[Heroic] [45-54] Return to Faultline - Arc ID: 32295

[Ankylosaur]

 Catching up with the Faultline gang at the Drenched Donuts shop, all hell breaks loose! Help restore Faultline to its fractured self. (Best played in Faultline's AE so you feel like you're there.)

 

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Always loved the Faultline arcs and stories that were introduced in Issue 8 - they seem to introduce so many characters that appear later and throughout the game. As with many of my arcs, it explores some undeveloped hooks in the lore. If you want to explore some of my inspirations, and don't mind spoilers, I share them below.

 

Spoiler

 

Inspirations and copious spoilers

• Faultline - First up of course is the place - it is a zone with a real sense of place and is evolving. In AE there are great maps that anchor you in the place so I wanted to use them - including one that lets you go back to pre reconstruction days (and discontinued Posi TF I could refernece). Plus it has great characters/allies that I don't need to explain as they are well known. Plus it has the donut shop. Plus Mirror Spirit - plus the hidden cryptic lounge - plus a gateway to Pocket D - good stuff to play with. In fact I had a hard time choosing who would be the main contact - for a good while it was Jim but ended up with Penny.
• Demons - As a reminder of the Faultline lore, the zone was destroyed by Jim Temblor's dad when he was fighting his nemesis Psicurse. Psicurse was working on a psychic temporal energy device and because of that everyone misremembered Jim's dad as being a villain when in fact he was a hero. Well, Jim's dad also had another nemesis in the lore - Demon Digger. On what seems to me a related note, the Circle of Thorns had been searching for something in Faultline pre i8 but then they left when it started reconstruction. I have always wanted to do an arc with demons as the Mastermind set fits in so easily, as does the Gate from Animus arcana, plus there are all sorts of pre-existing mobs that I could commandeer and pull into a demon group - so I did. Demon Digger was the hook I had been searching for to do something with demons. 
• Clockwork - Young Penny Yin (who also has her own TF now as an adult) is introduced in Faultline. The Clockwork King's clockwork protect her outside her dad's market (which you can unlock if you play her arc and then you can buy some special inspirations. They should really consider making those level independent and scalable to make them have some meaning - or have him sell IOs or something). Anyway, Psicurse's destroyed psychic device, a psychic link between Penny and the Clockwork King, and an entire Psychic Clockwork mob that does not exist on our planet, gave plenty of fodder to work with.   
• Mob reuse - There are SOOO many mobs that I was able to use in here. Since they are the same model, old antimatter and neuron robots got added with the clocks. The astral time projection let me use CoT reflections combined with Diabolique spirits. Malaise Lunatics, CoT Possessed Scientists and Mother Mayhem Maniacs also fit so well with what I was doing. And then the demons include Hydras and Dredge and Banished Pantheon and Infernal Demons and Black Swan Shadows. I also had Paladin and the Hydra Giant monster in here, but opted out of them, but left one in because it made for interesting gameplay (to avoid).
• Too much story? In truth, I think I may have tried to squeeze in a little too much into our 5 mission constraint. The demon part of the arc and the clockwork part could have each been their own arc and stretched out a bit to make it a bit more about mystery, discovery, and pursuit of what is happening. Said another way, I worry some of the encounters or mobs feel a little short-changed - like you did not get enough time with them. On the flip-side though - the density hopefully means there's no slow points and a perpetual sense of urgency. Would love to hear what you think!

 

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If you do take my arc for a spin - I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I did pulling it together! Feedback encouraged and welcomed

 

(Please be generous with stars and message me with any issues you have so I can make it better for all).

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Kyksie]

 

1) Penelope Yin has invited you to join her at Drenched Donuts, where she, Doc Delilah and Faultline are having an intervention for Fusionette. "I told you," she says between bites, "I can eat as many as I want without putting on weight! I have a nuclear reactor in my chest, remember!"

 

"It's not that," says Penny, pointedly not looking at Fusionette's thighs, "It's gotten to the point where Drenched Donuts has a guy making donuts just for you." Behind a sliding door, a skinny teen worked the glazer frantically, remembering the sinister glow in her eyes the last time he had been late with the Boston Creme.

 

"And you're really abusing the 'heroes get free food' bit," Doc Delilah sighed. "They just applied for a second small business loan."

 

"Jeez", Annette muttered, inhaling another fluorescent pink donut, "It's not that big a deal, I can quit anytime-"

 

Suddenly, a loud ripping sound came from outside. The heroes poured out onto the streets of Faultline to see civilians fleeing. Penny's love of Drenched Donuts was so great that the thought of going without them had caused holes to appear in reality, spilling out demons. Kyksie and the heroes pound the holes and defeat a demon lord.

 

2) In an effort to find the cause of Fusionette's all-consuming lust for donuts, Penelope projects Kyksie into the Astral plane, which looks like Faultline before the rebuilding. She defeats a CoT mage named Porthos and steals his magical donut hole puncher. Porthos is invisible, forcing Kyksie to wander the map until she bumps into him.

 

3) Kykie takes the artifact into a SERAPH lab, punches more holes, and defeats the demon lord, who was trying to glaze the world or something.

 

4) And now the Clockwork King has projected his consciousness into the donut fryer, which becomes ambulatory, grabs Penny, and runs to the top of a skyscraper under construction, with Kyksie in pursuit. He tries to stop Kyksie by rolling flaming barrels at her, but she stops him by removing the plugs and sending the building crashing down.

 

5) Now the fryer, with the Clockwork King's mind inside, has merged with Psicurse's old Psychocrumbetron and is about to turn all heroes into jelly sticks or something. Some more punching and it's over. The threat averted, the team of heroes meets back at Drenched Donuts to relax.

 

"Thanks, guys." Fusionette flops bonelessly into a booth. "And... uh, yeah, maybe I'll lay off on the donuts for a bit."

 

"Are you sure?" Kyksie has a strawberry glaze in one hand and a double fudge in the other. "They're... sooooo... good!!"

 

None of what I've written is true; Return to Faultline is actually a very well written arc with tons of detail, lots of custom mobs, and a great deal of lore on Faultline's past. My only nitpick is a few spelling errors.

 

[Ankylosaur]

Loved the write up! I kinda wish it was true... Where is that flaming barrel rolling emote...

 

Just ferreted out several spelling errors - should be virtually error free! 

 

Also took Shadow Fall off of Portheous so he would be easier to spot. He and his mob should be casting too to make them easier to find. 

Edited September 4, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Has not had a lot of plays - but I have had a couple of nice comments on this one that I thought would help explain the feel.

•  "This one felt like a proper comic book adventure, where a team gets split up, works together, splits up again, etc. Very cool."
•  "Fun! Definite Scooby Gang/Buffy vibe coming off that."

Thanks for the plays and kind words!

Edited November 2, 2020 by Ankylosaur

[Ankylosaur]

Return to Faultline on Twitch at about the 3-hour minute mark.

 

Unfortunately, Trivia was going on at the same time, so many of the nuances were lost - but it's still fun for an author to watch. You'll see he is doing several AE arcs. SundAE is a regular theme.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1722829694