The Fall of Fidelia: Arc Summary
A crazed inventor tries to destroy an entire city as an act of revenge. Four heroes emerge to curb the destruction.
Structure
Exposition
The Tulips, consisting of the fighter Pip McGonagal, the paladin S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜, and the wizard Thyck Thotticus, woke up in Badger's Inn, having no memory of how they got there. They found they each had matching tulip sigils on their wrists, accompanied by letters telling them to stay together.
Eventually, the group met Stella and Benjamin Fortier, the father-daughter duo behind Badger's Inn. From them, they learned that they are in the city of Fidelia. The three of them were found on the northern border of Ausra. Benjamin found them on his way back from a supply trip, and decided to take them with him to ensure they weren't killed or eaten.
From the Fortiers, the Tulips learn that the city of Fidelia is no longer safe. Monsters roam the streets, people are disappearing, and no one has any explanation for what's going on.
While staying at the Inn, McGonagal got roped into a fighting ring with a few Fidelian citizens. During the fight, one of the citizens morphed into a horrific, deformed monster, stole Stella, and vanished into the night. The Tulips went after the monster, eventually discovering a trail leading them to the catacombs of the city.
There, they discovered various things of interest. For one, there were blueprints for some sort of invention, written in an indecipherable inventor's shorthand, as well as a piece taken from an unknown project. While in the catacombs, the Tulips were able to successfully defeat the mutated monster and rescue Stella.
Eventually the group gives the blueprints and project piece to Kimberly Cane, an up-and-coming inventor down on his luck, to decipher. Through their investigations throughout the city, the group discovers that the disease harming the residents of Fidelia is a mutated version of the Deadly Raven disease, an affliction that killed millions years earlier.
The affliction was cured by the famous inventor Maxwell Fenwick, who for some time had not lived in Fidelia.
Conflict
Shortly after giving the blueprints and project piece to Kimberly Cane, the three Tulips heard a commotion outside in the Fidelian Town Square. When they went down to investigate, they discovered a series of corpses all laid out in the square, all bearing their individual inventor's symbols.
It seemed that whoever was behind the rampaging monsters and the resurgence of the Deadly Raven was targeting the inventors competing at the Exhibition. Included in the corpses here was Stella's mother Sophie. The Tulips managed to successfully calm the crowd of inventors, encouraging them to stick together, keep each other safe, make sure no one went anywhere alone. Use the buddy system.
While there, the wizard Thyck Thotticus wandered off towards a pitch black building on the town square. There, he managed to infiltrate the Informer's Guild, a specialized force tasked with informing the people of Fidelia about important events within the city. The Tulips made connections with this helpful resource, learning that Maxwell Fenwick had not lived in Fidelia for a very long time, and that after the death of his partner Henry Olmsted, he had not behaved quite the same, either.
Henry Olmsted's body was never found. People just assumed he was dead after he fled town and never resurfaced. It was rumored that Olmsted was a fraudulent inventor, and that's why he abandoned Fidelia so quickly.
After leaving the Informer's Guild, the three saw a figure watching them from afar. When they tracked that figure down, they came upon a fortune teller's abode, and there, they met Amihan, a tiefling who seemed to bear the same Tulip marking as they did.
Amihan and the Tulips started off on the wrong foot, as the first thing Amihan did when they had the Tulips cornered was read their memories to see into their respective pasts.
This was merely out of curiosity, but certainly, it gave off the wrong first impression.
Amihan told the Tulips about a vision they had in which they all died. However, Amihan also knew from their visions that the Tulips were the key to saving Fidelia, and despite being an agent of chaos, Amihan wanted to warn them.
This is my city, said Amihan, and I would hate to see it fall to such ruin.Amihan then told the Tulips that Maxwell Fenwick was back in town, after many years of not living within the walls of Fidelia.
Fenwick has the answers you seek, Amihan told the Tulips. Go find him.And with a snap of their fingers, the Tulips were back in the town square. After asking Benjamin for directional help, they were able to find Maxwell Fenwick's old house. When they arrived, it was clear there had been some sort of scuffle. The gates to his home were completely broken down and blood lay in the courtyard.
Rising Action
Upon entering onto the grounds of Maxwell Fenwick's home, the three fought one of the mutated beasts alongside, who would have guessed it, Fenwick. He had evidently returned to Fidelia to see what was wrong with the city.
When the Tulips killed the mutated beast, in a panic, he told them that his partner Henry Olmsted was actually still alive, had stolen his cure for the Deadly Raven disease, and retreated deep into the house. So, the Tulips, accompanied by Fenwick, fought their way through his house.
Eventually, the Tulips came across the aarakocra Pharos, who for some reason was trapped and suspended within one of the rooms in Fenwick's home. After this incident, Pharos became a regular member of the Tulips.
When the Tulips reached Maxwell Fenwick's inner sanctum, they realized that everything Fenwick told them outside was a lie.
In reality, the real Maxwell Fenwick's body was being preserved inside the Fenwick Laboratory, and Henry Olmsted, the ousted inventor, had taken his place, using an amplified version of the spell Shapechange to pretend to be Fenwick all these years. Furthermore, the Tulips learned that Olmsted had been stealing and sabotaging inventions from Kimberly Cane for decades, and that's why Kimberly was a consistent failure at the Exhibition year after year.
Olmsted then trapped the Tulips within the inner sanctum, and revealed to them his plan to unleash the Deadly Raven disease across all of Fidelia at the Inventor's Exhibition, to take vengeance on the city that had turned its back on him. He would be using an invention meant to spread the disease out to all corners of the city. However, he was going to pin the blame on Kimberly Cane.
After all, Olmsted said, you gave him all the evidence necessary.Truly, the Tulips had handed Kimberly the blueprints for Olmsted's destructive device, as well as a piece broken off of it. Olmsted had already called the Fidelian Guard on Kimberly, who was arresting him as the Tulips were trapped inside his Sanctum. Trapped and unable to escape, Olmsted injected all four of them with the mutated strain of the Deadly Raven disease, and left them to die in the Sanctum, trapped with two of the mutated beasts.
Climax
The Tulips, after being injected by the serum, entered into an infected red space, where they are forced to confront mental entities from their past. Each of them managed to overpower the effects of the serum and escape the Inner Sanctum. However, the Inventor's Exhibition was well underway, and they didn't have a lot of time.
The Tulips quickly broke the real Maxwell Fenwick out of the chamber that Olmsted was keeping him in, informed him of the situation, and brought him with them as proof of Olmsted's nefarious deeds.
It quickly became apparent that Henry Olmsted, disguised as Maxwell Fenwick, informed the Fidelian Guards that the Tulips were somehow involved in the mutant monsters. Multiple guards were patrolling the various corridors of Fidelia, so the Tulips had to sneak their way to the Exhibition, which was being held in the Fidelian Coliseum.
Thyck Thotticus burned a random building, which distracted several guards, allowing the Tulips to get closer to the Coliseum.
When they got there, the Tulips continued their stealth mission, splitting up to cover more ground. Thyck Thotticus went with Pharos, and S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜ stayed with McGonagal. Thyck and Pharos took the fake Maxwell Fenwick with them, to keep him safe. McGonagal and S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜ entered directly from the front with the help of Thelma, the leader of the Informer's Guild, while Thyck and Pharos managed to lie and convince Coliseum officials that they were janitors.
With the help of the Informers, McGonagal and S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜ were able to get some members of the audience out of the Coliseum. When the fake Maxwell Fenwick began his presentation, however, they started making their way closer to the stage. Meanwhile, Thyck and Pharos were manuevering their way through the Coliseum's underbelly to get to the stage from below. Their plan was to break through the stage with the real Maxwell Fenwick in tow to expose Henry Olmsted's deeds.
When McGonagal and S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜ reached the stage, they had a brief confrontation with Henry Olmsted-disguised-as-Maxwell, in front of the crowd, in which Olmsted denied McGonagal and S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜'s allegations of fraud and murder. During this altercation, Pharos managed to successfully break through the stage. Unfurling his wings, the audience was able to see the true Maxwell Fenwick standing there before him.
Desperate, Henry Olmsted injected himself with the mutated Deadly Raven disease, transforming himself into one of the mutated monsters.
The four Tulips engaged him in combat, and eventually, Pip McGonagal dealt the final blow, stabbing him through the chest. As his blade made contact, Henry Olmsted transformed back into a man. The threat was over.
Falling Action
In the aftermath, the Tulips left the Coliseum and went to free Kimberly Cane, who had been framed.
After revealing that Kimberly Cane had been behind the majority of Henry Olmsted's inventions, the city of Fidelia showered him with praise. Overnight, Kimberly Cane went from being the worst inventor in Antarah to one of Antarah's legendary inventors. Maxwell Fenwick, very impressed by the boy's work, took him under his wing.
They then went back to Badger's Inn, where Benjamin expressed his eternal gratitude to the boys for saving his daughter and his city.
Resolution
Following the death of Henry Olmsted, the Tulips spent a few more weeks in Fidelia, helping rebuild the city in various ways. Their last day in Fidelia was Oghma's Day, a tradition celebrated by Fidelians where they have a grand festival to honor their patron god Oghma.
During this festival, the Tulips participated in a variety of activities. During an automobile race, they won a Maxwell Fenwick vehicle that they promptly named Delilah. Pip McGonagal kept Badger's Inn running by running a cooking lesson while Benjamin practiced for the dance competition with his daughter. Pharos attended a lecture by Fenwick and Olmsted, Thyck won a magical duel, and S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜ had a run-in with a shady salesman named Steven Dreamer, who gave him some pretty dubious potions.
In the middle of the dance competition, the Tulips saw apparitions of themselves running through the crowd. When they caught up to those apparitions, they said:
You are needed. Go to the Wastes, go to the town of hope. As always, stay together.Later, the boys discovered that the apparitions were from Amihan, who wanted to announce their next mission dramatically. They also discovered, while at Amihan's fortune teller's shop, a table with symbols representing the four of them engraved on it. When they sat at the table, they were introduced to Lorelai, the leader of an ancient organization known as The Root: a group of heroes scattered across all Antarah. Lorelai was the one who had been sending them letters throughout their mission in Fidelia. Lorelai asked the Tulips to consider joining The Root, and provided them with a letter to do so. If they burned the letter, they would be inducted into the group. The Tulips left to consider this proposition. Before leaving Fidelia, the Tulips Pharos and Thyck went to the Fidelian Library to see what records they could find on the town of Hope. What they discovered was that the town of Hope hadn't existed in hundreds of years, and when they asked Benjamin about it, he told them it was an old wives' tale, meant to scare children to slumber: the town of Hope is where people go if they wander too far off. And then, they never return. Regardless, Benjamin supported the boys on their mission, and provided them with his tradesman's card to grant them safe passage through the Wastes. He told them to find his friend Pembra, the leader of the Doll Clan, who might be able to tell him more about Hope, and where to find it.
Relations
Protagonists
The Tulips: Pip McGonagal, S̷͍̲̹̞̿̄ŭ̶̧̦͕̩͕̭n̷̨͕̠̠̞͖̮͎̯̂̇͊͆̆́̽͘͝s̵̡̧̗̤̲̣̯̃̾̉t̷̢͖̻͕̭͎̍͂͠ṛ̸̘̖̹̳̖͂͐͊͋̕̚͠ͅi̴̛̜͎̲̹̯̝̰̭̎̇͐̈͂͐ḓ̷͔̩̋͐͛͝e̶̟̻̮̤̹͋ͅř̸̞̗͉̙̩͚͌͜, Pharos, Thyck
Allies
Maxwell Fenwick, Kimberly Cane, The Informer's Guild, The Fortiers, Amihan
Adversaries
Henry Olmsted
Plot type
Arc Summary
Related Characters
Related Organizations
Comments