Written by Zack "Anthony Warder" Emmert
Voraniss Questing has always been one of my favorite questing series in the game. The series has always has a skilled and dedicated team of event staff. The lore and the worldbuilding is truly above and beyond, and it's been brought to life by an incredibly talented cast of NPCs and top-notch prop construction.
Because of the lore-heavy nature of this plot, I'd also like to take a moment to give prospective players a run-down of where the plot currently stands, and what all has happened so far (there's a lot):
Hundreds of years in the past and far to the west, the Knights of the Aberrant Gate defended the Realms from the Aberrant Gate and the beings on the other side, who were attempting to invade and destroy the Realms. During the Battle of Lostpeak, all the knights save for Knight Commander Sir Willmot D'Aubert and Sir Edwyn Rainecourt abandoned the fight and fled. Sir Willmot and Sir Edwyn were able to destroy the gate, but Sir Willmot was killed and many of the aberrations escaped, some of which killed Sir Edwyn's entire family. This was the event that turned Sir Edwyn evil.
Later, Sir Edwyn hosted Sir Willmot's wake, with the rest of the knightly order: Sir Roman De'Maris, Dame Claudia LeRoux, Sir Wolfram Elliston, Dame Gloriana Stanwode, Sir Athalos Fairclough, Sir Lorin Stirling, Sir Selwyn Fowler, and Dame Mirield Castillon. He then proceeded to poison the other knights of the order, and reanimate them as his undead generals. He placed a piece of his soul into each of them, becoming a lich and making each of his generals into one of his soul containers. Our seers have determined that in order to kill Sir Edwyn, each of his generals must first be killed in the correct order, and while we have not yet determined the order, we know that our first target is Dame Gloriana Stanwode, the order's wizard and scribe.
Following the turning of the knights, a war broke out between Sir Edwyn's corrupted court, and four of the order's own squires: Squires Lawrence, Willoughby, Elmwatcher, and McHale. The squires succeeded in trapping and incapacitating Sir Edwyn in a crypt in what is now the town of Caelkirk, by channeling the power of five different gods: Aurora, Solarus, Gaia, Rexan, and Dionin.
Fast forward to present day-ish.
As a result of Rexan's death during the war in Darkvale, the magic imprisoning him weakened enough that undead began leaking out of the crypt, and adventurers came to investigate. We entered the crypt, and in doing so broke the magic entirely and freed Sir Edwyn and one of his general, Sir Roman De'Maris. We were narrowly able to defend the town from Sir Edwyn's forces.
The following spring, we came to Voraniss to seek out the favor of Gaia, who has protected Voraniss from undead incursions since long before the country's founding. We were able to earn this favor and were given her staff, an item of extremely potent healing magic. We then discovered that Blackwood was under attack, and traveled through the Voranian spirit world to successfully defend them from Sir Edwyn's forces. During this time, we discovered that Sir Edwyn had made contact with and reanimated Dame Claudia LeRoux, once the order's healer and now a dangerous blood mage going by the moniker Dame Carrion.
Our next encounter with Sir Edwyn's corrupted court was during the Seige of Necron. Both Sir Edwyn's forces and our own were racing through the city-state kingdom, seeking artifacts that would be very powerful in Sir Edwyn's hands. Our goal was to destroy them, his was to claim them for his own use. By and large, we did not succeed in our goal, although several artifacts were successfully destroyed. Around this time is when we believe Sir Edwyn reactivated Dame Gloriana Stanwode.
The forces of the Realms most recently encountered Sir Edwyn when we ventured to the site of the Battle of Lostpeak, in search of weapons we could use to defeat the corrupted court. The weapons we sought out were the blades wielded by the four squires who originally defeated Sir Edwyn, as well as the blade of Knight Commander Sir Willmot D'Aubert. To earn the squire's blades, we had to pass trials set by the spirits of the squires themselves. Those chosen became responsible for rebuilding the Knights of the Aberrant Gate and reaffirming their tenets. Myself, Fern Eberhardt, Ser Gordon Lightfoot, and Ser Vesper were chosen to be the squires to the new order. We voted Fern into the position of Knight Commander, and Sir Pilpus Jainrose took up their squirely blade. It is at approximately this time that we believe Sir Edwyn located and reactivated Sir Wolfram Elliston.
This weekend, we'll be visiting a wizard tower that was once the property of Dame Gloriana Stanwode, accessed by a teleportation pad located on an island north of Voraniss Proper. We are hoping to find more information about the members of the corrupted court, and continue to build the arsenal with which we will defeat them.
I hope to see you all there!
