Slain by Elf

Rehearsals continue. We are adventurers playing actors playing adventurers, for reasons that are even more convoluted and best not to try to think too hard about. We need to know our lines and perform them well, under the watchful eye of the director. Brennan, our bard in the protagonist's role and a bit of a thespian anyway, will do it on the night, mostly coasting through the rehearsals.

Ganelon is really finding his milieu, though, getting a natural 20 on his performance checks on successive days. This impresses everyone, not just the director, until Skelra reminds us that 'he is playing the role of the bumbling, comic-relief paladin', and we are left wondering how much is actually an act.

Our elf Afutavere is struggling, despite my best attempts to get him in to character. An interested crowd form at the stage door one afternoon as we leave, all hoping to get a look at the stars of the play, and I show them how well Afutavere can take a rock to the head. 'Come to the play', I say, 'it happens lots more!'

'I'm supposed to dodge them', Afutavere replies in a poor stage whisper, cupping the small gash newly opened in his scalp. But he is still missing his mark and fluffing his lines, to the point where when he is asked to make a performance check the next day he despondently says 'I don't want to roll any more'. Chum, you're playing the wrong game.

Needless to say, our hapless ranger fails to impress the director once again. And it seems that the director has had enough, launching in to another tirade about 'never work with animals and elves' but that 'it is too late in the day to re-cast the role, or to get another illusionist to peform you, so we'll have to tolerate your performance. The best I can do at short notice is give you this', at which point he brings out a circlet of persuasion, which he insists Afutavere wear so that he has a better chance of pleasing the audience.

'A circlet of persuasion?' Our bard is a little put out, it seems. 'I wish I'd screwed up my lines as much as the elf now.'

This entry was posted on 27th October 2011 at 8.56 pm and is filed under Pathfinder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.