EVENT ✨ Fall Equinot

[avalonmods]

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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.

Comments

[morganknight]

Her need was greater, so he let her go first, with a little wobble once he no longer had forward momentum to keep him going. But he was still up, so victory -- and not only did this group have coffee, but some fruit they could pass around!

[ichoosefight]

Exhaustion is nothing to Steph when she's in the process of obtaining coffee. Once she has it safely in hand she practically collapses into a chair, cradling it like water in the desert. Standing up again is going to be a chore, but at least she'll be caffeinated for it.

[morganknight]

Have an orange, Steph.

"Myugh," Morgan said, intelligent and wise, as he got himself a cup too. No one would call this the brew of the gods, but all he wanted was ingestible caffeine. "God, I want to get back into it just to shake this tiredness. Once I get moving I'll be good for a while."

[ichoosefight]

Steph accepts the orange, holding the coffee between her knees so she can peel it.

"See what I mean? I don't trust myself on moveable surfaces right now." She tears a wedge out of the orange and pops it in her mouth, ignoring the sting of citric acid on some scratches on her hands.

[morganknight]

"I'll give you a moveable surface," Morgan said, threatening and flirtatious and yet somehow very much not either of those things because of how nonsensical it was. "There can't be too much more, not after this long. I think today's... well, you know."

Less saving buried people. More finding bodies, so loved ones could have closure.

[ichoosefight]

She makes a questioning sound around the orange, but doesn't wait to actually voice a question before switching back to the coffee. That was a weird flirt, Morgan.

"There's going to be weeks of cleanup," she says when she puts the coffee down again. She's thinking about the work ahead, but it hasn't caught up with her conscious mind yet.

"No idea how much deeper this city went..." Or how many people lived in the lower levels, or how well they stood up to a total collapse. Ah, there it is. She stares down into her coffee for a moment. How many more bodies can she stand to find? It doesn't matter. It has to be done, so she's going to do it.

"Lemme know when you come up with a plan for today."

[morganknight]

Yeah. That was really it. At the least, they could afford to rush less and think more.

"I'm the plan guy?" Heh, that was news, and he knew a LOT of people who'd be alarmed if not terrified by that suggestion. Morgan didn't think he was stupid, but he hung out with some ridiculously smart people -- his best friend had graduated college at something like 17, and said friend's uncle was probably literally the smartest human alive...

"First, I'm gonna consult with the bunnies about any survivors we can still get to in time. That'll be our first priority."

[ichoosefight]

"No, you're just the only one with any magic left." It's also what they discussed less than five minutes ago, but she chooses to drink more coffee rather than point that out.

"Do you have to make another deal to call them here?"

[morganknight]

As if they needed magic for a plan!

"I can call them any time to fulfill terms of a Bargain, so fortunately no. If I didn't think it'd cause a lot more problems than it'd solve I could haul in a lot more help, but that's the sorta thing that leads to panic when big ol' fae start lobbing around boulders and rubble."

[ichoosefight]

They need something. Steph is running on fumes. Coffee fumes.

"Might also cause more damage."

[morganknight]

"Property's a lost cause anyway." A rather grim thought about flower dragons and funeral arrangements poked into his head, unwelcome and awful. "But if we can get the last people we can save out today..."

Look, he wouldn't mind leaving a lot of the cleanup to kinetic mages and elementalists and whatever. Duty and responsibility wee one thing, self-preservation another, and they might run dangerously close to needing the latter at this rate.

[ichoosefight]

He makes a fair point, but what little sense of self-preservation she has tells her not to think about it too hard. Not to think about anything too hard. She downs the last of her terrible coffee and gets up to grab another, her half orange held in the same hand as the mug.

"The sooner the better."

[morganknight]

"Yeah."

What more could a guy say? At least they had some food, and some caffeine, and each other. And to the latter item, Morgan brushed one hand along her back as she stood, just a little comforting gesture.

[ichoosefight]

She doesn't bother sitting down, but slowly downs the entire mug in one go. She makes a sound like "guh" when she's done, but now she's got her work face on.

"Let's get to it, then."

[morganknight]

Morgan paused at her words, a thought flashing through his head. This might not work, but if it did, he was pretty sure it would help Steph cheer up.

Raising his voice slightly, Morgan sang, "Let's get down to business..."

[ichoosefight]

Of course, the entire rest of the song immediately begins to play in her head. For a moment Steph is too thrown to do anything but stare at him.

This. This is the person she wants to be with.

Finally, slowly, she starts to chuckle.

"We are not having a sing-a-long."

[morganknight]

Morgan didn't need to speak the words 'Maybe YOU aren't' for them to come through crystal-clear anyway.

"To defeat!" he sang on, louder now as he made two swift gestures with his hand in the pause. "The Huns!"

Honestly, Morgan had a surprisingly good singing voice.

[ichoosefight]

Steph ducks her head, putting a hand on her temple to hide half of her face. She gets redder and redder as he carries on, but her smile gets bigger too. What little shame she has is almost entirely social, but it's hard to resist Mulan.

[morganknight]

"Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?!"

Her smile was all-important. If he can nurture that, and bring a little strength back to her spirit once again... then he could feel like he'd achieved one pure, untainted victory during the course of all this. Which would be good for him too. This was therapy for both of them, after all. And defiance against the odds, incidentally!

[ichoosefight]

No. She does not sing in front of people. She doesn't. Not even Mulan. Not even if Morgan is already drawing plenty of attention, most of it smiles from people pretending not to notice. Nope, not going to happen.

She bites her lip to keep from joining in on the next line.

[morganknight]

Morgan had no shame and no dignity -- both of them were giant wastes of time, in his humble opinion, and required only for people who weren't self-confident. Raising his voice even louder, one arm stretched out, couldn't possibly bring him the slightest bit of embarrassment.

"You're the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man out of you!"

How long could Steph resist?

[ichoosefight]

Not long. She ducks her head even further, but finds herself mouthing the words to the last line. It's like walking with a child- nobody can help being a little goofy with that much energy pulling you along.

She joins in on the next verse, almost too quietly to be heard.

"Tranquil as a forest
But on fire within.
Once you find your center
You are sure to win..."

[morganknight]

Welp. Now she'd done it! Encouraging Morgan in the slightest just gave him all the energy and enthusiasm in the world to go all-out. He let go of her hand to sling his arm around her shoulders and pull her side to his, the other arm stretched out as he really put his voice to use.

"You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make a man out of you!"

[ichoosefight]

She misses a beat as she stumbles into him, but when she starts in on the next verse her voice is actually audible. Her own arm goes around his waist to balance herself.

"I'm never gonna catch my breath-" She pauses to let him take the alternating lines. Her voice isn't the best, but she stays in tune well enough.

"Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym..." she cuts in at the appropriate time, then "Hope he doesn't see right through me!"

[morganknight]

"Say goodbye to those who knew me!" Morgan chorused out in his turn. "This guy's got 'em scared to death!" Then, a moment later. "Now I really wish that I knew how to swim! Be a man!"

He'll handle the chorus, she can handle the lyrics. That's teamwork!