3.1 New Party Members

This recap covers the events of Umeiri and Badice's respective one-on-one sessions and the various sidequests done during the downtime period after Chapter 2.  

Major Developments

The structure of this recap mirrors that for the previous downtime period and shall henceforth be the template for future downtime recaps. As a reminder, this essentially means that all the various side plots will be divided between major and minor and then expounded upon in a bulleted list. Enough of all this formal English major talk, let's dive in!  

• Dance in the Dark - Umeiri ventured into Dark Feng to do more investigation into the mysterious cult known as "The Black Opera." During her journeys, she accomplished numerous feats which include: recruiting a new member into SKRUNGUS (the thri-kreen bard Dae'dwa'koma), meeting up with the Dark Feng Paranormal Club, and stopping a kidnapping! Overall, it seems that the Black Opera's favored targets are performers who are at their lowest. However, they will occasionally go after bigger stars and create a whole dramatic scene alongside their kidnapping attempt. Unfortunately for them, Umeiri and Dae'dwa were too sharp, too fierce, and too fast for them, and their plan to kidnap a local actress failed. Not only that, the dynamic duo managed to snatch a live masked performer AND a mask itself (with no gore!).

• The Black and Blue Bride - Although Badice's one-on-one is not necessarily the next major event in line chronologically, as it was related to the Black Opera, I feel like I should just discuss it now. To preface, I must mention that Sir Ivan Mantahill Proctor is now a follower of hers, and boy is he one helluva character. Anyways, the Black Opera sent a blue-flowered threat to kidnap the actor playing Dumante who would be performing on the Day of the Passionate. Badice was ready to help the guard stop the crime, and so she partook in the festival as she waited for the play to start. I'll leave the details of that encounter for the minor developments section. Moving on, the Black Opera was right on schedule and performed some powerful enchantment magic to essentially hold actors hostage and prevent anyone from acting out of line, including Badice. Once this "Bride" character was done being a dramatic bitch, her lackeys went to scoop up some extra kidnapees just because. The warlock and her campanion Shatter (and I guess Sir Ivan too) managed to fend off the attackers, while others struggled (cough Vain cough). During the following investigation, she also acquired some more clues about the cult.

• Munaanism v1.5 - Upon the dwarven expedition team's return to Fengqi, Guundham and their accomplices had to be dealt with. In the end, the party, mostly by Fatima's request, decided to drop the charges and Guundham in particular would serve as Fatima's counsel for the new era to come. Praandham was dead and the core beliefs of Munaanism had been challenged like never before. As the new leader of the Munaanjar (a fancy word for the followers of Munaanism), Fatima had a lot of work ahead of her. SKRUNGUS couldn't provide too much help in the religious department, but as far as some diplomacy and guarding went? The guild was happy to provide.

• A Chance for Contact A few weeks after the party's return from their respective journeys, the Cradlers receive a mysterious message when they visit the All-King's temple (aka Yuwang Tower) for a festival. A strange voice emanating from the All-King's statue gave them a bargain to consider - they could get contact someone of their world if they drop an item of great sentimental value that originated from Cradle in the Pools of Seeing. The voice didn't specify who they were exactly (aside from representing the Court of Heaven) or how they acquired this information. This call home would be a gift, but it was also a way to earn trust. This being needed help, and they wanted to prove they could help in return.

• The Halfling Tombs - One of the party's next destinations would be the Halfling Tombs to the northwest of Fengqi. While one half of CLAMS had ventured alongside SKRUNGUS during the dwarven expedition, the other half were able to scout out the halfling territories. The largest city in the region, Chimyeong, was teeming with undead, presumably due to the Chaos and the lack of proper funerary rites done on the thousands of dead there. So, CLAMS spearheaded another expedition, this time to Chimyeong and including the five leaders of the largest halfling clans. One of which was the Su clan that the descended trio learned a little bit about. After the party returned those items, they garnered enough favor and goodwill to be able to partake in this mission.

• A Pirate's Life for Me - The halfling tombs expedition was all planned and good, but SKRUNGUS had not expected the second adventure to just fall on their laps. You see, various seaworthy ships and sailing crews were being assembled to explore various island regions beyond the mainland. One of the closer islands was the Western Dragon Island from which most metallic dragonborn originated. It would have taken several months to prepare for such a journey, but a plucky old dragonborn sailor by the name of Zhu Zhu Wei felt that he had the ship for it and just needed the crew. Few were willing to entrust their lives basically to this eccentric nobody with a rickety ship, but SKRUNGUS was willing to bet on him. Especially since he was apparently a descended.

• Yeehaw! - Our second himbo and totally-original-character joined the party! Meet Rodeo Montehooves, the centaur barbarian who descended alongside his beloved Zoeyette Canterlet! What he lacks in brains, he makes up in brawn and in heart. Will the couple's escape from their feuding families be just a brief respite, or a permanent paradise? Only time will tell...

Minor Developments

• Oops - Biggles got a handful of decent contacts carousing and one hostile contact in the form of landing in the crosshairs of the Black Opera. Totally nothing major at all. There won't be any horrific consequences. Nope.

• The Outlaw Contact - Serendipity introduced herself as the official representative for the Outlaws. She was a Rended fairy living as an elf and inhabiting a body far larger than she was ever used to. She knew the Rending ritual and had missions for Badice, Haliah, and Lyca to undertake so as to increase their rapport with the group.

• A Big Boat Building - SKRUNGUS' guild hall was built (in both the game and in the Sims 4!) and the guild was able to generate passive income, attract more members, and even gather some good intel. The Jade Orchid courtesans work fantastically as a spy network and act as the intelligence agents for SKRUNGUS.

• Hard Workers - As a whole, SKRUNGUS continued to garner royal support, earned quite a bit of qi and a little bit of money, and expanded its membership significantly!

• Zoeyette Canterlet's business savvy and druid magic set her up to be the perfect coworker for Biggles and Badice. The farm continued to expand and generate even more income.

• Biggles was a horrible magic tutor. Just awful.

• Ze Xie had to deal with some drama what with her trainer being an actual criminal.

• LUMIKO the dancing robot followed Umeiri into SKRUNGUS where she swiftly faded into the background!

• Lyca won a jewelry crafting competition, netting SKRUNGUS a new jeweler, Nasar, along with a handful of other goodies.

• Vrinill found a spoopy (but not really) glowy (yes really) skeleton man, Bonzo, who cannot control his magic but we love him anyway.

• Haliah's mentor and sister from an older clutch, Rasli, decided that Sharaka could use another enemy. Slay, snake sis.

• Sir Ivan somehow defied all the odds and won Badice a giant white horse plushie. The warlock was not entertained.