Plot:DBDraft
Adonthell v0.4 Plot Andrew Michael Phillips Kai Sterker 21.03.2005 Adonthell v0.4 Plot This document is part of the Adonthell Designer’s documentation http://adonthell.linuxgames.com (C) 2005 Kai Sterker & The Adonthell Team [email protected]
1 Synopsis
The main character of Adonthell v0.4: Dun Barethsol is Marcella. She is the daughter of a Green Sister who was killed during the Erinsford riots. Her dream to learn more about the secrets of Alchemy seems to come true when she receives an anonymous letter promising to teach her what her foster father, Padrig, would never dare.
The author of the letter is Lord Albrecht of Wyvernesse, who witnessed the bloodshed of the riot and has been searching for ways to prevent such events since then. In the course of his research into Alchemy, he has become more and more corrupt. He has now forgotten his once noble goal. To increase his power, he seeks to gain control over a baby dragon hatched from an old and rare dragon egg, that he has stolen from the Abbey of Shining Mist.
The ritual that would allow Albrecht complete control over the dragon requires the blood of a witch, but those have become rare since the riots and well guarded by the Forestkeepers and their own Green Knights and Rods of Chaos. A girl like Marcella, without knowledge of her own power and in search for more than her life has to offer seems an easy prey for him: lured easily into the wilderness with false promises and disposed of easily when her usefulness ends, all with little personal risk.
Albrecht's simple plan starts to fall apart when his messenger, sent to meet Marcella at Waste’s Edge, is killed by the very bandits, under Alek Endhelm's lead, that are intended to divert the Forestkeepers attention from his own doings at the old Elvish ruins of Dun Barethsol.
Stranded in Waste’s Edge, with uncertain past and future, Marcella must find her destiny, be it good or evil, and prevent Albrecht from bringing an untimely end to her life and doom to the people of Wyvernesse.
3 Characters
The characters of Dun Barethsol are introduced here.
3.1 Leading Part
These characters are essential to the game.
Marcella
Marcella Kurwen is a fifteen year old orphaned Human. She has no idea who her parents were or what happened to them, only that they probably aren’t alive anymore. She grew up with Padrig and Merigan Kurwen, raised as their daughter. Indeed, when asked about her father and mother, she usually replies that Padrig and Merigan are her parents. Marcella knows that there is a great deal being hidden about the recent past. She knows that whoever her parents were, Padrig and Merigan know but will not tell her. She knows that horrible and unspoken things happened in Erinsford. She knows that the people would like to forget, so they don’t say what happened. She also knows that she can’t explain how she knows some of these things. Feelings sometimes come of their own accord. Knowledge comes at times which cannot be explained as coming from any of the five senses which she had been trained to use.
From these phantom scraps of insight and her parent’s rearing, Marcella formed her goals. She is determined, somehow, someday, to know the truth of her birth. She is an intelligent young woman, trained to be observant. Padrig and Merigan taught her not only basic herb lore, but the high skill of reading. She is not an accomplished reader, or by any means a student of lore, but she can read well in the Human language of the southern parts of the world. She also knows a smattering of the Half-Elven tongue and can sing parts of their myth of the world’s making.
Albrecht of Wyvernesse
Wyvernesse is both the name of Albrecht’s family and his manor house. Many generations ago, a village called Wvyernesse existed around the manor. It has since faded back into the forest, but the name persists. The family of Wyvernesse progressed from being the lords of the wilderness to being the ruling family of Erinsford. The family has a reputation for justice, fair dealing, and defending the population. Unfortunately, Erinsford bears out the law of entropy, as does all else.
The trouble began during the first years of Albrecht’s lordship. The Magehunters, frightened and incensed by the deaths of their own people, spread that fear tthroughout the town. Albrecht, the intelligent and benevolent, but passive son of an equally intelligent, benevolent, and passive father, did not know how to respond to the troubles. As a result, he did not react until the blood of Magicker, Magehunter, and townsfolk had been spilled.
Guilt-ridden, Albrecht took personal responsibility for the riots within his walls and began to seek out the power to stop something like that from happening. He began to court the learned, but most of them had already vanished. He was forced to be discreet, since fear still ruled Erinsford. Not even the Lord Mayor could be seen openly seeking arcane knowledge, even if it was only for the sake of understanding the learned and preventing other such rioting. His search for arcane knowledge was pure in its motives at first. As a close student of Padrig Kurwen, he heard, and took personally, many of the rumors that were spread regarding Padrig and his beloved. He had known before that the people of Erinsford had turned on the learned, more or less from ignorance and fear, but the degree and nature of the turning remained beyond his knowledge until he began to associate with the learned. He became angry with himself, with Erinsford, and with the kindly learned. He had realized that his public acceptance of responsibility had been more appropriate than he had realized at the time at which he took it. Fear and anger soured his investigation of the arcana. He was determined that such tragedies as the Magicker Riots should not happen again. He was even more determined that his own personal weaknesses should be put aside.
Albrecht’s desire to rule was kept in check only by his understanding that he must rule cunningly. In generations past, the people of Erinsford had known their Lord Mayors to rule by consent, if not by plebiscite. He knew that they would have to choose his tyranny for themselves, so he set out to make it happen. Always presenting a face of civility and concern, he began to allow the slow, marginal corruption of his ruling apparatus. Murders increased. Some of them were never solved. The people accepted more laws and more city guards. Many of the laws did them good, but some simply limited their freedoms.
Quite by accident, Albrecht’s brigands waylaid a dragon hunter, badly injuring him before Yetin monks and Forestkeepers come to his rescue. Both sides of the skirmish come away bloodied. The Rangers melt back into the woods, while the Monks took the wounded hunter back to their monastery for treatment. The brigands reported their find.
At this news, Albrecht realized that his time had come. He gave his hirelings free rein, beginning with the destruction of those who had harbored the dragon hunter. He wrote his letter to Marcella and sent Alek’s band out to find the monastery. A month after the failed ambush of the dragon hunter, Albrecht's old teacher, Padrig was murdered in a ‘botched burglary.’
3.2 Minor Part
These characters are not vital for the game, but they may offer side quests, goods or interesting information about the game world.
Orloth Redwyne
Orloth Redwyne is the Master of the Redwyne Inn. Orloth bought it from his brother Lenhart using the dowry paid to him by Lucia’s father. He is the master of the Inn and the person to ask about a room. Orloth is an honest and amiable fellow, but his apparent aversion to conflict might make him seem weak to some. He prefers to rent out his rooms rather than borrow trouble, but he also takes responsibility for what goes on under his roof. His knowledge of his guests is general, but certain guests and events stick in his mind. Alek Endhelm is one such. The ranger Andare is another such, since Andare’s sporadic visits tend to distract Oliver, attract Solmanus, Rymon, and other rangers to the Inn, and mean more sales of ale and food to dinner and overnight guests.
Lucia Redwyne
Lucia Redwyne is kind and hard-working, but not to be crossed, as a certain servant of Imoen Silverhair could no doubt testify. She appears to have the strongest personality in her family, since she brooks no flattery and will insist on the amendation of wrongs against her or those she cares about. There is only one way to regain her favor after crossing her, and that is to make right whatever wrongs one has done. She does not like Waste’s Edge and would rather be in Cirdanth. She will inform even total strangers of her preference for the city and “civilization”.
Oliver Redwyne
Oliver is the only son of Orloth and Lucia. He is fourteen. It is his job to mind the stables, but he also shows guests to their rooms. He is an imaginative lad, sometimes though to be overly imaginative. His “over-active imagination” has gained some credibility of late, however. His information about the guests is very general and sometimes wildly inaccurate. However, his mistakes of fact should not be confused for stupidity. He still knows what is going on and may hear what no one else can hear, especially if there are no Elvish or Half-Elvish folk staying at the Inn.
Jelom Rasgar
Jelom Rasgar is gruff. He is a former sergeant of the guard in Erinsford. He came to Waste’s Edge for the pay, which is very good, especially since rarely does anything need doing. His typical week involves little more than standing guard, acting important, and handling small incidents with the dock-hands.
Jelom, though a former sergeant, still professes to serve Lord Albrecht. His knowledge of his Lord is detailed, but somewhat inaccurate. He knows nothing of Albrecht’s dark schemes, instead respecting and admiring a version of Albrecht of Wyvernesse which no longer exists. Explanations of Albrecht’s schemes would be wasted on Jelom and might even result in the end of his limited co-operation.
Talan Wendth
Talan Wendth is also a servant of Albrecht of Wyvernesse and just as much in the dark about his Lord as is Jelom. Whereas Jelom might remain in Albrecht’s service out of duty or loyalty even if he knew about Albrecht’s plans, Talan would leave the Lord’s service at the first chance. Talan is an honest fellow, except when it comes to his singing.
4 Locations
Here you’ll find a brief description of the various places that play a role in Adonthell 0.4 - “Dun Barethsol”.
Dun Barethsol
Underground village
Waste’s Edge
Bandit Camp
Abbey of Shining Mist
Arysnval
Abbot’s Hut
Uzdun’kal
Hunting Castle
Witch’s house
4.8 Uzdun’kal
Of all dwarven settlements in the south (save the legendary Amon-Azak), Uzdun’kal is by far the greatest and most impressive. To outsiders, the whole underground complex appears to be a random arrangement of homes, workshops, plazas and meeting halls. Many stairs connect the different levels, galleries surround the huge caverns and bridges cross many a bottomless chasm. Water is present everywhere, flowing through numerous channels to drive strange machinery.
5 Main Plot
This section covers all quests associated with the main plot.
6 Side Quests
These quests are not required to follow the main story line, but might provide useful information, training or items.
6.1 Drive off wolves
Carrying out this quest will lead Marcella near the Abbot’s Hut.
In the Mountain village, the shepherds will tell Marcella of wolves that haunt the valley where they usually keep their sheep. The valley is located north of the village. The wolves reside within a small cave, a bit further into the mountains. Andare the Ranger might know how to get rid of the wolves without killing (all of) them. Otherwise Marcella will have to fight.
The shepherds won’t offer much in return for Marcella’s help. If she refuses to take what little money they have, she’ll recieve some rare herbs instead.
6.2 Heal abbot
This quest is no longer available if the Abbot dies. This will happen when Marcella visits after rescuing the monks.
When offering help to Abbot Tham the Learned, he might tell Marcella not to worry about his person. Only a Sister of the Green would be able to cure him now. Some other folk, like Andare the Ranger might direct Marcella towards Ella. She’ll brew some medicine to deliver to Tham. He will not recover on the instance, but he won’t die either.
As a reward, Marcella will recieve a summons from Tham that asks friends of the Yetin Monks to aid her. Lady Rhayne Frostbloom would be one of them, for example.
6.3 Convict praline thief
If Marcella agrees to deliver the pralines to the Hunting castle, she will be attacked on the way. A ranger will come to her aid, and after driving the robbers off, he will ask Marcella about her business.
If she tells him the merchant’s story, his suspicion will fall on Elgar Basil, the dockmaster. He’ll tell her that Elgar is a shady type, somehow associated with the Men of Knife. Then he leaves her alone.
When Marcella returns to Waste’s Edge, she may get the guards to search the dockmaster’s office. There they’ll find some pralines of earlier shipments and a few other things that have gone missing around Waste’s Edge.
Once the crime is solved, the merchant will be very grateful. As a reward, he asks Marcella to keep all payment when finally delivering the pralines.