Update for the month of April:
Time spent in self-quarantine was less productive than I'd hoped, but don't we all. There was some effort spent near the beginning of the month with integrating Hethia into the Winter City dungeon, since I promised people years ago that they'd get to see her again after the events at Westbank and it was time to make good on that promise. $15 tier subs on Savin's Patreons will know what I'm talking about. I also spent a week and a half making a false start on Hethia NPC for her to putter around in the palace after you're done with the dungeon; she'll show up whether you chose to beat her up or not back at Westbank, with different attitudes accordingly. I dropped it halfway just before starting on the sex because I wasn't feeling it and wanted to work on something else, so there's that. Maybe I'll come back around to it sometime like another elf-related project I had earlier in the year.
There are some other things that are waiting in the wings -- Kohaku has four or five extra scenes waiting to be coded. Selling your soul for fun and profit is already coded and waiting to be merged sans a UI asset we need. I may have written some other bits and bobs that've slipped my memory, but that's about the long and short of it.
Now then, to the heavy stuff. This year, I won't be participating in Mayternity, instead working on something else.
North of the Winter City, we're going to be putting another optional zone in the vein of Harvest Valley -- the Glacial Rift. This is as far north as the Champion will be able to venture; beyond the sea ice is open ocean. It's all permafrost to the south and sea ice after the land ends, save for thermal vents to the southwest. While Wsan et al work on the Undermountain and Khor'minos, this and the filling in of previous zones and encounters should keep you all busy for the pretty long period of time we expect minotaur land to take.
Here are some examples of what might materialise:
-Jotuns: Sigrune's people, frost giants who are at least twice as tall as you are.
-Avanai: Roc-riding not-aarakocra with icy feathers with innate powers over storms and snow.
-Demon Cultists: Cultists of Tollus' who are up to no good this far north. These are full demons.
-Selkies: Manatee-girls with bone harpoons.
-Siorcanna: Shark-people who live in the frigid waters beneath the ice shelf.
-Valkyries: Fresh faces in Lumia's order who are seeking to prove themselves.
There'll also be some additional friendly encounters like northern minotaurs and friendly valkyries.
The central plot thread of the area revolves around two points: Tollus getting up to his usual shenanigans. While his goons will be out and about any time, to confront him up here you'll have to defeat him in Harvest Valley. The second point is the four main native peoples of the rift -- Jotuns, Avanai, Selkies and Siorcanna finally having had enough of two centuries' worth of the pale elves and by extent, Lumians squatting on their land and overstaying their initial welcome while polluting the ice shelves with all kinds of thermal pollution that is making their way of life increasingly impossible. There seems to be something creating a psychic drone over the rift -- residents of the ice shelf all around have been waking from troubled dreams. Nothing concrete is memorable from the dreams, barring a vague craving for baser pleasures and a desire to enter the Lumian keep; hostilities have erupted in earnest as a result of this.
All this will be done in iterations, of course, and may be subject to change, but this is the plan.
There are some other plot threads I'd personally like to at least have a go at picking up, such as Garth's wife and Sigrune, but that's very nebulous for now.
We'll see you again at the end of May.