Repeat Performance
Back from our successful recovery of our group's leader, we return the horses we borrowed to the stable master. He is a member of the resistance group himself and lent us the horses, as well as acted as one of the decoy riders for the ambush. But when Ganelon and I lead the horses towards the stables we see a brou-ha-ha ahead. Someone is arguing with Jacovo, the stable master.
It transpires that the horses we were lent were promised to a local and he is complaining that they are not ready to be collected on time. As we approach with his horses he only gets more agitated, upset to see 'his' horses have been unduly exercised before tonight's performance. We recognise the fellow as Thressing Umbero Ulvano, a famous and highly regarded actor, and one with a thespian's flair for the dramatic.
Ganelon tries to calm Thressing down, using his most diplomatic efforts. Sadly, diplomacy is not Ganelon's bag and he sounds more sarcastic than sincere. I am even less diplomatic, our smooth talkers heading in the other direction to pawn the weapons we recovered from our ambush to a friendly blacksmith, and can only try to browbeat the actor in to understanding that the world isn't actually ending. I'm equally ineffective, and come across as shouty and rude.
Our efforts to defuse the situation fail and so we deem it best to wander off instead of making circumstances worse. Of course, we already have, but we don't want to make them worse than that. So I'm not entirely sure why, when we watch Thressing continue to abuse Jacovo for minutes longer, I get the urge to run off to a nearby florist, buy a bunch of blooms, and return to shower Thressing with them when he finally shuts up.
'Bravo! Encore!', I call as I toss the flowers his way, 'Bravo!', fully appreciating the skill and emotion that went in to his performance, but for some inexplicable reason my praise is taken in the complete opposite way by the actor. Rather than bow and be humble in the face of such admiration, even with false modesty, it only seems to make him more upset. Moments before he was to turn away and leave the stables behind, Thressing instead bursts in to an even louder and angrier tirade at my impudence. I feel it best to turn away and leave him to it, although I can't help but chuckle to myself when I do.
I suppose I did actually ask for a repeat performance, and I certainly got one.