Monday 30 June 2014

Part 1: The Lost Shores


Lion's Arch awakened after the events and exciting activities caused by the yearly appearance of the Mad King. At first glance the city was operating as usual; merchants selling goods, people visiting friends, and children playing beside the grand Lion statue. But something was different, a collection of new ships had entered the harbour bearing a symbol currently unknown to the people of Lion's Arch. It looked much like an Asura-created robot. What were these new ships doing in the harbour? After some investigation their purpose became clear, they were advertising a new resort island based just south of the Sea of Sorrows and people appeared to be interested in what this new organisation had to offer. The organisation went by the name of The Consortium and the island they were advertising was known as Southsun Cove (a previously unknown isle). As the day continued there were some other strange occurrences; whales were found beached along the shoreline, were they trying to escape something in the waters? Rumour had it that the whales were trying to escape from sea monsters. Head Researcher Levvi arrived in Lion's Arch leading a research team who began looking into the strange occurrences and found that there were some unusual signals in the ocean; there was something big and it was heading for Lion's Arch! After this discovery she rushed to Captain Magnus (of the Captain's Council) to tell him the horrific news and try to convince him to do something to increase Lion's Arch's defences. Unfortunately, Levvi was unsuccessful, the Captain would not do anything unless trade was threatened or Lion's Arch was attacked.

The Karka attacked in great number, the Lionguard and many brave adventurers stood against the sea monster invasion. During the attack they were tasked with collecting samples from defeated Karka to give to Levvi and her Krewe to aid in research and find a way to eliminate these creatures. After the fight had settled and the creatures were driven away, Inspector Kiel was tasked with uncovering the culprit that had agitated the Karka into such aggressive actions. The Karka continued to attack towns situated on the coastline around the Sea of Sorrows and adventurers were
"...Interfering with these plants led to the aggravation of the Karka."
asked to examine each of the attack sites for any information that would aid Kiel's investigation. Shipwrecks were found bearing the same symbol as those that had recently docked in Lion's Arch, was the consortium responsible for causing these attacks? The investigation continued with the interrogation of key members of the consortium; Subdirector Blingg (Levvi's ex-boyfriend) was interrogated at the Consortium headquarters in Lion's Arch and Subdirector Noll was interrogated at Hanto Trading Post in Caledon Forest. Useful information was discovered during these interrogations, it appeared that all strings led to a sylvari secondborn named Canach. After speaking with Canach it was clear that he was in charge of an expedition to the previously unknown island of Southsun Cove as part of the consortium group. His contract clearly stated that he should not interfere or explore any of the animal, mineral or magical sources on the island, it did not however state that he could not collect samples from a local flora. He ordered his men to collect these samples, it was not clear how but interfering with these plants led to the aggravation of the Karka. Inspector Kiel was notified of this and Canach was taken into custody for further questioning.

How could the Karka be defeated? Adventurers were tasked with finding out more information regarding the Karka and their origin, after talking to Miyani and Zommoros it appeared that they were an ancient race that used to live in deep waters many years ago but they had been driven to the surface. Maybe aquatic races would have more of an idea since they would have spent more time in the waters over the years. Adventurers talked with each of the aquatic races; the Quaggen, Hylek and Largos. Pastkeeper Saballa (of the Quaggen), after being reminded of the past gave a scroll over which held their knowledge of the Karka. Gukumatz (of the Hylek) created a powerful solvent using Hylek alchemy and Fahd al'Eshadhi (of the Largos) provided a sample of the Karka shell after adventurers proved themselves in combat. All of the collected information and samples were given to Levvi to aid with her research.

The Karka attacked for a second time with devastating force, but this time the people of Lion's Arch were ready. Adventurers were armed with the powerful solvent created by the Hylek which aided drastically in the defeat of the Karka in this invasion. After much interrogation Kiel forced Canach to reveal his and the Consortium's involvement in the Karka and their attacks on Lion's Arch. With the attack threatening the city and trade, Captain Magnus finally decided to mount a counter attack on the Karka island.
"The fight continued for hours, days even, demolition teams set charges and the Karka leader was forced back into the hive."
Adventurers sailed from the harbour, south and landed on the island. They attacked the beaches and forced the Karka back deeper onto the island. The Karka were pushed south and around the island continually fighting, many Karka were slaughtered as the Lionguard pushed forward and several camps were built to run resources onto the island. The consortium members present in the attack split from the main force to find a lost expedition in Perl Islet. The Lionguard and as many brave adventurers that could be rallied for the assault continued to push and ended at a new camp named Camp Karka positioned on a small island called Captain's Retreat. After much preparation, the assault continued into the hive where we found a gigantic Ancient Karka. The fight continued for hours, days even, demolition teams set charges and the Karka leader was forced back into the hive. After pushing the Karka with its back to a wall, the charges were detonated and the Ancient Karka was plunged into a pool of lava. The fight was over and Inspector Kiel and Researcher Levvi remained on the island for some time to learn more about the Karka to ensure we were ready for any future attacks. In all the chaos, Canach escaped from capture and his current position is unknown.