The Story So Far

**The Story So Far** concerning the exploits of The Party is summarized below. The names in this summary are as they have always been, and there have at no time been any errors or deviations from what is written herein.
Of course, had there been any such errors (which there are not), they are all so easily explained that no explanation will be provided. However, readers should feel free to make edits, additions, and something like "corrections" where appropriate.

The story below is only ten adventures from its conclusion.

## The Party is Formed

Like many good stories, this one begins in a bar. Here, it is a run-down dive in Hedgewood known as the Topical Covfefe. One fateful day, a group of assorted travelers, each with their own ambitions, wants, and secrets stopped in to have Clem the Bartender pour them a drink. Clem regaled them with news of Kishago, including the rising prominence of the Cult of the Winter King and the ongoing civil war between Queen Allaxas II, her brother King Axos, the elves of Lomagesh,and the Barony.

After playing an apparently rigged game of High Crown, The Party encountered Magnus's "cousin", the local freight proprietor Bartleby Bollums. Bollums invited The Party to his freight house where they could make easy money for a simple delivery job.

## Shipping and Friendshipping

At Bollums Freight, The Party meet Lyneera Grove and Captain Scorch Crane, a nurse and master of arms from the nearby Greenfort. The Party agrees to transport a cart filled with six cider barrels to the town of Sandwater in the Enchanted Desert.

En route, The Party open one of the barrels, where they discover a young dragonborn girl, Ballaxos. Ballaxos has been bound and given a necklace of underwater breathing. Grove and Crane had kidnapped Ballaxos with the intent of breaking the spell that bound the Winter King. Had Ballaxos's foot touched desert soil, she would turn instantly to stone and the Winter King would reawaken. After hiding safely away, The Party travel to the desert and defeat the cultists who sought to receive the young girl and trigger the horrible spell.

## The Road to the Greenfort

The Party resolve to return Ballaxos to the Greenfort, out the kidnappers, and place Ballaxos securely with her parents, Axios and Oxyl. Ballaxos's parents are hereditary nobility, and her mother is a cousin to the Queen and King.

As they travel toward the Greenfort, they encounter the roving thief Borin Dooh and his merry marauders. Borin Dooh is wanted by the Queen. After swiftly defeating Borin Dooh's men, The Party prepares to either execute Borin Dooh or capture him to turn him over to the Queen for a reward. Borin Dooh begs for the party to spare his life and to let him go free. They oblige, with Dooh pledging a life debt to The Party and the performance of any favor they may seek.

On the way, Errk meets up with Bonila, his "guy" in Hedgewood. Bonila and her sister Baribonds sell crazy apples. They inform Errk that Bollums has been murdered.

The Party encounter a potion maker, Graybo Debooboo, who informs them of the upcoming Market Days in the town of Underfort. The Party continues to the town, which is situated at the bottom of a steep cliff below the Greenfort. By stroke of good fortune, they have arrived just in time for Market Days! By stroke of bad fortune, the Greenfort has been occupied by the villainous Baron, Jubble Hurley.

## Market Days

The Party worked to gather intelligence regarding the status of the Greenfort. Prior to the takeover by Jubble Hurley, the castle's nobility Axios and Oxyl had left town, rumored to have gone to visit King Axos.

In a show of power, and fury at not being able to locate the castle's dragonborn inhabitants, Jubble Hurley began periodically hanging the castle servants. The Party arrived just in time to see Lyneera Grove hanged. Jubble announced that he would continue hanging castle inhabitants throughout the next two days and, if he had not been provided with Ballaxos's whereabouts, he would then kill everyone in the castle.

This all made for a less-festive Market Days. Still, The Party did encounter several individuals of note during the festivities, including husband and wife sausage-making duo Gobecook Comedy and Grobecook Comedy. Gobecook revealed that his son had left the family business over a disagreement about how much salt to put in the sausages. As a result, his son Danecook Comedy ceased speaking with him, starting his own sausage-making endeavor.

During this time, Kronk seduced a vendor named Dora, using the false name "Doug."

## Assault on the Greenfort

The Party learned that a group of ragtag fighters planned to attack the Greenfort and expel Jubble Hurley and his hired hoard of orc soldiers. The Party contacted a man who went by "The Red Claw," who welcomed them to join his disastrous plan to launch a full on frontal assault. Recognizing the flaws in this plan, The Party sought another way to enter the castle.

While exploring the cliff face, The Party made contact with an ancient race of myconid, mushroom people who had lived in the roots of the Great Tree at the center of the Greenfort for millennia. The Party pleaded with the Great Elder to assist them in stopping Jubble Hurley who, in addition to his plans to kill all residents of the area, also had begun to harvest wood off of the Great Tree.

Using the villagers' frontal assault as a distraction, and with the assistance of the myconid, The Party defeated Jubble Hurley's army of orcs. Jubble himself was knocked off of his poppins, falling down the cliffside to his death below.

The victory was costly, including the deaths of the Great Elder, scores of myconid, and the sausage vendor Danecook. In the aftermath, the party recovered the poppins and noted several abnormalities, including Jubble's youngest son, who was transformed (at Jubble's request) into an old man.

Kronk was repulsed by the ecological damage wrought upon the Greenfort and its ancient myconid people. In disgust, he left the Greenfort with a druid named Virgil, setting off to fight for ecological justice.

The Greenfort was left in the custody of longtime servant Sandor Beige, who vowed to prepare it for successive assaults from the Barony. Still, the castle was adjudged to be far too dangerous a place to leave Ballaxos, and the party vowed to deliver her to safety.

In the aftermath, Beyonce also discovers a mysterious blue marble, later revealed to be Grobecook Comedy's portal-casting focus.

## Comedy Central

At the Greenfort, The Party had discovered a letter from Danecook to his parents, and decided to deliver this final correspondence to Danecook's parents. As they set out, they were joined by Aric Wilbanks Anderson, the former master of the hunt for the Greenfort.

Along the way, The Party encountered many cultists in thrall of the Winter King, wearing his signature blue cloak and speaking of reawakening their demigod King.

The Party arrived at the Comedy's home to deliver the news to Danecook's grief-stricken parents. While staying overnight, The Party spotted a group of Winter King cultists walking down the road, accompanied by some kind of otherworldly, glowing blue figure. Thanks to some quick thinking and deception, The Party successfully pretended to be cultists themselves, and spared the Comedy's home from being destroyed.

## On to Tonim

The Party then traveled to Tonim, a moderately large town where they relaxed and restocked. At a bar, The Party encountered a retired dwarven sailor, Darrok of Ironore, who joins the party. In an entirely unrelated coincidence, Aric Wilbanks Anderson leaves the party at the same time, in order to become the Head Hunstman of Tonim. Before departing, Aric gifts one of his pubes to Bobo.

Here they also encountered Gendolynn, Danecook's girlfriend. Gendolynn informed The Party that Danecook had been spending a great deal of time with Anura.

The Party located Anura, a woman who was taken to fits of babbling about being a fallen god and having seen everything since the dawn of time. Anura indicated that she was a god come down to earth in earthly form. Danecook had been kind to her, and they had developed a friendship. Anura believed that Danecook was still alive.

During their stay in Tonim, the party also encountered a mysterious magic shop owner who sold Magnus a magical item in exchange for some of his blood and Donnis, an arts and crafts store owner who had recently seen Beyonce Lacroix's ex-lover, Shania Kombucha, in the area. Beyonce also commissioned Donnis to make B-Team hats for The Party.

While the rest of The Party was exploring town, Errk received a text from the Queen asking him to assassinate three weapons smugglers, including one named Criley. Errk hunts down and eliminates Criley in what some might call an "email adventure," blowing up a cart full of what appear to be weapons being supplied to cultists in the nearby woods.

## A Soul (Harvester) Possessed

The Parties learn that the spectral soldier they had seen was the result of some kind of experimentation being undertaken by four wizards in the cult of the Winter King. These wizards attempted to channel some unknown power to create a colossus of weapons and energy in service of their frozen King.

The Party soon encounter a group of highly skilled thieves going by the name "The Ten Dragons." All but the leader of this group are sworn to silence. The Ten Dragons recruit the party in their efforts to help steal the soul harvester, which is the magical artifact being used to create the colossus.

The bulk of The Party, sans Magnus who stayed behind to watch Ballaxos, and the Ten Dragons proceeded to the site in the woods where the colossus was being formed. There, the party witnessed Winter King cultists willingly thrusting themselves on the soul harvester's four scythe blades. The four wizards then proceeded to use their incantations to transfer the life-force from the soul harvester to a pile of weapons, which was glowing with magical energy. The cultists lined up behind one another, pulling the next body off to willingly impale themselves and allow more magic to flow into the super-weapon being formed.

During the heist, The Party quickly realized that they were being double-crossed. However, thanks to some quick thinking and an invisibility potion, Bobo was able to successfully cover the soul harvester in his parachute of holding and run away.

Meanwhile, following great confusion and shared invisibility, The Party defeated most of the remaining Twelve Dragons, who had gone back to camp to kidnap Ballaxos. A member of the group named Sunny Shield did manage to escape.

## Come Getcha' Kombucha

The Party received a tip that Shania Kombucha was nearby, hunting for an artifact in a cave below the Tomb of Gronn. Shania had stolen the Lacroix Family Amulet, and was apparently hunting for items that had lost their magic, to repower them to her own ends.
The Party made their way to the tomb, and then to a hidden tomb below, where they found Shania and Alfoos, a nerdy and annoying scholar of magical artifacts. They faced a blue dragon wyrmling, who killed Alfoos, but not before the party recovered the Tempest Transportation Ring and a partially-complete draft of Alfoos's book ''A Survey of Formerly Magical Items''.

The Party captured Shania Kombucha and Beyonce recovered her family amulet. They then used the Tempest Ring to channel wild magic to teleport away. The Party traveled to three seemingly random locations before the ring deactivated:

1. Errk's childhood home in the Barony
2. The middle of Fish Lake
3. Among the Battalion of the Queen's Army commanded by Paulina Memarket

## Side Quests

Bobo and Magnus each get swept up into what some would call "side quests" during this time.

Magnus awakes one morning to the sound of this father, the genie Ifrit, saying "Save me. You need to help me, my boy." Magnus travels to the Feywild, where he frees Ifrit from being trapped in a censer and helps to deliver 50 elves who are under the thrall of a witch to safety 2,000 years in the past. This is accomplished by Ifrit using Hadria's Temporal Demiplane, a time-travel plane that has nearly broken apart. Ifrit takes Magnus to view a goopy boundary that he says is a barrier around the gods. He intimates that he must go to a plane far away to avoid a danger. He also informs Magnus that the magic that saved the life of Magnus's wife Megan is connected to the magic that keeps the Winter King at bay. To unravel one is to unravel the other.

Bobo himself disappears and enters a celestial space where, in goo form, his return prompts questions of "Is now the time?" "He is coming, are we now prepared?" and "Did you find the God's Cup?" The goo reveals that the God's Cup is a solution to save the Gods, magic, and the world from the Godkiller. Because Bobo has apparently forgotten all in his trip to earth, they explain that Krissena is the oldest god, and that she saw the Godkiller coming and gathered the gods to warn them. Many of the gods scoffed at Krissena, but some - Anura, Tendill, Ponk, Wolfqueen, and the Great Worm - gave up their godhood to enter the earth and warn the people.

In entering earthly form, they left behind a part of their godhood as a barrier to protect the remaining gods from the Godkiller. Krissena traveled out to confront the Godkiller directly, but was slain. The mortal forms of the gods either went insane or died fighting the Winter King. Bobo can see that the collective is being attacked, as the Godkiller attempts to reach and kill the many gods, so that the Godkiller can rule as one. The collective goo implores Bobo to find the God's Cup, as it is the only hope to save mankind. They hope that Bobo will not lose his memories this time when the collective goo sends him back to Kishago.

## Memarket Es Su Market

Bobo arrives back on Kishago with absolutely no memory of his previous life, and now in the form of Thora, a notably gorgeous formicid woman.

Meanwhile, The Party encounter the Paulina Memarket, and Kaylee is able to quickly prove that she is none other than Paulina's daughter. They reconnect, with Paulina informing Kaylee of her whirlwind romance with Prince Retcon, while Paulina was on a diplomatic trip to Lomagesh. For Kaylee's own safety, her care was entrusted to the dwarf Kramp, who raised her among the Great Colony of the formacid. Paulina offers that Kaylee should simply show her medallion to gain access to the family home in Maxisport.

Paulina then learns that The Party has taken Shania Kombucha prisoner. She advocates that Shania be executed, but Beyonce suggests that Shania must be brought to justice through the elaborate justice system of Newt Tzealand. In the end, neither gets their wish, as Shania escapes during a werewolf attack.

Paulina must continue on toward battle, and bids Kaylee a fond farewell. Paulina bestows a stone of far speech upon Kaylee, so that they can now finally stay in touch. Unfortunately, not long after, Paulina's second-in-command Gringary informs Kaylee that her mother has gone missing during the Battle of Sticky Lake.

## Christmas Time is Here

The Party continue onward to the coastal city of Port Christmas. Errk makes contact with "his guy" Billy Bob, who runs Knives Before Christmas, with the help of his assistant Jacky Chan. Magnus takes his armor into a shop to be repaired, with an estimated turnaround time of about 3 days.

The afternoon of their arrival, The Party learn that an elven blockade is on its way to town. They are told that in other cities and towns, the elven army has used the blockade to trap civilians in place and then slaughtered all of the non-elves. Feeling it unwise to have Ballaxos in such conditions, The Party decides to rush out of town by sea before the blockade arrives.

A mostly innocent guard attempts to stop them from leaving, and is killed. Although rushing to leave town, Darrok sodomizes the dead guard's body with an arrow and leaves the body in the alley behind Knives Before Christmas. The party rush to the docks and commandeer The Nook with its skeleton crew, which they use to escape town in the nick of time.

## Did it All for the Nook

Aboard the Nook, the Party encounter the ship's current on-board crew: the oarsman Jack, cook Jerry, and its barista J'Anthony. Although light in numbers, the party manages to escape Port Chrismas before the arrival of the elven blockade.

The Party sail to the capital city of the Kuo-Toa kingdom which is populated by a race of amphibious fish-men. The party quickly learn that the town is embroiled in sectarian conflict between its various religious groups. Despite the fact that there is clearly a lot going on in this town and an unusually detailed map, The Party decides to leave immediately.

Instead, The Party use their time on the high seas to teach Ballaxos skills like punching and how to swear in dwarvish - although this last skill is only taught phonetically.

The Nook is nearly lured to the siren call of actual sirens. Indeed, Jack is so entranced that he begins to run toward that beautiful sound. Fortunately for him, he is shot in the leg before he can jump overboard to his certain doom. It is not all bad, as he is subsequently outfitted with a peg leg.

The party also visit the Island of the Tortoize. The Tortoize are an ancient turtle-like race with a relaxed attitude toward life, not dissimilar from stories that are told in other lands about pizza-loving ninjas who live in a sewer.

The tortoize worship the goddess Krissena. The Party learn that the ancient saying about the God's Cup was a scripture written in the tortoize language. Due to grammar differences between tortoize and common, the phrase could mean "The God's Cup is in the God's Eye" or "The Cup God is in the Eye God" or some combination thereof.

## From the Nook to the 'Cook

Back on the high seas, the party encounter an elven armada who soon give chase. The Nook manages to stay just knots ahead, when suddenly a ferocious tornado sweeps down, destroying the pursuers. The Party's sigh of relief turns to confusion, as a visible dark energy flows out of the dying and toward the Necronauticus, an unfamiliar ship that has seemingly appeared from out of nowhere. Stranger still, the ship appears to be captained by a familiar face, only much older than when they saw him last - Danecook Comedy.

The Party is invited onboard by Tump, a dwarf of the Iron Ore clan who was lost at sea long ago and presumed dead. In fact, Tump had been rescued by the crew Necronauticus and recruited for their mission. Oddly, Tump appears to have aged hundreds of years in the time since he was lost.

At Tump's urging, Danecook invites The Party to join his crew over the protestations of Loubega Mambofive, a gnome wizard who prefers to have them all killed. To convince The Party to join, Danecook explains his mission and describes what he has seen.

## Cataclysm Got Your Tongue?

Danecook explains that he is not the Danecook of this timeline. Instead, he is a gifted portal-caster or "planewalker" from an alternate future. In his own time, the world was ravaged and nearly destroyed by The Cataclysm. Just before the near-certain end of the world, Danecook joined forces with three powerful necromancers Pokemon, Loubega Mambofive, and Greygoose with a plan to save the world. Using Dancook's portal-casting abilities to access Hadria's Temporal Demiplane, these four survivors of the Cataclysm decided to travel back in time. They took with them the Soul Harvester, an ancient artifact that had lost its magic. However, sacrificing his life upon the blades, Pokemon was able to reinvigorate the Soul Harvester.

Danecook explains that he and the crew travel around to natural disasters and other sites of mass death to collect the souls of the dead into the Soul Harvester. When the souls die, they travel into the device, and Danecook's crew intends to unleash all of the energy of death as a weapon to fight the Godkiller when he again arrives at their world. Danecook shows the party the pulsing, obsidian necklace that he wears, which he explains has sustained his short human life for hundreds of years

Danecook goes on to explain that he has taken a number of actions in service of the goal of harvesting souls to use in fighting the Godkiller. For example, he and his compatriots helped to guide the Winter King - a displaced god from another planet - to this world. He explains that this was done to provide a warning to the living and the gods of what might be to come. Danecook explains that he also assisted the racial radicals of Lomagesh and assassinated the mother of the present King and Queen just after she gave birth, in hopes of sparking a succession crisis that would lead to soul-providing war.

Danecook explains that in this timeline, Loubega Mambofive and Greygoose were apparently never born. At the time the Necronauticus encounters The Party, it has barely any crew, having lost almost all of them in a disastrous effort to recruit Young Pokemon to their cause. Worse, the time demi-plane has finally collapsed, leaving Danecook and company firmly in the present time.

## Bye-Bye Ballaxos (and Hellooooooo Sting)!

The Party weighs the story told by Danecook and whether to accept the offer to join his crew. The Party decide that they will enlist in this effort to save the world; however, they enlist only on the condition that Danecook will promise that they can safely deliver a package to Maxisport. The party return to the Nook where they hide Ballaxos in a crate of crazy apples.

Each of the Nook's remaining crew members approach The Party privately, asking to receive control of the vessel. Jack dreams of being a ship's captain, while Jerry would like to open "Jerry's Floating Restaurant," and J'Anthony dreams of opening a coffee shop that will bear his family's "Starbuck" name. The Party ultimately decide to give each crew member a one-third share.

With ownership of The Nook settled, Danecook opens a portal that transports the party to the waters outside of Maxisport. Unbeknownst to The Party, their ship has fused with a boat owned by Sting. Errk flies to the docks where he makes contact with an old privateer, Ziggy who agrees to safely transport Ballaxos to the Queen. Ziggy accepts the assignment with joy, knowing that it will almost certainly bring him a knighthood.

## The Road to Hell is Paved...

The Party have little time for a tearful farewell, as they and the Necronauticus soon embark on their first mission as part of the crew - a trip directly to Hell. On the journey, The Party fight the effects of madness, managing to stave off the worst effects. Upon arrival, The Party find Sting on the back of their boat, as they sail down a river of blood.

The Party quickly become embroiled in some kind of deal gone wrong, fighting for their life against devils and demonic beings. The Part manage to defeat these opponent unscathed, and Bobo saves a devil's barb as a kind of souvenir.

## Work Death Balance

Following this misadventure in Hell, The Party enjoy a brief respite at Danecook's camp located on the shores of the large central lake in Reverse Australia (sometimes rumored to be "The God's Eye" of lore). Soon after, the Party engage in the rhythm and routine of the Necronauticus. They travel around to chaotic being, evil monsters, and others who generate souls for the crew's soul harvester.

It is explained that the Necronauticus cannot simply rely on the natural disasters that they know will occur from their time in the future. Danecook's crew travel around exchanging what look like ordinary rocks in exchange for souls.

While running these collection errands, The Party encounter a Lava Imp with claw hands. When the imp lets out a laugh, Magnus recognizes it instantly. This is the dark creature who caused the volcanic eruption that nearly killed his wife (and has left her permanently in stasis). Unable to control his passions, Magnus starts to heat up and glow. Fortunately, The Party get away just in time to escape dying, as Magnus goes supernova, and exacting a kind of revenge on the imp who ruined his life.

Back on the Necronauticus, Danecook and the crew seem highly displeased. However, they insist that there are no hard feelings and that The Party will soon have a special mission to complete in Gemvale.

## Old Pokemon - Go!

Danecook teleports the Necronauticus to the city of Gemvale, a thriving city surrounded by four lakes, each held back by a dam.

The Party start to get a bad feeling that something may be amiss. In particular, they question the wisdom of the soul harvesting plan. Beyonce decides to take action. She uses her family amulet to de-power the soul harvester.

In an instant, the energy of thousands of souls begin to pour out of the soul harvester and through the surrounding area. They seem to fly to some different plane. At the same time, the obsidian necklace worn by Danecook begins to fade. He rapidly ages, falling dead and decayed as if rotted for hundreds of years. Finally, from the soul harvester, the body of an old wizard emerges. Lubega instantly recognizes the figure - Old Pokemon.

In the chaos, The Party steal away this second soul harvester into a bag of holding and make a hasty retreat from the ship.