The Renegade Rebellion, Arc ID 117690, by @Lord Mayhem
Very Long (3 unique, 2 large maps). Neutral. Lvl 1-15 Description tells of renegade members of various gangs rioting in Skyway. 27 plays, 4-stars as I start
Ill be using my lvl 5 DB/WP scrapper Ragtime Smith for this one.
Take it away, Ragtime!
I try to stay out of Skyway City as a rule
I dont like all those mile-high roads. It dont feel like a place where anyone could call
home, you know? I likes it here in Kings Row. But crime don care where it pops its ugly head up, it seems. I was on my way home yesterday, when this big ol golden caddy with blacked-out windows pulled up
I couldnt see who xactly was inside, but he said he was some sort of businessman, and there were riots in Skyway preventing his delivery trucks from getting through
Seems to me that someone who could afford a big old car like that could afford to hire some security, but rioters have a habit of hurtin innocent people as well as smashing up store fronts, so I reckoned Id head on over to Skyway an see what I could do to help
[Briefing definitely comes over as Neutral the contacts tone is quite condescending, and his bio suggests he might be King Midas or one of his lieutenants]
Mission 1: Disperse The Riot
When I got to the area, there was a riot going on, surely
I spotted all sorts of no-gooders running amuck
Mooks, Hellions, Council, even some dressed up like the Fifth Column
aint seen the likes o them for a good while now
I done me some cleaning up
[Skyway roadway map, lots of truck and car objects around, various groups of mobs, nice. I basically Clear All, even though I dont have to.]
I worked my way up the express ramp, putting the rioters down as I go
They were set to smash up vehicles, throwing stuff around, burning and shouting
some of them were more mouthy than the others, I took special care of them
I also found a Police Officer bein held by a bunch of the rioters wavin placards
peaceful, they said
then attacked me
heh, idiots
the officer told me hed seen them all comin out of some warehouse
[I was enjoying that a lot, its nicely set up. I basically worked my way from the start up the ramp, as I have done in canon arcs featuring this map, and that was my undoing lol. Basically I reached Freddy, rescued him, and Id been clearing all on my wayt, but whent I got to him, I still had 1 out of 4 riot leaders to defeat. To cut a long story short, I spent a long time trying to find him, dropped down to the utter bottom of that map, looked in loads of crevices etc. I got to the point where I was considering it bugged, sent you a PM in game (your inbox is full btw), and then started to really clear all with a sigh. I found the 4th boss very close to the start of the map, but on a much lower level. At lvl 5 I dont have any travel powers, so it was a bit of a trawl around. Some players might give up before I did. I know that outside maps have issues with spawn placement, but maybe theres an animation effect you could use to make the leaders stand out a bit more. The green glowing gas clouds are probably going too far, but that 4th one was a hellion maybe a boombox wouldnt be out of place, for example. I leveled whilst doing it, though 
]
As I was crackin a few last heads, that car pulled up again
the guy inside was none too polite, so I ignored him. I figured Id go check out the warehouse that the Officerd told me was involved
guess my curiosity aint as old as my feet, heh, I sure do seem to do a lot o running around this town
[The debriefing is well-written and typo free, but the tone annoyed me. Its definitely Midas or one of his henchmen in there, and hes ordering me around like a lackey. Luckily for him, Ragtime is intrigued by the warehouse lead]
Officer Hellis took me to Kings Row
back on my own turf, I liked that
and showed me where the warehouse was. The car had followed us there, but I ignored it when the rich idiot inside started tryin to tell me something. My daddy always said You give the Horn of Gabriel to a fool, hell only make it squawk, an thats what this guy sounded like to me
Mission 2: Search For Clues. Find Leader
Well, the place was full of Clocks, o course
This
is Kings Row, after all, heh
I didnt mind, I likes to play with the Clockwork
Its all practice, heh
while I was clearing out that warehouse, I found some interestin things
bits n pieces of info here and there, on whiteboards, in safes an suchlike
[Great mission, this. The clocks are perfect for Ragtime. The maps the Clockwork Kings warehouse one, and its nice running around clearing them out, hitting a few clues here and there. I take my time]
It looked like the various members of the different groups only really had one thing in common, they didnt like being beaten up by heroes, all the time. Theyd banded together for a while, and a Council leader called Archon Rogers had tried to get them to act as one
that didnt work too well
I rescued a man called Frank, who told me most of it
[Nice. I got 6 bars on that mission! ]
I figured this Archon had better be brought in. I dont like folks stirrin up trouble in my town, especially not that close to Kings Row. Frank told me that Archon was set up in an old research institute compound in Eastgate Bay, outside the City
he was planning to take his rebels out of the City on a ship
it was a little further than I usually like to travel, but heck, I thought that maybe the sea aird do me some good, anyway
[The contacts debriefing and his briefing for the next mission again, the writing is good enough, but the tone is too offhand/condescending for me and for Ragtime, so he ignores it]
Mission 3: Find Archon Rogers
[The entry popup explains why theres an Arachnos Flyer here, its quite neat]
Well, Im not sure about this place being too healthy
the air was refreshing, alright, but the compound was crawling with strange critters, like the Creature from the Black lagoon
They werent friendly. I guess I made sushi out of em, heh, yeah, looking for information. I found some Council too, and some Hellions
ex-Hellions, I guess. They werent happy either. Nothing else was outside, so I went inside looking for Rogers
There were more of those strange fish-things inside
kinda human-shaped, but with bits of coral growing out of them
One of them called out a name before I killed it
a little ways further in I found one of the renegades. He wasnt very cooperative until I took out his men and disarmed him, and then he wouldnt shut up, heh
before I took him to show me where Archon had gone, I got him to play me a transcript of a ship-to-shore from the ship that Archon was going to ship the rebels out on; it was short, but clear; the fish-men had swamped the ship and sunk it
nasty
[Another nice mission for hovering up the XP I leveled again.]
That fool in the car was kerb-crawlin outside
I left him to his jibber-jabber while I hauled the stooge off. He led me to The Hollows, to a safehouse there
[Please dont be offended by my apparent dismissal of the contacts briefings. Ragtimes running the show, mostly]
Mission 4: Find Archon Rogers
Again
When I got to this safehouse, I could hear screams an fighting sounds as soon as I got in. I jogged into the building with my swords out
I soon found something
an outcast and an ex-Council trying to get out
they were frightened of rock things, they said
Archon Rogers had been trying to use an escape tunnel but it collapsed
I reckoned Id better check out the tunnel
crims they may have been, but dyin under rock without seeing the sky aint no way for a man to go
Sure enough, a ways further in I found a huge hole in the floor leading to some caverns
an sure enough, there was rock creatures comin out of the ground! Some was made of rock, some was made from red-hot lava, looked like, steaming and acrid to smell. Made my eyes water, the sulphur coming off em
Took a lot more stabbing before they got the message too
Heh..them grey buggers were fast little runners, too, Ill give em that
hordes of em down there in those caves
Deep, I went
found a large chamber deep under, with a crowd of the things and one frightened Councilman
I cracked my knuckles for good luck and waded into the rock
It was a close one, but I got em all out of my way and questioned the Council. He wasnt Rogers
said the Council had sent him here to capture Rogers too
then some more of the things erupted outta the damn floor, and he escaped while I was busy with them
I kept looking for clues
[hmm
must have missed something
Nav still says Look for Clues
I thought Id checked everything out on my way in
]
After searching the half dug tunnel for an age, I headed back out to the light again, and on my way I took a wrong turning somewhere
which was lucky, cos I found a laptop left behind on a balcony
there was a message on it, Rogers had gone to Northcliff Peninsula for more troops
I was starting to dislike this guy for making me run all over the whole damn City after him!
[OK, I think I know what happened. Either I missed it the first time cos it was up on a high gantry (and first, I met the clue telling me to go check out the tunnel for Archon Rogers, so I didnt really explore this area much), or it didnt spawn till after I met the false Rogers. Either way, its a quite big map to backtrack on a toon with no travel power, so you might want to think about that.]
Find Archon Rogers
woah, déjà vu!
[I have to say, I dont like that mission title. its too flippant for the tone of the rest of the mission, IMO. Also, the debriefing and briefing for the next mission leaves me a bit cold Im sorry. The contact says hes going to take Rogers back to the Rogue Islands after I extract him. Thats not very heroic, to my mind. Its not particularly neutral, either, IMO, whatever Neutral means. Ragtime chooses to totally ignore the contact this time]
A friend of mine with a fishin boat gives me a ride out from Talos into the sea
to Northcliff Peninsula
he takes me at dusk, so we arrive at around 2 in the morning
a nights questioning of the local lowlife gets me a location at around dawn
its a cave under an old Fort on the cliff top
supposed to be haunted, parrently
well, we all got ghosts, dont we?
The cave was wet, dark, and scary
weird noises, strange smells, that sort of stuff
A little after Id entered, I was attacked by some of those coral things
and as I was fighting them, the ghosts came screaming out of the ground
it was madness
the coral things were easy enough to deal with, but ghosts? Lucky I had my swords blessed by a Hoodoo priestess back in 32. Even so, its hard going with all the screamin and wailing and ectoplasm going everywhere, heh
[phew
another big map, this
]
[really big lol]
I didnt see no more of the Coral things after that
tunnel after tunnel, cave after cave
ghosts
crying, screaming, the angry dead of centuries past trying to take out their rage on me
sad
I found an old chest, half rotted from the ages
when I opened it all was in there was a bunch of slimy stinkin material
maybe used to be silk
useless now
them ghosts went crazy trying to stop me talking it
as if I would
poor lost souls
[I guess it did say Large in the map description for this one lol.]
Finally
[lol in the very last offshoot cave. Typical ]
Finally I find Rogers
in a cave, surrounded by the hordes of hungry dead
leading them are 2 hideous looking specters
the leaders of the ghostly pirates, it seemed
I laid them to rest with their fellows
[I LOVE Captain Blackheart and First Mate Bolo, they were a lovely little surprise at the end of the mission
ah, except it wasnt the end lol
]
Archon Rogers was done in, almost
he didnt object when I told him he was coming with me
[Escort
lol Ive already cleared the map, so
]
I led him to the exit, an just as we arrived, a bunch of real Council burst in
thinking they was going to take him from me
heh, wrong
When theyre done thinking that, I let the last of em crawl away and lead Rogers out. My friend returned for me at dusk, as agreed, and once wewere back in Paragon, Rogers went to the Zig and I went home for my supper and a looong sleep.]
[That last bit, with the escort and then the ambush triggering with the arrival at the exit, was a bit anticlimactic. Heres a suggestion make the map smaller, and have Rogers rescue trigger a few (or a lot if you want) Council patrols in the map, plus an ambush to deliver the hold it, hes ours! dialogue. Then, the escort will be a running the gauntlet affair instead of a silent free run if the Players been clearing on the way in. Making the map smaller will avoid fatigue, doing it on that map would have tired me out I think. I was ready to finish it when I found Rogers.]
[End]
OK, overall, Top banana. I went from lvl 5 to lvl 8 during your arc, so that was cool.
Pluses: I liked the story, there were a nice selection of different mob groups to fight, and the map choice was fine. Captain Blackbeard was awesome, Id be happy to see him again.
Negative: I really didnt like the contact. His dialogue was well written and typo free, but to me it didnt gel with a hero. Ive been trying to work out what neutral means, recently, and Im not happy with it, tbh. My heroes dont want money for their actions, and villains dont want to either be told what to do or to do good. To readers who havent played this, the stuff about Ragtimes fisherman friend was invented by him; the arc has the contact, supplying a ferry etc, and he takes Rogers away to I guess Arachnos justice? In fact, bizarrely enough, I found myself having to invent proactive ways to get the information delivered to me by the contact quite a few times. This isnt a criticism of the arc, Im just pointing out that it didnt fit with Ragtimes motivation particularly. Its a strength of the arc that I was into it enough to help it keep me going.
Suggestions: Give the leaders easier-to spot animations in Mission 1
Possibly reduce the size of the last map byt half and have the Council patrols in it as I suggested earlier. Thatd be quite a change, though, so Im only tentatively suggesting it lol. Its your arc after all
Finally, I have to say that while the missions themselves felt heroic, the contacts briefings and debriefings felt more aimed at villains.
Its this disparity that knocks my rating down from 5 stars to the 4-stars I eventually gave. The contact aside, I had a ball doing this arc. Ive said before, if I find myself Clearing All when I dont have to, just because Im having so much fun, then youre definitely doing something right.
Eco.
Devian made his own Dev's Digest. Here is his post that links to it:
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