Following Nowhere’s exile and Langston’s escape, life returned back to what counts as normalcy in the two towns of Daring Heights and Port Ffirst. Naturally, a group almost immediately set out for the far north at the direction of halfling childprophet Idari Shortcrust and slew a vampiric duchess who was ruling over the kobold mining village of Kurzig Vondar north of the Angelbark Forest. “Normalcy” indeed.
The vampire, Duchess Khalister, gave people pause when they considered another figure in town who remained anonymous—known only as The Duchess herself. She was an information dealer of sorts who had sent many tips the adventurers’ way, including the location of the Arbiter’s Disc, but all attempts to ascertain her true nature failed. Her intent however, seemed clear, to help Daring thrive.
The strange elven tribe of Galavir, free of their Marid master, sought out the angel Will to learn what would become of their souls now. Will and the adventurers broke the remaining seals the Marid had left behind and freed these souls to rejoin the great elven cycle of souls.
Then a great plague struck Daring Heights— the Lassitude. It was a virulent, though rarely fatal, disease that sapped all energy away. The cause was determined to be Fey disguised as priests ‘helping’ the town with blessings. They were chased to the Feywild and dispatched while clerics and doctors from Kundar aided local physicians in perfecting and distributing a cure.
One hundred twenty-two died in total, a memorial raised in the graveyard as a marker for the burned dead. This event shook Daring Heights, and they had had to quarantine themselves for the duration, but it was also the first time—in the Feywild—that the term ‘the Amaranthine Games’ was heard. Later, it would be discovered that the whole plague was orchestrated by the River King, a Fey Lord, to diminish the light that Daring shone in the Feywild, and lessen the Queen of Night & Magic’s standing in the games.
Shortly after, Vorsthold claimed it’s debt from Daring—aid in the Underdark, and adventurers battled an Elder Brain in a Githzerai fortress to pay this debt off. Meanwhile, the Amaranthine Games were beginning to drag more heroes from Daring into their wake.
The Games seemed to be a series of completely random, off-the-wall competitions between teams or individuals representing some of the foremost Lords and Ladies of the Feywild. The first main event was a contest in the Shadowfell to be the person holding a particular skeletal cat in a monumental mountainous mausoleum at the end of two hours. The players were victorious and their ‘patron’, the Queen of Night and Magic, received points for their efforts.
Another game, a footrace up and down a mountain—a volcano in thruth—became even more chaotic with the announcement of a fifth team for these games. The four main players of the Amaranthine Games were Queen Sarastra Aestruum (the Queen of Night and Magic and linked to Daring Heights by way of the Bear King, her vassal); King Ulorian the River King; Queen Titania the Summer Queen; and Queen Morrinn the Snow Queen. Now, the fifth, turned out to be Jack, the Fool of Queen Sarastra’s court.
Jack was a modron, specifically a Hexadrone from Mechanus who had become a Fool through a poor contract and wanted to use these games to free himself. He was, frankly, mad, but cunning and hired the adventurers to fetch a champion for him from the same prison that held the Druid Daisy’s greatgrandmother Khazifa—locked in the First Bank of Primus. The adventurers freed Khazifa and a metal warrior named Ward, who promptly joined Jack’s side in payment.
Other hijinks ensued including Langston Farstep (on the River King’s team) turning Rholor and his adventurer escort into children in the Feywild to try and get rid of them. Eventually all the scheming and gaming came down to a grand series of final games—the Amaranthiad—held in a specially made stadium. The final games were epic in scale and mind-boggling in nature, but ultimately the Grand Final was set to decide it all.
Each team (now many adventurers participating on each side) was allowed to design a giant mechanical warrior which they then pitted against each other in a vast arena; each team piloting the mech from within. The battle was epic in every sense, but ultimately the winner was crowned and Queen Titania of Summer was named the winner of the games.
Now, there was a secondary prize at stake here—the winner of the Games was able to ascend a single individual, be they Fey or not, to the ranks of the Fey nobility. Rholor and Sunday were both potentials for this honour, but Titania’s win sealed this prize for Sunday. Everyone was therefore stunned when Sunday turned it down outright and left the stadium. And thus, with Queen Titania laughing in the dirt as Sunday walked away, the Amaranthine Games closed.
Once more, Daring Heights was on the spotlight when it came to the big players of Kantas. During the beginning of the games, the Fey Lords and Ladies were still focused on Daring as the main settlement of the foreigners from another continent and that led to Port Ffirst, once more, coming out almost unscathed from the entire predicament Kantas was facing.
This led to several interesting developments in the port town. First of all, Countess Arnis Jinlin continued in her demand to claim some of the mercantile power owned by the Lenoir brothers. After several methods proved to be in vain she resorted to less orthodox approaches and hired adventurers to help her in locating the infamous and misleading Laeruna the Red.
After a successful locating mission, Laeruna agreed to meet with the Countess hence starting a very profitable and dangerous relationship between the two women. From this point on, working hand in hand, the Jinlin estates slowly started acquiring more and more allies and businesses. Meanwhile, the Lenoirs noticed something askew and Soros was forced to deal with the matter, spending less time every day heading the Flourished Hook. This led to Soros hiring Himal Maskay to help manage the Flourished Hook and deal with more “delicate” business while he was trying to understand how the Countess suddenly started weilding so much power with such ease.
On another note, Mundungus Keyhorn, last of the faithful to Kensington in Port First, perished after striking a deal with a group of Yuan-ti from Chult and an emissary of the Lady of the Sixth Hell, Glasya. This powerful devil was summoned by a secret society called The Cult of the Lady formed by rich farmers opposed to the Lenoir brothers.
With the support of the Cult and Glasya’s minions, Mundungus managed to hire a sizeable crew of pirates and cut-throats from the Sword Coast to try and harass the Lenoir brothers at sea, but was double-crossed and killed by the entities he got in league with. The efforts the Lenoirs put in re-establishing their dominance were not in vain. A few months after they started ramping up their influence once more, the Grey Zephyr Armada, under their command accidentally discovers the port town of a kingdom on the East coast of the Sea of Storms—the city of Cape Za’suul in the kingdom of Kul’Goran.
Naturally, the Lenoir brothers pushed for a healthy business relationship with these newfound allies and promptly set up a trading deal with them. All of a sudden, Port Ffirst got involved directly and indirectly in the Amaranthine Games. First, because of the plague that struck Daring Heights, many of the healthy citizens decided to take refuge in Port Ffirst causing a problem of overpopulation and lack of resources. Luckily, the situation was dealt with quickly and no major issues arose from it.
Around the same time, Jack decided to replicate what Queen Sarastra had set in place in Daring Heights by having adventurers place feystones around Port Ffirst creating a second Beacon in the feywild—this one where Port Ffirst would stand and under Jack’s control. Towards the end of the Amaranthiad, the Lenoirs, excited by the recent maritime discoveries, strongarm a famous cartographer, Nappin Gyrowistle, into moving to Port Ffirst to work for them.
Summary:
The Lassitude, a plague, struck Daring Heights—this was cured and later discovered to be linked to the Amaranthine Games.
The Amaranthine Games were the Feywild Olympics and full of bizarre games. It was a contest between four Kings and Queens of the Feywild and Jack—the court fool of one of the queens and a surprise entrant in the games seeking to win his freedom.
Countess Jinlin with Laeruna gained a stronger foothold in Port Ffirst.
As part of the games, Jack had adventurers create a beacon in the Feywild on the Port Ffirst’s location in his honour, to match the beacon of Daring Heights.
The finale of the Amaranthine Games saw Queen Titania win after a 27 player 4 table giant mech fight. She offered an elevation to the nobility to Sunday (a PC) who declined.
Next: Season 5: The Winds of War
