With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[nobodez]

Which, when you think about it, makes sense in context: casting a magic spell in D&D erases the knowledge from your mind and you need to re-learn how to cast it. Every. Time.

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That's not how it works, at least not since 3rd edition if not earlier. You're pre-casting the spell during the preparation time aside from the final bits of magic that can be done in a few seconds (at least for most wizard spells). Sorcerers and Bards have a pool of magic they deplete, and clerics, druids, rangers, and paladins eeceive their spells with prayer/faith.

 

[iamnuff]

"Hey, Billy, what's with the fancy collar?"

"Uhh..."

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Billy wouldn't need a collar, that was for Artemis to turn off her super-strength while she got used to it.
Billy has had superstrength in his Captain Marvel form since day one. He already knows how to control it.

Besides, Robin already showed that the power nullfier can be turned into a bracer, so it can probably go in a belt too.
The collar was just because Paul still had his head stuck in the form of the original power-nullifying collar from Waller's prison.

 

[Coda]

Except the metaphysics of the D&D world is very different from Earth Normal. For one, you literally can't learn new things above a certain threshold, even academic knowledge, without participating in life-or-death combat

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That's not been true for a very, very long time. IIRC it was 3e that changed the conditions for gaining XP from "kill enemy" to "overcome challenge". You're supposed to gain the same amount of XP for diplomancing the orcs attacking the village as you would gain from slaughtering them.

Holing up in a tower devoting your time to research and study should, in fact, be worth XP according to this rule, if you overcome a challenge by doing so. It just doesn't provide the instant gratification that you get from overcoming a life-threatening encounter.

This also means that a peasant farmer surviving the winter should be worth nonzero XP. It's more of a threat than a big angry rat, but probably less of one than stopping a bear that's prowling the farm, and off the cuff it feels like about the same as preventing the wolves from eating your sheep, so that's probably CR 1/4. (Maybe even CR 1/2 if it's a particularly harsh winter.) At CR 1/4, that means that getting through the winter is worth 50 XP, divided among everyone who "substantially contributed" to getting through the challenge.

No, that was the SI noticing where they came from and realising that it was important.

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Yeah, I know that's what you were trying to do, but it's an incomplete sentence -- there's no verb in that clause. At the very least, it could say that they HAVE Imperium grasers.

 

[Mquz]

That's not been true for a very, very long time. IIRC it was 3e that changed the conditions for gaining XP from "kill enemy" to "overcome challenge". You're supposed to gain the same amount of XP for diplomancing the orcs attacking the village as you would gain from slaughtering them.

Holing up in a tower devoting your time to research and study should, in fact, be worth XP according to this rule, if you overcome a challenge by doing so. It just doesn't provide the instant gratification that you get from overcoming a life-threatening encounter.

This also means that a peasant farmer surviving the winter should be worth nonzero XP. It's more of a threat than a big angry rat, but probably less of one than stopping a bear that's prowling the farm, and off the cuff it feels like about the same as preventing the wolves from eating your sheep, so that's probably CR 1/4. (Maybe even CR 1/2 if it's a particularly harsh winter.) At CR 1/4, that means that getting through the winter is worth 50 XP, divided among everyone who "substantially contributed" to getting through the challenge.


Yeah, I know that's what you were trying to do, but it's an incomplete sentence -- there's no verb in that clause. At the very least, it could say that they HAVE Imperium grasers.

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Hm... maybe farmers give xp to plants / animals they raise? I mean, cows are harder to kill than people sometimes. If you go down the route you suggest, each plant they grow has to be worth 1 xp at least. You end up with old farmers being fairly OP.

 

[Smartkittykhan]

Hey Mr Zoat, what DID happen to Felicity?

It never seemed relevant enough to ask about, but now that Kalista mentioned it...

 

[Stsword]

Meh. I like PF1e better than PF2e.

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I said don't get me started. Pathfinder's success for literally years were people who didn't want to switch over to newer editions of DnD.

Then they decided to nuke that successful strategy to make a game more like the 4th edition that if people liked they wouldn't have cared about pathfinder in the first place.

How exactly that sounded like a good idea is a complete mystery to me.

Except the metaphysics of the D&D world is very different from Earth Normal. For one, you literally can't learn new things above a certain threshold, even academic knowledge, without participating in life-or-death combat; it's written into the structure of the universe by the Gods or whatever.

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That reminds me, I've been toying with a YJ story inspired by Zoat's New God fluff and the World of Prime series by MC Planck.

In World of Prime, experience, levels, classes, all the dnd mechanics aren't abstractions.

Experience is residual soul energy that can be harvested and sold/traded/stolen/given away. Consume enough of it, and you level. Classes are engineered pathways souls can grow.

And all the benefits are superhuman, so in World of Prime characters with some class levels are basically Wolverine. "Someone shot you in the face and slit your throat? Well then walk it off, not like you're really hurt, whiner."

Hence Zoat's "New Gods increase powers by their souls growing" reminding me of it.

So to make this reverse isekai situation work, I was thinking that life where the adventurer is from has the "alchemy gene" for lack of the better term, the natural ability to collect and assimilate soul energy to grow their soul, there are probably bears the size of minvans who can tank a cannon blast to the face, for example.

Intelligent figured out how to extract the soul energy, and how to formulate different abilities, as the state of the art advanced more and more options became available. I have a lot of third party pathfinder products, so fantasy staples get joined with self duplicators and "Iron Man but wearing a golem" and four dimensional skirmishers who smack people in the face with condensed pieces of space-time and the like.

In short, a young adventurer from a post singularity transhuman fantasy setting gets quite the case of culture shock coming to Earth 16, where people learn magic without leveling, make schizotech without leveling, races like kryptonians and martians flying around, and where superpower sharing is the exception and not the rule.

And the knowledge of residual soul energy extraction and class formulation come with him...

 

[Mquz]

I said don't get me started. Pathfinder's success for literally years were people who didn't want to switch over to newer editions of DnD.

Then they decided to nuke that successful strategy to make a game more like the 4th edition that if people liked they wouldn't have cared about pathfinder in the first place.

How exactly that sounded like a good idea is a complete mystery to me.



That reminds me, I've been toying with a YJ story inspired by Zoat's New God fluff and the World of Prime series by MC Planck.

In World of Prime, experience, levels, classes, all the dnd mechanics aren't abstractions.

Experience is residual soul energy that can be harvested and sold/traded/stolen/given away. Consume enough of it, and you level. Classes are engineered pathways souls can grow.

And all the benefits are superhuman, so in World of Prime characters with some class levels are basically Wolverine. "Someone shot you in the face and slit your throat? Well then walk it off, not like you're really hurt, whiner."

Hence Zoat's "New Gods increase powers by their souls growing" reminding me of it.

So to make this reverse isekai situation work, I was thinking that life where the adventurer is from has the "alchemy gene" for lack of the better term, the natural ability to collect and assimilate soul energy to grow their soul, there are probably bears the size of minvans who can tank a cannon blast to the face, for example.

Intelligent figured out how to extract the soul energy, and how to formulate different abilities, as the state of the art advanced more and more options became available. I have a lot of third party pathfinder products, so fantasy staples get joined with self duplicators and "Iron Man but wearing a golem" and four dimensional skirmishers who smack people in the face with condensed pieces of space-time and the like.

In short, a young adventurer from a post singularity transhuman fantasy setting gets quite the case of culture shock coming to Earth 16, where people learn magic without leveling, make schizotech without leveling, races like kryptonians and martians flying around, and where superpower sharing is the exception and not the rule.

And the knowledge of residual soul energy extraction and class formulation come with him...

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Sounds interesting, but I will say that there are reasons that sharing superpower technology shouldn't immediately work / be embraced by everyone. The best implementations of it I've seen always have some sort of discrimination against the technology being shared, even if it's due to fear, and acceptance of the tech doesn't happen till the epilogue timeskip. You run out of ideas and your villains start lagging behind your civilians, or they become too different from canon, though you might be able to let them work their powers into your class systems. Though it does work if there are 1 or 2 "apprentice characters" slowly gaining power ahead of the curve. If he's not gonna be able to teach people, that might also work, but wouldn't let you use multiple classes.

At the very least, if you want to use multiple classes in the story, you'll want to keep your characters at least partially using what they start off good at. It's why the New God idea works. You'll also want to give your villains similar upgrades, or they'll either be too obviously overpowered by the good guys, or your heroes start looking incompetent if they're not doing better than in canon for the parts you want to keep.

 

[Coda]

Hm... maybe farmers give xp to plants / animals they raise? I mean, cows are harder to kill than people sometimes. If you go down the route you suggest, each plant they grow has to be worth 1 xp at least. You end up with old farmers being fairly OP.

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A variant rule I once saw took the rules for making money using the Profession skill and extended it in a similar fashion to earning XP. Projected over the expected career of most NPCs this would result in most people that work for a living being level 6-8 by the time they retire. It had bonuses and penalties available based on having a trainer and good tools and other circumstances (e.g. a soldier would get a bonus for fighting in a war).

This makes being a scribe something that actually works -- the way the suggestion balanced it out, a 5th level caster could earn enough XP with a side job to scribe one 3rd-level scroll per week with a few XP left over.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

I find myself wondering about a Paul with an actual effective super power/power set that is a completely against his mindset and how he would adapt.

Because that's what I think of after watching 2 hours of Sumo Wrestling. I was rooting for him, but my little man Enho sadly was eliminated. Lot of fight in him though....and wow does this cold medicine make me loopy as all hell.

 

[Mquz]

I find myself wondering about a Paul with an actual effective super power/power set that is a completely against his mindset and how he would adapt.

Because that's what I think of after watching 2 hours of Sumo Wrestling. I was rooting for him, but my little man Enho sadly was eliminated. Lot of fight in him though....and wow does this cold medicine make me loopy as all hell.

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Make him able to cause explosions and be immune from concussive force.

 

[Sceptic]

But what if it tastes like crap?

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Then stop trying to eat that kind of meat, if it really bothers you.

Which, yes, is bizarre, but it's a core facet of the D&D world. Vancian magic is weird.

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Vancian magic makes sense in its context. You're wrestling some kind of weird energy into a certain form in your mind, and you can only fit a certain number of such spells into your mind before you crack. Casting a spell is releasing that energy into the world. D&D, on the other hand, as others have point out hasn't used actual Vancian magic since AD&D 2e - it moved to prepared spells and spell slots from 3rd edition onwards.

wow does this cold medicine make me loopy as all hell.

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So what's your excuse the rest of the time?

 

[Buggy123]

But what if it tastes like crap?

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Then someone's R&D department didn't do enough work, because unless the military is involved, no one is going to be buying their crap-meat.

 

[Lord Ernest]

I don't know if it makes me bad or something, but I do, sometimes, prefer Grayven's more heavy handed approach. I'm pretty sure in his timeline you can easily count the number of people that are really missing the delightful presence of the Psions, the Gordanians, the Spider Guild chapter and the assorted group of pirates/slavers in the beautiful fabric that is Vegan space realpolitik.

I do agree with the initial help he provided to the pirates in settling down the peace treaty and everything but is not like he really owed them anything, I guess not all the Gordanians are bad but they enslave even themselves so no sympathy from me and I get the impression it was their, and the Branx's, original help which allowed for the Citadel to get so pre-eminent in Vega. The Okaarans are mercenaries and the Branx jump frequently the line between that and thugs so I think they just need a bit of intimidation. The Illustres probably didn't really want to take care of the region himself but while he was on Earth I had the impression that he did and I would have liked seeing him do so with his particular brand of insanity; instead of this "maybe I will, maybe I won't, I don't really care even though I already got involved".

 

[Mr Zoat]

Hey Mr Zoat, what DID happen to Felicity?

It never seemed relevant enough to ask about, but now that Kalista mentioned it...

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The SI doesn't know.

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th February
18:27 GMT

Where is he?

There's a sort of spatial hiccup combined with a short flash of light over to my right, then a blast as the air absorbs the energy and turns into plasma. The strongpoint the local gordanian militia were using to suppress the karnan infantry evaporates -along with most of the defenders- and the attackers storm forward. A few are proper soldiers and those with the best armour are taking point, but the majority appear to be newly liberated slave labourers. They are only carrying masers and are dressed in simply tunics and leggings. The shot came from… There's no artillery in evidence…

I look up and… Ah. One of the Karnan ships is in low orbit. That sort of energy pulse plasma weapon is what people who want a dedicated planetary bombardment weapon but aren't evil enough for mass driver use. Since the karnan fleet has been planning to take back their world for some time, it makes perfect sense that they'd have all the gear that they need.

Of course, with the militia's defence failing here…

Karnan soldiers take up position in a partially ruined settlement and fire down towards a small flotilla of overloaded boats trying to escape along a river. There are some weapons on those boats, but the majority of those on board are unarmed civilians-. Alright, 'civilian' is a bit of an unreliable descriptor where gordanians are concerned. Yes, the larger clans have 'military' vessels separate from their other vessels, but that divide only separates purely combat ships from multi-role ships which are very much combat capable. No clans have the sort of unarmed merchantmen that you see in the more stable regions of space. They'd just be targets in Vega. And all gordanians are taught how to fight. But these gordanians clearly aren't interested in fighting.

Of course, firing on a retreating enemy is perfectly acceptable even by the more exacting standards of the Geneva Conventions. If you want someone to stop shooting you, stop retreating and start surrendering. Vega… A fighting retreat is usually a far better idea around here. Or a non-fighting retreat, hoping that whoever is making you retreat has something better to do than chase you down. If you try surrendering the people attacking you might take you prisoner in order to sell you into slavery, but an instruction to 'cluster up a bit more' would be more likely.

Still…

I transition to the air just above the boats and generate a shield construct between them and their karnan attackers. A volley of weak maser shots fails to penetrate it, then the fire… Just sort of falls off as they try to work out what the heck they're looking at.

"Orange Lantern Illustres to gordanian ships. I am not here to support you. All I'm doing is covering your retreat. Keep moving, do not stop."

I spot one of the militia members on the rearmost ship take aim at the Karnans on the bank-.

I send a large construct hand down and grab his gun hard enough to deform the barrel into uselessness. Then I have the hand construct toss it into the water.

"Don't push me."

Bodies of those killed by the karnans are floating in the water… That one's still alive. The hand grabs them and puts them back into the closest boat, where the other gordanians immediately begin checking them over.

Okay, in a normal military operation, the officers in charge on the ground would be reporting my presence back to their commanders, who would most likely order them to back off unless I directly attacked them. But this isn't a normal military operation. The karnans flat out hate the gordanians, and most of the 'troops' over there are at best irregulars. I can't expect the same command and control. They're lucky if there are enough regular soldiers to maintain any sort of communication, let alone anything approaching good command and control. I'd assume that they'd take a few shots at me, realise that they can't hurt me and then go looking for another target…

I look up again.

No. The people on the ship must have been advised that I'm around by now. That weapon system-.

I put up an overhead shield just in case.

It wouldn't hurt me. My armour and environmental shield are entirely too resilient. But it could easily wreck the boats and kill all of those on board.

Incoming communication.

"Yes?"

"Ryand'r to Orange Lantern. Please respond."

"Answer."

Compliance.

"Prince Ryand'r. I'd like a word in person, if you-" The ship above me fires, the laser failing to penetrate my shield and the plasma washing harmlessly over the sides. "-don't mind."

"Of course! You are the first person I have spoken to who has news of my home!"

I think a positron beam will do it.

I generate a construct and carefully aim it at the ship that just shot at me.

"Happy to share it. How soon can you reach me?"

"Ah… Perhaps a minute. I am on my way now."

I take a look around, looking through the terrain, tree-analogues and ruins for the orange lights which mark… Ah, there he is.

"See you when you get here."

I fire, my beam striking the shielding protecting the ventral weapon hardpoint and punching through to the weapon itself. The weapon is armoured, but as G'kar pointed out, weapons are by necessity one of the more weakly armoured parts of a ship. I dismiss the positron ray construct as the weapon above me dies. Hopefully that will cause them to get a belated clue.

Never actually read a comic with Ryand'r in it. I don't think that he shared his sisters' extra powers, though he's apparently confident to fly around over an active combat zone naked but for his pants and a hair tie. I suppose that speed and agility should help, and it's not as if most of the infantry on his side are much more resilient. He slows as he reaches my shield, frowning at it.

"Why are you protecting them?"

"The people in these boats are too close to my definition of 'civilian' for me to be happy letting them die."

"Oh." He nods. "That is a righteous reason."

A smattering of shots from the karnan-held bank impact against my shield. Ryand'r turns to face the people who shot them.

"It's okay! You can stop now!"

"Ryand'r, I think it will take a little more than that."

"I could try and get Tigorr to tell them to go someplace else, but that could take a while? He doesn't really talk so well when he's in beast-mode."

"Then don't worry about it."

"Ah, okay?" He smiles hopefully. "You've been to Tamaran? Are the gordanians really gone?"

"Yes. The survivors of Tearing Bite are marooned on another planet and your people are rebuilding with the assistance of a thanagarian mercenary group and Adam Blake."

His eyes widen. "Blake's alive? That's amazing! I grew up with stories of how he sacrificed himself to protect our fleet-."

"Yes, and the Citadel neutralised him and used him as a battery. He's recovered, as far as I can tell."

"And my sisters?"

"Recovered. I gave them power rings, and they both took part in the attack on Citadel Complex. Then they did some other work for me. Komand'r can fly under her own power again. She's on Tamaran at the moment."

"When are they coming here?"

"They're not."

He frowns. "What? Why not?"

"Ryand'r, do you understand why the Citadel grabbed them?"

He shrugs. "Because they're evil. They enslave countless.-"

"No. They took your sisters because you publically joined the Omega Men."

He frowns in revulsion. "What?"

"Tamaran was a vassal state of the Tearing Bite clan. When you, a member of the royal family, openly sided with their enemies, they risked losing face if they didn't immediately strike back. And since they couldn't get you, they took them. If you'd just left Okaara and joined them it wouldn't have been a problem, but you slapped them in the face with it."

"That…" His eyes dip and he shakes his head. "No." He shakes his head again as he raises his head to glare at me. "I am not responsible for the evils of the Citadel, or their allies."

"No, but you are responsible for the reasonably predictable results of your own actions." I point down at the boats. "Free the karnans, watch them slaughter the gordanians. Take a stand against the Citadel, watch as they retaliate against those you love."

He floats back through the air. "I…"

"Get out of here, Ryand'r. Come back when you've thought about it a little."

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

I look up and… Ah. One of the Karnan ships is in low orbit. That sort of energy pulse plasma weapon is what people who want a dedicated planetary bombardment weapon but aren't evil enough for mass drivers use. Since the karnan fleet has been planning to take back their world for some time, it makes perfect sense that they'd have all the gear that they need.

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Plus, mass drivers tend to have that little problem of massive seismic impacts... Much messier than setting things on fire.
(correction withdrawn on consideration)

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Karnan soldiers take up position in a partially ruined settlement and fire down towards a small flotilla of overloaded boats trying to escape along a river. There are some weapons on those boats, but the majority of those on board are unarmed civilians-. Alright, 'civilian' is a bit of an unreliable descriptor where gordanians are concerned.

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Bit hard to be a civilian in a warrior culture, especially a large race.

Yes, the larger clans have 'military' vessels separate from their other vessels, but that divide only separates purely combat ships from multi-role ships which are very much combat capable. No clans have the sort of unarmed merchantmen that you see in the more stable regions of space. They'd just be targets in Vega. And all gordanians are taught how to fight. But these gordanians clearly aren't interested in fighting.

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Basic logic. outnumbered, and the enemy has superior morale? Retreat.

I transition to the air just above the boats and generate a shield construct between them and their karnan attackers. A volley of weak maser shots fails to penetrate it, then the fire… Just sort of falls off as they try to work out what the heck they're looking at.

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Heh, the joy of a region where Lanterns are rarely seen, if ever.

"Don't push me."

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"That protection can easily be revoked."

I put up an overhead shield just in case.

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Never underestimate stupidity, or sheer doggedness.

...the laser failing to penetrate by shield and...

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...the laser failing to penetrate my shield and...

"Of course! You are the first person I have spoken to who has news of my home!"

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Oh, is he in for a treat...

I take a look around, looking through the terrain, tree-analogues and ruins for the orange lights which mark… Ah,
there he is.

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Unusual line-break (likely already fixed...)

I fire, my beam striking the shielding protecting the ventral weapon hardpoint and punching through to the weapon itself. The weapon is armoured, but as G'kar pointed out, weapons are by necessity one of the more weakly armoured parts of a ship. I dismiss the positron ray construct as the weapon above me dies. Hopefully that will cause them to get a belated clue.

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Small hope.

He slows as he reaches by shield, frowning at is.

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He slows as he reaches my shield, frowning at it.

"Oh." He nods. "That is a righteous reason."

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Good to see he's not a total meathead.

A smattering of shots from the karnan-held bank impact against my shield. Ryand'r turns to face the people who shot them

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Missing Full Stop.

His eyes widen. "Blake's alive? That's amazing! I grew up with stories of how he sacrificed himself to protect our fleet-."

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A living legend, eh?

"No. They took you sisters because you publically joined the Omega Men."

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"No. They took your sisters because you publically joined the Omega Men."

"Tamaran was a vassal state of the Tearing Bite clan. When you, a member of the royal family, openly sided with their enemies, they risked losing face if they didn't immediately strike back. And since they couldn't get you, they took them. If you'd just left Okaara and joined them it wouldn't have been a problem, but you slapped them in the face with it."

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Nice job breaking it, hero.

"No, but you are responsible for the reasonably predictable results of your own actions." I point down at the boats. "Free the karnans, watch them slaughter the gordanians. Take a stand against the Citadel, watch as they retaliate against those you love."

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Cause and effect, kid. It's not always pretty.

I doubt this is doing OL's rep in Vega any favours. More info for the game developers though...

 

[Mr Zoat]

...the laser failing to penetrate by shield and...
...the laser failing to penetrate my shield and...
I take a look around, looking through the terrain, tree-analogues and ruins for the orange lights which mark… Ah,
there he is.
Unusual line-break (likely already fixed...)
He slows as he reaches by shield, frowning at is.
He slows as he reaches my shield, frowning at it.
A smattering of shots from the karnan-held bank impact against my shield. Ryand'r turns to face the people who shot them
Missing Full Stop.
"No. They took you sisters because you publically joined the Omega Men."
"No. They took your sisters because you publically joined the Omega Men."

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Handlewithcare]

That was a bit harsh on Ryand'r, no?

Isn't the mess on this planet a direct result of OLs not-so-well-thought-through interference?

At least Ryand'r tries to change things for the better.

 

[Dakkan Sall]

That was a bit harsh on Ryand'r, no?

Isn't the mess on this planet a direct result of OLs not-so-well-thought-through interference?

At least Ryand'r tries to change things for the better.

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OL is at least... if not really feeling guilty, at least realizing that, "Ah, should have thought of that" on his own.

Ryand'r on the other hand, was only thinking "FOR JUSTICE!" until OL had to spell out the chain of events to him.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Ah, there he is.

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Beards. The ruination of all cute boys.

 

[Jormuungaand]

Beards. The ruination of all cute boys.

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More so when applied to cute girls.

 

[Mr Zoat]

That was a bit harsh on Ryand'r, no?

Isn't the mess on this planet a direct result of OLs not-so-well-thought-through interference?

At least Ryand'r tries to change things for the better.

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This particular mess, arguably. The general mess, no. That happened before he was born.

 

[Handlewithcare]

This particular mess, arguably. The general mess, no. That happened before he was born.

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Oh sure. I meant more that he could symphatise.

 

[Chaoswind]

Oh sure. I meant more that he could symphatise.

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His ring is orange not purple.

 

[fluffy]

Beards. The ruination of all cute boys.

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I don't know I think it makes him look rather dashing

 

[Coda]

The Karnans flat out hate the gordanians

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I thought some Karnans were gordanian. Did you mean "karnans"?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I thought some Karnans were gordanian. Did you mean "karnans"?

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Steelplaza]

"Tamaran was a vassal state of the Tearing Bite clan. When you, a member of the royal family, openly sided with their enemies, they risked losing face if they didn't immediately strike back. And since they couldn't get you, they took them. If you'd just left Okaara and joined them it wouldn't have been a problem, but you slapped them in the face with it."

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I found this a little confusing; maybe because I'm not intimately familiar with the backstory.

The difference between "just left Okaara and joined them" and "you slapped them in the face with it" seems kind of vague. So it would have been okay if Ryand'r joined the Omega Men, but he did so in some "public" manner? He needed to be wearing a mask and using a fake name or something like that?

 

[Vaermina]

This particular mess, arguably. The general mess, no. That happened before he was born.

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In a universe with time travel how much does the last really matter?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I found this a little confusing; maybe because I'm not intimately familiar with the backstory.

The difference between "just left Okaara and joined them" and "you slapped them in the face with it" seems kind of vague. So it would have been okay if Ryand'r joined the Omega Men, but he did so in some "public" manner? He needed to be wearing a mask and using a fake name or something like that?

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Yes, he publically denounced them at the time he did it. A mask would have been unnecessary.