Event #7 Crowning the Cat & The Celebration of Spring

[usirmods]

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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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Daud | OTA

[forswore]

weed whackers anonymous [city of the free peoples & krimnos ]

This isn't really what Daud came out here for, but for a reformed assassin, the sounds of someone screaming in distress are hard to pass by. With spring, more people are venturing out on the road, but said people are also equally prone to running afoul of the vicious, sentient greenery that bursts out of the earth, indiscriminately attacking what's nearest.

So perhaps you too are running in the direction of the shouts when a shadow passes you by -- and in the distance, a winged form ducks and pours flame out onto writhing vines. Or perhaps you're already in the thick of it yourself when a tiefling seems to burst out of nowhere onto the scene, blade in hand, to help dispatch whatever's come after.

For the less inclined to venture outside the perimeter of the city, they may chance into the grim tiefling escorting shaken-looking folk back, sticky, drying sap hopelessly spattered all over his clothes and hair.

outskirts investigations (city of the free peoples)

Once Daud actually gets to where he's going, it's mostly to talk to people to try and gather information. The thing is, it's spring, and folks are a bit short-handed. In the course of his answer-seeking, Daud finds himself playing at being impromptu farmhand, shedding a few of his heavier layers to help wrangle recalcitrant farm animals back where they belong, or helping plow up dirt in fields to prepare them for sowing.

Farms, naturally, attract an abundance of cats. They're commonly at play around the area, chasing each other, watching what's about them, or indulging in the many offerings laid out for their amusement.

wildcard

Daud spends the first half of the month around the City of the Free Peoples and occasionally traveling to Krimnos and Didymos via airship. He can be encountered about his business in either.

outskirts investigations

[kingsroads]

Though he's entirely moved in at Didymos, Strange had already taken a few jobs as a mage for hire at the City of Free Peoples that he wasn't going to turn down. So, a little rearranging schedules, and he's back at the City for a few days. One of these jobs involved helping to overturn some fields in preparation for farming. Despite knowing nothing about farming, Strange knows enough about making magic do stuff to help magically turn some earth and plow those fields.

However, the magic is taxing as hell. Inevitably, Strange has to take a break to catch his breath and have a glass of water. As he does so, he spots Daud finishing up some animal wrangling. Well! That was unexpected.

"It truly is a miracle, he's taken his coat off." Should he sass the guy who can kill him? Probably not. Is he doing it anyway? Yep. Noticeably, Strange is out by himself: no animas or baby dragon at his side. Also noticeably, he is not dressed for farmwork at all.

[forswore]

Since the Einjar expedition's end, Daud hasn't had much direct contact with Strange -- not that he was the most social of people to begin with. However, if he had to guess, Daud wouldn't suspect that the magician was much of a fan of fieldwork, which makes his presence here a bit unexpected.

Not that Daud's expression looks particularly surprised, even when Strange comes out with that instead of, you know, a proper greeting. Nonetheless, Daud will finish the task he's in the middle of -- using a long stick as an extension of his arm to bully some goats into a pen, then locking the gate shut -- before he looks up at Strange.

"Didn't feel like getting my coat eaten." Practicality wins out over his usual preference for keeping his skin hidden, although he's still wearing heavy gloves.

[kingsroads]

"That makes sense," Strange admits, as he looks over at the goats. "One of them tried eating my shirtsleeves earlier."

It was a hassle. Seriously goats, you have your own food, don't eat his shirt. Noticeably, Strange isn't making a move to help Daud bully those goats: he's just standing and watching, hands in his pockets as he watches.

"Though I can honestly say, I didn't expect to see you here. Helping out with animals like this doesn't seem to be your style." Strange is entirely unaware of the irony in his words.

[forswore]

"I could say the same for you," Daud answers, straightening and dusting his hands off. The crook is left leaning against the fence, the tiefling judging that it's a safe enough spot to rest it against for now.

"Pay's decent. Seems like no one's too keen on leaving the city if they can help it, not with the chance of werewolf attacks these days. Not as complicated as cursed expeditions."

[kingsroads]

"I'm a mage for hire," Strange explains, as he gestures to himself. "I'm wherever is in need of my talents."

Or at least wherever is in need of someone who can magically manipulate a lot of ground all at once. That counts as talents, even if it's a little bit anticlimactic.

As Daud mentions the expedition, Strange sighs and continues to make idle chit chat. "That whole thing went pear-shaped, didn't it-the expedition, of course. The last werewolf attack was terrible, but could have been worse."

let’s say this is the thread he asks strange for help blah blah timeywimey shenanigans

[forswore]

“Most of us survived, despite the circumstances,” Daud offers. That’s a metric of success by any measure, in his book. “Even if the casualties from the werewolf attack weren’t so great, those who’ve been cursed will have to live with it for the rest of their lives. There’s no cure for that.”

Though now that they’re on the topic of wolves and it’s on his mind...

“You were collecting silver on the expedition, weren’t you? How much of it do you have left?”

outskirts

[exaomori]

Do you know who's watching Daud doing farm labor from a distance and laughing? This chick. Of course she is, what else is Shura going to do? Technically, she has a good reason for not helping, being on patrol and all, but watching Daud digging trenches with a hoe is probably one of the entertaining things she's seen in the last week or so. It's entertaining enough that once Shura gets a break, she'll approach him, arms up behind her head and a leering grin on her face.

"Thinkin' of takin' up a new profession or something?"

She doesn't expect a reaction out of him, the old fart. It won't stop her from poking at him.

[forswore]

Not much of a reaction, no, but they at least know each other well enough by now that Daud will deign to answer -- though not before he spares a second or two to let his gaze casually tail over their surroundings, checking to see that there isn't anyone with the city guard who'd mark Shura talking with him.

Paranoid as ever. He lets the hoe dig into the ground, feeling the ache of the work he's done this afternoon in his muscles, and finding he doesn't mind it at all.

"If you're building up to a punch line," he rumbles, pulling the hoe back again, words punctuated by the crunch and plink of the metal breaking up stone and soil. "It better be original."

[exaomori]

"Ha! So you do have some kind of sense of humor~" As crappy as it may be. He's not even bothering to stop working to joke! Either the pay was amazing or his work ethic was just that incredible. Or maybe he didn't care. Whatever it was, Shura doesn't care enough about his opinion to leave him be, dropping her hands to rest on her hips.

"But I don't think I could come up with a punchline clever enough for you. You must have some have standards when it comes to jokes." Maybe he'd show off his sense of humor if he was super drunk?

[forswore]

The work's not going anywhere whether he stops to talk or not, so he may as well carry on, get it done at a steady pace instead of rushing to the finish.

"You've met Lurk."

Daud ... evidently thinks that's self-explanatory.

[exaomori]

That's the kind of vague statement that could be taken like a million different ways, wow. Shura takes a moment to consider, thinking about the context of the conversation and everything she knows so far, and nope. She can't quite figure it out.

"Y'know, I can't tell if it means that you think she's funny or if you think she's the joke."

[forswore]

Daud's just going to take advantage of the pause to keep on digging, expression flat as ever, while Shura works that out.

"I'll let you decide for yourself."

weed whackers

[swordproof]

Six cannot turn away from someone that is suffering and so she goes to them immediately, moving through the street and drawing her new blade, gripping the hilt in her hand. Even here, back in the cities and amongst so many people, she appears so large and heavy that she has become used to people give her space almost immediately; seven foot tall and built like her Goliath kin she does seem to be more of a threat than aid.

She only hesitates when she sees a shadow go by her, causing her to pause, taking a deep breath. Seeing a tiefling appear from nowhere has her stopping, eyes flicking one way and another before she presses forward again, raising her blade to cut down what's in front of her.

"Are you well?"

[forswore]

What’s in front of Six, as it happens, is a tangle of plant life that seems to have gained a mind of its own, vaguely in the shape of a dog, though the blade cuts through easily enough. It tries to snap at Six weakly, hissing, but its form won’t grant it much purchase.

Meager produce is scattered everywhere on the ground and a small cart overturned; Daud holds the reins of the horse he’d caught before it could bolt further, a bit of alchemical dust blown into its face to calm it down. At the sight of Six, he sheathes his sword and gives her a quick nod.

There’s a man who’s been thrown on the ground, shaken and bruised but otherwise unharmed, and a tearful woman at his side. It takes a moment or two for them to start talking, but when it does, the story is straight forward enough. He’d thought his dog was merely feeling unwell — it wasn’t until he started to unload the cart that the monster sprang out.

[swordproof]

It's clear that the matter is being well taken care of, even as Six's eyes flick between the dog-shaped creature and the man beside her; her eyes flick up to look at him, hesitating. She's not sure what to do with herself, torn between putting the creature out of its misery and paying more attention to the people that are shaken.

Eventually, her need to help wins over the need to do anything else and she puts her sword to one side, creeping around to reach and touch the bruised man. His wounds, however slight, are healed, and Six offers him a soft, gentle smile before she turns to look at Daud properly, rising to her full height.

"Is there any way to repair the hound, or must we end it?"

[forswore]

The man looks at Six with gratitude, murmuring a stammering thanks. Daud has no hesitation in his answer.

"End it," the tiefling answers, with implacable sureness. "It's only a mimic that's borrowed the beast's form. There's nothing left of what it was."

The mimic, for all it doesn't have much that could be considered sapient, is nonetheless still intelligent enough to analyze a threat. Gathering up its half-slashed body, it prepares to take a leap for the horse, broken vines trailing in the air behind it.

[swordproof]

It takes her a moment, glancing down at the beast, but there is a little sadness in her. She wishes it was different - a wasted life is still a wasted life, no matter what it might be, people or animal.

Six is faster than she might be given credit for and she moves, quick, grabbing the hilt of her greatsword and moving forward with a rush. The ground doesn't quite shake with her movements, but there's certainly some movement as she crashes towards the horse. It doesn't take much for her to lift her sword and bring it down, the heft of it enough to slam down onto the neck of the creature.

"Seyra will guide it."

[forswore]

In this case, the life in question is arguably somewhere between 'vegetable' and 'animal,' appearances aside. Injured, it can't effectively outpace Six -- though not without the help of a gesture and a push of will from Daud, magic working to pin the thing still and keep its limbs immobilized while Six attacks. It goes down hard, false limbs twitching as torn and cut vines bleed sap into the dirt.

The silence is deafening. And then, uneasily, sounds start to trickle back in, reminding them that there are things beyond them happening.

Daud leads the shaking, spooked horse back to its owner. "Check the back of your cart next time," he says, curtly. "You don't know what you could be bringing back." Only then will he glance over at Six, giving her a proper look-over before inclining his head in acknowledgement.

"Quick work."

wildcard

[redwhaling]

When she returned from Krimnos with news about Lorna and Alice not being who they claimed to be — that is, not knights of Krimnos, at least not in recent memory — she hadn't expected to be giving her report while surrounded by cats but, apparently, Daud is fine with this. Of course, he would be. He's never pissed them off during this particular holiday before and she damn well knows he remembers that.

"Couldn't someone else fix these things?"

She asks this sullenly from as many paces behind as possible to put space between herself and the cat shrine he's tidying up, yet still have a somewhat private conversation. It's not a shocker that some stupid kids have gone around knocking shrines over. There's always a few and she was one of those, once.

And even now, she still swears the damn things remember. It may have been over a hundred years ago but the cats still make a point to break away from their offerings and sniff around her as she tries her damnedest to ignore them.

[forswore]

Whine all you like, Billie, it's not going to make this go any faster. The tiefling is kneeling amongst the upturned remnants of a small shrine, something he'd offered to fix back up for the distraught shopkeep who'd been moaning about it being ill luck for their shop earlier this morning. Daud doesn't have any tools, but he's already smoothed together the shards of broken pottery and put out new plates of milk and fish; now he's only trying to determine if a broken cat statue is worth gluing back together or if it's a lost cause.

He hadn't come here out of altruism, though. What caught his eye about this particular shrine is that it so happens to be adjacent to a wall not far from a main thoroughfare that sees a reasonable amount of foot traffic.

"I'll be done in a few minutes," he says, glancing over his shoulder. "Do you think you can survive?"

[redwhaling]

As far as excuses go for scoping out the area, it's always a good one to take advantage of any holiday. More foot traffic, more noise, harder to focus on two people standing off to one side by a random shrine. Billie just really wishes it had been a different holiday. She holds her ground in spite of cats sniffing all around her boots, though, and just idly crosses her arms. The glance he throws her way is met with a blank look.

"Only until the kittens reach my shoulders," she deadpans back at him. She won't actually ditch him once that happens but she feels that's a fair enough limit to suggest, as there are, in fact, several kittens who've decided to start scaling her pants.

[forswore]

The cat statue is a wash, after all. He'll have to let the merchant know to replace it, later. Sweeping it into the same small sack he'd deposited broken pottery shards in, he finally gets up, hooves thudding softly against the ground as he looks Billie over.

Daud doesn't laugh. Even so, there's the slightest crinkle at the corner of his eyes, quickly smoothed away.

"You look like you wish you had a bag of sleep darts."

[redwhaling]

"For myself or the cats?"

Billie could go either way. Knock herself out until the end of the holiday or— actually, darting the damn cats probably counted as gaining that asshole Aegas' ire, so perhaps not that. By the time Daud has made his decision and gotten back up, there are about five kittens at varying points in climbing their way up.

The leather, thankfully, is enough to defend against tiny kitten claws, and maybe, just maybe it's worth putting up with. Daud may not smile or laugh, sure, but she recognizes the closest he ever gets to it.

[forswore]

"Why not both?" Daud asks. "Now hold still."

All joking aside, he's really no expert in kitten handling, though his hands are gentle enough as he reaches out to pry the kitten that's made it the furthest off, supporting its body with one and using fingers to tease off the claws of another. Provided that's successful, he'll be depositing it right beside a refilled bowl of milk.