A Midsummer Knight's Dreaming
After our heroes return triumphant from the Chimera Hunt, they take their places
at the feast tables with the other successful hunters, including Duke Valerian, Julian,
the Duke of Angelus, and Trevor, Duke of Orange. They are joined by Queen Aeron and
her satyr lover, Hamal, along with various other local nobility including Lady
Tourmaline. Jenny looks for a likely conquest for the evening, and asks Erendil if
he knows a handsome knight dressed in white and gold. Erendil tells her that he is
Baron Erland of Poirier, and a vassal to Julian, the Duke of Angelus. Erendil tells
Jenny that he is quite “vanilla” and would probably be disappointing to her. She
notices Trevor, the Duke of Orange, and asks Erendil about him. Erendil tells her
that he doesn’t know very much about him, but he sure is cute. So Jenny sits next
to Trevor and engages him in light conversation. Erendil talks to Countess Felinah
and lets her borrow Leo DiCaprio for the evening. He also has sidebar conversations
with Tourmaline and Lorien. Hamal, an unemployed actor in his human guise, is very
impressed with Erendil, whom he recognizes as film star Aaron Hunter, and fawns (fauns?)
on him during the feast. The Queen also seems lively and interested, enjoying the
feast and the hunt before it. Until, that is, Erendil offers to lend her one of his
mortal toys, with him on spiked collars and leashes. For some reason the Queen takes
great offense at his comment. In a jarring move, she leaves the feast and stalks
angrily towards her encampment, with Hamal following behind. The table falls silent.
Duke Valerian pauses, takes a deep breath, and says “So, how about those Padres?”
Sir Pensius, wondering what was up with the Queen, asks Edward to follow her to the
Royal encampment. He attempts to enter the encampment but is intercepted by guards,
who chase him off.
In the meantime, Chamone decides that she wants to go to the satyr party. She asks
Jenny if she can go, knowing that Jenny was invited. Jenny tells her to ask Erendil.
Erendil is a bit embarrassed, and says no. Chamone begs and pleads, but Erendil doesn’t
seem to take her seriously. Finally, frustrated with his amorous attentions to his
enchanted, she throws herself at his feet and says “When do I get to go to your tent?”.
Erendil, with a stunned expression on his face, realizes Chamone has a major crush
on him, and that he had unwittingly helped it along. He tries to explain to her that
his relationship with her is different than his relationship with his enchanted mortals,
and that she should find a nice sidhe boy her own age to latch onto. She doesn’t
seem interested in anyone but him, leaving Erendil with a problem to solve: how to
get her to turn her affections to a more appropriate direction.
Chamone and Toby end up going to the childling party being run that night by some
matronly boggan ladies. Chamone is annoyed that she didn’t get to go to the party
she REALLY wanted to attend, and is soon bored. She grabs Toby and attempts to sneak
away from the party. She is noticed by a guard who is concerned that she and Toby
are wandering around by themselves in the dark. Toby is not smart enough to play
along with Chamone story, so Chamone has to make some effort to convince the guard
that she was just going back to her encampment to find a game to bring back to the
party. To Chamone’s disappointment, the guard believes her but decides that he must
escort them to their encampment and back to the party so they do not get lost or
get into any trouble. Chamone grabs a deck of cards from her tent so lend veracity
to her story and glumly returns to the childling party.
After the feast breaks up, Jenny leaves to cruise the party scene with Trevor. Edward
hosts a tailgate party for the local pookas, and dispenses cheap American beer to
pookas who consent to be sketched by Edward’s artist friend. Edward uses the headlights
for his pickup truck for illumination.
The next morning Jenny, Erendil, and Franklin go to the tournament area to fight
in their scheduled bouts. Edward comes to watch his friends fight and generally just
hangs around. Jenny is matched up against the redcap knight Sir Verlayn. They each
fight well, but Sir Verlayn’s experience allows him to win after several close passes.
Erendil fights Lady Olive, a diminutive boggan lady who wields a mean quarterstaff.
At one point he drops his sword, and, feeling outmatched, attempts to concede to
the boggan lady, She tells him “Pick up that sword young man! You go on and fight!
It’s the only way to learn.” Erendil laughs and picks up his sword. He lasts for
another few passes before losing.
Franklin is matched against Trevor, Duke of Orange. Despite the Duke’s lack of sleep
(he was “up” all last night with Jenny) he manages to defeat Franklin after a long
and closely fought battle. At one point Franklin loses his sword. When Trevor allows
him to recover his weapon, Franklin responds by tossing away his enchanted shield
as a balance for the favor. Trevor tells Franklin that he is an excellent fighter
and should continue to build his skills. In the next round, Sir Verlayn the Redcap
knight loses gracefully to Duke Valerian, Lady Olive loses to the sidhe Baron Erland,
and Trevor loses to Julian, the Duke of Angelus. Later in the day, the unseelie sidhe
Baron Carnelian of Silversisle suffers a rare loss to the Duke of Angeles, while
Valerian beats Erland. Valerian ends up the victor in the tournament, and is now
the Marshall of the armies of Pacifica.
In the meantime, Chamone and Toby went to children’s tourney. They didn’t stay long,
as Toby’s “eagerness” and nasty pointed teeth scare the other childlings too much.
Chamone brings him over to the area where Sir Pensius is running the childling scavenger
hunt in the hope that the scavenger hunt will keep Toby occupied. Chamone goes shopping
and finds a great Halloween costume that will make her look like Madonna. She tries
to buy a perfume to make herself glamorous and, presumably, desirable to Erendil
but the perfume is too expensive. Her day is complete when she takes Toby back to
the encampment for lunch and Toby, after drinking kraut juice, vomits all over. Evidently
there is a limit to what redcaps can eat and drink.
Jenny and Erendil also go shopping and make a few purchases. Jenny, Edward, and Chamone
then go to the Nocker Mechanical Tourney and watch a bunch of weirdly made machines
try to destroy each other. Boom-Boom, the armorer Jenny patronizes, wins the show
with a really scary contraption.
The cast gathers for a late afternoon rehearsal, which goes fairly well. The play
itself comes off without a hitch, with Pensius doing an exceptional job in his role
as Duke Thesius and Erendil turning in a masterful performance as Oberon. At the
end of the play Edward, as Puck, brings out a book and opens it up. Inside is another
book, the Book of Lists that has been missing since yesterday. Pensius is disturbed
to see that Edward does not even fein surprise at the presence of the book. Edward
just grins and says:
If we shadows have offended,
Take but this (shows the missing book), and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.
Edward goes over to Queen Aeron, bows, and gives her the book. Queen Aeron accepts
it and laughs and applauds. Most of the audience appreciates the joke also and laughs
uproariously, especially after seeing that the Queen likes it. Armand, seeing that
Edward had the book and suspecting that he and perhaps his other friends stole it
in the first place, throws a fit and demands justice. After the audience leaves the
principles stay on to resolve this dispute. Pensius throws a Dictim on Edward and
tells him to answer his questions truthfully. Pensius asks “Where did you get the
book?” Edward claims that he retrieved the book from a hollow in a tree, carefully
managing to answer Pensius’s carefully phrased questions, and thus does not indict
himself. Armand continues to accuse Edward, Erendil, and the rest of their friends
of the crime, but finds his allies disappearing when it is obvious that the Queen
liked both the play and the twist at the end. Count Tormentil still feels that an
investigation was warranted, but Erendil says that the matter is over with no harm
done. Duke Valerian agrees with Erendil and says to Tormentil that they should drop
the issue. Tormentil leaves with Valerian, still not entirely happy with the affair
but not willing to push it. Armand, however, tells Edward and Erendil that the matter
is not dropped as far as he is concerned, and that they has best remember that. Our
heroes change out of their costumes and freshen up before hitting the evening party
circuit. And this is where we end.
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