MAY CALENDAR OF EVENTS

[fairyfoes]

Hey, fairybros! WELCOME TO MAY DAY, AND THE END OF TIMESKIP. Put up banners and toss some confetti! The mod team still has a lot of clean-up from timeskip to do; expect more on that in subsequent OOC announcements. Fairy rings and lockets now work, and play as usual can resume.

But now on to equally important news and mod announcements!

RECENT PLAYER THINGS!
Just promoting some cool stuff! Waver's player has made a Recap of 2,701, there is a handy list of non-locket comm devices, and Vanessa is planning a strike team!

GAME INFO UPDATES
The map of the world has been changed to reflect game developments, and the Seelie and Unseelie information pages have their own updates! The Unseelie culture section will be forthcoming. The FAQ is back, and has a little new information here and there. Players should remember that lockets are now court-locked!

QUESTS
The quest system, moving forward, will be overhauled! The calendar will later be updated to contain links to current quest-boards, and all future calendars will offer these links as a courtesy to players. Mod quests for those who still haven't gotten them will be parceled out after this announcement, and there will be no more moving forward. Want to read up on the quest system deets? Read them here. These were compiled after exhaustive Q&A with current and upcoming quest-givers.

TAGGING IS IMPORTANT
Fairybros! PLEASE remember to tag your character in ANY log or network thread they participate in! :) This helps your fellow players stay up-to-date! For those unaware, tags are as follows: (character first: canon). Many locations now also have tags, including three of the spires (Archer Point, Diasbaile, and Srathmarbh), the Cothromach, Mair, Redgate, Troichean Beinn, the Barrel, Azure, Leathann, and Treun. Just reiterating this for the month!

MAY 01: IC EVENTS

On May 01, a black comet cuts through the midday sky; what few fairies and imps are left gather on the ramparts of Caer Glaem and Caer Scima, silent watchers, and urge shardbearers about them to do the same. The earth groans and shakes; the stones tremble. The peaks of mountains the world over shift and sway; some topple under the stress. The world over, strange fault lines of stress have begun to appear, visible to the eye in the form of faint ridges: Allaidh Darach, at the end of its life, is beginning to crumble.

Wrathful and war-wearied monarchs appear in their throne-rooms to a great crash heard 'round the world: the castle of Mair collapses upon itself, and word spreads that so too have a pair of the great Unseelie spires.

The comet is still visible after the sun has set, white as a second moon, vanishing past the horizon.

Later, stunned natives will report that the White Hart ran through cities, bloodied and wounded; that flowers sprang up and died in his wake, and fell howls echoed in the shadows after him. Later, the news will flood the world that the great Void was at last visible from many parts of the coast. Chaos and panic spread like wildfire across a dry plain.

The taint of the Jabberwock is gone, but the stamp of anti-shardbearer sentiment remains in pockets about the world. The Cult of the Fox has been quiet; the wise all know they have only been biding their time.

MAIR
The collapse of the castle of Mair could not have come at a worse time; with many of its lord's leaders abroad toward the coast on his quest for expansion, and many who remained slain in the rubble, chaos begins immediately. Unseelie loyalists fight and fail to maintain control. Seelie spies send word West in haste. The banners of the Seelie-bought mercenary force, the Red Hand, already mobilised to handle threat on the Cathraon, race across the waters of the Astar, burning bridges behind them to delay forces from the Unseelie stronghold of Maupertius. In the confusion, many Unseelie slip away, escaping by means of the Unseelie fairy ring back to the safety of Caer Scima, or ferried upriver to the north.

Unseelie forces from the north flood south, joining the dead lord's own forces between Mair and the coast and holding it... creating a new eastern front in the War of the Gem.

MOD NOTE: The destruction of Mair and subsequent splitting of its territories was handled thus to prevent the need for a large battle or conflict in the first of the month, due pervading burnout!

MONTHLY EVENT
The monarchs have come back with a bang. Time to sharpen those swords again!

The Dullahan Ride GENRE: ADVENTURE/MAGIC | DURATION: 20-25 MAY

SUMMARY In his wrath following the audience, Reul's judgement came down upon many; shardbearer and native, men and women alike were dragged into the closed throneroom for judgement, and walked from it carrying their own heads, slain and made Dullahan for their failures to the banners of Dorchadas. Given whips and swords made of sharpened bones, they are armoured and given mounts, a new contingent to turn upon the Seelie. Their leering faces shriek tales of death, and neither they nor their mounts may be killed.

UNSEELIE
On the 20th, by handwaved monarch proclamation Unseelie shardbearers are told that they must goad the Dullahan to chase them through fairy-rings grown up around Dorchadas which will lead them to the White Citadel. No road nor door can be barred against a Dullahan's magic, and those in close enough proximity to the Dullahan riding into the citadel will be temporarily safe from the citadel's defenses. Once there, the Unseelie are instructed to do as much damage as possible, and beware the Dullahan, which will slay whatever they can. Only by shouting "Hold my foes" by the 25th will Unseelie who have heeded the proclamation be returned to Caer Scima by the magic of imps; those who linger after that night will be trapped in the enemy fortress.

SEELIE
Seelie defenders are called upon at the sight of the approach of the Dullahan, and after the first two days of battle and slaughter in such close quarters, it is spread through the ranks that the Dullahan are terrified of gold. The sight of it alone is enough to drive them back, and over the following days, golden trinkets and charms are distributed through those guarding until even the last are driven away.

Only individuals who complete at least 1,000 words of logging in each of the May and June events will be eligible for boons for June! Quest logs will not count toward this event.


MONTHLY OVERVIEW

01ST MAY • MONARCH AUDIENCE.
03rd MAY • Peasants and wildlings from other areas begin to filter into Glaschu and Dorchadas in light of the looming End.
05th MAY • Religious riots scatter throughout the drabwurld. Major and minor temples of all sorts are defaced and destroyed.
08th MAY • The Test Drive Meme goes live!
09th MAY • Anti-shardbearer riots break out again in Daonna and Leathann.
14th MAY • First wave of refugees from Leathann reach the mainland.
20th MAY (00:01am LONDON GMT) • 01) EVENT BEGINS 02) RESERVES OPEN. 03) Mt. Verla devoured by the Void.
24th MAY (00:01am LONDON GMT) • APPS OPEN.
25th MAY (00:01am LONDON GMT) • 01) RESERVES END. FFA BEGINS. 02) EVENT ENDS
01st JUNE (00:01am LONDON GMT) 01) APPS CLOSE. 02) JUNE CALENDAR

The next Calendar of Events post will go up toward the end of May to cover all of June, with the next Test Drive Meme up around a week before reserves open. Weather will consist primarily of blue skies and strong cool breezes with scattered, fleeting, cool rains. Nights are still chill but windless, and even in the far north all the snows are gone.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[fairyfoes]

[arla]

If someone were to ask around and/or try to follow the trail of the bleeding White Hart, what would they find out?

[depicted]

Sorry to ask what feels like an obvious question, but it isn't explicitly stated: I assume that as the Unseelie are being called to guide the Dullahan places, the Seelie are being instructed to STOP THE HEADLESS DEATH MONSTERS with gold?

[showmeyourwreath]

CAN THE PYRII BE MOVED SOMEWHERE are there like pyrii seeds to make new ones because im sure flora's not the only one who would be upset over their possibly being wiped out

[knightscode]

If the Dullahan are immune to the magic of the Citadel does that mean the perimeter alarms won't even go off?

Re: QUESTIONS

[raavashing]

are all those claimed by the court summoned for the audience?

[desperate_times]

Will the disappearance of Mt. Verla be slow leading up to the 20th or will it just be BAM gone.

Chloe has a treasure at that mountain and she's going to want to fetch it.

[notyetlegend]

first; Jesus Christ what a welcome back to normal game play

second; Merida got a quiver full of gold tipped arrows from Gilgamesh for Yule. Those would be effective against Dullahan, yes?

[babbylon]

So two questions here:

1. Can Leathann be saved from its fate, even in part? Or is it just going poof no matter what?

2. If it can, could said fate be averted through player involvement? There's considerable PC investment in the area and I think it could potentially make for a very fun gamewide event later on down the road. I'd also be more than willing to organize it with some other people so it wouldn't cause any mod headaches on that front.

Basically, I've got ideas for this but I'm asking for the greenlight from you first, obviously. I just believe it would be a shame to let such a cool place, uh, sink into the void and disappear outright. A lot of thought clearly went into its development and I'd like to preserve that if at possible while working within the confines of the plot.

[steadfasts]

As the Midach, can Clarke be afforded a few soldiers for protection into the battle at the Citadel? :x

[thebreakingwave]

Can Harry accompany the Dullahan to the citadel or will that trigger an outbreak of giant, metallic dogs?

[thequitecontrary]

Random question: Are we allowed to post communications made with "non-official" devices to the network community, if they are considered open posts to whomever happens to be listening?

[detoxifying]

AS ALWAYS, how would anti-magic abilities work on the Dullahan?

[scinlae]

okay so for confirmation, as things stands mair shall be effectively falling into seelie hands? or at the very least aly's hands?

i am wondering as morgana is unlikely to make any attempt to retake the city, she has no interest in fighting over ganondorf's bones so to speak, but will have to meet with whoever is in charge/whatever to try and strike up some sort of accord or something so that maupertius does not end up in a shortage of provisions and other such things.

[oathshackledbird]

Hi! I just wanted to double check that it is okay for Diarmuid to suspect the gold weakness of the Dullahan as soon as he hears they are there? Since he is Irish, he would think of that right away as it is a well known weakness of their kind on his world.

Let me know if you would rather me find a way to distract him from this kind of info for a while and I can always find a way. He is going to be very concerned about The Void and a certain island after all...

[chaoticwhimsy]

are there any interesting things in the white ciradel that might have been put there by natives that would be worth stealing? :D

[red_branch]

Hey, mods! So, Lancer has a gift from Solais that will allow him to put an anti-magic field up around a large space that will essentially behave like blood granite once a year.

What would happen, say, if he put this field down in a group full of Dullahans and Unseelie approaching the White Citadel?

[boutant]

With two spires crumbled, can Seelie characters get past their circumference now? :x

[gandere]

I plan to have Rin relocate some Leathann refugees to Damon's spire and Redgate via airship.

Is there an idea on the number of natives that would go on these ships to travel elsewhere temporarily or to set up a new home at either of those places? I'm just looking for an idea to pass on to the leaders of those areas so they can keep track of their population numbers.

[wolvering]

So, quick question! The Dullahan mounts can't be killed, but what exactly are they? Enchanted horses, otherwise normal? Some kind of horse-like creature instead? Undead nags?

Or, to ask a different way: would any of Pod's magics (ability to talk to beasts, ability to make them go to sleep etc) work on them?

EVENT PLANNING & ORGANISATION

[fairyfoes]

[gordianknots]

Waver will be very cautious for the month, as he will have heard exactly how the Dullahans were created and have a very, very understandable fear that this could be him next. He will be lying like a liar that lies that he is still stuck as a hedgehog for the month of May (and looking for spells to enable animal transformation), and using that time to re-strategize.

With that said:

The Barrel will be closed the first week of May. Depending on the monarch audience, it will become native only, with Unseelie only allowed certain days of the week.

Waver is going to want to start to talk to his allies, especially those who run his information outposts.

WAVER NEEDS TO PICK UP SOME SIGILS FROM GANONDORF. If anyone who is a part of the sigil group would be interested in playing something out, please let me know!

Quests will resume shortly.

I would really love to get Waver involved with this event somehow, so suggestions are welcome. In particular if someone tells Waver about gold being used to ward off the dullahan, Waver can provide aqua regia to the Unseelie, which dissolves gold.

SUA is heavily impacted by Leathann's evacuations and the oncoming Void! She's got a whole house to worry about, and with the seas now cut off by the disappearance of the point north of Mount Veerla, she's looking to help save her family's business. If her current CR would like to get in touch with her about moving and about figuring out what to do next, I'd really appreciate it!

The Inquisitor

[arla]

Lavellan's monthly stuff will evolve two-fold (possibly three, depending on a few questions I have):

1. Lavellan will be staying in Leathann (going back into Dorchadas only briefly via fairy ring once they are active again) from ~May 2nd through to May 14th, at which time she will then leave after the Leathann anti-shardbearer riots, which she will make every effort to contain and keep safe. Anyone who is in Leathann at that time or who would like to be (or wants to see more of the encroaching Void, as that was her April quest), let me know! She will be there for that time to try to help refugees escape.

2. After May 14th, she will return to Dorchadas and Caer Scima to (somewhat unwillingly) help with the event in some aspect, probably by going through the fairy rings and letting the Dullahan follow. This is tentative at the moment but I do want her to be involved in some way.

Anyone who wants to log things in Leathann, in IC contact notes for what's been going on, or for any of her returns to Dorchadas, let me know. I'm excited to jump into new stuff. c:

As a note: The Rising Sun Tavern in Treun is open and has been since October 2701. It is open to Seelie, Unseelie, and Natives alike. Anyone who would be/is familiar with the location will hear that its owner has passed on ownership (possibly temporarily) to its workers, as she is in Leathann. It's a partial guise so Lavellan can actually find an alternative identity to "own" the place and work it while she's out and about.

katsa » unseelie

[survivra]

Katsa's going to be jumping into this head-on with teeth bared for White Citadel action, newly fully Unseelie as she is. She will be riding to guide the Dullahan and will have a particular eye out for Tarz as she returns c_c back to the scene of the crime. However, I don't think she'll be very pleased with the fact of the Dullahan themsevles—they'll be a means to an end, but there will likely be some internal conflict about that. (ALSO NO THANK YOU TO BEING LEFT BEHIND IN THE CITADEL AGAIN, TYVM)

Until then! She will be in the Treun/Ahgmor area probably around Alice's orphanage and will probably join in efforts to help quell the anti-shardbearer riots or at least protect people who are trying to stay safe from any violent actions. She will return to Dorchadas on the 14th.

Anyone who wants to join her on the Dullahan chase into the Citadel or come across anti-shardbearer riots, shelter some refugees, or try to stop shrines from being destroyed, I'm all in o7