Kenneth is immaculate in his appearance, sure to carry a pair of scissors, a small mirror and tooth picker at all times. He is not vain and does not preen, but always seeks to live up to his own image. His short, black hair he keeps well groomed and slicked back. His goatee remains short and trimmed. Fingernails are always cut, eyebrows plucked and breath freshened. Kenneth favors green, from a deep jade to bright emerald, from the fashionable doublet to the concealing cloak. He stands straight, appearing almost taller than his companions, and his voice carries farther than most men twice his height. Kenneth knows, with his unflappable confidence, as he pulls gently at his cuffs, wipes a piece of dust from his shoulder and smoothes his vest, that when people see him, they see a hero.
The Emporium caters to the tastes of all manner of miners and travelers, and more than one gnome and halfling has found their way down the perfumed and poorly lit passages of the Veiled Corridor. Kenneth's mother was one three of the "small folk" who resided at the Emporium to cater to their pleasures, and Kenneth was born of such a union.
Kenneth, however, was lucky in that he never realized who bore a stigma. His mother and his numerous "aunts" of every race cared for him, spoiled him, and protected him. As a child, when his mother left to "work", he would wander the Gallery of Science, or even visit the nearby Lazare House to watch the well-to-do visitors play intricate games of dragonchess. Always accompanied by one of his aunts, he remained blissfully unaware of Diamond Lake's more sinister side and dark underbelly.
In his adolescence, Kenneth met another youth, Allustan, who happened to be the son of the local governor-mayor. The two found themsleves in all sorts of trouble and formed an odd friendship. Kenneth was disappointed when Allustan was forced to leave Diamond Lake, but soon found other distractions and left himself for the Free City soon thereafter.
In what Kenneth considers his worldly travels, he picked up small bits of esoteric knowledge from all sorts of people, from all parts of society. He developed a knack of retaining this knowledge and spinning tales from ancient legends and myths. From time to time he would entertain patrons at one of the many inns or taverns and earn his keep there for another week. But, eventually, he grew bored and decided to return home to Diamond Lake to spend time with his extended family at the Emporium. He was pleasantly surprised to find Allustan had returned, now a wizened sage with his own home, and the two revived their friendship and picked up where they had originally left off. Kenneth now spends his evenings relating epic tales of warriors and wizards at each of the taverns of Diamond Lake, and his afternoons constructing new tales or chatting with Allustan in his gardens.
Yet, once again, Kenneth has grown bored . . .
[sblock=Meeting Alexi]
Kenneth stepped down from the stage as the scattered applause died out in the main hall of the Emporium. This time, he had related a tale of Drin'an, the elven ranger that saved a certain town from uncertain doom. Or had it been an uncertain town from certain doom? Kenneth shook his head. Either way, the patrons had enjoyed the story.
He raised his hand to order from Lorna, one of his favorite servers working that night, as he pulled out a chair to sit at an empty table when someone bumped into him from the side.
"Oof!" Kenneth exclaimed, holding out an arm to steady himself against a chair, another resting on the shoulder of the young woman who had bumped into him.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry there," she said, bringing her blue-grey eyes to his with a disarming smile. "Didn't mean to bump into ya like that."
"Oh, don't worry," he said, withdrawing his hand and taking his seat. "No harm done."
She nodded and turned to walk away, but Kenneth reach out an immaculately trimmed hand. "Excuse me a moment, my beautiful lady, but what is your name?"
She seemed taken aback, and almost did not reply, but simply said, "Alexi," before disappearing into the sea of patrons. Kenneth smiled as a story blossomed in his mind. The woman, Alexi, had inspired him.
"What'll it be, Kenneth?" asked Lorna, arriving at his table and interrupting his thoughts.
"Oh, you know what I like, Lorna," he replied with a flourish. "Wait but a moment, while you let me get some coin for you."
A frown flashed across his face as he reached into his shirt pocket, his fingers scooping through the empty space. "That's funny," he said, talking aloud to himself. "I could have sworn I had my purse on me . . ."
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* * *
[sblock=Meeting Gregor, Majakilar and Azten]
Sometimes, Kenneth would attempt to tailor his storytelling to members of the audience, though for some reason it rarely had the desired effect. Laughter would unhesitatingly erupt in all the wrong spots, dead silence would follow the best of his jokes, and patrons would storm out in disgust at the most emotionally tense moments. This had been one of those nights.
The miners had returned to the town proper of Diamond Lake after several days in the hills, and Kenneth picked out three friends that sat together at one table: an olive-skinned man with shockingly white hair, a giant of a man with wild hair, and a reserved dwarf with weather-beaten skin. It was a perfect time to tell the story of a great war in ages past between men, giants, and dwarves.
He did not tell anyone beforehand of his plans, and so no one had the chance to advise him against it.
So wrapped up in his tale, Kenneth did not at first notice the large man and the dwarf seething with anger and the third man wide-eyed with concern. Kenneth faltered when the giant abruptly stood up from the table and left the building, the dwarf soon following. When the third man rose, Kenneth cut his performance short, leaving the stage, and approached the man.
"Excuse me, sir," he said, looking up at the man. "I beg your forgiveness, but if I have insulted you or your companions in any way . . ."
"Majakilar, not sir," he replied, then waved his hand to the door. "You did not insult me, but you might have to explain yourself to them."
Swallowing, Kenneth nodded and stepped outside to find the dwarf and the giant grumbling at each other, criticizing Kenneth's performance for the evening.
". . . doesn't know what he's talking about, the dolt . . ."
". . . the dwarves would never do something like that . . ."
Kenneth cleared his throat politely, alerting the two to his presence. "I'm sorry to have upset you," he said, trying to ignore the glares. "But I was hoping you would stay for the rest of the tale. You see, you missed the best part. But I can give you the shortened, condensed version."
Before either of the two had a chance to speak up or dismiss him, Kenneth rushed through the ending of the epic war between the three nations of men, giants and dwarves.
"You see, in an effort to bring peace to the land, the three peoples formed a treaty, which included an exchange of noble blood. A dwarf princess married a giant prince, and a giant princess married a dwarf prince. Both princesses bore children, and because of the mixing of blood, the children were born human. And thus the treaty was fulfilled, and everyone lived happily ever after."
The giant and the dwarf stared at Kenneth with wide eyes, mouths agape.
"That . . . That is the silliest thing I've ever heard." And both burst out laughing, tears streaming from their eyes.
"What?" asked Kenneth. "What did I say?"
[/sblock]
* * *
[sblock=Meeting Owen and Azten]
The night was lengthening, and many of the visitors of Diamond Lake had long since retired for the evening. The miners woudl not return for a few more days and the recent cold weather kept most of the rest indoors. Only one or two regulars had shown up for Kenneth's performance. Kenneth didn't notice, and spun another tale of the prince forced to the abyss in order to rescue his true love. He had just reached his favorite part, where the hero must choose between several woman to find his magically hidden love, when a familiar dwarf stumbled into the Emporium with a badly beaten young man drapped across one shoulder.
The dwarf was silent, though the boy groaned. The two other men in the room ignored them but Kenneth approached.
"Is everything all right?" he asked, reaching out his hands to help, but pulling them back after seeing the dirt and blood covering both the boy and the dwarf. Carefully, he tucked his recently washed hands behind his back. "Anything I can do to help?"
The dwarf looked at Kenneth and seemed about to say no, to which Kenneth would have sighed with relief and retired to his room upstairs. Instead, the dwarf paused and grumbled. "Yeah, bard, go fetch us a pail of water."
"A what?" Kenneth replied in confusion, arcing a plucked eyebrow. "A pale father? Why do you need someone's dad?"
The dwarf returned a look rivaling Kenneth's own, and the two stared at each other in mirrored confusion for a few tense moments. Then, understanding brightened Kenneth's face.
"Ah! You mean a pail of water. Sorry 'bout that. I've been meaning to bring up the acoustics in here with Zalamandra." Kenneth returned with the water, along with two platters of freshly prepared food. In later days, when he would see Owen and Azten enter the main hall, he would nod and smile to them both, along with an obvious, conspiratorial wink.
[/sblock]
* * *
The night before . . .
[sblock= ]
". . . and the moral of the story is," Kenneth said, completing his tale for the evening at the Emporium, "
not to hand your sword to your archenemy."
Scattered applause followed as Kenneth bowed with a flourish. Only a small group of friends at a nearby table noticed his ostentatious exit. The remaining patrons had already returned to their food or murmured conversations.
The gnome collapsed in the remaining empty chair, between the large frames of Gregor and Majakilar, oblivious to their towering height on either side. Kenneth pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at the beads of sweat on his brow and sighed.
"Quite a performance you had there, Kenneth," said Alexi with a smirk, from the opposite side of the table.
Owen elbowed Alexi in the ribs. "Yes, very good," continued Owen, shooting a warning glare at Alexi.
"Why thank you!" exclaimed Kenneth, straightening in his seat as his meal arrived. "I've spent weeks honing that particular piece. Glad you liked it. How about you, Azten?"
The dwarf grumbled something incoherent about Moradin's appreciation of fine art. Gregor stifled a chuckle and Majakilar smiled knowingly.
Kenneth shrugged and began to pick delicately at his dinner as the companions caught up with their adventures of the previous week. They had met weekly, whenever Gregor, Majakilar and Azten returned from their shifts at the mines, at the Emporium. Kenneth would give a new performance, Owen would relate his practical jokes, and Alexi would show off any recently acquired items. They even had their own table near the fireplace where Kenneth told his tales. It sat close to the exotic plants originally brought by Professor Montague Marat and his sideshow a decad ago lined the wall. One particular plant, an ivy with blue-tinged leaves, draped almost over their table. Kenneth always insisted it was trying to attack him and never sat near it.
"You know," Owen said, leaning on the table, "I was just talkin' to Alexi and Azten the other day about this abandoned shack that I found, up near the Whispering Cairn. We should take a look around."
Majakilar raised an eyebrow. "The Whispering Cairn? Isn't that the ol' cave where the teenagers try to spend the night on a dare?"
"Well, not since that girl disappeared, but yeah. No one's had the guts to go deeper than the mouth."
"Besides," perked up Alexi, "those braggarts from the Free City are investigating that empty cave, the Stirgenest Cairn. That thing's been picked clean. Maybe we can find something in Owen's?"
"She's right," said Kenneth, stabbing a potato. "Owen's cairn wasn't discovered too long ago, and no one's seen all that's inside. Rumor has it the cairn is actually the tomb of a great warrior prince." Kenneth's eyes glittered.
"You say a girl disappeared there?" asked Gregor, concerned.
Alexi nodded. "Yup. Six years ago. Probably just ran away though. And even if something
was there, I'm sure we could handle it better than some whiny 13-year-old girl."
"Well then, let's go!" Kenneth said, standing up from his chair, fork still in hand.
"Woah there," Majakilar said, holding the gnome back with a firm hand on Kenneth's shoulder. "No one's leaving tonight."
"
Especially not tonight," interjected Azten, the first words the dwarf had spoken since Owen brought up the subject. "There was a cave-in at the mines this morning, and I've exhausted Moradin's generosity for the day. If any of you get into trouble, I won't be able to help."
"Tomorrow then!" Kenneth exclaimed, lifting his fork into the air as if withdrawing a mighty blade. The light from the torches glittered off the dull metal and a halo of light from the crackling fireplace seemed to surround the gnome. It was almost inspiring.
The remaining companions exchanged glances. Gregor shrugged his shoulders.
"Sure, why not?" Majakilar agreed, also standing from his chair. He patted Kenneth's shoulder, who did not even notice, so enraptured was he with the enchanted sword he held aloft. "Let's get some rest and tomorrow morning you lead us to that shack you found, Owen."
Owen nodded. "No problem."
"And thus began the epic travels of the five heroes. Tales of their adventures passed into legend, and for genera-"
"Oh, shut up, Kenneth."
"But Alexi, I was just . . . I thought it would be . . ."
"Ugh. Nevermind. Go ahead."
"And thus began the epic travels of the five heroes. Tales of their adventures passed into legend, and for generations every child new their names. Gregor, the kind-hearted giant. Azten, the--"
"Okay, that's enough."
"But . . ."
"Enough, Kenneth."
"Okay . . ."
[/sblock]