usir | May Event Log #2

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May Event Log #2

🜙 Seyra's Serenade

	Across most of Idan spring is in full bloom. With spring has come a swathe of new growth overtaking the land and painting it a rainbow of colors. The farmlands are alive with life and the wild and open lands are full of young baby creatures frolicking in and out of bushes, tall grasslands, and trees. Centaurs have come out from their hidden villages to watch over the open lands and the young folk of the various races are celebrating their vacation from academies or apprenticeships by holding sporting competitions, races through the city streets, or sneaking into taverns and other areas of the cities or off into the wildlands and generally getting up to mischief. During the peak blooming season of spring comes Seyra's Serenade, a day used by the people of Idan to celebrate the speckled doe goddess. As the goddess of growth and healing, she is seen across Idan as one of the benevolent deities and affectionately referred to as the mother of the stars. During Seyra's Serenade the three cities and the lands between them are surrounded and filled with floral growth that is used in the Festival of Flowers. Largely seen as a children's festival, the young ones gather the flowers and decorated their homes and the city streets, rivers, bay, and ledges with flower chains, floral graffiti, and petals. Hunting is severely limited for the month in honor of Seyra and to respect the growth of all young creatures just entering the world. Diets are adjusted to a focus of fruits, vegetables, and grains, and the taverns help the older population celebrate 'healing' by offering floral wines, vodkas, and gins, as well as amaretto-based drinks. Powerful wild guardian creatures wake from their winter slumber and can be glimpsed moving slowly through the forests or out in the plains. Most of them look like creatures found in their respective homes, but much larger and with elements of the wild land about them. They are slow and docile but very powerful. They can be killed and their pelts or bones sell for very high value in the black market, but they are protected creatures and killing them will have consequences. Hunting during the month of May is not explicitly forbidden but is strongly discouraged by the three cities. Injuring young creatures or killing the parents of young creatures is a sure way to draw Seyra's ire during May and find oneself cursed by the Mother of Stars. Those who hunt creatures under Seyra's protection are afflicted by a curse known as Hunter's Remorse, a curse that usually only affects those who kill unicorns and is designed to cripple poachers, hunters, and predators. The curse forces the afflicted to feel a crippling and powerful empathy, especially towards the suffering of the world and the animals living in it. Hunter's Remorse is not widely believed to be a real affliction and most of Idan's population write it off as a cautionary tale and a fictional curse.

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🜙 The Huntress

	A new creature has been sighted in the swamps, patrolling the paths and stealing hunters' injured prey from them. It's said to be fast and silent, able to blend into the swamp despite its unusual coloration. A group of hunters from Didymos have put a hefty bounty on the creature. They say it is large and covered in a mix of scales and fur. It is quick, moves soundlessly through the swamp and by their description looks like a lion, a zebra, and a monitor lizard all rolled into one. They never see it coming but its hide is too thick for arrows to penetrate and they haven't been able to get close enough to hit it with other weapons. If you bring back its hide they'll pay in gold, but you'll have to find it for yourself. That means risking the other dangers of the swamp: sinking pits, venomous snakes, carnivorous plants, predators of the land and water, and ornery elementals. They think its nest is somewhere in the Swamp of Lost Souls. Attempting to track down the creature can either lead to the creature itself, or its nest. Astute trackers will find there are more than one of these strange-looking creatures in the swamp, but only one of them matches the full description given by the hunters and she is much larger and leaner than the smaller members of her pack. The hunters will likely be unable to tell the difference. They appear to be amphibious and capable of camouflage. They are quick and silent in both the water and on land. Their furry manes are actually whiskers that help them sense vibrations and shifts in water or air currents. The creatures are not aggressive toward people unless cornered or attacked but they are territorial of the shoreline and the larger one will grab any wounded animals attacked in the swamplands and disappear with them. Their hides are dense and thick, reflecting or shielding them from most attacks other than those that would pierce metal armor and they do seem to possess earth magic focused around the mud that is prevalent throughout the swamp. They will cause the ground to constrict and pull down around the feet of any threats and coat weaponry in mud that quickly hardens to dull weapons and increase their weight.

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🜙 Friend or Foe

	Along the shore and out further into the bay the spectators that were formerly just observing the city and its people have had a shift of demeanor. Now every boat that tries to leave the docks and every person who approaches the docks or the shore with a boat is met with a very different interaction. From the 14th to the 17th the merfolk observers suddenly grow aggressive, sinking ships that attempt to exit the gate, harassing city citizens at the dock, and using wind or water magic to force vessels back to the docks. Their sudden turn from largely harmless observers to an attacking force demands action from Queen Adira and she prepares her knights for the prospect of a battle on waters where they will not have the upper hand. Retaliation from the Didymos knights trying to protect the ships and the docks from the merfolk causes a matched rise in aggression from the sea dwellers. The knights work to load their ships with weapons and the mages enchant the vessels to protect them, fighting back the merfolk attackers to prepare two of the armed fleet ships for battle. During the preparation on the 17th, the merfolk suddenly and unexpectedly retreat from the bay and the waters go still. Determined to get to the bottom of the strange attacks, Queen Adira puts out a call for those who have been in contact with the merfolk or anyone who might better be able to try and understand the confusing actions of the sea people. She makes plans to send a small fleet through the guarded Sunset Gate to investigate where the rest of the merfolk went and why they launched such a sudden and brief attack on the bay. On the 18th fish briefly begin schooling up on the shorelines and small, aquatic animals begin beaching themselves or becoming trapped upstream in the estuaries and rivers. The actions of the sea-life in the bay becomes erratic, aggressive, and frenzied as diluted red water begins draining into the estuaries and the bay before dissipating, the ocean water diluting and eventually eradicating any sign of the polluted fresh water. The bay calms down once more and the naval vessel Perspective begins its voyage out the sunset gate. Armed with a collection of Didymos knights, a group of scholars and mages, and a small group of volunteers, the vessel travels out to Logistykon's reef, heading for the shelf that drops off into the deeper, dark waters of the Glass Sea. Once they pass the gate they are followed by a blue-skinned, spiny merwoman with a spotted porpoise-like tail. She circles the vessel a few times, passing closer and closer near the hull and pushing back on the sails with wind magic before they finally anchor just past Logistykon's reef, only a nautical mile from the shelf. Several other merfolk can be glimpsed watching from just below or with their heads just above the water's surface, surrounding the vessel at a distance that keeps them out of range from most weapons. The blue merwoman approaches the ship, keeping a shorter distance between herself and the vessel, and seems to wait for them to come to her aboard one of the ship's smaller lifeboats. From where they are anchored, one of the scholars idly comments that the reef looks different and anyone who has observed the reef before will see the skeleton has suffered heavy damage. Cracks now cover the surface of the bones and Logistykon's skull has split down the center.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Questions about the events within this log.

Hopefully I'm not jumping in too late for this, but, could Felix have attempted to speak to one of the merfolk telepathically prior to the string of attacks on the bay?

Secondly, could he have offered his services in enchanting the boats or would that be restricted to Didymos' military?

You are not too late!

Felix could have tried, but without knowing their language he would only have startled the merfolk away. He could have possibly gleaned some emotions or ideas off their thoughts: curiosity, uncertainty, worry, amusement, but they are as unsure of how to reach the people of the city as the people were of how to speak to them.

As to the boats, Queen Adira would gladly welcome his assistance. They would not turn away any potential aid.

The Glass Sea is still and calm now that the wind has died down. The surface is clear and reflects the light, the clouds, and the faces of the people in the ship perfectly while offering a crystal clear view of the reef far below them. It is easy to see how the ocean got its name now that the ship sits quietly anchored. Very few sea creatures beyond the merfolk in the distance can be seen and the reef looks quiet and devoid of the countless colorful fish and sea life that can normally be seen inhabiting the once mighty dragon's skeletal remains.

🜙 The Scholar
Aboard the ship an academic scholar, a specialist on the sea life in and beyond the bay and reef, lingers near the rear of the vessel, his eyes on the wavering sight of the fractured skeleton beneath them. The ship casts a shadow over part of Logistykon's remains, but the majority of the dragon skeleton can be seen, only partially buried on the sea floor.

"It couldn't be the pressure of the depth. It hasn't changed much at all in at least half a century."

🜙 Tási
The merwoman keeps her distance from the ships until there are lifeboats in the water. The distant merfolk are difficult to make out and their features mostly hidden beneath the water, but the one that circled the ship continues to watch the progress of the people coming from the Perspective.

As the smaller boats near her she stops her movement and makes a type of clicking sound. A silver and white porpoise appears from the depths to float beside her, a pair of kelp baskets hanging off of either side of it behind its dorsal fin. She pulls a handful of squirming creatures from the basket and approaches one of the boats. Drifting beside it, she reaches up with one hand full of small, 1-2 inch long eels held firmly in her fingers and holds them out to the nearest person on the smaller boats. She then lifts an eel in her other hand to her mouth and pulls it away, tilting her head to one side and watching them expectantly.

Christine had been amazed to discover the merfolk skeletons when the bay had been emptied earlier in the year, but she was even more surprised when she learned that the merfolk were popping up out of the water to watch the people on shore. She'd smiled, waved, and did her best to keep them around watching her, hoping to get closer to them someday, but now things have changed and she doesn't understand why. Was the city just being watched so the merfolk could learn their weaknesses and then launch an attack? It seems a little unusual, seeing how they can't come up on shore. But then she realizes that perhaps what happened with the river is happening in the ocean too, and the merfolk are becoming aggressive due to something in the water. Maybe it's not really their fault after all. Or maybe there's something dangerous out there that the merfolk are trying to protect the citizens from. Whatever the case, Christine wants to get to the bottom of it.

"Then do you think something came up from the sea floor to damage it?"

"The deep sea, maybe." The scholar responds, staring down into the depths before them. There was something unusual about the way the skeleton had been fractured that had him both curious and uncertain. He gestured to the dark lines just visible over Logistykon's skull and spine with a shake of his head.

"If something had attacked it you would expect to see bones missing or broken inward. They look like they are splitting. Like a dead tree or a fracture in the earth." He had been out to the gate since the bay's waters had returned but at a loss for other explanations, he suggests the improbable.

"An earthquake, perhaps?" Lightning couldn't strike that deep into the sea. It would have stopped at the surface.

"It might be related to the disappearance of fish if it was caused by some natural disaster out here." He turns to look at her before gesturing down at the waters again.

"What do you think?"

She stares in quiet contemplation for a moment before answering.

"Maybe the weight of the skull itself. Without muscles to support it, it cracked from the weight." She likes that answer better than the thought that something huge happened to affect the sea life, but the way things have been going, she bets her guess isn't correct.

Turning to the scholar, she asks, "What's your name?" If there were introductions on the ship, she missed out by being preoccupied with something else.

Event Questions

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Friend or Foe NPCs

{ the scholar }

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Tási

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christine | ota

market stalls

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Sento | OTA

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wild card!

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