Event #1

[aeternasmods]

Fall of a Moment's Respite

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Mondstadt! Known as the City of Freedom, this is where everyone has ended up one way or another whether it be for business, vacation, or a resident! It's the metropolis of the country, adorned with highrises and lights for as far as the eye can see. One of the oldest cities on the continent, it sports a beautiful downtown that still has brick roads with hanging plants that flourish despite being under the night sky, adorning the front of shops along the road. Trams travel down the road as taxis zoom by, stone houses line the city in all sorts of different colors of brick, with beautiful gardens in front- and where there aren’t houses, apartment buildings reign supreme with patios decorated with plants and and people’s drying racks for their clothes. Giant windmills accent the city, giving it a unique look and serving as a draw for tourists to visit, along with a museum full of the history of how Mondstadt came to be the City of Freedom.

The people of Mondstadt live relatively free of monsters and danger due to the high walls built around it, with the Knights of Favonius as the police keeping watch and warding them off from the city- though some still manage to slip in, as rare as that is. It always ends up being a scandal- leading some people to believing the Knights aren’t all that capable. Though, all would be peaceful save for the mysterious disappearances of citizens from time to time. There’s no indication how they leave or where they go, only that people will wake up to find a loved one gone without a trace. Many place blame upon the people of Decarabia, a city to the north for their disappearances, given their proclivity for strange rituals as part of their religion. Many others blame the Knights of Favonius for letting monsters somehow get into the city, kidnapping them from their homes, some blame the strange cult that resides in the back of the large skyscraper near the graveyard. But it’s all truly unknown how they disappear, as there’s no evidence linking it to Decarabians or even to the monsters that wander the land.

Unbeknownst to the citizens, something even more evil is brewing beneath the surface, ready to explode and consume everyone and everything in its path.

LUDI HARPASTUM.

Visitors have arrived from all over the continent for Ludi Harpastum, the biggest festival that Mondstadt hosts every year. The central event is the tournament between all of the Harpastum teams in Mondstadt, with a few that travel from other cities to participate. Fifteen days of celebration with traditional Mondstadt food, booze, games for children, and the big tournament are the draws of the festival. Harpastum is a game similar to rugby, and some of the most famous sports players in the world play for Mondstadt’s biggest team, the Mondstadt Dandelions. The Dandelions have reached the finals against the Inazuma Kitsunes, a fierce rivalry that has every Harpastum fan riled up and ready for the final.

A. Many different forms of ball games happen throughout the festivities, all in the spirit of Ludi Harpastum. The local gyms, youth centers, and parks have all opened up to allow visitors and residents alike to come in and play. Some games include large machines that shoot balls at players who have to hit them back at targets on a wall for points.

Others have players hit balls through multiple rings on a course around the city, being timed on how quickly they can do it and by measuring the accuracy and number of rings hit through.

There’s another game that’s a relay race around the outer ring of the city- whoever’s team is fastest that day wins a prize! There’s a category for children and adults. This is not an exhaustive list- please feel free to make up your own ball games to participate in the festival!

Kids are all rewarded with a little goodie bag filled with small knick knacks and chocolate, where adults are awarded with the same, except if you get the high score, which lands you with a ticket for some free booze to enjoy during the festival from any of the participating bars.

B. It’s not Mondstadt if there aren’t drinking contests.

Here, it’s legal for sixteen-year olds to drink as long as it’s not heavy liquor, so that means everyone gets to join in on the fun! There are many bars in the city and they’re all having their own special version of a drinking contest that anyone can participate in. The Cat’s Tail is serving speciality sweet drinks as part of their contest, but everyone knows that the sweeter the drink, the more dangerous it is. Angel’s Share is open for business as well, and their drinking contest is a little different- you can pay to enter into the alcoholic contest or enter into the free version but the drink is grape juice... The winner of the alcoholic contest wins a bottle of either Dandelion Wine or Death After Noon of their choosing, and the winner of the non-alcoholic one gets a cute bottle of the finest grape juice the winery has to offer. The owner of the bar has the right to deny anyone entry to either contest, based on his discretion. ;)

This is also not an exhaustive list! Come up with whatever kind of drinking contest you’d like for your threads!

C. At the harpastum tournament, everyone is drunk. Everyone. Fans cheer in the stands, some get into fights over the game from opposing teams, booze is being distributed left and right without restraint. The game is fierce and all eyes are on the Dandelions’s star player, a young upstart with dark purple hair and with a demeanor that’s absolutely sour, and can be seen yelling at his own teammates- yet, they seem to be winning. The Dandelions are the favorite to win the tournament, and it’s pretty obvious why- they’re dominating all of the competition.

Have fun at the games, and as they say, when in Rome ;) Be careful, there’s fans picking fights in the stadium over the game itself! Deal with them as you please~

THAT WHICH SKITTERS IN THE DARK.

By the end of the festival, some strange things have happened.

There’s been increased activity of monsters that have moved through the area under the ever-darkened sky towards Mondstadt. The Knights are running a little thin dealing with them, not knowing where they came from. None have managed to get inside the walls though, and damage has been minimal outside in the suburbs. It’s like they have a destination, unlike how they usually behave, which is staying far away from civilization, at least normally. The city sees a rogue creature come towards it every once in a while, but this is in a much larger number than that and they seem to be relatively unafraid of where they need to go. There's also been small tremors felt throughout the festival- something else that's unheard of.

The second strange occurrence is that many harpastum players have disappeared along with the “normal” number of residents. Teams have struggled with losing players throughout the tournament, and no one seems to know where they’ve gone off to. Distress is rising among the population and the tourists, wondering if all the strange rumors they’ve heard are true about the missing people. News outlets report on the incident, while Decarabian leaders that are here for the festival outright point the finger at Mondstadt’s debauchery and drunkenness, claiming that their sins are the reason why the gods have cursed them right on national television. The inability of the Knights to solve this mystery along with the pressure that Decarabia puts on the city makes the political scene turn tense- so much so that ambassadors begin to leave for their own safety.

The third strange occurrence is the manifestation of constellations on some people’s bodies, along with strange powers that come with it- but it’s up to them whether or not they broadcast that to the public.

From here on out, character’s constellations can now appear on their bodies.

A. If they weren’t clearly alive, one would think they were watching a zombie lumber off into the distance.

People can be spotted roaming within Mondstadt as if they were possessed, walking out of the city toward the direction of Dawn Winery. But there’s something strange when one tries to follow them- sometimes, it’s like they disappear from sight and then reappear somewhere else nearby, as if they had teleported on their own without explanation. It feels like it’s straight out of a horror movie, and characters can try to stop them to no avail. These can be normal people from Mondastadt or some of the famous harpastum players from the teams in the city for the festival.

Following them to see where they’re going will lead characters out of the city, through the suburbs of Springvale and finally to the edge of Dawn Winery. But beware, on the way, hilichurls and mitachurls tend to pop out at the worst of times, making the journey dangerous not only for you, but seemingly for the people mindlessly walking to god knows where. The monsters are aggressive and dangerous, so be on your guard and take care of them if you dare.

Outside of Dawn Winery, lies an ancient domain that’s set into the mountainside. If you successfully manage to tail one of the possessed people, they’ll lead you right to this. The area around it exudes a dark aura that looks much like the one around Dragonspine, but those whose constellations have manifested on their bodies will find that they can enter the domain and explore what’s inside. Inside is a labyrinth of an ancient ruin from thousands of years ago, with strange markings on the walls that feel as if they could have come from an alien race of people. Traps and monsters await anyone who enter, and the aura of something ancient and evil dwelling in this place gets stronger and stronger the further you get in. In turn, the monsters you encounter as you delve deeper into the domain seem to be more and more crazed, as if something in there were driving them mad and repelling them out of the domain.

As for what happened to the person you were following, you haven’t seen them since they entered.

At the end of the domain, a stonehide lawlachurl awaits any that manage to reach this far. It glows with a menacing aura, with deep shades of purple and red in addition to its geo abilities. Defeat it and explore the room to find a device that sits unceremoniously in one corner of the room, in a pile of rubble as if it were some kind of discarded trinket. The trinket is white with a sickly red color that glows in places on it, but the minute you touch it looks like it turns “off”. It can be safely picked up and stored, but you don’t know what it is exactly. But once turned off, the domain’s oppressive atmosphere does lighten a little, though it still remains relatively strong and will continue to repel those without a constellation mark from it. The first party to go in will obtain the trinket. Everyone else will have to fight monsters and learn about the domain’s existence and how it seems as if it belongs to another world. Parties can be as big or as small as you guys want them to be.

B. Back in Mondstadt, some monsters really are getting into the city proper now. The Knights are fully aware of it, but regardless of their efforts, they’re spread a bit thin due to the festival. Some hilichurls are managing to sneak in and are terrorizing the public, but what’s more scary are the mitachurls that manage to strong arm their way in and wreak some havoc in downtown. What’s strange is that they seem to all be headed towards one place- the large skyscraper at the top of the city (formerly the Church of Favonius for location reference.)

Fight them off to help save anyone who’s unlucky enough to be cornered or caught by a monster- or follow them and find out where they’re going. Whenever a monster is killed, the body disappears in a flourish of black ash, as if it were never there to begin with.

The Occult House is the target of the monsters, all trying to make their way there before someone or the Knights manages to stop them. So far, none have made it there, but that won’t hold true for long. Any characters that go there will have their own exploration thread with the DM. Work out which characters would like to go and that will be threaded out. (Hint: someone definitely should do this, and there is no limit to how many characters can go there.)

A FORGOTTEN EVIL.

Despite calls for the festival to be cancelled, officials have decided to continue forward with the final event: the harpastum finals. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is in attendance. This is the biggest event of the year, and the Dandelions are going up against the Kitsunes in an all-out, no holds barred match against each other for the championship cup.

Security is on high alert though, with all of the issues that have been plaguing Mondstadt since the festival started. It seems like no one is wandering off and disappearing anymore, at least for now, and the monster activity has calmed down enough to where it appears safe enough to continue with the game. It’s highly televised, so the Knights are doing everything they can to ensure it all goes smoothly (save for the fans fighting each other and being rowdy, as they do every year.) And for the most part, it does! Until it doesn’t.

A sort of earthquake shakes the arena, which causes most of the stadium to panic. Earthquakes do not happen in Mondstadt, that’s more something that would happen in Natlan than here- and people scramble to get back on their feet who’ve fallen and the harpastum players come to a halt on the field. But there won’t be peace for more than a moment- cracks open up on the harpastum field, yielding a thick, black and pinkish ooze that spurts out from the ground around the players. The ground shakes again, startling the crowd, who is now beginning to flee the stadium as more cracks violently open up with more corrupted ooze spilling onto the field.

What’s more terrifying is the creak and groan of the seats on one side of the stadium that suddenly explodes from underneath it.

Chairs and people who were unlucky enough to not flee yet get thrown to the side as something emerges from beneath the structure, reaching its skeletal arm outward to grip into the side and pull itself up. Before you is the skeleton of a dragon, reanimated with glowing purple eyes and an appetite for destruction as it lifts itself upwards and begins to wreak havoc upon the stadium. The cacophony of screams and cries fill your ears as it snaps its jaws at people and the structure of the stadium alike, stomping around like its looking for something. The Knights aren’t even of any help- most of them turn tail and run for their lives, leaving only a few brave souls behind to face off against it.

But no matter what, it needs to be stopped, somehow.

This fight will be in three phases. The first phase is in the stadium itself, where the dragon is thrashing around, destroying everything in sight and looking for the thing it seems to be seeking (which might be in the stadium! Who knows~) Despite its terrifying appearance, it's not really too angry yet and is a bit easier to fight- slow it down and focus its ire away from the people escaping. It can't be stopped here unfortunately, and will eventually escape and tear its way out of the stadium to its next destination.

The second phase is in downtown Mondstadt, where it's really starting to lose its temper. In an effort to accomplish its goal, a dark purple and black ooze is secreted from the cracks in the skeleton, manifesting and forming into what looks like a miniature version of the dragon except it's completely made from the ooze. They set out in a frenzy, attacking anyone and anything near them. Eradicate them before they hurt too many people, and be careful- the dragon itself is still there and is destroying buildings and thrashing around on its mission.

The third phase depends on whether or not anyone went to the Occult House.

If they did and got the special item that was there, the dragon will seek the person who received it out and will try to eat them and the item along with it. (It's a skeleton so it can't really eat you per se, but it will crush you and the item to death in its jaws. Your imagination can fill in the blanks.) If no one went there, the dragon will sniff in the air a few times after wreaking havoc downtown, and then beeline towards the Occult House, destroying everything in its path along with it. Put it down here and now before it either gets the item in question or eats the person holding it.

The party can be split up into separate groups or face the dragon together in each phase, but the damage done will be greater if you don't split up.

CLOSING

With the dragon defeated, characters may keep any bones off of the body, as they glow with a corrupted light. The bones aren’t small though, so you’ll have to figure out where to put it/them for now! The dragon was a large dragon (but not Durin size, we’re not talking that big.) There will be an Opt-In for if your character was seen using their powers during Ludi Harpastum. If you want your character to be seen/recognized having special powers, please comment to the Opt-In top level. Powers in this world is unheard of, so this is very strange for everyone, not just those who received powers! The city is in disarray, but it will slowly return to normal and repairs will be done where necessary. During this time, characters can assist with the clean up, or find each other to try to figure out and discuss what they’ve experienced and seen, if they so choose to. Finding each other is highly recommended, but if you want to be Batman, I’m not your real dad and No Parents, No Rules anyway!

Please reach out to me with any questions about anything at all!

To Be Continued…

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