[Heroic][46-52] The Serpent Beyond the Horizon - Arc ID: 854

[Ankylosaur]

Description: Humphrey Basingwaithe of the Midnight Squad believes the Mercy Island Snakes history begins in Ancient Egypt. Travel back to Cimerora to help him test his theory! (WINNER of American Legion's Monthly AE Contest, Nov 2011!! - BEST OVERALL, AE Storyteam, Feb 2012 - SFMA - Solo with provided allies.)

 

 

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Built to answer the question, "Where did the serpents from Mercy Island come from?" Was fun combining CoH lore and story hooks with real mythologies.

[Ankylosaur]

Thrilled that a few people ran through this already and gave it 5 stars. Was exciting to see I had AE tickets to pick up.

 

I’m personally nowhere near this level.

[Ankylosaur]

A few more  people have played and ranked this highly - thanks!

 

Spoilerish

I recently made some tweaks to a few of the mobs to integrate even more of the serpent mobs into the metamorphosis process making for an even richer and more varied mob set.  

 

Inspired by a combination of the Mercy Isle Serpents, ancient Egyptian gods, Thor Heyerdahl, and the Yuan Ti, I still love this one and think it is one of my top two arcs - give it a go if you want something inspired by the lore.

 

[Kyksie]

I played through this a few months ago and intended to review it but it somehow got lost. Suffice it to say that this is a top-notch arc that hits all the right notes; excellent writing, an interesting custom group, no kill-alls, no tedious glowie hunts, no overpowered bosses. Everyone who enjoys a good story should play this.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Kyksie

[Ankylosaur]

Thanks Kyksie / Bloodfire Wytch! Appreciate you giving it a run through and very much appreciate the endorsement. 

 

As you enjoyed it, would love your take on: Rularularian - Arc ID: 848

Edited March 12, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Kyksie]

Another month, another scramble to make rent. None of the Malta troops that Kyksie 'arrested' had any cash on them, so she calls up an old contact who tells her that Lt. Col. Flynn has some work all the way out in the Shadow Shard.

 

1) Arriving at Mole Point Charlie via portal, Flynn tells Kyksie that a new Hortha Vine had just opened up, so naturally he sent some troops through, but then it closed, so now he needs a brave hero to investigate. Fortunately they had a sort of dimensional GPS thingy, so Kyksie is able to track them to a cave. There she encounters the "Rularularian", a nicely done custom group. They all wear Nemesis unforms, but none have change in their pockets either. We rescue the captives, including Dr. Huxley.

 

2) We rescue more captives. The Rularutians can control Shadow Shard reflections, interesting. Sara Moore is investigating their history, but Kyksie taps her foot, eager to get paid.

 

3) The Rularutarians are attacking City Hall! Kyksie jumps in and defeats the invasion, led by "Angie the Mad". Yes, this is kinda of an odd name for a villain, like "Norbert the Terrible" or "Melvin the Flatulent", but we'll see why it fits, read on.

 

4) The scientists have discovered that the Rularutarians are the descendants of people from Paragon, who were stranded in the Shadow Shard when Hero One closed the dimensional portal. They have formed several independent city-states, and one is willing to sign a truce. Kyksie just wants to get her payment and go, but Flynn tell her to meet with their leader.

 

This mission is set in the Shadow Shard map with the big factory thing in the center and caves along the sides. Normally I recommend against using this map because the caves are confusing and hard to see, but here we get an objective marker showing you the way. Plenty of non-required clues add atmosphere.

 

5) Most of the city-states have agreed to join with us, but their leader "the five" needs to be stopped. I won't spoil the plot twist here. We go into the Statesman map, get a bunch of allies, and defeat a bunch of guys like "William the Conqueror" and "Becky the Litterbug". See, they got those names because they come from normal people! We defeat the five, and the rest of the Rularutians decide to rejoin us. Everyone hugs, and Flynn authorizes payment plus a bonus. No secondhand tampons for Kyksie this month!

 

Rularularian is another perfect arc, with top-notch writing, lots of atmosphere, and no time wasting. Everyone go play it.

[Ankylosaur]

Having (finally) played through the DA Mot stuff, I realized that the Talons I recently included needed to be more directly addressed in this arc and not just part of the cult going through the same thing (though primarily they are)...

Spoiler

 

I realized the ultimate goal of driving people west to the god of the underworld could also be somehow tied into Mot. I am thinking of the Talons represented here as a branch of this dark underworld magic that died out in our dimension with the Serpents continuing to thrive (survive ?) on Mercy. So while at least the serpentish Talons are part of this story in our dimension, there were a few thousand years for them to fade out in our dimension. 

 

I also realized I could do better with the pre-transformation Talon Egyptian costumes as there are so many Talons costume pieces available (that I finally stumbled upon). So I worked on the core Egyptians pre-transformation to Talon costumes. I also did some tweaks to the Apep priestesses that no one will notice, but I did want to use the Ankh tiara somewhere. 🙂    

 

I even gave a nod to Mot and his disciples as a possibility of having a role here tying into the ancient Mu. 

 

Lastly, I bolstered the final mission with a couple more named bosses and dialog to give that larger map a tad more life/personality.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

So fun to see another arc show up on Twitch (at the 30 minute mark).  https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1708939837

 

Spoiler

Note to self if I ever get a chance to edit a dec's choice. Small bug in M4 for where Hequat showed up too early. Should probably trigger her off of Humphrey.

 

[Ankylosaur]

With all the new Stheno weapons that were recently released, I wanted to update my customs in this story that is about the origin of the Snakes.

Editing a Dev's Choice is something I try not to abuse, as basically you have to ask a GM to restore it. I think I've done it twice, once was for Nictus Evictus when the new Nictus stuff came out. In the case of "Serpent Beyond the Horizon" the game changed with new weapons, which gave me a chance to improve something too. I've asked to have it restored to a dev's choice, and fingers crossed it will be.

 

I did make a small story change. Back when I published it, Sisters Bramlett and Solaris were AVs in the AE Cimeroran mobs. In one of the Homecoming updates they became bosses instead, and, they added in Airlia (among others). So, I added in Sister Airlia as another Seer who was kidnapped as part of the plot, so that the solo player has some extra support fighting an AV. It actually fit the story well as you uncover a bit of Arachnos' presence in Cimerora in the plot when you encounter Bramlett, so this slipped right in.

Though the fight with Bramlett will be easier, having them as bosses against the AV should be more fun than Solaris as an AV ally as she was mighty powerful and kinda rolled over everyone.  

Anyway, its updated now with the Stheno stuff, and the mobs look better for it.

 

Oh and I fixed the note to self above.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Ankylosaur