Kyksie

"Hey-YASHOO!" Mopping her nose with the back of her hand, Jessica Thornwood gazed around the dimly lit attic. A dim beam of sunlight poked through a grimy window set in the sloped roof, bravely forced its way through the miasma of dust in the air, and settled wearily on a old cardboard box that once held a stereo, now scrawled with the cryptic label "878-932". Boxes lay atop boxes, boxes leaned against boxes, boxes within boxes poked out from inside other boxes. A thick layer of pale dust covered everything. "Hey-ASHOOO!" Jess wiped her nose with her sleeve, then her watery eyes. She was allergic to dust, pollen, fur, perfume, and detergent, but mostly pollen. Said allergy was the reason she was inside, nosing through a dreary attic, as opposed to being outside playing softball, planting flowers, running through fields, or all the other things that people did on allergy commercials after taking the sponsor's product. Snuffling wetly, Jessica looked around the hot, stuffy attic for the other reason she had come here. Another box, longer and sturdier than the others, dust clinging to it like a shroud. One by one, Jess moved the boxes atop it over to the side. The top was sealed with many, many layers of yellowed packing tape. A dark red magic marker scrawl read "Mumford". Jess sneezed loudly, sending a cloud of dust into the air. This, she knew, would soon make her sneeze again, filling the air with more dust, which would make her sneeze even more, kicking up still more dust, until she was sneezing helplessly. "Cascading Nose Failure", she called it. Trying her best to clench her nose shut, she tucked the box under her arm and slowly climbed down the aging ladder. After scrubbing her face and swallowing another allergy pill, Jess sat down on the bed in the spare room of her aunt's house, where she was staying the week. Carefully, she ran a kitchen knife along the ancient strips of tape, peeling them back like an onion. Another sneeze as she opened the box; yellowed, crumbly newspapers lay within, crowing 'Last Remnants of Rikti Invasion Routed!" She set them aside, revealing an expanse of sumptuous velvet, deep red the color of crushed cherries. Jessica's uncle had been known as The Amazing Mumford. He had been among the first wave of heroes to answer the call to protect Paragon City, back in April of 2004. Wearing a black suit with top hat, a scarlet opera cloak, and wielding his signature black wand, he patrolled the streets of Galaxy City for a year and a half, using his powers of illusion to confound street muggers and bank robbers, eventually reaching Security Level 23. When the Rikti invaded, he stood alongside Galaxy Girl for several days, simultaneously confusing the alien invaders and helping civilians to safety. After three brutal days, when it looked like the worst was over, a lone street punk took advantage of a distraction to shoot him in the back. With the mediport system overloaded, The Amazing Mumford bled to death on the pavement on front of an El Super Mexicano. The day after the funeral, his widow gathered his belongings into the attic, where they waited until now. Almost reverently, Jessica pulled out the long, scarlet cloak, gold neck chain, and stately black opera suit, a relic of a forgotten time. The top hat was gone; it had been lost on the streets of Skyway. A clutch of bundled newspapers, a few small award plaques, a handful of badges; and in the corner, wrapped in threadbare silk, his wand. It was heavy in her hand, very heavy. The shaft was wood, but not any wood she was familiar with. Three metal prongs at the top encircled a sort of gem, but again it was like nothing Jessica had seem in the display cases at Wedgewood. She held it in her left hand, then her right, then both; in her mind, she was striding down the streets of Steel Canyon, evildoers trembling in her wake. Sighing, Jess opened her eyes and- ewwwww. A spider was crawling up the cracked plaster wall, one of those particularly icky breeds that seems to have a thousand legs. Grinning, Jess pointed the business end of the wand at the spider, imagining a bolt of lightning shooting forth to eradicate the offending arachnid. She squeezed the wand, waved it, and even chanted her uncle's battlecry, "A la peanut butter sandwiches!" Nothing. A familiar tickle invaded her throat, then her palate, then her nose. "Hey-YASHEW!" she sneezed. Jess wiped her eyes, and- The end of the wand glowed an evil purple, twin trails of radiance playing in the air around the violet gem. A dark spot smoked on the far wall, where the spider had been. The air smelled of ozone, and other smells, ones that most mortals had never encountered and a few prayed they never would. Jessica's heart leapt. Had she really... no that was impossible. She hefted the wand, willing it to fire again. Another spider, even leggier than the first, dangled from the opposite wall. She aimed the wand at it, squeezed the shaft and furrowed her brow... nothing. From what little she had gathered from paragonfan.net, magical devices generally required a talisman, or a code word, or a series of gestures, or- Something clicked in Jess's mind. Thinking back to her last sneeze, she pointed the wand at the spider again. "Yeshooo!" she shouted. The wand buzzed in her hand, alive yet not. With a whoosh like a river of clotted blood, a torrent of purple-black energy flowed from the tip, hurling the spider's soul deep into the depths of spider hell. The wall smoked black, the air breathed like a field of dead roses. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Congratulations, Princess Punchy. You've made it to Security Level 12!" it was a quiet day in Atlas Plaza, a warm-ish breeze playing beneath the legs of the huge statue. Lord KillerDeath shouted "dee eff bee!" into the air every few minutes, while Lady Galatea Ravenhair and Mistress Yiffstress stood under the great globe, staring wordlessly at each other. Ms. Liberty sighed. Isn't that what Pocket D was for? The young hero grinned, nudging her tiara into place. "Thanks, Ms. L!" I'll be back in a jiff!" She tightened the straps of her huge pink boxing gloves and sprinted across the plaza, no doubt in search of more muggers and Superdyne dealers. Ms Liberty idly scratched the small of her back, then saw her, walking across the plaza with the determined stride found only in a brand new hero. She was young, maybe sixteen, with a round face and brown hair tied back in a fat braid. She wore shiny black boots buckled up to mid-calf, and a 'party dress' that looked like it had tumbled from Macy's to J.C. Penney to Wal-Mart, bouncing off every bargain rack on the way. By contrast, the scarlet cloak draped over her shoulders looked like a relic from a more substantial time. In one hand, she clutched a familiar looking black wand. She came to within ten feet of Ms. Liberty, slowed, then stopped. "Um..." her confidence ebbed, "...hi?" "Hello there!" Ms. Liberty's meeting-a-new-hero routine took over. "What name are you going to be using as a hero?" Jessica's confidence returned. "Mystress Blackheart!" "Very nice," Ms. Liberty replied, knowing that there was no way in hell that name would be free. "And, it looks like you're using magic?" "Right," Mystress Blackheart nodded. "I have recen... eh... eh heh HACHOOO!" Embarrassed, she turned and sneezed gloppily toward the pavement, but recovered quickly. "I"ve recently learned to harness the powers of my ancestor's wand." Ms. Liberty looked closer at the wand she was holding, and sighed inwardly. The wand was a 'Blackwand'. MAGI enchanted them in bulk, and gave them to fledgling magic based heroes to help them out at lower levels. Once every thirty seconds or so, it would shoot a blast of 'negative energy', which felt like being drenched with evil, icy slush, like standing under the Slurpee machine in Satan's own 7-11. The problem, Ms. Liberty knew, was that Blackwands did not 'scale'. A hero's powers would become more impactful as they increased in Security Level, but the Blackwand would not. One or two hits would lay a common street punk out cold, but the Council soldiers lining Steel Canyon would shrug it off, and the Warriors in Talos wouldn't feel it at all. In short, someone who's only power was a Blackwand had no chance whatsoever of getting past Security Level four or five. Still, Ms. Liberty knew from experience that it would be impossible to talk her out of it. "Great!" she effused, pointing over her shoulder. "Go into City Hall, and talk to the New Hero Registrar. They'll get you all set up. And," she smiled a perfect smile, "welcome to Paragon City! We're all glad to have you!" "Thanks!" Jess grinned, then sneezed again. Over the next two hours, Jessica stood in line, filled out forms, and stood in line some more. After several tries, she finally settled on the moniker "Mystress Darky Dark11". The guy behind the computer assured her that trailing ones are all the rage among new heroes, honest. They fitted her with a security badge and mediporter, then made her sit through lectures detailing in agonizing detail who she was and was not allowed to use her powers on. Finally, she strode confidently into MAGI, gazing at the magical relics arrayed along the wall. "Hhhhmmgh." Azuria barely glanced up from her clipboard. "New hero? All right, I need someone to go recover... no, wait." She squinted closer at the clipboard, scribbling an entry out. "Okay, I seem to have misplaced my, er... no that's not it." Azuria looked over the clipboard and seemed to see Jess and her Blackwand for the first time. "So... why don't you head down to Prometheus Park and defeat, say, ten Hellions? They, uh, took my pen or something." "Sure thing!" Jess bubbled, but Azuria's attention was gone again. Jessica bounded across City Hall's shiny floor, down the steps, under the statue. "Hi Ms. L! I'm all registered and everything!" she gushed. "Now I'm off on my first mission!" "Go bring those thugs to justice!" Ms Liberty replied, knowing what would happen. The young hero would charge into a group of Hellions or Clockwork or something, take a few hits, and the mediporter would send her to the hospital before it got too bad. Repeat two or three more times, and "Mystress Darky Dark11" would go home, hang up her cloak, spend a few days in her bedroom sulking and listing the The Cure, then marry an insurance salesman and forget all about it. Sure enough, two minutes later, Jess found herself at the perimeter of a paved courtyard, hemmed on three sides by high-rise apartment buildings. Low wooden park benches clustered at the corners. On one of them lounged half a dozen men wearing the Hellions' outfit; dark jeans, white t-shirt, red vest, tattoos of fire and demons adorning their arms. They drank beer and listened to a blaring ghettoblaster. One was idly tossing a lit torch end over end. Mustering her courage, Jess strode up to them and planted herself fifteen feet away. "Hold, evildoers! Prepare to face the wrath of..." she paused dramatically, "Mystress Darky Dark!" She decided not to pronounce the 1s. The Hellions barely moved; they had been down this road many, many times before. One turned his head lazily. "Did your gramma buy you that dress?" "Yes, actuallTHAT DOESN'T MATTER!!" Angered, Jess pointed the wand at the speaker and chanted the activation phrase, "Yeshoo!" The wand hummed, and a stream of blackness shot from the tip, coating the offending Hellion. He fell to the ground shivering, clutching his head. The remaining Hellions stood, holding their ground, waiting for the next attack. When it didn't come, they glanced at each other, then took a menacing step forward. "Hey, girlie," the leader oozed a liquid smile, "looks like you made a, uh, strategic error?" "Tactical, boss." "Tactical." He nodded at his henchman and grinned harder. "That wand takes, what, half a minute to recharge, and there's six of us," "Five, boss." "Five. So-" "It'll be six when Higgs gets back up." "Six. Right." The boss looked over his shoulder at the flunky, then back. "So," grinning like a wolf about to sink his jaws into a Bic Mac, "what ever are we going to do for the next ten minutes?" The junior Hellion opened his mouth, then closed it. Best not to spoil the moment. Eyes wide, Jessica started to backpedal, realizing her error. The Hellions followed, spreading out to encircle her. Frantic, she retreated faster, and bumped into a waist high concrete planter filled with scraggly yellowish flowers. Clutching the wand, she shifted to the side, the hellions spreading out to- Oh no. An all too familiar tickle appeared in the back of her throat, crawling up her mouth. No, NO, not now! She tried to hold it in, but it was too much. Eyes clenching shut, she sneezed fiercely, then again, then twice more. Sniffing frantically, she opened her watery eyes to an impossible sight. Four of the six five Hellions lay scattered across the plaza, limbs askew, while the leader stared at her, slack jawed. The urge flowed through her nose again, making her sneeze explosively; when she opened her eyes again, the leader was sailing gracelessly through the air, like a washer-dryer set that had grown weary of life in a basement and chosen to take flight. As Jess watched, the Hellion flew up, up up, then down, down, down, landing squarely on the back of the bench, his spine snapping with a sickening crack. Jess stood for a long moment, eyes like saucers. Then, the tickle returned, and began creeping up the back of her nose again... just as another group of Hellions appeared almost out of nowhere, clustered around another bench. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Azuria shoved a pile of scrolls aside, looked behind the pair of stone hands, and peered into the depths of the ancient Mu urn which stood against the wall of the MAGI office in City Hall. Where was her donut? She had just put it down a moment ago. A snuffle, and Azuria looked up; Jessica was standing in the entrance, nose red and hair mussed. "Hi! I got that thing done. Ten Hellions." "Um... yeah! Nice work!" Azuria peered at Jess as if she was a Christmas trinket long since thought lost, only to turn up under one's bed. "I didn't find your pen, though." "Pen! Right! Um... don't worry, I'm sure it will turn up." "Soooo..." "Oh! Yes! Ten Hellions!" Azuria fumbled in her pocket, pulled out some expees and passed them over, wondering if she had enough left to get Jess to help find her donut. A few paces back, a throat cleared. "Ms... Darky Dark?" "Yes?" A tall man in a black suit extended his hand. "Antonio Nash, I'm from GIFT. I just got a rather... interesting report of your field performance. I'd like to run some tests, if you're interested." An hour of tests later, Mr. Nash accompanied Jessica back to the Hero Registration desk, where the clerk changed her origin from Magic to Mutant. The power of her late uncle's wand, coupled with the terror of her fight with the Hellions, had awakened her dormant mutant power... super powered sneezes. She changed her name to "Hayfever Lass", which for some reason had not been claimed yet. "So, what now?" Antonio fumbled in his pocket for his Blackberry, which he had picked up in '04 and refused to part with. "If you're interested, my friend Jose Brogan has been hearing reports of Skulls in a nearby office. If you'd like to investigate..." Grinning, Hayfever Lass headed down to Hyperion Way, found the dilapidated office building, and sneezed the Dyne-dealing Skulls into submission. Clues lead her to King's Row, where she broke up a huge Superdyne ring involving the Skulls, Trolls and Family. Then, she took the monorail to Steel Canyon, and joined a group of heroes working with Positron. Alongside three other Blasters, two Scrappers, a Controller and a Warshade, she sneezed on mages, zombies, and robots, culminating in a pitched battle inside City Hall. "Great work! Thank again, Jes...er, Hayfever Lass!" Azuria picked up a squeegee from the corner and began mopping the snot and mucus from her blouse. "Ah! There's my donut!" The group walked slowly through the atrium. Hot Prick smiled. "Great work, everyone." "Yeah," Jessica grinned. "We sure knocked 'em cold!" exclaimed Princess Punchy, bouncing on her toes as she always did. "Sorry I wasn't much help," Nonconsenticles sighed. They rest ignored him, as they always did. The group went to Ms. Liberty for training, then drifted apart. Hot Prick turned to Jessica. "I saw you at the registrar this morning. You used to go by 'Mystress Blackheart?' " "Uhhh..." she blushed, "that was... kind of a phase." "I getcha." He smiled, a few stray spines flying from the corner of his mouth. "But, ya know, if you're interested in doing something a bit less than heroic for a little cash on the side, I know a guy who knows a guy..." Arc #16016: Uninvited, levels 10-15 1) The contact is Operative Castillian, from Arachnos. He's lost contact with some operatives, and then lost contact with the guys he sent to regain contact. Hayfever Lass heads into an Arachnos base and sneezes on some Igneous. 2) We need information, so HL invades a Legacy Chain office. 3) We know where they're going to attack next, so lets ambush them. Hayfever Lass heads into an Arachnos base and blasts Agent Doobie and friends. 4) Now we need to destroy the Cavern of Trancendance so the do-gooders can't use it. The map is the Bat'Zul one, where she sneezes Legacy Chain and the archmage into the lava. Uninvited is a nice, quick arc for low level characters. Give it a try.

Spectral Eclipse: Origin #19738 The contact is Spectral Eclipse, who tells you that he is now dead, and you're getting an automated voice message telling you to feed his dog or whatever. He must have been typing it with one hand while bleeding out, because the grammar is really, really bad. No contact bio, and the sendoff and still busy texts are all one sentence. For some reason, the player is sent to the ruined city map, where that dude's minions are fighting Praetorian ghouls for some reason. There's a custom group, 'military soldier' or something, with only one type and no bio. The player clicks a portal, then smashes a Shadow Cyst, which for some reason mind controls the player. I'm using the phrase "for some reason" a lot, but that's what playing this arc feels like. After that, the nav bar says "Bologna egg" or something... it's another Cyst Crystal, but it's being attacked, and if you don't get there fast enough the mission fails! Then you clobber a guy, then find a 'sacrifice', then lead him across the map to the egg. Congratulations, you've resurrected the Big Nasty. This arc is a dumpster fire: sparse writing, terrible grammar, missing details, tedious glowie hunts, possible failure, no real story. Worst of all, players do not enjoy being mind controlled and made to do the villain's dirty deeds. Heroes want to save the world, villains want to rob banks, and Praetorians want to, uh, I dunno, sniff Dominatrix's panties or something. An arc that isn't marked as villainous should have the player catch the bank robbers, rescue the girl, and vanquish the world-threatening archvillain, although you can throw in Dominatrix's panties if you really want to. I won't mind. Honest.

Condemning Croatoa, #17552 The contact is Veluta Lunata, who used to be one of Ghost Widow's top lieutenants, but fell out of favor when she caught her in a janitor's closet with all three of Black Scorpion's technicians. It seems that Arachnos has had it's eye on Croatoa of late, and wants to drive the ghosts and other supernatural creatures away so they can exploit it, kinda like Scooby-Doo in reverse. Most people know that Kyksie started out as a crimefighter, but it's been over six months since she was let go from the Freedom Phalanx Power Hour, and with money running short, she decides that 'hero' and 'villain' are just words. The Fir Bolg and the Tuatha have been fighting each other forever, but are now in peace talks, so we need to defeat the Eochai. Kyksie first enters a museum and steals a proton accelerator or something, then goes onto a farm, gathers up some Lost Soul allies, and smashes Eochai into small piles of putrid debris. Now, we need to capture Katie Hannon's soul. Kyksie first ventures into the countryside to smash a cauldron and burn some witches, then into a cave to defeat Mary MacComber and capture Katie, with Veluta's help. Finally, it's time to sink Croatoa into the spirit world. Kyksie heads to Salamanca, smashes a mailbox and a taco stand that were really magical wards, then defeats Ashley McKnight and War Witch and some other dudes. Upon returning, Croatoa has sunk into the spirit world, making room for a new strip mall and Starbucks. Condemning Croatoa is another well done arc, with solid writing and no time-wasters. My only nitpick is that, like the previous arc by this author, some of the dialog is a bit odd. Ashley McKight says "How do you like my pals, bub?" at one point, and War Witch says "Ah'm pretty near invulnerable when ah'm blastin'", or something like that.

The contact is Arthur Crowne, sort of businessman type, who tells me that one of his employees was recently kidnapped by a squad of winged monkeys and spirited off to the Wicked Witch's castle, or something like that. Kyksie normally doesn't handle private cases, but money is running short after being let go from the Freedom Phalanx Power Hour, so she accepts. At the warehouse, Kyksie encounters the Monkey Gang, a custom group with about a dozen members, with various powersets and bios. She then pummels Borrowed Tech, rescues the hostage, and also frees X-23, a young female dragon. She also finds a barrel of pink goo, which is exactly the same shade of pink as Kyksie's leggings. This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence. Borrowed Tech was just a pawn, the real player was a baddie named Draco Black. We head to his office, which is guarded by mercs from another custom group. Again, there are about a dozen types, with bios and varied powersets, although thugs is the most common. One is named "Street Meat", which tells me the author has never read the Urban Dictionary. We pummel the boss and read his files. Draco Black is also there; Kyksie made with the pummeling, but he fled at low health, running into an elevator and vanishing. Draco Black is really a dragon, and so is Crowne, and Black is making lots of little dragons, so we need to stop him. Off to the cloning lab map, where Kyksie smashes the cloning tubes, which I can only guess are sold at the Paragon City Costco. There is yet another custom group here, dragons. Then Kyksie pummels Black, who is not too hard. All EBs here are still EBs even if 'solo archvillains' is turned on. We run into X-23 again, who helps us fight this time. Kyksie notices that, like her, X-23 is also not wearing panties. This is not a coincidence because nothing is ever a coincidence. Too Many Coincidences is a top notch arc, with a well done story, copious text, and lot of attention to detail. Everyone go play it now.

Yeah I just checked Discord again, this GM 0533 does not exist.

The contact is Orb Weaver Zane, who says that even though I don't know him, he knows all about me, prompting Kyksie to check her shower for cameras again. Zane tells me that a prototype robot has been stolen, and he needs someone "loyal to Arachnos but not of Arachnos" to find it, which narrows the pool down to me and the hotdog vendors in Cap. I head out to Siren's Call and defeat a Freak named "Bottomizer", which sounds a bit homoerotic. He doesn't know anything about the prototype, but hmmmm, why are there Sky Raiders here? Then, off to the Sky Raider offshore base, where I 'liberate' some technology, and find a robot who joins me once I find it's controller. I name it Herbie. Pieing together the clues, Zane deduces that the robots are being made by the Rogue Robots on Striga Isle, and sold to villain groups across Paragon and the Rogue Isles. Kyksie ventures off to the Striga map and finds a huge robot sales exposition, with representatives from the Council, Crey, the Family, and Up-n-Away Burgers buying battle robots. I'm soon joined by two battle drones and one assault bot; I name then George, Curley and Lenny. Zane needs to examine the robots, so I lead them back to the Arachnos Flyer. As we approach the handoff point, Curley pauses and looks up. "These people, they're not going to take me apart... right?" Kyksie is unable to meet his robotic gaze, turning away and trudging back to the transport. We need to find the prototype, so Kyksie heads to a warehouse, gathers a small army of robot allies whom I name after the Partridge Family, and pummels Col. Duray, then a 'volta'. Oddly, Danny and Suzanne turn hostile at that point but do not attack me. After that, Zane pieces together the clues and determines that Vandal is behind the robot army. I like arcs where the contact is more than "duhhhh, bad guys over there". Anyway, the player heads out to the base and encounters Hess, who is now a brain in a robot body, them clobbers "Vandal II", also a robotic brain. Lots and lots of non-required glowies provide background. Robolution is a very well done arc, with excellent writing, a plausible plot, and lots of attention to detail. My only real issue is that some of the dialog is... odd. For example, at one point Zane greets the player with "Goodness, $name. You really have uncovered something deliciously intriguing here!" And, when low on health, Col. Duray shouts "My oh my!" Of all the possible things that Duray might say during combat, "My oh my!" is not high on the list. I was almost expecting him to exclaim "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" upon defeat.

OK so this is set in a Starbucks in space, at least I'm guessing, because it's a rocky asteroid with a weird tower thing with glowing runes, which I can only assume is the steamed milk dispenser or something. You click a glowie and then Karen pops out, actually a dozen, from a custom group, but as far as I can tell there's only one type. After beating them all, the next mission is the same map with the same premise, so I quit there. This arc is one gag spread out over four maps. Pass.

This is a simple one mission arc, where a dude tells you some terrorists have taken over an office and he can't afford their ransom demands, which implies that you, the player, must work for cheap, maybe for ten bucks and a hot dog or something. Anyway, we go into an office and encounter "terrorists", a custom group with varied powersets but generic bios. The player needs to clear out the map, disarm four bombs, and rescue two hostages, which is kind of a lot. He should have at least given me a Coke to wash down the hot dog. There's nothing wrong with Office Attack, it's just very bland and low effort. No clues, no contact bio, very little mob chatter.

True but Granite also makes you more invulnerable than anything else, hands down. It's a worthwhile trade. Maybe give a bit of a buff to the armors that can't be used with granite.

Just remove the movement restrictions. Simple and easy.

You could just make Equip and Upgrade passive powers that are already applied. They already did that on the "we're not 4chan, honest" server.

The contents of the data are irrelevant: the fact that it exists is all that matters. In the US and many parts of Europe, companies are required to notify past and present customers if any of their data is compromised, or face a lawsuit. The state that the customer lives in determines which laws apply, forcing companies to wade through a patchwork of state laws. Up until now, the character data has only been in the hands of a shadowy group that no one can pin down, so NC can deny any knowledge of it. However, if the character data were to become public, NC would be forced to inform all their customers via email that they had been the victim of a data breach. Because NCSoft is an Asian company, a loss of face like this would force all the senior executives to commit seppuku or go on an honor quest or something. Even worse, if the main customer database has been thrown away (a reasonable possibility, since having it around would present a target to hackers) they would be unable to inform their ex-customers, leaving them open to lawsuits. Even though this data is completely worthless- no one cares how many LotGs Mistress Babyfurs had at shutdown or what color her panties were (ok maybe a few people care about that last one)- it could still lead to a huge and messy case. The ideal solution would be for the Secret Team to reach an agreement with NC where they "give" us the character data (which might include extras like bases and AE missions) but I really don't see that happening.

"Get pass the firewall" instead of "past". A few others I can't remember.

Tried this again yesterday. The first two arcs are the same; the third is the jungle map with the ziggurat in the center, where Chimera appears in the Maria Jenkins mission. Here, the player is tasked with destroying a sensor, which appears to be a stone spire. However, after slaughtering all mobs and smashing all the other spires, I was left with the "Active" one, which gave me 'Invalid Target' when I tried to zap it, and could not be damaged by AoEs or any other means. I tried it *twice*, with different characters, and the result was the same. At this point, it is obvious that the author does not playtest his arcs at all. I have zero interest in playing whatever comes next and neither should anyone else.

Moonstar Ultimate is the author's latest mission, #18616. The mission is locked at level 51. The contact is "Celeste Moonstar", who tasks the player with gathering up the "Incarnates", who are not incarnates in the CoH sense, but members of a supergroup. Or maybe they are Incarnates, I dunno. Anyway, the player rescues a bunch of guys, some of whom are the author's characters. Every map contains a custom enemy group with varied powersets and costumes, although some have generic bios. So then we have to go Celeste's home planet where the head badguy is imprisoned in a computer, but he broke out. Then we go to a city street where lots of guys are fighting, may of whom are catgirls. Some are on your side and some not, resulting in a number of... wait for it... catfights. Then we go rescue the Space Police, then off to the Longbow Base map to liberate a Chaser loaded with catnip or something. I was on my third doobie by then so I might have gotten a few details wrong, but eh. There are a lot of EB/AVs, but none are too hard, and you usually have catgirl allies. If you enjoy hot catgirl-on-catgirl action, this is the AE for you. My only nitpick is a few spelling errors.

The Live devs were planning something along those lines, to reduce the need to grind out Accolade badges. For example, if a character got the Slayer badge for 200 Vampires, then all other characters on that account would need 20% less vampires. If someone got the Task Force Commander Accolade, other characters on the account would need only 5 of the 6 Task Forces to get the accolade.

I was the one who played the first arc. It was pretty well written, although it's hard to tell what the contact was saying. Also, the arc didn't run with the concept of a hero who is also the spokesman for a gum company. She could, say, capture a bank robber and shout her catchphrase 'Hope the charges STICK this time!" Ominous Horizons starts out the same way, although Double Mint is wearing a different costume. The Circle is up to something, so we go into the Shadow Shard and talk to Dr. Huxley. who tells us that she has discovered a new variety of Kora Fruit which is orange. Upon seeing the fruit, Double Mint forgets all about the Circle and begins planning a new flavor of gum, Orange Kora Blast, and assigns the player to go around Paragon City putting up billboards for it. At least I assume that's what she does, because I couldn't get to the final missions. The third mission sends the player to the Nemesis Shadow Shard map and tasks them with destroying a sensor, but I couldn't find it anywhere, and gave up after 15 minutes of scouring the map. I found the cave and rescued a nameless mystic, but no glowie. Please, people, don't use any of the Shadow Shard maps in AE, they're all poorly designed and hard to navigate. Anyway, Ominous Horizons probably concludes with the player battling a hundred foot tall Incarnate powered Gum Golem in the middle of Steel Canyon while a fleet of Rikti dropships fly overhead and Ride of the Valkyries plays, so I'll give it five stars for having such a badass ending.

Also, really, why can't we have nude characters? Come on, we're all at least 40 years old by now.

Playing with my Titan/Electric on a tip mission, the 5th column troops would not get back up when knocked down. They just lay there doing nothing.

I've always felt that the Steel Canyon hospital is poorly placed. If a newbie wanders into Steel with a low level character and dies to street mobs, the run back is almost impossible.

Would love to help, can't see you on Discord.

Sorry not offhand. I think one was in a minion description? It's not a horrible arc, at least not compared to some trashfires I played on the live server. Just kinda blah.

Generic plot, sparse text, a weak custom group, some spelling errors, a defeat all on a big map. The only high point is a few touches of humor. This isn't a terrible arc but it really isn't great.

We have RMT people here???

I hopped on just now and "Naked" is OK in the character creator.