Duke Reivier's Grand Game Emporium

 This is a series I made covering nearly the entirety of Arc 2 of  Quintessence , the very first story Freebird Games wrote. I find that part of the story quite interesting and enjoyable in particular, and so decided to try and showcase it to others through this. I hope that you will share my opinion of it too, but if not, I will have no qualms about it. Feel free to tell me what you thought of it, here or elsewhere! Index of Chapters The Aerian Court Intrigue 1 - Child's Play The Aerian Court Intrigue 2 - Royally Arranged The Aerian Court Intrigue 3 - Role Play The Aerian Court Intrigue 4 - Familial Ties The Aerian Court Intrigue 5 - The Death of Plots The Aerian Court Intrigue 6 - Free of Aeria

Last time, both parties involved quickly realized that their plots had come undone because the Duchess of the Third Quarter herself had died, and revealed inadvertently that she had escaped Duke Rayne's grip before doing so. Today, both deal with the fallout as things start unwrapping quickly. The Intrigue Rayne's party naturally become suspicious of Lunair after this, and decide to search for her. We then cut to Revier and Lunair themselves hiding. Revier is curious about what happened, and more than a little unnerved by how calm Lunair is after seeing her own mother dead. She coldly replies that her death meant little to her, since she never took care of her as a mother. After cutting short some of Revier's protests, she moves on to cover the current situation: while she doesn't understand it completely either,  she knows that they need to leave the city as soon as possible. Revier is taken aback. He asks about rescuing Serai, but Lunair outright points out that they ...

 Last time, Revier finally got to meet Serai, and spent time blissfully with her. However, at around the same time, the Duchess of the Aerian Third Quarter herself arrived and tried to warn Lunair to flee, as well as administer her a cure for the love drug. However, she was cut short by some inexplicable pains, and had to flee abruptly. Afterwards, Lunair and Revier prepared for the wedding, and everything seemed to be going well. The Intrigue However, Lunair notices General Dirk and Lady Windelle talking in hushed tones to themselves, and decides to listen in. He enquires about why the Duke didn't show up for the ceremony, then sets out to meet him. When he does, he finds that he's dispatched a posse of guards personally. Curious, he enquires about the situation, and finds that Duchess Fione has gone missing! She wasn't seen since the experiments yesterday, and none knows where she could be. A worried Dirk then asks if Fione has broken from their control, more or less conf...

 Last time, Lunair finally sneaked in Revier, at the cost of a future Duke. Then, the two looked around the entire city, with Lunair searching the palace complex and Revier exploring the city proper. Lunair found where Serai was held, and planned to rescue her on the day of the wedding, reasoning that most guards would be distracted by it to keep an eye on her. However, she relented and agreed to show Revier where she was held. The Intrigue It turns out that Serai is held in a prisoner of war camp hidden close to Kardian's grave. That seems like an odd choice for it, but sure. Nearly everyone else here was used as a test subject for Quintessence and then disposed, with Serai only being around to provide for more spying agents in case Lunair failed. Revier meets Serai, and naturally the both of them are quite ecstatic to see each other again. They spend some romantic moments together, and Lunair leaves in disgust. Back on the surface, Lunair keeps watch. Suddenly, she senses someone...

 Last time, the plot thickened as Lunair's dad announced that he was going to marry her off and make her Duchess. Turns out, all of that was a ploy to bind her to Aeria and make her his puppet. In addition, he was going to continue using her as a test subject and unknowingly feed her a love drug. After learning all of that, Lunair took this as an opportunity to sneak Revier in by killing off her future husband, Heath. The Intrigue With those dramatic details out of the way, they finally make their way into the Duke's quarters through the same path Lunair took. However, complications soon arise as General Dirk, the Duke's right hand man, pays a visit to their house. Lunair quickly realizes that Dirk would be expecting to observe the effects of the love drug on her, and makes Revier impersonate her for a while, while she takes Heath's form. This works out, as Dirk doesn't catch on to Lunair acting oddly, while Heath(to him) reassures him that she was administered the ...

Last time, we summarized the circumstances leading to this part of the plot, then took a quick dive into Lunair's past. This ended up being informative on both Lunair's current character, as well as Rayne's general nature.  Today, Lunair and Revier continue their journey to Aeria to rescue Serai. It's worth noting that even this early in his career, Kan's musician tendencies showed quite prominently - the entire(largely uneventful) trip is represented through a music video . Every Arc is ended with one too, and of course, later the emotional climax of To the Moon takes a similar form. The Intrigue Anyway, they reach there, and Lunair leaves Revier behind to get a feel of the situation in the capital first. She is given an appropriately royal welcome at the gates, however her dad is predictably upset at her early return. He reveals that he would have preferred her to stay for a year more, but it isn't much of a problem since he has a backup plan for her. However...

I've been streaming Quintessence  on odd days, usually the weekends, in my chatroom, and it's been quite enjoyable going through it with someone else. While the game has some noticeable flaws, especially with its really confused and slow start, it still remains a very intriguing and compelling story, especially for being Kan's first outing.  Of note, the middle portion of the story is a large, delicious pile of scheming, intrigue and revelations. I plan to cover it through my small series here, hopefully highlighting its great moments well for everyone else to see. The Setup The story centres around a drug, naturally called "Quintessence". It was developed by a brilliant physician for Aeria. Aeria is one of the two huge empires of this setting, the other being Prion. We're not given much information about the latter, though it is implied to be roughly similar in power to Aeria. Anyhow, they had plundered a foreign land(which looks roughly like a fantasy take o...