Official: GM Auchand's Solhaven Storyline Synopsis

[Fallen]

>So, since this is 'announcement' worthy news...

>Someone want to post more in depth information about the current events in Solhaven?

>Cats.. invading creatures.. there's different areas to the spire?

The Elementals

In the long term, creatures from a water-elemental plane are assailing Solhaven, stepping through its teleportation defenses like it's no one's business. They're stirred up by a cataclysm that may not have happened yet, since time flows differently on the elemental planes.

The most powerful things they've thrown at Solhaven are titans, described as the foot soldiers (meat shields) of the elementals. These usually take a few strong adventurers to kill. More dangerous are the parasites, hive-minded creatures that have allegedly infiltrated Vornavis. Long ago, dwarves in the area were assailed by the kraken. Some dwarves died, others fled, and a third group thought to worship the kraken, but their worship drew the attention of the water elementals.

The elementals sent their young, the parasites, to fuse with the remaining dwarves, who over long centuries evolved into wave ascendants. Ascendants draw upon the mental acumen of their entire collective, so their spells are phenomenally powerful. Individual ascendants can be destroyed, but their consciousness rejoins the collective soon afterward.

Cats and the Spire

A few days ago, Solhaven's cat population blossomed out of control; this is related to the giant spire of stone that has exploded out of North Market. Other update posts have done an admirable job of explaining the spire, so I'll spare the paragraphs!

Auchand

[Fallen]

I figured this deserved its own thread so people might have a better shot of understanding the storyline. This had a lot of facts that player summeries left out. Apparently this storyline is of interest to gnomes.

[Fallen]

An on-topic response from Auchand.
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>Thank you, Auchand, for posting that synopsis. Players have been doing their best but about 90% of that information was completely new to me.

There have been a few players who have been trying to keep people up-to-date, but a lot of information does get lost in storylines.

I made a post to this effect (that this quest has been a learning experience for me) a while back, but the boards ate it. The gist is that, as a player, I had some revolutionary ideas about how to run quests, but when confronted with the logistics on the other side of the table, I learned exactly why no one had done things that way before: because it just didn't jive with reality.

One thing that I've really enjoyed about this quest so far is how players have shaped it. As someone who acts, I'm a big fan of improvisation. My original proposal for this quest was high-concept with a few brush-strokes for characters; you, as players, have directly influenced the majority of the story. Even the conclusion isn't set in stone at this point.

My original notes, verbatim:

1) Human noble, green and untried, but a nice guy. Related to Baron(?) Magic-trained, but not a mage.

2) Woodsman. More than he seems.

3) Big bada boom. Elementals?

Auchand

[Fallen]

An Important Note: There are actually two unrelated storylines going on in Solhaven at once. One involving Elementals and the Watery Legion, and the other is involving The Spire and Cat pee.

Go Go gadget Solhaven.

[thefarmer]

I have to say, the spire is one massive amount of work. Every room has 3-4 items to look at, which in turn bring up more items to look at from the original, giving the total room a metric ton of things to click on (in SF).

Also if it weren't for Nilandia, I'd be stuck up on top of that fucking thing due to sneaky mechanics to get down the spire.

[Nilandia]

I have to say, the spire is one massive amount of work. Every room has 3-4 items to look at, which in turn bring up more items to look at from the original, giving the total room a metric ton of things to click on (in SF).

Also if it weren't for Nilandia, I'd be stuck up on top of that fucking thing due to sneaky mechanics to get down the spire.
You ain't kidding. It took me literally hours to process everything for whether it might be important for the storyline. Lots of fun, though.

The tribunal was postponed until tomorrow so people could go to Taylir's memorial, so if you're interested in the storyline, head down to Solhaven. Things should get started around 8:30pm Eastern or so.

Also, I'm working on an empath-centric idea someone posed for the water creature storyline. It will most likely be deeply roleplayed and may not rely on level, instead drawing on empathy in its purest essence. If anyone's interested, give me a yell. That means you, Sereh!

Gretchen

[Baelog]

I finally figured out why it's called Solhaven...it's an acronym...

Anyway, every time the residents of the freeport would ask the Empire for help, the Empire would respond with "Sorry, your Shit Outta Luck, Have A Very Emaciated Night"

Eventually, they just started saying "Sorry, SOLHAVEN" and thus the name of the town was born.

[Belnia]

The town may now be referred to as Cathaven.