Soulcreek (Campaign)

**Soulcreek** is the first narrative campaign of **Legends of Charosi**. It opened a hard reboot of the Eternity War storyline.

The campaign served as an opening plot to the world of Charos, and would introduced (or reintroduce) a number of characters and facets of lore that would feature in the future. Many characters to appear would be adapted from the original storyline, though many have heavily altered backstories and personalities.

As the campaign is designed to introduce a large amount of characters, many would have short appearances or just cameos designed to establish the world of Charos and the lore surrounding the story.

There is no set character to serve as primary antagonist, though the Aether plays a large role as the primary antagonistic force.

Soulcreek is a reboot of the Blackstar campaign. The plot begins in Icecrown City, immediately following the events surrounding the survivors of Flight 2647.

## Prelude

Each with their own reasons, a number of individuals boarded the ill-fated Flight 2647 at Port Newton International Airport. The plane was set to arrive at Icecrown City three and a half hours after takeoff, in spite of the bad weather conditions and difficult management of the Lupaian airport.

## Awakening

Towards the end of its approach to Icecrown City, the plane was shot down by a missile of an unknown origin, and a pathogen that'd been secretly smuggled onboard was released. Though most of the passengers were killed, their bodies beyond recognition after the crash, a small group of humans were discovered in relative shape - despite being deceased. However, after their bodies were transported to the Institute, the virus began to spread throughout the city and the Institute itself. Icecrown City was placed on lockdown.

The group corpses suddenly stirred to life, somehow re-animated, and found themselves alone in the Institute. Following clues and general instinct, they found that samples of their blood had been taken and were due to be delivered to Naomi Masher. Believing it could lead to an escape, they took the samples themselves. Heading through the Institute, they encountered infected people that had become Faded (infected people who's minds had been sucked into the Aether) and were stalked by a large demon. The group eventually ran into Kat, who agreed to escort them to Cayden - who could give them access to the underground bunker Naomi was hidden in. They fought their way to the elevator down below, narrowly avoiding the demon hunting them, and encountered Felix along the way.

Once they arrived in the bunker, meeting Wyatt and Naomi, the latter explained that the group were all in an extremely frail state of being. Physically, their bodies were being held together by a thin 'backdoor' in their mind to the Aether, that'd been opened up by the Blacklight virus. The dose they had received on the plane was far larger than the infection spreading throughout the city, and the timing of their deaths moments later meant their minds could be sustained in the Aether seperately from their bodies - normally, keeping the two together during the virus' incubation results in the host becoming a Fade. Instead, they were Glitched - still alive, but barely and with a relatively stable spiritual backdoor to the Aether itself - or an Aperture.

Naomi further explained that Ptomley Amaru had ordered research to be done into the Aether in hopes of weaponizing it, following the Icecrown Incursion a year earlier. Naomi initially refused due to the dangers the Aether posed, but face with pressure from the king, the dangers of refusing the monarchy and the prospect of somebody far less cautious taking the project instead... Naomi agreed. She and Typhon have been making marginal progress on the research, entitled Soulcreek, and have even created prototypes designed to weaponize it. However, the true intention is to study the Aether so that they may find a way to counter it.

With the Glitched representing a major accidental breakthrough in the Soulcreek project, Naomi insisted that Ptomley would want them isolated and institutionalised - and probably vivisected. To save them, she proposes to formally induct them into the Soulcreek project, thereby making them legally untouchable. It'd also mean the research could be accelerated.

Regardless of their choices, the Institute was on lockdown - nobody was going to escape. Bit by bit, basic operations needed to be re-established.

## Why is the coffee gone?!

With a choice between action or death stagnation given to them, the Glitched helped Naomi restore functionality to the Institute. Various trips around the facility were made, in which the team were attacked by insane survivors, hordes of adapting Faded, questionable characters, a shortage of coffee and even a 13 year old. Bit by bit, control began to return to Naomi and the Glitched. However, the group were still hideously outgunned and, with the looming threat of a demon they'd started ominously calling 'the sheep' stalking their every move, they decided to level the playing field. Naomi's used her knowledge of the Aether to create an Artificial Intelligence, one they simply called the Soulcreek AI, and installed it into eight prototype weapons that had been designed to satisfy King Ptomley's desire for progress. To her surprise, the process not only worked but it revolutionised the way that artificial intelligence was coded - Naomi made swift progress on the Soulcreek project. She believed that, since the Aether could not interface with software, AI technology could present a reasonable countermeasure to the Aether. Seeking further progress on her theory, she pushed the Soulcreek project further in her quest to beat back to Aether.

The true source of Naomi's research was revealed, however, when her three sons (Cayden, Felix and Wyatt) were discovered to be Draconi - four, four and two years old respectively. Their eggs had been discovered by Gabriel Imrick still preserved in the Imrick Excavation. Although House Imrick was destroyed, Naomi took possession of the egg. Her discovery of the Aether was in fact simply an accident that resulted of her trying to create the first Switchers - a device designed to disguise Draconi with a human identity.

The cause of Glitched's plane crash was revealed to be the Ceph - or rather, the cult that modelled itself on the ancient humans that called themselves that. Seeking to spread the Aether as a 'natural balance', the Ceph had learned of Naomi's research. Naomi had, seeking a greater opinion, shared her data with a fellow Memorian dracologist, Daniel Bedington. Daniel, conducting his own research, realised the mutating nature of the Aether when his research on samples of Cayden's Draconi blood produced the Blacklight virus. The Ceph learned of the virus, and sought to steal it to bring the Aether into reality. With long-ranged communications failing, Daniel desperately sought to return samples of the virus back to Naomi by smuggling them on commercial airliners. However, the Ceph discovered his ploy and tracked the 'package'. Instead of stealing it, they plotted to release it over Icecrown City and 'bask in the glory' of the results.

In spite of this, Naomi reasoned that was impossible for the Cult of the Ceph, a relatively weak and fanatical group, to have access to so many resources. She reasoned that they must have had help...