balance_ooc | Field Mission 7: The Queen of Hearts, Call to Arms

	Minor problem, friendos. Looks like the Hunger's here and dinner's about to be served. Let's hope this works!
	NAVIGATION

1. THE ENCROACHING TIDES

Three weeks past the celebration of H.R.H. The Queen of Heart's annual celebratory commemortating event of her coronation, the ground begins to violently shake with an unknown pulse. All throughout the kingdom, from the reaches of the Emberwharf to the tiny hamlet of Harrowyn, it's felt. For those of you who've begun to reclaim your memories, you know something just isn't right. The way the world churns, the lack in spots of your own detailed memories, the apprehension and dread that it brings... all of it seems to be one big sign of trouble.

Karsus, now known to all as Merlin, the cryptic and helpful (questionable) wizard, resides in the Enchanted Forest, awaiting the Lady of the Lake to give him some sort of sign that she's still out there. As you may have guessed, she's actually Mystra, in hiding, and her role in this story is more important now than ever. Does she know who she is? Is she hating on Magi*Mari as much as everyone else? It's hard to tell.

But time is starting to become a scarce resource.

You look out to the horizon, and you notice something out of place. The Expanse. It's encroaching at an alarming rate. Around the perimeter of the wall, towns are engulfed into it and lost entirely. This star is dying, becoming consumed. The Evil Queen was right; there's no telling when this would happen, but it was always something that was destined to unfold.

And this time, when you look out into the great abyss, it looks back at you. Eyes watching you- all of you, observing. If you haven't recovered your memories by now, a few of them might come rushing in. You can almost make it out. The thing that you've been told to fight. The thing that's been hunting Lucretia and her crew for 100 years. The Hunger's here, and waiting... just outside the bounds of this illusory world. It's time to put a plan that started a year ago into action. It's time to bring magic back to Faerun and take back your stories.

But where is that relic?

Threaded | Flat

Most people seem to be regaining their memories at a lightning pace, or have already woken up to the reality of the situation. You notice that Fanelia, and the last year you've lived inside it, is just a farce set up by a Grand Relic in order to feed bonds to the Bond Engine. One slight problem. Lucretia hasn't reclaimed her final memory, and is stuck in her belief, dogmatically, that she is the Queen of Hearts. You're going to have to rally her to back to herself if you have any chance of acting quick enough to respond to the situation.

The grounds in which the capital sits is actually the ruins of the Moon Base, which had crash landed safely near the bounds of New New Aspen. Realizing this, the layout of the town and the Bureau of Balance is almost familiar to you, but also not quite right. The illusion magic is strong- the most powerful you've ever seen before. You need to find your way to the Starblaster, deep underground, and make your way to Lucretia's ship.

When you arrive, you realize the rings are slowly spinning around its exterior, slowly absorbing all of the explosive memories and friendships that you've rekindled since coming to Fanelia.

It's almost enough, but not quite. How can you get this baby going?

Now that the Wizard of Oz has rekindled his truer, inner self, he realizes that he's been more or less scamming the people of Peppelfen and amassing a lot of raw material for his own experiments. Without realizing it, he had been building a device that detects the presence of a Grand Relic, proving that, even while he was someone else entirely, the core of his being remained exactly the same.

And while Peppelfen is quickly retreating towards the capital as the Hunger encroaches upon the town, he reaches out to two Reclaimers and asks them to hunt the item down.

"It's the trinkets!

ONE OF YOU ALREADY HAVE THE RELIC.

I swear to god when I find Karsus, I'm going to punch him in the throat!"

Whoa, Lucas! Where did that come from?

Meanwhile, as all of this is going down, Karsus is still stuck in the Enchanted Forest, located near the lake towards its outer perimeter. Has he known all this time? The nature of this illusory world, the people inside it, their motivations? No one knows.

But one thing is very, very certain.

If Magic is going to be rekindled in Faerun, they're going to need their goddess to ensure that it doesn't go haywire. Mystra is trapped in the lake, or unwilling to come out- whatever her reasons are, you need to figure out a way to bring her up to speed.

And you get to hang with Merlin. Who doesn't love hanging with Merlin? Have you seen his multitudinous collection of dragon gundams? Maybe those could be put to good use.

AWAKEN: LUCRETIA (CHARISMATIC - MAX OF 3)

REACH THE BOND ENGINE (INTELLIGENT - MAX OF 3)

SECURE THE RELIC (DEXTROUS - MAX OF 2)

AWAKEN: LADY OF THE LAKE (WISE - MAX OF 2)

QUESTIONS