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Zandomir notes the red head's appearance and demeanor towards the group, but otherwise stays silent. While he fancies himself a competent enough speaker for normal conversations, a sensitive situation like this likely requires a speaker capable of weaving honeyed words.
Agrippa arches his eyebrow at he newcomer.
Indeed. And you are?
We have some sensitive news to deliver to Ardvin that he might not want known publicly. What do you think? Should we tell him outright in front of everyone, or do you think he would prefer a private message?
Zarine then watches her closely to see whether she should take her advice or not.
As Lizzie catches up with her friends, the first thing she notices about the bodyguard woman is the unusual eyes.
"Greetings, miss.
What these folk are trying to say, is that we have a delicate message, which must be delivered discretely. It regards Ardvin's public performance."
The redhead gave Heinrich a look, "You don't know?" She rolled her eyes before explaining patiently, "I am Clarissa Mao, prince Ardvin Telgriette's private secretary."
She turns to Zarine and replies in hushed tones, "Sensitive news... What kind of sensitive news?"
Before Zarine could reply Lizzie spoke and Clarissa's mouth hardened to a flat line as the colour drained from her cheeks, "Public performance. I see, the waltz... Oh dear. The loss of face, the loss of investment. I don't suppose there is a good way broach this subject. The prince will be most put out unless there is consideration for his loss." She considers Lizzie for a moment before sniffing haughtily, "I suppose I'd better introduce you to his grace, what was your name again?"
Zandomir continues listening silently to the conversation. It seems to be going about as well as they could hope under the circumstances.
When Clarissa mentions 'consideration,' Zan sighs to himself. The previous two people they had had to break the news to had taken things far too easily. Figures that the last would be more difficult.
Keeping his wits about him, Zandomir waits for the others to reply to Clarissa.
"I am Lizzie Tamar, miss Mao.
I can not speak for consideration on the waltz partner's behalf. That would best be left between the two parties."
"Lead on, Miss Mao."
(Polite smile during conversation)
Clarissa turns on her no doubt hideously expensive iridescent red stilettos and elbows several well dressed merchants out of the way and looks the trade prince in the eye as she simpers, "Ardvin darling, one Miss Tamar to meet with you. She's here for... well she can explain." Clarissa then elbows an elderly merchant out of the way and makes a lunge for the wine bottle carried by a waiter. The previously lively conversation surrounding the prince stops and everyone nearby stares at you.
Prince Ardvin glances at Clarissa before eyeing you coldly, "What's this all about then?" he demands.
Looking on as the situation develops, Zarine's face also goes white. She is fearful that the prince will have a tantrum and that they will lose the viscount's signet ring for not being discrete enough.
She hopes he will ask something in return for the lost dance that they can afford to give, and thus be satisfied.
Ah. Prince Ardvin, a pleasure. Agrippa begins, he then introduces himself and the others
We are here as humble servants of the Viscount himself. We have an urgent message to deliver but... Agrippa looks at the throng of hangers on expectantly
"Greetings, prince Ardvin.
We come with a message from the viscount, meant for your ears only."
The prince's eyes bore uncomfortably into you. He seems to come to a decision and waves his entourage away. It takes a few moments to obey which infuriates the prince. Once they had all taken a few steps back he demands in a fierce whisper, "Well? Out with it! What does the viscount want?"
(Raises a brow at the rude outburst)
"Not to be rude in kind, but the viscount regrets to inform you that he can not do the waltz with you. His wife unexpectedly came to the party, and he will dance this one with her."
"Perhaps miss Mao would like to dance with you instead?"
Furious the prince looks you up and down, "And you're the best he could dredge up to his dirty work?! It's an outrage! He gave his word and now he casually recants it and sends peasants to inform me. I am wounded! Wounded I say!"
Several members of the prince's entourage offer you commiserating glances, it seems the prince's outbursts are infamous. You suspect they would speak to you if you wished.
Zarine overhears two gentlemen talking, and sidles over to them.
Excuse me sirs, I couldn't help but overhear. What kind of deal do you think would distract the prince from this unfortunate state? Perhaps I could work something up if you gentlemen in your wisdom could give me a few pointers?
Zandomir hears the same conversation as Zarine and walks over with her.
Not wanting to make the situation worse, he simply says, "A deal would be best for all of us, I think. No sense in ruining the whole ball if it can be prevented."
It was a relief that the fight in the dark was over and even more so that they had come through it alive. When she found out that they even rescued a woman who had been dragged up there she felt pride in their accomplishment. They escorted the woman downstairs again and then went to meet with this Prince person. She wasn't sure what the meeting was about but she felt it best to stick with her friends for the time being.
As they stood talking to the Prince the conversation seemed to go further and further of course as he became irate. His accusation of them being peasants seemed to set something off inside of her that she didn't fully understand. Somehow, Momijii wasn't sure why, but she knew she wasn't a peasant and that the man had just offended her pride. Her eyes narrowed as she drew herself up and looked him square in the eye, "And how do you know that he sent peasants to speak with you? Have you even considered that some among us might be nobility, or even royalty, or have you let your anger and wounded pride take control Prince Ardvin." Her bearing as she spoke, even if she didn't know it herself, had become like that of royal and if she remembered her past at all she would have remembered seeing her mother and father, even her uncle at times, with this same bearing about them. Unfortunately the memories were gone even if a part of her muscle memory still remembered those long ago times.
Lizzie doesn't hear the prince's entourage's words, due to the rant the former is spouting.
And while from somewhere within her she'd like to nut-punch him into calming down, she tries to put the man into his place in front of his entourage and guests present.
Such language against a servant of the radiant lady shall not go unpunished.
"Why, lord prince, i had not thought such low class slang from someone of high standing.
If -peasants- is the word by which you refer to people providing a task, whatever it entices, for the high class, you are indirectly also offending miss Mao here."
(Lizzie shows miss Mao a sympathetic look)
"The lady was quite professional you know, trying to be discrete.
It's been my experience that people who professionally do their duties, get the most respect while, for example a factory owner who yells and demands it, would get none."
"Surely your highness knows of etiquette befitting their standing, yes? Nothing less would be acceptable from royalty, in general, after all."
"If the notion of marital bonds is foreign to your highness, it's loyalty and love. The viscount is a most devoted man, an admirable trait, as likely most guests who are in a relation are around us, would concur."
(wide arm gesture to accent those words, without turning her eyes away from the prince's)
"You have a kingdom. You have much, but not the best, in your lap.
Outspoken respect from subjects, or whatever associates you deal with, are foundation of loyalty and stability. If a strong and memorable rule is what you wish for your legacy to be, both to your subjects and yourself, tolerance and understanding are solid keys to it. If you wish for it to be anything but that, your name will be lost in time.
Patience is a virtue, but i imagine it is not without end."
(she hints at the audience with a quick shift in gaze, before looking into the prince's eyes again)
"I think you are aware this passing is but a triviality for you, there will come more chances for excitement."
A serene yet serious look comes from the gnome,
"Whatever we do in this life, it leaves an impression, and we shall be judged for it when our time's come. We're all equals from then on."
(looking sideways at the onlookers with a twinkle in her eyes..)
"What legacy does your highness leave, i wonder."
Feeling she's done enough to politely lecture him, and hopefully getting the entourage to think about the value of such a person, she walks away from him before he can properly argue.
==================================================
She joins Zandomir and Zarine at the two guests.
"Good evening, gentlemen. Whom might i have the pleasure to be speaking to?"
Prince Ardvin's face darkens as Momijii upbraids him and is left speechless after Lizzie had said her piece, clearly nobody had ever had the temerity to speak to him like that before.
"Good evening, gentlemen. Whom might i have the pleasure to be speaking to?"
The well dressed couple exchange glances before introducing themselves as "Adrigo de Cassa and Isola Pretaga at your service. They glance at each other once more before Adrigo tells Lizzie, "Young lady, we couldn't help put overhear, I do believe you've made quite an impression on Prince Ardvin." Isola nodded, "Indubitably. Of course once he's finished processing what you just said he's still going to be mad with Viscount Brellin." Adrigo agreed, adding with a wink, "The only thing that will mollify him is cold hard cash, or perhaps better the enticing prospect of a deal leading to a huge sum of cold hard cash, however real or imagined the deal may be..."
Zarine goes to talk to the prince and says in a calm voice
You know, the viscount had promised three people the same dance. He never meant to dance with you at all... only to string you along. However, the way to get back at him is not by ranting. You know that someone could be murdered on the very dance floor here and no one will do a thing about it other than averting their eyes.
The best way to get back at him would be to cut in during the dance and dance with his beloved, showing her that you are the better man. I'll even lay you a wager. Act as though you accept his snub for now, and then cut in and dance with his partner later. If you are brave enough to endure his wrath and dance with her for, shall we say two minutes?, I will give you two thousand gold, in the form of my ring perhaps?
She displays her ring of the Sublime.
What say the rest of you? Would you like to see the Prince cut in on the Viscount's dance? Let's make it irresistible.
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Zandomir scratches his neck nervously at Zarine's words. He tries not to look the prince in the eyes lest he give away the ruse. He also has to bite his tongue to keep from groaning at Zarine's latest gambit. It could work. It could also fail spectacularly. The die has been cast, they just have to wait and see how it lands.
The prince blinks at Zarines frankness and considers for a moment, before his eyes lit up "That would be daring indeed, exactly the kind of thing investors wish to see..."
He then looks at Zarine's ring and responds, "Good enough, but not enough! Add those rather stylish bracers and we have a deal."
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Young lady, we couldn't help put overhear, I do believe you've made quite an impression on Prince Ardvin." Isola nodded, "Indubitably. Of course once he's finished processing what you just said he's still going to be mad with Viscount Brellin." Adrigo agreed, adding with a wink, "The only thing that will mollify him is cold hard cash, or perhaps better the enticing prospect of a deal leading to a huge sum of cold hard cash, however real or imagined the deal may be..."
Lizzie smiles at the compliment.
"Thank you. It was my pleasure, as well as a perhaps long due reminder to him of his station's responsibilities.
A prince he may be, but if he truly does go on another rant, he'll only further humiliate and disgrace himself in the process."
Seeing her friends are trying to bargain, Lizzie nods at mr. Adrigo's words.
"One of my friends may currently be making an attempt at it. Though for her sake she had better emerge the victor in whatever bargain she's making."
(turns back the the two)
"If i may ask, why do the prince's people still support him?
Is there no better suited family member in his family?
To make a strange comparison, a building is only as strong as its foundations. If the aristocracy, trade houses, armed forces and the like abandon him, another noble house could be crowned ruler, couldn't they?"
The prince blinks at Zarine's frankness and considers for a moment, before his eyes lit up "That would be daring indeed, exactly the kind of thing investors wish to see..."He then looks at Zarine's ring and responds, "Good enough, but not enough! Add those rather stylish bracers and we have a deal."
Zarine's eyes light up as she gets into the game, and she grins.
You drive a hard bargain, but the entertainment should be worth it, sire. The bracers are precious to me, but I will wager the headband, which you can see is also of great worth. Do we have a deal?
The prince regarded the young woman coolly, "Either way it seems I win. Yes I do believe we have an agreement, tonight promises to be most interesting... "
Without a backward glance he strides of declaring, "I must prepare myself."
"If i may ask, why do the prince's people still support him?"
"Well he is the prince." declared Isola primly as if that explained everything.
Adrigo sighed a little and replied to Isola as much as Lizzie, "Darling as you know, she's not from around here. Maybe they don't go in for Kings and Princes and Viscounts from where she's from. Anyway it's really quite simple, Arvdin has no interest at all in running the country but he is usually rather good at making money. He delegates everything to the civil service who do what they can to keep things running smoothly and well there you have it I suppose."
As soon as the prince strides off, Zarine composes herself and then approaches the viscount, letting him know that the task he set them is done.
As Zarine approaches the throne, she notices several people following her. She turns to see a number of functionaries who apparently have been observing. The nod and with a hand gesture usher her closer.
The crown around the throne parts to let Zarine speak and the count stands up exclaiming, "Ah! Belladonna! Please tell me you return with good news, we have been so anxious!" As he speaks a coughing fit takes him and a fine mist of tarry phlem splatters the floor, mercifully none of which seemed to land on Zarine.
Zandomir holds his breath as he waits to see if their efforts have paid off. He tries not to think about what might happen if some of his phlegm got on Zarine or anyone else in the party.
Viscount, we gave your apologies to all of the people you promised to dance with, and they have accepted. I am afraid that to keep the young prince Ardvin calm, he has requested a dance with your beloved, but other than that, things have been worked out.
Viscount Brellin looks at you sharply for a moment as if disappointed but then the corners of his mouth soften and he starts to chuckle. Several of the courtiers nervously titter as the Viscount's chuckles turn into a Cheshire Cat's grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Belladonna! You come here to tell me Arvin wishes to steal a dance with my beloved..." Shaking his head as if he couldn't believe it Brellin continues, "They say Belladonna careful what you wish for, you might just get it!"
Coming to a decision the viscount snaps his fingers and a courtier walks forwards carrying a red velvet box. The courtier shows it to Brellin who nods, then the courtier removes the lid and presents it to Zarine. Nestled on a deep blue silken cushion is a belt and a signet ring.
Getting up from the throne, Brellin tells you, "Our business is concluded Belladonna. Now it is time to dance!" He snaps his fingers once more and the shadows of the reddening sun move noticeably as the sun begins to set. A a hush falls over the ballroom as the musicians cease. The partygoers back away from the center of the dance floor as an immense, bloated, purple spider with seven legs descends from the darkness above the ballroom on a thick string of webbing.
Leng spiders are sly and design traps for their prey.
These can be elaborate and often involve treasure as bait. They are clever enough to let some adventurers live after finding the treasure, to entice further visitors to their mountain lairs. They delight in preying on humanoid egos and spring traps when a would-be treasure-seeker is most confident. Leng spiders thrive on being underestimated.
Leng spiders have a complex society and are readily able to wage war on those who infringe on their territory. Unless in their homes, they rarely fight to the death and will retreat if severely wounded.
The viscount stands, enraptured, and sighs, "My beloved!" as streamers of tarry drool drip from his mouth. Viscount Brellin slowly makes his way onto the dance floor to dance the Sunset Waltz with the monster to the polite applause of the revolted partygoers.
And at this point you all awake screaming in the real world aboard the Stellen Starling.
It is the early hours of the morning, not long before dawn. A startled professor Kelkin exclaims "Goodness! Most remarkable they all woke up at once. What happened?"
Zandomir shakes his head furiously at Gossa's question. "Probably best you don't know most of the details, for your own sake. The bottom line is that we obtained a Viscount's signet ring, so we're one step closer to our objective."
Zan shivers as he thinks about the last few moments before the group awakened. He tries to put such things out of his mind, but the image of the massive purple spider is likely to be seared into his brain for quite a while.
Dreamlands... more like Nightmarelands.
"Oh bravo." said professor Malliver, "One down and five to go."
Producing a writing pad the professor drew a neat line through the first entry:
* Viscount’s signet ring
* Feline tail (blue and purple mottled fur)
* Skull of ghoul royalty
* Green stone idol of a water lizard
* Night hag ambassador’s heartstone
* Captain’s tricorne
* Red webbed foot
He then scratched his chin and told you, "Professor Kelkin and I have been amusing ourselves with this rather remarkable library you ah liberated. There's all sorts in the marginalia anyway we think we've identified a backup in case one the quests the count tried doesn't, ahem, work out."
"Indeed" interjected professor Kelkin who seemed somewhat excited, "There's this place called Ulthar. If look look here this phrase will send you there. Anyway he was after something called a Chartreux, a young one. Evidently he got more than he bargained for, describing it as the most awful place which scared him for life. This seems strange because as far as we understand a Chartreux is a cat with short slate blue hair, what could be so bad about that?"
"Its as if he was scared of a kitten, how silly!" chuckled professor Malliver.
Waking up in utter surprise at the whole 'wife = giant spider' thing, Lizzie rubs her eyes free of sleep.
"Talking about trippy dreams."
Waking up screaming can't ever really be said to be a pleasant experience, but after Zarine calmed down from being sure that she was about to be spider meat, she realized that her primary emotion was relief. Relief that they had actually pulled off the first task, and maybe even helped save one young woman from death, depending on how serious death actually was in your dreams. Zarine was glad that she didn't have to find out.
Listen to professors Kelkin and Malliver, she smiled faintly, knowing that they would likely be singing a different tune if they had seen the bizarre and sometimes horrific things inhabiting that realm for themselves. Blue-haired cats might sound cute and cuddly when awake, but could turn deadly when twisted by the dreamworld.
Wow, that took an unexpected turn. I wonder if all of these tasks are going to be similarly deadly. I'm so glad that we didn't know that was up there when we climbed the ladder... I can't imagine actually accomplishing our task otherwise.
Zandomir nods at Zarine's comments. "Yeah... I don't think a fight with that thing would have gone well. Even if we had killed it, we would still be in trouble considering..."
Zan shudders as he trails off mid-sentence. He had already mentioned too much.
"As for this cat, there must be something extraordinary about it, or maybe it was some sort of illusion."
Glancing at Malliver's list, Zan says, "Speaking of cats, should we try for the feline tail on our next visit? I'll be quite content to go without seeing other people on our next trip."
Sounds good to me. We might as well go right down the list, unless someone else has a preference? And should we add in the blue cat somewhere or not?
Agrippa wakes and begins scribbling notes about his experiences in the Dreamlands.
A Leng Spider. Such wonders, horrific wonders. he mutters as he writes
Chartreux eh. Interesting. and Agrippa consults his own efforts to narrow down the items required.
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"I suppose we can add the blue cat at the end of the list, just in case," Zan says. "One feline is enough for me, if we can help it."
Aw, I like cats says Zarine.
Then, after a few moments of contemplation she adds
...but good point. Likely not one from the dreamlands.
rarely making a sound.
Later at breakfast Skywin tells you, "We're making good time, the Glass River is swift in this section. The day after tomorrow we'll enter and cross Lake Kallas and take on supplies at Riverton which is on the eastern bank. I didn't want to stop there but the rescued rowers ate us out of house and home. After that we'll turn south and a few days later enter the Sellen proper and dock at Dabril. Dabril is part of Galt so you'll need to mind your Ps and Qs, but the fish market there is really good as is Madame Avril's boulangerie - best croissants for two hundred miles in any direction."
The people of Riverton are devotees of Hanspur, are they not? Best not to linger there. They have superior knowledge of the river, but we likely don't want to get wrapped up with people who would drown us as part of their devotion. I suggest traveling in pairs, and only if it is necessary.
"Seems like a wise precaution." agreed Skywin.
Zarine attempts to assist in the ritual: