, he had the ambiguity of loss and yet still retaining some wealth and happiness amidst the loss. Unfortunately, this "wealth" and "happiness" involved actually killing innocent people with poisons in order to bring them to him to enhance his business and so he could not be alone. A real creep.

The Six of Cups is a man using various chemicals to reconstruct a beautiful, happy, idyllic past in the 50s. Despite being an old man, he has undergone all sorts of modifications to his body, but the fact that he can scarcely tell what's really going on and must view the world through a comically rose-colored lens seems to limit his ability to fight. Luckily, if his world-view is threatened in any way, say by young turk enemies like your buddies, his berserker rages are out of this world.

The Seven of Cups is an illusionist and stage magician, a man who turned his skills to conning people. A kleptomaniac, compulsive liar and a man who pathologically must do everything to please people, he's as much a victim of his own illusions as anyone else.

The Eight of Cups is a Ranger, a man whose wanderlust knows no bounds. His actual abilities are fairly limited, especially in the paranormal area, but he's a good, solid Tolkien-style Ranger with an incredible amount of world knowledge. He might be close to Cory's personality.

The Nine of Cups is a Kin who fancies himself a Genie and a wish granter. He's actually fairly strong, given that he can sort of pull off a Wish spell.

The Ten of Cups is actually quite a fulfilled man. He functions as the publisher, webmaster, librarian, story-keeper, propagandist, public face, etc. of the organization. When he does fight, he uses abilities similar to Yamiko Readman.

The Page of Cups is an unremitting optimist, a Polyanna-like child who nonetheless has been gifted with some manner of insight. He primarily stays behind the scenes (many of The Cups are more behind the scenes types), trying to manipulate things to the ends he thinks he sees. The Dealer has convinced him that the world that awaits is utterly amazing.

Finally, there is the Knight of Cups. A man who rides a Pegasus, he synthesizes Saint George, Disney's Aladdin, Theseus, and all other young, handsome suitors who eagerly, gregariously and honestly seek the hand of the princess. He is an incredibly able combatant, but more in the formal sense of jousting and duels rather than in the real gritty type of combat. He's got a lot of potential, and would view Cory as a superior despite technically being inferior.

That's all the people below Cory's rank in The Cups.

[eyolf]

so can you list the swords for me... he he I fuged up

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

The Two of Swords is a female blind swordsman and assassin. She has powers from the Blind Mystic and the Diablo II Assassin. She's fairly strong for a Two.

The Three of Swords is a Troll Blood Shaman specializing on wounds.

The Four of Swords is a stage magician expert who mastered being able to play dead. His skills are primarily about infiltration, not combat, but it's rumored he borrows from Sten's RIP attack to surprise enemies by playing dead, and is experimenting with making himself into an effigy.

The Five of Swords is a sword hunter, much like Gilgamesh. Unlike Gilgamesh, rumors are that the weapons he's taken have been gained through treachery and duplicity.

The Six of Swords ran the Staten Island Ferry for many years. He excels in ship-to-ship combat, but is otherwise mediocre. He does have a strong sense of responsibility for others, though, and a lot of wisdom.

The Seven of Swords is the Fives' accomplice in theft of artifacts. He has dozens of magical gems, scrolls, wands, and items, but he relies on them to the detriment of his combat ability.

The Eight of Swords is a woman who has repeatedly broken out of mental asylums and jail. She fights in an apparent state of panic, but is incredibly powerful for it.

The Nine of Swords is a really unpleasant thing to be around. He considers himself the true inheritor to Freddy and Bughouse. He loves swords for torture and fear. He is a living nightmare and has a rumored phantasmal horror form of tremendous power.

The Ten of Swords is the Nine of Sword's partner. While the Nine of Swords rages and invades minds, the Ten of Swords acts as the living dead. But he is actually a True Golem, a warrior made from his own perfectly preserved corpse as living clay, and is nearly unkillable.

The Page of Swords is a young twit who thinks himself the inheritor to James Bond, but he actually is a fairly tough kid underneath the glitz and glamour, sort of a cross between Michael Westen and James Bond. He seems to specialize in spyglass and light manipulation, both for infiltration and battle.

[eyolf]

I like two and six can you give me some more info about them? If possible I would like to join six on his ship and try to learn a thing or two from him and vise versa

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Well, you don't know much aside from that. Remember that the Dealer is trying to keep the members somewhat separated from each other, in order to make sure that anyone who's captured only has limited information. You'd have to talk to them directly.

[eyolf]

Did I see the fool at any point? and if so what were the powers?

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

No, the Fool was one of the people who was out on assignment.