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The Widowed
06-26-2005, 07:23 AM
aren't so contaminated with bad politics. Yeh, I think I'm pulling an Alumette. The City Hall, Asylum and Party Place can go sail for all I care. I just need to be there for my supergroups, and at present this is the best way to reach out to everyone in them. Besides, Nyx and Frost need me to keep the "Darkest Light" and "Ask Uncle Mischief" topics from dying off, right? Anyway....]



Memo from the desk of Bloodywedd

Attention, all Malice in Wonderland members:

"Malice in Wonderland members" does sound kind of wordy-gurdy, doesn't it? Mind if I just call you guys "my droogies" instead? Great. Thanks.

Allow me to introduce you droogies to a new barrel of fun: Pierre Ladron. He's the pigeon of the month, and we're going to squeeze that pigeon till he pinches out a golden egg...one that he stole from us in the first place.

http://img160.echo.cx/img160/9997/Ladron1.jpghttp://img160.echo.cx/img160/9652/Ladron2.jpg
http://img160.echo.cx/img160/6530/Pierre3.jpg

Ooh, Pete. Cheap glasses, bad tie and that jacket's looking a bit threadbare. What have you been doing with all the money you've been skimming from us, anyway? It's certainly not going into your wardrobe.

You see, Pierre Ladron's the guy we've been going through to keep the feds from tracing our ill-gotten rewards back to us. If we want to acquire something, he'll sneak it in for us. If we want to launder our cash, he'll run the funds through some bogus real estate purchase in some third-world country that nobody cares about. Like France.

The problem with hiring guys like this is that the stupid ones tend to get greedy. And our friend Pierre is one of the stupid ones. All this time he was skimming cash off the money laundering--mostly by lying about international monetary conversion rates, thinking that we'd never check the numbers ourselves--and pocketting some of the imports that were meant for us. "The Crowley Ring never got to the ship. I'll take the next banana boat over to France and see what happened to it." Blah blah blah. He took the ring to First National Pawnbrokers, that's what happened to it. And once I figured out he was being less than honest with us, it wasn't much later that I figured out what kind of racket he had set up. Bad news is, that wasn't much later after Pierre went for broke and figured he'd cheat us out of a whole paycheck.

See, he'd been skimming and skimming and skimming his little heart out, and so I rechecked the books and found out that he's into us for about fifty-thousand. The last shipment of goods was on a ship which blew through a storm in the North Atlantic. Pierre thought he could just pocket all five baubles and tell us that the crate they were in got sloshed off the deck when the typhoons hit. Too bad for him that I'm a psychotic psychic and--being suspicious as I was--I knew exactly what the story was. He had the good sense to bolt for the door before I got too close.

So I learned from that encounter that his intention is to meet with one of his contacts in the smuggling business--one Jean Paul DeLorraine--to arrange transport of our treasures out of the country. What our man Pierre doesn't know is that Monsieur DeLorraine won't be able to keep his appointment, seeing as DeLorraine somehow accidentally bound himself hand and foot with duct tape, locked himself inside the trunk of an old Monte Carlo and drove it off an embankment into the Red River. Tragic, really.

So the time for the rendezvous was to be Sunday, July 3rd, shortly after 8:00 PM Central. Now, Pierre didn't stay in the business this long by being patently obvious. The confidential instructions which DeLorraine was keeping safe inside his vest pocket for me (not long before his tragic accident) are written in Pierre's typical riddling style:

[Translated from French]

"Until the clock strikes eight, I shall be well-hidden on Major Flanders' crown as he peers across the city of nebulas and constellations. Come that time, from there I shall walk the most indirect route to the place of our meeting, where the twins pay witness to the stories of heroes. Wait for me there; You shall recognize me by my blue beret and green jacket. To avoid undue attention to myself, I shall not sprint madly to our conference, nor shall I attack the scoundrels who litter the streets unless I am fired on first, and I shall forsake those streets and boulevards for the lots and alleyways.

Alas, in this endeavor I have betrayed the Malice in Wonderland gang, and I rightly fear discovery and retaliation. If they should confront me, I shall be forced to run for my own safety and seek shelter where friends draw arms against friends. Should any of their gang be planted squarely in my path, I shall be forced to turn away and flee via another path. Should they surround me and ensnare me away from the spires of the gladiators, they would wrest my treasures away and deny me even a last stand for my freedom. This I cannot allow, my friend.

I wish us well and hope that we can do business together.

--Msr. Ladron

Sorry, Pete, but I'm afraid we'll have to disappoint you. Or at least my droogies will. I'll be off getting dental caps which may or may not be for the alteration of my dental records.

So it's up to you guys to catch Pierre and make him cough up fifty grand and five magic trinkets. Needless to say, the more droogies we have showing up for this, the greater the likelihood of Pierre taking a dive. My advice is to find which municipality he's in, split up and comb the streets till you find him, then alert the rest of the gang, coordinate with each other and try to stop him from fleeing.

The trinkets are mine, but the fifty grand can be split up however you guys want it. There will even be a promotion in line if I get all of my trinkets back; You guys can decide among yourselves who among all the droogies present at the time is most worthy of getting ahead.

Oh, yeah...and feel free to do whatever you want to Pierre afterwards. He's a bastard and he deserves it. Treasure the memories; Don't take photos for the cops to find later. Capisce?

So grab your nets and go stop this pigeon, my droogies. I'll keep in touch.

--B

(As you might expect, Local-chat roleplaying is encouraged. Be ready to spit out things like "You have nowhere to run, Ladron!" and "Give up the goods or I might have to get rough". And if you decide to kill Pierre or rough him up or push him off a cliff or whatever, try to save it for after the chase. :rolleyes: Text emotes and action emotes alike can help with this, and feel free to set up text macros like how I showed you in the Combat Chatter thread.)

(Burbie, if you want Miss Judgement to join Malice in Wonderland, you can consider this her entrance exam. The other members of Malice will put their heads together and decide how well you did. After the gang's done with Pierre, Bloodywedd will make her entrance (a little worse for wear after getting some teeth doctored) to retrieve her DO Ennies and handle any new memberships and/or promotions. Any questions?)

suburbanhell
06-26-2005, 11:52 AM
An interesting challenge indeed, given you can't physically harm another hero sans arena. Should be fun though.

The Widowed
06-26-2005, 05:21 PM
Oui. Thank heaven for emotey goodness. If only we had a "tackle" emote or a "slap him around" emote or a "break a cane across his legs" emote. ;)

From what I figure, the hard part will be finding him, especially if nobody can interpret the clever little riddles in Monsieur Ladron's letter. After that, the even harder part will be blocking him from fleeing to his emergency site. Expect him to take to the wide open spaces and make a scene once he is discovered.

Of course, if he should actually make it to the rendezvous point and discover that his contact isn't there, chances are that he'll immediately suspect foul play, at which point he'll try to flee the city (and the country) by calmly progressing to either the nearest tram or one of the gates leading out of the zone; The exit point will be randomly determined if Pierre does somehow make it to the rendezvous point unmolested. Of course, if he's discovered by our gang as he's making his way to the exit, he'll flee to safety as before.

For this event I've set up a "Wonderland" global chat channel and I invite all of you to join it. You might not want to use it to discuss strategy during the event; I'll be kicking off the event with a "Here he comes" message over that channel right before I swap Bloody for Pierre. And, of course, if Pierre actually succeeds in fleeing the city, he'll be using that channel to gloat over Malice's failure. And then Bloodywedd will be embarrassed. Do not embarrass Bloodywedd. <.<

Cryogentic
06-26-2005, 06:54 PM
Hopefully I'll be able to get back for the event your running, was out due to my computer frying itself. It took a while to get the money to buy a new comp, but while I was doing that my account was closed so I'm trying to reopen it now.

The Widowed
06-26-2005, 07:01 PM
Oh, that explains it. And here Kurai and I thought that you had been swallowed up by Second Life...so much so that a "Let's all get Second Life trials and crash at Cryo's house" event was in the works. ;)

Cryogentic
06-26-2005, 07:19 PM
lol I wish that was the case. Nice riddle, I can't remember much of how Paragon is laid out though so must of it I have no idea. I'll have to get on as Cryo before the event and refresh my memory

Cryogentic
06-26-2005, 10:38 PM
My account has been reactivated so I'll make it, and after a quick overlook of Paragon I think I solved the riddle

Cryogentic
06-27-2005, 01:19 AM
What date? and is the time in EST?

The Widowed
06-27-2005, 08:41 PM
How soon we forget. :P

It's 8:00PM next Sunday, and that's Central time...which would be 9:00 Eastern, or 7:00 in Arizonaland. :)

Where? Well, that's for you to find out. :lol:

Titomancer
06-28-2005, 12:20 AM
I, more than likely, will not be able to make it, as I am moving this weekend. However, as Victor is not exactly a field operative, I have prepared this statement on his behalf:

"Da fool sold his life for material greed. He alreaday be mine, he jus' don' know it yet. De spirits, dey tell me he tink he smahtah den us....dat give us de advahntage. Matters of de spirit warld keep meh detain' on de night of de meetin', so me can' be makin' face in parson. But me be sendin' some special help from de udda' side. You all can 'ave de money...it mean not'ing to me. I wan' de body...an' de soul."

Basically, use this as you see fit. Spirit aids bound to Victor. As there is no actual power for this, or any in game effect, just use it as you see fit....maybe it'll accentuate an inherent ability, maybe protection, maybe even clairvoyance, or a spiritual bloodhound. Whatever you guys want to do with this, go for it. But if no one has a problem with it, if you guys DO kill him, the spirits will take the soul back to victor, or the body, if you guys need a quick and dirty way of disposing of it. Doesnt even need to come up, just trying to get my foot in even though I cant be there.

Have fun with the event :) and rock on for planning it :)

The Widowed
06-28-2005, 12:24 AM
Hmmm...how would something like that be implemented, anyway? Having Pierre start making noises (coughing emotes and whatnot) every block or so might work, but it would also defeat the point of the exercise: Figure out his destination and/or efficiently use a team to comb the streets and find him. :think:

Cryogentic
06-28-2005, 12:28 AM
I don't think it will if you have him cough only someone close by would hear it, so if we are lost in finding him his coughing won't help us. or you can have it just slow his pace as he moves

Titomancer
06-28-2005, 12:42 AM
It doesnt actually need to make an impact, but what I was thinking was that basically a spirit "slave" would travel with each member, and assist them whatever way they could. Be it merging with them to augment strength, or speed. Or giving subtle hints to location. Or even be used, like i said, as a bloodhound, or an attack dog, whatever. Just giving out material for more interesting Emotes. But like I said, it can be an easy way to dispose of the body in an untraceable manner (well, untraceable by mundane means).

The Widowed
06-30-2005, 01:21 AM
That or perhaps Pierre could take even longer getting to his destination, as he gets "lost" once or twice...say, 30 minutes to get there instead of the 15 or 20 originally planned?

And check out Akamaz' new post in the "Ask Uncle Mischief" thread. I approve. :D

Akamaz
06-30-2005, 03:09 AM
heh i was going to ask if possibly agent Q. could get involved, after all, those 5 artifacts in the wrong hands. pierre the embezzeler could have ticked off more than just bloodywedd

Titomancer
06-30-2005, 04:01 AM
And check out Akamaz' new post in the "Ask Uncle Mischief" thread. I approve. :D


And where, pray tell, is that? I'm lazy and don't feel like wading through forums on dial up.

Cryogentic
06-30-2005, 05:09 AM
Well we are the wrong hands so we want it in the wrong hands just our wrong hands. I almost feel sorry for the guy when he gets interogated by Bloodywedd, at least I would of left him the abilty to walk

What she was talking about http://www.cohguru.com/forum/showthread.php?p=34429#post34429

The Widowed
07-01-2005, 04:10 PM
Come to think of it, I wonder if Akamaz is simply taking the indirect route of asking Nyx for advice. "Where will Pierre be going, Nyxie?"

Become one with the riddle, Maz. :D

Akamaz
07-01-2005, 04:18 PM
heh i know the answur already, i gots me sum edjumacatin, an ain't "mailce" villains masquetrading as Heroes? (and ai'nt the S.w.O. realy "grey" after all, embezzlement is bad for the economy

Kurai Inago
07-02-2005, 03:05 AM
Heh, I got the riddle pretty well.... but I won't spoil it. Secondly, I'm going to make someone to Join Malice.... however, I'm not quite clear on what kind of character to make. I mean I know Pseudo-Villain, but anything more than that?
If all else fails, I'll just re-write Disconnection's (My Warshade) backstory a little. (Former Hero, lost powers, became Warshade Trying to regain the Publics favor. I'd change that last part to getting revenge on a Society that shunned him.)

The Widowed
07-04-2005, 12:23 AM
40 minutes till kickoff!!!

Now that that's out of my system, here's a complete list of items which Pierre nicked from my shipment of perfectly legitimate purchases. Really.

1 Li Tieh Kuai's Earring (Handy for focusing my brain power and helping my Levitate attack deal heftier slams.)
1 Li Tieh Kuai's Candle (Nice for soothing my neural pulses and allowing my healing magic to take greater effect)
1 Li Tieh Kuai's Net (Useful for snaring naughty boys; Supposedly works great in conjunction with my Dominate power.)
1 Nectanebo's Stone (Focuses my sense of mind over matter, allowing me to push my psychic powers over greater distance.)
1 Crowley's Ring (Excellent for fine-tuning my perceptions and, therefore, the aim of my psychic assaults.)

Remember: The 50k is yours to divide amongst yourselves. Just bring me the mystic pretties. Think you can do that, my droogies?

--B

The Widowed
07-04-2005, 06:07 PM
And so it came to pass that Pierre Ladron hatched his plot to escape the city with the prizes garnered by his swindling. He began his endeavor from "Major Flanders' crown" and--to the best of my knowledge--there is only one Major Flanders Fried Chicken in Galaxy City--the city of nebulas (as in the Nebula District) and constellations (as in Constellation Row)--and that lies in the far northwest corner of Galaxy City, far from his destination "where the twins pay witness to the stories of heroes"...the emo-drama-troupe-roleplayer-infested Gemini Park.

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/6137/Pierre1.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre1.jpg)

So Pierre made his way down the fire escape and started circling around the municipality, unawares that Malice in Wonderland could hear every word that he muttered to himself. Perhaps Victor Voodoo's curse had manifested after all...

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/8376/Pierre2.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre2.jpg)

Though only two of Malice's own showed up--the ringleader KryoGentic and the initiate Nightfire Alice--they managed to come upon him even as Gemini Park lay within his sights. So close and yet so far, Pierre.

With a sarcastic greeting of "Well, hello there" as Alice practically came up and tapped Pierre on the shoulder, the chase was on. Pierre fled to make his stand "where friends draw arms against friends" beneath "the spires of the gladiators"...the Arena.

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/6530/Pierre3.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre3.jpg)

Alas, only two anti-heroes were not enough to surround Pierre and halt his flight entirely. Shouting for help desperately as he fled, he finally led Kryo and Alice into the Arena, where he unveiled the trap he had set for them.

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/2601/Pierre4.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre4.jpg)

"Fools! Do you think ZIS is ze end? Non! I have you right where I want you! Behold! My diminution ray! Where did you think the money I took from you REALLY went, no? Ha! Now you are weak, Malice een Wonderland, and I am strong! Zis shall be ze END of you! HahahahaHA!"

And so the diminution ray kicked in...oh, okay, it was really an arena terminal....

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/8672/Pierre5.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre5.jpg)

...casting KryoGentic and Nightfire Alice into an uncertain fate.


To be continued?

The Widowed
07-04-2005, 06:24 PM
Yeh. I love cliffhangers. Don't you?

So Kryo, Alice and Pierre were trimmed down to SL5. Team duel, two to one odds. Hey, he could still triumph and earn his freedom, right?

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/5728/Pierre6.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre6.jpg)

In the end, it was almost as lopsided of a victory as the Rodney King beating. Pierre managed to take down Alice once, mostly thanks to the good old caltrops/web grenade/shoot 'em all to pieces trap. But as the scoreboard would have revealed, Alice in turn wiped Pierre out nine times, and Kryo scored ten. Ug. Lee.

After twenty minutes of pure misery for Pierre, the match ended and Pierre gave up, amid copious "surrendering Frenchman" jokes from the two victors.

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/4875/Pierre7.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre7.jpg)

After a bit of coercion, Pierre gave Alice the money under the pretense that he had already given Kryo the five magical relics. The ruse quickly collapsed, of course, and Pierre was forced to cough up the five artifacts as well. Then, true to form, Kryo stuck postage stamps on his head and made him dance like a monkey.

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/1383/Pierre8.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre8.jpg)

They then dragged Pierre to Freedom Plaza, where Bloodywedd was waiting to chain him into the back of a van and haul him off to her playhouse.

In Freedom Plaza.

Ironic, isn't it?

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/8836/Pierre9.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=Pierre9.jpg)

As Alice split the cash with Kryo, Bloodywedd's trinkets were given to her at last, and--empowered by their mystic might--Bloody joined Kryo and Alice on many adventures that evening, including the liberation of the Oracle and, with it, a claim to the Spelunker badge.

Oh, yes...they also saw these lights in the Hollows. Neat, huh?

http://img96.echo.cx/img96/9346/MiniComets.th.jpg (http://img96.echo.cx/my.php?image=MiniComets.jpg)

And so the evening ended well for Malice in Wonderland. Will Pierre Ladron one day escape Bloodywedd's captivity and pursue his revenge?

Well...maybe.

Should have just pushed him in front of the tram, guys. ;)

Cryogentic
07-04-2005, 07:49 PM
Congradulations to Alice on becoming a new member but sadly she will never know the joy of my initiations :(

The Widowed
07-04-2005, 07:53 PM
Instead, she will know the joy of my initiations...which rely on more riddles, puzzles and liquid thinking, and fewer monkey dances. :lol:

Titomancer
07-04-2005, 08:42 PM
....can I still 'ave de Frog?

The Widowed
07-05-2005, 04:11 AM
"Frog" as in frog or "frog" as in Frenchman? :D

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 05:09 AM
Instead, she will know the joy of my initiations...which rely on more riddles, puzzles and liquid thinking, and fewer monkey dances. :lol:

come on you know you like to see the new recruits dance and sing and make a fool out of themselves for our enjoyment

Titomancer
07-05-2005, 05:17 AM
Frog as in Frenchmon....can I 'ave?

The Widowed
07-05-2005, 08:35 AM
Maybe after Bloody gets done with him. She's still peeved over him ripping off her trinkets. You can have Pierre's trademark beret in the meantime.... ;)

The Widowed
07-05-2005, 08:36 AM
come on you know you like to see the new recruits dance and sing and make a fool out of themselves for our enjoyment
I'm going to pass this judgement off on Nightfire Alice.

So, Alice...whadayathink? :D

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 08:53 AM
I think she will like it a lot don't you Alice :chaos:

Akamaz
07-05-2005, 01:03 PM
I know S E A M U S enjoyed his. too bad I don't have a slot to remake him :(

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 04:35 PM
you can always rejoin us when CoV is available

Titomancer
07-05-2005, 04:37 PM
*puts on berret* Ooooh, dat's a nice 'at.

Akamaz
07-05-2005, 04:39 PM
I know, i'm almost debating on remaking him... i have a character who i have a good backstory written up for, but he kinda sucks to play... (ar/eng blaster) and I at least had fun with SEAMUS I i remade him for CoV tho, hed probably be a mastermind, just like everyone else... hmm he was a grav/storm controller... i just wish they would let loose the grav/dark controller, he'd be perfected then...

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 04:57 PM
Mastermind sounds fun, getting minions and all. For Kryo i'll probly go with mastermind or dominator.

The Widowed
07-05-2005, 04:57 PM
I still haven't decided if Bloodywedd will be a Mastermind or a Dominator. Dominator might suit her psionic powers better, but I might consider Mastermind if your lackeys can be psychotic clowns, mimes or Carnies. :D

Praetorian Widdy gets Stalker all the way. :cool:

Titomancer
07-05-2005, 04:59 PM
If they have a Necromancy pet power (Zombies, SPirits, whatever) Victor will SO be there

Akamaz
07-05-2005, 05:04 PM
heh i kno, we could ALL be masterminds!!! a SG full of minions and bosses :)

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 05:05 PM
lol, I think I would want some brute raw force in the SG so i can have someone move that fridge into the other corner, its too heavy for me.

Akamaz
07-05-2005, 05:05 PM
that's what the hordes of zombies and robots and Bloodys...err.. playthings.. are for :)

OneHitWonder
07-05-2005, 05:18 PM
I'll be back with y'all in CoV... just have to think of a good villain... got a few ideas ;)

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 05:18 PM
those minions are so temptinf depending on how they can look. If I can get them to look like they escaped from an Asylum or maybe steal Dominatrix's minions I would probably go with Mastermind

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 05:18 PM
I'll be back with y'all in CoV... just have to think of a good villain... got a few ideas ;)

:D good to hear

The Widowed
07-05-2005, 05:54 PM
I'll be back with y'all in CoV... just have to think of a good villain... got a few ideas ;)
Liiiike...Miss Mannered and her hordes of wayward ninja schoolgirls? :D

Akamaz
07-05-2005, 06:03 PM
that decides it, S E A M U S will have to be reborn.. i'll do m y best to be available tonight for an invite around say... 9:00 pm CST?

Cryogentic
07-05-2005, 06:10 PM
I think I'll be around that time if i'm not on has Kryo reach me through a global tell or something.

Kurai Inago
07-06-2005, 06:25 AM
Well I had a good time at the event, along with the many random missions that followed. And I think Alice would rather not dance like a monkey with postage stamps on her head. And on the Subject of CoV, Alice'll either be a stalker or a Brute.

The Widowed
07-06-2005, 06:26 AM
You said that you (as Alice) had followed Pierre for several blocks, was it?

Stalker. Definitely Stalker. ;)