Blog of Heroes

A few weeks back we were chatting with Mal and working with him to set up a Kheldian in the Consortium. Somehow the subject of reciprocating came up, and we ended up planning on Fazenda and Araware joining the Storm Knights.
Which, last night, they did, with a fun interview by Mal and Silver-Streak. I wanted to wait until we dinged 10 (and so were “serious” superheroes), and then things were delayed further by our applications getting lost in the Great Forum Crash of September 2005. But we finally got it all in place, and now we’re Storm Knights.
It’s kind of weird. Most of our characters are in the CoJ, which means we can be as negligent of them as we want to be (except PS/A, whom I feel obliged to trot out, at a minimum, every couple of days). Velvet and PC are in the FP, but they were our first characters, and it’s such a large group and they’ve been around long enough that they just feel like part of the background, and if they don’t come out often, it’s not a big deal. Lynn is in the Allies, but, well, they’re a non-group, right?
But now we have SG Obligations with another set of production characters. So I expect over the next few evenings we’ll be playing them relatively heavily, to establish our presence in the group (and Alliance), and will keep them in moderate rotation for a the forseeable future.
(I was … mildly dismayed by the relative lack of response, as a “newbie” in the group, to our arrival on comms. I made a particular effort with F. to say hi to everyone as they came along, toss in a few comments here and there, etc. I got one “hi” back, from Will, and a very nice set of private tells from Kin, but aside from that I might as well have been running hidden.
It’s an interesting, somewhat disturbing perspective. Next up, a request for help.

Through various travails (mostly character rebuilds/restarts/replacements), our lower-level alts are out of sync, level-wise. The current “pairing” goals seem to be:
1. Psi-clone/Amorpha
2. Velvet/P-siren
3. Taste of Honey/Kazima
4. Torchielle/Hildgarde
5. Fazenda/Araware
6. Mr. & Mrs. Azure
7. Big Lungs/Star Protector
with Lynn Calodo and Fallen Twice rounding out the bunch as “unaligned.”
Problem is, at the moment, #4-6 (arguably 3-6) aren’t in sync, level-wise.
Thus, we spent the evening getting Big Lungs and Mrs. Azure both up in levels, closer to where they need to be. BL is there; Mrs. Azure needs a few more levels to catch back up with her hubby.
Problem is, Margie rebuilt her to be Sonic Defense vs FF Defense. And now she’s finding that the Sonic bubbles make her … a tad nauseous.
And so it goes.

Continued this evening with Velvet and P-siren, since we’d been doing well last night.
Beat up lots of pumpkinheads and not-really-wolves. Never too much of a problem unless I got more than, say, twenty of the Fir Bolg around me (given that my Resist Elements is pretty crapola right now).
Eventually got a Keen Temporary Power, the Rune of something-or-another, which basically zaps Fay for big damage. Kind of weird having Velvet as a blaster, but useful.
Then we got sent on the Mission from Hell. Or Faerie. Guard the Dolmen. Keep the Fir Bolg from slipping through it, which they are bound-and-determined, Taunt or PunchVoke or no, to do, doing little mini-wave attacks/samba lines on their way. We did pretty good for a while, but eventually they started coming from different directions and we had to pull back to where it was nigh-impossible to distract them from their cause.
Annoyingly, it can be up to 5-7 minutes between waves (based on my Dull Pain perma). Irksome.
Evidently the story line dead-ends there if you can’t beat it until you level beyond it (based on Amorpha’s experience). Before we do it again, we’ll be bringing in a few friends.
PS dinged 29. I’m about two pips from it. Yay.
I’d put it to bed for a week or so, just to wash the taste of the failed mish from my mouth. But with the Rune of whozits in my hand, it’s like having the Lollypop … you can’t stop playing until it’s gone.

… played after a very long day on the business trip and a very yummy P.F. Chang’s dinner, and a with a very sleepy head …
1. Went to Dark Astoria solo with Psi-clone (while Margie was finishing up some Star Protector stuff). Stealthed an Orembega mission, wrapping up a story arc, and then spending some time whomping baddies on the head with the lollypop for XP.
2. With Amorpha, fought a lot of Freaks who were trying to set a lot of fires. Again, much whomping ensued. Decided I will avoid Nemesis folks, since the are confuse-resistant …
3. After Margie signed off, sold stuff, visited contacts, listened to some odd CC chatter, went to bed.
And that was, I think, the End of the Lollypop.
Good to be home tonight.

Ate with various office folk at a very nice Trattoria in Old Towne Pasadena. Would rather have been there with Margie. By the time I got back to the hotel and signed into CoH, she was ready to sign off (after having done some Star Protector stuff).
Gathered a few people up to do some missions, and dinged to 35. Afterwards went out, cleaned my tray, took Resurrect instead of Hasten (which is what I’d planned, but, frankly, I’ve got a just fine rate of powers to spam around at the moment) (Resurrect, btw, gives a 90 second grace period for XP loss if killed again).
Afterwards, just because, I tracked down an unfamiliar icon in Talos on the newly downloaded fresh Vidiots maps (very nice, with added info, but with no indication of how to turn off the obnoxious ($) store symbols) and discovered it was an entrance to the Paragon Dance Party … which was deserted.
Out of idle curiosity, swung by the Arena in Talos, too. Had never been inside of one.
Beautiful. Pretty. Spacious.
Starkly empty.

After a long dry spell while the folks were out visiting for the Labor Day weekend, got back into the CoH thang with a bang.
Got home early enough that I had a chance to play a bit with Big Lungs while watching over Katherine. Fun with sonics, and had a passerby express admiration for the name. Meanwhile, Margie reset Star Protector to be Sonic/Rad Defender. Eventually, the two of them are intended to run around together.
After dinner, once Margie was on, we brought on Psi-clone and Amorpha. Started off with some impromptu RP with Healing Rayne, followed by …
… well, followed by discovering that I really needed to download the newest version of HeroStats to work with I5 properly. Which was annoying to discover but painless to remedy.
Woo-hoo! Took a trek all the way across Crey’s Folly to do it, but Psi-clone got the Lollypop.
Which is very cool, but has its problems. First off, annoyingly, it doesn’t seem to be affected by Containment — which means my Spectral Wounds does nearly as much damage (up front) as the Nemesis Staff, which is just kind of wrong.
Second off — well, PC is just not a blaster. He’s not all about the smiting. Thus, giving him a Big Gun just means that he’s going to shoot it at someone who will then shoot back at him.
Still, it’s very cool, and I’ll be making maximal use of it over the next few days.
Demonstrations of the second point came up a bit thereafter. We were heading to a mish in IP, when someone sent out a broadcast about a Giant Octopus …
Amorpha and I tracked it down in the SW corner of the bay. I, of course, wanted to lay into the critter. Margie, being the planner that she is, started trying to gather together a team, etc., etc., all the right strategies. So I fidgeted. And waited. Sure it was going to flee. Positive another team was going to get to it first.
And then we were ready! And I charge in! And zapped it with the staff! And …
Bam. Thwack. Zorch.
Dead in the water. Literally.
(Grumbles.) I flew back as fast as I could (which, given the speed of Fly is maddeningly slow). I did, though, get back after just one tentacle had been taken down.
After that, it was a lot of fun. Zoom in. Zap with the staff. Zoom waaaaay back out. Heal. Heal. Heal some more. WTF, there are no other healers on our team of 8? Evidently not. Zap. Heal.
Rest.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
By the end of the battle, I hadn’t quite cleared off my debt (dagnabbit) — and Amorpha had died once, too — but I’d gotten …
Three badges.
Devilfish, for being on the team that did the most damage to Luska the Giant Octopus.
Unyielding, for clearing 500K in debt.
Medic, for healing 250K of damage.
Lots of irony in that particular combo of badges.
A Giant Octopus. Too much frelling fun.
Did a bit more together after that, and ended up about a half-hour short of dinging 35. But that should come tonight … 🙂