The caves of Ibzia (summer 1242)

Before the visit of the exarch, Fleur has finished the longevity ritual with some time left in the season, and has heard rumors while searching for better books on pottery, about a cave in Ibzia that could be promising. She takes a few servants and grogs and heads out to explore...

It all starts with a Rave in a Cave. Two or three songs are being played at once and being mixed together masterfully by the band leader. two dozen or more people are packed into this cave, sweating and dancing and drinking and having fun. Good clean dirty fun.
See, there is this underground community of sensualists on the island, traditions dating back who knows how far. A non-culty cult sort of. There is folk magic involved, but not even at the level of Hedge Magic. Three Minor Supernatural Abilities. Enchanting Music, Second Sight, and Lesser Herbalism. This Lesser Herbalism is used to craft concocctions that can enhance sensual experiences and influence emotions. Kinda like beer. But with more hallucinations.

Anyway, Fleur being the sort of person that she is, would have eventually encountered these people and made a side effort to get to know them. And eventualy was invited to one of their secret cave parties.
Which is a lot of fun. But this is the culmination of their arcane secrets. As far as they know. Ecstatic behavior for no other reason than to experience pleasure. No ceremonies or rituals or magical results nor the attention of spirits.
Well, no more than usual. It is a mythic world and there are spirits in the background randomly sometimes. Just for fun, let us say Haja is haunted. Not relly. She is a simple party girl and her brother's ghost protects her and likes to party. And Javier is here! One of the officers of the Andorran guard lives the secret party life. His ghostly companion, Roger, also likes to party.
Party people everywhere.

But who built this place?
It is a cave, but the interior area here is obvious human construction. Some new, some old, foundations ancient. There are small spaces beyond that are used for storage, and with effort one could explore beyond that. There is also and adjacent cavern area one cannot esilly access and so is mostly ignored. It is blocked by the collapsed rubble of whatever was constructed in there. The part you are in seems much newer and reinforced. So you are safe.
The mystery is in this location. The party people use it because they are attracted to the Aura, aligned with positive emotions.
Perhaps Fleur would not realize that right away. But I am too lazy to backspace, and I am trying to lay the groundwork for my idea.
I lied. I just edited a bit about the aura. :slight_smile:

So where do you want to go from here? The party happens at the end of Spring/start of Summer. You can explore now with limited preparation. Or you can have Javier prepare an expedition and do this at the Summer/Fall cusp. If you choose the second option, Fleur will miss out on The Exarch. But I will let you have more background information and more advantages from preparation.

She will of course attend the party, and while there ask if anyone has gone into any of the other sections, but save further explorations until the summer/fall cusp, between longevity potions.

[color=blue]Yeah man. Don't bother. It ain't as cool as I thought. It's nice and cool and I helped old Chico store some herbias. Tried to bring my girl up in there once but she's all like "it's so cold and creepy in here". Sztz all busted up and there ain't no room to do szt anyway.
Now if you wanna check out something really cool, my cuz is throwing this party down in Evisa town at the end of summer. Bash gonna last the whole weekwns man! His parents are rich. They got some land grant from the king after the invasion. But cuz ain't no fakely. He cool. Anyway, he got a boat! After the party weekend, we is gonna sail ofver to the Dragon Island for a campout. Julian, that's my cuz, he gonna build a giant staw man. He said people used to do it in the old days. At sunset, we light it on fire.
It's the third time he's done it. I was there last year when he did it on Formentera. The athourities hassled us, but Julian's dad settled it. So this year we are gonna try Dragonera. Nobody lives there, so it will be cool.
You seem like a groovy chick. I'm Xander by the way. What is your name?
Man, those rhythems! You wanna drink? I am thirsty!

The music is very good. Fleur can tell it is magical, for it creates a buzz against her Parma Magica. She knew to expect that coming in. But even aside from ny mood elevating mgical effects, these musicians are exceptionally talented and extremly skilled. Very creative and eclectic yet very organized and disciplined.
And the band leader is mixing them!
See, he will have one set of musicians playing one thing, a trio of percussionists are playing something else, both tangential and different. Then a third group starts in with a new song as the first group fades out. The percussion slowly changes and fades as the fist set trickles in slowly with a new sound. The percussion kicks in again with a new beat, the third group builds to a crescendo then suddenly drops as the new song takes the lead.
If you were not resisting magic, you would hear the filters and loops :laughing:
As for style, think Mediterranean. Strong Morroccan influence. Definitive Andalusian flavor. Some ideas from points far East.
And if you drink the herbias, it will get you kuffed up. It is alcoholic. And the herbs mixed in will have a natural (though very subtle) intoxicating effect as well.
Again, if you were not resistant to magic, you would see the light show :mrgreen:
no...
I just can't do it. I wrote this stupid thing about these tiny glowing invisible spirits. But it is just too much.
But it is funny :laughing:

So...
Does Fleur want to discourage these kids from using Sa Dragonera as a party island? Or does she wish to encourage it?
Either way, Xander seems to know a lot and is willing to share, and will be easy to recruit.

Dear Lord, good people of Ars Magica...
Please forgive my spelling errors and typos. It is difficult and almost impossible to correct and edit posts of the size above using this little outdated phone. Different websites and different fields have other side effects. But the main effect is that all text entry interface on the web is re-routed to the phones SMS interface. Which has a theoretical limit and an absolute capacity somewhere above that. And when I get close to that size, babbling on as I am doing now, the system gets sluggisg and confused if I try to back up to far to correct something.
Oh yeah, I actually have to "arrow" though it all the way too. And I actually have to type out "color=#800080" and "url=blahblahblah".

So If I accedentally typed "qwwkend" or something because my thumb missed a tiny little key, or I wrie "Midevil" and forgot to correct it, just have a laugh and move on

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

"I've been to Sa Dragonerra, bad idea for a party, unless being hunted is your idea of a good time. There is a reason nobody lives there. I've got a place, people could camp out in the garden, vibes there used to be messed up but I got that taken care of, now we could spend the night and have a great time! Only thing is I'm kind of busy at the end of the summer, so we the timing might need a little work."

Those will be some well fed faeries... wonder if I can get some extra vis from setting them up to host parties.

Glow faeries are not a serious aspect of the tale. Not all stories have to be serious. We can try wacky and zany now and again. But things silly may not be exploited for serious use.
(yes, that is me trying to legitimize the use of glow faeries :laughing: )
Anyway...
(do you know how hard it is to use bad grammar on purpose with this guy? :mrgreen: )
[color=blue]What hunts there? Now I am curious. Never searched out the inertior much. There are a few spots along the edge you can park a boat on. Mainly on the West coast where it hooks on the South end. Lots of hard rocky coasts, so it is hard to explore much beyond that. Someone built a little shack there who knows how long ago. People use that little bay as a storm shelter.
No one can tell me what else is there though!I want to get up to the north part, see what's there. Maybe find a spot where I can build my own nest away from the world.
See, I have gotten tired of this false face culture of ours. We invade and kick out the Muslim rulers. We start to ship out the natives, but there are so few that we let them stay if they convert. They don't care. They slap whatever name you want on what they are doing, and they just keep on doing what they have been doing for a hundred generations. My people chase gold and land and war and death. These people seek life and peace and happiness. That's all I want. I'm only ninteen and I have a whole life ahead of me. What? Just because I am oldest, when I turn 21 my father gives me his armor and marches me off to war? F*** that sh***. I ain't doin it!
But back to the island. I plan on 'splorin the place anyway. But I wanna see your garden :wink:, and I don't want my friends to know what I know about the place. See, there is a spot on the North East side you could get to with a small boat. My cuz has a rowboat on his yacht, I was thinking to use that. But I also have this swift little fisher that I've been fixin up. Ain't no good for work anymore, but it is sturdier. I replaced the tiller system with a gear and chain. The old one was a frayed rope and this rotted wood chunk.
What was I saying?
Your garden! Sounds cool. But it has to be the equinox. That's our thing. This year it's the 14th I think? Maybe the thirteenth. They say it keeps slipping.
You want another drink?

OOC: equinox would be midsummer- June, not late summer. You may be thinking of Lammas- which is a cross quarter holiday, that is in August with calendar slippage the solstice may be in July, but not at the end of the summer... in fact it would be June 14th...

"I will leave word with my people to let you use the garden, not the house, if I cannot be there. As to the island of Sa Daragonna, I hear it is stalked by a black beast..." and she gladly tells the tale of the guardian faerie they have placed there.

That is the Solstice, start of summer when days get longer. I mean the end of summer.

So Mabon, the autumn equinox - so do we skip to her heading into the caves at the end of summer? After arranging for the party goers to get caught in the faerie regio for their autumn orgy?

This is potentially an active story and does not seem too complicated. Do we want to explore this?

Yes, this is Fleur trying to find more sources of insight. Hopefully I have a record somewhere of what I had still...

It appears I have the serpent charm (which has been investigated but the effect not yet developed) and the skull. She will definitely be wanting more insight...