This is where Phantom starts out as the "Crimson Solitaire"...
...and this is where he ends his charade macabre forever.
| “ | Beneath the darkening sky, you find yourself lost in a fog-shrouded forest. You are in desperate need of safe shelter to pass the night, and it appears that the ominous castle ahead is your only choice. | ” |
Phantom & Crimson Solitaire focuses on a bizarre adventure of Rhodes Island's after they entered a seemingly abandoned castle in Calais-Blason, Victoria (formerly Gaul) as part of a search-and-rescue mission for the missing Phantom.
Where Art Thou, Lucian?[]
The R.I. operative Phantom went missing sometime after he was reminded of his past as a member of "the Troupe", and headed to his supposed birthplace: Calais-Blason. Upon hearing the news, the Doctor assembled a team of R.I. operatives, which includes Phantom's colleague Shalem, and sent them to Calais-Blason to bring Phantom back.
During their trek through Calais-Blason, a dense fog forces R.I. to find shelter as night falls, arriving at the doorstep of an old castle.
Heart of Darkness[]
Inside the castle, R.I. quickly finds out that it contains many strange rooms that did not follow a fixed pattern. Further investigation indicates that the castle now acted as the base of Crimson Troupe, a theatre troupe dedicated to follow the twisted wishes of its enigmatic leader, and is used as a "stage" for their dastardly "plays", driving many who entered before the team into insanity, if not despair and eventual tragic deaths.
Undeterred, R.I. presses on, facing whimsical and dangerous trials set by the Troupe, including but not limited to the following.
- Many familiar faces, be it allies and opponents:
- The elusive Beast Lord entrepreneur Duck Lord, who is aware of the Troupe's malicious machinations
- The Duck Lord's bodyguard Gopnik, who was revealed to be an Ursus war veteran and a friend of Hellagur
- Cannot Goodenough, who offered his services to R.I. by selling various beneficial items
- A R.I. vanguard squad that entered the castle before the Doctor and their team.
- Various civilians that have been brainwashed into audience members by the Troupe
- A Liberi youth imprisoned inside a coffin for being mistaken as a Vampire by the locals, and later his Sarkaz friend
- Employees of Big Bob's Originium Slug beer brewery
- An aspiring Elafia musician trying to join the Troupe but struggling to write a new song
- An imprisoned Vampire lady who intends to devour anyone trying to save her
- The Tin Man
- A few Durins enjoying the Troupe Master's wine collection
- A trio of Zalak treasure hunters
- A Gaulish soldier
- W
- Adventures and chambers:
- An extremely long masquerade party with gruesome implications
- Learning about Phantom's three mentors, "Shadow", "Whiteflower", and "Bladedance"
- A room filled with statues which can come alive
- A room filled with hallucinogenic candles
- Helping a knight pull out a sword stuck in stone
- Obtaining a replica of the last Gaulish empress-consort's crown
- Spending money to watch the performance of a clockwork stage
It is implied that most of the events in the castle are illusions taken from the explorers' experiences, which can explain why most of the enemies encountered are first seen in prior events. This also includes W's presence, even though she is nominally part of R.I. and are in Victoria at the time.
The End...?[]
All four Phantom & Crimson Solitaire endings form a connected story with Silent Chapter being the "true" ending that act as a conclusion to Crimson Solitaire's plot. Crisscrossing Shadows confirms that the events of Crimson Solitaire are canon to the main Arknights storyline.
Crimson Finale[]
After a long trek, R.I. encountered the brainwashed Phantom, or better known by his former title: Lucian the "Blood Diamond", and are forced to fight him as part of his "role."
The curtain falls as Phantom and Shalem finally leave their dark pasts behind once and for all... right?
Upon Phantom's defeat, the castle goes silent, as his brainwashing is undone. As he returns to his senses, Phantom felt an intense guilt over his actions which had driven many people to their doom, resolving himself to repay R.I. and the Doctor any way he could, as Shalem escorts him to the exit with Miss Christine following.
Ridiculous Comedy[]
Amidst their trek, R.I. found a painting showing a man jumping off a tower. Should they try to get a closer look, a damaged teddy bear will fall to the ground, which they promptly pick up, at which R.I. saw a giant doll crying in silence in a trance. After this, R.I. may enter a room filled by living dolls attempting to tear the teddy bear apart, which they can opt to protect; should they manage to survive the ordeal, R.I. meets a young man who gave them a seemingly ordinary scissor and later encounter a young Ursine man who jumped off a window to his death, but not before leaving behind an empty will.
As R.I. make their way out of the castle after rescuing Phantom, they encountered a gargantuan animated teddy bear dubbed the Big Sad Lock which attacks them, leading to a grueling battle made difficult by the Lock's ability to repair itself. If R.I. manages to recover the empty will from the Ursine man, who turns out to be the one shown in the painting before whose soul is contained inside the Lock, it somehow loses its self-repair capability.
The play may be over, but the show still goes on...
After putting the Big Sad Lock out of his misery, Shalem and Phantom continue to head towards the exit, during which Miss Christine noticed someone observing Phantom from behind the curtains.
Grand Opening
Amidst their trek, R.I. encountered a group of Leithanien nobles with one asking them to attend a banquet in his stead; if they accepts, the noble gives R.I. a set of formal attire for the banquet. Upon defeating a formidable opponent in the middle of their adventure, R.I. recovers a puppet representing a spare actor before running into a room where Leithanien nobles are discussing about an insane nobleman named Ahrendts who murdered other nobles attending a banquet for his sick taste. Should R.I. decides to barge in, they find nobody but a staff inside, at which R.I. realizes that the Troupe's host, Ahrendts the "Mouthpiece", is the mastermind of the events in the castle.
Phantom returns to the stage, all according to the Troupe's grand design!
Phantom, noticing the mysterious observer and recognized him as Ahrendts, went off on his own to confront the Mouthpiece and make sure that the Troupe stays "dead" once and for all. He eventually succeeded in killing the Mouthpiece, but as he start to think of what's next, he heard whispers as the members of the Troupe that died in Phantom's hands in the past, including the Mouthpiece, unexpectedly returns to life, and the Troupe Master revealed himself shortly afterwards. By the time Shalem. catches up to Phantom, he had been irreversibly fallen into the Troupe's brainwashing and reprises his role as Lucian the "Blood Diamond".
As a result, the cycle begins anew with the Troupe's resurrection, like a proverbial phoenix that played out exactly as the Troupe Master wills it. Meanwhile, Shalem's fate is left unknown, although it is likely that he met his death from Lucian's mind-scrambling voice as he starts to sing upon becoming the Blood Diamond once more.
Silent Chapter
- This ending is added on the second expansion of Crimson Solitaire.
Amidst their trek, R.I. enters a dungeon where people who are unusually quiet and shows signs of insanity are being kept. Should R.I. tries to get close, the captives run amok and attacks them, although R.I. managed to put them down and recovered a ball and chain from them. Later on R.I. encounters a mysterious young man immersed in writing something. Should R.I. tries to take a peek, he suddenly burst into flames as madmen appears out of nowhere, but R.I. managed to prevail and recover the young man's ink bottle.
R.I. managed to rescue Phantom (by going the same path as in either the Crimson Finale or Ridiculous Comedy ending), but run into the young man as they make their way out of the castle who claims that they are "interfering" with his creation and engaged them.
"When in doubt, write a new plot."
As the dust settles, R.I. leaves the castle with Phantom in tow while the young man, who turned out to be the Troupe's Playwright, monologues about his "grand drama" and alludes to the other endings, yet R.I.'s presence and the Mouthpiece's "ad-lib" made him realize that he had made a mistake by not accounting for both the aforementioned. The Playwright decides to write a completely new script where Phantom was rescued by Shalem and R.I., but unbeknownst to them all, a "dark seed" has been planted in Phantom's heart and when it "blooms", he will finally carry out the "ultimate tragedy" while the Troupe will continue to watch from behind the scenes until then, and asks the Master's opinion regarding the rewritten script as the Playwright presents it before him.
If the script does get "approved" by the Troupe Master, then only the Creator knows when Phantom would fall into the Troupe's machinations once again and become the instrument for the Master's twisted desires.