Killer Shrike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0akvaxB9eyE

7 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Its a pretty minor effect, honestly.  I think Mind Control (and other mental powers) are broken in Hero and always have been.  They cost vast points for minor effects and simulate the genre material very, very poorly.  I would rather see a structure more like transform where the desire effect determines the cost rather than a flat build structure across all desired attempts.  

Transform has different costs for specific attempts to accomplish a goal: Making someone's eyebrows pink costs 3 points per d6, its not a flat cost for every type of effect.  Mental powers should follow the same kind of structure, and target the Ego of a character to overwhelm it rather than presence attack-like levels of effect.

I could get behind testing something like that. If you want to pursue developing it

let me know.

7 hours ago, sentry0 said:

Cheap out and buy extra PRE with a limitation "Only to incite rage towards self".

Yeah, first read up on PRE attacks and see if that can be applied to handle the 'taunt' concept well enough.

5 hours ago, Durzan Malakim said:

Teleportation Tokens: Teleportation 5m, Area Of Effect (4m Radius; +1/4), Usable By Other (+1/2), Recipient must be within Limited Range of the Grantor for power to be granted, MegaScale (1m = 1,000 km; +1 3/4) (17 Active Points); 2 Charges (-1 1/2), Can Only Teleport To  Fixed Locations (Teleportation Circles; -1), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), IIF (Hermetic Token Per Recipient; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4)

Actually, while that was a good whack at the problem, I want to go a similar but different direction...one which doesn't cost Murgy points and instead costs those who carry the tokens points from their Equipment Pools. 

It's a trivial work of Artificium to create tokens that teleport to your own specially prepared t-port circles. Murgy can pay 1 point to learn the Recipe for how to make such items. Each one has some number of daily charges. Hunters that want to use them can carry them in their Equipment Pool.

This is mechanically the same as Alchemy, but using 'trinkets' or 'tokens' as a SFX instead of potions / elixirs / etc. Murgy would use KS: Hermetic Lore to create the items.

Also, I don't feel any particular need to get overly pedantic about the exact build of the t-port circles. We all know how they've been established to work, and we know Murgy has the capability to make them given enough time and somewhere to maintain them. People with a token can teleport _to_ one of the circles within ~1000 miles, or from one of the circles to one of the other circles regardless of distance...this uses a charge.  It is always a safe t-port from  circle to circle or when using a token. Anything that fits in the circle gets teleported. No free Nynaeve t-port kills...anything partially out of the t-port circle doesn't get teleported.

Without a token, Murgy can use his VPP to cast a t-port on the fly and then the power build matters.

To me, All Combat levels only start to make sense if there is a Characteristics Maxima in effect and you are at it for OCV / DCV, or if you are applying modifiers to the levels. 

9 hours ago, King Red said:

Killroy will buy some land carefully for the teleportation network. He would hunt for distressed commercial real estate, to get a bargain, and use front companies to buy the land, so our vampire friends won't easily give us a surprise.

Good stuff.

Ok, it's Lets Make A Deal time:

Your firm has enough operating capital to afford a 1-year lease on a decent 5 office, 1 large conf, 1 small conf room, 2x 3-way desks in an open workspace arrangement, a lobby, and basic small office IT set up in a 2nd tier city of your choice (not NYC, SF, LA, Chicago)...presumably in Boston but I don't care...ya'll decide. I'll throw in temp worker reception service for this main office for free. If you opt for this I will reduce your company's Wealth by 1  and increase its Holdings by 1. You wont get your Wealth back once the lease runs out.

You also have enough to afford 1-year leases on 4 run down / "distressed" properties (think old warehouses, old walkups, rinky dink industrial park offices, etc) with a fair amount of floorspace but no furnishings to speak of and poor frontage anywhere in the US....OR  2 modest but respectable properties that are smaller but have decent rented office furniture and set up to run a small satellite office out of in 2nd tier cities of your choice. Or some mix there of...on a 2:1 ratio.  If you opt for this I will reduce your company's Wealth by 1  and increase its Holdings by 1. You wont get your Wealth back once the leases run out.

If you grow your company over time, you can expand this further.

@Durzan Malakim @King Red

2 hours ago, ScottishFox said:

@Killer Shrike provides an elegant solution, but a limitation has to be limiting.  If their ability to power-up by taking energy hits is actually an advantage for them and the team then it should be built with powers.

 

Yeah, as always details matter; a fully correct answer would depend on how the rest of the character is built. It is however worth pointing out that by default Absorption does not provide defense against the thing absorbed...so if the character attracts lightning / electricity and takes damage from it...then it may very well be more of a complication than a benefit. Similarly, if the character draws lightning / electricity to themselves, then anything between them and the source of the energy will presumably be hit, so it does not necessarily offer much protection to teammates. Similarly, the hero might not entirely sink either the heat or the electricity (depending upon their Absorption roll)...in which case the excess heat and electricity might very well cause collateral damage. 

It is also worth pointing out (depending on how realistic one is being) that not all kinds of metal react to electricity in the same way...they are subject to Ohm's law and have varying conductivity and resistivity. Some metals are highly conductive, allowing electricity to flow thru them while others resist.

Also, the OP mentions "heating up"...conductivity of heat is different than conductivity of electricity...also one is measured in kelvins and the other is measured in siemens. Copper happens to have both high thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity, but stainless steel on the other hand is more than an order of magnitude less heat conductive and is something like 30 times less electrically conductive. Heat which is not conducted builds up, and can in extreme conditions result in the metal reaching its melting point.

In a superhero physics setting such details get in the way, but in a grittier heroes setting these kinds of flourishes can help add to the grist.

In the simple version, it might just be a Physical Limitation.

28 minutes ago, Thumper said:

I don't like Fate as a game...but I absolutely love Fate as a character creation system for HERO.  In my last four campaigns I have had players use Fate to create their characters, then converted their Fate characters into HERO characters for actual game play. 

You may find this document I wrote up many years ago relevant then...Trait Driven Hero

1 hour ago, Trechriron10 said:

I would say that the majority of people who prefer Story Games have seriously backed away from this stance. I also find these days that people are more likely to play both traditional and story games. I believe the worst of this superiority complex is behind us. I suggest forgiving the overly-enthusiast and focusing on what you like.

Ya, I play both heavy system games and light / story based games...and things in between...but only if I like the game itself. For instance, while I like Fate a lot I do not like PbtA (or Blades in the Dark) but accept that others do.

Friends don't make friends play in Powered by the Apocalypse based games against their will.

(I kid...but seriously just tell your friend you don't enjoy the game system and move on)

2 hours ago, Durzan Malakim said:

From my reading of the Here There be Monster's Mystic Wards & Circles skill, creating a basic Ward in a two meter area requires 5-15 minutes and imposes a -1 to the skill roll. The ward lasts for 3-6 months or longer with additional degree of success. To receive extra time bonuses, we'd start at the 20 minute time interval, and get bonuses for 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day, and so on of extra time. Since the degree of success boosts both the duration and effectiveness of wards, there's every reason to take extra time with their creation.

Yep. This is a deliberate design choice. Given plenty of time, a practitioner can lay down some serious wards, but you get _most_ of the benefits up front. So it's a trade off.

Also, for customers, you can find a sweet spot between "lasts long enough that we don't have to keep coming back every month" but not so long that "we got little to no return business because we did too good of a job".

2 hours ago, Durzan Malakim said:

Warding our home base could therefore take weeks to months of time even if I do a rush job rather than careful work. Murgatroyd could easily spend all day every day just making wards, but I suspect he'll limit himself to one 6-hour roll so he has some time to do other things in a day.

 

Murgatroyd has these priorities for our home defenses.

1. Mystic wards to provide protection against scrying.
2. Hermetic wards to provide supernatural resistance.

Jack can add necromantic wards to provide protection against undead as he is able. Again this is potentially weeks to months of work so perhaps something done in "down time."

You can also lay down an initial set of wards quickly, and then improve the wards as time allows, so that you get the initial benefits up front.

3 hours ago, Durzan Malakim said:

Based on the additional information provided, I'll amend our business model to cover these services:

• Warding Work for Hire: Murgatroyd with one or more bodyguards to watch over him while he's concentrating.

Don't forget Jack can do Necromantic Wards and could be taught how to do other kinds (at the expense of some XP). 

11 hours ago, Steve said:

What other professional organizations exist that we would be in competition with? Or are we the only one?

There are other well established Hunter teams, of course. A couple of the more notable ones that have been specifically mentioned in HtbM related content before are:

Halford & Co: a large expatriate Hunting organization based out of Costa Rica, with international interests. A three-generation family operated business comprised of members of the Halford family and trusted associates, they only go after the biggest bounties and are sometimes brought in on contract by supernaturally aware third parties that have an urgent problem and don't want to wait on red tape or rely on the usual ad hoc means of elimination. They are also often employed by many of the smaller Caribbean, Central American, and South American governments who lack the resources to deal with more serious monster problems on their own. Though the founder was an American expatriate, he married into a large Costa Rican family and had many children...thus the company is Hispanic in outlook and composition.

Garrett's Crew: an experienced and long running Hunter team that's in its fourth incarnation...before Garrett it was run by a shamanistic mystic and Vietnam vet called Donnovann, before him it was led by a Korean War vet called Gunny Baer, and before that it was founded by a WW2 vet and former OSS operator known as Terminal Bill. The team has generally favored those with a military background, and has developed an efficient corpus of operational tactics; they get things done with high precision and are known for being reliable. They primarily operate in the Southwest and up the Pacific Coast but are asked from time to time by Section M to deal with problems elsewhere.

A few others exist as serves the plot.

However, there has been no mention of an incorporation of Hunters such as what Durzan is keen on pursuing. The crusty old guard of Section M would have shut such an operation down before it got off the ground on general principle. The new guard would be decidedly more open to this sort of thing if it is done properly with all the i's dotted and t's crossed. So, basically, it is an untapped market. 

On 8/18/2019 at 2:47 PM, Steve said:

The USA has FBI's Section M as the government response to supernatural threats. In Europe, does Interpol have anything like this group, or is such organizing done more at the country-level rather than as an international response?

The United Nations has UNAO (United Nations Accords Organization); the Accords are a UN construct and ultimately the UN is the genesis of the modern assertion of rational mundanity as the dominant paradigm. 

The main thing to realize is that in the setting, the UN was actually formed to combat supernatural dominance of the world and enforcement of the Accords is it's true primary directive. Thus all UN member nations have some kind of Accords related official organ as part of the (secret) membership requirements of being in the UN.

I know that in popular culture Interpol is often portrayed as some kind of multinational police force, but it really isn't...Interpol is not a law enforcement agency (and it also is not a UN organization); it is more of a facilitation mechanism for cooperation between police forces of its member nations. In the setting Interpol is not a supernaturally aware / active agency with a role in the enforcement of the Accords. However Accords related enforcement activity might get handwaved / piggybacked across the interpol network under some mundane cover story or pretense from time to time. 

The UK has Mi-13, Australia has a relatively small group officially called AAESS (Australian Accords Enforcement Special Service) but unofficially called 'the Furphywhompers` because Australians can't take anything too seriously. Canada has the CAA (Canada Accordance Agency). France has a unit within the DGSI that has changed its official name at least twenty times since it was founded in the early 1950's but which is generally referred to as the DLA. Germany has a unit called Division UM within the Bundeskriminalamt / BKA which is similar to Section M. The Soviets had several small groups in various agencies; in modern Russia an unamed working group in the FSB does exist...but the Russians basically only give lip service to the UN Accords...in Russia monsters hunt you...ha ha only kidding...no but really Russia is not good place to be Hunter.

Etc.

It might be helpful to put some numbers out there to help scope things...

Across the western hemisphere, all of North, Central, South America and various islands off their coasts...there are less than 1,000 active and semi-active Hunters...including Section M Agents. There's a little more than that across all of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Around 2,000 worldwide, sometimes a little more sometimes a little less depending on who has died recently and periodic influxes of noobs. Add in retired Hunters and Hunter-adjacent folks that might come off the bench in a pinch and that number comes up to maybe 2,250. Non-Hunter Supernaturally Aware normals is maybe twice that many people at a stretch, worldwide. Non-Hunter sentient supernaturals, including kith and kin, is maybe around 10,000 total. Non-sentient, non-humanoid, non-corporeal, non-personified, etc fringe stuff is largely uncounted but represents a small but significant additional consideration. Cross-dimensional extra-dimensional entities also blur those numbers (some things reside _elsewhere_ but sometimes intrude upon the setting's "prime" dimension in various ways or for various reasons.

These individuals are not evenly distributed geographically; North America and specific European nations have disproportionate numbers of Hunters relative to the general population...in places lacking strong governmental support and some kind of reliable bounty system the financial incentives aren't there and local Hunters tend to be emotionally motivated and sporadically hunt specific things for personal reasons rather than operate as part of a systematic oppression. Similarly, in 2nd and 3rd world countries, supernatural power bases tend to be much more influential and operate semi-openly or even entirely unchecked...in such places Hunters tend to have short lifespans and be severe underdogs going against the status quo.

Similarly distribution across the "origins" of believers / psychics / mystics / professionals / and innati is not even (despite the iconics page potentially giving that impression). Believers tend to be more common outside of first world nations while professionals tend to be more common in first world nations for instance. Innati who are part of some group of not-normals tend to congregate / originate from wherever their people dwell while the unique and unusual innati are outliers where ever they occur. Psychics tend to be free occurring individuals, though some psychic abilities seem to run in families. Mystics tend to be produced as part of a family line or a heritage associated with one of the established mystical traditions. 

Hunter society is pyramidal, due to the life expectancy of individual Hunters not being great and the fact that the action-packed style of Hunting physically dangerous supernats is a young persons game, the majority of Hunters are in their 20's to late 30's and are on average mostly Professionals with a smattering of the other Origins. However as some supernat Hunters age more gracefully and get more powerful and / or more knowledgeable with time and experience...the top end of crusty experienced high-point Hunters tends to disproportionately be made up of the more exotic origins as most Pros have aged out or died or become exposed to supernatural stuff and ceased to be technically "normal" before attaining 'legendary' status. There are exceptions...Harker is a 100% normal legendary Hunter...but he's reaching the end of his career and 'getting too old for this shit', and there are a few other crusty old "normal" Hunters out there who still have at least one more good Hunt in them.

In first world countries with a working bounty system (or equivalent), successful Hunters are kind of similar to rap or pop stars in terms of their financial profile...they tend to start off poor and unknown, most remain that way (or in the case of Hunters, get killed), a few hit it big with a windfall (a big bounty instead of a hit single, but parallel outcome), and get large lump sum(s) of money that many of them don't really know how to manage properly as well as a window of interest from the powers that be to see if they are going to turn out to be a one-hit wonder or if there is long term potential there. A small number of them manage to follow up their first hit with another and convert their 15 minutes of fame / success into a career, which leads to further opportunity being put in front of them. 

Your group of Hunters had their initial one big hit with the Cthonic dimension success, and were able to do the equivalent of converting it to getting signed to the biggest label in town for a record deal. You're the new hotness on the scene, basically. What you do with your window of opportunity to possibly step up and start playing with the big boys is up to you...

On 8/18/2019 at 12:22 PM, Steve said:

Since wizards are such a rare commodity, as the business expands, this might require Murgatroyd to become more integrated into the different wizard communities to try and offload some of the increasing demands for his time on temporary hires.

 

Murgatroyd: I need to refresh their office's wards again? This makes the third time for the month. I now officially hate our ward warranties. Who came up with that idea?

Yes, you'd think that...which brings up the obvious question...why is Murgy so standoffish with established wizard society? That might even be one of the core themes of this Arc...

If you guys do decide to go down the "Wards for hire" line, I have a character queued up to help push that narrative thread that kills a few birds with one stone.

Quote

 

Actually, adding on a temp agency service for Hunters might be a potential untapped revenue stream. It would also be a great way to allow each Player to bring in additional PCs.

Ya, this is actually where my head was at. It's also a thing where your company can have employees / affiliates / associates / etc

9 hours ago, Durzan Malakim said:

I believe we have several revenue streams and customers:

• Mundane (likely corporate) customers with problems that we can solve better, faster, or cheaper with magic

You'd have to keep the magic side of it completely secret and if you fkitup you'd have perpetuated an Accords violation. 

Quote

• Mundane (likely corporate) customers who've had past supernatural problems and want protection from future issues

Let's re-word that to "Supernaturally aware customers..." and we can  work with that.

Quote

• Supernatural entities who have problems in either the mundane or supernatural world

 

Yes, this definitely works. 

Quote

• (This might require either a Contact or favor from SAIC Harker or Matthews)

If you start leveraging your FBI influence for corporate advantage you run the risk of a conflict of interests. Of course, this sort of thing happens on the low down in reality, but you definitely don't want to make it part of your core pitch and you certainly can't rely on it.  

Quote

• Referrals from section M for supernatural issues that don't clear the "open a bounty" threshold (This might require either a Contact or favor from SAIC Harker or Matthews)

This already happens as part of you being "Special Assets"...the things they don't put on the bounty boards due to being too important or requiring more finesse than a bunch of murder hobo Hunters looking for scalps are available to you. And from time to time they will directly ask you to help out on certain things as needed. That's not a business opportunity, that's a function of the deal made when you became Special Assets. 

Quote

• (Hopefully in the future) Referrals from other happy customers

As CEO, Murgatroyd would master sales pitches for each customer, although the first one would be tricky since he can't exactly say how they achieve their "magical" results.

 

I would suggest you leave off trying to provide service directly to mundanes as it's just fraught with dangers.

Here's a few business opportunities that you are well positioned to pursue that don't jeopardize your relationship with Section M or risk violating the Accords directly:

Supernatural Wards are a commodity. They are very useful, it requires the highly skilled labor of very rare specialists. Those who are supernaturally aware who can afford them definitely want them once they know how great they are. Wizards generally don't like doing them en masse as they take time, they are somewhat vulnerable while they put them down as it requires concentration, and it is fkng boring. There are some non-Wizards who can do wards, and they tend to be the ones  making money doing work for hire to lay down and maintain wards. The demand far exceeds the supply of practitioners willing to do the work. Thus, business opportunity.  

There are two basic kinds of supernatural problems: the more typical is low intensity weird happenings that people start to notice but which are not directly alarming, and high intensity / emergent threats requiring immediate action. The high intensity stuff is all reactionary, tactical response work...the last two things your group did for instance. The other sort tends to percolate a bit and eventually get noticed or reported and end up getting paid attention to...once Section M becomes aware of a new possible supernatural thing if it is not immediately obvious to the analysts what might be going on an Initial Assessment bounty is put up on the Hunter boards. IA's (as they are called) don't pay much compared to Sanctioned bounties on dangerous verified supernats but it is steady, reliable, and somewhat safe work. There is a strata of Hunters good at the investigative / information  gathering side of things who make a chunk of their living off of doing IA's. Most of the time, its nothing and they get paid a flat fee and a per diem. Sometimes it is something and they get paid for Confirmation on a sliding scale based upon the threat  level of the supernat thing they verified the existence of and the quality of the information they submit. In some cases, those same Hunters then turn around and collect the bounty on that thing if one is posted, but the meek and mild variety of Hunter is usually done and leaves the violent side of it to other Hunters responding to the posted bounty. Unconventional Solutions could start a line of business around IA work, with the expectation that they would be ideally situated to rotate out the investigative asset and rotate in a kill team (probably the PC's) to collect any bounties before other Hunters could respond when that pans out.

Individual Hunters sometimes just can't handle a job, or get in over their head. If they don't have a personal network to call upon they're hosed. There are essentially mercenary Hunters who make their living responding to requests for help in return for a cut of the resulting Bounty or an upfront fee, but quality and timing issues abound as well as the problem of finding the guy with the skill set needed for a particular hunt in a timely manner. Similarly, quality information is a commodity. Most hunter groups don't have access to an actual wizard or an expert on killing vampires or a linguist who knows how to decipher the specific Sumerian dialect of the strange scroll they found. Your firm could offer a solution to this, becoming a sort of Hunter outsourcing firm. You could start up and support an affiliate network. As your clients are other Hunters (who usually have money to spend thanks to bounty pay offs)...you would be free and clear of direct violations of the Accord of Secrecy.

Along the same lines, Claims and Asset Management. After a bounty job, Hunters have to file field reports and depending on the circumstances submit evidence, etc, to document their bounty claim. Then they have to wait for their claims to get processed. Sometimes there are problems or more documentation is needed, etc. Even when everything goes 'happy path', many Hunter are not very tech savvy so managing the online filing / e-processing / and automatic check handling flow that modern Section M uses for the money side of it is a bit of a strain for them. Then, when bounty money is paid out and available most Hunters don't know what to do with lump sum payouts beyond spend spend spend or let it sit in an account...they are not financially savvy enough to invest or to  do anything intelligent with it. This extends eventually to retirement planning and preparation for potentially untimely death (a real risk in the Hunter's line of work), but that's a digression. Your firm could provide a managed solution to deal with bounty processing, with additional service available to distribute and / or invest bounty payoffs on behalf of Hunters using the service. This would potentially, over time, result in your firm having a significant amount of assets under management and proffer other possibilities. 

1 hour ago, Durzan Malakim said:

I believe we have several revenue streams and customers:

• Mundane (likely corporate) customers with problems that we can solve better, faster, or cheaper with magic
• Mundane (likely corporate) customers who've had past supernatural problems and want protection from future issues
• Supernatural entities who have problems in either the mundane or supernatural world (This might require either a Contact or favor from SAIC Harker or Matthews)
• Referrals from section M for supernatural issues that don't clear the "open a bounty" threshold (This might require either a Contact or favor from SAIC Harker or Matthews)
• (Hopefully in the future) Referrals from other happy customers

As CEO, Murgatroyd would master sales pitches for each customer, although the first one would be tricky since he can't exactly say how they achieve their "magical" results.

 

Ok, so we'll need to clarify terms here a bit to make sure there are no misunderstandings.

"Mundane" refers to the majority of the worlds non-supernatural population who are unaware of the supernatural and whom the Accords are intent upon keeping that way ("for their own good", of course). Some mundanes may be _suspicious_ or harbor 'hippy dippy' affectations (like crystal power, etc) but they are essentially harmless and live their lives entirely unaffected by the supernatural world.

There are of course mundanes who suspect the existence of extra-normal / supernatural things and pick at the fringes of the veil of secrecy, but they come in a Baskin Robbins variety ranging from "on to something specific and real" to "completely wrong and maybe insane". Those in this group who pursue quiet lines of personal inquiry are not a threat to the Accords. Those who are vocal / bring attention to cover ups / otherwise make people question "normalcy" are a threat to the Accords and steps might be taken if necessary. This gradually gives way to the next group of "normal" people on the spectrum of supernatural awareness.

There are normals who are aware of or have even had direct non-reputable experience with one or more specific supernatural things. This relatively small group of people can be thought of as "partially supernaturally aware". It is important to note that this is not a binary situation...someone may have had contact with, say, some kind of Sidhe related supernatural activity; they may now have some vague or specific knowledge in the realm of Faery Lore; this does not mean they also somehow know about all the other kinds of supernatural things out there...it also doesn't mean what they know about what they actually encountered is objectively and academically complete and accurate. Such a person, having survived or witnessed such a thing, might go off and start trying to research / discover more, but they are going to have a very difficult time getting accurate information; the silly illustrated fairy books and confusing Celtic myths they're likely to find at the library / book store might have kernels of truth, but they are vague and misleading...if they weren't the powers that be who have been enforcing the Accords for a long time now would have removed those sources from the public purview. These people are dealt with on a case by case basis depending upon what they know. These people are borderline and this is a grey area...at a certain point a given individual may know enough to not be considered a mundane any longer...which brings us to the next group.

Finally, there is a relatively very small set of people who are technically "normal" / non-supernatural but who have some level of accurate knowledge of one or more types of supernaturals, probably know at least the broad strokes of the Accords, and are essentially a lost cause from the perspective of the Accord of Secrecy. They may not know everything, but they know enough. From an Accords perspective, these people are not considered to be "mundane" and are themselves subject to the Accords (particularly the Accord of Secrecy) and are subject to the punishments for violating them the same as a supernatural.

Professional Hunters obviously fall into that last group, as do past and present Section M personnel. There are also others scattered here and there, particularly in law enforcement, journalism, some branches of academia, locals who live near supernatural nexi (actually the plural of nexus is nexus but I can't stand to look at it), and of course survivors of past supernatural outbreaks who "saw too much" to be subject to the usual cover ups. All major and most minor cities have at least one person in law enforcement who has encountered some "weird shit" and has likely worked with Section M and / or one or more Hunters in the past. Older editors and show runners in news media have had at least one visit from a Section M agent in their careers and at the very least know that certain kinds of stories should not be reported on verbatim or at all. Etc. 

So...when you say you want to do work for Mundane customers using magic...that's problematic. 

Unconventional Solutions, LLC

Privately held, board undisclosed

Private Investigation and Security Risk Management firm

Corporate Offices: Boston, MA

________________________________

Wealth: 6

Holdings: 0

Renown: 0

________________________________

@Durzan Malakim @King Red : tell me more about what Murgy and Killroy set up for the company while the other Hunters were doing their things for the last two months.

I'm also, I must admit, a bit fuzzy on what you intend for your company to actually do...who precisely are your clients? How do you advertise to them? How do you monetize your services? You know...what is your actual business plan, within the bounds of the setting and how hunting monsters for bounties is established as working?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qliphoth

Hermetic Qabalah (from Hebrew קַבָּלָה (qabalah), meaning 'reception, accounting') is a Western esoteric tradition involving mysticism and the occult. It is the underlying philosophy and framework for magical societies such as the Golden Dawn, Thelemic orders, mystical-religious societies such as the Builders of the Adytum and the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, and is a precursor to the Neopagan, Wiccan and New Age movements.^[1]The Hermetic Qabalah is the basis for QliphothicQabala as studied by left hand path orders, such as the Typhonian Order.

Hermetic Qabalah arose alongside and united with the Christian Cabalistic involvement in the European Renaissance, becoming variously Esoteric Christian, non-Christian, or anti-Christian across its different schools in the modern era. It draws on a great many influences, most notably: Jewish Kabbalah, Western astrology, Alchemy, Pagan religions, especially Egyptian and Greco-Roman (it is from the latter that the term "Hermetic" is derived), neoplatonism, gnosticism, the Enochian system of angelic magic of John Dee and Edward Kelley, hermeticism, tantra and the symbolism of the tarot. Hermetic Qabalah differs from the Jewish form in being a more admittedly syncretic system, however it shares many concepts with Jewish Kabbalah.

Yeah...I imagine Murgy looking at all of his teammates like "for serious?" most of the time. I see business meetings at Unconventional Solutions LLC going something like this, with Murgy attempting to break things down for his "colleagues"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luG5987YPlI&feature=youtu.be&t=75

2 hours ago, Durzan Malakim said:

Looking good there @Scything. Am I the only one who captions Drew's face with the thought bubble .oO(What have I gotten myself into?)

Nope. I picked that pic for his Mexico misadventure with that very idea in mind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valknut

An ancient symbol of Odin, in the Here There Be Monsters setting it is the symbol of the Kommer Aska, a group classified as terrorists in mundane society but in actuality a supernaturally active association dedicated to the goal of, as they put it, `restoring Midgard's connection to the Nine Realms, allowing the Midgard Serpent to fulfill its ultimate purpose and thus incite Ragnarok to begin`.

Why they might want this to come to pass is deeply weird and a subject you may or may not want to broach should you ever have an opportunity to strike up a conversation with a member of Kommer Aska.

The Valknut is also, semi-coincidentally, associated with nationalist organizations of a certain type as a symbol of old norse / Germanic heritage. I say semi-coincidentally because some of those groups have been manipulated by Kommer Aska towards their own ends and it can get a bit murky.