TEXT: EN World EN5IDER | Rites of Spring
  EN World EN5IDER | Rites of Spring
  Rites of Spring
    Magical Ceremonies of the Spring Equinox
   
  writing Dion Fernandez
   color art Jeshields
   
  editing James J. Haeck
   
  layout Eric Life-Putnam
  A
  s the dArkness of winter recedes 
   and the hours of daylight begin to 
    lengthen, the life-giving forces 
  of nature begin to reassert their supremacy 
  onto the world, and various ceremonies are 
  conducted to reflect this time of rebirth. These 
  rites, both familiar and exotic, seek to channel 
  the primal magic of spring for the benefit of 
  those who perform them.
   Unlike most other rites that commemorate 
  other seasons, spring rites are rooted in a 
  yearning for living beings to be surrounded 
  by more life. It’s unsurprising that history’s 
  earliest known magical rites involved the 
  manipulation and regeneration of life itself. 
  The depression and stasis brought about 
  by the previous winter instinctively moves 
  a person to celebrate once the first shard of 
  sunlight passes through the frosted windows 
  of her home, or when the first tiny buds of 
  leaves grow back on the branches of his snow-
  covered orchard trees.
   Though magic-users such as druids, 
  warlocks, and clerics of life have long since 
  perfected spring’s energies to sophistication, 
  ordinary folk may still harness the latent 
  powers of spring through the following rites. 
  They can be connected to the actions of the 
  gods, or they can just be manmade traditions. 
  
  Rites of Spring | EN World EN5IDER
  Rites of Spring | EN World EN5IDER
  Common Rites
  For many societies, especially rural ones, the onset 
  of spring is cause for simple celebration. It is a 
  season when people reacquaint themselves with 
  each other after being isolated in their homes and 
  share the excess supplies of last winter with those 
  who need them. Outdoor banquets and drinking 
  festivals are common, as well as masquerades and 
  rowdy celebrations held under the spring rain. 
  Households are festooned with ribbons, flowers 
  and other symbols of rebirth such as painted eggs 
  or figurines of baby animals. Even the simple 
  motion of sweeping away the dust that had 
  accumulated in houses during the winter holds 
  mystical significance. 
   In larger towns and cities, a more expensive 
  common spring rite alternately called “The Grand 
  Carnival” or “The Fat Night” is conducted. 
  Celebrations here often get so hypnotically 
  raucous that many rogues use them as the perfect 
  opportunity to apply their thieving skills.
  Environmental Effects
   
  ▶ Simple spring celebrations usually have no 
  immediate magical effect, though they often 
  attract the interests of magic-users who 
  witness them, and they may consequently 
  grant spells that nurture and revive. A 
  circle of druids might see it fit to grant plant 
  growth on the farms around the village that 
  “appropriately” reveres nature’s resurgence, 
  or a powerful cleric might cast mass heal on a 
  community that has suffered from sickness 
  over the winter. 
   
  ▶ Alternatively, a common spring ceremony 
  might be able to harness nature’s magic in 
  such a way that it either mimics the effects 
  of a powerful spell or activates a hibernating 
  artifact within the vicinity. The more people 
  who participate in the rite, the more potent 
  the effects could be.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ A common spring rite may have no 
  immediate magical effect, but anyone who 
  directly participates for a full hour has 
  advantage on Charisma checks for the whole 
  day afterwards when interacting with locals 
  and others who have taken a positive interest 
  in the rite.
   
  ▶ Characters participating in Grand Carnival 
  celebrations have advantage on Wisdom 
  saving throws against being frightened, but 
  have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability 
  checks due to the noise and chaos of the 
  revelry.  
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  including maps and illustrations (including illustrations in the public domain), narrative and descriptive 
  text, character and place names, trade dress, “EN Publishing,” “EN World,” “EN5ider,” EN Publishing 
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  EN World EN5IDER | Rites of Spring
  EN World EN5IDER | Rites of Spring
  Lunar New Year
  Halfway across the girth of the world, the first day 
  of spring often coincides with the last darkening 
  of the moon. This auspicious time is spectacularly 
  celebrated with loud fireworks, sumptuous feasts, 
  astrological readings, and energetic street parades 
  called Dragon Dances. Imperial rulers bellow out 
  a New Year’s blessing to their subjects, and the 
  roads become choked with travelers and well-
  wishers seeking fortunes for the year to come.
   The Lunar New Year comprises a multitude of 
  smaller rituals and ceremonies, each representing 
  an aspect of nature or a star sign; consequently, 
  each of these minor rites has its own effects on the 
  person who conducts and receives them.
  Environmental Effects 
   
  ▶ For the two weeks of the Lunar New Year, 
  living creatures who allowed the Dragon 
  Dance to pass them by don’t need to eat or 
  drink to be nourished. 
   
  ▶ In that same period, fiends (except demon 
  lords and archdevils) cannot enter the 
  boundaries of a city (or are otherwise 
  expelled from them) where Lunar New Year 
  fireworks have been detonated.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ A character who wears predominantly 
  bright red clothing (or another culturally 
  auspicious color) during the two weeks of 
  the Lunar New Year may use an action to 
  gain advantage on saving throws against 
  aberrations, fiends, and undead for one hour.
   
  ▶ A creature who meditates for an hour at a 
  holy site during that same period has all the 
  coins on its person turn to gold coins. This 
  can only happen once per character per year.
  March of the Wild Men
  There are places where the realm of the fey 
  overlaps with the Material Plane, and the day of 
  the vernal equinox sees the re-emergence of fey 
  courts that cross the planar boundary and march 
  across the drab landscape, bringing life and color 
  back into the world. Living beings who participate 
  (voluntarily or otherwise) in this enchanted 
  procession become eventually enraptured in the 
  process.
   The March of the Wild Men is as anarchic as it 
  is necessary; all things that stand in the way of 
  the March are cleared or destroyed, giving the 
  opportunity for plants to grow, for animals to 
  roam free, and for communities to rebuild anew. 
  The living participants thus serve as tools in the 
  enigmatic motives of the fey courts.
  Environmental Effects
   
  ▶ On the days during and after the March, the 
  1-mile radius around the area where it began 
  is treated as if it were part of the Feywild 
  itself.
   
  ▶ In that same period, plants and beasts 
  touched by a member of the member of the 
  March are affected as though by an awaken 
  spell.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ Any character who participates in the 
  March of the Wild Men is treated as a 
  fey in addition to its own creature type, 
  and its alignment also changes to Chaotic 
  (Good, Neutral or Evil tendencies remain 
  unchanged). These effects last during and 
  after the day of the March.
  
  Rites of Spring | EN World EN5IDER
  Rites of Spring | EN World EN5IDER
  Water Fight 
  In tropical regions where winter never brings 
  snow or ice, spring begins when the monsoon 
  rains cease. The water that has been collected 
  during the winter is so excessive that celebrants 
  gather it from ponds, lakes and rivers into 
  buckets and merrily throw it at others on the 
  first day of spring as a well-intended, if slightly 
  rude, gesture of luck and prosperity. The more 
  that a person gets drenched in water thrown by 
  others, the more she is believed to be blessed in 
  the year ahead. Holy men and women say that 
  this tradition grew from the act of pouring water 
  on statues of the gods, and became a symbol of 
  purification and cleansing. 
   In regions where water is less plentiful, 
  powdered herbs are used in the rite instead. These 
  powdered herbs, which come in many different 
  colors, are then thrown around to create dazzling 
  clouds.
  Environmental Effects
   
  ▶ Water specifically taken from natural sources 
  and used in the Fight is considered holy 
  water, and remains so until the end of spring.
   
  ▶ If a certain area (such as a village square or 
  a house) has been significantly drenched 
  in water from the Fight, or covered in a 
  mottle of colors from thrown herbs, that 
  area is considered under the effects of a 
  hallow spell until spring’s end, with the extra 
  effect of Courage granted on anyone who 
  permanently resides there.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ A creature who gets drenched by an entire 
  bucket of water from another creature in the 
  Fight, or who gets hit by a fist-sized clump 
  of colored powder, is considered as having 
  received the benefits of a short rest, except 
  the creature may not spend Hit Dice to 
  regain hit points.
   
  ▶ All participants of the Water Fight have 
  advantage on saving throws against 
  exhaustion for the next week.
  Dance of the Flyers
  In climes where water is scarce and isn’t just a 
  luxury to be thrown about, spring is welcomed 
  in the abrupt change of the patterns of the wind. 
  Such changes are welcomed by brave souls, who 
  climb to the tops of high ritual poles and, with 
  ropes tied to their ankles, jump in mimicry of 
  birds. Along with three others, each person falls to 
  the ground in a revolving motion around the pole, 
  symbolizing the moist winds touching the parched 
  earth. A character can spin around the pole a 
  number of times equal to 15 + its Dexterity score.
  Environmental Effects
   
  ▶ There is a 5% chance during each 
  performance of the Dance, with an increasing 
  5% chance for each succeeding Dance in the 
  day, for a rainstorm to be summoned by the 
  rite. The storm lasts for an hour, and cannot 
  be summoned again until the next day.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ A creature who participates in the Dance can 
  communicate with birds for a number of days 
  equal to the revolutions it completes during 
  the ritual, as if affected by a long-lasting speak 
  with animals spell. 
  Ritual of Flaying
  Not all spring ceremonies have benevolent rites. 
  Certain societies where evil and bloodlust reign 
  practice a gruesome rite known as the Ritual of 
  Flaying, which involves the mass sacrifice of living 
  souls to appease their wrathful gods. Just before 
  dawn on the first spring day, sacrificial victims are 
  dragged to a predetermined place such as a barren 
  field. They are then each decorated with flowers, 
  bound to an ornate ritual pillar, and then shot to 
  death with arrows, allowing for their blood to drip 
  to the ground. Their skin is then flayed and worn 
  like a second skin by participants as a symbol of 
  the “new” skin of the earth that grows after the 
  desert-dry “old” skin has peeled away.
  
  EN World EN5IDER | Rites of Spring
  EN World EN5IDER | Rites of Spring
  Environmental Effects
   
  ▶ The area within 60 feet of a sacrificial victim 
  becomes enriched as if affected by a plant 
  growth spell. Until whatever first fruits 
  could be harvested from that area, it becomes 
  immune to mundane weather and even 
  weather-affecting spells such as sleet storm or 
  control weather.
   
  ▶ At next dawn, the sacrificial victim rises as 
  a wight that serves as a guardian scarecrow 
  for the area which it was sacrificed in, and 
  remains as such until the harvest.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ A creature participating in the sacrifice (even 
  one who does not wear the victim’s flayed 
  skin) receives the benefits of a long rest 
  upon completing a short rest for the next 3 
  days, but the experience leaves the character 
  suffering from a long-term madness effect 
  that persists for the same length of time.
   
  ▶ Any character who dons the flayed skin of a 
  sacrificial victim is immune to damage from 
  nonmagical attacks for as long as the skin 
  is worn. The skin also gives the abilities of 
  a wand of fear while worn, though they fade 
  after 3 days as the skin decays.
  The Candelaria
  Finally, there are far places in the world where 
  the winter never ends. The people who live here 
  nevertheless can spot the subtle changes that mark 
  the faint arrival of spring, no matter how brief it 
  may be: the return of the reindeer and mammoth 
  herds, the first rise of the sun above the horizon, 
  or a shift in the intensity of the boreal lights.
   At sunrise on the vernal equinox, celebrants 
  channel the power of the weak spring sun by 
  lighting hundreds of candles at a common ritual 
  spot, such as a ceremonial altar. The candles are 
  left to burn for an hour, after which each family 
  takes a candle and brings it back to their own 
  homes as a living symbol of the season.
  Environmental Effects
   
  ▶ Until the flame from the last candle offered 
  is snuffed out, animal meat hunted by locals, 
  as well as milk gathered from local sheep, is 
  always fresh and doesn’t spoil.
  Character Effects
   
  ▶ Each person within 1 mile of any flame 
  lit during the Candelaria is affected as if 
  wearing a ring of warmth. This lasts until the 
  final candle flame dies.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/EN World EN5ider/EN5ider 066 - Rites of Spring.pdf