Hi…
Well that was interesting!
Wedding plans were well underway and Boamund came up with a scheme first to use new horses to have a joust, but then decided that a duel between him and the Captain was more ideal as a final ceremonial act for the wedding.
The Waertagi that had been with the Captain's crew for almost a year had moved on to find their own folk, but promised to return.
Maugis learned that the local Rokari priests were travelling around, giving sermons that warned of the evils of blasphemy and heretics, with pointed barbs directed not-so-subtly at your settlement and the wedding, with clear enough warnings to stay away. He comforted some Dronari that this was an overly severe interpretation of Malkionism.
As you left to hunt the blood-bird, you ran into the returning Baronet, Cyroosta and guards; the latter two soon left but the Baronet joined to observe your hunt. He was in decent spirits due to some success politicking from town to town, but something troubled him. Anyway, the new Horali led by Orsattus pledged themselves to the “New Froalar” with much awe when they met him at last. They chafed to go take down the bird once you spotted it on high ground, but the Baronet left Miguel and Boamund to stalk it while the Horali foundered in the swamp, which was unfamiliar ground to them. Miguel injured it in the wing with an arrow, then Boamund pinned it to a tree with his thrown spear and dispatched it quickly. Miguel, looking around as this happened, grew afraid by the ill feeling in the mists here, and rejoined the group with Boamund's bird-head trophy to tell Maugis of his concerns.
Back at the settlement, the Captain and the Horali had already returned to do some drinking and boasty tale-telling, but they didn't hit it off so well and thus the return of the rest of the hunting group was welcomed. There was much talk of the wedding to come in a couple of days. Cyroosta came to remind you of your roles, including Maugis to give the closing blessings. Captain Ahappi had already been banned from participating, whereas Boamund was busy with preparations.
Maugis discovered that the innocent plans of local merchants and farmers to fund the construction of a new hilltop tavern in the settlement this season were not so innocent after all. First of all, they'd hired a St Thosos artisan to craft a “humorous” sign for this “Snake & Tower Inn”, involving a phallic painting of a serpent wrapped around a tower (the Tower of Goode Menne). Second of all, they admitted that the Brown Vadeli named Skrimton Nodeal had been their major benefactor, and Maugis could tell there was some kind of infiltration going on, with surely ill intent. They agreed to speak more about it after the wedding- the artisan and merchants changed their attitudes from defiance and joviality to serious concern about sinning and being used by the Vadeli.
Miguel returned to the Well and found it oddly quiet, then that night saw a pale shape in the treetops around the clearing. Pursuing it later with the others, it turned out to be a giant Swamp Spider, which had killed a pterodactyl as a meal and was sitting in the swamp trees outside the settlement as it waited for something. Boamund climbed its tree and disturbed it, causing it much spidery anxiety and clumsy skittering about in the branches before it showed aggression and he decided to retreat back down the tree.
Ahappi thought that the spider did not mean any harm and might either be there for the wedding (given the timing) or to visit Inyana's well, or both. Later, the Baronet came to the well and played his lute, which the spider responded to by thrumming on the tree branches, sending “good vibrations” back to him. Its thrums echoed inside the well, so maybe it was speaking to Inyana in some way? But Miguel inspected the well and saw nothing different there; no new life force or other entity. The silence of the well remained an enigma, and the spider(s).
Frogs came to the town, and the Baronet saw them come to the well, where they “sang” in a circle around it. Then soon, Quick Sister arrived in one big hop into the centre of the clearing, arriving in a giant semi-watery, frog-headed form whose blatantly bared sexuality shocked and titillated Miguel. The Baronet spoke to her, marshalling his best courtly and diplomatic skills, to encourage her to adopt a less offensive form, and she chose the form of a puddle with the giant frog-head floating in it… which was better, but still uncouth.
He took her pseudopodic arm in his arm and began to leave, then Cyroosta came running up in a huff and said they should not be together; she should attend to Quick Sister. Then Apatune arrived and said that it was she who should be caring for Quick Sister on this night before the wedding, and the Shaven family should retire for the night. They did, but the Baronet felt even more uncomfortable: there was a power struggle for the well/Inyana perhaps, another between Apatune and Cyroosta, and then the alien, unseemly (but strangely compelling) being of Quick Sister herself. What was he getting into? Words with Cyroosta back at the manor did not ease his mind much- she claimed she had the best intent and plans, steeped in local and family custom and lore, for the ceremony she'd constructed, but there always seemed to be another angle to her machinations…
Dawn came and with it a crowd grew at the ceremonial ground, with frogs soon hopping around the feet of the seated Dronari, Horali, Zzaburi and Talari, and various visitors including invited leaders from local towns (Oyesteria Major, Toadhaven, Humbertsville, St Thosos, etc.; but no Rokari or New Arvonesse/Mudlark folks), and including some familiar and some odd Giranois that you never had time to chat with. In strode Quick Sister, but her ceremonial robe kept slipping off, causing scandalous shock to ripple through the audience at her exposed skin (she was back in giant-ish form).
Meanwhile, Captain Ahappi watched from the periphery, laughing and smirking, with fresh, scary magical energy crackling within him, coruscating invisibly around him as the ritual progressed… And there were other energies afoot, too, but those watching the ritual were oblivious to them as Cyroosta spoke powerfully, weaving words about society, land, friendship, duty and history into her ceremony, but speaking little of love or the couple themselves:
“Listen, here is wisdom. This is not my voice; this is the voice of the Land of Giraine itself. The Old Gods, too, speak through me, as do the ancestors that came to Pithdaros as the Army of Justice. Men tell the story differently, but that is just men speaking and they speak with their spears, not their voices. I am Cyroosta, daughter of Guk'li'mani, a friend of the truth, and my totem is the purple marsh liana, which flowers now. Listen now with your whole spirit, and remember these words in your liver. Men gave away their secrets to women long ago. Women are the keepers of wisdom, and we dig it from the earth as we have done since Grandfather Mortal voiced his first words, foolish as they were.”
“I have spoken with the spirits of land, air and sea. They appoint me husband-giver, many times blessed by Makan the Invisible God, by the spirits of this swamp, by Froalar the ancient lord of this Seshnelan land, and by my family's ancestors of House Shaven. All of the powers that matter now favor this marriage and it will proceed. Welcome, Quick Sister of the Shaven family, join your wisdom to mine and come laugh with me about your husband's lack of it, much as Froalar's power runs through him. Call me mother and sister and friend. The friends you lost; the Once Ones; we cannot replace them but we can give you strength as they once did.”
“My son, Fraud Shaven, remember that you are now in bride-service to the Land, and this land, this swamp and the fields and hills and cliffs and mountain, has a heart that beats songs of Giraine. Let those songs bring more life than death. Quick Sister can show you the best songs.”
“Even the Land and the saints must obey kinship; no song is stronger. Let us eat and drink of that kinship. So Speaks the Land.” (some repeated this last phrase as they should; Maugis said “So Speaks Makan” instead, and even the Baronet, Miguel and Boamund did not donate much mana to this ritual).
“Feel the song of approval of the Land of Giraine, cheers of lords past! Raise your mugs and voices to House Shaven!” Mugs and voices were raised, accompanined by some murmurs of discontent and confusion that were growing, but the ritual was strong.
Maugis stepped forward to give his blessings in proper Malkioni form (there having been little of this evident in Cyroosta's words, which were more Pamaltelan-Giranois-something else; heretical, heathen, pagan and blasphemous words even to some unfamiliar with her pastiche of perspectives), and emphasized Makan in his short speech, encouraging the wedding couple to keep Makan foremost in their minds and marriage. The crowd settled more, energized by the stimulating contrasts of styles in this ritual, and curious to see what would happen next.
The couple had been formally wed, it seemed, but Apatune stepped forward to close the ritual, which would turn the celebration over to the audience for speeches, toasts, gifts and entertainment. She produced a large frog in her hands, which she offered to the Baronet with a curt explanation that this was his proxy-wife to care for, and it was truly in some way Quick Sister, with the power to teach songs that would weave their communities together.
The Baronet was appalled at this apparent bait-and-switch, and as he, Apatune, Cyroosta, Quick Sister and others debated this unexpected turn of events, his tenor changed. Suddenly, as he repeatedly refused to take the proxy-wife into his grasp, he began reciting poetry, with a faraway look in his eyes. Most thought it to be an inspired, improvised recitation to add flair or context, or make a point, but as the argument carried on around him and his words continued, the poem proved to be dark and disturbing, each line becoming more and more dismal and doom-foretelling.
The Captain was striding around the edge of the audience now and climbing the ceremonial red-earthen termite mound grounds, his eyes blazing with intensity and his voice booming words of danger and doom. The shaking earth that had seemed to previously approve of the ritual now turned to heaving and cracking, and quickly that red earth began to bubble and deform, seeming gelatinous in some areas and brittle in others, like a painful sore that had broken open upon the land's surface. Cold winds blew in from the north, carrying a stench of decay and a pall of death.
Yes, doom was coming. The audience knew it by now and most were fleeing. Like any heroquest, a wedding draws not only powers benevolent toward the ritual, but also powers inimical to it, and they had been welcomed in from many directions.
The Baronet was finishing his oratory, and Quick Sister and Apatune stood near the Shaven family, inactive either due to confused shock or transfixed by the Baronet's words that invoked the profound power of the Purple Sonnet. Captain Ahappi was closing in. Maugis and Boamund were atop the hill, too, whereas Miguel was off in the crowd. Baron Ron was somewhere not far off, and other figures were ready for action or staring in amazement, but all eyes still present were fixed on the hilltop and the wedding that had just gone horribly, utterly wrong…
There was no time to think or for further debate, as the doom that had come to Aria's Well began to manifest on and around that hilltop.
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