Casual_Player

Wait, we have an audience? Well crud, if I knew I was up in the lights, I'd perform better.

Civil and I pounded out most of Lars' arc Thursday after folks logged out. I managed to finish it today, so we can now run the Hess TF if we please. Yay, merits and nifty content!

I also spent the vast majority of said merits on a low-level Miracle +Rec, which means each merit was worth approx. 300,000 inf. That seemed like a good rate of exchange. I'm likely to just spend the rest on random rolls, but I'd be interested in hearing how other folks are spending theirs.

*soft-shuffle exits, stage right, muttering about taped interviews between the Prof and his therapist*

Hm, what else is available? Respec trial would grant XP, as would the Oroboros initiations. We could always turn XP off, but that kind of defeats the purpose. I stayed on last night after we were done and ended up turning XP off after I hit 28, and it's like perpetual exemp with less inf. Hess TF? I'm halfway to unlocking it.

My wife had to stay up late last night transferring files from her old laptop onto the new (old one went back to former work today). Since I had time, I ran through Old Toby's missions in Striga and got the werewolves. I now have Lars' storyarc and am on the way to getting access to the Hess TF. If I get time during the weekend, I'll turn XP off again and burn through Lars' missions, and we'll have Hess available for next Thursday.

Ugh, sleep. It was fun, but now my eyes are paying the price.

Who's gonna be here and who's not? I'm deciding which bulld to bring, the stamina one or not. (There. I've just given the dev who proposed/built dual builds the warm fuzzies. ) Hmm, electricky freaks, I may go with stamina anyway.

Two hours for Sis Psyche, huh? Yikes, I'll do my best to keep up. Can't remember the last time I ran this.

After we finished, I zipped around Croatoa and nabbed the TP beacon for the guild. Also bopped Sally on the nose once, just for good luck.

Looking at the numbers we generated on defeat badges last night, I'd say we'll have no problems getting everyone the Croatoa accolade. All we'll need to do is hunt up the monsters, run a Katie at the end of the arcs, and we're there.

I'm only about halfway home on vamps, however, so we might want to run back over to Striga and grab the Slayer badge for everyone once we've saved the fortuneteller. That and a quick tour of some history markers should give everyone the Atlas medallion as well.

Oy, speed. I'm on the slow system tonight. I'll do my best to keep up, but zoning's gonna take me a minute or two each time.

Now, THIS is some necroposting, baby!

Sounds good to me. See you all in game next Tues!

Just a quick note to say that I nabbed some Shivans today after dropping my Sunstorm mission, so we can uncork some radioactive whup-POW on the big clockworkies.

I also grabbed the temp stealth power while I was there. Everyone else may want to do a quick Bloody Bay patrol while they're still lvl 25 or less and grab the stealth power too. It's a nice backup in case Lotus' group invis wears off at an inopportune moment and it's not as if there's going to be anyone in BB to stop you.

I thought I'd toss out a warning about our forthcoming trip to Striga Island. IIRC, Stephanie Peebles, the first contact, is a little finicky about giving out her story arc. She's got a couple random missions she may saddle folks with first, and she's indicative of how the other Striga contacts act as well. I'm not sure how to handle that, other than blowing her off.

If everyone's hit 25 by the time we finish the Moonfire TF, we may want to simply skip Striga and head for Croatoa. Or snag the new Midnighter contact to tide us over to 25, and then move on? I dunno, but I figure we need alternative strategies.

Skipping Striga would be a shame, really. The contacts give out some really nice temp powers and the Hess TF they unlock is pure awesome in a can. But other than picking one person's missions and just running those, I don't know how we can reliably get through the whole series.

Lusca shouldn't be much of a problem if we can get some damage dealers, maybe another damage mitigator. With two tanks, force fields and a kin, we've got some of the basic building blocks for monster hunting right there. I'm not familiar with trick archery vs monsters, but I don't think Aluriel and I can pump out *quite* enough damage to take her down. The ideal monster hunter in my experience is a rad, so if we can pick up a rad and a couple of blastery/scrappery folks, we'll have sushi in no time.

Oh, and welcome to the maze, Spectre. Yellow is for lowbies, Green for the big stuff. Islands need ferries, except for Talos, which is the hub of all existence. Zoning blueside is its own minigame. Honestly, I've seen people set up races.

I just want to say how impressed I am with the library in our base. It was jaw-dropping the first time I saw it, and it's still awesome. I popped in today to drop a Sunstorm mission and had to linger in the library awhile because it's just so amazing.

Report from Judah Maccabee, aka the Hasidic Hammer

To: my new acquaintances, the Leviathan Guild
Re: Professor Emile Candelabra, possession of same

I regret to inform you that I can find no evidence of arcane possession in your Professor. I escorted him to MAGI, the Modern Arcane Guild of Investigation, where several of their mystics investigated his condition. They were unanimous in their analysis: there is no magic whatsoever to be found in your man. They were also unable to force any sort of transformation via magic.

Their telepath did, however, detect a fully-formed, secondary thought pattern. (I do not know if the word was in wide use in your day, but a telepath is a person who can read the thoughts of others) She noted that she could make little to no sense of these other thoughts; they were quite alien to her.

This could be evidence of a schizoid break, which is a form of insanity in which the sufferer displays multiple personalities. It may also result from some other form of injury to the mind. The examiners at MAGI could not say. They are adept at dealing with mental abilities, but not mental disorders stemming from mundane causes.

From your descriptions of the Professor's changing, it appears that some sort of mental break triggers it. Unconsciousness, dazing, or some other such mind-numbing affect seems likely to bring it about. The researchers at MAGI were unwilling to risk further damage by assaulting his mind, so you may be forced to rely on field testing to ascertain the truth.

The one bright spot I have to offer you is this: Azuria, one of MAGI's primary diviners, told me that you should speak with a woman that resides on Striga Isle known as Moonfire. She said that Moonfire could explain whatever ails your Professor, if you could gain her trust.

Personal Addendum
Both myself and the staff at MAGI are fascinated by your Guild and its appearance here in our time and city. While the details of the founding of MAGI remain a federal secret, it appears to me to be a direct successor to your own organization, established by the US government to fill the void of your departure. Some at MAGI agree with me, and they have arranged to extend to each of your members a line of credit while you reside in town. This should help you offset expenses and acclimatize yourselves more easily. If any of you need any help whatsoever, please contact me or any other of MAGI's agents. We look forward to reading your reports.

Sincerely,
Judah Maccabee

I'm up for Synapse as well. Don't know what I'm doing with my merits yet, but more is good.

We're not going to finish the Faultline arcs post-20? We haven't even met the third AV yet...

Oh well, more mission to drop along with Sunstorm's. Go, stealth merits!

Wheeee! 3 missions into Positron and we're already maxxing out. (...at least, I'm 15th level! ) Imagine a 'you are here' sign at part 4 of the mission list and you'll get a picture of how much we'll be outlevelling this sucker. Still, we'll be getting 55 merits and bunches of inf- always good to have in the teens.

Congrats to all on a successful night- and yay for me for not dying! I think that's partially because I was lagging out in the back of the group all the time, but I see light on the horizon. We're switching internet providers (if all goes well) this weekend and I'm hoping that cures most of my lag issues.

When we hit the higher levels, we'll reach a point where I haven't done any of the TFs either. Manticore is the highest level one I've ever done.

Hmmm... a dedicated Kin on the team means I can skip the Fitness pool, and grab all the kheldian powers except for the shapeshifts. Tempting, very tempting.

Also, I wanted to compliment Blood Spectre on his character. Beautifully understated costume, and her accent is perfect, making mine look triple-cheesy. (Zat's a Royale weez cheese, oui?) There are nice efforts on everyone's part, but I think Spectre wins the award for execution of concept.

Eesh, you go away for a day and the sky falls.

Ghost, I'm sorry things didn't work out, and about the misunderstandings. I wish you good luck in playing the game and finding other folks you're happy gaming with.

Put me down as pro-Posi. Yes, it's a pain in the patoot for a group this size, but we've got a lot of vets and we can handle it, breaking it into multiple sessions if need be. Also, there's almost no other lvl 10-15 heroside content that we can all simultaneously grab.

Afterwards, I think the midnight squad arc would be quite appropriate for this group, plus the Faultline story. Then Croatoa? I don't really have a sense of how fast we'll burn through arcs after lvl 25 or so.

Not to worry, Ghost- you're in good hands. These folks are good, consistent players and won't flake out on you. They've been very kind to me and my connection issues for the past few months, and I'm sure you'll find them just as accommodating. And this particular theme team has been in the planning stages for a long time now, so I doubt people are going to abandon it lightly.

In a less serious tone, it was a great start Tuesday! I've already started piling up IOs and inf here on Guardian in anticipation of busting into the teens tonight. If you see a bunch of lvl 15 acc IOs stored in base, those are mine. I'll be donating them to the group after we hit SO levels, but for now: hands off! Heck, if we follow the rate of level gain we had in the Refugee villain group, doubled because of playing twice a week, I may have to start nailing down my permanent IO sets. And that's hard to do when I'm not sure what powers I'll be grabbing...

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We'll meet at the sewer entrance near the Yellow Line in Atlas Park.

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I presume this is the door by the stairs, underneath the tram? Anyway, that's where I've parked the Prof. See you there in a couple of hours!

Oh, and woohoo! A controller! Kheldian status protection ftw!

Ah, 1887- before reform, post-Napoleon. Then- et Voila!

Professeur Emile Candelabra had been considered one of the leading lights of L'Academie d' Paris' faculty of sciences. He was, however, denied tenure and subsequently fired for endangering students after a death and a maiming resulted from a tragic ballooning accident. Shaken at the loss of innocent life, but adamant in the knowledge that great height was necessary for his Oscillating Aetheroscope to revolutionize the world of optics, Prof. Candelabra gathered up the remnants of his fortune and traveled east, vowing to launch his Aetheroscope from the highest of the Himalayas.

He vanished from western society for four years, and may have remained permanently lost but for the intervention of the Leviathan Guild. In the case afterwards known as the 'Yeti Incident', a remarkably transformed Prof. Candelabra was responsible for the rescue of the premier Leviathan field team from the upper slopes of Nanga Parbat. Demonstrating heretofore unheard-of abilities, Candelabra repelled attacking monstrosities and flew the team to safety, healing them with a light he described as 'ripped from zee 'eavens zemselves'.

For services rendered (and to keep a watchful eye upon him) Candelabra was invited to join the Guild, which he did. He glows softly, drifts in the air when distracted, and has been known to speak in tongues even more alien than French. Whether these voices are related to the monstrous forms he manifested in the Guild casefile 'Monsters Within', or are truly, as he claims, the voices of angels, has yet to be determined.

OK, I can't let that little blurb be Prof. Candelabra's only description here. However, my research into the academic world of Paris in the the 19th century reveals it to be... complicated.

What year exactly have we Leviathaners leapt forward from? And how long have we been assumed to be together before then?

This is probably not the positive feedback you were looking for, but oh well- you reaps what you sows.

The new PvP setup makes it much easier for my squishies to gather up Shivans and Nukes solo.

- Point one: they are now much tougher in relation to the NPC mobs roaming around.
- Point two: With the former PvP crowd relegated to the trashbin of history, there is no one in the zones to interfere with my acquisition.

As gaining the temp powers and/or badges associated with them was the only reason I ever went into a PvP zone, you have my thanks for making it easier for the casual soloist.

Late to the party (as usual) but add me to the list of people for whom the delayed XP gain is a deal-breaker. I thought level pacting would be good for my dynamic-duo toons (with my wife) but after testing with a new pair, you can color us unimpressed.

We won't be using this feature again as it is currently implemented.

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After using leveling pacts on a couple characters I've no interest in using them again, ever. We had 2 people pacted together in the same mission and the system still couldn't keep us in sync except on mission exit. It really annoyed me that I would only get ding buff at the time I could not use it.

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Well, yuck. If it's a choice between level pact and level insp buffs, I'll choose insp buffs any day.

/Emily Litella voice on: Never mind.