ACT 2 - Chapters 10 - 11 + Conclusion

Chapter 10

The scene opens with ship approaching land, coming through a thick veil of fog. After this, the boat lands and the party exits. They look before and stand in awe at the ruins of the great Aldan city. A cinematic montage will play as they walk into the city, showing the fallen architecture. They will see skyscrapers, modern roadways in decay, vehicles and skyways (high overpasses), futuristic gardens, robotic machines, broken metal signposts, and downed flying vehicles. The entire city will be in a state of decay and destruction, with overgrowth covering most of the city. The title “Archaia: Ruined Capital of Alda” will appear and then fade. The camera will go back to the party and they will be totally amazed to see such buildings and futuristic things (like cars). They’ll walk along a street and Avery will run to a downed vehicle to try and start, with no luck. He’ll say that they’ll need to get there on foot. Arc asks where they’re going and he’ll say that they need to go to The Science & Research Facility to try and pinpoint the locations of the cannons, and maybe they could find some other interesting things there. Control is given to the player and they will have freedom to explore the city. There, of course, will be no shops or people selling items, so the party will need to rely on finding items lying around in destroyed houses and hidden areas. A mark will be placed on the minimap indicating where the Facility is located. There will be many different ways to get where they need to go as the city will be a large area to explore. Along the way, the party will encounter robotic ‘sentinels’ that activate when they party approaches them, they will need to be fought and destroyed. Once the player navigates the party to the Facility, they will enter and Avery will say that they need to access the computer systems. As they walk through the entrance, they start to look around them at all the futuristic machinery and architecture. The title “Aldan Science and Research Facility” will appear and then fade. Avery finds a nearby computer terminal and remarks that there’s no power anywhere (which will probably be pretty apparent by now) and that if they want to locate the cannons, they’ll need to power the systems. Confused, the party asks what he means (they have no idea what he’s talking about) and Avery will explain that when he lived in Alda, the Arvalis powered everything as an infinite source of power. It powered all their technology from computers to vehicles to home appliances; everything! In order to get power, they will need Arvalis power and they currently have the Key which is a part of the Arvalis. He explains that when Ghallus destroyed Alda, he left with the Arvalis and must have removed it as a power source, therefore the entire continent shut down. He then says that at the lowest floor there is a machine the once housed the Arvalis, and that if they can insert the Key into the machine, they may get power again. Control is given to the player and they must navigate their way to the lowest level of the facility, none of the elevators will work and they must take stairs. There will be monsters and sentinels along the way to fight. As they descend, the party will encounter various rooms with machines and large monuments, if the player approaches some of these things, Avery will tell the party what they used to do or what they were for. One of these things will be an anti-gravity engine, about the size of a pocket watch, they used for flying vehicles, trains, and aircraft (They never invented gasoline of fuel because everything was powered by the Arvalis). Once they reach the lowest level, they will enter an expansive, wide open room. From the doorway where they enter they must walk along a metal walkway that crosses over a deep pit. In the center of the room there is a massive machine with gigantic tubes coming out of it from every direction. This is where the Arvalis was kept, and used for powering the entire continent. The walkways will be the only accessible areas and they must navigate along them towards the center of the room. From the center they must take a staircase down towards the ‘axis hub’. Upon reaching the hub, Avery will open a hatch that leads inside the machine. He says that someone will need to go inside and place the Key on the ‘axis’, once they do, they’ll need to get out as fast as they can before the Key fully charges up, otherwise they might die from the radiation (or some other fatal effect). Arc volunteers. Control is given to the player and they must direct Arc through the entrance and into a corridor until he finds the axis. A short scene will play with Arc placing the Key in the axis. Suddenly, there will be a loud whirring as the hub begins to power on. The Key will light up and continue to get brighter and brighter. Things keep getting louder and more menacing as everything begins to wake up. A timer will appear in the corner of the screen counting down 30 seconds, control is given to the player and they must get Arc out of the reactor as soon as possible. If the player doddles and the timer runs out before exiting, it will result in a game over. Once Arc is out, Avery will shut and seal the door behind him. The camera will pan out and show the room lighting up as power returns and walkways will be lined with lights as well. Avery will say that the Facility should have full power now and to go find a computer. Control is given to the player and a mark will be placed on the minimap indicating where they need to go. If they try to access any computer, Avery will simply say that it’s not the right computer. Elevators will be accessible at this time as well and the player can freely travel to any of the floors previously visited without having to use the stairs. Once the player has reached the where the minimap indicates, Avery will access a terminal and a large holographic screen will appear, showing all kinds of information. He’ll type in some things and eventually a map of the city will appear and it will zoom in on a place called The Temple of Korazel. The screen will point out numerous cannons scattered around the temple. Avery will say that’s where they need to go next. He then notices a playable video of that location from the day Alda was destroyed. He presses a button and the screen fills with the video, the party gathers to watch it. The video shows a much younger Ghallus in the temple as Aldan citizens surround it with the cannons. They can hear people shouting in a different language, and others in their own language. Ghallus comes out of the temple to see what the commotion is, when suddenly a cannon fires at him with a concussive blast of pure energy and light. Ghallus blocks it with a force field and looks bewildered and confused. Ghallus stretches out his hand towards the man who fired the cannon and his body disintegrates as he screams. He looks around at the other men with cannons and begins to float in the air. He begins to kill people using the power of the Arvalis and calls down pillars of light on them that vaporize them instantly. The men continue to blast the cannons at him and Ghallus continues to deflect them. Soon even more men come and Ghallus seems overpowered when suddenly he vanishes. The men look confused until they see him reappear above the Temple in the air. He looks around and looks furious. The camera shows him lift up his hands and the ground begins to shake. Desperately the men begin shooting at him with the cannons but nothing seems to land on him and it begins to look futile. The camera then shows a montage of people starting to slowly disintegrate as a violent earthquake takes the city. Buildings start to topple and roads split. The video then shows Ghallus summoning the Arvalis into a small box hanging around his waist, and instantly all the power leaves Alda and aircraft begin to fall from the sky, and vehicles crash and run off the roads as they lose all power and control. Everyone eventually either dies from the destruction or is vaporized by Ghallus. The camera then shows a large boulder crashing down on it and the feed cuts out, ending the video. Everyone in the room watching the video is horrified, most with tears in their eyes. Triss is crying and Avery is on the floor, just witnessing the calamity of his own people and homeland. After a long silence, Arc says that Ghallus needs to be stopped at any cost, and that he needs to pay for what he did. Avery stands up and says that he’ll help them by giving them everything they need to take him down. Frith remarks that they should head for the temple to get the cannons. The party gathers and control is given to the player. A mark is placed on the minimap and they must now navigate back out of the Facility and through the city towards the temple. There will be monsters and sentinels along the way to fight. Eventually the party will come to unclimbable cliff and wonder what to do, then Avery will say he has an idea and runs off down a street. He soon returns flying a small vehicle, able to take them up the cliff to the temple. He says that now that some power has returned, he’s able to use the vehicles. He then flies them up to the temple and the party views it in all its ruinous glory. A very short montage will play showing the area and the title “Grand Temple of Korazel” will appear and then fade. Control will be given to the player and they must explore the temple until coming across a few cannons. Avery will go to them saying that they must be them and tinkers with them to see if they still work. Before he can finish, the ground begins to rumble and behind them, a massive sentinel wakes up, unveiling itself from underneath centuries of overgrowth and rubble. The sentinel stand at nearly four stories tall and it says “UNAUTHORIZED INTRUDERS IN THE COURTYARD, LEAVE OR FACE IMMEDIATE EXECUTION”. The party starts to panic (except Frith, of course) and tell Avery to hurry up. The sentinel repeats itself three more times until a loud alarm sounds and it can be seen preparing to exterminate. A boss fight will begin and the party must try to defeat it. In order to win the battle, they must run around it attracting its target until it blasts with a massive laser. The party must try to get the sentinel to fire at areas in the temple the cause more rubble to fall on it. It won’t destroy it by any means but it the real point is to distract away from Avery while he works on the cannons. Eventually, Avery will call for the party to evacuate and he’ll fire the cannon at the sentinel, effectively destroying it and sending it tumbling off the cliff into the ruins below. Afterwards, a short scene will show the party regrouping and rejoicing at their victory. Avery will say that he figured out how the cannons work and that they should work against Ghallus if they can get the drop on him. He shouldn’t be expecting anything like this. Arc looks hopeful and vengeful, saying that Ghallus is going to get what’s coming to him. Dyne worries that it won’t work because they saw what happened in the video, that a lot of people with cannons tried to do this and failed, resulting in their extinction, how can they expect it to work? Finn answers by saying that it just has to, because there’s no other way. The next scene shows them loading the cannons onto a flying vehicle and heading back to where their ship is. As they begin to fly away, the scene fades to black.

Chapter 11

The scene open with the flying vehicle parked on the shore next to the ship. The party is transferring the cannons to the ship while Avery sets them up and attaches them so that they can be fired from the main deck. A few moments later, everything is finished. Avery, Arc, and Finn leave in the vehicle to go and retrieve the Key of Alda from within the Facility and the party decides to rest on the ship. The fades and reopens with them arriving at the Facility. Avery says they need to go back and get the Key before leaving. Control is given to the player and they can now explore the facility in its entirety. Every door will be able to open and all the elevators will be operational. As they explore, there will be very rare items to find, including healing technology and even supercharged weapons. When the player is ready to continue, they must navigate to the basement level and go to the Axis Hub. Avery will open a circuit panel and manually shut off the reactor. After which, Arc will once again enter the reactor chamber and retrieve the Key. Right before exiting the chamber, Arc will see both Avery and Finn tied up and surrounded by Order Members. He hides the Key in his clothes before jumping out brandishing his weapon only to be immediately knocked out by another member from behind. As he falls to the ground he can see Aelus approaching and laughing to himself. The screen then goes black. The scene reopens with them approaching the boat where the rest of the party was waiting. As Arc comes to, he can see the others tied and one the main deck along with numerous other Order Members standing around. Aelus brings the party together and grins menacingly. He walks around and inspects the new Arvalis powered cannons equipped to the ship while the party watches him silently. He motions for an Order member to bring Avery to him. At knifepoint he orders Avery to show him how they work. All the cannons are powered due to the Keys proximity and Avery reluctantly shows him how the trigger works and how to prime the cannons. Aelus then shoves Avery to the ground and picks up a cannon, loading it onto his shoulder, then fires it out at the ocean. A blinding blast of concussive energy shoots out and Aelus nearly loses his balance. He laughs maniacally as he puts it back down. He turns to the party and says how wonderful it was for them to bring him the weapons they’ve needed all along and how the Order Master will be so pleased. Arc angrily tries to lash out at him saying that he’s a maniac and that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Aelus frowns and kicks him in the face, sending him to the ground. The party shouts at him. Aelus motions for them to be silent and the Order members position themselves to execute them. Aelus stops them and approaches each member, examining them and insulting each one. Lastly, he get to Triss and smiles menacingly. “We meet again, and can I say that you are looking even more beautiful than the last time we met!” Triss spits on him, Aelus slaps her, Dyne threatens him, Aelus kicks him in the stomach, and they all begin shouting again. Aelus silences them again, looking annoyed. “I didn’t come here for this! Everyone shut up! I may be under orders not to kill you, but my Master didn’t say anything about needing all your parts! Now listen, all of you will do exactly as I say or I hand this filthy Redgar over to the Dendra clan!” Motioning to Dyne. The party becomes silent to listen to him. He then orders Avery to weaponize the ship will the cannons. Avery gets up and begins to properly attach the cannons to the ship and then is taken below deck. He addresses the party again and tells them that they are his ticket into SkyeKeep. “I’m well aware that Cara is Arc’s little sweetheart and that Ghallus will allow him entrance, along with the rest of you, and your only purpose is to distract that son of a whore long enough for me and my men to surround him. After that, we’ll kill him and if you cooperate, we’ll let you all go, including Cara.” Arc says that his plan won’t work and that Ghallus won’t let them into SkyeKeep. Aelus angrily retorts that they better convince him otherwise or else they can consider Dyne a dead man. “And also…” he looks at Triss salaciously, “I may have found a new play toy…” as he begins to walk towards her, Frith stops him by saying they’ll get it done. “That’s all I wanted to hear!” Aelus says. After this, Avery emerges from below deck with the Order member escorts and says that everything is ready. Aelus seems pleased and says “then let’s prepare for take-off!” The party seems confused with the term “take-off” until the ship starts to rumble and lift into the air. Avery is directed to the helm of the ship where the steering wheel is and attaches a small device to it. Farrus begins to excitedly freak out saying asking what’s happening to his ship! Avery will explain that he installed the anti-gravity engine onto the ship making it capable of controlled flight. Everyone gets excited despite being tied down and detained. A scene will show the ship taking off into the air and once in the air, Aelus will say that the party can be untied. He warns the party that if they try to turn on them or do anything to mess up his plan, that they will be thrown overboard. Control will be given to the player and they will be free to roam the ship, talking to different Order members. When the player approaches Aelus to talk to him, he will ask if they’re prepared to go to SkyeKeep. The player can choose ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If the player chooses ‘no’, Aelus will say that they can go where they need in order to be well enough prepared. This will open to the World Map and the player will have the freedom to fly to any location previously been to except in Frewen and Silverspire. This is the first time the player will truly have the freedom to go where they like and do what they want without crazy amounts of travel on foot. At this point it is recommended that the player buff up the party by gathering the best equipment and leveling up each character because the fight against Ghallus will have quite a spike in difficulty compared to previous bosses. Once the player is ready to continue, they must approach Aelus on the ship and say they are ready to go to SkyeKeep. Once choosing this, a scene will play showing the ship quietly flying over Lake Skye at night and the Order members will be shown getting onto small boats with the cannons. Some of the members stay on board with the party and they once again rise into the sky and fly towards SkyKeep over the city. On board the ship, the party will talk about how they are going to convince Ghallus that they should be let inside. However, before they really get a chance to discuss it, there is a bright flash and Ghallus appears alongside the ship floating in the air and he looks very angry. His voice booms loudly “I told you to stay away! I warned you! I gave you so many chances to turn back, to give up on this futile mission of yours!” There will be some back and forth between Ghallus and different members of the party. Arc will mention how they’ve been to Alda and seen its devastation. They saw the video of what he did! Ghallus will say that they don’t understand why that was necessary or what kind of decisions he’s had to make. Frith says that they’ve been to the ancient temples chronicling his feats of destruction and how they believe he plans to kill Cara as well. Ghallus, consumed by his rage and frustration says “I warned you, and now you will reap your rewards!” The Arvalis (in the box) begins to glow and is about to kill them when suddenly Avery starts shooting at him with the cannons. Having not seen them before, this takes Ghallus by surprise and he is hit. He begins to fall but Farrus (steering the ship) quickly flies beneath him and catches him onto the main deck. The party surrounds him and demands answers, Avery approaches him and says that he should pay for what he’s done. Ghallus gets up (weakened from the cannon) and says that it’s useless, they wouldn’t understand. He shouts and begins to float saying “you’ll have to kill me to get to Cara!” and immediately a boss fight begins. This will be the most difficult battle as of yet. Ghallus’s attacks will be devastatingly powerful and must be dodged (2 hits will KO a party member, 1 hit if the player is not level up high enough). Once Ghallus is “defeated”, he will rise into the air shout in rage. The ship will start to break apart fall to the ground below (by now they are overtop of SkyKeep). A scene will show the ship breaking and bright light emerging from the mid-air wreckage from a ground perspective and the camera will show Cara coming out to see what’s happening. She is both confused and terrified. The scene goes back to the ship and it seems like this is the end for the party as they are about to fall to their deaths. There is some short talk between one another right before they all begin to fall with the wreckage. Just before Arc is about to hit the ground, Cara calls his name and then suddenly the whole party is encased in a faint light and they drift softly to the ground. The camera shows that Cara is responsible for saving their lives by using the power of the Arvalis in desperation (an act she should not be able to utilize yet or outside of Ghallus’s authorization). Arc sits up, thinking he might be dead and looks around until he see Cara and their eyes meet. “Cara!” they run to each other and embrace happily. The party begin to stand, also realizing they aren’t dead and rejoice in relief. They also run to Arc and Cara and there is a joyful reunion. It is cut short however, as Ghallus appears in the courtyard, but he is no longer angry and violent but instead somber and passive. He approaches the party and they move in front of Cara to protect her, which confuses Cara. She moves them aside and asks what’s going on. Arc says to her that Ghallus isn’t the kind of man he says he is and that she’s in danger. Ghallus motions to speak and tells them that Cara was never in any kind of danger. The party listens as he explains that everything he’s done up until this point has been for the safety of the world and to find a suitable, pure-hearted heir who was trustworthy of the Arvalis and its power. He explains that the previous keeper before him had given the power of the Arvalis to the people to use and although they prospered beyond imagination, it corrupted them and in their greed, all they wanted was more power. As the new Keeper, he truly understood what the Arvalis was meant for and needed to put a stop to what was going on, however, when he told the people that he would be removing the Arvalis as their power source, they revolted and sought to get rid of him. They built weapons and cannons that were strong enough to weaken and even kill a Keeper. If he hadn’t done what he did, the Aldans would have undoubtedly enslaved the world with their technology, never having enough. He then goes on to explain that he sought to keep them away from Cara because it would draw her heart away from her duties as the Keeper and would only cloud her judgement and ability to make sound, reasonable decisions. He felt that the only way the world would be kept safe, and they only way that he would be able to fully trust Cara with the Arvalis, was if Arc was no longer in the picture and so he did everything he had to keep him away. After all this, the party realizes that Ghallus was never really their enemy, but in fact he had been trying hard to protect Cara and the Arvalis, not just himself. Arc approaches Ghallus and extends his hand as an apology and a sign that he now trusts Ghallus. Suddenly there is a bright flash and a loud noise as Ghallus is blasted from behind with the cannons. He shouts in pain as he falls to the ground. He extends his hand and the party is surrounded in a blue light, shielding them from anything that might hurt them (a forcefield). But before he can stand back up or turn around he is blasted again and again. The party looks out as the Order surrounds him, blasting him with the cannons. Cara cries out in horror and bangs her fist on the forcefield to no avail. Arc and the party cry out as well for them to stop. Aelus emerges from a dark hallway and motions for the Order to stop shooting at Ghallus. Ghallus tries to stand but cannot get off his knees because he has been significantly weakened. Aelus bends down and holds up Ghallus's chin, the party can hear him muttering before he stands, laughs and kicks Ghallus down to the ground. Cara weeps. Just then Aelus hears a voice behind him and moves aside as another hooded Order member emerges from the darkened hallway. The other Order members stand at attention and seem to show fear and respect for this person. The party realizes that this must be the Order Master that Aelus had mentioned earlier and watch to see who it is. The hooded Master kneels down and gently places his hand on Ghallus's shoulder, as if to reassure him. He shakes his head and says "I'm sorry it had to be this way, but you were the only thing holding back my end goals." (Or something to that effect) With that he stands and reveals a rather large and menacing sword from underneath his robe. The party watches in disbelief as he removes his hood and reveals himself to be Rael. He glances over to the party, trapped in the forcefield and give a subtle grin and nod. Then, without any other hesitation he thrusts he sword into Ghallus violently. The party gasps wordlessly and watch as Ghallus slowly dies and then falls to the ground. At once the forcefield breaks and Cara runs to Ghallus, holding his now lifeless body. Arc says that they should get out of there and the party groups together. He holds Cara as she weeps for Ghallus. Rael, approaches the party and says, "You didn't actually believe we'd let you go now did you? Especially with the new Keeper? You are far too trusting Arc!" The party is surrounded and they get ready for a fight. Real addresses the Order and says nonchalantly "kill them all" and begins to walk away. The Order rushes toward the party and in an act of desperation, Cara shouts and lifts her hands into the air. Immediately in a flash of blue light, the party vanishes into thin air. Rael turns to see them gone and frowns. "Find them! I don’t care if they’re dead or alive! We can’t have another Keeper running around ruining everything!” as he turns to leave, Aelus approaches him. “Master, look what’s been left behind by our friends!” He reveals the Key of Alda that must have been dropped before the party teleported. Rael takes it with a smile, “Friends indeed.” Just then some Order members appear from another hallway leading into the courtyard with Avery in tow. “Master! This is the man from Alda that knows about their technology!” Rael smiles even more, “How fortunate! Looks like things are looking up after all.” The Order leaves along with Avery and Aelus, leaving Rael alone in the courtyard. He studies the Key in his hands until another figure appears approaches him in the courtyard. “Is she dead or alive?” “Alive. Surprising that you actually still care. I thought you’d done away with that years ago.” “You might never understand. However, I’m still her father.” King Frewen steps out from the shadows “If they’re found, I want her alive. I don’t care for her other friends, but Cara I want brought to me.” “Whatever, family is family, I suppose.” King Frewen turns to leave and says, “Well done with Ghallus. Now, we have work to do.” King Frewen exits leaving Rael alone again. He mockingly bows and says “Of course, your royal Highness, we do indeed… have work to do.” He smiles deceitfully and the screen goes black as he exits a separate way.

END OF ACT 2

Plot type

Main Story Plot

Parent Plot

ACT 2 - Memories of Antiquity