1 - Mercy Saga

The story begins in the underground Marrow Kingdom, a society that bans all magic. Most inhabitants think that the world has ended. In the city of Coredeep, a young wizard Characters/PCs/Ping Wing and his teacher Marcerene plan an expedition to leave this place and practice magic freely on the surface. Ping Wing is an orphaned hippogriff who never has seen the outside world.

Marcerene the pony witch claims to be from the surface, coming to the kingdom when she was only a little filly with her father. She also knows that it is not as deadly as the Kingdom’s propaganda lets on. For the past decade she was effectively a guardian for Ping Wing as he grew into young adulthood. The two put on the front of running a liquor business in which Marcerene indulged in her own product quite a bit. In secret, they've practiced magic illegally.

Ping Wing reveals his familiar, Gunter, a small penguin he's had as long as he could remember that resulted from his very first dabbling in magic. The three start packing supplies and magic contraband to leave.

Their plan is nearly foiled, as Tsavo a griffoness, daughter of a Marrow Kingdom Duke, and Ping Wing's childhood bully, discovers them. Tsavo is short tempered and extremely strong. She nearly gets into a fight with the two before Marcerine reveal they're going to the surface. Tsavo agrees to help instantly upon hearing this, saying she despises her noble duties and how small their known world is.

Suddenly, Akun The Breaker, a knight and Tsavo's cousin, accosts the party. She and her men at arms find that they posses illegal magical items. The party is forced to flee to the outskirts of Coredeep, burning a bridge across the underground river behind them to escape from Akun's wrath. To avoid further issues with the law, they decide to take the much more dangerous Maw of Innocence cave system. They head towards the city of Edge, which is the place closest to the planet's surface. 

The Maw Of Innocence proves to be extremely dangerous, filled with weaving tunnels, bioluminescent flora, and massive centipedes and dangerous ooze cubes. Tsavo calls Ping Wing a pansy the entire way and they frequently scuffle.

After dungeoneering, the party reaches the back tunnels of Hollowdeep, a city on the way to Edge. It's "night" as the massive bioluminescent mushrooms in the massive cave cieling the town sits under are cooling down. The party discovers Akun is searching the town with the royal guard and sneak to a nearest bar at Marcerene's suggestion. They find a tavern which is exceedingly busy that night. Inside, they encounter a local outcast named Longfolia, he's a medic who is pestering patrons with a shoulder-mounted mug holder he created.

Ping Wing gets the attention of Early Rise, someone causing a stir in the bar because nobody in the kingdom has seen him before. Ping Wing accidentally reveals pages from his spell book. Mysteriously, Early Rise is able to identify it. Ping Wing, Marcerene, and Early Rise start scuffling in the corner of the bar. Tsavo mocks the group over their "nerd stuff" and heads to the entrance. She sees Akun, and challenges her in the open. The two start fighting, causing Longfolia to flee and find to Ping Wing and Early Rise fighting over the book.

Suddenly, more guards come inside to aide Lady Akun, and a larger brawl breaks out. The commotion causes a final figure to appear, Characters/PCs/Civrev. He sneaks to the back of the bar and breaks up the fight between Ping Wing and Early Rise.

The group of now Ping Wing, Gunter, Marcerene, Longfolia, Civrev, and Early Rise are forced to escape, needing to drag Tsavo away from her fight. During the chase Civrev seems to already make great efforts to hide his magic, refusing to show his eyes from behind his shades and acting suspicious of even the other magic users seeing his magic.

They escape behind the duke's manor into another cave network the local authorities claim is too dangerous. The group still squabbles among itself, but eventually organizes enough to question Civrev and Early Rise. They reveal to both be from the surface and had been staying at the medical ward Longfolia worked at. Both have suffered a degree of amnesia about what happened before they came down here, but Early Rise reveals he was a magical warrior, and Civrev refuses to reveal more about himself.

Longfolia encourages the group to travel together, as they have nowhere left to go but up. Marcerene confirms this cave system should lead to Edge, and they reluctantly agree to press forward together.

The party fights through some spiders and eventually comes across an underground lake, with minecar train tracks leading to an old magic laboratory. This lab is filled with undead zombies and old diaries describing gruesome magical experiments that attempted to revive a deceased young foal. They encounter the foal, now an undead monster, alongside a regenerating zombie lion that gives chase. They narrowly are able to escape after seemingly felling the monsters.

The party learns that before the Marrow Kingdom was forced underground, the kingdom before it tampered with something called Divine Magic that destroyed the surface of the planet and rendered it unsuitable for life, forcing everyone underground and making everyone fearful of magic for centuries. The details are unclear as to how this exactly occurred.

Civrev reveals that he knows of this magic, and how to use it to defeat zombies, as he is an Oracle. However, Civrev is unable to remember what happened before he fell down into The Marrow Kingdom. All he can remember was that he was in a group called the Stellar Seekers. The party rests, and awakens to find the lion has returned, Tsavo wants to stay and fight, while the rest of the group runs. Ping Wing threatens to leave her behind before she finally relents begrudgingly. The party continues further to find the old ruins of the last kingdom now burning in a lake of lava. They continue to Edge.

 The party finally makes it to Edge, as the cave systems lead into a secret tunnel to the Marrow King's castle. The party begins to sneak around the royal palace.

They try to blend in with the staff, but some of the party members are sniffed out by Spymaster Domia. She's a mysterious figure, but is discovered to be a member of a group called The Occult Foundation. Unexpectedly, Akun the breaker arrives to the Marrow Castle to inform the king of the party's plot to escape. To make matters worse, Tsavo kidnaps the queen. Akun and Tsavo fight alone in the queens bedroom, as the rest of the party battle Domia in the grand hall, who uses magic to the surprise of everyone. The King runs, as Domia appears to exert extreme control over the kingdom.

Akun narrowly defeats Tsavo. The party is ready to leave without her as she split from the group earlier, and the guards are closing in. However, Ping Wing dashes back to save her. Together, the party manages to defeat Akun and find a hidden room in the castle with an airship. Ping Wing takes Akun's sword as a trophy.

As they escape, Domia claims that Civrev is dangerous, but the party ignores her in favor of their new friend.

The party escapes, as Ping Wing proclaims his love for Tsavo. The two kiss. The party declares themselves the Sock Pirates, which Civrev noting his distaste for the name. Spirits are high, the planet's surface seems to have a massive layer of clouds that parts as they leave. The party relishes in the sunshine as the first arc comes triumphantly comes to a close.

The party flies in their new ship Dawn Rising. They fight some dinosaur-like monsters for awhile and try to get their bearings. Before they can though, they are swept into a massive storm upwards to see the top layer of Mercy, which is covered in floating islands. The party begins to explore around, finding a crew of bandits, calling themselves natives to these islands. The bandits inform the party of how dangerous the surface is. Shortly after they depart, the party finds the skeleton of someone wearing a uniform of an organization called Armada.

The Sock Pirates run low on fuel, and find a pirate haven on the island of Littlewood. Characters/PCs/Ping Wing tries to seduce Tsavo somewhat unsuccessfully. Characters/PCs/Civrev and Longfolia meet a local captain named Roo. He offers to give the group a job. He will refuel the party's ship if they fix Littlewood's problems with some fuel wells in the outskirts of town. 

Longfolia creates a small magitech crab robot.

After a mission into the savanna, the group returns to find Littlewood, as well as their ship, have both vanished. They descend to lower clusters of tiny islands to find that pirates stole their ship.

After an easily won fight, a giant ball of holy light startles the party as it rises into the sky, revealing itself as the entity that destroyed the town. The sphere turns inside itself and produces a loud screaming sound. A hole in the cloud layer beneath the islands is created by this cataclysmic event, revealing the surface of the planet below and the entrance to the Marrow Kingdom completely. The party narrow escapes from the ball of light.

The pirates stowed away in the cabin below all run screaming in fear as the party touches down in Littlewood. All leave except Roo, who offers his services as a navigator to the team. Roo claims to know everything about the criminal underworld of this new world the party finds themselves in and joins after some deliberation.

The party begins to travel across the floating islands of the upper cloud layer of Mercy. They fight some frightening buzzard chimera monsters called Carrion Golems.

After some small encounters, The Sock Pirates come across an island called Shady Oaks. On it they find a small house, a bunch of barrels, some broken, filled with expensive wines. The party touches down to encounter an elderly bearded stallion named Falls who comes out of the house to inspect the wine. He greets the party as they touch down and says the barrels don't belong to him, striking up a conversation.

Falls lives on the island with other old timers, his wife recently leaving for Littlewood, which the locals have remarked recently was lit up by a massive beam of light that could be seen across the entire planetoid.

Falls reveals to have been a former member of Armada, pirate hunters. Ping Wing, unfamiliar with the concept of pirates from living underground, asks about them. Falls shares that most people hate pirates, not all of them were as bad, and rather just desperate to make a living. Falls tells the story that he left Armada because a comrade of his refused to attack a pirate, as they were sisters. Fall's friend was was killed in the crossfire as their officer declared her a turncoat.

Falls lets the group stay awhile, and gets into a sparring match with Early Rise, which he loses.

Suddenly. A massive ship appears overhead. Ponies in gasmasks jump down. Threatening everyone for 'stealing' their wine. Falls claims that it simply had fallen from the sky and was willing to give it back with no trouble. These ponies reveal that they are pirates, calling themselves members of The Swamp Ninjas. The Sock Pirates reluctant to intervene as first. A swamp pirate investigates Falls home to find that he was a former Armada agent, and threatens to kill him.

Ping Wing rushes in, and The Sock Pirates fight The Swamp Ninja, barely managing to win as the swamp ninja seem to specialize in incorporating magic into their fighting style.

After the battle, the party gets a new ship, Disgrace, a sleek black sloop. The 'dis' is faded, and they redub it Grace.

The party travels to The Pink Dice bar, where they meet two mysterious sisters. They appear to be pony-dragon hybrids called kirin named Jinx and Misty. Tsavo mistakenly thinks Ping Wing is being seduced by Jinx, and challenges her to a fight. Jinx reveals herself to be far more powerful than she initially let on and handily defeats Tsavo.

Tsavo is forced to lie down and recover, immensely humiliated by the experience. The party meets a small group of delivery ponies for Spades Express, Tilde, Poke and Sage. Sage is twice as large as the average pony they've seen so far, making Civrev to call him "Gigantor". They hit off well though and the delivery ponies reveal that they have adventuring work for the party. The Spades express lost their package when travelling over a mysterious islands called "The Sisters". Apparently many adventurers have gone there never to be seen again.

The party then decides to enter The Sisters dungeon to retrieve it, uncovering a strange lab where Carrion Golems are made. The party finds that this place seemed to be set up a long time ago by The Stellar Seekers, though Civrev insists he never remembered seeing or even hearing anything about this. The magical technology is advanced, and it seems to be completely abandoned as they find evidence of adventurers who got swept up and transformed into horrific monsters.

As Ping Wing discovers a massive manuscript in a mysterious ancient language describing the sphere they saw earlier, the party encounters two Terrecoda Golems. These golems give chase and nearly drag Longfolia and Tsavo to the room that transforms people into carrion golems. The party is unable to defeat the Terrecoda golems. However, they are able to find the item the delivery ponies were looking for and make away with it during their escape back to the ship.

The party returns to find their ship being surrounded by another Swamp Pirate vessel. The captain of this group, a goat named Caneater, threatens to enslave the entire party, as word of them defeating the crew that attacked Falls on Swamp Pirate cartel has spread among them.

In no shape to fight, the crew desperately tries to flee. Thankfully, Civrev is overwhelmed with a sudden burst of Divine Energy and blinds the Swamp Pirates long enough for the group to escape. Ping Wing taunts The Swamp Pirates as they fly off, impressing Tsavo.

 The party arrives at Abandoned Visage, an Armada base. They learn about Captain Mora, known for her cruelty, including hanging her own men. They meet Lieutenant Neko, a pony. Neko explains that Mora recently sent a marine on a 'disciplinary mission' where they got sent to fight Dire Wolves. Neko explains Mora is still in power due to the ruthlessness of the Swamp Pirates, with some seeing her methods as necessary.

The Sock Pirates successfully rescue the marine and returns to Abandoned Visage. They arrive to find Neko being confronted by a lecherous and narcissistic vice captain. He tries to abuse his power to manipulate the rescued marine, questioning how she completed the mission. He explains that Cabo, Leader of The Swamp Pirates, was recently seen at North Hoofsteady, and he will be in charge as Mora handles the situation.

Ping Wing feels angered by the despotism, but ultimately agrees to leave as they consider the power of Armada.

The party arrives at The Burning Forest, a colorful, vibrant, and healthy forest filled with unique, multi-colored trees. In this forest, they encounter an old ewe named Nanny, who is an alchemist and potion-maker. Nanny's hut is filled with cauldrons, herbs, and the scent of essential oils. She is busy brewing potions as medicine for the trees.

Nanny recognizes Civrev, though he doesn't remember her. She reveals crucial information about Civrev's past, and confirms that he fell off the island during an attack by the Wind Druids.

Nanny explains that the Coven, also known as the Occult Foundation, oversees the affairs of magic use in Hanaq. They allow arcane, primal, and occult magic but strictly forbid divine magic, believing it nearly destroyed the universe in the past. She shows the party a rune on her neck, explaining it's a tracking device the Coven uses to monitor spell-casters.

Nanny confirms that she knew of the Stellar Seekers, and used to be a part of the Coven, and as such cannot cast any forbidden spells. But was instrumental in covering the Stellar Seekers tracks and hides herself by doing alchemy instead of casting. Ping Wing expresses extreme disapproval of this practice, remarking that he didn’t escape The Marrow Kingdom to simply be subject to more organizations like this.

Marcerine also say shes remembers her father talking frequently about the Coven before he disappeared back in her days growing up in the Marrow Kingdom

Regarding the Wind Druids, Nanny describes them as powerful and well respected. Apparently, the wind druids were from another planet, and an expedition of them attacked the Stellar Seekers when they discovered they used divine magic. When this happened, they managed to destroy the two Stellar Seeker hideouts on this planet. The one on the Burning Forest island and another one on Mercy Eden.

Nanny also mentions Civrev's forgotten friend Bean Hop, revealing that he was Nanny's son. Nanny helped the Stellar Seekers because her son was an Oracle too and wanted to protect him. She asks the party to look for Bean Hop, offering a reward for information about him.

During this conversation, Nanny brews a special tea for Civrev. When he drinks it, he experiences a vision that points him towards a giant tree in the forest, hinting at more answers about his past.

The party then travels to a giant tree where Civrev used to live. Inside, Civrev regains some memories but finds the place ransacked. The tree itself is sentient and communicates with Civrev, revealing more about his past and a friend named Mag.

 Intrigued by the revelations, Civrev and the party embark on a quest to find the great tree. Upon reaching the tree, they discover it in a weakened state, having been destroyed by The Wind Druids. Civrev explores the tree and its surroundings but finds no significant clues about his past. The tree suddenly speaks to the Sock Pirates, revealing himself to be The Great Tree Cinnabar. Cinnabar tells Civrev to find Mag, a Stellar Seeker Healer.

 
Civrev promises Cinnabar to return soon after exploring the rest of the island for clues.

The party makes their way south to North Hoofsteady, flying through the trees on Grace. Tsavo does chin-ups on the mast. Roo gives Longfolia a rapier pistol he found when the party was exploring the Sisters Dungeon earlier (Longfolia considers a number of eccentric designs, such as using the bullets to inject Pesh into his opponents and befuddling them.)

The party encounters two Armada airfey on the outskirts of North Hoofsteady, Tsavo goes down to greet them. The two are looking for a pink filly named Polly who is the granddaughter of Governor Gummo. The airfey are concerned because of how many monsters are in the wilderness of Mercy, and Hanaq in general.

The party starts to search the area and encounters the tobacco chewing Old Stallion Jenko who claimed to have seen Polly passing by.

Old Stallion Jenko is able to lead the party to a river where Polly is getting attacked by kelp monsters called Kelpie. The party defeats the monster and returns her back home. Tsavo scolds Polly for getting into so much danger, but Polly ignores her and becomes fascinated with Longfolia’s crab robot, much to the chagrin of Gunter who gets into a fight with it. Polly is quiet, and only whispers to the stoic Early Rise. Early Rise learns that Polly simply was looking for a box she enjoyed wearing on her head, which Gunter finds.

The party returns to Governer Gummo’s estate. Polly’s mother, Audi, greets her and pays the party, Tsavo and Early Rise scuffle over taking the entire sum for a while the rest of the party eats at the manor. Ping Wing finds some farming clothes and tries to disguise as one in fears of encountering anything like The Coven. He believes farming is all about “plowing” and speaks of it frequently. This only fools Tsavo.

The party hits the town. Ping Wing experiments with disguises, Roo reminisces about doing his first smuggling job while drinking his adventuring money away. The party starts at a rough tavern and meets a shady figure in the corner.

The shady figure reveals herself to be Crazy Eights, a charismatic yet eccentric unicorn mare who claims to be part of a “special organization”. She doesn't elaborate much but sells the party a sword that can “touch ghosts”. While the party is skeptical, Ping Wing offers her to join their crew. Eights reveals to Civrev that the Wind Druids are on another planet in South Branch called Locations/South Branch/Archibast.

Tsavo sees a cart passing by with a disk shaped item kept under wraps and being protected by Armada guards. Tsavo overhears the guards say Captain Mora is coming to town soon to meet Governor Gummo.

The party returns to the Governor's Mansion to meet Gummo himself. He is in a foul mood as Captain Mora declared martial law, against his wishes. He has no idea why she did such a thing but is unable to command any troops to fend off the Swamp Pirate threat. Because of the lockdown, no ships are allowed to leave.

Roo dirties up the manors table with his boots, which the manor maids and butlers cringe at, as the party talks to Governor Gummo. Gummo informs the party that Mercy’s colonial denizens are fraught with fear after the sudden appearance of the “light-show” that exposed the cloud layer and showed the planets surface (the ball of light that destroyed Littlewood). This has caused the Governor to become unpopular. The locals are fearful of Cabo, the captain of the Swamp Pirates, to the point that Mora’s extreme practices get a free pass. Furthermore, the governor says Mora is stirring up rumors of cult activity.

The party goes to the town square to see Armada has found the old talking tree Cinnabar and has cut the face off.

Mora shows herself for the first time, revealing herself to be a massive unicorn that even the locals fear. In her speech, Cinnabar face speaks to Civrev telepathically. Cinnabar informs Civrev the ball of light that destroyed Littlewood was possibly caused by a stellar seeker, and that he must find Mag to discover exactly what happened. The tree face also says that there are other ancient trees like him hidden throughout Hanaq, that will reveal history covered up by The Coven.

Cinnabar makes a final request. He asks the party free him, as he is being taken to a nearby Armada base on the outskirts of town and may be burnt by Mora. As his life is coming to a close, he wishes to be dropped on the surface of Mercy so he may feel the soil of the main planet one more time. The party begins to consider how they might achieve this when Cinnabar is heavily guarded by Armada forces.

The party returns to the Governor's manor. Civrev and the Governor Gummo encounter a purple butterfly. Gummo warns Civrev this butterfly is imbued with coven magic to spy on people for the government.

Next morning, the party returns to Crazy Eights and asks for her help in lifting the marshal law order keeping their ship trapped on the island. Eights seems to know of Civrev’s condition, pulling down his glasses which he usually uses to hide his divine magic. She leaves, but Marcerene warns the party that Armada, and a single coven witch, is coming to the tavern. They begin searching for Eights. In the commotion, Ping Wing is mistaken for Eights, and he escapes to find the real Eights, who gives him a folder of Coven documents she found before disappearing again.

The Sock Pirates returns to find Governer Gummo is missing. Old Man Jenko informs the party that he was taken away by Captain Mora, along with Polly. The group pours through the Coven documents at Jenko’s cabin, and learns that The Coven had extreme control over the Marrow Kingdom, finding them after the disaster and continuing the enforcement of the anti-magical laws as an isolated social experiment. They also learn that Marcerene’s father was a Coven agent, but disappeared only a few weeks into the mission.

The party sets out to recover Cinnabar’s face, disguising as Armada officers. They sneak through and bring Cinnabar to the edge of the island. Civrev says goodbye to the tree that shielded him and his friends for most of his life. Cinnabar tells Civrev to search a town on the planet called Huntland for Mag, as he feels his presence somewhere there.

The party returns to find that the martial law order has been temporarily lifted, and can now fly again. Jenko managed to rescue Polly from Mora’s clutches off screen, but confesses he was unable to save Governor Gummo. The party looks up to see Mora is on the move, as the Capitol ship can be seen flying southward. The party boards Grace to give chase once more.

The party starts traveling to South Hoofsteady discreetly, but encounters The Swamp Pirates, corralling innocent colonists and natives of Mercy to be taken as slaves. The Sock Pirates fight the Swamp Pirates once more, Tsavo nearly being trapped on their ship as they fly away. But the party is narrowly able to defeat Can Eater and sink the Swamp Pirate ship into a floating island. The party narrowly escapes as Armada approaches, assuming they will arrest the Swamp Pirates for them. They learn there are many more Swamp Pirate Ships on Mercy they will need to fight, barely making a dent in their forces with this battle.

The party arrives in South Hoofsteady, noticing the arid climate and pirate graffiti. Ping Wing visits a bookstore, finding questionable romance novels and fanfiction. Early Rise sees Marcerene buying an entire stack of literature from the store. A fact Marcerene sloppily tries to hide. Meanwhile Ping Wing tries to find Pesh, a fairly innocuous herb that Armada hardly pays any mind to due to how prevalent it is.

Ping Wing witnesses a well dressed Sween, intoxicated and being escorted by Armada guards into the Mayor’s mansion. Longfolia pickpockets a note from a pirate, leading to the discovery of a drop location.

The party goes to the drop location, a sewer filled with dangerous ooze monsters. After defeating a small local gang known as the Blood Letter Pirates, they find that they were working underneath the Swamp Pirates and were distributing a powerful drug known as Demon Dust.

Longfolia experiments on the Demon Dust, discovering it’s made out of some kind of ancient fossil from the traces of bone marrow.

Meanwhile, the party finds that the sewers lead to the mayor’s sauna room. Ping Wing snoops on Sween and his father: Mayor Meansly. Mayor Meansly is a fat and flamboyant middle aged stallion who is worried about leaving his son. The meeting is interrupted, as an Armada soldier tells the mayor it’s time to go to Huntland, the capital of the Mercy colonial government. He cryptically says “Mercy needs a new Governor” before taking the mayor away.

Once alone, Ping Wing tries to comfort Sween. Sween reveals he has an illness which will cut his life expectancy in half. Ping Wing vows to bring Mayor Meansly back. As the party departs South Hoofsteady, Ping Wing has a strange dream about a frog smoking pesh. In reality it’s a magical ability Civrev has, and he merely is using it to mess around with Ping Wing in an attempt to scare him away from touching pesh again, he is successful in making Ping Wing weirded out, but Ping Wing continues to use pesh throughout the story occasionally.

The party takes off for Huntland, fighting a pack of flying manticores before touching down in the city. Civrev searches the city to find Mag, who is holed up at a small jail cell. Mag attacked a druid who wasn’t a part of the Wind Druids. Mag only then discovered that the Wind Druids have left the planet of Mercy entirely. Civrev manages to convince the guard to release Mag with bail, as the attack did not result in a death. Mag is a male unicorn who looks so effeminate, that he is frequently mistaken as a mare for the rest of the arc. He was the Stellar Seeker’s healer.

Meanwhile Ping Wing, Tsavo, and Early Rise sneak up to the window of the capitol tower to discover that Mayor Meansly in a hidden room, being threatened by Captain Mora and a cadre of Swamp Pirate officers. Mora reveals she was never loyal to Armada, killing a real Armada Captain and taking her place to act as a mole for the Swamp Pirates. Taking some inspiration, Ping Wing forges a letter, creating a psudoname for an Armada officer: “Lieutenant Caramba” and sends it to the nearest Armada base off planet. He tries to inform the real Armada of Mora’s plot before the party reconvenes, now with Mag as a new companion.

Mag tells Civrev the Stellar Seekers were defeated by The Wind Druids. Thankfully, while the Coven has been investigating the area, they haven’t found the Stellar Seekers yet. Before The Wind Druids fought with The Stellar Seekers, Civrev, Mags, and Shamesh, the enigmatic high leader of The Stellar Seekers, went on an expedition to The Sisters to find something. Mag says Shamesh disappeared with two Kirins right before The Wind Druid’s attack.

The group returns to The Sisters and manage to defeat the Terracoda Golems, they search the dungeon and find that this was a research base set up by Shamesh. They find that Shamesh was researching a spell called “Resurrect” and had worked with Jinx and Misty, the unsuspectingly powerful Kirin Tsavo had encountered at the Pink Dice bar during The Sisters Arc. These Kirin gave Shamesh a “Staff of the Holy Land.” After searching the place, they conclude Shamesh must have left Mercy entirely for parts unknown.

Mags vows to get to the bottom of The Stellar Seekers mysterious demise, and reveals that the inner sanctum of the cult was located on Eden, a remote island on the Mercy.

The party starts to make their way for the Island of Eden. Longfolia starts to analyze the ship, Grace, as they make their way, noticing it that the fuel core has been making a mesmerizing hum the entire time. Before he can discover the mysteries of the stolen ship, the party comes into view of Eden.

Eden has been burnt to the ground completely. The party finds a small group of villagers barely scraping by after the disaster. The party discovers that none of their magic can create much light as they get closer to the island. An unholy dread fills all of them.

As the party enters the town, Karoof, the Eden village elder, informs Civrev that the village had protected the Stellar Seekers for years. Earlier that year some Wind Druids had joined helping to bring favorable weather. A stallion of the Wind Druids, Glacier, and a mare of the Seekers, Kaiee, had apparently been in love. However, the Wind Druids attacked the Stellar Seekers after an unknown event. The Wind Druids are confirmed to be long gone and headed for Archibast.

A little colt named Moody unsuccessfully attempts to attacks the party, throwing sticks and calling them “star freaks.” Most of the party is confused, except for Tsavo who encourages the colt to fight more. Moody claims that the Stellar Seekers killed many denizens of the town, naming the Stellar Seekers Librarian: Distu, as the one who burnt down Mercy Eden.

The party rests in some dilapidated houses in Eden. The next morning the party finds that Moody is missing, and set off to explore the ruins of the Stellar Seeker monastery to find answers and the missing colt.

The monastery is built into system of caves. It is exceptionally dark, and seemingly abandoned. They find some diary entries of the stellar seeker midwife saying that Kaiee and Glacier were expecting a child soon. As the party pokes through the ruins, finding corpses and signs of destruction and torture. Civrev is completely taken aback, knowing the Stellar Seekers to be peaceful, and suddenly spots a dark figure dart away in the shadows.

The party finds that the observatory, the most important room for the star worshipping cult, is locked off.

The party delves deeper and continually hears hoofsteps from somewhere in the distance that they cant see. They find a room with zombies, and start to fight, but only to be ambushed by demons that appear to be red misshapen and grotesque versions of Stellar Seekers members. The demons quickly destroy Longfolia’s crab construct, demonstrating their destructive power. The party is forced to fight. They narrowly win, and Longfolia whistfully cleans the remains of his robot.

The party continues to find the room of Cando, one of Shamesh’s closest friends. Cando’s testament reveals Kaiee gave birth to a demon that bit his arm off. The party is horrified, suddenly startled by a ghostly apperition that appears behind them. The ghost can speak, and introduces himself as the spirit of Cando.

Cando explains that Shamesh had begun to lose his mind before the incident. Many of the Stellar Seekers have turned into raving and deformed demonic entities after Kaiee’s failed birth. He allows the party to continue into the The Inner Sanctum, once the domain of librarian Distu. The party finds themselves in a library, with a massive underground waterfall and books filled with religious lore.

The party encounters a mysterious riddle on a statue:

"Are those who seek refuge in light's hold, stuff out to the wrath of the hour. To burn star mystery cleansed in tears and then cold. A long rain overall tell us they are."

They discover vials of holy water, and the notes and personal belongings of the monastery's former inhabitants. After solving a puzzle with the pyramid, they reveal the image of the giant ball of light that destroyed Littlewood.

A hidden path is revealed to the observatory, and the party enters to find demonic versions of Distu and Beanhop, ready to sacrifice Moody, the colt from the village. They fight, with Tsavo delivering the final blow

A soulwind appears as the fighting ends, colorful whirlwind of spirits begin to lift up into the sky, whirling around the party. Cando thanks civrev, and Distu, now freed from his madness, apologizes and reveals Shamesh had corrupted the group with his divine influence while testing the Resurrect spell on Kaiee.

Beanhop reveals there is another survivor: Sweetbell, who is now on Archibast. The souls tell the party to travel there next, and are whisked away thanking them, supposedly to their next lives.

The party returns to Eden village to find it totally ransacked, with only Roo remaining. Roos leg has been cut off, far beyond magical healing, and tearfully tells the party that the swamp pirates took Grace and enslaved everyone.

Ping Wing vows revenge.

The party is now stranded on Eden with no ship. Civrev starts sending mystical dream messages to different people on Mercy. His Dream Message spell can send a dream to someone on the same planet he’s on, and confirm whether they got it or not.

He sends a message to Gummo, but it appears he isn't even on the planet anymore. He then attempts contact with now-Governer Meansly and confirms he is somewhere on the planet. Finally he attempts to contact Crazy Eights, but somehow receives back a telepathic message of taunting laughter.

Longfolia attempts to build a contraption to fly off the island, and Tsavo manages to scrounge scraps of food to keep the party alive.

After several days of waiting, the party attempts to use Longfolia's contraption with little avail. However, just when it seems all hope is lost they spot a ship being attacked by manticores. The party defeats the monsters to discover the ship has Governor Meansly and his son, Sween. They reveal that Mora has been ruling the planet with an iron fist, and that they saw Swamp Pirate ships descend below the cloud layer.

Governer Meansly also lets the party know that Henge is most likely where The Swamp Pirates are running much of their operation out of.

The party set off to the Swamp Pirates base on Henge to rescue Marcerene, as Longfolia begins construction on his new construct to replace the one destroyed by demons.

The party, having escaped from Eden Island, is now approaching Henge, the rumored base of the Swamp Pirates. They use a magical ritual to disguise their ship as a pirate vessel. As they near Henge, they encounter dense fog and unusually hot temperatures.

The group sends Tsavo to scout ahead. She witnesses a confrontation between Armada forces led by Captain Avery, a smooth talking griffon from another planet, and some Swamp Pirates. A powerful bat pony with a bow staff easily defeats the Armada troops. Another intimidating bald unicorn stallion cuts an entire boat in half with his sword

The party disguises themselves and lands on Henge. They spot their old ship, Grace, but see its guarded.

They begin to ask around town to discover that Marcerene is now a Swamp Pirate officer, and that the people who live here have been under the enslavement of the Swamp Pirates for 25 years. The party consider leaving now that they know Marcerene, but Ping Wing wants to investigate further before jumping to conclusions.

The party learns about other Swamp Pirate officers, including Nuru (the bat pony), Angus (the bald unicorn who cut a ship in half), and Kokai (described as the most dangerous, melting entire villages for disobeying him).

Ping Wing is nearly caught by another officer, an awkward half-bug pony named Hovi, who seems to be the least competent and doesn't manage to see through Ping Wings paper thin disguise.

Longfolia finds the core drive, discovering it ti be a fetus looking creature in a jar, perpetually sleeping. Its called a proto-fairy.

The party begins planning their escape from Henge after successfully retrieving a core drive and destroying mines. As they navigate through the mine complex, they encounter familiar faces now enslaved, including Spymaster Domia and Akun. The party discovers that the mines are being run by two dragons: Kokai and Primrose. In a fierce battle, Early Rise and Tsavo manage to defeat Kokai, freezing him out of commission. Primrose, being less cruel and merely Kokai's subordinate, is spared and agrees to join the party.

The group proceeds to free the slaves from the mines, but their victory is short-lived as they spot an army of Swamp Pirates outside. In a gesture of goodwill and strategy, Ping Wing returns Akun her sword, and she vows to help them escape. What follows is an intense and chaotic battle filled with memorable moments. Early Rise lands critical hits against seemingly impossible odds, while Penguin unleashes a barrage of scorching rays to damage multiple enemies simultaneously. Savo engages in a dramatic duel with Angus, their powerful blows creating audible shockwaves. The half-bug pony Havi introduces a grotesque but effective vomit swarm attack, adding to the battle's intensity.

Despite their valiant efforts and initial successes, the party soon finds themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies. Several members, including Savo and Sivrev, are knocked unconscious. In a tense moment, Penguin attempts to flee using invisibility but is caught by an attack of opportunity. Throughout the battle, Marceline, who appears to be working with the pirates, repeatedly tries to convince the party to surrender. Her pleas become increasingly desperate as she watches her friends being beaten down.

As the battle reaches its climax, the conscious party members are eventually subdued and handcuffed. As they fade into unconsciousness, they hear the sound of a ship landing and a deep, growling voice addressing Marcerine.

The party awakens to find themselves in a new location, suspended upside down. Cabo, the captain of the Swamp Pirates, interrogates them about their interference in the mining operation at Henge. In an unexpected turn, Cabo offers the group an opportunity to join the Swamp Pirates, enticing them with promises of an extensive distribution network, powerful contacts within Esperanto, and a more permissive attitude towards forbidden magical arts.

Given limited freedom to move around the compound, the party soon discovers they are on a moon orbiting Mercy. During their exploration, they witness Jinx and Misty, two mysterious figures, conducting a disturbing experiment. The pair are using a substance called Canker on a power generating Squib, which results in the creature's death. This grim scene provides the party with crucial information about the Swamp Pirates' activities and the dangerous nature of their research.

As they continue to investigate, the group encounters various characters, including the imprisoned Akun, Tsavo's cousin. They also learn about an upcoming "sparring match" that will play a significant role in determining their fate. In a display of their diverse skills, the party manages to solve a problem with dying trees in the base's garden by creating an antidote for a plant disease. This act earns them some goodwill from the pirates and allows them to gather more information.

During their exploration, they overhear a conversation revealing that only two of them will be chosen for an unspecified purpose, likely related to the upcoming sparring match. This information adds tension and uncertainty to their situation. Towards the end of this phase, they witness Jinx and Misty leaving with a large sum of gold after completing a deal with Cabo. It's also revealed that Marcerine, Ping Wing's former mentor, has been mentally altered in some way by Jinx and Misty's interference, adding a personal and emotional dimension to the conflict.

The party is finally brought up for the sparring match. Cabo explains that only half of them will survive and become officers in a battle royale to the death. But Ping Wing reveals that he managed to sneak in Mags, who Civreve was able to free earlier.

The finale reaches its climax as the party faces off against Cabo and the remaining Swamp Pirate officers in an epic battle. Cabo proves to be a formidable opponent, utilizing powerful spells and abilities that push the party to their limits. Working together, the group employs various tactics and spells in their attempt to overcome the pirate captain.

At a critical moment in the battle, real Armada forces arrive, led by a mysterious small zebra mare named Alouette. She swiftly takes control of the situation, defeating the corrupt Mora and revealing herself to be a Rear Admiral. This unexpected intervention turns the tide of the battle in the party's favor.

Adding to the dramatic turn of events, Lieutenant Caramba, the genuine article, arrives to investigate the misuse of his name. This presents an opportunity for Ping Wing, who has long admired Caramba (ever since he made the name up), to interact with him briefly and even obtain his autograph, fulfilling a personal dream.

With the combined efforts of the party and the Armada forces, the Swamp Pirates are defeated and arrested. In the aftermath, the party is given the responsibility of deciding the fate of some characters, such as Primrose, for whom they vouch.

Following the resolution of the immediate conflict, the group returns to Mercy Eden to assist with rebuilding efforts. Several weeks pass, allowing for various character resolutions:

As a reward for their heroic efforts and as a symbol of trust, Governor Gummo presents the party with a new ship capable of space travel. This gift opens up countless possibilities for future adventures. As they prepare for departure, Penguin, filled with pride and joy, enthusiastically introduces Tsavo as his wife to everyone they encounter.

The saga concludes with the party setting off for new adventures among the stars. In a moment of humor that encapsulates the spirit of their journey, someone attempts to pilot the new ship, uttering the words, "Um, how do we lift off? Just a natural one, please. Freeze frame!" This leads to a comical freeze-frame ending as they ascend into space, leaving behind the events of Mercy but carrying with them the experiences, relationships, and growth they've gained throughout their adventure. The open-ended nature of their departure promises more exciting adventures to come.