isleofavalon | 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

And here I thought you might want help- but I won't object if you'd rather I laugh at your suffering from over here.

[Sorry, Hijikata, she's definitely an 'S', and has decided that you're today's target!

That expression was glorious.]

[Of course she's an S. Of course.]

You'll pay for this!!

[Dramatic much?! But wait, there's more! As the new pair of geese swarms towards him and the one that stole his cigarettes keeps evading his sword stabs with ridiculous ease he snaps. These irreverent birds and this nefarious witch have pissed him off enough!!

He takes his cigarette from his mouth and draws three smoke symbols into the air with swift, angry motions, then slams his fist down on the ground where he's standing.]

Fulgur Percutiens!!

[There goes his electricity magic, stronger than ever, filling the surroundings with crackles of purple lightning. When the spell disperses there are three perfectly grilled geese sitting around the samurai... however it looks like his cigarettes didn't make it.]

...

[She's gleefully laughing at his yelling- clearly, riling him up was a great source of enjoyment for her. And, well, it didn't look like his sword was proving at all affective against the creatures.

But oh, what was this?

Moving her arms in a wide arc, she shielded herself with darkness and pulled back- he might have been aiming at her!

But no, as the dust clears...there was the smell of freshly cooked goose. Oh, and destroyed, burning nicotine.]

...Well. That saves me the trouble of cooking one, doesn't it?

[Hijikata was torn between silently mourning his pack of smokes and recovering from the surge of mana his unnecessarily big and flashy attack sapped him of, but Caster's remark riles him right back up.]

Who the hell said that I'm giving you one?! On what grounds would you deserve that after siccing them on me?!

[He turns towards her ~~as a new battle theme picks up in the background~~, sword still in hand and sparks crackling in the other. Is he really going to battle her over three roasted geese? In public? Believe it!]

Siccing them on you? Not at all~ I lured them to you so you could cook them for us. Come now, you don't expect me to believe you can eat all three by yourself, do you?

[That smirk certainly didn't match the innocent tone she was using, that was for sure.

But she sensed those sparks in the air- and in turn, the shadows clung to her, to shield her in darkness.]

Bullshit; like hell you had that in mind! I'm not sharing with you!

[He sheathes his sword, apparently having concluded that she won't come out of hiding as long as he doesn't come near the shadows, and tries to pick the roasted geese up, but finds it a challenge. They're goddamn big, and it's a struggle for him to hold them all, not to mention that his uniform is getting thoroughly stained with grease. People had already been alarmed by the fight and the intense lightning, so of course a bunch of them are still staring at him. A kid even points and loudly asks his mother why that man has three geese.]

Ugh, damn it... come on, now...

[Where's Arashi when he needs him?! Wait, no, he's a bird too, he might disapprove of this.]

Well? Why do you have three geese to yourself?

[Nothing like making him look bad in front of a small child and his mother right? To her credit, she was getting far too much enjoyment out of his frustrated expression.

And hey, it looked like she could carry on needling at him without him unleashing his wrath.]

[Ugh. Leave it her to milk this situation for what it's worth! Much as he resents it, he has to accept that he can't carry off all these geese, let alone eat them, so he sets one back down and walks over to the mother and child to offer one of the other two.]

Would you like one, Madam?

[It's a generous offer on principle, but his face sends another message entirely... the woman hesitates, even taking a step back from the steaming man. The little boy, however, moves in to clumsily grab the massive bird, promptly messing up his own outfit too.]

Thank you, Sir Knight!

Don't mention it.

[God, he sounds so pressed!! An old lady resolutely shuffles towards him, eyes fixed on the other roast goose... and all the while the third is entirely unsupervised.]

[Well now, that third goose was entirely unattended, wasn't it...? And it wasn't as if she had one herself. Might as well just call up some dark magic tendrils from the ground to grab the last of the geese. Whilst chuckling at his expense of course- that pressed expression and tone of voice were delightful.

Of course stealing his last goose was a nasty thing to do, but that was the evil witch's plan!]

[Shit!! Of course she just had to grab it with her goddamn tendrils of darkness.. this wouldn't have happened if he weren't obligated to be a good knight and play nice with the civilians!!

God, how he wants to lose it and charge at the shadows hiding her, but the old woman is already right in front of him and telling him about her 6 children and 13 grandchildren and how it's been years since they last had a roast goose dinner with the whole family, so he can only glare back at where he last saw Caster from the corner of his eye, angry veins twitching at his temples. It looks like he'll end up having to buy his own dinner from the fish'n'chips stand.]

EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

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CW: Cartoonish Goose Murders

Alas poor geese

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