2.1 Quest Board

This recap covers the large variety of sidequests and sideplots that were either completed or begun during SKRUNGUS' first offciial downtime.  

Major Developments

Considering that many of the party's downtime activities were inconsequential to the main story, I wanted to focus on the big ones here in a bulleted list (the minor stuff will get their own list in the next section). Note that this was not in chronological order, but all events were separate from one another and happened within a week or two.  

• They're Land Owners Now! - With the defeat of the Clockwork Empress and the retreat of most Chaos monsters from the once human controlled regions, settlers can finally start expanding outwards. Queen Pao was greatly pleased by the SKRUNGUS' performance and wants to celebrate their victory in the royal palace. Furthermore, she had a special surprise in store - the choice of a guild hall! Fengqi would construct the building and the construction costs could be paid later, so the party was able to decide on what kind of base of operations they would like. After much deliberation, they decided on owning a full-on island off the coast of Fengqi that they could customize how they pleased. Additionally, the Queen also awarded the party with a good-sized plot of land, and from there, the Bigglecorp farm was born. The important details about said farm are that Badice and Biggles are co-owners and the kobolds Biggles saved happily work it.

• Dwarven Expedition - One species was helped (the humans) so the next one on the list was looking to be the dwarves. Their ancient capital of Torkarum resided to the west of Fengqi, past the rocky karst topography known as the Heavenly Spires. SKRUNGUS, now semi-famous for their deeds at this point, was able to secure a spot on this expedition first. Biggles, Vrinill, and Ze Xie were chosen as the three representatives to join the dwarves. They would not be the only adventurers, however, as other guilds also wanted in. Regardless, the party learned a brief history of the dwarves and about their culture to prepare themselves.

• Strange Ones - A message for Badice, Haliah, and Lyca arrived shortly after they returned from the Mechanical Dam. They were asked to meet a messenger just outside the northern gates of Fengqi. Kemena was her name, and she was a mananangal, a supernatural entity, but she was similar to the Descended (as they could sense her aura). The stranger wanted the three of them to meet with a group of other descended celestials up to the north who called themselves "The Strange Ones." Members of this group were highly skeptical of the Court of Heaven, but their exact reasons were yet to be revealed. So, Kemena invited the descended trio to journey north and investigate for themselves! Can they trust the Court? Who can they trust?

• Under the City - Near the heart of Fengqi was a large tunnel that led underground to a place known as Dark Feng. All that was known about it at this time was that several species resided there, many of them a mystery to surface dwellers. A few of them would travel between Fengqi and Dark Feng, but those people often kept to themselves. You see, gaining permission to use the tunnel was highly regulated by the group known as the Claw of Sharaka, and Fengqi was not in a position to do anything but comply. However, other means of getting underground existed, and SKRUNGUS managed to uncover one of them. They became one of the few people to ever witness Dark Feng, and well, things were not that great. The Claw was ruthless and threats of thri-kreen attacks were ever-present.

• Endangered Yetifolk - As news spread about the 'brown yetifolk with a tiny lute' aka Biggles, the actual yetifolk reached out for the bard's assistance in a rather pressing matter. The Cradlers accepted their request and learned that this peaceful, innovative species was on the verge of extinction. They believed that Biggles might be able to help revive their numbers and eradicate the diseases plaguing their people. However, Biggles absolutely was not willing to breed with a bunch of strangers and so, he and his friends were willing to try other methods. Some were...unconventional, like the erotic statue idea (I will not elaborate). Some were dangerous, like journeying to the Chaos-infested yetifolk homelands in search of answers from the yetifolk god and mountain itself, Janokk. Regardless, this whole situation was put onto the backburner for a few months, so we will get back to it later.

 

Minor Developments

Much of these next events have had impact on SKRUNGUS and parts of the main story as a whole, but it was mostly their consequences that mattered more than what actually transpired. But even then, those impacts were not quite as large as the ones mentioned above.  

• The Black Opera - SKRUNGUS stopped a Jade Orchid courtesan, Revah, from getting kidnapped by a bunch of opera-mask-wearing hooligans. They manage to capture the criminal, but attempts to interrogate of unmask them failed, especially since the physical unmasking ripped their face off and killed them. Who are these weirdos and what do they want?

• In the Company of CLAMS - After our protagonists met up with the members of the guild CLAMS, they hung out again in Fengqi. The party beat CLAMS in a friendly spar and celebrated their shared victory (kinda) over some seafood and alcohol. Thus begins SKRUNGUS amicable relationship with CLAMS.

• Goodbye, Loralynn - The party's resident lake elf (oh look a minor retcon) Loralynn wanted to go to college, but had no means of paying for it. After a little intervention by her friends, she managed to get a full scholarship and leave the campaign forever! Or at least, until she makes a cameo as an NPC. A note for my players - this was NOT how this sidequest played out, but I really disliked how I shoehorned generic racism as a plotline. Please just bear with me here and accept this cleaner interpretation.

• Kai Ren's Night Market - The guildmaster's extradimensional powers didn't end with the Jade Orchid. Kai Ren revealed to the party that she has access to a Night Market where the party could spend their hard earned qi in exchange for some cool items or some sweet upgrades. However, there is one caveat - Kai Ren has to keep the location a secret and must wipe the party's memory just before exiting the market. What wonders will they find?

• SKRUNGUS helped some Jade Orchid courtesans hunt for some kind of honor thing.

• Badice scorched some vandal gnolls and got an investor for the farm.

• A kobold by the name of Fifi took on the role of kobold ambassador. She's excitable, adores Biggles, and loves making traps.

• The party experiences Kai Ren's Night Market and associated memory tampering for the first time.

• Okay fine I will elaborate on the aforementioned statue thing. Basically, Vrinill wanted to get some 'satyrs' from Dark Feng to get horny for yetifolk women. He thought that 'satyrs' here (who were a completely different species known as sileni) were able to breed with any species and wanted to commission an erotic statue to seduce them? I guess? Anyways, the statue came out mediocre but this plan would have never worked because...honey...sweetie...