Ode to Chaos

An upset Quorra airs her sentiments of loneliness and despair, after the death of his two predecessors. She feels that existence seems meaningless - as she wrote in the lament for Evan - and that there must be a way to cope. She has not find it yet.

She does not turns to Pazuzu, but she understands - just think to her new alignment - that there can be no good without evil and that our lives will all end some day, for good or for ill.

This is an ode to chaos, but it ends with a heart-felt question about life and the future. She won't give up the search for a superior truth, meanwhile she can only fight for a better life for those under her reign. These are apparently meaningless words, but she's always been a free spirit and they reflect her moment of inner turmoil.

(the tune is sad, with a crescendo, ending in a slow despered whisper)

enter suicidal shadows

how hungry have we become

like animals naked in shame

fed with the hooves of apocalypse

that galloped down, disordered worlds behind

from word to a word I was led to a word

that spanned over cultures in rage

crimson masses, steeped in decadence

holding our tongues to the thirsty sun

so, is the future still open?

then enter, hornet, from our hive-dark hearts

to draw down the end from within

we need not the horns that emanate
from our warty, haunted bodies

nihilist pazuzu

the priceless art of their lives

sorrow is a wing laid atop their heads

skin deep, we carve our immeasurable sorrow

in the fold of your shivering arms

pazuzu,
your children wild
and filled with death

pazuzu,
in our unforgiving eyes

a pandemonium of bodies and gold

eager, as a part of your face

end the sickness attached to your skin,

as the wine-rush,

charging from androgynous wombs

to open free the lid of pain

pazuzu,
rinsed in post-human shadows

a monument scorned by the teeth of Time

stale-faced keeper of secrets,

leaded with implosive fire

the whore that carried the apostle

to the mating point on the graves of giants

we look at you, afraid
to see what we really are.

so, is the future still open?

New elements of strategy, short summary of what the new Baroness Regent presented to the Council

New elements of strategy, short summary of what the new Baroness Regent presented to the Council. She promised to protect the people of the Six Rivers and now thinks that the following measures need to be implemented as soon as possible to pave the way for a new stronger barony:

1) Clearing and claiming the Elven, the Dwarven and Oleg’s forts and outposts. We need strongholds to start making clear we are not playing with bricks. We are building a strong state. These 3 outposts, already built and ready, are a vital steps forward towards security, strength and the defence of our outermost borders.

2) Council reshuffle. We need to appoint a new Riverwarden - Kesten is now the New Lord Protector of Tatzlford - a strong warrior, a fierce fighter, a stern and stark bulwark against enemies, spies and foes. Guess whom J?

3) We need to honour the memory of our Second Baron, Clovis I the Brave, with a monument.

4) The Baroness Regent engages herself to send emissaries to Restov’s Elvish settlements, with which she had already dealt in the past, to invite them to the Six Rivers, inhabit and tame our woodlands and to enrich the skills, the qualifications and the culture of our barony.

5) Create the title of Grand Wizard of the Six Rivers (or a similar title) and appoint Leonidas who proved his worthiness in battle.

6) Write down a draft constitution to establish new rules and defend our liberties.

I urge upon the Council to give an opinion and implement these measures if they are found to be viable and effective.

Tatzlford’speech of the Baroness Regent of the Six Rivers

Dear citizens of Tatzlford and the Six Rivers, dear friends,

Our beloved and sorely missed Baron Clovis I is no more, another beacon of hope sent to
gather the lonely, the forgotten, the deserted, but also the brave, the bright
and the strong, is gone.

Nonetheless, we have to carry on.

I call upon you all – humans, kobolds, dwarves – and all the other races making up our kingdom to pitch in, stand up together. We are fighting spies, foes, enemies, prejudices and fears. We are fostering hope for peaceful development and a better life.

I bear my share of mistakes and I have learnt a lesson from what happened to Tatzlford a few weeks ago. This scar will remain carved in our memories and our souls. But not in vain. Now Tatzlford has strong stone walls built with the sweat of our welcome, industrious new friends: the dwarves. They are new life blood for the kingdom. As humans were at its beginning and kobolds just after them.

To seal the rebirth of Tatzlford, I give you a leader, a strong and firm hand, who can
protect you and make sure nothing bad happens again. I give you Captain Kesten
Garess, the noble new Lord Protector of Tatzlford.

(cheers, applauses)

So here we stand despite foes and hindrances, monsters and casualties. I urge upon you all to do your best to honour the promise of a better life. Much has been done: equal rights, freedoms of many kinds, low taxation. But even more remains to be done. It won’t be for now, it won’t be for tomorrow, but the work will get done. We will deliver, my fellow citizens, my kin.

As your Baroness Regent, your Bard, the head of the Academy, and most of all, your fellow Riverling, I promise to honour my people, to work for the common good, and to make new steps forward towards the establishment of a strong, healthy, wealthy and free barony for all those that can and want to embrace our values.

Let us now celebrate the rebirth of Tatzlford remembering those that we lost, but looking forward to better days to come.

May Erastil, Pazuzu and the other Gods of ours bless our kingdom.

May diversity make us stronger.

Because here we still stand, confident and strong.

Together as one!

Do sleep Sweet Baron, do rest now (Quorra's lament for the late Clovis I)

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? — To die, to sleep.

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished.

This consummation is now yours to be savoured.

Do sleep Sweet Baron, do rest now.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes.

None of these are now yours to be suffered.

Do sleep Sweet Baron, do rest now.

I knew him, Riverlings, I did know him! A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath saved me a thousand times from harrowing death but where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar?

I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory.

This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave overhanging firmament, this majestic roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me then a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

What a piece of work was Clovis! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form, in moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of his swordplay! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?

Do sleep Sweet Baron, do rest now.

7th Level

The numbers have been calculated....

You are all just below 7th level.  You probably ought to level up your characters.

One good thing of fighting (and killing) like 30 trolls - you get a lot of experience.

Too bad you can't seem to take care of the problem.

Violent Reprisals

3 Kuthona 4711

News comes from Tatzlford, in the form of a battered Loy Rezbin,  two-days after our illustrious heroes return from their second sortie to the troll stronghold:

Two trolls attacked the burgeoning village in the night.  Killing and maiming easily 50 of our people.  They attacked from two directions; those who fled the first troll ran headlong into the second.  The vile giants finally retreated after the townsfolk rallied against them, without a concentration of Riverwardens or Dragonguard in the city, the response was horribly slow.

Rezbin reports directly to the council:

His torn clothing and injuries make it abundantly clear that not even the founder/mayor of the small hamlet was spared.   Fatigue wears at his eyes and face.

"Those who fled the first onslaught were mostly women and children.  The weakest among us were the majority of casualties...


"The second troll waded into the midst of them, crushing skulls and bodies with every deafening swing."

His grief is unmistakable.  It quickly turns to anger,

"Months have passed since Tatzlford was founded.  Months!  And though you promised support from Six Rivers, there has been none since we established the city.  Nothing! While Six Rivers continues to grow, there's not even a suitable tavern or inn to speak of in Tatzlford!  Much less a guard post that could have alerted us!"

His tirade is cut by a heavy cough. Black spittle decorates his lower lip - evidence that the villagers used fire to combat the troll threat.  Perhaps too much fire, as you notice his singed eyebrows and bandaged hands.


 "I do not forget the lumberjacks who helped us clear away the forest.  But cleared lands means nothing against trolls and their ilk.  We demand improvement of Tatzlford.  Something, anything, to defend our people from such attacks!"

(Unrest increases by 2 as news spreads that your sorties against the trolls have inspired such a reprisal)

Current members of the High Council

As of 2 Kuthona 4711,

Swordlord Clovis I, Baron

Councilor Svetlana Leveton, Voice of the Six Rivers

Dragon of War, Chief Sootscale, General of the Dragonguard

Napnik, Grand Ambassador

Jhod Kavken, High Priest of Erastil

Brewmaster Orric, Royal Alchemist

Ranger Pyotr, Warden

Korbal Knuckle, Royal Executioner

Quorra, the Bard of the Six Rivers

Leonidas, the Royal Counter-of-Coins

Captain Kesten Garess, Riverwarden