Correction: Penelope Yin and the Clockwork King feature in the Lady Grey Task Force, not Dark Watcher's arc. The LGTF can be run early as level 35, just
like the ITF. This means a 25-35 arc, as was suggested, is entirely possible.
Anyway.
I think...Logan's idea is damn sweet.
I'd like to suggest an entirely different approach to this arc, though.
This is, er, actually what I had in mind when I posted that teaser. I...wasn't actually throwing out random doggerel, you see...I had a particular thing in
mind.
'course, I'm amused that Logan took it and ran with it in a manner COMPLETELY outside what I'd imagined - but that's what good ideas do! Spark
others. And Logan's idea is just...better than mine, I think. More accessible. My original concept draws from far too many other arcs and stories in-game.
Perhaps the two can be reconciled, though? Can we possibly combine elements into a really epic thing?
Or....well, there's nothing to say we can't do more than one of these stories. I could do this on my own...
...okay, picture this:-
Once and Future King
A cry, a plea, from Penelope Yin. The Clockwork are going crazy. Berserk. Destructive and violent. Something is wrong. Very very wrong. And so you
must find the source of this wrongness - a mission against Psi-grade Clockwork.
The end boss is a Herald of Bat'Zul.
For months there have been Clockwork in the Rogue Isles...a puzzle, for that is out of the Clockwork King's psychic range, as his powers are now. And they
have never behaved like 'normal' Clockwork. So who, or what, has been animating them? The answer lies deep within the Power Transfer System in Cap Au
Diable...an energy plant tapping not geothermal energy, with conduits not of steel but cold iron - an ancient demon at its core. (Reference: CoV - Cap
Au Diable arcs, Tarikoss Strike Force)
So these are demon Clockwork - but now, across Paragon, they're all becoming demon Clockwork. Something's happened to the King.
Penelope sends you to investigate, reaching with all her senses. She can't contact the Clockwork King, but she can sense those who've been in
contact with him, especially since those minds are screaming across the astral plane.
You enter a sewer, where there's a battle raging - and you join on the side of the Clockwork, the remnants of the King's true legions.
Helping them...to defeat the Lost.
It transpires that...the Lost have captured the Clockwork King, and passed him on to their Rikti masters.
A powerful psychic can open the gate back to the Rikti Homeworld. They tried and failed with Penelope. People cared enough to save her.
Who's going to shed a tear for the Clockwork King?
A girl named Penelope, that's who. And now, either because the risk of the Rikti is too great, or because no man deserves this fate - you're going
after him. A rescue mission, then, into the Rikti mothership. Find and save the Clockwork King, and lead him out through the waves of Rikti ambushes.
But as you find, when you emerge into the light of day - his sanity, already a fragile thing, has been further shattered by his Rikti captors.
Something needs to be done. But what?
Penelope sends you to speak to Sister Psyche. Whose reaction...is more sympathetic than one might think. Penelope, the Clockwork King, they're natural
telepaths, just like her. She's helped to heal a broken mind more than once in her time...most recently that of her troubled but brilliant protege,
Malaise. But this, this isn't going to be so easy.
Thankfully, she has just the thing. A psychomystical device that, with Penelope's assistance, will let you enter the astral plane. (Reference: CoH
- Harvey Maylor's arc, "Upon The Psychic Plane", also shades of Croatoa)
And so you venture into...the mind of a King.
The final mission is the Clockwork unique map from the Synapse TF - one with massive gears and weird lighting, filled with half-assembled robot bodies. The
mind of the King is a tortured place. Psychic Clockwork are your foes, and it is hostages you need to rescue...
First the Conscience of a King - a figure that looks not unlike Penny Yin herself.
...and finally, at the end, where the imposing form of the Clockwork King AV stands, a floating brain in a metal body, surrounded by his Clockwork legions...
the cowering figure of a young man, haggard and worn.
The Heart of a King.
...here's what I'm thinking. Can we put this sequence of events before what Logan suggested? We'd need to modify both plans to fit,
but with some hacksawing I think we can assemble these two ideas into a single long arc.
Save the King.
And then Heal the King.
Suggestion II: if you use the PCM to alter history...I like, really like that end image of a young man surrounded by Clockwork. But I'd also suggest a
throwaway closing dialogue line from Penelope...something to the effect that her friend's really busy now...
...because he's Blue Steel's sidekick.
You see, THAT's what you changed. That one fateful encounter, where an angry hero fought a young mad scientist.
This time, it didn't end in tragedy.
-- Acyl
like the ITF. This means a 25-35 arc, as was suggested, is entirely possible.
Anyway.
I think...Logan's idea is damn sweet.
I'd like to suggest an entirely different approach to this arc, though.
This is, er, actually what I had in mind when I posted that teaser. I...wasn't actually throwing out random doggerel, you see...I had a particular thing in
mind.
'course, I'm amused that Logan took it and ran with it in a manner COMPLETELY outside what I'd imagined - but that's what good ideas do! Spark
others. And Logan's idea is just...better than mine, I think. More accessible. My original concept draws from far too many other arcs and stories in-game.
Perhaps the two can be reconciled, though? Can we possibly combine elements into a really epic thing?
Or....well, there's nothing to say we can't do more than one of these stories. I could do this on my own...
...okay, picture this:-
Once and Future King
A cry, a plea, from Penelope Yin. The Clockwork are going crazy. Berserk. Destructive and violent. Something is wrong. Very very wrong. And so you
must find the source of this wrongness - a mission against Psi-grade Clockwork.
The end boss is a Herald of Bat'Zul.
For months there have been Clockwork in the Rogue Isles...a puzzle, for that is out of the Clockwork King's psychic range, as his powers are now. And they
have never behaved like 'normal' Clockwork. So who, or what, has been animating them? The answer lies deep within the Power Transfer System in Cap Au
Diable...an energy plant tapping not geothermal energy, with conduits not of steel but cold iron - an ancient demon at its core. (Reference: CoV - Cap
Au Diable arcs, Tarikoss Strike Force)
So these are demon Clockwork - but now, across Paragon, they're all becoming demon Clockwork. Something's happened to the King.
Penelope sends you to investigate, reaching with all her senses. She can't contact the Clockwork King, but she can sense those who've been in
contact with him, especially since those minds are screaming across the astral plane.
You enter a sewer, where there's a battle raging - and you join on the side of the Clockwork, the remnants of the King's true legions.
Helping them...to defeat the Lost.
It transpires that...the Lost have captured the Clockwork King, and passed him on to their Rikti masters.
A powerful psychic can open the gate back to the Rikti Homeworld. They tried and failed with Penelope. People cared enough to save her.
Who's going to shed a tear for the Clockwork King?
A girl named Penelope, that's who. And now, either because the risk of the Rikti is too great, or because no man deserves this fate - you're going
after him. A rescue mission, then, into the Rikti mothership. Find and save the Clockwork King, and lead him out through the waves of Rikti ambushes.
But as you find, when you emerge into the light of day - his sanity, already a fragile thing, has been further shattered by his Rikti captors.
Something needs to be done. But what?
Penelope sends you to speak to Sister Psyche. Whose reaction...is more sympathetic than one might think. Penelope, the Clockwork King, they're natural
telepaths, just like her. She's helped to heal a broken mind more than once in her time...most recently that of her troubled but brilliant protege,
Malaise. But this, this isn't going to be so easy.
Thankfully, she has just the thing. A psychomystical device that, with Penelope's assistance, will let you enter the astral plane. (Reference: CoH
- Harvey Maylor's arc, "Upon The Psychic Plane", also shades of Croatoa)
And so you venture into...the mind of a King.
The final mission is the Clockwork unique map from the Synapse TF - one with massive gears and weird lighting, filled with half-assembled robot bodies. The
mind of the King is a tortured place. Psychic Clockwork are your foes, and it is hostages you need to rescue...
First the Conscience of a King - a figure that looks not unlike Penny Yin herself.
...and finally, at the end, where the imposing form of the Clockwork King AV stands, a floating brain in a metal body, surrounded by his Clockwork legions...
the cowering figure of a young man, haggard and worn.
The Heart of a King.
...here's what I'm thinking. Can we put this sequence of events before what Logan suggested? We'd need to modify both plans to fit,
but with some hacksawing I think we can assemble these two ideas into a single long arc.
Save the King.
And then Heal the King.
Suggestion II: if you use the PCM to alter history...I like, really like that end image of a young man surrounded by Clockwork. But I'd also suggest a
throwaway closing dialogue line from Penelope...something to the effect that her friend's really busy now...
...because he's Blue Steel's sidekick.
You see, THAT's what you changed. That one fateful encounter, where an angry hero fought a young mad scientist.
This time, it didn't end in tragedy.
-- Acyl