A Faerie Affair - IC IV: Dragon with Butterfly Wings

[Ninja_Prawn]

Hefeydd listens while you muse on some answers, then speaks to you telepathically again: "aha, sea urchins! Why didn't I think of that? You're a genius, Kor!"

He then goes quiet for a while, presumably to relay the answer to his captor. This leaves you hanging around, waiting fo a voice to pop back into your heads, which probably looks quite strange to the other people here. If you were wondering how impatient Soren and Reena are getting, well, a quick glance would tell you that they look pretty tense.

Just as you start to contemplate maybe trying something else, a wave of mist fills the forest. It smells of bergamot and pine needles, and dramaticallty deadens the sounds around you. What was a fair hubbub a moment ago is now no more than a hushed murmur, and everyone's attention is drawn to a trellis archway covered in brand new morning glories, which is filling with motes of golden light. After a few moments, the lights coalesce into a swirling portal, through which the archfey Prince Hefeydd promptly steps. He waves his arms with a flourish, sweeping away the mist, and favours Astra and Kor with a rakish smile.

"I heard there was a party?"

Meanwhile, Violet notices that the plant growth spell she was casting seems to have been supercharged by Hefeydd's magical entrance display. All manner of strange and wonderful plants burst forth from the earth, and she gets the feeling that the spell will continue to run its course even if she stops concentrating on it.

[WindStruck]

Astra chuckles a bit. "Haha, yeah. We thought maybe trying to get a party started might attract you. Oh, and the wine too!"

"Was everything okay? Just running late, or....?" There's a slight look of concern on her face.

[Archmage1]

With her plant growth taking on a life of it's own, Violet takes a brief break from her singing and dancing to have a drink of water, before she flits back to the party area, makes sure that the plants are being good, and starts the party with her cittern, playing a lively jig to get things going, to attract people, and start to breathe life into the proto-party to be.

[Majin]

"Really?!" Kor exclaimed as he heard Hefeydd's response. "So those things really are sweet? Now I have to go looking for them..." Kor's chest puffed with pride. "And of course I am a genius!" He probably didn't look too much like a genius though, yelling at a plant.


"Hello your princiliness!" Kor shouted as Hefeydd as he emerged, and landed on the cask of wine. "Here's more of that wine you tasted, please have another cup!" He then added more softly "Also, who could have held you captive? Must have been a really powerful fellow."

[Ninja_Prawn]

"Was everything okay? Just running late, or....?" There's a slight look of concern on her face.

"Also, who could have held you captive? Must have been a really powerful fellow."

"Oh, haha, well..." he runs a hand through his thick, mossy hair and tries to explain: "I was drinking with my buddy Eydís yesterday and kind of... lost a bet? And ended up trapped in a jigsaw puzzle? It's hard to explain. But I'm here now! Let's get this contest thing sorted, shall we? My faithful knight has already filled me in on the details; this shouldn't take long."

Violet... starts the party with her cittern, playing a lively jig to get things going, to attract people, and start to breathe life into the proto-party to be.

Most of the hunters aren't especially eager to start partying yet; they have serious work still to do this day. However, a good number of the folks gathered here are not hunters at all, but poets hoping to compete in the contest's more creative segment. Since they can't really get to work until the hunters have performed deeds worth immotalising in verse, many of them are willing to join in with Violet's jig.

Kyu dances (without much rhythm) on an unimpressed Opal's shoulder.

A young faerie in the black uniform-robes of Reena's personal guard approaches Violet. He has striking amber eyes and earrings made from tiny fangs. "Hey there ma'am, I love what you've done with this place. Can I get you a drink?"

[Archmage1]

As the more creative souls join the party(Pre-Party?), Violet keeps playing(And dancing), but she also looks for others with instruments, who might be willing to help play even more fun music for everyone.

But before she can get very far a strange voice offers her a drink, and she turns to face the source, with a smile, although her fingers don't stop playing. "Ooh! That'd be really nice! It's lots of fun, dancing, and playing, and helping plants grow, but it's been a really long time since I started too!"

[WindStruck]

Astra says, "I'm just glad everything worked out! All we need to do now is bring Soren and Reena together to discuss terms."

Feeling that everything was finally beginning to come into place, Astra approaches the spikey-haired sprite and says, "Well Addam, now that this little mess has finally been sorted, would you like to see the most secluded part of the maze before it all grows enclosed?" She giggles a bit and blushes. It seemed obvious she was inviting the sprite to spend a few minutes alone with her.

[Majin]

Kor tilted his head as he listened to Hefeydd's explanation. It did sound hard to explain. "Hmm, well, as long as you're, I think it's alright!"

He joined the dancing, flying in the air and twirling around and sipping his wine.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Now that a higher authority is present, Soren and Reena are able to lower their guard a little and approach each other. While they are conducting their negotiations, you all have a few minutes to relax and enjoy what is gradually becoming a party.

Addam's stance is open and easygoing as he says "sure, lead on" and follows wherever Astra is taking him.

The guard who was speaking with Violet quickly returns with two cups of Kor's wine. "Here, you deserve a rest after all that playing." He takes a sip. "They call me Brent. I'm guessing... you're here for the poetry?"

[Archmage1]

As the guard returns with a cup, Violet quickly surveys the crowd, and tries to smile encouragingly at a couple of the satyrs with fan pipes, trying to get them to take over playing music, while she got to make a new friend.

After they get ready, Violet cheerfully winds down her own music as their takes on a life of it's own, before she turns her attention to her newest friend, with a cheerful smile, and gracefully accepts a cup of the wine, which she promptly sips. "It's really sweet! Thank you, Brent, it's really nice to meet you! I'm Violet, and it seems like lots of fun! Plus it's a great way to meet new people, and maybe even figure out why the courts don't get along! It's a mystery, and no one seems to remember why, which is really strange! And then everyone was sitting around, and being sad, so it seemed like a great time to start a party!" She takes a brief break, to take another sip of the sweet liquid, giving Brent a chance to respond.

[WindStruck]

Astra takes Addam's hand and flies over, not to the center of the maze, but one of the corners opposite the entrance.

"There!" she says as she lands. "Like, I guess there wasn't much point or goal of the maze, actually. But I think this is furthest from the 'entrance'."

Even as she said this, the plants were rapidly growing around them. Perhaps they would even continue growing up and form some sort of ceiling? That would at least be one way to not make it trivial to flying fae.

Astra brushes her stupidly-long hair aside so she can sit down properly without getting caught all in it, and she lays sideways in the grass. "So, what do you think? Pretty nice, isn't it?"

[Ninja_Prawn]

Spoiler: Violet

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"Well, that's certainly a fresh perspective." He considers for a moment, then decides those weren't the right words. "I mean, I like it. Life in the court is great and all, but this past week or so has been much more interesting, with you outsiders shaking things up. I'm sure this hunt never would have happened otherwise."

He gestures towards Astra and Kor. "You are with them, right? I didn't see you when they visited the Tower*, though. So how did you get involved in all this?"

*You can assume he is referring to Moonrise Tower, Reena's enclave. You will presumably have picked this up somewhere along the way, even if no one mentioned it explicitly.

Spoiler: Astra

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As you watch the plants grow and wonder about them forming a canopy, they begin to do just that. Thick, strong vines entwine over your head and deep green leaves soon follow. It seems as if they are responding directly to your thoughts... which, given that the plant growth spell is now being driven by the otherworldly might of an archfey - and that the layout of the maze was your work in the first place - it probably is.

Addam, for his part, is impressed. "It's fascinating," he says, "and you've done a great job with it." At first, the spectacle of the ongoing magical effects draws most of his attention but, when you sit down he seems to notice you anew.

"You look comfortable down there," he observes. "Hmm, even though there are so many folks around, just a few feet away probably, it seems really quiet here. Is it alright if I sit with you a while?"

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: Astra

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Astra shrugged a bit, or at least with one unoccupied shoulder, anyway. "I just sort of designed the maze. It was Violet's magic - she was the Petal - that initially got it growing, and Hefeydd.. well, he is quite powerful, to say the least."

The leaves and vines really were growing thick. They were starting to block out all the outside light, and it was growing quite dark. It's not like Astra really minded this situation, or was afraid of the dark in these circumstances, though it would be nice to see the other as they talked. She found a tiny pebble and used a Light spell to make it shed some dim, natural light.

When it seems like Addam notices her for the first time again and asks to sit down, Astra giggles a bit and says, "Sure. There's lots to talk about! And I think it would take a while to find us, if anyone even bothered coming into the maze at all."

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: Violet

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Violet finds herself smiling, and listening attentively as Brent discusses life in the courts, and she has another sip of wine before she responds. "Well, I was exploring, and I smelled something bad, but when I went to investigate, I found Kor, and Astra, and Kyu, and all the kids, and Opal, and everyone, so I decided to make some new friends!" However, as she was reminded of the events that led up to her meeting her new friends, she frowns. "I never did find out what smelled bad, though. Hopefully, nothing bad?".

[Ninja_Prawn]

Spoiler: Astra

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"I'm sure they'll come," he muses, sitting next to you (and avoiding your hair), "there are plenty of inquisitive souls out here."

Up close, in the soft glow of your magical light, his features seem boyish. He has lively hazel eyes and freckles on his cheeks. He smiles warmly.

For all that, he is a sprite and, like many of his kind, not much for small talk. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Spoiler: Violet

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"Usually, if something smells bad, that means it is bad." Brent nods sagaciously. "Well, this forest is full of all kinds of strange smells. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

So then, a serendipitous meeting in a magical forest. Nice way to make new friends. Very bardic!" There's a hint of something in his voice. "I have a bit o' the ol' sorcery in me, too, but nothing like what you just did." He touches a wand to his palm and a flower - a viola - appears there. He offers it to you, but it vanishes before you have a chance to take it. It must have been an illusion. "That's about the best I can do, I'm afraid."

While Kor is dancing, Orianna comes over and joins him. She also has a drink in her hand, and seems glad of the opportunity to party, even if it's just for a short while. There probably weren't many people for her to dance with at Reena's court, after all.

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: Violet

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Violet smiles happily as Brent reassures her as she nods along. "I hope you're right!"

As Brent continues, Violet looks hopeful as he continues, rephrasing her adventure as an amazing adventure, and even offers her a flower! Although she seems a little saddened as it vanished. "It's lots and lots of practice, and I just helped the flowers do their thing, and then Hefeydd came, and it just took on a life of it's own. But I'm sure you have things you practice too! How did you meet everyone?"

Taking advantage of the brief break as Brent considers what she said, Violet has another sip of wine.

[Majin]

Spoiler: Kor

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Kor was a little drunk on the wine and the atmosphere. "You know, we've had fun traveling, but I'm glad we could fit in a party too! I hope Hefeydd's been treating you well." He landed on Orianna's shoulder and whispered. "He seems a little airheaded!"

"Oh, and look, I've learned to do stuff like this!" Figuring they could use a little more music, Kor tried conjure some musical birds.

Spoiler: OOC

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Casting Conjure Animals. Eight beasts, who are hopefully musical

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: Astra

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"Oh! We could talk about anything, really.." Astra says.

"I haven't met many sprites yet. Or perhaps I have and just.. haven't paid much attention. Hmm. A lot's been happening lately. Were you always a part of King Soren's court? If not, where are you from?"

After Addam gives his answer, Astra will briefly chime in that she is from Sweetberry, a village far to the south in Queen Lydia's territory.

(I seemed to lose my notes, but I think Sweetberry was the name!)

[Ninja_Prawn]

Spoiler: Astra

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As you perhaps suspected, Addam was not born in Soren's enclave. "No, I'm from a village called Twisting Reeds, on the banks of the Ashaba. I came to the court to hone my magic - dealing with all the faeries can be a pain, but there's no denying that they know their stuff when it comes to wizardry."

He's obviously never heard of Sweetberry, but Queen Lydia rings a bell. "I've never been outside Cormanthor," he says, "so I can't really imagine how distant lands might look. What's your village like? How long did it take you to get here? Was it dangerous? You always hear about folk getting into trouble in the human lands..."

Spoiler: Kor

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Your spell calls forth a choir of lyrebirds, with voices that sound like the string section of an orchestra.

"Very nice," Ori says. "I've mostly been stuck indoors, dealing with courtly nonsense, so I haven't had a chance to learn any new tricks. And the Prince is fine. He's never been much good at timekeeping, but he makes up for it by being such great company!"

Spoiler: Violet

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Brent also sips his wine. "Things I practise? Well, I'm alright at wind-ball I suppose..." (he doesn't expect you to know what that is, but from the way he says it you can infer that whatever skill he has is not terribly impressive in the grand scheme of things) "but, I mean, right now I'm just taking each day as it comes, you know?

I'm not sure 'meet' is the right word for what happened between us and them. See, when your friends arrived at our court, my sergeant thought they were spies so we tried to arrest them." He sighs. "Not very hospitable I know, but tensions have been high. As I'm sure you could tell by the fact we needed an Archfey to resolve that standoff just now..."

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: Violet

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Violet nods encouragingly at Brent's lack of self esteem. "I'm sure you have lots of skills! The trick is to find something you love! That way, you get to have fun, and practice!"

As Brent starts to explain what happened when he first met Astra, Kor, and everyone else, Violet listens intently(And has another sip of wine), especially as he mentions the tension between the courts. "Maybe the party, and the hunt will help everyone get along?" She frowns slightly, before she continues. "Do you know why they don't get along? Both the King and the Queen seem nice?"

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: Astra

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Astra giggles a bit at the mention of the Faeries being a pain to deal with. "Haha, that's true enough!"

Then she explains, "Oh it took some weeks of traveling. We even went along by a boat up a river one time! It didn't seem all that dangerous.. just a bit dull and dreary sometimes. We came into a few human settlements, actually, and they were pretty nice! Of course, we had some bigger friends accompanying us at at the time.. I'm sure even if anyone was thinking about something nasty, they wouldn't with them around..."

She ponders a bit on the other question. "Hm. I dunno. My village may probably be a lot like yours for all I know. Most of our homes are built up high into great trees, and a bit hidden, so we aren't usually bothered if large animals or people wander nearby. It's all very nice though! I'm sure they'd love to meet someone like you!"

[Majin]

Spoiler: Kor

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"I think people are too concerned about time anyway." Kor had grabbed his cup again, and took a big swig. "Like... eat when you're hungry and sleep when you're tired!" He gestured with his claws, speaking with an insight gained from wine.

Kor stopped to listen to the music, and to look at one of the satyrs playing. He narrowed his eyes, raised his wings and dropped to the ground. "I'm gonna get that flute" he whispered to Ori.

Kor stalked, trying to quietly get behind the satyrs, then pounce and quickly grab an instrument from one of them.

Spoiler: OOC

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Stealth: (d20+6)[13]

[Ninja_Prawn]

Spoiler: Violet

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Brent winces slightly and shakes his head. "No, sorry. They've been at loggerheads since well before I was born. I think Her Magnificence" (Reena) "might be the only person here who knows the original cause."

More cheerfully, he agrees that "the hunt will definitely help to reduce the emnity between the nobles on both sides. This whole thing is a game for them, and as long as they can feel like they're winning, they'll be happy. I get the impression that it's more personal for the sovereigns though..."

Spoiler: Kor

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Opal would probably be slightly concerned about your plan but too startled to stop you, if you whispered that to her - though if you meant to say that the message was for Ori, this narrator expects she would chuckle and wish you good luck...

The satyr, distracted by the fact that it is concentrating on playing a song, doesn't notice your stealthy approach, and you are able to swipe the flute out of its hands! Several nearby faeries burst out laughing and shouting 'bravo!' for your act of mischief. One of them asks for a song.

Spoiler: Astra

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"Well then, I'll have to visit sometime," he says. "You can't beat a nice peaceful village, and I'm sure I'd go crazy if I spent too long in the enclave, anyway."

He thinks back to what you said about your journey. "I would be a little worried about travelling by myself though. I don't really have any big friends I could take along, and I've heard that some humans think keeping a pickled sprite in your closet brings good luck..." He shivers. "Maybe it'd be better to go via the Feywild, if I could find an unguarded portal somewhere?"

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: Violet

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Looking a bit disappointed at Brent's answer, Violet takes another sip of wine before she cheers up as he continues. "Maybe if we can show them everyone else having fun, they'll change their minds? That just means that we need to make this the best party!"

She looks over to the dance floor, and the music, with a happy smile. "Do you want to dance?"

[Majin]

Spoiler: Kor

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Kor giggled, clumsily holding the flute that really was too big for him. "Thank you, thank you!" he exclaimed, still fluttering near the satyr he got the instrument from. Kor didn't really have any experience with musical instruments, and for him this was more a horn than a flute, but he still tried playing and mimicking the sounds the other flutes made. Though mostly he just attempted to make noise.

Spoiler: OOC

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Performance: (d20+1)[9]

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: Astra

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Astra smiles at the mention of visiting.

"Well you know what they say. Safety in numbers! The Feywild might not be a bad idea? Though.. time tends to flow differently, so I'm kind of afraid of going there myself..."

She ponders a bit more. "You know, you could probably travel with us if you want! That is, assuming you were heading in the same direction."

"Do you happen to know any of the human language, by the way?"

[Ninja_Prawn]

Spoiler: Astra

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"Mm, bits and pieces." He says. "The elders in my village made sure we knew at least enough to scare off any travellers that wandered too close, but I once tried to read a book of arcane theory in the human language, and couldn't get past the first page. I can speak Elvish pretty well though," he offers, hopefully.

"I'd be happy to travel with you, if you're offering. There hasn't been nearly enough time to get to know each other today, after all. Where were you planning to go next?" You can hear a mutter of conversation coming from within the maze. People must be approaching.

Spoiler: Violet

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"Sure!" Brent is willing to dance. For the time being, the noble faeries are mostly too busy to be dancing, so the musicians are playing whatever they please (except for the one who had his flute stolen by Kor), which turns out to be folksy ballads. It's quite freeform and improvisational, so you can pretty much dance however you like. Brent looks like he's quite capable of moving to the rhythm, but he seems to want to see how you approach it before he gets too carried away.

Spoiler: Kor

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You discover that playing a flute is harder than it looks. Not knowing the proper technique to form musical notes, and lacking satyr-sized lungs, you stuggle to extract much of anything from it. The limp, wet, flapping sound from the flute produces more laughs from the audience, but its owner soon catches up to you and grabs it back.

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: Violet

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Violet smiles delightedly at Brent's agreement. She was going to get to dance with someone else! And she could match the music!
She pulls Brent in with the dancers with a cheerful grin, and starts to dance, her excited motions full of energy, with quite a lot of spinning(And a bit of swaying as the alcohol affects her).

[WindStruck]

Spoiler: Astra

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Astra thinks a bit and says, "Oh, I don't know. Seems all of our efforts were helping these two courts with their troubles and all. But that was it. I'd think maybe taking some time to rest would be good once it's all sorted out and then, well.. I might as well go back home?"

She shrugged and seemed quite noncommittal to something so important...

"Ah, what am I saying? Of course I need to go back home! It feels like I've been gone for such a long time already! And I've only had a few letters written to and from my family all this time!"

[Majin]

Spoiler: Kor

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"Think it's broken", Kor said to the satyr who took it back. "Not that I broke it!" He made one circle around satyr, as if to try to grab the instrument again, and returned to Orianna. "You know, it could be fun to learn how to play! Although I think I should go with something stringed, they don't really make those things for dragon mouths... Ooh, or maybe a drum!"

Kor paused his musical musings to look around the camp. "Hmm, I wonder if anybody would up to a card game? Or brought cards? Do you think Hefeydd would like to play?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Kor tries to find someone to play cards with and gamble a little money.