Back In The Flesh...

[Marcus Impudite]

For awhile now, a group of occult villains in the campaign world have been recieving advice from the spirit of an evil sorcorer from an age long ago. No longer satisfied with his rather limited role as a ghostly éminence grise, said spirit recently had his disciples perform a ritual that has restored to him his body and the full measure of magical power he wielded eons ago when he was in the prime of his life. One would have assumed that after something like that he'd immediately be plotting something big, but instead you find him out indulging the pleasures of the flesh he had been denied in all the time he was consigned to the realm of formlessness. Just tonight, you've observed him pigging out at one of the most expensive buffets in Campaign City, drinking an ungodly amount of equally expensive wine, and finally topping off the evening by seducing and bedding some pretty young woman he just met at the bar. WWYCD?

[Drhoz]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Vitus would nod to him a colleague. Despite the number of times other magic users have tried to assassinate him, and despite his deep distrust of anything undead - read: "burn it! burn it with fire! Lots of fire!" - Vitus is at least polite enough to pretend polite neutrality at least until they've finished talking shop.

 

And then point to the resurrected wizard that he's now free to ditch the cadre that resurrected him and head off for a fresh start - new magical research, fancy restaurants worldwide, and hookers and blow await.

 

Hell, offer his services to a major government and he'll probably get unlimited supplies of all four.

[JmOz]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Marksman: Would monitor the situation, but if he is doing nothing illegal in his new life (or even if he is doing some illegal stuff that does not concern his sense of right or wrong) he would leave him the hell alone. Come on, here you have a guy who was causing problems, now not causing any, leave him alone or he will start being a pain in the ass again

[kickback]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Now I've got that Wall of Voodoo song in my head.

 

Edison Palmer is always eager to make powerful friends and increase his store of magical knowledge. He'd be on this guy like white on rice. He'd play it subtle though. Make an introduction, buy the guy a drink and/or a hooker, and plant a seed of doubt about the circle that brought him back.

[Chuckg]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Starguard: Isn't this guy still liable for everything he facilitated/conspired on as a spirit?

 

If she senses too much power coming from him to handle herself, she'll call in Horus-re first, but this guy isn't just going on his way unmolested.

 

Dr. Pain: Get the guy into a drinking contest, carouse with him some, laugh and whoop it up. Somebody's going to have to cope with two problems when he wakes up tomorrow: 1) absolutely killer hangover, and 2) waking up in power-restraining cuffs, in a warded cell, in Stronghold.

 

Baron von Darien: To him, this would be more of a case for 'demon hunter law' than mortal law. IOW, kill the guy while his guard is down.

 

Kaian: "On the one hand, my current teammates are all mostly conventional superhero types who absolutely Would Not Care For. On the other hand, this is clearly a Mystic World 'Hunter' type situation rather than conventional superhero business. On the practical hand, this guy did everything he could to facilitate mystic apocalypse while a spirit and has to go face the judgement of the Afterworld for that, in addition to stopping next week's Apocalypse today. Its just, if they catch me doing it... hah, wait, this idiot is snorting blow and shooting up smack. I'll just disguise myself, go slip a little uncut stuff into his next dose and voila, fatal overdose. And nobody will ever know it wasn't an accident."

 

(later on) "... y'know, it just occurred to me that between Exemplar the cosmic justice avatar and Nox the mystical psychopomp, Vanguard had options available to deal with this guy that didn't involve murder." *sighs* "Backsliding again."

[Balabanto]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

I don't know if the law covers crimes that were committed in the previous Age of Man!

 

Uh, is he dumpy and evil, with a goatee and male pattern baldness, and using wicked magic to get the nymphet to go with him?

[Chuckg]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

I don't know if the law covers crimes that were committed in the previous Age of Man!

 

Starguard, the Baron, and Striker-One/Kaian are either characters who primarily move in the Mystic World, or at minimum have a heckuva lot of crossover into it. Likwise, their aforementioned teammates Horus-Re, Exemplar, and Nox are likewise. (Granted, Nox has the conventional superheroic CvK...) So in situations like this, they tend to (each in their own way) go "if the law of man doesn't cover this, then there are other laws...", and start goin' all Doctor Strange on it.

 

Plus, every modern mystic supervillain this guy's spirit consulted with on mayhem? He's up for conspiracy charges on each one anyway.

 

Edit: Cripes, I'd missed that at first. If this guy's from a prior age of man, then Kaian's met him before... and almost certainly fought against him. And if he's another survivor, somehow, of the original Atlantis... his Dark Secret as the original destroyer of Atlantis is something Kaian really likes to keep secret. He wouldn't murder an innocent to do so, but give him somebody not-innocent who needs silencing and he'd line up the killshot so fast he'd catch fire from the atmospheric friction.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

None of my PCs would do anything - yet. If he's only out eating, boozing and wenching then there's no problem. Domino, my sorceress would probably go up and start a conversation with something like "So. . . you having fun, mister?" She doesn't know him, but she would know of him from her studies into the history of magic.

 

They would however, keep an eye on him. Then, if he started going back to his old bad habits, they would have cause for action.

[Cygnia]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Here's a question...were there any illegal activities done leading up to the ritual that brought him back to the land of the living? Murder, assault, robberies of rare occult items, animal cruelty...that sort of thing?

 

At the very least, his resurrection might be grounds for "abuse of a corpse". Thereby, he might need to be brought in -- as evidence against the cultists.

[DusterBoy]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

I an' I not sure dat resurrecting a corpse counts as "abuse", mon. Bot, on de odder hand, it certainly be "bodysnatchin'". I an' I believe dat Burke an' Hare, dey got into much trouble over dat.

[Blue]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

What's to do other than envy him?

[hfergus]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

All my characters would pretty much leave him alone unless he's using mind control and such, but watch him. Black Tiger and Olorin would watch him very carefully. Olorin probably would talk shop with him if he would take time out from his debauchery.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Super Model wouldn't know exactly what to do. She's not a mystical type, might not even be aware the guy was troublemaking from beyond the grave, and wouldn't know the proper response if she was aware. Probably she'd just stay in a state of heightened alertness for mayhem while he's in the city. If he has an appreciation of hedonism, she can probably keep tabs on his whereabouts through the glitterati grapevine.

 

If the guy has been causing trouble for super heroes but not messing up the environment, Earth Girl probably wouldn't care. But if he (or the means of his resurrection) resulted in big disruptions of nature, all bets are off.

 

Kurzhaan the Conqueror's response would depend on whether or not they'd met in the distant past. If not, live and let live. If they had, he might toast the return of an old drinking buddy , or more likely set out to kill him with extreme prejudice if they were enemies ages ago.

[Yansuf]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

]Kurzhaan the Conqueror's response would depend on whether or not they'd met in the distant past. If not, live and let live. If they had, he might toast the return of an old drinking buddy , or more likely set out to kill him with extreme prejudice if they were enemies ages ago.

 

Do you often kill without extreme prejudice?

[sinanju]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Iron Maiden would be of the opinion that as all of his crimes were committed long, long ago (in "ages past"), then:

 

1. The US government has no jurisdiction (he probably committed them all in the Old World or Atlantis or somewhere that was not North America).

2. He died eventually. As far as she's concerned the "statute of limitations" expired with him.

3. While he may have advised the evil cultists, they are still responsible for their own crimes--not him.

4. If he's using illegal drugs, that's a matter for the police, not a superheroine, at least until he demonstrates that the police can't handle him.

5. As long as he's not breaking any laws or mentally influencing the women he seduces, he's not doing anything wrong.

 

Eating lots of good food, drinking lots of good wine, and having lots of sex? If Iron Maiden had been trapped as a bodiless spirit for god knows how long, she'd be doing the exactly the same thing. He sounds like her kind of guy, actually....

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Do you often kill without extreme prejudice?

 

Well, you can be businesslike and matter-of-fact about it with some people. If you've had to hack your way out of the inside of their pet giant snake or eagle after they sicced it on you, not so much.

[Badger]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Badger- He just goes home, he doesnt really care about this.

 

Frosty Bob- Challenge him to a beer-drinking contest (which Bob will win, of course )

[Lucius]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Just to point out to the several people who want to kill this person:

 

1. He's already been dead once, and got better.

 

2. The whole point of the hypothetical is that he was actually more evil and dangerous while dead than he is alive. Killing him to silence him seems especially ill advised given he was so free with advice and opinions as long as he didn't have a physical mouth to stuff with good food.

 

3. Simply killing him (as opposed to, say, magically binding him somehow) would either

A. Merely inconvenience him until another resurrection could be arranged, or

B. Put him back where he was - but even angrier. If he can't arrange another return soon, he's going to go from casual conspirator making the occasional suggestion, to a dedicated foe with a definite agenda against whoever put him back into the afterlife.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

House of the Palindromedary

[Chuckg]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

1. He's already been dead once' date=' and got better.[/quote']

 

Starguard has access to powerful exorcism effects. Kaian has access to... well, Exemplar's "cosmic justice fist" attack, although that's the nuclear trump card. Suffice it to say, there are options in the Mystic World for permanently getting rid of pesky spirits, and he's entirely willing to use contacts and prep time to go borrow one.

 

2. The whole point of the hypothetical is that he was actually more evil and dangerous while dead than he is alive. Killing him to silence him seems especially ill advised given he was so free with advice and opinions as long as he didn't have a physical mouth to stuff with good food.

 

Kaian entirely disagrees with this logic: he knows that simple worldly pleasure is going to pall in a few weeks, months, or years, and then somebody's going to be back on the evil archmage gravy train. With all of the intelligence, knowledge, and malevolence that made him such a menace before, and ginormously greater ability to apply it hands-on. Rather than deal with that, might as well take this opportunity to zorch the idiot while he's not lookin'.

 

Remember, he's an immortal, he's going to be looking ahead well down the road. And as a character experienced in the Mystic World, nothing you said re: returns is any news to him.

 

And in all my characters' cases, there is also the question of simple justice: this guy, even as an evil spirit, was a spiteful ball of malevolence who willingly aided multiple attempts to harm millions or billions. He's got it coming, and by God he's gonna get it, right in the neck. And pointing out that delivering said justice would be very difficult... they're superheroes, its called the 'never-ending battle' for a reason. (Attempts to outline exactly how being immaterial and dead complicates the legal charges are not entirely relevant -- we discussing justice here, not the legal technicalities. Justice and law are in theory supposed to run together, but in practice sometimes don't. But we digress.) And attempts to outline how the situation intrinsically does not allow for the delivering of justice simply makes us go 'So, the universe itself stacks the deck vs. this evil SOB getting what he's so richly earned... wow, what fun.' (See below re: superhero genre and drills.)

 

Also, as a general rule, WWYCDs that attempt to force a choice solely between two options, each one less than thrilling, trigger in some posters (including me) a desire to find the third option and take it. The whole point of rp'in the superhero genre is that you don't have to settle for the lose-lose or the compromise, yours is the drill that pierces the heavens.

 

So, continually refining your scenario to narrower and narrower options until you get the answer(s) you wanted to hear? Generally does not work, unless you do so with superlative skill, and sometimes not even then.

[Lucius]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

So, continually refining your scenario to narrower and narrower options until you get the answer(s) you wanted to hear? Generally does not work, unless you do so with superlative skill, and sometimes not even then.

 

In case you didn't notice, it's not my scenario. Nor am I refining it. And notice that I did say "simply killing" and the alternative I suggested was meant to be representative, not exhaustive - I'm sure particular characters in particular campaigns have plenty of means of elimination that would be more effective than a swift bullet to a vital organ.

 

I was just pointing out that posts saying things like "Line up the kill shot" etc. struck me as being exercises in futility, especially the one who wanted to kill the hypothetical in order to keep a secret - given that the hypothetical had already had plenty of time (millennia, if he's been an evil spirit in communication with various mortal parties all this time) to reveal it if that were going to happen, had proven to be more communicative dead than alive, and would actually have a motivation to blab if killed again.

 

Also' date=' as a general rule, WWYCDs that attempt to force a choice solely between two options, each one less than thrilling, trigger in some posters (including me) a desire to find the third option and take it. The whole point of rp'in the superhero genre is that you don't have to settle for the lose-lose or the compromise, yours is the drill that pierces the heavens.[/quote']

 

As far as I know, the original poster was not trying to force a choice between only two options. I'm certainly not doing so.

 

I'm not trying to take away your drill that pierces the heavens, nor do I care how many heavens you pierce with it as long as they're consenting adult heavens.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary suspects that Lucius is going to go write up that drill now...

[Chuckg]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

I really should pay more attention to poster names, or else I wouldn't have made that error.

 

But the reason I didn't check is because I never would have imagined that someone would have spoken authoritatively about setting facts and limitations, as well as intent, for a scenario that wasn't his own.

 

(edit) I mean, seriously, in your post above you told us all this:

 

The whole point of the hypothetical is that he was actually more evil and dangerous while dead than he is alive. Killing him to silence him seems especially ill advised given he was so free with advice and opinions as long as he didn't have a physical mouth to stuff with good food.

 

If you are not the original poster, then you don't get to even try telling anyone what the whole point of the OP was, much less making any statements of fact about the setting that aren't borne out or supported by the original OP. What the actual intent of the original poster was is something only he knows, unless he chooses to tell us. Barring the invention of Telepathy Over Internet Protocol, I sure can't go around saying it for him, and neither can anyone else.

 

So, let's just drop this whole dead end.

[Marcus Impudite]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Speaking as the original poster, the fact that the newly resurrected evil wizard is out wining, dining and wenching instead of plotting something merely means (in my mind anyway) that he's human. It doesn't mean he's no longer evil, it means he agrees with the old saying "the dead know one thing for certain, it's better to be alive." Remember Big Trouble In Little China? I'm fairly sure that, had Jack Burton not killed him, Lo Pan would have celebrated being free from the "Curse of No Flesh" in a very similar manner...shortly before setting out on a quest for world domination, of course.

[sinanju]

Re: Back In The Flesh...

 

Speaking as the original poster' date=' the fact that the newly resurrected evil wizard is out wining, dining and wenching instead of plotting something merely means (in my mind anyway) that he's human. It doesn't mean he's no longer evil, it means he agrees with the old saying "the dead know one thing for certain, it's better to be alive." Remember [i']Big Trouble In Little China[/i]? I'm fairly sure that, had Jack Burton not killed him, Lo Pan would have celebrated being free from the "Curse of No Flesh" in a very similar manner...shortly before setting out on a quest for world domination, of course.

 

Which is why Iron Maiden will keep an eye on him. But as long as he's content to eat, drink and be merry, he's not doing anything wrong. She's got enough on her plate without borrowing trouble. There'll be time enough to deal with him when/if he decides to become a supervillain again.