Titan Network
Community => City of Heroes => Topic started by: Sakura Tenshi on December 17, 2017, 02:00:19 AM
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Basically: if you could have designed some Incarnate trials, what would you have made?
I've got a short list with some long descriptions, but in summary, my ideas would be meant to show how mythology interacts with the City of Heroes-verse and give some one-offs/foreshadow later possibilities and give a break from Praetorian based Incarnate content. These trials were:
Also, forgive me if I get some things wrong, my mythology is a little rusty.
1. The Redemption of the Summer Court -
In this trial, the players are contacted by the Goddess Danu herself to free the Tuatha De Dannan and Fir Bolg from the curse the Red Caps put them under. The first phase would involve dual bosses, the trick being that you need to stop their armies from fighting eachother (don't have a complete idea how) and ultimately take down the Tuatha and Fir Bolg champion and force them to break their ages old Rivalry. But having none of it are the Red Caps who begin a ritual to break the veils between the physical world and Unseelie Court, aided by the mutual nemesis of the Tuatha and Fir Bolg; The Fomorians led by a raised Balor himself, and shockingly, the Red Caps are supported by the Invisible Queen herself, The Morrigan. After some fierce battles I hadn't quite fleshed out, involving working on casting a ritual to help cure the afflicted fey and fend off the attackers, the ritual is ultimately disrupted, but it turns out what Danu had wanted was the Fir Bolg and Tuatha to work together which breaks the curse, and all together, the Red Caps and their Allies are driven back, but for why The Morrigan would help them? She claims her reasons are hers and hers alone. (spoiler: to make sure the players, fir bolg, and tuatha face a strong enough challenge to unite them and grow stronger from it to face the coming storm. Plus as a partial war goddess, she couldn't help but poke her nose into such a great battle among her people.) (Metawise: I didn't think even empowered Redcaps and Fomorians would feel like a sufficient challenge)
2. The Journey of the Sun -
The Gods of Egypt have called the Incarnates to help with an important task: Ra has gone missing before his nightly journey to guide the sun through the Underworld and it's believed to be the work of of the minions of Apep the Great Serpent. With Set, the players must escort the sun and fend off Apep and his minions through the underworld and find the wayward sun god to restore the order of the cosmos.
3. The Challenge of Valhalla -
A boisterous Odin issues a challenge to the Incarnates, that if they are truly such great warriors and heroes, they will have no problems battling his strongest warriors in his halls to prove their mettle. In this trial players square off against Viking heroes of legend and a few lore heroes brought before Odin to help prepare his army for Ragnarok (possibly including a battle with Atlas himself), but in the middle of the fight, the armies of Loki have amassed and begun their attack on the plains of Folkvangr. Ragnarok has begun, and now the Trialgoers must face off against the End of the World itself, the Gods of Asgard strangely absent from the fight. When at last one confronts Loki, he continually makes cryptic references to this having happened before, even regularly and frustrated "father still refuses to face me!"
At the end it turns out Ragnarok has been an ongoing battle for CENTURIES and the All-Father has tricked the Trialgoers into being the latest of many to stall Loki and delay the inevitable forever, though he congratulates the players on their survival of the battle, but smugly notes as much as any of them resent him, they will probably help again since Loki's victory means the end of the world. "And none of us are keen on that after you fought a war that sacrificed one world to save your own."
Admittedly, all of these are way more hero oriented, and a few might work better as epic story-arcs like Who Will Die though. Still, I kind of like the idea of rubbing shoulders with the higher powers.
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