Ku-Halan
A bard played by Galen. Retired after a few encounters to manage an orchard with his new elven bride. He resurfaced briefly to provide a warningn to the party that they were in danger (quoted below).
The Festival of the Day of the Beloved Dead is upon the town and the various priests are travelling around town, leading processions. The largest is parade led by the priests of Pelor, travelling the town and blessing the houses of those in good favour. The Hearthstone is one of their early visits and many of your group join the festivities. Tonight is the solstice and business will be good.
The parade is great fun and doesn't end until after midnight. Returning to the Hearthstone you are welcomed by a full tavern and a cheerful atmosphere. Shortly after you arrive you are pleasantly surprised to see Ku walk in the door. He wears his lute across his back, travel dust on his brow, and a smile on his face.
"I thought I'd find you all here! What news? You are all well, I take it? I have some new tricks to enhance my performance," he smirks confidently. "They came at a high price, but they're very effective," he winks and continues badgering you for details. You exchange pleasantries and update each other on what has happened since last you spoke. Ku tells you that a group of Paladins and Priests sealed the dungeon you had found and must have placed a dweomer on it to keep it hidden since he went to check their seal and didn't find the ruins where he remembered them.
Ku looks distracted for a moment, glances around, then asks offhandedly, "Have you seen my wife? I just left her. She's around somewhere." He shrugs and then says, "Oh! I have a gift for you. I hope it is more useful to you than it was to me." He studies the room briefly and then nods. "That will have to wait. The crowd is ripe and I must perform!" Ku winks and walks up to the fireplace.
Ku charms a chair from a friendly farmer to the left of the fireplace and steps onto it, strumming his lute. He plucks a series of intricate scales and cord combinations to check the tuning. The audience quiets briefly amid murmers of "a minstrel" and "quiet, you, I want to hear this". Then shouts of "Play Hostel of Horrors for us!", "Sing the Tale of Lord Molkov", and requests for a dozen other favourites are heard. Ku smiles as he finishes his tuning and begins to pluck a cheery tune. "This tale is my own."
He sings a merry tune, his beautiful elven wife Valariana <<simple illusion of his wife looking playful and happy appears beside him briefly>> and him picking late season plums in their orchard, wasting half their time in newlywed domestic bliss. Valar heads back to the house to prepare some cool tea for noon as he continues picking. Ku hears his wife calling his name in the distance and whistles a cheery tune as he walks towards the house. He is almost at their house when she screams in pain. Dropping the plums Ku casts a spell of swift running on himself and flies through the orchard towards her <<Ku hops off the chair and sprints to the right side of fireplace>>. Just as he breaks out of the orchard into the clearing around their house Valar screams, "trap!!!" <<Ku turns and looks back to the left side of the fireplace>>. Ku stops at the edge of the clearing, horrifed by what he sees: <<Ku's wife is teetering on the edge of a wooden shed with a crude noose around her neck and blood running from her swollen lips. A malevolent elven woman with fiery red hair and bark-brown leather armour steps into view beside her.>>
"You must be Ku." The woman's smile looks more like a grimace. "They hung him, you know. They cheered as the life drained from him. I took this rope from the executioner after I choked the life out of him. You sent my love to the gallows. It's only fair that I return the favour." <<she kicks Valariana in the stomach, knocking her off the shed. In the same motion she draws paired swords and takes a ready stance (see picture)>>
"Valarrrrr!!!" Ku screams, <<the lute goes mad as he fades from sight>>. He sings of turning invisible and sprinting across the clearing towards her. He tries fascinating the mad elf with his singing as he runs but she laughs and waits. Valariana swings from the rope with panic in her eyes, kicking wildly. Ku is armed with only a dagger. He crosses the clearing and uses the shed's door-handle as a step to leap up and slash the rope. Valariana tumbles to the ground, eerily still. He loosens the simple noose from her neck and casts a cure on her as the elf leaps from the shed and bellows, "show yourself or I run her through". Ku dives beside her and drives his dagger into her back, winking back into view. She turns and slashes Ku's belly and left arm with her swords. He turns and runs to put distance between them so he can cast magical armour upon himself when the shed broadsides him. He is thrown through the air, lute and ribs broken. He rolls to his feet, trying to shake the stars from his eyes while gasping in pain and horror at his attacker <<a massive boar the size of his shed steps from the fireplace and menaces him as the elf steps up beside him and smashes his head with her sword pommels>>.
<<The lights in the tavern fade almost to darkness as Ku steps onto a nearby table surrounded by the illusion of the boar.>>
<<The bar is overlaid with an illusion of a setting sun>> Through searing pain I see the setting sun in the distance. It's beauty reminds me of my dear Valariana. I look around frantically, calling her name. I see her on the ground, facedown in grass red with her blood <<a tavern wench screams and stumbles backwards into the welcoming lap of local farmer when she sees Valariana's image appear on the ground beside her>>
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" bellows Ku. The Inn shakes and nearby glass shatters.
Quiet chuckling echoes around the room. <<The lights go back up revealing the woman standing beside Ku on the shed. Ku's hands are tied behind him and he's sitting on the back of the boar with a noose around his neck.>>
"Your suffering soothes me." <<She fingers the rope sensuously then looks at it closely>> "It's a sturdy rope, and long. They left him dangling from it for 3 hours." <<She steps in front of him, sitting backwards on the boar and bringing her face within inches of his while jerking him up and back with the rope, vengeance blazing in her eyes>>. "It will hang all of you so he may be avenged." <<Her eyes calm to smouldering hatred>> "I can't take them all, not yet. I will bide my time, then you will have company in your pain. Now I must go. I can't keep my client waiting, raising the dead is not cheap." The boar walks forward 10 feet.
Ku says "I slid off the back of the boar and the rope bit my neck, draining my breath." <<Ku struggles, trying to get a foothold on the shed as the elf cheers. Ku's struggling slows as he begins to turn blue>> "As I slipped into darkness the last thing I saw was my sweet Valar on the ground." <<Ku stops moving>>
<<A stunned silence holds the tavern. Ku is still dangling, gently swaying>> <<The woman rides her boar up to Ku, places him on the boar's back and collects the rope>>
<<The elf gets back onto boar>> An off-duty watchman asks "How did you survive to tell us your sad tale, friend bard?"
<<The elf lifts Ku's head and slits his throat>> A hollow voice says, "Who said I did?" <<The scene fades>>
A broken lute remains on the table where Ku had sat upon the boar. Nasar and Ray collect it for study while the bar sits in a somber silence.