2 February 2003

Characters in Attendance: Meridian Tas - Cort Odekirk
Susan Landorff - Jeremy Zimmerman
Laurent d'Villerio - Dan Swope
Brother Peter - Andis
Sil Rana - Jeremy Franklin
Diagoro - Jeremy

Approaching the Festival

Susan Landorff
Susan comes aware at his Uncles cabin, sprawled across a make shift bed of chairs, tables and what might be a small section of the wall. There is a brief moment of disorientation, but recollection eventually returns on the tide of hangover - discovering he knocked up his best friend's sister, futilely swatting at his flame engulfed home - check, very well then, what's for breakfast?

Eggs, as it turns out, prefaced by a short but vigorous quest for dominance with the barnyard goose. Meal completed it is time to leave for the Festival Glade, most everything burned in the fire, so packing is quick. Reputation in the town and a less than sweet aroma prove a daunting combination for hitching rides, but eventually success is found with the local beer vendor; who clearly knows when to support his most faithful customer.

The day is fine and the trip pleasant. Susan soon arrives in the glade and begins wandering the booths looking for small labor jobs and the chance to earn drinking money.

Brother Peter "Feeeeeeestivvvvvvvvlllll" The shrill voice slices through sleep like a dull but persistant dagger. As Peter attempts to cling to his rapidly fading dreams the sounds of small running feet and highly excited voices call him back to duty. It is festival day and his Lady's children will show him no mercy this morning.

The morning is a whirl of activity, four small forms to be fed and dressed, packed and accounted for. However, with the grace of long practice, Peter is able to get them herded to the carriage and settled with his Lady Hawkins. Her noble status doing much to clear the way of rabble that might slow them, the trip to the Festival Glade is quick. The children will not be contained and Peter takes them to see the booths being set up while the Lady directs her retainers in the construction of her own.

Laurent d'Villerio
The morning dawns and still Laurent's packing continues, so many things necessary and so little space in the carriage. The art supplies are a given, think of the things to be drawn! A small private selection of the finer wines, must keep that with him, what if he were to have a passenger? And clothes, it would hardly serve his august liniege to be dressed like a commoner. Enough with it then, what must be must be, the servants will simply have to make it fit.

The sun is fine and the trip pleasant, with the opportunity for some simple landscapes along the way. Nothing that will sell of itself, but some might have possibility done in oils. However, once the retenue arrives business must take needs over pleasure and Laurent spends the mid portion of the day overseeing the construction and presentation of his wine tent.

You would thinks something so simple would be managed without incident, but such is not the case. First a man comes by asking if he might help with the labor for some small coin, he calls himself Landorff and seems strong enough, if a bit ripe. Good enough then, these are decisions for retainers, Laurent has matters of business to attend to.

The second incident is less constructive. The all-to-recognizable crash of shattering glass bottles mark the arrival of Quincy, a rival noble for whom Laurent has nothing but disdane. A feeling that is clearly quite repirocated. "A disappointing year." Quincy begins, the war of words between the two nobles rapidly escalating. Quincy's men move in threateningly, as do Laurents. An altercation is avoided when Susan moves in and pointedly indicates his support of Laurent. Sensing himself at a disadvantage, Quincy departs, feigning indifference. Laurent is forced to reconsider Landorff, there may be more of use her than simple labor.

Diagoro & Sil Rana
Travelling with their fellow rangers, the journey to the Festival is quiet and contemplative, all of them finding their own way to accept the recent death of their leader Justinian at the hands of some unknown creature of the Blight. They avoid the main roads and arrive quite early, finding a glade to one side in which to set up their camp. Rangers, at the best of times, do not mix freely with others; and this is not the best of times.

Daigoro and Sil Rana are traveling the festival, attempting to regain some of the lighter spirit of the event when they hear a woman's yell from behind a tent. "Stop! I said NO!" Rushing around the corner they see a small woman being accosted by several drunken revelers while attempting to bring her good to her stall. Outraged, the two fall upon them and three drunken men prove no match for the Rangers, who leave them running and nursing non-fatal wounds.

The woman is thankful and offers them a meal at her stall. They accept, but while following her they site a group of Priests of the One. Making hasty goodbyes, the pair fall into the concealment of an alley between stalls and wait until the Priests have passed. It is perhaps their focus on the Priest they are attempting to avoid that explains how a guard is able to come up to them from the alley's other side without their immediate notice. He flashes the symbol of the Noble House of Duson and asks if they are Mercenaries. "No, simple woodsmen." Diagoro replies. The guard accepts this, but notes that if they, or any other "simple woodsmen" they know of are interested in hire there is good money to be had at the tent of his charge, the wine-maker Laurant. He identifies himself as "Luc" and departs, leaving the rangers to continue their exploration of the Festival, eyes ever open for the Priests.

Meridian Tass
Meridian is tired, having spent late into the night working with the village elders to see that the baby left in his arms by the mysterious fleeing woman of the day before was placed where it would be properly taken care of. Still, he awakens early enough to get his cottage in order and meet the female Monitor Talia for the wagon ride in, thankful for the opportunity to nap during the journey. Talia, having spent the last hour trapped on the wagon listening to his radical new ideas for wagon suspension is just as happy to see him nod off. They arrive at in the afternoon and after a brief trip to the Monitor's tent to drop off his supplies Meridian spends the evening wandering the fair and gathering news.

Early into his explorations, Meridian is called over by Justin Verstal, the male Monitor from Vesper. He explains at length about a legal problem he would like Meridian's help with. It seems the Lord Hawkins had two daughers, the oldest wed common and had a child, in proper wedlock but not formally recognized by her father. The younger married well and had a single child, but the father was lost at sea and is assumed dead. Justin recently found the child of the elder daugher, she and her husband having died in a fever outbreak. He was placed in an orphanage and brought up as a Brother of the Sacred Heart. Ironically, he was placed in the Hawkin's home, to act as teacher and caretaker for the younger daughter's children. It is only recently that Justin has informed Brother Peter of his heritage and he wonders if Meridian would talk to the man and help him sort out his legal options. Meridian agrees and Justin leaves happy, knowing he has done what he can to help Brother Peter.

The only other event of note occurs when Merdian passes several broad blond men, clearly of the same race as that of the woman who so precariously placed her child in his temporary care. They also wear the Heram cloth, as if their features were not enough to identify them. Meridian hears the merchant's commenting as they pass as to how they all look alike, the implication being inbreeding. Meridian is able to gain from the merchants that the men are from Heerat, a secretive and militant land he knows little about, other than it's lack of Monitors. Apparently their presence in the festival is a rare event.

The Festival
Monitor Justin finds Brother Peter and mentions that he spoke to Monitor Meridian regarding him. Peter thanks him, but is still too dazed by the news to have any sense of what his future plans may be. The conversation, brief as it was, is sufficient for him to loose track of Jarad, one of the children under his care and he begins to search frantically through the Festival.

The child appears at the tent of Laurant, asking coyly if he might sample the wine. Laurant glances briefly at the small interruption and instructs Susan to return it to it's owner. Susan figures the child will be easier to handle if properly lubricated and happily gives the child a large cup of the sample wine. Just starting to head out with the now extremely unsteady Jarad, he encounters Brother Peter and happily returns the pale child who is promptly ill on his caretaker. Brother Peter realizes that Susan has gotten the child sodden drunk but his rapidly accelerating hysteronics are interrupted by the arrival of the Lady Hawkins; who is not happy that her child smells like a slum and in a long tirade that questions the austerity of a monkish order that supports drunken revels amongst children fires Peter. At least for the afternoon, until he's needed for dinner.

Brother Peter wanders off to find a bath, and try to figure out what happened to his rather nice stable life of two days ago.

Meridian spends some time in the Monitors tent, it seems the Blight has been seen in several provinces, namely Praud and Dusen. No cures have been found and burning it is ineffective. They suggest it might be wind-born.

The Rangers, the fun of the Festival hampered by the presence of the Priest of the One, return to the tent of Laurant, interesting in finding out more about the offer made by his guard Luc. He mentions that strange beasts and misshapen men have been raiding the fringes of the Kingdom. Luc has little information, not having seen them first hand; nor has he seen anything resembling the Blight. They settle down to spend some hours trading stories and indulging in Laurant's wine.

The Bonfire
It is the tradition of the first night of Festival that a storytelling takes place, and once again the accepted master of the art Darwin will be telling this evening. The bonfire is set up and the crowd begins to gather as the sun sets and the shadows close.

All are in attendance. Laurant because he has not been invited to a proper entertainment and even "common" revels such as this are better than having it said he spent his first night of Festival alone in his tent. Susan is with him, having proven useful in the past and providing an effective bulwark against those who might disturb Laurant with their petty concerns.

The Rangers and Brother Peter mix with the crowd, anxious to hear the craft of the Master Storyteller. Meridian is there as well, although he disdains the event as rather florid and an inefficient method of distributing information.

Darwin begins and dusk and the night is full darkness by the time his tale is done. He rises and grasps a nearby bottle of wine, assuming it to be the usual payment provided during such events. His assumption is wrong in this case and the men from whom he inadvertently stole the bottle rise up to protest it's loss. Thing rapidly begin to spiral to violence and even as Meridian moves into to establish some sort of order Darwin is lanced by a blade and falls to the ground. Meridan reaches his side, but recognizes the wound as mortal. As he bends down to give the old man what comfort he can, Darwin places his hand on his shoulder and says "Monitor, find the truth then", shudders lightly and dies.

There is an immediate wave of strangeness, traveling out in a sphere from the old man. The wave is felt by the Ranger, Meridian, Laurant and Brother Peter, but seemingly no one else and is quickly gone without apparent effect.

Oddly disturbed, Meridian lays out the body then rises and attempts to restore order, calling in what passes for a guard at the festival and having the two men detained for whatever justice is appropriate for their Province. He moves to take Darwin's body back to the Monitor's tend to be properly treated and held in the hopes of his relatives arriving to claim it. Sil Rana offers to carry the body for him and Meridian accepts. As Sil Rana is lifting the body a woman arrives, strange and dark haired, he and Meridian both recognize her from a strange dream experienced so recently. She gazes at Darwin's body for a moment, then seems to resolve something within herself and disappears into the crowd. Meridian gives pursuit, but quickly looses her. Darwin is returned to the Monitor's tent where Meridian begins the embalming with the assistance of Talia's apprentice Syrone.

Leaving Syrone to manage the preparations as a learning experience, Meridian leaves the tent to encounter Brother Peter. He attempts to speak with him about the legal issues surrounding his inheritance but Peter is uninterested and the words sound flat even to Meridian. Brother Peter asks that he be allowed to be present when Darwin is buried, his word simple and oddly sincere. Meridian tells him he can't speak for the wishes of Darwin's relatives, but then relents and promises to keep him informed of whatever information he gains. "If I have say, I'll make sure you are there."

Brother Peter leaves to be replaced by Laurant, who has brought a bottle of one of his better wines to be places with the body when it is buried. Symbolic of the bottle that begat the entire sad incident. Meridian is clearly uncomfortable making promises for a funeral that really isn't his to plan, but again he relents and promises Laurant he'll do what he can.

Sil Rana confronts Peter about his presence outside the tent but is rapidly reassured that Brother Peter's concern is genuine. They talk about the old man, but generally, with little information exchanged. The subject of the dark haired woman comes up and it turns out Brother Peter recognized her as well, although he is evasive as to where from.

The Slowing
As the evening winds on, it is only to be expected that the formally festive mood of the fair would be dimmed by the tragedy at its center. However, with time, all six notice that the dark lethargy come over the people is more than can be accounted for by the loss of an esteemed Storyteller. The first to notice is Susan, who decides to test his theory by enraging one of the more intoxicated revelers. The man's responses are more than lethargic, almost theatrical in their slowness. Susan is able to dodge them with ridiculous ease and taunts the ever more frustrated victim to the Monitor's tent, hoping to obtain more sage council. Sil Rana, seeing the strange slow dance of Susan's attacker begins to notice wider effects, the strange dried out texture of the grass, the fact that the stones have become brittle, even granite crumbling in his hands. Meridian is brought out and the six notice that only they seem so far unaffected. Meridian begins to analyse the effect and soon confirms Sil Rana's observations, re-entering the tent to see that the other Monitors do not seem to share his invulnerability. He is able to alert them to the problem, but in their slowed state they are able to do little.

Suddenly Syrone snaps up from where she was working with Darwin's corpse. While slow as the others before, she is now moving at the same speed as the six others. She claims she was working and nodded off for a moment, when she awoke, everyone seemed strangely slow. Meridian feels that perhaps the effect requires sleep to shake off and convinces Talia to take a sleeping draught in the hope that it will hasten her shaking off the effect as well.

The others spread across the Festival field, looking to find others that may not be affected. The first is Luc, who is somewhat slowed, but not to the increasingly severe level of the others. Laurant's rival Quincy seems unaffected as well and interrupts his hastened leave-taking only momentarily to cast snide remarks at the Rangers. Susan gives him a firm weggie to enjoy on his trip home. Strangely the Priest of the One and the Ranger seem unaffected as well. The Rangers stay at Diagoro and Sil Rana's request, the Priest waste no time in declaring it an act of Divine Retaliation for the evils of man and remove themselves from the Glade. The last are the Herrod merchants, also seemingly unaffected they waste no time in exiting the field, pointedly having no interest in talking to anyone.

As the night stretches into the small hours the slowing grows ever worse and the folk of the Festival fall to the ground, unable to remain awake against the lethargy that consumes them. Sil Rana attempts to shake awake one and pulls back horrified as the man's shoulder crumbles to dust at his touch. Meridian is brought to examine the man but has no explanation, other than to suggest that many of those resistant seem to have links to various Noble lines. The bodies retain their color and form, appearing as a model of flesh, made in chalk. Many nights without sleep and a situation that stretches the bounds of reason have clearly taken their toll on Meridian, the frustration is apparent in his voice.

Brother Peter has avoided the others, this last event overwhelming the young Monk and leading him to seek solitude. In his wanderings near the edge of the field he encounters once more the mysterious dark haired woman of his, and many other's, dreams. He asks her who she is, but she sidesteps the question, claiming only that "Darwin was my great grandfather." On the edge of disappearing yet again, she seems to consider a moment and places her hand on Brother Peter's shoulder, her face holding for once something resembling real warmth. "Peter, it's your turn now". Confused, Peter is only able to reply "You're from my dreams" "I travel many dreams. It's your turn, save the world." With that she rises on her horse and disappears into the woods, leaving Peter to watch helplessly.

He returns to the Monitor tent and informs the others of his encounter, learning in turn of the death of the fair-goers, as more and more fall to the lethargy, their corpses turning to chalk and dust. In a panic he returns to the Lady Hawkins and manages to get her and the children up and moving towards the Ranger camp where the survivors have agreed to collect. They are moving, but ever slower, despite Brother Peter's near panicked attempts to motivate them.

Desperate for answers, and frustrated beyond polite curtsey, Meridian uses his FarSeeing glass and attempts to force a view of the dark haired woman. He sees forest but nothing else and hears a light, amused voice in his head, "It's not polite to spy." Meridian trys to view the other Monitors one by one, able to view nothing but the few still on their way to the Festival grounds from outside the Glade. His great and ancient Order, reduced to the edge of extinction in a single night. Meridian returns to his duty, a Monitor has no time for despair.

The Lady Hawkins dies a short time later, surrounded by her unbreathing children, fallen to sleep and death despite the broken pleas of Brother Peter. The charges he has cared for since their birth are fallen, and Peter is orphaned yet again.

Meridian meets with Sil Rana and Diagoro. They set Rangers to guard all the entrances to the Glade to ensure no one else enters, the Rangers report that the Ways seem to be closing and may soon be impassible. The group realizes they must leave, but are unsure as to where. Meridian wishes to return to Adzgar to consult with the records and engineering of that province. Susan argues for Prad, feeling more help is to be found with the Witches and their mystic power. They agree to leave it up to the will of the group, a vote is taken and the decision is made to travel together to Adzgar, to travel from their to Prad if no help is found.

Sil Rana, Diagoro and Meridian set up a signal system using Meridian's FarSeeing and disperse the Rangers, to travel to the other Provinces and assess whether the slowing of the Glade has spread. Meridian returns to the monitor tent to replenish his supplies and gather Darwin's belongings. There he is confronted by Syrone who demands to know what he intends to do about Talia.

"The Monitors... Talia...are dead Syrone."

"How can you be sure?" she lashes back at him. "I can't scry them, I can't scry the dead. You are now the female Monitor for Adgzar Syrone. You have a Duty." Meridian's words are flat. He offers no comfort, simply the truth. Syrone's rage, given a target, burns into him for a moment, then she visibly gathers herself and turns. She says nothing, simply packs her kit and leaves the tent for the Ranger's camp. Meridian watches her leave for a moment, allowing her form to slip into the shadows, then quietly "It gets easier Syrone. A Monitor has room to love only Duty, and she can be a cold mistress." If anything but the wind hears, it does not choose to answer.

The Leavetaking
Those that remain leave the glade, the way closing around them as the travel. All are tired and conversation is scant. Things move in the darkness and the Rangers prowl the woods, intercepting and defeating a man sized boar, twisted and deformed. The group staggers out of the Way and into the sunlight reflected off the plains of Adgzar, soon arriving at Ways Landing, a small village near the entrance.

While the group gets settled in the town's one inn Meridian summons the Elders and announces what has happened. There is no sign of the slowing here in the village, but the even more lethargic form of Luc is example enough to impress them. They offer to restock the group for their trip to Meridian's village and send runners to the other towns to warn them and stop any others from attempting to make the journey to the Glade. Diagoro and Sil Rana purchase horses for the journey.

Luc does not awake from his rest.

It is night, the group will start off the next morning. Laurent has taken a room, but most rest in the common area. Syrone is quiet but does as Meridian asks without complaint, perhaps she is simply to tired to hate anyone this evening. Brother Peter sleeps early, choosing darkness over recent memory. Susan has found the tap room and the warm glow of beer cradles him in gentle slumber. Meridian, Sil Rana and Diagoro goes through Darwin's possessions, attempting to find any sort of clue as to what may have happened. They recognize the runes on his cloak, Family, Magic, Time, Rulership, Dominon; and of course the silver clasp shaped with the rune World. Mighty concepts, but meaningless to their present situation. Finally, exhausted, all fall asleep to hope for a brighter morning.