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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Comments

[lord_wizard]

Felix has no particular mission in the city, beyond wandering and trying to make sense of where he's ended up. Wandering in this case meaning 'taking a walk and getting lost' more often than not. The trapping of the festival at least make for pleasant surroundings while he does so, though he has little in the way of coin to buy anything on offer.

As Christine pauses to feed some of the winged cats, a rather ordinary (by comparison) orange and white tabby dashes out into the group, scattering them to the wind.

"I'm sorry about her. I suspect she's stricken with envy," Felix says, from a few steps away, flashing an apologetic smile. Sibyl, flicking her tail, seems pleased with herself.

[aceso]

"Oh!" Christine leans back as there's a flutter of numerous wings around her and many small winged cats disappear into the sky. She frowns down at the interloper, but before she can scold her, the man speaks and she looks over with a shrug and a sigh.

"I suppose they would have been spooked off sooner or later with so many out and about for the festivities." On her shoulder perches a peregrine falcon, who unlike the winged cats wasn't spooked by the sudden appearance of the cat. She shares Christine's demeanor and merely stares down at Sibyl, though if beaks could frown, hers might do so.

[lord_wizard]

"I imagine so, though with so many children about I wouldn't stay on the ground for long were I them. It's rather quaint, actually, I remember Seyra's Serenade being far more of a production when-" he pauses suddenly, realizes he'd almost said when the dragons presided over them, and quickly corrects "-ah, when I was in Krimnos. They know how to make a contest of even that."

Sibyl seems undaunted by the falcon's judgment and sits on her haunches between the two of them, her tail flicking even more vigorously, letting out a purring mewl. The bird is certainly too large to be a convenient snack, but she seems to be considering her chances. Felix largely tries to ignore her. He isn't sure what to do with his ever-present escort, and even less sure how to explain her.

[aceso]

"I enjoy seeing the children decorate as opposed to it being a large, city-run affair. I'm sure Seyra appreciates it too." She looks around them at the people enjoying the day. It's a bit of brightness after so many troubles. Troubles, she wonders, that may have come about due to the awakened, or may have happened regardless.

"And who is your troublemaker friend here?" She continues, looking to the cat.

[lord_wizard]

"I picked her up during my travels," he says, after a beat of hesitation, "and since I can't seem to be rid of her, I've named her Sibyl. She hasn't objected thus far."

He glares at the cat a little and makes 'tsk' sound to catch her attention. "Leave it alone."

Suprisingly, she heeds the call and returns to his side, butting up against his legs. Felix sighs, and glances back at Christine at her own companion.

"Do you hunt?"

[aceso]

Christine smiles faintly at the interaction before giving Felix a slightly surprised look at the question. Then her brain catches up and she realizes that it's an entirely reasonable question to ask.

"Oh, no. Azoth is... a pet. A familiar, I suppose."

[lord_wizard]

"Ah...well..." his odd-colored eyes flicker between the two animals, his face nakedly un uncertain for a moment. Familiars aren't unheard of, after all, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything.

"I didn't mean to assume, though I suppose I took your presence in a city to mean you were searching for ways to spend your time. I've always wondered how the hunters get by during this time of year," he continues, his tone brightening intentionally - something meant to distract, but it feels a more forced than he'd like. It's hard to summon up the mood necessary, when everything else is so uncertain.

"What is it that you do, then? Besides fatten up the local fauna."

[aceso]

"I'm an alchemist by trade," she begins. "But I've taken a long break to travel between the cities. Still, Didymos is my home and I return here often. This time of year is perfect to buy seeds and saplings to start a garden, and with that in place, I can grow many ingredients for potions myself." Taking the last few bits of bread, she feeds them to Azoth.

"You could say the feeding bit was just a little detour. It gets exhausting to shop for plants all day long."

[lord_wizard]

"There are far worse ways to spend ones time," he says, his smile a shade rueful. Aimlessly wandering a city with no coin to your name was certainly among them, for Felix. It had occurred to him that selling what was left of his rings might resolve that problem, but he's loathe to give them up entirely, even ruined as they are.

"I never quite acquired an understanding of potion-making, sadly. Is your shop here in Didymos as well? I'd love to see it." If only for academic reasons, considering he had nothing to buy and no reason to do so anyway. Botany had always fascinated him, as well as any of the magic that stemmed from plants and flowers, but Malkar had insisted the art was impractical.

[aceso]

If this were a hundred years ago, Christine could certainly show him her shop/clinic. But here in this new life she's not established such a place. Small steps.

"I plan to sell my potions out of a rented market stall once I've built up a good supply. In the meantime, I travel between the cities as a healer for hire."