⇨ HELLBOUND HALLOWS: A PLOTTING POST

[ringleaders]

GAME CUBE PLOTTING↴ As mentioned in the Mainframe location write up, during the carnival’s stay there, some unfortunate carnival members are going to end up having to play A Game. Simplistically put, this means that those pulled into the Game will have to take the part of the NPCs in a computer game, with their goal being to stop “the User” (also known at the Player) from winning. How do they do this? Mostly by making the Game hard enough that the User can’t beat it. If you’ve ever been so mad at a video game that you rage quit or run out of lives, that’s what the characters inside the Game will be trying to inflict upon the User. Unfortunately , most people will be without their powers, and the Users will be designed to be proportionally a lot more powerful than the carnival workers and programs that will be fighting against it – and the cost of failure is permanent nullification. That is, turning into a rainbow slug and losing all sense of self. The Game NPCs will have to work together in order to defeat the Users. Fortunately, they also have the advantage of being able to REBOOT. REBOOTING EXPLANATION↴ What is Rebooting? It’s actually pretty simple. When the programs of Mainframe are forced to participate in a Game against the User, they are able to temporarily reformat their forms (IE. Rebooting) in order to gain skills, physical features, or tools necessary to play their role in the Game. Since the Game they are playing is a dark fantasy dungeon crawler, this means they will mostly be gaining the abilities of whatever demon, skeleton, ghost, or other horrible dungeon monster they end up becoming. You can be creative with this, and the powers your characters gain don’t really matter, as long as you keep yourself from powerplaying against the User – remember, they are supposed to be enough of a challenge for every NPC in the dungeon. Just try to keep it to the theme of dungeon crawler horror/fantasy and you’ll be good. What you become when you Reboot inside a Game is essentially random, based on what the Game needs, so it may or may not suit your character or your usual skills. So the domestic housewife may become a terrifying arch-demon, while the grizzled war veteran becomes zombie canon fodder. It’s up to you how appropriate or inappropriate the form you get is. The one restriction is that you cannot make your character radically more powerful than the average unless you sign up for the opportunity to play a Boss Monster. CAN I BE THE BOSS?↴ This wasn’t actually part of the original plan, but I had a few people ask about the idea of Boss Monsters, so I’ve decided to go ahead with it! There will be three opportunities to play Boss Monsters: two Minibosses, and one Final Boss. You want one? Awesome! There’s two different ways you can win a slot. 1. You pay for the opportunity with Activity Reward points. 2. If not enough people are willing to shell out points, you can sign up to participate in an RNG selection process for the remaining slots. FINAL BOSS (1 SLOT) Cost: 60 AC points. If more than one person is willing to pay the price, one of those people will be randomly selected to take the role. (Don’t worry, you get to keep your money if you don’t win the RNG.) Rewards: You get to be the Final Boss in the dungeon, and so you get to have your character be some kind of epic monstrosity that the other NPCs will have to build their strategies around. You can also have other characters be your minions. Mostly importantly, though, you will be able to give your character one Rare Change, randomly selected by the mods. It will be randomly selected from the 9 listed options on the Transformations page. You may opt out of 3 before it is rolled. MINI BOSS (2 SLOTS) Cost: 30 AC points. If more than two people are willing to pay the price, two of those people will be randomly selected to take the roles. (Don’t worry, you get to keep your money if you don’t win the RNG.) Rewards: You get to be one of the baddest asses in the dungeon, you can have other players be your minions, and the structure of the dungeon will be partially build around the fight with your character. This one is purely an RP reward, with no additional changes. Please sign up for these options below. You can sign up to be a free 2 play slot filler for no cost, but if there are enough people willing to pay, you won’t have the chance to take any of these roles. HELLBOUND HALLOWS: XTREME↴ The Game everyone will be playing is called Hellbound Hallows, and it is essentially a Diablo (1/2/3) clone, where a team of 4 Users will be trying to storm through the NPCs to defeat the bosses and claim some sort of loot prize at the end. As an NPC, you must stop them. If the Final Boss is defeated, then everyone will be nullified. Those that win the Boss slots will have the liberty to design the nature of their boss fights and what the surrounding room is like, but the rest will be pretty standard spooky hallways full of scary monsters, blood effects, and traps. Each Boss will only have one life – if they are defeated, they will be put down for the rest of the Game. The weaker NPCs will have 2 spare lives, meaning that they will respawn up to two times, which is important because the Users will probably be able to slaughter them relatively easily. Dying will be a bit painful but not especially traumatizing (your corpse essentially poofs into experience points and loot), and then next thing you know you’ll be respawning from the shadows. If you die a third time, you won’t come back. Characters who do this won’t actually be dead, and will wake up after the Game is won. Of course, the other NPCs won’t know that until the Game has ended, so feel free to be dramatic about it. NPCs will be aware that they are on their last lives when it comes around. Unfortunately for you, the four Users will also have multiple lives. On the bright side, that means more people get the opportunity to murder them. There will be a Warrior, a Mage, a Rogue, and a Healer. You can also post below if you'd like the opportunity to take out the PC characters specifically, because there is a limited amount of times this can happen before the Users lose officially. The spots to sign up for Boss Monsters will be down below, and this post can also be used for more detailed plotting about the Game in specific.

Comments

⇨ CHARACTER REBOOTS

[ringleaders]

Tell everyone what you're character will be turning into when they Reboot in the game. This will help others have an idea of what they'll be working with, and also give you an easy opportunity to plot!

[whattaprick]

Lambert and his Mudbray, Pig, will be rebooting into essentially War from Darksiders, a game I've never played but whose aesthetic is 100% what I needed for this.



(also look he loves his horse too???)

I don't intend for him to sign up as a boss or miniboss due to IRL time constraints, but I'm more than happy to 1. team up with other NPCs and try to convince the Users that they're tough shit through the power of aesthetic, 2. complain about impractical character design (why is his sword taller than he is? Why does he have to wear this stupid hood all the time? Why is his hair suddenly down to his waist?), 3. provide support/distraction fodder for boss characters (like, be part of the minion-wave they summon???) if it's aesthetically appropriate.

[ringleaders]

HIS HAND IS FUCKING MASSIVE

[stillwinningthehardway]

you think you have something to complain about you aren't your own horse

[whattaprick]

NOPE I CHANGED MY MIND he's gargoyling it up. Pig will still reboot into a cool hell horse tho, just for that extra 'why did my Pokemon become something cooler than me' factor.

Spoiderlock

[thevictoriandetective]

Sherlock is going to be a big gnarly spider. All dungeons have them, so he'll be taking on this noble burden. I haven't decided if he should be a spider-taur or just a big old offspring of Shelob and Aragog, either way he's going to be pretty big and pretty gnarly.

His function is jump scaring the users, he drops down out of holes in the ceiling and tries to capture them with his webs or bite them and inject them with venom.

He'll definitely get killed and drop a ton of loot, probably letting all the other users want to kill him more. Considering how reckless he is he'll probably lose his third life before the game is over, for a dash of angst.

[sunflowerfields]

So the domestic housewife may become a terrifying arch-demon

what about a terrifying DEMONIC COW

moo.

[kingsroads]

"Hell Bovines are bipedal cattle with polearms" holy shit this suddenly became the best franchise ever

[control_freak]

Foster is becoming a distinctly 90's/Diablo II style monster mashup--a quasi-bipedal prehistoric horse/crocodile beast with a quilled back.

He's going to be SUPER cranky after the failed mushi infestation gambit, but this is also your chance to pick on him about it--I make no promises about how at-liberty he'll be afterwards!

The good news is, he's more than willing to serve under the boss monster or miniboss! In fact, that'll probably lift his spirits a bit.

And hey, no hard feelings about the way he sickened and nearly killed large chunks of the entire carnival, right?

[otoko]

Pssst hey Foster you still free for someone to lay minion claim-

Nah but seriously spine croc thing sounds Luke it would fit super well in Level 3 if you would be down-

(Plus the added awkward of OH ITS YOU lmfao...)

[anti_nonsense]

Rita is going to be a Lacuni-style panther-beast-person! She'll come equipped with some ranged weapons and a set of sharp claws, neither of which are things she really knows how to fight with. So she'll probably just throw things at the users and run and hide like a big coward.

(also gonna freak the hell out because this'll be her first taste of any sort of transformation mechanic in the game and it's also gonna lead into her first fae change, so that's fun)

I'm up for team-ups with other monsters and possibly getting killed together and being super confused at respawning! Or whatever else!

Re: ⇨ CHARACTER REBOOTS

[empty_vessel]

Jimmy will be rebooting into a bonus objective!

He will be rebooting into the most eyerollingly, overdone, cliche'd to hell and back (literally!) sexy slave girl. You know 'em, I know 'em. There's a dozen of 'em in every Diablo clone.

He's going to be able to be rescued for extra XP and Gold, and able to be anywhere because he's a randomly placed bonus objective.

[stillwinningthehardway]

So the thing to do with you is carry you off so it's a pain for them to get you, huh?

[kingsroads]

Strange gets to be a box. c: So technically he's going to be rebooted as one of those mimic treasure chests that look like a treasure chest except for when you walk up to one of them surprise, it has a tongue and teeth and it's trying to bite you. He's not going to be one of those "Dark Souls surprise this chest is growing arms and legs and being terrifying" mimic chests, but more of a "just a chest with nasty teeth and a super long tongue and probably creepy little feet because look, it had to get in that corner somehow."

so think the Luggage from Discworld but more treasure chest like. He will die like nobody's business because even in video games, Jonathan Strange cannot take a punch. I'm 100% up for team-ups, confusion about how boxes can talk in the first place, or people wondering why Strange is just so cavalier about this whole dying thing.

[whattaprick]

CAN HE EVEN TALK AS A BOX now with the right account and everything, why do i have so many characters that start with 'what'

MUMMIES ALIVE

[osteothropy]

Sans is becoming a SARCOPHAGUS MUMMY TRAP which basically means he a mummy in a sarcophagus whose only real attack is an insta-kill move that has to be triggered by the player... so basically he's a mummy coffin that just sort of waits around for a player to be stupid and then the mummy pops out, pulls them into the coffin, and kills them.

So this means that Sans is mostly going to be lounging around because the coffin is pretty much stationary, unless other people want to carry him places. With any luck they'll be able to fool a User with it at least once.

Appearance wise it's pretty much just Sans in a vaguely Egyptian sarcophagus wrapped in some mummy bandages that he can grapple people with. He's already a skeleton, sooooo. He can't really leave the coffin though, so haaaay.

[dorkypantsuit]

unless other people want to carry him places

Can he actually STOP people from moving him around though? Not that anyone would move him against his will to make his life harder or anything but.

RIN THE DRAGONTHING

[flashover]

Rin will be rebooting into a 8 or 9 foot tall dragon spearman with a dumb edgy name like "Brimstone Dragoon" or some shit like that. He's not quite a miniboss, but he's a tough optional enemy guarding some sweet loot -- in this case, a fire and darkness element sword called the "Brimstone Broadsword" along with a buttload of gold and EXP or whatever. It's very good loot, but he'd need to be defeated all three times for the Users to get the weapon.

Regretfully, because he is optional and relegated to an isolated wing of the dungeon, he won't be able to leave that particular area. Sorry, no monster support :C

[sunflowerfields]

MOM WILL COME VISIT

she managed to bake cookies in the lava??

[walkonedge]

Yamato is going to be a Wraith because I'm uncreative and he's going to try and leech life from the Users if he can! He's going to have a biiiiit of trouble with the whole phasing through walls thing first, but hey, if any of the bosses want him to batter down the Users, gimme a holler and I'll throw him your way /o/

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's going to be a basic drake. His abilities are mostly pulling and confusing the player characters to give the other carnival members an edge on beating them, but also he can bite things and smack them with his tail.

Despite not having proper lips he is still, somehow, going to be able to talk.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Scout will be some kind of Nuckelavee! Downplay the 'skinless' to 'covered in patterns of red and white scales that look like musculature from a distance or to a User's graphics', no giant lolling head, yes super long creep arms and Bizarro Centaur Anatomy.

She'd be fast and strong and tough and the horse head breathes a gas that causes a debilitating status effect, buuuut she'd also be very weak to magic. Too bad the Users brought a mage!

ETA:

[perverses]

Shima's rebooting into something akin to a revenant archer! Though more a ghostly version of himself than a bald skull head. And he will have no idea how to use a bow at the start, so have fun with him taking potshots at other random monsters and hopefully not you~.

Comes with the fun "sense all living things" ability, so that'll be helpful for avoiding the heck out of Users like a jerk.

[flashover]

shimaaaaa come visit rin in the lonely part of the dungeon

ANNOYING GHOST + BIG BAD-

[otoko]

SO now that rolls have been decided it is PLOTTING TIME.

Carly is going in alone; she'll be a spooky rambling NPC ghost/skeleton that rattles off various nonsensical phrases-including, rather unfortunately, tips for the players, so it might be good to shuttle her off to some corner away from the players whenever possible. She'll be getting full on glowing orange blood from this after things are over too, so hooray for that!

GONGENZAKA though... Gongenzaka rolled for the FINAL BOSS of the game, so hold onto your hats!

Gongenzaka, having rolled for a plant based change, will have a rather plant-like look to him; but at the base, the boss monster appears as an enormous, serpentine dragon, more 'tail' than body. It bears four smaller heads coming from along the shoulders, and one especially massive one, hooded with a canopy of bloody petals to match similarly dressed wings and fore-legs.

The idea behind this boss will be that it appears from beneath the ground just as the players seem to escape the hellscape or reach their final goal; whether it's to leave or to get to the pit, the arena will appear to be nothing but a brutal garden of rose and thorn, lot poly 'texture bodies' stuck in the bramble. The BOSS MONSTER rises from beneath it-carving out an enormous pit where the tail disappears downward, and hovering up out from the middle.

To say that anyone facing Gon alone is *screwed* is to put it lightly; if only the Warrior reaches him, there's not going to be much of a way for attacks to hit, not until Gongenzaka himself moves to swipe with an arm or something. In true Boss Monster fashion, the goal will be to strike the heads-or alternatively the narrow snakey base- from a distance until Gongenzaka basically falls over. At which point things move more like a standard LARGE DRAGON fight, and the goal to fight each head begins.

Each head has a unique blast of 'breath', the middle one just has a great big stunning roar, and, naturally, it REALLY hurts if one gets hit by that. SO THAT'S BOSSDRAGON.

Gongenzaka is open for minions though! Suzu the snubbull is technically one already; existing as one of the plants surrounding, her purpose is to be an unkillable tiny threat that basically just causes a smidge of damage if a player touches it. In other words, Arena Boundary. But there's definitely room for more lively minions, and having one could even help to figure out the details on Gon's fighting!