TerroirNoir3

Ah. No it wasn't 100% clear to me. That is probably on me though. I read it more like Engineria and her team had entered the building and then been staggering through the missions with her memory fogged to hell, not sure how she got there and hearing the voice through her headset. It's why I never mentioned the contact at all. I think it worked though! And I had to reread my post to find the Yeats thing! I see it now. Sadly that was not intentional 😞

The next arc on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews will be part of the Interludes, Side Trips, and One-offs, and is @LordRassilon (@Valeyard on the AE console)'s Heart of Words Part One. After some serious decompression and off-loading some of my weirder jobs to Araminta (ask her about her virtual time travel to Praetoria some time!), I finally got around to meeting up with Professor Skeffington Lewis. Well, I grabbed a coffee on the way out after picking up my armor from Icon. All buffed out! Mission 1: A Race for Answers. Professor Lewis works for C.A.B.A.L. Oh, another one of those. You know, I always thought there surely must be more than just the ones we see in City Hall. And here we are. He and his team scour the planet for arcane artifacts and relics, making sure that they are kept out of the hands of...the unworthy? Hmm. Okay then. Who decides the worthiness? You do. Hokay. I bet you butt heads with the Midnight Squad on your travels, not to mention the...what are those British ones called again? Dawn Patrol? Possibly. Ok, Professor, what's the deal here? Psychics are falling into comas? Anything to do with the amount of Awakened trooping around Kallisti Wharf these days? No? And the more powerful ones, Numina, Penny Yin, are so far untouched. So people my level (according to my security status with City Hall I mean! I'm no psychic!) The comatose are registering no synaptic activity at all, as if they were truly emptied of consciousness. Ok, that's weird. And you've...with an 8 Ball?...narrowed it down to a building in Boomtown. Ah man. Boomtown. Well, at least it's not Crey's Folly or the sewers. I have learned to really hate getting my feet wet when working. So I get the address. Not that that does much good. I'll have to take a detour to City Hall to get the old maps of Baumton to get an idea of the area. As I head out the door he mentions I should look for a potted plant. And to think I thought I handed off the weird cases to Araminta! Well, here I am. Boomtown. No sign of Council War Walkers or Babbage so far, so that's a plus. In I go. Door isn't locked either. I stealth my way through the building, up some stairs and along a hallway until...ok, Clockwork. Not unusual considering I'm in Boomtown and I did just mention Babbage. And Lewis talked about Valkyrie fighting the Clockwork King near here. Wait, those voices. Turn up the gain on my headset. Crey. I can hear Crey Tank armor. And they're talking about the Countess and share prices? Dammit! I was so busy trying to hear what those Crey were saying I totally missed seeing the Clockwork patrol that I just walked into! Rads on and take that, you wind-up toy! Of course it all goes even further south when those two Crey tanks I was trying to eavesdrop on come around the corner and decide that, you know, I'm not welcome. Oh, I was feeling unwelcome BEFORE you two got here so don't think you're original in that! I do manage to drop the pair of them though. SOOO glad I had my armor repaired. It's like new! Now, where the hell were they going before they ran into me? Time to have a little scout around. Nope. Nope. Just lots of Clockwork intent on frying me. No thanks and down you go in bits, amigos. Wait, that looks interesting. What pray tell is down there? I decide to investigate, ridding the world of more Clockwork as I go. I think I've disassembled every single one I've met in this building so far. Which is fine, it's not like they're alive anyway. You know, I've been expecting a bigger Clockwork thing for a while now. I remember that from one of those courses Positron did for newbie heroes when I started out. Although he did spend a hot minute complaining that Synapse was supposed to be doing that one and he was just filling in. I have news for you, my clanky pal, you are going to be disappointed. Well, maybe your master is as I'm not sure emotion is a thing for you. Psychics and the Clockwork King? Yeah, that rings a bell. Object did you say? It's not a potted plant, is it? OW! This guy is one tough tin can! Hey buster! I literally just had this armor fixed so lay off on that, wouldja? Nope. Grind up the Rads then! And BOOM! Oh, and lemme just rip some speed and power from you with Kinetics. Kthnxby! JEEZ LOUISE! Will you drop already! He is wearing me down! I'm holding out against him but he's relentless. Still I hammer him with Rads and his health starts to slalom downhill rapidly. Thankfully for me because I'm clean out of Green Insps. Oh thank the stars! Whew! Okies. Now, where is that object he was talking about? Time to do a little spelunking. I find a pile of rubble nearby where the big guy had been standing before I interrupted him so rudely. And what have we here? Some sort of rune stone. I reckon this is the source of the psychic disturbance here. Time to head back to Professor Lewis and check in with him. The professor doesn't recognize the glyphs on the stone but he says he'll do some divination magic on it. In the meantime he has somewhere else for me to investigate. [Mission 1: Great start! Wacky contact (Read the bio!) with a mysterious yet entirely plausible organization for Paragon. Psychic and Clockwork. Good stuff! On to the next mission!] Mission 2: Old Enemies. [More ASAP]

Arc 26 from our second author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @cranebump's Fallout 3: Reassembly. This adventure continued on from my work with the Autumn Wards. It's tricky to explain and even now I'm not 100 percent sure how much of it actually happened and how much was a nightmare or a dream of something else. If you remember we had some issues with bleed over from what the Wards refer to as the Mobius Strip, and then it got hella meta. Lobart teamed up with an alternate version of his daughter, and we were aided by an alternate version of her mother, and in the end there was mention of someone standing behind all that. Someone with the code name of Papillon. Clear as mud. So we'd captured Lobart and in his files there was mention of Chrysalis, a comms app. The Wards traced all this to a location in Crey's Folly and there we ran into oddity. Yeah, oddity. I'll leave it like that. Mission 1: Zero to One. My team and I entered the abandoned Freak warehouse...well, we all entered the door but when I set foot on the other side I was alone. Already off to a good start! Oh boy. A grim place lit only by the light of braziers. Not exactly sure what the Freaks used to do here. Not sure I really want to know either. That might be mental bleach time. But there's a signal coming from somewhere in here. I just have to find the source. And there it is. It's oddly translucent, opaque, like it's not quite here. Oh hell, more bleed through from the Mobius Strip? Because that always goes well! OH! Well, maybe I should have expected that to happen. I didn't, but maybe I should have. Then another signal and another! The final one reveals that it's more of a holo-emitter. So anything in here while conjured from thin air, could have actually killed me. I had better not be complacent! Time to leave and have a think. Still no sign of my team. Were we all in separate realities in here? Each of us thinking we were abandoned and alone? We will see when I get out of this place. If I can get out of this place! [Mission 1 = Intriguing! A different start to what I was expecting but I'm all in now! Bring on the next mission!] Mission 2: Deep Work. A matrix constructed by another that I entered, that the whole team entered, but were kept apart in. All confusing. What next? An introduction to the Sacred Flame. Or a reintroduction perhaps. Dis tried to harness it but she was flawed in herself so it fell apart. Everything falls apart I'm told. And they had to shut it down but this guy I remember (Why is my memory so bad? is it because of that holo matrix or the so-called Sacred Flame? More Mobius Strip bleed? No idea) telling me that he was close. So yeah, he couldn't just let it go, could he? How did I get here? I really need to get some psi protection if possible. Who from though? I mean with all the Awakened in Kallisti Wharf these days surely someone in the Freedom Corps must be advising on how to defend yourself against that? You'd think that, wouldn't you? Or would you? Where the hell am I anyway? It looks like Eden. Oh that's not good at all. Emitters. I have to disable the emitters. Holo emitters I'm assuming. How do I know that? Got me there. I just know. I wish I'd brought Araminta with me. I think she's in Croatoa right now but I can't be certain. I think I'm back in my own timeline again too but again I can't be certain. All this not being certain is not conducive to investigation. Let's find those emitters and disable them and then see what happens. Ah, there we go. Arachnos style model it appears. Or the shell of it is at least. Oh, emitters plural. There's more of them. Hmm. My Nemesis? As in Engineria's nemesis? Rather than Capital N Nemesis? Do I have one of those? I don't think I do. Statesman/Lord Recluse, that sort of thing? Oh, I'm not the baby super I was once but I'm not on the level of having a nemesis yet. So, am I still in a holo scene or actually in Eden? Is this my memory or that of the maker of the holo scene? Am I overthinking all this? I might be. There's another emitter over there. Disguised this time. Ok, let's keep going on disabling them and see what happens. And another. And another. And finally this one. And with that they are all destroyed. Then I'm not there any more. I'm out. Where? I dunno. But that voice I keep hearing tells me I'm getting closer. As close as they got. I wonder is there a good therapist I can talk to later. Or now? Hero Corps probably has some on staff. I bet Whipsmart's people have one too. [Mission 2 = More opaque goodness. A very different style of AE, but intriguing. On to the next mission, if it really IS a mission!] Mission 3: The Undefeated Mind. I'm delusional. Memories that I am damn certain aren't mine flood in. How do I know? Because I know how old I am and what gender I identify as, and these are from an older, apparently male person. The age is the key though, plus expertise in things I know I as Engineria never had or learned. (I wonder if this is what it's like to be psychic? You imagine that it's all "Sister Psyche saves the world" when you're a kid, but what was it like for that young woman who maybe couldn't shut all the voices and memories out? How did she retain a sense of herself at all?) A name pops up. Tracee Deimos. Nope. I see a face and information flows in to attach to that image but the remaining bit of me that I recognize as me is also asking the question "Who?" She had a touch of the Sacred Flame but was pushed through a process to accelerate her power. I don't think she came out of it right. I'm definitely in need of a vacation. I might let Araminta handle a few of my cases going forward, although I still have some work booked with a Professor Skeffington Lewis, not to mention Buddy Bolton has more work for me and I'm not letting him down. Lobart was the key here. (How do I know that?) It seems that a virtual laboratory was needed (the holo scenes?) so that's what was built. What was built was the Chrysalis. Except things emerge from a chrysalis, don't they? Hmm, an overcast, almost bluish light to the sky, The kind you get on a rural road with no street lighting, and it's a dry summer night with a bright moon. Except I appear to be in Cap Au Diable. There's more emitters. These ones are disguised too. What happens when I shut them down. Am I lying somewhere in an AE suite with all this going on? What exactly happened to me after I got back to Earth from dealing with the Dark Comet? Ok, deal with the problem in front of you as my dad always said. Ok, one down. Let's find the others and see what's hidden by all these things. And I am almost instantly attacked by aerial drones and bots that are VERY intent on perforating my armor with lasers! Not good. I dive and swoop, pulling health from them with Kinetics and slowing them by stealing their speed. It barely works! Ok, after the last two excursions into what I've been calling the holo scene I got complacent. This is a wake up call. Also, I notice that when attacked I'm definitely ME. It's only when there's a period of calm that the influence of the implanted (I don't know if that's the right word) memories have a chance to work on my psyche. Adrenaline burns them out? Maybe. I'm still in here though so I'm not sure. More disguised emitters to find though. I'm definitely not my usual happy-go-lucky Engineria self right now though. Oh wonderful. There's someone IN the damn truck shooting at me. How does that even work? Or are they just sitting inside the emitter field and staring out? You know, like those hunters that sit for hours in a blind waiting for a target. That's that one down. Plus its defender. I take out a third and then somewhere there's a master control console that I need to find. I take to the air and start scanning and....CRAPPITY! ZOOM! As in AWAY! Oh, they follow. Because of course they do! I'm trailing smoke from my armor and my endurance is bottoming out. Can't seem to rip any from them at all, and I'm out of Blues. Finally I finish off the last of those flying bomb things and destroy the console. And then I'm out of this place. But the Chrysalis has cracked. Ah, how stupid am I? PAPILLON!! [Mission 3 = This entire arc so far is steeped in mood and tone, and I might be repeating myself there. I really like it but it's very different.] Mission 4: The Hard Thing About Hard Things. A mad dream about Unity. The creator of the chrysalis and Papillon combined to create something new. Honestly I'm going to need a week off after I figure out what the hell is going on here. I hope my insurance will cover it! All you non supers, let me tell you that unless you're Manticore or someone like that, being a super is expensive and I'm not just talking about getting yourself new enhancements. There's that name surfacing again, Tracee Deimos. Nope, still don't know who they are or were, other than things went BAD for them. Are they going to go bad for me? We'll see. Papillon has fused many aspects within itself to become what it is now, and it has reached across the dimensions and will seek to "upgrade" everyone, whether they want it or not. And then? Don't like the sound of that at all. Engineria 2.0 fighting in some sort of war world for supremacy? Nope. I'm cutting that right out. Check utility belt. Buddy and Marcus on call. If they're even really here. But if I'm here why can't they be here? Let's go with that hope for now. I find myself in an office/lab space. And ahead of me, finally, is one of my team! Not seen them since...however long this has taken. It could be days, it could be minutes. No way to measure time. Experience, yes. Time passed? Nope. I proceed to free them. I can't even remember their name! Oh, there's gonna be a reckoning at the end of all of this! Get out and get help. Hopefully we're not in Crey's Folly or somewhere equally awful. Further ahead I find another team mate. At least they're alive. I suppose that's a silver lining. It's a GOOD silver lining but those clouds are still hanging over us. I free them, and then another member in an adjoining room. Every step is taking me closer to the fiend behind all this, this Papillon person. If it is a person. From the mysterious voice over I've been getting I'm not so sure anymore. Oh. Johann Parker. Not seen him since...Chalikar? I think we were hunting those back then. He was a bit squirrelly even then I have to admit. Squirrelly or not he's one of us so I wade in and start cutting down his captors. These guys really do not like me. And I've not had time to repair my armor so I'm getting hammered here. However, you are still going down, mon brave! Parker! Are you ok? Wait. Your voice. It's you! You're the one I've been hearing this entire time. How is that possible? Also, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? He collapses without explaining further. Only one way to end this he said. So, take out Papillon then? Ah. Is THAT Papillon? I think I'm gonna call in Marcus on this. No offence to Buddy at all. BOOM! Well, I hit him at least. Now we've got him angry. Maybe. Does he get angry? Or is it just a calculation where he assesses the danger and removes it? The "it" in that equation being me. Let's find out. Is that your only wish? Mine is for a nice hot bath and a glass of wine and a good book. Betcha I get mine first, buster. Hit him, Marcus! Nope, old Marcus here is known for not complying. Not quite his calling card, but it's pretty high up the list of things he doesn't do. And he's got you facing away from me so you're getting as much Rads as I can hand out. Either we take you down or I burn out my gauntlets. (Gotta do some serious work on these things later!) And he goes down. Not without incident. I've never seen Marcus reeling before. Oh, he's vanished when I get taken down, that's part of the deal with the amulet I'm told. But to still be upright and so injured? Nope. Not much better myself. Ok, counter intuitively, Marcus, we need to find some more of these guys so I can heal us by ripping out their health and transferring it to us. C'mon. And we do that. Feeling a mite better I open up a console and check it for details. In it we find Parker's confession. And a warning to leave fast because there's a self destruct about to happen! Go go go, Marcus! Say, you couldn't like pick me up and fly me out of here? Like in the old cartoons? No. Ok, run! There's the door! No, I don't know what the timer is set for but I'm not waiting around to find out! And I'm out. The rest of the team are recovering. I'm going home. No debrief given here because MAJOR SPOILERS. [Mission 4 = Great ending to a thoughtful arc. Loved it.] Verdict. @cranebump is an author that ventures into narrative spaces that others don't and I think the AE is better for it. It's a delicate balancing act yet they pull it off. My biggest issue is trying to find a mode of recording it here that (a) doesn't spoiler things and (b) shows how Engineria would experience it rather than me as a player at one remove. Definitely recommended. Next up from @cranebump is The Bounce House. And immediately next up on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews as part of the Interludes, Side Trips, and One-offs, will be @LordRassilon (@Valeyard on the AE console)'s Heart of Words Part One. AFTERMATH: Engineria recounts her adventure to Araminta. Armor is being repaired!

Going to post this because it's the season! Happy Halloween everyone! Love, Araminta.

Araminta's Adventures. Hello gang! Araminta here. I generally have a quieter life than Engineria, what with still reading through a lot of material salvaged from Praetoria. When that that is converted to AE data by Neil over in Steel Canyon then I'm going to have a look at it properly. Having just come back though from checking out a zombie invasion I check my messages to find one from the mayor of Salamanca over in Croatoa, Gordon Bower. I've only been out to Croatoa once or twice so far. Seems lovely but I tend not to drag the girls around open countryside because I then spend hours scraping dirt out of the metal. But I won't refuse a call for help. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Headless Huntsman of Salamanca by @Jiro Ito Mission 1: A Call From the Mayor's Office. So I get the train out to Salamanca and head over to the town hall. No sign of Gordon Bower though. I meet Councilman Larry Vaughn instead. He tells me that my services aren't needed and I can just turn around and go home and take my robots with me. Suspicious much? I don't like how this is going. He insists though and I leave. I decide to have a look around Salamanca myself while I'm here. What's Vaughn gonna do, arrest me? He's a Councilman, not the police. He's not even the mayor. Let's have a wander around. And I'm glad I did! Down one street I can see a Mr. Polk held captive by the Tuatha! Those creatures look as big as some of the Council Soldiers! Or the Council Soldiers are on some steroid to make them as big as the Tuatha! Both are much bigger than me is what I am trying to say! Well, I'm going to rescue him. C'mon ladies! Everyone lock and load! Ok, these Tuatha are tough. I was thrown across the street at one point! But the girls took them down all the same. Now, Mr. Polk, are you ok? A headless ghost you say? That's a new one for me. Just the one headless ghost? No accompanying ghostless head? No. Ok. Ok, I've read a lot of the news reports that have come out of Croatoa over the years and I really shouldn't be surprised that a headless ghost would appear here of all places. Nor should anyone else really. But there are other citizens in trouble so me and the girls go looking for them. If this is what Larry Vaughn calls normal then I don't want to live here. Coming around a corner in Salamanca we run into a similar situation as Mr. Polk, except this time it's a Mr. Posner. Ok, girls, you know what to do now. Let's get to rescuing! We free him and he claims that the headless ghost drew all the other creatures here. Ah. Well, I don't know what to do about that. Yet! All I can do right now is save the rest of the citizens currently being terrorized by the Tuatha. Oh hello, who are you? Scruffy. And you are? Oh! Sorry. I was just about to offer you a treat. I keep a small supply in one of Laura's utility boxes. Oh you still want one? Ok. So Scruffy here is a shapeshifted member of the Midnight Squad. They heard the commotion and came outside to help. Nice to meet you, Scruffy. What say you and me work together here? There we go, Scruffy! Mrs. Kintner is our last rescuee! And Scruffy, I know you're a professional and all but don't run in front of the girls when they're firing. Hang on Mrs. Kintner, we're coming! So yeah. Mrs. Kintner reaffirms the whole deal about a headless ghost. The streets seem clear. For now. Scruffy vanishes off in the direction of the university. I've been meaning to have a look at their library actually. They have lots of books that haven't been digitized yet and some that they claim can't be digitized. I head back into the town hall and Larry Vaughn meets me at the door and once again tries to get rid of me! Says there no such creature as a headless ghost here and even if there is, well I must have brought it with me! What? In some sort of vacuum thermos? On the train? You're either hiding something or you're an idiot. Or...I finish the thought outside. Or you're really scared and there's more to this than a headless ghost. Hmm. C'mon girls, let's go sit at the train station and have a think. [Mission 1 = Simple mission but very well executed. I really liked the concept of the bait and switch with the contact and having a contact that really doesn't want you there.] Mission 2: Children of the Pumpkin Patch. So after some thinking I head back to the town hall and Vaughn is almost surprised I'm still in Salamanca. He has some words for me on that! Then he gets frustrated and admits that yes there's rumors of some sort of creature in town. Something without a head. I let the next comment ride because the people here need my help more than Vaughn needs Laura to hang him out the top window by his ankles. And then he tells me again to get lost. I tell him I want to speak to the mayor but apparently Mayor Bower is with the Agricultural Committee and is busy. Then there's some more hate from Vaughn concerning "city folks". Whatever. Girls, we're going looking for the mayor. Very countryside here. All seems passably quiet until I see some Fir Bolg over in the pumpkin patch. Field? How big is a patch supposed to be anyway? They look like they crawled up out around their bigger siblings, and that's a scary thought! Like the actual pumpkins are sleeping bigger Fir Bolg! And it turns out that maybe it's exactly as scary as it sounds because Keri makes some beepity noises and I turn around in the pumpkin patch to see....yeah, I am NOT going over there. Engineria might be mad enough to tackle Eochai by herself but I sure as hell ain't gonna! Time to do some circling. Looks like the Agricultural Commission may be on temporary lunch break right now if that monster is stalking the farmlands hereabouts! But I've got some company again! And this time I dig out the treats! Hey Scruffy, over here! Let's go find Mayor Bower! So Scruffy joins us and fits right in with the girls, and I am really gonna have to dig out the wire brushes and cleaning solution once we get out of this place. Mud in all the vents. First up we find a Mr. Walters. I reckon he's one of the Commissioners. Yep, you saw the Headless Huntsman. Did you see the mayor? Hey, come back here! He's gone. But that doesn't matter because after carefully navigating my way around the spot where Eochai is standing, doing whatever things like him do - hey, I'm not gonna just go and ask him - we find the mayor. We rescue him and he hightails it out of there. As he leaves he says we have to talk because these attacks all began two weeks ago. So at the start of the October then. Interesting. There's still more members of the Agricultural Committee to find though. Can't leave them to the mercies of the Fir Bolg. There's a Mrs. Posner! Lock and load, girls! Scruffy, ah...you do you. Whatever works. Go Full Mailman on them if that's a thing. She's scared as hell and while delighted to be free runs off nearly hysterical. The Headless Huntsman brought this on us she says. You know, if it wasn't for the fact that Eochai is standing RIGHT OVER THERE, I'd be thinking there's a Scooby gang ending to all this. I'd prefer that actually. Easier to get "Old Man Smithers" in prison than a 12 foot incarnation of Halloween that can throw fireballs at you. Finally we rescue Mr. Borwood. He's adamant that Eochai didn't show up until after all this nonsense started. Well, that's the mayor and the committee accounted for. I want some explanations so I'm going back to the town hall. I collect the frightened mayor on the way back. [Mission 2 = Atmospheric! And I gave Eochai a poke AFTER I'd completed the mission and he very nearly one-shotted little Araminta! So I hit the exit button fast! Good stuff!] Mission 3: Season of the Witch. And why am I back talking to this moron Vaughn? Where's the mayor? Oh, Vaughn says good job on rescuing those people, but what about the Headless Huntsman? He doesn't exist probably. Maybe it's something made up by some outsider to cause panic in the country bumpkins! (I swear on Keri's shiny little head that I will hide your shoes, you idiot!) As for all this happening two weeks ago? Well, two weeks ago some of the land was put up for rezoning as commercial and that caused a fuss, but Vaughn doubts that had anything to do with a Headless Huntsman. (It's you, isn't it? You're my Scooby gang ending. Oh, I can't jump to conclusions but I've got a feeling about this.) I need to talk to the other Council members. But Salamanca comes under attack from the Cabal of witches! And those Council members have scattered! There's Councilwoman Hooper! Surrounded by witches of the Cabal too. I'd better rescue her. No sign of Scruffy yet. I'm getting used to him being around. Which reminds me, I must go find Gloryhound while I'm in Croatoa. I've always wanted to meet them. Right, that's her freed from the witches. Councilwoman Hooper informs me that a witch told her that the Salamancans had somehow summoned the Headless Huntsman. She has no idea how though. Me neither. I'm still suspicious about Vaughn though. Anyway Hooper runs off to safety. I have to find the rest of the Council members now. Up next is Councilman Gardner. He does not look happy. And I can't blame him when the cabal are telling him that the pain will stop when he gives them the answer that they want! I'm coming, Mr. Gardner! Ladies, do your thing! Not you witches! MY girls! Boom! Ok, that's as clear as mud. No real enlightenment there. Maybe the next Council member will have more of a clue as to what's going on. If indeed they haven't been tortured by the Cabal already. And that next Council member is Councilman Brody. I find him standing alone, but there's dead and injured Cabal nearby and some dead Redcaps. Looks like another battle happened here before I got to Brody. Brody says they kept asking him where "it" was. "You took it, where is it?" Ok, the plot is thickening. More like fog than soup though, considering where we are. You go on home now, Brody. Hey, there's my pal Scruffy! No, don't say it! It can't be the dog who is behind all this! Shapeshifted or not. Anyway, he looks to be in a spot of trouble so I'm going to help him out. Once Scruffy is with me we have a bigger fish to fry! Because up ahead is Mary Macomber! Yes, THAT Mary Macomber. And she, that's right, MARY DAMN MACOMBER, knows who I, ARAMINTA LEVIN, is! I bet it's some psychic witch power. No way am I famous enough to be known. Engineria maybe, me? Nope. Most I get is "that girl with the robots who hangs out with Engineria." How am I involved? Ah, would you believe a phone call from the mayor? Apparently she didn't believe that. There goes the mind reading thing I was betting on. Summoned by a person here in Salamanca? I believe you. I wish you believed it wasn't me though. And if you're going to keep zapping me with magic I totally AM going to shoot you. So THAT'S what was missing! That's what they kept asking about! Mary ports away (or whatever the Cabal version of that is) and I'm left pondering. Who would have the Huntsman's head? I need to get back to town and have a chat with people. I'd prefer it to be the mayor but it's probably going to be Vaughn. Sigh. Especially since he's the only one that has not been killed or terrorized in the last two weeks it's him, isn't it? What do you think, Scruffy? Hmm, I have a dog with me. It's totally a Scooby case. [Mission 3 = Plenty of fun here! The Cabal vs Redcap fights I backed away from mostly because Redcaps are a total pain with all their tiny arrows! On we go!] Mission 4: Night of the Huntsman. Vaughn is there. And I call him on his BS. (I have no proof, I'm bluffing!) And he denies it! Argh. I need proof. Ok, I'm gonna find proof, Mr. Big Shot Council Man! Oh yeah. C'm girls, we're going investigating. Here's the thing though. I might be wrong. But we will see, won't we? Worst that happens is...I don't know actually. The Huntsman kills everyone? I was more going with "Araminta goes back to Paragon after a few days in Croatoa", but that's nowhere near what the worst could be now that I actually think about it. Ok, forget all that! Vaughn or not the Headless Huntsman has to be defeated. Or even found! Ah, that's a no from me. Nuh uh. Let's go this other way, girls. Down the hill and over there. It looks nicer over there. And on our way down the hill we meet Katie Hannon! I've heard of you! You're famous. Like actually famous. Not like Mary Macomber who is infamous. Hey, you haven't seen a dog called Scruffy around have you, Katie? Well let me know if you do. He's a friend. We have to deal with Redcaps. I mean they are literally everywhere. I've heard you see a lot more of them around when Jack in Irons is present. So maybe that's why. They're still a total nuisance though. Hmm, what have we here? Let's have a look. Right. So there was a binding ritual done here. And I've been spotted by Vaughn! He says to wait right there because the police are on the way. To arrest me for what? Trailing around a wood in Croatoa? That's not a crime. Is it? There isn't some sort of weird Croatoan HOA is there? Wait, even if there was I don't live here so...nope, I'm losing it. Ah! More damn Redcaps! Well, have some stun grenades! Enjoy your pressure-induced migraine! KaBoom! And in the middle of all these Redcaps I find Amy Jonnson! Another famous person that I have totally heard of! Yay! Still no dog 😞 Ok, Amy, you and Katie do your witchy thing while me and the girls provide basically artillery, ya? Cool. Let's go! And Mary Macomber? She's a lot friendlier than the last time I met her! Might be something to do with her knowing we're on the same side here, might be because Amy and Katie are with me right now so I must be ok, yeah? Either way I'm not fighting a powerful witch right now and that's good. What's also good is I now have THREE, count them, THREE powerful witch ladies on my side for whenever I do find the Headless Huntsman. Nope, I'm still not going near Jack in Irons. And then we find SCRUFFY! Woot! Excellent news. Meanwhile up ahead we can see Larry Vaughn. He's surrounded by Redcaps and it looks like HE needs a rescue. Much as it pains me to do it, I'm going to have to do it. Let's go rescue that guy. And he's thoroughly ungrateful. Thoroughly so. Now we have a Headless Huntsman to send back to Hell or wherever he's supposed to be. Wherever it is it isn't here. Tally ho! Come on, Witchy ladies! All girls together! Oh wait, Scruffy! Sorry boy! Shortly afterwards we find him. And with the combined firepower of my girls, plus three powerful witches, and...I actually don't know what Scruffy does but he definitely does something, we force the Headless Huntsman back against a large rock in the stream. He's mad though! Well, I think he is. It's hard to really tell with someone who has no head. But we defeat him! His body lies cooling(?) in the stream and pretty soon the witches head off in their separate directions. Me and the girls head back to the town hall, being careful to avoid Jack in Irons along the way. I was about to say it must be weird living in a place that has Eochai and Jack in Irons just walking around, and then I remember that when I first had an apartment in Paragon it was in Kings Row, and at one point I could see THREE PALADINS from my window. I didn't leave the apartment that day. So back in the town hall I get to talk to the mayor finally. Vaughn is definitely off the Council. The Headless Huntsman is gone...for now! In the meantime the mayor gifts me the Huntsman's axe for our Super Group trophy case! Awesome! (I don't tell him I don't have a trophy case but I know where I'm gonna put it.) Take care, Croatoa. [Mission 4 = Great little ending to a tight set of missions. Really fits the seasonal vibe too. Everyone have fun playing this!] Verdict. Had so much fun! Well put together and very spare in the writing, but not missing anything. That's a skill in itself. Recommended. Signing off of now. Araminta Levin's Adventures are not so regular as her friend Engineria's, but before I do, I do two more things! First of all I went and found Gloryhound and stared out at the forest of Croatoa with them. Then me and the girls went home and I had a really good cup of coffee from my new pumpkin-shaped mug. And yes, that IS an axe on the counter behind me. 🙂 Maybe I'll get a real trophy case some day but this will do for now.

This player confused me for a moment, @Ankylosaur!

Ah, he plays the President of Boravia in that movie.

Thanks for sharing, @TheOneTitan! I can't promise I'll get to the other episodes but now I know they're there I'll stick them on my list. Alas it's a big list. And glad to shine some light on your work as well as others'. I started this entire thing concentrating on, I hope they don't mind me saying this, a kind of "Big Three" of writers, who seem to have somehow (hard work!) gathered a following along the way, but I'm enjoying the branch out into my "Interludes" section very much. Keep writing! Edit: And now Tachyon/Prof Dafriend is part of Araminta's and Engineria's back story!

Arc 26 from our first author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @Ankylosaur's All That Glows 2: Nictus Exodus. Mission 1: A Zag in the Zig. So after finally wrapping up stuff at Paragon U I meet up with Hornet for a coffee. He seems fine mostly. A bit tired. The Wyverning is a 23 hour a day job it seems to me. And that's when I get a phone call from Buddy Bolton. I cover the speaker and whisper to Hornet who it is. He nods and proceeds to put what appears to be eight sugars in his coffee! How does the man have any teeth left?! It seems Bolton got a promotion after our last adventure. He's a captain in the PPD now. Excellent. Heading up a tiny unit investigating more Nictus activity across the city. He's following up the sole real lead they have though, Stardust, and wants to know if I want a front seat at the interrogation at the Zig with him and Orthas. Sure. I'll just have to speak to a Zayas once I get there. I gesture at Hornet to get the bill but he waves me away, covers the tab and tip and says something about his boss being loaded. Do I want a lift over to the Zig? Why not. So we wander over to Hornet's parked Arachnos flyer - honestly, do Arachnos not know you have this? The Meteors have one too - and we take off. As we approach the radio squawks something about a car ramming the Zig's walls, Council flooding in, prisoners flooding out, and that's not good. I get Hornet to drop me down and while he guards the flyer against escapees I head into the chaos. Maestro is free? That's not what I wanted to hear at all. Not sure exactly what I wanted to hear but that is definitely not it. That's Ascendant Archon De May. And he gets his comeuppance from me, and some swiftly arriving back up from the PPD's psychic force. You stay down, you maniac. Now, I wonder is Maestro here or actually out in the city. Time to find out. Well, I should find Bolton and Orthas and Zayas first I suppose. Up ahead as we get closer to the sewer entrance, we run into Dark Equinox Archon Breque. "Dark Equinox"? Honestly, the Council and their fellow fascist Cosplayers, the 5th Column, are so full of overblown titles that I'm amazed they can get their heads through doorways. But.. Breque takes a knee to Engineria and her PPD buddies all the same. Bye bye, Breque. You came to the Zig, you get to stay for a while, hopefully a long while. He WAS ranting about Nosferatu being free though. So Maestro and Nosferatu. Well rats. Who's next then? Ah! One of Breque's gang transformed into a Darkwolf! Down! Does anyone have a rolled up newspaper? Or some spray? No? Rad blast it is then! With the Darkwolf dealt with I scoot ahead and into the main sewer entry of the Zig, up a rank tunnel and through a hole in the floor. It's smoky and grim in here and I run into a Mindstorm called Kaya. Nope, no idea who she is. (I may have to peruse my case notes later). Where I go she watches? That's sweet. Have some radiation powered blasts! I don't have time for your fangirling. Down she goes. Up around the corner I find Bolton and Zayas and free them before going looking for Orthas. And it figures that he would be held by Void Hunters! Yeah, I'm here and I'm mad. You've captured my friends and that does not put you in my good books. No siree. You two take a long nap now, y'hear. You ok in there, Orthas? Good. Found him, guys. Now, let's get out of Dodge and gather the troops, gird our loins and circle the wagons...I'm running out of clichés here so one of you help me out! I'll be veering into "Fish swim south for the winter", and if you know that reference then kudos! Wait, Raze? Do I know you? You seem to know me. Oh hell, I'm still in the wrong time era after that Cimerora thing, am I? Or are they referring to one of my doppelgangers? Well, whatever it is we're not on the same side now. Amazing how all this "forging a new way" involves hurting the innocent, yeah? Ends justify the means, do they? Not on my watch, bucko! Not on my watch! Raze goes down. Kinda had to against 4 of us to be honest. Now to deal with someone mentioned earlier by the Void Hunters, a Suarez. Haven't seen him or her yet, so I assume they're arriving to pick up their prisoners. Let's give them a big surprise! There he is! Welp, he's noticed us! Pile on, gang! Don't let that guy get away! Orthas! QB! You're up! Oh, he's tough! But again there's 4 of us and he takes a beating! I'm trailing smoke out of my armor and my HP is heading into the red. Bolton is looking shaky too. Orthas and Zayas just jeep hitting Suarez though. And we all live to tell the tale! (a) go us! (b) whew! The Dark Comet is coming, is it? Yeah, I've been hearing that for a while now. And we're gonna be there, my friend. And then it's over. The PPD have regained control of the Zig. The rest of my little gang stagger out and sit down heavily. I look across at Bolton and wait for him to speak. So Maestro and Nosferatu are definitely gone. And so has Stardust. That's when Zayas chips in with an interesting fact (that might be illegal but this Vig is saying nothing!) It seems that the Zig is in the habit of slipping short life span tracking devices into the inmates' food, and that could help track Stardust at least. [Mission 1 = As usual the Zig yard map is a great map for some excellent encounters and once again @Ankylosaur is doing some deep world building here. Looking forward to see how this plays out.] Mission 2: Freakout. Bolton fills me in on details here. The new Council are building up their forces. Still got the UPA and the Awakened are on board too it seems. Orthas is more interested in the Void Harbinger. Being Kheldian he would be. And at that point Zayas informs us that they found Stardust! He's in the Freaktown part of Crey's Folly. Well of course he is. Couldn't just book himself a room in a motel quietly. Looks like I'm off to a run down warehouse in Crey's Folly then. In I go and...hold up! What in the blue hell are you? A Shadow Freak? That does not bode well. (Not 100 percent on what boding really is but I feel some boding going on) On top of the boding I'm having a definite "Running for the bus and watching it pull away" moment here. Offworld to the Dark Comet? Oh no. Dammit! I got too close trying to listen and was spotted. Yeah, it looks like I'm doing well here. Well, I had not appreciated his several friends hidden among all the warehouse racks and shelves, who then proceeded to back shoot me. Cue the end result of aforesaid back shooting. Ow. That's right. Walk away. A bit further. There we go. I get up, he goes down and I move to tackle his companions. And they get a severe radiation burn. Oh I'm sure their implants will heal them up rapidly but for the meantime them lying there moaning is sweet music to me. Now, I know there are smart Freaks, we all do. But these guys? You have to wonder. He seems particularly pleased with the new toys the Nictus bestowed on them. I bet there's a cost to that you don't know about, my friend. Mind you, you've removed most of your original body to be like that so ...nah, forget the cost. You don't care, do you? But while we're here, I need your Endurance. Why? Because it refills mine, and because it stops you being able to hit me. Simple. And down he goes. He lets me know I have just missed Stardust. I was about to say "And you expect me to believe you?" when I overheard this nugget. I come around a corner to find the speaker and some friends clustered around a Shadow Shard. And promptly take out them and the Shard. It seemed like the right thing to do. On we go! Hmm, someone was working out the Dark Comet's path here. Maybe smart Freaks? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way part of it has been erased so I don't have the whole picture yet. Examining a nearby PC shows me an open account with a blog on one of the tabs. Lots of it look like conspiracy-speak but there's mention of a thing called a Shadow Rupture. Something bigger, possibly much bigger, than a Shadow Shard. Oh oh. No Stardust though. He and the others have vamoosed. Time to leave. Back with Bolton we go through what I've found. And Orthas chips in with the question we've all been thinking about: where did they go? [Mission 2 = Oh, that was surprisingly tough! Those Shadow Freaks pack a punch! But like I said above, I missed the bus there and was gathering follow-on clues. Worked well. On to part 3!] Mission 3: Radioactive Escapes. Bolton informs Engineria that Raze is the key here. They kept talking about Engineria being involved in the evac of Praetoria, saying that they only survived until the evac due to Engineria. Ah, what in the what now? So we get to Vanguard and talk to Gaussian. He maintains that the Nictus fled through time to Praetoria before the Fall. ARGH. More verdamnt time travel! Raze's evac records say that they fought off the Devouring Earth with the help of Metronome, Purplies and Engineria. Everyone thought "purplies" was just some Resistance-speak. Seems like they were Nictus. Yeah. Ok, but me? I was there? Apparently it's related to the TUNNEL system, which always transports people to a time before the Fall. Oh, ok. Gotcha. Fixed point Time Travel then. However we are approaching paradox time. I have to go back because if I don't then we're not having this conversation and...ok I'll go, I'm already getting a migraine. Trouble is I can only stay 45 minutes due to heightened radioactivity levels, so I had better be good at what I do over there. And then I'm tooled up and crossing over/back/to...one of those. Oh thanks a bunch, Stardust! You're a real piece of work, you know that? Oh, I'll help you out with a boot to your ass if you give me any lip! Right! Where the hell are you then? Oh that's nasty. Very much so! And there's Stardust. Right, you great lummox, let's get going...human free? What am I, a wasp? Or them? You, sir, are not right in the head. In the meantime however we have that thing behind you to deal with. Then we find the others. And I'm on a clock here. Why? Nunya Bidness! Hit it! Ok, Old Stardust here actually IS good in a fight...well, so far anyway. Did they get weaker later? Their later, my earlier. Whatever. Hit it again! Right, that ...thing, went down hard. Stay down! Let's keep moving. I have 30 minutes left or near enough. No, still Nunya Bidness, Stardust. Just...oh my god. That does not look like anything I wanted to see. Now or ever. But we're in combat now so let's go! Hit him! Stardust and Engineria stagger away from that fight leaking blood and my armor is cracked and burned. Somewhere up ahead is Metronome in a War Walker Body. We're gonna need him if we want to finish this. Especially me in the limited time I have left. No winking out of existence due to paradox. Ah, found him. There were Kheldians in the Primal Earth forces that ended the Praetorian War but no part of the history mentions this. Interesting. What else has been carefully airbrushed out of the official records? We carry on, battling Infected everywhere and Devouring Earth Hamidon beasts. The streets are full of them. Then I spot Raze! Looks like I'm getting the timeline all sorted out! This is where he remembers me from. And we clear the streets. I heal Resistance fighters with my Kinetics as we pass them and they fight on stronger. Finally the time has come and I have to go, but I've been successful, at least in what I set out to do. Back to the portal! Gaussian congratulates me. Thanks, all I did was aim and hope! He's going to confer with Dark Watcher now, while Orthas is going to talk to Sunstorm, the leader of the Peacekeepers on Primal Earth. [Mission 3 = Great street fight! I didn't have it at times 8, thankfully! But I can imagine it being crazy. So that solves part of the time conundrum at least. On to the next mission!] Mission 4: Surprise Reactions. Ok, it's still confusing, the time travel I mean. So Gaussian's people sent a probe through the TUNNEL, and it ended up in the past (their "present") and before the probe was destroyed it collected intel on Metronome. He has control of most of the city's robots and he and the Nictus are holed up in the Keyes reactors. And the crazy thing is those reactors have been repaired! Wow. I read that Anti-Matter destroyed them. Another thing left out of the official records. Only robots and Nictus can survive there and the Devouring Earth, even they cannot enter. Makes you think. However Sunstorm wants to negotiate...wait, with who? Metronome? Why would he...no, carry on. I'm listening. Negotiate to find the position of the Dark Comet so as to prevent the Nictus from returning and attacking us. Gotcha. And now it gets stranger! Sunstorm doesn't want non Kheldians going, so Bolton and Orthas are going to merge and accompany him. Bolton and Orthas? Borthas? Bolthas? Orthon? Hey, I'm not merging with anyone thank you very much! Oh, I don't have to. Gaussian is sending me 30 minutes later as "back up", because he's as anxious/paranoid about this as me. I see you, Gaussian. I see you. Orthas is expecting them to be captured and made prisoner. Well, I stare at the clock for another half hour after they leave and then I suit up and get ready to rescue them. I make my way down to the reactors and carefully sneak inside the periimeter and who do I see? Well, not anyone I actually know but a TYPE of person I know! Hello you! We've met before, kinda. I cut him down and we "catch up". He's one of a contingent of Neo Tokyo bots here to sort out a Nictus problem it seems. Well, my bot pal, let's see what we can do about that! And then! And then myself and my new Robo-Friend run into Stardust. He confuses me here. You want me to stop you? Why the hell do you want that? Ok, I appreciate the gesture but a bit of enlightenment would be helpful, no? He's a bit, what's the word, verbose? Yeah, amidst trying to take our heads off he tells us that effectively he needs the Dark Comet but only for a short while, otherwise BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. To the Nictus. That's ...why didn't you just tell us? We would have helped, you idiot. Why did you have to make it so damn awkward and complicated? Stardust and then Shadowfall further along. He's confused by all my actions. Hey, buddy, I'm living my life in what appears to be the wrong order, so you're not the only one confused here! I really am going to have to sit down with Araminta and plot exactly how my adventures slot into any sort of coherent pattern. She's very order orientated like that. Not that I'm chaotic, it's just getting some outside perspective might be good. And no, I don't 100 percent trust the Hero Corps therapists! We take a breather. Well, I take a breather, little Robo Friend just waits patiently while I do, before pointing out that someone is ahead, That someone is Buddy Bolton/Orthas. We run forward and free them from their bonds. You're definitely in the running to join the Peacebringer division of the PPD now, Captain Bolton! What say we find Sunstorm and get this entire situation dealt with? Deal? Good. C'mon then. You too, Mecha NC-3000! Friends are friends, especially in this place. The noise of the reactors is a constant hum in the back of your head. I'm surprised people didn't go mad working here. I don't have Tinnitus but I can imagine it might like that. Then again Praetoria used a lot of Clockwork workers...Clockworkers? Which one is it? Doesn't matter. A lot of mechanical people to do the jobs around here. Another of our "foes". Dark Matter. Assume the form of a Greater Devoured? You've never come across the notion that form defines function and idea? It's one of the theories behind cloning. Sure, you could clone a fully adult me (and apparently some have!) but it would only be genetically me. My mind needs to have lived all my experiences to BE me. That's why there was all that nonsense with mind uploads and so on. I think Crey was involved. Or they sued someone for saying they were? They're always suing someone. Who arrived to consume you? That sounds bad. I've heard mention of that Battalion before. The Autumn Wards mentioned it. Well, it ain't happened yet. Hang on, I'm living my life in a mixed order! Has it happened and I was elsewhere? I need to check that pronto when I get back! Dark Matter takes a knee/tentacle and is out of the fight. We still have to find the coordinates though. Up ahead we see Sunstorm. Yeah, could have told you that back in Vanguard. Too close to see, mon ami. Defer to my judgement? Ooookay then. On your head it is! You all heard him say it! We're still on a countdown here! Or rather I am. Everyone else is a Kheldian or a robot! I've got about 19 minutes left before everything goes south. And there is a console! Excellent! Coordinates found. Now one thing remains. Metronome. He's concerned with winning the fight against Hamidon. See, you don't. How do I know that? I honestly have 15 minutes left and that's not enough time to explain all this and you, Mr. Digital Presence, are in our way. We're going home, capice? So we all pile in and while Metronome simply moves his consciousness to another body elsewhere in Praetoria, this particular iteration that was stopping our escape is now a pile of scrap and we make our way to the escape point. And we're back! We have the coordinates and we can prevent an attack. [Mission 4 = Well that was a very enjoyable run around the Keyes reactors! Plenty of back and forth and being kept on your toes as the fights rolled around! Loved it. On to the finale!] Mission 5: The Dark Comet. The pressure mounts! After only 30 minutes or so waiting in Vanguard, but it feels like an eternity, Gaussian returns with confirmation of the Dark Comet. It's huge. And yes, it's a Shadow Rupture. Yes, Sunstorm confirms that Nictus could definitely invade from there. Ah rats. So we're going full Armageddon on it. Controlled detonations to shatter the thing and put it beyond use. Ok, because that's gonna go well. I've not been in space since the Galaxian thing and THAT, well that HURT. Still have scars from that. It'll be defended so we have to port to it and do it by hand. My life just gets better and better. Right, why not? I'm in. I've come this far. Let's do this. We're gonna land, clear the defenders. Once that's done the warheads will follow. We defend them and then get the hell out of Dodge. Then Vanguard kabooms the entire thing. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? I had to ask, didn't I? Jinxed myself. Ok, where are the guys? Right, that's Captain Bolton freed from the energy. Sunstorm is probably in the same predicament so let's find him and move on. Plenty of the Nictus floating around here already! Gotcha! Oh, you don't look the best, Sunstorm. That energy has fried you a bit. Well, walk it off. We're on a deadline here. Ah hell. Now we see the magnitude of what we're up against! That does not look good. I'm getting the boding again. Much boding. Sounds like an old English village. "Why yes, we vacationed in Much Boding. lovely place." Ah. I'm losing my mind! Space is BIG.! Get a grip, Engineria! On we go. The three of us proceed to deal with the Dark Comet's Nictus defenders. Not easy but we're coordinated and we're succeeding. All to the good I suppose. Finally we get to activate the homing beacon. Now we just have to wait for the warheads to arrive. It's like calling in an air strike on your own position! Just not immediate destruction. But equally dangerous. Then the warheads start dropping. We watch for each drop and run to defend it and beat back the Nictus as they seek to destroy it or render it inoperable. Finally it looks like we have succeeded. Time to port out of here and for Gaussian to detonate this death rock! We crowd through the portal and stumble back into Vanguard. There's a brief bit of decontam but we can see the following. And it's done. WHEW! And I damn well knew it. I damn well knew it. It's not over yet. However, I don't have to do it immediately. So I can deal with some outstanding matters I have elsewhere before returning to this. How? Time Travel. Gawdamn Time Travel. I need a special sort of calendar to keep track of what day it is anymore. Oy! [Mission 5 = Excellent space borne finale to this arc. Map was perfect for it and every spawn fell perfect. Can't praise this enough.] Verdict. The Ankyverse continues to grow and expand on the known history of Primal/Praetoria...and beyond! For those who love Kheldians but want a different slant then play this. Great stuff. Next up from @Ankylosaur is All That Glows 3: Nictus Evictus. And next on the schedule in TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE reviews is @cranebump's Fallout 3: Reassembly.

AHA! Well, we will get to that in a while!

Had fun running it! Thanks for writing!

Araminta is a bit...random. Much more so than Engineria! So while her own section would be nice, maybe not needed.

I dunno. Are there many other Halloween arcs?

OR..Sometimes Araminta gets lucky! HA!

I'm only two missions in so far. I'll get to the rest when the shards are back up. It does need a pass for a few typos here and there though, just a heads up. Lots of fun so far!