[Adventure] A Call for Lovers (DM: jbear Judge:Lord Sessadore)

Sabynha blushes as she steps forward at the urging of the satyrs, "Haha, very well my friends, very well! What shall it be? Song first, then our tale, or the other way around? Or perhaps a song for each part of the journey?"

She pauses to hear some kind of popular consensus from them before continuing, "First, perhaps a drink of mead to limber up?"

She grabs the first horn offered to her and takes a long draught from it, actually drinking more slowly and less vivaciously than she let on; she'd heard about satyrs and their... appetites, and wanted to make sure to keep her wits all while embellishing her enthusiasm.

The vistani produces both her silver flute and her weathered fiddle, weighing each in her hands in front of the group, as though to ask for input on what they'd prefer. She had a feeling they might prefer the fiddle, and given their reputation for skill with wind instruments, was not surprised when they made their choice, raucously, of course.

With a wink to Robin, she sets her flute on a stump and begins to play the fiddle; moderate tempo at first, then increasing somewhat. Before launching into a livelier section, she again winks at Robin, and with a skirt-sweeping flourish, kicks up her flute toward the hopefully prepared satyr. If he was caught by surprise, he scarcely let on, and sure as she figured it, he was able to pick up the tune with no difficulty.

As he played accompaniment to her song, she performed a dance around him with her own instrument still shrieking out its joyous cry, all the while with her colourful garb and enchanting scent twirling in a mesmerizing display. Now and then she pauses, allowing the satyr a soloing opportunity, which she would answer with one of her own. While waiting for him, she occasionally snatches a drink from a bystanding satyr or wilden with her bow-hand, takes an exaggerated sip, and gives it back.

***

When the song finished, Sabynha was fairly winded and fully flushed from the effort, and so sat down on the stump, grabbed up her drink and again made a show of taking a huge drink; she let some dribble from the sides down her face, and when she put it down, wiped the sweet honey-liquor from her lips with a broad sweeping hand.

She allowed several deep, chest-heaving breaths before starting into the 'tale' portion. "Now, friends, where shall I begin? At the beginning, I suppose..."

Sabyhna told their tale to the satyrs and wilden in as story-like fashion as she could come up with on the spot, trying to emphasize their part as noble and somewhat heroic, while maintaining a degree of humility. She played particular interest in embellishing their role as largely neutral mediators, and pitting themselves as advocates for the just in the struggle against a power-mad Soryth. She was most vague on these parts, as she knew little of their character, so only spoke of them in terms of things she had been told or seen firsthand.
 

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There is a hush while Sabynha tells your tale, and a cheer when she finishes. The satyrs and wilden drain their horns to a man, and the gizzly old grump catches himself staring and with a grunt resumes his rounds, which during the whole episode had become quite forgotten.

"Ahh..." muses Robin. "So you say you saw this lady, the hag? Soryth? ANd she took Caerwyn? Your Juliana as you call her ... Well ... if the hag has her, she is in the hidden Palace of Spires, accessible only through a twisted maze that we entered once but can no longer.The hag has used her powers to curse us, which bars us from it."

He refills his horn and stares at Sabhyna with a grin. "Our tale was a fail. Ragnar knows the witch Uma caused us to fail at our great task here in this place. We went into battle to silence the hag's foul song and rescue the soul of the Green Lord's daughter, said to sleep here on this isle. But we failed. The hag and the girl were lost to us, and we found ourselves bound here by the the curse she laid on us.

How the witch betrayed Ranar, only Ragnar knows. None of us saw it, but the dryad is subtle where Ragnar would be brave and forthright. Perhaps her magic failed. Her purpose was to rescue the Summer Queen's son, Porpherio, and perhaps she succeeded at our expense. If you ask me, I miss the dryads, aye, gents?"


The fey toast and laugh. Robin winks and continues. "I wish your singing and dancing was enough for me to be able to take you to Ragnar. But he will not even listen to my songs. His obsession with Uma ... it knows no bounds. And I am bound by oath never to lie to my lord. Which is why I suggested the mischief with the unicorns. It would be enough to show you were on our side. Now I know you don't want to be choosing sides ... a dilemma indeed. The only one who would know who did it would be us. The witch would never have to know... And the door to Ragnar would open, so to speak. A harmless thing, no harm but to Uma's pride ... and such a dent may bring the witch to bend that rigid back and speak to Ragnar, which might even be a beginning to an end of this feud. But I perhaps suppose to much with so many unknowns, and the lofty barrier of your ideals ... "

Robin sips at his horn eyeing you carefully, waiting to see what you might reply.
 

Rain had been slowly nursing her mead through Sabynha's bravura performance. Throat soothed once more by the honey, she spoke again after Robin had said his piece, "Tell us what you know of these unicorns and where they may be found. Then, at least we can consider your predicament with a more informed view after we leave."
 

Wat had little trouble with the drink. Jovian priests were known for their passion in all things, not just fighting. He had certainly learned to handle his fill of drink even if he never developed a taste for it.

He felt fortunate that he was witness to another of Sabynha's performances and was mesmerized by it, that trance broken only by the cheering of their guests to which he readily joined in.

Once they had all settled down he spoke to them.

"You claim Uma a stubborn lady, but subtle. So even if a prank of this type were to garner attention what is to say she would not address it with the same subtlety as always a bit of :):):)-for-tat that even Ragnar would not suspect? Also, you claim she would not know our involvement, but I seem to recall that witches are skilled diviners, so how could you be certain she would not find out?"

"Let us hear what you have in mind so that we can make our choice."
 

Once more Gray sat mesmerized and enchanted by the lovely Sabynha's performance. When it came back to discussions of unicorns and subtlety and divining witches, the monk remained pretty silent. He was more a man of action than of deep thought, and did not know if anything he had to say on the matter would be helpful. However, he was genuinely curious about his episode in the gnomes tree home, and his mind wandered back to that too-beautiful Eladrin woman who had tasked him with protecting this realm. He was sure that he wanted to become that version of himself that he saw in his vision, but he wasn't sure how to go about it. With the task he and his group were questing upon, how was he to become a protector of all of Arcadia? He desperately wanted to speak with the Eladrin woman again so that he could ask her questions. He hadn't a clue as of what to do, how to do it. Who was he supposed to protect? He couldn't possibly protect ALL of Arcadia...could he? He was fast, but he was by no means capable of being in two places at once, let alone all of Arcadia...

A frown replaced the jovial expression he wore just moments before as he pondered his predicament, looking at the image of the tree magically emblazoned upon his blessed hand wraps.
 

Robin smiles, more darkly than usual as he regards Wat after his questions. "Nothing is certain. But the dryads will hear nothing from us, that is all I can promise. What Uma may or may not do, is also beyond my guess, you are right."

His words trail off, obviously displeased at being forced into such an admission. He drinks from his horn and his smile returns with a silvery chuckle. "The mischief with the unicorns is a simple affair to be honest. But one beyond our reach. The unicorns can be found across the Whispering Stream, amongst the tall grass of a meadow near the edge of Uma's territory. We cannot cross over and fetch the unicorns ourselves, as doing so would be an act of war. Not the taking of the unicorns, rather the crossing into the witch's territory."

He points to the veteran still stomping around the edge of the glen. "That is why Pudnis is so on edge. He thinks the truce has been broken ... I'm not so sure. In any case, we cannot cross. But you can." He takes two silk ropes laid at the foot of the smooth rock he leans against and ties them into lassos. "You can use these to bring them here. Unicorns are intelligent creatures. They understand this rude tongue, but you would be wise to speak to them in the tongue of the fey ... elven as you call it. They are impressed and fascinated above all by the arcane arts and spirit magic. I'm sure your bard will find a way to convince them to come with you ... There's not much else to tell"

With a glimmer of hope in his eye mixed with spark of excitement at the prospect you might accept Robin sits nursing his horn of mead, too tense to pay any more attention to his drink.

"I will guide you there, should you so choose."

GM: For your work so far in this entire situation I am going to award you an Auto Success for acquiring the information that unicorns should be spoken to in elven, should you engage in the challenge. This doesn't count as a success towards the challenge but it gives you all a +2 bonus to charisma based skills used with the unicorns throughout the challenge. 4 successes required before 3 failures
 
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OOC: I rolled an insight check for Sabynha to ascertain whether or not this little prank with the unicorns is truly one that Robin believes to be harmless. 1d20+11=27
I am going on the assumption that he is telling the truth. If he isn't or if she thinks this won't go over well after all, I will edit my post.
"Yes, I can talk to them; it is the tongue of the Imperium, and a part of my heritage," Sabynha states as she unconsciously tucks her hair behind her slightly-pointed ear with her left hand.

"But the ropes... that suggests to me that they will not come willingly. If talking is all that we need to do, why the rope?"
It was an honest - if somewhat pointed - question. She was not trying to corner him further.

"And I will be the first to admit that my knowledge of the arcane is... far from complete. Perhaps Rain would be able to help in that regard." She nodded toward her tiefling companion with respect.

Her next question was mostly directed at Wat, "If we will truly not face the wrath of the witch for crossing into her lands, then much as talking to Robin here, it cannot hurt to go and at least speak to the unicorns, can it?"
 

"No harm at all. It sounds less like prank a more of a negotiation in fact. As they are intelligent creatures they would come or not of their own will. Also, I have dabbled in the arcane and could be of some help, though admittedly my focus is more on the elemental craft than that of the fey."
 

Rain acknowledges Sabynha's praise with slight nod, "I cannot speak the fae tongue, but I will try and help where I may. A guide will be useful; we've no real idea of the layout of the island as of yet and it looks like we're going to see the unicorns after all."
 

Gray was slightly ashamed in light of the fact that he was a fey creature without the ability to speak the tongue of his kind. He wasn't too upset at himself, however, due to the fact that his knowledge of languages was based solely on who his master was...a Dwarf. And as such, he was only fluent in Allarian, and the language of Dwarves. He felt that Robin wasn't lying to them, and that speaking with the unicorns might be okay without upsetting Uma. And if that could make Ragnar happy so that they could get that key, then so be it. He smirked to himself slightly with the though that, while they were going to cause some "mischief" with Uma...likely she would have us do something similar to Ragnar. As long as Uma wasn't going to ask them to get her unicorns back (likely an impossible task after convincing them to join Ragnar), they'll be fine.
 

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