![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
May Event Log #2
| 🜙 Bottom | ⤛ Navigation |
 | ||
| 🜙 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. | ||
| 🜙 Top | ||
 | ||
| 🜙 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. | ||
| 🜙 Top | ||
 | ||
| 🜙 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. | ||
| 🜙 Top |
no subject
Not that she expects the merwoman to understand that or for anyone else on the boat to get what that even means. That's the end of her own little personal jokes, though, since she immediately moves on to popping the little eel in her mouth and swallowing it, no chewing involved. It would no doubt taste a lot worse if there was...
Even so, she'll still wrinkle her nose and grimace a little as she goes through with it. Raw fish isn't the worst thing in the world but that's not typically still alive and wriggling at the time.
no subject
Tási waits, and when Billie's grimace is less pronounced and no one else is left who is willing to take the eels she approaches the boat, holding onto the edge gently, her fingers curling over the edge.
One of the Didymos knights looks uneasy, his hand on the hilt of his sword, but he doesn't act and Tási only watches him until he moves his hand again, before turning her focus back to Billie.
"Thank you for your trust." She says, and Billie can understand her as clear as anyone else on the boat might sound if they spoke to her now, but the merwoman's lips do not match the movement of the words that Billie hears.
"I am Tási A'Adahi. I speak for my people." She waits, wrinkling her nose as Billie had before smiling at her the way some people on the docks had. Her teeth look like any other person's teeth near the front but turn sharp and dangerous looking along the sides of her mouth.
no subject
Tási's attempt at smiling earns a smile from Billie in return. She's talking to a mermaid. She's talking to a mermaid. This is basically a childhood dream come true, even as the fact that she, who, by all appearances, looks to be a random dockhand, now has to play translator sinks in.
Not exactly how she had planned to spend her Didymos visit.
"I've spent enough time at sea to know you weren't offering poison," she admits, even if she hadn't known exactly what they actually were. The eels would have been far more colorful had they been toxic. "I'm Billie."
And after another short glance back towards who else is on the ship, she has to add, "And I guess I'm listening for mine. Your people have gotten Didymos a little worried, Tási. They're trying to figure out what's going on."
no subject
"Billie, your cove has lost its power. The deeper is waking and you have trapped it beneath your monster. It will be angry when it breaks free."
no subject
"Trapped it beneath our monster?" Interesting way of defining a dragon, if that's what Tási means, although she figures enough people on this boat with her would agree on calling Logistykon that. "You mean the dragon bones? Down there?"
She'll gesture back towards the water, straight down.
no subject
"The deeper should have left these waters months ago. Its anger has been growing since your people stole the ocean and dumped it into the hole in your cove. Now your dragon's storm is quiet and the deeper's rage is too much for us to soothe. We tried to free it once we realized where it was resting, but we can not move the bones." The merfolk watching from farther away have gradually begun to disappear and Tási dips below the water again for a moment before emerging again and brushing her hair back.
"If it emerges here it may turn toward your cove and not the open waters. It will sink your city and destroy ours as well if it does not re-join the depths. Are my words clear enough? We will all be at risk of facing the deeper's wrath when the rains come."
no subject
"Our people didn't do that," Billie feels the need to make that clear, but ultimately, "Not that it makes a difference if something's pissed off about it, I guess. So, the deeper is trapped under the bones, but the bones broke. Was this deeper asleep under them all this time? Because this is the first I've heard of it. I'm not even sure what a deeper is, Tási."
no subject
"Hundred years the deeper wakes and travels back out to sea. It creates the deep sea storm that keeps the currents strong and the oceans in balance. When it was small it surrounded our city in its embrace but your dragon kept growing, and the deeper grew to match it. It grew and grew until its stirring would rip our home apart. We had to ask our protector to leave."
She hesitates a moment and then her hands return to the edge of the boat and she pulls herself up slightly, causing the boat to list slightly but not dangerously.
"The deeper should have emerged three years ago but it did not. We thought it must have died. But it breathes, and it is breaking free now that your dragon is empty."
no subject
"So, basically we have something big, angry, and powerful about to bust free from under those bones," Billie reiterates this -- slowly -- for the sake of the knights and others on the boat with her. "Is that what broke the bones? Is there a way to, you know, maybe convince this deeper to go back to sleep under them or just help it on its way rather than the whole 'destroy everything' deal?"
no subject
"The deeper is trying to force its way up from underneath the bones. It can not dig its way out, it can only attempt to free itself by traveling upward. We have been trying to help it, but the deeper's magic has cost the lives of some of my people." Her face dips into a frown and she shakes her head, looking down into the waters toward the skeleton.
"We do not know for sure what will happen when it is free, but its anger has made it deaf to our songs. It will not listen. It is creating storms beneath the sea. We managed to calm it for a little while, to stop it from killing everything that neared these waters. It did not last long and that feat took much of our strength. Now other creatures grow agitated as well and attack the reef. The deeper is calling for them and its anger is spreading. We no longer know what to do."
There's a pause and Tási searches the surface of the waters for the other merfolk, finding most of them have left. She shakes her head in a manner that makes her hair flip heavily, her dark eyes focused on Billie's. There is a sorrowful sounding song behind her words.
"A dolphin does not make friends with gulls. Your cove is not a safe place for us any more than our seas are a safe place for your kind. It took many deaths to convince my people to come away from their home and risk venturing into yours. But I know trust is not common between our kind and yours, so I have brought you an offering in hope it will help you convince others to help us, if you will take it to your people."
no subject
"I can't make any promises," Billie has to begin. It's tough to say as much to eyes like hers, to a sad song like that, but she has to. It'd be foolish otherwise. She does sound sympathetic, though. They've risked a lot coming out here to try and they've paid for it, too, that much is clear. "But I'll try. I can take it the Queen, tell her what you've told me."
no subject
"This is my gift. It will give you what you need if you wear it in the sea. She knows her self better than she knows the land."
Tási lifts a hand with something sparkling in her grasp. She offers the glint of glass and metal to Billie. If she takes it she will find in her grasp a smooth glass pearl filled with liquid. The contents within it shimmer and dance like a school of fish. She will immediately feel relief from any side effects of the eel, at the cost of having to cough it up. Unpleasant but the creature darts away into the water, seemingly unharmed but very unhappy.
Tási does not linger, clearly drained from her time above the water, her skin dry and stiff. She waves to Billie, the gesture slightly off but the thought behind it present. Then the merwoman disappears back into the sea, leaving the waters around them empty.
While Billie may not immediately understand the gift Tási gives her, she will later discover that if she wears or keeps the pearl on her and enters the ocean she will be able to breathe the sea water and understand the merfolk's speech, which can only be sung below the ocean's surface. Webbing will also appear between her fingers and toes while they are in contact with the water.
no subject
With the merfolk having all vanished back under the sea, all that's left is to turn back towards the knights and tell them the Queen needs to hear about this. Billie will offer to deliver the message herself — although if that does happen, the name she's officially giving is Meagan Foster, not Billie Lurk. As far as she's concerned, the pearl from Tási is a part of that message, so Queen Adira gets first dibs on it if she wants it.
no subject