usir | Event #7 Crowning the Cat & The Celebration of Spring

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🜙 Crowning the Cat: Deception of Aegas

	The Celebration of Spring is being held across Idan, and normally the City of the Free Peoples is at its heart. This year due to the fearful farmers suffering losses in their families and herds to werewolves and the broken city torn between its fears and loyalties, the first sprouts of crops planted during the thaw are significantly less impressive than past years and the hunters bring their hauls back to the cities find themselves facing even more dangerous odds in the wilderness, outwitted and outmatched more often than not. Feasting, dancing, music, staged entertainers of illusion and elemental magic, and heavy drinking still overtake the cities and small outlying villages, putting a temporary halt to any work or other priorities, but there is an air of uncertainty that can't fully be shaken, and an uneasy and unspoken fear of a famine year lies just beneath the lighter festivities. Among the celebrating, people go out of their way to honor the feline constellation deity called Aegas. The youngest of the Constellation Deities, he is known for many things. Aegas' stars are fainter in the skies than most, seen just off the left from the Great Golden Dragon Atromo. In April, Aegas is not honored so much as tributed to keep the fickle feline's wiles and tricks at bay. Children and younger citizens of the cities or those with playful or devious minds play tricks on one another, some harmless pranks and others far more dangerous or deceptive. Despite this uptick of shenanigans, however, for most Aegas' day is a day spent ensuring the secretive trickster cat deity that he has not been forgotten, as well as a celebration of Spring. Openly jealous of Atromo's status and reverence, and long overlooked in favor of the other star gods, the people of Idan learned to show their reverence for Aegas in a ritual known as the Crowning of Aegas. Cat sculptures, paintings, figurines, or idols can be found all across Idan for those who can't make it to one of Aegas' shrines, and offerings of fish, sheep or goat's milk, silver or gold bells, silk, or saucers of water are left out for the many wild, stray, or tame felines of Idan to take at their leisure. Known for being a deity over secrets, pleasure, trickery, and charm, Aegas is a favored god of rogues, assassins, bards, bandits, thieves, and charmers. An enchanted spring illness common in Idan has long been attributed to Aegas not feeling that his charms have earned him the favor of the people. The illness is known as The Aegas Affliction and is actually caused by the pollen of a flower that blooms in April after particularly harsh winters (the Golden Bellflower) Aegas' Affliction causes those who have caught the illness to be easily charmed. Their complexion is often flushed and they give in to their whims with very little self-restraint. The main symptoms are: Susceptibility to personal suggestion (Their own whims, thoughts, and desires), susceptibility to charm-based magic, a tendency to be secretive or deceptive, and a heightened sense of hunger. The illness usually goes away on its own within 1-3 days and has no known cure. It's possible to get infected by Golden Bellflower pollen from April 5th to April 30th anywhere in Idan. Only exposure to a nearby flower is necessary. During the Crowning of Aegas and for the rest of April flocks of lesser winged cats can be seen migrating from their winter homes in the Wavecrest Isles back to the unclaimed lands. Occasionally these flocks of small, canary to bobcat-sized winged cats are accompanied by fiercely protective and dangerous greater winged cat guardians while other flocks travel on their own. The playful smaller felines can be seen frolicking in fields and playing over the rooftops all across Idan while the greater winged cats stay far from the highly populated areas, hunting the wild forests, cliffs, and open lands to stock up food for them and their small flocks of fur and feathered friends.


🜙 The Bloom

	Among the celebrating the dangers of spring are temporarily forgotten. Not all threats come with fangs, talons, and claws. Creeping vines and sprouting plants lurk in the tall grasses of the plains and the dense forests. Some of the more dangerous varieties bloom and thrive in the earliest month of spring. Viperlily. A small free-roaming flowering vine with two thorns that protrude from the middle of its flower. The vine slithers along the ground in the grass toward sources of movement or sound and sinks its thorns into the feet or lower limbs of any living thing it encounters. The vine subsists on blood rather than water and uses the gathered blood to provide itself with the nutrients it needs to keep moving. It injects its victim with a venom that causes them to become weak, sluggish, and unable to use their magic so it can continue to drain blood. Most Viperlilys are too small to cause much permanent damage to their victim, but being left vulnerable in the wilderness does lead to many post-bite deaths, especially with the smell of blood in the air. Bloodthorn. A dying Viperlily that has gone dormant and taken root. Small Viperlily seeds grow all over its vines, each one prepared to drop off and grow into a new Viperlily. A thorn protrudes from the bloody sap-filled bulb of this vine. It points up toward the sun with a thorn as sharp and dangerous as a needle dagger. Those unfortunate enough to be stabbed by its thorn are injected with a modified Viperlily poison that causes victims to become feverish and reckless, encouraging them to remain nearby and engage anything near the Bloodthorn aggressively. The bloodshed caused by its victims or the Bloodthorn's own destruction causes the dozens of Viperlily seeds to sprout and take off to find their first meals. Creeping Dragontrap. A member of the carnivorous plant family, the Creeping Dragontrap is a fully mobile creeping vine with one to four heads that each have thorn-filled 'mouths' they snap down on the prey they find. The acidic toxins inside their mouths prevent their prey from being able to fight free on their own. An antitoxin is produced by the sap within their vines, but a victim captured by one of these plants will need help getting free and provided with the antitoxin before the vine escapes in a speedy retreat into the wilderness or ground. Rogue's Blush. The dense cover of this flowering ground vine is a network of sensitive thin vines can sense vibrations in the ground. The night-flowering vine is covered in dormant flowers that open in the darkness. They release pollen into the air when vibrations are sensed nearby. This pollen is collected and used in a common rogue tool: Flash Dust because eye contact with the pollen results in a blinding white flash that causes temporary blindness for 24 hours. Bramble Mimic can shape its vines into any form it has collected a template of. The thorny brambles rest in the form of a dense bush, usually settling itself partially into worn paths made by creatures or people. It uses the blood it collects from creatures or people that bump into it as a template to rearrange itself into their form, though its size is dependent on how large the original mimic has grown. It then uses its new form to hunt for food to sustain itself, holding a natural preference for predators, carnivores, and herbivores. The most common forms are those of predatory forest or swamp creatures such as jaguars, bears, wolves, and alligators.

🜙 A Mod Note

	A "Network log" will be going up the week of the 19th that will be paired with the next event log. The network log will contain courier messages from Queen Adira, King Ardis, King Sitka, Self-Crowned King Koroc, Resistance and Rebel Leader Lorna, Former Defenders Captain Lykos, and Former Defenders Lieutenant Alice. Player characters will be able to ask these leaders questions and attempt to communicate with them personally if they wish.

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"No," Strange admits as he just keeps on using magic. With one hand, he holds the knife in the way that Billie taught him. But with the other hand, he gestures to the air and conjures up a small breeze.

"But I don't see why I shouldn't. Magic is a part of me. If a beastperson was learning to fight, then they'd use their claws and teeth. Likewise, I'm certain you know a few tricks that make use of your shiftling form. It would be silly to learn something and not apply magic during the learning process."

He tosses the knife at the target. The wind keeps it slightly more stable than before, but Strange still misses. He pauses for a moment, debating what to do next.

This is one of those moments where Billie wonders if this is how obnoxious she was when still in training and thinking way too highly of herself. She got shit for it then and she doesn't see any reason not to give Strange the same kind of shit for it now. So, she's getting back to her feet without a word, moving silently as she leaves the back steps and crosses the grass to come up behind Strange.

She doesn't argue with him, not yet. Rather, she opts to grab for the back of Strange's shirt. If she gets that? She's following up by lashing out with a knee to knock one of his legs off balance and yanking back, hard. Essentially, she's planning to topple him to the ground as rudely as possible.

Strange is too busy focusing on his magic, trying to mull over which aspect of the wind to change next, maybe if the metal manipulation magic could make the thing move easier, that he doesn't realize Billie grabbing the bottom of his shirt until it's too late.

Needless to say, he wipes the hell out. As her foot connects with his knee, Strange falls to the ground with a thud. "Hell!" he swears, looking up at Billie with an incredulous look. "What was that for?!"

With Strange sprawled on the grass, Billie does him the one kindness of not putting a boot on his chest to keep him there. What she does do is crouch down right next to him as she gives him an entirely unamused look. This also has the added bonus of her looming over him real close while he's down there.

"Magic is a part of you, sure. A part that can be ripped away with the right spell," she corrects his earlier words. "That cult that keeps popping up? They can do that. They did it to me. They'll do it to you."

Assuming he ever runs into them but, looking at the City right now, that seems really plausible. She gives a second or two for that to sink in before continuing.

"I had to learn everything I do the hard way before I even touched magic. When a spell isn't going to help me, I'm not shit out of luck for it. So, you can use magic when I say you can. Until then, you hit that target without or you go find someone else to teach you this. You understand?"

Edited 2019-05-03 21:56 (UTC)

Strange can't help but simmer with annoyance. Because he knows that Billie's right. He knows that he could lose his magic and that he would be shit out of luck if he didn't have his magic. But at the same time? He desperately does not want to admit to Billie that she's right.

So, as he pushes himself up off of the ground, he attempts a compromise.

"At least let me use my magic to bring the knife back to me after I throw it. That doesn't involve aiming—and if anything, I need to work on catching just as much as aiming."

Billie won't move to shove him back down, leaving him free to get up. She'll follow suit, even if his attempt to compromise gets a grimace. For good reason, too.

"You know you're more likely to stab yourself doing that than you are throwing them, right?"

"Then I'll just have to practice harder at not being stabbed." It's a glib remark and one that he knows Billie will sass back at him, so Strange continues talking as he gets to his feet.

"I'll have to practice catching things at some point. My metal manipulation magic is too useful for me to ignore it completely and I can easily bring daggers to myself from across a room. Why not kill two birds with one stone?"

If Billie weren't being serious about this, she might have. 'Practice harder at not being stabbed' is something she's done and it's a lot harder than catching blades properly but she's hoping a mage isn't going to worry about that particularly big picture.

So, what Strange gets is her crossing her arms and looking thoughtfully at him, actually considering whether to agree with him or not. Ultimately, he does have a fair enough point.

"Fine," she says at last. "But you hit me or anyone else while doing that instead and you're in trouble."

"I'm not going to hit anyone," Strange responds, as he rolls his eyes. But he is taking care to change the spell slightly, magically calling that knife back to him at a much slower speed than the previous time.

As he adjusts his position and re-establishes his grip, Strange continues talking about magic.

"I've gotten better at shaping metals now. Bring me some silver, and I can fasten some silver arrowheads for that crossbow of yours. Or what about copper? Bring me some scrap and I'll fasten it into wire for you."

Sure, he's not going to hit anyone. He says that now but Billie's going to retire back to the smithy's steps, sitting back down there and hopefully out of range of any direct mishaps. Plus, she can lounge back against the other steps, so, that's comfy enough.

"I think I'm good with the wolfsbane," She says as she watches him pull the knife back and prepare to throw it again. Copper, though... "What exactly do you think I would do with copper wire?"

He tosses the knife: it misses. And so, Strange magically calls it back to him, just as deliberately slow and careful as before.

"You could trip someone or tie them up. Or who knows, maybe you've developed some magic that could benefit from something like that. After all, I accidentally learned how to generate electricity. Who knows what you might have picked up?"

But Strange, the right way of disabling an enemy is to choke them out, not tie them up, right? Right.

Tripping someone up she could see but copper tends to be pretty pliable when thin, which is something that Billie muses to herself since the 'accidentally learned' magic comment garners much more attention than metal bending. Lips purse into a thin line at that because she's pretty sure she knows what he's referencing.

"I wouldn't call what happened an accident," she says, trying her all to sound neutral about it even when she is still pretty mad about this entire scale thing.

"I would," Strange casually remarks. He obviously isn't mad about this entire scale thing. A sign from Logistykon as well as a gift of power from (what he assumes) is the dragon himself? That's pretty damn awesome. "The scale was placed there on purpose, but our touching it to gain the power was a complete accident."

Even though let's be real, Strange would touch it no matter what. He tosses the knife at the target again. It hits, but it hits at an awkward angle where the knife can't penetrate, and bounces off to the floor.

Billie would have to admit she's found parts of that so-called gift useful.

She's also found she has an unfortunate dilemma of things beginning to burn around her when she's angry, which is a lot more than she ever lets on these days. Having a new and uncontrollable tell like that? That's bad news.

"So, if I put poison in a drink I gave you and you drank it and got poisoned, would that be an accident, too?"

Why, yes, she is comparing the power from the dragons to poison. She isn't sure she's far off with being accurate with that description, either, for all she may be raising an actual, living dragon herself.

"I'm not teaching you any magic if you poison me."

Strange is fairly certain that this is Billie joking and being difficult for the sake of being difficult, but Strange is just going to point out the obvious here. No poisoning him please, that's a terrible idea.

"Besides, your comparison is off. The dragons gave us this magic as a gift. If they wanted to kill us, they would have done so."

He calls the knife back to him, still magically floating that thing through the air at a remarkably slow pace.

Strange, it was a comparison, not a— oh, whatever. Billie just sighs and carries on with, "I mean that if I did that, it would have been intentional, not an accident. The scales aren't any different. Whoever sent them knew we'd pick them up. It was a trap."

"It wasn't a trap," Strange points out, frowning a little. "It was a gift. This is completely a matter of semantics and word choice, but traps are bad. This isn't."

Sure, he still occasionally shocks things when he gets too excited. But that's magic. He's got an idea of how to calm down the shocks and with enough practice, he'll gain control of this like he's gained control over the rest of his magic.

"You know what else is bad? Shoving a dragon's magic into someone without asking first," Billie keeps on disagreeing, her thus far unimpressed look she's giving the mage already on its way to becoming an equally unimpressed glower.

"I've already burned through two pairs of gloves. I'm just counting down the days before I accidentally set a house on fire at this point."

Billie has magic that she doesn't know how to use. Unsurprisingly, Strange's response to that isn't 'be sympathetic and offer condolences' but 'try to help Billie find a way to turn that magic for the better. He pauses for a moment, frowning as he thinks.

"Someone who's opinion I trust offered the suggestion of focusing and trying to direct the magic once it's started. That's stopped me from accidentally shocking people. Perhaps it can help you as well?"

Edited 2019-05-07 01:56 (UTC)

Probably for the best. Billie's the sort who would tell Strange to take his sympathy and stick it somewhere rude.

"Yeah, sure, let me just direct the amazing power of magma somewhere useful," she grouses before catching herself getting way, way off-topic. They're here so Strange can throw knives, not for them to discuss magic. "But you know what? How about you don't give me advice until you can hit that target three times in a row?"

She's irritated now, which means unless she stops talking for a while, she's going to be out three pairs of gloves.

"Until then, keep your mouth shut."

Strange is about to espouse all the useful ways that she can use magma, but Billie quickly shuts down that line of conversation. Alright. Three times in a row? That should be easy enough. And then he can help Billie figure out her problem.

So, he takes the knife, throws it, and promptly misses. Strange works in relative silence for the next ten minutes, irritation and annoyance fueling his throws. He's definitely getting better, but every time he misses a shot after he hits the target, he can feel his annoyance growing and the air around him crackle slightly with electricity. It's an awkward series of Strange getting annoyed, trying to calm himself down, then getting annoyed again, all of which spills over Strange completely misses a shot after hitting the target two times in a row.

"Godsdamnit!" he swears in irritation. This is somehow Billie's fault. If she just let him offer that advice in the first place then he wouldn't be as tense! The static around him crackles as he turns to look at Billie and decides fuck it! They're going to talk about magic now! This has been weighing on his mind for the past ten minutes, might as well get it out.

"Locks," he says, completely out of context. "Or iron bars, or shackles. Or hell, we're at a blacksmith's! Use the magma to keep a forge going!"

All in all, it's fairly entertaining to watch Strange struggle not to summon a super-localized lightning storm around himself while trying to keep his cool. That he manages to get the target twice in a row is almost encouraging, right up until— ah, there they go. A miss, and yet here he is, abandoning target practice to babble suggestions at her.

Billie raises her eyebrows at that, just watching him whirl around and go off like that. Locks, iron bars, shackles? Without context, she can figure he means melting through metal, but rather than address that...

"So much for being the focused one here," she can easily slide out of brooding over her own problem now that Strange is having his own. "You really can't go longer than that without needing to solve my problems?"

Edited 2019-05-07 04:20 (UTC)

"Your problems are something I can solve," Strange sighs. He's still a little tense and still crackling with lightning, but actually talking to Billie about her problems is calming him down somewhat. "This magic, what we were given, is based on emotion. You just need to take a hold of that emotion and focus it into something tangible."

Says the person who's still having trouble focusing his. Strange is at least aware of the hypocrisy. Maybe if he tries to just send out his lightning instead of trying to push it down, that'll help show her what he's talking about? Even if it doesn't, getting that lightning away from Strange and out of his system is definitely a good idea.

"Stay where you are, please. I'm going to show you how it's done."

Billie shouldn't be struggling with this many emotions to begin with but whether that problem stems from the magic itself or just herself, that's a different problem and not one she's bringing up to Strange. Or anyone, really.

"I can already—" Nope, apparently he's just going to go ahead and show her what he can do. She'll stop there and stay put, since she already wasn't too inclined to get up. She can tell Strange about super-heated weaponry later. "Fine. Let's see."

Letting Billie talk? Nope, why would he do that, he's just gonna keep steamrollering through this conversation.

Strange turns around and looks at the target. Taking a deep breath, he thrusts his hand out at the knife target. A bolt of lightning arcs from his hand to the target, putting a big ol'black char mark smack dab in the middle of the target.

"There. Gather the magic and then draw it out from your hands. Once you've gathered it, releasing it should be easy."

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