The Storm

> "We've come to Ferrenport to find a future for our group. The Storm must rise above the squabbles, and be as bright as lightning in the face of the dark."
>
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## The Storm

### Aim

- To Join the Vanguards- To Protect the City from Evildoers- To revive their leader, Nycaloth

## Members

### Number of Members

50 (known)

The Storm is a group of paladins who operate out of their headquarters, the Storm Headquarters, in the city of Ferrenport. (EDIT: They were thought to be good paladins, but it has been revealed that it was a facade to disguise their otherwise evil intentions with pure aspirations and appearances)

### History:

Their history has been hidden from adventurers, only being revealed in flecks and scrapes According to Leslie, the Storm is a group that has formed recently from a town to the north. The group moved to Ferrenport months ago, and has been slowly building up its reputation in town off the backs of adventurers while acting as formative questgivers, and were attacked before entering the city. Low on resources and lacking in members in the beginning, they have relied on adventurers of Ferrenport to get them back on their feet.

#### Base of Operations:

The Storm Headquarters was located in Ferrenport. The building is a large, white-columned building that has been fully-repaired, but now lays derelict and abandoned. The members of the Storm are long gone, only the shell of the building remains of their headquarters, everything else taken from the building. As you enter the main room, you can see a now finished mural of a member of the Storm holding a Predator-style handshake with a storm giant, presumably Nycaloth. The majority of the main room is taken up by a lower section of ground, which would have at one point been an arena, but the training dummies and seating for the building has since been removed. The main room used to connect to two other rooms: the Leaders Quarters and the Den. The Den was a dugout of bedding and small living quarters for the members to live in, and connected into a dungeon and torture room for the Storm underneath the main building. The Leaders Quarters was the sleeping room and office of the leader in one. The desk in the room was high with paperwork, and if the marks on the wall are anything to go by, was the scene of a battle at some point. Today, the room is now completely empty save for a desk and chairs.

### Known Members of the Storm:

Marquett de La Ruinne - Leader of the Storm

Leslie Winn - Betrayed former Second-In-Command of the Storm

The Night - disguised member associated with the kidnapping and torture committed by the Storm

### Ferrenport History

##### The Gathering Storm

The party was requested by Leslie, then Acting Leader of the Storm, to perform a rescue mission regarding their actual leader, Marquett, who had been captured by slavers while en route to Ferrenport. The party headed out along the road dictated by Leslie, and encountered the slavers, who they defeated and released a worn and beaten Marquett.

Leslie was extremely thankful to the party for their help, and paid them before taking Marquett inside.

##### Turnabout Squirrel

Leslie, still in the middle of training themselves, Marquett and the rest of the Storm up to pass the physical training imposed by Bjorn on any who wish to become questgivers to the Vanguards, asked a party of adventurers to settle a border dispute between two women a little way out of town as a training mission. What should have been an easy mission was derailed quickly after the party was directed into a swamp, where the two women, Kinsley and Katie, were revealed to be witches (and secretly sisters) who had fallen apart after one too many arguments. While trying to come to an understanding with the two about how the fence had been ripped out from the ground and dragged a metre over, the party deduced that Katie's ex-pet squirrel, whom they had dubbed Pete, was responsible after having a magic potion dumped onto them by accident. The party relieved Pete of their life, and the two women thanked them for their help. Leslie then added Sir Darenfell, Marley, Mallius and Dakkos as honourary members of the Storm, joining the already-crowned Risa, Joe, Alamaya, Sparkle and Victor.

##### The Wrath of the Bee-He-Moth

Now official questgivers working underneath the Vanguards, Leslie sent a group out to defeat a large flying creature described only to the group as a 'behemoth' creature, that was currently residing at Palacartes Farm. After approaching the farm, the party learnt that the creature really was a behemoth, or more specifically a Bee-he-Moth (a massive bee-moth hybrid) that was wrecking havoc on the farm. Leslie rewarded the party handsomely for their efforts.

##### This Seems Familiar...

Xavier, Sylvia, Wrath, Maya and Dakkos are asked to return back to Palacartes Farm on an urgent mission, after reports of catching another monstrous beast, a Dragonsquirrel at the farm were reported to the Storm Headquarters back in Ferrenport. Leslie sent the group out, hoping they could defeat the creature as the other Storm had successfully captured it. On route, the party attempted to rescue a group of other members in a carriage while they were being attacked by bandits, but unfortunately all figures perished after Xavier sent one too many fireballs in the direction of the wooden carriage they were hiding in. Continuing onwards, the party came back to the farm, only to find that after the incident involving the Bee-He-Moth, the farmers left the property, letting the Storm turn it into a front outpost for both them and the town guard. The party arrives there, and sees the beast held down with ropes and nets. The party is introduced to the guard, who directs them to Dune Cooper, who has somehow been communicating with it. The party realises that Dune can speak Sylvan, and invites them to join the discussion with the DragonSquirrel. DS informs them that they could have easily broken out, but "their masters would not like them left unchallenged". The creature then proceeded to free itself, and battle the party, only to lose to the party, who took parts of them as a reward. As they left, however, Dakkos somehow felt a kinship with the creature.

##### Where were your wares when the werewerewolf attacked?

The party was introduced to Marquett once more, who had returned to proper health after being sold to slavery during "The Gathering Storm". Marquett warned the party that they off to face a lycanthropic enemy at Palacartes Farm who had (after bursting from the barn it was being held in) had all but vanished. More shockingly, none of the surrounding farmland was damaged in any way, leading Marquett to the conclusion that the lycanthrope had shapeshifted and was still on the property. The party made their way to the property, defeating a gold and pink gas-masked wearing force with ballistas, who on death whispered "You know, they didn't even pay us to do this..." to Ithanor. The party made it to the farm, interviewing the 6 key suspects: Devin, the vain medic, Roxin the sourpuss Storm veteran, Trixie the short-tempered Storm guard, P'lnath the distracted nerd, Alex the lovey-dovey flower child and Dune Cooper. After investigating around, they determined that P'lnath was the most suspicious, then Devin, and confronted them...only to find out that P'lnath was innocent and Roxin was the true Werewerewolf the whole time, and proceeded to battle the party. After their defeat, Trixie made a quiet prayer for them to Nycaloth, while not mentioning who they were. On their return, Marquett rewarded the party well for their efforts, whilst not seeming to mourn the lost of Roxin as much. Huh...

##### Sylvia! What are you doing with that shark!

Marquett asked Marley, Sylvia, Victor, Levi and Bova to accompany Leslie out into the ocean, where reports had come in of sharks that had reported capacities and abilities matching that of a vampire. The party quickly rushed down to the docks, where Leslie had a boat waiting for the party, and told them that a number of mercenaries had already gone ahead, and the party would need to out speed them to ensure they didn't get themselves killed. The ship they were on, the S.S.Leslie, had a number of mercenaries themselves, who all had agreed to take the sharks back for their own purposes. Bova also noticed that they had red iris's. While they did manage to outmanoeuvre the sharks, the same could not be said of the three other ships who all found themselves destroyed by the sharks. The party, now alone, defeated the duo of sharks before taking the head of one and heading home. However, while waiting with Leslie on top of the ship fishing, Levi had snuck down alone into where they were sleeping, and had been spotted even while invisible, and forced to head back upstairs. However, they had noticed blood on the hands of the workers, and had warned the rest of the party of such, who in turn realised they had taken a chunk out of the shark for themselves. The party spotted the mercenaries heading upstairs, and with a shout of "I'M GONNA F\*\*KING KILL YOU!" aimed at what they presumed was the party, they battled onboard the ship, only for the party come out on top, with Leslie thanking Nycaloth that the party was there to protect them. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Leslie's colleagues, who were found murdered in the lower decks of the ship. While Leslie took the two unconscious prisoners to the guardhouse for questioning, the rest of the party claimed their rewards from Marquett.

##### RP - Minotaur-rigation

Bova returned back to the Storm Headquarters to learn of the status of the two figures they had knocked out for questioning. Leslie informed them that the mercenaries had reported themselves as wanting to eat the shark chunks they had taken, and that they did not trust 'paladin-types', and they 'knew' they were going to be fed to the sharks. Leslie also made Bova an honourary member of the Storm.

#### It's Growlnd Hog Day

The party headed to Storm Headquarters once again, to be enlisted by Marquett to face another threat, a creature resembling a mole rat that could take over a person they had killed and appear normal. After the party joked around that the Storm were too weak to take on the enemies themselves, Marquett told the party to take it more seriously, as 4 of their members had been murdered, and the party could be next if they are left to roam free. Taking the advice, the party headed to Palacartes Farm, seeing it now as a multi-purpose chapel which was once the barnhouse, and the house destroyed by an unknown creature. Greeting them outside the chapel since there was a sermon going on for those fallen, Leslie informed the party of the threat in more detail, noting that there seemed to be a leader, capable of digging a huge-sized hole, and that the party should face the leader while the Storm took on the little ones, even after Wes told them they were not capable of defending themselves, to which Leslie told them to take a long walk off a short pier. After this, the creatures started pouring out of the hole and the party, with the help of an ill-placed Dune Cooper and some members of the Storm, successfully defeated the little guys. Angry at the lack of support the party received, Leslie directed several members of the Storm to go with the party as the followed the creature's tunnel. In the tunnel, the lights went out, and when they came back on, the party found the 6 storm members arguing, and claiming each other were monsters. Through logical deduction, the party determined that Boise, Erica and Finn were still Storm, and Aaron, Christy and Danielle had been taken over, initiating a combat. The party defeated the evil trio and directed Erica and Finn to return back to base with the now-dead Boise as they continued along. They got to the end of the tunnel, to find a horrific litany of animal body parts, suggesting the party that creatures had been made here. They also found the insane Growlnd Hog themselves, who spouted that "All my friends should have given you what you need" and "The hot we seek". The party fought and defeated it, reporting their findings back to the Storm.

#### Quit Buggin Me Out

Priscilla, Choju, Gabriel, Joe and Itch were all enlisted to a depressed-sounding Leslie. They explained that over the course of the last few missions many members of the Storm, Vanguards and Town Guard have been injured or killed at Palacartes Farm, and thus Marquett, Gorn and Bjorn have all agreed to abandon Palacartes Farm as being too dangerous. On top of that, the lack of members has drawn scorn from the other branches of the Storm to the north, especially coupled with the difficult to believe stories about the battles that the Storm have faced, and Marquett has headed north in order to convince the other members that they need to come down to Ferrenport in order to prove the stories are real. In order to aid that cause, Leslie asks the party to find and defeat the Mosquit-all, a building-sized mosquito that they believe is nearby the Farm. The party sets out for the farm, noticing that the forests are dead quiet on the road there. As they get there, they enter into the waterlogged and damaged chapel to find a large number of giant mosquito eggs there, as well as a trapped Dune Cooper. After fighting off the newly hatched mosquitoes and freeing Dune, Dune informed the party that they believed that the Mosquitall was further into the forest, as from the direction they had seen something fly over before getting there. After passing through a very unnatural section of the forest which involved a puzzle, the party made it to a horrific animal workshop. Gabriel was able to steal and decipher a book, which made the party realise that the Mosquitall was already heading into town. The party, along with Dune, rushed back into town, and faced off against the creature, and while Choju was killed in the process, they were able to defeat the monstrous beast, and give the head to Leslie.

#### RP Event - Goodest of Boys

A number of members of town along with Leslie traced the sounds of a rumbling from outside of town to a large creature, a mixture of a dog and a spider collectively referred to as a "Golden Retr-weaver". The players there determined it was not intentionally trying to cause harm, instead being on the look out for food. Through Dov, the party was informed that it was the only one of it's kind, and that it's masters had told it to come here, convinced that there was food for it. Gabriel also noted that the creature was seemingly too good at following commands. However, when Dov asked it to direct it to their masters, the dog and Dov both were electrocuted, and the dog died.

#### Knives Out

After knocking out the party with sleeping gas, the fictional protege of Master Choju, Garcheru, mocked the party as test subjects for the reign of Nycaloth. After turning into weapons and meeting with a very confused Master Choju, the party caught up to Garcheru at their home and, despite their weapon-based handicap, were successfully able to defeat Garcheru. After much interrogation, the party was able to get some of the basic information above about Nycaloth, but Priscilla killed them before they were able to get any further information.

#### Thunder and Lightning Are Very, Very Frightening

The party gets to the Storm Headquarters to find the members of the storm in the process of disassembling it. The party goes inside, seeing the mural now mostly complete, and meets with Leslie, who warns the party that the Storm have taken too many losses in Ferrenport and will be abandoning the headquarters indefinitely, and staying up north. However, Leslie was able to approve one more mission, with the guild hall to give out the reward. The party accepted this, heading out with Leslie to defeat a Leech-ah, a leech cheetah. Upon defeating it, they realised that the potions of heroism they had been given before the fight began were secretly putting them to sleep, much to Leslie's apparent confusion. When the party awoke, they were greeted with the face of the Night, who revealed that they were a part of the storm, and responsible for the monsters that had been attacking Ferrenport. Additionally, they noted that the Storm's persona was a facade in order to facilitate gathering information under the cover of darkness, and they were willing to resort to less desirable methods in order to garner what they needed. With their armour and weapons removed, they tortured the party to force them to reveal information on the strengths and weaknesses of their allies, the location of magical items they had stolen from the party, and lastly the location of Cyan, a member of the town that they revealed they were hunting. In the time it took for the party to selectively give answers, three kidnapped NPC's met death (although they would be later revived): Stanley Stine, Dune Cooper and Tilton Febrenn. The party were then locked in seperate rooms, forcing them to work together to free themselves as well as another kidnapped NPC, Marty the dockworker, who was able to fit the party with a small number of items they were able to steal from the storm. The party, noticing the now completed mural, continue outside, and spot two of the shadowy figures loading their belongings into a wagon to leave. The party defeated the duo and retrieved their items, only to turn around and see Leslie, dead with their organs removed, and speared to the Storm Headquarter's sign, with a message "Traitors will not be tolerated".

#### Welcome to Cultacon!

The party, after meeting with a member of Silver Tongues Guild by the name of Handford, was informed that a meeting of a number of different cults was taking place in Ferrenport. The party was asked by Handford to infiltrate the meeting under the guise of another cult, and gather as much information as they could on the different cults to ensure that they were able to perform a number of arrests. They were warned that the large number of people would make fighting suicidal in nature, and were thus to avoid revealing any real information of themselves at all costs. The party, dubbing themselves as a new cult altogether, chose to fight the Cult of Reason, a cult of knowledge gatherers that split from Zeus worshippers, and were known for killing intellectually average people to prove themselves worthy. They defeated the cult, donning their robes and stealing their invitation lanyards, before cracking the code on the back, allowing them to learn the password SOUNDPROOF, allowing them entry into the restaurant, and giving them the chance to enter the meeting. The party, to their shock, discovered a massive underground hall, showcasing cults far and wide, with horrific showings of torture and vile crimes, learning the event was dubbed "Cultacon". The party picked up a pamphlet of the event, and learned that there was an introductory event on the main stage, lead by a man who went by Marzello. He introduced everyone to the event, before being murdered in a magical obscured area. Since the party was mimicing a cult known for their intellect, they were commissioned by an unknown figure, Carol, who noted to be Marzello's assistant, to determine the culprits for the crime. After investigating a number of figures, they determined Marquett, the leader of the Storm, to be the culprit of both of Marzello's murders, who the party realised had been swapped with a clone. Marquett was, however, able to teleport out of the event before anything could be inflicted onto him, leaving the party to face his henchman. Despite defeating them, the party were outed as adventurers as a result of showcasing their powers to the convention-goers, and were able to escape thanks to help of Carol, who revealed her true form, and thanked the party for their help, before going into hiding once more.