Story
Shadows over Riva picks up where the party left off in Realms of Arkania: Star Trail. After uniting the Dwarves and Elves, the party stops by the harbor city of Riva which currently under siege by the orcish hordes. The city is on edge. The countryside's once lucritive dwarven mine has been decimated and occupied by the Orcs after a string well coordinated attacks. Inside the city for some unknown reason the magistrate refuses to recognize the threat the Orcs pose just outside the city gates. Meanwhile rumors abound of traitors in the slum ridden Hoberkian community and strange corpse disappearances within the city's graveyard, the Field of Boron.
As the party investigates each lead, more questions seem to surface than answers. After penetrating the dwarven mines the deviousness of the traps suggests that the Orcs have somehow become much smarter and more organized than normally possible. No longer are they fragmented tribes warring among themselves. They speak of a single, wise all powerful chieftain with the powers of a wizard. Upon confronting the chieftain deep within the mines he summons a massive demon from the underworld to fight the party. This alone is extremely unusual as orcs have never had the intelligence required to master magic, let alone the skills of one of the most powerful wizards. Since this has not been the only time the party has fought summoned demons, the party manages to kill the demon sending it back to the underworld. Upon killing the orc chieftain, a tiny worm emerges from chieftain's head and flees.
Returning to the city with this new information, the party still finds the city's magistrate apathetic. They befriend the Holberkians when they save one of them from a mob. Far from the traitors they had been painted, it turns out the Hoberkians are faithful friends. Being half Elves and half Orcs they have knowledge of the Orcish hordes, earning the enmity of the city which thinks they are responsible for the Orcish siege of the city. They too have noticed a pronounced change in the Orc's activity, suggesting an outside influence. They reveal a long absent sorcerer living on an island in the swamp who could have been responsible for the changes in the Orcs.
The next day one of the Hoberkians rows the party to the sorcerer's tower. There the party finds numerous experiments and letters all pointing to a person known only as Borborad and his shipment of two worm queens. One queen was delivered but a second was lost en route when the urn sank with a cargo ship in Riva's harbor from a storm. Research notes further reveal a wealth of information on the worms spawns from the queen. They possessed extreme intelligence and could possess hosts by entering their brains through the nose. They were also linked telepathically to the queen who spawned them and could not be killed unless you killed the queen who resided within a hive which was invincible to attack due to the queen's magical spells.
After returning to Riva the party speaks with the magistrate about their suspicions. Instead of immediate action, the magistrate simply dismisses the group. Within the day they are framed for murder. It is at this time that an underground movement contacts the group and offers them sanctuary as well as the use of an underground tunnel system that surfaces in every temple They are informed of the underground's suspicions that the magistrate is under some unknown influence, possibly a worm spawn. If so, it would explain the framing of the party of murder as they know too much and are a threat to exposing the entire plot.
They are told to rescue a group of wizards from the magistrate's prison island during the night. There they see an attempted worm implantation which the wizard manages to fight off. After the rescue, the wizards inform the group that it was the magistrate who had an expedition to recover the sunken ship items from the harbor. One of the urns, when found was brought to him. Upon opening the urn the worm queen was released and possessed the magistrate and established a hive used its worm spawns to possess various people around the city. What these people see and hear the worm queen sees and hears. The group is told that the one remaining urn in the sunken ship is required to learn more about the queen and a means to defeat them. After obtaining the urn from the merfolk that live in the waters near Riva's harbor the wizards spend a few days studying the queen inside.
When they finally summon the group they give them a shrinking spell that reduces them to worm size allowing them to enter the magically reinforced hive. They fight their way through the hive, pick their way through a confusing maze, and fight off telepathic nightmares sent by the queen. Finally they come face to face with the massive queen and stave of her magic and pincer attacks.
After killing the queen they return to their normal size smashing the hive as they grow, since the magic protecting the hive walls died with the queen. Everywhere across the city the worm spawns are dying and falling out of their hosts. Unfortunately none of them recall them being under their influence. So the group is still wanted fugitives and are forced to escape the city. But they go with the knowledge and satisfaction that they saved everyone from the Orcish invasion. Without the queen's leadership, the Orcish horde fragments back into their warring tribes. Even though they still outnumber the alliance of Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, they are no match for their combined might.
The realms of Arkania are safe once again thanks to group of heroes. But somewhere Borborad rages. His vengeance sworn against all who managed to defeat his plans this time.
Read more about this topic: Realms Of Arkania: Shadows Over Riva
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—Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)
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