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]

Good thing Red can't talk, until he can. Daud's impassive throughout her sudden jolt of alarm, but when it doesn't seem like she's going to continue shouting at him, some of the tension bleeds out of him, less poised to fight.

"Half-dragons, too," Daud admits. "At least, the one in Einjar didn't seem to be affected by the ringing then. Scaleskin might be a different story, but..." He frowns, gazing off into the distance.

[redwhaling]

"Scaleskin is just another curse," Billie points out. "It doesn't offer any protection from the dragon you've been cursed by."

Just like her own curse offers only the barest protection from a full-on werebeast. She can take a scratch or two but a mauling would infect her as easily as anyone else. That half-orc being the last thing she really wants to be thinking about right now, she shakes her head some and turns back to her tea, drinking it while it's still warm.

[forswore]

The distinction matters to Daud, as his lips compress slightly. It's not what Billie may want to dwell on at this particular moment, but...

"No. But it reminded me that Strange had a theory that we were some kind of dragonborn." Given what they now know about dragons and the consent needed to be involved in the process, on both sides, Daud's suspecting that's vanishingly unlikely. That they have something to do with dragons, of that much he's certain, mysterious messages on the courier claiming from the dragons -- and the much more real, concrete fact of scales granting them powers tied to dragons long dead.

That still begs the question of what they are, exactly. To have been alive and walking again so long, with questions that only multiply by the second ... Daud shakes his head, taking a step back towards the door. Mercy, now having settled down like a hen preparing to nest, doesn't seem inclined to get up.

"... Come inside when you're ready." He's going to be getting on with making breakfast, though as usual, Daud leaves that to be inferred rather than outright stated, as with most things with the tiefling. Once he's in, he'll automatically check the couch for the dragon, assuming that's where Red's gone.

[redwhaling]

As expected, Red is sitting on the couch, perched up where Mercy would be when she took over for the little dragon. He looks up and chirps at Daud when the tiefling passes by, though he won't move from that spot otherwise.

Back outside, Billie doesn't turn to watch Daud go. It's only when he's gone that she does look back, first at the door, then down at Mercy and Deirdre. The tern is still sulking away under Mercy's wing and any telepathic prodding she gives her nets grumbling, not answers, which is why she'll focus on the osprey instead.

"So, what do you think?" She asks, quietly, knowing all too well that Daud isn't actually that far away. "He's not alright, is he?"

She's just going to skip over the entire 'dragonborn' ordeal for now. It isn't a new theory to her and one that conflicts with what the book says about how they're made, to boot, but that doesn't explain Strange's mirror shard and the scales. Provided there really were scales and he isn't being crazy, anyway.

[forswore]

Mercy, being an osprey, has very little indeed to say on the subject of Daud, though her response to the inquiry is to croon and turn to Deirdre, lifting a wing slightly to docilely attempt to preen the smaller bird, regardless of what protest may follow. She’s missed her companion, after her own fashion, even if she is a scold and attempted to hurt Daud besides. In an oblique way, she’s glad she didn’t have to hurt her.

Inside, Daud sighs, studying Red for a moment then shaking his head and reaching out to touch his fingers to the top of the dragon’s head briefly. The hand is withdrawn quickly enough, and then it’s back to business, losing himself in the methodical preparation and consumption of food. This morning, Red gets a great big poached egg all his own.