NEW: Solace (3-part heroic arc)

[cranebump]

Solace (L15-20)

[SFMA] Heroes of past and present and future come together to stop a conspiracy that cascades into a world-ending threat. Can you and your team of “meddling kids” (along with their aging mentors) put a stop to it? 

Part 1: 61014

Part 2: 61212

Part 3: 61224

Each arc has 4 missions. 

 

OVERVIEW: It's my typical complicated, "layer upon layer," plot, grounded in lore bits that are mostly unexplored in the default game. Has something of a Task Force feel, with lots of different players and various groups (either directly involved, or ancillary). I like villains that insulate themselves, misdirect, bide time, and generally make themselves hard to get to, and this definitely fits the mold. Of course, you can't plan for everything, so I wanted that to figure into the narrative, as well. Hope it plays out that way. Partially inspired by Geoff John's JSA run, mainly the concept of older heroes mentoring younger ones. Grounded in Skyway NPCs and Lore.

 

TEST RUNS: Tests with tanks at L20 are (unsurprisingly) pretty smooth. In the process of running with some weaker toons, so we'll see how that goes (a lack of mez protection could be an issue for some). Not sure how large groups will run. I'd say the challenge depends on what you attack and what you leave alone. Issues with clue order, since I dropped in a lot of optional info. Apologies, but cannot place anything, so you'll have to scroll a bit here and there. Still in the process of running with various AT's, so I'll add any into I think is needed. NOTE: If you cannot fly, you WILL need a jetpack for the Skyway map. 

 

Design notes and spoilers (with apologies for typos and such):

Spoiler

IMPETUS: I was initially inspired by Thomas’s poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” which, though being about fighting against the ultimate inevitable (death), could be applied to just never quitting until the end. Couple this with a pair of contacts in Skyway City who are former heroes still seeking to be useful/relevant paved the way for the arc’s theme. It’s a theme that appeals to me now that I’m older, and still seeking to be relevant and useful in my later years. The irony of life (one of many, anyway) is that you end up with a great deal of knowledge and wisdom, but the world doesn’t always want (or value) it (or maybe it’s just out of date). I applied this same concept to the main nemesis in the plot, though his motivations are much simpler. Once I had my aging NPC heroes, I patterned my Ally SG, the Night Ravens after Goeff John’s awesome JSA run (with its collection of young heroes woring with the legacies).

 

NAMING CONVENTIONS: I originally wanted to title the story using words from the opening poem, while not being too on the nose. However, such spins as That Good Night, Into the Good Night, No Goodnight, The Goodnight, just didn’t seem to work. In the end, I settled on Solace for several reasons: (1) It’s a badge in Sky, next to a location I’m using in the arc; (2) By definition, Solace is about giving or receiving comfort, piece of mind, etc. (which fits what the older heroes want at the end of the day – to take comfort in a job well done, or that they did their best and so on); and, finally (3) It’s a cool-sounding word, standing alone (plus it was part of a James Bond film title, and I like Bond [though this story is certainly not Bond-like]). As for individual mish names, Arc 1 titles are the same as exploration badges in Sky, while Arc 2 quotes lines from TS Eliot’s The Hollow Men. Once I decided on a 3rd arc, I thought of the sacrifice of Bengal, which I equated to the poetry of Wildred Owen, particularly “Anthem for a Doomed Youth.” I cribbed titles from lines there, and used “Arms and the Boy” as my entry poem. Managed to round the whole thing out with the BBEG defeat clue, bookending the opening Thomas poem. (I don’t know why I think so much, and use literary titles, but I do-and those poets are three of my favorites).

 

NPCs: Did a lore dive on Janet Kellum’s arc covering Countess Crey’s exposure and arrest, where the Night Fox figures prominently. Dude sounds decidedly bat-like, so I thought I’d have a take on his “Robin,” as Nightwing. This gave me access to Night Fox’s resources via his ward, Kestrel. The other young ‘uns are legacy toons patterned after Cyrus Thompson (grandson=Headlong), and Jake Montoya (his nephew, Bengal). I added retired heroes Justin Green (formerly Green Justice, now Viridesence) and Jim Bartlett (Thunderhead) to give the group a bit more balance between old folks and youngsters (and to cover some AT holes, since none of the Legacies is truly a support toon). Thought about adding a 7th member, and mentioned one (who just never showed up), but it is already difficult enough to use this many NPCs in a relevant manner. At least it was before the story got extended.:-)

 

THE BAD GUY’S PLAN: I figured Anguish wanted to finish what he started, which was to blow up the whole damned city. I fixated on Prof Xaos’s Mandlebrot Device, which is not explained or described in the Lore (other than the prof nearly brought the city to its knees). To tie this to both Anguish and Torrent, I decided the original device was called a Mandlebrot because it could amplify an “infinite cascade” of specific material (in Xaos’s case, water). Unlike looking into a Mandlebrot, the device sorta starts on the “inner sections” of the theoretical shape, and zooms its way “outward,” though additional “patterns.” Like a concentric shockwave that just keeps adding rings. 

 

Since it already had some effects on water, it made sense, then, that Torrent would be paid off with a device that gave him more and better water minions. Meanwhile, Anguish, who is more interested in the “cascade effect,” has been researching the basic device in his decades-long re-ascent from obscurity. His plan is to repurpose the device to work on X-3 generators (which, per lore, he invented), basically turning every one of them into a bomb. Since there’s no way to shut them all down, once the cascade has started (he surmises), there’s no way to stop his plan. Of course, I had to come up with a way to “actually” stop it, so the implication is that it has a long, steep power up process.

 

DEVELOPMENT: Initially went from a 1-arc story to 2 because of a glitch on the finale of Arc 1 that kept occurring in M5, booting me out of the arc via a mapserve error. I still do not know what it was but, per my buds on the boards, I figure it’s file size–all the customs (and, I think, something to do with office-sewer maps, since I had another crash on a different arc, when one of those was involved). I finally just scrapped Arc 1, M5, tweaked M4, then began work on Arc 2. When I encountered similar problems with file size in Arc 2, I extended the story to 3 arcs, with the intention of a 3-mish finale. I finally added a 4th mish to the final arc for two reasons. First, the other 2 arcs were 4 mishes, so it gave some symmetry to the whole thing. Second, I had the young villains appear in the finale, without anything earlier to presage their involvement in the plot, other than Syzmek showing up in Arc 3, M2. So I added the “oops–wrong location” mish in order to introduce Maladept and Movo Shing (whose first name means “Move” in Esperanto. I can’t remember where I got Shing from. Search says it can mean “Victory” in Chinese, but that isn’t where I originally got it – I just thought it sounded cool and weird). Villain Ken Dickey (the blonde, underwhelming  douche)  is actually located in M2, the previous mish, but, as he’s not required, I had to refigure his actions in the finale, in which he just bails out when engaged (I had wanted him to get his clocked cleaned in M2, but, since he’s not required, I couldn’t count on it to happen. I had to tweak his text in the finale, unlinking it from the ass whoopin’ unfortunately). I think, overall, that extending the story may actually have been better, since I was having to wedge all sorts of explanations into the initial (later discarded) Arc1, M5 in order to knit the story together. Pushing it to a 2nd arc (and later a 3rd) allowed me to more slowly develop toward the conclusion. Also allowed some additional mission variety, in particular the Longbow base mish. Narratively, this is more interesting than what I was going to do, which was just announce that LB had been lying about the threat of FL via the Sky/FL tunnel. I also got to work Diversant organically, rather than just dropping him in in the finale of arc 1 (where he originally was). 

 

As far as characters go, I made the decision early on in Arc 2 to have at least one casualty. I settled on Bengal because (a) he has a gung ho personality (much more so than the others); (b) his uncle Jake is obviously trying to protect from his overeagerness; and (c) if I had him lose both legs (unlike his uncle, who lost “just” one), it would fit these narrative neatly in a “fitting” way. Plus crippling Bengal doesn’t necessarily put an end to his career. It could, in fact, push him away from heroing to the other sode of the equation – if I’m going to get hurt, I should make it worth my while. Took a hot minute to figure out what he sacrificed for, so I decided he pilfered Anwar’s pad before he was crushed by the penultimate boss.

 

CRITTERS: I wanted a merc group somewhat like Malta in that players would have an oh, shit moment. This the pretty effective (and intentionally annoying) Arsenal powers (and anything else that would threaten lower level toons). If Darkwater is to be a successful org, they’d have to have stuff that can bring down many supers (or at least slow them down). I also wanted to use the new powersets (and a lot more ice), so this story gave me an excuse to explore my inner jerk.:-) Same thing with Xaosworks robots. Most of them have a water element (a new powerset, relatively speaking, and not seen in typical mishes). Ties in with Torrent, who is a water-based hero, according to Lore. I put in a lot of reskinned critters, drawing from Praets where I could. When I decided to use Syndicate as mercs, I was lucky enough that I had already dropped the “Sturmwolke” clue, so I didn’t have to worry about the “S” on their unis. (yeah…like, I planned it that way):-)

 

For Solace 2’s Mandlebrot creatures I had carte blanche to do whatever, sinced the minion makers used “local materials.” I pointedly developed a few of the critters, namely the Undead thing, the Organism, the Worker and the Doc. The Cobbled are a series of pressing “randomize” on the costume creator, then picking powers. Made use of bubble wake and mycelium/’shroom growth to tie them together. For Mandlebrot minions in Arc 2 , I really wanted to load up on psychic attacks. Make a lot of customs and such. But then, considering that the Mandlebrot can make minions from any material, and that Arc 1 established the kidnapping of Hero Corps, it made sense that Anguish’s minions might be much like the Cobbled. Either that, or his minions could be groups he’s working with under false pretense. Maybe the Council, by promising them control. Finally, for Anguish’s mandy crew, I decided it’d be the ultimate act of vanity to be guarded by one’s self, since only YOU are worthy of working for, well, you. I tossed in the Mandlebots in order to add some variety in the melee department (since every version of Anguish has some sort of psi-power).

 

OBJECTIVE STUFF: To emulate the Mandlebrot's "cascading minions" effect, I made liberal use of optional "Defend Object," (and included a creature that spawns minions in one of the arcs). When you get an objective next to a generator, you can end up surrounded in a big, damned hurry. One of my tanks had to use plas tasers to get breathing room. It was fun, though! Made the allies much more useful.

 

Edited April 9 by cranebump

[cranebump]

Got some great feedback on Solace 1 and Gravity. Fixed typos on the former. Couldn’t really do anything on Gravity, since it’s locked due to badge. 
 

Next: Planning on doing a 1-10, per the weekly challenge issued a few weeks ago, but  nothings crystallized just yet. Mainly a title and a nebulous thematic concept. Anticipate getting this done in May, if I ever get some extended free time.