Finding Sir Theodore (24 Oct 2002) Alice's friends try to distract the trolls, so that she can search for the hidden glen.

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.

After further discussion, the parts were settled on. Hannah and Fiona would ride into the thick of the encampment, under guise of one of the Destroyer's minions. Shortly after her arrival, Tristan and Souhait, bearing Alice's stuffed unicorn, would catch the eye of the army's watchers, masquerading as the escaped prisoners: Lord April and Lord Protector Melchizedek. Alice and the four guards would wait for the army, influenced by these tricks, to be drawn away from the Green Sward. Then they would move in to search for Sir Theodore's glen.

Even after they had settled the final details and begun preparing for their parts, Sir Tristan remained concerned. Finally, he shook his head. "I can think of no improvements to our venture; yet I wish that I could. I feel less than gallant, posing as decoy while those I am charged to protect risk themselves in more dangerous roles." He turns to mount Souhait again. To maximize the credibility of their role, they have dressed for their part of escaped prisoners. Tristan wears a torn cloak and muddied tabard, turned inside out to hide its device. The stuffed version of Lord Melchizedek is carefully secured to Tristan's belt, hidden by the drape of the cloak. Souhait has been stripped of his tack and barding, left only with his saddle blanket, mutilated and soiled beyond recognition. Unhindered by the lack of stirrups, Sir Tristan vaults onto his steed's back. "I daresay we had best begin, before I think better of all this, and beg my ladies to set our course for Avalon, and forget Sir Theodore."

"Good luck, Sir Tristan -- good luck, Lord Mel!" whispers Alice. She waves to both from behind the tree she has taken to hiding behind and gives them a big smile. "Remember when I arrive at the Siege, I'll vanish for a little while. And be extra-really-careful because Simon and Lord Eoin might be here too."

Hannah gives the knight a solemn nod and bids him good luck. She even reaches over to pat Souhait's nose, silently wishing him a safe journey, as well.

Noticing Hannah's gesture to the knightsteed, the little blonde adds a somewhat embarrassed call of, "Good luck, Souhait!"

"I shall be, my lady; you have my word on it," Sir Tristan answers Alice, with a small bow. Souhait whickers at Alice, rubbing his nose against Hannah's hand, then taking a step backwards. Before they leave, the blond knight looks to November's daughter. "Yours is the most perilous of our tasks, Lady Hannah," he says, his voice soft and earnest. "Fiona is a knightsteed, and likely faster than any of the Destroyer's monsters. I beg of you, do not hesitate to use that speed, should this ruse fail you. He gives a troubled smile. May your luck be as great as your courage, my lady. Then all my worries will be for naught." He draws his sword in salute, then turns Souhait about, starting away along on a hunting path.

After seeing the knight off, Alice turns to the guards that accompanied them this far and begins re-explaining some details. She elaborates on Simon's appearance and that they should be careful not to hurt him if they can manage that and eventually concedes that if they must fight with him to try and at least do as little damage as possible in order to capture him. And all that Alice notes is only if Simon doesn't listen to the truth. The little girl frowns as she goes about explaining all this. The concern over having to plan against her friend weighs heavy on her.

For her part, Hannah winds and unwinds Fiona's reins around her hands, saying nothing, her mind obviously on what she must do to complete her part of the ruse. Yet every once in a while, she comes out of her reverie to glance in the direction of where Tristan and Souhait have gone, frowning nervously.

As Alice runs out of plan points to review she starts talking about this and that. How pretty the garden must have been, how she'd like to see it in summer -- anything. Just to talk.

Despite Alice's nervous chatter, the minutes tick by slowly. One of the guards from House October -- a Foroove, Caradoc -- checks his timepiece frequently, splitting his attention between it and the little blond girl. Finally, he breaks into Alice's monologue to nod to Hannah. "Time."

Hannah nods in answer, mounted and waiting on Fiona. She turns to face Alice on her gray palfrey. "I will return to you as quickly as I can after my role in this business is done, but I cannot predict when that will be," she says, earnest hazel eyes fixed on the blonde girl's own. "Chance may have it that you and our guards will enter the Sward alone. So take good care, Lady Jill, and Godspeed."

"Good luck Hannah!" is Alice's response to the older girl's words. She pauses, then adds, "I'm glad you came with me!"

Hannah gives Alice a quick lop-sided grin, even unsettled as she is by the task at hand. "And I am glad to be of use, milady." She then reaches down to ruffle the mane of her mount. "Off we go to face trolls again, eh, Fiona? By now we should be used to it," she quips, attempting an air of confidence. To this the mare tosses her head and snorts once, clearly questioning the sanity of that remark. Yet she also rakes one front hoof through the snow, communicating that she is more than ready to get the deed over and done with.

Hannah eases Fiona a few paces away from Alice's mount so that her sudden transformation will not startle the other horse too much. She pulls the hood of her cloak up to cover her face, then bows her head in concentration. When Hannah looks up, she is not herself any longer, but a figure robed entirely in black, tall and menacing. Eerie red eyes glow from beneath the figure's hood, tracing a path from Alice's face to that of the distant encampment. One black-gloved hand raises in the young girl's direction in farewell, then the figure turns Fiona smartly about and rides away, to take up a position where they may approach the creatures' camp from the west.

Alice returns the wave. When the older girl has set off for the encampment, she looks up at the Foroove and leans forward to whisper in a startled and nervous voice, "I didn't know she could do that!" She leans back a bit and glances at Hannah as her image shrinks against the snow covered Sward. "We'll have to be hidey-sneaky when it's our turn. We need to find the statue of Lady Ariel. There might be some of them in there, too, so we should be extra careful." She bites her lip and grows quiet. Without Lord Mel, Hannah, or Sir Tristan around she feels sorely lacking in huggables. She absently hugs the Foroove's leg instead and settles in to wait.

After giving Hannah a little time to get away, Alice and her remaining guardians advance from their clearing well back from the Sward, to a knoll scouted for them earlier by Tristan. There, the slope of the land and the trees will screen them from sight, while allowing them to spy on the camp below. A few minutes after they have positioned themselves, one of the sentries calls out something indecipherable, and a group of the Destroyer's creatures, armed and threatening, sally to meet the now-sinister Hannah. Even her mount looks grim to Alice's eyes, a fire-eyed monster no longer fully equine. The "messenger of the Year's End" halts his alien steed and raises one gloved hand. After a short exchange, the group escorts the false messenger into the camp. As they approach its center, Hannah disappears from Alice's view, one of the blocky tents blocking her line of sight.

For a time that feels like an eternity, they can see nothing of Hannah. Finlay, the Foroove hiding with Alice, pats the little girl's head while she clings nervously to his leg, though he looks no less worried than she. Activity grows inside the camp, with more of the trolls and strange monsters milling towards the center.

Abruptly, a cry from the west end of the camp is loud enough to reach even the ears of the distant watchers. Even prepared as they were, the guards draw in a collective breath. "Holy -- " Caradoc says, pressing a hand to the tree nearest him.

Dressed in rags, with the hood of his cloak thrown back, Lord April rides bareback on a gleaming black unicorn. His hair blazes gold, and the mane of his mount twists like fire in the breeze. They seem to be much closer to the camp than should have been possible for them to come, without being seen earlier by the sentry. A half-dozen other cries join the first, then Lord Melchizedek is turning and fleeing. First, the creatures of the Year's End in the immediate area begin to pursue them. Then the hue becomes general, and it seems that the whole camp rides, runs, or shambles in the direction of the pair. While they move fleetly, the unicorn's red tail is as brilliant as a banner in signaling his retreat.

But as the dust clears, it becomes apparent that the camp is not deserted. Caradoc counts beneath his breath. "I see at least five sentries remaining," he says.

"Seven," one of the Queen's guards, Illan, corrects. "And there may be more out of sight to us."

"We have to go. If we don't find the Siege, then Lady Hannah and Sir Tristan will be in trouble." The little girl releases the Foroove's leg and this time it's she who pats him. Only on the knee since she can't quite reach his shoulder. She looks towards the ruined sward and tries to figure out how best to approach it without being seen.

Finlay bends to lift Alice around the waist, while Caradoc sidles over to them. Finlay sets her down on his back. "As you say, mistress: in we go," Caradoc answers her, with a certain grim cheer. The other guards nod.

A survey of the land suggests that the most discreet approach would risk struggling through the undergrowth of the woods for a hundred yards, then coming in with the bulk of the ruined mansion as shelter between them and the camp. It would be faster to run across the relatively clear (if thickly snow-covered) space where the lawn once would have been,, until they reached the ruin, but during the run, there would be a much greater chance of being spotted, then if they stuck to the tree's cover.

The little girl glances between the two choices of paths to take and bites her lip again. "I think we should go through the forest path. Then Sir Tristan can make the army go farther away and Lady Hannah will have more time to come join us," she explains shortly. "What do you all think?"

"Or maybe we could run and use a glamour. Can any of you do what Lady Hannah did? I'm not sure I can. I could try. I never was very good at playing a monster though. I tried to be a dragon once and it made Tommy giggle," she adds.

Thoughtful looks all around from the guards. Caradoc shakes his head in response to her next question. "No, m'lady, I sure couldn't, don't think any of the rest of us could." They all shake their heads in concurrence. "If yer good with a glamour, m'lady, could'ye maybe make us lot harder to see while we tried to get a bit closer? If ye can't, then I think it best we follow the forest a way, yah."

"I'll try. If I can't we can always go the forest path," answers the little girl. "Gather around please!" When the various guards have gathered close she takes up a hand of the two guards nearest her and squeezes her eyes shut and screws up her face in a look of almost comical concentration. She thinks of being hidden, of blending in with the snow and the trees and of her companions close about her.

"Did it work?" one of the humanoid guards asks, in a hushed whisper.

"I don't know," Caradoc says. "I felt a tingle. But ye never know with glamour, when you're the one wearing it. Ye can always see through it when yer expecting it."

"Do we risk it, then?" Illan asks. They all look to the blond girl for guidance.

"I think, ... I think we should go. I've been practicing and I'm worried about Lady Hannah and Sir Tristan. I don't really want to make them wait and what they're doing is really hard. 'Nay, they're being very brave. We should be brave too," responds the blonde lady-in-waiting. "But it's hard to run fast when I'm wearing a dress. Could I ride with you, Mr. Caradoc?" Meanwhile she tries to focus on blending in. It makes her words a bit choppy as she has to split her concentration but she thinks it's necessary to maintain the glamour.

Caradoc reaches behind himself to pat the little girl, still seated on his back where Finlay placed her. "Na to worry, little one," he tells her.

"Let's make good time. Spread out a little, but not too far," Illan tells them. "Lionel and I will go first; we're slowest, but we'll try to be quick." Once he has everyone's nods, he dashes out from hiding, sprinting forward, running low to the ground so that the drifts of snow provides additional cover.

As the group sets out Alice peers at the snow covered landscape and makes sure to add that to her mental image of how they should blend in. With herself seated she can devote more attention to trying to maintain a glamour, and does just that.

The snow has been trampled enough that their prints do not stand out as they would in a fresh fall, though anyone drawing near would doubtless wonder about the new prints coming out of the woods. Still, they make it unmolested to the cover of the ruined mansion. Once there, the group clings to the broken stone wall, eyes peering around. "There!" Finlay says, in an urgent whisper. He points around the corner of the mansion, toward the enemy camp.

Alice, who had been keeping her eyes squinted as she maintained her concentration on the glamour, blinks a little and peers out to where the guard indicated.

She follows his gesture to a spot just inside the circle of tents. A statue rises, of a rearing horse, great wings spread and white with a burden of snow. Their edges drip with icicles. "That must be her," Finlay adds. "That tent was blocking our view of her earlier."

To this the blonde gives a little nod. "To be sure, it might be very hard for all of us to go over there. Mr. Caradoc and I will go there if you might all hide yourself here." The little squints again though this time her purpose is to try and see the area around the statue a bit better. "Can you see the Siege paths?"

"Not beneath all this snow," Caradoc says. "Do ye have to be able to see the lines of a Siege to work it, miss?" While she's studying it for signs of the familiar circles, she spots three hulking shapes of trolls, and a fourth creature, a big snowy-pelted beast shaped as great cat, seeming to stand guard around the camp, watching for intruders. The white feline surveys its surrounding with half-lidded eyes, sprawled and nearly invisible against the snow.

"I don't think so," replies the little girl. "But I do see a very scary group of trolls and a very big white kitty-cat." As she continues to survey the area the girl thinks on the matter of how to approach. She thinks about Caradoc being stranded and without her glamour if she's unable to take him across as well as the matter of the guards. "If the two of us go I may not be able to take Mr. Caradoc across the Siege. Then he'd be in trouble. If I go alone I don't know what I'd do if they saw me. But if we all go you all may have to get in a big fight. And I don't want anyone to be hurt."

The subject is given the careful deliberation it merits. After a moment, Illan shakes his head. "Lady Jill, I'm not sure we're going to get a choice about fighting. There's too many of 'em, too close to our goal. M'lady, do you know how long it'll take to make the Siege work?"

Alice considers a moment and then answers, saying, "T'would be my thought that Sieges take a few seconds to work. But I'm not really-super-sure. But first I'd have to find the center. Once I do that I can cross over and then I have to wake up Sir Theodore. That may take a little bit."

"But we wake Sir Theodore in the glen. I hope we'd be safe, there," Caradoc notes. "If we're lucky, we could maybe get to the Siege and pop through without them seeing us 'til it's too late. But ... for sure we need to know what spot were going to. Can you tell where the center is? Won't have time to hunt for it, not with them all watching."

"The flower beds could show where. They make up two circles of the Siege. So if I stand where they connect in the center then I'd know. And there's a marker there too, and Lady Ariel is on one of the circles as well. So if I can't find the marker I can stand where the flower beds and Lady Aerial's circle's would look like they'd meet," explains the little girl. "But I'm not sure I can take you all across the Siege. If I can't only I'd go and you'd be left behind with the monsters. And that would be bad! But I don't know. I'd try my best and go really fast if it doesn't work. But do you really want to go? I can go by myself if you don't. It's okay."

"No, ye most certainly cannot go alone," Caradoc snorts. "I'll take ye, never fear. Flowerbeds, eh?"

Finlay crouches, peering in the direction of the statue. "There is ... a kind of pattern to the drifts. Look, the snow's lower there, and higher there, in two curves, see? Bit of a concavity. See the intersection?" Caradoc squints with him, while the other Foroove gestures and whispers.

"I think I see it," says the lady-in-waiting as she squints.

While she's looking, a flash of movement catches Alice's eye, but this time coming towards the camp from the northwest - the direction in which the false Lord April and Lord Protector vanished some minutes before. She can tell that it is a cloaked person on horseback, but no other details are discernable at this distance.

"Well," Caradoc says, scratching his head. "That makes one of us. Right or left of the statue?"

"Left," Finlay says, exasperated.

"Good enough," Caradoc says, cheerfully. "I'll run, you tell me where to stop, miss. Ready?"

Worried Alice tugs on Caradoc's arm and points towards the approaching rider, whispering, "Someone's coming. Let's go!"

"Right ye are. Hang on tight!" the Foroove whispers, bolting forward at a flat run. His footfalls are relatively light, but the marks of his prints still appear crisp and new in the snow. He dodges around the broken statuary and low walls between them and their target, and all too soon they are clear of any kind of shelter. The great snow cat lifts its head first, sniffing the air. For the moment, the trolls aren't looking their way.

Alice holds on as tight as she is able and yet still see around Caradoc. After all she has an intersection to spot. When the great cat begins to sniff she tries to think about smelling like snow. She isn't positive that a glamour can smell different too but in this case she's quite willing to try it anyway. Just in case.

The cat yowls suddenly, making the trolls look to it. Its nose points towards Caradoc and Alice, sliding onto its feet -- of which it seems to have too many. It stalks forward.

Upon seeing the kitty really does smell them, Alice gets a idea. She reaches in to her purse and seeks out her pouch of catnip. Then she leans out a bit and dumps the contents on to the snow.

Suddenly, the sound of rapidly-approaching hoofbeats erupts from the northwest edge of the camp. Alice is distracted just long enough to see Hannah and Fiona burst in among the crowd of tents at top speed, with the older girl shouting at the top of her lungs.

The big cat's nostrils flare wide, and it yowls again, but this time it sounds pleased instead of alarmed. The three nearby trolls look around wildly. One of them focuses on Alice and Caradoc and gives a shout, but the other two stare at Hannah instead. Caradoc bravely forges on ahead. The feline bounds over the snow, but its target is clearly the herbs they have left behind. Other sentries from elsewhere in the camp are continuing the alarm, and heading in the general direction of Hannah, Alice, Caradoc, and the statue.

Now that her job of adding another distraction has been accomplished, Hannah draws her rapier as she rides to meet the trolls, readying herself for battle.

Sure now she's been spotted Alice urges Caradoc onward with a whisper. As they ride she searches desperately to locate the "bit of a concavity" and determine where the intersection is. She also seeks out the simple stone markeras further indication of where the it might be. For the moment she thinks better about yelling back to Hannah. After all Hannah is trying to be a big distraction she thinks and yelling wouldn't help her at all.

Caradoc unhooks his mace from his waist as one of the trolls comes towards him. The other two trolls are circling in on Hannah and Fiona, who look ready for the attack. More monsters approach them, from farther distances. Just then, Alice catches a glimpse of stone, snow drifted from its peak, inset at an oddly-shaped spot where the snow is lower than elsewhere.

When she spots it the blonde tugs at the Foroove's arm and leans forward to point around his waist to the spot. "There it is!" she whispers excitedly. "Take me over there please!"

Caradoc curves about to avoid the near troll's clumsy charge and slash, then says, "Ah!" and dashes for the spot.

With a tug on Fiona's reins, Hannah directs the knightsteed to rear up and kick her front hooves out at the nearest of the two approaching trolls, thereby encouraging him to keep his distance. She keeps a wary eye on the second one, ready to slash out at him with her sword whenever it looks about to strike.

As Alice and Caradoc race for the intersection, Alice prepares herself for the process of activating the Siege. No longer needing to maintain her glamour any longer she lets it fall so she can focus wholly upon the task before her. If she's going to get Caradoc and herself across she thinks she'll need all her concentration.

Caradoc leaps onto the ground before the stone marker, while Alice focuses her thoughts on Siege-walking. Vaguely, the blond girl is aware that the troll is approaching them again, that Hannah has swung her rapier at a nearby troll and it reeled back from the threat. Then -- everything fades from her view.

Sir Theodore's Glen
Like the woodcut image in Nymuae's book, this is a fairy-tale place, of green grass,flowers, and rose bushes. The flowerbeds form two intersecting circles. Figures lay out, clad in full armor, but curiously peaceful for all that, as if they were sleeping. On a central stone slab, beneath the outstretched wings of an alabaster pegasus, a bear-knight slumbers, his arms folded together over a leather-bound book on his chest. The silence is only disturbed by the tweeting of birds, and the occasional gentle snore.

After a timeless, frozen moment of falling, Alice comes to herself, lying amidst scented flowers, in the peaceful glen.

"Oooh," whispers Alice. The strain of having been focusing so long and so hard combined with the queasy falling sensation makes her head feel funny. After gaining her bearings she carefully lifts herself up and decides to look around draws herself up and looks around. "How pretty," she remarks as her eyes take in the glen. A fairy tale within a faerie world. It makes her smile a little even despite the worry that still clings to her. When she spots Sir Theodore upon his slab she begins towards him and wonders how she'll know what to do.

A robin perches on one wing of the statue, chirping, as Alice approaches Sir Theodore. As she draws closer, she can see the fine details on his plate armor, and the lion rampant upon his blue tabard. A blue silk bookmark trails out from the book on his chest. She can't see the whole title, as it is partly covered by his folded arms -- but this is a book she has no trouble identifying from a couple of letters: a Bible.

"Of course!" remarks Alice as she figures out what the book is. It makes her think especially well of Sir Theodore and his knights of course, but it also gives her a renewed awe of Lady Nymuae's cleverness. With a sense of consuming urgency reminding her that she must hurry, she stands on her tip-toes and reaches for the Bible.

****Note to GMs: Alice used up 5 lp total this log.

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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.