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Event #2: The Long Night
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| Nervous, frightened whispers spread across Idan. By word of mouth and courier, warnings that the Long Night has nearly arrived are sent out. Anasta's Shadow, the planet whose orbit lies between this one and its sun, will share a path with this planet for one week before they go their separate ways once more. During that time the far larger planet obscures the light and warmth the sun provides this world. This is nothing new to you. It has happened every year at this time since your birth and although the cold is treacherous and the dark inconvenient, in your time those were likely the only major threats you faced during the Long Night. The great dragon bonfires had always been kept lit by the trio of dragon guardians, their light and warmth keeping away the deadly freeze and the other horrors rumored to come with the darkness.
Perhaps you remember the tales from your childhood, stories meant to scare children away from venturing too far on their own in the treacherous heart of winter. The long, cold week of darkness was likely filled with stories of people whisked away in the black cold, either never to be seen again or to be found mangled and frozen with looks of terror and agony forever etched on their lifeless faces. With the dragons ever present in your lifetime, you had never experienced the true horrors of the Long Night for yourself, even if you had witnessed a taste out in the world beyond the safety of the kingdom cities and villages. The true terror of the Long Night had not been experienced in full since the formation of the Elf-Dragon Alliance, many generations before your birth. The massive bonfires kept ever burning by the guardian dragons kept the towns and cities across all three kingdoms protected from the sheer dark and the deadly deep freeze of the week-long total eclipse. Now that the dragons are gone there is simply not enough magic to create the powerful, lasting bonfires that once sheltered the three kingdoms and kept out the dark and the worst of the cold. From the warmth and safety of a hearth, it is easy to dismiss the frightened whispers of Idan's current population as superstition, at least until the sun 'sets' on the night of the 27th, swallowed behind the looming shadow of the larger planet. As night approaches on the 27th, the world goes red. Only slivers of sunlight escape around the far edge of Anasta's Shadow, bathing the world in an eerie crimson until the planet's massive shape in the sky blocks out the sun entirely, plunging Idan into near complete shadow. With the light consumed, the shrieks and howls begin. Starting up like the roar of an angry wind, they grow louder and more twisted the closer they come. Within hours the howls and shrieks are mixed with a sound like metal grinding across glass. Windows are covered in sheets of cracked and spidered ice. Chimneys without lit fires begin to fill with screeching, clawing noises and an unsettling and unfamiliar clicking noise that rises and falls like an unknown language. The sounds outside begin to shift and change, as more human shrieks join the unsettlingly monstrous ones, and the crying sob of a young child, hiccuping in fear, breaks up the brief moments of silence. It's just beyond the door, or just out of sight beside the window, then silence, and the howling and scraping start anew. Now and then an eerie red glow shines through ever more solid ice caking the windows, and they briefly steam up as something living exhales a heated breath against the pane. Citizens within earshot or courier distance warn those who seek answers to stay away and avoid seeking out the source of the sounds. They caution that the answers are not worth the risks and warn that anyone outside cannot be saved. If they're out there, they're already dead. If you insist on going, they'll tell you not to leave the safety of hearth and fire without a torch in hand or your chances of surviving will drop from slim to none. Pay heed to the cautions of those more experienced than you in this new horror or you will not survive the long, harsh night and the ever more unsettling noises it brings. | |
| π Weather | |
| The cold fluctuates between -18 to -32C (0 to -25F) during the Long Night. At these temperatures, the risk of frostbite and hypothermia are greatly increased and without proper precautions, a person could experience frostbite in 10-30 minutes when exposed to the elements. In addition to this, wind, sleet, and snow periodically drop the temperatures further. The weather may be the least of your worries, however, as the cold is far from the most dangerous threat the Long Night brings with it. | |
| π Creatures | |
 Tundra Manticore: They share little in common with their lower mountain counterparts beyond their violent disposition. Their bodies glow from within due to the venom stored in their abdomen. They can secrete this deadly venom from their mouths or their barbed tails. The venom is said to burn like liquid fire and causes severe burns on contact. They live only in the coldest parts of Idan due to the significant heat generated by their venom that would cook them from the inside out in warmer climates. They consume ice and snow to maintain an internal temperature balance and if that balance is thrown off the combustible venom within them causes them to burst into flames. As a result, they are terrified of fire. They are silent stalkers and lone hunters. Greater Bearbat: Greater Bearbats are sound-based hunters that descend from their mountain homes, attracted by the shrieks of the shade imps. They are indiscriminate hunters, content to eat wayward travelers or other monsters without concern for what prey they catch in their long claws. They run on four limbs while hunting and will rarely take to the skies unless in pursuit of flying prey. Sound and heat deter them and light will blind them. Shade Imps: Seekers and servants of the Darkener, these monstrous shade imps can take a multitude of forms (Crawlers, Scouts, & Hounds) and shift between them at will. They are completely blind and travel as silent as the shadows they melt in and out of. They hunt through scent, sound, and taste, searching for traces of blood and fear on the air. When they aren't hunting, they communicate with other imps via ear-piercing shrieks or gut-churning howls, going silent only when they locate their prey. Their silence is more dangerous than the sounds they make. They recoil from fire but grow increasingly more determined the longer they are kept at bay, eventually overcoming their fear and attacking the source of the fire to attempt to extinguish it at the cost of their own lives. When fire touches them they go up in a puff of black smoke and a scream. Darkling: No one knows what darklings look like. They are the lost spirits of elementals consumed and controlled by the Darkener. They have no physical form and can control and manipulate shadows and sound. They mimic sounds to trick people into opening their homes or venturing out of safety and can perfectly replicate any sound they have heard, even capturing the voices of people speaking on the other side of walls. Their goal is to lure or force people out into the darkness where the Darkener can find them. They can be disrupted with light. Bayobat: Swarms of flying bat-like insects summoned by the Darkener. They have sharp, metal proboscises they use to pierce victims before consuming their blood. They are blind and seek out warm-blooded bodies to launch themselves at. Their screeches are metallic and mixed with insectoid clicking. Their bodies are sharp and metallic but their mouths are vulnerable. Their tails are lined with tiny, sharp spikes similar to barbed wire. They fear fire. The Darkener: An ancient being that is thought to come from the Outer Realm. The Darkener consumes flames with a touch, transforming them into shadow flames that burn black, giving off no heat or warmth. It possesses long-forgotten magic. Few have seen more than a glimpse. It causes temporary blindness in all who witness it, their eyes turning black with trapped shadows. Its image lingers in the mind, causing hallucinations. Those who witness it are often driven mad, growing increasingly certain the Darkener is watching them from the corner of their vision. It can be struck but doing so only causes darkness to erupt from the wound, consuming the Darkener and everything around it. There is only one Darkener. | |
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Jaime Reyes : Didymos
[Frustration has Jaime raiding rooms at the inn that aren't locked and any closets, lobbies, or storage areas in search of books, journals, notes, or people who might actually be willing to speak to him about the dangers outside in the city. He can't stand all this uncomfortable avoidance of a topic that feels like at this point people should have more to talk about.
There is very real danger outside, and Jaime just wants to help find a solution that goes beyond blockading entire cities indoors and waiting it out. There has to be more they can do. His reptilian animas is left by the warmth of the fire, Jaime still uneasy about the odd sensation of awareness, knowing where Khaji Da is and how he is feeling. His tail is cold and he's irritated about something. It's unsettling.
Shaking his head Jaime stands up from the shelving he was crouched under, searching through a box of old papers in one of the storage closets, and a thunk resounds followed by a stretched out 'ow' from Jaime as he hits his head on the extended shelving. He rubs at the sore spot, coming up empty-handed.]
The Dark
[It's impossible to tell the difference between the creatures and actual cries for help. Jaime manages to resist simply by closing his hands over his head and tucking his knees to his chest for the first few days until the screaming or pleading recedes or goes silent but it can't last. Every time he hears someone crying for help he thinks about how he would feel if it was his sister out there, alone and frightened in the darkness, freezing and fleeing from whatever creatures are hunting them. It makes him sick and eventually he shoves Khaji Da into someone's arms and tells them to keep the reptile safe, ignoring the shouting and warnings insisting he come back.
Out in the dark, away from any line of sight, he shifts and jumps up to the top of one of the nearest buildings, the cold not penetrating the protective shell of his humanoid beetle form. People had always been unsettled by his second form but like this he can see and fight better, and his cold-blooded body won't attract anything that hunts by heat.
He scans the darkness, listening and watching the magical auras left behind by people and monsters alike before he hears it, another scream for help in the night. He takes off, running across rooftops in search of the source of the sound and only jumping down when the cries are close enough, a ball of blue energy gathering in his hand, ready to be launched at any creatures that are lurking in the darkness. He gives a warning shout when he lands.]
Get down.
The Dark
[Of course, the Flamebringer is astoundingly well-equipped to deal with the darkness. Though she will admit it is worse, far far worse, than any Long Night she ever knew, the beasts and monsters that emerge in it fear the element that she wields most proficiently. Heat and light send creatures running in fear if not dying to her sword, and she walks through the darkness as a beacon of safety and resolve.]
[It is fair to say by now she has grown perhaps a bit arrogant.]
[So in chasing down the sound of screams, whether to save a person or put down a trickster, she arrives on the scene almost moment after Jaime -- being disinclined to use the rooftops.]
Mind to yourself! It's yet another trick by the monsters, by all appearances!