Open A Charmed Life

[Liminal]

OOC Note: This thread is for a major citywide announcement. Feel free to post your reactions to the announcement if you wish. Anytime after the 1st of Winter, its contents will be common knowledge throughout Zeltiva. This will be the kickoff of a major quest, but your PC does not need to post in this thread, or even be in Zeltiva on the 1st, in order to join the quest. You can think of this as the prologue.

1st of Winter, 512 AV

The first of winter was an important day throughout Mizahar, but it was particularly notable in Zeltiva. It was a major holiday, marking as it did the birthday of Kenabelle Wright, greatest of the city’s heroes. It was a time of joy and community, of celebration and cheer.

There were often, in addition to the usual festivities, speeches and proclamations. One of these was taking place today in the Sailors’ Guild Hall, though it was open to the entire public. The room was packed, and with good reason – the person at the front of the hall was Charm Wright, and when Charm Wright spoke, people listened.

Not that she did much speaking anymore – those days were largely over for her. But when she did, people paid attention. After all, she was someone worth paying attention to.

She was, as far as these things went, a sort of Queen Mother figure in Zeltiva. She was the younger sister of Kenabelle Wright – and yet, she had pursued a career in the Sailors’ Guild on her own merits, serving a full apprenticeship, becoming a full member, achieving the rank of Captain, leading the Great Eastern Expedition, and finally, becoming Senior Member of the Administrative Committee. Her daughter, Jocylinda Wright, currently was the Senior Member, and her granddaughter Teresa Wright Allwave was a notable musician and writer. After the deaths of Timothy de Octans and Stephanie Brooks, she was the last living link to the Golden Age of Zeltivan Exploration, a noble figure from a more noble time.

Charm had been retired for over a decade now, writing her own memoirs and editing her sister’s papers. She seemed to have little interest in continuing to influence public affairs, preferring to let her daughter stand on her own. She was still relatively hale and active, but she was pushing eighty years old, and each of those years showed in her careworn face. It had been some eight years since she had even spoken in public, and so when she was announced as a speaker for this year’s holiday, her appearance had attracted intense interest.

As she approached the lectern, the crowd grew still. Everyone wanted to hear what Charm had to say.

[Ricky Maze]

The day was marked as a momentous occasion for all of Zeltiva, not becausr it was the complete transition of the nee season but because of the speech Charm was to give. It was indeed quite an occasion for most to attend to, and even though he needed to push himself to do so Ricky still felt obligated to be here. The last of the Fall had been spent with too much time indoors with little social calls, only when he did his duty as a Wave Guard did he step outside to sweep his post. So it was important he listen well today, for Charm was now getting ready for the speech. Ricky wore his regular winter clothes that involved his longsleeve shirt and pants, both made of cotton, and his leather shoes. Keeping tucked away in the corner of the crowd he blended in well, hoping to avoid any chatter with the others around here. He was here to listen to Charm, nothing more or less really. Whatever he could do to chase away the sirens of sleep he would attempt, just so he could keep the nightmares at bay. The crowd held their breath in silence, waiting to hear the speaker address the audience.

[Liminal]

Charm reached the lectern and gripped it with both hands. A mage from the University stood off to one side, amplifying her voice so that it could be heard in all corners of the room.

"Thank you for coming," she began. Her voice was still powerful, but the cracks of age were showing in places. "It has always meant much to me and to my family to have this holiday dedicated to my sister. She was a great and a noble hero, one altogether fitting of a celebration."

"But if she were here, she would no doubt say, as she so often wrote, that she was by no means Zeltiva's only great and worthy child. She would speak of the great sailors that have shaped the city's destiny -- Timothy de Octans, Stephanie Brooks, Josephine Helm, and others. She would remember the powerful intellectuals who have kept the fire of knowledge -- the Falconers, Bethany Edgetower, Professor Stonemiller, and many like them. Kenabelle, after all, was both a Captain in the Sailors' Guild and a college Chair at the University, and saw more of both sides of the city than nearly anyone else. She appreciated and understood the work of others, and knew that it is only as we work together that we achieve anything of value. Her own achievements, as she so often said, were not, in the end, her own, but rather the achievements of sailors, shipbuilders, scholars, and others who had made them possible. As such, on a day when we honor her, we in truth honor Zeltiva, in all her many facets."

She paused here, and applause filled the room. Some assumed that perhaps she was finished, but she thanked the crowd, and then continued.

"That is what I have to say in regards to this day and this city that occupy such a tender place in my heart. But, with your leave, I would like to add a personal request here."

"I'm taking a ship to Darva, and I'm looking for volunteers to come with me."

Even the mage couldn't raise Charm's voice over the noise that came from the crowd at those words.

[Ricky Maze]

The speech was indeed a memorable one as the crowd listened and applaud, the excitement now dying down for her to finish once more. Yet when Charm had indeed made her next statment the uproar that followed was more then enough to raise Ricky's question. An expedition. To Darva. Had he taken the chances of sailing when he was younger surely he would know now of this place, or at least heard of it from other sailor's in time. Yet his experience with the disappearance of his father at sea made his fear of the ocean a reality, a respectible one that he dare not try to defy. That being said he had not only just returned home last season, but had no house left to return to at all. Even if he did he still couldn't go off on such a expedition so soon, not when he hasn't been back for so long. Plus he was clearly not in any good form of health, after losing his dog not to long after their return he still wasn't close to recovering. Yet Ricky was curious about this place, curious enough to speak his mind when others died down to a low mumble. "What's Darva?" He said loud enough for all to hear, though it was plain to see it was a thought that spoke for itself; rather then Ricky being the one to ask.

[Liminal]

"Darva?" a woman near Ricky responded incredulously. "The island of the damned, or something like it. No one ever comes back!"

At the lectern, Charm had raised her hand to request silence. "I know, I know. We sent two colonization trips there last century. Neither was ever heard from again. We can see figures on the shoreline, hear the drums, see the fires, but the minute we try to find out what's going on, it's as if the island swallows them up."

"Why would I go there? Well, I've found some interesting references to it in my sister's papers, hints and omens that may hold the key to the mysterious island. And I'm an old woman. If I don't come back, it's not as if I haven't lived a full life. I've seen my daughter and my granddaughter grow up, and if I'm to die, I'd like to die having one last adventure."

A hint of a smile played over her wizened features. "I've had a ship constructed at my own expense for the purpose. However, I've not asked the Sailors' Guild to supply crew for me. I don't want to be in the unfortunate position of asking my daughter, the Senior Member of the Administrative Committee, to send off her people without much hope of getting them back. So I'm issuing an open invitation. The adventurous, the foolhardy, those with too much trust in an old sailor like me -- you can be my crew. Simply come to visit me at my estate. It doesn't matter if you're an experienced sailor or not -- getting to Darva is easy; it's only what comes afterward that's dangerous. We'll sail on the 60th, and maybe we'll discover a secret that's eluded us since the Valterrian. If we don't, at least we'll have disappeared in pursuit of the ideals of knowledge and adventure that have made Zeltiva great -- the same ideals that drove my sister to become our city's greatest hero."

"Thank you, and enjoy the festivities."

The old woman took no questions, and uniformed members of the Guild kept the crowd away from her. She turned from the lectern and shuffled away, leaving a stunned crowd in her wake.


OOC: A new thread will be posted soon for those wishing to join the expedition!