The Venom Queen Arc

This is an overarching arc that brings some issues to camp for everyday campers to deal with. All villains of this arc work for the Venom Queen and are being an annoyance in camp on her behalf. Currently there’s only been one monster sent to camp to cause problems but keep your eyes peeled because that may change!

## Via the Venti

Via made it past the camp border durning the Battle of the Barrier by letting go of her form and allowing herself to fragment into fifty pieces. Some of these pieces are still scattered around camp and if you ping Puff she’ll be happy to let you roll to attempt to find one. Warning these pieces will possibly attack your character.

### Timeline

**February 10th 2023:** Once in camp Via impatiently waited until enough fragments were inside Wispy the cloud nymph before starting to cause chaos. Via attempted to get a fragment in Wispy while Wispy was regrowing the woods. Thankfully Cathy daughter of Hermes was there and was able to capture the fragment before it did any harm.

**February 11th 2023:** Things weren’t so pretty next time. Via attacked two demigods within minutes of possessing Wispy. Those demigods are Yu Qi daughter of Asclepius and Joelif son of Aelous. Thanks to the help of Asteri daughter of Persephone Joelif made it out alive, but with lots of injuries. He may have gotten stabbed excessively

**February 13th 2023:** While a group of demigods where training together they were attacked by one of the fragments. Emil, an unclaimed demigod was able to smash the fragment, while Maya, who is also unclaimed noted that it appeared to have a soul aura around it. Once Emil smashed the fragment into more fragments he took one for himself, and Peter son of Hephaestus used another to make a fragment compass. The other smashed bits where thrown in random directions, which was not the smartest idea.

Also on the same day Ciella a daughter of Zues fought Via who was still possessing Wispy. It was a though battle with the two forces of wind going head to head. However in the end Ciella was able to stab the pieces of Via out of Wispy and got the nymph unpossessed. After the fight the two girls walked to the infirmary together and it was discovered that Via used to have a crush on Wispy.

**February 14th 2023:** Peter approached Wispy at the valentines dance because he was getting strong reading from his fragment compass. The two talked and Peter convinced himself that Wispy was secretly evil and the source of all the fragment attacks. Ciella saw the conversation and went over to see what was up. She defended Wispy and had an argument with Peter. A few days after Peter, determined to defeat Via, joined forces with Yu Qi. They both agreed to share research with each other and find a solution together.

**February 21st 2023:** The gossip column came out and revealed the fight between Wispy and Ciella. It also revealed Peters plan to trap Wispy in a box to contain Via and then burry said box. Even though he gave up on this plan after talking with Ciella a couple of days prior, thinking about how hurt this research friend Yu Qi would be if he did it, and realizing that it was rather inhuman to subject Wispy to that.

**February 22nd 2023:** Wispy went to the forge to confront Peter about what she saw in the gossip column. She was filled with lots of rage because Peters plan to trap her could’ve lead to permanent damage to her brain and/or body. This rage lead to Via trying to repossess Wispy by using her authority over the rage of her hosts. This lead to Peter being convinced he was right in his assumption that Wispy didn’t have control and could just get randomly possessed, and as he accused Wispy of being there to kill him that was the final straw. Via started to snap into control every now and then. This lead to more tension, more accusations, and Peter getting ready to trap Wispy. Via decided that now was a great time to spill the fact that her and Wispy used to be friends. Wispy had to explain how they were friends, four years ago, and haven’t talked since. After seeing Wispy get emotional over sensitive parts of her past Peter once again realized he was being inhumane and he and Wispy burned the contamination device together. After the device and blueprint were burned the two agreed to work together.

**February 24th 2023:** At the campfire Wispy puts together a team to hunt down the fragments. Anubis, camp counselor of the Hephaestus deme, and son of Rhapso called for volunteers when it was his turn for announcements. The next day the team met up and had a slightly successful hunt. Noah, son of Athena was able to take down and contain multiple fragments with help of Harper daughter of Apollo. Yu Qi was there to heal anyone who got hurt, and Wispy had to take the back seat for safety reasons.

**March 3rd 2023:** In the late afternoon before the campfire Wispy got possessed again while relaxing on the beach. Via planned to spend the campfire messing with the snacks and flames. However Peter and Jeolif noticed ‘Wispy’ in a tree and approached her for friendly conversation. Peter got a little suspicious and jumped to Wispy being possessed so he started to test her. Although there was the issue of them not being close friends so he couldn’t really tell. Thankfully Noah came over and realized his friend wasn’t herself rather quickly. Bad news this lead to a battle in which Via used electricity to give serious injuries to Jeolif, Yu Qi, Anubis, Aster an unclaimed demigod, and Maya. The battle went on for a long while, giving Scout son of Harpocrates time to make Via spill the secret as to how she was possessing Wispy (through the fragments, pieces of herself). Also it lead to many heroic moments which I can’t name all of because that would take forever. Some honorable mentions are Anubis and his puppets protecting the injuried. Then the fight came to the end when Ciella showed up, and Yu Qi used her doctors creed ability to make Via unable to harm anyone. This gave Ciella the ability to chase down Via, and yanked multiple fragments out of Wispy. Later that night everyone involved in the battle had to go to the infirmary, but Ciella and Wispy decided to sleep under the stars instead.

**March 13th 2023:** At capture the flag, Wispy almost got possessed but thankfully Peter decided to take the friendly route of using a Hypnos enchantment object to simple make her sleep. Wispy was super loopy and offended multiple gods when she woke up.

**March 21st 2023:** A big day, the surgery that Peter and Yu Qi planned to remove all the fragments from Wispy. Everything was going great until they realized that one fragment was one with Wispy’s heart now and removing it might cause major damage to her well being. They opted to keep that one fragment in. After the surgery Wispy was once again very loopy off of Hypnos magic. When asked questions about her peers she just remembered bits and pieces and the rest was foggy. Except for Ciella she remembered Ciella perfectly. Why? The power of having a crush. Things were very wholesome until a thief decided to come along and try and steal all of the fragments that where removed. After a chase and minor battle the thief was taken down. Then it was revealed to be Aster. When asked about why he would be doing this he explained how this brother Hakeem is being held captive by the Vemon Queen. He tried to escape again but his injuries prevented him from actually running away. When inside his injuries where treated, and then he was sat down for a little chat. A chat in which him and Ciella argued to the point that Ciella was little sparking. Peter lead Ciella outside to cool down as Yu Qi treated Asters other injuries. Aster ended up returning the fragments before leaving because it was a school night and he wasn’t supposed to be at camp in the first place.

## Palace raid

### Preparation/Key factors

After Via was dealt with, and with Aster no longer being a traitor, a group of demigods and nature spirits got together to get rid of the monsters armies fortress. Although a lot more went into the raid happened then the planning beforehand. There is no timeline for this since not all of the events happened on an exact date.

**Emil, the bee man:** The unclaimed son of Nike played a huge role in deciding the timing of the raid. *On accident too.* He spotted the fortress and decided toss a couple of beehives in there. Why? Nobody knows. Anyways the beehive attacks greatly reduced the number of monsters in the fortress, forcing the queen to call in reinforcements form New Jersey. This made the last weekended of May perfect for an attack, since it gave optimal planning time but still happened before the reinforcements arrived.

**Hakeem and Alexandra:** Thanks to the bee attacks, Alexandra got the chance to break out of the fortress and try and get her little brother to camp. Sadly the monsters were catching up to her rest her quickly, so she hid Hakeem and ran in the other direction. She fought her hardest but was killed by the army due to being greatly outnumbered and alone.

**Yakov, the best teacher:** Yakov being the responsible adult that he is, noticed Aster having some worrisome behavior. He was always coming into class with bandages or some type of new injury, sneaking off of campus, and always seemed to be on edge about something. Yakov did the reasonable thing of calling Aster into his office to talk. The talk got a bit emotional with Aster trying to hide as much as he could. Thankfully Yakov eventually got Aster to open up, as much as he physically could. There was something blocking him form telling Yakov everything though. It was an artifact of Harpocrates that would squeeze Aster’s arm tighter ever time he mentioned anything about the Venom Queen. No Harpocrestes didn’t like this use of his magic, he’s not evil. His stuff simply got into the wrong hands.

Yakov then continued to be a great teacher by researching the artifact, and figuring out how to remove it without potentially giving Aster major injuries. He took Aster, and Quinta to the New York Botanical Gardens, to find a Harpocrates rose. If they could find the rose, and burn it, then that would summon Harpocrates. Then they could convince him to remove the ribbon and everything would be fine, hopefully.

Things weren’t that simple though, because they ran into trouble. There was a *Dracaenae* guarding the flower, and they either had to sacrifice a nymph or fight her to get it. Naturally they choose to fight. No one wanted to give up a nymph to the crazy monster lady, although Quinta considered it. Durning the fight Aster got stabbed with a spear but no one else got any injuries. They were also able to successfully burn the rose, which summoned Harpocrates. The god didn’t say a word, but made Aster explain himself using a truth spell, and then decided to be helpful before leaving. Once the fight was over Quinta started boosting everyone with her abilities so they wouldn’t be in pain on the way back to camp.

**Noah and Aster, planning:** Once that arm band was gone Aster went while with the spying and information compiling. He found all about the bee attack, but didn’t realize Emil was bee man. He also learned about his siblings situation, and decided since Hakeem was free it was time to raid. Aster was by the lake one day when Noah came up to him and asked about the maps and lists. Aster explained the plan for the raid, and the two conversed in strategy for a while. They both agreed to aim for the early hours of Sunday morning and get as many demigods as they could to join in the raid.

### The Raid

**Finalizing the plan:** With everyone gathered, they took some time to make sure everyone new what’s up. Everyone was to go into groups of two or three and clear out different sections. Yakov summoned a small army of undead soldiers to aid the team of demigods in the attack. The soldiers were split into two groups. One group went with Emil and Noah to clear out the top floor, the other went with Yakov to charge into the main room. It was also decided that everyone would charge in after Aster blinded majority of the monsters in the place with his exploding light orbs.

**Top Floor:** Emil entered the room, only to be meet with an explosion of energy form a portal closing, and an dying emposia saying ‘long live the queen’. Yeah the queen escaped, and left her monsters in one of her best fortresses in the hands of demigods. Multiple of which constantly pushed themselves to the extreme limit. Not the smartest move but it guaranteed her safety. After seeing no other monsters in the room, Emil had the spirits take Noah to a safe space, and then continued into the prison cells. He was meet with a basilisk, he and his soldiers fought bravely to kill it, even pushing it into the queens burning chambers. Sadly all the remaining soldiers died fighting the basilisk.

**Main room:** Yavok, Ana, Quinta, and the rest of the ghostly army charged right through the main gates. They were meet with two giants who attempted to crush them and create earthquakes. The giants where defeated through blinding, angry ghosts, Ana freezing them, and Quinta kicking them in the balls. Yu Ai was off to the side giving in medical attention to anyone too badly injured and dealing with a possessed Peter (only for a minute or two. The practical Venti gives up easily.)

**Nympth grotto:** Wispy and Ciella charged in the bottom floor. The Venti made the mistake of taunting Wispy and Ciella started to fight them with full on rage. Together the couple fought off a couple of Venti and sympthian birds. Sadly one of the Venti escaped to try and to possess random people. Once the monsters were dealt with Wispy stayed back to free the hot spring nymphs and Ciella went to help out in other parts of the base.

**Forge:** Peter attempted to run in there by himself but was quickly overwhelmed and had to retreat and go get medical attention. Later Ciella, Emil, and Ana were able to clear at the forge but not without difficulties. Ciella got possessed, and Emil gave her a concussion to get the Venti out of her. Everyone got injured, thankfully nothing too permanent happened. Also the nymphs that Ciella and Wispy freed earlier helped out by blocking any retreat.

**Treasure room:** Aster got charmed by an emposia after he blinded most of the creatures. Thankfully Wispy and Cedric came to his rescue and killed the emposia. Sadly Cedric took some damage durning that little battle and had to head back for repairs.

**Monster bunks:** The final push happened here. Wispy and Aster were in here first when Emil, Ana, and Ciella came in to help out. The monsters here ended up getting decimated once Ciella saw one of them eating her girlfriends hand. Also Emil and Ana both wanted the battle to end already. Everyone was ready to head back to camp.

After all the monsters were dead the group raided the place and left. Ciella and Wispy stayed back to destroy the building via tornado.