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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3744236" data-attributes="member: 3448">Thanks, HOHB!  Since you asked for more... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />----That evening, they received Princess Curini’rim for another visit.  “My congratulations, your grace, on a smooth coronation.  It was rather calmer than I am used to.”“You think of multiple assassination attempts as calm?” spluttered Dame Brionna, before belatedly tacking on “your highness.”“None of the later ones came particularly close to succeeding, they did not disrupt the coronation itself, and relatively few of his grace’s subjects, particularly his grace’s subjects of high rank, were killed.  Added to the fact that there was neither a major civil war nor any other military attack on the capital, and I would say that it was quite calm, indeed.  Perhaps your people have gained more experience in smooth transitions, since your successions take place so frequently.”“Thank you,” replied Alistair.  “We hope that you have enjoyed your time in our demesne.”“Oh, yes.  I have been assembling an art collection.  You have a remarkably fine market in primitive,” she caught herself a moment too late, “of human art.  I believe I will soon have the finest collection in all of Krashmere--certainly the finest collection of Drucien human art.  I will need to consider how to display it best.  Part of the joy is that it will offend and anger some of my rivals, so I will need to make sure that they cannot avoid seeing it.  I think I may put the tile floorings in my gardens, so that they will see them when they are on my lands or when they overfly them.  But it will be a shame to give up the flowers for it.”“What about the roof of your manor?” suggested Alistair.  “You could install the tile work there, which would make it even more prominent from the air, without giving up scarce garden space.”“A capital idea, your grace.  And the topiary that I intend to complement it with could be grown on the roof as well.”The discussion of art and pleasantries continued for some time before Princess Curini’rim took pity on Dame Brionna and Kit, neither of whom had either sufficient interest in and knowledge of art to participate or a polished enough sense of diplomacy to tolerate the pace of a diplomatic meeting with a Noldar.  “Now then, you did not ask me here to discuss my tastes in art.”“No, your highness, we did not.  As you know, Lord Davion Aufaugauthala’rim fought a duel as my champion against the Master Unbidden as champion of Quinliart Moriquenda’rim.  Upon his victory, Lord Davion declared an end to the feud with Quinliart, now and for all time.  We have of course respected this declaration and taken no hostile actions against him since the duel.  However, we have reasons to believe that Quinliart has sent some of his minions to lead uruk and orc hordes in attacks upon our vassals.”Her calm expression suddenly turned sharp at the last statement.  “Do you have evidence of this?”“We have not observed Quinliart’s vassals directly, but we know that orcish hordes have destroyed the town of Grokken and marched southeast.  Reliable sources that we trust inform us that the hordes were led by Morgothian drow in a cadet house beholden to Quinliart.”“If I may summon a revelator, I will be able to confirm this directly.”  After Alistair nodded, she twisted one of her rings and a small daemon appeared.It smiled at her and said unctuously, “Do you have a command for me, mistress?  This will be the last service that I owe you.”“I command you to show the town of Grokken and then to move the image as I command.  When I have seen all that I wish to see, your service will be at an end.”The revelator projected an image of devastated Grokken.  The town had been utterly destroyed and broken, with little hope that anything still lived within what had once been its walls.  The Princess commanded it to move the image to the southeast, and as it went through the town, it passed over the bodies of many dead, including Dame Hilda and a knight of Hanal who appeared to have died after a great fight in which they vanquished many attackers back-to-back.  Dame Brionna raised her sun disc as the image panned across the burned and desecrated church.The projected image continued to move, past the broken walls of the town and through a ravaged countryside.  The revelator adjusted the image, moving the viewpoint to higher above the land so that a wider area was covered.  An enormous army came into view, and they spotted a palanquin carried by trolls at the rear of the horde, with drowan banners flying.  “There,” said Princess Curini’rim angrily, gesturing for the revelator to magnify the banners so that their heraldry would be unmistakably clear.  “This must be reported to the Council.  It is an abomination.  He has defied the Law.  I regret that I do not have the volers to rescue your civilians.  And if I attack his forces before I present the case, it will become a house war and the case will mean nothing.  But while I cannot help directly, I will depart immediately to begin the case.  We will not tolerate this.”[End Session 24]</blockquote>

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