**********************
* The road to RobustStoker *
**********************Lema traveled North. He was heading to the town of RobustStoker. One of the 5 cities of the GoldenNation, not the biggest of them, but the closest.
He left the corpses of his freshly killed foreparents at dawn and walked all day along. But he overestimated his strenght because night was falling in when he still was in the wilderness.
Luckily, there was a hamlet nearby. He rushed through the freezing darkness to the village.
Unfortunatly, he only found ruined houses.
No joy was to be found there. No living souls existed. Even the local Meadhall seemed empty.
Lema walked through the different rooms of the Meadhall and found two things :
- Firstly, many chests were scattered with valuables inside ! It was a great find !
Seeing all these valuable clothes, Lema couldn't stand stealing all of them !
Appearance is extremely important for bards, and with all this rich clothing, success is clearly in view !
He now wears a magnificent green turban over a headscard, a pair of gloves menacing with spikes of iron, and a pink earing. He will be so pimped !
- Then, in the last room of the mead hall stood a woman sleeping.
Lema woke her and started talking. The woman is a boss. She took over this hamlet a while ago, but all her men left her alone in this mead hall.
It looks like this woman shares the values of Lema about friendship, merriement and joy !
How pleasing to see a joyful being in such a place !
To celebrate, Lema improvised a poem and got granted the right to sleep for the night !
Lema left early on the next day. He was really happy to have met a being who loves music like him.
Hopefully, people in the city will all be like that.
After a short walk, he finally arrived at RobustStoker.
There he walked on paved roads for the first time, and headed to the Tavern.
There was another poet in this tavern. He was incredibly fat, and wasn't singing.
On a chest in a corner were some instruments : icops (string instruments), thothils (wind instruments), and a zepboc (string instrument).
The atmosphere was pretty grim in the tavern, so Lema started talking with the fat poet.
They agreed on singing a song.
Lema was singing, and the fat poet would mimic a zepboc, but not very well.
After a few more shows, Lema asked the poet if he wanted to join him to spread joy in the world; he replied that he would rather not...
After a quick argument, the fat poet left the tavern, swearing.
Annoyed with this negative answer, Lema went to the chest, stole the instruments from it, and started playing the zepboc !
A pikeman started singing alongside Lema, and everybody had a fun time.
After the show, Lema recruited the pikeman, named Thruni, as an entertainer.
Thruni was given the zepboc, and they started playing music again.
Reeeaaally ??! Thruni didn't play the instrument Lema gave him. He didn't even try !
He mocked it mumbling pointless noises while Lema was singing with all his heart !
Plus, he doesn't even have it in his hands, he is stuffed with war clothes and weapons...
This is not a joyful sight to see a warrior laughing ! Lema was angry.
But let's be honest, Thruni is a warrior, at least he could save Lema's life in times of trouble, so he didn't fire him from the band, and they both walked to the city's castle.
*********************
* A meeting with Lady Ibid *
*********************In the mighty castle of RobustStoker, stood the law giver of the Golden Nation's North. Her name was Ibid, and she was pretty and young, and very fair in her ruling.
Thinking only about fame, Lema asked to be made an official performer for the Lady.
The lady wanted him to proove his worth, by singing, dancing, reciting poems and telling a story.
(The Dead Tongues was Lema's troup he created with the spearman.)
Lema was nervous, but he started singing (the spearman Thruni did too). Then they moved on to dancing, and everybody in the room joined the stimulating steps !
After the dance everybody was thrilled ! Lema recited a few poems to temper down the pace.
But now came the time to tell a great story...
Since Lema never did or saw much, he had trouble to find a story great enough for a palace like this.
So he recited the story of the killing of both his foreparents. It was a fact he experienced himself. He lived it and so, knew it in all its gruesome details.
After prooving his worth, Lema asked Lady Ibid what she thought of him now. She was very pleased.
But it seems that it wasn't enough...
Damned nobles ! The story telling
was great !
Everyone in the room enjoyed the dance ! And yet this silly noble young Lady dismissed Lema !
I guess you know what that means
Ibid !
By night, Lema came back to the castle when the Lady was asleep. He ate a strawberry silently, took the thothil in his hands, rose it above his head, and started hitting Lady Ibid with it !
"You don't like my music, hey ? How do you like that now !" he said as her majesty's body got beat up over and over again, bleeding her throat, breaking her nose, and exploding all her teeth.
No so pretty now, young Lady !
She eventually died of bloodloss.
He got spotted in the process though. Children woke up crying. The local cult leader saw Lema. His head would now be on a bounty, and it would be hard for him to survive.
There was nothing left for him in the Golden Nation. These people didn't understand music at all it seems. Lady Ibid deserved her fate, after all !
He had to flee. He would keep traveling North, to glory.
The World still needed to be
entertained.
A good bard must always have a good
weapon instrument.
Author
Topic: Bard Quest! The succession legend. (Read 11013 times)