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Mini-Event: Skywhale + Day of Lefkokó
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| 🜙 The Skywhale | ||
| After fierce retaliation and an increase in city-wide defensive power and measures, it seems as if the orc attacks have, at least for the moment, begun to subside. Along with the lessened threat of orc ambushes, the first storms of winter have died down to a gentle and occasional snow flurry, leaving the world peacefully blanketed in powder snow and a calm stillness. The City of the Free Peoples take this time to celebrate the final repairs of the airship, the Skywhale. With sail balloon once more filled and the engines working hard to keep the air within it warm, easier and safer travel is once more available. The Skywhale leaves once a day in the early morning to head for Didymos, and today is its maiden voyage since the repairs. Thalassa has changed greatly in the last century, blossoming into a massive port and military city, with resources and opportunities unavailable in the more eclectic Cty of the Free Peoples. Restless legs may find their chance to stretch to a new experience. Sail the skies aboard the Skywhale and see Thalassa's grand transformation to Didymos for yourself. Catch the voyage back before nightfall, or remain in Didymos until the ship's return the following day. There is plenty to see and do in the city by the sea. You can even see Logistykon's reef from aboard the Skywhale's deck as it swings around to dock. It is a grim but beautiful sight in the clear blue waters. While the threat of fire and orc ambush has diminished greatly, the City of the Free Peoples is filled with a sense of unease and discomfort as repairs on the city and attempts to put lives back together continue. Murmurs of discontent slip through the city streets, along with rumors that this is all Lykos' fault or accusations that the Captain might be hiding something. For every murmur of distrust, however, there are counters of the heroics and quick action that helped keep the city strong and beat the orcs back. There has still been no word from Krimnos or the airship, Valiant, that usually hails from the cliff city daily. Messengers have not made their wing from the city and those sent to the cliffs have not returned. It's not unusual for this time of year, but the absence is felt keenly by traveling merchants who need to get their wares to or from the city. A journey by horse or on foot would be risky, but the potential rewards for escorting a company up to the cliffs could prove significant. | ||
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| 🜙 Day of Lefkokó | ||
| No matter what city you find yourself in, the dawn of the 17th sees a change in mood and atmosphere across Idan. Snow has stopped falling and the sky is a bright, clear blue. The weather warms enough to cause water to drip softly from the icicles hanging off every awning and outcrop. Decorations of magical or crafted snowflake art and blue ice flames line city streets and building windows, and jovial merriment spills out into the streets. A sweet wine made from frostberries, warm honey-mead, and spiced apple drinks are offered in taverns, inns, and small shops or homes, a free offering to be had with sweet or spiced cheeses and spiced or candied nuts and fruits. It's a celebration that is far from unfamiliar, one that has been celebrated for centuries across Idan's towns and cities, though the methods and particulars of the celebration have always varied from place to place and people to people. December is the month of the White Raven, and in particular, this day is a day to honor him. Lefkokó, the deity of dance, freedom, madness, and cunning sits at the head of the cause of these festivities and his domains are the focus of the celebrations. Today is a day of dance, drinking, and games of skill and chance. A day to test your bluffing skills, show off, and take deep joy and pride in the liberties and opportunities available to all. Few work on this day, beyond the essentials, and everyone who is able to takes part in this moment of freedom and relaxed expectations or responsibilities. The cities are alive with music and dancing, and the taverns are a swirl of chaos amidst high stake games of cunning and chance. Clever minds clash over riddles, old and new, and as the day progresses a lack of sobriety becomes increasingly evident in the streets and establishments alike. As the sun reaches the highest point in the sky and the shadows dwindle to near nothingness, the aviaries of all three cities release the newest flock of rare juvenile snow ravens to their freedom, letting them take wing to the skies for their first ever flights. The flocks of snow ravens, the most coveted of magic familiars, fly off to the wildlands after practicing their acrobatic feats and visiting various areas of the city in search of food to give them energy for the journey ahead. Once they take their leave of the city, many begin to seek out hidden trinkets, magical herbs, and small, rare items across Idan with a precise and dedicated focus. Those who honor Lefkokó by celebrating in his name may be visited by his rare and clever emissaries later in the month with an offering of thanks from Lefkokó himself. | ||
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| 🜙 A Warning. | ||
| By the 18th the orc camp has been abandoned, the animals freed and the orcs, whatever was left of them, appear to have fled. Retreat is unusual, even more so for them to cut their creatures loose and flee without triumph or trophy, but this is something different. Many of the weapons, trinkets, and armors coveted by the warring orcs have been left behind, and the fires trampled and stamped out with apparent urgency. Tracks lead to the south a few miles and then vanish into snow in the direction of Lake Atéleio. It and the land south and west of it are consumed in a blizzard blown over from the sea, and tracking beyond that point becomes nearly impossible, though by this point it is assumed the Orcs have retreated to Spear Valley. Whether or not they will return is unclear. Those in the City of the Free Peoples on the 18th will receive another message, this one from a less mysterious source, addressing the coming dangers. Supplies can be claimed from the defender's camp for any struggling to make the necessary preparations. Those who have lost their homes will be provided shelter and supplies. When the Long Night comes, keep your children indoors, your fires stoked, and your buildings shuttered. There is nothing to fear. Your defenders will keep you safe. -Captain Lykos Several hours later a second and then a third message is received across all kingdoms. It comes only to the couriers of the awakened. The first comes as an audio message: A dull scraping sound followed by the click and whine of metal dragging across stone and the dripping of thick, viscous liquid somewhere distant. It ends abruptly and a simple thought message, short and uncomfortable, follows it. irom otnemem The message has no signature. | ||
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no subject
"In passing? A fair amount. There's a woman who makes these absolutely delicious crepes with savoury and sweet fillings over toward the North end. Told me all about how her daughter-in-law who does maintenance on the air-ships is having her second child early in the spring."
Makka leans against his leg, giving her best pleading expression up at the food he has in hand. Victor gives her a look, and she huffs a soft woo up at him, expressing her particular designs with minimal theatrics for now.
"Word going around seems to vary complaints between the usual. Money for merchants, unsafe roads for merchants and travelers, a lack of guides for predicting weather or handling the more unkind turns nature takes." He glances up toward the sky, squinting against the light. "Krimnos is as cut off from the rest of the world as they are from Krimnos while the airships are out of commission. In spite of the risks, people are looking for people who might chance the traveling, from here or the City of Free Peoples."
He smiles, but it's a thin expression. "At all similar to what you've been exploring?"
no subject
"Yes," he says softly. Alucard also hears that woo out of Maka and he has a feeling where that might end up in a few minutes. "Additional fears about wolf packs, which I'd write off as hardly a bother if you know what you're doing, and a bigger concern about black ice which truly doesn't change it seems." From Alucard's tone, it's clear he also considers that a far greater risk than wolves. Or bandits. Or generally unsafe roads.
There's zero surprise about Krimnos being cut off though. It's in the mountains. It's winter. It happens. "Are there people impatient enough to wish to head out if there are enough in a group to make going forward seem possible?"
In Alucard's heart, he knows this is selfish and self centered. Better to wait for modern convenience to put itself to rights and then just rid the airship back to Krimnos. But he wants to get to the city. Get to the part beyond the city that his father claimed as theirs and see what remains.
no subject
Makka cocks her head to the side and promptly sits down. The thump of her rump on the ground produces a flicker of a smile on Victor's lips, and he tears a piece of fish off with his teeth, carefully managing both the rest of the skewers and the one he'd he'd bitten into in order to transfer that piece of fish down to Makka. She takes it with a delicate pinch of her front teeth, then promptly tosses it up, snaps it out of the air, and swallows it down.
"Aren't there always? The concern is more in finding the guides or the defenders to pay to make sure they arrive. Krimnos is only as well supplied as the merchants keep it, after all." And not every larder stays well stocked in non-perishables.
no subject
Speaking of, Alucard catches a clump of white hairs on his sleeve and picks it off with all due haste before taking another bite of his fish. Tastes as fresh as anything. Maybe too much salt.
"I'm a century out of date to be useful with navigation," he says, disappointed with that particular fact if only because he used to be good at this. "Otherwise I'd be indulging the selfish desire of homecoming."
no subject
That said, should Ellis show up before all the fish is consumed, her chances of getting some out of Victor are decently high.
"There's one point where I would have considered myself reliable as a guide, but these days, I'd only find that confidence in sounding out the elements." Such as the weather, the hidden crevasses beneath the snow, and avalanche danger. Things that were always variable enough that the time and erstwhile changes would shift nothing for him that wouldn't have already changed. "Besides, imagine the sight it would make descending on the city from the skies. I know I do." It would be a singular and appropriately different way of returning "home."
no subject
Ellis is currently trotting back with a rather large sausage that she has claimed as hers. Fish? Beginner's scraps.
"Sounding out the elements would take care of half the problems, admittedly." Victor has made it abundantly clear that his skill lies with snow and ice and all manner of things that are king this time of year. To say that the man is currently in his element would be a gross understatement so far as Alucard could ever make one. But as it stands, there's too many thoughts.
Besides, Victor has a much greater point. There is a romanticism in the descent from airships onto the city again. If they're up high enough, Alucard might be able to catch sight of one of the castle's spires. That'd be a fine thing to help him prepare.
"It would be overly dramatic, but appropriate given that we seems to be bound into that realm these days."
(Bullshit, Alucard's always lived there. Coming back from the dead just makes everything even more over dramatic all of the time.)
no subject
"Were we not before?" He knows not everyone was, had heard it in what was said or wasn't said. People woke to find themselves in colours that supported a dragon who hadn't held their service at the time of their death.
Even more strange, in ways, as them all resurrecting from a multitudes of times, battles that had happened over all those nearby fields over the years the war had stretched on. The pointless, bloody battles stripping colour and light out of the world, and leaving it diving toward madness.
He shook his head, as if dismissing some thought or another from his mind, and absently bit into his fish. After swallowing, he added, "I can appreciate some high minded dramatics. May as well change our perspective on everything literally as well as metaphorically."
no subject
"We were, but I suppose that this is in a different vein."
Which is a shitty dhampir joke, unintended but now just there. Ellis doesn't hear it, because food, and if Victor picks up on it, well, so be it. Either way, the sausage is quite distributed and Alucard straightens up again.
He's ready to go home. That much he knows.
"I feel as if all we have these days is the literal," Alucard says with a grim set face. "Steady ground, for example. New perspectives. Knowing what's around the corner." There's also only one conclusion. "It does us no good to only have the literal."