Original Game Ideas – Winter Island (Story)

The story begins on September 6^th, 1936, in the Star Estate, where the kids were ready to have fun. But, “big sister” Jennifer Marie Star came in and made them do chores. She made the boys clean the den, while the girls had to cook breakfast. Jenny had to do a few other chores like fixing the Star of Bethlehem decoration and finding the Cajun seasoning. During the breakfast, the kids talked about how the winter hasn’t ended. Jenny decided that she needed to fight the source.

When Jenny went to the Palm City Cathedral and talked to James, he assumed that an ice sorcerer was responsible for freezing the island. Jenny promised to find the ice sorcerer, only to be reminded that she cannot leave Palm City. However, her father told her that she had an overdue library book. The physics textbook she borrowed from the Grand Lumen City Library has been 40 days overdue, and she is to either return the book or get grounded. Remembering that James placed it in the vault, she waited until midnight to pick up the book. While trying to retrieve the book, she also found a large candy cane-looking object. Touching it resulted in God coming, telling her that the staff was waiting for her. He also told her how to use it, for illumination and fighting.

On the next day, she was ready to return the library book. But the Isle Subway was down, and the only way out was to rent a snowmobile. She went to the Snowmobile Shop, but she was refused sale due to his daughter missing. The dealer told Jenny that his daughter was kidnapped by a gang and was kept in a cage in form of human sacrifice to a hungry beast. She was taken to the Cold Caves. So Jenny went into the Cold Caves, defeated the beast, and found the girl, who was otherwise known as Charlotte Sky. For rescuing her, she was given the only futuristic snowmobile, their best model, for free, and she earned friendship with Charlotte, who came to follow her wherever she went.

Jenny and Charlotte made it to Lumen City and to the library. However, the library has burned down, and the librarian has been killed. There were also evil spirits in the library. Jenny defeated the spirits and rescued the captives. According to the captives, the library fire happened the day before, but the murder happened the day she arrived at the library. She also learned that the fire was an act of organized crime. She and Charlotte went to Mr. Barquoy’s office to discuss the fire, and learned about a suspect named Carl Robertson, who was the librarian’s biggest nemesis. He was also responsible for a few acts of arson, robbery, and murder.

Jenny went back to Palm City to report to James that the library was burned down, but since she left Palm City, she was punished by being kept inside the church for a week. Meanwhile, Charlotte decided to investigate the crime for Jenny. She interviewed the victims and learned about his location, which was a house in Pluton Hills. However, she came to learn that Carl was not responsible for the library fire due to his moral objections to book burning. He even shown a stack of books to Charlotte, revealing that he robbed a house out of all of the money and books before setting it on fire. He also was unable to organize a gang since he didn’t have any friends. In fact, the only friend he had was Jack Cross.

While Charlotte was investigating the crime, Jenny was told to leave the Palm City Cathedral by others. Her sisters, her father, her mother, and Mr. Barquoy tried to convince her, only for her to not listen due to the rules. But when God came and told her to leave, she left the church, four days before she was allowed to leave. At the same time, Charlotte learned about other organized crimes in Lumen City, such as the kidnapping of two teachers, the robbery of the World History Museum, the pollution of the Angel District Park, and the forced closure of the Wenceslas Primary Academy due to aggressive protests. When Jenny came back to Charlotte, she learned about the other crimes, but agreed to talk to Jack Cross about who was responsible for the fire.

They went to Jack’s house, only to learn that his son was taken by demons into the basement. Jack refused to reveal the culprits behind the Grand Lumen City Library fire to Jenny and Charlotte unless if they can rescue his son. Jenny went down below the basement, only to find a large gauntlet of death, with their son Andrew and a few others imprisoned. The demons were trying a test run where if they burn someone in the brazen bull, the person would be sent to Hell immediately. Jenny had to rescue the prisoners and defeat the brazen bull. Her rescue of Andrew earned another companion, as well as knowledge of who burned down the library.

It was then when they learned about a dangerous cult called “The Order”, which was responsible for all organized crimes on Terra Vita. Although crimes as extreme as the library fire weren’t unheard of on Terra Vita, they never had organized crime until the cult existed. They also learned that there was no such thing as an ice sorcerer, as Charlotte previously believed that the eternal winter was an act of divine retribution for one person’s impersonation of God and using his name to do evil things.

James caught Jenny leaving Palm City again. This time, he decided not to keep her in the church, but she was to go back to Palm City. If she was caught leaving again, she would lose her position as the minister’s primary assistant. This time, she stayed in Palm City, as Charlotte and Andrew investigated the other crimes. While Jenny stayed in Palm City, she noticed that a few restaurants, such as the Chicken Bakery, To-Go Burgers, and Burrito Hut were being attacked by gang members. She went to each of the restaurants and saved them, earning her a title as the “Hero of Palm City”. She then witnessed another gang trying to burn down a library in Palm City. She stopped them, but then was confronted by an extremely furious James. For attempting to “suppress religious activities” when she was fighting crime (which she wasn’t even told not to do), she was not only fired as James’ primary assistant, but also expelled from the Palm City Cathedral permanently. She was also banned from attending any other church on the island. And if she was ever caught attending other churches or leaving the island, she would be executed.

When Charlotte and Andrew found Jenny, she told them that she was kicked out of the church. Andrew suggested getting revenge, but Jenny refused because of the moral and ethical implications of getting revenge. After enough convincing, such as that she’s not bound to the rules anymore since she’s not part of the group, Jenny decided that she would fight back, but by trying to get James in trouble with the church staff. And she would continue investigating the cult after learning that they were responsible for the other crimes committed.

The first thing they did after their return to Lumen City was to rent a suite room at a hotel in Lumen City, the same hotel Jenny was born in. Then they decided to interview the cult members to learn more about their scheme. Jenny had to talk to one of them, but he wouldn’t tell her what they were doing unless if she helped him avoid eviction. She paid him some of her money so he can pay the mortgage. She learned that not only are they committing crimes to suppress knowledge for everyone and the cult, but they also had to pay their master every bit of money to save a spot in Heaven.

Now knowing that the cult members were being abused by their leader, as witnessed when Andrew, Charlotte, and Jenny were spying on the cult’s sermon, the trio agreed that they’ll need to save the cult members from eviction. But they needed to raise more money. They also learned other facts about the cult, like that two thirds of the members were kidnapped by force into joining the cult, anyone who joined were not allowed to leave under the threat of death, and they had to obey every orders done by the master, where one false step will assure them that they will go to Hell when they die. Jenny had to visit Mr. Barquoy, Chester Miller, and Gerald Golden to collect money to donate to the cult, while also learning about their tragic pasts. She also helped reunite Mr. Barquoy with his mother, who he hasn’t seen in over 30 years, earning her more money, while also learning that James was the same man who bullied Chester, abused Mr. Barquoy, and cheated on Audrey Golden. This was while she learned other secrets about James from the church staff, such as his lack of knowledge in the Bible, him pretending to be God to take control, and turning Terra Vita into a theocracy when he became the minister.

When Jenny had the money, she had to donate to the cult members in each of the districts in Lumen City to avoid eviction. They had no problem in the Eagle District, but when they tried donating money in the other three districts, the priests of the cult harassed the members, demanding them that they pay their money. Jenny had to fight against the priests to ensure that the cult pays their mortgages. She successfully warded them off in both the Liberty District and the Angel District. But in the Faith District, one of the priests distracted her by kidnapping Charlotte, resulting in a mission failure. For this reason, Andrew talked to the real estate to delay the due date for mortgage payments.

For interfering with the cult, James came to confront Jenny, telling her that leaving Palm City was still not allowed, and neither was interfering with the cult or investigating their acts. He even threatened to kill her if she continued doing it. Jenny went back to Palm City to tell the church staff about what James did before becoming a minister. While she was there, she learned about the identity of the cult leader. The cult leader was not only one of the richest men on the island, but he was also one of the staff members of the Palm City Cathedral. This narrowed Jenny’s choices to two men, either her father or James. When she had a talk with her father, he told her that he had no connections to the cult. She read into his soul and found the truth. With knowledge that her father wasn’t the leader of the cult, she learned that James was the leader of the cult.

As a result of her investigations of James, she, Andrew, and Charlotte talked to one of the church staff members at the Chicken Bakery. They told him that James was the leader of the cult, which he abused. They also told him James’ past acts of evil and his lack of qualifications of being the minister of the Palm City Cathedral. Other church staff members from the Palm City Cathedral soon found out. They fired James as the minister of the Palm City Cathedral and kicked him out. They also let Jenny back into the church since James was no longer in control. Lastly, they reimplemented the wall of separation between church and state, where the Palm City Cathedral no longer has political power over the island. The expulsion of James has embittered him even further, especially now that the entire island knew that he was the leader of the cult.

One month later, Terra Vita was in a much worse state. Lumen City has fully fell under James’ control, with his cult having control of the city, while the other cities were cursed. The island was also dark, for that the sun did not shine over the island at all, even when it brough light over the Pacific Ocean.

The first thing Jenny and her new squad (which consists of Amelia, Aaron, Caroline, and Cornelius, along with Andrew and Charlotte) did was to invent an infinite basket. Since the island ran out of food, they had to make something that created an infinite supply of the one meal they had left – a sea bass, garlicy cheddar biscuits, pineapple, and spinach. The invention was a success, and people on Terra Vita had food to eat until the eternal winter ended and until everyone has food again. The squad promised to feed the people as they visit every village.

When they left, they met one of the cult members, Craig Marley, asked Jenny for money since she previously helped other cult members without letting them give money to James. He informed Jenny that his wife, Janet, was suffering kidney failure as is in the hospital. He is willing to donate his kidney to save her life, but he doesn’t have the money. Jenny gave him money to save his wife.

After giving the money, Mr. Barquoy went to the squad’s base. After being removed from office due to false accusations of treason made by the cult, he decided to live with Jenny to help her. He told her that James has a power source, which was a magical chest. For as long as it exists, he can have control of his cult and stop anyone who got in his way. So to stop the cult, Jenny needed to break the chest. But to do that, she needed a stronger tool. The Candy Cane Staff she got from the vault was the correct weapon needed to break the chest, but she needed to boost the power. And the best way to get more power is by smashing magic crystals. Destroying magic crystals will transfer the magic to her staff, making it stronger.

At the same time, the magic crystals were the source of the curses affecting Palm City, Moonlight Harbor, Agrarian Beach, and Aurora Village. All of the residents of Palm City turned into skeletal people while their souls were stolen and trapped in a lava cavern. All of the residents in Moonlight Harbor got deathly ill, except for all of the doctors and nurses in the city. Agrarian Beach had a “snow crab” problem, where crabs made of 100% snow infested the beaches, killing any living creature with a single pinch. And Aurora Village was taken over by attack robots, which were too powerful for the kind of technology Terra Vita had. Jenny had to search for the magic crystals and break them to boost the power of her staff, while freeing the villages from their curses.

After every time she freed a village, she had to deal with James’ antics. First, James forced Craig to give up all of the money he got from Jenny. He even told him that he either gives up his wife or gives up his chance of ever going to Heaven. As a result, Jenny had to get more of her money and pay right at the hospital herself, but she was too late because Janet has died by the time she got there. She ordered the rest of the squad to prepare for Janet’s funeral while she told Craig that his wife died.

While Jenny was at the hospital, she noticed that several cult members were being admitted to the hospital, while James’ priests were blocking hospital admissions to prevent the cult members from getting healthcare. After being told that they’re going to Hell regardless with no way out of the cult, they found following James’ orders pointless, so they defied him. This got the cult members beaten by the priests. They endured the beatings until they couldn’t take anymore beatings, so they had to go to the hospital. Jenny had to fight the priests so the cult members can safely be admitted to the hospital. Meanwhile, Andrew noticed that the houses belonging to the cult members who didn’t pay their mortgages have been burned down or caught on fire. The reason was that they “resisted the consequences”, something they were bound to face because James forced them to give up all of the money they got to pay the mortgages.

Before Jenny went to the next city to free the curse, the whole squad, as well as Craig, his parents, and Janet’s parents attended Janet’s funeral, with Mr. Barquoy giving Janet the eulogy. Some of the cult members came to hatefully picket Janet’s funeral, wishing her in Hell and saying that God’s glad that she was dead. Andrew was angered enough to the point he took Jenny’s staff and beaten all of the protesting members. This angered James since his plan to picket her funeral was disrupted. But it also angered God, as he scolded both Andrew and James for using violence and for organizing the hateful protest, respectively.

While Jenny focused on saving the next village, the cult members were fed up with James. They stopped buying into his lies that they’re going to Hell if they don’t give him all their money or if they disobeyed him once. They told him that he was a fraud rather than a god. They questioned his teachings that Jesus was a fraud and the resurrection was made up. They reminded him that their lives were worse since they joined him. And they stopped doing his orders when he ordered them to commit organized crimes in God’s name. However, they were still not allowed to leave the cult, and they were still forced to give up their money.

When Jenny returned to Lumen City after freeing the second village, she had to go through another donation battle, where she needed to fight the priests to protect her donations to the cult. That time, she was ready to face the priests since she expected that to happen. The priests were also ready to fight Jenny for the same reason. That time, she succeeded in protecting her donations on both sides of the river. She learned that the cult members no longer believe that James is God, but he or his priests could falsely accuse his members of stuff they didn’t do in front of other people on the island if they didn’t give him the money. Some even got their reputations damaged, so Andrew had to bring awareness to that so they don’t listen to James or his priests at all.

After the second donation battle, Jenny saw Craig. After the death of his wife, the hateful protest of her funeral, and James telling him that he was going to Hell for speaking against the protest, he decided that he wanted to leave the cult. But he couldn’t unless if he wants to be killed by James. Jenny got Mr. Barquoy buying him a motorboat in Moonlight Harbor, which he took to escape to California to start a new life. Craig was free from the cult, and James couldn’t catch him.

Unfortunately for Mr. Barquoy, setting Craig free brought James’ wrath on him. When Jenny returned to Lumen City after freeing three of the surrounding cities, she found out that Mr. Barquoy went missing. She found him in Craig and Janet’s former house, with James scolding him for running away from him as a child, for getting him in trouble with the Palm City Cathedral, and for helping Craig leave. Mr. Barquoy told James that the reason why he did all that was because of how bad James was. After calling him “a liar, a traitor, an abuser, and a coward”, James got offended and beaten Mr. Barquoy. He snatched his hat, beaten him until he was blind, broke both of his arms and both of his legs, shaved his beard, and knocked him out, before setting the house on fire. Jenny witnessed the ordeal and was heartbroken at Mr. Barquoy’s death. James taunted her when he saw her and threw his hat at her.

For the next week, Jenny didn’t do anything to save the island. She was depressed for that the man she loved most has died. Three days after his death, the entire population of Lumen City except for James and his priests attended Mr. Barquoy’s funeral, with Jenny and Audrey taking it the worst. Three days after the funeral, the ghosts of Francine Miller (Mr. Barquoy’s love interest as a child) and her puppy (Chester’s puppy that James killed while they were kids) came to visit Jenny at her base of operations. She told her that it was time to go back to saving the island. She also told her the weakness in James’ magical chest. While a more powerful weapon was needed to break the chest, it also had another immunity, which can be disabled if three remnants of his crimes were put inside the chest. Jenny took that in mind.

After ending the curse to all four surrounding cities, the cult has lost all respect for James completely. At the same time, Jenny was ready to break James’ magical chest. She, Charlotte, and Andrew went to James’ church and spied on him. Inside, he was killing a cult member by turning him into a pile of soot for not giving him money. He also ran outside the church to chase after a photographer who took incriminating pictures of him killing the cult member. With nobody left inside, Jenny and Charlotte went in, while Andrew reported James to the police. Jenny and Charlotte went inside the secret room of the church and found his chest, which looked exactly like the magical treasure chest Satan offered Jenny when she was eight. Remembering Francine’s advice, Jenny and Charlotte put three items inside, which were the Physics textbook from the Grand Lumen City Library, the last surviving sunflower from the Faith District Park, and Mr. Barquoy’s hat. The items made the chest vulnerable to destruction, but they can’t break the chest inside since it’s within closed spaces. So Jenny and Charlotte took the chest outside.

With James’ magical chest outside and weakened, Jenny began smashing the chest. Each time she whacked the chest with her fully-upgraded Candy Cane Staff, a force pushed her back as it took damage. After three whacks, Andrew came back and checked on them. After six whacks, some of James’ priests surrounded Jenny, trying to stop her, but she backed them off. After nine whacks, James witnessed Jenny breaking his chest. He ran to her to stop her, but he was too late after she whacked it one last time.

After Jenny whacked the chest ten times, it exploded into bits, creating a huge knockback force that pushed everyone nearby away. For thirty minutes, everyone was silent. For thirty minutes, the eternal winter that plagued Terra Vita thawed while the Sun started shining again. After thirty minutes, Andrew quietly said that they did it, while James yelled at Jenny, much angrier than ever. His priests also turned on him since he had no control of them anymore. He tried killing the priests for betraying him, but his wand couldn’t work. Jenny then exposed his scheme, which was to have total control of the island while taking its entire money supply. She also exposed his scheme to kill Jenny and her entire family for getting him fired from the Palm City Cathedral.

After being exposed and stripped of his powers, he ran away. While he was gone, Charlotte, Ameila, and Caroline returned all of the money he took from the cult members to the former cult members, while Andrew, Cornelius, and Aaron worked on getting the new mayor fired and creating a new republic that unites all five cities on Terra Vita. Jenny decided to look for James and chase after him.

James was in a bad state. The entire island’s population was out to kill him, so the only way to survive was to leave the island. But he couldn’t leave because he didn’t have money to buy a boat. When he ran back to his church, he found out that all of his money he stole was gone, including what he previously owned. His church was also planned for demolition. Satan eventually came and gave James another magical wand. He used it to hide.

Jenny had no luck finding James, but she did find two mysterious doors inside a cave in Lumen City. The doors took her to a strange temple that she had to navigate. Before she got to James’ lair, Charlotte and Andrew caught up with her and came to assist her. She went into James’ lair and was ready to fight. Before they fought, James turned the room into a floating stone arena that was floating over a fiery portal that leads to Hell. He then got into a big fight with Jenny.

After the fight, Jenny successfully defeated him, and he had no power left. Unwilling to accept his defeat, he knocked her over and was about to kill her. But a winged beast-like creature, which was an angel in disguise, came to the arena. He grunted at James, telling him that he was bound to go to Hell. He thought he was referring to Jenny, but he was referring to him instead. He picked up James and dropped him down the portal, sending him to Hell. The angel also sent Jenny, Charlotte, and Andrew back to Palm City in front of the church.

In front of the church, they found Jesus, who congratulated Jenny for defeating James and for suppressing the cult. By doing that, she ended the eternal winter and brought peace across the island. She was also given the title as the next minister of the Palm City Cathedral. He also revealed James’ fate, where he was to burn in Hell for all eternity.

The trio went into the Palm City Cathedral, where they saw their family members, other people on the island, and the ghosts of some of James’ victims. They all congratulated the trio for saving the island, with Jenny getting extra congratulations. Jenny told them that she will become the next minister. Meanwhile, Mr. Barquoy told Jenny that she must go outside and bring the news to the public. Jenny then went outside and stood on the steps of the Palm City Cathedral, making a public speech that James was gone, his cult was dissolved, and the eternal winter has ended. She also promised that there will be peace among the new united republic of Terra Vita. She also announced that the church will no longer be associated with politics. After the speech, she went down the steps and everyone celebrated. The crowds followed Jenny, as she went back home.