A man stands facing the camera. Average height, a bit slight of build but not skinny by any means. Short, straight black hair and mustache. He's wearing a dark gray suit, and is standing in a well-furnished office. You can see two people in powered armor standing behind him, with a middle-aged, red-haired woman in a suit standing between them. She appears unharmed, although she has a rather glassy, dazed look on her face.
"I will be brief. My name is Harold Brace. As of now, Mayor Hendricks and her staff are my hostages. I want my daughter returned to me. Her name is Amanda. A picture of her should be appearing on your screens presently."
"To the police, SIDE, and whatever so-called Heroes we have in this city, I will happily release the mayor and her staff and turn myself over to your custody if you return her to me by midnight tonight. To whomever is responsible for this...Disappearance, if you will return my daughter safely to me, I will equally happily exchange the mayor for her. She is fifteen years old and not a Dreamer; I am sure you will agree that the mayor of the city of Adaros will be a more valuable person to have in your custody than her."
"A rescue attempt is ill-advised. Thank you for your attention."
Spoiler: Expertise (Dreamer Lore) or Well Informed, DC 30
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You've heard of Harold Brace. There's not much information on him in the public record, but you know he's a Dreamer, and a fairly powerful one. He's classified as a Mage, a Dreamer who can tap into his spiritual energy directly to achieve certain supernatural effects, and can learn new such powers with extensive time and effort.
Spoiler: If you beat DC 35
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His personal powers tend to emphasize energy evocation and teleportation.
Spoiler: And if you beat DC 40
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You've also heard that he was, for a time, an apprentice to Arcanis, the Regional Commander of Hero Corps in this part of the country. Although this may be a rumor caused by the similarity of their power sets.
Spoiler: Expertise (Streetwise or Military) or Well Informed, DC 20
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You recognize the insignias on the powered armored goons behind Brace. They're part of the Breaker Initiative, a mercenary company that specializes in fielding trained power-armored soldiers. They're expensive, not particularly picky, and have a good enough legal team (and, most likely, connections and bribe budgets) that while several of their members have been convicted of various crimes over the years, the organization itself has never been in any particular danger, even though they've definitely been hired for illegal missions in the past. It also helps that it's usually their lower-class guys in older model armors that tend to show up for criminal stuff, while they've earned more than a few brownie points helping law enforcement, SIDE, and the Ilessian military with their elite units. That said, even their goons are capable of putting up a solid fight even in a Dreamer-scale battlefield.
Spoiler: Technology DC 20
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The suits of powered armor you can see aren't that advanced, definitely older models. Although they do appear to have been retrofitted with jetpacks.
Spoiler: Expertise (Magic) DC 20
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You notice some arcane props on the mayor's desk, most notable among them an ornate ritual athame. Taken as a whole, they are strongly indicative of tools for a magical ritual - one that involves a human sacrifice. And suddenly Brace's midnight deadline takes on an ominous new meaning...
Spoiler: Insight DC 22
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Although he's trying to appear calm and controlled, you can tell that Brace is
not comfortable. He's clearly desperate, and it's unlilely that he's really thought this all the way through. This is not a brilliant mage executing a clever plan, but a father who is freaking out and taking the first course of action he can think of to get his daughter back regardless of the risk or cost. Of course, in many ways, that only makes him more dangerous.
Spoiler: If you beat DC 26
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His understated threat, though, is just that - a threat, and empty. Well, mostly. Sure, he has significant personal power and some solid minions as backup, and his fighting force can't be
weak if they were able to overpower City Hall's defenders. But he's trying to intimidate rescue forces into backing off; he doesn't seriously believe he has sufficient military might on hand to overcome a determined rescue effort.
Spoiler: And if you beat DC 32
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But it's funny...if this act is as desperate and foolhardy as it appears, how did he manage to put it together so quickly? It's only been a few hours since the Disappearance, which hardly seems enough time to gather together enough fighting power and come up with a solid plan to overrun as hard a target as City Hall.
Spoiler: Daimon
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You recognize Harold Brace's face, but not well enough to place him. Given your eidetic memory, this generally means that you saw him before in some sort of memorable situation that he had at least some degree of a meaningful connection to (he wasn't just like, some guy who cut you off or something), but you didn't interact with him personally and he wasn't important enough to warrant your full attention at the time.