 |
| đźś™ Mini-Event #2: The North Winds, January 11th |
| |
|
The Long Night has ended and the sun once more rises and sets with the short winter cycle. Although the cold remains, it has lessened considerably following the harsh freeze of the darkness. Krimnos, no longer having to put all their resources into defending the city from the terrors to come, has been able to clear the heavy snowpack on the cliffs above the city enough to safely begin running two of their three remaining airships.
The Skywhale has been making its regular routes since its repairs the previous month, but the two airships from Krimnos to Didymos and the City of the Free Peoples have been grounded in the cliff city for safety since the start of winter. Now two of Krimnos' airships join their sister ship in the skies over Idan.
The following routes are traveled once a day by each airship:
The Skywhale travels from the City of the Free Peoples to Didymos and then back once a day, docking nightly in the City of the Free Peoples.
The Horizon travels from Didymos to Krimnos and then back once a day, docking nightly in Didymos.
The Valiant travels from Krimnos to the City of the Free Peoples and then back once a day, docking nightly in Krimnos.
The Zenith normally travels from Krimnos to the mountain outpost of Preciposte and then on to Einjar. Unfortunately, it is still grounded due to inclement weather and winter threats in the northern mountains beyond Krimnos. The Zenith will not be able to travel until the thaw has begun.
A one-way trip takes 4-6 hours depending on weather and wind to go from/to Didymos to either city and 6-9 hours to travel between Krimnos and the City of the Free Peoples. Anyone can take a trip on an airship for a purse of silver coins, or try their luck and stow away. Mounts can get a lift as well, but they require an additional fare.
Not bad for a chance to see Idan from a bird's eye view for the first time for most people. |
| đźś™ Thlipa's Tribute, January 11th |
| |
|
As January progresses, pods of fin whales spend their nights in the safety of Fisher's Bay during their migration. At this time Thlipa is believed to be watching over Idan and many of Idan's people show their respect for the deity. Unlike the Day of LefkokĂł, Thlipa's Tribute is a far more somber affair. Though she is the goddess of the seas, storms, and power, she is also the goddess of mourning and it is this realm she is believed to preside over most during the cold winter months.
People from all across Idan who are able to travel will make a journey to Didymos to be closer to the ocean, while others observe the fin whale goddess' day in their own homes and cities. Ancestors, lost relatives, and friends are remembered with offerings of handmade gifts and small collections of nuts and sweet-dried fish. Small, enchanted candles are set out on boats down the river and shore to be carried out to the ocean.
It is believed by some of the more power-hungry supporters of Thlipa that by calling on and revering the spirits of the departed Thlipa might gift her followers with the magic of the fallen. Gatherings of Thlipa's most devout followers can be seen on the shores or on small skimmer boats in the bay, and vandalism of fishing boats and nets that might endanger the fin whales runs rampant during this time. |
 |
| đźś™ A Tale of Three Cities - Krimnos: An Army Adrift, January 12-20th |
| |
|
It appears that a large company of former AtrĂłmitos knights has awoken in an isolated and forgotten battlefield below Krimnos' twin mountains. The army has journeyed together through the blinding blizzard to complete their original objective: a full-scale attack on Krimnos. There's something off about the tattered army decked in the green and gold of AtrĂłmitos that shows up at Krimnos' gates. They don't seem to feel the cold, and their eyes, if anyone is unfortunate enough to get that close, are a colorless and glossy grey. They continue fighting through weather and injury, undeterred as they focus their attacks on Krimnos' main gate, setting magical fire to the gate, the wall, and their perceived enemies.
The army can be seen using weapons, battering rams, and elemental magic to attack the city's gates. Though their eyes are a blank and glossy grey and they do not seem to be speaking or reacting with pain to counter-attack elements, it is clear there is a hierarchy and the commanding officers seem to still be silently directing their forces. They do not speak, and if captured it quickly becomes clear why. Though they appear whole externally, the soldiers of this army lack functional internal organs. No blood runs through their frozen veins and no oxygen is being pulled into their lungs. There also appear to be no thoughts in their minds, only the howling sound of the wind through the mountains around Krimnos.
At this time of year, Krimnos can not afford to loose their main line of defense, nor can they risk the very real dangers of battle sounds and blood drawing out the hungry mountain hunters or causing an avalanche that could bury the city in snow. No one knows why this army is here, but with the familiar colors adorning the fighters, there are whispers in the air of an attempt to start a war. Already tense relations between Krimnos and the City of the Free Peoples could stand to suffer from this and the citizens of Krimnos seem horrified by the prospect.
King Sitka's first concern is the safety of his people, and as such he is driving his army hard into the attacking forces and even beyond its gates if necessary, anything to push the battle farther from his people and the dangerous cliffs stacked with snow that tower over Krimnos. |
 |
| đźś™ A Tale of Three Cities - City of the Free Peoples: The Disappearance of Captain Lykos, January 14-22nd |
| |
|
No one has seen Captain Lykos since the Long Night but rumors and knowledge of his disappearance have been kept quiet by the city's Defenders, fearful the city would spiral into a panic at the loss of its de facto leader. As word comes from traveling Krimnos merchants that the city is under siege from an army dressed in green and gold, the city turns to its Defenders for answers and finds more than they bargained for.
The Defenders attempt to calm the rising panic in the city by deflecting, stating that the Captain is out on a peace mission on his way to Krimnos but this backfires as the city erupts into conspiracy theories that he is actually leading the attack and trying to start a war, with reasons such as anger over a lack of support from Krimnos during the city's time of need being used to feed the growing fear.
As outrage and panic spread across the city, the Defenders declare martial law and put the city back on lockdown until answers can be found. The stability of the city quickly begins to fray. Chaos, disorder, and dissent spread and talk of overthrowing the Defenders and putting someone else in charge begins to spread.
The city needs answers for themselves and for Krimnos and the Defenders begin an even more desperate search for their missing leader. Meanwhile, the citizens of the city begin preparing for a revolt, with whispers of an organized attack on the warcamp of the Defenders quickly gaining traction. The more time passes the less reasonably either side appears to be thinking, and the longer anyone lingers in the city the more infectious this frantic and paranoid energy becomes.
Amidst it all, a Siamese with a familiar glowing adornment can be seen surveying the chaos from the safety of rooftops or tree branches, its eyes occasionally glowing blue while its tail flicks in what seems to be either irritation or frustration. |
 |
| đźś™ A Tale of Three Cities - Didymos: Tidal Troubles, January 14-25th |
| |
|
Starting the morning of the 14th, trouble comes to Didymos on the tides or the lack thereof. The tide goes out during the night and, to the dismay and concern of Didymos' citizens, it never comes back. In fact, it seems as if the ocean waters are only continuing to recede, leaving Didymos' fleet and her fishing ships awash in the shallows or fully grounded. Each day the waters recede further, leaving sealife beached or trapped in tide pools and larger dips in the seafloor. A pod of fin whales finds themselves stranded in the deepest section of the bay just within the Sunset Gate.
As the waters continue to recede, shipwrecks, sunken cargo, and unusual skeletons dot the rock and shell covered shores, turning the edges of the bay into an unending expanse of tide pools and dotting the horizon with pieces of warped and barnacle-covered ships usually only visible beneath the clear waters.
Within days it's possible for a fully grown human to wade out to the Sunset Gate without ever getting their neck wet. The confusion and complications caused by this unexplainable dearth of water starts a panic in Didymos that the dual rulers have to fight to control. The widespread fear is joined by whispers of a war brought along from people traveling to Didymos from the other cities, and Didymos finds itself caught in a tense place with the prospect of having to outline allegiances if war breaks out.
Everyone knows Queen Adira would put her forces behind Krimnos in an instant, but King Ardis seems reluctant, questioning the legitimacy of Krimnos' claims to a possible war and seeking information. |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
“I should have taken your arm. But I would never have been a pirate; there’s no honor in it.”
He tugs the crate closer. Seaweed trails from one of its corners.
“I don’t know how long these things have been here... maybe as long as the city itself. Though those would be deeper, I’d think.”
But not before the dragons. There were dragons before there were ships: everyone knows it.
no subject
"You could have been an honorable pirate." Now she's talking nonsense, and she knows it. "But if you'd chosen the sea, I might not've scolded you when I found you with orcs."
Absently, she trails her fingers along a strand of seaweed caught around the crate he's holding. It's slimy. Like some sea monster ready to wrap itself around her fingers with the ebb and flow of the water.
"Deeper than we should likely go, you mean."
She reaches up to grip his shoulder, using him as balance as she stands again. It's more an excuse to touch him, the water not so deep that she can't stand on two feet by herself. It makes a sloshing noise as she straightens, the ends of her hair like seaweed in the water.
"All for the best. We'd both be terrible pirates. Do you need me to hold it steady?"
no subject
He shrugs. “Hold it steady, or we haul it back to shore. Or I hold it steady and you open it.
“But when I said too deep... not just deeper waters, but deeper under the sands. There might be other shipwrecks under these. Men with eyes of coral and all their flesh long gone. The tides shift the sand so much.”
no subject
She wiggles her fingers, gesturing for him to hold the crate steady. Easier for him to hold it and her to magic it open than her holding it and him prying it open.
"Men with eyes of coral." Now she's rolling her eyes at him, playfully fond. "Have you taken a drink of the salt water?"
no subject
He nods at her wriggling her fingers, holding the crate steady himself, slime and wet wood under his fingertips, but at her eyeroll, he chuckles.
“What do you think happens when a man’s body is down there under the salt and sand?”
no subject
"He becomes fish food." He's spared a look, brows lifting, daring him to lecture her on technicalities. "I doubt coral holds much of a fondness for eye sockets."
The vibrating intensifies--and then wood cracks under the force.
this can be the staff, I think?
It's not empty. What he sees, at first, is water-soaked cloth, half-eaten by the sea. A bit of a jar can be seen through it. He reaches in with care to pluck it out.
yeye
A bewildered look, directed toward him. Then her gaze drops back down into the crate, where she notices something else. Something bright white, not dulled by time. It's a careful process not to damage what remains within the crate as she fishes for what... feels like a stick?
...a deadened, carved stick. Its ends carved and shaped like a doe's head. Absently, she sets the jar of fruit she'd been holding back in the crate, smoothing her thumb along the carving. With the staff fully exposed to sunlight, it soon springs back to life in her hands: greenish-brown with small, single leaf twigs sprouting from it.
"You--you saw that, right?"
no subject
Then she's digging into the crate again, under the jars, removing the staff.
It's pretty work, of the sort you used to see in the wild lands, the doe proud and dainty, and he's about to say something admiring about the look of it when it bursts to life.
"I saw it," he says, quietly, unsettled. "Wonder where it came from, or who it was meant for. Some kind of woods witch, but why would it have been on a ship?"
no subject
And besides, she's far more preoccupied with the living staff in her grip, now. A woods witch? Why on a ship, indeed.
"It was so carefully packed." Gently, wonderingly, she touches one of the leaves. Real as any she's seen before. "If it belonged to a witch, perhaps there was a reason to be on a ship."
War could very well be reason enough, if this was from their time.
"How old do you think these things are?"
no subject
"It's wood. It's been in the water. If it can do that, there might be some spell on it that preserves it, keeps the rot away." And then, "They took care to hide it, but not in the shape of the crate... it's a strange size for shipping jars of fruit. Either they were smuggling the staff, or the staff and the fruit were meant to be a gift, together."
The deer staff, now flourishing, is beautiful, and he stands back and looks her up and down as she holds it. She's beautiful too.
"You should keep it. They won't be coming back for it -- not now."
His next words are quieter, his voice a little rougher. " -- It belongs with you."
no subject
"A gift, maybe," she concludes. "Why smuggle this? Spelled or not, lest it's some forbidden thing, I can't see why anyone would wish to smuggle it."
And it's not a stag, so she doesn't mind the doe so much. Better if it were a dragon--though dragons were more equipped for fire and blood.
When he tells her she should keep it, when his tone roughens, she looks to him. Curious, an unspoken question in her eyes.
"You think a dragon should walk around with what amounts to a carved tree branch?" It's a hesitant little joke. "Or are you trying to tease me about being an elf?"
no subject
He now looks obscurely embarrassed, to have said something like that, but he's smiling, however shyly.
"A gift, but who for? It seems like something rare."
He looks around -- there are boxes like this all over, and baskets, too. Some of them have nearly disintegrated, but some are intact.
[OOC: also, slight retcon because I got my details confused when I set this up: the water has very little depth and his feet are not bare. It's way too cold for that!]
no subject
"Shame we're out here."
Because if they weren't in such an open space, she'd be pushing him back against the wall and kissing him until she forgot how to breathe.
"I don't know who would want it." A shrug. Some healer, maybe? It does have a sort of calming look to it between its carving and the leaves. "We should take the jars back, as well. But let's keep looking."
no subject
“Some sort of elf might want it.” There’s a teasing note in the way he says it. “But all right: what about these baskets?”
If nothing else, if they can find a reasonably intact one, it will be a good way to carry the fruit jars back into the city proper.
no subject
"Too late for all the elves." There's a haughtiness to her tone as she tucks the staff under her arm. It's long enough to be awkward, but she ignores that as she steps closer to the baskets nearby.
Many are in a state of disrepair, half rotten. A few look intact, and she'll nudge them with her waterlogged boot. One, in particular, has something darting out of the basket and flopping onto the ground. It does well enough to have her stumble back in surprise.
no subject
“Too late for the crab, too. I wonder what his treasure was.”
But he opens the basket and finds nothing.
Next to it, there's a kelp basket in surprisingly good shape, but when he tugs at it, it’s harder to lift than it looked like it would be. Something is weighing it down.
He looks back up at Dany from his half-crouching position, frowning.
no subject
"Less interesting than whatever you've got."
When he looks up at her, she crouches beside him, gripping part of the basket's lip. It would be smarter to rip it open and see what's inside if it's heavy enough to cause him issue.
"Maybe there's something larger than a crab in there," she oh-so-helpfully adds.
no subject
That’s what it feels like. If it’s metal and not spelled, it would be corroded, but the way the weights thud against each other as he lifts the basket makes him think it must be rocks. But there’s something more in there: the presumable rocks don’t move around freely.
What he finds when he opens the basket is mostly thick damp cloth, sailcloth, once nearly white.
Why weight sailcloth down with rocks?
Something is wrapped in it.
no subject
How would she know, when she's not tried lifting the basket? She leans closer, no sense of space with him, once he begins to open the thing.
no subject
It looks intact, like no water has gotten into the tube of it, which is a minor miracle. There’s something on the side.
Ghost stops chasing crabs across the sand and bounds up on his small white paws, as if he wants to get a look at the spyglass, too. He nudges at Daenerys’s knees.
no subject
Truthfully, she's more interested in him as opposed to what he's found. There have always been so many distractions around them. Things to keep them occupied, still aware of one another, but not the way she is now of him. So she takes this moment to watch him. Study him. Commit him to memory in this way, curious as he handles his finding.
"Do you think it still works?"