Guild Wars 2

Can anybody give me a detailed summary of what exactly happened? I literally have no clue, even after playing through the content. Here are a few questions I have, really.
-Canach is the bad guy? Is he supposed to be bad? He didn’t feel all that villainous. Also, how the heck did we find out it was Canach? And how did we find where his lair was?
-How did Canach know what would drive the wildlife mad? And how exactly did he get the censers?
-Henrika was a traitor? What did she do..?
-Why did Kiel have to blow up an entire ship? That seems incredibly excessive and wasteful just to get rid of some papers..

I understand the basics of the story, but when it comes to the actual details.. not so much. Anybody that actually knows?

AlietteFaye.7316:

Can anybody give me a detailed summary of what exactly happened? I literally have no clue, even after playing through the content. Here are a few questions I have, really.

Here is a good summary of Vahkris about Southsun:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/I-find-the-story-to-be-disjointed/first#post2116162

And that’s my summary of the letters from Lost Shore-event which was in november:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/Lost-Shore-Old-Letters-from-the-Story/first

And this is readable, too:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/canachs-story-an-after-hours-meeting/

AlietteFaye.7316:

-Canach is the bad guy? Is he supposed to be bad? He didn’t feel all that villainous. Also, how the heck did we find out it was Canach? And how did we find where his lair was?

Canach was from the Lost Shore-story. He was – as a former member of the Consortium – interested in special plant-probes, but that made the wildlife angry and so the karka attacked Lions Arch. Canach was captured by the Lionguard but fled when we attacked the ancient karka on southsun. He was on the run the last 6 month and then he was back in southsun to deal with Noll and to free the settlers. (Maybe you read the letters from the last event and so you understand it better.^^)
I don’t think he is completely evil. He had only the wrong ways to help the people. In my opinion.

AlietteFaye.7316:

-How did Canach know what would drive the wildlife mad? And how exactly did he get the censers?

I think the poison is from the plants he examined in november.

AlietteFaye.7316:

-Henrika was a traitor? What did she do..?

She got the poison from Canach to drive the wildlife mad so that the karka and other creatures attack the Consortium. But they attacked everybody who was there at the time. (She was the reason for the animal-attack at the settler-camp near driftglass.) She believed Canach that it will be against the Consortium.

AlietteFaye.7316:

-Why did Kiel have to blow up an entire ship? That seems incredibly excessive and wasteful just to get rid of some papers..

She wanted to state this as an accident. So that Noll can’t say “You destroyed the contracts!”.
I don’t like her. To me it feels like “I’m the hero, not Canach and I destroy the contracts and ruin his plan.”. But that’s my opinion. (You can see from other threads that I like Canach and dislike Kiel. )

Niyo.5920:

AlietteFaye.7316:

Can anybody give me a detailed summary of what exactly happened? I literally have no clue, even after playing through the content. Here are a few questions I have, really.

Here is a good summary of Vahkris about Southsun:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/I-find-the-story-to-be-disjointed/first#post2116162

And that’s my summary of the letters from Lost Shore-event which was in november:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/southsun/Lost-Shore-Old-Letters-from-the-Story/first

And this is readable, too:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/canachs-story-an-after-hours-meeting/

I recently moved a lot of information into the wiki article about The Lost Shores, which is the previous story arc before this one and introduced many of the characters as well as the island and karka. The first link above has me linking my write-up within my userspace on the wiki, which is great if you’re wanting it all at once, though.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores

Separate links in order:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores#Prelude
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores/Phase_1
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores/Phase_2
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores/Phase_3

Read the Prelude at the bottom, then go through the articles for Phase 1, 2, and 3. Phase 1 and 2 have the dialogues on a subpage (links throughout those articles), but 3 has it on that one since it was short enough. I feel bad that I couldn’t get this done before these releases, and didn’t publicize it so people could brush up on the previous events so they weren’t as confused once these started.

The first link above has the plot points for these releases as well.

AlietteFaye.7316:

-Why did Kiel have to blow up an entire ship? That seems incredibly excessive and wasteful just to get rid of some papers..

I don’t expect the living story to rival ‘War and Peace’, but I do wish the writers would aspire to something a notch or two above the average SyFy channel movie.

Destroying the Lionguard ship was not a reasonable course of action. Ships are not cheap, nor easily replaced, nor do they sail themselves – and worse, destroying such a vital military asset while the threat from the dragons still looms over all would likely be considered an act of treason. Kiel should be seeing some serious brig time right about now, while her superiors determine whether she should receive a nice, tight-fitting noose for her efforts, or perhaps a guest of honor seat in front of a firing squad.

This was even sillier than the ‘spy’ periscopes knocking people willy nilly about the landscape. Which was pretty darned silly.

Tachenon.5270:

Destroying the Lionguard ship was not a reasonable course of action.

AFAIR it was a consortium ship.

I must admit, I am very confused as to what is happening. I understood the initial part, but since the latest update I just see difficulty increasing, and karka brain sucker eggs hatchlings zerging around. Tired of this, and so am voting with my mouse and keyboard… leaving Southsun. Just mho, but wish we had a proper expansion than this living story stuff

Phoenix.7845:

Tachenon.5270:

Destroying the Lionguard ship was not a reasonable course of action.

AFAIR it was a consortium ship.

According to the GW2 wiki it was a Lionguard ship and it’s flying Lionguard flags in the cutscene. Also, the sails bear the Lionguard emblem.

Tachenon.5270:

According to the GW2 wiki it was a Lionguard ship and it’s flying Lionguard flags in the cutscene.

Well, they can always salvage it and build another one.

Canach blew up the ship, not Kiel. Kiel just didn’t stop him from doing it because it was a way to destroy the contracts without her having to be directly responsible.

Tachenon.5270:

AlietteFaye.7316:

-Why did Kiel have to blow up an entire ship? That seems incredibly excessive and wasteful just to get rid of some papers..

I don’t expect the living story to rival ‘War and Peace’, but I do wish the writers would aspire to something a notch or two above the average SyFy channel movie.

Destroying the Lionguard ship was not a reasonable course of action. Ships are not cheap, nor easily replaced, nor do they sail themselves – and worse, destroying such a vital military asset while the threat from the dragons still looms over all would likely be considered an act of treason. Kiel should be seeing some serious brig time right about now, while her superiors determine whether she should receive a nice, tight-fitting noose for her efforts, or perhaps a guest of honor seat in front of a firing squad.

This was even sillier than the ‘spy’ periscopes knocking people willy nilly about the landscape. Which was pretty darned silly.

One needs to appreciate the situation Kiel and Magnus find themselves in.

They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. As long as the settlers continue to be practically slaves to the Consortium, the fighting will continue and stuff will be destroyed. They likely also cannot afford to continue keeping their soldiers on Southsun preventing violence when the upcoming Dragon Bash needs security. So Kiel came up with an idea to sacrifice one ship to rigged explosives rather than what is likely a much larger amount of resources trying to keep the fighting to a minimum, a situation that is unlikely to end anytime soon and may in fact continue to escalate with the animals behaving the way they are.

Destroying the ship is the lesser of two evils here. Yes, she technically broke the law, although if you listened to her final conversation with her direct superior, Magnus …he doesn’t really care. He wanted the situation resolved somehow because the Dragon Bash is coming up and they obviously don’t want to continue dealing with Southsun while that’s going on. She had to improvise to resolve it and he’s okay with the outcome despite the fact he’s going to be in trouble for losing a ship, and she says herself she’ll be dealing with the fallout for a while. The Lionguard on the ship were likely warned and told to abandon it once it started sinking.

And also, according to Kiel’s story…Canach blew it up. :P We know he didn’t, and Noll will claim Kiel did it, but unless they can prove it…

rizzo.1079:

Canach blew up the ship, not Kiel. Kiel just didn’t stop him from doing it because it was a way to destroy the contracts without her having to be directly responsible.

That’s not true. His plan was to let the contracts be destroyed from the wildlife he poisoned. That’s why he marked the places where the contracts possibly could be. Because of Kiel the contracts weren’t there anymore and the wildlife attacked without destroying the contracts, which Kiel did.
How could Canach destroy a ship when he is imprisoned? Kiel was the one who wanted the black powder. Guess why.

Huh…I guess the story wasn’t laid out that well after all since I thought I paid attention to the whole thing and yet still didn’t get it right. And it wasn’t as good of a plan as I’d initially thought.

WTF though why would he think crazed wildlife would be interested in contracts at all? THAT’S a stupid plan too.

There was no need to destroy the ship. Almost anything would have been better. Some possible alternatives:

• Oops. There was a fire in the cargo hold. All the contracts were burned. Sorry.
• Oops. There was a stowaway on board, obviously working for Canach, he/she threw all the contracts overboard/destroyed them with fire/acid/bitter tears. Sorry.
• Oops. Pirates. They took the contracts. Said something about needing toilet paper. We barely escaped with our lives. Sorry.
• Oops. Terrible storm, a nor’easter out o’ the sou’west, had to throw everything but the crew overboard to keep the ship from sinking. Sorry.
• Oops. We were attacked by deep sea trolls, vile enemies of Bubbles the Good, Friendliest Dragon of All. As it turned out these trolls had quite a taste for parchment and ink and ate all the contracts. Sorry. They really liked the taste of Consortium parchment and ink, though, so we gave them your address. If that’s any consolation.

rizzo.1079:

WTF though why would he think crazed wildlife would be interested in contracts at all? THAT’S a stupid plan too.

Don’t know what was his exact plan. And I can’t explain it in english better than in my post before, sorry.

No I think you’re right and I remember that being explained in the beginning…it’s just a stupid plan. Both plans are stupid.

Tachenon.5270:

There was no need to destroy the ship. Almost anything would have been better. Some possible alternatives:

• Oops. There was a fire in the cargo hold. All the contracts were burned. Sorry.
• Oops. There was a stowaway on board, obviously working for Canach, he/she threw all the contracts overboard/destroyed them with fire/acid/bitter tears. Sorry.
• Oops. Pirates. They took the contracts. Said something about needing toilet paper. We barely escaped with our lives. Sorry.
• Oops. Terrible storm, a nor’easter out o’ the sou’west, had to throw everything but the crew overboard to keep the ship from sinking. Sorry.
• Oops. We were attacked by deep sea trolls, vile enemies of Bubbles the Good, Friendliest Dragon of All. As it turned out these trolls had quite a taste for parchment and ink and ate all the contracts. Sorry. They really liked the taste of Consortium parchment and ink, though, so we gave them your address. If that’s any consolation.

With the ship destroyed, the Lionguard can argue against any claims from the Consortium that the Lionguard willfully destroyed the contracts. Kiel didn’t exactly have a lot of time to set up some grand conspiracy.

Like she said, she improvised.

Any of Techenon’s ideas would be easier, quicker to execute and a lot less shady looking than what she actually did though.

Here’s another good question: Why do we fight NULL in the explorable?

According to Kiel: “This place should have been sealed up. Canach left behind a golem that observed and learned from the trouncing of its boss. Take Canach’s golem out before it can cave in his former lair around you.”

Why go back into the cave in the first place? Canach has already been apprehended, and NULL isn’t doing anything but sitting there in a minefield. If we don’t go back into the cave, we don’t have to worry about NULL pulling it down around us. So why go back in the first place?

Let me propose an off-the-top-of-my-head re-design of the instance:
Upon escorting Canach out of the cave, Kiel hears a muffled explosion in the back. You, your group, Kiel and an Asura engineering guard re-enter to investigate. NULL is there with a co-conspirator (co-c) of Canach, and you observe him trying to blow a hole in the wall to escape for some reason.

Here you start a two-phase fight: Phase 1 you battle both NULL and the co-c through use of flipping the mines to friendly and your class composition, plus maybe one more mechanic. During the fight the co-c tosses bombs at the wall he’s been trying to get through to open the hole. Your party can stop the first few, but eventually he succeeds.

This leads to Phase 2, where the co-c overloads NULL to turn him into a suicidal berserking machine and uses the distraction to slip through the hole and get away. The co-c collapses the wall behind him, and you’re forced to disable NULL. After the battle ends, the Asura re-configures NULL and uses it to punch a hole back in the wall which allows you to chase after the co-c. The path eventually leads you to the harbor where the ship is docked, but there’s no sign of him/her. The instance ends with Kiel wondering who it was, what they were doing, and promising to investigate.

Flash forward: Kiel has reported the findings to Noll, and promises that the ship was clear, the co-c nowhere to be found. You escort the Dolyak per usual, the contracts are loaded, and the ship is blown up. Noll is suspicious to what happened, Kiel says she swears she didn’t find anything, and the player is left wondering a few things:

1. Did she blow up the ship or was it Canach’s plan B if he got captured and the wildlife didn’t pan out?
2. Who was the co-c, and did he/she get away?
3. Did Kiel find the co-c on the ship planting the explosives, and in one dastardly decision find the solution to getting rid of both the contracts and the co-c? (tying him/her up on the ship, etc)

Anyhow, I’ve written too much, and there are plot holes galore, but I think the explorable mode would have been a great way to propel the story and introduce a possible new plot thread to the LS chapters.

Tachenon.5270:

There was no need to destroy the ship. Almost anything would have been better. Some possible alternatives:

• Oops. There was a fire in the cargo hold. All the contracts were burned. Sorry.
• Oops. There was a stowaway on board, obviously working for Canach, he/she threw all the contracts overboard/destroyed them with fire/acid/bitter tears. Sorry.
• Oops. Pirates. They took the contracts. Said something about needing toilet paper. We barely escaped with our lives. Sorry.
• Oops. Terrible storm, a nor’easter out o’ the sou’west, had to throw everything but the crew overboard to keep the ship from sinking. Sorry.
• Oops. We were attacked by deep sea trolls, vile enemies of Bubbles the Good, Friendliest Dragon of All. As it turned out these trolls had quite a taste for parchment and ink and ate all the contracts. Sorry. They really liked the taste of Consortium parchment and ink, though, so we gave them your address. If that’s any consolation.

forget logic!^^ blowing up a ship is a proper solution for almost every problem simply because it adds a big kaboom and yep nearly everyone loves firework. But your solutions were pretty cool too.

rizzo.1079:

Any of Techenon’s ideas would be easier, quicker to execute and a lot less shady looking than what she actually did though.

Do any of them provide a nice video sequence about 15 seconds long that leaves no doubt to the outcome and is easy/quick to implement (ship sails away and goes boom is easier then a dozen sailors fighting a fire in the cargo hold but losing it)? I think that drove the choice of methods to destroy the contracts here more then anything.

It’s hard to say, they interviewed the story people in the video they just released but none of the actual software dev team as far as I could tell. In any case, if those are the concerns that drive your story rather than good storytelling, you’re doing it wrong.

rizzo.1079:

Any of Techenon’s ideas would be easier, quicker to execute and a lot less shady looking than what she actually did though.

To actually do or just say it happened? Some of those require a third party involvement to actually do, or may actually cause damage to the ship anyway.

Regardless, no matter what option she chose, or what situation the writer came up with, there’s going to be some people on the forums complaining it didn’t make sense and make a list of things they think she should have done anyway (because obviously their ideas are better), so it really doesn’t make a whole lot of difference.

What she did says more about what she’s willing to do in order to accomplish her task anyway. She could lie, or show Noll she means business and sending a strong message by blowing up the ship.

Someone lies to you…eh, not a real threat.

Someone willing to blow up a ship to tell you exactly what she thinks of you and your contracts? Says a lot.

Tergvi: What’s in these chests again?

Marcela Oakaxe: The Consortium contracts, you big dummy.

Tergvi: Oh, yeah. They smell funny. Like, I don’t know, blooming passiflora. And cheese. Sharp cheddar. And wax.

Marcela Oakaxe: Well, they do have some kind of waxy coating on them. I saw it. Probably to protect them from the humidity. Say, look at those waves! Look out!

Everyone scrambles out of the way as suddenly a large humpback whale beaches itself.

Everyone: What the kitten!

Tergvi: Look out, here comes another one!

Everyone scrambles out of the way again as suddenly another large humpback whale beaches itself.

Magnus: Nothing suspicious about that. Let’s get these crates loaded. Ooh! Ahh! (rubs hands)

…load load load…

The ship sets sail.

Kiel (waving): Buh-bye! Don’t hesitate to abandon ship if anything bad happens!

Magnus: This is gonna be great!

Suddenly! Everyone hears a muffled THOOMP. A big puff of steam rises from the ship.

Sailors aboard the ship: Ew, that smell!

Kiel: Huh?

Magnus (petulant): You said there’d be fireworks!

Noll: Wait, what? Inspector Kiel, what’s the meaning of this!

Sprokk, an asura scientist attached to the Lionguard, comes running along the beach.

Sprokk: Inspector Kiel! Inspector Kiel!

Kiel: Not a good time, Sprokk.

Sprokk: But I’ve completed my analysis of the strangely-scented waxy coating on the contracts! It’s an organic compound with many astounding properties, not the least of which is that it perfectly preserves paper in humid climes! Also, when exposed to flame and heat it acts as a super energy damper! You could set off a bomb right next to it and apart from maybe a muffled THOOMP and some steam there’d be almost no reaction! It can also be, for lack of a better term, ‘trained’ to shape itself into various weapons! Like greatswords and daggers and the like! But they all have big icky eyeballs on them and drip nasty goo constantly.

Noll (intrigued): Tell us more!

Sprokk: We’ve also determined that the smell of this substance – not unlike blooming passiflora and cheddar cheese dipped in wax – is what’s been driving all the wildlife crazy! I bet you guys were attacked again and again by the local wildlife as you were hauling the contracts to the ship!

Kiel: As a matter of fact…

Noll: Canach! He put this stuff on the contracts knowing it would drive the wildlife crazy around the areas where the contracts were stored! But what is it? Where does it come from? You say it’s organic?

Sprokk: Yes, and not only that, it’s actually alive! I believe it is made of a distilled essence of sclerite, the hard chitinous plates that make up the exoskeletons of arthropods – like karka – and oil from cold-pressed passiflora blooms, and other things I haven’t identified yet. I don’t yet know what causes the cheddar cheese smell… but at the slightest whiff, karka, drakes, riders, and skelk go absolutely crazy! Crazy – with FEAR! Sheer terror! Like maybe, just maybe, it reminds them of something.

Magnus (stomping his foot): You said there’d be fireworks!

Kiel: Fear? But —

Suddenly! A monstrous tentacle rises from the sea and smashes the ship into tiny little pieces. Just as suddenly the tentacle disappears beneath the waves, leaving only a slightly discolored patch of foamy water to mark its sudden arrival and departure. A lone contract drifts down and lands at Noll’s feet. He picks it up.

Noll (reading): “I, Aggrenn Vicegrip, do solemnly swear…”

Aggren: Dammit!

Henrika (pointing at something washing up on the beach): What’s that!

Slupsloop: There’s something in the water! Help!

Magnus: Ewwwwwwww! Don’t step in it.

Sprokk: It’s… it’s… the compound! In its pure, unadulterated form!

Kiel: Sclerite?

Sprokk: No! Well, that’s part of it, yes. I see bits of karka shell, some drake scales. A half-eaten blob. That’s almost a whole skelk, there. And there are some semi-digested rider eyeballs.

Noll: It’s all so clear now. Canach somehow got hold of an amount of this… sclerite…

Kiel: And was using it to cause mayhem in Southsun, endangering Consortium representatives and settlers alike. Until I, Inspector Ellen Kiel of the Lionguard, caught him! And put an end to his wacky shenanigans.

Noll: Clearly, he was a nut.

Tergvi: Well, he did fall from a tree…

Magnus: Ha ha ha ha! Tree! Ha ha ha!

Noll: And isn’t it ironic that his bizarre machinations inadvertently – and ironically! – prevented you from blowing up your own ship and destroying the contracts, thereby ensuring that the settlers would remain bound by commitments they made of their own free will and yet for no good reason so bitterly regret! At least, until that big tentacle rose up destroyed it all, after all, while in the process – ironically! – revealing the true Secret of Southsun.

Slupsloop: There’s something in the water?

Noll: Yes. Ahem. But don’t think I’ll forget your part in all this, Kiel! When your superiors find out what you meant to do to that ship —

Kiel: Ship? What ship? There’s no ship. (Walks away, whistling.)

Marcela Oakaxe: And no contracts.

Noll: Well. Heh. There’s one. Heh. Heh, heh.

Aggrenn: …

Magnus (lower lip trembling): She said there’d be fireworks. She promised…