Arc: Gems in Greenfell
Structure
Exposition
A Skipper in Skipinley
After failing to stop the Demon in Saltash, the party are told to journey to Greenfell by the mysterious trader known as Taz. He told them that in order to defeat the Demon, they would need to grow more powerful, and told them that the Island of Greenfell had more information on the Catalyst Gems they'd collected so far. He gave them a mysterious letter, which they were told to give to a Captain Riptide in Skipinley, who would help them get to Greenfell. Upon arriving, however, the party found that Flicker, Captain Riptide's first mate, had gone missing. The party found a note from someone named Vandtarn Brine, blackmailing Flicker and telling him to go to a warehouse in Skipinley. The party found Flicker, saved him from a water trap, and escaped from the Gatrinhian Government with Riptide on the Valtis. The Valtis sailed towards Greenfell, with a large ship in pursuit, when suddenly a mechanical sea serpent destroyed the other ship. The party then defeated the sea serpent when it attacked them, and passed through Greenfell's Illusory Veil, revealing that Greenfell Island was actually an archipelago.Rising Action
The Shimmering Isle
The party met a subcrew of the notorious Eeker crew on the Shimmering Isle, who seemed to be enslaving the island's satyr inhabitants and tearing apart the island looking for a "Fountain of Plenty." The party defeated the pirates and were able to search for the fountain themselves, which they found. They then discovered that the fountain was actually an illusion created by the Copper Gem, which they acquired. However, none of the party members were able to attune to the Copper Gem.Eeker Cove
Next the party journeyed to Eeker Cove in order to figure out what was actually going on in Greenfell. It is here that they met some of the archipelago's more powerful inhabitants. They met Beeker, the pirate lord, and Seeker the Wise. Seeker knew more than he was letting on, and the pair asked the party to journey to the Ruined Isle in order to rescue some of their crew members, which were captured by the the Engineer. The party accepted the task as a way for them to lessen the Cult of Chroma's influence in Greenfell.The Ruined Isle
The party journeyed to the Ruined Island and were met with Bruiser and Doink, who captured the party and led them as prisoners into the Undercity. The party stopped an assassination attempt on Dreamer, a popular political figure in the city who advocated for democracy. They then figured out the lies of the monarchist Advisor and exposed his conspiracy to sell the Undercity to the Engineer. He did this in return for the Engineer's help in saving the Golden Dragon, Anksto, whom he believed to be alive on Breathfire Island. However, the Engineer had no intention of honoring this deal. The party defended the Undercity from the Engineer's forces, led by Advisor, and later learn that the Engineer had escaped to the Roaring Island. However, before attacking him, they first decided to try to track down Anksto, in order to ask for his help. They also received a call from RBOSTI, which seemed to be ordering their return to the organization's headquarters in Torleigh, however, the party did not heed this call.Breathfire Island
The party travelled to Breathfire Island, where they defeated a non-sentient warforged soldier which was guarding the volcano's inner chamber. The party are then surprised by Ukar's ability to unlock a bioscanner leading deeper into the volcano. They attempted to save Anksto, whom they found trapped in a magical binding in the bottom of Mt. Breathfire. However, they quickly learn that Anksto was being guarded by a Warforged Goliath, whom they had to defeat before saving the dragon. They defeated the Goliath in a difficult battle, where Heigolor used the cave environment to great effect—shooting down stalactites to damage the Goliath. After the fight, the party healed Anksto as much as they could, who was able to recover enough to shapeshift into a warforged form—which allowed him to escape his bonds. They then carried Anksto to his hoard, where he was able to recover more. He rewarded them by sharing a brief overview of the Metallic Order and the terrible Night Terror. In addition to this, he also fixed the Golden Gem, which allowed the gem's Inhabitor—Pirmas Karalius—to speak to the party. The party then decided to journey to the Roaring Island and confront the Engineer.The Roaring Island
Once on the Roaring Island, the Party worked with Hunter, a warforged inhabitant of the island, to journey to the center of the island into Crafter's Laboratory. They discovered the locations of the remaining Catalyst Gems, found Crafter, and learned information about the Gems, Metallic Order, and eventually Guardians from him. They then confronted the Engineer. They managed to disabled the Engineer, at which point Ukar began to interrogate him about the disappearance of his husband. However, the Engineer was unresponsive to this—instead insulting Ukar's husband—which led to Ukar brutally murdering him. Afterwards, Crafter showed the party the Colossus Guardian of Greenfell, which he decided—with the help of the party—to dismantle as soon as possible. He then gave them the Brass Gem. Crafter asked them how they intended to deal with the Captain, whom he's seen has used Greenfellian Technology to upgrade his warship. He suggested that the party go to Whisperwood Island in order to upgrade their own vessel, and retrieve the Bronze Gem, before attempting to confront the Captain. He told them that once they got to Whisperwood, to ask for livingwood, which would make their hull more resilient. Then, their RBOSTI sending stone began to glitch out again.Whisperwood Island
Once on Whisperwood Island, the party attempted to convince the tribe of Woodforged to help them upgrade the Valtis and give them the Bronze Gem. They also found a rich ecosystem of biological life on Whisperwood Island, but nothing seemed quite right. The Woodforged on the island boasted about how they singlehandedly brought biological life back to Greenfell, but the trees whispered and moved, and the animals always seemed to be watching the party. When the party attempted to gain the help of the Woodforged, they were granted an audience with their leader, Adapter. Adapter had a crow named Pikvarn—whom acted somewhat as his advisor. It would later revealed that Pikvarn was actually an evil Deep Crow shrouded in illusion. They also learned about an infection spreading through the heart of the forest, and the Conduit—a giant tree in the center of the island, that happens to be situated on a magical leyline. They journeyed through the Conduit and fought a doppleganger of Heigolor—which revealed sensitive information to the other members of the party. This caused a schism to develop between Heigolor, Elandril, and Ukar, with Ukar feeling as though Heigolor and Elandril could not be trusted. However, they put their differences aside for the time being, in order to save the Conduit. It was revealed that Pikvarn was actually the one poisoning the Conduit, and was nesting in its heart. They defeated the Pikvarn, and found the Bronze Gem hidden deep within the heart of the Conduit. They spoke with it's Inhabitor, who attuned to Elandril. The Copper Gem also attuned to Micnik during this encounter. Afterwards, they were able to show the Woodforged the error of their ways, and convinced them to upgrade the Valtis. They then decided to go after the Silver Gem on the Frozen Isles. Once again, their RBOSTI sending stone began to glitch, although, they were able to make out a few more words this time.The Frozen Isles
On their journey to the Frozen Isles, Micnik and Ukar attempted to force Heigolor and Elandril to give up the details of their backstory. After a brief fight, they were ultimately successful, with Heigolor and Elandril deciding that their secret was not worth the danger of the party. The party went to sleep for a short amount of time before they were awoken by Captain Riptide, who saw a huge shadow in the water, coming towards them. A huge Clockwork Sea Serpent, bigger than the last one they fought, burst up from the water and began attacking the Valtis. They were able to weaken it using the ship's cannons, but the Valtis took heavy damage. About halfway through the fight, they saw the Captain's ship heading towards them. It quickly reached them, and rather than fighting them, it helped them defeat the serpent by blasting a hole through it with the ship's lightning launcher. After defeating the sea serpent, the Valtis was heavily damaged. The Captain boarded the Valtis, and, with his entourage of dragonforged, the Captain told the party that—unless they want the Valtis to be sunk—they and Captain Riptide will accompany the him to the Frozen Isles. He tells them that—"out of respect for Riptide"—if they comply, the Valtis would be allowed to repair and dock safely at the main Frozen island. Originally however, the party did not put up much of a fight, due to the Captain's charismatic nature—and skill at spinning a narrative. Only after the party journeyed through a completely abandoned warforged village did they begin to question the nature of the Captain, ultimately deciding him to be evil. When an opportunity presented itself, Ukar decided to repulse the Captain into the chasm he demanded they help him cross. The Captain suspected this however, and used magic to lighten his fall into the chasm, where he ultimately found the Dragon Guardian lying frozen in the depths below. He decided to wait there, for the party to take the Silver Gem, and release the Guardian. The party was able to defeat the Silver Gem's defenses, and acquire the gem, releasing the Guardian. They were at this time, unaware of the Captain's survival.Climax
After stowing away on the newly released Dragon Guardian, the party quickly found out that the Captain had survived his fall and was controlling the Guardian.
Falling Action
The Captain attempted to use the defenses of the Guardian in order to kill the party, however they managed to dodge danger and reach the Head of the Guardian, where the Captain tried to placate them once more. However, when it seemed inevitable for his placation to fail, he resorted to threatening the party. The party held steadfast, and they began to fight the Captain. Although, the Captain was an extremely skilled dualist and managed to get many of the party members close to death. In a heroic decision, Heigolor decided to sacrifice himself to give the party a chance at defeating the Captain. Heigolor used fireball on the Captain—and himself in the process—which weakened greatly. The Captain then shot Heigolor, killing him. Knowing at this point that he was not going to survive, he activated the Guardian's self-destruct sequence. The party, enraged at Heigolor's death, then rushed at the Captain, and managed to kill him.
Resolution
After the Captain's demise, the party was forced to make the impossible decision of where to crash the quickly descending Dragon Guardian. Ultimately, they chose the Kraken's Maw, which destroyed the Kraken Guardian, and wiped out an entire civilization of seaforged—who had been living in an underwater cavern under the Kraken's Maw. However, the party did not have prior knowledge of this civilization's existence. The crash also caused a tsunami which partially flooded the Undercity, killing an estimated 3,000 warforged. The party then spoke with the newly formed government of Greenfell. Dreamer would become the Head of State, her love Beeker as the Secretary of the Navy, Crafter as the Secretary of Defense, and Adapter as the Secretary of Biological Reintroduction. The party left the archipelago on good terms with the Government of Greenfell. The party finally decided to heed RBOSTI's call, and travel back to the organization's headquarters at Torleigh. Captain Riptide and the rest of the Valtis decided to continue travelling with the party to Torleigh, where they discovered the ruins of RBOSTI, destroyed by Steve George. They discovered that message calling the party back to RBOSTI HQ was a ploy to execute all of the members of the organization at one time. Leafy and Barthlomew are dead. Jebediah Stevens is MIA.
Completion Date
June 11th, 2022
June 11th, 2022
Plot type
Arc
Parent Plot
Subplots
Related Characters
Related Organizations
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