Enemies at the Sward (17 Oct 2002) Alice, Hannah and Sir Tristan find that enemies are waiting for them at the Green Sward.

Palace of All Seasons: Main Infirmary
This section of the palace, like a miniature of the whole, is divided into quarters, one for each season, with the center done in the blues and whites of the Umbrecht line. There's floor space in the central chamber for additional beds to be set up, but at the moment none are erected. It is a quiet oasis, with a fountain playing in the center, angel sculptures adorning the walls, and furniture like fluffy clouds, which remind Alice of very large and extraordinarily comfortable beanbags.

After Alice and Hannah finished with the Queen, Lord November proved to be waiting for his daughter. She was spared from an immediate lecture by the intervention of the Queen, who asked to speak with November privately.

Exactly what the Queen said to Lord November is known only to the two of them. But while Hannah ultimately received a stern lecture on obedience from her father, he did not -- rather to her surprise -- either order her home, or insist that she remain with him at the Palace. Instead, he has offered her services to the Queen. "You will accompany Sir Tristan of April, and the Queen's lady-in-waiting, Jill, on a certain mission to April's lands. I trust you will be as ... enthusiastic, in the performance of this duty, as you have been in assisting the Lord Explorer."

Much later that evening, Lady Sorceress woke, though she remains less than fully recovered. After being briefed on Alice's intention to wake Sir Theodore and Angelique's other knights, Nymuae offered the girl what she remembered. "Sir Tristan should know where the Green Sward is, though it's not as trafficked as it was in the Lady Angelique's day. The glen where the knights slumber is ... separated, so to speak, from the Sward, by a kind of Siege. Or perhaps 'linked' would be the better word.

"In any case, you will find on the Sward a certain spot, where an old stone path and round flower beds make two circles that intersect. Inside the intersection, among flowers, there is a simple stone marker, commemorating all that was sacrificed by the houses in their first Year in Mirari. Inside one of the circles, a statue of Ariel rears over a long stone platform.

"Go into the intersection. There, you must Siege-walk. If you cannot, my friend ... " Nymuae looks tired, her speech slowing, then she shakes her head and continues, "Sir Tristan shall take you, he is a Siege-walker.

"The scene around thou wilt be transformed. Thou wilt see the sleeping knights. Sir Theodore will be lying upon the stone tablet that the Lady Ariel's statue shelters. Approach him. From there ... thou wilt know what to do." Nymuae's eyes close, making Alice wonder if she has fallen asleep again.

"I think I understand," says the little blonde lady-in-waiting to her friend the sorceress. "And I have a 'quest' for you, too, Lady Nymuae!" She beams, and has looked exceedingly excited ever since the Queen permitted her to go. "It's super-important, too."

Nymuae's expression flickers, as though she can't decide whether to be amused, or irritated, or just tired. She opens her eyes. "What is that, my friend?"

Hannah quirks an eyebrow over at the blonde-haired girl, also curious as to what Alice has in mind as a "quest" for the Lady Sorceress.

"I would like for you to remain within the Palace of All Seasons. The Tha-ma-turgist was sent away until she can be investigated and without her the Palace doesn't have anyone to find sneaky-sneaks pretending to be who-knows-what. Until another Tha-ma-turgist can be found, or the old one is proven to be okay, the Palace will need someone who knows all about illusions -- trustworthy too! And that's you, Lady Nymuae! You're the only one who can and I'm really worried about her Majesty with Simon saying what he did and of course Lord Eoin unmasked. To be sure it's very important. Very important to me, and you're my best friend, so ... would you?" proposes the little girl in one lengthy and quickly paced explanation. Despite her general cheer their is an undertone of worry in her voice. A hint which offers that this request is a very serious matter for the blonde.

The Lady Sorceress considers this. "I am no thaumaturge, and should not be doing the work of one. Nonetheless. I have the Optikon, and the means to develop its images. That should satisfy her most important duty. I shall remain here, for at least a time. There is much to be done, and perhaps, despite the shortage of equipment, my tasks will be more easily accomplished here than at my Lake."

"Thank you! It means a lot to me that you'll stay. I didn't want to leave because I wasn't sure everything would be okay here. But since you will I can go and not worry." Despite the fact that the Palace contains not only guards, but soldiers and Lords of great power the little girl looked truly concerned that her departure might endanger the Palace and correspondingly relived to know the Lady Sorceress will remain and take care of spotting illusions for her. "I think I'm ready to go, too, so I better hurry up and not keep Sir Tristan. But before I do remember to check with the healers. I wrote down some things to help you if your head hurts or you feel tired, just in case."

The dark-haired woman nods. "I shall do so," she agrees, gravely. "I thank thee. And ... my friend, be careful."

"I'll bring back Sir Theodore! And I'll be okay. I have good friends with me," the lady-in-waiting reassures the sorceress.

Once she and Alice take their leave of the Lady Sorceress, Hannah goes off on her own to make brief preparations for the journey ahead. When she finally returns to join the others, she is dressed for traveling in rough yet warm clothes of green and brown, with a gray cloak thrown over her shoulders and a small pack in her hands. Her rapier is buckled into its usual place at her left side, but swinging from her right side is something new; it looks like a long, heavy dagger, but on closer inspection, it proves to be a swordbreaker, used for blocking and trapping bladed weapons. Hannah smiles as she shows it to Alice. "I've been waiting a long while to get one of these," she says proudly. "Now that I have reason to use one, I thought it was high time to have it."

Before her journey begins, the younger of the two girls sets about making her preparations. Her purse from the mundane world is emptied into a fey-made purse with strings and lace so she can carry all her things and not draw attention to what she carries them in. Along with the contents of her purse she fetches her traveling cloak from her room in the servant's quarters as well as a warmer dress in which to journey in. Spare clothes are made ready as well, just in case the trip becomes a long one, and with that her material preparations are complete. Just as long and involved as her packing is the arrangement of good-byes given to certain people she knows she can trust. The Queen is given a hug when no one was looking, Lord October one too, and Kuon got one as well as a cookie and some instructions. Even Lord November got an enthusiastic good-bye and a few words of appreciation for his daughter, though the stern lord merely raised a brow at the young blonde's excited words. When all was complete she found the others and readied to set out.

In comparison to his young and enthusiastic charge, Tristan looks solemn and reserved as they gather in the courtyard. But he offers his companions a warm smile, helping "Lady Jill" onto her palfrey. They leave in the dawn hours, the day after the attack on the South Gate, and their going is little marked, attended only by a few guards.

The small party rides along the road west, from the Palace to April's lands. A blond knight on a white stallion, and a young woman riding a bay mare, lead the group. A little girl golden-haired girl nestles between the arms of the knight, riding double with him, the mount seeming not to notice the extra weight. Two of the Queen's guardsmen, and two of November's guards, along with pair of pack horses, and a saddled, but riderless, grey palfrey comprise the remainder of the group.

Several hours out Sir Tristan came to realize the young blonde's almost unrelenting talk simply wasn't terribly practical what with her riding her own mount. Often the girl would edge her palfrey up close to the knight's own mount to better gain his ear. After the second near collision, during a particularly enthusiastic rendition of how she and her friends unmasked Lord Eoin, the knight thought to scoop the blonde off her horse to prevent future potential horse-bumpings. "And so you see what everyone calls 'The Destroyer' is really Lord Eoin of January, and we unmasked him in the courtyard! He was much less mad about that then when we took his picture though. Maybe he's Optikon shy," she says amiably, chattering on.

Hannah grins widely as Tristan takes Alice from her horse and sets her in front of him astride his own stallion - during which the blonde girl's flow of speech never wavers. She shakes her head slightly and her eyes sparkle with amusement.

Sir Tristan half-smiles at the child's eager rendition, though mention of the impersonator causes a flicker of grief to pass over his face. He glances sidelong at Hannah, smiling a little larger at her grin, while Alice relates the unmasking, and Hannah recalls that the knight was there when it happened. "You were very brave, to confront him," he says, sober, while Alice draws in a breath.

"That's very nice of you to say. I just couldn't stand it how he treated the Queen. And he felt all wrong when I saw him for the first time in the hall. I was scared of him, he didn't seem quite right at all. So when I thought about it and remembered the legends I came to think that he might be Lord Eoin and that he was disguised as Lord April," the lady-in-waiting explains. "And you know what?" She doesn't slow to allow he the man to talk in her eagerness. In fact she leans around to look at the knightsteed. "I saw the Optikon pictures of you, too! You're a big ham!" She giggles.

Souhait swivels his ears back and snorts. Tristan laughs, and pats his neck. "She has you there, old friend," he tells his mount. The stallion looks to Hannah and Fiona, his large eyes wide and pleading for sympathy.

At Tristan's words, Hannah's smile falters a bit, since she is unsure as to whether his comment was meant for Alice or herself. However, once the blonde girl unfalteringly picks up the thread of conversation, she appears much relieved and settles for giving a short bark of laughter at the stallion's plight. Then she asks, "What makes you say this, Lady Jill?"

"It's okay! You were really pretty in those pictures! The first knightsteed I've ever seen. I thought you were great!" And to prove she means well the little girl reaches over and ruffles Souhait's mane up affectionately. Then she blinks as she thinks on the question posed to her, turning around and smiling at Hannah before responding, answering, "Oh there were lots of pictures of Souhait and in all different poses! He almost used up all the pictures."

Though briefly pleased by the compliments, Souhait looks even more put upon by the assertion that he used up "all the pictures." His knight goes to the rescue of the beleaguered steed, interjecting, "Ah, tell me again, my lady, how did you meet the Lady Hannah?"

For some reason, the slight flush across Hannah's cheeks that appeared during the end of the Council's meeting re-appears, but she says nothing and waits for Alice's reply.

"Um, well, it's complicated," Alice begins to explain as she turns back around. She bites her lip and thinks for a moment then continues, saying, "You see ice goblins who were in disguise ambushed Lady Nymuae and I and threw a sleep-nightmare magic at us. So we were on the floor kind-of-sort-of asleep in nightmares. It was very scary! I'm never shopping there again. And then Lady Hannah found us and came to our rescue!"

Hannah puts in at the end of Alice's explanation, "I merely happened to be in the right place at the right time - although I thank God for that." She smiles fondly at the other girl.

Alice nods to this. "Yah the goblin men were going to carry me away because I wouldn't let go of the Optikon. And I don't know where I was going to go," she confirms.

"Very fortunate for you, my lady," Sir Tristan comments. With a glance to Hannah, and a question directed clearly at her, he queries curiously, "My lady, you accosted two of those beasts, on your own? Or were their others with you?"

Hannah's spine straightens a little, but her tone is casual. "I defended Lady Jill and the Lady Sorceress on my own. I have had almost a Year's training with my rapier. Thankfully, it was enough to defend them both until the Lady Sorceress awakened and came to my aid."

"With her Luminous spell!" adds the blonde. "I never figured out how Lady Nymuae makes magic without a book. I couldn't make magic without a book! But I wasn't as good as Lady Nymuae either. I don't think anyone is! But I can't think about that now anyway because you can't be a healer and a sorceress."

Tristan gives a little half bow to Hannah, managing to make the gesture graceful, despite doing so while riding a horse and holding steady an overactive little girl. "I am most impressed, my lady. I understand that the goblins who infiltrated the Palace were hobgoblins -- more intelligent, and far more dangerous, than the ordinary sort. It was courageous of you, indeed, to face such opponents staunchly."

Hannah manages to look pleased, chastened, and nervous all at once. Eventually she manages to say, "Thank you, sir knight. I appreciate the compliments."

"-- it's very neat how she does that," continues the little girl undaunted as Sir Tristan speaks. "Is the Green Sward really pretty? The Spring lands and House April too? I've never been there but I always wanted to go. Lady Angelique was from there! It sounded very pretty," she goes on, switching topics again.

The elf knight looks as if he wants to say something more to Hannah, but Alice's questions drag his attention back to her, and he seem a little embarrassed by his lapse. "The Green Sward? It was once the jewel of April, but in the 32nd Year of Mirari, a blight sent by Autumn struck at our lands. The Sward suffered most, and the Palace of April was relocated to Avalon. Since that time, the Sward has regained its vibrancy, but it is a wild place now, not the polished garden it was once. With Winter upon us, I do not know quite how it will look."

"It might be hard to see the Siege under all the snow. We should look carefully for unicorn-shaped snowmen," Alice suggests after the knight answers her. "Then we need to cross over at the Siege there and that's where Lord Theodore will be. We should look for Simon too. I bet he's cold, going all by himself. I hope he's okay."

For her part, Hannah seems somewhat relieved that the knight's attention is not focused on her at the moment. She stares down at her hands for long moments while the other two speak, then pats her mount's neck absently, lost in her own thoughts.

Tristan is briefly confused. "Beg pardon, my lady, but did not the Lady Sorceress say we should look for a statue of Lady Ariel?"

The lady-in-waiting bites her lip and screws up her face in though. She answers shortly, saying, "Wasn't Lady Ariel Lord Mel's wife? That was a very sad story! But I'm not very good at history. So many names, and sometimes I forget who's who. I'm terribly sorry if I'm mistaken."

The knight nods. "That is she. But the Lady Ariel was winged. The only one of her kind," he says, sadly.

"Snow covered wings then." The little girl frowns. For the first time since they set out she draws quiet.

The Green Sward
It is green no longer, with winter's blanket heavy upon the land, but some of the trees are pines, and emerald needles peep out from under a coat of frost and snow. A ruined mansion dominates grounds where overgrown hedges define vast expanses of white. Occasional broken statuary may be seen here and there around the estate.

During the long ride, the party has seen occasional signs of activity -- torn trees, marks of strange beasts, and troll tracks. Tristan diverted them to a side track at one point, concerned about the nature of traffic on the main road. Now, as that track emerges from the wood into what ground is still cleared at the Green Sward, he draws in a sharp breath.

The snow has been churned and turned, as if a small army had been tramping back and forth across it. At one end, an encampment of large, crude tents perches. Acrid smoke wafts on the breeze, tasting of grease and foul oils. Misshapen, cloaked figures move around the encampment, some troll-sized. Two shapes are about right for a mount and rider, except that they wear strange cloaks which conceal even where the legs and hooves of a horse would be.

Upon seeing the army the little girl quickly covers her mouth, just muffling a startled gasp. Her eyes widen and she instinctively reaches to clutch the knight's leg with her free hand.

Hannah pulls Fiona to an abrupt halt, muttering darkly under her breath. "It seems I was right about trolls heading this way," she whispers to the others. "Even though I prayed I was wrong," she adds grimly.

Alice lets her hand slip just enough to allow her to speak. She does not, however, relinquish the knight's leg. "Do you think they know about Sir Theodore? Lord Eoin knew Sir Theodore. He ... you know, ... and maybe he came here to find him again. I don't know if the legend only allows theright people past the ward, or lets anyone in but only the right people can wake Sir Theodore up."

Tristan shakes his head quickly, not in denial, but simple dismay. Instead of answering Alice there, he eases Souhait back into the woods, and Fiona is more than happy to join the retreat. When they are safely away from the encampment of monsters, Tristan reins in, thoughtful and more than a little worried. "They must be searching for something. And Lord Eoin ... yes. Of all living people, he is one who would know. He would remember."

"But the Lady Sorceress is the one who concealed Sir Theodore. She would surely not make it easy for one such as the Year's End to find him," the knight adds, with a confidence that is, perhaps, a little more emphatic than strictly necessary.

"We can't let his lordship find the entrance though anyway. I don't know if we're enough even with just him alone. And if we can't reach Sir Theodore then we can't wake him up anyway, and Mirari will be without a leader," Alice frets. She relents on her grip of the knight's leg and absently reaches for her purse fumbling her hand inside it. "And I don't think I could put Sir Theodore's head back on again. I don't have enough band aids ... I don't think." She wrinkles her nose at the idea.

Despite the recent dire revelation, Sir Tristan cannot help smiling at Alice's final comment. "I am afraid my lady speaks true," he says. "Yet we are surely too few to repel them by force. We are near to Avalon, and might look to them for reinforcements ... " He considers, frowning.

Even in this tense situation, Hannah manages to smile a little at Alice's last comment. Then she turns her attention to Tristan. "And I agree with you - I do not think that we, as able as we are, could fight our way through this number of trolls and God knows what else that's camped out there. Do you know of any routes that might take us around these creatures, without adding too much time to our travels?"

The little girl draws quiet too, brow furrowed, arms crossed in a look of almost comic concentration. "Maybe," she begins after a moment, "we could distract him? If some of us went one way and the rest of us went to the statue from hiding then maybe his lordship would follow them while the others reached Sir Theodore? Then with the knights we could make the army go away. And if the other got in trouble they could run for House April. I don't think Lord Eoin wants to let House April know he's here just yet so he'd try real hard to chase them. But maybe not too far."

The little girl adds, "That's only if the statue is here and not farther in the forest. I don't think we could sneak too far."

"My apologies, Lady Hannah," Tristan says, a little grim. "I am afraid that that -- " he gestures to the trail behind them " -- is the Green Sward. Those creatures must want something with it. Perhaps, like us, they are looking for Sir Theodore and his men, or perhaps they mean some other ill." The elf nods to Alice. "A distraction certainly has some merit. Though we would need a good distraction, to convince that many of them that they are all needed to pursue the false lead. Even a small fraction of their number, if left behind, would likely be more than we could handle."

"But what could we do that would be that big a distraction? I've been practicing my glamourie but I don't ..." She glances at the army, shivers, and looks back. "... dont' know if I could do that much. I'm not sure. Um, maybe if they thought Lord Mel was here? Or, hm, if we had a horn maybe we could make it sound like a big army was coming from beyond a hill. But that might not work if one of them went and looked."

"Are trolls scared of anything? Do they like anything? Maybe if we knew that we could use it to make them go away for a little while," further suggests the lady-in-waiting.

The elf knight glances over his shoulder. "The only troll-sport that I know of is -- " He breaks off. "Unsuitable for mention in polite company," he finishes. Tristan frowns, considering. "If this is not some evil coincidence, than these must be the Destroyer's people. They would be here under his orders ... "

Hannah looks to Alice. "I like the idea of perhaps giving the suggestion of an appearance by Lord Mel - but an alternate suggestion may be in appearing to these creatures as Lord Eoin himself. Do you think they have seen him as we saw him in Court?"

"I don't know," admits Alice, "and Sir Tristan and I kind of look like Lord April but not exactly. Not up close. And none of us look like Lord Eoin. He has black hair and scary eyes. But um, if I really had to say so I'd say he'd still dress like Lord April. I don't think he likes looking like himself."

"If one of us could look like both that'd be great, but I don't think we can," continues Alice. "But I do have Lord Mel with me. And Sir Tristan kind of looks like Lord April."

Tristan directs a brief smile to Hannah. "I was thinking much the same. It is true that none of our party looks like the Destroyer unmasked. But a little glamour would be enough to make me pass -- to the undiscerning eye -- for Lord April." Another quick smile. "Once or twice, I have been mistaken for my lord quite unintentionally. The question then is: how discerning is our enemy's eye?" He blinks at Alice suddenly, his train of thought derailed. "You have Lord Melchizedek with you?"

Alice rummages in her little purse and pulls out her Lord Mel doll. His mane is a bit flattened to the right for having been in the purse so long but otherwise he's a accurate little Lord Protector. Accurate in plush anyway. She holds him up so Tristan can see. "See? He's kind-of-sort-of Lord Mel," she explains proudly.

The elf knight is startled by the doll's appearance, and touches a finger to one arm of the plush animal. "So it is," he says, uncertain what to make of this revelation.

Hannah twists Fiona's reins around her hands as she thinks. "And the other question is - which image of the Destroyer are they familiar with? If we choose the wrong one, we are in grave trouble indeed." She starts to say more, but stops and looks at the Lord Mel doll in Alice's hands with a questioning expression on her face.

The doll is hence lowered and hugged by the little girl. "He's my best friend along with Lady Nymuae. I don't know if he can help now though. I haven't asked because he's really busy and in the dark. I wanted to do it myself, so I could show him I could." The little girl smiles. "But for being tricky I'm not sure. I think they would know about Lord April. Or that Lord Eoin was lord April. The legends haven't said anything about what Lord Eoin looks like. The only reason I know his name was from a really old letter and some old legends. But nary a description anywhere. So I think he'd be hidden."

"If I understand correctly," Sir Tristan says, thinking aloud, "then it is most likely that the Lord Protector Melchizedek, and my own Lord April, are both prisoners of the Year's End. And, surely, his most important prisoners."

Alice nods to that. "Aye. In the dark."

"If Lord Mel and Lord April showed up, and Lord April was really mad about Lord Mel escaping, maybe that would work even better?" suggests the blonde.

Hannah nods to Tristan. "That is my belief, and the Lord Explorer's, too, given some information we received while in the lands to the West."

The young knight nods to Alice. "It might, at that. Perhaps we do not need to impersonate the Year's End at all. A simple messenger, come to tell them that these very important prisoners are loose ... and a little evidence that they are near at hand, and might easily be apprehended by clever souls ... "

"But who would go? I can't because I have to wake up Sir Theodore. But I would if I really had to!" asks the little blonde girl. "If you want to borrow Lord Mel he thinks that would be okay and he trusts you all. I trust you too."

Hannah looks from Sir Tristan to the doll Alice now clasps to her chest. "Well, we have our impersonator for Lord April. And I could try to be the messenger from Lord Eoin myself. My own gift of glamourie may come in handy for that task." Then she turns to the blonde girl. "But I am not sure how your doll could be used to give the suggestion of Lord Mel being close at hand...? He is rather - well, small."

"You are right, Lady Jill. If we present a distraction, then you must be our main attack. You must enter the Siege and wake Sir Theodore." He takes the offered doll in one gloved hand, considering its fiery mane and unflinching gaze. "Methinks there is more of the Lord Protector to this doll than one might imagine." Tristan pats Souhait on the neck. "What think you, old friend? Might we manage it?"

Souhait snorts and nods his head, flicking his ears back towards the doll. The Lord Protector rides with us.

Alice leans forward towards the doll in Sir Tristan's hands and gives him a worried smile. "I'm sorry to ask when you're very busy," she tells the doll,"-and I'd like you to know I'm very worried about you too -- I think he can find you! -- but may we ask your help? I wanted to try and do it all myself and show you, but I need you now. So if you could, could you please help Sir Tristan? He's very nice and I like him a lot."

A breeze picks up, rippling through the snow-clad trees, and the guards gathered near them shiver. A presence, felt more than seen, moves over them. A sense of reassurance and strength surges briefly through the party, and the stuffed unicorn's head almost seems to nod.

"You're the best!" And the blonde lady-in-waiting hugs the doll (and consequently part of Sir Tristan's arm) tightly. "Thank you!"

Hannah's eyes go wide as the breeze ripples around them. She stares at the stuffed figure in Tristan's hands. "Certainly more than meets the eye, at that," she murmurs.

Previous Log: Quest for the Green Sward	Next Log: Finding Sir Theodore

Thread Links
	Previous Log: Quest for the Green Sward Next Log: Finding Sir Theodore		Previous Log: Truth of the Optikon Next Log: Identities and Fates

---

This site serves as a chronicle of sessions in an online roleplaying campaign moderated by Conrad "Lynx" Wong and May "Rowan" Wasserman. The contents of this site are (c) 2001, 2002 by Conrad Wong and May Wasserman except where stated otherwise. Despite the "children's fantasy" theme of this campaign, this site is not intended for young readership, due to mild language and violence.