A Taste For Evil, by @FredrikSvanberg, Arc ID 349034. lvl 10-20, Villainous, very Long (3 uniques, 1 tiny, 1 medium map)
[Briefing says that I'll be testing out the new flavor of NutriPaste, and has the air of the West End Games PnP RPG Paranoia about it. I like.
VEI 8 is my lvl 12 Earth/Earth Dominator.
Now, last time we saw him, he was probably looking for a place to hide from the wrath of lord Recluse. Considering that Lord Recluse has probably got a lot more important things to worry about than a lvl 10-ish villain on Mercy, I'm prepared to bet that Kalinda just told him that Recluse was miffed at him to get rid of him.
So where does a villain go, when he's on Mercy and feeling pursued?]
Goodbye, Mercy! AHAHAHA!!! If I never clap my crazed bloodshot eyes upon your feculent, stinking alleys of bawd and degredation again, I'll be a happy mad scientist! I'm leaving, and good riddance! I'm off to Port Oakes!
Ah, Port Oakes...the very name conjures images of afternoons spent idly working on megalomaniac plans for crossbreeding foxes with asteroids such an army would be cunning AND unstoppable! - over a cup of Mrs Miggins' famous tea and a radium bunne in the shady refuge of a wharf-side teashoppe, whilst a lazy Autumn sea-breeze brings scents of spices and rare unguents from the rustic galleys lining the shore, their jovial fat 'n' thin comedy duo sailors jostling each other and singing shanties and, er, suchlike. I could feel right at home in such a salty sail-creaking 'hoist the yardarm and damn the torpedoes!' fishing hamlet!
BY THE NON-EUCLIDEAN GODS OF GEOMETRY GONE WRONG!!! What is this stinking hole of industry and pollution? I can't be expected to merge the carcass of a flamingo with the crotch of an ape in this bustling warren of oily cargo yards and slag heaps!
Bah! Patently, I need to aim higher. The parrafin-sniffing trollops and neanderthal morons in this hole won't appreciate the oozings of genius that a mind such as I produce anyway! Cap Au Diable is surely the place for an academic of distinction like myself! Onward!
Ah yes, this is more like it. Up there, high on the plateau, there I spy the Citadel of Arachnos! What a grand edifice...Aha! This must be Grandville! AHAHAHA MWAHAHAHAHA!!! WOOOHAAAHAAAHAAA! AAARGH!!! GRRFGFHFGH! I'm so close, SO CLOSE NOW, yes! RECLUSE, I'm coming for you!!!...er..cough.
Right, I shall make my way up to yonder location and find an in.
[Yes alright, I know, any AE building will do. Sorry, but VEI 8's running the show. I make my way to Brass, atop the plateau in Cap]
And now to demand an audience with Recluse. I'll soon be in charge of Arachnos' clone vats, you'll see! Hm...nobody at reception...and this buffoon's no help. Maybe I'll try outside, I think I spotted a suitably military-looking dolt loitering...
[The contact is Marshall Brass]
You! Yes, you, you armored invertebrate! I demand to speak with Recluse at once!...What's that? ...who do I think I am? ...hmm...er, actually, now that I think about it, and especially considering my options and also that rather large gun you're carrying at me, I...think...I'm...an undercover Arachnos operative...? Yes? Yes, ..uh...sir! Yes, Sir, well spotted, the 'A' on my hazmat smock stands for 'Arachnos'! Now, er, what would I have to do to get nearer to Lord Recluse, do you think?
[lol Brass' delivery is aimed at a VEAT; as are all of Fredrik's quartet of VEAT arcs (the rest of which VEI 8 will be getting onto at some stage, no doubt). The mission is to report to Dr Aeon I've been assigned to Aeon Corp's Science Department for field testing of NutriPaste, the foodstuff that's widely used throughout the Rogue Isles as a staple diet for the citizens.]
Hmm...Aeon Corp. eh? Heheheh...yes, that will do nicely. That cretinous tinkerer Aeon has the good ear of Recluse now, but I'll soon change that! Right! To Aeon Corporation!
Mission 1: Report to Dr Aeon
What's this? My semi-patented Nasal Olfactory Sensory Extractor has detected the faint whiff of smoke. Hm, there must be a fire aboot the hoose somewhere near my N.O.S.E. Is never wrong when it comes to smells. Perhaps that fire over there in plain sight is responsible.
[the office map is burning. Something is definitely up.]
I'd better get to Dr Aeon and murder him forthwith, take over his entire operation, win Recluses trust and then betray him to his enemies and lord it over all and sundry for evermore.
[Around the first corner is Dr Aeon, threatened by a group of Snakes]
Snakes! Curses, these slimy reptiliodalistic monstrosities should all be STRANGLED at birth! They hound me, THEY HOUND ME!!! Bah, die, you perfidious serpents, die in agony!!!
[I make shortish work of them although VEI 8 is feeling the lack of Stamina now and Dr Aeon joins me as a non-combat ally.. He explains that there's been a little bit of a hiccup, and I'm to clear the way to the Nutripaste samples]
Come, come, you prantic abecedarian! Stay behind me, until I'm sure it's safe to arrange your swift demise-pardon? No no, it's the noise in here, it's playing tricks on your ears...
[We proceed through the building, fighting snakes. It's all good fun. Eventually we find a large room, with more than snakes present...]
What? By the soiled oxygen mask of Madame Curie! Eggs! Giant Eggs! Giant eggs guarded by snakes!
WHAT MANNER OF CHICKEN LAID THESE GARGANTUAN OVOIDS??? Why, with an army of poultry the size of the birds that spat out these massive cackleberries, I could rule the roost, quite literally, aha..ahaha...AHAHAHAAA!!!
Hm, maybe these are ready to hatch if so, and I'm the first face the young within see, they'll imprint on me and I'll have a ready made army of giant capons! I'll be UNSTOPPABLE!!! AAIIIEEEE!!! HAHAHA GRANDAD, WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, EH?!!!!
I'll do away with the snake guards and then...let the hatching commence!
[I dispatch the guards]
Right, that's the guards dealt with. Now, to watch my army of feathery fiends emerge from their yolky prisons, squawking like the hens of the apocalypse, to feed upon the hearts of men, MWAHAHA!!!
...hatching any second...
...Hm..maybe I need to expedite the process by warming the eggs a little...incubation is the key.
..and a little more...
Ghah! Phthooey!...what's this? Where's my freakishly large avian progeny? There's nothing in this egg but a disgusting conglomeration of slimy matter and half-formed gunge! Aeon, you doltish gadgeteer, what sort of Mad Science do you call this? Pah.
...perhaps there'll be a gargantochicken in this next egg...Blech!
...I'd better check the other one just in case.
...Sptooey! Yuck! Nothing! What a disaster! Well, I suppose I'd better get the Nutripaste samples now that I've dealt with the snake problem!
[The nearby fridge contains samples of Nutripaste. It tastes like...]
...CHICKEN! Aeon, you swine, are you taking the proverbial???!!!
[exit]
Right, Brass, I've tasted Aeon's foul patė, and it tasted like chicken. Not a great fan of chicken flavor, myself, I prefer cheesy peas. Still, needs must when Insanity Gone Mad drives, as they say in the Bedlam Academy and Secure Institution for Lunatic Geniuses! What's that? Another job, you say? Why should I kowtow to you, you tinpot tyrant?
...because the alternative is Mandatory Voluntary Freefall Impact Testing, you say? I see... So, as I was saying, what's this task you'd have me perform? Fetch some research notes, is it? Very well. Sir.
[Brass' next task is to fetch the research notes that were made on the last test of Nutripaste, using prisoners and students as test subjects lol]
Mission 2: Secure the Test Results
Right, this shouldn't be too difficult-what's this? Vahzilok? Here? Now? By the hairy sac of Alexander Graham Bell, is there no end to these insufferable inconveniences? I only came to pick up a manilla envelope! I suppose I'd best go on a murderous rampage of molten carnage, leaving none unfried, not even the younglings! Sigh, here we go...
[I indeed go on a little rampage, and thumbs up again for the carnage 
- In the first large room I find a filing cabinet. Awesome. That was quick!]
Aha, lovely, I'll be able to get back to that protozoa Brass in double-quick time-WHAT? It's not here! Someone else has beaten me to it! Grah, that's just typical! It was the same with Calculus! MONTHS, I sweated over that hideous mish-mash of numbers and symbols, mangling my brain cells to the nubbin, only to discover that Newton had invented the very same thing in the late 1600s!
...Pfff, I'd better check around a bit more...
Well, would you look at that! I've a mind to report that to the Rogue Island Department of Interior Carpeting, Understructure, Levelling Of Underpinning Services & Mezzanines, Exits & eNtrances! I'd wager that the R.I.D.I.C.U.L.O.U.S.M.E.N would soon put a stop to it!
...Holes in the ground! Once more, I'm forced to crawl about the subterranean guts of this crepulant archipelago! Bah!
[I venture down into the depths, wondering what sticky-palmed entity I'll find...the hole leads to the sewers]
I see, it's a cunning route to the sewers! Now it all makes sense! The sewers...the Vahzilok...the trampoline...wait, there was no trampoline. The sewers, the Vahzilok, the lack of a trampoline...oh yes, I see it all with utmost clarity now...
[After a middling amount of Vahz-burnin', I find the endroom, and a female hostage in trouble. Typically, VEI 8 gets the wrong end of the stick]
Whats this? A human female? Down here? Consorting with Vahzilok? There's no accounting for taste, is there? Still, if she likes the company of half-rotting sewn-together semi-animated collections of spare corpse parts, then good luck to her I'm a liberal when it comes to relationships. Madame, may I offer you and your putrid cohorts my-ach! They're attacking? Wait, I'm no suitor! Ah, it's no use, they're not listening! Broil in red-hot lava, you pustulent cadaverous mummies!
[There's an Eidolon scanning through the notes, commenting on the fact that Nutripaste seems to grant mutagenic superpowers to the test subjects. As I approach, the Ediolon comments on my specific AT a v nice touch]
HAHA, you fetishistic floozy! Bring on your worst! Dark powers from the utmost depths of Gehenna, is it? YUM YUM!!! The dreadful miasmic tendrils of doom emanating from the bowels of Hell itself are like mother's milk to one such as I! I, I who have arm-wrestled Abaddon himself into submission whilst wearing the apparel of a lion-tamer, ha, I LAUGH AT YOUR FEEBLE HEX!!!
[After a rather cool fight (She conned orange), she goes down and the records are mine. The Eidolon apparently planned to follow up on the test subjects when they started to display superpowers.]
Hmmm...so Nutripaste grants superpowers to those who ingest its meaty batter, does it? Mwahaha, excellent, EXCELLENT! I myself have supped of its hearty dough! I wonder what manner of otherworldy talents shall soon be mine? The Power to Cloud Men's Minds, perhaps, or the Gift of the Gab I've always wanted to know exactly what that was all about! Or maybe it will transform me into a giant invisible super ghost with lazer-breath and elbow-spines! Wait! I think I can feel something, some ungodly transmogrification is upon me! HAHAHA, world, shudder, quake, tremble, for VEI 8 IS BECOME A GOD!!!!!
...a GODDDD!!!
...any second...
Well I'm sure I'll feel the effects soon, at anyrate.
[Exit]
Here you are, Brass, the report you wanted. Go on, take your time. It's the Large Print version. Yes, that's it...Sigh...Look, while you're reading that - would you like me to hold your gun for you while you follow your finger? - while you're reading it, maybe you've got another job for me? Eh? Guarding the Nutripaste? Sounds easy enough!
Mission 3: Guard the Nutripaste
Right, while that harebrained nincompoop Brass is frowning his way through that report probably reading aloud to himself I can case this warehouse and steal some of the Nutripaste for my own fiendish ends. After I've availed myself of around, ooh, a hundred cases should do the trick I simply have to kidnap a few dozen homeless tramps, force-feed them the Nutripaste for a few weeks, and with the resulting army of superhuman hobos, I SHALL RULE THE WO -oh? Fire? Gads, some villain has set about the place! That bonehead Brass will probably blame me! I'd best deal with it!
[It's an Arachnos map rather than a warehouse one]
Luddites! Here? Now? Have they found me at last? By the mentoid dribblings of Hooke, is there to be no hiding place for me? All I wanted to do was give the world a toaster that could also make the perfect gazpacho soup! And for this, they hound unto the very edge of the universe! AAIIIEEE!!!
Well VEI 8 shall run no more! Come, inbred medieval oafish peons! Feel the burn!
[These Luddites are quite a challenge, for some reason. I meet a red Boss not far in with some minions, and whilst I'm fighting him an unfortunate patrol arrives too. I don't die, but I do have to leave the warehouse and re-enter a few times before they're all down.It does take me a bit too long, I must say. I need some sort of tactic or enhancement to lessen the downtime negative. I realise that I've got half a bottle of wine left over from dinner last night; Suits you, Sir!]
Grah! Fight! Ach! Run away! I'll be back, you flat-browed Farmhand, you!
What's this? These Troglodytic brutes have captured the warehouse overseer, it looks like! The backward guarding the simpleton, patently. Sigh. I'd best aid the Arachnoidal idiot, lest Brass decides to make something of it!
[After a vicious battle, I rescue the hostage, and he runs off immediately (His identity is a nice funny touch). As he runs off so quick, I have to read his dialogue in the chat bar. I find it's useful to have rescued hostages perform some sort of animation when they're rescued before they run to exit this enables the speech bubble with their rescue dialogue to be displayed motionless for a second or two, letting the player read it as opposed to having to look in the chat window. The Raid Leader (orange Boss) revealed that all over town, the Luddites are rising up and destroying the Nutripaste stores and production lines. Uh-oh]
What? The blasted Luddites my personal arch-nemeses, I've just decided are destroying the Nutripaste stocks? They must be stopped! I need that vile mulch for my malevolent plan to rule the universe!
[Exit]
Brass, I'm afraid your man Jenkins let the Luddites into the warehouse I thought he looked a bit shifty, to be perfectly honest. If I were you I'd mobilize the entire Arachnos army to hunt him down with shoot to kill orders-eh, what's that? HE SAID WHAT? My fault? Bu-I-It's-right. Yes, I'll deal with it!
Mission 4: Havoc at the Aeon Hydroponics
[So Brass wants me to go prevent a ruckus at an Aeon Hydroponics lab. I'm to interrogate the raid leader]
Right, let's get to work cleaning up this mess! I need that Nutripaste ! Hm, what's this? 3 Bodies? And a Luddite! Ha, there'll soon be 4 bodies!
Hm, so the Luddites aren't taking any prisoners, I see. Good strategy, and a useful side effect is you have plenty of cadavers for whatever erudite machinations you might be working on at the moment. You can never have too many cadavers, is my motto! Onward!
[I encounter some Luddites attempting to smash up some equipment. There's a largish group of them, but I have a go lol]
GRAH! Flike being incinerated, do you, you witless cretinoids! Come on, you want some more? Do you? I've got plenty more where that came from! Oof, ah, so do you, I see. Retreat!. Into the elevator!
...That's better, now to rest and-Erk! They followed me! Back into the elevator! Upstairs once again!
Oops, there's more here! Downstairs!
...Upstairs!
..Gah! This is ridiculous!
[lol I'm sure I'm not the first player to perform the Elevator Dance. In and out, up and down, letting off a single attack and then back in, them following, me retreating etc. it's very silly and good fun since I win rofl]
Right, that's taught you! Shame I wasn't able to stop them smashing this thing up...what its it? Hm...seems to be some sort of clone vat! Surely...it can't be...that...Nutripaste is people?
[]
I'd better get a move on, before any more useful scientific equipment is destroyed by these ignorant yokels!
[I fight on through the base. The Luddite faction isn't often used, so it's very nice to see them tbh, but my word, they're quite hard, aren't they? I don't know if maybe it's my level or AT (I'm no expert at the number-crunching), but I find that whites are ok, yellows are a little more difficult, oranges require run n rest tactics, and reds are a bit of a slog. To add to this, I seem to be encountering choke-points where there are 6 or more of them all gathered in one place, so it's great for screenshots but a bit of a deathtrap at times. Nothing impossible, thankfully, and the XP is excellent]
Aha! Here's some Nutripaste samples...Hm...I think I'll just eat some more while I'm here hurry the mutagenic process on a tad. ...Mmm, minty!
[I find a few crates with Nutripaste samples in them. One tastes of mint, the other tastes of chocolate, but comes with a surprise...]
Eh? Thwptw! What's this, rolled up inside the Nutripaste? A golden ticket! To a free tour of the Gold Brick candy factory? Hm...interesting...
[In the last room, I find the Raid Leader, who's found a soapbox from somewhere. I think Luddite Leaders probably carry them around tbh, in case they feel the need to have a little rant. I wait politely till he's finished his diatribe against technology, and then I throw a big rock at his head]
Haha, come on, idiot! Technology-haters like you make me sick! You rant about the evils of science, but do you know where your shoes come from? Shoes were invented by Professor Shoey McShoe of Shoeville, Shoe County, in 1803, as a side effect of his successful experiment to mutate a barn into a kind of underwater pterodactyl! Where would your feet be now, you plum, if it wasn't for science? Charring themselves into ash on the molten embers of my lavarous attacks, you anencephalic imbecile!
[And with that and a bit of a fight, the Leader and his men are downed. The leader reveals that an attack on the Nutripaste factory is imminent. Exit]
Brass? Hello? Brass? Yes, look, the Luddites are on their way to the Nutripaste factory! There's no time to lose! I'd better get over there right away and, er, protect the valuable Arachnos property to ensure it's still available for mgmghwmmf...sorry, what? No, that's, er, toothpaste. Yes, it's toothpaste. No, of course it's not Nutripaste! That would mean I'd stolen some from the base I just liberated! Me, steal? What am I, a criminal?
...Well, alright, you have a point. But, er...the factory! No time to waste, remember! Must dash!
Mission 5:Protect the Nutripaste Factory
OK, VEI 8, you need a plan for this...let's see...hmm...a plan...yes...
Got it! I'll SLAUGHTER THE LOT OF THEM!!!
[lol, you know earlier I mentioned that I was no expert at the number-crunching? Well I dinged at the very end of the last mission, and whilst I was slotting, I realised that I was slotted with lvl 10 TOs instead of lvl 15 generic IOs, which I can take at my level. I've got a few million inf, so money isn't the problem. Doh. I sorted that out, and as if by magic, the Luddites aren't nearly as difficult now as they were 
]
Yes, yes, that's more like it, the Nutroipaste must be working, I can feel the magmaic energy bubbling out of my very pores! I'M ON FIRE!!!
[I start to clear the Luddites from the outdoor factory map good choice for this mission. I think I'll clear all, I really like this powerset combo]
Ah, over there! Some explosives! Now then, if I can just figure out how to disarm them before that plebian spots me...Agh! Too late! Die, you ruffian!
[I find some explosives and a guard, and deal with him]
Bah, these explosives will take too long to disarm individually! However, using my incredible brain in combination with my powers, I can engineer a faster resutl! I can use my geothermal quantum flux to veeeerrry slowly heat up the explosives, not sop hot as to cause ignition, but just enough to dissipate the molecular bonds holding their detonation caps together, rather in the manner that one is able to make Reverse Baked Alaska!
...gently now, gently...a little more...
Wha-Oof! Ah, well...that was close. Still, id did the trick I guess.
..Hm, Gold Brickers guarding the place...I'll enlist their aid...ooyah! Wait, you plebs, I'm here to help! Gah, they won't listen!
[The Gold Brickers boss, Midas, and Aeon, have some connection, don't they? I'm assuming that they're guarding the place, but i'm not sure. Perhaps give them some dialogue to help outline this?]
Well, that's sort them out. Let me continue on my murderous massacre of all and, indeed, sundry!
[I find lots more Luddites, and another explosives cache, which I dispatch in the same explodey manner. I also find a Luddite Saboteur (My nav instructions are to destroy 3 explosives caches, rescue Dr Aeon and stop 3 Luddite Saboteurs). No sign of Aeon yet]
Arson! That most perfidious of crimes! Well, let the punishment fit! Dare you to burn my tasty delicious Nutripaste, do you? Have some molten lava up your hooter!
[I spot Aeon]
Aeon! Ha, that lightweight ponderer needs my assistance now! Come, then, but remember this, you owe me!
[I free Aeon, and he accompanies me as we search for the remaining cahe and saboteur]
They must be high up on top of yonder gantries. Follow me, Aeon, and be careful...the path may be slippery..aha...ahahaha..AHAHAHA...MWAHAAHAGH!!!.. .ah...excuse me, I occasionally sneeze...
Right...there's the last bomb cache...
...now wait there whilst I disarm it carefull-GAH! Gads, man, what are you doing?
[lol Aeons an EB, and he's understandably eager to quickly dispatch anyone threatening his facility]
Right, I'll just keep clear then, shall I? ..hm...perhaps this pathetic alchemist may make a deadly mistake in his enthiusiasm for the kill...Lead on, Aeon. You know your way around, after. All. Step careful, now. Don't go falling off any gantries, eh?
[We find the final saboteur and his accomplice, and Aeon wades in]
[He kills the first one, then blasts the second (orange lt) off the gantry, and follows him down! VEI 8 manoeuvers for a better look and slips too lol]
Gaaaaaaaaah you-oof! Stupid, stupid man! Grah! OK, at least he's down...let me catch my breath. That was quite a distance. Luckily my legs broke my fall. You're fine, I see. No, don't help me up. Pff. I suppose we'd better get back to Brass. Where's the exit?
[I lead Aeon off the property. Exit]
OK, now that the Nutripaste is safe, I can rest easy my future source of unlimited power is secure. Hm, I can feel myself brimming over already with the incredible genetic maelstrom of AWESOME broiling away in my DNA because of all this Nutripaste I've been stuffing dowen my gullet! Yes, yes, I can feel it! Now, NOW IS THE TIME!!! Where's Brass, he shall be the first to feel the wrath of VEI 8, GOD-EMPEROR OF SUPERS!!!! BRASS! WHERE ARE YO-oh, there you are, right behind me. Yes, mwahaha, you dolt, you thought to order me about like some rank and file servant! You will suffer in hideous torment for that, for in mere moments the powers of the titans will course through my veins, me, I, I, who have supped from the source of ALL POWER!!!! MWAHAHA I can feel it, I can feel it now, behold, mortals, for -pardon? ...The Nutripaste I've been eating was the control, you say? ...no, uh, no DNA altering ingredients at all? Just a little flatulence as a side effect?
...Right, I see...um...Look! Elephant!
[Finish]
Another fine product from FredrikSvanberg. This was a 4-starrer all the way through, losing a star because of the apparently overly tough mobs for this level. Then of course I realised that I was perhaps underslotted. After sorting out some GIOs, the final mission went much easier. Still plenty challenging enough for me, but not tedious at all. I'm going to assume the previous 4 mnissions would have been as smooth with GIOs, so it's 5-stars from me for A Taste of Evil.
It's great to see Luddites, I really like them but they're not often used in Canon, I think. There'sa a nice thread of humour running through the arc, the dialogue particularly made me laugh out loud in places, and the mechanics were well put together.
So a nice start to my thread reboot. Top banana.
And apropos of nothing in particular, here's an out-take screenshot:
Not sure what he's attempting to do here. Mad Science, eh?
Eco.
You can't do the math on Fire's damage, then the math on DP's damage, then add the value that Swap Ammo represents and see which one is better.
