TheSimianMind
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Anaverus
Year: 1106 Anno Discordia
Season: Summer
Military Time: 2040
Anaverus is a storied metropolis situated on the shipwreck-adorned Bay of Ysidia. As a global magitek, financial, and cultural center controlling a large natural port, Anaverus's influence is disproportionate to its size and population by dint of the arcane artifacts and state-of-the-art technology it manufactures. Pastel-colored carriages pulled by horse-sized felines race up and down the latticework of artificial ley lines spiderwebbing through its brick-paved city streets. A sophisticated sanitation system supplies clean, running water to domiciles and businesses. Colossal plants - masterfully sculpted by biomancers - wind across the landscape creating natural barriers to contain any baleful elements, including monstrosities and chemical weapons, loosed upon the city by operational blunders or malefactors. Nature seamlessly blends into the architecture. Thorny vines climb golden spires that traverse the expansive, verdant canopy sustained by towering trees with immense root systems that botanokinetics use to locate and unearth precious lodes in ecologically-friendly, almost surgical procedures. Given the high standards of living, strong economy, active yet unobtrusive security, and abundant natural features, one might mistake the facade the Queen of Anaverus perpetuates for an earthly paradise. The undead labor force, rampant use of black magic, fae pacts, and the corrupting presence of the Unseelie Court speak to the truth of the matter.Year: 1106 Anno Discordia
Season: Summer
Military Time: 2040
Queen Mab controls this land, and all who enter are in her thrall. Here, the grotesque beauty of the Unseelie Court bleeds into the Waking World. Nightshades, blood moss, chrysanthemums, and exotic blooms that intimate cosmic secrets to passersby thrive in her domain of eternal twilight. Twisted fairytales play out from dawn to dusk, and from dusk to dawn, ambient magical energies and mischievous Fae breathe life into children's dreams, anointing them with maddening incongruities. Debilitating, sometimes fatal pranks befall mortals who dare to defy the dictates of the Unseelie Court or exploit their host's fickle hospitality. Mutations are prevalent among the populace as the air itself is saturated with the chaotic magic of the Feywild. Fae patrons lavish accolades upon artists who pour their delirium, mania, and psychosis into the ever-changing paintings and sculptures that demarcate the cityscape from the umbral woodland where only legends and fools tread.
The Poisoned Apple
Established: 238 Anno Discordia
Established: 238 Anno Discordia
The Poisoned Apple is jumping tonight! Light streams out of the frosted windows of the rustic two-story building, illuminating hand-carved wooden reliefs and statuettes depicting iconic scenes from a bevy of fairytales and an old-fashioned swing set sized for adults affixed to a spooky, gnarled tree chatting with an inebriated tiny man who periodically drenches the tree's roots in hard liquor. Stepping through the scintillating door, which automagically opens for you and wishes you a pleasant evening, a wave of warmth washes over you, instantaneously dispelling the cold of the bracing night air. Beyond, you spot a classy wooden bar, embossed wooden columns, a spacious dance floor, a roaring fireplace, and several dozen tables and booths - all of which would strike you as inviting - and terribly mundane if not for the frenzied activity of the lively cast of characters animating this space.
After living coat racks and hat racks take whatever you wish to check and hand you a ticket stub so you may reclaim your items when you depart, you turn your eyes to the dance floor. At the edge, you spy Mary Mary Quite Contrary screeching at Little Jack Horner for ruining the pies she prepared for the tomorrow's baking contest. Beyond, Baba Yaga cuts a rug with Geppetto while onlookers clap and holler encouragements. Both are incredibly spry for their age, whirling and twirling across the dance floor as a wicked stepmother looks on in envy. She is so out-of-sorts about being upstaged that she hardly notices the pained grunts of the Pied Piper, whose feet she thoroughly mangles as she stomps away. To reach the bar, you must navigate around two bearfolk chaperoning their son's date with an extremely picky girl with golden hair, slide under a table where a man in an oversized hat, a rabbit in a top hat, and a narcoleptic mouse are having a tea party, ignore the wide-shouldered wolfman bragging about how he bedded a senior citizen, her granddaughter, and a lumberjack in a fabulous one night stand, slip past a Blue Fairy promoting Bippity-Boppity-BOOM™ Scatterguns, and generally avoid the zany antics of the other wacky customers. Reaching the bar is a monumental effort, and you feel strangely accomplished as you plop down on a barstool and open your mouth to speak. One of the bartenders, Maleficent, cuts you off immediately, gesturing to a sturdy wooden door at the back that you swear wasn't present until she called your attention to it.
You are instructed to enter when you are ready, but your drinks have been paid for and you aren't expected for another twenty minutes. Surely you can find something to amuse you for that long - or else some diversion will find you and rope you in.
OoC: This is a Social Phase. You are welcome to mingle and interact with NPCs, PCs, and other elements of this environment as well as make things up to influence the narrative. There is no posting order at this time. I will GM NPCs unless you or others choose to control them. You may use Abilities and Skills freely without fretting about Cooldowns. As this area is saturated with Fae Magic, all of your Skills and Abilities, excepting Nullify, are temporarily increased by One Grade. Other actions you take during this phase may have consequences lasting for the duration of this Scene.
I will release additional details on the overall objectives of this scene later today. Rest assured that, as indicated by the tags, all characters involved will be up to no good in a more chaotic, nonlinear plot where you decide how the story progressives. Have fun and enjoy the revelry preceding the dark of night!
