Sugar Shack 12: Blast from the Past: My Scariest MxO Encounter Ever
My Scariest Encounter Ever
The creepiest mission contact, bar none, is The Coroner, last seen downtown near Baldwin Heights. And why is he creepy, you ask? Most exiles want money or power or intel, things we can all understand and empathize with. Not him. The Coroner tasks you with killing exiles and innocent bluepills solely to supply him with materials for his experiments. Be careful before taking his missions on; they are not a walk on the dark side, they’re a hyperjump! Only the first mission worked, but it was enough to give me the biggest freakout of my MxO career.
One day I was killin and chillin at Baldwin Heights when I ran into one of the people I admire most, the savvy and generous Lshink, from Children of Zion. He told me about a killer mission from the Coroner that had defeated him several times and invited me along for the fun. How could I turn down a chance like that?
The mission has three parts. Part one required us to seek and kill a retired policeman. His handful of tactical security guards did little to delay two upper-30s players like us. Part three only required us to kill some greyed out (!) gang members.
However, part two required the killing of a Level-50 vampire exile resident in a downtown high-rise. This exile had beaten Lshink before; we approached his office and started talking about how best to take him down.
While we were considering our strategy, he ran out and engaged us (Freakout #1). Together we got him down to 50% before we both died. I returned in and went to wait outside the mission area while Lshink made his way and the death effect wore off. But as soon as I stepped out of the elevator the vampire was waiting for me and immediately engaged me (Freakout #2). After a couple of exchanges I was down to less than 10% hit points, and I staggered into the elevator and headed for the second floor lobby to sit and rest up (no chairs/couches on the ground floor). Lshink was getting another friend, the awesome SthenViper (from the Jokerz) to help. I was okay with that and waited while my red line slowly, slowly crept back.
Suddenly the vampire was in front of me (Freakout #3)! He was fidgeting back and forth, moving to and fro, as though he couldn’t see me clearly. I didn’t dare move. I team-messaged Lshink and SthenViper, who asked me if I knew where the vampire was. “I don’t think finding him will be a problem,” I wrote back.
They were having trouble finding a way up, and I was freaking out as the vampire walked back and forth right in front of me. When he got stuck in a corner, I rose to run and jump down to the ground floor. But as soon as I stood, the vampire was on me; he’d lured me out (Freakout #4)! I fought. I did a little damage. I died. I watched my friends rush in over my dead body. We failed again.
I reconstructed and went back to the high-rise to wait for the team to regroup and my death effect to fade (this was starting to sound familiar!). While I was standing there waiting and looking at my nails, the vampire came charging out of the building and engaged me (Freakout #5)! Flabbergasted, flat-footed, death-effected, I fumbled my defense as he hacked away at me for a third time. In a few seconds I was down to less than 10% hit points, and Lshink rushed in, taking on the fell monster singlehandedly and telling me to get out. From a distance, SthenViper poured hacker fire down. I hyperjumped to a building top to sit for a few seconds, and jumped back down to rejoin the fight as they finished off the uber-vamp. The third mission was an absurd anti-climax.
This second encounter was an absolutely brilliant piece of work. At every turn the vampire was one step ahead of us, and he consistently out-thought us. We only won through sheer mass; we never out-smarted him. Props to the devs for such brilliance. But devs, please remember that brilliance is best in small doses.
Anyone else care to share scariest moments?
This memoir may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
