This post contains spoilers for the most recent outcast episodes (as of posting: June 17th).
Our player characters were told about a land far to the south that is free of the Empire of Voraci. But where is this land? Here's a picture of it:
You can find this place on the old map (https://regalgoblins.com/old_maps.php) if you zoom out (scroll wheel), go west to the coast, and follow the coast southward.
This place was last seen during Misscliks Pirate Edition, which was a million years ago. It's an area that I'd really like to revisit sometime, and if I can nudge the PCs in that direction, that could be super fun.
When we started Outcasts, we'd talked about making it a sandbox, and about doing time skips, and all sorts of options. One of the things that might be nice to do is have them wrap up their affairs with Magistrate Zerrah and the region, and head down here. We could do a time skip, then have them do some adventures in this area for a chapter or two, and then have them go back up north and deal with Autumn. Sadly that would be the death of the party, because Autumn is much, much, much scarier than she appears.
I'm not sure what's happening in this area at this point, but considering the world of Arcadia is entering the Age of Empires, this place is either unified or on the outbreak of something dangerous. It would be nice if they could find a proper home here somehow. Arachis is going to need a research library. Auguste is going to need access to mercenaries. Ren should have his wife and less of a need to adventure. Grau... he needs some therapy.
This might also be a region that is run into by our character in the theoretical Grand Expedition campaign I mentioned a few weeks ago.
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In the short term, our characters are probably heading to Holy City Ember Stone to deal with the unlocked secrets of Arachis' spellbook. That spellbook is fully fleshed out, and ready to go with up to 4th level spells. More important, in Thallius' home are his other spellbooks, which have lots and lots of spells. I've got a full list ready to go, but I do need to figure out how many spellbooks there are, and which ones have which spells.
In the middle term, the PCs might head to the capital of the Voraci Empire, Valesburg, to get more information about Grau. This is the most dangerous section of the storyline, even more dangerous than dealing with Magistrate Zerrah. This is the place where our player's pride is going to get them killed. This is where they will have to do the unthinkable and turn the other cheek when the inevitable bigger badasses don't show them the respect they feel they deserve.
Getting here is a long trip. A month or so on the road. It is a safe road, so there shouldn't be any combat encounters... but PCs have a habit of getting involved in the problems of others and this is a high danger area.
I'm quite worried the campaign will end here. Maybe they deal with Zerrah, run away for a while, and come back when they're a bit stronger.
That's it for now, see you later!
Neal / Koibu