[X] Plan Raichu
[X] [Priest] Both.
[X] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[X] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[X] [Spirit] Avawyr
[X] [Avatar] Construction
-[X] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 3/18-30 Progress
[X] [Avatar] Visit
-[X] [Avatar] Lynellt & Elairamur at Bedygan
-[X] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
-[X] [Leadership] Focus on imbuing your priests with your energy, as well as smoothing over any tensions having two priests might cause in the village
-[X] [Leadership] Talk and visit to Lynellt and Elairamur
-[X] [Leadership] Talk and visit to Isorine
***
This cycle is one of those more troublesome ones that you had the fortunately to avoid since that whole Cynfanor debacle.
And unlike before, this time you had the ability to watch it go down while not being able to do anything to help. Which is the reverse of last time as while you did not know that Cynfanor had taken Seryn until sometime after the fact, you were more than capable of doing something about it.
The cycle looked it would be another good one with you decide to empower both Vardyn and Terwyn to act as your mortal representatives. You considered marrying Terwyn to Vardyn if you could, but in the end, you decide to just empower both of them.
And in the end, Terwyn decides to court Vardyn herself after you put the idea in her head.
You decided to work on the wall as you prepare for a visit to Bedygan and then Prelake, but unforeseen events put a halt to those places or at least drastically alter them.
It started in the late end of the Growth Season in Bedynn. The weaker and more neglected of Seryn's two villages, it found itself under attack by a good many of the shadow monsters that you destroyed in Bedygan.
Despite having Aeryn and a hundred Cath Wyrs to defend the village, the Bedywnish suffered greatly. Hundreds died as shadow monsters caught villagers unaware on the outskirts of the village, slipped by the defenders or caught panicking villagers who attempted to flee into the forest.
The unrelenting attacks by the shadow monsters continued for three days before Seryn showed up in person with close to three hundred Cath Wyrs in tow.
Your daughter tore through the shadow monsters in Bedynn just as you did to their ilk in Bedygan.
Within the day, Seryn had reclaimed the village, she found it as badly ruined as Caradawg had left it when he fled to the east with the surviving Bedynnish huddled up by her shrine where she was able to protect them until her Avatar and army arrived.
While she saved many, the cost was high. Close to eight hundred Bedynnish had died one way or another to the shadow monsters or was unaccounted for while seventeen of the Cath Wyr defenders had fallen.
But what broke Seryn's heart was the death of her high priestess and best friend, Aeryn. Having fought at the thickest of the fighting through the entire siege, Aeryn had saved countless lives and slain many of the shadow monsters before falling in battle.
Seryn did not take the loss of her friend well. In a fit of blind fury, she carved a path through the shadow monsters to Bedygan with her Cath Wyrs trying their best to follow her and keep up with their spirit.
Both you and Bronwyn attempt to reason with her, but Seryn is too enraged at the death of her friend to listen to see.
Another factor that complicates the matter that Evatine had sent a expedition to Bedygan in the Growth Season to each there in time for the Harvest Season. One of your worries that was shared by others is that something had happened at Bedygan with the Evalonish going there to provoke Elairamur into sending shadow monsters to attack Bedynn.
The truth turned out to be different with the Evalonish expedition not causing the trouble, but arriving just in time to keep the worst outcomes from occurring.
The cause of the trouble was that the old tensions of Lynellt's followers versus Elairamur's followers had picked up again. Only this time, they did not reach the stage of open fighting as Elairamur remember how the last time this happened, it almost got her sister killed.
So she unleashed her shadow monsters upon the Bedyganish once again. By the time the Evalonish showed up at Bedygan. While only a couple score in number, the Evalonish had a dozen of the Silver Tips with them, warriors armed with bless iron spears who devoted their lives to training as warriors and protecting the village of Evalon.
Blessed by Evatine and wielded by human hands against inhuman monsters on civilised land, the Silver Tips with their skill and iron spears were more than a match for the shadow monsters. With the aid of the Evalonish, the surviving Bedyganish, who numbered barely two hundred, managed to escape Bedygan and Elairamur's shadow monsters on the boats from Evalon and the remaining Bedyganish boats while the Silver Tips held off the shadow monsters.
It was after this daring escape that Elairamur sent her shadow monsters to attack Bedynn. With the shadow monsters unable to cross large amounts of water, it seems that Elairamur crossed the river to see the other side before spawning a large amount of shadow monsters in the Bydi Forest and then returning to Bedygan to stand vigil over her sister.
When Seryn reached Bedygan, she proved why she was called the Mighty One. She crushed every shadow monster that got in her way before obliterating Elairamur herself and consuming her spiritual energy to empower herself. And then she turned on the sleeping Lynellt, devouring the light spirit wholesale and directly adding her to herself.
By the end of it, Seryn was no longer a mere spirit for she can grown too powerful. No, she was something else. A Goddess.
Even if you had not know of Seryn's Second Ascension via both of you having a shrine in Avawyr, you would have found out anyway when you and every other spirit in the region felt the ripple of power sent out by your daughter becoming a goddess.
A Goddess of War, Beauty and Femininity with a handful of other lesser Aspects such as Lightning and Wildcat.
Setting up a fourth shrine in Bedygan, Seryn nominally claims the village as her own even if no one lives there anymore.
Your daughter returning to Bedwyn after leaving most of her Cath Wyrs in Bedynn to protect amongst any future shadow monster attacks, of which there are a few more over the cycle as a good many of them still linger in the Bydi Forest.
Still grieving over the lost of her childhood friend, Seryn is mostly unresponsive over the cycle, building more of the path to Bedynn from Bedywn and blessing her followers and their crops.
Meanwhile in Avawyr, you make slow progress on the stone wall. At this point, it is clearly a longer project than the passage to Ava Cove and you would be surprised if you complete it before Cadyl reaches adulthood.
Beyond the wall, you bless the harvest as usual and fail to inspire some of your villagers to greatness while your wife keeps up her usual blessings and begins works on the boat pens. Bronwyn also returns to crafting with Gwyn and does her best to encourage trade between Evalon and Avawyr, something that is now much easier with the construction of the Ava Cove passage and the Eva Isle boat pens and will only be made easier once the Ava Cove Boat pens are finished.
As for Evatine over in Evalon, your brother empowers more Myrymar while the current ones make more iron spears with Evatine blessing them. With the Myrymar making more iron spears, Evatine himself focuses on making more iron tools.
***
You pause at the remains of the battle where Seryn slew Elairamur's Avatar. A crater where your daughter smashed the darkness spirit into the ground and burn marks and ashes remain from where she unleashed no small amount of lightning against her foe.
Death lingers in the village and it irks you. Mere cycles ago, there were over two thousand people living in this settlement. Now, it lies abandoned with most of those villagers now dead with just a couple hundred of them surviving in Evalon.
It fills you with horror. So many dead so short a time and there is no way to regain those numbers as quickly as they were lost. It will take many a greater cycle to recover from all of the death that occurred here.
And place full of human life has been reduced to place full of death, devoid of the living. You feel weak as it hits home that a village like Avawyr or Evalon or Bedwyn or Bedynn has been emptied of those who once lived there.
As if that was not enough, the entire place would be overrun with the monsters responsible for this horror if it was not for the power of Seryn's shrine driving them away, leaving the shadow monsters to infest the hills around Bedygan and the outskirts of the village.
All of it sickens you.
You reach out with your spiritual senses, searching for something living in these dead lands. Anything at all.
And then you find it amongst the scattered, fading energy of Elairamur, the scraps of spiritual power that Seryn did not bother to consume.
A silver of Elairamur's spirit.
You know you should just crush it or take it for yourself as Elairamur is a dangerous spirit and arguable the cause of Bedygan's doom and the loss of life at Bedynn. But it is a life that you can save and you cannot just throw that away. So using your new Aspect of the Earth, you craft a small idol of a women from the earth, hardening it into the most durable metal that you can.
With the idol in hand, you gather up what remembers of Elairamur's spirit and shove into the idol before pocketing it away.
Maybe it is foolish of you, but you have watched so much death over the last few cycles with Bedywn, Bedynn and Bedygan losing thousands of people between the lot of them. Restoring the ranks of the living will take so much time and even then, it will not properly replace what has been lost.
So no, no matter how foolish it might prove to be, you will not regret taking the chance to prevent another death.
***
The visit to Prelake when well. The Prylakish are having a bit of the rough year, but no major deaths and the gifts and supplies you brought with you were particularly useful. They were also grateful for being informed of Bedygan's fate and the warning to avoid the hills around Bedygan and the forests surrounding Bedynn for they are currently infested by the remaining shadow monsters and Seryn has yet to deal with them.
Isorine proves to be a relaxed spirit, concerned about the welfare of North Lake and her followers more than anything else and unbothered by outside affairs should they not affect her.
Someone you can get along with and you do not have to worry about Isorine causing more death. In fact, Prelake has gone more untouched by death than even Evalon and Avawyr, something which pleases you no small amount.
The lake spirit has also expressed a desire for trade between Prelake and your villages, offering to send boats of traders down to Eva Isle and Ava Cove as her followers are adept at making and using their fishing boats and the Prelakish have already had their own boat pens for some time.
As you head back to Avawyr in time for the Cold Season, you are unsure about how this year went. Good or bad? You do not know, only that events occurred and you must deal with them and their aftermaths.
At least Terwyn and Vardyn are getting along well.
Basic Spirit Actions: 2 Actions available
[] [Spirit] Focus on Blessing
-[] [Spirit] Avawyrish Followers
-[] [Spirit] Iron Spears
-[] [Spirit] Elairamur's Idol
[] [Spirit] Focus on Inspiring Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[] [Spirit] Focus on Healing Followers
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
[Spirit] Focus on Bolstering the Harvest
-[] [Spirit] Avawyr
Avatar Actions:
4 Actions available
[] [Avatar] Explore
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the South-West
-[] [Avatar] The Mountains to the East
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Western Coastline
-[] [Avatar] Lake Eva Northern Coastline
-[] [Avatar] The North Lake
[] [Avatar] Construction
-[] [Avatar] Boat Pens at Ava Cove: 3.5/6 Progress
-[] [Avatar] Stone Wall around Avawyr: 4/18-30 Progress
[] [Avatar] Hunt
[] [Avatar] Visit
-[] [Avatar] Evatine at Evalon
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedywn
-[] [Avatar] Seryn at Bedynn
-[] [Avatar] Isorine at Prylake (Costs 2 Actions)
[] [Avatar] Experiment
-[] [Avatar] Write-in.
Leadership Actions: 3 Actions available
Leadership Actions are used to improve other Actions such as Avatar or Spirit.
[] [Leadership] Write-in.
Well, I guess they can always take up the Cath mantle and be rid of those problems, but still...
