DivineDetritusDraugh1FindingMidnight
Contents
Next: Draugh Empire, Part 2: Sands of History
Prev: Quest of Dragons
Story
May 18, 1236 AD
As the Dragon Warriors continue to sail toward the Draugh Empire, Eldirck and Vegeta note their increase in power level. Vegeta turns blonde in his higher state of power. They swear to defeat Freiza for destroying their homeland. Eldrick will continue to look for the link between the Black Dragon, the Dragonlord, and Freiza.
May 30, 1236 AD
The party finally docks in the Capital of the Draugh Empire. As soon as they step off the ship, they feel a sense of paranoia, as if they are being watched. The Customs Agent reads out the King's ideologies, and Captain Pankraz swears to uphold them. The Dragon Warriors will remain in port for a few days (however long it takes to complete their quest) while the party looks around town.
Fi feels an intense amount of paranoia and scurries to the farthest point in the city to tell her companions they are being watched. A homeless man walks up to the group and asks for some spare change. Claire complies, then diplobombs the crap out of him. She learns about robot fighting and Petal Rose's food donations. He doesn't recognize the area the coins are from, but "Miss Midnigh says coppah is coppah."
"Miss Midnight" saved him once from some upper class bullies by blinding them. She told him that if he ever needs more help, he can get in contact with the Princess. He thinks of her as a saint, and thinks she and Petal Rose must be best friends. The party gets the idea to talk to Petal Rose...after they finish shopping. The Merchants are cutthroat, but Claire's the best at everything.
Petal Rose's garden is blocked by fifteen foot high walls of thorns. It seems like Petal Rose doesn't want to talk to them. Fi and Vegeta manage to make things worse by mentioning Agent Midnight and the Princess - who Petal Rose abhors. Claire's silver tongue skips an entire dungeon and gets her to speak to them near the entrance.
It's clear Petal Rose is quite old, old enough to witness the great war of the outsiders over a thousand years ago. She is thankful the royal family cleaned up the conflict and united the clans, but she doesn't like how they claim everything as their own domain.
Nighttime party
Petal Rose is at the royal party, and she brought guests! She rides Fleir in and takes good care of her. The team converses with the several guests. Giovanni Vermillion is president of the Magmere Company and takes great pride in his robots and the rights of all autonomous creatures. General Joaan is showing off his muskets and comparing military notes with Vegeta. The Princess herself has heard all sorts of nasty rumors about Alenno and strikes small talk with the party. Eventually it's time for a meal, and she asks the party to make a toast.
Vegeta is blunt and uncaring, as usual. Claire tries to smooth things over, while Fi gives a saying in Elven about peace between nations. Petal Rose demands bowls of water for herself and Fleir. The Princess announces a juicy main course and the guests dig in. Fi and Vegeta notice the party's wine change color as they drink it, and Giovanni's wine change color as well.
The princess talks to Fi privately, apologizes for the wine and suggests the party stays at the Wings of Icarus before bidding everyone goodbye.
Oh hai Midnight
There are no vacancies at the inn, yet the guest suite has been prepared just for the party. As they settle in, they hear a knock on the door. A young woman dressed in leather armor greets them all as Agent Midnight.
She informs them that the wine was designed to discreetly detect enemies of the Draugh Empire, as defined by the King. Of the potential blasphemies, she thinks the party violated the third one. Merki was similarly guilty of this, and he sought out an audience with the princess to plead his case. He earned her trust, and helped Agent Midnight find a way to prove his innocence.
They had worked together to find some kind of rare resource, deep within the Draugh lands. She will gladly instruct the party to retrieve it. But she would like to raid one of Magmere Construction Co's hidden factories first. She advises the party to rest easy, because there will be a long trip through the desert.
Handouts
The King's ideologies
- Protect the King's land.
- Spread the King's influence to other realms.
- Resist corruption from the Devil's will.
Blasphemy against the King
- Invade the King's land and try to claim it as your own.
- Curse the King's liberation of other realms.
- Worshipping or following the orders of evil from beyond this realm.
Objectives
The team has spent time and effort to reach the Draugh Empire. Now that they are finally here, it's sometimes difficult to remember what their goals were.
Merki wants you to
- Locate Agent Midnight, the only person Merki could trust.
- Locate the large stash of Black Sendrine that Agent Midnight helped him find.
Melvin Mel wants you to
- Officially, you are here to find and reestablish Merki's contacts in the region.
- Unofficially, Melvin Mel wants to know what Merki discovered. Did the discovery get him killed?
Developers Notes
Chat Log(Text Only)
Brave New World
Tons of NPCs to generate. Major regions, religions, and a storyline to cook up. Fun!
Did you just skip my dungeon?
With a 40 Diplomacy check, I can't really say Petal Rose has a good reason to retreat into her garden fortress. ...You better believe I'm reusing that dungeon later.
Speaking of which, what's Petal Rose?
Vegeta made a godlike Charisma check (where godlike = 18) and asked Petal Rose what she was, uh... I made all that up. She doesn't trust you guys, and she doesn't trust anyone to that degree, so she rambled on for a bit. Now I have an origin story for her in the back of my head.
