Event 5
Forest's Deep
27 Sep - 24 Oct, 2015
Introduction
For the past two months, strange and unsettling things have been happening in the south of the Kingdom. Researchers have congregated on the isle of Nisalvini to investigate its mysterious infestation of black thorns. While the growths are precariously under control for now, it seems they cannot be eradicated and the question of what it means lingers heavily in everyone's minds. The most pressing worry is that if they lose control, it may spread beyond the island's shores.
There is a spark of hope, however. Searches through historical records have yielded a suprising discovery - something similar happened long ago in the northern forests of Cantor, identical in every way except that the infestation was of white thorns. An infestation that was defeated.
With a new focus, the efforts to save Nisalvini and crack the mystery are reinvigorated. Leaders of the investigation waste no time in pushing for an expedition party, and with the formidable backing of Miras and Delverne, whatever hurdles stand in their way are quickly taken care of. However, not all are as enthused. The expedition route will go deep into the Wild Ley, a part of the Leywood that is both dangerous and considered sacred land by the Cantish. Dense with wild magic, it has to date proven impenetrable.
Nevertheless, for the rest of the Kingdom the potential reward is too great. The expedition must go ahead. With little other option, Cantor will lead it to at least prepare and guide the party. What lays in wait for them must be dealt with by a thin preparation and luck - and may very well be more than they bargained for.
In an effort to save Nisalivini, an expedition will venture deep into the forests of Cantor. All help is needed - from researchers to guides, defenders, and other support - to ensure they succeed in the treacherous Wild Ley.
Event Details
Forest's Deep
An expedition party made up of researchers and volunteer helpers from all over the Kingdom will set off into the Leywood from a village on the outskirts. There will be a large contingent of those who were helping the investigation Nisalvini, as well as many prominent members of the Academy of the Arcane and various institutions in Delverne. They will travel in teams for greater coverage, and will attempt to succeed by dint of sheer numbers. The hope is that at least some if not most of the teams will arrive at a site picked out by the projections of historians and experts. The expedition start date is set at 27th Fire, and is expected to take two weeks from then.
The route will take them into the Wild Ley, which begins at the junction of the Veron and Arlet rivers. A small shrine to Therras stands there. While the area immediately around the juction is relatively safe, those who have gone in much further than that have never returned. Almost the entire route is therefore uncharted. It is said that within the Wild Ley, creatures grow to unnatural sizes and the very land moves. At the very least it is agreed that the high magical energy of the place means spells become unpredictable and an explorer's sense of time, distance and direction distorted. As it is believed all this happens because the land is sacred to Therras, several superstitious practices exist to appease him - the most common is to carry items made of cedar.
What they seek to find there is evidence of the white thorns and the artefact that quelled them in the past - and indeed, deep in the forest, there is a grove of those white thorns. What they don't expect to find is its guardian, the Ley Elk - an ancient monster thought only to exist in legend. To obtain what may just save Nisalvini it must be killed, but to kill it is to destroy what the Cantish have long believed to be a guardian spirit of their land's fertility.
Story
Activities
Event Outcomes
The event outcome will be determined by the actions of your characters in the art entry and an expedition game. Each art entry will contribute one vote towards the decision on whether to battle and kill the Ley Elk in order gain a potentially saving artefact, or leave it be and walk away with nothing. The game will detail the journey itself, and will reveal extra information/resources.
Event Participation
Event Art
Draw, write or in any way depict your character's involvement in the main event to affect the outcomes! Art or literature entries will receive a bonus 30 EXP. Only main characters are eligible for the bonus EXP and the outcome.
Event Participation
Prompt Art
For characters who cannot be directly involved in the event, you can use this event as a prompt (e.g. reacting to the news from another city). Prompt submissions will get a bonus 10 EXP for the submission but will not count towards the event outcome.
Event Participation
Action Statement
If you don't have time to make an art piece, you can get 5 EXP by simply stating what your character is doing for the event via a post in the #event-board Discord channel. This applies to main characters only and there must be direct involvement with the events to get this. Side characters' involvement can be described to contribute to the event canon however no points will be given. If you go on to enter an art submission later, the EXP received for this will be replaced by the art submission points.
Special Role
Luthais Wistari
Master of Discoveries
As an active and well-respected member of the original Nisalvini investigation team, Luthais has been assigned the responsibility of handling communications between the expedition and the base in Nisalvini - where many of the brightest minds in the Kingdom are on hand to help. He will coordinate the flow of information, reporting back progress and discoveries made throughout the journey and receiving advice from historians at work interpreting the ancient texts that spoke of the white thorns. The actions of the expedition will rely heavily upon the guidance he gives.
Special Role
Faolan Barath
Elk's Exception
When the expedition finally confronts the Ley Elk and it begins to attack them, Faolan notices something strange - while the creature has no qualms about killing any trespassers, it seems to make an exception of him. It allows him to approach as close as he dares with no retaliation… which means that he can, if he chooses, land the first critical blow that may allow it to be defeated. This does not mean he can get the artefact without killing it however - the closer he gets, the more clearly he realises that the cocoon of thick branches encasing the artefact is in fact a vital part of the Ley Elk; accessing the artefact at all means killing it. Whatever the case, the first move is in his hands.
Special Role
Ryanna Geist
Forest Guide
During the weeks to now, something odd has started appearing in the Geist fields - it is a Ley Fawn, and unlike any other Ley Fawns she may have seen in the past, this one has antlers which resemble white thorns. Recognising what it means - i.e. that it must eat and therefore live near the white thorns they're looking for - Ryanna realises that she's found an unexpected guide for the expedition. While it seems to run hot and cold, sometimes cosying up to her but more often keeping its distance, there's no doubt that it will help immensely to guide them all safely through the forest.
Conclusion
As the expedition party stood before the Ley Elk, after an arduous trip through a treacherous forest, they came to a decision - to leave the Elk and walk away from the artifact they came for.
It was not a unanimous decision - some were determined that the artifact guarded by the Elk was worth the unknown risk of killing it, some scoffed at the superstition around it and some were in favour of the straightforward solution that killing it would be. Such voices were, however, the minority. The Cantish held to their conviction that damaging it would be damaging their land. Many more saw the mysterious creature as too important and fascinating to kill, or turned when faced with taking the artifact with bloody hands. Some theorised that it may be the Elk itself keeping the white thorns at bay and that a different way could be found - through the knowledge left behind by an ancient, ruined civilisation they had discovered along the journey. That theory spread. Slowly, the majority turned away from their previous belief that whatever it was inside the Elk's cocoon was the best and only answer.
The rising of this newfound hope was not to last however. As the explorers tracked back along their path, the forest was quietly moving behind them. By the time they had returned, rested and shared their news, it was too late. The next party sent in to collect more from the ancient city came back with reports of forest cover so thick they could barely squeeze through and the party after that was met with a wall of immovable, impossibly hard wood. The Ley Elk, faced with a new threat after what could only be millenia, had closed off the forest around it completely. Now all anyone had of the ruins was the patchy collection of things the expedition had managed to grab on their way back out. Still something but not nearly as much as hoped for.
Meanwhile, trouble tightened its grip on Nisalvini. Despite all efforts the black thorns began their inexorable spread again, infesting much of the island's forests and wilderness. Only the coastal towns and Nisalvini city itself now remain unreached by their strangulation. And in the city, a new threat has appeared - disease. Fresh dread grips the island. Nothing is known about how fatal or contagious this disease is, and nothing is known about its origin - though many suspect the black thorns. All that's known is that it strikes light elves with fevers and fatigue, particularly the very young and the elderly, and that it's spreading. The island locks down its infected in quarantine estates while healers and doctors struggle to conquer it.