Redemption

Summary

Chapter 1: On Parole

Interlude III: Festival of New Dawn

Interlude IV: Foundations of the Guild

Chapter 2: Elvish Insights

Interlude V: Fully Automated

Chapter 3: Thrown for a Loop

Chapter 4: Running a Business

Interlude VI: The Candlenights Ball- Peace Party

The Alliance wants to peacefully take the East and create a united, lawful Terra Caelum. The Peace Party was intended to bring people together and help push forward into this new idealistic political landscape. Lysa Balor offered to host the event in Palace Balor (a palace built into the Ashlands volcano).
Important guests invited included the Raven Queen, the Ice Queen Juniper, Queen Marjorie, King Jorah II, King Joseph VI, Queen Lilith, King Mathieu Damascus of the Sky Kingdom and less legitimate guests such as the crime lord Lord Ordayn and big businessman Federico Pyre.
Desdemona Van Helsing procured enough tickets to invite the members of Ace Ventura as well as her own party members Fliu Fliu and Gruin. Each member of Ace Ventura was allowed to bring one extra guest; a plus one each. Aura brought Tara, Gemini took Cassius, Koko- Nicolai, Cristoph- Maris, Claudi- Nimblefoot, Astrid- Camdyn and Calder took Lady Valencia. Valencia was brought along in return for fitting the group with designer clothes free of charge.
They all met at Manor Van Helsing for pre-drinks before setting off for Palace Balor. The group stabled their mounts at the first checkpoint and handed over their weapons. Valkyries were seen to be providing security for the event, most likely on loan from the dwarves.
The guests first gathered in an entrance hall, where they could then watch from the balcony, the “celebrities” going down the red carpet on the way to the ballroom which would be opened up soon. It was noted that Desdemona was talking with a girl who looked very similar to her.
As everyone started to mingle their way to the ballroom, Nicolai went over to talk to Desdemona, only to discover it was a body double by the name of Gemma.
Each member of the party had people they wanted to talk to in particular.
Claudi went out to the balcony to speak with Queen Lilith, briefly.
Aura approached her father Federico. She asked him various questions, sassed him a little in her stubborn way, to which Federico reacted just as stubbornly. He caused a bit of a scene at the balcony as he told Aura that her mother Sylvia Pyre had killed herself by putting her head in an oven.
Calder immediately was whisked off to a side room, and a rose gold dagger was held to his neck. Serana said to him that she could easily kill him… but she wasn’t strong enough to do so. Serana herself was on the verge of a breakdown and the two talked it out. Gemini eavesdropped on this conversation, noticing Serana to be wearing a pristine all white suit of armour- her transformation to a rose gold dragonborn complete.
Gruin stopped to talk to Onya, a member of the Cassiopeia thought to have died. She appeared to be using a fan, monk style, and said “praise be to the Qinn”. Gruin then brought Onya over to Nicolai, making him freak out and go to a side room to break down.
Astrid spoke to the sky king Damascus, and he mentioned that he was setting up homes for transformed dragonborn in the Sky Kingdom.
Fliu Fliu went to talk to Desdemona, realised it was Gemma and then went to look for the real Des. He found Nicolai instead and had an empathetic moment with him.
Koko went over to the table of Lord Ordayn- the vampire lord who sired him- and sat next to him. He saw Vanilla there, and Vanilla even taunted him. Koko grabbed her by the neck, inciting a valkyrie to swoop down and stop the violence. The valkyrie took Koko to a side room to tell him off… and then Koko seduced her. Koko then returned to Lord Ordayn’s side, sassy to the point where Lord Ordayn said that he was impressed by his determination.
When the slow dance began, Cristoph danced with Astrid, Gemini with Cassius, Claudi with Nimblefoot, Koko with Lord Ordayn and Gruin with Greybirch.
Aura, sulking after her interaction with her father, bumped into Desdemona by accident. After trying to pretend she was just looking for a bathroom she informed Aura that she was on a personal mission to investigate Lysa Balor as she believed her to be a member of a mysterious organisation. They went to Balor’s office and snuck in. Searching the room they discovered a secret room containing four soul orbs- two pink, one grey, and one red.
The two heard people approaching and hid on the balcony. In the room were four people, wearing fluorescent white outfits. The four were Lysa, Tirianus Myrrh, Mirabelle Claudine and a woman in the outfit of a magician’s assistant. Trying to escape this scenario, Desdemona hopped to a lower balcony, while Aura got captured by them.
Desdemona ran into Fliu Fliu on the way out and informed him of the situation. Everyone got together and stormed Lysa’s office. The secret room had been covered up, and only Lysa was there, her regular black and gold dress on. Ignoring her protests, Fliu Fliu opened up the secret room. In the secret room, Tirianus had his golden shotgun to Aura’s forehead, Mirabelle holding a pair of electrum daggers. Fliu Fliu tried to grapple Lysa, but Lysa dodged, instead grappling him and holding a pen to his neck. Koko tried to attack her, but failed, and she took a stab at Fliu Fliu’s neck.
After negotiations over the misunderstanding, Lysa allowed them all to leave, saying they had to leave the event, which they were going to do before Desdemona mentioned that the organisation Lysa was a part of was known only as Eclipse.
The group then decided to try and investigate further, choosing to wait until the lantern ceremony when Lysa would be away from her office to go back in and figure out what’s happening. Fliu Fliu and Nicolai snuck into the room while Gruin kept watch outside. Everybody was on their speaking stones, keeping watch on who would be entering and leaving that part of the palace. Fliu Fliu discovered that under a painting was a star map of the planar system, that, when a plane is touched, a vodka bottle nearby began to light up. This bottle and star map seemed to be a way of spying on or mapping out other planes of existence. With Tirianus Myrrh approaching, Nicolai and Fliu Fliu grabbed the four soul orbs and went off to the rest of the group. They left for Manor Van Helsing, where they would then try to decipher the identity and motive of Eclipse.

Chapter 5: Eclipse and Cristoph Swanson

When the party returned to Manor Van Helsing, they began to unpack all the knowledge they could connect to do with Eclipse, and tried to find out who they are, what they want, and why they want it.
Ace Ventura has history with Eclipse, and they didn’t know how deep it even went. Eclipse had sent the drow bounty hunters after the party three times. The first time encountering the bounty hunters was when Pip and Kreewin were being attacked by them. The second time was in Treetop, outside the councillor’s tower. The third time was as the party was leaving Treetop. Desdemona said that criminals have been escaping prison and becoming enrolled in Eclipse. The group has intercepted a few messages sent in many different languages for example sylvan and elvish across Terra Caelum.
It’s confirmed that members wear bright fluorescent white armour/clothes with chokers that have black circles on them. Tapping the circle lets them change the outfit back to regular colours. Now, the Moonlight Brigade was a resistance organisation that fought for peace during the Collision, and essentially evolved into the Alliance. The rejects of the Moonlight Brigade scratched out the crescent moon symbols on their chokers to represent the eclipse, so it’s reasonable to assume that there’s some kind of correlation there. This evil organisation works against everything the Moonlight Brigade stood for and achieved, and wants to block it out, making the name Eclipse rather fitting.
There are a few confirmed members of Eclipse.
Lysa Balor. According to warforged enforcer C7493, she wants to build a vehicle that can travel through space, not across different planes. Perhaps she needed Pip alive for this reason, and that is why she had her drow hunters try to attack and potentially kidnap her? C7493 also implied that she goes by the name of “Stargazer” as well.
Mirabelle Claudine. She was the leader of the Shadow Thieves before Ace Ventura defeated her. She imported and exported goods illegally across Western Plains Sword Coast and Breantis. Gemini sewed her mouth shut. She was in the Sword Coast prison, must have been broken out. Also, Gemini was at the party.
Serana Greaves. She wanted to make her sister Queen Marjorie look bad and tried to ruin the Festival of New Dawn. She caught the dragonborn virus off of Marjorie’s rose gold royal dragon Methidait. She was sent to Free Peach prison, broken out as well. She somehow found the group at the Institute for the Arcane when they were looking for a cure for Astrid’s dragonborn curse. How did she find the party? Must have tracked them somehow, since Free Peach. Also, Calder was at the party.
Tirianus Myrrh. Main bouncer at the party, an aasimar with a gold plated shotgun. Cowboy aesthetic. Very intimidating.
There was also an unknown woman in a magician’s outfit with a top hat seen in Lysa’s office.
Eclipse was also keeping soul orbs, one grey, two pink, and one red. Perhaps the soul orbs were going to be released and used to add new members to Eclipse’s ranks.
The grey one contained the soul of Graz’zt. Once an Archdemon of the Layer of Violence in hell. He committed serial murders at the Arcane Academy around 400 years ago. He also recently forced students into a killing game in the Arcane Academy.
One of the pink ones contained the soul of Ulfric Blackhand. Once the king of Salzenstadt, dethroned by Queen Juniper, killed by her too. Also, Queen Juniper was at the party.
The other pink one contained Morgana LaFey. Once the dictator-style queen of the Feywild, killed by King Joseph VI with the Sword of Kings. Also, King Joseph VI was at the party.
The red orb held the soul of Lady Phoenix. High elf, from many generations ago. Racist high elf, very pro-empire.
There is a distinct similarity between all the members and the soul orbs. All are evil. All once had power but now don’t. All have arch enemies in the Alliance. All have selfish motivations, usually motivated by the need for power. Lysa has perhaps manipulated them, promising them power, if they work for her. The correlation between the fact that the arch enemies of some of the members were present at the Peace Party seems to solidify this idea.
But what are Lysa Balor’s plans? If anything, she seems to be some kind of ringleader character.
The Cassiopeia is a legendary spelljammer that can handle interplanar transport. According to C7493 Lysa needs an engine similar to that of the Cassiopeia, and needs Pip potentially as she knew how to use and handle and repair the Cassiopeia. She wants to build a vehicle that goes into space, not into another plane of existence. She Needs lots of materials, needs connections with the west. The Alliance would definitely not approve of her plans, so if she can avoid the Alliance taking control of the east she will. The east being unlawful serves her plans well as there aren’t any laws or people to stop her from doing her evil activities.
Does this mean that people such as Lord Ordayn and Federico Pyre are involved as well? They almost fit the bill, only that they haven’t lost something of theirs yet, like the other members had. If they lost their money or their organisations, then perhaps they would be susceptible to being converted to Eclipse. When the party was at Manor Van Helsing, there came another attack from Eclipse, two warforged enforcers, two valkyries, two umbral vampires and a drow matriarch, one of the warforged being C7493 where a lot of the details for the investigation have come from. In any regard the party was clearly being tracked somehow. Gemini reasoned that it must’ve been something he picked up from Keep Greaves when they fought the construct of Serana’s father, perhaps the cursed helm or the cursed longsword.
Cristoph came under suspicion then, though and because of this Koko and Gemini decided to delve into his backstory.
When questioned about his backstory, he began to panic. He mentioned that before working on the Stonewall Farm, he had been in an insane asylum. He managed to escape, but he couldn’t remember how. He knew that he then had met up with his estranged twin brother Grave, and they worked on the farm together before travelling west to the Sword Coast.
Koko Gemini Nicolai Astrid Claudi Cassius and Cristoph headed to Swampspire where Grave was buried. Koko cast speak with dead, and spoke to Grave.
“Who are you?” “Swanson.”
“Are you Cristoph or Grave?” “Cristoph.”
“Has your brother pretended to be you before?” “No.”
“Who is more dangerous?” “Grave.”
“Is Grave a threat to us?” “He’s more of a threat to himself than anybody else.”
They then went to the Hearthand State Asylum, trying to look for records of Cristoph and Grave. They found notes, describing that both Grave and Cristoph Swanson stayed here. There was no information of who sent them in, or if they signed themselves in.
Cristoph; sociopath, dissociative personality disorder, narcissist, has taken more electroshock sessions than Grave. Idea was that the more sessions he takes the more “fixed” he becomes.
Grave; sociopath, narcissist, anti-social personality disorder, reacts violently to stimuli.
Gemini and Nicolai took turns trying to trigger Cristoph to see how he would react by taking turns in the electric chair and cranking up the voltage. Astrid and Claudi comforted him as Cristoph was extremely triggered by all of this. Cristoph still cannot remember if he is Cristoph or Grave, at the very least believing himself to be Cristoph. The group came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter because Cristoph, no matter who he is, has always been loyal and has always been a good friend, and this also ruled out him being a member of Eclipse.

Interlude VII: Eclipse Knows

Chapter 6: Honest Work

Chapter 7: Underdark

Chapter 8: The Reactor

Our Separate Ways

Villains