Season 1 Recap

This, the 73rd material plane, was created by the primary pantheon. Xinir, god of order and the stars; Gomteus, god of chaos and the moon; Qhotyx, god of nature, Oara, goddess of trade and innovation; and Kellnor, god of hospitality and good vibes.

Two years ago, approximately 32 years into the third era, a catastrophe rocked the world of Ureda. In an instant, magic vanished from the material plane. This disaster had strong consequences - in the southern city of Nautiri, the crown of the merfolk civilization and home to the most prolific arcane university in Ureda, this sudden removal of magic meant that most of the students were suddenly deprived of their ability to breath underwater. A floating library founded by the god of chaos plummeted into the barren (and dangerous) Northern Wilds. Deprived of the ability to communicate with them, creatures everywhere became afraid of the Kavorrite dragons. A thousand ripples affected every creature in Ureda. This catastrophe would later come to be known as The Darkening.

Our adventure begins two years later, in an abandoned waystation of the mole-like durdtfolk.

Jebediah Peppermint sought his grandfather’s advice after accumulating a substantial debt. Knowing his grandfather had been a traveling security guard for one of the tunnel expansions, Jeb hoped to find evidence of his grandfather’s passage and maybe a clue to where he’d gone. Instead, Jebediah found his grandfather’s corpse, and with it, the small blunderbuss grandpa coal had used to channel his magical powers.

Aulen Wedrir, an Aasimar intellectual drafted away from his studies for a past military action, believed the Darkening might be rectified through science, if only he could learn more about what happened. The seismic activity that reopened the abandoned waystation intrigued Aulen, and his investigation led him to a chance meeting with Jebediah.

Xothkug Hibub, an orc cleric of Kellnor (the god of hospitality), left the tribe where he’d never quite found a place in a pilgrimage without a destination. The mellow orc hoped to rekindle his connection to Kellnor, which had been severed so strangely two years prior.

Fox, a rogue changeling, sought an escape from the hippie nature of the same tribe. Smothered by parents afraid to let him test himself against the world, Fox set out from home hoping to find some space to figure out who he was. Instead, he found Xothkug, and before long the two were completely lost.

In their wandering, Xoth and Fox eventually turned up in the abandoned waystation where Jebediah and Aulen had recently met. Though they’d only become acquainted recently, the group rallied around Jeb as he processed the death of his grandfather, and they set out together looking for answers, headed for Jeb’s hometown of Tumbleweb. Instead, they came across a number of strange magical phenomena littered throughout the old tunnels, including evidence that perhaps magic wasn’t gone from the world at all. It seemed more like it had been somehow stuffed into an ore known as Sakrium.

Sakrium could be refined into a new currency, called the Wingeldigit, which was released into the world to great acclaim by The Summit Banking Guild. It quickly took over as the main currency of the world of Ureda thanks to a unique benefit: In addition to being traded, wingeldigits could be used to cast magical spells when combined with devices known as Cyphers! Suddenly, magic wasn’t just restored to the world - it was even available to those people who had through unlucky birth or lack of skill been unable to channel it before!

But in the Durdtfolk tunnels beneath western Ureda, our four heroes were finding evidence of a fully different story. Together, they uncovered evidence that the Darkening had actually been manufactured by ancient creatures known as Aboleths. These Aboleths had a long-running feud with the gods themselves for dominion over the material world, and it became increasingly clear that separating the world from it’s connection with the gods, and denying the magic necessary to restore that, was only the first step in the Aboleths’ plans.

In a vision, Xothkug saw three avatars imprisoned - beings deputized by the gods to represent their will on earth. Xoth felt certain that he was being called to rescue these avatars, and that if he could pull it off, the avatars would be able to help him restore true magic to the world.

The party journeyed into the Underdark, a world beneath the world made up of caves, rivers, and strange beings, where they infiltrated one of the Sakrium mines. They learned that Sakrium was being mined and refined by The Bright World Company, and in the course of their infiltration discovered evidence that Setonia, one of the avatars of the gods, had escaped entrapment during the darkening. She was weak but recovering in the domain of a White Dragon. They were forced to flee the dig site after being caught stealing plans from the office of the supervisor.

Traveling deeper into the Underdark, our protagonists encountered a myth come to life named Kiven, who they narrowly escaped with their lives. In the confrontation, Fox was able to trick Kiven into revealing a number of useful details about the Aboleths, and using this information the party finally made it to Tumbleweb.

Within the bustling city, the gang connected with Jebediah’s cousin Avery, who ran a tavern and told them about several strange happenings in the city. After doing some metaphorical digging, the group decided they needed to investigate two large companies based in Tumbleweb: Edison, and it’s CEO Elaine Mollusk, and Thames with it’s CEO Jess Bayson. Both millionaire executives were hosting parties at their estates, so the party split up to attend both events. In the leadup to their investigations, Fox and Jebadiah robbed a bank for 100,000 Wingeldigits which they spent on a top of the line Edison Cyphertruck and a number of useful adventuring tools. The group also decided to officially incorporate and form the dungeon delving guild Four Guys Ventures and Vibes.

On the day of the parties, Jebediah and Aulen visited Mollusk Manor for a wine tasting by the notable local brewery Finchtail Ale Company. While Aulen caused a drunken disturbance as cover for him, Jeb snuck into the estate and discovered that Elaine Mollusk had been stealing ideas from a local temple of Oara for her company, as well as reverse-engineering Wingeldigits to try and determine how they worked and make them into something she could profit off of. From her notes, Jeb was able to learn a number of useful clues about how The Bright World Company was conducting their research, as well as finding out that Edison had been granted property rights to most of the Underdark region beneath Tumbleweb, where the Aboleths were suspected to be.

Meanwhile, Xothkug and Fox visited the mansion of Jess Bayson. They determined that Bayson was under some form of mind control, and that she was slowly kidnapping significant public figures to be similarly brainwashed before being returned to the city. Fox and Xoth were able to rescue Elaine Mollusk before she could be so brainwashed, and in doing so they secured her help as an ally and contact.

Unfortunately, Fox blew his cover and got himself caught and enslaved by an Aboleth. This prompted the party to significantly abbreviate their timeline as they dove into the so-called “dark site” beneath the city on a rescue mission. While fox battled a mental prison full of all his worst nightmares, the party were forced to fight each other as the Aboleth infested their minds.

As they delved deeper, they learned that due to the darkening, the souls of the dead were unable to pass on peacefully to the outer planes - the weave of magic that had been suppressed also provided the pathways for these souls to pass on. Instead, these vengeful souls, inspired by the brave but ultimately losing fight our heroes were presenting, rallied in a final act to break the Aboleths’ mind control just long enough for the party to escape.

Fleeing the Aboleths, Fox led the way into a laboratory being operated by Edison scientists, presumably enslaved the same way he had been. He and his friends learned of a construct army being built, and had their first encounter with the projectile weapons they were being armed with. Jeb, following the advice of one of the spirits who had recently saved his life, found a strange, 1-foot long scepter of frosted iron in a protected storage area, which he was able to steal at great risk to himself, along with a scroll of parchment.

The parchment contained a prophecy of a Gomteun Sage entitled “The Rod Of 7 Parts” and it seemed the Aboleths were trying to hide this prophecy from the world as they had many copies of it, presumably stolen from many different places to hide here, along with the strange scepter.

Just as death was looking inescapable for our heroes, Elaine Mollusk led a rescue party along with several of the contacts they’d made throughout their travels, guiding them in temporarily shutting down the facility and making a getaway to be hidden by the secret ranger’s association known only as The Grey Watch.

After several months of being moved from safe house to safe house while the heat died down, the party were able to be smuggled out of Tumbleweb, and western Ureda altogether, and so began Season Two of the adventures of Four Guys Ventures and Vibes.