March Event Log A

[usirmods]

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🜙 Mod Note
	The Einjar Excursion is going up as a separate log due to the size of the excursion log.
🜙 The Thaw
	Thaw is well underway and the evidence of it is everywhere. Snowmelt floods the rivers, strengthening the currents and broadening the width and depth of major and minor rivers alike. Patches of fresh greens are appearing across the land, and the wildlife has begun to emerge in greater and greater numbers. With the thaw comes the emergence of new threats. Dire beasts, coyotes, ogres, trolls, cave spiders, manticores and cave spindles begin to emerge from the deep mountains and forests in search of food, the risk of mudslides increase in the mountains, and the cliff hawks take to the warming skies. Farmers in the area around the City of the Free Peoples hire guards to protect their farm animals, and Krimnos and Didymos hold competitions to find new knights to add to their ranks. Despite their awareness of the mess of conflict consuming the City of the Free Peoples, neither Queen Adira nor King Sitka seem willing to get involved in solving the issues present there. Their focus is primarily on their own people. Krimnos and Didymos have both finished repairs to their cities following the events of the past two months, but the people are still frightened and confused. Rumors from Didymos about a dragon emerging from the sea have spread and Krimnos must now deal with the emerging threats of hungry cave creatures and potential mudslides on top of their usual worries.
🜙 Beyond the Reef: Didymos, March 8th
	In Didymos several ships remain out on the bay day and night as Queen Adira's knights search for any signs or clues as to what caused the draining of the bay and the sudden stark absence of sea life from Logistykon's Reef and the majority of the bay. Fishing nets continue to come up with little more than drifting kelp and have to venture further and further out into the Glass Sea to bring back any worthwhile catch. The last of the debris from the ocean flooding back into the bay is still washing onto the shore and the waters have regained their clarity, with no sign of the sunken ships, sun-bleached skeletons, or the pit. The waves seem to have washed everything back to sea. Only Logistykon's Reef remains. The docks are constantly in search of people willing to risk the voyage out beyond the reef to find waters that still hold enough life to sustain the city, or at least find the source of the scarcity within the bay. Out there the ships risk attack from sea carnos, war sharks, and flying fish that hunt the deeper waters of the Glass Sea. Those looking to join the Didymos Knights can take part in a variety of competitions throughout the month that focus on testing swordsmanship, sailing skills, charting stars, and magic-focused battles against clay and elemental golems created to fight would-be knights and test their skill. The demand to increase their forces has increased since the attacks and disappearances in February.
🜙 A City Divided: Didymos & the City of the Free Peoples, March 8th
	King Ardis, in a moment of rash determination, sets out on horseback for the City of the Free Peoples with a small number of trusted knights, intent on setting things right before the chaos threatening to fully consume the less stable city causes it to collapse on itself. It is rumored he has other motives as well, regarding a search for answers to the origin of the masked cult that attacked all three cities in January. It's possible his company would be willing to accept the aid of others in these pursuits. In the City of the Free Peoples, the disappearance of Captain Lykos remains a source of confusion and contention and the militant force of the Defenders are still attempting to take control of the city by force. The rebels continue to run up against the issue of numbers, with the force and resources of the Defenders far too great and far-reaching in the city. Rebel numbers decline as uneasy and conflicted citizens in the city turn their neighbors and friends in because they are frightened of the mounting confusion in the world around them and fearful of losing the protective guard that defends the city, especially at a point in the year when they will be most needed. The Defenders themselves have grown uneasy under acting Captain Koroc's leadership, but most continue to remain steadfast, their loyalty cemented with the perceived truth that the rebels have either killed Captain Lykos or taken him hostage. The red orc captain acting as commander in his absence has grown increasingly aggressive and erratic. His right arm is often hidden and severely scarred. According to his claims, an attack from a rebel assassin in early January was the cause. Both the Defenders and the Rebels seem to be interested in recruiting new members to bolster their numbers. Meanwhile, farmers in the outskirts continue to spread tales of the drastic rise in werewolf attacks and destruction during February's full moon, and look for guards to hire to protect their farms from the increasing predatory threats.
🜙 On the Precipice: Krimnos, March 8th
	With the thaw, the airship Zenith begins its route once more, ferrying people from Krimnos to the Northern outpost of Preciposte in the mountains. The two hour flight to Preciposte is a dangerous one. An armed escort of archers is always present to protect the airship from attack by the many aerial threats living in the mountains. The Northern outpost between Krimnos and Einjar serves as a resting point for travelers between the ancient dwarven city and the cliff city. Preciposte is a small outpost rich in metal and gem trade as well as a popular residence for more reckless and fearless hunters of the dangerous creatures of the mountains. The altitude of Preciposte causes many unacclimated to suffer loss of breath, lightheadedness, and a somewhat giddy recklessness. The outpost is built near a natural hot spring and the hot springs are a favored escape for those willing to take the risky trip to get to them. With the route to Preciposte both on foot and by air open once more concerning news reaches Krimnos. Communication with the remaining residents of Einjar has been silent for months, since late December. The population of Preciposte, predominately tiefling and dwarf residents, are preparing for a major excursion on foot through the mountains to Einjar. The trip is far too dangerous in both altitude, creature threats, and proximity of the craggy cliffs to make via airship so the four-six day trek will be a difficult and harrowing journey.

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[fuga]

Lauralae is not accustomed to being approached by people; there's an edge of something dangerous about her, something that she doesn't quite realise - wrapped in dark, a raven hovering around her, leather bag tucked at her side. She's small but seems almost feral, a little bit, pale skin and dark eyes flickering as the light presses across her face and under her hood. She's not sure what to do with herself, fingers flexing in and out before she's disturbed.

It seems as though she is going to have to get used to the fact that people are going to talk to her. The last time someone had come close and spoken to her she had been forced to threaten his life, so she is wary and careful all at once. She doesn't want to do anything to get herself in trouble with the guard, not with the egg she keeps so safe tucked against her, but she will not allow herself to be smothered.

Turning her head, slowly, she hesitates before she manages to find the words to speak.

"Many would forget it as such. In ten, twenty years this will be remembered as a nightmare, just as the war was." There's a frown on her face, eyes turning back to stare out at the ocean, narrowing a little. "The bloodshed will be ignored and forgotten and we will continue or we will die, as we had done before."

But that is rather a morbid idea - not something unusual for Lauralae, but -

"You were there?"

[reyquest]

Rey isn't used to approaching people directly, but there's a part of her that has always felt a desperate need to be seen or known by them. She wanted to be part of a world that wanted her in it, she just hadn't found the right places or people yet. She thought she had once, but then it had turned out the old priest just wanted to exploit that and her untrained skills, now he was dead and she isn't sure she even wants to go back to Krimnos to see if anything she knew was still there.

Not when she had finally escaped to the southern parts of Idan she had always wanted so badly to see.

"People find it easier forgetting." There is a small edge of bitterness in her voice. She was young and naive, inexperienced in the world beyond the small microcosms of it she had lived in, but she had experienced enough to believe that much. The world as a general rule was a violent place that demanded a constant fight for survival. Rey just happened to have added a second fight to her life, the fight to find beauty in or beyond the savagery and violence.

"I was. There were so many people down there." More than she often saw in one place in her entire life. "I still don't understand how or why I got out." She had watched her- ally? friend? mentor? She didn't even know what to call him- die trying to reach the top of the pit. So many people hadn't made it out.

Thorn hadn't even been with her yet, then. It's almost difficult to think of life before the lizard was part of it, despite how brief their time together has been. She can hear his thoughts sometimes, when he decides he has something to say. The rest of the time it's just a stream of emotions pushing up against her own.

"I didn't know them but they didn't deserve whatever happened down there." She had wanted to stay, explore the city in the dark, maybe memorize a few faces or check to see if any of the people in the pile were still alive, but she still didn't understand her own magic well enough to fight off the monsters that were down there with them alone, and she didn't want to die again.

"There isn't even a hole out there anymore." She had snuck onto one of the ships to double check for herself. "Makes it seem like it never happened, even though the memories are there." She still feels drawn to the pit that isn't there, curiosity and the pull of unanswered questions eating away at her.

[fuga]

Lauralae longs for the forests. She thinks about the place she had called her own for years, burying herself into those memories of greenery, of a beautiful world that was hers and hers alone, that she did not have to share with anyone. It had been perfect until it had been taken from her, until she had been captured and imprisoned and killed by soldiers that swarmed the land. Discovering a dhampir who might be using her powers was enough of a threat to them to have her in chains and that is something she cannot forgive.

Sometimes she sees it in her dreams. She tries not to.

"I do not think it is something that can be forgotten. Not if we lived it." Lauralae thinks of the dragon, the depths of the pit, the ritual, the blood, the monsters, and her lips purse just a little bit. She does have an air of innocence about her usually, but in this moment her expression is darker, a little haunted. Careful, as her eyes glance over at Rey and drink her in, curious and careful all at once.

She has never been the kind of person to share too much, especially with strangers; trust is hard to earn and she will not give it to anyone. She's careful as she speaks, her voice measured and soft, not sure how much to admit or how much to give away. She doesn't want too many more questions, not when there are knots in her stomach and uncertainties hovering around her.

"I died." That, at least, is easy enough to admit. "Perhaps you did not, but we may have been returned the same way that we were placed there, with whatever beings had brought us down. It would not surprise me." Waking up on the beach with an egg in her arms was not what she had expected, but... At least she is here, with Rav'ahm, with her egg, with the promise it will grow and develop.

Breathing out, she closes her eyes, just for a moment, tilting her head to catch the sun.

"Magic can do many things. I have seen it." Then she opens her eyes again, looking back over. "There was a reason - they wished to release their dragon. They wished for it to be free. With their task done..." She breathes out. "I do not know."

[reyquest]

Rey listens quietly, a frown on her lips and a crease on her unwrinkled brow, she curls her fingers in the fabric of the coat, remembering what Ben told her. I didn't even know you had died he had told her, and the casual way in which he had said it had rubbed everything the wrong way, unsettling her. Then he had died in that pit and left her alone again. The one person she knew who was anything like her.

"I died. Not down there in the darkness. Before it." Her words have a soft edge of confusion. She still doesn't understand. If the people who had kidnapped her and dragged her down into the pit had resurrected her, why would they have thrown her down there to die? She's sure someone else must have been responsible, but she has so many questions and no answers.

"People whisper about the dragon's shadow, like it is impossible or they can't bear to talk about it. Like they forget the world used to be full of them." Not in her lifetime, but she had devoured the stories and books about the wild world before the great dragons, she had run after Thymoeides shadow in the mountains countless times as a girl, imagining what it would be like to freely soar through the air. Even when the war began, and anger was everywhere, she still loved the dragons. They were guardians of the cities. Great, powerful creatures that protected them. She couldn't imagine the world without them even as she had stared off the sunset gate at the sunken skeleton of logistykon.

"I don't think it'd be such a bad thing if dragons were still around." She exhales and draws her knees up, resting her arms and chin on them. She thinks about the hidden egg she rescued and the look Ben had given her. Thorn drops down from her shoulder to bury himself in the sand by her side. Maybe she couldn't understand what happened. Maybe she shouldn't.

"I don't know about that one, but if there's one people didn't know about, there could still be others, couldn't there?" All those dead hatchlings in the pit, all the lives lost. It's too horrible to think something good can't be pulled from all that awful. If only she had any idea of what to do if the egg she saved hatched. Should she set it free? Could she even keep it safe from people like the ones in the city behind them?

"People can't really blame an entire species for what happened, can they?" And yet all the things she had learned after being sent to that temple for being discovered as a dhampir argue otherwise, and that doubt colors her words.

[fuga]

It's clear that Lauralae is less concerned about her death - deaths, there have been more than one - than perhaps she should be. It does not weigh on her the same way it does other people, not when she has spent so long in worship to the God that she believed had control over such things. She does not think of the vial around her neck, the connection she has to Rav'ahm, the tenderness she feels. Why would she? It is not something that would occur to someone so removed from society.

"Many of us have died at least twice now. Once before we were reborn and a second time, in the Long Night, in the Pit where the dragon lay, in the wilderness... Death does not mean as much to us as it might the others of this world, far removed from what has touched us so." Perhaps Usir himself guides them, and that makes Lauralae feel a little more comfortable.

At the same time, she can understand the doubt and fear. She had felt it once, her own uncertainty, when her mother had been taken from her. Rationalising all that has been happening over the last handful of months is not the same as understanding it and she has to reconcile that. She does not think she will ever truly understand the plan this world has for her, but she accepts it, gleefully.

Slowly, her eyes turn to look at Rey properly, drinking her in. There's no pause nor hesitation when she speaks, voice soft, cool, measured. It's not quite emotionless, but as if she is trying to keep her own feelings tightly controlled.

"I did not know much of the dragons when I lived. I was not in the cities where they reigned, where people worshipped and were cowed. I knew only the forests and my own prayers." But, still. There's a weight in her bag now, a child ready to be born, and she has to breathe out hesitantly before she shakes her head. "I understand why people would have been afraid. They are always afraid of power, of danger, of things stronger than them. The dragons, I think, had that."

But, then, a shrug.

"Now it is humans with the power. Is that so different? Perhaps the dragons should not have such blame. If they live still perhaps some should be forgiven."

[reyquest]

"I don't think they should have been blamed the way people are now. Acting like they never had any choice in the matter or they weren't wrong. There wouldn't have been a war at all if people hadn't been fighting over stupid things." Rey had strong opinions about the war. She had died too early on into it to fully understand the madness that took people over, but even if she knew she wouldn't have felt right about people putting all the blame on the dragons like they weren't just as eager to rush into war. As far as she was concerned all that violence and greed had already been there long before the war. She had seen plenty of evidence of it.

She exhales and brushes her wild hairs back, not bothering to try to tuck them away into the bun she'd twisted her hair into. It's hard not to feel lost. The dragon egg is exciting but also a terrifying responsibility. It's so much for someone who just came back to life to find the whole world upside down and confused. She was alone, and that wasn't so different. She had spent most of her young life alone. It was more the lack of direction or any idea of where to go from here that had her feeling overwhelmed.

Here she was in the city she had been dreaming of, and she found it beautiful, but the people in it felt all wrong and she worried what they would do if they found the egg she was keeping safe and hidden.

"I hope people can learn to forgive." She hadn't seen much forgiveness in her life, and her hopes of them changing their opinions weren't high. "And I hope that dragon isn't still suffering." Those roars had sounded so pained. She wondered if it was the mother of all those dead hatchlings in the pit.

Deciding to distract herself, she turns her head to look at Lauralae.

"I lived in the mountains." Not in the city, but near enough to know what the people in it were like. And then when she had made it to the city she had been sent away to a temple, told she needed to be taught not to be who she was before she could be allowed around people.

"If you climbed high enough you could see the sea on the horizon."