Avreya had perhaps been acting on autopilot when she followed @Scorpius from the Gorge, lured to the Lagoon by curiosity and a strange obligation to this man with whom she had interacted so little but to whom she still owed her support. This would be her most major introduction to Amaryllis yet--as if being heckled by pride nobles upon entry had not already been enough of an indication of what might await her--and while she was eager to be introduced to those who claimed to rule here, she was not so keen on getting herself mixed up in politics. At least, not so soon.

The literal uproar from the crowd did not deceive her. It was a bloodbath. Avreya's twin tails lashed behind her as she studied each face and each individual entanglement, her fur prickling as adrenaline rushed her veins. Eyes narrowing, she decided that she would let her enemies come to her...before she unknowingly made new enemies out of those meant to be her allies. @Zinnia

+10 participate in a war or raid
"SPEECH."

code by scorpixia♡︎

Xander had heard his father's call, but he was slow to arrive to the Lagoon, many others having arrived before him. He assessed the situation as quickly as he could, watching his father's fight for a moment and then surveying the other members of his pride as they revved up for battle as well. Once he assured himself that none of his pride members were in imminent danger, or at least no more-so than anyone else on the battlefield, he searched for his own opponent. For all that he did not enjoy a fight, he would not let this challenge to their ally go unpunished. Looking amidst the warring lions, he saw @Monza standing alone on the side of the enemy, without a dance partner so to speak. Her eyes held a viciousness as she swept through the crowd with a burning orange gaze and he knew she would be his target. He ran, weaving between the limbs and bodies of the other combatants, until he reached his decided foe. Once he was within reach he attempted to make a sweeping strike along her shoulder, and announced his desire for battle. "You will regret coming here today!" @Xander vs. @Monza Minor Maim Rounds: 1 / 4 Hits: Rolling 6d20: 1 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 19 + 11 Dodges: Rolling 2d20: 12 + 2 Luck: Rolling 5d20: 2 + 20 + 9 + 3 + 4

art & code by vasilia

The viper

Monza's orange gaze traveled across the now battlefield searching for any target she could make an entertainment of. There were no limits on who she would pick on. For as much as she knew everyone but Luther or in the Mire were witches or those whom she is supposed to punish on her saviors name.. And she was ready to honor the words she gave Luther the day they met that from that day on her life belonged to him and anything he said was law to her.

She licked her marble white fangs as a way to prepare for the feast she wanted to have today.

Thankfully that fight came to her. A brute picked her and with a swipe of his claws her shoulder was clawed. Yet with a cold expression she aimed to snap her jaws at the male's offending limb(the one he swiped with) hopping to catch it and bite as hard as she could. Her hope was to render his limb useless for the fight.

Monza vs @Xander
For minor maim TBA
Round 1 of 4
Hits:

Rolling 4d20: 11 + 13 + 17 + 8

Dodges:

Rolling 5d20: 7 + 20 + 13 + 6 + 1

*Luck:

Rolling 6d20: 4 + 14 + 12 + 15 + 16 + 9

+1 Luck from Anya

coded by flea

on that trek down from the mountain she thinks long and hard.

melusina had drawn a line in the sand and magdalena had to decide which side she stood on. it was clear that there was nothing more that could be done to mend what had been broken between her sister and their father - perhaps even rohan, in his misguided notions of protection, had pushed melusina too far.

it is in darkness that magdalena sits, sequestered from her family, from her pride, and from the world.

did she stand arm in arm with her sister, the only one who could truly understand what it had been like to grow up as they had. could magdalena live with the guilt of forsaking her brother, her father? the ones who had always been there, even when her sister had not been? for a long time magdalena dives deeper into herself, examining that wildfire within her as she searches for an answer to this new conflict.

there is none.

the thought of either - turning her back on melusina, or supporting her as she tried to kill their father - it is unimaginable. makes her stomach churn and brings bile up the back of her throat. surely there is sense left in her, if magdalena just trekked all the way back up the summit and spoke to her, melusina would see… right?

magdalena has no idea how many days pass by without a decision. barely feels the bite of the winter chill beginning to seep into her den. into her very bones. too long, it has been too long. a fleeting thought tells her to confide in rohan but it is cast away faster than it comes. their brother would sooner laugh in melusina’s face than entertain the thought of a fight to the death - against their father no less. a man who easily lords over a mountain of battle experience, unbreakable, unshakable.

then come the summon calls, ringing through the lagoon and cutting straight through the darkness of magdalena’s den. of her thoughts. emerging from her den, the woman’s bi-colored eyes are squinted against the too-harsh sunlight. winter is here, magdalena notes in the back of her head. perhaps she is too late and in her absence, melusina has already disposed of their father - one less choice to make.

a bitter smile curls over her lips.

if only.

she trudges forward, shaking the stubborn sand and pressed in dirt that clings to her fur. then another call, and another, and yet another - some familiar, some foreign. magdalena’s brows knit together as she crests that last dune, overlooking the pride event turned war sprawled out before her. the white fur of her half-brother and once warden is a beacon, bringing with him the swampy stink of ecrosia. by his side fights icefang and the brook. enemy, enemy, enemy.

already members of illyria and another pride that magdalena doesnt recognize have poured into scilla, taking up arms against their enemies - and between it all?

melusina. sister.

her eyes snap immediately to alaric, trepidation evident within their amber depths. was this to be it? the final battleground between her sister and her father? magdalena’s steps are hurried as she descends the dune, kicking up sand as she speeds towards melusina. her face is pinched in an expression of worry. “mel-“ she calls out as she nears, attempting to come up on melusina’s left side. the intake of breath is all it takes for the damp, heavy smell of the brook to coat magdalena’s nose.

after everything luther had put them both through, all that he had snatched from them? the betrayal stabs through her chest like a white-hot iron. “you’d fight for an ally of luther’s?” her eyes narrow, trying to hide the grief that wells within them. wills it to turn to rage as magdalena remembers what she had said to melusina only a few weeks ago atop the summit. he cannot push you away so easily.

but magdalena is no alaric.

the woman attempts to lunge then, jaws open and aiming for the left side of melusina’s neck, trying to gouge into the longer fur then. due to the forward momentum of the lunge, she aims as well to slam the center of her chest into melusina’s left shoulder, right foreleg attempting to curl around the front of melusina’s chest, trying to sink claws into the base of her neck and slice downwards towards her chest.

this is no battle to prove her worth or teach melusina a lesson. melusina is her sister no longer, only another threat to be eliminated.

magdalena vs @Melusina
for death
I of VII

hits:

Rolling 5d20: 11 + 20 + 12 + 4 + 17

dodges:

Rolling 6d20: 15 + 3 + 19 + 5 + 10 + 11

luck:

Rolling 5d20: 17 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 14

coding by daanyen | art by yumpy

The voices rang out calling for aid, and Orei was eager to heed their call. He would do anything to protect Fearne, to fight in his place so that he would not have to. To protect him from the savagery that war would bring. He leaves the den they share quickly, moving from the Summit to their allied pride, the Lagoon. Another former enemy of his father, but then again almost everyone had once been an enemy of their father.

It took him longer than he expected to arrive, and by the time he did many fights had already broken out. He took a moment to take in the carnage, assess who was his ally and who his foe. Dual-toned gaze shifting from each familiar and unfamiliar face. The scents were not as easy to distinguish between as he had hoped, which made it hard to pick a target in the moment. Before he could even think about going on the attack, his stomach bottomed out as he realized his sister was among the crowd. But this time, they were not on the same side. They were enemies in this war.

Orei slinks through the crowd quickly, trying his best to avoid the skirmishes. He runs up on her quickly, his larger form trying to block her from view of any who passed or looked their way. "You need to leave." He says forcefully but quietly to @Aneistri . He could not protect her here; he would be expected to fight her or his allies would and he could not bear the thought of it. He was determined to see her safe before he took any step towards being apart of Illyria's war. He had made his choice, she would come first.

"SPEECH."

((Orei is open to any fights!))

coded by flea + art by rabbit + background credit

Xander snarled at the lioness as she snapped at the limb he'd clawed her with, snagging it with her teeth. He wrenched his foreleg between her jaws, hoping to pull it back before she could fully sink her teeth in. That limb was incapacitated for the moment and he made a split-second decision to rear up on his hind legs. From the higher position, he swiped at her face with his other forepaw, claws fully extended and hoping to rend the skin on her face, maybe even disorient her with a solid blow to the head. Doing so left his underbelly exposed during his attack, as he could not guard it with the held limb. He could only hope that the lioness was too stunned by his attack to take advantage of the opening. Xander vs. @Monza Minor Maim Rounds: 2 / 4 Hits: Rolling 6d20: 15 + 10 + 7 + 13 + 5 + 4 Dodges: Rolling 2d20: 6 + 17 Luck: Rolling 5d20: 7 + 6 + 20 + 13 + 4

art & code by vasilia

`

Chaos. That’s what the story playing out before here was. It had to overarching storylines - to hero’s, only villains reflected in the bright yellow eyes of the soft mauve colored lioness. Her jaw hung open slightly as she turned her head form one scabbing pair to the next. If she looked one way she saw lions fighting for every reason and no reason at all. She was sure more blood mixed with the sands of the lagoon before here than she’d ever seen in her life. This would be a story written in blood and woe, a tragedy for the ages. A tale the bard would better have left unsung had it been left to her own discretion. Rose had been somehow swept up in the whirlwind of activity as the call had been sung. She’d hurried with the rest of the pride to see what was going on. Knowing only an ally, a supposed friend had called for aid. What she’d been met with left her questioning her very being. Her eyes trailed across the frenzied bodies and from the clear signs of scattered revelry and the stronger scent of the lagoon lions that suggested they belonged there something became overwhelming clear to Rose - they were the interlopers here. It seemed someone’s joyous day would be forever marked with violence, a marriage contract signed in blood. She marched on the side of the villains, and it horrified her as she stared around wide eyed and frozen in place. Her eyes flickered from one face to another, before landing on the one she trusted the most. Perhaps unsurprisingly that face was not that of their sovereign- after leading them to invade upon another where invasion wasn’t warranted she’d never trust the scarred lion again. The figure she picked out amongst the crowd was that of @Khadija the cove’s healer. The woman had just given birth for gods sake, and she’d still come to heal those that needed her. Rose might not be a fighter, but she’d be damn if she let the woman risk her life alone. She might not know the medic very well - she wasn’t even sure they’d had a proper conversation before, but she counted Milano as one of her good friends, and for him she would do all she could to help keep the medic safe, even if that were just to provide safety in numbers. Quickly she made her way to the medic, sidestepping any claws or fangs that were currently engaged in their bloody dance. Already the scent of iron in the air made her stomach turn. Miss Khadija! This is wrong, this is all wrong! she practically wailed, tears threatening to fall already. Why would Miaran help attack these lions? I thought our allies were in trouble? she shook her head, confusion clear on her face. She didn't understand. Bard +10 witness an event worthy of history (1/2)

code by Shazaki`

She's spared no time to survey or watch or breathe before a stranger is upon her. Melusina had hoped her size and stature would buy her more time, just enough to watch her brothers tear each other apart ( since when had her hated for Rohan overcome her hatred for Luther? ). But before she can find herself in full view of their match, a set of dusky brown paws step right in front of her lowered, predatory gait.

You gon' git right back ovah dose bordah's if ya got any sense in ya, cher, he drawls, and Melusina's mouth curves into a pointed, angry frown.

He's Scillan. Another one of their soldiers, another inconsequential thrall wearing the colors of an enemy pride. She wonders if—perhaps—what Cassius said—

What are you going to do, make me—

Think you should back off before you get into a mess you're not prepared for.

Suddenly @Dominic, large and lumbering, is looming over her. His ire if focused on @Rémi, who moments ago was nearly the subject of far more lethal intent. Melusina staggers back, eyes widening as if she hadn't counted on his sudden intrusion. She had no idea Dominic was even here, let alone well within her reach. Let alone willing to protect her.

Protect her, or pity her?

Dominic, she hisses, I can—

DON’T TOUCH HER!

For fuck's sake.

She is everything frazzled and wild-eyed as @Cathán suddenly breezes past her. With near-unnatural speed he throws himself at her would-be opponent, taking what most certainly Dominic had intended to make his place, and what should have originally been hers. Her brows knit with frustration, her angry gaze flitting between either savior.

Either interloper.

Melusina, run!

No! she shouts back, but she knows she should. She's fighting alongside Luther. She's fighting for the very man she swore she was going to kill. And no matter how many times she justifies it she teeters on the edge of oblivion. She considers taking off her armor, lowering her sword, and walking to the other side. Just as Cathán would want. Just as Dominic would want.

But then his scent overwhelms the smell of salt, and sand, and sea. And she is reminded of what this is all for. She will never be made to feel weak again. And when they were done with Luther and his purpose was fulfilled, she will kill him. In a way, @Cassius ♔ is grounding, bringing her into a single line of focus.

He wouldn't be himself, however, if he did not like to remind her of it.

Cassius is beside her in an instant, his taunting drawl stoking the fire that burns deep within her. One she couldn't tell if she enjoyed or dreaded. Don't tell me that a cheetah has bigger balls, he purrs, and she feels the warm, oppressing weight of his throat upon her head, and she is too short to offer any semblance of protest.

I think my wife is capable of defending herself.

She shivers. Then she bristles. Absolutely not. If she could not call him hers then how dare he have any right to—

I'm not your wife yet, she snaps under her breath, uncaring if Dominic heard or not.

The truth was out, now. There was no use in hiding it. Melusina has already done such a delightful little job in driving the knife deeper each time she spoke to him. What was one thing more? When would she finally be cruel enough to drive him to hate her?

Is this what she wants, to feel the unrelenting rawness of his hate? It is better than feeling his pity. It is better than feeling his regret.

But then Cassius is drawing away, and Melusina turns to face him. As their gazes level, she catches the unspoken command within his depths, and the slow, purposeful enunciation of his each and every word. He did warn her she would have to follow his instruction, she already knew she would have to give up parts of herself and relinquish them to him. But it is her choice. Her choice.

In fact, he breathes, Maybe she can show you.

But there's an unspoken challenge in her own eyes. One that dares to command her not as the heir, but as her husband.

She is already willing to commit an act so egregious that it turns her stomach. She's already drawn up her plans, begged her forgiveness of the Gods. She's already allied herself to her brother, the very same man who kept her prisoner just as their father had—but at least he's never pretended to be something that he isn't.

What's one more sin?

She doesn't get to find out. As she rises to her feet and turns to face Dominic with uncertain intent, she is stopped dead in her tracks as the overwhelming presence of @Magdalena comes flooding in. Unrelenting, unyielding, angry.

Mel—

Mag—

They're both cut short as her sister stops just short of her side. Melusina's eyes are wide and bewildered, as if somehow not expecting her sister to be here. But suddenly she is reminded that this is Scilla, this was once home, and now matter how the sands and palms and seas have changed, nothing would ever change that. And Magdalena was here, and she too, was home.

You’d fight for an ally of Luther’s?

I'd fight for my pride, she hisses back, bristling.

Once, she was home. Now she was a stranger wearing her sister's face. Or was Melusina the stranger, now? The wolf in sheep's guise.

But she's given no further chance to retort before her sister is suddenly surging forward. Her jaws slacken and open, and the glint of her teeth in the blindingly bright wintry sun is enough to send a shudder down her spine. She may have taunted and challenged Magdalena at every turn, but she's yet to experience the full extent of her fury. Whatever bridges that might have once been mended splinter and snap, and both sisters toss kerosene on a fire of their own design.

There is lethal intent in those teeth and those eyes.

She gasps out a stuttering cry as she feels the connection of fangs to her neck, and she's thankful Magdalena is just as small as she for she can barely withstand the brunt of her weight. A paw hooks upward, dragging long, narrow gashes down the plush fur of her throat, down to the plush alabaster plume of her chest, which now wettens with her own blood.

Melusina recoils, but she's no stranger to battle now. She sacrifices her breath for her speed, and aims to twist her head, surrendering to a deeper bite and a further tear of claws into her flesh. If only to try and seek purchase at Magdalena's own neck, attempting to clamp her teeth along the free side of her throat where she can just barely reach.

But just before she does, when her mouth lingers just by her ear, she snarls:

And when I'm done killing you, I'll kill him, too.

She would give Magdalena that final mercy. No matter which of them died today, Luther Rike would still meet his reckoning.

She's your sister, a deep, grieving part of her echoes.

I know, she replies.

---

Melusina versus Magdalena
for death
i of vii
Hits:

Rolling 2d20: 3 + 9

Dodges:

Rolling 8d20: 9 + 20 + 18 + 16 + 3 + 7 + 2 + 6

Luck:

Rolling 6d20: 17 + 8 + 18 + 14 + 15 + 3

code by cala, art by yumpy

I’d let the world burn

The call from their neighbors and the voice of her own high queen have Otter rise from her den curious and worried. There was something familiar about the voice of the original call.

Moving from the cove and towards the lagoon the baron would slip into the cold waves allowing salt water to soak her coat and hide the scent of the cove. In her jaws, a piece of giant hogweed was carefully wrapped in a larger leaf to shield it from the salt water as she swam. She wasn't intending to fight but she'd rather be safe than sorry. As she emerges from the waves she feels chilled to the bone but she's passed the borders of the Lagoon and have hopefully gone unnoticed.

Salty droplets form and run down her coat and the smell of salt and seawater clinging to her coat along with some seagrass. Her scent would seem more like the one of the Lagoon lions than the cove. Not that it mattered, not tonight. She was after all more than just a baron, more than just a lioness.

So the Assassin slips into the darkness of the beach keeping low and hopefully hidden as she approaches the main event. Though she stops momentarily to coat her claws in hogweed sap. She had no intent of fighting tonight, the moving bodies ahead and the scents in the air told her of a messy situation. Allies and enemies tangled into each other in a confusing dance.

So the Assassin would attempt to remain hidden, to watch the battles from a distance. Her lavender gaze scanning the faces for a certain pink lioness. But so far the quickly crowding dancefloor seemed to lack the familiar folded-eared frame of her sister.

Assassin perks
LVL 2 - Able to fabricate pride scents, Silla Lagoon
LVL 3 - 50% chance to remain hidden

Rolling assassinhide 1d30: 8
You are successfully hidden!

Potential xp
Assassin
+10(20) Sneak into another pride's territory without getting caught
+10 (20) Successfully stay hidden for the duration of a thread
+10 (20) Successfully poison someone (non-lethal)

Beatnik
+10 (20) Witness an event worthy of making history (Red weeding war)

Let the world burn for you

code by corvus, Art by Irish

So the scarlet witch had thought she could escape her cage of thorns, had she?

She'd thought wrong. So very, very wrong.

She cannot leave until Eamon has heard the song of her sins. Her soul will never leave the swamp until it's been purified by the flames. In fact, were it up to the unholy priest, her wicked stain would've been cleansed from this world weeks ago, her bones left exposed for the vultures to pick clean, her blackened heart destroyed. Consumed. Alas - the White Flame demanded that the prisoners should continue to draw breath. For now.

So in the meantime, Eamon must content himself with making them sing beneath his anointed claws. Oh, and how @Zahra will sing!

He cares not for the celebration that crumbles apart in Luther's wake. Weddings are such fragile structures of frivolity, their arches as brittle as the bonds they sought seal, laboring under the delusion that mere mortals could comprehend the meaning of an eternity spent together.

Only a priest could know what true love really is.

Wild eyes never stray from Zahra's blood-red hide, not even as he turns his face upwards to bask in the glow of twilight, nares flaring as the blood began to spill, dark ears languidly turning to better catch the screams of fury, grief, and fear that ring out over the sound of the waves. His focus does not falter when the witch runs, provoking the wolf out of the @Lamb, though perhaps...unsmiling lips twitch minutely in a rare show of indulgence.

Finally, the day of reckoning has come.

How could he not appreciate the beauty of it?

~ Fight starts here ~
Yet when the sun-scorched interloper interferes, he does not hesitate. The revenant seeks to hurtle into @Scorpius's ribs like a spear, wiry forelimbs raising in a bid to encircle the striped goliath's neck from behind, yellowed fangs attempting to snap around a dark-rimmed ear.

He'll leave the Lamb to shepherd the Sigrun back to the rest of her flock. The witch's thralls shall be his to slay, just as his King commanded.

Just as his goddess willed it.

Eamon & @Lamb vs. @Zahra & @Scorpius
For Zahra's Freedom
Round 1 / 3
Hits:

Rolling 7d20: 10 + 11 + 18 + 6 + 3 + 20 + 19

Dodges:

Rolling 4d20: 20 + 15 + 4 + 7

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 14 + 11 + 12 + 4 + 1

_{BG — ART — CODE}