http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/51695 <-- linky to old thread

O hai everyone. This was originally a very old idea of mine from about a year ago. I decided to modify it and stuffz to make it better. I've spent several hours modifying it and this is the finished product. There may be some stuff that I have missed, though, so if something seems incomplete, please inform me. :D

So… Yeah

WARNING: This is a fiend expansion mission. It is ridiculously hard/evil and will probably make you hate me if you ever tried this out. THERE ARE 5 NEW DEVILITE MONSTERS IN THIS. Everything is completely OPish because I want to make people suffer.

You have been warned.

PURGING THE DARKNESS

Description: Spiral HQ has determined the source of where all Fiends come from. Origining from the place called the 'Underworld,' Fiends have been entering Cradle via several portals hidden underground. A mysterious network of underground caverns have been discovered, hidden under the Dark City. Spiral HQ believes that a major portal is hidden somewhere in the labyrinth of tunnels and caves. It is up to you to go and destroy it, and stem the tide of darkness emerging from the Underworld.

Depth 1: Dark Defense: Defenses in the Dark City have multiplied to protect the portal. Fight your way through the city and enter the caves!

The lobby looks kinda like the lobby in OCH except a lot more Fiend themed and stuff. Several NPCs are there to brief you on the situation and stuff. Outside the lobby and past the gate are Energy Turrets shooting at Bunker Buddies. Just go out already and kill those Fiends.

A special Dark City level. Prepared for an assault by the SK, new fortifications have been set up. Barbed wire and hedgehog barricades have been strategically set up around the city. Air raid sirens can be seen flashing around. Devilite Bunker Buddies and Security towers have been set up and move their spotlights around, looking for intruders.

The layout of the map is pretty much a crazy jumble of traps, barricades, stairs, and monsters piled into multiple levels. Levels as in like a part of the map leads to some stairs that goes up/down and leads to more areas and stuff. It's be pretty large. I don’t really have much idea of how it should exactly look like, but I have 2 ideas;
1) At some point, there is a long pathway you must walk down, with barbed wire and hedgehogs forcing you to walk in a specific path. Security towers constantly sweep their lights back and forth, and you have to quickly run from blind spot to blind spot to keep them from detecting you. Also, spikes traps. And Bunker Buddies.
2) At the end of the level, there’s a final battle in a square room. The elevator is placed in an adjacent room that is locked by a key gate. The final battle consists of several waves of normal Devilites, Security Devilites, Trojans, and Security Towers. The (respawning) Security Towers are placed in the corners of the room and at the midpoint of each wall, with barbed wire surrounding them to keep you from getting to close. After defeating all the enemies, a ‘security key’ drops, which is used to unlock the gate and gain access to the elevator down into the Caverns.

Depth 2: Workplace Warehouse - Devilites get their stuff to throw at Knights from this demonic warehouse (Anyone see what I did there? No?), and will protect it at all costs. Battle you way through the unrelenting Devilites guarding their prized treasure!

A depth that somewhat resembles a Decon Zone. Shelves and supply boxes line the entire depth, with pathways between them to let you pass through (some of the shelves and all supply boxes are destroyable. You can tell which shelves are by seeing if they look broken. They drop stuff.). Devilites (including Security Devilites and Warehouse Workers) of all kind dot the place, guarding their precious office materials. Grave Scarabs also creep around, hiding in supply boxes until you destroy them. In the background, you can see the rest of the Warehouse, with Warehouse Workers walking around up to shelves and checking things of their clipboards.

The goal of this map is to find another ‘security key’ to unlock the elevator room. It is dropped by the ‘Captain of the Guard,’ a mini-boss Devilite. You can find him in his small secluded office, where he is napping and ignoring the security camera television screens showing you invading until you burst in. But by bursting in, you trigger Trip Wires and Pressure Plates, and he summons a large group of Security Devilites and Warehouse Workers to help him kill you (between 10-20). Remember, this battle is in a small room with an area no larger than 2-3 LD capture points. And the entrance to the room is closed behind you by a monster gate. Be careful. Fortunately for you, it only lasts a single wave. Unfortunately for you, the CotG is OP (not really).

Once you get the key, the gate drops and you can just go directly to the elevator. However, you might want to stay around and kill the remaining devilites for the lootz.

Depth 3: Greaver Graveyard - The Greaver Graveyard is the home to a large portion of the Greaver population. Many dead Greavers lie underneath the dirt, and may be awakened by your footsteps.

It looks somewhat like a normal graveyard level, except no phantoms or dust zombies. Large mounds in the ground mark the mass graves that house the zombie greaver things. Just walking near them makes them rise and zerg rush you in large mobs. Crypt-keepers also roam the depth, attacking you if you disturb the Greavers’ ‘graves’ or attack them. Living Greavers can also unexpectedly drop down from the cavern ceiling and attack you, only indicated by a purple circle marking where it will come down from.

To pass through, you just have to run to the elevator while staying alive. Harder than it seems. Seerusly.

Depth 4: Trojan Treasury - The Trojans keep a hoard of statues in this cave, saving up for new spirits to boost their ranks. Destroy as many statues as you can, but watch out for Lost Spirits, waiting to inhabit those stony behemoths! And be warned, a mythical Golden Trojan guards this treasury of statues.

You know that part in the IMF that’s a pathway where there are a bunch of rockets that you have to destroy while other rockets are flying at you? This depths is sort of like that, except way longer )and wider). Instead of rockets, (destroyable) Trojan Statues take up almost all the space in the depth.

Lost Souls and Trojans patrol the depth, guarding the statues. If you incounter a Lost Soul and don’t kill it quick enough, it will inhabit the body of a statue and bring it to life as a Trojan (that only drops hearts, since the Lost Souls spawn infinitely). The Golden Trojan also patrols the depth. Completely indestructible, if you encounter it, RUN.

A little secret thing is that underneath a random statue is a button. Stepping on it drops a key somewhere random in the depth. The key opens the (hidden) gate in the side of the wall that leads to a room full of treasure boxes and gold coins, enough to give you a decent amount of loot from this depth. The gate doesn’t look like an ordinary gate; it looks like a normal part of the wall. But if you look close enough, you can see a narrow keyhole that the key fits into.

At the end of the depth is a final battle. With Trojans. Tons of Trojans. And silkwings. Because they hate you and want you to die. And the Gold Trojan also teleports there as well. After 3-4 waves of Trojany terror, the gate to the elevator drops down (no, you obviously don’t have to kill the gold Trojan). Run for it.

Depth 5: Portal of the Cursed - You have found the cavern with the portal. Swarms of fiends protect the portal. Battle your way to the Crystal Generator, the massive Soul Crystal powering the rip in space, and destroy it!
The pathway leading up to the Portal Room is guarded by Security Devilites, Trojans, Bunker Buddies, Trip Wires, Pressure Plates, and the whatnot. Try not to die before you actually reach the boss. But don’t worry; if you take damage, there are heart panels right before the boss battle.

The boss room is a large cave. Nothing too special. Except there’s a giant crystal and a portal in the middle of the room.

BOSS BATTLE: The boss would be the Crystal Generator itself. The Crystal Generator is basically a massive Trojan Crystal the size of the giant everfrost crystal in the treasure room of Heart of Ice. It shoots bullets, summons Trojans, has those bullet flails surrounding it, can create vortexes, etc. More info later.

Phase 1: The Crystal Generator opens the huge portal underneath it. Several waves of fiends of different varieties jump out and attack. Kill the fiends.

Phase 2: More fiends appear. The Crystal Generator grows two of those bullet flail things and begins to shoot out waves of bullets (like vana’s mask) that deal shadow damage. Kill fiends, damage crystal.

Phase 3: A shield of shadow forms around the crystal. Any attempt to attack, the shield deals shadow damage to you. Several Trojans appear, and Gravition type vortexes appear in the ground. Getting stuck in one deals shadow damage and traps you for 5 seconds before you’re spewed out. Kill Trojans. Bullets are still firing and flails are still there.

Phase 4: The 4 Horsemen appear. They carry more awesome looking versions of normal Trojan stuff, and are surrounded in an aura of purple glowyness. They have a forcefield surrounding their entire body. Lure them into a vortex. If they get caught, their shield breaks while they’re in there. Attack until they’re all dead. Still bullets and flails.

Phase 5: Rage mode. The Generator’s shield has dropped. Vortexes appear and disappear randomly. Rapidfire bullets. Two more flails appear. More fiends keep spawning. DESTROY THE CRYSTAL GENERATOR.

Death scene: The crystal trembles, and explodes. The portal becomes unstable, and the caverns begin to collapse. All surviving fiends are sucked back through the portal. Make your way to the elevator and pick up a special material called ‘Horseman Fragment’

Aftermath:

The depth after the boss depth. You're back in the boos room, but the Crystal Generator has exploded and stuff, and large chunks of it are stuck all over the place in the ground and walls and ceiling and stuff. In the middle of the room is a material (more on that later). Several Spiral Knight dudes are all over the place, studying the crystals and stuff. Feron is there as well, and commends you for your efforts and stuff. Says some dialogue about wondering who/what is causing the Fiends the cross over from the Underworld to Cradle and other stuff. stuff stuff stuff go to the Elevator there's nothing too special about this depth.

Yayz. You have survived the Fiend maelstrom. After this, you will either laugh in the face of death by fiends, or soil your pants every time you see even just a silkwing. There is no inbetween.

REWARDS:

Horseman Fragment: The material. Its description is: A large fragment of one of the Four Horsemens’ massive shields. It seems like it could be used to forge a new albeit smaller shield.

Crystal Continuum: A purple (old-school) Shard Bomb, made from the remnants of the Crystal Generator.
Place two of them down, and crystal shoot back and forth between the two crystals, creating an barrier-like chain of zooming shards for several seconds. Deals minor piercing and shadow damage, but at a rapid rate (think cutter). Bombs can be no more than a distance of 5-8 blocks apart, or they will just explode in a way similar to the old-school shard bombs. Same thing happens if you just place a single bomb down and don’t place another one for 5-10 seconds. If you place more than 2 bombs, the chains are created between pairs of bombs that are closest to each other.

2*: Shattered Crystal Continuum: Purple crystals that loosk really cracked and broken and stuff.
3*: Connected Crystal Continuum: Purple crystal. Projectiles are followed by faint neon purple streaks.
5*: Sparkling Crystal Continuum: Shiny purple crystal with Devilite runes. Projectiles also trail glowing Devilite runes.

Shadow Shocker: A Devilite gun, stolen from the Workplace Warehouse. It was meant to increase a Devilite’s annoyingness, putting together fast furniture and shock status. Deals shadow damage, with a medium chance of low shock. Looks like a purple reskinned and retextured frost gun/zapper.
attack = 3 rapid shots of staticky looking purple bullets (or actual furniture, cause, well, devilites). Charge attack = Purple lightning shoots from gun, high chance of dealing high shock.

2* Static Shadow Shocker: Looks sorta plain.
3* Shocking Shadow Shocker (huehuehue :3): Looks a bit glossy and stuff.
5* Ionic Shadow Shocker: Looks really sleek and has small Devilite runes carved onto the barrel.

As for the Horseman Shard… Like the Mask of Seerus, you can craft a special item using the shard by asking the Conjuring Kat in Moorcroft Manor, even though he ain’t a fiend and you should be asking a fiend to carft something from a fiend mission for you. (But don’t trust him with any other materials. Remember the Book of Dark Rituals and Margrel). In this case, a shield called the Horseman Shield. Looks like a T3 Trojan Shield with varying amounts of damage (as in how messed up and broken it looks) and shine and aura and stuffz, only smaller. Really high pure Shadow Protection and a really little tiny amount of normal dmg defense, and a lot stun defense, with high damage bonus against fiends. Movement speed decrease low/med, however.

1-2* Broken Horseman Shield: Looks really dull and there are cracks and stuff. Looks like a mini T1 Trojan shield.
3* Reforged Horseman Shield: Looks like a mini T2 Trojan shield.
5* Adamant Horseman Shield: Looks like a mini Knightmare Shield.

NEW STUFFZ FTW:

Blocks n’ stuffz:
Supply Boxes (found in Warehouse Workplace). Cardboard boxes with the fiend logo thing on it. Destroyed in one hit, they can either;
1) Drop nothing
2) Unleash a single Grave Scarab on you
3) Drop a heart/crown
4) Drop Devilite supplies.

Supply Shelves: Shelves that can sometimes be destroyed. Those that can be destroyed can;
1) Drop Nothing
2) Drop Crown/Heart
3) Unleash a MOB of Grave Scarabs.
4) Drop lots of Devilite Supplies
Devilite Supplies: Literally all the stuff that Devilites throw at you. But this time, you can use them and throw them back. Does minor shadow damage even though devilites are resistant to shadow so it’s pretty useless, minor knockback and a chance to cause a status depending on what was thrown.

Air Raid Sirens: Funny thing about these things is that they aren’t activated by air raids. If you are spotted by a guard tower, they immediately blare to life in an array of flashing purple light, loud wails, and the summoning of Security Devilites.

Hazards:

*note: A squadron of Security Devilites can be any number between 5 and 15. Hope that it's not 15*

Trip Wire: A thin wire that’s barely visible that spawns a whole squadron of Security Devilites if someone activates it. You can destroy them with your weapons, will not activate. Will disappear once activated/destroyed.

Pressure Plates: Barely visible plate things on the ground that spawn a whole squad of Security Devilites if someone steps on it. Although not destroyable, there is always a way around it (although this sometimes mean running through barbed wire). Will not disappear once activated and can be activated INFINITE times, so please, for the sake of your health bar, don’t step on it more than once. They have a cooldown of 10 seconds after activated, so use this time to quickly get your entire party across before it resets.

Falling Greavers: Normal Greavers that plunge from the ceiling. A purple circle marks where they will drop down on. If you’re standing underneath you take minor shadow damage. Once they have fallen, they attack like a normal greaver would.

Vortex: A vortex in the ground that looks like the result of the detonations of a Graviton Vortex. Size varies from having a diameter of 1 block to 4 blocks. Will suck you in, cause shadow damage, and spit you out. Can also suck mobs in, but deals no damage to them. Can break The Four Horsemens’ shields. You cannot use shield bash/dash to get out.

Portal: A portal to the Underworld. During the boss battle, you cannot step on it or anything, since it’s essentially a giant monster spawner thing. It can summon fiends.

New Monsters:

Security Devilites: The only Devilites around who love their job, as it involves nothing but causing chaos. (anyone catch the irony there?)

A devilite that seems to be dressed up in purple riot/S.W.A.T. gear. Unlike most devilites, they also have a melee attack, whacking you with their baton to cause stun and shadow damage. They also have tazers, a ranged attack with a range of 4-6 blocks that does minor shadow damage but causes shock. They can spawn by being part of the map, activating trip wires/pressure plates (those kind drop only hearts, if anything at all), or getting caught by a Security Tower (only drop hearts as well. Have more health than the average Devilite. Also take less damage than the average Devilite due to their riot gear vest thing made out of Kevlar-like-material.

Security Towers: Tall towers that Security Devilites use to keep guard over large areas.

Towers that are manned (or rather Devilited) by a Security Devilite. The SD controls a large searchlight thing that is moved back and forth in a predictable manner. If you get discovered by the search light, the air raid sirens nearest to you will begin to blare and a squadron of Security Devilite will appear. They (the Towers, not the security devilites) have as much health as a Trojan and are destroyable. If they are destroyed, the SD in it will drop down and attack you until he is killed. If you are caught by the searchlight multiple times, don’t worry. No new waves of Security Devilites will spawn until you murderize the entire previous wave. But even if you already have spawned a wave of them, you can spawn even more if you are caught in the light of a second Security Tower. Once again, please don’t do that for the sake of your health bar.

Bunker Buddies: These guys are the best of friends! They do everything together, including trying to kill you.

A pair of two security devilites in a bunker similar to the gun puppy bunkers in OCH. They have gattling guns in front of them that shoot pieces of furniture at you at a rapid rate, dealing heavy damage. Fortunately for you, they’re not very accurate. However, if you destroy both of the bunker buddies, they will respawn after a period of time. If you kill one of the Bunker Buddies but leave another still alive (in the same bunker), then the surviving one will go rage mode (x2 fire rate + x2 more health, looks like a security devilite overtimer with flaming eyes and stuff) since you killed his friends. The dead Bunker Buddy will not respawn until both of them are dead.

Warehouse Workers: Devilites diagnosed with OCD who hate the disorder Knights bring into their organized work zones.

Dark Brown devilites wearing a green hat that hold a clipboard and a pen. They attack you by throwing pens and clipboards at you, and the occasional paper airplane made from the documents on the clipboard. Deals average Devilite damage. Easy enough to kill. If you don’t agro them, you can be treated to the sight of them walking up to shelves and checking things off on their clipboards, yelling at other devilites for screwing up item placement, or folding paper airplanes cause they’re bored.

Captain of the Guard: The leader of the Security Devilite Forces, he enjoys letting his minions do all the work while he takes a nap.

A Security Devilite the size of a Pit Boss. He holds a gun that looks like the Static Shocker in one hand and a pillow in the other (cause you interrupted his nap when you burst into his office.) He can shoot at you with his gun with a range of whatever the range of devilite furniture projectiles is, causing medium shadow damage, or rapidly whack you with his pillow with a 3 hit combo with a range of 1-2 blocks, causing low shadow damage (what kind of pillow was he using?) but has a chance to cause stun. Has as much health as a toxilargo. Maybe more. I'm not actually too sure how much health a toxilargo has. Anyway, he has enough health to put up a good long fight for a while and not be killed instantly by a bunch of blitz needle charges. Like Security Devilites, takes less damage from all weapons due to his Kevlar-like-material vest.

Undead Greaver: Protect your shins! These revived Greavers may not be able to fly, but they can still deal some harm to you.

A Greaver that is just pretty much the bone structure of a greaver. Unable to fly anymore due to the loss of its wing flap skin things, it crawls on the ground at a medium rate, nomming on your ankles to cause low shadow damage. And these guys come in mobs. Not too much health (as much as a mini type monster), cause they’re just bone held together by glue or something. Spawn in mobs from mass grave mound things. I guess these guys are kinda like Grave Scarabs or minis in general, but meh.

Crypt Keeper: These strange Dust Zombies tend to the mass graves of dead Greavers.

Zombies concealed by a black robe and hood. They carry around a shovel. If you don’t agro them, you can see them randomly stick their shovel into the ground and move some dirt. They only attack you if you attack them first, or attack Undead Greavers. Which is sort of unavoidable since undead greavers just keep coming at you. Once aggroed, their hood falls back to reveal a dust zombie’s head with glowing red eyes and sharpish teeth in a growl. They will swing at you with their shovel in a slow but powerful attack, dealing heavy shadow damage and stun and minor knockback. Lots of health. About 5x times as much health as a normal zombie. Pretty tanky. Basically Rock Jelly versions of Zombies.

Golden Trojan: A literally golden Trojan from beta. It was/is completely indestructible. Do not attempt to kill.

The Four Horsemen: The last remnants of the powerful Legions of Ur left on Cradle.

They are larger-than-normal Trojans clad in black and purple armor. They have larger shields and gear than normal Trojans, and glow with an unholy purple aura while Devilite runes float around them. They do very heavy damage (x2 a normal Trojan). Can perform the same attacks as normal Trojans, although the buff can cause curse. About 10-20x as much health as a normal Trojan (enough so they can't be finished off in a few seconds by a bunch of blitz charges). Can only take damage when sucked into a vortex, which temporarily shatters their force-field thing that completely encircles them. However, they can still attack when inside the vortex, so be careful.

Crystal Generator: A giant crystal powered by Fiend runes used to open portals to the Underworld.

It can fire bullets like vana’s mask, is surrounded by those bullet flail things, and is sometimes surrounded by a shield of shadow that deals damage to you if you try to attack it while it’s surrounded by it. Looks like a humongous Trojan crystal surrounded by Devilite runes and an unholy purple aura.

TIME FOR SOME FUN

Okaay, after a few weeks of thinking and stuff, decided to give the Four Horsemen individual characteristics so they aren't just clones of each other.

Caeser:

The leader of the Horsemen. Of all the Horsemen, he deals the most damage, and gives the other horsemen an attack buff (x1.5-2 damage) when they are within his buff ring (sorta like dreadnaughts and Grim Totems. The ring things around them.) The buff lasts the entire duration a Horseman is inside his buff ring, and disappears once it isn't. Looks like a really buffed-up version of a Knightmare, with extra-large shield and sword. Buffs like a normal Trojan. Attacks like a normal Trojan. Also, defensive shield bash that deals medium shadow damage and high stun.

The Painiard:

The tank. Takes the least damage (a third as much), but also moves the slowest (moves about .75 as fast as normal Trojan). Attacks by smashing its weapon in an overhead smash (can do this stationary or in conjunction with a dash), causing massive shadow damage. Anything around the hammer but not hit by it to take heavy knockback and minor stun (but no damage). When the other horsemen are within his buff circle, he gives them a defense buff, letting them take in only 75-80% of the damage they'd normally take. Buff duration lasts the entire duration a Horseman is inside its buff ring. Disappears once it leaves. Looks rather bulky with thick armor, shield, and a warhammer of sorts.

Insert Name here:

The field medic (field medic sounds sorta more manly than healer. Not trying to be sexist here, but manly fits Trojans better). Least health and damage (0.8 health, 0.75 damage), but is really speedy (x2 speed) and can heal the itself and the other Horsemen. each time its buff ring pulses, the Horsemen within the ring are healed 10% of their missing health (say a horseman lost 1000 health. When it get healed, gets 100 health back). Wears thin armor, holds a long sword in each hand that look kinda like a stave or wand of sorts. Maybe halberds or glaives? It has a 2-hit attack combo; it quickly slashes its staves in front of it, one after the other. Deals medium shadow damage. It can also use a dash attack and bring down the staves in an overhead smash that causes an explosion where it hits the ground, and deals medium shadow damage. Like Gandalf's YOU SHALL NOT PASS (technically in the book it was YOU CANNOT PASS but whatever). The explosion can cause CURSE, so watch out. When it buffs, it will bring the swords/staves/staffs/wands/weapon things together above their head and slam them down on the ground. This is the only buff that pulses (every 20 seconds), rather than a continuous buff thing like the Leader and Tank. A mist thingy sorta like when a Silkwing dies spreads out across the ground within its buff ring. If you are inside its ring when it buffs, it's like what happens when you're inside a normal Trojan's buff except extra knockback and damage (x2). This is where dash will be useful.

Brutus:

The assassin. Has a 1.5x speed bonus, 1.5x damage dealt bonus, 1.5 damage taken bonus. Looks like a Trojan wearing assasiny style kind of armor. Perhaps some kind of robes or something? Ninja-like costume? Maybe some stuff that looks like what the guy from Assassin's Creed wears or something? idk Anyway he holds a medium-sized shield that seems to be made out of layers of razor disks in one hand, and holds a double-sided dagger (although it's so large it would be a sword for a Knight) in the other hand ( looks sorta like <=====I---I=====>). Has several attacks (plenty of variety with this guy). It can has a 3-slash combo, slashing its dagger in front of it. Deals low shadow damage. It can dash while chucking razor disks from its shield (drive-by shooting!). Deals medium shadow damage. It can CLOAK LIKE A RECON. Fortunately for you it can't attack and stay cloaked, but it can come out of cloaking by attacking (like an actual recon) and then cloak again. Its cloak can be broken if you deal enough damage when it's cloaked, but it regens in 10 seconds. The assassin gives no actual buff to the other Horsemen, but it can deal the death mark, which makes this guy the deadliest. Facing 4 uber-trojans with no defense is not a good idea, you know.

FUN FACTS: Caeser is named after Julius Caeser (I KNOW HE'S NOT GREEK/TROJAN). The Painiard is based off of The Spaniard, AKA Maximus Decimus Meridius from 'Gladiator' (YES I KNOW HE'S NOT GREEK/TROJAN EITHER). Brutus is the guy who like organized the assassination of J. Caeser or something? (once again... not greek/trojan).