A Midsummer Knight's Dreaming
After the successful production of the play recounted in the previous chronicle,
our heroes decide to party. Pensius and Erendil plan to attend the Shadow Court social
event they have both been invited to, but neither knows that the other will be there.
As it is customary to wear some sort of disguise, Pensius dons a mask to conceal
his features. Erendil, always wanting to make an impression, uses his dark arts to
disguise himself as Sir Armaund, the stuffy seelie sidhe assistant of Count Tormentil.
They each make their way to the general location of the event. As they move farther
from the main camping area, their tokens, a talisman in the shape of a black rose,
begin to glow, leading them along. They meet up shortly before reaching the entrance
to the glen where the revel is taking place. Erendil recognizes Pensius, but Pensius
is stumped by Erendil’s disguise but knows that it cannot actually be Armand; the
Shadow Court has some standards, after all. They approach a faint tracing of a doorway
in the air, and walk through it to the other side, crossingover into an enchanted
grove. A large troll woman is waiting on the other side to admit them to the party.
Pensius recognizes her as the troll who Franklin defeated in the tournament a few
days ago. They agree to the usual Dictim spells and other conditions of entry: they
may speak of what they hear to no one not present and a member of the Court, and
they must stay until permitted to leave.
They each manage to pick up information about various plots, some apparently official
and others the efforts of one of several separate cliques within the Court. Erendil
draws the attention of many members of the Court due to his disguise. While no one
believes he is actually Sir Armaund, he has done such a good job that no one except
Lady Tourmaline figures out who he actually is.
They hear Shadow Court members gossip about the martial abilities of various seelie
nobles, planning for future actions against them and their troops. They also hear
of several plots aimed at turning Duke Valerian to his unseelie side, or killing
him and replacing him with a Shadow Court member. There is much speculation about
the status of the main-depressive Queen Aeron, and whether her current unstable state
is the result of Shadow Court plotting in the North. Pensius and Erendil overhear
the following disturbing comments:
“Are we ready in the South?”
“...they should keep silent and still until ready to strike. These unauthorized incursions
are drawing too much attention.”
“Did you get the shipment?”
“How is the reservation program going?”
“We have to have our boys take the election. The stakes are too high to leave it
to chance.”
“With Valerian as Marshall, we have no choice. We have to take him down. Since our
guys lost the tourney we have no other alternative.”
Tourmaline asks Erendil for the discreet loan of a few of his mortal pets. He agrees
to deliver Leo and Ethan to her later that night.
Meanwhile, Jenny, Chamone, and Toby go to the Eshu Storytelling party. Jenny tells
her story of the Dauntain of Ramona, and does it so well that she wins the informal
storytelling contest. Jenny mixes and mingles with the various eshu, satyrs, and
other folks at the party, then decides to find the rumored sluagh whispering circle.
Chamone and Toby return to camp.
Jenny decides to see what she can learn at the sluagh whispering circle. She finds
that her stories and secrets buy her access to some interesting rumors, including
the possible source of the cold iron weapons showing up in the duchy. It seems that
the ogre hag Black Annis who our heroes encountered a few months back, may be responsible.
Edward, looking for beer and a good time, finds a party of very drunk sidhe. They
decide his Native American get up is pretty damn funny and give him all the beer
he wants. He ends up marking their whole encampment.
Meanwhile Chamone, depressed because she is being treated like a child, retreats
to her tent to play loud music in the typical protest of youth against oppression.
Erendil, busy in his tent with one of his mortal toys, finally gets annoyed with
her enough to come out and tell her to quiet down.
Next morning, our heroes all decide to attend the Grand Melee. The Melee is the final
big event of Pennons, and almost everyone either participates or watches. The Melee
is a large scale battle fought by two sides. The Duchy of Cambria, as host, forms
one side and an equal number of opponents from the other duchies in Pacifica form
the other. Combatants use chimerical weapons. Jenny, Erendil, and Franklin choose
to fight, while Pensius, Chamone, Toby, Edward, and Erendil’s enchanted mortals watch
from the sidelines. Duke Valerian, Count Tormentil, and Baron Marcus lead the ranks
of Cambrians while Duke Julian of Angeles, Duke Trevor of Orange, and Baron Erland
of Poiraine lead the opposing force. The Queen and most of her court choose to watch
from the comfort of the royal pavilion.
Jenny, Erendil and Franklin fight bravely and well, and it seems that the Cambrians
are making some headway against their opponents. Suddenly gasps and screams come
from a corner of the battlefield. The marshals call upon the fights to hold their
attacks and disengage immediately. The fighters obey, straining to see what has happened.
The crowd parts to reveal Count Tormentil, lying in a pool of blood. Standing over
him is Leo, Erendil’s mortal friend, holding a bloodstained cold iron dagger.
Duke Valerian moves swiftly to take charge of the situation. He orders the area cleared
and searched for clues. Healers are called to attend the unconscious and gravely
injured Count Tormentil, while men-at-arms restrain Leo. Leo seems confused and bewildered,
and does not recognize anyone present, including Erendil. He does not remember where
he is or what he did or did not do. Sir Armand loses no time in publicly accusing
Erendil of setting up the attack, citing Erendil’s enmity towards Tormentil and his
belief that Erendil engineered the theft of the Lists book. Erendil hotly denies
the accusations, asking instead if Armand might not have his own motives for wanted
Tormentil dead, especially after Tormentil allowed Armand’s humiliation at the play
the night before. Things start to get ugly.
The Queen strides down to the field and immediately begins issuing orders. She asks
who were near enough to the Count to see what had happened. While no one admits to
seeing the actual blow, several people were close by at the time, including Baron
Erland, Duke Trevor, Sir Ferdinand, Lorien, Lady Isabeau, and Dagmar, the troll who
fought Franklin in the tourney the day before. They each give their own, somewhat
different, version of events. The Queen, quite angry that such an attack could take
place in the midst of such a public event, commands these witnesses to accompany
her to her pavilion, where she will get to the bottom of this. She commands her “advisor”
Hamal, Valerian, Tourmaline, Carnelian, Duke Julian, Sir Armand, and Countess Felinah
to join them, along with Erendil, Pensius, Edward, Franklin, Chamone, and Toby.
The Queen launches into her investigation by spelling everyone with a Dictim to tell
the truth and behave themselves. The accusations and counter-accusations fly fast
and furious, as seemingly everyone has a different theory to put forth. Armand continues
to accuse Erendil of the deed, claiming that it would be easy for Erendil to use
Leo to make the attack by using a Sovereign cantrip and causing Leo’s disenchantment
to erase his memory. He also insinuates that all these problems with cold iron weapons
didn’t happen until Erendil, an admitted member of the Unseelie court, came to town.
And for that matter, he says, didn’t Erendil’s friend Jenny wield a cold iron dagger
at the battle of the Dauntain’s Lair a few weeks back? And what about Sir Pensius?
Could he have a role in all this?
Several people leap to Jenny’s defense, and to Erendil’s and Pensius’ as well. Felinah,
Tourmaline and Carnelian all back Erendil’s side. Erendil argues that it would be
folly for him to have set up Leo to do the deed, as it points directly back at him.
Sir Ferdinand and Lady Isabeau take Baron Marcus to task for allowing such a thing
as a cold iron weapon to find its way to the tourney he is responsible for running,
and Lady Isabeau notes that Lorien was also on the scene. The bad blood between Tormentil
and Lorien is legendary. Chamone is asked under Dictum about whether she had anything
to do with Tormentil's attempted assassination. She blurts out, "I don't want
to kill him; I just want his job!" This causes a bit of laughter, some of it
nervous. Several people take subtle shots at Valerian and insinuate that he can’t
control the unseelie activities in the Duchy. The Queen seems displeased with the
Duke and has sharp words for him. He and Lady Tourmaline watch the proceedings and
appear to be weighing most carefully what is being said, but making no accusations
of their own.
Edward is asked to use his sharp senses to follow scent of Leo through the encampment,
to see if his trail might determine who he had contact with. Erendil admits to loaning
Leo to Lady Tourmaline late the previous evening, which causes a rather uncomfortable
look between Valerian and Tourmaline. Edward reports that Leo seems to have had contact
with Tourmaline, Erendil, and, surprisingly, Lady Isabeau. Isabeau turns red and
starts to stammer while Sir Armand gaspes in surprise. [Bill, did Edward reveal anything
else he learned? I wasn’t sure what you had not mentioned]
The Queen decides to hold Erendil and his chimerical companion Giselle under guard
until an investigation is conducted. The others, including Pensius and the gang,
are free to move around, but are commanded not to leave the tourney. Erendil, convinced
that several people are lying even under Dictim, fumes silently in frustration. And
this is where we end.
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