Lord Recluse's Helmet
Overview
From the Story Arc "Time after Time" given by Black Scorpion, Scirocco, Ghost Widow, or Captain Mako. Souvenir text differs based on contact that gave mission.
This Souvenir is restricted to villains the level range of 40-44.
Souvenir's Text, Black Scorpion Version
Souvenir's Text, Scirocco Version
Souvenir: Lord Recluse's Helmet
As you hold this battered metal helmet, questions come to your mind. When did it all begin, and when did it end? It's difficult to say, now. In your rise to the pinnacle of villainy, you've done and seen some amazing things. From the moment you broke out of Ziggursky penitentiary to the ruined future you may have averted, even if it was to save your own life. But perhaps nothing will ever eclipse the moment this helmet commemorates, the moment when you fought and defeated Lord Recluse himself after a strange series of events you remember as:
Time after Time
The time had finally come to begin Operation: DESTINY, and Scirocco told you that you would be the central figure of it. Some time ago, Lord Recluse had found a way into a possible future where he triumphed over Statesman, but he couldn't find a way to make that future real. The Fortunatas had used their powers of foresight to tell Recluse he needed two things: First, he had to build a better time-portal, one keyed to a specific individual that could access a wider span of possibly futures. Secondly, he had to find a villain destined to rise up from nothing and become one of the most powerful villains in the world. Recluse believed you were that Villain, and that you were the Destined One who will change his fate and alter the course of history. The DESTINY portal was ready, and Lord Recluse was eager to see his destiny realized.
Unfortunately, the DESTINY portal was stuck at a particular point in time and space, about 15 years into the future. You traveled to that strange tomorrow to find a lab in the middle of a ruined city, a lab run by Dr. Aeon! Aeon tried to kill you, but managed to escape before you could bring him down. You still got his journal and some notes on his computers, which was full of information he'd gleaned through laborious study. Information about you and your history in the Rogue Isles. Dr. Aeon had deliberately diverted you to this point in time and space, but why?
You got permission from Arbiter Daos to bring Dr. Aeon in for questioning. After you caught him, he said a lot of strange things, about how he'd been told this would all happen by Professor Echo. Echo had also told him to tell you to speak with Diviner Maros, the rogue Circle of Thorns seer. Aeon continued to babble about fate and destiny, even after you handed him over to Arachnos. However, Arbiter Daos cleared him of all charges in the attack on you. Something wasn't adding up, and the answers just might be with a mad Circle Sorcerer.
Talking to Maros was strange, but helpful. Somewhere in that tangled train wreck of non-linear thought he told you that Lord Recluse had written a journal about You, Operation: DESTINY, and other things. Maros even showed you where it could be found. You entered the facility and stole the journals, as well as the books of ciphers needed to understand them. Scirocco later told you that when those journals were stolen it set off alarms all throughout Arachnos, but he was just as curious about their content, and so sent them to be deciphered by outside specialists he knew from his days as a 'Freedom Fighter'.
Before the journals could be deciphered, you were sent through the DESTINY portal again, to the anticipated future where Arachnos had triumphed over all. Scirocco had arranged for someone to meet you then, and suggested you find Dr. Aeon as well. What you found was a world destroyed. Eukrisal still existed, and told you what had caused the end of the world. After you helped Recluse defeat Statesman and the heroes of Paragon City, the entire world was engulfed in war until all that was left were the dead, the ghosts, and a few pitiful survivors. When you found Dr. Aeon again, he escaped into the past, no doubt to begin his career as Professor Echo in a futile attempt to stop your rise to power. But he left behind another journal, this one with a theory for how this might all be stopped if you could somehow defeat Lord Recluse without causing a rift within Arachnos. And when you returned to the past, Scirocco's associates had finished deciphering the journals. Lord Recluse had known all along about what might happen, and had decided to risk the fate of the world on being able to kill you when the time came.
If Dr. Aeon was right, you could adjust the DESTINY Portal to send you to a point in a possible near future where you could battle Lord Recluse without risking a civil war in Arachnos in the present. It took some false paperwork and a few choice words, but soon it was done.
You stepped through the portal and returned to the blasted ruins of Paragon City in the future you would have been killed to make. The battle was without honor, mercy, or pity; but in the end you prevailed. Lord Recluse was defeated. You pried the helmet off his head, and returned to the present day.
Recluse understood the threat. But he was not angry. Instead, he congratulated you. He said that you had become more than a mere tool, but were now a true villain, wielding power over all and beholden to none. And when you look into dark interior of this helm, you know that he was right.
Souvenir's Text, Ghost Widow Version
Lord Recluse's helmet
You have kept Lord Recluse's helmet as a badge of distinction. No one who sees it fails to fall on his knee before you, but for you it's more than a symbol of power. It's a reminder of the adventure you like to call:
Time After Time
It began when Ghost Widow asked you to take a more active role in Operation DESTINY. You would enter the experimental Arachnos portal, and bring back knowledge of the future. But when you stepped into the portal, something strange happened. There was a sound, and a blinding light, and before you knew it, you were fighting for your life against Dr. Aeon!
After getting permission from Arbiter Daos, you questioned Dr. Aeon. He insisted he had nothing to do with your strange experience, but claimed he had been visited by a Dr. Echo, who wanted to forestall your terrible future.
Just what was your terrible future? Ghost Widow knew some people who might have the answer. They were that Arachnos center of prognostication, and you went to visit them at once. There, you learned through force that should Operation: DESTINY succeed, it would risk the destruction of the entire world unless you were killed And Lord Recluse had planned for this all along.
Ghost Widow helped you to confirm this by sending you to a future in which you had succeeded in gaining power. It was a barren wasteland inhabited only by tormented ghosts.
It was true. You goose was cooked. In order to ensure Arachnos' future, Lord Recluse would surely have to eliminate you. Ghost Widow had grown quite fond of you, and even though she could never betray Arachnos or it's master, she presented you with a plan: you could speak with Grant Naylor and see if he could provide you with a way to escape into the multiverse. You spoke with Grant, all right, but following the hints that Ghost Widow had been dropping, you had him whip up a method that wouldn't help you to flee, but would instead send you into the future, at the moment of Lord Recluse's victory. You can't fight Recluse in the here and now without starting the civil war within Arachnos that spark the end of the world you saw, but if you were able to defeat him then, it could dissuade him in the present and prevent it all from happening.
It wasn't easy beating down the big man, but it was worth it. Now you have the respect--and fear--of every single person on the Rogue Isles.