Wednesday, June 26, 2019

The Giggling Dark: Session Twelve


Xellous: The main character, played by Ryan, who is the fourteen year old protagonist. Known as The Hero of Khouria, Xellous has crafted his own pair of Behemoth Gauntlets and Pyra, a bow that can destroy practically anything. Komas, Prime Minister Archibar's assistant, had let him into the King's Tower and left the key to the inner room with him.

King Varlur: The King of the Kingdom of Tala. His wife, Queen Veldora, had drowned their child, Prince Kallus. King Varlur had shut himself into a high tower, refusing to come out of the last few months, throwing the realm into chaos.


Xellous stood, facing the door, key in hand. He took a deep breath and walked in. The smell hit him like a falling tree as the door cracked open. The King's greasy hair fell in grey locks upon his shoulders. He sat before a window, looking out over the city of Broadnough, shadows barely present in the noonday sun. Xellous forced himself to breathe in the full stench of a month's seclusion. King Varlur didn't turn to acknowledge Xellous, and indeed Xellous didn't think the King even heard him.

So Xellous went out, grabbed the cart, and wheeled it into the room. He returned to a gaze that was as dead as it was wrathful; the King's aura shone with a muted rage. Xellous told the King he had to come to help him, that he knew of the King's loss because of the loss of Kora. Xellous spoke passionately of his own heartbreak and his wish to help King Varlur in his own dark hour.

King Varlur yelled that those who disturbed him were to be sentenced to death. As King Varlur jumped, his aura shifted, which distracted Xellous long enough for the King to wrestle Xellous to the ground, hands on Xellous' throat. Xellous pushed King Varlur off and grabbed the sheet concealing the preserved Khen-Zai and pulled it off, shouting that this was the thing that had taken King Varlur's child from him. King Varlur fell back onto the filthy bed, stunned. Xellous explained his horrific history to the King: how the Khen-Zai manipulated women into drowning their children, only for them to be reborn as the flaming revenants known as Flammeous Lads, and how the Lads ate their mothers, creating a vicious cycle that kept the world going. Incredulous, King Varlur asked Xellous if that meant Queen Veldora was innocent, which Xellous emphatically confirmed.

King Varlur asked how a mere child such as Xellous could have survived an encounter with the Khen-Zai. The Hero of Khouria's tale was known by him, and the thought of a fourteen year old boy taking on the Behemoth of the Apocalypse  and these Khen-Zai was hard for the King to take in. Xellous told him he was an enchanter and showed him Pyra, as well as his Behemoth Gauntlets. Astounded, King Varlur asked where Xellous had learned how to do such things. Xellous abashedly told him that enchanting came naturally to him, that he had always known how to do it. King Varlur told Xellous that he'd had more life experience in his fourteen than most greybeards, if not several at once! If King Varlur had been in Xellous' shoes, he would have retired already. Xellous replied that he needed to get his wife home before that happened. Rising, King Varlur commanded Xellous to kneel; confused, he did so. The King knighted him Sir Xellous and made him a part of The King's Bodyguard!

They left the tower, to find utter chaos at the bottom. A page boy recognized the King and  ran up to him, but nobody else seemed to. Sir Xellous yelled for everyone to stop and kneel for their king, but nobody recognized the king after his seclusion. King Varlur whispered to Sir Xellous to shout "LONG LIVE THE KING!" Sir Xellous did, and everyone started. Finally seeing the King, they all knelt before him. The King asked the page who knelt before him what was going on. The page explained that Prime Minister Archibar had vanished, along with half the court, and Lord Mayor Reven was coming, right then and there, to be crowed King!

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