EoD Pt 2: 2075 Q2 Planning (Patreon)

A new quarter, new headaches. The good news Edgar is that you finished your mandates in the nick of time. The bad news is we have new orders coming in. You aren’t going to like this. The NOAA have a project for you, and orders from DARPA.

They’ve given us 3 fully functional nuclear warheads. This upcoming spring, they want us to use these warheads to test the possibility of using nuclear weapons to break apart hurricanes. 

…I’ll go ahead and increase your wrath- about how much should I… Twenty? Yes, that sounds roughly correct. Anyways, they’re calling this Operation Titan-killer. Obviously it’s going to have disastrous results for us, but we don’t have the luxury of refusing: a big name is pulling strings here. 

That isn’t our only mandate, unfortunately. We have two others: the FBI want us to help them hunt down NEXT. We need to collect a dossier on them, the deadline being this fall. While we’re doing that, the Department of Education wants us to start work on our portion of the Better Think initiative: they want us to invest in at least one communities educational infrastructure by this winter, so that the start of next years first quarter students can start benefiting from the improvements. Side note- I’d suggest not putting it in Baton Rouge. We’ve invested a lot into that city at this point: we need to spread the infrastructure around lest we be accused of favoritism.

A lot is on your plate, Edgar, but last thing: I’d suggest having our current major project finished before this years national convention. 

Now, let’s go over the national news.

On the Airwaves: The DoP’s media division is finally complete, and producing a variety of educational and ideological content. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines. The branch was also funding various regional directors attempts at outreach, subsidizing the construction of broadcast infrastructure among other things. Community Broadcast Towers upgraded, first phase loses funding cost. 

DoP Textbooks: Calling all Team America members, calling all Team America members! The DoP is officially getting into the textbook manufacturing game! The first generation had already been rolled out- and then unfortunately recalled due to manufacturing errors. Once they were sorted out, schools across the DoP would begin receiving new books. 0/1 until DoP Publishing House and subsequent projects gain the [Education] tag. 

West Coast Laser Grid: The array of laser towers in the west coast were complete: starting in Hawaii and stretching up and down california and oregon, these structures are, on their own, only a modest improvement to national nuclear protection. But many citizens are already admitting sleeping easier at night, especially thanks to media severely overestating the effectiveness of the towers: many ill informed pundits were claiming that laser tower technology invalidated MAD. West Coast Missile Defence increased.

Radiation Poisoning in DC: People had begun to move out of DC. The reason? Radiation poisoning. Those who could afford to leave were starting to flee the city, driven out by the medical costs caused by radiation poisoning. People in Arlington had reported more zombie attacks, as well: every day, more crawled their way out of the Pentagon, or turned in their homes after drinking a lethal dose of sink-water. The older, more irradiated ones were proving more vicious. Many in the city reportedly also wanted to leave, but lacked the means or oppurtunity. 

Vault Tec Ultrapolymer: The Florida vault tec research facility had gone online, and you knew what it was developing, now: a brand new form of highly durable inorganic ceramic polymer that could be used to create more durable tools and items, like their bobbleheads, bowls and other containers, and casings for technology. Vault Tec has gained Ultrapolymer technology, increasing their Product Reliability(+). 

Hunting NEXT: More NEXT attacks: in Oregon, an entire town has been abducted over-night, taken in their sleep for nefarious purposes. In New York, a Bee-Bomb was set off, unleashing millions of angry insects on the downtown region. Numerous cash transports have been robbed. The FBI has mobilized and is on the hunt. Hunting NEXT has been upgraded. It has gained the following tags: [Crime, Investigation, Weird, NEXT]. Suspicion rating reduced. See project for additional changes. More specific investigations unlocked.

Australia Approaches: The DoP had reiterated: it intended to launch the Australia expedition this year. Clancy had sent you a message: she wanted you on the project. Apparently, your scientific acumen combined with your relative expendability made you the perfect option to lead it. If you agreed, then this August, for three weeks, you would be stuck on what might be one of the most uninhabitable continents on earth. 

Duracrete Shortage Continues!: The DoP still hadn’t brought its duracrete factories back online yet. This was quickly looking to become a problem- and just as importantly, an oppurtunity. You knew your sister: she was going to over-correct to keep this from happening again. DoP Quarries were likely getting expanded nation-wide, and she was likely going to expand manufacturing as much as she could get away with. If you built a few factories, you could earn yourself some brownie points with the department- and help contribute to cratering the cost of DuraCrete. DoP Factories project upgraded: see project for details. Build a DoP Factory to end shortage immediately. Shortage upgraded to -3. 

Can Openers of Appalachia: The riots in Appalachia show no sign of subsiding: in fact, Strikers have begun escalating, using their P-9’s as makeshift energy weaponry, using the mining lasers to ambush and peel open strike-breaker power armor. Controversially, Senator Blackwell, the only even semi-honest politician in office, has chosen to speak out in favor of the strikers, claiming that this is the result of Pinkertons heavy handed tactics, earning the virginian senator a censure. 

Chinese Submarine Destroyed: Off the coast of Baja, a Chinese spy submarine was caught and destroyed. You’re having trouble finding information about it, but supposedly it wasn’t nuclear equipped: thus you doubt it’s part of the ghost fleet. 

Cry Wolf: News from wall street, years of nuclear threats that haven’t manifested combined with the laser towers and other DoP investments have caused Vault Tec’s value to stagnate this quarter. Customers and investors both are starting to believe that nuclear war isn’t as urgent a threat as they thought, so less people are buying tickets and investing in Vault Tec products and subsidiaries. You’d call it a bubble popping, but it hasn’t actually popped yet and unlike actual bubbles Vault Tec isn’t actually over-estimated: the DoP is. 

And here’s the regional news this quarter.

The Knights of Capitalism: The factory managers finally escalated to the point of bringing in the Pinkertons in New Orleans. The knights of capitalism haven’t brought in their power armor division yet: it’s still wrapped up in Appalachia. However, you don’t need power armor to crack heads, and already there have been several assaults on protestors, both in public and, in several cases, in the protestors own homes after the Pinkertons forced their way inside, a move that has received condemnation from Mayor Stripe, who stated that “A mans home is his dominion, and not to be violated”. Pinkerton faction penetration increased in New Orleans. 2/3rds until Baton Rouge.

Gamma Strike: There have been a series of disasters in Lousiana: financial sabotage, committed by NEXT. Fraud, robbery, bombing IRS offices, erasing and destroying debt records, destabilizing propaganda. Companies were attempting to increase security in the region, but confidence was shaken, and already people were feeling the effects. Baton Rouge in particular was suffering, with several corporations having to perform layoffs and divest assets. Regional Financial Unrest increases. -2 to all [Finance] Projects. 

The Man From RobCo: It appears that King Tut took offense: he’s sent down one of his hatchet-men, Ron Dripper, to oversee operations. Heightening security, managing investment, and finding out who hit RobCo. The man is apparently a veteran fixer: you’re going to need to be careful here. RobCo has gained a Hero Unit. Hero Units are enemy characters that will, every turn, generate progress in special negative projects or sabotage ongoing projects: the amount of progress varies. Specifically, every turn hero units will roll a number of D100’s equal to their BRAIN Rank: To defeat a hero unit, you have to lower their BRAIN Rank via completing NEMESIS Quests: each completed NEMESIS Quest lowers a heroes BRAIN Rank by 1.

[Spoiler=Ron Dripper]

Ron Dripper

FACTION: RobCo

RANK: 1

Archetype: [Hatchet Man] - Ron Dripper is one of Houses fingers: a former advertising executive who was poached by King Tut, he’s responsible for RobCo landing a number of contracts, has helped hush up countless scandals, and has busted his share of unions.

PERKS

Mad Man - Dripper got his start in advertising, and it’s still his bread and butter. Now though, he doesn’t just advertise products, he also advertsizes ideas. This hero has +2 to [Media] projects.

Current Ongoing Project:

Hunting RADICAL: NEXT was taking credit, but King Tut didn’t believe them. Right now, House wanted answers, and Dripper was trying to sus them out. 5/100

NEMESIS Quest: Complete Chaos Science Mayhem Lecture in a city with RobCo faction penetration. 

[/spoiler]

New Alexandrian Protests: Bob Watkins has been arrested for tax evasion: the man has apparently been committing very big boy finance crimes, and was thus headed for big boy prison. His followers were calling it politically motivated persecution, and Pastor Watkins himself has in several papers that have interviewed him accused the judge of being corrupt, claiming that the man is railroading him.

Who is Stripe?: Wilbur has gotten back to you with the dossier on who Stripe is, and things are getting more and more confusing. Apparently, Dr. Albany Stripe was born in New Orleans: most of his adult life was spent as a door to door encyclopedia salesman, up until about five years ago, when records show some unknown series of events found him in New Orleans General Hospital, having violent seizures. A still as of yet unknown chemical had been found in his body, he had numerous heat and sulfur burns over his body, and had numerous injuries, including significant cranial trauma. Afterwards, he spent over a year as what appeared to be a completely brain dead vegetable, until one black friday where he suddenly made a miraculous recovery…but with significant personality changes, including severe memory loss, mood swings, and bouts of megalomania. Where once Stripe had been not particularly religious, he was now convinced that he was the devil possessing the corpse of Albany Stripe. Since then, his history is a giant patchwork, with more holes than swiss cheese: earned a doctorate in law, apparently became a master fiddler player, has probably committed at least one instance of murder, and somehow has access to an as of yet unknown source of wealth. 

As far as family goes, you find yourself disturbed to learn that Stripe is married: his wife, Zoetrope Stripe, apparently prefers to stay out of the public eye. 

The particularly alarming part however is that everyone who Wilbur interviews seems to have an abnormally well regard for the man: even when describing an incident during his recovery period where the man went on a fifteen minute rant full of insults, his nurse for instance describes him in glowing terms, as does a security guard he punched, a child he yelled at, and an old woman who saw him kick a man across a lobby. There is a grand total of one person you find who speaks negatively of Stripe, a secretary who worked with him for several months who describes him as deeply erratic and possessed of a near rancidly negative opinion about the worth of his fellow man. 

Alright Edgar, now let’s review your stats.

FUNDING: 2

INFLUENCE: 0

WRATH: 363

And here are your tasks.

• Complete Project Titan Killer in order to deploy a nuclear warhead against a superhurricane (DC 150) either this or next storm season.

• Gather at least 1 NEXT Faction Card by the end of the upcoming Q3 2075. Additional Faction Cards grant increased influence. 

• By the end of Q4 2075, complete two different [Education] tagged projects in a Community that isn’t Baton Rouge. 

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SECURITY

1 Dice, +0 to rolls

Financial Security [Finance, Investigation]: It wasn’t your department, but it might be prudent to help make sure the economy was still vaguely functional for now. The good news was, you had the perfect solution: create a financial crime investigation unit you could aim at the wealthy to make sure they actually paid their taxes and then some. It would be unpopular, sure, but lots of useful things were unpopular. 0/200, SELECT COMMUNITY. decreases Financial Insecurity and increases Public Order. Costs 1 Funding. High Suspicion cost. 

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AGENT

1 Agent Dice, +0 to rolls.

Hunting NEXT [Investigation, NEXT, Weird, Crime]: You should probably work on collecting a dossier on NEXT: the more you knew, the more you could do to disrupt their plans. Of course, finding them would likely require turning up a few rocks. DC ???, on success gain a NEXT Faction Card. Medium Suspicion DC. Increases Influence by 5. This Case is considered Cold on any turn where NEXT doesn’t attack, increasing its DC.

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SCIENCE

NEXT Tec [Investigation, Prototype, NEXT]: NEXT’s attacks had one benefit: their technology was easier to acquire. You’d have to step on some toes, but you should be able to requisition captured examples of the organizations gear and weaponry and reverse engineer them for your own use. DC 150, gain access to random NEXT Technology. Increases Influence by 5. High suspicion. 

Project Titan Killer [Ecology, Energy, NOAA]: You had been ordered to conduct special high energy tests using nuclear warheads to research the viability of destroying hurricanes with atom bombs. This was an insane idea. Even testing it would be disastrous. God, what the hell? DC 150, can only be performed Q2. Increases Atmospheric Irradiation. Increases influence by 10. Massively increases wrath. Repeatable three times. 

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OUTREACH

DoP Investment [Finance, Liberty Party, Faction]: A funding injection when paired with a firm expectation of results and extensive oversight would allow organizations to expand operations. Potentially less efficient than doing it yourself, but at the same time it would be fairly marginal effort. DC 50, SELECT FACTION. Must use at least 1 dice associated with the faction. Increases random faction stat. Costs 1 Funding. 

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MISCHIEF

Raiding the Warchest [Crime, Finance]: If you need funding, why not target a rival organizations financing? Via fraud or robbery, targetting another organizations coffers specifically would be less profitable than just going after banks, but there was something to be said for precision. DC 150, SELECT FACTION. Reduces factions Funding, lowering a finance related stat. If the organization has no finance related stats, increases financial unstability. 

Reznikov Safehouse [Crime, Security]: The Reznikov’s had extensive territory in Baton Rouge. Other cities, not so much: if you could establish some safehouses they could use, they could start conducting operations in other cities, allowing you to begin expanding their presence. 0/100, SELECT COMMUNITY. Increases Reznikov faction penetration. 

Reznikov Surplus [Crime, Security, Personnel]: The Reznikov’s were smugglers. Illicit chems, banned literature, exotic animals, and military surplus. Their products were dangerous, highly suspicious, and also extremely useful. Now that they worked with you, you could theoretically spend a little extra money integrating them into your day jobs logistics, helping supply the organization with all sorts of useful (if less than legal) resources. 0/150, increases Team America’s Black Market Connections and Departmental Mobilization and raises Reznikov’s DoP Goodwill. Cost 1 Funding. 

Under the Table Dealings [Crime, Logistics, Faction]: Of course, the idea of supplying an organization via smugglers was a fairly multi-purpose one. There were a variety of groups that could benefit from having access to Reznikov goods: you might even be able to make a profit, depending. 0/200, SELECT FACTION. Faction gains Black Market Connections and Wright Technologies Goodwill. Chance to gain Funding depending on factions financial status.

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