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The Jules Verne Master Arena
This arena, is the one that was given to Adam Deveril as a leaving
present, from the staff of the English Virtual Mekton Arcade that
he used to frequent. Adam himself has done a few bits and pieces
of coding on this arene, but not much.
The Master Arena comprises of seven standard sized, detailed arenas,
each one can act as a stand alone arena, but if enough people
want to use it, then the whole setup can be used, with each arena
having access to those around it.
The Arenas are:
- The Cavern at the Center of the Earth: (This is the core arena, with access to all others, it was also
the most popular at his old Arcade.)
- Air Peaks: (This one was built for the airborne units in mind, it is also
considered one of the more asthetic..)
- 20,000 Legues under the Sea: (an aquatic arena, dark, murky and cold)
- Fire Caverns: (A massive underground cave with its own mini mountain range,
also liberaly festooned with molten pits of Lava, and scalding
air vents.)
- Lost World: (A huge series of Atol islands, clustered around a group of forbiding
mountains, whose peaks dissapear into the clouds, This is a warm
swampy enviroment, festooned with life, and the occasional Volcano.)
- Nautilus Hideout: (A veritable sea of massive sand dunes, dotted all over the place
are crystal blue watering wholes, who seem to be surrounded by
the decaying remnants of 18th Century industrial buildings)
- Ruined City: (Another Cavern Arena, this one contains the remains of a city
that must have sunk due to earthquakes, the inhabitants long since
gone, only the VM- sized buildings seem to hint at their collosal
size)
The Cavern at the Center of the Earth.
 This is a massive zone, being the core of the Jules Verne Master
Arena, it comprises of an underground cavern approximately twelve
kilometres across, with a ceiling of two kilometres, around the
edge are two tiers of wood and forest covered plateaus. In the
center is a small, circular sea, about eight kilometres across
liberally dotted with hundreds of small wooded islands, the whole
arena is lit by a soft glow given of by the crystalline walls
of the cavern.
Plateaus: Covered in knee high (for a VM!) grass and tall tropical trees,
each ring of plateau's is a kilometre across, the outer ring being
about twenty five meters higher than the inner ring, there are
many depressions, crags, nooks and crannies, especially where
the Cavern roof curves down to meet the base, a favoured spot
for ambushes, both player, and CPU controlled, a general feeling
of ancient tropics can be felt all around this area. Occasionally,
some players have reported seeing either a man swinging through
the branches on vines, or a large gorilla carrying nunchacku.
Anyone using heat-based weapons have a 1 in 10 chance of starting
a forest fire! If this happens, within six to twelve turns a large
flying elephant appears and douses the fire with water from it's
trunk, if the person who started the fire is still in view, the
elephant will land and go hand to hand with him. Also here are
numerous herd animals and their predators, foremost of which are
the Dimetrodon, large dinosaurs that look strangely like oversized
iguanas with fins strapped to their backs…
Island Sea: This expanse of water, with it's many islands, was the favoured
location for settling grudge duels at the English Arcade, it's
aquatic alcoves and forest covered mini-islands proving an interesting
backdrop to two slugging VMs. Unfortunately, this is also home
to the largest CPU bad guy, a VM- sized Neanderthal herdsman,
with his flock of VM sized indestructible sheep. Any supposed
threat to his sheep will make him throw rocks at the perpetrator,
or use his shepherd's hook on them, not a pretty way to go by
any means. There are also rumours of a sunken WW2 submarine somewhere,
containing a really nasty power-up.
Critters:
Dimetrodon: REF 5, Attack 5, Dodge 5 MA 4
Torso has 8 kills, limbs have 5 kills, head has 4kills, all locations
have 3 sp armour. Munch attack is 4 kills AP.
Unga-Wunga the Ninja Elephant: REF 7, Melee 4, Fighting 5,Gunnery 3, Dodge 5, MA4, Flight MA
10, Ninja Leap 6.
Torso has 10 kills, limbs have 8 kills, head has 6 kills, all
locations have 4 sp armour.Entangling attack (trunk) 5 kill crush,
handy. Foot stomp,4 Kills, Way of the Elephant's fist 3 kills
quick. Squirt attack 7 kills hydrojet, warm up 3.
Herd animals (these come in all different types, but generally have the same
stats) REF 4, Stampede 3, Dodge 3, MA 3,
Torso has 5 kills, limbs have 4 kills, head has 3 kills, all locations
have 2 sp armour. Stampede does 1 kills per animal.
Kevunga the Herdsman: REF 7, Melee 5, Fighting 5, Throwing 7, MA 5, Jump MA 7
Torso has 15 kills, limbs have 10 kills head has 8 kills, all
locations have 5 sp armour. Rocks. Range 7, damage 7, -1 WA, unlimited
supply! Shepherd's Crook, 8 kills, entangling.
Indestructible Sheep: Ref.5, INT1, Eat Grass 5, Look Stupid 6
No need for kills or armour, they are after all, indestructible.
But, the sheep can be used as throwing weapons! They do 4 kills
of damage, plus arm bonus, and because of their light fluffiness,
can be thrown double the normal throwing distance! After hitting
the target, the sheep will totter about for a bit, then amble
back to the flock.
Scaly Crocks: if you thought the water was safe, think again! REF 6, Bite 5,
Dodge 4, Stealth 6, MA 2 (on land) 6 (water)
Torso has 5 kills, limbs have 4 each, head has 3kills, all locations
have 5 sp armour. Bite. 4 kills A.P.
Power Ups
Heel!! (when activated, this will make any creature within 50 meters
your best buddy and pal. They will fight for you and follow you
around like a little puppy dog. Be wary of using this anywhere
near the shepherd or his sheep..)
Re-Arm (does exactly what it says on the box! Looks like a run down
and abandoned WW2 truck)
Boosterpacks (speed up! Looks like a native hut selling Piña Colada's)
Skunk Bomb (Looks like, well, a skunk… stepping on one of these will
make your VM- smell so bad no other creature will come near you!
-3 COOL)
Teleport (Looks like a Native Stone Head, when activated, allows teleportation
to any other Arena, or, if this Arena is being used on it's own,
to the opposite side of the cavern.
Mint Sauce (can only be found in a very hard to find sunken sub, looks like
a green jam jar, when thrown against an enemy, he will be stained
with green sploshes, and the smell will send the Indestructible
sheep berserk, and they will stampede towards the stained VM at
high speed, no matter WHERE he is, even if he is in another Arena.
Once getting to him, they will trample him for 8 kills damage
to all locations for 1 D 6 turns, then wonder off with their noses
in the air..)
Weapons Power up.(This looks like a big statue of a grinning native carrying a
spear, when activated, it applies a x5 modifier to the damage
of any one attack.. Some sick people have been known to use this
with the infamous mint sauce..)
Air Peaks
 This Arena was constructed with the airborne units in mind, it
is a huge area of open air, with a ceiling set at ten kilometres.
The top section of the Arena has a slightly cloudy sky, with bright
sunlight peaking through, the edges of the Arena are over forty
kilometres apart, anyone going of an edge, will come in at the
opposite edge, with a seamless transition, so as to make it look
continuous. The lower part of the Arena is made up of many, clustered
towering mountain peaks, some slim and sharp, some thick and squat,
all of them poking through a blanket of cloud.
Air Space: This is exactly what it says, a massive expanse of clear open
air, clouds and sun above, blanket of cloud below. But even here
there are hidden dangers, thermals can make a flying VM lose altitude,
or sling them upwards, possibly causing a collision, or putting
them at a disadvantage. Most of the CPU controlled units can be
found in the airspace, The main one being a massive flying airship,
(in the style of Jules Verne's book 'Master of the World'), the
other seem to be flimsy flying machines with mechanical batwings.
Mountain peaks: Large and towering, these many spires make the Arena, they not
only add to the visual aspect of it, but provide cover and make
it that touch more interesting to boost its popularity. VMs can
land on the peaks, indeed some of them are flat topped. Also,
caverns and tunnels run through them, this is where the majority
of the power ups can be found.These caverns provide access to
the Cavern at the center of the Earth Arena when the entire Master
Arena is being used, opening out into a series of cave openings
in the central caverns roof.
Clouds: Forming a layer a kilometre thick, the clouds cut down visual
to virtually nothing, sensor range is reduced by one fifth for
each quarter of a kilometre deep that VMs go. For each quarter
of a kilometre that they go, the chance that they are likely to
meet a large slab of rock goes up, so lower speeds are recommended
when going deep. The clouds also provide access to the two other
Arena's that the Air Peaks are connected to, anyone travelling
below the kilometre boundary, will find themselves eventually
following a mountain slope, and exiting through the bottom of
the cloud bank on Cloudy Mountain in the Lost World Arena. Near
the bottom of the cloud bank, around the base of the mountains
can be found cavern and cave networks, all of which seem to give
off quite a bit of heat, these lead into The Fire Caverns Arena.
Critters..
Battleship Blimp (x100 scale): Crew Quality 10+, Flight MA 10 -3 MR.
Hull has 300 kills, crew section has 200 kills, 3 all locations
have 10 sp armour. Cannon (x4) 7 kills damage, range 5 / 25, Warm
up 3. Bombs 20 kills damage, -3 WA, BR3, drops one every 2 turns.
After taking half damage to the Hull, the Blimps speed will drop
to half, after three-quarters damage, it will slowly start to
float downwards until lost in the clouds, then another one will
regenerate within ten turns and re-appear in the distance. If
however it is destroyed totally, it will not re-generate, plus
it will release a secret power up. The blimps weapons can be individually
targeted and knocked out.
Bat Winged Automatons: Ref 6, Gunnery 4, Dodge 4. Flight MA 15
Body has 8 kills, Wings have 6 kills each, all locations have
4 sp armour. Cannon 5 kills, 4/16 range, warm up 1. These make
up the bulk of the CPU forces, Looking like mechanical bats designed
by a mad scientist from the nineteenth century. Appearing in groups
of three to six, possibly more if the Player VMs are in great
enough quantity, they will constantly regenerate after being destroyed,
but will do so far enough away from the players so it will take
some time for automatons to reach them.
Power Ups
Re-Arm: this will re-arm any ammunition based weaponry, looks like a
crashed transport plane, usually found on a flat topped mountain.
Boosterpacks: This will increase the VMs speed by 5 MA (both land and flight)
and will also add 4 to initiative rolls for its duration of 5
turns.
Teleport: This looks like a large crackling sphere of energy, usually found
in the mountain peaks, but sometimes floating in the cloud layer.
Invisibility: Looks like a glass Bat Winged Automaton, if caught, the VM will
become invisible to everything, for 5 turns.
Clear Sight: Looks like an observatory on one of the mountain tops (conveniently
covered by the upper layers of the clouds as well) For a period
of 1 D6 turns, the Cloud layer becomes totally see through, with
no penalties to vision or sensors.
Weapons Power up: Looks like a large old fashioned artillery piece, when activated
it applies a x5 modifier to the damage of any one attack..
Power of the Storm: can only be retrieved from a totally destroyed Battleship Blimp,
it looks like a clear cube of glass, within which crackles lightning.
It allows the VM to call down a lightning strike of 15 kills,
Added shock, Burst Radius 8 shotgun effect, the activating VM
remains immune. There are 1 D6 shots available before it runs
out.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
 This Arena, was made to contrast the others with a dark and moody
atmosphere, designed with the more older VM fighters in mind,
it contains some quite scary elements, and younger pilots are
warned before using it. Mainly, it is a vast underground sea,
spreading forty kilometres all around (like the Air Peaks,) apart
from the ceiling and floor, which are a mere two kilometres apart.
Huge stalagmites and stalactites loom out of the encroaching gloom,
a hazard to speeding mechs, and there are always things lurking…
waiting…
Water: This is just incredibly dark, all mechs have their sensor range
reduced by half, and if they do not have a Marine Suite, get a
-2 to any awareness roll, or other action involving sensors. However,
any bright light, explosion or other action that gives off light
will act as a beacon, and anyone can spot this at their true sensor
range. So anyone with just beam weaponry and EMW is in a whole
lot of trouble, did I also mention that the denizens of this world
are attracted to light?
Stalagmites, Stalactites: These huge structures act as hidey holes and things to run into,
each one is suffused with caverns and crannies capable of hiding
a mech, or something else, also, a lot of the power ups are located
in these stone monoliths.
Entrances and Exits: In the centre of this Arena is a huge cyclone \ whirlpool that
reaches from the roof of the cavern, to the bottom, this is directly
connected with the whirlpool in the Cavern at the Centre of the
Earth Arena, being the only Entrance/ Exit to that Arena. The
centre of the whirlpool is a column of air approximately 150 meters
across at the top, and fifty meters across where it meets the
sea floor. Non of the restrictions for this arena apply here,
it also acts as a safe haven from any of the denizens, as they
will not enter it. When the Arena is being used on it's own, the
whirlpool just acts as the safe haven. Occasionally on the seafloor
can be seen ruins of some ancient lost civilisation, amongst these
ruins will be huge temples that not only act as lairs for some
creatures, but also contain air pockets. These air pockets if
entered will bring the mech out into one of the several water
pools that are scattered around the Ruined City Cavern Arena.
When this Arena is being used on it's own, the air pockets will
provide a semi-refuge for mechs, from the Denizens. If the players
travel far enough from the centre of the Arena (about twenty or
so kilometres) they will, find that sometimes there will be caves
in the ceiling of the Ocean Cavern. If followed these will bring
the mech out into one of the many deep-water pits that dot the
Nautilus Hideout Arena. When the Arena is being used on it's own,
following the cave systems will just bring you out at another
cave, some distance away.
Critters..
Kracken Squid: Ref 7, Grab things 5, Bite things 3, Dodge 4, Swim MA of 6
Body has 20 kills, Head has 10 kills, Tentacles have 6 kills each
all have 5 sp armour.
Tentacles, there are eight of these, each one can make a 4 kill
entangling attack. The beak will do 6 kills AP, but will only
attack if at least three of the tentacles have made a successful
grab. This is the big monster of the Arena, there is only one,
and she will always start off sleeping wrapped around a stalagmite.
(While sleeping she can only be spotted visually) Any mech going
within 100 metres of her will wake her up, it will take three
turns for her to come fully awake, but in that time she can be
spotted by sensors. Anyone firing weapons at her will bring her
to total alertness instantly, and she will go for them. If at
anytime she takes more than half damage to any location, she will
squirt out a cloud of black ink that makes sensors totally dead,
while in this cloud all actions are by vision alone and at -5.
Then, she will attempt to escape, if successful, she will re-appear
elsewhere in the Arena, totally healed, but asleep and on a stalagmite.
Great Whites: Ref 6, Bite 4, Dodge 4. Swim MA of 5
Body has 4 kills and 3 sp armour Bite 3 kills
These sharks all look emaciated, and all of them have a slightly
mad and rabid gleam in their eyes. They travel around in groups
of three, attacking anything that looks like food (in other words,
anything at all) If there is a fight nearby they will go into
a feeding frenzy and attack all the combatants.
Giant Moray: Ref 7, Attack 5 Dodge 5, Swim MA of 3
Body has 8 kills and 4 sp armour
Bite 5 kills AP, Quick. Entangling attack 5 kills, -3 WA This
eel like predator is the one most likely to be found in the nooks
and crannies, it's thin like body remains still, until it whips
out at any unsuspecting prey (or player!). For some reason it
appears to have natural stealth.
Jolly Roger: Ref 7, Melee 7, Dodge 6 MA 4
Body has 12 kills, Limbs have8 kills, Head has 6 kills, all locations
have 5 sp.
Pirates Cutlass 8kills AP If any mech without under-water protection
enters this Arena, they will here a long spooky laugh, and a ghostly
image of a skeleton warrior in tattered pirate's clothes will
appear briefly, laughing at the pilot. Throughout that mechs time
in this Arena, it will start getting the occasional ghost trace
on it's sensors., and every time the underwater effect disadvantage
comes into play, they will hear a low ominous chuckling heard
inside the cockpit.. If the pilot starts following these ghost
traces, they will eventually come to a massive sunken pirate ship,
looming out of the dark water, it's tattered sails wafting spookily
in the currents. On the deck of the ship can be seen hundreds
of piles of skeletons, all of them locked in a macabre embrace
if the last battle that they fought. Stepping onto the deck will
trigger all the skeletons to form into a massive grinning pirates
skeleton, if the mech manages to defeat it, it will have underwater
protection for the remainder of the game. The skeleton's sword
can also be used, it being space efficienced to 2 spaces. One
side effect of this battle is that the winning mech will have
a huge skull and crossbones plastered across the front and back
torso until the game ends.
Power Ups
Jolly Roger: (see above)
Boosterpacks: This will increase the Mechs speed by 5 MA underwater, and will
also add 4 to initiative rolls for its duration of 5 turns. These
look like shimmering gold barracuda swimming about some of the
stalagmites.
Teleport: This will allow the mech to teleport to any other Arena. It looks
like a treasure chest on the sea floor.
Weapons Power up.: Will give plus five damage to anyone attack, it looks like a
rusted old sword stuck into the rock of the stalagmite, or stalactite.
Fire Caverns
 This Arena was often refered to as the 'Hell' Arena, indeed, it
resembles that place quite well, with its massive towering peaks
of dark rock, lit by the flickering flames of multitudes of glowing
lava pits, some still, some flowing like thick rivers through
and around the Arena. All this is inclosed in a huge cavern measuring
about four kilometres across, with a ceiling two kilometres high,
the flickering shadows are known to trick those in the arena,
by forming into shapes of things that shouldn't be there.
Lava: Tons and tons of molten rock, flowing around the platues and pinnacles,
in the background can allways be heard a low rumbling roaring
sound, caused by this highly dangerous magma, any mech falling
into it recieves six kils of damage to every location, every turn,
until they get out, the lava ignores any form of energy barrier.
Also, any mech flying over lava streams has a chance of being
shot down by a stream of errupting lava that reaches up to them
to do 6 kills of damage to one location.
Dark Pinnacles and Platues: The only safe place to stand, allthough safe is rather a relative
term, any one standing to close to the edge has a chance of a
lava bubble bursting near them and showering them with burning
molten rock, doing five points of damage to three random locations.
The entire set up of the rocks is so that they form a huge series
of connecting tunnels and crags on multiple layers, with many
hidden crannies and places to ambush from.
Entrances and Exits: In the centre of the cavern appears to be a huge updraft of hot
air, suffused with particles of glowing rock, this is not hot
enough to damage a mech, anything flying or stepping into it will
immediatly be swept upwards at a speed of ten hexes a turn, if
the mech does not get out of it they will be sucked into a series
of tunnels in the roof of the cavern and then spewed out (still
going at tem MA per turn) from a volcanic vent in the Air Peaks
Cavern. If the other arenas are not being used, then the network
of tunnels will drop them at a random location in the Arena.
Round the edges of the arena, in some relatively cooler spots
can be found pools of bubbling, steaming water, if jumped into
they will open out into tunnels that will bring the mech out in
the water tunnel system of the Nautilus Hideout Arena.
Some of the tunnel systems leading off the rocks and platues will
open out into a network of corridors, that if followed will start
to show crumbling ancient buildings and eventually open out into
the Lost City Arena.
Critters.
There aren't actually any critters in this arena, the lava and
such being dangerous enough, however, this one arena is open so
that critters from other arenas can wander in...
And somtimes a few scared VM pilots have reported being chased
by a towering demnic form with a flaming whip...
Power Ups
Devil May Care : This looks like a crusted dark treasure chest, if activated it
will allow the mech to ignore the lava for ten turns, even swimming
through the lava streams, undetected.
Boosterpacks: This will increase the Mechs speed by 5 , and will also add 4
to initiative rolls for its duration of 5 turns. These look like
a statue of cloven hooves.
Teleport: This will allow the mech to teleport to any other Arena. It looks
like a glowing orb atop a basalt altar.
Weapons Power up: Will give plus five damage to anyone attack, it looks like a mech
sized pitch fork resting on a huge corroded weapons rack.
Gibber: This looks like a chained up mech sized fire breathing Hellhound,
it will follow whoever collects it and acts like an attack dog,
however it cannot leave the arena, and will stay to consume a
fallen mech if the user scores a kil. Gibber: Reflexes 8,Bite 5, MA 4, Flight MA (bat wings) 8, Damage 5 AP, Body
has 8 kills, each limb has 5 kills and the head has 4 kills, all
have 4 SP.
Lost City
This is another of the buried cavern arenas, allthough it is not
just one single cavern, but several smaller ones connected together
by a network of tunnels. Each of the caverns are about a kilometre
across, with a ceiling of about quarter of a kilometre, there
are five of these caverns linked together. Each of the caverns
is littered with crumbling ancient buildings, from the size of
them, it looks like the inhabitants were Mecha sized.
Ruined Buildings: These range in size from simple one room huts to Massive multi
level Temple complexes full of maze like corridors and dark rooms
with windows looking out over the Ruined City.
City Streets: These range in size from the main through fares of the city centre
to small winding alleys amongst the small over hanging buildings
of back streets.
Entrances and Exits: If some of the larger tunnels around the edge of the cavern are
followed they will bring you out into the Main central Cavern
Arena, or, if some of the smaller ones that have hot venting air
coming from them are followed, they will lead to the Fire Cavern
Arena, If at anytime no other arena is being used, then these
tunnels will lead back to the Ruined City Caverns.
In some of the larger temple buildings there will be massive ornate
pools, these will be deeper than they seem, and some will lead
to a tunnel system that open into the 20,000 Legues Under the
Sea Arena.
Critters..
There is only one type of Critter here, that is the massive mutant
Anacondas.
Anaconda: MA3, REF 7, Attack 4, Dodge 3, Damage 6 kill entangling attack,
8 kills body, 4 kills head, 4 sp armour
There are quite a number of these creatures, all of them wait
quitly and pateintly for their prey to com along, the one escape
from these things is their slow speed.
Also, if a mech does not manage to escape from their grasp within
six turns.. the snake swollows them whole.
Power Ups
Priestly Robes: Also called 'Preach to the Converted' This will allow a mech
to disguise itself as one of the many tall statues around the
caverns, word of warning, Anacondas seem to like using statues
as sleeping points.
Boosterpacks: This will increase the Mechs speed by 5 , and will also add 4
to initiative rolls for its duration of 5 turns. It looks like
feathered head-dress on an alter in some hidden part of the temples.
Teleport: This will allow the mech to teleport to any other Arena. Resembles
a mystical tattered tapestry on one of the temple walls, the picture
on it resembles the place it leads to.
Weapons Power up: Will give plus five damage to anyone attack, it looks like a mech
sized pitch fork resting on a huge corroded weapons rack. Certain
temple alters have priestly statues that will bless you with power.
Snake Charm: Looks like a flute like instrument, when the mech plays it (don't
know how this will look for some mechs!) it sends the target anaconda
into a deep sleep. However, other mechs might be able to spot
you through following the eiry music..
More to come! Any feedback is welcome.
This arena created by Chris Duke |
