May Event Log A: The Song of Suffering.

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🜙 Mod Note
	The Song of Suffering's resolution is jointly dependent on the choices all our players make (Who will take charge of the city?) and on the resolution of the Return to Einjar excursion. After you have read through this post please respond to This Poll as soon as you feel comfortable making the choices in it. Please respond even if your character is not participating in this event as the choice made effects the game world/all players.
🜙 First Blood April 26th
	In the late afternoon a challenge is made over the courier by Captain Lykos challenging the 'King' to come and properly fight him for control of the Defenders the way the old orc custom the Defenders were built on demands. In the message, he calls Koroc a coward and a thief, unfit for his role in the Defenders and unprepared to handle the even larger role he has claimed for himself. He accuses Koroc of not even trying to manage the werewolf curse he and Lykos share and says he may be to blame for Koroc's affliction, but Koroc's reckless endangerment of the city is to blame for the rise in werewolf attacks on the city. Lykos sets the battleground as King Ardis' camp outside of the city, a neutral ground away from the citizens who could get hurt in the crossfire. An enraged, Koroc takes a large group of his Defenders' newest forces out of the city to lead an attack on the former Captain and the invading King Ardis supporting him only to find the camp deserted of anyone but Lykos. The discussion between Lykos and Koroc appears publically on the couriers within the city, and everyone with a courier is treated to the impromptu visual of their meeting and the fight that follows it. Lykos gets Koroc to admit to working with the cult and imprisoning and using werewolves to attack the city, as well as implicating both himself and Koroc as werewolves as well before the feed ends, and the abrupt ending leaves the fate of the former captain uncertain.
Lykos Alice Lorna Ardis Koroc Cult Leader
🜙 Children of the Revolution April 26th-May ??
	With clear evidence now out that Koroc and the Defenders are not only working with some form of undead in their ranks, but also that both Koroc and Lykos are werewolves, Koroc's allies, Lorna's rebels, the strange travelers, and King Ardis's soldiers are all spurred into action, bringing the fight for the City of the Free People to a final confrontation for power. The city splits, rallying behind different sides in the battle. The battle encompasses the city streets and spills out into the surrounding land to the South and West of the city. The Defenders, their numbers padded with risen soldiers, hold the city. From within the rebels and the strange travelers fight the Defenders to force them out fo the city streets. Alice, Amy, and a small force of armed civilians and former revels focus on getting people out of the battle zones, teleporting people out where possible and defending them in an escape route out of the city with larger groups, while outside the city King Ardis and his knights storm the warcamp and put pressure on the Defenders, helping to clear a path out of the city. As the fighting overtakes the city another terrible set of howls sounds from the West beyond the city, and a pair of creatures join the fray. The white one assaults the city with unbridled destructive rage while the red one seems fixated on the people, hunting like a starved beast without pausing to feast on its downed prey. The beasts are unaffected by silver, wolfsbane, and other standard werewolf weaknesses and stand at around eleven feet tall, nearly twelve when straight-backed. They are closer to the size of a small swamp troll than an ordinary werewolf, their eyes glowing blue. The protrusions coming off of them are hardened bone and sharp enough to cause damage equivalent to spearheads or daggers if used to attack. Bites/Scratches from these creatures do not inflict any curses. They do not seem to fear anything but also appear to be mindlessly enraged. At different times during the onslaught from the mutated wolves a large white wolf appears, drawing the monsters away from fleeing citizens and members of all sides of the struggle, outrunning and distracting the creatures.
🜙 The Song of Suffering April 28th-May ??
	Two days later an unsettling prophetic orc threat from the not so distant past begins to ring true. The river that flows from the Northern mountains down through the City of the Free People begins to sing with ringing, echoing hums and runs red with a dark, thick liquid that looks like blood and smells like copper and rust. The touch of sound or liquid begins sending citizens into fits of raw, violent, amplified emotions. The fight for the city devolves into one of almost directionless, desperate violence and begins to lose what little point or meaning it had, spurred on by a madness that latches on to everyone within earshot or touch of the river and its endless ringing song. People quickly begin to change in more than just mood. Paranoia, Fury, or Desperation overtake them, causing mental and physical changes that reflect the emotion. More than one reflection can overtake people and while the infected waters remain so do the symptoms. Reflection Cause & Symptoms ⤛ Paranoia Caused by exposure to the ringing song of suffering. The sound of the ringing roots out and pulls to the surface every negative, lingering, violent, uncertain, or angry thought the person has had toward or about others and amplifies it, transforming emotions over a simple comment or fleeting thought into defined certainty and righteous fury. Twisting even the clear-minded or pacifistic until they are willing to kill others to protect themselves or those they are defending. While under Paranoia's influence they are beset by an unquenchable thirst and hunger, but no other physical symptoms. The only way to 'cure' someone affected is to disable their hearing or relocate them far enough from the river that the ringing can no longer be heard. ⤛ Fury Caused by any physical exposure to the water itself. Contact with the liquid causes a surge of wild, furious power that infects those it overtakes with a fury that is not their own. This fury is undirected and will cause the affected to lash out at anything near them, living or non-living. Once a target has been found they will not stop until that target is dead or completely destroyed. While under Fury's influence their skin begins to harden and grey starting at the hands and their strength, physically and magically, doubles. Fury can only be cleansed by fresh water or light magic. ⤛ Desperation Caused by ingesting the water or prolonged exposure to the water. If submerged, the person will find their vision quickly adjusting to the water and if they open their eyes they will feel as if something is looking back at them from the depths, reaching out to them. Once they emerge from the water or cease drinking the water they will either see or feel the thick coating of red liquid that does not drip or move, clinging heavily to their skin or muscles. The liquid seeps into their skin or muscles and their eyes turn bloodshot and then solid red. While under Desperation's influence their eyes remain solid red and their movements become sluggish with erratic bursts of speed and wild strength. Until they are doused with fresh water or light magic they will be consumed by desperation and singularly focused on their last goal or thought as if letting go of it would kill them. Without direction or a goal to latch onto the desperation becomes a consuming need to stop the noise and fighting around them through any means possible. 🜙 Top ⤛ Navigation

Comments

[forswore]

Mercy banks low, trying to get an eye on their would-be attacker, but by the time she gets to where the archer was, they're gone. Billie may not be shouting in pain, but Daud's already moving forward to check on her despite that, assessing the situation swiftly.

"Someone who wants this dragonborn dead," he murmurs, putting into words the evidence they can clearly see before their eyes. "We need to move her. This is too open."

There's something half-familiar about her he's having trouble placing. It isn't until she starts trying to respond to Shura -- awful, half-human sounds accompanied by an unsettlingly unfocused stare -- that the tiefling stiffens in recognition. With surprising strength for someone in such obvious pain, she latches onto Shura with both hands, breath rattling in her lungs as she struggles to form words.

[redwhaling]

Daud will find Billie already untangling the arrow from her shirt. It's pierced that and nothing more, a glint of metallic rings visible through the hole. She does have armor and it is pretty damn nice. She straightens up, holding the arrow aloft to get a better look at it.

"Silver arrowhead. Someone was prepared." The cult would be her guess but with the archer long gone, that's all it would be, a guess. Hanging onto the arrow, she looks back towards Shura and the half-orc. "Well, the usual basement is too far from here. We'd be exposed too long. I can go check out what's immediately around us?"

She ends that in a questioning note, glancing over at Daud as she does.

[exaomori]

Okay, that kind of strength is only a little scary!! Shura does her best to listen, muttering at the women to slow down and take a breath. The name she manages to give after she takes in a gasping breath isn't familiar to her, but Shura repeats it, memorizing it. Her eyes are glassy, and Shura wonders just how badly this transformation has gone.

"There's a place south of here," Shura answers Billie, keeping low by the woman for the moment. "Ain't as secure as the usual place, but it'll work. Throwing her in with the others isn't a good idea right now." Here, friends, now here's a possibly deranged dragonborn werewolf to hang out with you! That could only go well.

[forswore]

"If Shura knows a place, then we'll take her there," Daud answers immediately and decisively. "Lead the way. Lurk, help me lift her."

Though in truth, Daud is grimly worried if the dragonborn might even survive being transported, the way she is. Normally, he isn't particularly forthcoming with information, but given the situation he decides it's probably warranted.

"I know this woman. She's a Defender -- one of those who refused to believe Lykos left by his own choice." She'd been vocal about it, too. Now it seems they're seeing the price she paid for that loyalty. Speaking of Lykos, that's probably someone else they should be informing about this development, but one step at a time and all that.

[redwhaling]

Seeing how Billie's going to need both hands for that, Shura gets the arrow foisted off on her. She's going to assume she doesn't need to add a great big 'don't lose that' to go with it and moves on to the dragonborn's side to help get her up off the ground and carry her.

"Must've been rounded up with all the other rebels and civilians Koroc had taken back to his camp," she guesses idly, shooting a quick glance down at the poor woman. It's frustrating in a way. Was this the fate of every missing person that went into that camp? What if they're still there, in that cave they found?

"What if there's more? It's not as though they had a shortage of people to work with."

[exaomori]

Of course she was one of Lykos's supporters. Of course she was.

"It was tryin' to to someone out there. I'm guessing she has at least one friend." More in the mines? Shura could only assume that any and all of the unlucky bastards who opposed Koroc were subject to becoming a scaly were-dragon-wolf thing.

"We'll look later. Let's get her somewhere safer." If she could make it that far. Shura doesn't have much hope for her getting through the night, let alone the week. But at least the arrow will be safe as Shura won't waste any time before sealing it down in the tummy portal. She motions with her hand, then starts off in that direction once it looks like Billie and Daud have the woman secure.