TerroirNoir2

Arc 15 from our third author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @Darmian's Damnatio Memoriae. (Caveat. I have played these before but never reviewed them. Although it has been a while, considering the number of other AEs and stuff I've been getting through!) Damnatio Memoriae is subtitled "(Neutropolis Warden, Ch, 6)" which which means it is meant to follow on directly from @Darmian's "The Spark of the Blind (Neutropolis Warden, Ch. 5)" and that follows on from the in game "To Our Health (Neutropolis Warden, Ch. 4)". Mission 1: Aftermath. (Aftermath? That looks ominous!) So here I am, Praetorian Engineria, back reporting in to Belladonna Vetrano. She seems irate about something. I have to confess that as far as I can see she's always irate about something. But in a cool way, like she's annoyed but she's handling things. Ok hell, it's all hitting the fan. That place she mentioned before, Terra Volta, it's being attacked right now so while Cole and his forces are over on Primal Earth we need to get our asses in gear here and do some damage to the system. Except we have a little bitty problem. Calvin Scott is AWOL. And Engineria needs to find him because the Resistance needs its leader right now. Seems he had something to do with the Enriche factory getting nerfed recently but hasn't shown up after that. Investigation time! BV is NOT happy. She's gone past irate I think. So into the place below the old Enriche facility I go. We're off to a good start. DURAY? Oh that does not look good. Still, as the man says, better than Tilman. Even the T.E.S.T. guys are afraid of Mother Mayhem. So it looks like Scott is definitely still alive then. I may have been premature on Scott's survival! Nah, this can't be him. Surely not. No way of Engineria identifying the remains. Just grab a piece and pocket it for the experts back at HQ to look at. Or a psychic maybe. Scott and whoever may have destroyed the Enriche factory but these guys are starting to rebuild it already. So construction materials and Clockwork are all over the place. I avoid some of the T.E.S.T. teams and run around a corner in the Underground and straight into a floating IDF platform! Not cool! And let me just say, OW! With more OW as needs be. Pattern Delta is painful, assuming Pattern Delta is "Shoot Engineria a lot", which from my POV is exactly what it is. I stagger away from the now wrecked IDF thingy as it cools its metal on the floor and make it to the main open area of the Underground, sort of a processing zone with pipes and tanks and things. Silos? Maybe. And then I find the Emergency Fire Suppression System. Looks like it had been totally hacked and shut down. Scott wasn't leaving anything to chance when he and his team took out the Enriche production. Nearby I find the 4 spots where the bombs went off. No sign of Provost Wagner though, so I need to search through the tunnels I haven't been in yet. Ah, there he is. Nope, not a coincidence. And it sounds like you don't know where Scott is either, but you DID see him so I'm gonna take that intel out of your hide. Oh yes. Dead is fine? Brutal. I mean I was just going to crack your ribs but now it's you or me buddy, and it AIN'T gonna be me! I drop him and search him. And I find some things. Along with intel that T.E.S.T. have a prisoner here! Time to find that prisoner. Ah, I should have checked the end of the main zone, doh! Blocker Dan is Resistance and looks a bit knocked around, kinda woozy. Let's get him out of there. And now you're free, my friend! Back with Belladonna Vetrano she goes over the intel. It's very unlikely that the bones belonged to Calvin Scott but she'll have them checked all the same. Two locations now in Neutropolis to check. I'm to get some rest and she'll call me. [Mission 1 = Concise investigation/combat mission, filling in lots of early war era Praetoria as we go. (Honestly, these AEs should be in the game!)] Mission 2: Blacksite 6. Back with Belladonna Vetrano she tells me that she's holding everything together, with some help from people called Dark Watcher and Steven Sheridan. The Resistance has to hold out long enough for the Primal Earth forces to arrive in Praetoria. No pressure then. Apparently there's an attack due on the Mother of Mercy Hospital and Scott is needed for that. Well, I suppose he does have personal experience of the place. But where is Scott? Well, I'm off to Blacksite 6, since that place and the one on the address given to me by Blocker Dan are identical. There's intel there that we need to get. As for the other site with the purge order? Not my problem, a different team will handle that. Oddly Blocker Dan himself has vanished, but that's not unusual in these fractured times, or in the Underground for that matter. Ok, time to get to it. So, that's handy. Janitor's desk or something or a security lead maybe? Anyway, checking for CCTV and so on. And yep, Engineria spots Calvin Scott hisself, he's going to the back of the building and he's got an electronic keycard in his hand. And then he's out of shot. I wonder how no one saw him? Or maybe they did and he's been caught? Time to check out the back of the building then. OH WOOZY! I seem to have attracted some attention in my exploring. And I'm stunned! Man, these guys are for some reason hella resilient today! But I finally get them off me and grenade the hell out of them! Whew! And there's a mainframe! Ok, Let's have a looksee. "Welcome IVy" it says when I boot it up. Now that IS interesting. IVy being Neuron's pet Victoria style clockwork. And a wall safe! Looks like THIS is what Calvin Scott had that electronic key for. Anything left inside? And with that bombshell it's time to high tail it outta here and get back to Belladonna Vetrano and report in. BV says the other team investigated the site in Neutropolis but only found a burned out building. Dead end there it seems. IVy's memory cache is something the Resistance could definitely use, and as for Anti-Matter's drives? Well, BV says it's obvious Scott thinks he's found something very important in number 3. However, Vetrano is a cynic, and she sees "trap" written all over this. She'll call me when she needs me, the found intel will be examined in the meantime. [Mission 2 = Fast and furious little mission. T.E.S.T. were unusually tough but not insurmountable, didn't need to call on Buddy. The plot thickens! On we go for the good stuff!] Mission 3: Blocker Dan. Vetrano is adamant that it's a trap and she has proof. The bones Engineria found turn out to be the remains of the real Blocker Dan. Seems like the imposter never returned to the Resistance HQ because he was actually a T.E.S.T. agent. She thinks there's a pincer movement here. T.E.S.T. didn't catch Scott after the Enriche sabotage job so they lured him somewhere with intel that was just valuable enough to get him to go himself. Initially Vetrano thought it was Praetor Sinclair, but apparently it's far too convoluted for his methods. She says it's probably Duray. Which backs up what I heard in the Underground. And the intel? What would be so important? Two things. A way to free Aurora Pena or a way to incapacitate Tyrant. And she thinks it is the latter. IVy's files contain details of devices built by Anti-Matter to channel some unknown energy to imprison Statesman. Yeah, the Primal version of Tyrant. And they worked! Until his side rescued him. But if they could be used on Tyrant then Scott would definitely be interested. That's a lot to take in. So where am I going now? To find fake Blocker Dan. Vanessa Devore has located him psychically. So off I go! And that sounds ominous, yeah? And there he is! He likes to gloat. I assume that's gloating anyway. Why do all these types like a good gloat? Gloaters! Again with the tough tough T.E.S.T! And from the sound of things my day is just gonna get worse. I mean a gall has to ask herself why she even gets up in the morning sometimes. Worse got real worse fast! OW. I mean seriously OW. (Also, due to it being a power, my Rune Soldier costume vanished when I died!) I get up, manage to take down the surviving T.E.S.T. trooper, stagger a bit, get my uniform straight, and then get flanked by a flying IDF turret! Damn but those things can hit hard. Fortunately not hard enough this time though. Staggering away from that fight,I find files that lay out Duray's plans. Fake evidence was planted in the late Crow's belongings that would lure in Scott. Ah. I see. An up ahead I see Duray himself! Well, after Blocker Dan and his friend dropped me earlier, I think it's time to call on Praetorian Buddy! I'm not going in there alone! OMG. You are literally repulsive, Duray. I'm going to enjoy kicking your damn head in. Good work Buddy. High Five there. Let's go home, yeah? Wash the stink of this place off us. Back to Belladonna Vetrano then. She knew it was Duray. And then she says the lovely sentence "Killing him is one thing, him staying dead is another." Well that's just not fair. I'm to get some rest before she has my next job. Files are being deciphered. [Mission 3 = Well, that was actually tough! I was expecting a mid arc mission, where plots turn, and they did, but was not expecting to get dropped like that. On to the next one!] Mission 4: Jessica's Folly. Belladonna Vetrano, that's BV to you, says Calvin Scott is a damn fool and that even the noobiest Resistance member should see that he's heading into a trap, but he's too set on the prize to see beyond his goal. So, it's up to me to go rescue him from himself if no one else. So, after the files were decrypted they revealed a hidden cavern near the bridge to First Ward in Imperial City. Of course no one goes there. Why would they? So, Engineria goes in, looks for Scott and rescues him. Best case. Worst case? Kill everyone there. No pressure. Plenty of T.E.S.T. in here. So, I fight my way through them. A LOT of them. A lot. And finally I get to...what the hell? Is that a throne? Lava? What sort of fantasy Emperor craziness is this place? And there's Calvin Scott. Well, item A marked off my TO DO list then. Getting him out alive is next. Or killing everyone. One of those. Let the fun begin! OH! They like attacking in mobs. That's not fun! Not fun at all. Well, on with the Kinetics Repel and bounce them back. As soon as I can free Scott then he can give me some help here. I hope! Yeah yeah. And she want to hang you up by vital parts of your anatomy for being so damned headstrong and foolish. However, in the mean time we have to deal with Provost Kensing, who brought you here. So, let's get to that, shall we? Or do you want to wait here why I do all the work? (I'm starting to sound like Vetrano now!) The Provost is a confident one. He's either tough as nails, knows something we don't or is too dim to realize he has lost this fight. All of which means there's still a fight. SCOTT! Wherever you are, a bit of help would be appreciated! I'm really sounding like Vetrano! Destroy the whole place? How?? So I drop the Provost, and turn around to find that Scott had actually found new friends for us. Oh great. Olympian Guards fergawdsake. I mean how much worse does my day have to get? STATESMAN? Well, someone has been given the wrong ID for Calvin Scott! Or me even! Both Scott and myself survive (THANKS TO KINETICS!) and badly injured we stagger around a bit before finding the unlocking mechanism for the cavern and head back out to meet with Belladonna Vetrano. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when she gives Scott a piece of her mind on his solo tactics of late! HA! I don't have to sneak around, she lays into him in front of me! And Vetrano assigns that particular job to me. Scott is to go and see Vanessa DeVore for a psychic debrief. [Mission 4 = Fun and awesome little mission. Very atmospheric and the Olympian Guards were NASTY! Great stuff] Mission 5: Conciliatory Measures. Sooooo....I'm to break into a facility and eliminate Duray. A Duray. Not necessarily THE Duray. I don't even know if there IS a THE Duray anymore. I don't know if anyone knows. Soooo...Duray's genetic imprint is in one of the mainframes there, wipe those as well as eliminating any Duray clones. And if that wasn't enough, Vetrano has more intel for me on the strangeness that surrounds us all. Ok, time to shut off the security system and get further inside. Found it. And CCTV shows Duray at the rear of the building. And lookee there! A Duray Clone Pod. Time to destroy that then. Hmm, a few more of these to go. Then I need to plant bombs and clear the place. Ah, found a mainframe and Duray's gene code. Wiped! And sometimes it is very useful to be cautious! Edging up to a doorway I spot Duray around the corner before he sees me. Ok, going inside is dangerous but at least I'm not running in blind. Oh, I hate him and his stupid smug face! Oh I'm achiveing something all right, I'm dropping you, you evil hearted maniac! And the smug just keeps on coming! Ok, you used Scott's ego against him, to be honest that's fair but even so, I'm not letting you get away with it. And yes! (A fair bit of OW in the middle of that though) But yes! And there's a Dr. Arvin. So I rescue him and he runs away rapidly. Ok then, at least he isn't trying to kill me. Now to plant the rest of the bombs. Ah JEEZ LOUISE. You cannot be serious. Should have guessed. And he and his goons are right beside the final bomb! No, to be honest I didn't think it would be that easy, but you know, you sometimes hope, don'tcha? And it seems the fleeing doctor did his own version of sabotaging Duray. And he is down! Last bomb is set and I run like the bejeezus. Exeunt pursued by Ghouls, as Praetoria's playwright might say. The facility is destroyed and I report back to Belladonna Vetrano. [Mission 5 = Great finale to this Lore filled arc. Really feeding into the entire story of Praetoria. Loved it.] Verdict. Well, play it. You'll enjoy it, I did. Sometimes you can't say more than that for arcs. Let's see how this entire Resistance trilogy ends up then! Next up from @Darmian is The Eve of War. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @Ankylosaur's All That Glimmers 3.1: Shunting in Croatoa.

I disagree on the suckage (though I could do with less timers, or more of a heads up that a timer is about to happen maybe!). I'm remembering your comparisons of directors to you and the other two, so yeah.

Engineria slapped some Kinetics Speed Boost on him for funsies. OH MY!

Currently on 238 missions! Whew!

Arc 15 from our second author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @cranebump's The Bleed 3: Wave, Landing. Mission 1: Moondance. Engineria is back with Dr. Cheng and he is waxing lyrical (in a decidedly non Mr. Miyagi way) and he speaks of Wave, Landing, that place where it all went to hell so many years ago. The Night Brigade, once famed (though that faded through what seems to be a combination of fleeting fame and deliberate concealment, so that I'd never heard of them until now) but now rising again as infamous. Or they will be if I don't do something about it. So says Dr. Cheng at least. Madeleine AKA Pretes is the final key. And she unlocks the final hell. Ah, I'm tired of being threatened by a series of apocalypses, Cheng, what are we going to DO about it? Cos he says we can't stop her the old way, since she now controls that, so we have to use the Bleed Magic she surfs on. I'm gonna do what I usually do with magicians at this point and nod a lot while checking my energy levels for Radiation. (Slipping from character: I'm not spoilering all this for anyone) Cheng knocks Engineria out of her musing. "...so you need to find Moonlight." Moonlight. Gotcha. Cave. Gotcha. Saengcanthr. Got...what? Tub Ci? Tsoo? Cave. Gotcha. Right, off to the cave to find Moonlight then. Ok, I found the Tsoo pretty fast. Or they found me. PotAYto/PotAHto. And it gets very interesting for a bit, and I reckon the rest of this will be interesting too! See, MY power set includes Kinetics, and over my adventures I've got reasonably good with it. And the Tsoo, well they too use it. So there's a moment where I'm facing off against these guys and we're standing there stealing speed and power from each other, until I flip on Repel and rip their Endurance from them. Which is good, because their Martial Arts can be hella tricky to counter, especially when outnumbered. On I go! But they don't let up! And I see two distinct factions of Tsoo facing off against each other. Looks like Moonlight's team vs Tub Ci's. Well, I skirt some of those fights and leave them to it but there's only so much of that you can do before you turn a corner and need to rip out the old Repel/Rad Blast combo again! (with a little help from the old Plasmatic Taser) Alley-oop! And down they go. And I run as fast as I can. Which isn't that fast with all the speed debuffs on me. The only thing balancing out the fights was they were as slow as me! And cresting the edge of the cavern I can see Moonlight. The guy, not the...you all know that. And he ain't happy to see me. Well, he doesn't know me from Sister Psyche but he does know Dr. Cheng, and that name went down like a lead balloon. Oh, a side quest? I should have just stayed home and spent my time rearing Chocobos to race, but no, here I am about to fight Jade Dragon for Moonlight. I mean for all I know Jade Dragon might be entirely reasonable. He probably has a library card and everything. Ok, ok, I'm going. Cheng is gonna owe ME a favor after all this. Oh, so it's only me doing the fighting? Well great. What else is new in my world? Nada. By the way, OW OW OW! This guy hits harder than you'd think and the old Kinetics is not slowing him down like it does his minions. Oh, I spoke too soon. Moonlight joins the fight, no doubt after ritually cleansing his sword or something, and just in time too because this guy's spines are wrecking my concentration, not to mention his minions getting involved and stabbing me. A lot. I mean a hell of a lot. Might be time to patch up the old uniform after all this. Unfortunately for Jade Dragon his skills might be better than mine, but they're not better than mine AND Moonlight's together, So he takes a little nap and I take a breather. Moonlight is all cooperative now so I report back to Dr. Cheng. So yeah, all his notes on Bleed Magic, well turns out Tub Ci stole them or something so we have to get them from him. And that's gonna be a party I'll bet. [Mission 1 = Straightforward but very intense. Dives into the action from the get go and keeps on going. Liking it a lot. More please!] Mission 2: Moondance, Redux. Right right, Cheng is (quick check on word on the old interwebmachine) loquacious. Yep, bigly so. He's doing his wax on/wax off routine again about how Moonlight's intel is all stashed in a cavern complex in Talos, some sort of storage location now that Tub Ci has booted old Moonbeam out of the Tsoo. Or however that works. I mean are the Tsoo a gang? An ethnicity? What? I've never understood that to be honest, and I'd rather not be accidentally racist here. That said I WILL flatten people actively trying to hurt me, so there's that. Cheng thinks Moonlight will at some point try to betray us, i.e. betray ME, since it'll be me in there. Reading between the lines that seems like a scorpion and the frog thing rather than Moonlight actively seeking to destroy us. Same end result for me though. Ok, off to a cave in Talos I go. Annnd....I was expecting a cavern like the one I found Moonlight in, but this is a lot more Circle of Thornsy, a lot more Oranbega. And Moonlight/Saengcanthr has run off ahead of me, no doubt trying to get to the intel before I do. Blah. I dunno who was here first, but there's a bunch of people who do not want to be left in second place here. So, I'm gonna let them fight it out and move on. Whoops! These two caught me off guard. They saw through my Infiltration. Oh wait! I ran by a RED CRYSTAL so I took a bit of damage and they could see me, have to be wary of that. And wouldn't you know it? Such a place to die, just beside a GREEN CRYSTAL. I was injured faster than it could heal me, but I dropped the Behemoth as I fell, so that's a small victory snatched in the moment. Found the intel on Bleed Magic! Now I have a few ritual items to source and we should be done with this hellhole of CoT and Tsoo madness. Found Moonlight. Well, I already have the intel but I'm not going to tell you that, am I? Nah, don't think so. Well that's just unfortunate. Luckily I have ranged powers. I'd hate to be standing in that red damaging glow having to punch that thing! Yeah, that's much better. Some ranged blasts and that takes care of that! I wonder where Moonlight got to? I didn't take my Infiltration off so he's probably looking for me somewhere. I'll go find him. AW yeah! ESWAT have arrived to back me up! I love those guys. Go team! I find a pile of bones along the way, they seem to be glowing. And there's Moonlight, where I found him. Was he meditating again or what? Suffice it to say he's not happy to see me and makes a point of showing that. Doesn't go well for him. Nope. Time to get back to Dr. Cheng and see what we can see. He starts brewing tea and encourages me to join him and listen to the sea. Right. Thought we had a rush order on here. No? Tea it is then. [Mission 2 = Slicing and sliding through this combo Tsoo/CoT environment was fun, and don't get complacent like I did, it can drop you rapidly if you do. Good extension of the world building with some history hinted at between Cheng and Moonlight. Next!] Mission 3: Ancient Highway. Wait what? I have to use the bones...bone dust, ok. Gotcha. Use the bone dust of a mystic...this isn't AT ALL gruesome by the way, Cheng, just saying...and whose bones are these? We don't know. Maybe that's for the best. So the bones are a sort of spirit sink, or carbon trap for whatever Bleed Magic is there. Where? I'll find out. You know, if I never see you again Dr. Cheng, I'll be a happy gal. No don't take that the wrong way. There's no wrong way, it just is what it is. Oh. It's a sewer. Ok, better than the caverns of Tsoo-bega though. I think. Oh, well we're off to a good start. Possessed Crey guy, looking a bit anxious. Scratch that, looking like he wants to stab me with a pipette or something. Well I rad blast the hell out of him and move on. Possessed Family and ...let's just say there's a lot of people here who didn't want to be here, and surprisingly none of them are me. Who'd a thought? Possessed Council guy and one of those Spectral Portal things. And lots of pots. Or urns? I can't tell the difference. Is it shape or use that sets them apart? Whatever. Possessed Tsoo. And I think I'll leave you in your little energy cage trap thing. For my safety anyway. Oh, and just beyond you I can see one of the places I need to place the bone dust. Excellent. I'll just get that done. Ok, some more of these to find. I'm wandering around like some weird version of the Sandman, throwing bone dust in the eyes of spirits or something. I wade through several more Possessed folk, including some Possessed Nemesis, which if it was an automaton then that's a double weirdness! But finally I place all the bone dust and a spirit appears. So, time to forge an alliance and get back to Dr. Cheng. Ok, that was weird but relatively "normal" compared to some of the stuff he's had me do. The spirit is definitely helpful, but also there's a catch. That's how these things work it seems. Back with Dr. Cheng he comes over all mysterious. More Mysterious then. He knows what the ring signifies but says it's not a thing for now. Aurora Scott (Aurora Borealis to me!) contacted him. The fissures are appearing and growing all over Independence Port, centered on Wave Landing. Her and her allies are keeping them contained but that's all for now. We have to act fast. [Mission 3 = Straightorward set up mission filled with plot details and asides. (If my story telling here is a bit thin it's because I really don't want to spoiler things!) On to the next mission! Mission 4: Finale. Into the Mystic. Cheng says we have one shot at this, and even then that's because the very nature of Pretes' allies, being chaotic, has slowed their progress. So we have this chance to stop them. So the plan is rather than cutting her access to her power we're going to bust it open and overload her, and while she's reeling from that we hit the home run and win the game. That's a LOT of "ifs" to be relying on there, Dr. Cheng. A LOT. Still, it's the hand we've been dealt so let's get to it. What's first? Cheng is going to be putting relics in place and I have to seal every Spectral Tear apart from the one Cheng himself opens. Then, and only then, can we win. This is a Skywalker Deathstar Trench Run, isn't it? You haven't seen that...HOW CAN YOU NOT...nevermind. Right, let's go then. To the elevator! Dr. Cheng gets himself ready and it's my turn to go and place the pouches in the right areas. Well, I hope you can protect yourself while I'm away, Doc, because according to you this could get real nasty. Ok, I run around placing the pouches and then we get ready for the showdown. And there's Bocor arriving to do his part of this. I can see ESWAT arriving in force too, which is good because I'll probably need them! Yeah, got all that from Dr. Cheng, thanks. And ESWAT are taking care o' bidness over there! Go team! In the meantime let's you and me mosey, Bocor. Bocor and Engineria cut their way through enemies and seal one Spectral Tear after another, until the last one is reached. Vermin? Ok, my uniform is a bit scorched by now but c'mon! Give a gal some slack here! But Cheng is in trouble! Pretes is targeting him so we need to amscray back up the elevatorscray...I dunno, pig latin is not a big part of supers training, or any part of supers training. Not that I got any training. Shut up! Ok, Bocor, time for us to save the day and take Pretes down. And she ain't going without a fight by the looks of it. Oh crap on a stick. That barely scratched her! Bocor! Stop screwing with the minions and help me over here! Bocor joins me and we hammer her with blasts of all sorts of power, back and forth, with me keeping us up by stealing health from her with Kinetics, but JEEZ LOUISE is she strong. Then Cheng's plan finally starts to kick in and an unearthly voice echoes from the void, telling Pretes that her time is nearly over. She tries to run for it but we are after her! And she runs straight into a bunch of arriving Tsoo and Council, fresh from being possessed and none too happy about that. By the time Bocor and Engineria reach Pretes there's not much of her left so we just drop her fast. And then we breathe a long sigh of relief. It is done. Time to collect Dr. Cheng and do a debrief. All the fissures around Independence Port are closed and life is returning to as normal as it gets in a place as odd as Paragon City. There's just one last thing left to do. There is? Ok, spit it out, Doc. I need to visit a place? Seems simple. Let's do that then. [Mission 4 = Tough and FULL of plot detail and so on. I've left a lot out because I simply do not want to spoiler anything for people who play this, and you should play this because it's damn good. Mission 5: Epilogue: Hymn to the Silence. Looks like I'm attending some sort of service. Ok, let's go, Dr. Cheng. Let's finish this thing once and for all. I meet Bocor part way up the hill to the temple. Well, it looks like a temple to me but what do I know? I'm just a mid level super from Paragon City. Ok, NOW it's getting a bit creepy. And where are your feet, Doc? Hell, where are MY feet? What the hell is with the grass around here? Ok, there's the stone. Or Sssssstonnnne, as Cheng is calling it. Let's see what happens. The air swirls and reforms around us. And there is Somnia in her true form. Ok then, a resolution! And we are done. What did she ask? Well, that's between me and her, friends. That's between me and her. [Mission 5 = A lovely little coda to the entire thing. A necessary wrapping up of loose threads and ends. Bravo!] Verdict. Well, what the hell can I say other than play this arc? I've limited myself a lot by not spoilering so much of this because frankly the story is great and very in depth. Play it! And make sure to read all the clues and text, because it does reward you on this. Next up from @cranebump is Potter's Field. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @Darmian's Damnatio Memoriae.

I'm hoping to get some more up at the weekend, folks. I'm a little bushed right now due to work and so on. My only real logging on right now was just to get some rust knocked off and try the traditional Valentine's Day events. THOUGH...I did finally play the Major's arc (semi accidentally because I swapped alignment to Vigilante to deliver a Valentine!) and who do I see in it? Well, if it isn't Recall from @Darmian's Loyalist stuff! Looks like when he said he was staying in Primal Earth he meant it. Didn't go well for him though!

OMG a Victor Kiam reference.

Two for Warburg please. On the all in tour including the Warburg Astoria.

Goshdarnit, @Ankylosaur! I'll never get finished at this rate, ROFLMAO.

Snag with that is much as we're lovely people here and just minding our own business, no "legit" company needs someone else saying to them "we're not doing business with you because you support a private server", implying they support piracy or what have you. It's more hassle than it's worth I think.

Oh, it's on. As soon as you see "Assholei89734" has joined then I just wait for the spam.

There we go. Sigh.

More coming, wait for it...

Because obviously airlines in competition with each other have the same guy posting for them, that's sensible. No, I didn't click on anything to find out if that theory holds up!

Bravo!

Well, they're back!

I've started adding links to songs that Engineria is listening to while working. Sort of a diegetic soundtrack.

This didn't go exactly to plan! But yours are lined up for when I finish @Darmian's run of AEs, along with @Getaways stuff. Bear with me! It turned out to be a much bigger task than I had reckoned on!

Cool. thanks for clarifying, @Kyksie. Does the @Darmian AE tie in work for you like it does for the rest of us?

ROFL.

Arc 15 from our first author on "TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE" Reviews is @Ankylosaur's All That Glimmers 1.3: Destruction in the Shadow Shard. Mission 1: The Final Threat. Allianna is delighted to see Engineria again. And I'm getting to like her too. Bringing us up to speed, two plots at destruction have been foiled but there's a third, one that Desdemona herself has gone to investigate. Except she's disappeared and anything that could harm her is obviously very dangerous. We've got some help from the Midnight Squad and they're helping with the Rularuu aspect of things as revealed by the existence of the Natterlings we found in the previous "Death" plot. Archivist Jaena from the Midnight Squad emailed Alliana with updates on this specific thing. So off Desdemona went in pursuit of knowledge. She was heading to Moth Cemetery, but the last contact was a message to Nadia, which was "TNNL CTN L8R". So the TUNNEL system was used. And Nadia can't find her using scrying. So I'm off to Toffett Terrace in Light Astoria to meet Alliana in person. As soon as I get there I see explosions and lights and all sorts of issues. Something is very much not right here. Right. Looks like the Midnight gang and Desdemona were on the right track! Rularuu's Might are here. I blast these invaders and get help from Forlorn commandos. The Forlorn have always been tough and I'll probably need their help with all this. Oh dammit. A Raid Leader and I get instantly stunned. Well that's going to be difficult. (Wish I'd brought some purples!) Sonja and her minions really do not like me being here! She's tough enough and I take some damage but I fall back on the old Rad Blast/Kinetics to get me out of trouble, mainly stealing health from them both to stay in the fight, and after a bit she's down. Whew! A decimation I can't imagine? What do you say to that? You people are deluded. Just up the street I find Alliana herself bound up in an energy field so I free her and we set about finding the remaining Raid Leaders. We can't make progress on finding Desdemona with this going on in Light Astoria. All a distraction to keep us away from searching I think. Moving through the tents in the central area we end up in a fight with cultists, and in the middle of the fight we get attacked by another of the Raid Leaders! Well, at least we didn't have to go looking for him. He likes his storms and Alliana is thrown back across the green. I resist that and steal some of his speed from him with Kinetics before bearing down on him and hammering him with Radiation. And some grenades. Definitely grenades. And then there were two to find. It's a big area so I take my time (Plus I don't want to lose Alliana as I make my rounds, having her as back up is really useful!) We find Samuel, wizard of Frost. He has trouble with my Kinetics Repel in that it keeps bouncing him off the ground and he can't get a shot in, so Alliana and I just take him down fast. I don't keep Repel on all the time because it can really eat into your endurance levels, but sometimes it is necessary! And finally Ian. Such a normal name for one who claims to be Rulurauu's Will. Nasty man. We blast the hell out of him, with the assistance of an Awakened Armor, which seems to be a very powerful piece of magical equipment. Sort of a magic robot I think. Then we're done and Toffett Terrace is clear of invaders. Alliana tells me we have to check out a pawn shop, before receiving a phone call from Nadia. [Mission 1 = A simple clear the invaders mission, but as always driving the plot forward and filling in details of the schemes of the enemy. Good stuff.] Mission 2: A Threatened Pawn. Yep, that was a distraction! While Engineria and Alliana were dealing with the chaos the pawn shop we were going to check out, and which Desdemona had visited earlier, was broken into by the attackers. So, time to investigate what the hell is going on over there and hopefully see what can be gleaned from whatever is left. I mean it's a pawn shop, how hard could that be? I'm tempting fate now, aren't I? The owner is a guy called Crazy Freddy. I wouldn't be surprised if he has one of those wacky waving inflatable tube men outside his store with a name like Crazy Freddy. Alliana gives me a special monocle thing to bring important things to light for searching. Handy. So...why didn't you give this to Desdemona? Or am I so magically inept that I need it and she didn't? Meh. So slapping on my mp3 player I cue up "Rockin' Robin" and head over there. Tweet! Tweet! In the door (no tube men so boo to that) and I see that the Forlorn are here guarding the place. Some of them know me! Ah, fame. Small f there. Small f. Yep, there's Walt. Hiya Walt! And I can hear Crazy Freddy in the back somewhere complaining. I'll just drown that and skip forward to "Angel Baby" by Rosie & The Originals on the mp3 player. Ah bliss. Nope. I can still hear him, he's loud. Idiot. You might be happy to sell them stuff but they don't want to BUY it, they want to STEAL it. I'm not defending thieves but Crazy Freddy is missing a major point of theft, not paying for things. Right, getting the magic monocle out I wave it around...or do I stick it in my eye? Tape it to my goggles? Whatever. Ah, first thing I find is a receipt for a deactivated Rularularian hammer. Whatever that is. Apart from being a hammer of some kind obviously. Desdemona also checked this out. Not sure why Crazy Freddy would have this other than hoping for a sale. And then I find the hammer, and it seems to be missing an eye. Hammers have eyes? Well ok then. What's next? I wander in to the back rooms and Crazy Freddy blindsides me! What the hell is your problem?! I don't want to have to take down the little business guy, but he's gotta stop trying to hit me. Right, that's it Freddy. You're getting laid out like a cheap carpet. And....oh, he's trying to keep me from his computer. Right. So what's on that? Ok then let's have a looksee at this. AHA! Didn't we have mention of a visit to Moth Cemetery? I think we did. Further searching reveals not so much things, as missing things, like a book about the Shadow Shard called The Traveler's Tome. Finally I find a single use water bottle in the trash. A bruised and sore Freddy tells me he never uses them, and do I know how much plastic is in the ocean? Ok, one of the thieves then. Yoink, that is coming with me. CYA Freddy, and get that noggin of yours looked at. Time to report back to Alliana. Alliana is curious about the hammer and its owners, she's never heard of them. As for the rest? Well it's time to cross refer to the Midnighters and Jaena. [Mission 2 = Tidy little click and collect detection mission. Each little bit of the puzzle creating more mystery. Nice.] (@Ankylosaur some of the Liberated Brawlers at the end of the map were hostile, were they supposed to be?) Mission 3: Destruction from Below. Alliana has good news. Nadia has found the location of the thief. And of course there's bad news. He's somewhere in a mausoleum in Moth Cemetery. So that's just dandy. If it's not Rularuu it's Mot the Devourer of all things nice, and I don't mean apple pie. Hmm. apple pie. And Jaena from the Midnighters got back to us on the Rularularians. And it's pretty interesting. If a little screwed up! So, I'm going to get the aid of one of those Magical Robots, the Awakened Armors, and we're off to find a way in to the Shadow Shard. I think. Anyway, off th a mausoleum in Moth Cemetery. Right, I meet up with the Awakened Armor and then the two of us proceed onwards beneath the mausoleum. It's pretty cavernous down here actually. Almost immediately we run into Corrina, the Mistress of Pain. (Weird French juxtaposition in my head made her the Mistress of Bread!) She's not a particularly happy person, then again none of these cultists seem happy about anything, apart from the chance to end the world. I just don't get Death Cults. I mean, what's in it for them? And I'M the puppet? Delusional. However, we now know where Desdemona is! Dagnabit! Stunned! Corrina is a regular PITA. But the Armor and I drop her and her minion before heading on, and lookee there! It's...Unden. You all remember Unden? No? From that wild night in Paragon Dance Party a while back? After the big reveal that Super Unknown had...no? Well, it's definitely him. And he's another miserable soul intent on ending everything. You can go when you want? I wish you had then I wouldn't have to listen to your apocalyptic nonsense. Awakend Armor gives Unden a sword thrust that pretty much skewers him. And down goes Unden. And we found the missing hammer. (Ok, @Ankylosaur, I'm a little confused. Earlier I found a receipt for a hammer, then I found a hammer missing a central eye, so this hammer is a different hammer, yes?) Plus the Traveler's Tome taken from Crazy Freddy's Pawn Emporium...or whatever he calls that place. There's a piece of paper tucked into the book with an address for a part of Astoria that the Ex-Praetorians haven't moved into yet. So, someone is hiding nearby. Good place to launch attacks from too I reckon. And finally, this. Looks Like Des got set up. I can see why someone would want her taken, she's powerful so would make a similarly powerful sacrifice, or however they try to justify their murders. Ok, Glowy Magic Robot Friend, back to chat to Alliana. She puts the bits together rapidly. TUNNEL, Hammer used to scry for the Rularularians, Desdemona to be Sacrificed, so time to get my Radiation/Kinetics self to the Shadow Shard and sort things out. Or not. Ok, Noble Savage is handling that bit. I'm to go check out the mysterious address I found in the book. Ok, boss, I'm on it. [Mission 3 = Good breadcrumb mission, following the clues to lead us to Desdemona/stop the Cultists. And on we go!] Mission 4: The Mysterious Address. Stepping into the location I can see cultists already, and over there it looks like they've managed to subdue my Magic Robot Friend, or one of them. I'll go free him and we'll see what we can see. Yep, this is a different Awakened Armor than the last one. I don't know how many of these Alliana and her friends have but they're seriously hard core, like having a two legged tank with you. And we are definitely in the right place because up ahead I can see Tatiana, Mistress of Sorrow. Again with the misery! These poor folks need a good party and some cake! Someone to love them! Time to cue up the old mp3 player then. On goes Be My Baby by the Ronettes, because that's a classic. Oh since the day I saw you, I have been waiting for you...unless it's Rularuu. Yeah, not gonna happen, Tatiana. Love ya and all but you're getting stopped cold here. And she drops amd we move on. And the hits keep on coming, with Love Affair's Everlasting Love proving the lie to Millie the Mistress of Desire's statements. Desire for what though? It's not any sort of desire I recognize and frankly sounds like self loathing sprinkled liberally with "you're all going to die with me because I don't want to die alone!". Mr. Awakened Armor, kindly bop Millie on the head because I'm currently immobilized. Well, my long and sad journey continues, no thanks to the now defeated Millie. And now things get even more interesting as we come on, yep, Arachnos! Well, for odd and mysterious magical cultism you should always look under the bed for Mu. I mean, them and the CoT, but definitely Mu. But we wade in a make swift work of taking out Mu'Lathando. Now that's a mouthful of a name or title. Is there a book they choose these things out of? And no, I kinda did think you were using the Harbingers as pawns, because you know, that's your thing. Ok, time to check some Arachnos computers for data. Searching through the computers reveals a selection of emails mentioning Barracuda(!) and the red coral. That's to an MD. And there's another to a KS, apparently from Mu'Vorkan, where he's talking about his ascension to power. Ok, so far so Mu'Vorkan there. I mean from what I've heard he's always a bridesmaid and never the bride. Of course then we get interrupted by by Mu'Acthas and his friends. He's the leader of the Death plot faction it seems. And we take him down rapidly. Very rapidly. That unfortunately leads to a little over confidence on the part of Engineria, as she then runs into Mu' Coqulta. Now the running into Mu'Coqulta wasn't the issue. This was. To our right, concealed by some crates, is Mu'Vorkan himself and some allies. Now it gets painful. Awakend Armor gets turned off fast, just cooling metal on the floor. And shortly after Engineria joins him. So yeah. I rez myself and carefully move out of sight and recover. THEN I call Buddy. Been a hot minute since Engineria and Buddy teamed up, but the guy is loyal and tough and now we're going to try to kick some spidery ass. Mu'Vorkan is first, and we lay into him, slowly pounding down his defences. I fling some Envenomed Daggers in his chest and he staggers back. Buddy just tears into him. And we get him! He's not a happy Mu today. Mu'Coqulta isn't as strong as Mu'Vorkan and we take him(her?) out fast. Then we catch out breath. We're done here. Time to gather the clues and head back to Alliana and report in. Alliana is surprised, then again she's Praetorian so she doesn't understand Arachnos and the whole seizing power thing they do. Of course they're behind it if you think about it long enough. I mean, it didn't have to be them but now that it's laid out, you can see their hand in things. She says this is beyond her, and she's going to talk to Nadia. [Mission 4 = Oh, plenty of toughness in this one! Don't go in here expecting a faceroll of a mission. And further machinations revealed! On we go to the deserved finale!] (@Ankylosaur, there's a typo in the "Mu'Vorkan's Last Breath" clue. Just a heads up.) Mission 5: Stop The Destruction. So Engineria is talking to Alliana when Alliana gets a message on her phone and then rushes away to talk to Noble Savage. She drops her phone and Engineria picks it up. Oh boy, as Sam Beckett would say. And Engineria runs off to a portal! Arriving in the Shadow Shard I see Midnighters fighting, well I suppose these are Rularulrians. Although they seem pretty adamant that they are not aiding the Rulu-Shin. Might be a mixed messages/crossed lines thing going on here. Let's hope it's not too damaged to fix. Scooting up top I can see Noble Savage. He's bound in an energy field so I'll see if I can get him out of that. JEEZ LOUISE but these guys are dangerous! That sword fang whatever nearly cut my head off! Yeah, yeah, yeah, gimme a second to pull myself together here, big guy. I'm not dead but I got caught flatfooted and am redlining at the moment. Ok, Noble Savage leads me to a cave entrance up beyond this platform base thing I found him on. Looks very Nemesisy. Nemesisssy? You get where I going with that. Anyway, we go inside and ...that looks rather bleakly ominous don'tcha think? Man but these Rularularians are hella tough! Against Engineria and Noble Save though (mainly him!) they go down and we free Desdemona from her energy cage thingy. Right now we have to find a guy called Nathaniel. Nathaniel the Scavenger. Odd name but maybe in a place like this (such a weird place) being a scavenger is necessary. It takes a little bit to find him, and we have to deal with several packs of Rularularians along the way, plenty of whom are already injured from taking out Midnighters. And then we see him almost accidentally. I just looked down after climbing to a high point on the platform! So jumping down Desdemona and Engineria tackle Nathaniel. He's not a particularly happy man, and part way through our combat he confirms my suspicions! His side have nothing to do with summoning Rularuu at all. Looks like such a thing would be madness to them. It still doesn't stop him trying to kill me though! So Desdemona (and all her little demons) and me drop him and catch our breath. There's a stand off going on here now I think. So it's time to talk to Alliana again. Getting back to Alliana she pretty much confirms all that. The Midnighters jumped the gun on attacking the Rularularians in the Shadow Shard, completely screwed up on that and now won't come clean. They're admitting nothing. And it's our fault for giving them bad intel. Or something. And Jaena is not replying to emails. That sounds damn petty to me. Alliana says we're keeping an eye on the Arachnos thing because ...well, because Arachnos is obviously up to something. Well, they're ALWAYS up to something except this time we have an inkling of what that might be. But for now it's time for Engineria to go take a long bath and relax. Is it me or does the Shadow Shard smell weirdly of cotton candy? [Mission 5 = Tidy little mission where the revelation of Mission 4 pays off into the botched Midnighter attack. Really liked that resolution, good narrative there!] Verdict. This arc builds on the earlier world building moments laid out in @Ankylosaur's Glitters/Glimmers AEs. A nice piece of wrongfooting and we witness the, I won't say naivety of the Praetorians, but their unfamiliarity with Primal Earth allows for plot that makes perfect sense for them, and also the Midnighters are arrogant as well in assuming the Praetorians are incapable of understanding. Lot going on in this one! Next up from @Ankylosaur is All That Glimmers 2.1: Shunting in Croatoa. Next up on TerroirNoir's Cable Channel of AE Reviews is @cranebump's The Bleed 3: Wave, Landing.

Well, I like to keep an eye on updates and the incessant scrolling of Discord annoys me a bit. As well as that one of my favorite bits of the game is SFMA AEs, and I tend to hang around in the Mission Architect section where the more prolific AE writers post so I can look for new things to play. Otherwise I'm just working my way through who knows how many random AEs directly on the console. And I like sharing what I've found because I'd like other people to see all the cool things too! Ok, that's obviously subjective but whatcha gonna do?

Quoting myself here @Darmian but I can't find this woman in any Goldside arc. Is she original?

Oh I understand that perfectly and agree with you. Statesman going down in the Praetorian War would have been great, like the end of The Empire Strikes Back sort of vibe, or Avengers: Infinity War, and then everyone has to come together to win at the end. But I'm happy with @Darmian's reasoning behind things. I don't know if it could be properly seen as a retcon, just "here's stuff you didn't know". Unfortunately @Darmian couldn't change WWD itself!

Except in this one, it's alt Wade, and he's not so bad ultimately. Ok, driven insane by Malaise but not actually evil or anything.