v5 spoilers
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@khammy said in v5 spoilers:
- What was Kanthea's backstory? Why was she so powerful?
She was a high level arch mage with access to a whole lot of powerful ancient artifacts.
But her power wasn't only physical/magical - she was literally holding a gaping hole in the world together, which led to the abyss/hell. The imp/quasit (am I right on those?) were somewhat of "ambassadors" from those dark planes, constantly haggling over the situation, wanting to gain an upper hand in the never ending war between demons and devils - Kanthea was one of the elements keeping that war going, which if it ever stopped, would cause total destruction to the prime material plane, as both sides would no longer be distracted by it.This is why no one with power and knowledge (generally enough to destroy her on the spot in some cases) would ever want to touch her - if they did, they would be literally ending the world. That's quite the political clout to wield.
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@Zool said in v5 spoilers:
The imp/quasit (am I right on those?)
you are correct. There was always those two around in the tower.
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This:
@khammy said in v5 spoilers:
Who was Mamma and what was her backstory (the NPC with the tattoos in charge of the orphanage)?
Why was Mamma such a powerful wizard?
Did Gilmour have any meaning beyond just being a crazy gnome? Did he have any big secrets?
There was a plot that the dwarves sacrificed their young to increase fertility? Was there anything else weird going on? -
@JoeKickAss Don't know myself about the dwarves, But the other two
"Mamma was the adopted child of Fznar, she was a sorcerer with mild sage powers. She was originally married to the child gangleader whose names esapes me, but she came home one day beating one of the orphans so she burned him to death right then and there. During Thune's Burning of the Slums, her entire orphanage was burned down whilst she survived. So she tattooed Shar's symbol over her heart to never forget the loss, it sparked a tattooing tradition to always tattoo the deity symbol of a lost child on her flesh, a mark of her failure. Those who had not chosen a god, were remembered by the symbol of Shar" Courtesy of Puffy
"Gilmor was perpetually trapped in a time paradox." Courtesy of Spiffy, earlier in this thread.
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@JoeKickAss said in v5 spoilers:
Did Gilmour have any meaning beyond just being a crazy gnome?
Also, he was a halfling.
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That claimable base in the slums, which was basically just a random abandoned house. Keys to the place kept getting passed down from faction to faction to faction, I don't think it ever was without an owner a single time.
But I was told that if ever it was without an owner, there was an npc you could get the key to the place from.
Who was that npc? I never ever found out who it was, and assumed that not being able to find any npc with the dialog option to get a key, meant that the place was always owned by someone.
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During the Plebian Court there was an NPC associated with the house, but once that faded away so did he. The NPC was never meant to give any key though and was more of an NPC sponsor. The door was meant to unlock on its own after a long time of no use, really. The NPC was pretty niche and minor, cannot recall his name atm.
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@Puffy said in v5 spoilers:
The door was meant to unlock on its own after a long time of no use, really.
That is correct. It did
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@O-louth said in v5 spoilers:
Also, what was the idea behind the secret bedine npcs that wandered around at the beginning of V5? Think they were mostly done by Lizard man?
They were a PC faction of Bedine outcasts pursuing black magics to combat their Shadovar oppressors. The entity they followed turned out to be a Wish spell which eventually destroyed them all.
https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/12244/sons-of-the-pale-sands -
@Chips said in v5 spoilers:
That claimable base in the slums, which was basically just a random abandoned house. Keys to the place kept getting passed down from faction to faction to faction, I don't think it ever was without an owner a single time.
But I was told that if ever it was without an owner, there was an npc you could get the key to the place from.
Who was that npc? I never ever found out who it was, and assumed that not being able to find any npc with the dialog option to get a key, meant that the place was always owned by someone.
No idea about the NPC (though puffy covered it) just wanted to clarify though -
Yes, there was a time based script it worked in real time.
If no one used the door in any way whatsoever (opening, unlocking, locking, all reset the timer) the lock would "degrade" until anyone could open it without a key.
I think this was set to occur after two weeks of zero use.
The intention was that if a player faction ever died out completely, and no one had a key, after a while, if someone tried the door, it would just open, and then they could get new keys from inside.
The "claimable" part of that base, was just a combination of that, and essentially, direct PVP, (not necessarily fighting, could be dealing, but probly fighting!) Which was different to the Lab and Mechanical factory, which were designed to be able to be taken over by other players, across time zones, without even meeting the character you were fighting over it.
It was also the only base that didn't have it's own little story behind it.
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Where those three the only claimable bases?
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@O-louth said in v5 spoilers:
Where those three the only claimable bases?
Yes, rumor was it there was a wilds claimable base somewhere for druids. I never found it. I would have found it.
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There was a druid base, yes.
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you couldnt claim it, only use it cos druids dont fight one another ;)
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@Hominid said in v5 spoilers:
@O-louth said in v5 spoilers:
Also, what was the idea behind the secret bedine npcs that wandered around at the beginning of V5? Think they were mostly done by Lizard man?
They were a PC faction of Bedine outcasts pursuing black magics to combat their Shadovar oppressors. The entity they followed turned out to be a Wish spell which eventually destroyed them all.
https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/12244/sons-of-the-pale-sandsActually the ones Olouth means were the Cultists of the Shattered Peak (canon organisation)
Basically netherese descendents sworn to prevent the return of netherese power to the world (especially artifacts or magic). Experts in netherese lore and history but very opposed to magic in general, think like the magi in The Mummy.
They assassinated maleen in the ruins when he revealed the dormant mythallar (one that wasn't destroyed in the fall of the cities but still "muted" after Karthus folly). Once it was revealed they helped to awaken the dormant primordial under the storm horns as the best way to destroy it before Kanthea and Aldek could make it reach anything approaching is historic potential.
The primordial destroyed it and most of the city in the transition to v5, the cultists then worked any way they could to diminish or destroy Arabel and remove all trace of it, trying to recruit or assist old town crime gangs and working as a sort of antithesis to the Agents of Arabel, though PCs were never intended to join the cultists directly as you need to be of netherese decent to do so
Mythalite was the shattered remains of the mythallar itself. I had a kind of mordheim air in mind for start of v5 but that is really very grim dark and we moved away from it over time
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Also initially we wanted to have a "v3 orc slums invasion" style mechanic behind mythalite, where good guys could deposit it in a machine at the HC Estate to "refuel" Arabels magical shield and prevent the broken seal from leaking fiends into the city (Kanthea was MIA at start of v5). The shield would weaken over time.
At the same time bad guys could use the incantum malefacarum ritual to deposit mythalite to damage the city defences
When weak enough demons and devils would leak into old town and battle PCs and each other. If really weakened some could even enter the citadel.
The mechanic was never implemented by code though a few DM run events played out the same mechanic and Kanthea was eventually found (I think puffy and hominid ran most of this? I believe the plot went something like "Kanthea and a sun elven house in a fortress in avernus trying to stem the tide ever since the seal she maintained was shattered after the primordial attack")
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Yus, that! Thanks Lizzy! I had a feeling it was something along those lines, but it is nice to see it confirmed once and for all!
Where there any cool exploration areas that were never discovered?