This is an idea for miscellaneous/wilderness islands in AO, including some quests/npcs/special gimmicks involved on the islands.
Also, this shit is LONG. So grab a snack or something.
Rainfall island
General overview
This island is mostly dominated by rainforests. It also has a local tribal village that has warriors guarding the front gates (see Npcs/sidequests section). There are also lots of temples and abandoned ruins hidden in the depths of the jungle. This island has a higher than normal temperature.
Npcs/sidequests
Npcs
The local village in the area is very peaceful. The guards/protectors (These are the only combat oriented npcs in the village) will only attack you if you pose a threat to the tribeâs wellbeing or if you attack them. There are various shops in the village (Smith, armourer, maybe an alchemist). The smith sells: hatchets, spears, and the greatswords that the protectors use (The greatsword has the unique createable skill: Limit break. See combat npcs for details)
Combat npcs
Guards
These well-trained guards wield tribal spears to stab their opponents while using shields to protect themselves and others. They wear the traditional clothing of Rainfall island (similar to Mayan clothing) and they have tribal tattoos that signify their profession.
Abilities
Spear throw: Do I need to explain this one?
Protectors
These elite warriors are only called upon if the tribe is in true peril (Pirate attacks, etc.). They wield heavy curved blades that take a large amount of strength and skill to wield. The protectors wear tough leather armour and have more ornate tribal tattoos than regular guards.
Abilities
Cleave: The protector swings their greatsword so hard that it creates a wave of cutting force which extends slightly in front of them. Anyone caught in the wave takes decent damage.
Limit break: The protector points their blade forward and charges towards their target. Anyone hit by this move is heavily damaged and inflicted with bleed.
Sidequests
#1 Pirate Problems (repeatable, lvl 50+)
Pirates have been raiding the village for quite some time now, and the Grand Navy wonât help! Quell their numbers by sinking a couple of pirate ships. Rewards: money + exp
#2 Rueful Researcher (lvl 100+)
A young researcher living in the village has heard about ancient cultural items in the various ruins of Rainfall island. They would like you to enter one of the abandoned temples on the island in order to find an ancient artifact, but they warn you that the locals say it was abandoned for a reasonâŚ
The temple is littered with traps and treasures. Traps can include: spike pits, dart traps, fire-breathing statues (maybe not this one since it might be too much work), and a rolling boulder at the end. Throughout the temple, you find ancient texts explaining that the temple was actually a kind of research facility. This facility was designed to experiment with volatile and forbidden magic in order to raise the dead. The various journals depict failure after failure, until an unnamed figure showed up one day. The figure showed the researchers the secret to dead revival magic.
Not long after the player reads the text explaining dead revival magic, they are attacked by skeletons wielding knives. The player fights through the skeletons and eventually reaches the final room. Here, there is a final text depicting the experimentâs revolt. The revived bodies suddenly turned on the researchers without explanation or warning, which is why the facility has been abandoned for hundreds of years.
After reading the final text, the player is attacked by a armour-clad skeleton wielding a large hammer and shield. The skeleton drops the artifact that you were sent here to collect.
Rewards: money + exp, a guaranteed uncommon or rare item.
Deadman's peak
This island is a tall mountain that has killed many a would-be climber. Many people are drawn here by the riches that the caves on the side of the mountain are said to offer. In order to climb the mountain, you need to have lots of stamina and you need to be clever with your climbs/high jumps. The mountain keeps getting colder the higher the climb.
The riches on the side of the mountain are pure lies. Somebody once climbed the mountain halfway up, and challenged others to do the same. Eventually, people started to think that there was treasure further up as a reward for going above and beyond. The person who challenged everyone tried to deny it, saying that climbing above halfway was suicide. But the rumour had become too widespread. Many people lost their lives trying to complete the ultimate climbing challenge, never to see the gold and glory that they saw in their dreamsâŚ
If you climb all the way up the mountain, you find a ghost sitting on the edge of the mountain. If you talk to him, he tells you this:
âSo⌠Someone finally made it up here. Gotta hand it to you kid, youâre pretty damn good at climbing. You mightâve even matched me back in the day. But where are my manners? The names Corin. I was the first to climb this mountain, I climbed halfway and challenged others to do the same. As you could probably tell, climbing the first half ainât too hard. But it gets cold after that. sigh Some people thought that I hid treasure up here after I said âSometimes you need to go above and beyond to reach the peak of human potential.â, damned fools tried climbing the entire mountain only to freeze or starve to death up here. Those who came back only served to add fuel to the fire, saying that the treasure must be pretty impressive if its so hard to get. Eventually, in order to put everything to rest, I climbed the entirety of the mountain myself. When I reached this peak that you see now, I was enamoured by the view before me. I had spent most of my energy getting up here, and I didnât really have much to lose. In my grief of causing the death of so many people, I decided to stay here for the rest of my life⌠Which was about half an hour before I froze to death. So there, you have my story. I was waiting up here for hundreds of years, hoping to tell my story to someone brave enough to climb the mountain, and here you are. Now, I think that its about time I moved on. Goodbye, friend.â
The player gets a large amount of experience for climbing the mountain and talking to Corin (who disappears after the conversation).
Riptide isle
General overview
This island looks as though it was once a forested grasslands, but what it looks like now is far from that. The grass has blackened from some sort of magical corruption that permeates the land. The trees have all lost their leaves and their trunks have turned blood red. However, legend has it that there is a massive amount of treasure somewhere on the island.
Lore
Riptide isle was once a grand metropolis that was lost to time after a crazy wizard created an unspeakable weapon that razed the entire city to the ground, and permanently damaged the land around the city. What little survivors of the atrocity died soon after relaying what happened to the rest of the world. The wizard in question was killed by a group of powerful vigilantes before anymore damage could be done to the world by their hand. However, that wizard had many apprentices that shared their insane plots. These apprentices now roam the ruined island in search of their former masterâs notes and blueprints.
Quests
#1 Cull the herd (repeatable, lvl 70+)
The Grand Navy has only just recently begun to see the dark apprentices of Riptide isle as a threat. They have also found out that the apprentices have started recruiting more wizards to their cause. You are being paid to kill some of them, give 'em hell.
Rewards: money + exp
#2 Stopping the second calamity (lvl 100+)
The Grand Navy has found out that the dark wizards have acquired something close to what was used to annihilate Riptide. You are being tasked to stop them from using it. This quest entails infiltrating the dark wizardâs base, killing everyone inside, and destroying the weapon. There would be a final boss guarding the weapon at the end. This boss is a powerful wizard that uses powerful shadow magic.
Rewards: money + exp, lost spell scroll?
Treasure
There are many chests on Riptide isle. Seeing as it used to be a bustling metropolis before the calamity. Perhaps there could be some sort of cave that had a lot of dark wizards, but also a lot of chests.