Festival of Blooms
This challenge article is an active work in progress! — Current stage: Placeholder names and braindumping :)
Blooms overtake the plains, flowers carpet the woodland, and the chill of winter fades from the land. Life is coming back to our beloved valley!As the frost of winter melts away and new blooms spring from the earth, the residents of Iverra waste no time in celebrating the renewal of the land. The Festival of Blooms is a month-long revel, built upon the delight of meeting yet another spring, and the bounties that come with the season of growth. As the land warms, Brightfield sees the return of numerous sought after crafting materials that grow scarce in the snow-covered months. Plant life surges, rare blooms make themselves known, and incredible aromas fill the air all around! Residents of Iverra, in particular, are most eager to hold this annual festival, kicking off once the region has truly shaken itself from winter's chains.
Joy in Bloom
Just about every settlement in the region celebrates spring in some way, but Iverra is the only one that puts on a festival each year!Floral Festivities
Bringing Life Back to Iverra
"It's like the winter crust and dust picked up just about overnight! The walk to the workshop was so gloomy, and now... it's bloomy!"(Placeholder: Over the course of the festival, Iverra transforms from a snow-dusted and quiet city, to an explosion of wonderful colors and smells, as new life is breathed into its every corner. Decorative flowers find their way onto every accommodating surface, gardens are revitalized, and planters hang from every roof and beam. Color-coordinated flower arrangements line storefronts and official buildings, reflecting branding and heraldry — some stores even have "official flowers" that they order each year for their displays! The entire town goes into a spring cleaning frenzy, making sure every surface is cleansed of any wintertime salt or grime before setting flowers to take their place. It's an incredible transformation! It's also exceptionally common to see residents dancing in the streets throughout the month, many encouraging the local wallflowers to join in — it's a time for many to get out of their shell just a bit, to bloom just like the first flowers of the season!)
Crafting and Competing
"You didn't forget how to hold a chisel over the winter, did you?"(Placeholder: The passing of the cold season ignites a fire in the residents of Iverra, who feverishly take to their respective crafts to engage in contests and challenges during the festival. This bit of friendly competition invites artisans to brush off their skills and put them to the test, ensuring that they're ready to take on the crafts of the year ahead! This festival largely focuses on the crafters who use plant-based materials in their crafts: The carpenters and wood sculptors, makers of paper, dyes, and inks, dried flowercrafters, florists, and more! Likewise, culinary crafters find themselves competing amongst each other in creating delectable dishes with the local ingredients.)
"You'll just have to wait and see when I win the contest next week!"
Browsing the Bloommarket
"Hold tight to your coinpurse there, kid!"Prior to Iverra's population boom following the creation of the Ringtale Elementary School for Aspiring Adventurers, this festival was a small, local affair. Much of the festival's focus was on the act of crafting and the giving of gifts, with small market stalls offering gift-giving options to those without artisanal skills themselves. Now, an entire district of Iverra's market is dedicated only to Festival crafts and draws an impressive crowd, of both locals and travelers, hoping to take home beautiful springtime keepsakes and gifts. Artisans of Iverra often hire adventurers to gather the materials that they themselves cannot purchase or harvest in order to craft exceptional seasonal goods to offer as gifts or for sale. Most travelers who come to participate in the festival do so because of their interest in the thrill of shopping around the market stalls. Locals of Iverra, however, are more likely to participate in the various events taking place throughout the festival, such as contests, dances, and more.
"What? Why? Is it not safe?"
"No one's snatching it from you... but your money won't be safe once you see those market stalls."
Sending off the Season
"It's like the flowers are blooming among the stars themselves..."(Placeholder: This is the big event of the festival, the closing ceremony that wraps things up until next year. A delightful display of the amazing things that residents have created and received throughout the festival, talents that the people wish to share with others, and marvelous displays put on by residents of all kinds of skillsets. At the very end of the festival, the revel is concluded with a fantastical light show, facilitated by Iverra's local wizard. He casts his illusions high into the sky, illuminating the city in the dark of night.)
Shops Abuzz in Springtime
Most shops in Iverra gear up for the festivities, to join in some way or another, but there are some that stand at the forefront of the preparations, knowing that they've got lots of eager hands to fill with delightful items once the event kicks off.
Visiting the Tea Shoppe
Stepping into the tea shop is always a delight to the senses. The delicate smells of brewing teas, drying herbs, and pressed flowers blend together to invite you into the room with the warmest of hugs. Exactly like a good cup of tea!
Tea is one of the most sought-after commodities during the Festival of Blooms — all kinds of seasonal blends of tea return to the shelves as delectable florals begin resurfacing from the snows of the fading winter. Though the winter chill is rapidly fading, the brisk spring mornings are still best met with a nice, warm drink in hand!
There are many flowers that the shop finds no trouble sourcing on their own, but others call for just a bit of assistance in their acquisition.
Though their list is pretty large, and there are many flowers and herbs to help find, the top three on their list have given them the most trouble.
Flowername
This flower has an overwhelmingly pungent odor when fresh, but dries down to the most delightful sweetness. Unfortunately, it only grows in some unsightly places, and not many are willing to search for it.Flowername
Though beautiful and pleasant-smelling, this flower is sought after for its leaves and stems. Herbal teas made with this plant are great mood-boosters, but they are guarded jealously by woodland beasts.Flowername
Wild honeys pair well with many of the season's teas, especially honeys created with the clovers and honeysuckle. The trouble is, honeysuckle doesn't bloom this early in the year, except in small pockets of the wood.Visiting the Bakery
I had a craving and followed my nose all the way here, knowing the bakery had me covered. If there is a sweet treat you can envision, with all of the tastiest fruits and flowers, Iverra's bakery is ever at the ready to make you a baker's dozen and then some!
Working hand-in-hand with the tea shop, the local bakery is well known for its range of dainty floral treats, fruit-filled pastries, and candied flowers — and more!
Baking with flowers wasn't exactly a novel concept when the Festival found its start, but the bakery has embraced the craft every single year since. The flowers they use are pretty easy to find, so they seldom run into stock issues, but a few road bumps have left them missing two key flowers they're in need of, just as the baking rush begins.
Flowername
Delightful little flowers that the bakery loves to use as toppers for shortbread cookies — a springtime specialty! The common varieties are all bitter, though... They simply lacked the time to search for the right patch before the rush.Flowername
These apple-flavored flowers are incredible additions to baked goods for their blend of fruity and floral flavor, but the bakery encountered an issue with their latest shipment.Visiting the Crafters
I want to live a life surrounded by flowers, and those artisans take the whole season to ensure that dream can come true! Their work is perfect — flawless, even! I keep catching myself trying to smell the sculpted flowers they gifted me, forgetting they're just painted wood.
Not everything that calls for flowers results in an edible creation. Many artisans in town seek out materials that become freshly available when springtime begins, using them to craft a wide assortment of items, artworks, and more.
From the functional to the decorative, many trades in town find themselves in need of hard-to-find natural resources as they work to put high-demand goods in the hands of festival-goers.
Favorites include pressed flowers and products made with them, such as bookmarks, handmade papers, and wearable accessories, in addition to flower-inspired goods such as flower pots, wood carvings, and illustrations.
Flowername
These uniquely-shaped flowers seldom hold their shape when picked and transported, making them exceptionally difficult to order. You just have to go and find them yourself, and hope the journey is smooth sailing.Flowername
These flowers bloom in a wide array of colors, but one in particular is used to produce the most sought after dye color of the season: a lustrous pink which bleeds into a yellow-green halo when applied correctly.
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