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OUR STORY

Arc-based summaries of our story played out over three years.

Previously...

ARC VII: HATTHEVAR

JANUARY: on the footsteps of undead creator Matthias, the party arrived in Hatthevar, former seat of mysticism, Oracles and wish granting, now turned into a citadel of ghosts. Hatthevar has been under siege from Rathakku, conqueror of Alem and warlord of the Brotherhood, and undead wind lord Anurr, unaffiliated with the coalition. Matthias, meanwhile, has been working the five local beacons and calling upon all of his power to try to bring in and revive spirits from various points in time and space — in a bid to summon and resurrect his long lost daughter, Cosette. At times, he senses her close, but she shortly disappears from the citadel. Desperate, he offered the party all of his power over the dead, in exchange for being reunited with his daughter.

Benedict, Emilia and Wrath defeated some of Anurr’s frost wyrms and Rathakku’s demonic scorpions and sand lurkers, preventing them from entering Hatthevar. Rathakku withdrew his forces, while Anurr continued to attack with his blizzards. Vanessa took over one of the beacons, guaranteeing the party an exit point. From the Hatthevar lagoon, Red recovered a substance from a cauldron typically used to eliminate memories. Along with supplying access to some of Matthias’ recollections, the liquid also enables the party to retain their memories of Akhuras upon departure. Five and Wen Kexing learned two possible locations suspected as Matthias’ hideouts.

Several party members also investigated the whereabouts and fate of the dis- and reappearing Cosette, whom Matthias described as a young blonde child. No such girl was seen wherever he sends the party. A puppet master, who worked at the bazaar when Matthias sensed Cosette was present there, says he was possessed to put on a play of a father-daughter quarrel, at the end of which the daughter ran off and was killed.

The party learned that Matthias, formerly a technological and magical scientist of Ellethia, extracted two presumably shameful or painful memories: one was of him giving permission for his team to create a fierce magical storm and recover a power source, endangering nearby ships. The second memory was of running into a young blonde woman who disdainfully said she had not admired him since she was a child.

At one point, a woman seen where Matthias felt his daughter present traded a memory in which she was on a ship in the middle of a large storm, arguing with Matthias. River suspects Cosette may not have been a child at the time of her death. If the woman is Cosette, she does not wish to return to her father.

FEBRUARY: The party pursued Matthias at the two lair locations unearthed by Five and Wen Kexing — aboard the haunted ship, the Headless Dancer, and in the Whispering House of the foremost Wish maker of Hatthevar. Aboard the Headless Dancer, the group found out that the vessel was once used by the Ellethian court of governance, which was attempting to reach a powerful artefact sunken offshore Ellethia before the institute of technology might achieve the same. Cosette was one of the representatives on board during this venture, when Matthias obliviously authorized the summoning of a deathly magical storm that was initially intended to scare away all other rivals for the artefact (later revealed to be dark water). She and her crewmates perished, Cosette told Benedict during a ghostly encounter, stressing she wanted nothing to do with her father. Wrathion meanwhile discovered a tool that the spirit of Cosette vengefully stole from her father — the knife with which he has been cutting off his limbs to make magical anchors, and one of the few instruments that can harm him.

In Hatthevar, wind master Anurr attempted to take advantage of Matthias' distraction and launched a last-resort attack, using his blizzards to corrupt several party members onto his side of the warfare. They did not open him the gates.

Faced with the dark truth of all that Matthias has done to his family, the spirits of Hatthevar and the world of the (un)dead at large — several party members lured him out with illusions and false appearances of Cosette, before Emilia dealt a final killing blow with the knife facilitated by Wrathion. With some inheriting the remains of Matthias' magic, several party members made a last use of the dark water's overwhelming power to isolate and seal Anurr in his human body, trapping him once more and preventing him from seeking to usurp what territories the Brotherhood once held.

Free of their dead, their curses, their nightmares, their wishes and long grief — the living of Akhuras may tend to their own and heal.

As the party, finally possessing strong and stable beacons, may choose to head home with or without their memories.

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ARC III: THE HOUSE OF RAVENS

The party joined cursed site Ke-Waihu, one of three villages surrounding the Ke-Sanwon volcano, alongside the beastly Ke-Waiar and the steadfast Ke-Waicai. All three locations worship the undead Beastmaster as their patron. The group was taken in under the dubious protection of the 'ruling' Hok-Shinn ~~mob~~ clan and invited or tricked to atone for the inherited sins of village elders.

The party was dragged into yearly 'foxed weddings' that repent for the village's former murder of a fox spirit, and into investigating the resurging droughts of Ke-Waiar, crowned by the apparition of a serpentine woman and other snakes. Various explorations revealed that the 'dark waters' found at the bottom of drying wells also generates mutations among forest animals and vegetation, while Ke-Sanwon's labyrinthine innards are brimming with monstrous creatures covered in tar. With the volcano hinting iminent eruption, the Beastmaster announced his return to Ke-Waihu — and his former ally, the Huntress begged the party for shelter.

APRIL: Party member Wen Qing was captured and rescued from the mutated human-snake creatures of the witches' Fetters. The Huntress offered the group two options to avoid the Beastmaster's thrall, while the lord of creatures joined Ke-Waihu to receive 10 human tributes each from the village and from the nearby Ke-Waiar.

The party freed the tributes. Visitors discovered villagers cursed with lycanthropy roam Ke-Waiar freely. Sanwon showed signs of imminent eruption, with local drought intensifying and with healing dark water visible in the wake of earthquakes. In Ke-Waihu, superstitious villagers restarted abductions to appease Sanwon. Amid rising fears, a representative of ~~cultist~~ highly devout village Ke-Waicai journeyed to proselytise a return to the old ways of offering human sacrifice to settle the volcano and ease the drought. The House of Ravens has begun to open.

Wrath and Emilia discovered that Ke-Sanwon's impending 'eruption' is the result of growing magical power and of agonised spirits that have been accruing within the volcano. This force has cracked and threatened to burst through a containing shield of dark water.

Daenerys, Wrathion and Viktor learned the Huntress was once Anui, a former Ke-Waicai zealot who willingly offered her son into the House of Ravens as tribute to 'appease the mountain.' Her husband Hyang-Won, later the Beastmaster, set out to recover the boy, leaving through the forest with the 'White Wanderer' who previously supplied Ke-Waihu's drought cure. The child was not found. The Beastmaster returned inhuman. Both he and the Huntress now await the opening of the House in hopes of finding traces of their son — whom Daenerys later found evidence could still be alive.

The group infiltrated the House of Ravens, occupying the sacred site in the middle of a skirmish between the Beastmaster and the Ke-Waicai zealots. Several party members cooled down the volcano or exorcised its spiritual energy, depleting the its magic sufficiently to avoid an eruption. Some group members sacrificed themselves to Ke-Waihu by absorbing some of its curious magic. Others worked tirelessly with villagers to revive local agriculture. Diego Hargreeves slayed the Beastmaster. The beacon of the House of Ravens briefly opened, allowing a few characters to depart — before failing.

Party member Sumeragi Subaru brought fresh word of a ticket onwards east to the next beacon — aboard the vessel Pariah, manned by the crew of pirate king Quicksilver Sam.

our story

ARC III: HOUSE OF RAVENS