Paradigm_Shift

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I'll be making an arc that features Shimmer as a villain, and I have the first two missions laid out, but now I'm stuck.

First mission starts out like a lowbie Hellion mission, but then has the player attacked by robots (Guess who).

And the second one vaguely has Blind join them against some different 'bots, but I'd think 3 of my characters is far more than enough, not to mention 2.0 as the contact, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to work the last 3 missions.

I DO know I want to throw Shimmer in for a split-second. Like, at the very last mission, since the option is in that as soon as he sees you, he runs, but I want to know if you can make one character an Elite Boss/Archvillain and have him guarded by one Boss/Elite Boss level NPC.

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You can't, but if the map is small enough you can pretty much guestigauge how far away they'll be so they might as well be in the same mob. Another option is to spawn the guard as an ambush once you attack Shimmer, but the guard could appear anywhere.

Back before i13 you could use blaze ---> inferno = dead mastermind.

I'm not so sad those days are over, if only because my main is a mastermind.

Nowadays, it is actually better to go ahead and ATTACK THEIR PETS instead of the summoner. Since upgrading pets is no longer cheap, every minion you put down is one minion you can effectively ignore for the rest of the battle. Unless the mastermind can chomp blue bills faster than sound, after his initial setup is down all he'll have to throw at you is garbage.

Of course, killing the pets in the first place...There's the trick.

[u]Elsewhere[u]

26...

*GULP*

...25 wolves sat in a no longer perfect circle around something, staring.

"I tell ya, that hits the spot. Really. This place has some good eatin. Pity it's so painfully boring. Entertain me!"

The wolves just stared passively.

"Freh. At least I'll be able to get out later tonight. Some peoples need a talking to. Hysssahahahahahahaha... But what to do with you lot while I'm gone...?" The voice ceased and its owner mused for a moment. The wolves continued to stare, as if unaware the voice had spoken and were waiting for something to happen. "You're all too thin. You need to get some fat on those bones, otherwise you'll be nothing but crunchy. Scamper off and eat something, the lot of you."

The wolves got up and scattered in different directions, vanishing.

"Like, REALLY boring. You know what I mean?" Nobody answered. "Seriously, you said it would be fun. You said it would be FUN. Where's my freaking maximum fun time, Maugrim? The diet is nice, but all I've done so far is slept. Where's the attraction?" Again, nobody answered. "Maugrim? Maugrim? You there...? Oh. Wait. Silly me. Of course not. You're in a land faaaaaar faaaaar away, aren't you? Hysahahahahahaha... Now that I think about it, your digs are nice. Really nice. This place is freakin dull in comparison, what even with all this green fog. Nobody ever comes to visit, and the little scamps who live here are so brutally narrow in mind and concept. Why did you ever think I'd be interested in this place?" If Maugrim was listening, he wasn't answering. There was a ruffling noise, almost like padding as something moved.

"Hrrr. Maybe it's different beyond that moon-glitter wall..."

Updated.

This is a list of Mission Architect Arcs that have or will be recommended by members of the RP forum for other members to enjoy. There's no limitations or restrictions on what can be placed here. Is an arc you played really funny? Post it. Is it very deep and thoughtful conceptually, or is it implemented in a particularly creative way? Post it. Did you make it? Then post it here. I'll keep an eye on this thread and update the OP every time an Arc is added.

MA Arcs to Watch For

To Hell and Back

Welcome to Architect Entertainment

Meet the Air Guard

Better Sooner than Later

Small Fears

The Meatgrinder

Likely Enemies, Unlikely Allies

Coming Soon

One Smooth Operator

Ending the Eternal Engine

The All-Seeing Eye

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Theres a few who do, the problem being trying to reach an agreement on what is an acceptable amount .

good luck to you , but I think you'll find the amounts of ingame currency needed to get folks intrest will likely be substantial

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I tried this approach myself several months back. The initial amount quoted to me was 750 million inf.

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So very worth it. Or not. Depends on the art quality.

Portions of this post have been removed for violations of the Message Forum Rules and Guidelines -Mod08

The Egregore Device obediently disengaged his combat invisibility when the Tsaiv ordered him to stop sneaking around. There was no way he could have known about the security system the door employed, but his IR vision did allow him to see the security field that checked for SLIs. He didn't know that it checked for these specifically, but he was cautious nonetheless. For all he knew, it could scan for brainwaves. This field, whatever it did, was bad news. He didn't dare try to teleport through the field either, since blast doors tended to be shielded against that sort of thing.

However, it had already been established the floor was a bit more pliable. Egregore walked casually up to the field, sweating with the only two glands left in his body, and right before entering the field, teleported. Teleported straight down into the sewers, and then immediately straight back up, on the other side of the blast door. Hopefully, the Tsaiv would be too busy examining the armory shelves to notice the split-second "blink" that occurred to the Caldov cyborg following her.

"Everything is proceeding as well as could be expected." Egregore spoke as he followed her, hoping that wild mass guessing could get him out of the situation. "Despite the damage from yesterday, we are almost ahead of schedule. We still require a number of Cobalt crystal components, sixteen basic armored rail casings and two spools of ceramic tubing."

OOC:

I just wanted to avoid the tedious Point A -----> Point B transition. >.> Besides, he's cloaked and disguised as an enemy? Not a meeting that would end well.

BIC:

Egregore scowled at the entire layout in general. He was more used to a straight-to-the-point setup that the Eternal Engine preferred in its design, (albeit it was straight to the point in a roundabout way) and this place had too many unknown unknowns. For one thing it didn't even look like the elevator could be used, the big robot was probably brimming with sensors that saw through invisibility, which went for all the cyborgs as well. It looked like getting into a fight here would not be advised by the powers that be.

He briefly thought about trying to follow the cyborg through the blast door, but thought better of it. If it had the same "mud room" security style as the primal earth blast doors, he would be screwed until somebody tried to leave through his side again. That, and blast doors usually indicated security checkpoints, which Egregore was keen to avoid if possible. There was only Legion, but that was a one-time-trick-per-setting kinda thing, and he was saving it.

So it looked like he'd be sneaking past Cerberus and the proverbial guards of the underworld down the left corridor. The Egregore Device nonchalantly moved as close to the wall as possible and started walking down the hallway to where all the scientists were standing around. As he moved, he kept a close look-out for computer terminals.

The thug exited the den. "What bout it, boss?" An awaiting arsonist asked.

"We are going to go kill the Family." The enforcer said coolly, drawing one of his uzis and checking his belt's gear.

"Nice. How many?" A second enforcer asked, leaning against the wall of the establishment."

"I just said." The first enforcer said calmly. "We are going to kill the Family..."

***

[u]Somewhere in St. Martial[u]

An extremely bored thug enforcer sat, as if engrossed, in an extremely ornate and comfortable looking chair that was bigger than a giraffe, looking more like a throne than a chair. There was classical music playing in the background and a horde of people in formal wear talking and doing what they did best: Wasting space.

The thug's attempts to not fall asleep in the over sized chair when his cell phone rang. It was from the incursion group to Port Oaks. He flipped the cell open. "This is Con, talk to me."

"Apparently his hands are tied." The voice of the first thug enforcer answered him. "Do we have permission to kill Billi-"

"Absolutely not." Con, or the Conductor as it were, said suddenly. He had gone from slumped to alert instantly. "And you are not allowed to go and start a gang war with the Family either. Don't even try it. I do not want calls from people telling me you have set fire to Villa Montrose. And I swear if I get a whiff that you've been capping Family members, I will personally come down there and crucify you. Are we clear?" The Conductor asked menacing through his phone.

***

[u]Port Oakes[u]

"Crystal, sir. Alright. Uh-huh. Got it." The enforcer said, examining his fingernails as the Conductor shouted at him from the other end of the line. Finally, he hung up. The enforcer turned to the rest of his group, and said, "Alright people. Here's the rundown. The Hellions want power and territory from the Family. The Council is angry at the Family. The Lost are loading off drugs to the Family. The Hellions will take down Billie Heck. The Council will mow them down in Oil Spill and Marconeville, and remove of Angelo Vendetti. The Lost will eradicate them in Dockside. If you get what I'm saying, get moving........."

The enforcer and his entourage all split and started walking in different directions.

"Ah, you must be Gorge than. Nice to meet'cha." The enforcer said, giving him a mock salute. "I'm here representing Erik Raoul. You may or may not 'ave heard of him. Doesn't matter either way. But he's real interested-like in this little venture you've got set up, see? And he approves of what you're tryin' to do. He thinks this place is gonna be the next big hit in the isles. So he wants to toss in his lot with ya' before a line starts formin', see?"

He suddenly leaned in closer, and lowered his voice.

"So what I'm tryin' to say here, nice n' subtle-like, I would prefer it if we could go over this somewhere else, preferably a tad more quiet-like."

Right as Jameson exited the bathroom, a thug enforcer with black hair and a ponytail, a gray coat, red shirt and government-style glasses suddenly entered the building and waltzed like he owned the place right up to bar. He leaned on it, attempting to catch Morgan's attention with a snap of his fingers, as if directly addressing her was below him. A strange scent wafted from the thug, as though he was sweating a sweet perfume. He was wearing a strange emblem around his neck, appearing to be made of ruby with a delicate carving of a screaming skull etched into it.

"Hey there sweet thing. I need to talk to the manager. And as long as I'm here, hit me with a pint of Moonbeam Absinthe if you've got it."

Ok, lessee here...No pictures until my normal computer gets back...

Red Death lives in a St. Martial penthouse, exact location undisclosed. He's a crime/drug lord...Which roughly translates into living a carefree luxurious life with no troubles whatsoever with the exception of occasionally intimidating his subordinates.

The Plated Knuckle lives with the rest of his group in the war memorial of Moth Cemetery in Dark Astoria. He spends most of his days beating up Shaman, laying rest to restless spirits, kicking the crap out of Adamastor, and keeping the Circle of Thorns in check.

Ediphel is also in the same group as Plated Knuckle, although he does not participate in he same activities. Spends most of his time studying the local foci points in Moth Cemetery, and actually consults the Tsoo, Circle, and Banished Pantheon in order to grow more powerful. Not exactly a team player.

Animus Revenant is another member of the same group as Ediphel and the Plated Knuckle. He never rests, and is always out and about, attacking anybody who commits any crime, however slight. Otherwise, he'll leave known criminals alone.

Egregore Device doesn't really live anywhere, but he was made in the Eternal Engine. He has a safe house in Boomtown, but doesn't use it very often. Wanders around often, and is a freelance mercenary.

Millions Green was a normal person born in pre-Dark Astoria. He hasn't been there in over 50 years, but still considers it home. Nobody has told him it's darkened yet.

Wiles Blue lives nowhere and does nothing but eat.

Masquerade is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away from his place of origin. He spends his time being evil. That's what he does. (Evil) 'Cause he's evil.

Baleful Turquoise doesn't live anywhere, but he hangs around Nerva Archipelago and St. Martial fairly often. Running into him in either place isn't unlikely.

Tienxia has two known residences: The deepest most secluded spot in Bettis Hills, Perez Park, and in the waterfall cave of Nerva Archipelago. Spends his time: Very unsavory character.

OOC:

Seriously, Cham. If you make any more characters that erupt into megaton explosions upon death, I will start equipping all my characters with surge suppressors.

BIC:

Egregore took a look about the warehouse, avoiding detection and checking out the various "wares." It did not take him long to figure out that this place did not have what he needed.

No big deal.

"Legion, I'm in and we are not ago. You know what to do." He said over his secure comm channel. A few moments later, in the warehouse's main office, an outlet sparked slightly.

It sparked red.

What happened next would have required a quantum microscope to observe. The spark split into an uncountable multitude of fragments which further split into their own individual multitudes, this process repeating several dozen times. All the while, each individual fragment wormed their way towards the nearest computer.

Very soon, Egregore received a stream of information, copied from the computer and transmitted to him. It was a list of all other warehouses in the city, and all of their listed manifests. From there on, it was simple to determine that various warehouses constantly shipped a rather large amount of military hardware directly to a certain research institution in the Staetlov district.

Porting back into the sewers, Egregore made a speedy and uneventful trip directly underneath the institution. He was not at all worried about being detected. The building may or may not have been equipped with equipment able to detect incoming or outgoing teleports, and they may have even had the proper gear to set up an anti-teleportation field like Teivos' troops had done earlier, preventing the Egregore Device from escaping to the sewers. All to be expected, since this place was going to be loaded with high-end tech. All these and various other concerns occurred to and were put to rest almost instantly by the cyborg mercenary.

He teleported straight up.

OOC:

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or if practical

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Now now, I myself have read that list and dedicated my memory to it, but by far Yinglong is FAR and nowhere near practical to capture at this point.

Then again, Teivos has very high standards regarding practicality I suppose. Continue. Will post later.

Unfortunately, unless Alex had telepathy herself, merely projecting her thoughts at Erik would not be sufficient for him to detect them unless he himself had already established a mental connection - Which he had not. Erik's powerful empathy still got a tug from the directed plea, and Erik did visibly pause for a brief moment...But unfortunately he tended to get plenty of such tugs every few hours from particularly emotional outbursts nearby, and had probably mistaken this for just that. He continued on his way.

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Oh and Dogma, I think it's safe to say 10 minutes have passed by now, so if you'd like to move Egregore again, I think it's reasonable to do so. ))

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OOC:

What he's doing in there would require a bit more than ten minutes, but what the hell.

BIC:

Egregore was working on new weaponry. Very simply, he had no stashes in this dimension that he could swap out with his current temporary power modules. So as long as he was going to be stuck with one certain set while he was here, he was going to make sure that set was POTENT. And that required making up an entirely new set from scratch, and for what he had in mind the materials in the warehouse would not be enough to cobble it all together.

He was in the sewers currently, cloaked just in case, and heading for this dimension's version of the King Garment Works. Very simply, one or more of those warehouses had to contain more military hardware he could use. So he was going to break into all of them and filch what he needed. A risky proposition, but Egregore had been remarkably pleased with how well his teleport-escape into the sewers trick had worked. He had his cloak, he had his SZVB cyborg disguise, he had his sap-stick and tear gas, and if everything went right to hell, he had teleporting into the sewers.

Egregore stopped at the junction right below the southernmost warehouse of the sector and teleported straight up, his module taking care to redirect his teleport in the event solid matter was present where he would be appearing. Schematics of the primal-earth version of the warehouse revealed he would be porting into a corner in the warehouse's main storage area. All that remained to be seen was whether the construction of this warehouse differed significantly from the one in primal Earth, and whether or not anybody would be in the same room when the Egregore Device appeared...

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A stray thought crossed her mind: What about the kid? ...THE KID!

"Millions!" she outbursted in her shock. "We left him on the corner!" She got up and quickly made her way to the door, apparently not as exhausted as she thought.

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Far too late.

As Lore rushed outside, barely a few meters in front of the entrance was the signs of a fight and/or struggle. The remains of one exploded agent were scattered about the vicinity, many pieces of pavement appeared to have been ripped apart by something or other, and there was roughly around two gallons of blood splattered about EVERYWHERE. A very suspiciously specific trail of it seemed to indicate somebody, bleeding heavily, had been dragged out to the street where the trail suddenly stopped at the edge of the pavement with no visible explanation as to why. Scraps of a torn suit were littered about the street at this point.

OOC:

You still there, GrayHuntress?

Erik merely nodded again in response to Nyte's answer. "Indeed." He said coolly. "By the way, do you remember Blake from earlier? Tell him if you see him that I left him a message, if you would be so kind. Good day." And with that, Erik walked off without another word, his umbrella hanging over him like some kind of monster.

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Anything made out of materials not found in nature is degrading back to its constituent components. Alloyed metals are melting and seperating, artificial fabrics are dissolving, concrete is turning into gravel and muck. That's how I understood it working. Archlich's mere presence emits a form of stabilizing influence, so PC equipment will degrade much slower near to him.

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OOC:

Packing Penuts (Styrofoam) does not dissolve, and it is entirely artificial. In fact, styrofoam is considered a LITERAL application of the term "waste of space," since after being made it is either impossible *I think anyway* or at least incredibly hard to covert it back into anything else.

..........You filthy liar.

Yeah, I said all that just for the last line. That was horrible. Sorry.

Erik finished the folow-up report for both incidents and decided to call up Blake. Now that he knew what exactly was being used, they would be very interested in knowing that the method was attracted to metas. Not only that, but if past patterns were anything to hold by, it meant that Blake would be getting "the visit" any time now.

'So if I can get ahold of him, the meeting can occur on my terms. We will be able to expose the true threat before it decides to stop lazing around.' Erik thought, opening the door to his room and out into the hallway. He gathered the appropriate thoughts and wrapped them into a mental package before sending them off, and the package drifted out into the apartment until it reached Blake's room, where it settled and waited. When Blake got home, it would automatically relay Erik's thoughts to him, a bit like a mental message machine. he message being relayed in this case was,

'Blake, this is Erik. I need to talk to you about your "encounter" back at the Pizza Port. If you can, please meet me at the back of Freedom Court an hour after receiving this message. I will be there.'

Erik, in the meantime, went back into his room, retrieved his umbrella, and headed back to the streets.

***

"Hello again, Nyte." Erik said to the fellow empath as he exited the building, nodding very slightly to her. "You seem tired. Trouble from earlier?" Erik was completely ignoring Crestfallen, or at least appeared to be

[u]Elsewhere[u]

A distinct yawning noise filled the air, shortly followed by the shifting of viscous matter such as tar. 28 giant wolves directed their attention away from chewing, sleeping and eating and towards the source of noise and movement. A voice spoke, and though it was in a familiar tongue, it had a heavy accent of black speech.

"So the sun has set and the moon has risen thirty times. Joy. And let's see...Yes. YES. I HAVE GAINED WEIGHT! This new diet is FANTASTIC! Hysssahahahahaha..." The voice uttered a dry and rasping laugh filled with mad and mocking tones. By now, all the wolves had suddenly dropped what they were doing and assembled in a perfect circle around the originator of the voice, lying down with ears perked and eyes focused, as if listening intently.

"So lessee what I have left in the proverbial pantry, eh? I count 27 of you mangy things. Ok, good, now onto...Wait a tick..." The voice paused for a brief moment, mentally recounting the wolves assembled around it. "Yes. There are 27 of you. Huh. Something tells me that I'm missing something here. Gimme a second." The wolves continued to stare, and did so for approximately a minute before the voice spoke again. "AH! THAT'S IT! There are supposed to be 30 of you! There we go! I was actually worried for a moment the...Wait a tick." There was another very long pause, the voice's owner apparently thinking things over thoroughly. And when it spoke, what very little that was not wrong with its voice had added themselves to the ghastly symphony of speech. Somebody was angry. "Where are the last 3...?"

There was another long pause.

”Ah well.” The voice said, rescinding from the even more threatening tone it had taken on just a moment before. ”All that means is that now there will only by 26 of you. Hysssahahahahaha…”

***

[u]The Apartment[u]

Erik got off the phone and went back to his laptop computer to resume writing the follow-up report Vanessa had neglected, as well as a new one regarding his recent encounter. He had just sent some people to locate and clean up the scene where Agent Smith had killed the second wolf, and to figure out just what had happened there. He nonchalantly felt around the apartment one last time before getting to work, and he immediately noticed Nyte at the double doors of the apartment.

’Odd. Why is she just standing there? There isn’t anyone else there…’ He focused his attention and searched the area around her thoroughly, but she was alone. ’Hmm. Her anxiety and exasperation are a skootch higher than normal.’ Erik thought for a moment, and then dismissed it and went to work. He could have read her mind, but that would have been rude and intrusive, not to mention risky if she had mental defenses in place, and would probably have not been too important regarding the current situation.
Now, just because Erik couldn’t see anything with his empathy in the alley meant nothing…Aside from that if something was there, it was very stealthy indeed, and in more ways than one…

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"I know what you're thinking...did I fire 5 bolts or all 6?"

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You, sir, have won the internet.

Erik had not stopped to answer Alex's question as he left, but she heard his voice in her head.

'None of those. These creatures are nothing more than unfortunate victims.' Erik's calm and windy voice echoed. He did not elaborate further on this statement. 'Be careful. As I said before, Galaxy City is getting more dangerous every day.'

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"So, anybody know the what and why of that thing?"

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Yeah, who do you think it is this time? Crey, maybe?"

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"I would not know." Erik lied. Crestfallen, if he was using his telepathy presently, would discover he could not read or otherwise perceive Erik's mind or thoughts. Presumably they were carefully shielded. "We cannot stop yet. I sensed something very much like this wolf expressing urges of hunger and violence in this district earlier. This was not it. There is still another one of these, maybe more, prowling around in this district..." He paused, and visibly tilted his head to gaze out the nearest window.

As he felt about the atmosphere of the city, Agent Smith shotgunned the second wolf.

".....Hmm. Disregard that. It has vanished." Erik remarked off-handedly. "In any case, there is not much more we can do here. Good day."

And then the albino walked out of the Port, umbrella returning to its proper position, seeming to loom over him like some kind of monster as he walked down the street back towards the apartment.