Gardens and the Graves

*For some of you, this garden has been home for years beyond years. For others, it has been home only for a few generations. And for two, it is not yet even home. This is the garden of the Rashaan family, one with fey blood running through their veins, unwitting guardians of the last bastions of ancient fey power.*

The Manor House of the Rashaan family

Rashaan Formal Garden - Here is the more formal part of the garden, the one most of the visitors see.

Enchanted Garden - But here is your garden, the half-wild place of wildflowers, mushrooms, streams, and statues, where the children love to play. Behind it is the entrance to the graveyard where the Rashaan ancestors lay buried. A small stone chapel lies within. One of the ancient trees in the graveyard is the home of an equally ancient dryad, whose wisdom is now in the Rashaan's care. Many spirits haunt the graveyard, many benign, but some not so much.

Your duties are to protect the Rashaan family from being corrupted by evil, and to protect their children from harm. The three daughters of House Rashaan are eleven year-old Katherine (left), a bright and happy child who still whole-heartedly believes in fairies (she is at a time of testing, being on the cusp of womanhood), Layla (middle), a beautiful and talented sixteen-year-old and already courting a noble son of House Yildre (she is every inch a lady), and Ida (right) a skilled weaver and tapestry-maker, this fifteen-year-old has several offers of marriage already.

The youngest member of the family, Titian, is eight years old, and the only son of House Rashaan. A boy given to daydreaming more than study, he is constantly chased by his tutors and nannies to get back to his duties. He often successfully hides with Katherine in the garden or the graveyard.

The Lord and Lady of the House are quite happily in love together. Lady Felada Rashaan is an elegant woman with a talent for growing things. Her garden is her greatest pleasure. Her husband Lord Esador Rashaan (formerly of House Kelvaris) is a skilled courtier and renouned duelist.

Today is a fine spring day, a cool and misty morning. The sun is just turning the clouds over the garden pink...

[You guys can just bump around and talk to each other while other people are finalizing their characters.]

Here's a great picture of a fairy ring, just for mood...Fairy Ring (on Midsummer's Eve)

Tuk arrives from the east and hovers a few seconds over the mansion, scanning the surrounding gardens. "Yup, I think this is the right place; looks about right and definitely feels right.

He casts detect magic from the air, and goes where the magic is the strongest.
There, he lands and walks around, hoping to see some of his kind.

Gus rises from his bed with a yawn. He gives a big stretch and clambers out, ready to start a new day. Whistling a merry little tune to himself he wanders out of the little hole that is his home. He peers around the edges cautiously, to make sure no big folk are around. Seeing nobody, he grabs his gardening tool (an old, rusty fork), and goes out to check on his mushroom patch.

Grouse rises early and begins puttering about his garden, grouchily chasing away a whole herd of ladybugs, soon followed by a loud argument with a hang-about butterfly. Finally, muttering something about "...getting a little peace and quiet...", he begins tromping around his barren, weed-choked patch of land, "tending the flowers".

*Circling the grounds Oribella comes to a garden running wild and free. Magic radiates from the land and the statues. Setting down on the shoulder of one such statue she searches the flowers, the pond, and the greenery for any sign of the creatures who posses the great magic. She spots a small mushroom moving about with a tool and a thistle grumbling about the bugs. Oribella smiles at their mutterings but stays on her perch till she is invited down.*

"Hmm.... this would make a lovely home. I do hope they agree to me joining their little family." Oribella daydreams.

*Tuk and Oribella can see the greatest magic comes from the mushroom and his mushroom patch, as well as the old thistle.*

*Grouse can spot a glimmer of a frost fairy, while Gus spots the golden sheen of a autumn fairy. One flies above the garden, whilst the other perches upon a statue.*

*Gus finds his mushroom patch growing nicely, and carefully turns the earth with his fork. He can hear the faint sounds of the kitchen maids gathering herbs in the kitchen garden close to the house, but they rarely come this deep into the garden.*

*Grouse gets the ladybugs and butterfly out of his patch of weeds, only to find a rather stubborn moth clinging to a dried stalk of grass.*

"Welladay Grandfather Thistle! How be the mornin' to ya?" it inquires cheekily.

Gus overturns another mound of dirt, when his eye catches something golden shimmering out of the corner of his eye. He turns and notices the autumn fairy perched on the statue's shoulder.

Wanting to make a good impression, he quickly runs a hand across his cap in attempt to flatten it down and then he straightens out his gills. He breathes on the fork and attempts to polish in with the back of his hand to use it as a mirror. He gazes into the metal and nods in satisfaction, despite the fact that the mirror is so rusted over that he can't see the color of his cap, let alone the large section of it sticking up in the back from where he had slept on it. The overall effect is rather comical.

He waves to the new arrival.

"Good morn' my lady. Welcome to the gardens of the Rashaan, how may Gus be of service to you today?"

hafrogman said:

He waves to the new arrival.

"Good morn' my lady. Welcome to the gardens of the Rashaan, how may Gus be of service to you today?"

Click to expand...

*Taking interest in the little mushroom, Oribella watches him move about his patch of the garden. She laughs gaily as the little guy primps in the rusty fork. As he introduces himself she jumps from the statue's shoulder to land lightly infront of the mushroom.*

" Thank You, and Good Morning to you, I am Oribella. I was hoping to find a place to call home when I came upon this wonderful little garden. Would it be alright if I was to look around? I would also like to meet the others who call this home."

Oribella reachs behind the mushroom to flatten he bed head. "Let me get that for you." She smiles sweetly.

Lady Shatterstone said:

" Thank You, and Good Morning to you, I am Oribella. I was hoping to find a place to call home when I came upon this wonderful little garden. Would it be alright if I was to look around? I would also like to meet the others who call this home."

Click to expand...

Seing the Autumn fairy and the mushroom chat right next to the greatest source of magic, Tuk lands a few feet from them.

"Hi, I'm Tuk. Is this the Rashaan garden? "