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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. | |
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| 🜙 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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"I'll have to add that to the list of the ten thousand other things I need to purchase," he remarks, with a little sigh. Houses are nice but they're a lot more expensive than Strange had thought.
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"That'll keep you plenty busy, then~" She won't ask what he needs to buy because she mostly doesn't care, but also, she doesn't feel like dodging more unsubtle suggestions that she ought to move in with him.
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With a little nod towards Aconite and Shura, Strange stands up. "I'll be in the next room over. I'm a heavy sleeper but Alistair isn't. Yell if you need anything and he'll wake me up."
As he talks, he backs away a little bit, moving more towards the door.
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But since he is being decent to her and letting her crash at his place for the evening, dumb crush or not, Shura knows that she should at least be a little polite.
"Thanks." And she is grateful! Things could have gone much worse.
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The sooner she sleeps off this blindness, the better. While Strange will happily admit he likes having Shura over, it would be better for all of them if she were to recover and recover fast. He lingers in the doorway for a moment, giving Shura and Aconite one last look, before heading out, back to the living area.
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It'll take a moment for Shura to get up and actually get ready to try and sleep. She knows Strange went back to the living room, she listened to his footsteps when he went to retrieve Aconite, and she listens closely as he leaves. It's possible that he might just be killing time until he's tired and he's reading a book or something else instead of annoying her.
That hope, that he's not giving up his bed for a second time, is soon quashed once she gets under the covers. These are not the sheets of a bed that was rarely used. These sheets smelled like a man.
But she's tired and tipsy. She'll hassle him about this in the morning.
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Both Bell and Alistair jump on Strange after he gets himself situated. He's a little too tall for the couch but once the critters are on him, he realizes he really can't move. And so, Strange goes to sleep, shirtless and in a slightly awkward position, feet hanging a few inches off the edge of the couch, hare and dragon snuggled up on top of him.
Super dignified.
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And since it's more fun this way, Shura will wake up late, just late enough that the effects of the Rogue's Blush have worn off. Small favors. Aconite is still snoozing, and Shura would usually let her sleep as much as she wanted. However, Shura has learned that a dragonet who sleeps in all day is a dragonet who gets cranky and wants to play all night, so she'll pick her up and let the baby wake up while she carries her to the living room.
And let's face it, Strange looks like a dopey moron laid out like that with the dragon and hare. Shura isn't going to bother hiding her snickers. Aconite, now much more awake now that she realizes that she can see and her dragon buddy is right there will just happily take a flying leap out of Shura's arms to land on the couch and beeline to Alistair, who should obviously be in the mood to play.
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"What?" He looks around, confused, and oh, Shura's there. He still has some morning sleep brain, so he gives Shura a slightly dopey smile. The bedhead is not helping matters, but he isn't awake enough to realize just how ridiculous he looks.
"Oh. Hello there. Did you sleep well?"
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Strange, of course, looks ridiculous, goofy and shirtless. And that's where that train of though should stop, but it doesn't. In spite of herself, Shura's a little charmed by that dopey smile. Maybe it would have been better if she was blinded a little longer?
"Mm. Well, I should hope so. I think you forgot to take me to your spare bed, though~"
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Strange's goofy smile falters a little bit when Shura mentions the fact that he doesn't have spare bed. Oh. Shit, she figured that out, didn't she? He gives her a smile, trying to seem like everything's fine.
"Ah, about that. As it turns out, I don't have a spare bed. Still, you were blind, I wasn't going to let you sleep on the couch."
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Teasing aside, Shura still has business to take care of, and she points to Aconite, who is cheerfully making up a new game of cuddle wrestling with Alistair, pushing and nuzzling him.
“Watch her for me. I’m going back to finish gathering some stuff out in the forest.”
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But he doesn't mind being dragon babysitter for a while. If Alistair and Aconite entertain each other, Strange can continue on some research of his. So, he nods at Shura's request. "If you find any wild mushrooms, can you bring them back? I want to try and expand Alistair's tastes."
Alistair makes a little noise as he hears his name but then goes right back to cuddle wrestling.
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"Yeah, I'll see what I can find." Shura says as she turns to leave, glancing back over her shoulder at ridiculous sight on the couch. It was a small thing to do in return for shelter, but if he thinks he can get anything done with two dragons, good luck.
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"Best of luck," he says, with a little nod, as the dragons continue to wrestle on the couch.