usir | Event #6 Arkoda's Awakening & the Wyrm Moon

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Arkoda's Awakening & the Wyrm Moon

🜙 Arkoda's Awakening.

	With the emergence of hibernating creatures and the arrival of the thaw, Arkoda's awakening is being celebrated across Idan. In Krimnos, King Sitka, adorned with the white laurels of peace, announces the opening of the Krimnos Greenhouse to all of Idan, the many magical plants within it available to any in the general public who might have need of them. The Hymn of the Mountains tolls out gently from the crystal bells in Arkoda's temple, and the Krimnos knights hold a competition of skill in Hippogriff Flight Courses, Aerial Jousting, Archery, Armed Combat, and Unarmed Combat that is open to all. Participants have the chance to take on the mantle for themselves and join Krimnos' Knights, with the winners of each category potentially acquiring a rare Hippogriff from the Krimnos Aviary or a horse from the stables and a hefty sum of gold. In Didymos the celebration is split between the quarters. In the overlook quarter Queen Adira pardons a number of people from serving out time for their crimes with the option of joining the crew of any of the large fishing fleets or assisting the academies in keeping the buildings orderly, and a celebration of the Didymos justice system includes debates and elections for the Queen's staff of judges and advisors. In the ocean quarter, the fishermen are celebrated with sea shanties, shoreline bonfires, dancing, music, and a jubilee for the upcoming spring, all culminating in a grand feast where the main dishes feature fish, berries, boars, rabbits, fruits, nuts, and various honeyed sweets and drinks. No one talks about the shortage of fish in the bay, or the dragon that emerged from it last month. In the chaos surrounding the City of the Free Peoples, a group of rebel fighters in conflict with the city's current self-proclaimed leader are holding a celebration for anyone to attend at the Immortal Duke well into the night that focuses on bolstering spirits and joyfully, loudly, singing and dancing in spite of Captain Koroc's threats. Oddly, the Defenders seem unwilling to make a move on the heavily warded inn and everyone who joins in seems to lose their worries and cares the moment they step foot over the threshold. An elf with blond and brown streaked hair offers support and uplifting words and gives a speech at one point in the night that seems to really rally the crowded inn's crowd, promising that brighter days are soon to come and that before long the city will belong to the people once more, with no need to fear their true leader. There is even a mocking play that makes light of the former and current rulers. An armadillo beastfolk depicts Captain Lykos as timid and uncertain, waffling over decisions and eventually curling himself into an armored ball and rolling away off stage. An orc with horns on his head plays Koroc as a bullish brute that charges a mysterious masked and taunting character with a cape, careening right off the stage behind him and into a pile of prop boxes where he is 'slain' by his own stupidity.

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🜙 Arkoda's Awakening: Potion Seller

	The black markets of the three cities are constantly moving, never lingering in the same place for long. You may not have even known you were in it, were it not for the battle-scarred hyena and his human friend calling out to you with a gruff barked "Hey," followed by a smooth as silk sing-song "I know what you've been searching for." Against your better instincts, you find yourself compelled, stepping one foot after the next over to the harmless looking alchemy market stand. Nearly a hundred colorful bottles and vials of assorted shaped are stacked and stored around the lantern-lit stand. "You'll know which potion you need when you find it." The singsong voice of the woman washes against you like a reassuring touch, and she holds both hands out palms up, gesturing to her many wares. The leering hyena beastfolk beside her grins dangerously at you, winking. "If you think you can handle them." There's something unusual about them, they almost seem to shimmer in the light. As you pick up one of their offered vials you feel a dizzying sensation as if the earth has suddenly gone out from beneath your feet. You catch yourself on a tree and look up to find yourself standing in the middle of a mostly empty marsh somewhere between Didymos and the City of the Free Peoples. You're disoriented, confused, and your head is pounding. It feels as if you just went on an all-night drinking bender. The vial is gone, as is the market, but you aren't alone. Another individual is picking themselves up out of the marsh beside you, feeling the same effects of an unfortunate encounter with the tricksters or perhaps they were just out for a walk when you appeared out of nowhere and knocked into them.
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🜙 The Wyrm Moon: Wolves of Atrómitos

	King Ardis and his men have set up camp in an abandoned village near the outskirts of the City of the Free Peoples while the roguish leader of Didymos' ocean quarter attempts to get Captain Koroc to agree to assisted mediation from him and his men. So far his request has been repeatedly scoffed at by the towering red orc who views the man's attempts at diplomacy as a power grab. Dozens of rebels remain locked in custody of the Defenders and the knights of the City of the Free Peoples seem on edge, an air of anxious and paranoid tension rampant in the warcamp while a feeling of distrust and fear permeates the city itself. Prior to the Wyrm Moon, Captain Koroc declares that King Ardis' presence is an act of war and that the city is now under his rule. The City of the Free Peoples is still in a state of internal conflict. Their unofficial leader, Captain Lykos, has been missing since the end of December and in the wake of his disappearance, a red orc named Koroc has declared himself the new leader of the Defenders of the City. His greed for power has progressed over the months he has been in command of the army of Defenders, and he has now claimed himself King Koroc, rightful ruler of the city and its people, calling the city once more by the more familiar name of Atrómitos. His erratic, increasingly violent behavior and the fairly fresh scars covering one of his arms make him an even more fearsome sight than the already over-sized orc had previously been to behold. Even his most trusted fellow Defenders seem nervous in his presence. Dervish, the smaller orc that has been at his side since Captain Lykos' disappearance is quieter, remaining behind him rather than beside him. Dozens of citizens are locked up in cells in a makeshift Defender's warcamp prison and a struggle for power has risen to the surface. King Ardis is willing to help find a diplomatic solution by force if necessary, waiting outside the city with a small force of soldiers and putting out calls for information on the situation to help him help the people of the city. The newly recovered Captain Lykos is laying low, assessing the state of the city and searching the network for supporters to reach out to while he waits out the full moon. The rebels numbers are depleted but their current leader, an enterprising elf named Lorna with connections willing to fund her attempts to take back the city, is reorganizing her people and recruiting people to the cause of putting the city in saner, more capable hands. Koroc's new leadership seems to involve enforcing militaristic force and overbearing control over the city, but he is making broad claims of returning the city to its former glory, assuring his people that when he is in power, Didymos and Krimnos will give their city the respect they've been denied since the fall of Atrómitos Things have come to a violent final head, and the actions of everyone involved over the next few weeks could alter the City of the Free Peoples forever. As the full moon rises over the city's internal conflict, fearsome howls fill the brightly moonlit night and dozens of werewolves emerge from the shadows, attacking the newly re-named Atrómitos and the city's outskirts with a pack mentality rarely seen in the usually lone, cursed creatures. They hunt together, clawing their way from the wilderness toward the city, eyes blood red in the night, their black fur allowing them to melt into the shadows. The defenders can be seen all over the outskirts of the city, armed and ready, their response time impressive. Dervish leads them, and they beat back the werewolf attack. It's clear the werewolves are out for blood. Some of them make it through the Defenders' defensive lines, but many of the creatures retreat and turn their claws and teeth on the farmers and King Ardis' camp.

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🜙 The Wyrm Moon: Dawn of Dragons.

	Under the light of the larger than usual wyrm moon, the claimed dragon eggs scattered across Idan begin to hatch. The dragons that emerge from the eggs have no magical abilities, no flight, and no voice, but their personalities will grow and define rapidly. All but one of the hatching eggs found its way into the clutches of an awakened, for better or for worse. A lone egg, hidden away in a crate on Didymos' shore is found by the Didymos guards on patrol sometime after the waters have cleared. They take their discovery to Queen Adira, who is faced with a startling discovery. Another dragon outside Didymos. A proud denizen of truth and justice, she makes a courier post visible to all of Didymos, allowing them to see the hatchling for themselves, and explaining the circumstances of its discovery. She admits she is unaware of whether or not there may be more such creatures but assures her citizens that her scholars will be closely monitoring the hatchling. It is a frightening awakening for Didymos, but Queen Adira insists that until they know where it came from, if there are more of them, and if this creature is a threat, she and her advisors will be keeping it contained and monitored. Its kind may have destroyed the kingdoms of old, but she implores her people not to let that color their judgment. Frowning, she reluctantly admits that the actions of the people and creatures of the past must not be used to sentence people and creatures of the present and that if they travel down that road it would darken the clarity of justice they uphold in Didymos. Understandably, reactions throughout the city are wildly mixed.

🜙 Note.

	April's plot write-up will feature a follow up on both the Einjar Excursion and the Wyrm Moon events. Next month players will be helping to decide the future of the City of Free Peoples: Its name, its leader, and how it reforms following the conflict that has divided it and caused a rift of fear and confusion between its people.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wolves of Atrómitos - Daytime

"I'm really, honestly not interested, guys."

While the rebellion is a little more low key about their recruitment efforts, the Defenders are infinitely less so. They're in the right, after all, so who wouldn't want to join? And as far as the three confronting Billie go, they figure anyone who looks like they can fight had better be joining the right side. Naturally, she disagrees, trying to shrug them off by saying she's out shopping for dinner, that's all, but one was eavesdropping at one particular market stall when a farmer thanks her for hanging around his farm and discouraging wolves for the night.

In any case, she nearly made it out of the market before they caught up and now they definitely think they have her cornered. It looks that way, anyway, with them loosely standing around her and her back to an empty stall.

One of them argues that she's already going their work, she may as well sign on, to which they get a laugh and a, "No, I'm doing your work because you aren't. If I joined you morons, I'd end up doing nothing, too."

And with that, they take offense and reach for their swords. Yeah, that seems about right. Can't even buy a few gods-damned vegetables in this stupid city anymore, can she?

Wolves of Atrómitos - Nighttime

With the moon risen high, the outskirts swarming and the Defenders holding a line, it isn't wholly unusual — to Billie, at least — that she's found herself a good spot to watch from a rooftop close behind where the Defender's hold their ground. She watches with her mask perched up atop her head, ready to be pulled down at a moment's notice, though while it is up, a furrowed brow and a frown are present.

"They knew to be here," she decides, mostly to herself. No one else is up here, not even her animas at the moment, so it's a useless theory said to the cool night air. Dervish is leading instead of their glorious new "king", which confirms yet another problem, but for now—

She won't hang out and watch, apparently, because a furious motion down a street catches her eye. It's only a flash of movement but she immediately knows it isn't human. Too fast, too fuzzy, and then she's up from where she's been sitting and teleporting herself across the rooftops to follow. One of the werewolves has gotten through and it may not be her problem, she doesn't feel right about letting it become someone else's, either.

She'll only beat it to a cross-street by a few tics, however, just long enough to land on the edge of the roof overlooking it and shout down to whatever poor fool is down there, "Watch it! One's coming your way!"

And as if by cue, a werewolf explodes onto the scene out of an alley, scattering trash and debris with an enraged snarl.

Edited 2019-03-22 23:24 (UTC)

Strange barely had any time to rest the past day or so. First he arrived back from Einjar (and all the mess that entailed), then he taxed his magic to hell and back magically reshaping the silverware he stole into crude yet hopefully effective daggers, and then everything went to hell and back because of the werewolf attacks.

He's got an excuse to be out of it a little. Billie's words reach his ears right as the werewolf crashes out of an alley, a few yards ahead of him. Thankfully, Bell the murder bunny isn't here: Strange tasked her to babysit the egg. Unfortunately, this means it's just Strange vs. werewolf at the moment.

"Couldn't you have given me the heads up sooner?" he whines, as he backs up slightly. His metal manipulation magic isn't as good as he wants it to be: though he really wants to, at the moment he doesn't have any time to just magically shoot one his bootleg daggers into the wolf's hide. So, he falls back on old tricks. With a wave of his hand, the earth around the ground the werewolf erupts, as Strange tries to magically block the thing in or impale it via various-sized earthen spikes.

The werewolf crashes into a wall of dirt instead of Strange himself, so it works well in that respect. It doesn't keep the werewolf from snarling and beginning to rip its way through, though, but by then Billie is appearing on the street behind it, crossbow loaded and cocked.

"I didn't even know you were here until just seconds ago!" So, of course, she couldn't warn him sooner. Sheesh. Anyway, moving on. "Hey, ugly!"

Meaning the werewolf, not Strange. While that fails to get the werewolf to turn around, the crossbow bolt to its back does a fantastic job of that. Just as its sticking its head through the dirt and rocks to get at Strange, there's a thump of an arrow hitting flesh and it reels back, howling in pain. It isn't quite silver but wolfsbane-tipped isn't half-bad.

When Billie gets it's attention, Strange drops the earth spell entirely. What bits of earth he had already manipulated were still upright, but he's focusing on something else instead. Fumbling in his pocket, Strange pulls out the sorriest looking shiv while he murmurs an incantation. The shiv is a spoon, though the non-spoon end is pointed.

With a gesture of his hand, the makeshift dagger flies towards the werewolf. However, the magic is wobbly and he's navigating through some dirt and rocks: it pierces the beast in the shoulder. Still, it is silver, and the werewolf's howls of pain get even louder.

"Shoot him again, that's silver!" Because at the moment, Strange is utterly defenseless. And seeing as the werewolf is turning back to him and starting to break it's way through the remaining earth barrier, Strange is pretty certain he's the main target.

"Oh for the love of—"

Billie had been meaning to lead the angry werewolf away from Strange but then he goes and shanks the poor thing with silver. Poor as in it likely never asked for this but here they are anyway. It won't stop her from moving, only it isn't to reload. With how quickly the werewolf is getting through the remnants of the barrier, it'll be on Strange before she can, so she drops the crossbow and moves to rush forward, only in doing so her form flickers and blinks out of sight, as it typically goes with her teleport spell.

She reappears the next second, landing on the werewolf's back and immediately latching on. One arm loops around the neck and her free hand grabs for the spoon end of the silver shiv that's still sticking out of the werewolf's shoulder. She twists it deeper and hangs on for dear life because this fuzzball is about to reel back with a noise far more akin to mad shrieking than anything a wolf could manage. It stops going after Strange again, thrashing instead, though that still takes out the rest of the earthen barrier.

Shura probably would have mentioned the plan of capturing one of the werewolves if the opportunity arose to Billie, but as an ~official knight~ of the City, Shura found herself trying to bounce between what she had to do in order avoid someone suspecting her of dereliction of duty and her other plans. But since it seems like the Defenders have things under control in the City proper, Shura sneaks away as soon as she can, patrolling the rooftops and trying to find any weak spots before she moves out of the city.

It's that inhuman shrieking that catches her attention, and look, she knows those guys! Billie seems to have things under control, but Shura still hops down from the roof, landing behind Strange with a soft thump. That werewolf isn't dead yet, but that could be a good thing.

"You have him under control?" Restraining him was going to be a problem, but she'd get to that once he was knocked out.

Good bye little barrier, you saved Strange from getting eaten.

Billie is holding on for dear life so Strange is still tense and at the ready. Her pulls out a silver fork turned prison shiv out from his pocket, ready to magically send it in the werewolf's direction...when hey, Shura shows up. Strange visibly looks relieved but his focus is still on the werewolf as he tries to spot a moment of opportunity where he can strike but not hit Billie.

"Well, Billie shot it, I stabbed it with some silver, and we've pissed it off. We could probably use some help."

Especially since Strange's aim needs a bit of work.

Only if by 'under control' Shura means 'having a werewolf rodeo', as it ends up being the case here as she arrives. Billie doesn't answer immediately, busy trying to keep her grapple on the werewolf's neck locked. With one arm, though, the most that's going to do is keep her on its back as it starts bucking wildly around, from two legs to four as it tries to dislodge her.

When she does finally yell at them, it's mostly due to the fact that Strange has yet another silver shiv in hand and her immediate reaction to that is, "Don't! You even! Dare!"

It's all a little stilted since she doesn't want to bite her tongue off every time the werewolf shakes violently. Inwardly, she's already wishing she'd gone rat form for this. Claws are just better at boots sometimes and that's about as far as that thought goes when the damn thing realizes it can try and scrape her off against the side of a building, which it promptly attempts by crashing sideways into a wall.

That has the intended effect, unfortunately, because it loosens Billie's grip enough for the next round of thrashing immediately after to send her flipping heels over head into the cobblestone and dust.

Okay, fine so maybe not as under control as Shura hoped. Nothing wrong with being an optimist, right?? She'll shove past Strange, since he's the last rodeo clown they need, sword drawn.

"Ugly, over here!" Billie's down, Shura has no idea if she's injured, and then there's Strange in the back. She'll have to do more than yell to distract him, and she moves in to strike at him, aiming a slash at his leg to see if she can disable him that way. Alas, the fur and hide are a bit too much for just one well-place hit to take care of, but now she has his attention. Shura wanted it! But damn, she was hoping he was going to be a bit easier to stab. There's just a moment before the wolf jumps at her, and Shura's going to use that to ask a quick question.

"Wolfsbane--did you use wolfsbane?" Shura calls to Billie, hoping that her little roll around with the werewolf didn't knock her out. That'd make things really inconvenient for Shura. There werewolf is going to be totally rude and not wait for Billie to reply before leaping at Shura. Time for some fun trying to dodge those teeth!

Jonathan 'my only form of attack is ranged attack' Strange honestly doesn't know what to do. Billie's down, Shura's moving in to slash at the werewolf's leg...any form of attack that he does is liable to hit them and any form of terrain shift that he does will inconvenience them as well.

Though he is a bit miffed that Billie shot down his stab the wolf again idea so fast. It's a marvelous idea, she's just wrong.

He's still ready to cast his manipulate metal spell. Why not use that? Strange moves a little to the side so that he better see the silver shiv stuck in the werewolf's shoulder. With a wave of his hand, the shiv sinks a few inches further down into the muscle.

Down but not out, thankfully, though it does mean Billie's had the wind knocked out of her. She won't answer immediately thanks to that but once she can, she'll push herself up to sit and answer Shura by wheezily yelling back to her, "On the crossbow bolt!"

The same one still sprouting out of the werewolf's back. That means the werewolf's strength is ebbing, even if that doesn't make it less of a danger just yet. It's still after Shura, snapping at her.

Of course there’s no sort of fast acting wolfsbane poison out there. That sure would make things super convenient! But the more Shura can force him to move, the faster the poison should act. Hopefully. Shura was more familiar with straight up murdering werewolves than she is with trying to capture them alive.

Speaking of her plans, was Strange aware of her plan? Crap, probably not. And she couldn’t really stop in the middle of trying to dodge this guy’s snapping to explain what she was trying to do. She’ll try to sneak a glance over at him when she can to try and see if she can tell whether or not Strange is doing anything stupid, but most of her attention is focused on wearing the wolf down without letting him get a nibble.

Unfortunately, Strange is not aware of the 'capture the werewolf alive' portion of the plan. This thing had tried to attack him, Billie, and now Shura. His focus is squarely on killing the damn thing and keeping everybody else alive.

He's still focused on the silver stuck in the werewolf's shoulder. Magically manipulating it from here would be tough, but doable. Murmuring under his breath, Strange continues the spell. The silver wiggles itself out of the werewolf's shoulder, pausing in the air for a moment before it goes for wound number two. Unfortunately, Strange's aim is a little off on this one: it slices the werewolf on the shoulder instead of stabbing it.

But hey, there's now a floating shiv if anybody wants to grab it.

billie lurk, open

werewoofs

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wild card-ish; wyrm moon

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