Festivities!

Happy Days

Holidays and festive seasons are a part of everyone’s lives. We look forward to those special times of the year where we can spend time with our friends and loved ones, relaxing and forgetting about our troubles, even for a small time. Festivals and celebrations can also play a special part in any RPG campaign, they can provide an interesting change of pace to the normal town and city experience for the players and the DM. Being Good Friday, I have decided to take some of the more commonly known holidays and festivals of our world and twist them into festivals suitable for a RPG campaign world. In addition I would love to hear your ideas for RPG festivals in the comments.

Antas Eve

Throughout the year, parents spend many hours warning their mischievous children of Antas Eve. A horrible night, in which all the adults are cursed with blindness and paralyzed, while the wicked children of the world are stolen from the beds by the demon Antas, never to be seen or heard from again. This frightful tradition is not only used as a tool to keep misbehaving children in line, but as a means to allow parents one night of undisturbed enjoyment. Taverns and inns provide special entertainment for parents willing to vacate their houses, while some prefer to enjoy the quite time within their own home. Nightfall within a city on Antas Eve can provide very interesting sights and unusual crowds as parents make the most of their short lived freedom. Any foolish child found to be out of bed during Antas Eve is punished unusually. With the myth of Antas gone, the children are forced to spend the rest of their remaining childhood serving their parents during the course of the curious night. This somewhat odd tradition has a very disturbing origin.

The stories of the demon Antas hold a truth that would terrify all parents if they ever found out the reality behind their luxurious evening. Nearly a thousand years ago the abyssal demon lord walked upon the material realm for one night every year. Utilizing powerful magic and it’s fiendish mind, the pitch black demon Antas conceived a sadistic method to harvest it’s victims. Breaking through the constrictive magic and force of the abyss, Antas managed to visit the material plan once a year for a thousand years. The lumbering, sickle clawed demon hunted tirelessly for first born children to enslave within it’s abyssal realm. For every soul dragged into the abyss by Antas, dark and horrifying magics siphon the souls of his slaves directly into the demon, empowering him further. The only draw back of Antas’ fiendish plan is that after a thousand years of annual harvests, the demon cannot return to the world for another eon. For nearly the past thousand years the parents of the world have forgotten the origin of Antas and celebrated for one night of freedom, a freedom which will soon end. Only the greatest and mightiest of heroes could possibly hope to confront the ancient demon upon it’s return to the world.

Archons Day

An old tale tells of an order of clerics that would offer their bodies as vessels for the Archons of their god. These holy men and women would willingly harbor the spirits of these Archons through a ritualistic possession, that allowed the angels to control their hosts for one day. During this ritual the Archons would feel the emotions and sensations of mortal life: pain, hunger, happiness and the most sought after emotion, love. People possessed by the angels would be marked by intricate masks as they walked through the city in search of as many emotions that could be felt through the course of a single day. This unique clergy of the possessed no longer operates throughout the world, however their strange rituals have been adapted into the Carnival of Archons. During the first new moon of each year, people adorn themselves with intricate masks and concealing clothing as they wander the streets in search of love and excitement. Many people use these disguises to forget their inhibitions and enjoy the excitement of the carnival without regrets. Parades are often held throughout the course of the carnival with several bizarre sights available for wandering adventurers.

This festival of love and happiness has often been used as a guise for more nefarious purposes throughout the ages. Petty crime and grand larceny, as well as assaults, or even murder have been committed during the carefree days that coincide with the Carnival of the Archons. However a dire threat has begun to manifest deep within the essence of the festival. Malcanthet, the succubus queen has begun populating the annual carnivals with her host of succubi. As these devils wander the world cloaked in elaborate and magical disguises, they ensnare willing victims with their devilish charms. The number of deaths during the carnival have begun increasing dramatically throughout the world, with many kingdoms now looking to adventurers to help uncover the sinister machinations behind the gruesome body count. Only the succubus queen and her closest entourage know the true reasons for the festival invasion. As her armies infiltrate the mortal world the numbers of the half devil offspring dramatically increase each year. These damned children are being secretly raised within Malcanthet’s stronghold as an army in preparation to assault the Material Plan.

Celebration of the Reborn King

Throughout the Dwarven kingdoms of the world, the legend of the Reborn King is well known and widely celebrated. For four days in each Dwarven calendar, a complex series of rituals and celebrations are held to commemorate the fall and resurrection of their greatest hero and king. With eyes of golden fire and a silver beard that wrapped around his waist several times over, Jar’thull was the greatest king and warrior that the dwarves have ever known. Defeating dragons, toppling drow cities, turning away hordes of orcs and goblins and even single-handedly felling an evil god, the bard’s tales of Jar’thull’s rule speak of epic achievements and the unification of the Dwarven kingdoms. The death of Jar’thull was at the hands of vile assassins who managed to concoct a poison specifically to kill the great king. Upon his deathbed the legendary king announced to his court that he would return to his people in four days. True to his word the phoenix king arose from his tomb, four days after his poisoning, a feat capable by the kings amazing resistance to all poisons. A resistance that was underestimated by the king’s assassins. Life within a Dwarven city during the four days of rebirth seems normal to any non-dwarf, however the hammers of the blacksmiths work with an intensity greater than normal. While within homes feasts are prepared in imitation of the kings last meal. Upon the day of rebirth a special religious brew is drunk freely across the city as prophets speak of Jar’thulls second coming.

Unaware that the second coming of the renowned king is close at hand the dwarves continue their celebrations as normal, while a drow lich finishes preparations on a summoning spell that will bring Jar’thull back to the world. Not as the great and celebrated leader he once was, but as an undead slave to the evil lich. Only the greatest heroes will be able to convince to the dwarves of their folly and foil the evil undead drow before the dwarves fall to an encroaching undead army.