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 was very sad to see her legs go, but that at least let him sit up too. Which he did, still more ragged than he usually moved. Hopefully Steph was someone who didn't mind the scent of unwwashed, hard-working guy, because as much as Morgan tried to avoid that, these past few days had obviously been an exception.

"We --" Morgan paused, having abruptly remembered he no longer had a perfect sense of time here. "Uh, several hours at least."

She hasn't exactly taken the time for personal hygeine herself, and barely notices it in him. She does notice the strain in his movements better now that she's had some sleep, and remembers what terrible shape they both were in last night.

Squinting up at the sun, she can tell it's been a hell of a lot longer than she had planned. What time had they even passed out? She sighs and rubs her head.

"Crap," is all she says for a long moment, her tone defeated.

"Hush, we needed it." Needed a lot more, honestly. A long shower, a good meal, and an hour or two of video games. "And we earned it. Let's find some breakfast before we get back to work."

She shakes her head, then lets her hands fall into her lap.

"If I'm still this out of it after a full night's sleep, I can't be on the front. Zombies are one thing, but any more mountain lions coming out of the woodwork will eat me alive."

"You got me with you." Morgan nudged her gently, fist to her shoulder. "And I got you. They're not gonna want to try going after both of us." That was how mountain lions worked, right? Stalk individuals and take them down, not diving into herds.

She raises an eyebrow.

"They sure as hell didn't care yesterday." Neither did the elemental monsters which... she also had to run away from, since she doesn't have the right magic for it. The animals have gone just as crazy as the monsters with everything going on.

"And I still need to find a bladed weapon. I can't keep fending off fangs and claws with a blunt staff."

"You can borrow my sword." The literally priceless Primium sword given to him by one of his dearest friends in the world, even if it's no more useful than any other blade here in Avalon. "I'm at least as good without it."

She stares at him for a moment, dumbfounded. She doesn't know the full story of the sword, but she knows how important that kind of weapon can be to the person who carries it. She knows how Kipposhi feels about his. It would be even sweeter, except...

"I have no idea how to use a sword." She can probably figure it out well enough, but she feels she should point that out.

"...Really?"

He'd just assumed! After all, she seemed to generally kick ass.

"I'll have to fix that later! But yeah, maaaaybe not such a good idea to wing that around without some training."

Don't think he was disappointed or anything! Just surprised.

"Too lethal," she explains with a shrug. "Bad enough I could accidentally kill a man with my bare hands. And we don't really have wild animals in Gotham."

"True enough. You note how often I actually go for the thing now that it doesn't do antimagick properly any more." Which was basically never. He'd likely never have learned how to use a sword at all had he not gotten his soul stuck in one for a while.

She sighs.

"I can stay and help in the tents. I'm out of supplies anyway."

"You could help me. After last night, and thanks for the idea by the way, I think I can do more with Bargaining than I can on my own. And if you help me fulfill conditions, that's all the more I can do."

Staying in the tents had its worth, but he didn't think that would satisfy her or at least assuage her conscience as much as doing something more active would.

"Yeah? What do you have in mind?" She doubts anything will satisfy her after all the dead and wounded she's seen so far, but she wants to do as much as she can before collapsing. ...Again.

"I'm still working on that part. Be patient, it's a miracle my brain has gotten this far under its own power." More like it's on cruise control, without much hope for accelerating any faster. Or making any clever movements.

She pauses a beat, then laughs. They did just barely wake up. State of Emergency Autopilot can only do so much.

"Coffee?"

"No, Morgan."

And that was where HIS autopilot went.

She stares back at him, looking far less amused than she actually is.

"No. Coffee."

"...you're hot, so okay. I'm Coffee now." ~~Morgan~~ Coffee shrugged and surrendered to the inevitable.

"...Give me coffee. Before I punch you."

"Oh. Let's go find some coffee."

Let's -- let's find a way to move, first. Still terribly stiff, Morgan couldn't help but make a few unhappy noises as he started discovering just what his joints and muscles didn't like. Which was, primarily, moving in any capacity.

"Good choice." Her tone is light, since she wasn't really annoyed with him to begin with.

When he starts struggling to get up she does the same. It takes 3 tries and some grunting, but she manages to pick herself up off the ground without falling over again. If she has one skill, it's the ability to keep an uncooperative body working. She's not sure that should be counted as a skill, really.

Boy, they sure are a pair. Morgan shivered slightly, more from the exertion than any real sense of temperature, then huffed out a breath like if he could just get his breathing back on track, everything would fall into place.. "Hey, uh. Do you mind if I say something really stupid?"

"Never stopped you before."

She eyes him critically. If she looks half as bad as he does, they're in real trouble.

Ironically...

"You're gorgeous." Normally not one to hesitate at firing off a compliment, Morgan rubbed the back of his head a bit awkwardly. It was a strange compliment, after all... "Like, it isn't hard to be pretty when things are good and you're athletic and cute naturally, but right now? There's that spark in you. You know the one, that drives you to do things ordinary people never would? And it's beautiful. You're beautiful."

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