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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This isn't how it was supposed to go.

When the spectres stream out of the rift they created, when the four Horsemen emerge and start to lay waste to the land, Emet-Selch realises that they've done something terribly wrong. But in the chaos, he's lost sight of the man who had tricked them - lost sight of all the others too, in fact. Now he's skulking about like some...some mortal afraid for their life and a deep anger burns in his chest. Anger...and not a small amount of fear.

The end of the world had seemed so far away. Now it feels like it's come anew and he's reliving the nightmare of it once again. Though his heart pounds as he strikes down the lesser wraiths (he'd seen the effect one of the greater knights had left on someone and quickly realised the folly of facing them), he forces himself to move onwards, eyes scanning the streets for any sign of the man called Ardyn.

Edited 2022-02-27 16:28 (UTC)

Izō had seen to what he could, making sure Ritsuka got to safety and making efforts to buy some time for the medics. He had also seen what one of the Horsemen had done to someone and had had a particularly unpleasant encounter as a result. If he wasn't motivated to get some payback before, he certainly is now.

This isn't exactly how Izō might have hoped his first time doing what he does best would go. Any other reason but this would have been great, because now's there's an urgency he doesn't care for. He used to do this because smarter men than him treated people's lives like pieces in a game of chess. Izō feels supremely underqualified to do anything dealing in the existential or catastrophic, but if the world's going to end anyway he's not going to start giving people a pass now.

He's angry, but not so much that he doesn't notice that he's not the only one on the trail.

"Ain't lettin' it go either, huh?"

If Emet-Selch hadn't noticed him before he spoke up, it's probably because his voice is coming out of a magpie with messy looking feathers. He could change back, but he's standing on a ledge that isn't person-sized.

He hadn't paid a second thought to the bird at all. Perhaps he should have, since Hythlodaeus had begun an annoying habit of transforming into the cheeky things to bother him. Giving a start, he whirls about tensely until his eyes find the scruffy magpie. He vaguely remembers the voice, but, well, their association HAD been brief...

"Were you there?" he demands. "You were the other man?"

As far as apocalypses go, this one at least looks like one. Ritsuka thinks, idly, that the third time really isn't the charm. It's some hours later before she sees any of her unfortunate companions again.

"You look like you've seen better days."

It's a joke, deadpan as the delivery is. She comes wandering out of a makeshift hospital, a fresh bandage slapped on her cheek and one wrapped around her wrist--but otherwise unharmed. She's been lucky to avoid the worst of the fighting, especially with Izou as a guard dog, but she's also not the sort of person who stays on the sidelines forever. Maybe she can't be the same active support she was in her own world, but habits of years die hard.

"Careful, though. They bite."

He recognises her. It's a miracle none of them, the original summoners, were hurt when the spirits came charging out of the rift they had made. But although Emet-Selch, at least, has managed to avoid physical harm by picking his battles, it's only a matter of time before exhaustion causes him to slip up.

"I should not have trusted him," he growls. He's been saying that (mostly to himself) repeatedly. How could they have been so foolish? "That...that fiend! When I find him...!"

He glances over her, noting her hurts - or lack thereof. "You managed to escape the worst, I see."

"I had some help. --One of the other people involved is a friend of mine. He has a whole vested interest in keeping me in one piece."

She's not ashamed of admitting that; she isn't a fighter, and she has no real interest in becoming one. Self-defense, certainly, but anything other than that? Nah.

And she's not quite so torn up about the betrayal, such as it exists. Ardyn had looked like a villain-type from the beginning, and she'd still gone along with it. Maybe it had backfired this time, but what if it hadn't? She's the forgiving sort, no matter how much it frustrates the people around her.

After a moment of consideration, she digs into her pocket, producing a small wrapped packet of jerky, offering it to him.

"You can't blame yourself for something someone else did. You can take responsibility for your part, but it's not a bad thing to trust someone."

He glares at the jerky. Glares at her.

"Oh, but it is when the consequences are this dire," he seethes. "Personal responsibility won't bring back the dead. It won't reverse what has been done. Sometimes not even the labour of thousands upon thousands of years can erase a terrible deed."

He makes a short, sharp gesture, turning aside to scan the area. He doubts Ardyn will show his face again but, then again, maybe the man will try to hide in the chaos.

"I will kill him, and that will be that."

"No, it won't."

She fishes out a piece of jerky for herself, tucking the rest away. At least it will keep.

"And no, it's not your fault. Or mine. Or anyone but his." Ritsuka winces a little at the sound of a crash from a few streets over, but it's more of an instinctive flinch than a fearful one, and she doesn't make any move to flee the scene. "Trust me, I know how easy it is to undo thousands of years of work. But that doesn't mean it's irreversible, either."

Compared to the end of the world, this feels relatively easier to deal with.

"--And anyway, that guy really doesn't deserve your effort. If you kill him, there's gonna be a part of him that sticks with you forever."

His lips press together tightly. 'A part of him that will stick'... Hah. As if he doesn't already have hundreds of those clinging to him. What is one more on top of them?

"I don't care," he says shortly. "I could not do anything for the dragon but I can do something to redress this. No-one can escape the consequences of their actions, even if I have to drag him in front of one of those very horsemen he let through."

"Ah..."

Oh, you're the dramatic sort! ...Ritsuka doesn't say, because she's fairly certain that no one who acts like that appreciates being called out on it. But she does cover her mouth with one hand, ostensibly as if in thought.

"...I don't think you'll really have to worry about that," she says at last. "If I know Izou-san, he's probably thinking the same thing. I just don't know if killing him is actually going to do that."

"At the very least, it will curb his ability to cause any more trouble."

He raises an eyebrow at her, staring down his nose. "I'll not think less of you if you choose not to pursue him. I was prepared to track him alone from the beginning."

"...There's not really a lot I could do, anyway."

She's not self-conscious about that, exactly, but she's not going to deny that's a factor in things.

"And I guess it's fair to say I've had experience with guys like him. I know hunting him down isn't going to make me feel better."

"A man like him will cause trouble if left alone. I do this for the sake of others, not merely my own personal satisfaction."

But he won't press her if she doesn't want to go. Instead he frowns, cocking his head slightly.

"Why did you agree to his ritual if you had seen his type before?"

"Because I believe in second chances. Or more than that."

She shrugs, smiling a little as she looks at him sidelong.

"I guess, to me--I'd rather believe the best of someone. No one improves without being given a chance, you know? And I'd rather be the person who gives a chance, not denies it."

He stares at her evenly. He himself isn't possessed of any of that sort of kindness - not for himself or others. Perhaps once, long ago, he had been.

"Men aren't born tricksters either. They make a choice to turn down that path."

"If you choose to turn one way, you can also choose to turn back."

She meets his gaze calmly. It's not that she doesn't understand why someone might be cynical, or distrust her philosophy, but at this point... well, it's worked for Ritsuka thus far. Even when it goes poorly, it's been a success more often than not.

"So I guess when it comes down to it, I'd rather be the person who believes, than the one who doesn't. That's all."

He hates how good that statement is. He hates how he can see something of his acquaintances in the sentiment, in the way they treat with him, and he wonders if it's truly possible for anyone to be reformed given enough time or belief. Surely not. He has known worse villains than himself and they are blind to anything besides their own ego.

"...If you say so." The implied disbelief is almost palpable. "Actions are not without consequences, however. The king gave me his leave to act."

A pause. "Which reminds me: he would see all those who participated in the ritual."

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EVENT ✨ Sugar and Siege

Emet-Selch | Final Fantasy XIV

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SORRY FOR WAIT I've been so tired

it happens, it's cool!

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