CRW XIV Roleplay

A bar maid steps out from under the over-hang at The Black Bear Tavern. A cold strange wind blows down the small cramped streets. She can feel the eeriness settle deep into her bones as the hair on the back of her neck stands up. Something is coming.....


Elsewhere in the City...

In a small hovel, under the cover of night, a young man sits by fire light brushing rock and dirt from a book that he found underneath the woodpile outside of his home.
"Good, you have found it! I knew that is right where it would be." A voice said from the dark shadows of the small room. The young man held the book tightly with one hand and covered his mouth and nose from the horrible stench of the man, if he even was a man, who occupied the dreary room with him on this unfortunate night.
"If you knew where it was why could you not get it yourself?" The young one replied.
"I told you it is because of the spell, now have you gotten the other three?" The shadow and voice seem to move toward him but seem to have no shape.
"No, I have not. But I have an idea where the next one might be. It is in a Kingdom to the south. I will travel there once I have means to do so." The young man turned, walked outside, and reburied the book where he found it and turned to face the shadow. "Just for safe keeping. You would not want anyone finding it while I am away."
"Nor, would you want me running off with it. It is wise to be untrusting my serf." The shadowy figure threw down a small velvet bag. The young man picked it up and found the contents of the bag to hold the most brilliant stones that he had ever seen. "This should be enough to send you on your way. You must make haste, Boy. I grow impatient." With those words hanging thickly in the air the shadow dissipates as if it was never there. The young man is left holding a small fortune in his hand reminding himself why he has taken on this convoluted quest in the first place. He walks silently back into his hovel and sleeps until his leave in the morning.

The boy sits quietly in his small hovel, glad that he is finally home from his long journey. He took the three storybooks from his cloth travel bag and laid them out on the dirt floor. "I really don't see the interest in these old books. They are just children's tales." He picks them up, and begins to read one of the books out loud. "The Three Spinners. There once was a girl who was so lazy that she would not spin...." The boy's eyes grew wide as the book began to glow. The pages turn by themselves as if in a great wind. It startles the boy and he drops the book on top of one of the others. It made no noise, no cloud of dust. When it fell the book seemed to have been swallowed up by the other that it was to land upon. He picked it up very cautiously. The book had become fatter and filled with more pages. The boy stared with wonder and began to read again. “The Princess announced that anyone who asked her a riddle that she could not answer would become her husband, but should she guess it he must forfeit his head...”
He was cut off in mid story again by the ominous glowing of the story book. “I wonder..” He said. The boy looked at the book and smiled. He then dropped it onto the other storybook that lay open on the floor. The books quickly merged together making an even larger tome than before. He picked it up quickly and began to flip through the book. Before he could read any of it the words from the page began to drift up his arms. The gravely voice bellowing from behind him caused the boy to drop the book on the floor.
The boy looked down to see it slide to a stop at the feet of a weathered man in a dark cloak.
"What exactly do you think you are doing, Boy?"
"I was reading before you stalked in where you didn't belong!" The young one looked at the old man, whose face and hands looked as if the flesh seemed to be rotting from the bone.
"Well you have saved me some time, I will grant you that. Hand over the book and I will take my leave."
The boy somehow knew that this was the shadowy figure from months passed. “I don’t think its a good idea anymore. They are not just common children’s stories. I don’t think anything you will do with this book will be anywhere near the realm of good.” The boy made a move for the book and the old man dived for the boy.

Shivanni sits at the back table in a low lit, seedy pub. She had come to Darkwood to get away from the hustle and bustle of the castle and also to check on the construction of her new alchemist hovel. "Just because you blow up half the Castle, stupid nobles think you can't be trusted." Shivanni sat gulping down the strongest brew the tavern had. She got up shoved her hand down into her pouch and flung a few silver on the table and unsteadily walked out of the dive and into the street. She ambled along looking at the buildings until she got to the edge of town. "I know that stupid grass hut is around here somewhere." She blinked in the dimming light of the evening and walked toward the forest. Shivanni walked for what seemed like miles, unable to find where she had started building the month before. The darker it got the deeper into the forest she went. Just after dark she came to a tower that seem to shine with its own light. Still feeling a bit tipsy and now very tired she knocked on the tower's old wooden door. When no one answered she let herself inside.
"Hello." Shivanni called out. The bottom level of the tower was dark and sparse, with no furniture at all just an old wooden stairway. "Is there any one here?" Her voice echoed off the bare walls.
She walked in and slowly climbed up the stairs. As Shivanni neared the top of the long winding staircase she began to hear chanting and smell rotted flesh. She quietly pulled her dagger from the sheath on her belt and a potion bottle from her pocket. She climbed the rest of the stairs quickly. She could see the back of a cloaked figure. He was reading from a book which glowed with a brilliant blue light and emitted lovely colored sparks from the pages. As soon as he raised his boney flesh rotted hand to complete his incantation, Shivanni leaped upon his back. He quickly gave an inhuman cry and threw her to the dirty floor. Shivanni watched as he weakly tried to remove the dagger from his back. When she was sure that the monster had stopped breathing, she made her way to the book. The sparks had gotten brighter, she covered her eyes, but then peeked thru her fingers. The book had begun to bellow a dark fog like substance. It quickly filled the room and escaped through cracks in the window sill.
Shivanni watched as the fog in the room took shape. "Uh Oh."
She pressed her self against the wall knowing that she could not get to her weapon in time. The fogged formed into a small mass. Shivanni giggled. "It's a gingerbread man!"
Shivanni looked at the cookie critter closely, well as closely as she could get from being pressed up against a wall, and relaxed slightly. He was a bout 3 feet tall, icing for his eyes, nose, and mouth. He even had gum drop buttons on his chest and tummy.
"Good grief, I am officially blooming crazy." Shivanni laughed.
The Gingerbread man didn't seem to like being laughed at and pulled from thin air a 6 foot long licorice whip. He soon had Shivanni tied to one of the chairs, watching her struggle to free herself. He smiled and skipped down the stairs.
Shivanni stopped and looked down at her bindings.
"Who the devil would ever believe me? Wish I had Kyrryn about now. Everyone else is going to think I have lost all my marbles." She sighed and began to chew through the rope.

"There has got to be some way to stop this!" Shivanni paces the floor and mutters to herself. Since her encounter with the Gingerbread man she had also seen the pied piper, who incidentally got eaten by the big bad wolf, and also sitting outside near the pond the other night she could have sworn she saw a cow jump over the moon. She plopped down at her desk and began to write. She needed to find someone to help her. Shivanni giggled. "Oh, who am I kidding? If I come out and tell everyone that fairytale creatures are trying to take over the world, they are going to lock me up and throw away the key. For good this time!" She torn the paper into little pieces.
Shivanni mulled over plans for days, some were too stupid to work, while others were too crazy to even think about. Somewhere near the early hours of morning, while staring at the large shadow that swam the moat of the castle, Shivanni had a thought. The thought formed into an idea, which quickly became a plan. She sat down again at her large desk and began to write.

To the Populace of The Combined Realms,

Come one! Come all! May twelfth through May fifteenth, in the year of our Lord, two thousand and eleven, to visit the Village of Darkwood. It has all been arranged. A mysterious weekend of murder, mayhem, and backstabbing, as well as fun and games for the whole family. I promise a great adventure to be had by all.


Shivanni folded the letters and stamped each one with the seal of hand with an eye in the center down in blood red wax. She called a messenger. A young man, whose eyes where heavy from sleep, showed up in front of her. "Take each one of these to the ruling Monarchs of every Kingdom. Be quick about it, there is not much time."

She leaned back in her chair as the young man disappeared from her chambers. Shivanni smiled and pulls out a small silver vial. "Now I just have to get Og, Slaughter, and Termus all in one place to talk to them about the happenings of the event. Perhaps I shall invite them for tea....."