Chuckg Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Anybody here ever read Jack Chalker's original "Well World" series?(*) Remember the 'sponge syndicate'? Synopsis -- a little DNA tinkering on an alien parasite organism produced a really nasty thing... ... 'sponge'. (So called because it vaguely looked like a sea sponge.) If you were infected with organism A, you would slowly die in unbelievable agony, that made heroin withdrawal pains feel like a steak dinner. The only palliative was regular applications of organism B, the 'sponge'. There was no known cure -- parasite A attacked on the genetic level, and it was really hideously sick. The 'sponge syndicate' made more money than the Cali cartels -- simply by infecting a *few* people (billionaires, heads of state... or one of their immediate family or loved ones), and then pointing out that they were the only people in the universe who knew WTF sponge came from, and could deliver the regular doses necessary. Oh, and don't bother arresting the bag men who come to take the cash and deliver the sponge every month -- they don't have a clue either. Better hope Teleios has never read Chalker... (*) Chuckg's Quickie Science Fiction Review -- great ideas, some interesting characters, several fun things to read now and then, but overall crappy plot execution and wasted potential. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Never read it, but it sounds like good inspiration. Sadly, every time I try to think of what "I" would do with super genre cloning techniques, the image of "Women of Buffy Cubed" keeps coming into my mindseye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 *flips through his copy of CU* Going by the flavor text, it apparently came to Teleios' imagination as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Okay, maybe he SHOULD wear a hat with a feather in it.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 More seriously... what if Teleios were to leak a 'cure and innoculant' for AIDS to the mainstream medical profession and it worked! However, within the cure was something sinister. Any taking the shot (either as cure or to prevent) would become a walking time bomb of sorts, so that when a certain catalyst occured (radiation of a certain type, etc) struck them, they turned into horrid monstrosities ready to serve their master's will. If Teleios were patient enough, and willing to manipulate our nation's innoculation policies... well, things could get dire for our heroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 A bit large scale for Teleios... OTOH, I can see it finally being revealed that the reason Teleios has been such a low priority for investigation all this time is because the Attorney General's grand-daughter has been slowly dying of an incurable genetic disease that only Teleios' can deliver the palliative for... ... and, of course, he infected her in the first place. And has smugly informed the AG that any, err, disruption in his schedule will leave him 'too busy' to mix that month's doses. Remember in JSA recently, when Kobra walked scott-free out of a courtroom because he revealed that the entire crowd of bystanders outside had been infected with self-destruction nanites, and the spontaneous human combustions would occur one every 60 seconds until the bailiffs took the cuffs off and stood aside? (The Thunderbolt was /not/ on the line-up that issue, neither was the Spectre.) I can imagine Teleios doing something similar to the heroes... "You know, there are fifty people -- fifty poor, innocent, hardworking little people -- out there. People who are very, very ill. People who can continue to lead healthy and productive lives instead of being bedridden in terminal agony only because of the serums that I can make for them. And only I know how to make them. And I can't keep their supply going if I'm in jail, now can I? Are you willing to let them die just so you can win? Who are they? Where do they live? You know, I seem to have completely forgotten! Isn't that an odd thing for one of my intellect to have happen! Must be the stress of the moment. Terrible thing, stress. I much prefer to avoid it whenever I can. You foiled my latest Master Plan and defeated my creations. Now content yourselves with that victory... and get the hell out of my house." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 How about if his clone activates ahead of schedule? There would be two of them duking it out, with the heroes needing to minimize the collateral damage... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 A bit large scale? Hmmm.. I need to reread CU, I sort of envisioned him as a competitor with Dr. Destroyer and other masterminds. Not that he has a chance against the Doc directly mind you... and rather than conquest, he just wants to experiment, but a whole nation to play with didn't seem out of character for him to me. I can also see his offering his services to other villains. I imagine the Warlord would find the idea of homegrown soldiers or biological agents fascinating. For that matter, imagine if he gave Teleios some "Blueboy" (Hzeel) DNA in exchange for a few creations to join his shadow army? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 It's 'out of scale' because Teleios does not have a massive Shadow Army or Destroyer Agent Bases -- he survives partly by keeping the level of government response down to a level that he can manage. i.e -- nothing that would get an entire army sent after him... and a massive biological warfare attack... hell, current US doctrine is to nuke whoever tries one. A few dozen or hundred at a time, OTOH -- dusting the country makes you the next Osama Bin Laden. Dusting a small village merely makes you yet another supervillain mastermind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 I can see your logic, though I am probably going to have him be more of a 'playah' in my campaign. For another idea, why not steal an idea from a 4th Edition Dark Champion Product (The SCUD drug... can't remember which book) and have Teleios release a new drug with mutagenic properties on a city wide (or smaller) scale. SOme die, some are deformed, but eventually you have highly addicted people with super powers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Originally posted by Hermit I can see your logic, though I am probably going to have him be more of a 'playah' in my campaign. Oh, heck, even using my logic, Teleios can be a /major/ player. He's the guy whose DNA blackmail has people up to and including Cabinet members scared to cross him. He's the guy whose control of the Elixir of Life Extension gives him billions in profits each year from anybody rich enough to afford it and greedy enough to want it. He's the supervillain who can openly walk down the Riviera dressed in the most stylish of fashions, beautiful women on each arm, and never get touched. He's the guy smirking as he lazes on the deck of his two-hundred-foot yacht parked in the city's harbor, daring you to prove that it's him behind your current troubles, protected by the full force of the law re: 'probable cause'. In short, what the other playahs do through great force, he does through carefully measured force... and that brilliant, subtle, maddening intellect. Let the other playahs be the unsubtle types. Teleios can be the Ra's Al Ghul type. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 But I LIKE Unsubtle sometimes. Having a villain so in the shadows that even the PCs have no reason to suspect he's not there is very unsatisfying sometimes. It is not enough that I am clever... I must hear the wailing of players as they see what I have wrought mwhahwaha.. Uhem... sorry... I guess it would eventually come to light if clues were dropped. Good point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 a) If you want Unsubtle, use the Warlord. He's got a helicarrier and an army, fer gossake. You misunderstand. Teleios is not the 'unseen figure in the shadows'... Teleios is "the Teflon Don". Everybody knows he's guilty as sin, but legally, nothing ever sticks. He's got Wolfram & Hart class lawyers on retainer, he's got genetic blackmail on key politicos, and his minions are all cloned slaves and mindless monsters anyway, so you can never get any of his co-conspirators to roll on him... or even to stay alive in jail longer than a week, what with their DNA self-destruct programming! Teleios is the smug, arrogant bastard who you'd give your left gonad to bust harder than anything... but who you just can't get an indictment on. Think like Ananias Topps from "Normals Unbound", only worse. Granted, this does /not/ work vs. 'vigilante' campaigns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Ah, I grok you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 One of Alan Dean Foster's "Flinx" novels featured a drug called Bloodhype (Also the name of the book) which totally and irreversibly caused addiction in the first use, withdrawal caused agonizing death, and which could affect any known species in the galaxy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Re: Sick plot idea for Teleios... Originally posted by Chuckg If you were infected with organism A, you would slowly die in unbelievable agony, that made heroin withdrawal pains feel like a steak dinner. Steak dinners have a real potential to be painful these days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 23, 2004 Report Share Posted January 23, 2004 Sick plot idea for Teleios... Originally posted by Blue Steak dinners have a real potential to be painful these days Darn "Mad Clone" diesase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrine Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by Chuckg Teleios can be the Ra's Al Ghul type. Ah-ha! That's the niche! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Of course, if you are playing a low-level vigilantes campaign, you have to deal with the fact that Teleios is a really frickin' good martial artist with ludicrous stats, and any number of biotech tricks on him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 True, but he does /not/ have Resistant PD... and many, if not most, "Dark Champions" campaigns have as much gunplay as PUNISHER graphic novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Sure he does. 6 points each of Combat Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 /nods/ That stops the pistol fire. It don't stop the heavy weapons or the grenades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Hmmm...as a matter of fact, I love Chalker's works. I even had the opportunity to sit up all night in his hotel room a few years ago with some friends, talking with him about his books, characters, the publishing industry, and the Mafia. Interesting stuff! Sponge would indeed be a very nasty thing...and I could see Telios doing that, but just to a few important people, you understand... I also remember Bloodhype, Treb, but its' been so many years since I read the Flinx books that I don't even remember what the ultimate source of the drug was. The Flinx books I remember best were The Tar-Ayim Krang and Orphan Star. Remind me, please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebuchet Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly I also remember Bloodhype, Treb, but its' been so many years since I read the Flinx books that I don't even remember what the ultimate source of the drug was. The Flinx books I remember best were The Tar-Ayim Krang and Orphan Star. Remind me, please? Doc, I don't think Bloodhype ever discussed the actual source of the drug, although IIRC it was an organic derivative from somewhere out in the galaxy. If you'll remember they used several thousand individual doses dumped on the VOM to help the Tar'Aiym guardian defeat the VOM in psionic combat (Along with a bit of judicious help from Flinx). Alan Dean Foster has written several new Flinx novels in the last five years; you might want to check out the new books. I've been reading them since The Tar'Aiym Krang was first published in 1972 or 1973 (I know, I'm showing my age. I was a science fiction fan before I hit my teens.). I've always liked Foster's Humanx Commonwealth, it's my third favorite sci-fi universe after Larry Niven's "Known Space" and David Weber's "Honorverse." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted January 24, 2004 Report Share Posted January 24, 2004 I sometimes wonder what would happen if Foxbat commisioned a job from Teleios, and Teleios said "Oh, what the hell..." took the money, and did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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