The Black Hawks | Still Winning

by **Jakker** » Sat May 23, 2020 7:36 pm

The Black Hawks. The North Pacific. The East Pacific. Penny. Long ago, the four regions lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when Penny went missing. Recently a new ransom note popped up: Ransom Note

Only you, master of all the clues, could save her, but when the world needed you most, you vanished. A month has passed and Penny is still missing. Although your skills are great, you have a lot to learn before you’re ready to save anyone. But I believe you can save Penny.

Master of All Four Elements:
The Black Hawks
GEN Jakker
COL Miss Bad Life Choices
SGT Drexlore
SGT Ezkio
SGT Varax Zwei
CPL Astravars
CPL Miravana
CPL Refuge Isle
CPL Sakana
PFC Edreine
PFC Steste

The North Pacific
GEN Rom
GEN Bobberino
GEN Konar
COL Veniyerris
COL Francois Isidore
LTN 9003
LTN Gorundu

The East Pacific
FM The Atlae Isles
CPL Wolfastein

by **Badivermeraed** » Sat May 23, 2020 8:13 pm

Raiding! It's the quenchiest!

by **Daytime to Night** » Sun May 24, 2020 2:14 am

Jakker wrote:Penny

Penny is in the Rejected Realms, we put her there

HTH

by **LollerLand** » Sun May 24, 2020 3:13 am

I wonder what Bearlock Holmes is up to. Now wait a min, what if Holmes is the thief?

by **Jakker** » Sun May 24, 2020 8:26 am

Daytime to Night wrote:
Jakker wrote:Penny

Penny is in the Rejected Realms, we put her there

HTH

Silly defender, Penny is so much more than one single nation. Sounds like your Light Chakra is blocked.

by **Pterodaxtyl** » Sun May 24, 2020 9:53 am

Awesome report and great raid, Jakker!

LollerLand wrote:I wonder what Bearlock Holmes is up to. Now wait a min, what if Holmes is the thief?

That'd be quite a turn of events

by **Varax Zwei** » Mon May 25, 2020 1:54 am

May 24, 2020 - Major Update

Hello denizens of regions far and wide, and welcome to tonight's episode of "The Black Hawks Live". I'm your host Varax along with my wonderful feathered friends, Miss Bad Life Choices, Drexlore, Pterodaxtyl and Steste who helped make tonight's special possible. Boy do we have a show for you! 30 lucky regions in tonight's audience were selected to win our special prize, raids! Our wondeful assistants have already been dispatched to personally award our lucky winners. It's just our little way of showing how much we care. Thank you all and stay tuned for our next episode.

The Prize Giving Hawks:
SGT Varax Zwei (trigger)
COL Miss Bad Life Choices
SGT Drexlore
SGT Pterodaxtyl
PFC Steste

The Lucky Winners:
oppression
The Isle of Graves
Solas Prime
Union for Social Democracy
The Wasteland of No Longer Used Nations
Teds Nationstate Emporium
Lesser States of the World
The Divisive States of Quah
Mass Sweatshop
Poblus
Apulie
Gm19
Ardena
Northern Epirus
North Texas Idiots
Dubian Conference
RLX World Conquest
Warzone Zazumo
Quvaturn
The Region of Empire States
The Commonwealth of United Front
The Elder Scrolls Region
Carpentist Empire
The Dominoes
Nord by Norway
The Turd Burglian Bloc
Wyndmark
Not Boomers
Endordsa
Christianity Union

by **Aquilanion** » Mon May 25, 2020 2:20 am

Great work!

by **Drexlore** » Fri May 29, 2020 8:50 am

After all this time searching, I think we have finally done it. I think we know who has finally taken our beloved Penny. After endless days of searching, it has become clear that only one man could have done it. One man so cunning enough to set the trap and steal her from us. That man, is Crushing Our Enemies! Crushing Our Enemies, more commonly referred to as COE, returned on April 17th. On April 19th, our beloved Penny was taken from us. This could merely be a coincidence, but I think it adds to the other information we were given. Looking over the various clues, one of them was "Everlasting peace everything must cease" clearly leading to the song that COE has sung. There was also a reference to Come Join US, another one of his hits. All of this combined only points to him as the culprit. J'accuse COE!

by **Crushing Our Enemies** » Fri May 29, 2020 8:52 am

Curses! Foiled again!

You fools don’t understand how good things used to be, before Discord and bots and stamps came along. Discord has ruined NationStates and The Black Hawks! It had to be stopped.

I had it all planned out. It was going to be perfect. Without Penny, The Black Hawks would abandon discord and return to Skype (MSN is no more, alas.) Then, starved for the security and organizational features that Discord provided, activity would steadily migrate back to the forums - not this weird newfangled forum, but the old Jcink forum, where COE is still admin, the shoutbox occupies its rightful throne at the top of the page, and nothing has changed since 2011! Mwahahahaha!

Indeed, that’s where I had Penny held, sending out manual recruitment telegrams 24/7 to one nation at a time. Soon, the army of manually-recruited nations would rise up to take on the TBH establishment and return us to the glory days! Victory was so close I could taste it!

How did it all go so wrong?

Instead of being discouraged and leaving Discord behind, the Hawks became obsessed with finding Penny. I underestimated how devoted they were to their beloved bot. The cornerstone of my entire scheme, kidnapping Penny, became its undoing! I still might have made it work - she was hidden well. No one would ever think to check the Jcink forum - hardly anyone who’s joined in the last decade even knows it exists! Even as The Black Hawks tore through NationStates like a whirlwind, searching desperately, my hiding place was overlooked. Until…

My accomplice, Steak, betrayed me! He never really believed in a return to the old days, he just hated Penny! He’s as dependent on Discord as the rest of them. Once he realized where this was going, he laid that damned convoluted trail of breadcrumbs and sent the anonymous note that led the Hawks to my lair.

Surrounded, out of minions and out of options, I was forced to face the truth: I was wrong. I was stuck in the past, under the delusion that things would be better if we could go back to the old ways of doing things. I forgot that the true strength of The Black Hawks is our ability to adapt. We are the standard-bearers of the raiding world for a reason, and it’s because we have always stayed ahead of the curve. The proof was all around me - against all odds, The Black Hawks found Penny. They did that by being professional, efficient, and bold, not because of any particular forum or tool. So much is different now than it used to be, but that will never change.

I surrendered. This is always how it was going to end. The Hawks worked so hard to get her back, they truly deserve to have their bot. It’s true what they say: a Penny saved is a Penny earned.

by **Pterodaxtyl** » Fri May 29, 2020 9:19 am

Hi there, so yay Penny has been found.
Thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who was interested in the puzzle.
Dyllonia and Steste were the winners from this who completed the puzzle.

Here are the steps if you're interested in how the puzzle worked:

Drexlore, Ever-Wandering Souls, and myself were the organizers in this, and Aquilanion was the tester for the puzzles.

by **All Wild Things** » Fri May 29, 2020 10:58 am

Pterodaxtyl wrote:Hi there, so yay Penny has been found.
Thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who was interested in the puzzle.
Dyllonia and Steste were the winners from this who completed the puzzle.

Here are the steps if you're interested in how the puzzle worked:
• Image posted had black and white letters. The black letters were an anagram for "heist"
• Heist is a region with two RO'd nations with the names of astronauts whose mottos mention their birthdays, May 9th. The motto of the founding nation implied that something in-game took place that day.
• May 9, 2020 there was a raid with the report having the words "starry" and "hawks" in blue. Starry Hawks is a nation.
• Starry Hawks' motto is a ROT13'd lyric from "Cease" which leads you to the region Cease.
• The WFE of Cease sats to locate 2 numbers and has a morse code message that translates to Westphalia. Looking at the raid report for Westphalia, there were 19 hawks at update and 15 foreign allies. 19 15 is a region.
• The WFE instructs you to join the region. Upon joining, nations receive a welcome tg saying "1 Kings NIV." Pairing that chapter with 19:15 gives you a verse which references the Desert of Damascus which is also a nation with a dramatic dispatch telling you to ask how Penny is doing.
• In TBH's discord, if you say "How are you, Penny" she replies with a coded message that translates to "Bismark was very successful."
• COE, who has Bismark as his discord avatar was therefore the Penny Thief.

Drexlore, Ever-Wandering Souls, and myself were the organizers in this, and Aquilanion was the tester for the puzzles.

LMAO!
I'd looked at the ransom note, thought "ooh, only some letters are black", typed them (in order) into the "World" search, found nothing, and wrote it off as just being a piece of RP instead of a clue. I don't think I'd have thought of an anagram though, and doubt I'd have got much further. Well done to Dyllonia and Steste! You guys are some super sleuths.

by **Gorundu** » Sat May 30, 2020 12:54 am

Once you get to Cease you can pretty much skip the rest of the steps. COE submitted a cover of the song for Raidervision last year.

Or at least that's what I noticed. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

by **Honeydewistania** » Sat May 30, 2020 1:05 am

Crushing Our Enemies wrote:Curses! Foiled again!

You fools don’t understand how good things used to be, before Discord and bots and stamps came along. Discord has ruined NationStates and The Black Hawks! It had to be stopped.

I had it all planned out. It was going to be perfect. Without Penny, The Black Hawks would abandon discord and return to Skype (MSN is no more, alas.) Then, starved for the security and organizational features that Discord provided, activity would steadily migrate back to the forums - not this weird newfangled forum, but the old Jcink forum, where COE is still admin, the shoutbox occupies its rightful throne at the top of the page, and nothing has changed since 2011! Mwahahahaha!

Indeed, that’s where I had Penny held, sending out manual recruitment telegrams 24/7 to one nation at a time. Soon, the army of manually-recruited nations would rise up to take on the TBH establishment and return us to the glory days! Victory was so close I could taste it!

How did it all go so wrong?

Instead of being discouraged and leaving Discord behind, the Hawks became obsessed with finding Penny. I underestimated how devoted they were to their beloved bot. The cornerstone of my entire scheme, kidnapping Penny, became its undoing! I still might have made it work - she was hidden well. No one would ever think to check the Jcink forum - hardly anyone who’s joined in the last decade even knows it exists! Even as The Black Hawks tore through NationStates like a whirlwind, searching desperately, my hiding place was overlooked. Until…

My accomplice, Steak, betrayed me! He never really believed in a return to the old days, he just hated Penny! He’s as dependent on Discord as the rest of them. Once he realized where this was going, he laid that damned convoluted trail of breadcrumbs and sent the anonymous note that led the Hawks to my lair.

Surrounded, out of minions and out of options, I was forced to face the truth: I was wrong. I was stuck in the past, under the delusion that things would be better if we could go back to the old ways of doing things. I forgot that the true strength of The Black Hawks is our ability to adapt. We are the standard-bearers of the raiding world for a reason, and it’s because we have always stayed ahead of the curve. The proof was all around me - against all odds, The Black Hawks found Penny. They did that by being professional, efficient, and bold, not because of any particular forum or tool. So much is different now than it used to be, but that will never change.

I surrendered. This is always how it was going to end. The Hawks worked so hard to get her back, they truly deserve to have their bot. It’s true what they say: a Penny saved is a Penny earned.

And you would had gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling hawks!

by **Pterodaxtyl** » Sat May 30, 2020 11:47 am

Gorundu wrote:Once you get to Cease you can pretty much skip the rest of the steps. COE submitted a cover of the song for Raidervision last year.

Or at least that's what I noticed. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

Nice catch! We actually threw in several things that hinted at or foreshadowed that it was COE. If you look at certain nations involved in the puzzle, Desert of Damascus was one, the first letters of the motto, currency, and animal spell out "COE".

However, to actually be considered to have "won" you were supposed to telegram who you thought the thief was to Damascus, so you wouldve had to at least have made it that far to have beat the puzzle.

by **Boda** » Sun May 31, 2020 1:06 am

Well this was elaborate...

by **Ever-Wandering Souls** » Sun May 31, 2020 8:56 pm

Operation: Let The Cards Fall

Where were you when the undead rose from their graves?

The Black Hawks and friends were hanging around their base playing Sammelkarten der Toten, when the scratching and moaning at the windows began. Luckily, Corporal Sakana was well-practiced in Arcane Bolt, Corporal Refuge had her Sylh Alanor 3000 loaded and ready, and General Souls had recently been to Aldi to stock up on supplies. So anyways, we started blasting. And then, a miracle happened!

Corporal Sakana was quick to act - "It's a FIRE SALE! Quick, everyone get to a mystery box, and start making pulls!"

"Nice! a Thundergun!" said LD, quick to the pull.

"I'll take monkey bombs," Rach grinned.

"RAY GUN, BABY!" shouted Souls

"Explosive Crossbow? Works." Peaches quickly loaded a bolt.

"I do like the Galil," Adrianna said while putting one in the chamber.

"SPAS-12, yeet," Dax exclaimed while racking a round.

"Aw, a ballistic knife?" Sylh frowned while inspecting her reflection in the blade. "Anyone mind if I roll again? No? Okay.... Sweet, an RPK!"

With their newfound arsenal of high-value weapons, the Hawks began to advance against the horde. Then, a voice came over the radio -

"This is 9003, over. 9003, on the radio. If there's anyone out there, The North Pacific and 10000 Islands are alive and holding. Repeat, TNP and XKI are also still alive out here. We are located at..."

The Hawks decided to take advantage of this news - after all, when killing Zombies, the more cool guns are better. The path there wasn't going to be easy, though. Things looked tense for a few moments, until Corporals Sakana and Refuge pulled out twin Death Machines. "Stand back, friends - these babies churn through about 10,000 packs of ammunition per hour. Why don't you let me and Refuge take care of this for a bit?"

The ensuing carnage provided enough points for everyone to buy more and more and more guns, until there were quite honestly too many weapons for any small army to carry. And so, The Black Hawks began handing guns out to every single survivor and party they came across, at practically no cost.

The cries of preppers and hoarders grew louder and louder as the value of their stockpiled armories decreased by the minute due to the flood of weapons entering the market - but TBH cared not. After all, doesn't everyone deserve to face the undead world armed to the teeth with their weapon of choice?

THE END

The Black Hawks, in an effort led by Corporals Sakana and Refuge, with help from guest 9003, and supervised by General Ever-Wandering Souls, embarked today on a never-before-seen raiding effort: to devalue the top end of the cards market en masse and topple the Deck Value titans by flooding the world with a vast supply of the most valuable cards.

The following Hawks participated in this mighty and groundbreaking effort:

Farmers:
Corporal Sakana (Organizer)
Corporal Refuge- (Organizer)
Colonel Raionitu
Sergeant Ezkio
Sergeant Twobagger
PFC Steste
PFC Finlarvat

Bidders:
General Ever-Wandering Souls
Colonel Miss Bad Life Choices
Major Lady Dominator
Sergeant Pterodaxtyl
Sergeant Varax Zwei
Corporal Dyanderna

Guests:
9003 (Financer)
Sylh Alanor (Bidder)
Queen Yuno (Farmer)

Check out Sakana's upcoming post in the Cards subforum tomorrow for more technical details about this "raid," the impact of our efforts on market value, and our goals of CARDS FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT JUST THE 1/10TH OF ONE PERCENT!

Thank you to all those who participated in this effort - both knowingly, and in the case of the simultaneous pull event coordinated by TNP and XKI, also entirely unknowingly. Though, we hear at least one XKI'er has said about our efforts: "I don’t know the last time there was a coordinated TBH effort I endorse."

TBH is proud to continue to surprise the world with out-of-the-box ideas to innovate the cutting edge of Raiding. This is why we are, and will always be:

The Black Hawks: Home of the Most Feared Military Organisation in NationStates!

by **Aurum Raider** » Sun May 31, 2020 9:05 pm

I'm sad I couldn't take part, but it's nice to see it went off without a hitch :lol:

by **Noahs Second Country** » Sun May 31, 2020 9:05 pm

While not a fan, I must admit that the execution was on point. Lost a good 10K today

by **RiderSyl** » Sun May 31, 2020 9:42 pm

Ever-Wandering Souls wrote:
(Image)

Cute and awesome! ^_^

by **Refuge Isle** » Sun May 31, 2020 10:46 pm

Noahs Second Country wrote:While not a fan, I must admit that the execution was on point. Lost a good 10K today

Thanks for your praise! It was hard to predict how the kind of first ever "cards raid" was going to go, but it seemed to turn out pretty well.

Fun stuff :lol:

by **LollerLand** » Sun May 31, 2020 10:51 pm

Well this was really innovative! Well done TBH!

by **Basic Bench** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 10:18 am

]

'Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in
So shame on me now (for not raiding The United Meritocrats sooner)

Hello superiors,
I am very glad to be here. I joined recently and would like to get involved with the military operations of this region. I am very eager to help. I joined about 3 months or so ago.

Two Days Later..

Wow I my friend was right about joining this region.[...] If you care SO MUCH about diversity and such BS then why don’t you allow the diversity of opinion?

Two Months Later

The Black Hawks and The Land of Kings and Emperors thought The United Meritocrats needed to calm down, and decided to come play some fun Taylor Swift tunes for them. Unfortunately the founder returned early and crashed their listening party, leading to an argument between Colonel Dakota and the founder about the best Taylor Swift song that lasted two hours.

Argument:

Peeps Who Stole The Region:
Colonel Miss Bad Life Choices (point), General Jakker (trigger), and Sergeant Drexlore

---

With the founder returned, the Hawks were sad their listening party got cut short when suddenly the Hawks noticed a founder disappearing in the distance.

Some Hawks watching a founder go missing

Similar to the great queen TayTay's song Just Another Picture To Burn, SECFanatics provided just another embassy (or 2,294 embassies) to burn for The Black Hawks.

Peeps Who Stole The Region:
Colonel Miss Bad Life Choices (point), General Jakker (Trigger), & Sergeant Dyllonia

Embassy Bonkers (Withdrawn/Aborted/Request Withdrawn):
Miss Bad Life Choices (771), Jakker (753), Dyllonia (746), Drexlore (310), Pterodaxtyl (90, which is like damn gurl from mobile)

Special thanks to the Balder Jomsviking, Europeian Republican Navy, Karma, Lone Wolves United, The Land of Kings and Emperors, The North Pacific Army, and the Social Technocratic Union for helping us strike a match on all the embassies!

by **Wymondham** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 1:06 pm

GG TBH!!

by **Zeritae** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 5:25 pm

Good on you all, you managed to make the SECFanatics RMB active.

The Black Hawks | Still Winning

Penny: The Last Bot

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