Zorcerer Write Up: Love and Deathless
May. 8th, 2010 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
subplotkudzuRachel: Jenny Wren, a beautiful forest maid and cockeyed optimist who can speak with animals and whose singing can produce productive dance scenes/event montages. Orphaned at birth, she was raised in part by Dr. Catseyes.
Diane: Beatrix Bunny, the most kind, brave and clever of bunnies and therefore a current owner of gold shoes of Easter . She is the mother of 20 children, ably midwifed by Dr. Catseyes, and exceedingly well organized.(1)
Jim: Quentin le Crabbe of the Azure Bay Crabbes, a gentle-man thief (he pinches things) with a gruff, short fused exterior masking his basic goodness. Dr. Catsyes helped him with some knee trouble (arthropodic surgery) recently.
Upon hearing of the passing of the aged and beloved Dr. Catseyes (once one of the world greatest battlefield surgeons who turned to private practice (2)) a crowd of hundreds arrived for his funeral. Alas, with no heirs and his apprentices all now at distant shores, there is no one immediately available to see to his estate. By popular acclaim Beatrix – the most organized of bunnies – is chosen by those at the wake, while Quentin is dragooned by the bunny for his appraisal skills and Jenny, who lives in the Blue Forest nearby, volunteers.
The initial day’s work is greatly aided by Jenny singing a happy working song to get the local mice and birds to assist in cleaning out all of Catseyes’ half-eaten cheese sandwiches (3) and gathering the papers into piles for later review. As Beatrix and Quentin perform an inventory (turning up a well-locked box that yields to Quentin’s skills and contains a jar of Dr. Catseye’s miracle salve) Jenny sours the local forest, finding celery, spinach, berries and walnuts for their dinner, which Quentin’s sharp pincers slice up into a Waldorf salad.
As Jenny curls up for the night inside a nearby hollow tree and Quentin removes his hat and eight spats to turn in for the night the ever efficient Beatrix presses on. Before Jenny falls asleep one of her bird friends wakes her, warning her that “the dead man” is walking into the house. Inside Beatrix is shoved into one of the storage rooms and locked in by someone she cannot turn quickly enough to see. Quentin, hearing her commotion, dons a dressing gown (4) and heads out to see what’s what, only to find himself face to face with a walking corpse!
The horrifying apparition forces Quentin back by bellowing threats and demands and identifying himself as Koshi the Deathless, until the crab finds himself cowering on a stool in the corner. That’s when Beatrix, ever organized and already in possession of all the master keys, begins haranguing their rude guest until he is seated nest to Quentin, meekly accepting tea. “I’ve raised 20 children, it takes more than a walking corpse to scare me.”
The situation now under control the trio question Koshi, learning that Dr. Catseyes was the one who had removed his heart so many years ago, and now he wants it put back. While the advantage of not having a heart – the whole deathless thing – is great he has come to realize that perhaps the lack of a heart is leading him to some poor relationship decisions. For example, he always end up hung by a hook in his back storeroom shortly after he gets married. He has a new young woman with whom he is enamored but this time he wants to assess the situation with a heart to see if she’s really the right one for him. Unfortunately for our heroes he has a receipt from Dr. Catseyes promising to reverse his operation at a later date (which they suspect they can do with his miracle salve), which makes it part of his estate.
Even worse, of course Koshi doesn’t remember where his heart is, having wiped it from his memory to avoid him accidentally telling someone. But our heroes could always go ask the oracle at Bambury Cross where it is. Alas, the oracle is one of his ex-wives. He is willing to wait for them, despite his burning desire for his fiancée he is willing to be apart from her to be sure that she is the one. “She’ll be OK with this?” Jenny asks. Koshi assures her of this, leering a bit at the beautiful forest maid (5) but saying that the girl is convinced of the depth of his feeling, even if he has begun to suspect. “But how does she know?” Jenny presses, ‘How does she know you love her?”
“Don’t sing,” Beatrix interrupts. “Koshi, you are aware that the early stages of a love affair can be diagnosed as insanity? I suspect you’re blaming your bad behavior on your physical condition. I’ll recommend some books for on relationships while we’re away.”
Quentin counters, “I think your problem, old bean, is that you keep marrying the maids. No marriage, no hook, no problem.” He ignores the women’s glowers and slips a copy of How to be a Player into Beatrix’s stack of self-help tomes.
“In any event,” Beatrix says firmly, “we can’t go until the rest of the estate is in some sort of order.” The deathless sorcerer agrees to help. The next morning Jenny starts another happy working song, and the GM asked everyone for their image in the montage: Jenny danced through with a broom, with birds flitting behind her clearing away cobwebs overhead; Quentin tapped his feet while sorting the silver equipment into piles based on value; Beatrix hopped around with her clipboard, directing a horde of mice who are dancing by in a line, all holding boxes and papers; in the middle of that like is Koshi, dancing along with a box of filing.
Their initial task finished our heroes head out, promising Koshi to stop at the home of his current beloved along the way to drop off a letter explaining his sudden absence. There they find the house with its immaculately kept gardens and prettily curtained windows, with a plain girl in homespun cloth out front. She introduces herself as Griselda’s sister, and directs our heroes inside. Jenny stays outside to trade homespun cloth dress tips, while Griselda’s mother brusquely rejects Beatrix’s presence as she has a job and is therefore a menial. Quentin le Crab, of the Azure Bay Crabs, was more than welcome, and quickly realized that Griselda’s interest was in little more than property and cash that Koshi may have on hand. Quentin was hardly one to talk, since he was constantly twisting an eye-stalk to see if the house was worth a return visit (it wasn’t, the family had clearly replaced substance with gilt within the recent part).
Outside Jenny’s conversation with Ellen, the homespun stepsister, netted her a new comb and all weather homespun travel garment, along with the realization that this sister was also taken with the dashing Mr. Deathless, who has such a noble soul and deal so well with his condition. In any event the three say their goodbyes and head north into Viola to Banbury Cross, having been warned that getting to that elevated place will require riding up via hippogriff (6).
Once they approach they are able to get directions to the hippogriff’s glen, where Jenny is able to convince the tetchy beasts that they really are admired and respected for more than being conveyances up to see the Oracle, and could they please bring Jenny and her friends up to see the Oracle? Banbury Cross turns out to be a cabin suspended at the interlocking of two perpendicular rope bridges, each bridge guarded by a troll. Their landing on the roof is uneventful, and the Oracle lets them in through the roof hatch and offers them tea and kvetching. Jenny appeals to the Oracle's better nature when it comes to her ex-husband, while Beatrix commiserates about men and the problems of your children not listing to you even when you can see the future. Quentin slips back up onto the roof and bums a smoke from one of the trolls to escape the estrogen (7).
Eventually the Oracles realizes that she might actually get an apology from Koshi for his behavior (8) if he gets his heart back, so she agrees to answer their questions: Jenny: "Where is the heart?" "In the Peppermint Forest, home of the Webwitch, another woman Koshi has wronged." Beatrix: "What holds the heart?" "It is inside an egg, inside a chest, dog, inside a dragon, inside a cave." Quentin "What will we need to recover it?" "Scissors." "Better than these?" Mr. Le Crabbe asks, snapping his pincers. "Get a manicure," the oracle responds, and gives him the address of a good place in the Zo proper. The trolls are under orders to not accost the departing, so our heroes trek back down the mountain, aided by one of Jenny's inspiring songs.
Passing south into Zo proper they find the "Green in Tooth and Claw - dentistry, manicure, pedicure, talking animals a specialty" shop the oracle recommended, where Quentin undergoes a grilling by the manicurist as to his goals and activities, but ever the gentlemen, does not divulge any of Koshi's secrets. Seeing an easier target in Jenny, the lady of the shop pops off one of her hands, eyes, ears and lips to give the forest maiden a good tooth cleaning and questioning (9). Jenny too holds her tongue if only barely. Beatrix takes the opportunity to visit another shop to buy shears for her and Jenny, and then the three depart.
The Pepperment forest of Rojo is named due to the interplay of the white threads and strangs that interlace the entire forest with the red leaves & bark common to the Rojo oaks, making the whole resemble candy canes gone to seed. Our heroes notice the absence of bird life, and witness some of the treads snagging an unwary ground squirrel and dragging it deeper into the forest, like a snake swallowing its prey. Unwilling to meet such a fate they moved with great caution deeper into the woods, but eventually Jenny and Beatrix were both entangled by the ever-thickening pale strands. Quentin, moving quickly, leapt up, snipped a woman free with each claw, grabbed them and hustled in a low crab-walk through the worst of the threads. The cave mouth was right near the webwitchs' hut, where the ground were clear, as all the strands originated in the hut's thatched roof. Unwilling to spy on the lady Quentin moved them into the cave, where the path was blocked by a huge boulder. No wait, that's the dragon's eyelid…and it's opening…
Given courage by having nowhere to run, Jenny asked politely if she could see the dragon's dog. The Dragon, quite the canine fancier, was happy to oblige, opening his mouth to disgorge a Briard of enormous size and prodigious coat, but with a deeply matted chest hair that the dragon was never able to properly comb. Jenny took her own comb to the shaggy, loving animal, and inside the matted fur located a small, locked chest. Quentin's skill made short work of that lock as well, and inside was an egg, which Beatrix pocketed in her vest - as an Easter Bunny her vest holds many, many padded pockets for eggs. Letting the now show-quality dog back into the dragons gullet they bid him farewell, only to find tendrils snaking into the dragon's cave, looking for the intruders that escaped them before. While scissors and pincers held them at bay, the webwitch simply covered the cave's mouth. The only other way out was through a small estuary which Quentin alone could navigate. Trapped! (10)
The next day Jenny decided to sing for help from the moles and badgers, and when those helpful beasts arrived Beatrix realized that in the long trek she had lost the date! The badgers confirmed that tomorrow as Easter, and within the confines of Easter eve wearers of the golden shoes cannot be constrained and have vast speed. Bursting through the badger's initial tunnel into the waning sunlight she carried her friends and the egg back to Catseyes' house before her busy night of egg delivery. Koshi was busy reading "Men are from Oz, Women are from Narnia" when they arrived.
Using his delicate pincers and Dr. Catseye's miracle salve Quentin was able to reattach Koshi's heart, and much to their astonishment his decrepit form filled out, flesh regrowing as a healthy pink and his hair returning to lustrous black - only his haunted gray eyes remain unchanged. Quentin comments on the loss of his immortality, which Koshi regains by swearing a sorcerers oath to live until he has made amends with all of his ex wives. His produces the list, and apologizes for the 4 point type on the 6' long scroll.
But first, his affairs with his current love. Quentin gives him a warning based on his meeting with the girl, and again advises to drink the milk for free but not buy the cow. Jenny, on the other hand, tells him to look to look with his heart at the girls whole family, and see if there are any with whom he feels a real, honest affection. Koshi, now charming and well versed in numerous tomes of male and female interaction, nods.
He gives the beautiful forest maid a peck on the cheek, the gentlemen crab a firm shake of the pincer and begs them to extend his great thanks to the most clever, brave and kind Beatrix - once she finishes her busy night's work.
1) Diane is basing this off the children's’ book The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. I wasn’t even sure that Zo celebrated Easter, but given that their religion, Lionism, is based on a merger of the Cowardly Lion and Aslan it makes sense that there is some sort of resurrection festival. Besides, who is going to pick a nit like that with a player in a one-shot?
2)(http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/grimm/bl-grimm-3surgeons.htm)
3) Made of a cheese of his own invention that never grows mold, normally kept in velvet bags.
4) It’s best not to even imagine how that looks.
5) Koshi, leering, “So, where are you sleeping?” Jenny “In a hollow tree. A very narrow hollow tree.”
6) It’s a cock horse, you see….
7) The Troll was once Koshi's brother-in-law until his sister hung him from a hook, but that's the kind of thing they do, innit?
8) "an apology?" Quentin stammers, "but she hung him from a hook!"
9) This is, of course, another of Koshi's exes, but the players absolutely refused to give her the opening for another good harangue - Rachel even blew hero points to keep her lips zipped!
10) The Webwitch is actually Rapunzel, one of Koshi's first exes who learned to animate her hair. But the players wanted nothing to do with confronting her long enough to learn that, and while I could have kept them locked up until they followed my plot I decided that a player driven solution was much more fun.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Diane: Beatrix Bunny, the most kind, brave and clever of bunnies and therefore a current owner of gold shoes of Easter . She is the mother of 20 children, ably midwifed by Dr. Catseyes, and exceedingly well organized.(1)
Jim: Quentin le Crabbe of the Azure Bay Crabbes, a gentle-man thief (he pinches things) with a gruff, short fused exterior masking his basic goodness. Dr. Catsyes helped him with some knee trouble (arthropodic surgery) recently.
Upon hearing of the passing of the aged and beloved Dr. Catseyes (once one of the world greatest battlefield surgeons who turned to private practice (2)) a crowd of hundreds arrived for his funeral. Alas, with no heirs and his apprentices all now at distant shores, there is no one immediately available to see to his estate. By popular acclaim Beatrix – the most organized of bunnies – is chosen by those at the wake, while Quentin is dragooned by the bunny for his appraisal skills and Jenny, who lives in the Blue Forest nearby, volunteers.
The initial day’s work is greatly aided by Jenny singing a happy working song to get the local mice and birds to assist in cleaning out all of Catseyes’ half-eaten cheese sandwiches (3) and gathering the papers into piles for later review. As Beatrix and Quentin perform an inventory (turning up a well-locked box that yields to Quentin’s skills and contains a jar of Dr. Catseye’s miracle salve) Jenny sours the local forest, finding celery, spinach, berries and walnuts for their dinner, which Quentin’s sharp pincers slice up into a Waldorf salad.
As Jenny curls up for the night inside a nearby hollow tree and Quentin removes his hat and eight spats to turn in for the night the ever efficient Beatrix presses on. Before Jenny falls asleep one of her bird friends wakes her, warning her that “the dead man” is walking into the house. Inside Beatrix is shoved into one of the storage rooms and locked in by someone she cannot turn quickly enough to see. Quentin, hearing her commotion, dons a dressing gown (4) and heads out to see what’s what, only to find himself face to face with a walking corpse!
The horrifying apparition forces Quentin back by bellowing threats and demands and identifying himself as Koshi the Deathless, until the crab finds himself cowering on a stool in the corner. That’s when Beatrix, ever organized and already in possession of all the master keys, begins haranguing their rude guest until he is seated nest to Quentin, meekly accepting tea. “I’ve raised 20 children, it takes more than a walking corpse to scare me.”
The situation now under control the trio question Koshi, learning that Dr. Catseyes was the one who had removed his heart so many years ago, and now he wants it put back. While the advantage of not having a heart – the whole deathless thing – is great he has come to realize that perhaps the lack of a heart is leading him to some poor relationship decisions. For example, he always end up hung by a hook in his back storeroom shortly after he gets married. He has a new young woman with whom he is enamored but this time he wants to assess the situation with a heart to see if she’s really the right one for him. Unfortunately for our heroes he has a receipt from Dr. Catseyes promising to reverse his operation at a later date (which they suspect they can do with his miracle salve), which makes it part of his estate.
Even worse, of course Koshi doesn’t remember where his heart is, having wiped it from his memory to avoid him accidentally telling someone. But our heroes could always go ask the oracle at Bambury Cross where it is. Alas, the oracle is one of his ex-wives. He is willing to wait for them, despite his burning desire for his fiancée he is willing to be apart from her to be sure that she is the one. “She’ll be OK with this?” Jenny asks. Koshi assures her of this, leering a bit at the beautiful forest maid (5) but saying that the girl is convinced of the depth of his feeling, even if he has begun to suspect. “But how does she know?” Jenny presses, ‘How does she know you love her?”
“Don’t sing,” Beatrix interrupts. “Koshi, you are aware that the early stages of a love affair can be diagnosed as insanity? I suspect you’re blaming your bad behavior on your physical condition. I’ll recommend some books for on relationships while we’re away.”
Quentin counters, “I think your problem, old bean, is that you keep marrying the maids. No marriage, no hook, no problem.” He ignores the women’s glowers and slips a copy of How to be a Player into Beatrix’s stack of self-help tomes.
“In any event,” Beatrix says firmly, “we can’t go until the rest of the estate is in some sort of order.” The deathless sorcerer agrees to help. The next morning Jenny starts another happy working song, and the GM asked everyone for their image in the montage: Jenny danced through with a broom, with birds flitting behind her clearing away cobwebs overhead; Quentin tapped his feet while sorting the silver equipment into piles based on value; Beatrix hopped around with her clipboard, directing a horde of mice who are dancing by in a line, all holding boxes and papers; in the middle of that like is Koshi, dancing along with a box of filing.
Their initial task finished our heroes head out, promising Koshi to stop at the home of his current beloved along the way to drop off a letter explaining his sudden absence. There they find the house with its immaculately kept gardens and prettily curtained windows, with a plain girl in homespun cloth out front. She introduces herself as Griselda’s sister, and directs our heroes inside. Jenny stays outside to trade homespun cloth dress tips, while Griselda’s mother brusquely rejects Beatrix’s presence as she has a job and is therefore a menial. Quentin le Crab, of the Azure Bay Crabs, was more than welcome, and quickly realized that Griselda’s interest was in little more than property and cash that Koshi may have on hand. Quentin was hardly one to talk, since he was constantly twisting an eye-stalk to see if the house was worth a return visit (it wasn’t, the family had clearly replaced substance with gilt within the recent part).
Outside Jenny’s conversation with Ellen, the homespun stepsister, netted her a new comb and all weather homespun travel garment, along with the realization that this sister was also taken with the dashing Mr. Deathless, who has such a noble soul and deal so well with his condition. In any event the three say their goodbyes and head north into Viola to Banbury Cross, having been warned that getting to that elevated place will require riding up via hippogriff (6).
Once they approach they are able to get directions to the hippogriff’s glen, where Jenny is able to convince the tetchy beasts that they really are admired and respected for more than being conveyances up to see the Oracle, and could they please bring Jenny and her friends up to see the Oracle? Banbury Cross turns out to be a cabin suspended at the interlocking of two perpendicular rope bridges, each bridge guarded by a troll. Their landing on the roof is uneventful, and the Oracle lets them in through the roof hatch and offers them tea and kvetching. Jenny appeals to the Oracle's better nature when it comes to her ex-husband, while Beatrix commiserates about men and the problems of your children not listing to you even when you can see the future. Quentin slips back up onto the roof and bums a smoke from one of the trolls to escape the estrogen (7).
Eventually the Oracles realizes that she might actually get an apology from Koshi for his behavior (8) if he gets his heart back, so she agrees to answer their questions: Jenny: "Where is the heart?" "In the Peppermint Forest, home of the Webwitch, another woman Koshi has wronged." Beatrix: "What holds the heart?" "It is inside an egg, inside a chest, dog, inside a dragon, inside a cave." Quentin "What will we need to recover it?" "Scissors." "Better than these?" Mr. Le Crabbe asks, snapping his pincers. "Get a manicure," the oracle responds, and gives him the address of a good place in the Zo proper. The trolls are under orders to not accost the departing, so our heroes trek back down the mountain, aided by one of Jenny's inspiring songs.
Passing south into Zo proper they find the "Green in Tooth and Claw - dentistry, manicure, pedicure, talking animals a specialty" shop the oracle recommended, where Quentin undergoes a grilling by the manicurist as to his goals and activities, but ever the gentlemen, does not divulge any of Koshi's secrets. Seeing an easier target in Jenny, the lady of the shop pops off one of her hands, eyes, ears and lips to give the forest maiden a good tooth cleaning and questioning (9). Jenny too holds her tongue if only barely. Beatrix takes the opportunity to visit another shop to buy shears for her and Jenny, and then the three depart.
The Pepperment forest of Rojo is named due to the interplay of the white threads and strangs that interlace the entire forest with the red leaves & bark common to the Rojo oaks, making the whole resemble candy canes gone to seed. Our heroes notice the absence of bird life, and witness some of the treads snagging an unwary ground squirrel and dragging it deeper into the forest, like a snake swallowing its prey. Unwilling to meet such a fate they moved with great caution deeper into the woods, but eventually Jenny and Beatrix were both entangled by the ever-thickening pale strands. Quentin, moving quickly, leapt up, snipped a woman free with each claw, grabbed them and hustled in a low crab-walk through the worst of the threads. The cave mouth was right near the webwitchs' hut, where the ground were clear, as all the strands originated in the hut's thatched roof. Unwilling to spy on the lady Quentin moved them into the cave, where the path was blocked by a huge boulder. No wait, that's the dragon's eyelid…and it's opening…
Given courage by having nowhere to run, Jenny asked politely if she could see the dragon's dog. The Dragon, quite the canine fancier, was happy to oblige, opening his mouth to disgorge a Briard of enormous size and prodigious coat, but with a deeply matted chest hair that the dragon was never able to properly comb. Jenny took her own comb to the shaggy, loving animal, and inside the matted fur located a small, locked chest. Quentin's skill made short work of that lock as well, and inside was an egg, which Beatrix pocketed in her vest - as an Easter Bunny her vest holds many, many padded pockets for eggs. Letting the now show-quality dog back into the dragons gullet they bid him farewell, only to find tendrils snaking into the dragon's cave, looking for the intruders that escaped them before. While scissors and pincers held them at bay, the webwitch simply covered the cave's mouth. The only other way out was through a small estuary which Quentin alone could navigate. Trapped! (10)
The next day Jenny decided to sing for help from the moles and badgers, and when those helpful beasts arrived Beatrix realized that in the long trek she had lost the date! The badgers confirmed that tomorrow as Easter, and within the confines of Easter eve wearers of the golden shoes cannot be constrained and have vast speed. Bursting through the badger's initial tunnel into the waning sunlight she carried her friends and the egg back to Catseyes' house before her busy night of egg delivery. Koshi was busy reading "Men are from Oz, Women are from Narnia" when they arrived.
Using his delicate pincers and Dr. Catseye's miracle salve Quentin was able to reattach Koshi's heart, and much to their astonishment his decrepit form filled out, flesh regrowing as a healthy pink and his hair returning to lustrous black - only his haunted gray eyes remain unchanged. Quentin comments on the loss of his immortality, which Koshi regains by swearing a sorcerers oath to live until he has made amends with all of his ex wives. His produces the list, and apologizes for the 4 point type on the 6' long scroll.
But first, his affairs with his current love. Quentin gives him a warning based on his meeting with the girl, and again advises to drink the milk for free but not buy the cow. Jenny, on the other hand, tells him to look to look with his heart at the girls whole family, and see if there are any with whom he feels a real, honest affection. Koshi, now charming and well versed in numerous tomes of male and female interaction, nods.
He gives the beautiful forest maid a peck on the cheek, the gentlemen crab a firm shake of the pincer and begs them to extend his great thanks to the most clever, brave and kind Beatrix - once she finishes her busy night's work.
1) Diane is basing this off the children's’ book The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. I wasn’t even sure that Zo celebrated Easter, but given that their religion, Lionism, is based on a merger of the Cowardly Lion and Aslan it makes sense that there is some sort of resurrection festival. Besides, who is going to pick a nit like that with a player in a one-shot?
2)(http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/grimm/bl-grimm-3surgeons.htm)
3) Made of a cheese of his own invention that never grows mold, normally kept in velvet bags.
4) It’s best not to even imagine how that looks.
5) Koshi, leering, “So, where are you sleeping?” Jenny “In a hollow tree. A very narrow hollow tree.”
6) It’s a cock horse, you see….
7) The Troll was once Koshi's brother-in-law until his sister hung him from a hook, but that's the kind of thing they do, innit?
8) "an apology?" Quentin stammers, "but she hung him from a hook!"
9) This is, of course, another of Koshi's exes, but the players absolutely refused to give her the opening for another good harangue - Rachel even blew hero points to keep her lips zipped!
10) The Webwitch is actually Rapunzel, one of Koshi's first exes who learned to animate her hair. But the players wanted nothing to do with confronting her long enough to learn that, and while I could have kept them locked up until they followed my plot I decided that a player driven solution was much more fun.
And they all lived happily ever after.
