isleofavalon | EVENT ✨ Sugar and Siege

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EVENT ✨ Sugar and Siege

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The fairy queen is less than pleased, but not angry, with how her quest went. She has Princess Bluebell of the Guinea Pig Nation speak, and Princess Bluebell also has a favor to ask... which seems to be the calm before the storm, as an unknown third party who made off with the Fisher King earlier this month have performed a ritual to resurrect him and left the veil open, letting in untold forces that have engaged in a Wild Hunt... and the prey is Camelot.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

1st Prompt: --
2nd Prompt: Active: Battle, disease, famine, living death, rage; Historical/Not active in prompt: mentions of serial killers, murder, biological warfare, god/human love affair
3rd Prompt: --

This prompt is backdated slightly and takes place on February 18th.

A live broadcast comes to everyone's devices, featuring a rather peculiar speaker. "Attenchun, kindly o-otherwowders! Tis I, Pwincess Guacachia Bluebell of the Guinea Pig Nation of Nowth Elphame. Though our home is too small to be noted on the Laage Neighbow's maps, I asschuwe you I am caulified as Ambassadow for Chween Elphame. Though you had failed her chwuest, many of you have shown the twust she asked fow even if not the bwains. Those who have will be shown gweat gwatichude, but she does feel [squeaking sound of dismay that cannot be translated out of guinea pig adequately] as the Fishaa King's body was pawt of hew pwans to dishmanchle the Cawamidy and didn' want to speach chuday because of it. Evewyone send good wibes and wikes, she won't speak when she's not
[again: squeaking sound of dismay that cannot be translated out of guinea pig adequately]... the Cawamichy won't be ended if you all don't wowk with the Chween, King Awfur's gwaces or notch, you know! But that's none of myyy busy-ness! Elphame offews a rewawd fow the Fishaa King's body now, much to keep you "fat and happy" for many yeaws! I also have a favew to ask on behaaf of my people. Our Festiva of Life is next week and the usuaw souwce of one of the chey ingwediench of our festiva cakes was a Leschawian, bwessings to them!" As it turns out, the Guinea Pig Nation (all talking guinea pigs who like to dress up in various outfits- in style now in particular is old western themed outfits, but the Princess must always wear her crown) are in a pinch because their Lestari hook-up for the feathers died in the fall of Lestari. They need help to pluck feathers from a bird called the Prism Tweeter! Their people love to decorate the outside of their Festival of Life cakes with their feathers, which are made of finely spun sugar in a variety of colors. These birds are typically found in the first Ash Mountain, but upon its fall, migrated to live in the Forest of the Felled as one of its new, more colorful residents. It only takes one feather to cover a cake, so pluck no more than one feather per bird and the whole flock will go unharmed... the only trick is catching these delectably sweet aviators: The birds can magically phase through physical, non-enchanted objects, so you have to surprise them to grab them. The plus side is, they really love vanilla beans, so they're easy to lure out of the trees.. you don't have to be George of the Jungle to help out the pigs. More of a stay-at-home kind of helper? That's fine too. They need bakers to make as many tiny cakes as they need for the festival since it's so last minute this year! Hurry up and grab a friend to get to baking 3-layer 1 inch cakes wrapped in rainbow feathers to help these little guys out. The Elphame Traders will make a special trip to Camelot to pick up all of these cakes as a favor to the Guinea Pig Nation, so you can stay at home and bake with your friends no matter where you live. This prompt takes place on February 22nd and February 23rd.
	A few days after the fun and fancy-free stylings of the Guinea Pig Nation ahead of their Festival of Life (you weren't invited, sorry, too big you would destroy their homes- but they appreciate the help!) things are going pretty mundanely. That is, until what sounds like a battle cry is heard approaching New Camelot. On the horizon, what appears to be a massive cavalcade of demon horse-riding wraiths lead by four knights in what appears to be ancient armor rush toward the city. A few of the locals who hear the sound and come out to see what all the fuss is about immediately seem to spook, shouting something about the Wild Hunt. Usually it's something preserved for earth and those who find it will be taken along and dumped either in Avalon itself or taken straight to the underworld, but their presence here in Avalon.. well, that can't be good. The shouting seems to alert the castle, which seems to alert more people, and within a matter of minutes people are being rushed to take cover within the castle walls for siege.
All of Camelot's gates are closed and people are directed to a couple of different places: knights and those who wish to fight are to prepare for battle at each of the gates. Healers who wish to stay and help the wounded are to gather in the citadel, where the injured will be taken. Those who wish to battle and heal will act as field medics to get people into a state enough fit to be taken to the citadel. Those who wish to offer other support may be asked to hand out food and water within the citadel or fetch supplies around the city, or to rush to the library to try to figure out what the hell is leading this hunting party toward them. King Arthur will lead the knights into battle. Merlin will also be assisting in battle, using a variety of magic from atop the castle. If your character gets into a pinch and you aren't sure how to get them out, feel free to have him send a magic spell to block an enemy. Knights given the authority to direct other fighting characters as they see fit (though your non-knight fighter's compliance is, as always, depending on your choice as a player). Those who wish to opt out of this event entirely will be whisked away by some of the Fairy Queen's spies to Nicnevin for safekeeping. If you do not want your character to remember or acknowledge any portion of this event, we can handwave that the Fairy Queen arbitrarily found your character annoying and put them under a sleeping spell for the duration of their stay. This will be done before the outer city gates are broken through, so your character can be safe the whole time and just chill in a hotel room in Nicnevin. Those who stay will be fighting wraiths (unkillable enemies) lead by four beings called the Knights of the Veil. Those who have rushed to the library to find answers will be able to spread the following information regarding the enemies, though first-hand experience may also be how your character finds out some of it: The Knights of the Veil live in the void between the world of the living and the dead and escaped when the veil was not closed during a ritual to raise a heavily cursed and protected corpse back to life. Though there's no way to know which corpse, recent news of the Fisher King's body going missing leaves some speculation and fear about who it was that was raised, but no one has any idea who did it. The Knights of the Veil have touch-based magic in addition to weaponry which you may have your character afflicted by at your behest. The four knights are as follows: Carlea: Once a proud Queen, she sold her soul to the darkness after her husband was killed by enemies and the prince of the enemy nation forced her to marry him. She used this ability to brutally murder every last citizen of her enemy's kingdom over time in secret and feed them to a pet bear she was gifted by her new husband, saving him for last. Carlea's touch will invoke a curse of famine, causing all food and drink to turn to ash in the touched individual's mouth. Rubion: Rubion was a serial killer in his world known for killing over a hundred people, though the exact number is not known. Who he was before that isn't particularly known, but as a killer, he was known for brutally killing anyone who crossed him in a fit of rage. He was from a time before forensics and tended to kill witnesses, so he was never caught. That is, until he missed seeing a small child hiding under his bed during one of his rampages. The child's grandfather took him in and killed Rubion himself after he found out why the child would not speak for a month straight. It is thought that his own god cursed Rubion to stay in the void where he could not torment his victims in the afterlife too. Rubion's touch will invoke uncontrollable, violent rage and turn even the smallest slight into a mountainous anger. Augusto: Augusto was the general of an army who used the blood of his people's sickly to spread disease in conquering nations. He did not choose to become one of the Knights, instead being cursed to eternal damnation by a priestess in one of the villages he wrought destruction upon. Augusto's touch will inflict a disease of the player's choosing upon their character, at full height of symptoms within 30 minutes of touch. Pien: Pien is a god of an older religion who was banished from the heavenly kingdoms for loving a human so much she attempted to give her eternal life despite that it was forbidden to grant eternity to mortals. She has a high-and-mighty attitude, and if disrespected will disrespect you right back with dignity-obliterating consequences. Her followers tended to be on the M side of things. Her touch will invoke conscious zombieism, meaning that your body will die and begin to rot despite still being able to move, and you will be aware and able to communicate and feel during this experience. The Knights and Wraiths cannot be killed by any means as long as the ritual remains in effect and their tie to the underworld is stable, so for the time being this is a heavily unwinnable battle. Thankfully, wraiths are not very coordinated even if they are aggressive in battle so it's easy to dodge, flee, or take cover.

On the second day of the Siege, devices will flicker with a face we haven't seen in some time. She is this world's mother goddess, after all, so if threatened she will come to offer reprieve. Morganna looks almost amused at how much destruction had been wrought by the actions of, truly, one man and those he had strung along. Morganna will not punish nor reveal them, but she will speak on the matter:

"Those wishing for this to end, rejoice. I have birthed verbena upon your doorsteps. Take another's hand, light a candle and burn the flowers. Whisper 'lights out' three times together, and pray to send some of your magic to me. I need as many of you to do it as possible, or else I will not be able to freeze time fast enough to stop the calamity from engulfing this place afterward when I complete the ritual shutter."

verbena flower

That is all she says. The ritual won't do much if only one person does it outside of today as Morganna is keeping secret what she does on her end to complete it. If your character's name is possessed by the fairy queen, they will be forced to participate in this ritual so they may notice something odd if they weren't intending to do it.

After the ritual is complete, all personal rituals will be voided and need to be recast. (This includes things like brownie summoning spells or the banishing of lesser frost fairies if your character was doing that from last year to keep their house warm.) This will also cause both the sun and moon to black out for about a day afterward, so you may want to get on board with artificial lighting or spells until a party heading to Celliwig to repair that ritual can get out there in about a day's time.

The most dangerous ritual that has been broken will be the time freeze. Morganna uses everyone's magic to give herself superspeed to recomplete the ritual to recast it, along with a significant portion of the Isle of Avalon's itself that had been built up in surplus having everyone here for so long. However, there are still 2 seconds in which the massive event that threatens the multiverse can move forward. It is now visible in the sky to the north during the night even without being at the End of the World, and will stay that way for the duration of isleofavalon until the multiverse is saved. It is outright terrifying if you travel to the End of the World now, taking up the majority of the sky.

For a month afterward, those who participated may find themselves fatigued without clear cause... but in general, magic will be misbehaving and causing accidents for everyone for about the next month.

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Claire's in a similar position, but not entirely so, given her status as a knight. She's actually got a mount, and these last months have been spent learning how to ride the weird flying dinosaur. She's settled into a patrol pattern over various districts, firing down at ghosts and offering up warnings and coordinating efforts, but even then her poor mount needs a break.

Which is how she finds herself perched on the roof of a house, sitting there and looking down into the street near the wall. As Steph comes into view, she doesn't hesitate to wave, and shoot her a message.

"Look up," the device beeps, so Claire doesn't have to risk shouting and drawing attention.

Steph is well aware of the flying contingent, so when she gets the quick message she only wastes a second looking to the sky. It's strange to realize she's been here long enough that her attention isn't always half on the rooftops to begin with. She catches the wave, but it's only a quick glance before her focus is on the battle again. She can't afford to be distracted for long.

But why is Claire signaling her? With the way her heart is drumming in her ears, there might be trouble she hasn't consciously noticed yet. Her instincts are generally good. If only they had comm links instead of just cell phones...

She takes a second to decide, then presses the button that contracts her staff so she can put it back on her utility belt. She takes it with her everywhere unusual these days, fully stocked, even if it earns her odd looks. One fast look at the battlefield to be sure of her surroundings and she moves away from the wall, pulling out and firing her grapnel gun in the same motion. A dodged couple of punches and some loud protests from startled combatants later and she's on the roof next to her friend.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Safer to plan up here, I think. Saw a group of them moving a couple of streets over to come around behind the defenders, figured working with someone I knew would be smart."

She's still crouching down, keeping low to try and avoid notice for the moment. Figuring Steph knew her way around fighting on rooftops, it just made sense to stick together. This was a group effort, and there's only so much either one of them can do alone.

"Up to playing interceptor with me?"

"I didn't come out here to be safe," she snaps, though she's not entirely sure who the remark is aimed at. The people who started this mess, probably. She looks over at the... riding animal, thinking fast, unaware that she's said something odd.

"Is your friend there trained to fight? And what weapons do you have on you?"

"Nobody did."

Claire, a little taken aback by the statement, wrinkles her nose in annoyance. Both at the statement and the question. The archaeopteryx turns his head to Steph and stares her down, clearly taking a little umbrage on behalf of his partner.

"Yes. And I have the usual. My gun and a sword."

She genuinely doesn't know much about knights here, especially those that aren't local, but the response still aggravates her. Her frown deepens, though she totally ignores the archaeopteryx. Animal glares aren't very effective when you've spent as much time as she has with Batman.

"Sword is better, not mounted. Gun's too risky with hand-to-hand. Let the..." she gestures at the creature, momentarily blanking on the proper name and not willing to call it a random dinosaur while she's within pecking range. "...him, fight on his own. That makes three fighters instead of two. Air or ground, doesn't matter. They'll be expecting attackers from the ground level or open sky, so we jump them from a one- or two-story roof."

Her foot taps quietly with agitation. Now that she's back on focus, she wants nothing more than to throw herself at the enemy and rip them to pieces.

"Or you trust me and let me do what I do best, and shoot from above. If you're wanting to go in close, then I'll back you up."

The dinosaur's gaze turns away, his claws gripping the roof tiles as he begins the move. Claire's jaw tightens a bit, the animal's impulsiveness was still a pain.

"I can get my familiar out there, and conjure one of the plant-creatures too, if you want backup, but I'm not that great with a sword, especially against these things."

Claire's attitude is infuriating, but there's not actually anything wrong in what she's staying. Steph keeps her eyes on the enemy to avoid glaring at her friend and resist the urge to slap her. She can't help rolling her eyes though.

"Forgive me for trying to avoid getting shot," she mutters sarcastically, fingering the staff at her back.

"Do whatever you want. But learn how to use that thing or leave it behind," she retorts at normal volume, turning to point at Claire's sword. The moment the words are out of her mouth she regrets them. She sounds like Batman even to herself, and that's not something anyone should aspire to. She quickly turns away, clenching her teeth, turning a little bit of that bubbling rage on herself. She spots a usable ledge in the proper direction and jumps for it before either of them can do something else they'll regret.

"The fuck's gotten into you?"

Claire can't keep the question inside, and she doesn't regret it. She doesn't keep talking, either, instead turning and running along the roof to a narrower point. She isn't a gymnast, and she isn't someone that trained with fucking Batman. She's just a garbage-pail kid from Ohio that knows a bit of how to fight.

Vaulting the narrow spot, she scurries up to the peak of the next building, waving to Steph wordlessly to follow. Her familiar flaps his wings and takes off, moving in the same direction. May as well keep words out of it, if this is how things are going to be. She can deal with this later.

Steph pretends she didn't hear. She's not sure what's gotten into her, and that only makes her angrier. She wants to be back in the fight already, beating some ghost-monster into a bloody pulp.

She follows on her own, riskier route, keeping enough distance between them that talking isn't practical. She doesn't understand what's happening in her own mind, but she doesn't feel like she's done anything wrong, so there's nothing to be done about it.

Once they're close enough to their quarry, Steph signals to split up and points out a good spot to ambush from on the opposite side of the street from where she intends to be. She waits only long enough to be sure Claire saw the signals before darting off to her own post.

Claire also has the sense to keep quiet, her sole focus now on the mission and the enemy. She also takes Steph's signals to heart, moving into the indicated position. Of the two of them, one has combat training, and Claire's more than willing to let herself be directed. The gun rises slowly, ready.

A troop of wraiths moves down the street, sure enough. Not marching with purpose, exactly, but with the intensity of raiders and thugs, aiming to hit the battle-line they'd left from behind.

Waiting for a signal, or even just an attack, from Steph, Claire grips her gun...prepping.

Steph makes sure to catch Claire's eye once they're both in position, then turns back to the raiding party. The moment the last two creatures are in range she leaps, toppling one over to land on its chest while smashing her staff into the other's face.

Claire lets Steph take the lead there, and The Dog jumps in to join her. The big beast, snarling and angry, is pretty effective at getting some of the wraiths down, and Claire's gun barks in time with his attacks. They can't kill these creatures, but she's certain she can incapacitate them for a bit, so she aims for legs and arms, focusing on enemies that are trying to break towards Steph.

Steph throws herself at the enemy like a woman possessed, striking hard and fast at vital points that might have killed a human opponent. The wraiths are overmatched, and if they weren't immortal they would have toppled like dominos under the barrage.

The attack goes well at first, but from the position of a sniper it should be clear that Steph sees nothing but the opponent in front of her. She makes no motion to avoid impending fire, and barely even registers the shots after the fact. The number of enemies targeting the girl rises as she finds herself fighting in the very center of the cluster of wraiths.

If Claire wasn't sure something was wrong before, she was sure of it now. That was bad. What the fuck was she thinking, going in like that? The Dog is doing his best, and the archaeopteryx is grabbing wraiths in raking talons from above, but the street keeps him from doing more than strafing runs.

...Which means it's up to Claire to do something, she recognizes. The gunfire stops, and several bags fly out from pockets. She wasn't big on doing this for obvious reasons, but she'd had time to really grow comfortable with Green magic, as exhausting as it could be. If Steph has any semblance of awareness, she'll probably recall the weird plant zombie Claire had made during their last big combat encounter...and this time it's not just one. It's three, each one uniquely ugly, growing out of those bags and animated by Claire's will and shadows.

Whipping vines grab wraiths, exposing them to attacks, holding them in place. It's not going to stop immortal opponents forever, but it'll give Claire time to call out.

"Steph! We're gonna have to retreat soon! We've delayed them, and we'll be overwhelmed if we stay!"

A snarl is Steph's only response to Claire's call as she continues to lash out with more strength and speed than she really has. She does remember the plant creatures, but any understanding deeper than that is locked away in the back of he1r mind. She attacks them just as viciously as the wraiths, putting her close enough to the wraiths for them to bite and scratch even without weapons.

"Steph, what the fuck..." Claire breathes out, focusing on the magic and on controlling her plant abominations. Pulling them away from the blonde, she has them focus on gripping and disabling the wraiths with their vines and shadows.

"...don't just bum rush into the middle them! Christ, Stephanie, are you trying to die?!"

She hears, but the words don't penetrate her rage-clouded mind. All she can do is punch and kick, saving her staff for particularly brutal strikes to heads and stomachs, adding strength with leverage and steel. She takes more and more hits even with the wraiths all disarmed and unable to retrieve their weapons. The creatures get in kicks and punches when they can, but most of the injuries are bites and scratches sustained when she gets too close.

"Jesus...fucking...Christ..."

Claire has seen enough. This fight is going to wind up getting Steph killed if she doesn't do something. So, she does the one thing she hadn't really wanted to do. Raising her hands, she hurls a ball of shadow out into the crowd of Wraiths, towards Stephanie. If it connects in any way, it'll transfer some of the injuries she's receiving to the mob around her, a kind of curse...

and then she whistles, calling her mount in from it's strafing run to do some tricky maneuvering.

Steph pauses long enough to be confused by the dark cloud and the sudden exchange of injuries. Subtle magic like that is too complicated for her rage-clouded mind. It doesn't keep her still for long though, and in a matter of moments she's once again a flurry of mindless violence.

Well the good news is that the archaeopteryx is diving in. The bad news? He's grabbing Steph in his claws, one huge talon around each arm...and carrying her up. Up. And away from the fight.

"Sorry Steph! You're gonna get yourself killed fighting like that!"

Claire yells that out as loud as she can before hurling a glob of shadow down at the wraiths to give her cover to escape...and the dinosaur a chance to carry the blonde off a couple of streets to be set down.

It's telling that she see the archaeopteryx coming, but that makes it easier for the creature to snatch her out of harm's way. She shouts her frustration, kicking and flailing madly with no hint of strategy. Her staff falls to the ground, but the wraiths ignore it.

And up the dinosaur goes, flapping out over a few streets and depositing Stephanie rather unceremoniously into a bale of hay. Flying off, it heads back to Claire, leaving the enraged Batgirl to...do whatever it is she's going to do in a haybale.

Most of what Steph does in the haybale is flail, yell, and get hay in her mouth.

By the time she extracts herself there's nothing left for her to be angry about. Feeling almost normal again, she avoids Claire and heads back to the battlefield.

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EVENT ✨ Sugar and Siege

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probably a wrap soon, then start a new thing?

sure!