A little bit louder now – 11 Jun. 2019 – Heret
Jun 30, 2019 23:18:11 GMT
Ser Baine Cinderwood 🔥🌼 likes this
Post by Heret Velnnarul on Jun 30, 2019 23:18:11 GMT
10 Kythorn, 1496 AR
at the Gilded Mirror
A very strange day at the Games. Two events in the main arena, but each person might compete only in one or other. Chose the second, called ‘Taliesin’s challenge’, or something of the like. The first was named ‘Capture the cat’. Not being able to participate, I found one of the representatives of Titania in that game: a young woman with some drow blood in her, if I be not mistaken. Lent her the ring.
Passed some time around the edges of the games, found little of interest. Traders there use no money but a sort of magical barter, offering goods in exchange for memories or years or colours.
Soon summoned to gather with the other competitors for the arena’s second game:
We were called early because Celandrine, the master of ceremonies at the games, had gone missing and we were offered 300 gp each to find them. Sunday negotiated 500 gp each or as close as our employer could get.
Found C eventually in the long-abandoned manor of the A La Nocturnes, the famous musical family from bygone days in Cormyr. Astonishingly, the whole house, & even the grass around it, had somehow been transplanted from Cormyr to the feywild – I never discovered why or how. The Nocturnes themselves were within, many generations of them, somehow brought back to life, or at least undeath, from their portraits. These walking paintings became hostile when we tried to enter the house, and we were forced to destroy them.
C was in an upstairs room singing with a mismatched orchestra, all apparently ensorceled from among the musicians in and around the games. Their enchanter was a creature of green smoke acting as their conductor. It bewitched Bogg as well, who joined in with his instrument, until Baine pulled him bodily away. Likewise Traavor retrieved C while Serpentine somehow banished the smoke creature for a time, during which we roused the enchanted musicians and sent them away (though not before Bogg stole a fife from one). I was ready to go but Sunday believed the thing would return (which it did) and must be destroyed (which we accomplished swiftly). Its melody, though, persists in my mind still tonight.
The elf who promised us ‘as close to 500 gp as he could find’ duly paid us 280 gp each – 20 fewer than he had originally offered! Another reminder of the importance of careful wording in agreements in the feywild: I dare say if we had agreed the 300 gp, he would have been bound to deliver, but as it was, he had only to give what he could ‘find’ – whatever that means. But no matter.
As we waited for time of Taliesin’s challenge, Sunday & I urged Serpentine, Bogg, & Baine to compete for Titania. Bogg seemed inclined to do so at first, but Baine was intransigent and Bogg didn’t wish to leave his friend. Serpentine seemed indifferent to our arguments. When the time came, Sunday, Traavor, & I were for Titania; Serpentine for Jack; Bogg & Baine for Sarastra; and there too were Farstep & Ceres for Ulorian. I joked to Sunday that I missed the Snow Queen’s yeti, at which she laughed – an almost normal interaction with this peculiar young tiefling!
Each player given a wooden staff, said by C to be carved from branches of Corellon when he was an oak tree! Whatever the truth of this, the staves certainly proved to have incredible power. They seemed able to make any fancy of the mind, no matter how impossible, appear suddenly in the sight and hearing of everyone in the arena, seeming entirely real! The conceit of the game was to use this power of illusion to counter the illusion of the previous player in a fixed order. Farstep began with what C called ‘the traditional opening’ (it seems this game has been played for many hundreds of years): the appearance of a lion in the arena. Sunday, next in order, created the ring-master of a circus to tame the beast; and so on.
Truly such magical power is a wonder to wield! It is easy to understand why arcanism was so tempting to some in the distant days when our nation was young, and how it caused such havoc. At one point in the game, to counter a whirlwind, I had but to recall my visit to Zeyshel and the entire stadium was plunged to the ocean bed, safe among the daily bustle of the tritons, far beneath the storm.
After a number of rounds, the moves and counter-moves became quite abstract. Sunday conjured a desolate, endless expanse of ice; Bogg responded with unicorns and rainbows; Baine placed triumphant warriors on the backs of the unicorns, making it into a sort of military parade of victory; and so on. Eventually, after the destruction and rebuilding of civilization, the acceleration and cessation of time itself, and several moves so confounding that first Ceres, then Traavor, then Farstep all resigned or forfeited, Baine somehow brought matters to a conclusion: placing a book in the hand of an old man, who turned the final page and closed the volume. And so the game ended. Even now I am not sure why or how, for Celandrine had said that it would end when only one player remained; and indeed even the master of ceremonies seemed confused. Perhaps there was some long-forgotten rule, or perhaps Baine had somehow gone beyond illusion and made his conception real – he indeed had a strange look in his eye, both sad and pleased. Anyway, somehow it was clear and undeniable to everyone that the game was over.
The puzzled Celandrine declared Baine (and so Sarastra) the victor. Sunday seemed pleased despite Titania’s defeat – she finds Baine endearing, I think. Baine was awarded ‘the chair of changes’, a great seat carved of oak, for his exclusive use. And so the proceedings ended.
As our divers ways parted I recalled a small pouch of coin I had found in the Nocturne Manor and divided the contents among our group:
After my return here to the Mirror, the part-drow woman found me & returned the ring. She introduced herself as Igrainne Blackriver and said she agrees that the archfey should not be allowed more influence on this plane, and added that the River King should be ‘brought to justice’. And also that, at the end of the game in which she took part, she shot an arrow at Titania! To ‘get her attention’, apparently. Anyway, she put it to me that to secure Titania’s victory, more drastic measures were required. An interesting idea, but risky. I must think on it.
at the Gilded Mirror
A very strange day at the Games. Two events in the main arena, but each person might compete only in one or other. Chose the second, called ‘Taliesin’s challenge’, or something of the like. The first was named ‘Capture the cat’. Not being able to participate, I found one of the representatives of Titania in that game: a young woman with some drow blood in her, if I be not mistaken. Lent her the ring.
Passed some time around the edges of the games, found little of interest. Traders there use no money but a sort of magical barter, offering goods in exchange for memories or years or colours.
Soon summoned to gather with the other competitors for the arena’s second game:
- Baine
- Serpentine
- Traavor
- Sunday
- Bogg, a larcenous halfling with a set of dwarven bag-pipes.
We were called early because Celandrine, the master of ceremonies at the games, had gone missing and we were offered 300 gp each to find them. Sunday negotiated 500 gp each or as close as our employer could get.
Found C eventually in the long-abandoned manor of the A La Nocturnes, the famous musical family from bygone days in Cormyr. Astonishingly, the whole house, & even the grass around it, had somehow been transplanted from Cormyr to the feywild – I never discovered why or how. The Nocturnes themselves were within, many generations of them, somehow brought back to life, or at least undeath, from their portraits. These walking paintings became hostile when we tried to enter the house, and we were forced to destroy them.
C was in an upstairs room singing with a mismatched orchestra, all apparently ensorceled from among the musicians in and around the games. Their enchanter was a creature of green smoke acting as their conductor. It bewitched Bogg as well, who joined in with his instrument, until Baine pulled him bodily away. Likewise Traavor retrieved C while Serpentine somehow banished the smoke creature for a time, during which we roused the enchanted musicians and sent them away (though not before Bogg stole a fife from one). I was ready to go but Sunday believed the thing would return (which it did) and must be destroyed (which we accomplished swiftly). Its melody, though, persists in my mind still tonight.
The elf who promised us ‘as close to 500 gp as he could find’ duly paid us 280 gp each – 20 fewer than he had originally offered! Another reminder of the importance of careful wording in agreements in the feywild: I dare say if we had agreed the 300 gp, he would have been bound to deliver, but as it was, he had only to give what he could ‘find’ – whatever that means. But no matter.
As we waited for time of Taliesin’s challenge, Sunday & I urged Serpentine, Bogg, & Baine to compete for Titania. Bogg seemed inclined to do so at first, but Baine was intransigent and Bogg didn’t wish to leave his friend. Serpentine seemed indifferent to our arguments. When the time came, Sunday, Traavor, & I were for Titania; Serpentine for Jack; Bogg & Baine for Sarastra; and there too were Farstep & Ceres for Ulorian. I joked to Sunday that I missed the Snow Queen’s yeti, at which she laughed – an almost normal interaction with this peculiar young tiefling!
Each player given a wooden staff, said by C to be carved from branches of Corellon when he was an oak tree! Whatever the truth of this, the staves certainly proved to have incredible power. They seemed able to make any fancy of the mind, no matter how impossible, appear suddenly in the sight and hearing of everyone in the arena, seeming entirely real! The conceit of the game was to use this power of illusion to counter the illusion of the previous player in a fixed order. Farstep began with what C called ‘the traditional opening’ (it seems this game has been played for many hundreds of years): the appearance of a lion in the arena. Sunday, next in order, created the ring-master of a circus to tame the beast; and so on.
Truly such magical power is a wonder to wield! It is easy to understand why arcanism was so tempting to some in the distant days when our nation was young, and how it caused such havoc. At one point in the game, to counter a whirlwind, I had but to recall my visit to Zeyshel and the entire stadium was plunged to the ocean bed, safe among the daily bustle of the tritons, far beneath the storm.
After a number of rounds, the moves and counter-moves became quite abstract. Sunday conjured a desolate, endless expanse of ice; Bogg responded with unicorns and rainbows; Baine placed triumphant warriors on the backs of the unicorns, making it into a sort of military parade of victory; and so on. Eventually, after the destruction and rebuilding of civilization, the acceleration and cessation of time itself, and several moves so confounding that first Ceres, then Traavor, then Farstep all resigned or forfeited, Baine somehow brought matters to a conclusion: placing a book in the hand of an old man, who turned the final page and closed the volume. And so the game ended. Even now I am not sure why or how, for Celandrine had said that it would end when only one player remained; and indeed even the master of ceremonies seemed confused. Perhaps there was some long-forgotten rule, or perhaps Baine had somehow gone beyond illusion and made his conception real – he indeed had a strange look in his eye, both sad and pleased. Anyway, somehow it was clear and undeniable to everyone that the game was over.
The puzzled Celandrine declared Baine (and so Sarastra) the victor. Sunday seemed pleased despite Titania’s defeat – she finds Baine endearing, I think. Baine was awarded ‘the chair of changes’, a great seat carved of oak, for his exclusive use. And so the proceedings ended.
As our divers ways parted I recalled a small pouch of coin I had found in the Nocturne Manor and divided the contents among our group:
- Traavor: 4 gp
- Sunday: 4 gp
- Baine: 3 gp
- Bogg: 3 gp
- Serpentine: 3 gp
After my return here to the Mirror, the part-drow woman found me & returned the ring. She introduced herself as Igrainne Blackriver and said she agrees that the archfey should not be allowed more influence on this plane, and added that the River King should be ‘brought to justice’. And also that, at the end of the game in which she took part, she shot an arrow at Titania! To ‘get her attention’, apparently. Anyway, she put it to me that to secure Titania’s victory, more drastic measures were required. An interesting idea, but risky. I must think on it.