EVENT ✨ Old St. Nic(nevin)

[avalonmods]

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Everyone is invited to Elphame to celebrate this year's Winter Solstice and take part in Elphame's portion of the Winter Solstice rituals. Everyone was provided a quick-travel totem to get to the Land of Maidens, which now has an open path into the fairy capitol of N

Thanks to the completion of the 9 Sorceresses' tasks, preparations for the Winter Solstice have gone smoothly and, temporarily, the waterfall gorge that leads to the Land of Maidens has frozen entirely. Where the entrance to the Land of Maidens had once been hidden behind the water, a new cavern is formed by the frozen ice. A small pathway of moss and tiny flowers formed by petal-thin crystals leads the way to a door. This one is wood and seemingly carved out of a the cliff at the base of the waterfall. The wood door is covered with vines and moss and red and white spotted toadstools and is quite, quite small. You'll certainly have to get on your hands and knees to pass through or if you refuse, the fae of the gorge will have little hesitation in spreading rumors of your cowardice across the land.
Harsh words like "I heard they only fuck chickens because that's what they truly are" and a good many other crass and sometimes ridiculous rumors (and caricatures we dare not share with you) will spread about the land, even going so far as to come back to Camelot. To have rumors spread about your character during the event, list them here for all to see!
	Enter, and you shall crawl through a small tunnel that seems to get wider and wider (or are you getting smaller and smaller? It's impossible to tell for sure.) until you reach a rather impressively sized moat surrounding what may be the largest tree you've ever seen. There are small boats that will carry two to three people at a time, manned by what look like nutcrackers. Ask their names, and you will find they are called Undante and Redd and they both will speak the same thing at the same time, which can get rather confusing when the other boat is speaking to their ferryman. If you continue to bother them at work, they will send you on a quest that's essentially impossible to complete and a complete waste of time. Don't bother them, they've got more passengers to ferry, don't you have a fairy capitol to explore?
Once you arrive at one of the roots of the tree, you'll be expected to climb up the side of it using vines and thick flat mushrooms that grow up the side of it and knobby growths, since most humans can't fly. There are homes and shops built all along the side of the tree, carved into it but not deep enough to disrupt its growth. Once you get up to the first main district about two hundred feet above the base, the fairies will laugh and show you a staircase through the trunk you could've taken and may use for future reference. You can travel across branches to reach other trees with more homes once you reach another three hundred feet above the shops level, and there is a single staircase that wraps around the tree that unfortunately is not a joke- you really do need to climb another six hundred feet of stairs up to reach the castle of Nicnevin... and even if you do, you'll run into more nutcrackers guarding the door and preventing anyone from entering the castle area. Thankfully, you don't need to climb the entire tree to find the gathering square back on the main district level, which is paved with skipping stones from a pond (or large flat stones? The scale is still quite unclear) and decorated with evergreen branches and winter flowers like poinsettias, winterberry, and black hellebore. Warm cups of soup are being distributed filled with Everwarm (though those who were paying attention may think better of it). Many of the fae from the Elphame Traders who have visited in the past can be found in their home shops here and may greet people who made purchases from them in the past. Speaking to them may be the only way to get food imported from Camelot if you forgot to bring some. The Traders will direct players to an inn tree known as the Everwelcome Inn. Rooms come in standard hotel sizes. 1 queen bed or 2 queen bed rooms will be offered for free to visitors from Camelot, but there are suits available to those who are willing to barter something valuable to them. They do not accept G in Elphame, but they may send characters on quests to fetch various items or defeat certain beasts, or accept personal items (low value) to upgrade to suites with a king bed, hot tub, kitchen, balcony, and an included couples package (learn to make fairy guacamole together, couples platza treatment, and a romantic in-room dinner that looks like it's made mostly of sweets fit for a French King.. if you think that's a good idea).   The people themselves don't seem keen on opening up to people yet, so it may be hard to learn about Nicnevin's culture, but it does seem to be home to a wide variety of strictly non-human faeries and creatures... so it may just be hard to get a grasp on as many have their own rules to live by, provided they all respect each other (pranks on humans don't count) and obey the Fae Queen's edicts. However, everyone comes out together on the night of the Winter Solstice to participate in a dance around the base of the tree. As Winter Solstice tradition, characters will be provided with either white robes or be told it's more polite to strip nude. (All of the fairies will be without attire, so as to feel closer to the island.) Once you're out around the base of the tree, you're told to hold someone else's hands in a circle around the giga tree, and step toward the water. So long as you don't let go of at least one other person's hand, you'll find you're able to walk on the surface of the water. All the fae begin to sing, and if you listen to your heart, you'll find somehow you know the tune deep down as well and are able to join in should you choose to. Dance in any way you find enjoyable, then run together with everyone clockwise around the tree. This will coincide with the Solstice Night Run taking place back in Camelot and work in conjunction with it. (Anyone staying in Camelot is welcome to use the Solstice Night Run prompts from last year if they see something that interests them, though everyone is encouraged to head to Elphame using Land of Maidens totems provided for free to them!)

Whether you choose to participate or not, eventually everyone will need to find their way back to their rooms at the inn and will find slumber, even if they're not the type to usually sleep. Something about the way magic is channeled through the fairy kingdom differently tends to make people very sleepy.. which is just as well, as they'll be woken by a visitor in the morning. Mari Lwyd has come a'knocking. A skeletal horse covered in white cloth and decorated with ribbons with ornaments in its eye socks stands at the door upon opening, and begins to slap down some sick rhymes about why it should be allowed to come in. If you are able to get a verse back at it telling it not to come in with, it will return fire with another rap. Return it in what boils down to a rap battle with Mari Lwyd for three verses and it will leave-- from either you, a roommate, or a benevolent passerby, so tag in to save a rhyme! Stop before
reaching three verses, and Mari Lwyd will come in and take the entirety of your food and drink stock, leaving only water. Happy.. Solstice? Complain to any fairy and they will simply tell you oh yes, that's Mari Lwyd, it comes every year. However, you will find that at the end of the day the Mari Lwyd will find anyone who it spoke to and give a Fairy Blessing to them (whether they won the battle or not). Fairy Blessings DISCLAIMER: Fairy Blessing Magic Upgrades can only be obtained after your character visits Elphame. If your character does not go ICly, they don't get a boost. They can go to Elphame and obtain a blessing from the Fairy Queen at any point after Dec. 2021's Winter Solstice. It does not have to be during the event. The following upgrades are available to Primary Magic types: Healing: Area of Effect casting-- cast healing magic across a group. It will do less than a concentrated healing spell would, but you can cast on more people at once to reduce the amount of time needed to heal each member of the party and ability Locking (temporarily limit someone to only using the last spell that they cast. The spell will be boosted significantly in power/skill, but they cannot use anything else until the lock wears off- beginning practice 1 minute, up to 30 minutes max). Elemental: Control existing elements within the environment. (Ex: Calm fires, push back waves, spin tornados, etc.) Animal: Transform or partially transform into mythical animals (Non-fairy/humanoid). Dark Magic: Travel through connected (touching) shadows only to places the character has been before. (If there is too much light, the mage may be trapped and unable to travel.) Cannot stay stationary within the shadows, as there is no shadow realm to hang out in. Kinetic: Vibrate body at high frequency to be able to phase through objects. (Note: Will only work on self.) Cognitive: Telepathic conversation (two-way, by consent only- they can't read thoughts without permission). Alchemy: Fluid animation of elements according to the whim of the creator. (Ex: Toys that move on their own, a scaregrow with the whim to protect fields, enchant a spare key to run away from thieves, etc.) Light: Full-room, tactile illusions (combination of hard light and illusions). Details require significant practice, but could be used to create entire illusory scenarios. (Must be present to cast, you cannot create illusions and leave someone trapped.) Blessings are not currently available for secondary magic types. Camelot's officers will be setting up a halfway campsite at the Forest of the Felled for anyone who wishes to stay between the two lands for easy access to next month's events and Camelot. Characters are welcome to stay wherever they would like!

Comments

[morns]

( nice. this position, however, has Kate needing to move away from Baiken if she plans on manually climbing.

which, naturally, means she's going to levitate herself up to a mushroom instead. )

How long you had that?

( she seems comfortable enough with it that Kate would guess a while, but then, she also thinks Baiken is the kind of woman who would look comfortable with most anything reasonably quickly. )

[garyoutensei]

[ Baiken smirked, rubbing at her shoulder and letting it rest a moment before she got to climbing, again, herself. ]

Got fitted for it once I dropped out of school. Some weirdo alchemist thought I'd be an excellent person to use his experimental "Demon Tools", since I was already missing an arm.

Since I intended to fight Gears, I figured they could help close the gap further between me and them, giving me an edge that didn't require magic.

[morns]

( huh. that's... interesting. she has no idea what Gears are, but she'll roll with it. currently, she's imagining literal oversized gears, but that's probably not it.

though who knows in this place. )

He pay you for playin' guinea pig?

( she supposes the outcome was payment enough, as it seems rather successful, but still. there's something about Baiken's story that hits at uncomfortable facts back home.

at uncomfortable facts about her life.

but don't look too closely at the way her eyes dart away as she talks, she's definitely just checking the route up while she can. )

[garyoutensei]

I was the one paying him, in Gear and other monster parts.

[ Which meant Baiken didn't really see herself as a guinea pig, in that case. ]

If he was offering me something that would help me kill Gears, kill That Man, I was gonna take it. I didn't care if it was dangerous.

[morns]

( ... ah. )

Revenge, is it?

( that's not her personal style. bad shit happens and it's not like hurting the person behind it is going to change that. but her brother obsesses on getting justice in the same way, with a fever that she knows is less about justice and more about his own satisfaction. )

[garyoutensei]

Yeah...

[ She didn't hear any judgement in Kate's tone, but Baiken still gave her a look that seemed to have expected at least some of it. ]

The person who did this to me... took away everything... I'm going to kill them. That's all that matters.

[morns]

( she's long since learned to bite her tongue on the matter of revenge. arguing the point has never led to anything but people (Marc) holding more stubbornly to their ideals.

to comments designed to poke at guilt and responsibility. )

... Ah. ( yeah. that's... ) Tale as old as time.

( some people say that about romance. some people say that about murder goals. totally normal. ) And after that?

[garyoutensei]

After that, I drag the bastard into hell with me.

[ Which, while a bit poetic, suggested she didn't intend to really... live. after it was all said and done. ]

cw: death ideation ig

[morns]

( there are so many clichés about that kind of thing, aren't there? living well is the best revenge, shit like that? maybe those help some people, who knows. Kate certainly didn't live well after everything that happened, but she never did seek revenge.

only the survival of her brother. and now he's grown, earning his own money, so what is she here for? she guesses to save for whatever rainy days he might have. )

Guess that's as good a plan as any.

( it's a shitty answer, a non-answer, but really the only one she has. she's not Baiken's minder; she can't even tell her brother that his craving for revenge is stupid and pointless, can't protect him from that anger inside him, what right does she have to lecture anybody else on the same?

and if your goal is done... what else is there to do but die? )