On the western outskirts of the sandy city of Heshgarat stands the Necanium. Easily the size of the city, these ancient cairns with high round domes contain the remains of the honored dead. The entrance of each is carved with multiple felines and statues of them line the pathways between the burial mounds. Local legends recognize cats as the guardians of the dead, and they are considered sacred in the Necanium and within the city’s walls. While all cats are revered, the Heshgarat cats that call the area home are especially so on account of their uncanny abilities and potency against the undead.

Locals grow catwort plants on the wide ledges that are popular on the city’s buildings, and most have feline figures embossed on them somewhere. Dozens of cats can be found in the streets and dogs, mice, and rats are conspicuous by their absence. Pestering a cat within the city results in stern looks from the locals, while hurting one usually results in being whipped and chased beyond the walls.

Each year the city holds a week-long celebration during the spring equinox, just before the rainy season begins: the Feast of Cats. Locals stake out cat-shaped frameworks covered in choice strips of raw meat and bowls of specially spiced milk. Thousands of cats appear at this time and even Heshgarat cats, typically only seen in the Necanium, can be found walking the streets.

Interactions with cats during the feast are considered signs of the god’s favor. As a consequence, many locals spend long hours sitting with food or milk on their laps, hoping to entice a cat to visit them and earn their blessings.

Game Mechanics

A Heshgarat cat is similar in size to a large lynx, with large rounded ears and thick black fur lined with silver and white stripes. Found primarily lairing in and around the cairns of the Necanium to the west of their namesake city, they are considered guardians of the dead.

In the mountains far to the east snow is everpresent. The extra snow accumulated over winter brings the risk of dangerous unpredictable avalanches to highland settlements and the trails that connect them.

Fallsday sees pairs of the bravest members of those settlements, known as honreas, deliberately triggering avalanches. Their aim is to alleviate the danger by funneling the snow down established channels and from sun up to sun down waves cascade down the mountainsides. Honreas must have enormous trust between them, as there is much danger and little chance of rescue if they find themselves in trouble. Often siblings and relatives work together, but for romantic couples it is seen as the ultimate test of their bond and compatibility.

As well as serving their community, such duty is seen as a religious observance, and local temples to Honie and Oreas, the deities of winter, organize the volunteers and provide blessings before they set off. Fallsday itself occurs on the day before Kassag, the day when the temple celebrates the deities’ wedding, though particularly snow-heavy years may mean the artificial avalanches must also be triggered before or after the actual day. Only those who serve as honreas may be married on Kassag, and such weddings are considered especially blessed.

While the honreas work on the slopes above, everyone else remains tucked away in their homes during Fallsday. Family and friends of the Honreas spend the day in a somber mood, prepared for either celebration or grief. Regardless of the result, tradition dictates last year’s cirani, a spiced raspberry wine, is consumed that evening.

At dusk, a fire is lit in the steeple of each temple, and throughout the night honreas find their way back to them to be cared for, fed, and allowed to rest. At midday, each temple swings wide its doors and each honreas is presented with a Kassag coin. These large golden coins are uniquely stamped each year and only given to the honreas who returned to a temple on Fallsday night. Any remaining are melted into rings and presented to those who marry at the great feast that evening.

The feast of Kassag begins In the hours before dusk, ceremonies are held for those permitted to wed, then, and as the night closes in, the temples provide many barrels of freshly made cirani. Incredibly sharp and potent, the Cirani lowers inhibitions and suppresses animosity and the saying goes that “a Kassag truth is free of anger.”

Game Mechanics

Adventurers who serve as honreas receive the blessing of the winter deities. They can use the Help action to aid their Fallsday partner as a bonus action for the next week.

Among the Golanti tribes of the northwest, Firsthunt is a celebration and rite of passage held in late spring. The tribes gather each spring as the elk that are their primary diet begin the migration north, and hold a celebration that lasts long into the night. During the festivities, stories are told of how the first human is said to have undertaken the very first hunt around this time of year, guided by the lessons of the four most honored figures in their traditions: Hachi, the wily and persistent wolf; Karo, the ferocious, protective bear; Vaska, the wise lynx who sees beyond flesh and bone; and Khaasas, the otter; in stories she is the trickster, but also the source of joy and laughter. These stories often have a visual element, with performers acting out the part in accordance with the narration—sometimes leading to a degree of comical improv on the part of the actors, depending on the narrator’s whim.

There are several routes to adulthood in the Golanti culture, depending on the tribe, but the most ancient is the First Hunt. The morning following the celebration, any youth judged worthy by their tribe’s leaders may decide to undertake challenge of the First Hunt. Stripped to just a light tunic or loincloth (usually made specifically for the occasion by their family), each is provided with a spear and heavy cloak as they leave camp with the first light of dawn—anything else they need they must find or make. Once the hunt begins, the participants are not considered adult members of the tribe unless they arrive at the tribe’s location before midsummer and present a token from an animal they hunted and slew with their own hands.

After the participants leave, the bulk of the tribe strikes camp and heads north, making finding the tribe again part of the challenge. Some families make sure to store sufficient food to remain in camp for a week or two after the rest leave, while others leave bundles of food, supplies, and even weapons.

When a participant returns, they are tattooed with symbols of the animal they brought back to the tribe. Now culturally adults, they are considered reborn and begin counting their age from the day they returned. While those who slay great predators are praised for their daring, those who bring a token of particularly elusive or clever animals are also lauded for the achievement. Those who come back without any token are considered children for the next year, denied the privileges and responsibilities of adulthood until the next First Hunt.

Game Mechanics

Adventurers that take part in the storytelling of Firsthunt gain a boon depending on the part they played. For the next week, actors roll their next saving throw of the appropriate ability with a 1d6 expertise die : Hachi—Constitution; Karo—Strength; Vaska—Wisdom; Khaasas—Charisma; the first hunter—Intelligence.

In some parts of the world, legend has it that the lady of summer visits her brother’s home each winter and only her presence brings light, warmth, and joy to the lord of winter’s kingdom. Every year he tempts her to remain with him just a little longer by crafting items of beauty in ice and snow. Only mortal voices raised during Dawnsong remind her of the beauty summer brings to mortal realms and encourage her to return for another year.

Only the most devout truly fear a failure to celebrate Dawnsong might lead to an endless winter, but one needn’t be quite that pious to want to carry on this night-long festival and the day of rest that follows it. Music and songs celebrating summer begin as the sun fades from view on the last day of winter. In smaller communities, each family takes a turn in maintaining the song, but in the cities and towns of the Westfold March bands of minstrels are employed to ensure the songs continue until dawn. During the hours between dusk and dawn food and drink are readily consumed and dancing is commonplace.

At dawn, all the singers gather and the Dawnsong, a simple nursery rhyme taught to every child, is sung:

In every treetop’s hanging bower,
All the buds and every flower,
The climbing rose, the fanning fern,
All long for your foretold return,
Come back to us, come back to us, we need your
warming power.

Thigh-high grass of brightest green,
Hides blooms in every shade between,
Poppy red and cornflower blue,
Each sparkling with the morning dew,
Come back to us, come back to us, our fairest
summer queen.

A shining and a golden day,
A sun that ripens wheat and hay,
Spreading oak, swift-running stream,
Grazing sheep and clotted cream,
Come back to us, come back to us, please lady
don’t delay.

Game Mechanics

Adventurers who sing the collective Dawnsong at the end of the celebration are filled with a sense of hope, optimism, and good fortune. Once during the following week, they may choose to re-roll a failed ability check .