[Official NPC]

It's over. After two months in an alien world, and at the cost of two dozen lives, what is left of the vanguard and their rescue party has finally returned to Elysian soil.

They return to a changed world. Whole areas of the Chandric and Fae forests have been felled by the quake that rocked the globe, and they will find the damage even more devastating as they draw nearer to Alexandria. In their absence, citizens have already begun to pick up the pieces and rebuild, but every member of the group will return to a broken home. Worse, tension between political and religious sectors has exploded in the wake of the Malaki attacks and discovery of a new world. Though groups like the League of Adventurers and the Voice of Xanth are still eager to explore (and spread word of the Creator), less tolerant organisations are terrified of the changes these discoveries will bring. As a result, the vanguard has barely set foot through the portal before they are whisked away for debriefing. Everyone wants to know: What happened? Why were they gone so long? Is the danger over?

And boy, do they have stories to tell: Of giant beetles, of wind-swept red mountains, of misty jungles taller than the giants of the Fae, of dragonriders and fishmen and shiny black pyramids. Of a man who calls himself a god — leaving the Xanthian world up in arms, proclaiming him false — and of a sickness that dissolves its victims from the inside out, leaving nothing but a cloud of red mist.

On hearing of this sickness, fear spreads throughout the camp and questions spill over one another. Are the vanguard infected? How dare they bring it with them? How can it be healed? What is the cure? Weary, the group explains how they were forced to beg for Ohani eggs and rejected at every turn; how they used the chaos of the Chaiku's attack to find the nursery pools and snuck a few of the eggs out while the soldiers were busy. Hopefully, they say, the Ohani will never notice that it was Elysians, and not the ocean leviathan, that stole their eggs.

They explain how Danae was so surprised at their success that he let them keep the skyboat. How, right before their eyes, he deliberately dropped one of the eggs and let it splatter across the stone floor of his throne room so a harpy immediately dropped to her knees to clean up the mess. How he sent them away to wait even as Maaike struggled to breathe and Faris began to cough up blood. And how finally, when they were utterly convinced he had betrayed them, he summoned them back and gave them the cure.

"The Red Mist is now no more," he had claimed with a familiar swish of robes. The harpies lining the throne room had whooped and crowed, smashing their wings together in applause. Maaike and Faris already look less like death walking. "And Garnak, who was the last of his tribe, died at Ohani hands never telling of the portal, so your world is safe. For now." His words do little to ease fears of another invasion, however. Jericho and Alain both got mental impressions of other tribes scattered across the Badlands; though few, and far between, the Malaki have proven too vicious to hope for the best. But at least the Mystriders are friendly.

Rewards

Awards are based on participation, so only characters who played an active role in a particular plot point will receive the relevant reward.

• A skyboat trophy for participating:
  
  
• Access to Danae's skyboat (from here on named The Vanguard) for all participants. It comes with a full crew of harpies and will be tethered to the top of the lighthouse colossus in Alexandria when not already in use. It can travel on water as well as through the air, and is faster than all other (current) ships. (To be added to the Transportation page soon.)
  
  
• Fame/Infamy:
  +10 from the Mystriders of Vynett for defending their village: Kiel, Zephyr, Ionia and Alain.
  
  -10 from the Ohani for trying to acquire eggs through nefarious means (chiefly, lying): Faris, Rahil, Jericho, Maaike and Kiel.
  
  +5 from all Acanthans for curing the Red Mist: Aella, Aiden, Alain, Faris, Ionia, Kiel, Maaike, Jericho, Rahil, Zephyr and Argyris.
  
  +25 from the League of Protectors for defeating the Malaki at the Chandric portal: Aella, Alain, Aiden, Faris, Ionia, Kiel, Maaike and Jericho.
  
  +10 from Elysians for returning alive: Aella, Aiden, Alain, Faris, Ionia, Kiel, Maaike, Jericho, Rahil, Zephyr and Argyris.
  
  +10 from the League of Protectors for bringing back useful intelligence: Aella, Aiden, Alain, Faris, Ionia, Kiel, Maaike, Jericho, Rahil, Zephyr and Argyris.
  
  
• Karma:
  10 from Danae (DKP) for "playing his game": Aella, Aiden, Alain, Faris, Ionia, Kiel, Maaike, Jericho, Rahil, Zephyr and Argyris.
  
  20 from Danae for acquiring the eggs: Aiden, Alain, Faris, Kiel, Maaike, Jericho, Rahil and Argyris.
  
  20 from Xanth (XKP) for curing the Red Mist and for not causing an inter-realm war: Aella, Aiden, Alain, Faris, Ionia, Kiel, Maaike, Jericho, Rahil, Zephyr and Argyris.
  
  
• NPC Relationships:
  A favour from the Mystriders of Vynett: Kiel, Zephyr, Ionia, Alain, Maaike, Jericho and Faris.
  
  
• New lore! As a result of this plot, we now have three new playable species, two new playable realms, a new god, and a bunch of new creatures and plants! (Lore to be approved. Races available for play once skills have been finalised.)

OOC Wrap-Up

And that's that, another plot over. I hope you guys had tremendous fun! I know I did.

I'll be taking a break to recuperate and catch up on some admin stuff (just out of interest, we have made a grand total of 155 in-character posts from Chapter One to Chapter Six. That's a lot of posting!), then I'll begin to finalise and approve the new lore pages. In the meantime, please feel free to finish off or even start any side threads. Just because the main event is over doesn't mean the story's finished.

By the way, though the Arc Chronology thread and the dates in each opening up to Chapter 6 state that the plot took less than a month (and the initial introduction said it would take three to four months) I'm compromising on two to better account for travel times and exploration. As a result, the events of Chapter One through this Epilogue officially took place between Erimis 1 and Thanatas 30 (1st of July to 30th of August).

Regarding the death toll: Only three named NPCs died during the plot (Rusty, Anatoli and Captain Lysistrata) but it felt like the death toll should have been much higher. The vanguard miraculously survived the battle with the Malaki mostly intact, but since then several groups of unnamed NPCs went into Acantha to look for them (and most didn't come back). Likewise, a few Mystriders would have died at Vynett, a few Ohani and harpies drowned/were swallowed during the Chaiku attack, and of course Mikel died at Danae's feet — and that's not counting all the lives lost during the Xanth-quake that rocked Elysia. I listed the death count at two dozen (rather than a specific number) to give an idea of the life cost, and to leave room for you guys to throw any personal NPCs on to the casualty list as you see fit.