creating Hellion Earth - blogging my arc creation

just for fun I'm going to post along as I develop my second arc. Note my first arc was finished about a week ago (not that it will ever be finished), having been started during open beta. I'm hoping this one goes faster.

First arc has custom Skulls faction for higher level play. I wanted my next arc to be about the Hellions. Again, custom critters - higher level Hellions.

First thought was that Hellions would turn into demons - a pact with the devil. Second was the title Hellion Earth, pronounced like Hell on Earth. This led me to the idea of an alternate Earth ruled by Hellions - or a hell dimension.

the hellion description says that the low levels don't realize that the high levels really mean it with devil worship. So I decided to start my plot with a hellion finding out they were going to be turned into a devil and wanting out. Original thought was he would be the contact.

More investigation came up with Gregor, magic contact in Galaxy, who gives hellion missions. I have played arcs using regular contacts and liked the idea. So I decided to have Gregor be the contact, and the first mission is to rescue the hellion informant.

research shows a demon trapped in Mt Diablo, tied to hellions. So I decided to tie this arc to the Rogue Isle hellions.

missions planned:
1. mercy dock to meet/rescue hellion informant. Mention Longbow use it to meet informants in rogue isles. Maybe have a spawn of Arachnos for flavor.

2. burning building - hellions are doing demon ceremony, going to other dimension to become demons (hand waving of explanation). Burning building to destroy evidence. Have to find portal. Mention building in Steel Canyon - they do it a lot.

3. maybe mission in portal corp to get access to portal to Hellion Earth, maybe not

4. Hellion Earth. Some destroyed city map. Not sure what to do there.

5. Rogue Isle power station - where demon is trapped. Have to stop hellions from freeing the demon.

custom critters:
non-demon hellions.
demonic hellions
demons

can't decide if hellion girlfriends should just be girlfriends or should be demons as well for some more variety.

want to use hellion girlfriends statements in Hellion Earth, twisted to fit the alternate world.

not sure who boss should be if any. Maybe the demon you never see is the boss behind it all.

created first 2 missions.
2nd mission has a problem - in the burning office the portal spawned near the front, on the first floor. Map may not work

created the last 2 missions:
destroyed atlas park for Hellion Earth
and the power station (underground) for the final battle.

I want some more elements though - it is rather flat.

when invading another dimension, allies are nice. Rebels can die and be heroic, add pathos. So I am thinking of a Hellionderground - rebels who refused to turn into demons.
- use the vesuvius man (sp) for their symbol
- have a mission on the flooded map, anti-fire

For 2nd mission I want more than just find portal. Thinking of recovering artifacts. That leads me to MAGI losing artifacts - Gregor is in charge of the vault. Maybe he is selling them to the Hellions (he wants power, and dislikes Azuria, and is an outcast in MAGI). The hellion informant may be the guy he sells too.

Maybe plot is - Gregor wants artifacts recovered, sends you to get them, then find out something big is going on - he sends you to informant? But nothing kicks off his change of heart?

additional detail for hellionderground - hellion informant should mention his friend who was taken and didn't want to go - can encounter him later with the rebels.

working on the first mission - recovering artifacts. I decided that just defeating "standard" hellions and recovering artifacts was boring and probably beneath most high level players.

But what if they had an artifact that gave them special powers? So I created rad/emp hellions that are infused with the artifact's power (calling it the Finger of Hippocrates for now).

I wrote text "this is better than fire" - and it made me think that maybe these Hellions are trying to find an alternative power. I need them to reveal something big is going on. So these could be "rebel" Hellions, trying to find an alternative to devil worship.

So these aren't the hellionderground of Hellion Earth - but they can reveal that they are scared of the power of Zuul and trying to escape it.

I decided there wasn't really a hook. It talked about being epic but felt blah. I took time off and made a Norse arc.

I just came up with a new idea that I really like.

contact is a radio
Mission 1: --zzzkdsz- Arachnos Base being overrun. If anyone can help us, anyone - come, save us. -zxd-dsv-sad
Zuul, all will die <transmission ends>

On fire Arachnos base. Overrun by demons (that look like hellions)

Mission 2: destroyed atlas park
objective is to find a working radio. Place is overrun by demons.

Mission 3: transmission - if there are any humans left, or nearly human - this is the Human Defense League. We have secured a Portal Corp facility and have opened a portal to a safe dimension. The Hellions are coming. We cannot hold out long.

Portal Corp building. Being invaded by demons. Resistance band is trying to hold out. Find portal device and portal out.

You arrive on an alternate Earth, which has not been overrun

Mission 4: radio broadcast from a Hellion trying to escape the group. He has found out they plan on destroying the world. Same name as the resistance leader on the other Earth.

Map - Mercy Dock

Mission 5: Broadcast from Rogue Island power company. Being invaded by Hellions.

Hellions are attempting to break out Bat'Zul - this is what let them overrun the other world. You must go into Energy Company map and stop them. You can save this world - the other one is lost.

Interesting stuff. I had an idea for high level Hellions too. They were going to get their hands on some Superdyne that had been altered with dark magic.

dark magic superadyne sounds interesting

why hellions and not skulls?

I thought demon worshipping hellions would look more interesting with the mutated look I was going to give them. Like horns, glowing eyes, etc.

Also, I could use "possessed duke modrogor" as a boss without making a custom for them.

have you made the hellions?

I'd love to see your take on mutated hellions

I think I made a minion or two. I'll check next time I'm on.

Sorry I took so long to post this. I kept forgetting about it when I went on. Here is one minion that I made. I intended to make the lieutenants further corrupted and the bosses even more so.

This idea is kinda related to the Unigang arc I made awhile back and I think you were one of the people who played it before I took it down..

I like the grey skin and glowing eyes. I made several - I think they look a bit too human. It's fine up close, but when I tested my arc with them, they tended to look like the regular Hellions - horns aren't really enough (or unusual enough) to make them seem demonic.

Although I think you are right - have minions be fairly normal, and increase the corruption with lt's and bosses. Making the lt's look like fairly normal Hellions will probably make the whole group feel more like Hellions.