Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis

## Act I

After arriving through the Rift, the player is confronted by The Preserver - a being from another realm, like them - who has been tasked with investigating the rift and assessing its potential effects on this realm. After the player has interacted with The Preserver and is informed of its mission, they are tasked with going to the nearest town to be the eyes and ears of The Preserver as it continues to study The Rift, as well as gathering supplies and learning more about The Realm and its inhabitants. The player is also warned to keep their identity and The Preserver’s a secret for fear that knowledge of their identities will only serve to hinder the mission.

After travelling through some quiet, disrepaired farmlands the player eventually reaches the town of Aldersley, where a hard rain is falling. Almost immediately after setting foot inside the town, they are approached by a scraggly-bearded and unkempt looking man named Dendry, who asks them for a coin. Having no currency, the player is forced to refuse but has the option to ask the man about the town and its inhabitants. Dendry tells the player that some sort of religious dry spell has overtaken the town and its people have become overtaken with a deep depression. He then recommends talking to Father Maury at the local church if they’d like to know more and goes about his business.

Once the player has bidden him farewell, the town opens up to them and they are faced with several options. To advance the main quest, the player must go to Father Maury and talk to him about the town’s problems. Upon doing this, the player will learn that the rain outside hasn’t stopped for about three weeks, and that any prayers offered to the gods are seemingly “blocked” and have gone unanswered. It is clear that he does not know what to do but, seeing that you want to help, suggests that you go directly to Lord Snyder - the Lord of Aldersley - and see if you can offer any help to him.

When the player enters the castle, they find Lord Snyder pacing back and forth across the floor in front of his throne, as Tomyen - the captain of the guard - watches and attempts to ease some sort of dilemma he is having. When the player introduces themselves and begins to ask about the town and its people, he seems to disregard the question entirely and recruits the player to help him with a problem in the castle. According to him, prisoners in the dungeon are complaining about strange noises and some of them have been found with wounds - or worse - dead. The player agrees to investigate, if it will help, and proceeds to the dungeon.

Upon entering the dungeon, it appears as he described it; the few prisoners who are down here appear to be highly agitated, cowering in the far corners of their cells sobbing, screaming, or batting at things that aren’t there. Eventually, one of them appears coherent enough to tell the player that they’ve heard noises coming from under the wall at the end of the hallway. The player decides to investigate the end of the hall and finds a hidden lever that opens the wall itself, revealing a hidden passage behind it.

As the player investigates the passage, they find that the noises have been coming from the moans and shamblings of horrifying, undead wights. While fighting through them, they eventually find their way into a locked room that contains the remains of a few spell tomes and a large, fresh hole in the middle of the floor. After investigating the tomes scattered around, they find evidence that it was Lord Snyder himself that caused this. They decide to find a way to the bottom of the hole to ensure that the rest of the wights are taken care of before returning and confronting Lord Snyder.

As they make their way further down the hidden passages, they find that the castle’s foundations are built on top of the ruins of an older castle, and the bottom of the hole rests at the bottom of this ruin. As the player deals with the last of the wights and explores the rest of the ruin, they encounter a dark being who seems to have been watching them. The player confronts the strange being in order to assess its intentions in this place and discover that it is a result of the rift's appearance, like the player, and was summoned by Lord Snyder for some nefarious purpose. After a brief dialogue, the creature becomes tired of the player and summons more undead from the floor of the ruin, effectively undoing all the work the player did up to this point. The player must then fight their way back to the ground floor and confront Lord Snyder with the evidence they have gained about his meddling with dark magic.

Once the player has made their way back to him, barely escaping with their life, they confront him with their findings. It isn’t long before he and Tomyen decide that you are a threat and the only way to cover up what has happened here is to imprison the player and attempt to deal with the creature themselves. So the player is incapacitated by Tomyen, and taken to Lord Snyder’s observatory at the top of the castle’s highest tower and imprisoned there.

The player awakens some time later, finding that they are not alone in the makeshift cell that Lord Snyder has put here. An apprentice mage named Berrathyn introduces themselves to the player, explaining that he had come here to investigate the presence of dark magic that had been detected by the mages of the White Spire - a magic academy in a city called Charselor. He explains that Lord Snyder was combative when questioned about the presence of dark magic, and turned the questions around on him instead, asking what he knew about such magic. When he refused to answer any questions, becoming suspicious of the Lord’s intentions, Lord Snyder had him imprisoned here and continued to interrogate him. When he had attempted to escape, he found that his magical abilities were inexplicably blocked, rendering him completely useless.

It is then that he realizes that magic is emanating from the player, somehow unaffected by whatever spell is blocking his abilities. The player agrees to let him use them as a channel for their own abilities, and together they break the lock to their cell. Once out, Berrathyn realizes that they cannot simply walk out the front door, and that if they have come this far they should try and finish his original mission. The player tells him about what they encountered in the ruins under the castle and of the strange creature summoned here due to Lord Snyder’s meddling. The player is convinced to help him, so he uses his abilities to teleport them both to the place where the dark creature was encountered so that he can deal with it himself.

He and the player both are teleported to the ruins to find the creature and Lord Snyder already in dialogue, with Tomyen standing nearby for protection. Apparently Lord Snyder was attempting to finish the binding spell that he had failed to do before, and the creature uses your interruption to tempt him to kill the player instead of finishing the binding spell, promising the reward he seeks if he does. Lord Snyder agrees, and orders Tomyen to kill the player. After battle, Tomyen is defeated and Lord Snyder attempts to stab the player with a dagger he has hidden in his tunic, but is seen and stopped by Berrathyn, who kills him with a fireball.

Once Lord Snyder is killed, the binding spell is permanently disrupted, freeing the dark creature who - in its delight - allows the player to escape again as a reward for being instrumental in its unbinding. Before the player or Berrathyn can do anything to stop it, the creature vanishes through a rift like the one the player came through and is gone.

Once the player and Berrathyn gather themselves, Berrathyn tells the player that he must leave immediately to report his failure to his master in Charselor, then thanks the player for everything they have done and, with the creature gone, uses his own power to teleport himself and the player out of the castle and departs from the town. The rain has stopped and the sun shines on the town for the first time in weeks, to the joy of the townspeople who step outside their homes to celebrate. The player then decides that the presence of this creature and its use of a rift is enough evidence to report back to The Preserver.

The player returns to The Preserver and tells them of the encounter with the dark creature and its power. The Preserver informs the player that this has made the situation more complicated and raises more questions than answers, but is satisfied that the player has found the source of the problem and has proved a beneficial ally. It then allows the player to ask it more detailed questions about itself and the rift, which the player does.

The player learns that The Preserver is part of a race of beings from another plane who have declared themselves protectors and have tasked themselves with combating anything that would upset the balance that keeps them intact. It then surmises that this dark being’s ability to open rifts may suggest that it seeks to disrupt that balance, as rifts indicate a tear in the fabric that binds a plane together, and will inevitably lead to its destruction the more it is used. Once the player is satisfied, it then further tasks the player with seeking out any other planes and alerting it to their presence. The player agrees and sets out into The Realm proper in search of any further evidence of rifts in hopes that they will somehow find a way to close them and return home.

## Act II

On their travels the player eventually comes to the Dead Plains - an ancient battlefield turned memorial where the bodies of countless soldiers and lords lie. They make their way to the lorehouse where they meet Caretaker Lyra - the lorekeeper of the plains - and ask about the Dead Plains and the fortress that towers over it. Lyra is about to begin rattling off the lore that she has rehearsed for years but suddenly finds herself at a complete loss of memory. She searches for her journal, which contains all of her notes and research regarding the lore of the plains, but is unable to remember where she put it - eventually realizing that the groundskeeper Dempfry must have taken it to help him navigate the crypts below. She asks the player to retrieve the journal so that she can give them a proper history of the battles that took place here.

The player then leaves the lorehouse in search of Dempfry, keeping an eye out for the lantern he keeps on him to indicate his passage through the area. Eventually they find it alone inside a mausoleum, illuminating a collapsed wall within. They examine the exposed passage within and discover lights further inside. They decide to follow the lights in hopes that it will lead them to Dempfry and the journal. Not long afterwards, the passage leads them into the large crypts under the graveyard above and the player finds Dempfry, who is scared at first but eventually relieved to see that he is not alone anymore.

Dempfry tells the player that he was examining the collapsed section of wall in the mausoleum when he heard noises coming from inside the crypts. Thinking it might be some new infestation, he decided to follow the passage, slipping on a loose stone near the end of it and falling out the other side. When he stood, he was horrified to see the remains of entombed soldiers wandering around, reanimated by evil magic of some kind. He attempted to climb back up on the wall but twisted his ankle and found himself unable to put any weight on it. As groundskeeper, it is his job to ensure the upkeep of the tombs and its inhabitants, and so he asks the player to help him discover what has caused the dead to rise.