bluedarky

Go right ahead, lets see how you guys think.

Ok, here goes.

Investigation Part 1 is uploaded and ready to play. It's Arc ID is currently 56395.

And now an apology, I actually uploaded the arc last night by accident and left a major bug in that in order to finish the mission you needed to click every glowie (25 of them, not all clues however), this has been corrected and the only necessary objective is to defeat the boss.

Again, I'm sorry about the mistake.

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lots of soldiers = lots of potential clients all looking for a bit of R and D

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Research and Development?

I think perhaps you mean "R&R", Rest and Relaxation

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R&R = Rock and Roll

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*Playes the air-guitar*

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*Builds robot copy of Imoba Strife to go back in time and kill him.*

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I am officially . . . . . . [ QUOTE ]
intrigued

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One question though, does this mean that we're all working together on this trying to figure it out? Or are there "mini teams" needed?

Sounds like it'll be great anyway!

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Depends on what you mean, if your talking about the discussion part, I don't mind if you all pull together to work it out or split into teams, there are no set rules on how to play. Just be aware that I will only make a mission for one of the choices you have, not all of them.

As for the missions themselves, I am working on making them solo friendly but I will give fair warning in the thread if I feel a team is recomended.

I'm sure a few of you will remember this thread I posted last week. This thread is to say that without major complications, the first mission of the arc should be up either late Tuesday, early Wednesday.

This thread is to announce that, and to lay the rules of the thread and the game -

So without further ado, he thread rules.

1. The forum rules and code of conduct must be followed at all time. (This goes without saying but I don't want 2 pages worth of important investigative discussion lost because GR or Avatea had to prune the thread)

2. I will not post any information which can be found in the missions within this thread.

3. There are no rules about playing in character or not, it is down to the individual player if they want to post in character.

4. Work together, discuss information, this isn't a competition but a bit of fun and there won't be any prizes for achieving the goal.

5. I will (hopefully) use characters created by other players as suspects or victims. Where ever I do this I will portray the character as accurately as possible and will only use them with permission of the character owner. (If you want to submit your character for use in investigations feel free to PM me with a short bio.)

6. As an addition to the above rule, to prevent someone from knowing if there villain is the main villain of the investigation, I will always ask for a costume file, a bio capable of fitting the MA character creator, a list of crimes and a screenshot of said character for their profile in Bluedarky's files.

8. If a decision about how to proceed is not made in a reasonable amount of time, I will post to indicate a decision needs to be made soon. If a decision is not made by 24 hours after the post, the most popular choice will be used.

7. Have fun.

Game Rules

1. To begin an investigation, I will post a mission name and ID for the mission editor. At least one person must go through and post the clues up in the thread before I will begin supplying the assistance you may need to complete the mission.

2. As I said above, if it can be found in a mission, I won't tell you. I also won't tell you if you've got all the clues from the mission.

3. If I have pulled a mission from the investigation in progress down and you wish to replay it to find any missing clues, simply express the wish on the board and I will republish and post the new mission ID for you.

4. Not all clues will be necessary to complete the investigation, others may be red herrings.

5. Assistance will be rendered in one of three forms,

Madam Victim and LOCA will analyse evidence for anything technologically or scientifically based.

Temperature Sprite will investigate evidence for magic and can translate most languages.

Bluedarky will provide any information he deems both relevant and helpful. He will not allow you to view files he sees as irrelevant unless you can prove their relevance. He will also deal with any legally tricky situations your investigations may place you in.

6. The maximum amount of necessary missions an investigation will be completed in is 5. The minimum amount of necessary missions is 3. Once the final clue is posted on the boards a (possibly) shortened version of the arc will be published as a single arc. (For the sake of argument, a necessary mission is one containing a major piece of evidence that the investigation cannot be completed without.)

7. Above all, have fun.

(Special note, this is not a plot to get a load of playthroughs, as I have noted I will be publishing missions up and down all the time so most of my ratings will be erased within a week of the mission going live. I know most of you don't think that I'd do this for that but I have a feeling someone will make a comment to that effect.)

Part 10 – An Ending and a Beginning

In Numina’s chambers Bluedarky and Amanda sat as Rachel knelt on the floor, Numina and Infernal busied themselves ensuring the magic circles surrounding Rachel were complete, the black swirling tattoos covered Rachel’s left arm as she sat in a trance state to learn to control her powers.

“How long will she be like this?” asked Amanda looking at the young girl.

“As long as she needs,” replied Numina, “She is a rare class of channeller, one who can take on the powers of a demon without them controlling her. But such power rarely comes without a price, and hers is the tattoos you see on her arms.”

“Why is that?” asked Amanda looking once again upon the tattoos which seemed to swirl hypnotically under her gaze before she averted her eyes.

“They burn,” replied Bluedarky, “Upon her skin, the price for her power is the constant reminder of its infernal source. No offence Infernal.” The demon grunted as though to suggest no offence had been caused.

“It is a lower price than most of her kind pay,” replied Numina, “The child sought the help of another, one she could trust, and she reached out in her dreams until the demon found her, and I believe you know the rest.”

“So what now?” asked Amanda.

“She will train,” replied Numina, “In time she may even seek to bind new demons to her body and increase her power, but that will remain her decision. She has however expressed interest in becoming a hero.”

“She’s got a lot of growing up to do,” commented Bluedarky, “School as she knew it is over, from here it’s one long haul from who she is, to who she’ll need to be to become a hero.”

Numina nodded, “Indeed,” she said, “She will find the rewards to be worth it however, all young heroes learn that lesson very quickly.” She glanced across at Bluedarky and Amanda. “But I cannot allow my new charge to take up all of your time, you have much to do, and plenty to catch up on within the city.”

“Then we will take our leave,” replied Bluedarky standing up, nodded to the two and left, Amanda quickly following.

As she reached the door Amanda turned back. “Numina,” she said.

“Yes you may,” replied Numina looking up at her, “I believe it may be good for Rachel to speak with another who went through a similar experience herself.” She smiled at Amanda’s confused face, “One does not need to be psychic to know how people think,” she said simply.

Amanda smiled and nodded before she left, Numina turned back to the teenage girl in the magic circle and smiled. Incendia quod Flamma’s live had ended, a demon who had used his unnatural strength combined with cunning and guile had been destroyed, and his power transferred into a girl who could go on to great things.

She walked across to a shelf and pulled down a book before opening it on the stand. She flicked through the book which marked landmarks in Infernal’s training, until she came to a blank page. She lifted the quill pen from its inkwell and with a few graceful strokes wrote “Rachel Hawkens” at the top of the page. She smiled as she confirmed to herself, that from the demons end, came Rachel’s beginning.

Here.

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Agreed

Oh and for the record, I had previously suggested that when you called someone in Cimerora you had a Roman Herald phase in and run up to your character, stay during the mission selection etc, before running off and phasing out again.
Along with muttered comments if the herald was constantly called.

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It would certainly make more sense than phoning the guy, who gave them phones anyway?

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I did.

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You fiend! You have altered the course of history by introduing the phone too early!

You should have waited a week

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You're right. I should have waited until things like this came along...

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I think this may be a forum record, 30 posts in a thread for a Godwin.

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I kept my options open and I still couldn't finish Starship Traveller for some reason.

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I think some of the numbers you need to finish it were missing from the original edition.

At least I never found them anywhere.

OT, I do have some basic rules lined out to help maintain order, insofar as it can be maintained on the internet anyway.

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Sounds like an interesting idea but may I advice you to wait a bit before starting an MA event?

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Don't worry, I was going to wait until I14 hit live before doing this. I just wanted to gauge peoples reactions to it to ensure enough people would play to make it worth running.

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If you have Miss Liberty's Chastity Belt, turn to page 2
If you decided to go left, turn to page 435

*turns to page 435*

You were eaten by wolves.

Sounds fun

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Keeps finger stuck in the original page .... oh I died, better choose the other one then

( fond memories of the livingstone/jackstone books where having 3 hands to keep your options open was a necessity )

Fahie

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Not to mention another 3 hands to keep track of your items, 1 for the dice and another to push away annoying little brothers.

So here's the idea for a game involving the MA, you play a certain mission and complete it, but unlike normal story arcs the contact refuses to tell you what it means forcing you to figure it out for yourself.

Ok, so a simplified runthrough,

1. I post mission and thread in forums.
2. Player completes mission, then posts information from mission in the form of glowie clues, boss clues, NPC text and mission complete clues to forums.
3. You guys attempt to make sense of the clues, I supply you with investigative resources and files to help you.
4. You decide on course of action, I post new mission about your choice, if you made the right choice then you get more clues, if you made the wrong choice then you either get no clues or conflicting ones.
5. Rinse and repeat until you find and arrest the culprit/s.

Would anyone be interested in attempting something like this?

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Awesomely dead.

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Close Khorak, but I find that people suffer from broken legs more when they're alive.

The List consists of people who's legs I'll break for bad April Fools jokes.

And before you ask, the Dev team got on last year and I haven't gotten around to breaking theirs for that yet.

And here I thought that I wouldn't have to update The List.

Sorry Alvan

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Remember, Its your UK statuatory redundancy rights to pinch absolutely everything thats left lying around and not nailed down....

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Stuff that, after what they did I'd take a page out of Corporal Nobby Nobb's book and steal the nails too.

*Prepares The List*

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Can I have one of Amanda Johnson.

Pretty please.

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Here is Amanda Johnson (looking a little surprised!)

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So cute!

You understand that by the time you finish and place the lot in on pic people are going to go into cute overload.

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- For goodness sake's, they wanna try EvE to get some perspective.

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Eve doesn't have a learning curve, it has a learning wall.

Part 2

The knocking continued as Bluedarky walked over to the door, he carefully looked through the peephole and almost groaned as he saw a very angry Positron banging on the door. He pulled the door open and stood blocking his entry into the flat.

“There is a doorbell you know,” said Bluedarky coolly, “It has the added advantage of not waking up Laura and annoying Mel.”

“Your sister was in my lab last night,” replied Positron angrily, “She took the chip I was working on.”

“Was it important?” asked Bluedarky.

“It was one of a kind,” replied Positron, “The materials to make another don’t exist, and if it falls into the wrong hands...”

“What do you expect me to do about it?” asked Bluedarky, “I’m not responsible for her actions.”

“You’re the one she turns to when she needs help,” replied Positron, “Has she contacted you in the last twenty-four hours?”

“No,” replied Bluedarky, “Besides, would she let something so important get into the wrong hands? She is an undercover Longbow agent after all, did anyone else get into your lab last night.”

“We had an Arachnos invasion last night,” replied Positron sourly, “They reached the lab as well.”

“You got lucky then,” replied Bluedarky, “From what you’ve said, Arachnos hands would most definitely be the wrong ones.”

“Yeah,” replied Positron, “But now I have no idea where it is, Crimson confirmed that Rebecca had been hired to keep it from them, but now no-one can locate her or the chip.”

Bluedarky moved aside to allow Positron to enter the apartment, the pair walked down the hall and into Bluedarky’s office. Bluedarky motioned towards a chair whilst he pulled open a drawer in a filing cabinet, Positron sat down and Bluedarky placed a thick file on the desk. Positron read the upside down name on the file as Bluedarky sat down.

“You have a file on me?” he asked looking up into Bluedarky’s face.

“I have a file on most heroes, and all major villains” replied Bluedarky, opening the file. He shuffled through the paperwork and whistled as he found the one he was looking for. “Did she steal Project Runabout by any chance?”

“How did you know about that?” asked Positron, “It’s a top secret project.”

“I collect information,” replied Bluedarky, “I’ll admit, most of the information on the Freedom Phalanx just gets put in the folders without me looking at it. If my data on the project is correct though, then I know who led the Arachnos attack last night, and it’s another relation within my group.”

“Tech Queen?” replied Positron, “Not personally, we got Shadow Kitten and Alpha instead.”

“I’ll check the files,” replied Bluedarky standing up, “Give me a day or two to look, I can’t guarantee anything though, she’s a tricky one when she wants to be.”

“She doesn’t have to stay on the right side of the law,” replied Positron standing, “That gives her the advantage. Not that you always stick to the law.”

“I was cleared of all charges,” replied Bluedarky placing his hands on his desk, “Besides, you yourself know that sometimes we need to treat the law as a guideline rather than something to always follow. That shiny suit of yours for example, is legally the property of Crey Industries.”

“I’m surprised a member of Bane of Crey brought that up,” replied Positron.

“Sometimes we need a reminder that we aren’t all perfect,” replied Bluedarky, “Allow me to escort you out Dr. Keyes.

Can I have one of Amanda Johnson.

Pretty please.

Part 1 - Acquisition

The computer lab was dark and quiet, even when he hadn’t needed to sleep Positron had slowed down at night, reading, watching tv, meditating or just spending time outside the lab that hadn’t involved fighting crime. With his body’s return, he had gratefully welcomed back sleep and ensured that he spent a healthy 8 hours asleep per day.

A shadow detached itself from the ceiling and dropped to the floor soundlessly, it moved over to the nearest workbench to the project that Positron had left behind. It was a small black microchip, about the size of a Quarter. The shadow carefully lifted the chip from it’s indent in the bench and transferred it to a pouch on it’s waist.

The light snapped on to reveal a young woman in a grey uniform with a hood and goggles covering her face, she span around to see the purple and red costume of the Freedom Phalanx’s speedster Synapse. He wore an expression of shock on his face.

“Midnight-Strike?” he asked confused, “What are you doing in Paragon City?”

Midnight-Strike didn’t respond, she didn’t have time to handle an interruption, she drew Con Actuo from its sheath and charged Synapse, he quickly dodged but she used the flat of the blade to hit the lights and spread caltrops over the ground with her free hand. By the time Synapse had maneuvered his way across the floor she had already made her exit through the air vents. She moved quickly as she heard the perimeter alarms sound, she had completed her mission with little time to spare.

She rested on the rooftops, listening to the sound of the city whilst the pouch seemed to weigh heavier than ever, she had been requested by Longbow to remove the chip before Arachnos got to it, the Phalanx believing their security could fend off even the most powerful villains had ignored the warnings from Longbow. So they had hired an undercover-agent to steal it.

But she knew what the chip was, and she also knew that every villain who knew of its existence would be on her tail before the night was over. But handing it over to Longbow or the PPD wasn’t the answer. To be truthful, she couldn’t think of an organization that she could entrust the chip to, even the Freedom Phalanx couldn’t be trusted with this chip. That was part of the reason she had agreed to steal the chip in the first place.

Right now she knew, she had to take it to the one person she knew who wouldn’t look too closely at it, and would keep it from anyone who could abuse it. Sighing she headed in the direction of Kings Row, she’d have to catch a ride on an Arachnos vessel in the morning.

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Bluedarky awoke as the sunlight streamed into the bedroom, he felt Amanda’s arm across his chest and smiled as he remembered the previous night. Then he remembered other things and frowned. He carefully removed Amanda’s arm and quietly left the room.

He had first met Amanda 3 years ago now, he could still remember when the 18 year old girl had shown up on his doorstep, sent by Sister Psyche to learn how dangerous it really was out on the streets of Paragon City. But he had first seen her around 5 years ago, shortly after he became a hero.

He had been involved in returning an artefact to the MAGI vaults, a mirror that showed an image of the future, no matter if it was good or bad. He had frowned upon the legend, believing that the mirror was fake, until he caught a glimpse of his own reflection in it.

He had seen himself on a battlefield, cradling a young woman with brown hair in his arms and sobbing. He had felt he had stood there for an hour watching the images as he saw the life leave the body of the young woman, and the matching rings on their hands.

He had told no one of the mirror until he met Sister Psyche at that party, he hadn’t meant to then, but she had been so kind and interested in his past that he found himself blurting it all out to her. She had told him it was nothing to worry about, that what would be, would be, and that worrying about it wouldn’t help at all.

And then, a week later, she shocked him by sending him the exact woman he had seen to be trained by him. He had recognised her straight away, the eyes of the young woman had been burned into his memory, and here they were again, asking for him to train her.

He had kept his distance at first, but quickly warmed to the young girl, then the day came that she chose to leave the group, and he realised just how much she had come to mean to him, and how he couldn’t stand not to be with her.

A few months later, after a few incidents she rejoined the group, and although he became closer with her, he refused to get to close. He wanted to avoid having to watch her die in his arms again, and it nearly destroyed him.

When he had recovered after losing nearly everything that he held dear to him, he told Amanda everything. The mirror’s images, how he felt, how he had used his own methods to keep an eye on her, even after she left the group. He waited for her to leave, to say she never wanted to see him again, instead, she took his hands in hers, and told him that she’d never leave him, even if being with him meant that they only had a few years together, she’d stay. That had been six months ago.

He got dressed and walked into the main living room, he picked up the mail and went to sit down before he noticed the envelope on the table. He picked it up, opened it, and tipped out a note and a computer chip barely the size of a quarter. He quickly read the note, it read;

Stephan, guard this chip with your life. Don’t let anyone know you have it, and I mean no-one. This needs to remain a secret between us.

Your Sister, Rebecca.

“What have you done now Rebecca?” mutter Bluedarky slipping the chip into his inside pocket as a loud knock came at the door.

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When I moved house I made sure to buy a place next door to a guy who buys and sells stolen goods.
Becuase I heared that good fences make good neighbours!

ahthankyew

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Hits Imoba_Strife over the head with a hardback copy of Equal Rites.

I'd go Awww if I didn't know what a naughty kitty she was.

Is this some kind of plot to get make us forget how naughty she is?

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On the subject of booster packs, I was considering getting the mac pack for the mission teleporter power, but I can't find any info on it on the wikia site.

My question: what's the cooldown on it?

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2 Hours.

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think Sailor Moon with catgirls.

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I might be better not to

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It's actually better than Sailor Moon, not that that's hard.

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Very strange, very stupid and very unprofessional.

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... and apparently very ok to admit it happened.

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I stand corrected, they haven't invented words for how unprofessional this is.

Not only do they attempt to poach players from a game where their lead developer screwed up, they don't even say sorry for doing it.

Well, that killed what little desire I had to play CO and STO.