156876: Hunk-A-Hunk-A-Burnin’ Love by @Amelia Lynn

My Rating: 4 Stars

Nicely done. The mission description says “Don Mathias has been spurned by Lady Deseri, the object of his affections. He wants you to take her out. Quite an opportunity to get in good with The Family…” Running through this was like playing Romeo and Juliet meet Jack the Ripper.

The intro dialogue was a small wall of text, but it was all in-character. The Don speaks like someone out of My Cousin Vinny. He’s got an interesting jaw. There are two custom mobs, Lady Deseri and her boyfriend, Deago Caberone. Like in the Princess Bride, they have something worth living for. More’s the pity then…

The run was fast. You fight mooks. You then take out the two named mobs, above. The Lady dropped quickly. I can’t even name her powersets. She had a gun, didn’t like it when I hit her, and actually cried about it in a way that wasn’t completely emo. She runs, but Air Superiority and a bunch of Super Strength attacks made short work of that. When she dies, you see “you have killed a beautiful young girl, for choosing love over power,” in the chat area. Some people will balk at the idea of “killed”, because of how they RP. I liked it. It was villainous. It was tragic, brutal and villainous.

Deago put up more of a fight. He’s a Thugs/Fiery Aura MM. Without inspirations, my level 6 brute would never have made it. He actually killed me once, but that was just a setback. The Don made a request of me before I entered the mission, concerning him. “You may run into her precious wuss boyfriend in there. Bring me his… testicular virility. Yeah. Yeah, do that.” Here’s some sample dialogue from the mission:

When fighting Deseri:
[NPC] Lady Deseri: This isn’t necessary! You don’t understand!
[NPC] Lady Deseri: AHHH! I”M WOUNDED!
[NPC] Lady Deseri: Deago! My love we must escape!
[NPC] Lady Deseri: *sob*
[NPC] Lady Deseri: Oh my love! I am dying!
You have defeated Lady Deseri
[NPC] Lady Deseri: We… will always be together now…
You have killed a beautiful young girl, for choosing love over power.

When fighting Deago:
[NPC] Deago Caberone: It’s ok baby. I’ll protect you.
[NPC] Deago Caberone: You don’t have to do this, you know! I’ll pay you twice what he’s offering!
[NPC] Deago Caberone: This is insane! That old lech wouldn’t know what to do with her if he had her!
[NPC] Deago Caberone: Please! You’re making a mistake!
[NPC] Deago Caberone: NO! Deseri- run!
You have defeated Deago Caberone
You’ve managed to kill a young man in love and remove his… testicular verility. Good job.
[NPC] Deago Caberone: I.. love you… my darling… soon we will be together… forever…

Another thing that I enjoyed is that, apparently, the Don did really dig Deseri. He was all broken up about having to put the hit on her, but in a case of “If I can’t have her, no one will,” he did it, and he wasn’t happy with my success at all, come the end of things. Nicely done, Amelia Lynn. These are the kinds of arcs I like running with a villain, and you did it with one mission. Kudos.

Our Romeo, Deago

The Don makes you an offer you can’t refuse

Deseri, the Juliet of our tragedy

What I gave her, you don’t wake from.

162217: ABCs for Villains by @Foggy Norman

My Rating: 4 stars

This is the first mission I’ve played in a while that I actually enjoyed. It was short, but entertaining. Your contact is Micky the Ear, an old broker. He sends you out to steal some televisions, with special instructions to only steal the “Fony Brand” TV’s. There is one television in the warehouse that is not a Fony. Its a Crey prototype. Grabbing it causes you to hallucinate, and triggers mobs to appear, some are ambushes, and others are stationary. These mobs are Rogue Island Police (RIP) officers, however, due to the hallucinations, they appear mutated and bestial to your character. I really enjoyed that. It was a nice touch to a short mission.

Mission dialogue is well-written, it sounds like it would come from Mickey. There are actual clues in the mission if you steal the Crey model and there’s nothing to slow you down. For a low-level mission, its very smooth.

I ran this mission with a new brute on Villainous. She’s level 4, Super Strength and Willpower. It was a lot of fun.

Too much TV is bad for you…

Mikey the Ear’s initial dialogue

As an aside, I thought the contact’s name was Mickey the Ear, but the screenshot calls him Mikey the Ear. I’ll have to look into that sometime.

1001: Johnny Sonata and the Hitmen by @Ground Pounder

My Rating: 4 stars

I really liked this arc. It expands on the COV lore nicely. Your contact is none other than Johnny Sonata, and you’re tasked with helping him put back together his old band so that they can show people today what real music is all about. There are 4 missions, all for levels 1-54. One custom mob was used, at the end, but it isn’t overpowered at all.

Johnny’s old bandmates are scattered. One is in jail, some have been captured by the Circle of Thorns, and one left to join the Family. You go about recruiting back the old guard and convince them that they’ll live a lot longer in Johnny’s good graces.

Here is some sample dialogue that I enjoyed:

[NPC] Sid McKinsey: I just want a snare drum. How could I tunnel out of here with a snare drum?!

[NPC] Bobby Johnson: The Big Boy’s big hands hurt, don’t they?

[NPC] Hordeling Lasher: Are you a supreme being?
[NPC] Sax Malone: No man, we’re musicians.

[NPC] Sax Malone: Thanks. I think those cats have had too much catnip, y’know?

[NPC] Thorn Wielder: Byzantil is ready for his payment.
[NPC] Eliza Woodson’s soul: How about you wait here and I’ll write you a check? I’ll just float back to my body and sign it.

Its late and I’m not awake enough to detail this mission too much. I duoed it with PJ’s bots/storm and my own. We went in at 14 and hit 15 before leaving.

Arc Intro

Mission 1

Mission 2

Mission 3

Finale