Anarion

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Constance

This is your question to answer for Robena's ear alone. A quick a word, a sigh, a sag of the shoulders could carry mountains of meaning. But there is much you could say to Robena as well. Uther's reign is not what it once was. Would you tell her in the knightly manner, that your lady of Lostwithiel still has not sworn fealty to the High King and you have had visions of fire and blood in his livery that must be stopped through courage, chivalry, and a touch of magic? Perhaps the rumors of King Pellinore on the hunt and the Questing Beast rampaging through the woods?

Or perhaps you would you tell her that Arthur, Uther's only child, is missing and there is no heir to be found? That Merlin left the court a few years prior and is not to be found though it is your quest to seek him? Perhaps you've even heard the darker rumors of the High King's mad rantings, the tournaments he hosts from which knights do not return, and the rumors from little birds that cursed knights akin to what you saw from the Azure Knight wander the land?

Or perhaps again your ear is closer to the land and its people. Would you tell her of the rumors that the harvests have thinned and those with less fortunate land have been starving nearer to Camelot? Of winters growing colder and darker than they seemed in past? Of the rumors of monsters and wild beasts ravaging fields? Or perhaps the dire news a few farmers brought in before your departure that a blight is starting on the wheat and the whole year's crop could be lost if something isn't done.

Tell Robena what it means to you, river-daughter, that what was is grander than what is, and that as you look forward to what will be you see room for a greater fall?

Tristan and Nin

Nin you've hit on something here. Something that isn't right. "I don't rightly know sirs" Mort says and shakes his head as if to clear it, his hair flouncing. He ties his helmet to his saddle and passes a hand before his eyes as though to check his vision. "Though I grew up in the King's castle, I can't recall anything of the creature before we heard of it ruining the fields and Merlin gave his prophecy. I'm sorry I cannot be of more assistance." He shakes his head again and seizes on Tristan's question like a lifeboat, perking up immediately. "Heirs? Of course, my lord, King Pellinore is known for her fierceness in all things and the laughs and shouts of her family are a delight to those of us who serve. Why there's Tor and her brother Aglovale, already fine young knights holding the keep in our absence, and then Ladies Lamorak and Dornar both squiring and of course little Percival, who's a delight to all who visit. You must never have come to the King's castle if you've heard of none of them. I'm sure that if we complete the hunt, she would feast you for a week and introduce the whole lot of them."

Sunshards

Yin is...complicated. Like, the whole magic knight thing is extremely aesthetic and Chen is into that! But she did some sketches of Yin the last time she visited and...well they're too romantic, Yin does these poses like she doesn't know how to hold herself naturally it's all glitz and show. The only good sketch (In Chen's opinion) was when they got back from a hunt and Chen surreptitiously started some lines going while Yin was helping her knights get settled. That moment where she was working, guard down, shoulders relaxed, and just a little sweaty was real. Her lips curl upwards a little remembering it with a smile. Chen hadn't given her that sketch though it was sitting in her collection for...reasons. She was going to ask Yin to visit Sourcefall soon and maybe go see the waterfalls together at dawn. She had this idea that if Yin were a bit more out of her constant shining auras and knights vs. monsters thing she'd finally let herself relax and maybe they'd even go swimming together in one of the northern lakes. She almost laughed aloud imagining Yin jumping into the frigid lake and then shouting at Chen for tricking into something so cold!

As she thinks on the current situation though, Chen's brow furrows with worry because Yin is loud. Not that she's scary, Qiu could easily outmatch her in a one on one for pure presence. But if Yin's already on this and it's not just her but a pack of her wolves, it's going to be a lot. Like light shows and golden halos kind of a lot. And sure that's cool, Chen might enjoy it another time, but she would have preferred to get to this Yue first. The poor girl is really going to get overwhelmed and having Yin with her whole retinue show up was enough to give Chen a headache, so she could only imagine what a poor country girl who had never even started handmaiden training would be feeling.

Chen was going to need to move light and fast. "I should go then. You really never go halfway, do you Princess Qiu? I'll try not to add to anyone ripping up the countryside. Can't wait to see what you paint when I get back with Yue!" She gives Qiu a little wave and, leaving her art supplies on the boat, points herself towards the lake. Before her flight down had been the height of grace and elegance, a dancer's pose from blade of her sword to the point of her toe. Now, she was crouched and eager, her body leaning forward into a point, her sword held close along her side. The light within it dances up and with a burst of sudden energy and a gust of wind Chen is off and over the lake at speed.

Once she's outside of the immediate influence of Qiu's shards, she sighs. She's not sure yet if she's going the right direction, but she knows how she's going to do this. The wind blows everywhere and it would know how to find this Yue. But Chen didn't have the power to ask the wind that herself. She was going to have to call her mother.

She swallowed and put the number into her phone. "Hey, Mom?"

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan and Nin

Mort gives a rueful shake of his head as your horses clop forward through the wooded path. You're beginning to near a break in the forest line. "I can't say that I do. Honestly, I've never even spoken to Merlin myself and he's been gone from court since not long after that prophecy. Personally, I thought that whoever did the hunt would be the one to do the catching and killing. And, if you're wise, sirs, you'll not imply that King Pellinore ever fails to catch what she hunts in her earshot."

Mort gives you a solemn nod and doesn't seem to have much more to say for now, though he doesn't move to ride away either, just continues with you.

Constance and Robena

Blood of the sheep. It's not so rich as human blood, but it is blood, and the sacrificial lamb long predates modern religion as the offering to be made to the gods in place of darker faire. So too, it will do for the ghosts. You've done something for them, and their spirits are grateful, though the hate that suffuses them has not been cleansed, merely...sated perhaps? They are, at the least calm from this and Constance has fulfilled her promise to arbitrate on Robena's behalf.

For the moment, you are in an embrace. Robena, Constance feels cold, much moreso than you thought, it's clear her brush with the ghosts took a toll on her today. Constance, what is it like being held in such a bear hug?

Sunshards

There’s a moment where the wind blows across the ship and swirl’s Chen’s hair. A loose strand swirls up past her ear and gently caresses her cheek, but she’s too lost in thought to brush it aside. A moment of silence and worry.

At last she looks at Qiu. “No, she’s not. She’s a person, or at least some demon or faerie that’s very much like a person. You like to play a tough game, but if she were really dangerous, you’d have put together your own hunting party, maybe called me or Princess Yin. You wouldn’t have hung up posters and tempted everyone into going after her to try and get a dance with you. I know the two alliances make you out to be a demon yourself, but I can tell you’re not interested in putting the servants and the handmaidens in danger like that.”

Chen finally brushes aside the hair and lifts her chin with a defiant look that says I understand you. A challenge, the first one issued here. But then she’s right isn’t she?

[Figure someone out 6+3+0=9. First question. How would Qiu feel if someone actually got hurt trying too hard to win her favor? Second question, what does she really hope to get from this contest? She gets a question of Chen as well.]

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Constance and Robena

Constance, you nearly hesitate. There is a moment after you make your answer where the ghosts advance on you and you think that you will break. You imagine in your head those cold hands reaching through you and into you, taking apart little shreds of your soul and replacing it with their own until you are nothing but their plaything, and as you think it, so it starts becoming true. It is the warmth of the cat, the fat and heavy Catherine held against you that snaps you out of it, for she is full of life and all wriggles and hisses. And as soon as you leave behind that cold, the ghosts retreat and pay you due respect. Tell us how the chill of the grave still lingers on you and how it affects your ceremony.

Robena, given your strength, the task Constance has set you is easy if demeaning. The ghosts do not accost you in the sunlight as you gather their bones upon the grass and offer them burial, though you can feel that they are near by the chill that that you sometimes feel run up your spine. Do you have words for Constance when the task is done and the dead buried? Do not forget as well that the traveler asked you for two things. A cat, yes, and also a small lockbox.

Tristan and Nin

"It has to be a member of her family, good sirs. It is but recent, so if you have not been to Camelot you may not have heard. The questing beast first appeared late in High King Uther's reign, a handful of years ago though I was still a squire at the time. Merlin, the great seer, made a prediction that a member of King Pellinore's blood would hunt the creature and so she was tasked with the work and has been after it since with few breaks, only changing out her knights as they weary. It has to be her, for Merlin said so, good sirs."

He looks at you hopefully as he speaks, and though it's unreasonable, he seems to think that having found you here so close to it that you might have some special knowledge, some insight into the prophecy for the creature will be caught and he's waiting on you to reveal your secrets.

Sunshards

The feeling is like coming up for air after being trapped in a rushing river. Equal parts exultation and relief flood through Chen and a pressure lifts from her chest that she hadn't known was there. She breathes, holds her breathe for a moment, and lets it out long and slowly as she settles.

It isn't that Chen of the Northern Wind had some master strategy in mind showing up with a painting and working ten moves ahead of her opponent. Quite the opposite, she still aches for that dance, for the warmth of that body, so fleeting where Qiu had guided her hands. It's just that her mothers had taught her about sunshards since she was old enough to walk. Their precious little Chen, daughter of grand Ys and Sourcefall was always going to be getting somebody's sunshard, after all. So she had played as soon as she could walk with mothers who reshaped the world to their whim and taught their daughter to wander their workings. A sunshard is a river of thought, an extension of the wielder's will, and it works just like a real river. Try to swim against the current and you end up nowhere. Swim straight on and you'll go too fast, lose control and find yourself trapped in hidden whirlpools and pulled under. But swim to the side and you kept control, let the current guide you as you made for a bank. So she had moved by heart and instinct trained from a lifetime: lacking her own sunshard to wield, Chen had made herself an important part of Qiu's story. With a moment to think as Qiu accomodated her, she could even start to see the shape of it, and it made her curious.

She glanced where Qiu was glancing and smiled. "Oh that's wonderful, I can't wait to see your work! And I'm sure the posters will give me everything I need to find her." Now Chen was smiling more than a little, imagining Qiu painting the wanted poster herself, though she had probably used magic or simply had it made. She relaxes into Qiu's motions, letting the other princess guide her or push her to go as she sees fit while Chen lets her mind wander. Or perhaps now she's even being a little teasing. "Oh, but poor Yue just Yue! The most valuable thing in all your realms with her face all over every town! She must be mobbed by every handmaiden and aspiring little princess this side of the lake! If she's really this valuable (and however did you find that out?) I think you ought to give her a dance to make up for the trouble she's going to have in getting to you, Princess Qiu."

It won't be lost on Qiu that this is the first time Chen has dared address the princess by name in this conversation, a sign of familiarity and comfort even with the Princess title. Perhaps too much comfort. Qiu might be thinking of ways to make Chen regret her boldness once she returns with Yue. Still, she's had an idea floated to her all of a sudden. Has she even thought about the sort of reception she plans to give Yue? It struck Chen that Qiu had called her "the most valuable thing" as though she were up for comparison against an antique sword or even a sunshard, and she wanted to know what the princess had to say about her plans once she had this new handmaiden. She's not sure yet if she'll get an answer or a joke though, and she's still letting Qiu guide where she goes. One push and she'll be off on her hunt, the moment Qiu wants her to leave. But not a moment before.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Since stveje asked to put the conversation on hold, I'd suggest leaving this bit of Mort hanging for a bit, and Numbers and stveje can just reply to each other freely with a few conversation posts. Don't worry about waiting on me or the other scene while you're getting the characters on the same page.

Dark Age (playtest): The Lands of Pendragon

Tristan and Nin

Mort looks relieved that you're definitely not poachers, and his cheeks rise in a happy smile. They fall again quickly though and he hesitates at Tristan's question, slumping ever so slightly in his saddle. "She's...demanding, sir. I can't say that she's unfair. She expects much, and it has been an honor to ride with her."

The both of you have met many a lord and petty noble in your lives working for Lostwithiel. Most are "demanding," but saying that about them isn't exactly what you'd expect of a sworn knight in their service. His hesitation says that something is amiss, but it's hard to say what the problem is. Perhaps he thinks King Pellinore is under too much pressure and wants to excuse her wrongdoings? Perhaps he is just young and unversed in being diplomatic in this way. You could press him fairly easily if you wish, he's an open book of pride, tradition, and youthful puppy enthusiasm.

Constance and Robena

The ghosts turn to Constance and her feline companion, and they permit Robena to back up around the courtyard and put Constance in between them and herself. There is a terrible bitterness in the crone's eyes.

"Honored?!" She shrieks, and even Robena can make out the words and the form clearly. "You dare call us honored?! Where then is the good pine box for my son that would keep the maggots from his eyes?! Where then the stones that would mark our passing and tell travelers of our great family? Uther's men left our bodies to rot child, and you call us honored." The crone moves her head to spit, were she corporeal. "But very well, you offer yourself for this knight's abandonment. Offer then."

Constance, you know the old ways. There is only one price to be paid here and it is in blood. Yours, Robenas, innocents, traitors, revenge, it is all blood to the ghosts. You could make an oath to pay it back to their betrayers, but that would indeed be an oath to slay King Uther and his most loyal vassals, and that oath would haunt you. The ghost will hear of nothing else, and your power to inspire has no hold over the chill of the grave.

[Constance, the crone denies your right to exhilarate and intoxicate when you win someone over, and they will refuse any boon you beg of them. You may ask your next question, but that is all. Tell us how you respond to this denial.]

Sunshards

The scent of Princess Qiu this close is like fire and thick incense, and it's everything Chen can do not to sway and drop her art. When Qiu guides Chen's hands where they're supposed to go, it's forceful but not unkind and she feels like...oh gosh like she's floating and-and she's doing exactly what she ought to be and everything will be perfect. If she could, she'd just melt right here and let Qiu support her and twirl her about wherever she liked. Then she'd step up on her tippy toes and give Qiu the lightest little kiss and Qiu would lean into it and press her lips together harder and then maybe she'd take a bite and...

Chen's parry comes in the awkward needs of her things. Shard magic is powerful and it can change much. But for all that, it's not a simple thing, not even for three sunshards, to pull something out of a princess's hands when it's something she really cares about, something that she put time and effort into and filled with her excitement and her secret fears. That is Chen's canvas and her sketchbook, holding her most recent work and her older work, that she doesn't just show to anyone, that has the fear of being judged and admonished, and the hope of being loved, and the secret little pleasures of twilight and sunrise and perfect falling leaves. So she should be swept away to dance, but she's holding a canvas freshly painted and a bag with her sketches and her tools and so she can't just be swept up and she can't just focus on Qiu no matter how much she feels that pull.

She nods, of course. She understands, she absolutely wants it to be her having that dance. She doesn't even try to untangle the tail, but she does lean the wrong way. She puts her weight on her own feat, and leans into her bag and her painting. She moves, not strongly, but outside the dance steps. She makes to put her things down somewhere on the ship, she takes the hands that Qiu placed on her body and makes her own decisions about what to do with them, and its with those motions that she can think again.

In her mind, her thought is why? and in that word she means so many things. Why does Qiu need another princess to aid her at all? Why offer such a valuable prize for a handmaiden, even as a way to show off? Why call Chen for this? Why consult a demon as to who her handmaidens ought to be? Why push and even entice Chen to take on this task without telling her anything about it first? In that "why" were a thousand traps and stumbles that could be here for her.

Her riposte is that she doesn't say any of those things and lets Qiu know it. She lets the tail stay in place, she leans back in, but now it's with a little more of her own strength, a bit more of her own center. "Of course" she says, looking Qiu directly in her serpentine eyes now. "Tell me all about her and I'll find you your new handmaiden." And maybe Qiu likes having an opponent that's more than she can eat in a single bite.

[Chen is seduced by evil here (and she's agreeing to the favor), but she's also enticing Qiu in turn. 2+6+2+1=11. Chen gets a string and Qiu needs to pick one of the entice options as well.]

Sunshards

Chen's first thought as she settles her feet upon the ship is...well actually her first thought is that that those shiny golden dragons are extremely effective for confusing an attacker because of the way they weave about and reflect the light. Someone rushing at Qiu would find herself dazzled and it would be hard to keep her eyes focused on any one body part.

Once she resists the initial urge to rush into a duel (it helps that Qiu is boasting and not pushing for the fight) her first thought is that the dress is really really hot. That red dress shining with gold as the blue waterfall rushes past it with each move of Qiu's arm. It flexes and Chen imagines herself being held down by that waterfall bicep, pressing up on her stomach and into her chest.

She blushes, tries to hold onto her bag and her canvas all at once, and takes her eyes off her opponent. She's not...she can't, the scandal if Qiu were to kidnap her alone, both her mother's would be furious! They'd never let her go outside again. B-besides, there's no way the favor that Qiu wanted was anything like t-that. So she tries to put that out of her mind, ignore her own flush (it's just because she got switched from cold climate to warm climate all at once!) and look back up at those beautiful serpentine eyes and that tail luxuriously curled around a slender glass like it could be curled around her waist and slipping down to tickle her legs. Oh...gosh.

"I um...I do, I mean, I want to. T-to do you a favor! Of course!"

[Chen will take the XP and do what Qiu wants. She is also Smitten, but it could never work because they're opposing princesses and Chen's mothers would both never allow it the second they found out.]