isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

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EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

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SUMMARY: In the days leading up to the fall equinox, geese intended for eating escape and cause havoc around town, people share techniques to preserve plants for the winter, and Camelot's citizens compete to make the best light shows with traditional wax candles to draw spirits peacefully into Camelot.

With all the harder preparations gathered for the Fall Equinox, throughout the month people will notice that decorations start going up around town. The colors of fall seem to seep throughout Camelot, but more than that, so do more traditional sights and smells. In the days leading up to the equinox, traditional acts such as the sacrifice and consuming of flesh are performed. Well.. normally they would be. The fattened geese that are normally eaten in preparation for the equinox have escaped and are causing havoc around town. Geese are running around causing trouble for everyone-- stealing glasses, opening gates, putting up toilet seats when people try to sit down so they fall in the bowl... all kinds of madness! Even if you weren't intent on eating geese and were going to settle for the vegetarian option (pumpkin and nut soups are frequently served using the gourd itself as a bowl), you have to agree the general public needs to be rescued from these menaces. If you have the stomach for it, you are welcome to keep one of the geese you capture for your own table... but otherwise, please return the birds to the farm where they can be handled accordingly.

Birds are not the only sacrifice made to the autumnal equinox. As the flowers begin to reach the end of their life, there is a strong tradition of gathering flowers and herbs and preserving them for the upcoming winter, either to protect their beauty, scent, edibility, and sometimes magical properties. The simplest form of preservation is, of course, drying and pressing-- a technique you don't need magic for, but some of the locals will happily teach you. A more advanced technique can be learned to enchant glass bell jars to suspend the lifeforce of any living thing within its grasp for up to a year, if no one opens it. It's a technique used to preserve important or rare plants that may otherwise die out during the winter, such as herbs used in your favorite spell.. or dish. The glass bell jar will protect the plant, but each time it is picked up, a single petal or leaf will fall off of the plant. If all the leaves fall off, the plant becomes unrecoverable, and come spring the caster will find themselves cursed with a touch that wilts any plant they come in contact with. So if you choose to use this, be warned that there are consequences for misuse and a wide number of horror stories from people who have tried to use this spell for anything other than plants. Any type of mage can pour their magic into a bell jar to enchant it, and the type of magic will be reflected in a glass design that forms around the rim and handle. (An elemental mage may have glass flames form, or frosted etchings of your favorite animal may appear if you're an animal mage, and so on. Feel free to get creative.) Green mages may find this magic a little useless, since they can just replenish plants with their own magic, but it's still a good technique to know.. just in case!

Perhaps the most beautiful tradition that takes form leading up to the autumnal equinox is the candle pathway. Every street in Camelot will be lit up with thousands of candles for two nights leading up to the autumnal equinox, as a guiding light to help the spirits find their way to Avalon. The way the streets in Camelot are mapped out, the lights will form a path to the square where the fairy coins are being held until their release on September 22nd, the same area where the guardian egg ceremony had been performed. Some people get very creative with their lighting displays, which can sometimes result in beautifully lit streets and magnificent structures of flames. Accidents are quickly quelled by volunteer elemental mages throughout the city to prevent any structural damage. Some people might be compelled to make their own light display the most outstanding on the block, and it becomes a bit of a game to compete with your neighbors to see whose section of the candle pathway is the most extravagant.

SUMMARY: The autumn equinox ritual is interrupted by a huge earthquake caused by a Stone Giant bursting out of the Ash Mountains, bringing the closest Ash Mountain and Lestari to the ground. The purple dragon erupts from the ruins to attack Celliwig. The survivors of the collapse need help desperately. Characters must choose where they go to determine the fate of Avalon.

Calm and mundane preparations are a nice break from the sometimes stressful lives of Camelot's citizens and otherworlders, who often are asked to embark on life-threatening adventures and tasks. It's probably a good thing most of the month has been relatively peaceful, as things need to go a little bit differently this year on the fall equinox itself... but not as differently as they actually do.

In the town square, elaborate celtic-similar symbols are carved out into the ground and filled with mysterious glowing liquids. All of those who gained guardian tattoos and their attendants were asked to attend a ritual to release them on the night of the 22nd, along with anyone else who would like to witness. Everything is ready and as the witching hour approaches, several individuals dressed in flowing robes with their faces painted like skeletons approach. As the leader raises his voice to explain why they've come and what to do to make this night a success, a sudden shock-- Avalon itself shakes with the might of an earthquake... or at least, that's what it seems like for the first few minutes as everyone gathers themselves until they hear mass screaming in the distance. Though it's hard to see what's going on... there are still some very, very obvious problems.

A stone giant rises from the first of the Ash Mountains, crumbling the mountain around it as if the ancient being were holding the very mountain itself up... and it was. Those who visited Lestari will have seen its giant feet within the underground city. The former city. Lestari is now buried beneath the mountain, along with many of the other creatures living on and around the mountain. A huge storm of mixed weather forms above the giant's head, blizzard and lightning raging around it to no avail. As the people of Camelot watch what's only visible at a macro distance, they may not be as quick to notice that all of the fairy coins have begun glowing vibrantly, then suddenly burst out of the jars they've been held in, shattering right through them to fly off en-masse toward the stone giant. They embed themselves in it, fueling the giant with enough power to both begin to walk away from the rubble and for the spirits that have begun gathering in Avalon to head toward it, rather than where they had been intended.

As if that were not enough, after the Stone Giant takes two large steps through the Land of Rot, the gargantuan cloud of dust covering the ruins of the first of the Ash Mountain range rather suddenly lights up with a vibrant, ultra-violet burst of flames that illuminates the smoke. The gargantuan purple dragon that once took up residence in the mountain clambors out of the dust and shoots straight into the sky, enraged and furious, and able to sense where the magic came from that raised the stone giant. The reason it immediately begins flying toward Celliwig with the intent to raze it to the ground is likely not immediately apparent, but it is quite odd that it bypasses the much closer target of Camelot with its rage. As does the Stone Giant, though it does not head toward Celliwig and instead seems to absorb the souls of the dead that were intended to be guided by the fall equinox's rituals as it lumbers through the land. If someone does not stop it, it is headed for the Forest of the Felled.

King Arthur is immediately on the emergency broadcast system to implore people to join one of three groups:

Investigate and stop the Stone Giant

Slay the dragon and save Celliwig

Rescue survivors of Lestari and the Ash Mountain

The success of each of these missions is dependent on character participation. See the poll for details about how certain character types may affect the outcome of the missions.

~~Please refer to Event Poll Notes for information about aftermath of this event and additional event info~~ > Event Outcomes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He clings to her, no longer able to stand under his own power. He leans on her until she can guide him down to a sitting position.]

After everything that happened...

...I heard that we lost to the Stone Giant too and I just thought...

I'm...I'm sorry I didn't reach out to you sooner. I was too scared...I was afraid you wouldn't answer...

[Because if he lost her, they both know what that would likely lead to.]

[At least that means she's that important to him?]

[It does, and it answers one question, at least.]

And no one had brought word? ... I suppose the site of Lestari was further removed from the other two... but you had nothing to fear. We were able to save many people and recover quite a lot, without being overwhelmed by the monsters there.

[And there's something there to be hopeful about. Because even if they've lost two major battles, they've proven that they can keep moving forward and rebuild in the wake of defeat. But she keeps that thought to herself, since he likely won't see it the same way — more a thought to placate the sting of defeat, if anything.]

Honestly, based on our own results, I had hoped that the other teams would fare better. That if nothing else, one team would retreat and support the efforts of the other. When I found out what happened, I was shocked...

[Darin doesn't really say much to that. He just kinda...sits there.]

[Like he has a guilty conscience.]

[Finally, he mutters.]

No cohesive defense. Multiple agendas.

[There's a strange sort of sigh from Allura, the kind that's slow and drawn out. It expresses disappointment, but not in the people involved, not in her expectations not being met — but in a familiarity with this sort of situation, that had fed the more cynical expectations that she would rather starve out.]

... it was an emergency. None of this was organized the way it should have been. Honestly, splitting the forces down to a third, and then sending them to take on their enemies head-on, it was...

[Not his fault.]

[Not anyone's fault.]

[But nonetheless, it was a mistake.]

Split into fourths.

...Not everyone was trying to kill the dragon.

That's just it, though: No one's objective should have been to kill the dragon. The main goal should have only been to save Celliwig — to stop the dragon!

I heard the plans to reason with the dragon, and that would have accomplished the same without requiring nearly as much force. So would have trapping the dragon, luring it away, finding a way to repel its attack...

[She looks over at him, to see if he understands what she's getting at.]

Mn...

[He merely nods. He's not looking at her. More looking at the smouldering ruins that splay out before them.]

[He wants to say more, how there's a snooty, warmongering Empress out there who would argue for stupid, contrived reasons, but he doesn't feel like getting into that at the moment.]

[So, he just says nothing...but the grim, mirthless look on his face says more than he likely would want.]

[She understands it in an instance.] ... hearing it never helps, does it?

[So instead, she looks out the same way he's looking, letting their lines of sight cross and meet somewhere in what was once Celliwig.]

So, then... may I ask what you've gotten done for them? ['Them'. The countless ones surrounding them, silent and unknown.]

...There's nothing I can do that can make up for what I had a hand in taking from them...

That is not what I asked. And besides...

[She looks back to him, her eyes soft and sympathetic, but sad to see him hurting so acutely.]

You had no hand in taking this from them. No matter what you think you should have done, what could have done differently — in the end, it was only the dragon who did this.

...Someone had a chance at stopping the dragon. He was...he had more power by himself than an entire battalion of mages. He had a clear shot to take the dragon down.

Allura...I stopped him. I took him out of the fight and let the dragon escape...

[Allura hesitates. Not because she's taken aback from what he's saying, but because it doesn't make sense. She knows Darin, and how far he would go to save others. Why would he interfere at such a critical point?]

[There has to be context that she's missing.]

And what made you stop him?

He would have died. There was no way he would have survived. The dragon was inhaling to use its breath attack. He was going to sacrifice himself to critically injure it.

If I hadn't stepped in, he would've been turned to ash. But...the dragon's breath attack would have been taken out of the equation.

...All of this...

I could have stopped this but I chose not to...

And how do you know that the dragon didn't have another way to raze the town? Would someone else have to sacrifice themselves to take out its wings, or its claws?

[Somehow, she doubts that this alone will work as a wakeup call, so she continues...]

It's easy to feel responsible for everything you can't do. Knowing you, if you had let him go through with it, you would be blaming yourself for his death instead. But you're still not the dragon — and the only thing you did was save that man from certain death.

Do you regret that?

First off...I've fought a dragon before. This one was like the ones I have back home. Stopping its breath attack is essentially the same as stabbing it in the lungs. It might not have died but it would have been critically injured. Enough so that anyone else could have finished it.

Second...no, I don't regret that. Winning by sacrificing someone isn't a win. No victory is worth the price of one life.

[He shifts uncomfortably.]

They're both my friends. The dragon and the guy I saved. I wanted to save them both but...that selfish decision cost all these people everything...

At the end of the day, I won't back down from my principles.

But I'm not going to shirk my responsibility either...

These people deserve the chance to...I dunno. They deserve justice.

At least if I admit what I did to them...they can judge me themselves.

... it's noble of you to accept that...

[But her voice is wavering. Even though she'll support him in choice — is it really all right?]

Just... promise me that you won't let them get into your head, though. After everything they've been through, they can't be expected to be fair about this. They'll want vengeance, whether or not you actually deserve it.

And no matter how you look at it, nothing about that is just.

[For the first time in days, Darin laughs.]

Please...there's nothing they could say to me that I haven't heard my entire life...

It's just that...this time they'd be right...

[Allura's not laughing. Darin.]

See, that is precisely what I'm talking about. There's no reason to think that. You can't think that just because the dragon forced you to make an unsavory choice.

... actually, are you even seeking to appease their pain? Because it's sounding more as if you hope to have them punish you on your own behalf.

[His laughter stops and he sounds more than a little offended.]

The hell do you mean by that? What do you think I've been doing here these last few days? Looking for survivors or...anything I can bring back that could be of value to the people who believed it was lost.

All I'm saying is that I know that will never be enough. I know what it's like to lose everything. And those people aren't going to be appeased with just whatever I can salvage. They're going to want answers. Justice. Revenge.

[Sound familiar, Allura?]

The least I can do is offer them someone or something to blame. To hate.

[Look. Okay, yes. She knows the feeling. The difference is that she never got mad at her father for failing to stop Zarkon and his armies, never cursed him for old friendships that may have caused him to hesitate at the wrong moment.]

[Which one is Darin, and which one is the dragon?]

What I mean is simple, Darin: You're already working yourself far past your limits as punishment, and you're already saying they should hate and condemn you... and now you're adding that they would be right to do so. You don't want them to be fair to you, because you aren't being fair to yourself.

This town was destroyed by the dragon. You didn't encourage it to take that path, nor did you assist it in the destruction, nor did you fail because of succumbing to some darker part of yourself. Your only crime was being presented with an unfair choice — and you've already told me that you still stand by your decision.

So, why don't you tell me what would be so wrong about forgiving yourself for it?

That's the thing, Allura.

I can forgive myself all I want. I've made peace with my decision to save my friend.

But how many of those who lost everything will forgive me? Hell, I already know people who were ready to kill the dragon that haven't forgiven me.

[That includes the friend he saved.]

You're telling me to forgive myself, and I have. But it doesn't change the minds of everyone else.

[He shrugs.]

So, I'll carry that with me. It's not like it's a sentiment I'm not used to.

[There's still a note of that sentiment there, that he will absolutely be hated. That he can't not be hated. Maybe...]

Will you at least give yourself a fair chance, and tell them all the story? Not merely your crimes, but your better acts, and what you were able to save?

If you're going to have them judge you, then let them judge all of it. And then see how many will forgive you.

That's fine. I'll tell the whole story.

But I can't imagine 'choosing one over the many' will go over well...

If the alternative is that they would have to live with that man's blood on their soil? At least some of them should recognize the truth of all this.

Some of them, too, must believe that you cannot obtain victory through sacrifice.

... ... ...

What...What do you think of all of this?

...Of me?

[He's almost afraid to ask, nor is he able to meet her eyes.]

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