Anurdain, Rise!

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Title Anurdain, Rise!
Number 10 Quests Total (With battles in Quests 3, 6, 8, and 9)
Date * Q1: 10 July 2015
* Q2: 17 July 2015
* Q3: 24 & 25 July 2015
* Q4: 28 July 2015
* Q5: 11 August 2015
* Q6: 21 & 22 August 2015
* Q7: 8 & 9 September 2015
* Q8: 18 & 19 September 2015
* Q9: 22 & 23 September 2015
* Q10: 29 September 2015
Players Tyler (GM) (All), Jared (Q1 - Q7), Isabel (All), Francesco (Q1 - Q3, Q5 - Q10), DS (All), Greg (Q1 - Q6, Q8 - Q10), Daniel (Q1 - Q3, Q5)
Characters Darius (Q1 - Q7, Cameos Q8 - Q10), Rangi (All), Victor (Q1 - Q3, Cameo Q4, Q5 - Q10), Laelia (All), Mary (Q1 - Q3, Q5), Dóiteán (Q1 - Q9, Cameo Q10), Martok (Q1 - Q2, Q4 - Q8, Cameo Q9, Q10), Seth Claus (Q1, Q4, Q10), Khaladar (Q1 - Q2, Q5 - Q10), Elmar (Q2 - Q3, Cameos Q4 - Q5), Templeton (Q2 - Q3, Cameos Q4 - Q5), Denada (Q2 - Q3, Cameos Q4 - Q5, Q9 - Q10), Smith (Q4 - Q7, Q10), Cordelia (Cameo Q5), Imryll (Q5 - Q6), Talania (Q5 - Q6), Voldarath (Q5 - Q6, Q8 - Q9, Cameo Q10), King Mirinnor (Q7 - Q9, Cameo Q10), Gilor (Q7 - Q10), The Beyond One (Cameo Q8)
Setting * Q1 - Q6: Belhas, Svaldon, Disparatus
* Q2: Seth Claus' Workshop, Ostfold, Disparatus
* Q7 - Q10: Anurdain
* Q10: Island off the coast of Eisenstaat, Earth


Timeline Summary

Backstory

It started as a rumor.

Over a year ago, whispers arose of elves silently watching from the forests of Earth. Eventually, these gave way to stories of adventurers going missing in the woods, or the occasional storehouse being raided in the night.

About seven months ago, entire towns began to fall silent, while others lived to tell the tale of having come under attack by elven warriors. Alfheim sent out no word of any link to these attacks, and the outcast elves of other lands denied any involvement.

In March, the first reports came in of an elven attack on Disparatus. While a handful of other small attacks followed, it wasn't long before they abruptly stopped on both worlds. Many hoped that this would spell the end of it all.

But, of course, it's almost never that simple.


Quest 1 - The Year Without a Seth Claus

Darius, Rangi, Martok, Victor, Laelia, and Dóiteán arrive at the Romhear Center for the Arts in the Svaldic city of Belhas. Seth Claus emerges from a painting titled "Spirit of Sethmas" in the lobby. He apologizes for his lateness, as his worker elves had gone missing last month, and he had only just now tracked them to Belhas. He hands out gifts to all, confusing Dóiteán. Arrows are fired into the building as an elven army arrives. Seth Claus protects everyone and gets the children to safety. Mary, appearing in the window, identifies the arrows as being from the lost kingdom of Anurdain. The group arms themselves with weapons from a war re-enactment, and defend themselves with smokescreens.

The elven commander, Khaladar, demands they turn Seth Claus over to him. Seth Claus agrees on the condition that the elves harm no one else. He notes that the Anurdainians were likely responsible for his workers' disappearance, and Khaladar says he and his workers are wanted for their magic. On Victor's request, Khaladar allows the others to come along. However, he flips out when the ghostly Mary falls through the floor and disappears, accusing them of trickery. When Martok fails to convince him it was a magic trick, Khaladar loses his patience and orders his soldiers to kill them and take Seth Claus away.

The group fights back, Dóiteán dousing the elves with the fire extinguisher that Seth Claus gifted him. Victor convinces Khaladar to stand down, but he still sends Seth Claus to an abandoned shopping center via an enchantment. Khaladar questions why they care so much for Seth Claus, and they explain how he's an exceptionally giving and benevolent man. While unwilling to disobey his King's orders, Khaladar agrees to help them with what he can. The group then enters the Spirit of Sethmas painting, believing it can take them to Seth Claus' sleigh.


Quest 2 - Rangi Got Run Over by a Snow Rat

The group appears in Seth Claus' darkened workshop. They come across an open metal door, which Rangi recognizes from his visit to the workshop the year before as the way down to the boiler room, which was locked due to snow rats. They head down to the boiler room in hopes of finding a way to restore the building's power. A creaky door alerts the snow rats to their presence, and the group quickly activates the circuit breaker's switch for the sleigh lift. They hurry out to the sleigh, chased by a giant snow rat swarm. Laelia runs up ahead and grabs a fire extinguisher, using it to pacify the swarm and save the others. They take Seth Claus' sleigh, and Khaladar explains his people's plight, trapped in a prison outside the physical world.

The sleigh sends them back to Belhas in mere minutes, arriving very close to the mall. Two elven-piloted helicopters approach them, aiming a rocket launcher. They dig through Seth Claus' sack just as Martok nearly falls off the sleigh. In the confusion, Rangi crashes the sleigh into the side of a building. Everyone survives the fall, but are still being pursued. Khaladar breaks off from the group and distracts one of the helicopters. Darius finds a stray gift from the sack lodged in his clothes. He produces a remote from it, and uses it to control the remaining helicopter. The helicopters collide, and the elves bail out. Khaladar is yelled at. Rangi produces a gift of his own, containing ten snow rats which attack him. Victor tames one as a pet. They enter the mall and come across Seth Claus' guards, a trio of elves forming Anurdain's Theta Squad. Mary reappears, peeking out from below the floor. As Dóiteán swings at the squad, its leader, Elmar, orders his men to attack.


Quest 3 - Dóiteán Conquers the Elves

Denada attacks Dóiteán, as Templeton wildly fires a machine gun he found. Elmar plays Chilly Willy with Rangi, scarring him emotionally. Dóiteán bear hugs Denada, who asks his ice elemental to help get him free. It doesn't work. Darius hammers on the prone Denada, and Laelia messes with Elmar's head. Templeton attacks everyone with air spirits to no avail. Elmar asks Dóiteán to let Denada go, and fires ice at Rangi. Laelia continues slowing Elmar down, and Mary shows up only for her attack to go right through Elmar to no effect. Victor whacks Elmar in her stead and heals people. Dóiteán explodes into flames, setting Denada free, but unleashing the Teraton's fury. Templeton blasts Rangi through the air, but ends up charmed by the feathered man's grace, and attacks Denada for him. Denada flips out. Templeton nearly drinks delicious acid. Desperate, Elmar covers the entire mall in ice. Dóiteán tries to knock out Denada, but his ice elemental takes the hit and is destroyed. Dóiteán knocks him out anyway. Templeton freaks and accidentally hits Elmar, knocking him out as well. He chucks an incendiary grenade at Rangi in a panic, who chucks it right back at him. Templeton flees, but Dóiteán bonks him on the head, ending the fight.


Quest 4 - It's a Wonderful Pipe

While Dóiteán chows down instead of helping, Martok relocates the elves to safety from the ice covering the mall. Victor stays behind to watch them as the others explore. They free Seth Claus from a cell in the security booth, and head to the basement as Dóiteán discusses his birth. They hurry along, as the mall's piping is close to bursting from the ice. They free about two dozen of Seth Claus' forty worker elves, along with a UP agent named Smith. After the pipes are repaired, Smith explains that he'd been investigating the Anurdain incidents, and a was captured trying to get into the nation. While Darius finds him a but untrustworthy, the group allows him to stick with them as a guide to the way into Anurdain. Seth Claus suggests they get to the heart of the problem while he seeks out his remaining workers, promising to regroup with them as soon as possible.


Quest 5 - Miracle on Dice Street

Map.
Map of Quest 5.

The gang regroups with Victor and Mary, before heading out into the city. Smith points them in the right direction, and they head north. He explains what he knows about Anurdain as they proceed. They avoid a group of elves fighting with civilians down the road, and take a different path. Dodging snipers, Laelia leads them down an alley. They enter the back of a movie theater to a hall of emergency exits. Mary floats through one of them and opens it from the other side. They pass through a theater playing Bloodbath X, where Dóiteán steals a little kid's popcorn. Ignoring this crazy group, Cordelia quietly watches the movie and sets nothing on fire. Darius uses his police credentials to convince theater security to keep patrons inside the theater for safety.

The group heads outside and continues north, where the find elves escorting Khaladar. Mary sinks underground once more, disappearing from the group completely. The elves notice the group and attack. Victor's snow rat chews off one elf's face, while Dóiteán pummels another. One cyborg elf woman, Imryll, flees toward their destination. Khaladar rejoins the group just as Dóiteán crushes an elf's skull. They reach the area near the woods that Smith was indicating. Here, Imryll informs head elven commander Talania of what just happened. Talania notices everyone except Darius as they approach. Dóiteán throws a tree at her face before she can say anything. She yells at Khaladar and produces a small whistle. As she uses it, the ancient dragon Voldarath emerges from the forest.


Quest 6 - Dragon All the Way

Voldarath attacks Rangi and Khaladar before anyone can react. Talania spits in Dóiteán's face, while Imryll deals with Victor and Khaladar. Khaladar buffs Rangi, who knocks Imryll right into a kidney punch from Darius. Voldarath mocks Rangi, while his allies attack the rest of the group. Victor fires a beam of immense energy at Voldarath, pissing the dragon off. Dóiteán, Darius, and Rangi team up against Imryll, nearly knocking her out. Before she can escape, Laelia hops out of the bushes and hits her over the head with a flute, sending her into unconsciousness. Talania spits in Laelia's face for this. She and Voldarath hold the group at bay with a series of flame and rapier attacks, until Dóiteán knocks her out.

Dóiteántells Voldarath to surrender, but the dragon just laughs, explaining why it helps the elves. He asks Dóiteán just how much he respects the flame, before setting Darius, Laelia, Victor, and Rangi ablaze, and tossing Khaladar into the inferno as well. Dóiteán finds this unimpressive. Everyone fights back against the beast, heavily wounding it. In anger, he utterly decimates the surrounding area with a torrent of flame, daring them to defy him again. Khaladar just barely manages to keep Rangi from burning to death, with only himself, Laelia, and Dóiteán remaining conscious from the attack. Dóiteán strikes back, taking Voldarath down. Khaladar heals everyone back up, and Victor takes Talania's whistle. Once they're all rested up, Khaladar leads them into the woods, to Anurdain.


Quest 7 - Silent Night, Deadly Dice

The group proceeds through the forest, discussing dragons. They approach the main Anurdain settlement, and Martok is spotted by guards almost immediately. Khaladar steps out, pretending Martok is his prisoner, so that the others can sneak away. They stick to the treeline, keeping out of sight. Darius breaks into a fit of laughter and stumbles into a clothesline, getting caught up in elven trousers. Everyone flees into the woods, but Darius screams and shouts, making him easy for the elves to follow. Fortunately, they all trip and fall, allowing him to escape. Everyone regroups at the boundaries of Anurdain, where Smith investigates the mist that forms the edges of its prison.

The group finds some barrels and hide inside them. Darius breaks his own barrel. Dóiteán walks down the street with a barrel on his head, completely unnoticed. Darius tries to intimidate the guards when caught, but fails. Dóiteán saves him by sneezing flaming mucus on the guards. Reaching the castle, the group climbs in through a second story window. Darius, making up for earlier, ascends to his planar form and hears the King speaking to someone in the basement. They head downstairs, and find that the King has left, leaving a Dwarf, Gilor, alone in the pantry. The group tracks the King's footprints to a small room with a statue of a figure surrounding the Earth, along with a disc featuring the seal of the Eight Legends. They discuss the Nameless Ones the Eight were said to have sealed away. Laelia determines there is an experimental enchantment on the statue that may have teleported the King elsewhere in the castle.

Taking the disc, they use the statue and appear in the castle's great hall, where the King is making an example of Khaladar and Martok, who are trapped in an enchantment circle. The King yells at them, saying they have once chance to explain themselves. They all discuss the King's plans to restore Anurdain, and his worship of the Beyond One. He asks them to convince Seth Claus to help him, but Victor has none of this, refusing to help the madman. They attack the King, who summons Gilor to his side, forcing him to aid in battle. The King summon's the Beyond One's power, becoming incredibly buff.


Quest 8 - Elves With Muscles

As Dóiteán prepares to attack the King, a convenience store forms around Khaladar and Martok, confusing everyone. The King strikes at Dóiteán and Victor, and is hit back by a tag team of Rangi, Khaladar, and Martok. Gilor tosses Dóiteán about, and nearly knocks Martok out in one hit. Victor hits the King with another of his massive energy beams. In a complete rage, the King attacks Laelia, Dóiteán, Martok, and Gilor for massive damage, knocking Martok unconscious. Gilor is furious, and completely abandons the King's cause, now fighting on the rest of the group's side instead. After everyone fights back against him, the King produces a whistle from his pocket and uses it to summon forth Voldarath. Victor tries to convince Voldarath to stand down, to which the dragon laughs and says it will consider this. The King rips a hole in reality, allowing the Beyond One to attack Rangi indirectly. Shortly after, the King almost completely loses his mind due to an Overload of power. Amused by the King's predicament, Voldarath declares that it will join the battle not for his sake, but for his own.


Quest 9 - Fry Hard

Voldarath strikes at Rangi, while Victor fires another beam at the King. The King flips out and starts attacking Gilor, breaking his own arm in the process. He punches Dóiteán and nearly kills Laelia, who just barely remains on her feet. Dóiteán retaliates by finally knocking the king out. Voldarath laughs at this, only for Dóiteán to attack him instead. The pair argue about power and respect, and Dóiteán says that there is no more worthy form of communication to be had than them tasting each other's flames. To prove his lack of concern for the elves, Voldarath sets Victor and the elven spectators ablaze. He laughs, exchanging some final words with Dóiteán, before charging him head-on. Voldarath collides into Dóiteán's body, shattering it to pieces and killing him. Rangi taunts Voldarath in anger, but this only serves to amuse the dragon further. Rangi and Khaladar attack Voldarath, but despite damaging him heavily, their efforts don't appear to be enough. Voldarath prepares to kill both of them, only for Laelia to step in with her flutework. Somehow, amazingly, her music proves to be what saps the last of the dragon's strength, and it crashes to the floor, unconscious. As the dust clears, Denada appears in the enchantment circle, seeking revenge on Dóiteán.


Quest 10 - The Anurdain Clause

The group assesses the damage, and Khaladar discusses how Anurdain can move forward from here. Victor pockets the King's whistle. The injured are treated, and Gilor explains how he came to be working for the King. They realize that Smith had been left behind in the statue room, and hurry back down to him. Smith reveals he had been just barely holding Anurdain's connection to the real world open with his own magic, since they had taken the Eight Legends' disc. They return it to its proper place in the enchantment.

Returning upstairs, they find that Denada has "captured" Seth Claus at the entrance to the castle. Seth Claus apologizes for being late, as the path into Anurdain was closed to him without the disc in place. After some discussion, it's agreed that, as long as the King is jailed by his people, Seth Claus should help restore Anurdain to the real world. Victor hands Seth Claus one of the whistles, and Seth Claus theorizes that, as it was able to call Voldarath through the barrier despite it being closed, he could use the magic within it as a starting point to pull Anurdain through the barrier. Smith offers to help Seth Claus in his efforts, and they head down toward the enchantment's center. Smith suggests the others don't follow, and Rangi realizes he's been acting more and more oddly. They question him, but he says that they don't need to worry, as he can handle himself, even if he looks like an average, ordinary everyman. Despite his words, they watch Seth Claus get to work anyway, who explains his thoughts on the enchantment, and what he needs to do. He estimates it will take him two or three months to complete the process. Satisfied, the group returns to Belhas for pizza.

Two and a half months later, on 29 September, Rangi, Victor, Martok, Laelia, and Khaladar arrive on an island on Earth designated by Seth Claus, where he activates the enchantment to tether Anurdain back to the real world. Seth Claus notes that Anurdain is working under a temporary council, and is getting along well without their king. He activates the enchantment, and Anurdain appears on the island, now permanently restored to reality. When asked about Smith, Seth Claus said he left a few days prior, and warns them to keep a close eye on him if they meet him again. Regardless of this minor concern, everyone celebrates with a pizza party, and all is well.


Notes

  • First appearances of Khaladar, Elmar, Templeton, Denada, Imryll, Talania, Voldarath, King Mirinnor, and Gilor. Possible first appearance of The Beyond One.
  • This is the first RP participated in by Francesco in over five years, with his last being Rosalie is a Government Agent in April 2010. It is also Victor's first appearance since then.
  • Every quest title is based off of a Christmas movie.
  • Doitean is killed by Voldarath in Quest 9.
  • Due to Doitean's death, Greg was allowed to control Khaladar for the end of Quest 9, and Quest 10.
  • While most of the saga is set on 10 July 2327, the ending of Quest 10 is set on 29 September 2327.