Player Name: Ronike ---> karthik_king
Character Name: Bane
Character Identity: Antonio Marcos
Status:
Loss
Role PM:
You've always been the alpha male. When you live almost every day of your life in a prison, it is pretty understandable. After all, the best survivors in Santa Prisca's infamous prison were the most feral. You built your strength of character and mind through reading books from the prison library and vigorous exercise. It was not long before you were the top dog, and your people took notice, not least of which being the prison's warden, who accepted payment from some shadowy corporation to test a new performance enhancing drug on you.
Although the drug succeeded in making you stronger, it is so addictive that you will suffer crippling side effects if you do not take it every twelve hours. The drug is taken via a tube that feeds directly into your brain.
Your mission is to establish yourself as the alpha dog in Gotham, your new prison.
LOGISTICS:
Before moving to Gotham City, you dabbled in cocaine sales to North American dealers. As such you have saved up about two thousand dollars.
You have just arrived in Gotham City, and you begin the game at the airport.
You don't know where to get Venom from. You have enough to last you a few days for now. You know it was a corporation based in Gotham that initially made the drug.
To hide the tubes on the back of your head, you wear a large hooded sweatshirt.
ABILITIES:
Above human capacity strength -- not unlike a PCP user, you are capable of breaking handcuffs, breaking down heavy doors and even walls, and other feats of strength. You max out at about lifting a car over your head, which isn't easy, and takes a few seconds.
Your strength also gives you a darn good jump/running endurance, something people will not expect when chasing you.
Alliances
Carmine Falcone
Bane was first brought into the fold of the Italian Mafia when Don Carmine Falcone needed to put together a team of exceptional talents. This alliance remained tight-knit for a while, despite Bane only performing the one job for Falcone. The alliance was briefly and severely shaken when Bane attempted to extort Falcone while incarcerated, but was then revitalized when Falcone saved him from his deportation.
Catwoman
Catwoman made a deal that actually saved Bane's life, and Bane was given to her by Falcone as the beginning of a quid pro quo that would become legendary in the criminal underworld. Bane and Catwoman performed a heist together before going their separate ways. This was initially meant to be a temporary separation, but ended up being far more permanent.
Joker
Bane was hired to break the Joker out of captivity, and as such they were both enforcers in Falcone's name for a brief time. Their alliance was both brief and motivated by opportunism in either's case.
Possible Alliances
The Chechen
The Chechen launched several violent strike operations -- and planned many more that never got off the ground -- that would have made a man of Bane's talents very useful. As a tactician, Bane would have been a powerful pawn to ally with.
Hush
Because Hush desired only to best particular people, his goals did not conflict with those of Bane. As a result, their differing combat styles and combined intellects could have proved quite potent, and I can think of scenarios where either one was in trouble and the other could have tipped hte scales in their favor.
Black Mask
Seeking only power, it's quite possible that Black Mask would have happily run his criminal operations in the shadows, using Bane as an enforcer and figurehead for his organization.
Ducard
The mysterious Frenchman had very particular goals and no particular desire for infamy, only results. Accomplishing his goals in the most violent ways possible would have been a sure path to victory for Bane, and as such they were a perfect mesh waiting to happen.
Activity:
Bane commenced his day at Gotham City International Airport, immediately taking a taxi eastward into Amusement Mile. Bane selected the River City Motel from his various options for accomodations, checked in, and relaxed. Shortly after doing so, he walked to the nearby Red Eye Café, purchased some time on the computers and an early lunch, and began researching.
Clever as he was, Bane searched for major pharmaceutical companies in Gotham City that were active during the time of his experiments. Finding several that fit the bill -- ThorneCorp, Advanced Physiosolutions, Phoenix Pharmaceuticals, and even Wayne Enterprises, among others -- Bane then looked up stock information from around the time that the experiments were conducted. Finding that ThorneCorp, Phoenix Pharmaceuticals, and Advanced Physiosolutions all saw significant boosts in the value of their stock, he began to research what he could about their reputations at the time. All three companies were noted as having undertaken "various government contracts from behind closed doors".
Satisfied with this, Bane returned to his hotel room, purchasing a prepaid cell phone on his way there. Early in the afternoon, he took another taxi to the heart of the city, in the Black District's downtown. Bane entered Da Filippo, a prestigious waterfront hang-out for the Italian Mafia. Entering, Bane purchased a drink sizing up the people around him. Instinctually, he was able to quickly identify a likely criminal, and went for the best-dressed one of the bunch, buying him a drink and engaging him in conversation. Eventually, Bane slipped in that he was be looking for work, and that a man of his strengths could be very useful. The man guardedly replied that yes, he probably would. Bane replied by leaving him his number, before heading back to his hotel room.
Later that night, Bane called in to Gotham Tonight, questioning Mayor Garcia as to what would be done about the narcotic problem in the city. Bane alluded to the sinister things going on behind-the-scenes with large corporations, and further inferred that he may need to "solve" the problem. An elaborate revenge may or may not have been on his mind. Quite shortly thereafter, he called in to warn Killer Croc that the Joker was clearly leading him about for his own amusement, amused by his fellow juggernaut's gullibility.
As luck would have it, the Joker would be apprehended just a few short days later. And deep within the bowels of his inner sanctum, Carmine Falcone was plotting a prison break to end all prison breaks. All he needed was an astonishingly strong man with no qualms in taking innocent lives -- it was not long at all before Bane received a phone call from The Roman himself. Falcone had one crucial question to ask Bane: Could he tip over a stopped vehicle? Bane's response: "You're making it too easy for me." In exchange, Bane wanted equipment, money, and most importantly -- Venom. He gave Falcone a deadline of a few days to secure him Venom, and both parties agreed on the terms.
The day the Joker was being transported to his arraignment, it was time to move. Bane met up with Falcone, and was supplied with his equipment -- an M16 assault rifle, an enormous and extra-thick flak jacket, a belt stocked with extra clips, and a triggered thermite bomb. Falcone brought Bane in his limousine one street parallel to where the Joker's convoy would be stopped, in an alley, and Bane left, waiting for his moment. The Joker was being transported in a large prisoner transport truck, with a standard black-and-white for an escort vehicle. Suddenly, bears, tigers, and every other beast one could think of were trampling their way through the street, bringing the convoy's movement to a screeching halt. And Bane began to run.
He'd struck into the side of the transport vehicle before anyone realized he was there with a murderous thud, hands denting impressions into the steel siding. With a tremendous heave, Bane used his momentum and mountainous strength to get the truck up to a tilt, and, eventually, tipped onto its side just as the dazed officers began to realize what was happening. Bane unstrapped his assault rifle, slinging himself up onto the truck with ease and planting the thermite bomb. He ignited the bomb, rapping on the wall to warn the Joker, and moved back.
Bane shoots dead an officer as he tries to climb through the open passenger side of the transport truck, then leaps down into the truck as the escort officers begin to open fire. Boosting the Joker out quickly, Bane then hauls himself back up and opens fire on the escort officers, taking their bullets with ease and promptly killing them. As this happens, dozens of identical Jokers have begun to flood the streets, and the real Joker has disappeared down the alley Bane warned him of. Bane quickly takes a different alleyway and makes his escape in the chaos.
Unfortunately for Bane, he'd made a grave error that I... cannot remember. But, somehow, Batman had located Bane's motel room, and enlisted the aid of newcomer superhero Robin and the morally dubious Catwoman to apprehend the behemoth. As Bane counted his riches and took his dose of Venom, he had no idea that the first outing of Batman and Robin was about to take place on his own turf.
Immediately, Batman attacked, breaking in as quickly as possible and using a great array of gadgets. Bane opened fire on Batman, who proved too lithe for him and used several melee strikes on the massive foe. Bane made a well-timed move, casting his gun aside and making full contact with a left cross that sent the Caped Crusader flying across the hotel room and through part of the wall. Batman quickly retreated, and Bane reloaded, giving chase.
As Bane exited, he was struck in the neck by a tranquilizer dart Catwoman had been supplied with before hiding on the roof. Before he could retaliate, however, he was struck in the boot by Robin's grappling hook. As the much smaller man yanked from a floor below, Bane stumbled, before grasping the wire and yanking. Robin disengaged the grappler just as he began to fly through the air and landed gracefully. Meanwhile, Batman had resumed the fight, leading Bane down the stairs.
Unfortunately, this was yet another trap, as Batman had oiled the stairs with an undetectable substance and used only blind spots created for himself. Bane's massive footfalls sent him tumbling down the stairs, his weight and the solid concrete proving a far more fertile blunt strike than any melee combat. As Batman moved in on the now laid-out Bane, the monstrous man refused to give up, and opened fire on Batman, striking him several times and knocking him to the ground. Bane quickly fled to a nearby parking garage, as Batman ordered everyone to surveil and intercept.
Bane climbed up to the top floor quickly, where he was met again by the trio. Bane used up the last of the ammunition he had on him before casting away the empty firearm and taking to vehicles for improvised weaponry, heaving hefty car doors and fenders like frisbees and sportballs. His light opponents dodged these assaults deftly, moving in to strike and attack whenever possible. At one point, as Batman knocked Bane to the ground, Catwoman cartwheeled over him, electrocuting him right at the neck with her own Taser technology. Bane responded by lashing out, just missing her with his strike. Batman soon decided they should retreat and allow the sedative to take effect. Just as Robin was leaving, the last to retreat, Bane hurled a car door horizontally toward him. Leaping off the edge of the parkade's roof, Robin straightened out, the door just zipping across his back as he fell, then fired his grappler into the wall and swung down to the next floor.
Desperate, Bane crouched and began to punch at the concrete below him with all of his might. It took no small amount of time, but after a while, he was able to punch right through to the next floor and drop down, with scantly sore knuckles that were barely bleeding being all he had for injuries. And yet, for some reason, every time he slowed down to think, he began to get overwhelmingly drowsy. Confused and enraged, Bane began thrashing cars about, looking for Batman, taunting him. Batman refused to engage, instead keeping a watchful eye on the giant and moving only to direct him away from civilians.
Eventually, frustrated, Bane climbed to the outer wall of the parkade and dropped down several floors. He then moved over to a vehicle, looking in the back window and finding just what he wanted. Bane broke into the car and laid down between the back seat and the back of the front seats. He then closed the door behind himself and covered himself with a blanket, hoping he could hide until things blew over. Unfortunately for him, this was exactly the kind of action that Batman's sedative needed to take effect, and he was knocked out in seconds. It was easy enough for the trio to find Bane after that.
Calling in to MCU, Batman had Captain Jim Gordon come over with heavily armed men ready to house an elephant. Gordon brought weaponized animal tranquilizers and personally escorted Bane in the back of the truck, and shot a tranq dart straight into Bane's neck every single time he seemed to be stirring. Bane was briefly awakened to speak to his legal representation, warned that he would have a fully armed SWAT team immediately outside his door. Bane relayed his story to his counsel, who thought it would be best to play up the angle of his lethal addiction.
Later on, a judge and Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes came to Bane's cell for an official arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty, spinning as exaggerated a yarn about his ordeals at the hands of a pharmaceutical company and throwing names of prestigious corporations. His attorney specifically underlined the lethal nature of his addiction. In a controversial decision, Judge Schwartz ultimately went against his hardline tendencies and found Bane Not Guilty, but imposed a condition that Bane would be deported back to his home country of Santa Prisca, barred from ever returning to the United States. Bane was tranquilized again shortly after his trial, and personally escorted by Captain Jim Gordon and an MCU SWAT team, They made certain he got off that plane, and stepped onto the sovereign soil of Santa Prisca.
Having been provided with some money, Bane purchased a large amount of food and took a taxi to a cheap hotel. From there, he often called in to the Cool Breeze's morning show, generally to bark threats to Falcone and Gordon, demanding his Venom. Despite the urgency of his tone, Bane's threats were completely ignored. When a Gotham Tonight special aired the full dossiers of Felicity Esprit, the Catwoman and Lincoln Jarvis, the Penny Plunderer, Bane tried a different tactic. He called in to Gotham Tonight, informing Gordon that he would gladly capture Catwoman. The Joker called in to reply with a bluff relating that Gordon had died.
Desperate, Bane called again, saying that the Black Mask and Joker problem would be solved if only he could be returned to Gotham, and that he would gladly head back to his home country afterward. Again, he was ignored. At last, Bane gave up on this charade. Instead, he began to research the media, looking for recently arrested drug dealers in Santa Prisca. The kind that could get access to Venom. Finding a candidate, Bane noted that he was being taken to a remand center for holding until his trial, one just outside the city limits. After taking a fresh dose of Venom, he took a taxi there, bringing only money and his mask.
Surveilling the medium-sized precinct, Bane put on his mask and ripped apart the chainlink fence that stood in his way. And then, as seemed to be his tactic of choice, he began to run, bolting across the field and pouncing on an officer that was walking nearby. Bane easily killed the man with his bare hands and stole his revolver. Since time was scarce, Bane made sure the firearm was loaded before simply plowing clean through a nearby wall, gunning down the officer at the front desk. Bane leaped over the desk, stole his ammunition, and hurried up the stairs.
Cutting his way through any other policeman that got in his way, either with bullets or melee strikes, Bane reached the holding cells on the second floor and began to search them. He had been shot more than once, but was scarcely feeling the effects. Locating the druglord, Bane easily ripped a few bars from his cell to free him, and slung the man over his shoulder with barely any warning. And then, once again, he began to run.
A few other policemen were unlucky enough to make his acquaintence, and Bane promptly shot or bludgeoned them as they got in his way. As he reached the ground floor, Bane charged through his entrypoint and sprinted as hard as he could back toward the hole he'd created in the fence, while the druglord fired rounds from his shoulder. Eventually, they managed to cover a fair amount of lateral distance, and Bane set the man down. They hailed a passing truck driver, and Bane bribed the man to drive them back into town. He did so, happily. When they returned to his hotel, the druglord asked to use Bane's phone, thanking him profusely. When asked what he wanted, Bane merely requested Venom, and more work in the future. The man enthusiastically agreed, and had the underings that picked him up bring some Venom with them to give to Bane.
Bane had no idea that, on the other side of the equator, his fate had been sealed, and then changed for the better. Irritated by how loudly Bane had proclaimed his connection to the Falcone crime family, The Roman had decided to meet the beast in person, with a heavily armed troupe of men, and kill him. However, in one of several closed door meetings between the two, Catwoman had made an offer Falcone quite enjoyed. A heist in the future that would be a true moment of history. He would even reap all of the profits -- all Catwoman wanted in exchange was Bane. Amused, Falcone took the deal, specifying only that she would have to keep the mammoth on a leash, and his mouth shut. Knowing that Bane was still actively following Gotham media, Falcone told him to meet him at the Santa Prisca Hilton, stating that he had something he needed.
Falcone took his private jet to Santa Prisca and met an enthusiastic Bane quite soon, at the Hilton. After providing Bane with a large stock of Venom he had procured, Falcone laid out the terms, and the massive thug agreed whole-heartedly. They returned to the airport, where Falcone showed Bane a lavish amount of entertainment, from girls to music to the finest alcohol. Falcone and all of his men enjoyed a toast to their continued living of the high life, and Bane joined them. Many hours later, as the flight was approaching Gotham City, Falcone had one of his men call in a false bomb threat to give them the chaos they would need to slip Bane out of the airport. The ensuing evacuations, combined with Falcone's connections, were more than enough to disappear them from the airport.
Not long thereafter, Falcone and Bane met Catwoman at The Roman's luxurious "McMansion". Catwoman greeted Bane as charmingly as ever, and stated that they were going to have a lot of fun together. As they left Falcone's estate together, Catwoman pondered mischievously as to whether Bane was up to some work so early. Bane's response to the affirmative was quite predictable, and so they went to heist the People's Bank of Gotham City.
The plan was blood simple. Catwoman used her various high-tech wiles to deactivate the silent alarm and outgoing phonelines unnoticed. After she did so, she gave Bane the signal. That was all he needed -- Bane plowed through the front doors, tossing smoke canisters in every direction that Catwoman had supplied him with. Disoriented, the bank patrons tried to escape, but were met by a savage Bane, who struck and tossed them until every last one of them was disabled. As his control over the bank grew more complete, Bane's methods became more violent. For one unfortunate man, Bane planted his massive feet over those of the smaller individual and, with no small amount of wrenching, tore the man's head clear from his body.
The bank manager got it worse. When found in his office attempting to call the authorities, Bane grabbed the man by his lapel, lifted him over the desk, and hurled him into the opposite wall. As the man groaned, in utter pain, Bane callously tore each of his limbs off and let him bleed before stomping his head. Bane then moved back into the main lobby and systematically made sure everyone in the bank was deceased, before cleaning out the vault by stuffing the bank's official moneybags to the brim and simply carrying them out. The total take (that he could carry) was thirty-five million. Bane and Catwoman split their wares fifty-fifty, and went their separate ways, to wait for the heat to cool down a bit before reconnecting.
After they went their separate ways, Bane put all of his belongings in enormous duffel bags and headed to the park, where he lived homeless and off the grid. Unfortunately for him, his recent activities had attracted the attention of a new vigilante -- Benjamin Briggs, the NightStalker. As he was walking about in the park, Bane received a phonecall from Salvatore Maroni, who had taken over the Falcone crime family in lieu of The Roman's arrest and ultimate murder. They touched base on the agreement that had been in place with Carmine Falcone, and in the course of the phonecall, Bane revealed his location.
Somehow, the NightStalker got wind of this, and hurried to the location, lest Bane should escape. Somehow, Bane didn't seem to notice the NightStalker's motorcycle roaring up behind him. NightStalker dismounted, aiming it at the back of the gigantor's legs, and Bane's feet were blown out from under him, laying him out on his back. Not wasting a second, NightStalker swooped in, stabbing the spade of his staff deep into Bane's face and cartwheeling over him. As he did so, he unholstered his fifty-caliber Desert Eagle and shot Bane several times in the head. The whole thing was over in seconds.
Kill Count: 35 - Two to three Major Crimes Unit police officers, about seven Santa Prisca Police Department officers, over twenty civilians at the People's Bank of Gotham City.
Evaluation: Ronike was starting things up excellently, honestly. In half a game day he'd already uncovered huge leads on his abductors in a way I hadn't even remotely thought of. This ended up being invaluable information, as Falcone's connections to some of those pharmaceutical corporations are how he was able to provide Bane with Venom, and could have continued doing so far into the conceivable future if Bane had not died.
He also made an early connection with the Italian mafia, which was the wisest organized crime horse to bet on, because Lau wanted minimum connections between his Triads and Super-Crime(tm), and neither Gambol nor The Chechen ever employed a supervillain. Falcone on the other hand was active about adapting and evolving with the crime wave's new trends, and the fact that the plan he came up with to free the Joker just so happened to require a massive pushing force is the kind of beautiful coincidence you'd think could have only happened in an actual Batman comic. Almost everything Karthik King was able to accomplish was owed directly to Ronike's foundations, and he even shot KK a PM with all the info he'd gathered.
I've never GM'd Ronike in combat, but I know he's a very intellectual and careful player, and I think he'd have been a monstrously successful Bane. I'm very disappointed he had to drop out so early. However, I can't push his grade very far for only groundwork activities -- excellent though they were -- when the simple fact of the matter is that he didn't play for very long and never had to actually play through a stressful situation.
C+
As for Karthik... well, what can I say? It was kind of interesting to watch the playstyle of the Bane playerslot go from the intellectual, devious schemer of the comics to the muscleheaded juggernaut of the film (except able to actually talk). But, well, Karthik didn't play very well. The Bane of the bank robbery and Joker breakout were actually NPC's, as Karthik had gone AFK. As such, other than dialogue, the one situation Karthik actually handled was breaking the druglord out of a shoddy prison. To that, there isn't much I can say, other than that it worked well enough for what it was, and never would have worked on a Gotham precinct. Not in a million years. I quite enjoyed one of his kills though. If I recall correctly, he punched a guy in the face from the top of a stairwell, and the guy flew back, hitting his upper body on a low-hanging ceilinger, paralyzing him and causing him to do a frontflip and faceplant on the ceramic of the main floor.
In fighting he did decent considering he was outmanned, and he got a good solid hit on Scav, which is easier said than done for a character built for dodging and such. But other than that, Karthik was easily predicted, and fell into every one of Batman's traps (the tranq ambush, the slippery stairs, the car park...)
Karthik also didn't possess much in the way of persuasion, and that was really hurting any semblance of building toward his win condition. He generally just went along with deals that sounded good, and didn't seem to have much of a plan for asserting himself as "the top dog". His decision to move in to the parks was an odd one as well -- when pressed for detail, he even confirmed that yes, he wanted to just casually walk around the park, on the path and everything. A cash-up-front hotel in the slums would have been a much better call for living off the grid, as such, if you ask me.
On that note I can't at all remember how Bane was actually found out. I'm feeling like it had something to do with how he escaped, though I guess it could have been an anonymous tip, since he was on the news. I also vaguely remember Karthik renting a car at some point? Maybe it was that. I don't know, hopefully Karthik can shed some light on this.
Anyway, bad performance or not, Karthik was still pretty fun to mod, and since he ultimately became good at mafia, I'm sure he could become good at adventure games too, and I hope I haven't seen the last of him.
Also when reminded that he couldn't call in to the radio (post in the thread), he joked that he has a phone hidden on him. When asked where, he replied "in my muscles". The muscle phone is one of the funniest DGames jokes of all time and I hope it lives on forever as a meme.
F