((Eh, not really so obvious. You never did say anything about the Boomtown Clocks had actually changed. 
Plus, like I said, even lvl 5 Clocks can give maxed-out heroes grief with a little something, which is what I initially thought you were going for when you just said, 'the Clockwork in Boomtown'.
Buuuut I guess we can let it slide this time around - it's pretty much choice #1 anyway - if you lighten up a bit on that powertrip. I mean, an energy blaster's damage output is a threat that even Babbage won't just shrug off, a katana scrapper can make mincemeat of just about any lvl 50 boss, and belittling Khell's idea of -res like that...I'm sorry, that's just not cool. If you wanna call me ignorant, that's fine, I've got a thick hide. But don't vent on other people, 'k? 
Taking that into account, I'm afraid the disparity between +2 Sword bosses and +0 Clock bosses would still end up with the Clocks getting the short end of the stick - especially with burn patches. 
Heck, even if they were completely even, you've seen what Shield can do to enemy bosses above their level. Now imagine Sword. 
))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((yay clarification page FTW))
Turning from the princes, Bladewing instead ran over and began chopping at Babbages legs, hoping to reduce the beast to immobility, by chopping its legs into various junkpiles.
EDIT: (( OH GAHHHHH I missed Diovs, "slap our attacks to innefectiveness" post...damnit i forsee and edit storm))
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
After seeing the poor animal get zapped into unconsciousness, Sanders wheeled around to the machines headed their way. The first batch must have just been a probe, a punch to gauge just what they were up against.
Such a tactic worked for smaller armies facing larger armies, not for a group that extended around the city zone the way the Clockwork did. This was hardly Clockwork behavior. This was malevolent, sadistic... It was almost, if not genuinely, evil.
"[Frick] this!" he shouted as he dove into the Clockwork, a dark shadow emanating from him like a cloud and eating into the monsters, "Time to break some toys!"
His fists did the rest of his talking.
((I assume all of the enemies in RP here are level-less, like the Rikti Invasions. Heroes and Rogues here are at their full potential (in-game level 50), but they may not be entirely familiar with it. In-game, Martin's actually only level 16. Here? Here he could go toe-to-toe with Kip or Randall (well, maybe not Randall...), just like my lone catgirl could go toe-to-toe with him.
Of course, on that same note, I'm willing to accept that the Clockwork are perfectly capable of presenting a challenge. Assume what you'd like, that this entity's influence is able to strengthen the little machines, that they may have packed a little more into themselves, that they're even psychic in capability.
It doesn't matter, in the end. If Diov has to, he'll bury us in machines and the resulting gravity well of super powers will freeze us in place (LAG!).
Just run with it, give your punches, take your hits, try to have a good time and tell a good yarn. So far, this has been a bit of a slow start, but there's great potential here. I'd hate to think that, because we had a disagreement on how strong enemies running on Giant Monster Threat Rating Code, this all went for naught.
One thing of note, Diov... Earlier, when you described the trouncing of Statesman, it probably wasn't a good idea to let the character's opinion of the "cow" to bleed into the narrative. narration's normally supposed to be impassive, telling the facts of the matter. When the character's emotions seep into the narrative, it smacks of slashfic, and seems less serious.))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Yes, there is a huge edit storm coming soon, I sense. >.>)
Puddle saw Bladewing run over to try to immobilize Babbage and realized he had a good idea. He reaimed his metal-spine-firing arms and started shredding Babbage's legs and knees
"Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid." - John Wayne
(( it has already begun >_>...darn you and your stealthy posting Diov...you truly are a master of evil...and why do you have those red-tinted goggles on...why are you staring at me like that...OH GOD RUN!!!!!!!!!!))
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
((I'll extend my hand in a gesture of neutral will then (no, you're not getting good out of me, that's final ). Earlier post edited.))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((My last post has an edit to cover my opinion on all of this mess.))
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((... okay, I wake up and I find this? An editorial snit because the throwaway monsters were being dismissed too easily (despite the fact that I, personally, did not do it?)? Diov, if there's a faster, simpler way to kill off interest in an RP than 'you're going to follow the story in my head to the letter, actual interactivity be damned', I'm not sure what it is, except maybe GM godmoding.
Combine the two, and it's a good way to drive off all your players. "Gee, I've always wanted to be a bit player in a railroad plot that totally ignores my actions or edits them to better fit the plot." Y'know, or not.
You honestly expect us to suddenly treat the Clockwork as a serious threat with no real warning? To translate it into game terms "Okay, they're suddenly a threat that has the Council and the Vahz retreating. That would put them... eh, level 25-ish?" Hardly a credible challenge to a team of max-clearance/threat heroes/villains, even with Babbage as backup.
Just to reiterate, "Lo, they hath killed my wandering monsters with great ease; wherefore shalt they all be punished for the arrogance of a few." is a... poor... attitude for a GM.
Long story short, "Saith the script, Lo!" = "Saith the Chameleon, Bugger this for a game of soldiers."
You may consider my participation in the edit storm denied.))
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((Ok, here is my NEW response. Please disregard my previous one.))
The Vanguard were incorrect of their assumptions that the normal and more mundane Clockwork were a mere level 20. Due to the force empowering them, they were a match for Paragon's finest, at level 50.
Still, that didn't mean the attacks and efforts of everyone were in vain.
Bladewing's katana tore into the Assembler Prince, and while it did not manage to destroy the thing outright, it did manage to bisect some critical junctions and made one of its arms fall of, along with its feet begining to wobble ominously. The force keeping the Clockwork construct together, however, held. Barely. The Assembler prince retaliated by attempting to smash Bladewing over the head with an energy charged punch.
The Sorcerers' attacks on the remaining Assembler Princes were successful-Up to a point. While they may have been considered the 'bosses' in rank of their faction, so were the Princes in theirs. The Assembler Princes recovered from the attack, navigating away from the impact site, and retaliated by firing more energy bolts at the sword members. While their attack had been effective, the damage it had done to the larger constructs was mostly exterior. A few more prods would do the trick, by the looks of it.
The remaining Assembler Prince conjured a series of additional knights and cogs to distract everyone with.
Babbage, in the meantime, would have normally more-or-less ignored Energon's energy blast attacks. It was simply too heavilly armored. However, thanks to Ghoul's weakening attacks, they did considerably more damage than they should have, causing some respectable dents in Babbage's chassis to appear.
Babbage retalliated by tearing Ghoul off of his head-Whether or not the weakening tendrils remained were up to him-and threw him at the nearest Sword Sorcerer. Normally Ghoul would have been able to resist this, except that his dark, negative armor he used to shield himself offered no protection against forces that pushed him back or knocked him around, it had nothing that could cement him in place. Coupled with Babbages immense strength, it was simple to pluck the Brute off his head. With his other hand, he threw some more Ball Lightning at Energon X.
((criticism causes confusion categorically...try saying that while drunk XD, on another note, thanks for clarification Diov, and now lets all end this silly agruing and get on with the actual battle and story..<_<...meaning GO NUTS))
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
Dax fumed with anger. Alright then, if the friggin little ones are gonna ignore me I may as well go for the biggy. the crystal cloud seemed to flow toward Babbage, invading his major joints. The dust formed into larger crystals which used their diamond-like hardness to slow the giant down. HURRY UP! I'm missing 'Good Times'. Jebus these heros move slow, a team of villains woulda been able to take him out and gotten doughnuts by now.
I do not know my reasons for posting, but post I must. ~~Build
"We can't stop here, this is bat country."
--Johnny Depp
"I ain't bi-curious, I'm a man. Why do you think I'm wearing this tight spandex and got all these muscles?" Meatwad
Bah... that's the problem with fighting these animated junkpiles. Energon X groused. They are animated junkpiles- no weak spots to exploit, really.
He sideslipped around the oncoming ball lightning in a dazzling display of aerial agility, and swooped upwards in a screaming climb. Drawing level with the tops of the War Walls, nearly half a mile up, his wings abruptly folded, and gravity began its less-than-subtle work.
Halfway down, a brief red aura surrounded him as he began to build up his energies. Three-quarters of the way down, he popped his remaining red boosts, and his fists took on the familiar bloody glow.
[ QUOTE ]
*SMASH!*
[/ QUOTE ]
The blaster crashed into the giant clockwork like a runaway meteor, totally focussed on bringing every erg of his formidable offense down on the tin behemoth's head.
Then he rolled limply to one side, barely enough strength left to pop a handful of green candies, their healing glow wreathing him in gentle energies, half a step away from a fast mediport out.
Just... have to... hold... on... for a few... seconds... he thought, pain clouding his perceptions. Better not try that again, though, at least until I have time to dig out some more greens from the pile I hucked into cross-D storage... a dry voice at the back of his mind commented.
((Whee... Defiance bombing at the damage cap! For reference, that was a shot with the heaviest attack in the game at double the damage cap... 1000% TF ftw))
((EDIT- by the way, if I step over the line, I fully expect to be called on it- in fact, I prefer it that way.))
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
(I leave for one night and this is what happens?)
Dusan arrived, sliding in as if he were on a skate board and kicking up enough dust to rival that of a tornado. As he quickly jumped to the left[Murphy seemed fit to have him land not two feet from an Assembler Prince] Dennis gently touched down about ten feet back, glancing over the battle ground and shaking his head. "I told you we shouldn't have taken the scenic route. 'Oh, relax, it's not like we're urgently needed.' 'I'm sure they've got it all under control.'" Dennis said in a clear parody of Dusan's voice.
Dusan's face took on an appearance of apology. "Well, sorry, jeez. No need to cry over it now." Having successfully gotten out of the way of the Prince, he began his process of pushing other's souls to their limits, allowing them to attack with more vigor and with more rapidness.
"Do your thing, Dennis!" He shouted as he gave Dennis these buffs, the departed soul rushing into action and blasting a lone Assembler Prince at least twenty feet back.
Definately not normal Clockwork... Dennis put both hands out to his side and enveloped each in a glow of energy, charging into combat with the advanced Clockwork.
((Wow, this RP is moving fast.))
Vanguard DPO ,
A black figure emerged from the Cap Au Diable portal. After quickly surveying his surroundings the man made his way for the Security Chief.
The new arrival stood exactly 6'2" tall. Clad in pitch black armor with a long black cape and a hood that covered his face he stuck out like a sore thumb.
Darkvapor walked over to the security chief like he owned the place. "I'm here for the Task Force." The deep brooding tone of his voice had a distinct authoratatative sound to it.
((One more time: there is one Sword Colonel and one Sword Sorcerer. Not two of either, just one of each. ))
The Watcher sat somewhat dismayed. Even with the Clockwork at an even match for the task force members, they really should've taken them out by now. After all, some heroes and villains could single-handedly lay waste to a group of foes expecting a full team of eight...
--------------------
This time, the Sorcerer seemed prepared, however, gathering the incoming bolts of electricity at the tip of his staff, then blasting a devastating ball lightning strike back at its former owners, adding enough power to the electric cluster bomb to make even an electric brute quake in his boots.
Apparently, targets had switched now, the Colonel taking aim at the slowed Babbage, blasting a sun-hot plasma blast right through its center, the woman creating a large, slag-rimmed hole in the massive Clockwork's chest. Armored if may have been, backed by a stronger force than usual as well, but the power that held it together couldn't change the vaporization point of its member materials...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
Babbage was more or less pulverized by the Energy Transfer, not even counting the Sorcerer's plasma blast. When that hit, Babbage resembled a crushed compact garbage ball with legs and arms rather than the giant war machine that it was supposed to be.
But the force keeping it together was still intact. If not greatly weakened.
And now, Energon X found himself in a very dangerous situation.
As his Defiance had gone up, his strength and vitality had gone down. Drastically.
So much so, that it would be very interesting to see what happened to him after the two vollies of Ball Lightning Babbage threw at him right before shambling over to the Sorcerer in a pitiful attempt to potentially fall on him once the massive thing fell to pieces.
The force holding the three Assembler Dukes together crumbled, leaving the last two still standing. They aimed for a new target.
They both shot two more rounds of electrical blasts at the downed Soul Hound...
-----
"You missed it. The Task Force left over half an hour ago." The security chief said. "If you want to catch up with them, head for the..."
-----
Discourse.
Manipulation.
Deception.
Control.
Obey.
-----
"want to catch up to them I would head for the Grenadier village if I were you. Check along the Western Wall once you get there." The Security Chief finished speaking to Darkvapor.
-----
Karl the Mortificator watched the giant battle raging almost fifty meters away from the camoflaged camp.
"Damage report."
When that blaster found us he managed to down sixteen Abominations and twenty two cadavers, all but two were brought back by the recovery Reapers. If they open attack on us again, and if they are all as powerful as that one...
Karl steepled his fingers.
"It's not that they are strong. You are all weak."
The Mortificator he spoke to fell silent.
"If they attack us again, there is a good chance the Vahzilok will be driven out of the zone. As a matter of fact, I guarentee it."
"So what do we do?" The Mortificator asked in a hushed tone.
Karl sighed, and reached into his black medical kit, pulling out a series of vials filled with red liquid.
"Have a few of the other Mortificators whip up some more ofthis batch, distribute it throughout the camp. This should boost our performance so that we can match them in level of skill and expertise.
"So we're saved?" The Mortificator asked hopefully.
"Oh no, not at all." Karl said. "They would still decimate all of you."
The Mortificator's shoulders slumped.
"We need to rely on DIPLOMACY, here." Karl intoned.
"What do we have that they could POSSIBLY want?" The weaker-willed Mortificator asked.
"Simple." Karl said. "Knowledge." He tapped his head knowingly.
He then shooed the mortificator away to deliver the serum.
He also prepared his means of escape, just in case things went South.
Bladewing ran in front of the ball lightning that was heading for EnergonX, swinging his no No-Dachi sized katana at the crackling spheres, causing them to explode and shower him with thier full force, which thanks to the resistance charms he had invoked before swinging, wasnt as devastating as it would have been to the weakened Energon.
"That did a little more than ticke you scrap heap!"
Bladewing leaped high into the air, whirling his katana around into an overhead golden dragonfly strike, ready to crush Babbages central systems into oblivion.
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
Darkvapor gave a slight nod of the head and then walked out of the DPO.
A swirling dark mist formed around his feet. Within seconds it covered his entire body.
Moments later he reappeared floating above the battlefield.
Deciding to ditch the theatrical he opted to instead assist the clearly rookie heroes.
He teleported once more, rematerializing next to Energon X.
With a slight move of the hand a shield composed of dark energy surrounded the blaster class hero.
Darkvapor did the same to Bladewing.
"Rookies." he muttered under his breath. "It's a wonder they get anything done around here."
Seeing as how the two rookies should be able to deal with the mecahnical monstrosity Darkvapor instead targetted the two Assembler Dukes.
From his open palms came dark energy bolts. The powerful dark energies should be moer than sufficient in dealing with the two clockwork, but then again these weren't normal clockwork.
Energon X scrambled awkwardly to his feet, the green glow doing its healing work and returning him to the fray. He nodded his thanks to Bladewing and rolled his eyes at Darkvapor's snottiness (or at least, that's probably what he did... the yellow flames billowing from his eyes flickered strangely, at least). Then, leaving the ground once more, he let loose a casual-seeming sniper blast that shattered the hapless, half-mangled Assembler Prince that he had partially crushed earlier, abruptly ending its final attempt to shake off the stunning effects of a shot of Total Focus.
That dealt with, he returned his attention and energies to the damaged Babbage, blue-white bolts ripping at the hole the Sword Colonel had made. Then he tightened his blasts, bolts becoming bursts, bursts becoming the blasts of exotic energies that gave his class its name. Pieces shattered off, smashed aside and then distintegrated by the strange, high-powered forces the Blaster wielded. Within very short order, the hole had widened until an unwary movement by Babbage would shake the whole thing to pieces.
Energon X kept up the fire, not bothering to speak. These were heroes who had been in the game for a long time; pep talks, rallying cries and inspirational shouts would likely have little effect other than irritating them.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Dax felt the giant robot lurch when the energy blast hit. He felt the energy hit a few of his crystal shards adding to his own energy. I think its time to blow this pop stand. Dax drew the crystals he had pushed into Babbage's lower joints toward the origin clust, which currently lay in the robots right shoulder.
Well boys, you ready? the origin cluster asked
Yeah mate
Aye Aye Cap'n
Sure why not, I'm bored. The larger clusters readily aggreed
The dust began to form into one large 6'8" spike which erupted from Babbage's shoulder ripping apart gears and tearing off peices of junk armor. Jonas changed to his human form and hit the ground running as he heard metal shriek in protest behind him.
I do not know my reasons for posting, but post I must. ~~Build
"We can't stop here, this is bat country."
--Johnny Depp
"I ain't bi-curious, I'm a man. Why do you think I'm wearing this tight spandex and got all these muscles?" Meatwad
Martin emerged from his battle to get in on the action against Babbage (that's not to say those machines are "dead," he's just not fighting them anymore). He jsut had to get one hit on the big behemoth before his companions knocked it down.
One hard, darkness-wrapped fist to Babbage's gut and the plating gave way fast...
A little too fast...
"GEARS!" Sanders shouted as a small swarm of the tiny Clockwork robots spilled out of the gigantic machine, "AUGH! Save me from the wee little machines!"
With that, Sanders was buried under a pile of moving brown scrap metal. Whirrs, pings and pops signaled that the fight was still going on. Every so often, a fist would emerge from the pile, flinging Gears off the vagrant, but also clearing the way for other Gears to get close.
Then the other Clockwork he'd been fighting got close. Raising their arms, they prepared to fire electric bolts into the roiling mass of wreckage. Their fellows would hardly be hit, but Martin was likely to get cooked inside-out.
My Stories
Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
((Dukes? I thought they were Princes? 
Oh, and so we don't get into another big ramble of confusion - are all Clockwork in Boomtown now held together by super-evil dude or just the group with Babbage?))
The Watcher began to grow impatient. What was taking these guys so long with Babbage? At this point, the idea of hiding here and simply observing was getting old real fast.
And then the Assemblers fired more lightning on top of that! What, their tracker wasn't important enough to have posted a guard over? Okay, now this had gone too far - he was going to have to do something about this...
--------------------
The Sword Sorcerer extended his staff again, but this time toward the reptilian on the ground. The Assemblers' electrical assaults swerved deftly away from their intended target, instead once more gathering at the tip of the arcanist's weapon in another sphere. He didn't hesitate, lobbing the stolen energies back at the Assemblers as he added his own, expecting the resulting ball lightning to take the nuisances offline for good.
The Colonel seemed to agree with this sentiment, her rifle discharging a ballistic shell into the center of the clockwork mob. At first, it seemed to have no effect at all - but then the pile of Gears trying to mug Sanders (as well as almost all Clockwork except Babbage and the Assemblers caught in the immediate area) started shambling about in an extremely uncoordinated fashion, no longer able to perform even a single cognitive action.
Now the effect stood clear as day: the Colonel had fired a psi-bomb, heavily stunning anything that couldn't resist the extreme disorientation upon the mental plane in its area of effect. Still, while normal Clockwork were extremely susceptible to such strikes, and would probably have all been stunned, it stood more likely that the Assemblers and Babbage weathered the strike, which the Colonel expected...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
((happy devious?))
Bladewing hung in the air for a few seconds more, waiting for all those in melee with Babbage to get clear.
Then he stuck, his No-Dachi crackling with black lightnings and leaving a huge arc of darkness as it cut down and through Babbage, slicing his central core into multiple pieces and obliterating the monstorous clockwork once and for all.
"You, dear sir, are a legend. "- nelly. "PIE DOESN'T HAVE TENTACLES!"
Bladewing Draconian lvl 30 KAT/SR scrapper
DarkNinjutsu lvl 50 DM/REG scrapper
Dajoji Hino lvl 50 elm/ela scrapper
Bloody Byakko lvl 20 claws/sr scrapper
((The reason I went on the "[ QUOTE ]
Powertrip
[/ QUOTE ]" Was BECAUSE you took the liberty of one-shotting everything. I assumed you would KNOW these Clockwork are supposed to be on par with everything else, I got angry. *shrugs* I thought it was obvious they were equal level to everyone.
And while you do have a small point, it is not nesseccarilly true. Why? Because the Clockwork are built in such a way that them operating by themselves with an independant power source would be impossible. The Clockwork King is holding them together through shher willpower. Thus the immense power his will has can keep the Clockwork stable and durable.
But only up to a certain level. He's only so powerful.
Definitely NOT Cohen the level 47 scrapper, on the other hand...
So if you're saying that quality = power, that would mean these Clockwork are level 50. Merely because the entity now holding them together through his/her/its power is almost infinitely more powerful than the Clockwork King. Since he's pumping more power into them, that means they can take more blows from a wider range of levels, deal more damage, et cetera, et cetera.
So while they ARE still made of cheap quality scrap, they have an additional force keeping them together and running.))