
Opening the archive

Opening the archive
Lonely Islands
Collapsed Experimental Sites are Lonely Islands ruin entries tied to Albert, Krane, Centrum, Black Ward, M.A.I., or other void-adjacent experiments that failed loudly enough to become geography.
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Every collapsed lab has two histories: what it was built to do, and what people claim it was built to do after it failed.
Lonely Islands, Black Ward / Experiment Fallout Index, Lonely Islands Portal Network, Nullport, The Spiral, Cult Fortresses
Angelique Martinique, known as Angeldust, was a VQU student when she witnessed Albert Rallus murder a fellow student, a moment that turned campus glamour into survival instinct. With blonde hair and high-fey poise, she helped Josette move from that Violince into the Queefdom elite of Velvet Cross.
characterArthur is a surviving M.A.I. experiment, Vorpal founder, and portal-route ally now headed to VQU with Elmyra for Baron-backed support.
characterUthred, known as Bastard, is a claimant to the Uthred name whose records preserve more uncertainty than proof. Unlike Uthred Uthredson, the legendary Ragnarok of Kremgrad, this Uthred exists in the margins: family claimed, status unknown, and identity unresolved. Whether illegitimate heir, pretender, survivor, or political inconvenience, the title Bastard makes his place in Jericha’s histories deliberately uncomfortable. In a lineage already tied to war heroism, sparkspeaking, and common resistance, his existence raises dangerous questions about blood, inheritance, and who gets to own a legend. Some names are given. Others are fought over.
characterBobbi Prindle, known as Bauble, became the loudest voice among the Reborn: students who died during the Battle of VQU and returned when the school reopened. Her resurrection turned tragedy into recruitment, making her both proof of the Phoenix Circuit’s promise and a symbol of how far VQU would go to refill its halls.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterDjon Charleston is a Gravenhurst Djeebus preacher whose Big Project donation movement, church barrier, and conflict with Jonah make him both civic defender and ideological rival.
characterIgnotus, known as Blaze, is an infernal sorcerer and former member of the Swarsbard Three whose pyrokinesis manifests through flamespeaking. A strategist more than a hero, he built the Black Company into a mercenary aid organization with darker business beneath the surface. Through his partnership with Maskara Azur, Ignotus distributes enchanted masks to criminals, then profits again by retrieving them. Now tied to the reformed Centrum, he treats fire as symbol, weapon, contract, and warning.
characterCynthiana of the Wilds, known as Boho, is an elven druid who serves as a bridge between Von Queef University and the untamed territories of the Wilds. Her Witchborn animal mimicry lets her borrow senses, instincts, and behaviors from the natural world, making her a subtle but vigilant guardian of ecological balance.
characterBresh Talvax deals in things most merchants cannot name and most inspectors would rather not find. A Castro trader settled in Point Pringle’s trade district, he moves rare materials, planar curiosities, and restricted technology through a quiet network of buyers who value opportunity over legality.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterBrother Fidelphi Castro is Hugo's betrayal target and a Castro-face identity clue whose New Goblin City death/curse leaves his true role unresolved.
characterAleron Bonapate, known as Caesar, is a Castro-aligned voidling invader who rides Bowflex into Gravenhurst and pressures the southern gate route.
characterJeff Low, known as Castaway, is the Black Ward’s least intimidating cleric: a farm boy who followed a stranger’s whispers into the Void because they sounded like belonging. More earnest than fanatical, Jeff prays too long, smiles when frightened, and mistakes ordinary coins or barn stains for divine omens. His communion brings muddled dreams and fleeting visions, usually misunderstood but sometimes strangely useful. Captured by the Castro, he survived by being too harmless to fear and too sincere to discard. Now he drifts between cult and captors, unsure whether he was chosen, forgotten, or simply left standing where the universe last dropped him.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterGreta Wunsch, known as Crone, keeps Von Queef University functioning by doing what most mages fear most: reading the rules and enforcing them. A senior administrator from Le Queef, she oversees compliance, discipline, records, and the fragile bureaucracy holding VQU together after collapse, reopening, and reform.
characterMalevolus Krane is the M.A.I. transmutationist and opportunistic expert witness whose old void research now shapes Maine, Arthur, Hollow, and the Gravenhurst legal crisis.
characterDallas Dalton, known as Dally, was raised in a close-knit community where loyalty meant survival and family meant everything. When her mother, K’Zhara Flamehand, was taken by powerful men, Dallas carried the loss like a live coal. Now a fire djinni barbarian with the Pink Pony Girls and Kickassery Inc.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterEmrill, later remembered as Emrys II, was an extradimensional Castro whose arrival during the Drakkuskan War changed Jericha’s history. Presenting themself as a prophet and claimed paragon of Emrys, Emrill guided dragonborn zealots toward resurrection rites, void invocation, and rebellion against the world above them. Their influence helped ignite the conflict tied to Xorrika Mjokmek, the militarized Drakkuskan House, and the death of Phalaxiflore von Queef. Though now presumed dead, Emrill’s doctrine survived as the foundation of the Black Ward, proving some outsiders do not need to remain present to keep corrupting the future.
characterTimberlake von Queef, known as Encore, is a half-elf bard, noble scion, and former member of the Queefdom boy band 32 Degrees. Charismatic, scandal-prone, and theatrically self-aware, he turned celebrity into both weapon and shield, wielding sonokinesis through performance, glamour, and crowd emotion.
characterM. A. I. C. E. , self-named ENEMI, was engineered in the M. A. I. Experiments as a hexelf weapon built for chaotic supremacy. Born from void infusion and mutation design, he survived by eliminating rival alignment-coded variants and claiming command of EVILS.
characterYuri Pelosh, known publicly as Ferro, was once Stormcall’s shining armored hero: an industrial heir, Centrum security figure, and celebrity defender whose suits made him look untouchable.
characterNick Kremp, the Firestarter, was an infernal wizard and adventurer of My Alchemical Romance whose lawful heart burned as brightly as his flamespeaking. Raised without privilege, Nick became the group’s public voice, hype man, and emotional warmth, using charm, optimism, and fire magic to lift others even when the world turned dangerous. His relationship with Iwlvflybadofsjhhu Jr. and bond with Princess Beatrix, his beloved polar bear companion, grounded him beyond spectacle. Nick believed in doing good, following the law where he could, and keeping the spark alive for his friends; his death in 2100 MB left My Alchemical Romance without one of its brightest lights.
characterFoulcrum — Ash Stonefist is a disciplined monk from the Temple of the Equinox Vale whose void-tentacle mutation forces him to test balance, restraint, and spiritual control against powers that may have been engineered around him. His importance to My Alchemical Romance comes through his loyalty, trauma, and unresolved origin, with active hooks around Wisdom/Charisma instability, Salvatore Mentali, Soldier, counterfeit scrying, and the revelation that his power may not truly come from the Aboleth.
characterAsh Stonefist was raised in seclusion by the Temple of the Equinox Vale, where discipline, balance, and physical mastery shaped every part of his life. His training made him focused and precise, but left him unfamiliar with much of the wider world. When void-born tentacles emerged from his body, Ash treated the change as part of his spiritual path. His power now tests the teachings that formed him, forcing him to balance serenity with mutation and control with uncertainty. As a member of My Alchemical Romance, Ash brings loyalty, speed, and strange wisdom to the group. His journey centers on mastering the tension between discipline and the void within him.
characterGeneral — Orlandus Spokovich was a wood elf/forged VQU student from the Timber Islands whose charm, humor, and theatrical confidence made him one of Floor 3’s defining presences before the campus broke open. His murder by Albert Rallus matters because it removed the student who made rooms feel alive, turning early VQU from a place of performance, jokes, and memorable trouble into a site of public grief and factional fracture.
characterGlintfang — Eveline Pringle is the Point Pringle noble heir whose hidden lycanthropy, marriage to Faephine Moonhold, and resistance to being used as a clean political solution make her central to Pringle succession pressure. Her active relevance runs through Ash’s former hopes, the Greasetooth crisis, Pringle family instability, and her decision to stay in Point Pringle after PP4 claimed leadership.
characterEveline Pringle, known as Glintfang, was raised to embody the polished future of Point Pringle’s most famous family, but her life has always strained against the image built for her. At Von Queef University she presents as a refined noble student, while privately carrying the wild magic and lycanthropy her family worked to conceal. Glamour charms and a silver locket help hide the wolf beneath the heir, but emotion and moonlight make secrecy fragile. Now married to Faephine Moonhold Pringle, Eveline stands between legacy and self-rule, determined that her curse will not be owned by anyone but her.
characterTitian, known as Hemlock, was a tortle druid-necromancer and former elf whose exile from Timber Island transformed both body and philosophy. As a scholar of Von Queef University and founding member of Centrum, he pursued necrobotany not as corruption, but as synthesis: root and bone, bloom and rot, regeneration and decay held in the same living system. His work shaped magical ecology, Centrum governance, and the dangerous belief that endings could be cultivated into beginnings. Betrayed by Albert’s rise and presumed dead, Titian’s legacy still grows through rumor, scholarship, and the strange life rooted from his remains.
characterHollow / Alfred Rallus, formerly Kuzon, is a transformed Black Ward void manipulator tied to Kaya, Salvatore, Castro targeting, and Arthur's void-healing plan.
characterIronhoof — Astrid Ironhoof is a centaur alchemist, Head of Alchemical Studies at Von Queef University, and a recurring academic anchor around fieldwork, horticulture, and practical magical research tied to the Little Shoppe. After losing her expected place in the reformed Centrum, her investigation into void-resonant potions and altered Boost-era alchemy made her an active source of clues, reform pressure, and regulated-power conflict.
characterJ’Oan was a Castro scout and warrior from the Astral Territories, sent into Jericha with a mission narrow enough to sound simple: capture Walter, the dragon bonded to Victor Shaw, whose cross-planar potential made him valuable to forces beyond the world.
characterKaya is a quiet storm—disciplined, devout, and scarred by tragedy. Raised in a monastery alongside her beloved friend Kuzon, her life shattered when her adoptive monk family was slaughtered.
characterBaron von Queef is VQU's revived dhampir institutional figure and the support target Arthur and Elmyra are seeking for the next Act 5 operation.
characterEphram Glowes is a Graven Scourge alchemist formerly tied to VQU and Boost development from void runoff after the Centrum collapse.
characterMagistrate Verik Thorne is Gravenhurst's Lawful courtroom controller, central to Maine's trial, Krane's testimony pressure, and the legal machinery around Castro-era panic.
characterMaine — M. A. I. N. E. is a Hexelf/forged survivor of the M. A. I. experiments whose Whispering, warlock path, and detective instincts make them both investigator and living evidence of Centrum’s hidden failures.
characterNora Rabe von Queef is a VQU and Velvet Cross power broker using the Rabe House network and Sinclair to support the party while keeping her own position ambiguous.
characterVerdara Moonsong, known as Moonsong, is a Lawful Good elven enchantress of the Emerald Grove and a sentinel of sacred wild places.
characterBorn Rahab on the Timber Islands, Musk was a daughter of love and laughter who left home chasing adventure. Instead, she found captivity under Malevolus Krane, who twisted her biology into a weapon, and cruelty under Solar, who mocked her pain. She survived both, emerging furious and unbowed.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterDhaz Pelosh, known as Nightshade, is a human technogenius and noble heir of Stormcall rebuilt from an explosion that should have erased him. Once a promising alchemy student, he survived maiming, partial deafness, and the collapse of certainty by forging prosthetics, concealed weapons, and a colder way of asking questions. His ties to Yuri Pelosh, Andrea Pelosh, the Lawful, and My Alchemical Romance leave him caught between family duty and hard-earned suspicion. Dhaz does not chase power for glory. He wants truth, revenge against Solar, and tools precise enough to make whoever broke his life answer for it.
characterKuovena Bravespeaker, known as Ouija, is a minotaur warlock of Von Queef University and one of the First Five, carrying the dead with them in more ways than one. Raised in the Bravespeaker tradition after the fall of the Wingkin Mountains, they inherited a spiritual lineage shaped by pact obligations, ancestral voices, and survival under pressure. Their gravespeaking lets them commune with spirits, channel the dead, and bind echoes through ritual, but Kuovena seeks more than obedience to old bargains. Chaotic Good and determined to redefine their people’s path, Ouija treats death not as an ending, but as counsel from those still waiting to be heard.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterAlbert Rallus, known as Pinocchio, was a mighty forged monk and member of Centrum whose hunger for survival became the doctrine that destroyed him. Once shaped by experimentation and void mastery, Albert came to believe that only the strong deserved to endure.
characterFelix Anthony, known as Prototype, is the Hexelf founder and supreme figurehead of FLESH, a failed survivor of the M. A. I. experiments who turned abandonment into ideology. To his followers, he is proof that flesh must reclaim supremacy from forged bodies, constructs, and the institutions that made them.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterUthred Uthredson, known as Ragnarok, is a mountain dwarf barbarian and sparkspeaker whose name became a rallying cry during the Drakkuskan War. Rising from common roots in Kremgrad, he turned lightning-infused fury into battlefield legend, fighting as a champion of ordinary people rather than polished councils.
characterSinclair is Nora's VQU retainer and Rabe House courier, making the Velvet Cross support network visible through gifts, access, and controlled hospitality.
characterOskar Duskshade, called Ruin, is a fallen celestial paladin, noble, and adventurer bound to the Abyss and to the family that chose him.
characterCaptain Alara Vren is a Lawful and Centrum security commander who turns Gravenhurst and Queefdom crises into controlled lines, checkpoints, and public-order decisions.
characterTira Volne, known as Sergeant, is a mountain dwarf watch captain who keeps Red Parade Square functioning through grit, habit, and a tolerance for Point Pringle’s chaos worn thin by years of service.
characterSalvatore Mentali, known as Shadow King, is a soul flayer investor and criminal mastermind whose empire is built from secrets, fear, and carefully measured charm. Unlike flayers bound to the Elder’s agenda, Salvatore forged his own path through the Queefdom’s underworld, commanding spies, enforcers, informants, and debtors with psionic precision. Impeccably dressed and theatrically controlled, he treats every negotiation like a performance and every betrayal like an art form. His shadow empire seeks more than wealth; it seeks obedience. Cross him, and the mind may surrender before the body knows the war has begun.
characterJudah, known as Silvertongue, is a human preacher and ideologue of the Black Ward whose voice turns rejection into doctrine. Once denied entry to Von Queef University, he recast academic exclusion as proof that Jericha’s institutions feared the truth of the Void.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterSloop is a disembodied construct intelligence housed in a dusty metal bust within Point Pringle’s Vault of Rejected Inventions. Suspended by wires, with one flickering eye and a jaw that creaks before speaking, Sloop was supposedly built as an outdated archival assistant. Its continued activity suggests something stranger: awareness beyond its programming and access to records it should not possess. Sloop remembers failed prototypes, suppressed logs, system purges, and possible Black Ward leaks buried inside the Vault. Secret, self-modifying, and unsettlingly informed, Sloop is what happens when invention throws something away before realizing it has begun thinking.
characterRalos, known as Solar, is a birdfolk speedster and former Centrum hero whose fall became one of Jericha’s sharpest symbols of corrupted glory. Once celebrated as the fastest alive and a protector within the Centrum Security Forces, he descended into cruelty after Centrum’s collapse, joining EVILS as a shock enforcer in Malevolus Krane’s circle. His Witchborn supernatural agility lets him move, react, and strike with devastating velocity, turning momentum into Violince before targets can breathe. Chaotic Evil and dishonorable, Solar now leaves fear where admiration once stood. His daughter I.J. may yet become the legacy he failed to deserve.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterJosette Martinique, known as Stardust, was a VQU student when she and Angelique witnessed Albert Rallus murder a fellow student, binding their campus story to the Violince that reshaped the age. Black-haired, graceful, and quietly strategic, Josette helped turn survival into social ascent through Velvet Cross society.
characterGemma Goldgrace is a Queefdom postal worker and advocate who warns the party about Gravenhurst shifts involving Pesto, Kaya, Kuzon, Nick, I.J., and P.B.
characterSulduraks is an extraplanar soulflayer and hidden ruler of the Abyss Club, feared in Velvet Cross circles even by those who publicly deny he exists.
characterThe Aboleth is the Lawful Neutral deity of the Power Nine, a primordial aberrant sovereign of memory, depth, and psychic dominion. From the Memory Trenches, it preserves history not as records, but as living consciousness layered through bloodlines, dreams, and inherited fear. During the Alignment of Jericha, it served as a stabilizing force, anchoring continuity while more volatile powers shaped creation. The Aboleth does not forget, and it does not erase; it overwrites, submerging truth until mortals mistake command for memory. Feared by deep cults and psychic scholars, it remains Jericha’s oldest archive and one of its quietest chains.
characterDjeebus, the Creator, is a divine force of invention among the Power Nine, worshiped by artificers, tinkerers, and anyone desperate enough to build past the edge of safety. His influence appears in laboratories, workshops, and impossible breakthroughs, where inspiration arrives faster than caution can follow. Djeebus grants creation, but rarely comfort; his gifts spark progress, instability, and consequences that may outlive their makers. To him, the world is not finished. It is a prototype.
characterVithyrex, known as The Eye, is the cyclopean deity of the Power Nine who embodies obsession, focus, and singular vision. Dwelling within the Singular Maze, he constructs labyrinths not to confuse wanderers, but to strip away distraction until only one truth remains. Where Trixie scatters chance and the Aboleth preserves all memory, Vithyrex narrows the world to purpose, stone, and fixation. Architects, maze cults, extremists, and certain Lawful sects invoke him when clarity becomes more sacred than mercy. His gaze can steady, harden, or consume. To follow The Eye is to see one path—and lose sight of every other.
characterTamber Soot, known as Timbre, is a 17-year-old kenku phantom rogue and abandoned courier from the Lonely Islands, now counted among VQU’s new students. True Neutral and guarded by necessity, they learned early that a voice can open doors, carry lies, or disappear without leaving a body behind. Their Witchborn voice theft lets them mimic any creature heard within the past day with near-perfect accuracy, bypassing even magical detection and making identity dangerously portable. As a courier, survivor, and student, Tamber moves between messages, ghosts, and secrets with quiet precision. They rarely raise their own voice, but they know how to borrow yours.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterLucian Vale, known as Vale, is a human Witchborn rogue and disgraced noble scion from the faded Vale line of Equinox Vale. With little wealth left behind his name, he sought purpose in the Abyss, where hierarchy offered the relevance his family no longer could.
characterSimon Baker, better known by the hexname Victor Shaw, is a human maskweaver from Rifleton whose life has been defined by deception, disguise, and the refusal to let the powerful go unpunished. After turning against the nobleman who exploited his mother, Simon fled into the Fey Realm and learned to survive through false faces, poison, humor, and misdirection. As a member of My Alchemical Romance, partner to Exaba, and companion to the dragon Walter, he hides vulnerability behind jokes and insists he would never lie even when deception is his sharpest tool. Simon looks out for himself first, but his hatred of exploitation keeps pulling him toward peasants, street kids, and anyone crushed under wealth or power.
characterEllenthyra Mew, known as Vigor, is a catfolk VQU New Student from the Temple of the Equinox Vale. In Act 5 near Root Barrel Farm, she appeared with Zetch and Nell Quiv after the trio looted a cave and argued over a legendary wand; she recognized Ash Stonefist from the monastery and discussed leaving the Temple while following Albert Rallus’s path from monkhood toward greater power.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterWalter is Victor Shaw's dragon companion, first seen as an egg from Exaba at VQU and later taken by Keredeth during the Smiteclaw Village captivity arc.
characterWhisperstep — Exaba is Trixie’s satyr paragon and collector, a chaotic agent whose life is tangled in cruel games, temporal errands, missing memories, and the lingering damage of Gertie’s forgetfulness curse.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterYebbediah Grymmeye X, known simply as X, is a void-touched elven necromancer and diminished lich whose name remains one of Von Queef University’s darkest academic stains.
characterProfile details are still being written.
characterRen Yacour is a true Pringle guard who survived the false-guard infiltration of Eveline’s quarters during the Point Pringle crisis. Loyal to Storm Boulder’s command, Ren fought alongside My Alchemical Romance against void changelings inside Pringle Manor while carrying Storm Boulder’s battlefield message.
characterGeneral Falafelsnout was a polar bear general of the Snout/Svarsbard lineage whose remains became a grotesque symbol in the Aleklot’s Rest dragon crisis.
characterSoldier is a darker void figure seen by Ash Stonefist in the same corridor vision as Salvatore Mentali. Soldier appears to be invested in Oskar Duskshade as a chosen vessel and is more direct than Salvator about moving toward that purpose.
characterThe Voiling General is a Castro-linked commander encountered in the dragon lair beneath Aleklot’s Rest, coordinating void soldiers and guarding or using a living green dragon.
itemControlled dose for 1 hour: +2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma checks and saves; -2 to Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom checks and saves. When the effect ends, make a DC 13 Constitution save or gain exhaustion; the DC increases by 2 for each failed Boost comedown save within 24 hours. A green shimmer gives disadvantage on Deception checks to appear sober within 10 feet. Uncontrolled Boost vapor, gas pits, mushrooms, or contaminated atmospheres can poison rather than empower, applying the downsides without the benefits.
itemPrivate rare offensive staff designed for Maine and handled with Nora's discretion. Current draft: the staff has charges that can change a spell's damage type or cast Chromatic Orb as a bonus action. Final public name and complete stat text are still pending.
itemAn in-world text written by Maine while in Lawful custody. It is not a magical item, but it is politically volatile evidence: the book argues that Lawful institutions failed during Castro, Enemi, crime, and magical-item crises, then offers Maine's Absolute Solution as disciplined civic replacement, neighborhood defense, item-law reclamation, and popular unity under Maine's command.
itemA consumable Phoenix Feather given to Maine through Paulus Levius from Ewig. It is not rechargeable; exact trigger, timing, and rebirth effects need mechanics confirmation.
itemPlate armor requiring Str 15. Base AC 18 as plate, plus an extra +1 AC for total base AC 19 before other modifiers. You gain +1 to Strength or Dexterity saving throws made to resist being pushed or knocked prone. Counts as magical armor.
itemA historical artifact and in-world source rather than a combat item. Reading or citing the journal can provide context on Drakkuskan War-era travel, early student adventuring, cult activity, dragonborn involvement, relic rumors, old routes, and people who later became Centrum figures. Exact dates should be treated as provisional when newer canon disagrees.
itemCondensed Void energy equal to 100 Void Dust. Spend diamonds equal to power tier to unlock Void-aligned abilities; consume for long-rest benefits and +1 resonance; used as catalyst for Void enchanting/upgrades requiring matching tier count and crafting skill in a Void-aligned ritual space/forge/evolution chamber.
item+1 longsword that counts as magical for overcoming resistance and immunity. Ash touching a Void Edge Blade also triggered a corridor vision involving Salvatore Mentali, Soldier, Oskar, and Ash's unstable void-related role.
itemThree instability charges. Awaken to trigger frighten pulse, void-yolk temporary HP, spectral claw attack, or hatchling sense. Final charge determines hostile hatchling, inert shell, or stabilized incubatable hatchling.
itemImported from the Jericha item archive. Final mechanics are still being prepared.
locationThe Black Ward / Experiment Fallout Index gathers the places where old research, failed containment, M.A.I. fallout, Krane records, Alfred/Hollow leads, and void-adjacent lab history stop being private files and become travel hazards.
locationCult Fortresses are the Lonely Islands stronghold category for void cults and hostile powers, grouped together until individual fortress names and factions are confirmed.
locationThe Lonely Islands are the off-map Jericha places where Vithyrex Maze exits, void-scroll shorelines, old toll routes, discarded relics, cult danger, dragonborn pressure, Lawful accusations, and portal crossings keep proving the world did not end at the coastline.
locationThe Lonely Islands Portal Network is the route system that makes off-map Jericha usable in play, linking mainland portal sites to unstable islands, terramorphed lands, and displaced places.
locationNullport is a voidport settlement on the Lonely Islands frontier, a trade and transit node for people willing to treat unstable geography as a career risk.
locationThe Spiral is a chaotic floating or unstable enclave in the Lonely Islands, where local reality behaves more like a negotiation than a law and routes may curve back into themselves.