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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1738559" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Three, "The Cleric-Bard"Four levels below, in the first sub-basement of Llyr Castle, another of Gredawal Llyr’s grandchildren was receiving similar instruction from his own father, Bradwen, who is a gifted bard and Gredawal’s only son.   His role was that of family historian, and he maintained the extensive library located in the various basements of the castle.   This included the birth records, tax records, death certificates, various documents related to genealogy of all Silvanost elves dating back the five millinia and other records of family history.  But the pride and joy of the collection was that Llyr castle was host to the most extensive music library in the world.   Not unlike his father before him, Bradwen’s youth had been preoccupied with his career.   He was nearly half a millineum old, the human equivalent of nineteen, before he took a wife.  Polygamy was commonly practiced by the Brondani elves, but Gredawal had been monogamous and had his two eldest children were as well.   It was until his youngest, Fflewdur, had acquired multiple spouces and was producing a large number of offspring that Bradwen and his older sister Maelwys were encouraged to do the same.   For four centuries of marriage Bradwen had been content with his one wife and their four children.  But he also one to appreciate female company and enthusiastically followed his father’s new dictate.   So in the prior two centuries he acquired five more wives who collectively have provided him with fourteen more children.    Bradwyn professes to love all of his children equally, although in truth he is most attached to his original four, all of whom are now young adults. The eldest of these was Andowen, a dutiful daughter who shares her father’s passion towards the library and their responsiblities of maintaing the history for not only the Llyr family but the other Elvan families of Brondani as well as the Silvanost elves.   She is also a gifted linguist, a skill that has come in handy with translating songs written in other languages, and is currently assisted by her younger full sister.Of the two eldest boys, Allanor always pleased his father and was a true asset to the family.   He too has taken a strong interest in the library.  His talents lie with mathematics and organization, and he is currently involved in creating a detailed index of the entire collection.   However Bradwen’s second son Paleam Llyr was somewhat of a family embarrassment.  Palaem worked dutifully in the library and had a gifted singing voice, a bard that the family could be proud of.   Unfortunately Paleam had chosen to also become a cleric.   Clerics of Correllon Larethian, the deity who granted the elves long life, are found in all of the noble families of Brondani, even the human households.   Paleam however, while respecting Larethian, had become the cleric of a different deity.  Palaem worshipped Labelas Enoreth, the elvan god of truth and history.  Paleam had been encouraged to take on Enoreth as a secondary deity or two pay homage to the entire Elvan pantheon that Larethian was the leader of, but he refused.   Truth and History was what he was dedicating his life to and that was who he would worship.   So Bradwen kept his problem child down in the library, limiting his exposure to others who would not approve.   That however was now changed, as Gredewal now had a new task for his wayward grandchild to undertake. Following his father’s instructions, Palaem made his way to the Silver Chalice silversmith shop down in the Llyr district of the city.   He arrived at the shop, finding it locked.  A sign on the door read “Back in Sometime”.   Palaem thought to himself  “That’s one problem with such a long-lived race.”   He went nextdoor and looked around a craft shop until the silversmith opened up again.    He then went into the show and began looking at the various items for sale.  He recognized the proprietor, and elf named Ethranim, as the man who had put silver-plating on his brother’s flute. “What can I help you with?” Ethranim inquired?   “I was told to meet my grandfather here,” Palaem reponded.  “Ah yes, come with me” the silversmith states as he relocks the front door and puts the sign back.    They exit from the back door into an alleyway and Ethranim leads him down past the back doors of several businesses on both sides.   They finally reach the back door of another building and Ethranim knocks.   The door is opened up from the inside by a armored half-elf who Palaem recognizes as his cousin Pat, the youngest of his aunt Maelwys’s five children.  This is no real surprise, as Pat often serves as one of Gredewal’s bodyguards.   Ethranim heads back in the direction of his shop while Pat gestures for Palaem to enter the building.  They are inside of what appears to be a large kitchen, with pots and pans hanging on hooks and several large wood stoves in the room.   What is unusual is that there is no food anywhere and everything looks to have been thoroughly washed and scurbbed.  Pat leads him through a pair of double doors into a main room.   They are now in a very large tavern room, one that looks like it could hold up to 150 people.    The room has two dozen tables of various sizes.  There are only three other people in the room, two human fighters seated at one table and his cousin Dardaleria, one of aunt Fflewdur’s brood seated at another table.   Pat tells Palaem “Go meet the others, and try to get our cousin to sit with them.”   “Where is grandfather?” Palaem asks.   Pat replies, “Now that you are all here I will get him.  Would you like anything to eat or drink while you wait?”   “Just water,” the cleric/bard replies.</blockquote>

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