Some interesting suggestions, and I can see how some of that could have happened with a few different circumstances. There will be quite a few surprises, I promise
A battle before the storm
When we move out of Sechim's Alkahest factory, we take a few moments to look at the magical dome around the governor's mansion. From the sheer magical emanation, we realize that getting through there will require some really strong magic. Which means we'll have to resort to either Shealis and the Eye of Yeref or the Coaltongue's main cannon, or possibly both.
(One cannot fire too many lasers)
As we are about to leave for the warehouse, we spot something very unusual from the glance of our eyes. First we believe it to be a mere shooting star, but as the fall continues, we are startled to see that this is an
actual star falling from the sky. As we very much know that many of our stars are planar objects, we are now fully convinced that our guess about the Obs' ritual must have been correct after all. Which sends shivers down our spines. Still we urge ourselves to move on with our plan to get more technical resources and move towards the warehouse district.
When we arrive in front of the correct warehouse, we are positively surprised to meet up with Michael Carlyle, who was sent here by Fordren “in case of events”. He explains that he is tasked to give us access to the warehouse in the name of his employer, Mr. Fordren, despite the fact that Fordren is still a Danoran citizen. We thank him and enter quickly. At first glance, we only see lots of crates which are filled with completely unsuspicious materials. But when we tell him about Lady Vantrys and our friend Shealis, Carlyle the younger tells us that there must be another hidden cellar with what he calls
experimental materials. Said “cellar” turns out to be a storage place for some torpedoes, which were probably also used in their prototype state by the Danorans. So we familiarize our teen dragon friend with the tech and tell her the few bits we know so far about the magic dome around Stanfield's palace.
Finally, we come to an agreement on the order of missions: We'd free the Coaltongue first, and then to play it safe and shoot at the dome at the same time with Yeref's eye and the main gun of the battleship. Even though the ship will then probably have to defend itself against some of the Danorans in the harbor. However, to shift the scales a bit in our favor, we still want to get some of our allies to capture some of the smaller Danoran ships while Shealis takes care of the larger ones surrounding the Coaltongue with the torpedoes.
So we rally reinforcements in the person of Miggs Maloney, who in turn would mobilize the Flint police to stage a fake revolt alongside the dockers. This would ensure that the other rebels could move close enough to the ships and the royal dock for their respective jobs.
Lastly, we check out Pine Island and the military academy, where we are greeted by Lauryn Cyneburg. The elf grins at us triumphantly as she completed her
teleport compass just in time and was able to teleport into the city as an advanced vanguard. She promises us to get artillery in position with the help of the military so that we can bombard the Danoran ships should the need arise. Even though we hope that maybe Lya Jierre, who had been spotted as a ghost on one of the Danoran ships, can be brought to her senses.
(Yeah, and it would also be really helpful if she just told the rest of Danor that we didn't purposefully kill her and the Danoran soldiers with a toppling tower...)
As we set up our plan to take the Coaltongue, more and more stars are falling from the sky, so we feel pressured to hurryeven more. We ask Asrabey to join the attacks on the Danoran ships, while we head towards Coaltongue with a group of dockers, Bravuras and policemen. Meanwhile, Geoff Massarde and Shealis man a small boat and load it with the torpedoes.
Carlyle and Auryn spearhead the main squad, as they'd clear out the field a bit to make this an easy game for the Bravuras, Dockers and Policemen. As we spot several groups of Danorans blocking the road to the Royal Dock, we first separate the groups by conjuring magical mist while making it look like a totally normal phenomenon. Auryn then sneaks invisibly to the group on the right and stuns them with a perfect note. Meanwhile, Carlyle ethereal jumps directly into the group on the left, hurls an etherwave at them and attacks the soldiers with several quick, successive slashes of his kukris. As they don't provide much resistance, he then knocks out the ones still held in a frozen state by Auryn. Then we signal our allies that the first path is clear before we move through the mist and repeat the procedure with the next groups. We then free the crew of the Coaltongue before Carlyle takes care of the two giant mechs guarding the ship, while Auryn keeps the Danoran gunners at bay. We thus open the way to the ship, with more and more local sailors joining our attack.
Next we overwhelm the Danorans aboard the Coaltongue and tie them up. Then we get the ship running with the help of Massarde, and head for one of the Danoran ships guarding the Coaltongue. Meanwhile, we signal Shealis to attack. The combined assault is quick and brutal, as the Danorans really didn't see us coming. Shealis and the Coaltongue's cannons sink three Danoran ships, while we and some of the sailors enter the last one and capture it. Soon that ship is flanking the Coaltongue, giving us more leverage in what we expect to be the upcoming naval battle.
Just as we are about to move towards the Governor's palace, a tentacle-armed sea-fey, who we identify as none else but Beshela, jumps aboard and warns us that "She's coming." before she jumps back into the ocean.
Since we must assume that she means the Kraken She who Writhes, Carlyle uses the wind feather to ask Gale to be allowed to use her magical projection. Gale agrees, asking no further questions. So Carlyle uses the projection to make his face appears in the clouds above Flint.
“Citizens of Flint, Danoran soldiers, all who are currently in the harbor region, hear me out. I am Baron Carlyle and an agent of King Aodhan. And I have to inform you that She who Writhes, the Titan of the Sea, is about to arrive in our harbor very soon. If you value your lives, then hurry ashore, and leave this area. Please heed my warning. Stay safe. Leave the harbor!” he exclaims his city-wide warning.
The ships taken over by the Risuri turn around and head to shore or docks, while the Danorans appear to hold out at sea. We, on the other hand, know that we have little choice and keep heading for the governor's fortress with the Coaltongue. But our advance does not go unnoticed for too long. A small group of Danoraan ships, led by Lya Jierre's ship drives directly towards , entering a course of interception. Still hoping to dissuade our adversary from following the path of the Obsany further, or at least convince her of the insanity of her endeavor especially as she endangers her whole crew, we soar to the sky and fly toward her position, stopping in mid-air directly above her deck and hailing her.
The ghost of Lya seems determined to intercept the Coaltongue by any means necessary and orders a ghostly construct to fire in our direction.
“This is nothing personal, I assure you. All I do is for the best of the world”, she explains with very little expression.
“Lya, Jierre why do you insist on doing this? You do see the stars falling just as we do. The Obs have already won, and we cannot foil your plans from here”, Auryn calls to her, trying to reach the reasonable, logic-driven woman Lya once was.
“But we would like to get our city back, and take care of the traitor that is Roland Stanfield. In return, we offer you a truce, since no better world would be worth all those Risuri and Danoran sacrifices.”
Lya doesn't react at all and keeps firing in our general direction. While we dodge her attacks, she also calls for what appears to be a mechanical dragon as reinforcement.
“Remember who you were when you called us for help. You were meant to bring peace to both our nations, to unify what had been broken for so many years. An apostle of peace. And now you are just one of many puppets, just as Nicodemus had planned the Jierres and all of Danor to be from the very founding of your nation. But your lives mean nothing to him and if you continue following Nicodemus' plans without question, you will join the ranks of all the Jierres before you - being just another subject and bootlicker of a foreign mind.”
As she says this, Auryn flies closer to Lya's position, hovering safely above her, looking down upon her ghostly figure with pity.
“You are the one who doesn't understand, my dear. This was my destiny from the very beginning”, Lya replies coolly.
(Damn you, Reida!)
“And you have learned nothing from our previous encounter”, Auryn returns before she looks straight at Lya's mechanical dragon and seizes control of it with her
apparent master spell. She directs the dragon to attack the cannon, while the ghost of Lya takes on a defensive stance.
(With a bit of investigation Lya could have come to the conclusion that it was one of the gang who let the construction golems venture straight into the prairie during the Cantabrilla Railroad Challenge)
Carlyle sees this as a signal that the talk is officially over, and ethereal jumps at Lya. Auryn meanwhile focuses on the cannon as she fears that it could seriously damage the Coaltongue.
“At least keep your crew safe, Lya. He wasn't joking about the Kraken. The Titan is coming and she will be here very soon”, Auryn pleads, still trying to reach Lya. But the latter orders her crew to raise the flag signal for “full speed ahead”. Meanwhile, Carlyle cuts through Lya's conglomerate shield and states that time is running out, and she should seriously consider changing her course now.
Auryn takes one look at the flags and remembers what she had learned about signals during her time aboard the Aurora with Morris and the rest of the crew. She mentally asks Gabriel to keep Lya busy, while performing a double decoy: she simultaneously conjures an illusion of Lya Jierre at the time of the peace conference and implores Lya that this is her true self, the woman she she once wanted to be, while at the same time setting the illusionary flags for "retreat, dangerous sea monster."
Carlyle ultimately cuts through Lya's defenses and causes that spectral body to fray. As her current incarnation dissipates, Carlyle turns to her.
“We must part now. But the next time we meet, it will likely be words of deep regret we'll hear from you. So until then, Lya Jierre.”
(As Carlyle firmly believes the Obs' plan will end in disaster. Seeing Lya in a state like this really came as a shock, as she was quite the adversary at times, but always had her own will. And yep, there you have the parallel between Auryn and her again. Lya is a dreadful reminder for what could have happened had Auryn chosen to follow Nic's path back during the Obscon).
The fight with Lya and the confusion caused by the flags ultimately buys the Coaltongue enough of a lead that she is able to pass Lya's ship by a hair's breadth.
As soon as the Coaltongue comes in firing range for the dome, Shealis and Geoff Massarde activate both the Eye of Yeref and the main cannon in unison. Just as we had hoped, the combined magical energies are enough to tear a hole in the shield around the Governor's mansion, just large enough that we can slip through it as quickly as possible.
( we imagined a gigantic energy beam a la Kamehameha or the Colossus' main gun from Legend of Korra)
Just as we set out to confront Stanfield, we hear something large arrive in the harbor behind us, accompanied by the sound of wood and metal breaking. We take one quick look back and see giant, writhing tentacles breaking the ships still at sea one by one.