"Belkoszia Plot (WIP)"
By NudeBeach (https://pastebin.com/u/NudeBeach)

URL: https://pastebin.com/FnEehN6b
Created on: Thursday 11th of April 2019 01:38:49 AM CDT
Retrieved on: Saturday 31 of October 2020 03:53:42 PM UTC


Belcoszia:
1.
A goblin wizard named Derian is attempting to perform a magic ritual that will let him reshape his body in any way he wants - he intends to use it to give himself a body that will never age. Thing is, this ritual requires a special kind of power to pull off - specifically, it calls for the sacrifice of a soul that has been reincarnated at least twice. Since most souls are never reincarnated at all, this is preposterously rare, and he's basically been killing and kidnapping people at random trying to find one. Entire settlements have gone empty from his work.
Among those he kidnaps for this is a girl named Gielle, who grew up in the poor quarters of a waterfront city named Auforé, with her brother Pier, who she essentially raised.
Naturally, Pier is deeply distressed by her kidnapping, but immediately sets off to find her, as she's using her innate magic (underdeveloped as it is) to try and guide him towards her.
This causes Pier to mistakenly blame it on a local gang, The Boweries, as their hideout is in the direction that her magic is indicating, and Pier, being a man who is quick to anger and possesses a strong sense of justice, runs off to kick their asses and get her back.
He actually beats the odds and tears right through them, but it's basically for nothing since they don't have his sister.
However, Gielle's magic is still pulling Pier towards her, towards somewhere outside of the hideout, and he runs to a balcony in time to see her getting carried off by a giant monster like nothing he's ever seen before - and without even realizing he's there, she dies, as the monster snaps her neck to stop her struggling.
Pier drops to one knee, before rising up absolutely livid, and swearing to track down whoever's responsible for this and make them pay.

2.
Pier runs straight towards it, making use of roofs and balconies as he goes. The monster flies in a straight line without a care for what's in its way, going directly towards its unknown destination. Pier is nearly upon it, hands itching in anticipation of revenge, when it suddenly turns and plows right through with the building he's standing on. Pier is thrown clear of the building and onto the pavement below. He survives, but he's knocked for a loop and barely conscious. A pink light envelopes him, accompanied by an awkward but panicked voice as it closes his wounds enough for him to come to his senses.
This turns out to be the work of Litset, a muddy looking goblin girl, who thrusts a healing potion into his hands, explaining through a collection of stutters that she found it in the trash, and it's probably good news that somebody ended up not needing a healing potion. Litset explains that she noticed Pier when he was rushing into the Boweries' hideout all by himself, and can't believe he came out victorious, only to have his heart shattered by whatever that thing was. She muses that the girl he's chasing must be his girlfriend, or his family, or both-not-that-there's-anything-wrong-with-that, and since he's obviously The Hero, she wants to help him. Pier hesitates, wondering if that'd just be putting a good person in danger they can't handle, when she clears the nearby debris from the building's collapse surprisingly easily despite being maybe half his size, and Pier welcomes her aboard.
It's naturally too late. The monster has already left the city. But that building coming down attracted a crowd, and it's not too difficult to get people talking about what direction it was heading when it left the city. The pair heads after it.
After a short trip through some (low-level monster-filled) plains, Pier and Litset arrive in a small village. There's something going on in front of the town hall, and upon inspection in becomes clear that the monster has not been sighted here. They've lost the trail. Pier, practically shaking with rage, declares to no one in particular that he'll take it down, no matter the cost, and a nearby old lady tells him he's being idiotic. Pier and Litset recognize her as Miss Berry (nee Mrs. Berry), one of the heroes who saved Auforé and the surrounding region some seventy years ago. The three have a short discussion, justice, heroism, duty, planning and the value of knowing your limits, and Pier refuses to back down, which seems to somehow impress and disappoint her at the same time. Berry insists that she can give the party useful, and they follow her to the town's well.
Berry gears up, and explains she has an inkling where the monster might have gone - but importantly, she knows a decent way to check, and she'll share it with the duo, provided they don't tell a soul about this. Litset gets excited and claims that Berry 'is obviously the old master who's gonna join up for one last hurrah and to show the new generation of heroes how it's done!', which Berry flatly denies.
But they agree to keep her secret, and so she tells them about a magic key that she and her old party used to use to get around the land quickly, and how it was instrumental in their quest. When they didn't need it anymore, for fear of it being stolen or misused, they threw it down the town's old, dried-up well - one that nobody was using, even back then. All they need to do is go down and get it, and "We'll be two doors away from where you're going".
The trio descends into the well, but the rope breaks on the, leaving them stranded in the first real dungeon: Bottom Of The Well (moist cave theme). On their way out, they locate the Skeleton Key, and take it with them. After finding and unblocking the exit, an opening into a cave system in the mountains a little ways from the village, the three head back to town, and Berry leads them to its graveyard. Using the key, Berry makes a door, seemingly standing free and connected to nothing, appear. She unlocks it, and notes that she doesn't remember locking it, before leading the confused pair through.
One magical light show later, and the party finds themselves in a large room built like a colosseum with more free-standing doors instead of seats. Miss Berry calls it 'The Gallery of Doors', and begins to explain its purpose, before a large, black, masked monster with glowing red eyes comes in through another door and promptly attacks them. On defeat, it doesn't die, but mentions that he's had enough of this and storms off through a third door, this one built into the wall, locking it behind him.
The old woman finishes explaining that this set of doors goes everywhere in the realm, though she doesn't know who made them and what for. She suspects it's the work of some grand wizard long ago, which would explain the extradimensional creature - this isn't the first time she's met it in here. She then guides Pier towards one specific door, coyly not revealing where it leads, but finds it locked. In fact, all doors seem to be locked, except the one they just came through. Pier explains that he's doing this to avenge his sister, who basically raised him, and kept him safe time and time again, and he couldn't return the favor. So he'll go the long way, to the end of the plane and back if that's what it takes. Litset has to keep herself from swooning.
Berry admires his conviction, but notes that his bull-headedness might get him and the girl killed without accomplishing anything. Because of this, and a growing sense of frustration at letting her skills go to waste busting random bandits in a small, unimportant village, she decides to formally join the party.

3.
Miss Berry tells Pier and Litset that she thinks they need to go to the Wizard's Tower, which lies in the center of Levou(1), one of the largest cities in the temperate area in the middle of Belcoszia. Not that she thinks they're responsible for the monster or for Gielle's death, as they're pretty much content with keeping to themselves and trying to unravel the secrets of magic in seclusion, but if any wizard anywhere is behind this, there's a fair chance they'll know about it, or at least be able to make a shortlist of wizards who could possibly summon/create something that huge. Litset laments how far away this is, but also voices her excitement at leaving Auforé for the first time in her life; Pier begrudgingly admits that he wants to see the world too.
They have to return to the plains, but take another path that leads through a mountain range where it is perpetually storming. The precarious path through these mountains forms the second dungeon: Everstorm Cliffs.

3.1.
Just before Everstorm Cliffs, Litset suggests to set up camp, since there's a usable campsite right by the road. Since she's homeless anyway, she took to hauling a tent around, since those tend to be useful even in a large city like Auforé. Berry agrees, noting that this would also provide an opportunity to cook up some meals and whatnot. She happens to remember some basic potion recipes, and offers to teach them to Pier - and Pier has a few recipes that Gielle taught him.

3. cont.
At the start, the trio finds a minecart railway, but without any carts. Partway up the mountain, Pier turns around, and loudly orders for whoever it following them, at least have the guts to do it openly; Berry admonishes him for doing that now instead of waiting for the group to be in an open spot where they could have surrounded their pursuer. The one following them steps out from behind an outcrop of rock and says he's surprised they can see him at all, though it makes sense, given how they fought his coworker earlier. Everyone assumes a fight is coming, but the stranger disagrees.
He introduces himself as Grief, one of many, and says that he's been dispatched to get that key back from them. Pier says he needs it to avenge his sister, and so he's keeping it at least until that's over. Grief actually brightens somewhat at this, and says then that the best way get the key back would be to help the party succeed in their quest as fast as possible, and asks to join the group. Berry is at a loss for words, noting that she doesn't even know what Grief is. After he briefly explains what a psychopomp is, Litset is quick to agree to his request, stars in her eyes as she goes on about 'death itself being on our side!'. Grief is just happy that he gets to do something other than his boring-ass job for once. The group, now with four, head on their way. When exiting the cliff, they find the other end of the minecart tracks, and a minecart sitting next to it. It takes little effort to place it back on the rails, and it proves functional, making for a quick traversal option in the future.

4.
The Everstorm Cliffs lead to a huge basin, in the middle of which, a colossal tree stands. It's actually so huge that the canopy is level with the group's path, reaches close enough for a rope bridge to span the gap, and has branches more than large enough for the group to walk on, even arm-in-arm. The top of the tree is home to numerous monsters, and the group is ambushed by a giant ape miniboss that uses the giant leaves to camouflage itself. They eventually find the entrance to a village built into the tree's trunk, where the party can rest, and stock up. 
The locals tell them the lower levels are off-limits, due to a monstrous mushroom has made its home in the hollowed-out tree roots, and is spreading spores that can only properly grow in the lungs of animals - so if everyone leaves it alone long enough, the threat will pass. Consequently, most people in the town are content to leave it at that, though a few are disturbed by the idea, or are put in a bad situation, as they rely on having access to the roots for their lives and businesses. 
The mayor will allow access if the party insists, opening up the first optional dungeon: Root Cave. Rewards for this include: the village's thanks, whatever the party finds in the dungeon, and access to the optional overworld area beyond the cave, which leads back to Auforé, where a bunch of sidequests have opened up since Pier and Litset left. 
The actual way forward is an exit ramp that spirals downwards the tree, leading to the bottom of the basin.

5. Under normal circumstances, it's a simple walk down a highway from Treeville (actual name TBD) to Levou,  given that Levou is a major economic center. However, in the last few weeks, a ring of bandits has taken over all the main roads around Levou, and the party clashes with one arm of them on their way in, culminating with a fight against that arm's leader, Kuga The Reckless, who is very into recently-invented steam-powered vehicles. The fight ends with Kuga crashing his bike and perishing in an explosion.

(town stuff to be done later(2))


 
(1) interestingly, the Wizard's Tower is by far the oldest building in the city. Levou was built around by those seeking to profit from its wealthy wizards, and the wizards themselves are fine with it, noting it makes it easy to get a sandwich, but otherwise taking very little notice of anything outside the tower walls, provided the public stays outside.

(2) At some point in town, and NPC should talk up the remaining bandit leaders in a way that makes it really obvious that the player is going to fight one every time they go to a new region. IE: "To the east, is [banditname 1], who looks x and fights like y. And to the north is [banditname 2] who is really fearsome and you should only fight him after beating [banditname 1]." only for them all to jump you at once the next time you leave town. Oh and Sorz isn't mad you killed Kuga and doesn't blame you at all, noting that his name is Kuga The *Reckless*, and it was bound to happen at some point.

Rename wizard Mauricius?

Other bandit lieutenants: Miss Elevan, Cardon Lonewolf.