Yesterday evening was a Roleplay storytelling session by The Children of Stories as part of their annual adventure. I copied down a couple of the stories to give a taster of their talents.
The Roleplay this year features a gathering of children from previous years stories that have all been mysteriously summoned to Flambois, collectively known as The Gathered and you can read more at the link below:
We gathered then as we gather now, to share stories. Strifeclaw told us about the greed of the Bard King, and the Unweaver’s evil. Dogstar told us about the Mouse and the Knight, a boy who was transformed so he could defeat a powerful Knight.
Some of us knew the legend of the Mouse treasure, but dismissed it as mythical, but with Dogstar’s tale, we were freshly motivated to find it!
[12:25:57] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): The finding of it is a tale unto itself, but find it we did and broke the seal of greed with help from the charity of the gathered peoples of the Fairelands. I’m leaving out a lot of details here, to keep this tale brief.
[12:26:37] Dean Ravencrest (DeanRavencrest): yeh basicly Dogstars stories are probly relevant to whats happening
[12:26:44] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): Next we passed through a mirror to the Spring of Souls, to face the Death Knight. The same evil knight the mouse boy defeated.
The Knight was weary of undeath and lamented the evil choices he had made in life, but would not surrender his sword to us without a challenge. Again this deserves a tale all its own, but in the end we defeated the Death Knight and his army of wraiths and captured his sword.
[12:27:28] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): We had a little run in with Morkus Dreg and the Pawlice, but… ahem… let’s not dwell on that.
[12:28:01] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): There was a journey to another of the Fairelands, an encounter with some annoying ravens, made all the more annoying since Ravens and Magpies are kin. There was a green dragon of corruption that proved to be an illusion of the Bard King’s doing.
[12:28:46] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): Finally, with the artifacts of all four elements gathered, we placed them in position to breach the final seal. But again, we needed the assistance of the people of the Fairelands, whose combined charity and compassion powered the runes to finally break the seal.
[12:29:18] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): The treasure we uncovered was not gold or silver, but rather a sickly boy, the long lost Guardian of Fire. Trapped deep underground, surrounded by water, he was on the verge of death.
12:29:55] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson) leans into the next part
12:30:14] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): He died just after we got him out of the chamber, but even as we were comprehending the tragedy, something astounding happened.
His body erupted in flames and floated into the air. Before our eyes, Cale was transformed from the wasted body of a sickly child to an Immortal Phoenix!
[12:30:29] Tepic Harlequin: blimey!
[12:30:31] Fen (Fenrue): \o/
[12:30:34] Brinley Taliesin (BrinleyTaliesin): golly
[12:30:37] Feilong Natas (NatasIfris): hmm phoenix boys are cute too
[12:30:37] Star Porter (StarPorter): Ohhhhhhh, Cale! Wow!
[12:30:41] Strifeclaw (Strifeclaws) blinks
[12:30:49] Feilong Natas (NatasIfris): phoenix even better than every treasure
[12:30:56] Dean Ravencrest (DeanRavencrest): yeh it was pretty gobsmaking if I’m honest
12:31:01] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): And that is how we Magpies, every one of us thieves, learned that some treasures are more valuable than gold.
[12:31:10] Trodden S. Miles (Trodden Miles) nods
[12:31:15] Kie Heartsong: nods in approval
[12:31:18] Ðæmøn (Daemon Davidson): But gold is still shiny, just sayin’
[12:48:01] NettleLarke: You all can call me Rabbit, if you like, and I’ve a story to tell. Some may find it intriguing, some may miss the point, and some may find their own meaning in it. I’m still trying to puzzle out the meaning of it myself. Who wants to hear it?
12:49:31] NettleLarke: Alright then! Be warned…..it involves dark places and dark things, but only just. Or maybe they’re the very center of it! It depends on what you see in it.
[12:51:14] NettleLarke pulls a ball from her pocket and begins rolling it in her hands as she speaks. “Once upon a time, a long time ago when the stars were young and the world was new….that’s how you begin a tale, isn’t it? Once upon a time, a long time ago when the stars were young and the world was new….a creature dwelt in the bowels of the world, of all worlds. She was a creature of many names, but today, I will call her by the name I know her: Hastele of the Dark Waters….”
[12:53:25] NettleLarke: “Nearly as old as creation, Hastele has power beyond imagining, the power to change, the power of chaos, the power to, one day, possible unmake all things and start them anew, or so the tales say.. But we all know how reliable tales are….
But as a thing with power, true power, over the centuries many came to her seeking favors, trying to make deals. “My brother is ill and we haven’t the means to heal him, perhaps you can?”” Rabbit continues, the ball ever in motion, seeming still in the air as her hands move around it. “And often she would oblige, in her own way. Heal the brother while inflicting similar disease on the supplicant, perhaps, or healing them by giving them a new body, that of a great stag, so he might bound off into the woods and be hunted.”
[12:54:02] NettleLarke: Hastele was cruel in her gifts, is cruel in them.
But then one day…..
….one boy approached here in the deep places. A strange lad, tall and wiry, and mischievous and dark.
[12:54:28] NettleLarke: “What do you seek?” she asked him.
“A great favor” he replied.
12:54:47] NettleLarke: “Indeed? Greater than a kingdom?”
“Yes, greater than a kingdom.”
“Greater than wealth, than power, than glory?”
“Greater than all those things.”
[12:55:52] NettleLarke: “And at this, Hastele leaned forward, intrigued.
“Greater than godhood itself?”
“Greater than that” the boy replied.”
12:56:16] NettleLarke: And the deep-dweller, she of the dark waters considered this for some time, unable to imagine what this upstart could possibly be asking for.
“Ask it.”
[12:57:22] NettleLarke: “And the boy answered “I ask….for your friendship.”
12:58:46] NettleLarke: And Hastele, dark thing for dark waters, dweller of the shadows, thought this over for a time and slowly, for the first time in creation, she smiled a smile, not of malice, not of irony, but a true smile…..and she granted it.
[12:58:59] NettleLarke bobs a curtsey and wheels, stepping away.