How to get to Mayfest and Augfest
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History of the festivals
Mark, a priest of the Morrigan, Yorath and his apprentice Flint were making their way through the forests of Dumnonnii when Mark announced that he was not returning to the war bands camp but was going to go west into the lands of Cornovii. He said that the Lords of Dumnonnii were placing too much reliance upon him and his fearsome spear, The Spear of Lugh, that could kill from a distance in a single moment. Yorath agreed while wondering if the spear was starting to affect Mark as the spear was evil and would work upon any mind that was not truly innocent and was normally carried by a child but used by Mark in battle.
So they came into Cornovii and there Mark carved a small kingdom, took to calling himself Lord and made Yorath his chancellor and advisor. Lord Mark struck a deal with the local Drow who knew not the value of their gold having been apart from others for many years. In return for a regular supply of gold he would find them new female Drow as their women had all died in a strange plague. And so he held the first Mayfest. This had three objects. The first was to get the locals together for marriages and trade. The second was to strike trade deals so that his supply of gold could be used. The third was to get word out to other Drow that a Matron Mother and other female Drow were wanted.
The area was infested with a vermin race of Wodwose. At the start of the festival one of these killed a guest during the opening ceremony. Lord mark issued a proclamation saying that he would pay for each Wose body brought to him. Great was the slaughter of the Wose. Unknown to Mark the Wodwose were guardians of the local forests appointed by the local incarnations of Herne, the Green Man and the Earth mother who were married and argued all of the time. just before he was about to send in his champion's spearmen, one of the Wose (a little more intelligent then the others) met up with some of the hunters and managed to parlay with them.They arranged for him to meet Lord Mark and peace was arranged. Somehow during all this the Wose who called for peace was assumed to be the Wodwose King and thus the Wose got their first king.
The Green Man was not amused, however, and called down a curse that started to turn many of the festival revelers into Wodwose. He said he would send his champion to lead half of the people and Lord Mark should lead the other half. These two groups would battle each other for real and he would lift the curse. if they did not then all would turn into Wodwose! So it was agreed but healers were allowed to heal rather than fight. The Earth Mother did not agree with her husband and gave the healers water so pure that it would defeat death!
The battle was fought. Many died and long after the fighting had ceased among the festival goers, Lord mark and the God's champion fought on until, finally, Lord Mark beat. the Champion. By this time the healers and the goddess disguised as one of the healers had revived all those who died.
And so ended the first Mayfest Festival held in Cornovii.
The next year the festival goers had to cope with the Blue Meanies, an insectoid race with a hive mind. This they did by defeating the queen and sending her into the void. however to do this they moved some sacred stones. the altered placement of these stones had dire effects in years to come. During this year the Law Mistress was killed - burned as a witch by Celts. The College of Law outlawed the clan involved and set the assassins guild upon them. Lord Mark made his first generally unpopular move by granting the Vampires a place where they could settle in return for them agreeing never to feed off of the free races without the 'donor' being unenchanted and freely agreeing. The folk also discovered that the local god was divided literally! His male and female aspects were separate entities and argued with each other whenever they met.
The next year saw the coming of the Skraith. This lot were truly evil and kidnapped many characters. Below ground they were attempting to invade the Drow Underdark. Over this and the next couple of years the events intermingled. Lord Mark died in battle and his famed Spear was cast into the forest of Dumnonni where, to date, it has not been found. Indeed only the foolish would seek it out. His named heir vanished and the land fell under the rulership of Angus, a Celt. Yorath got trapped in another dimension whilst preventing the Skraiths' god - in reality a very powerful but extremely evil entity - from feeding power to his people. The Skraith were finally defeated by the Matron Mother of the Drow sacrificing herself and many Drow by collapsing caverns upon them during a major battle. Most of the survivors were quickly mopped up by the characters. Yorath was rescued and all seemed well. As an aside the folk managed to unite the male and female aspects of the local god.
Continued use of the sacred stones led to magic going haywire and spells became a matter of chance rather than of precision. This partly led to the Celts becoming were creatures and vampires. As they failed to return to rule, Lord Dudly of the FBA was elected King of the Festival and a committee was appointed to do the actual work of ruling the land. The committee did achieve much in righting the magic.
Then, over the last few years new troubles and horrors arose. Flint, who was chairman of the committee, made claim to rulership of Cornovii. This was quickly countered by the Lord of West Cornovii making a show of strength with a large army. An peace treaty was arranged and folk found out that Lord Lork, an enemy of the Kalashar elves, had in fact taken control there. Flint and Dudley did not get on and the FBA moved on to other lands. Under Lord Flint the folk sorted out the magic but something more evil was stirring. Strange runes kept appearing and folk started to suffer bad nightmares and very unsettling dreams. It was discovered that the vampire settlement had been destroyed and there were no sign of its inhabitants.
A red demonish looking entity started turning up and warping reality. It saved Lord Flint from an assassination attempt - something that seemed to worry Lord Flint quite a bit! At this time a small imp also turned up - he was worse than the fey in the tricks and magic's he used but he also helped some characters out of sticky situation and plagued the fest goers enemies as much!
A couple of years ago a giant turned up. Though strong and fearsome he presented no real threat to the fest goers except with his clumsiness. The small imp had become more hideous and more powerful. Through rituals, and investigation the folk learned that they were caught up in a war of the gods. Morphius, ruler of the dream realms had been slain by the Dream Reaper who was setting itself up in his place. Many of the other gods were using this shift in power to try to better their own position. Indeed even Lolth, the Drow god was sticking her oar in! They also discovered that a guy called Slain - well it might be spelt differently but that is what it sounds like - was pretty immortal and a nasty piece of work. There was a powerful werewolf about and reality was becoming even more unhinged. However they also discovered that the giant and the imp were further aspects of the local god and successfully performed a ceremony that bound them together. Since then reality had steadied a little and Slain had been driven off by the local god. Maybe the two are connected.
On the political map. West Cornovii was invaded by Green Woaded humans who fought alongside draconians and fomor. Dumnonnii is under the rule of a young king who seeks to expand his influence. The former have already sent patrols into Flint's Cornovii and the latter seem to be gearing up for a fight.
Then last year a fella called Destiny turned up from the dream realms and took a party back with him to rescue Morphius, who it turns out was not dead after all, from dream hell where he was imprisoned. They succeeded and the Dream Reaper fled before Morphius got him. We later nabbed him when he tried to get us with a load of undead.
The red demon like creature that messes with reality continued to plague us and Lord Flint got kidnapped but we found out where he was and he got rescued. It seems he was in some temple that has been built up by the quarry.
If things were not complicated enough another Prince Lorien turned up. At first we thought he was the same one but some magic was used and they found out he was not. This Lorien is just an evil nasty chappie but has not done anything yet to get either of the Law Masters after him.
Flint took some folk to try to scupper the Greenskins but was driven off. Brk thought Flinty had been captured and so went to rescue him and ended up fighting the boss of the Greenskins and beat him. By their law this means that Brk has won that land and so they have all left and now we have East Cornovii run by Flint and West Cornovii that the Banana Republic claim to rule though Lord Flint claims he had a prior claim to it.
The Law mistress laid an egg! She brought it to the festival but very soon it was nicked! It took seers all night to find out where it was but the next day the Romanovs and some friends went to get it back. While they were away the egg was returned, I do not know the full tale but someone, maybe the Fey had swapped it for another Dragon Egg. So the egg they were going to rescue was the wrong one! Good job really as it hatched before they could rescue it! Shortly after they returned the real egg hatched and so they are now looking after a baby dragon! Unfortunately, later that day, the law mistress was killed by an assassin and the next day her mother turned up.
Lord Flint had a pleasant surprise, The Knights of Herne renamed themselves The Knights of Cornovii and swore to him. The Starburst faction failed to get their new ship in the air. There were less Alberts around and the Star Faction became quite prominent and, strangely useful.
The Healers' Guild was even more effective, the Bard's Guild ran a talent competition and the Smith's guild was in heavy demand for weapon repair as usual.
It was noted that strange creatures had escaped from the dream realms and the scouts were sent to track them down and then folk tried to drive them back or kill them, this kept most people occupied until a feral dragon turned up in the evening. However the feral was driven off and a relaxed evening was enjoyed in very marked contrast to the next night.
Sunday saw the children driving storybook characters back into the story realms and the crew of the Starburst exploring the lower decks of their vessel. Games and competitions were run and a good time was being had by all. Shortly after the usual Sunday weddings, a scream was heard. Little did people realise that the scream heralded a night of terror!
People ran to where the scream came from to find that there was nothing remaining but a bit of blood on the ground. Another scream was heard. Same story. Two peasant girls had been killed.
Feral dragons attacked again wounding people and nearly killing one. Then things turned nasty. A character hurrying towards the bar area found them self surrounded in darkness and felt pain as a scoop of their flesh and bone was taken cleanly away! They pulled free and ran yelling for help. When others arrived no monster was to be found but soon there was another attack, then another. Each time to a lone character. Soon orders were given that no one should walk around on their own but still the attacks continued. One mage was pulled from the shadow realms and attacked. The captain of the Starburst was outraged, after he had been healed, for all he had done was nip to his tent to get some wine and nibbles!
Eventually the following dawn came. But it was the dawn of a day of battle. Cornovii vs Dumnonnii. Due to astute for planning the Northern coast of Dumnonnii was being attacked by Viking allies and the far border by the Summer Lands. Now there is a new border and the Summerlands are Cornovii's neighbor. Dumnonnii is defeated and there is no apparent immediate enemy.
But what of those fell creatures? Where is the evil Lorien and where is Slain?
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(The following is through discoveries made on the forums since then)
Many fell creatures roam the lands. They are powerful and invoke madness as they are so terrible to behold. Descriptions verified so far are:
A large humanoid with no head but a single large eye upon the chest. Instead of arms they have two tentacles and they have mouths at the end of each tentacle. The mouths have sharp teeth and can cleanly scoop flesh. These can use portals and cast a darkness around themselves. It is not known if they can cast more spells.
Huge tree like creatures. The 'trunk' divides to provide two elephantine legs and the 'branches' point upwards but are flexible and can be used in attacks. It is believed there is some kind of large mouth among the branches. They are devoid of leaves.
A short ovoid plant creature with three legs. A long flexible 'stamen' can whip out of the crown of leaves on the top and give an acidic sting. They communicate with a rattling noise but seem no more intelligent than cows. The Fey local to the festival site have captured three of these.
A half plant half flesh creature that is made of some kind of plant taking over a body, possibly while the body is alive. The wodwose have fought these and found that arrows to a central seedy looking bit kill them.
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At the most recent Mayfest Lord Flint became King Flint at the demand of the populace (a claim made in spite of a peasants revolt). He awarded wardship of West Dumnonnii to the Star Faction, West Cornovii to the Knights of Cornovii and South Cornovii to the Romanovs.
Throughout the event it was noted that Lord Lork's men were around as were some new monsters called Emmets. These are good fighters and fast, intelligent entities.
Two stones, a stone of protection and a stone of warning have been discovered. These it would seem work together somehow against the alien creatures. There full use has yet to be discovered along with the methods of using them.
King Flint has declared his intention ensuring the Greenskins are driven out of the Dragon Lands by getting the Starburst to scout and work out a plan of invasion there. He is also intending to help the Summer lands who are currently leaderless now that their king has been killed and the heirs vanished.
In the Summer lands and to a certain extent West Dumnonnii, it seems that forces of Chaos are at work. A strange substance called Bloodstone has been discovered. Somehow it is being used to warp people, kill people and control people.
Note: When we get accounts of the adventures folk have been on the story of this last festival will be rewritten.