The Tome, Shadow Knights, mission list
Nov. 5th, 2012 02:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whats_a_paladinThe Tome of Wisdom
The Tome has the form of an old, leather-bound book written in a strange language, with an Ankh-like symbol on the cover. In reality, it is not of human origin, but an ancient technological artifact created by an unknown alien race. How the Tome arrived on Earth is likewise unknown, but it happened hundreds of years ago, if not even further back in the past.
The Tome of Wisdom can analyze the brain waves of living creatures around it, and those who seek enlightenment can understand the philosophical principles written inside. Furthermore, it can lend its power to one person, enhancing their ability and letting the artifact serve as a power source for another device, transforming it and greatly improving its properties - but doing so makes the Tome register that person as its owner, and it won't enhance the abilities of anyone else as long as the owner is still alive (though they can still read it). Being the owner carries a huge risk, though: failing to master the virtues and succumbing to the opposing vices instead means that the owner first loses the Tome's power, and some time later is transformed into a spite-filled, nonhuman creature, a Shadow Knight. All the users of the Tome so far met this fate.
A newly-created Shadow Knight is sucked into the Tome, where it sleeps peacefully like all the previously created ones. There is a limiter, however - when enough Shadow Knights are stored in the artifact, the next time it's activated they wake up, and can start breaking free. This is what happened when Raynor installed the Tome inside Paragon. He doesn't know it yet, but he will find out at some point.
Shadow Knights
The previous owners of the Tome were all turned into those bitter, angry creatures, which embody vices just like Paragon should embody virtues. They are Mobile Suit-sized and mechanical in their form, though some of them can shrink down to a humanoid size. Normally, Shadow Knights are only very slightly solid, and while they can affect the material world with no difficulty, most attacks barely do anything to them, even energy ones. However, high-pressure sounds can make them temporarily solidify, letting them take damage normally. This means that yelling while attacking can let the attacks deal some damage, but the most effective way of nullifying their unique defense is to play loud music at them. Even defeated, Shadow Knights are not destroyed - their mechanical bodies decompose quickly, after which they go back to the Tome of Wisdom and can break free again after some time. Neither of these processes is visible, but when they break out Raynor usually senses that there are Shadow Knights nearby.
In addition to physical strikes, Shadow Knights use shadow energy with their attacks, which saps the life force of living creatures and corrodes metal and other substances. It doesn't count as beam attacks for the purpose of anti-beam defenses.
Shadow Knights - the generic enemies of the canon. They are very tough mooks, usually taking more than 1-2 hits to take down even after they're solid. They are armed with large halberds, giving them good range and strong attacks in melee. At range, they can fire small shadow blasts from the halberd's spike, or just throw the halberd and generate a new one from the shadows. They rarely talk, and when they do, it's usually short phrases like "die" or "suffer like me".
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/knight.jpg
Winged Shadow Knights - exactly the same as normal ones, but they can also fly and are a bit more agile. They debut in the third mission.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/wingedknight.jpg
Shadow Champion (boss) - the previous owner of the Tome, he is the most powerful of the Shadow Knights, possessing great strength, skill and toughness. He wields a huge two-handed sword which he can split into two one-handed ones. In addition to melee attacks he can sends waves of shadow energy with each slash, cause a shockwave with a stomp or hitting the ground with his fist (usually combined with another attack), or create a short-range shadow explosion around him. He can't fly, but can travel short distances by turning into a shadow, which is almost like teleportation. He is the most talkative of all Shadow Knights - he's bitter, hateful and likes to point out the shortcoming of others, but underneath all that there is a certain feeling of pride and evil valor.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/champion.jpg
Shadow Gunner (boss) - armed with a powerful long-range rifle that can fire both autofire shots and wide-area blasts (both using chilling shadow energy), the gunner is an agile fighter who prefers to stay away from direct confrontation, flying on its jetpack if possible. It's a sniveling coward who will use other Shadow Knights as shields, and will pretend to surrender but then attack from surprise when given the opportunity.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/gunner.jpg
Shadow Beast (boss) - this one barely even talk, just growls and sneers and sometimes maybe says a single w. It's fast, agile and strong, with the ability to jump very high. It attacks only in melee with its claws and tail, but it can extend its limbs or even temporarily create new ones, letting it grapple multiple opponents.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/beast.jpg
Event List
Mission 1 - Mantra of Valor
Environment: Ruins, city, or military base
Enemies: Shadow Knights
Several standard Shadow Knights attack the White Chalice forces out of malice and desire for destruction. It quickly turns out that normal attacks barely do anything to them (though ones reinforced by yelling or some other loud sounds can do some of damage). After a few ineffective attacks, Raynor manages to reach the Shadow Knights and announces his presence through music. Paragon, riding the Steed, bursts through a wall and slams into one of the Shadow Knights, giving White Chalice the secret to defeating them and joining the ship.
Event - Mantra of Honor
Shadow Champion appears on White Chalice in a human-sized form and challenges Paragon's pilot to an on-foot duel. He evades any questions about himself, claiming he's here to fight and not talk. When one of the sides is close to winning the duel he teleports away, mocking or grudgindly acknowledging Raynor's skills (depending on the outcome). If a third party joins the fight, he does his best to floor them in one blow, and then teleports away, mocking them for calling themselves heroes but getting involved in a duel of honor.
Mission 2 - Mantra of Justice
Environment: Any, but close to an inhabited area
Enemies: Shadow Knights, Shadow Champion, Shadow Gunner
The Shadow Knights kidnap a train/ship/another large vehicle full of innocent civilians. When asked what they want, the Champions responds that they want the Paragon - if he doesn't give himself in, or if anyone starts playing music, the civilians will die. Raynor has no option but to agree, and has to fight defensively while the Knights ruthlessly attack him. At the same time, his allies cannot rely on music, and instead need to use other measures of making the enemies material as they fight them off and get the vehicle with civilians away out of combat, to safety. When the civilians evacuate, Raynor is free to play music at the Knights again - and his self-sacrificial deed earned him the ability to transform into Knight, Druid and Tinker forms.
Shadow Gunner will try to fake surrender during the fight, if things get too hot. It's just a ruse and an opportunity for it to gather distance and land an opportunity strike at someone.
Event - Mantra of Compassion
Raynor detects a Shadow Knight near White Chalice, but when he and (possibly) others head out, all they find is a horse-like four-legged Shadow creature, wounded in a battle with enemies from some other canon (monster of the week or obviously evil dudes preferred). The creature is suspicious of the newcomers, but not aggressive unless attacked, and Raynor manages to earn its trust slowly. When he persuades it to come, the creature fuses with his motorbike, giving it the Pegasus upgrade.
Mission 3 - Mantra of Sacrifice
Environment: Aerial
Enemies: Winged Shadow Knights, Shadow Champion, Shadow Beast
Shadow Knights steal a large bomber (or a transport) from one of the bigwig groups (Federation, Britannia, etc), carrying an experimental weapon - a huge, slow-falling bomb that's impossible to detect by most radars and has a shell too thick to be penetrated by most weapons. And it's in the air already, heading towards a nearby city! White Chalice forces moves in to intercept. The bomber is big enough to let mecha fight on its wings - when they land on it or attack, a Shadow Knight welcome commitee emerges. Soon after the fight starts, the bomber is above its target, and drops the bomb! Raynor, not seeing a better solution, jumps down and lands atop the bomb to disarm it manually in Tinker form. All the Shadow Knights, including the ones who didn't emerge from the bomber yet, do the same and try to stop him. The bomb is large enough to hold several M-sized mecha on it. Finally when all the Knights are defeated Raynor manages to disarm the bomb - in the last second, before it and its passengers fall on the ground heavily.
During this mission, Raynor asks the Shadow Champion why do they keep doing this. The Champion responds that it's out of spite - the Knights used to be humans, people like him, but are now reduced to pitiful creatures like this. Raynor shouldn't worry, though, because that fate awaits him too as well! When Raynor responds that he doesn't believe it, the Champion tells him to find the body of Alex Globing and see for himself.
Event - Mantra of Truth
Raynor manages to track down Alex Globing, or rather his grave - he has been dead since Second Impact. The location of the grave is not important, but rather what can be found there: there's no stone, just a simple cross, and Raynor hesitatingly decides to uncover the body to look at it. But there's no body in the coffin! When everyone is shocked (or not) by this discovery, Shadow Commander suddenly appears and attacks them in human-sized form. It takes little for him to angrily start spewing exposition during the fight - all the truth about the Tome of Wisdom, and Shadow Knights, and the fate that will await Raynor himself. He turns out to be a damn hard enemy when fighting 100% seriously, and while he eventually flees, he manages to cut off Raynor's right arm before that.
It's up to canons where fully-functional protheses exists to get one for Raynor.
Mission 4 - Mantra of Spirituality
Environment: Scrapheap, recent battlefield, ship graveyard or similar
Enemies: Shadow Knights (normal and/or winged), Shadow Champion, Shadow Gunner, Shadow Beast
Raynor detects more Shadow Knights and (together with allies) heads out to fight them before they can do anything. The enemies are smart in using the environment to their advantage, however, and set up a trap. They also have one more trick in their arsenal - Shadow Gunner fires globs of tar-like shadow at Paragon and whatever other music-using mecha tag along, blocking their speakers! Looks like the Shadow Knights are going to win this one, until Raynor gets an idea - he raises his blade, seemingly to strike one of his enemies, causing the Champion to quip about how his arm is doing. Raynor responds by saying it's better than ever, and hits one of the pieces of scrap metal instead! He starts playing an (awful, aaawful) melody, using the pieces of metal as drums, but this solidifies the enemies enough to let his allies gang up on the Shadow Gunner and finish the bugger off. This causes the globs to disappear, and music can be played again!
When he pulls off this feat, Paragon gains the form of Ranger (and Shepherd, but not going to use that yet). During this fight, before finishing off the rest of enemies, Raynor promises that he will find a way to end their suffering. Shadow Champion responds with bitter laughter and a comment that many have tried. Raynor's response to that, however, remains hopeful.
Mission 5 - Mantra of Humility
Environment: Any
Enemies: All of them!
All of the Shadow Knights escape the Tome at once and gather near White Chalice. Raynor and company move out to attack them as usual - but after a few of them fall, they regenerate on the spot, and then all of them (including the one inside Pegasus, reducing the bike to its previous form) fuse together into a huge, unholy abomination, a shapeless mass of shadow, limbs, and heads! The boss is very hard, attacking with dozens of weapons and shadow blasts at once, and when it suffers enough damage, it regenerates, the heads yelling that their torment will never end and that it's all Raynor's fault. When asked why, the Shadow Knights answer - it's because they were allowed to sleep peacefully inside the Tome, but now they were awakened and have to live in suffering because he just had to play hero. And they will never die, because the Tome powers them.
After a moment of contemplation, Raynor agrees - he wasn't aware what he was doing when he picked up the Tome, but it's still his fault regardless, and he asks for forgiveness. He switches to the weak Shepherd form, unpowered by the Tome - which also causes it to stop powering the Shadow Knights as well. And here, Shepherd's real power reveals itself - with hands glowing with light, Raynor jumps into the writhing mass, ripping the Shadow Knights out of it one by one, purifying them into their old forms and letting them die peacefully! When the Champion, at the very end, is purified, he only manages to thank Raynor before the mass of shadow explodes. Whether Raynor will survive or not, only his player knows.
The Tome has the form of an old, leather-bound book written in a strange language, with an Ankh-like symbol on the cover. In reality, it is not of human origin, but an ancient technological artifact created by an unknown alien race. How the Tome arrived on Earth is likewise unknown, but it happened hundreds of years ago, if not even further back in the past.
The Tome of Wisdom can analyze the brain waves of living creatures around it, and those who seek enlightenment can understand the philosophical principles written inside. Furthermore, it can lend its power to one person, enhancing their ability and letting the artifact serve as a power source for another device, transforming it and greatly improving its properties - but doing so makes the Tome register that person as its owner, and it won't enhance the abilities of anyone else as long as the owner is still alive (though they can still read it). Being the owner carries a huge risk, though: failing to master the virtues and succumbing to the opposing vices instead means that the owner first loses the Tome's power, and some time later is transformed into a spite-filled, nonhuman creature, a Shadow Knight. All the users of the Tome so far met this fate.
A newly-created Shadow Knight is sucked into the Tome, where it sleeps peacefully like all the previously created ones. There is a limiter, however - when enough Shadow Knights are stored in the artifact, the next time it's activated they wake up, and can start breaking free. This is what happened when Raynor installed the Tome inside Paragon. He doesn't know it yet, but he will find out at some point.
Shadow Knights
The previous owners of the Tome were all turned into those bitter, angry creatures, which embody vices just like Paragon should embody virtues. They are Mobile Suit-sized and mechanical in their form, though some of them can shrink down to a humanoid size. Normally, Shadow Knights are only very slightly solid, and while they can affect the material world with no difficulty, most attacks barely do anything to them, even energy ones. However, high-pressure sounds can make them temporarily solidify, letting them take damage normally. This means that yelling while attacking can let the attacks deal some damage, but the most effective way of nullifying their unique defense is to play loud music at them. Even defeated, Shadow Knights are not destroyed - their mechanical bodies decompose quickly, after which they go back to the Tome of Wisdom and can break free again after some time. Neither of these processes is visible, but when they break out Raynor usually senses that there are Shadow Knights nearby.
In addition to physical strikes, Shadow Knights use shadow energy with their attacks, which saps the life force of living creatures and corrodes metal and other substances. It doesn't count as beam attacks for the purpose of anti-beam defenses.
Shadow Knights - the generic enemies of the canon. They are very tough mooks, usually taking more than 1-2 hits to take down even after they're solid. They are armed with large halberds, giving them good range and strong attacks in melee. At range, they can fire small shadow blasts from the halberd's spike, or just throw the halberd and generate a new one from the shadows. They rarely talk, and when they do, it's usually short phrases like "die" or "suffer like me".
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/knight.jpg
Winged Shadow Knights - exactly the same as normal ones, but they can also fly and are a bit more agile. They debut in the third mission.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/wingedknight.jpg
Shadow Champion (boss) - the previous owner of the Tome, he is the most powerful of the Shadow Knights, possessing great strength, skill and toughness. He wields a huge two-handed sword which he can split into two one-handed ones. In addition to melee attacks he can sends waves of shadow energy with each slash, cause a shockwave with a stomp or hitting the ground with his fist (usually combined with another attack), or create a short-range shadow explosion around him. He can't fly, but can travel short distances by turning into a shadow, which is almost like teleportation. He is the most talkative of all Shadow Knights - he's bitter, hateful and likes to point out the shortcoming of others, but underneath all that there is a certain feeling of pride and evil valor.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/champion.jpg
Shadow Gunner (boss) - armed with a powerful long-range rifle that can fire both autofire shots and wide-area blasts (both using chilling shadow energy), the gunner is an agile fighter who prefers to stay away from direct confrontation, flying on its jetpack if possible. It's a sniveling coward who will use other Shadow Knights as shields, and will pretend to surrender but then attack from surprise when given the opportunity.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/gunner.jpg
Shadow Beast (boss) - this one barely even talk, just growls and sneers and sometimes maybe says a single w. It's fast, agile and strong, with the ability to jump very high. It attacks only in melee with its claws and tail, but it can extend its limbs or even temporarily create new ones, letting it grapple multiple opponents.
Image: i819.photobucket.com/albums/zz111/TehCubey/Metal%20Knight%20Paragon/beast.jpg
Event List
Mission 1 - Mantra of Valor
Environment: Ruins, city, or military base
Enemies: Shadow Knights
Several standard Shadow Knights attack the White Chalice forces out of malice and desire for destruction. It quickly turns out that normal attacks barely do anything to them (though ones reinforced by yelling or some other loud sounds can do some of damage). After a few ineffective attacks, Raynor manages to reach the Shadow Knights and announces his presence through music. Paragon, riding the Steed, bursts through a wall and slams into one of the Shadow Knights, giving White Chalice the secret to defeating them and joining the ship.
Event - Mantra of Honor
Shadow Champion appears on White Chalice in a human-sized form and challenges Paragon's pilot to an on-foot duel. He evades any questions about himself, claiming he's here to fight and not talk. When one of the sides is close to winning the duel he teleports away, mocking or grudgindly acknowledging Raynor's skills (depending on the outcome). If a third party joins the fight, he does his best to floor them in one blow, and then teleports away, mocking them for calling themselves heroes but getting involved in a duel of honor.
Mission 2 - Mantra of Justice
Environment: Any, but close to an inhabited area
Enemies: Shadow Knights, Shadow Champion, Shadow Gunner
The Shadow Knights kidnap a train/ship/another large vehicle full of innocent civilians. When asked what they want, the Champions responds that they want the Paragon - if he doesn't give himself in, or if anyone starts playing music, the civilians will die. Raynor has no option but to agree, and has to fight defensively while the Knights ruthlessly attack him. At the same time, his allies cannot rely on music, and instead need to use other measures of making the enemies material as they fight them off and get the vehicle with civilians away out of combat, to safety. When the civilians evacuate, Raynor is free to play music at the Knights again - and his self-sacrificial deed earned him the ability to transform into Knight, Druid and Tinker forms.
Shadow Gunner will try to fake surrender during the fight, if things get too hot. It's just a ruse and an opportunity for it to gather distance and land an opportunity strike at someone.
Event - Mantra of Compassion
Raynor detects a Shadow Knight near White Chalice, but when he and (possibly) others head out, all they find is a horse-like four-legged Shadow creature, wounded in a battle with enemies from some other canon (monster of the week or obviously evil dudes preferred). The creature is suspicious of the newcomers, but not aggressive unless attacked, and Raynor manages to earn its trust slowly. When he persuades it to come, the creature fuses with his motorbike, giving it the Pegasus upgrade.
Mission 3 - Mantra of Sacrifice
Environment: Aerial
Enemies: Winged Shadow Knights, Shadow Champion, Shadow Beast
Shadow Knights steal a large bomber (or a transport) from one of the bigwig groups (Federation, Britannia, etc), carrying an experimental weapon - a huge, slow-falling bomb that's impossible to detect by most radars and has a shell too thick to be penetrated by most weapons. And it's in the air already, heading towards a nearby city! White Chalice forces moves in to intercept. The bomber is big enough to let mecha fight on its wings - when they land on it or attack, a Shadow Knight welcome commitee emerges. Soon after the fight starts, the bomber is above its target, and drops the bomb! Raynor, not seeing a better solution, jumps down and lands atop the bomb to disarm it manually in Tinker form. All the Shadow Knights, including the ones who didn't emerge from the bomber yet, do the same and try to stop him. The bomb is large enough to hold several M-sized mecha on it. Finally when all the Knights are defeated Raynor manages to disarm the bomb - in the last second, before it and its passengers fall on the ground heavily.
During this mission, Raynor asks the Shadow Champion why do they keep doing this. The Champion responds that it's out of spite - the Knights used to be humans, people like him, but are now reduced to pitiful creatures like this. Raynor shouldn't worry, though, because that fate awaits him too as well! When Raynor responds that he doesn't believe it, the Champion tells him to find the body of Alex Globing and see for himself.
Event - Mantra of Truth
Raynor manages to track down Alex Globing, or rather his grave - he has been dead since Second Impact. The location of the grave is not important, but rather what can be found there: there's no stone, just a simple cross, and Raynor hesitatingly decides to uncover the body to look at it. But there's no body in the coffin! When everyone is shocked (or not) by this discovery, Shadow Commander suddenly appears and attacks them in human-sized form. It takes little for him to angrily start spewing exposition during the fight - all the truth about the Tome of Wisdom, and Shadow Knights, and the fate that will await Raynor himself. He turns out to be a damn hard enemy when fighting 100% seriously, and while he eventually flees, he manages to cut off Raynor's right arm before that.
It's up to canons where fully-functional protheses exists to get one for Raynor.
Mission 4 - Mantra of Spirituality
Environment: Scrapheap, recent battlefield, ship graveyard or similar
Enemies: Shadow Knights (normal and/or winged), Shadow Champion, Shadow Gunner, Shadow Beast
Raynor detects more Shadow Knights and (together with allies) heads out to fight them before they can do anything. The enemies are smart in using the environment to their advantage, however, and set up a trap. They also have one more trick in their arsenal - Shadow Gunner fires globs of tar-like shadow at Paragon and whatever other music-using mecha tag along, blocking their speakers! Looks like the Shadow Knights are going to win this one, until Raynor gets an idea - he raises his blade, seemingly to strike one of his enemies, causing the Champion to quip about how his arm is doing. Raynor responds by saying it's better than ever, and hits one of the pieces of scrap metal instead! He starts playing an (awful, aaawful) melody, using the pieces of metal as drums, but this solidifies the enemies enough to let his allies gang up on the Shadow Gunner and finish the bugger off. This causes the globs to disappear, and music can be played again!
When he pulls off this feat, Paragon gains the form of Ranger (and Shepherd, but not going to use that yet). During this fight, before finishing off the rest of enemies, Raynor promises that he will find a way to end their suffering. Shadow Champion responds with bitter laughter and a comment that many have tried. Raynor's response to that, however, remains hopeful.
Mission 5 - Mantra of Humility
Environment: Any
Enemies: All of them!
All of the Shadow Knights escape the Tome at once and gather near White Chalice. Raynor and company move out to attack them as usual - but after a few of them fall, they regenerate on the spot, and then all of them (including the one inside Pegasus, reducing the bike to its previous form) fuse together into a huge, unholy abomination, a shapeless mass of shadow, limbs, and heads! The boss is very hard, attacking with dozens of weapons and shadow blasts at once, and when it suffers enough damage, it regenerates, the heads yelling that their torment will never end and that it's all Raynor's fault. When asked why, the Shadow Knights answer - it's because they were allowed to sleep peacefully inside the Tome, but now they were awakened and have to live in suffering because he just had to play hero. And they will never die, because the Tome powers them.
After a moment of contemplation, Raynor agrees - he wasn't aware what he was doing when he picked up the Tome, but it's still his fault regardless, and he asks for forgiveness. He switches to the weak Shepherd form, unpowered by the Tome - which also causes it to stop powering the Shadow Knights as well. And here, Shepherd's real power reveals itself - with hands glowing with light, Raynor jumps into the writhing mass, ripping the Shadow Knights out of it one by one, purifying them into their old forms and letting them die peacefully! When the Champion, at the very end, is purified, he only manages to thank Raynor before the mass of shadow explodes. Whether Raynor will survive or not, only his player knows.
