Attached letter

Esteemed Champions of Democracy, I'm sorry to hear about Valaron's resignation, but also congradulate the rest of you on your hard earned seats. I've been working on a play to bring glory to our little Sanctuary, and further, raise interest in the Mausoleum. Should the council offer its humble backing (I am concerned I may have lost it with out Valaron's presence) I will write the last and final act. I'm sure issues such as monetary concerns for the cost of such a large production can be discussed later. -Karl. Karlston Brass

Massive bundle of parchments

Kharl Khemed

Act I, Scene I Prologue

Synopsis: Introductions, Modesty, Credit to Curator Karl stands on the stage alone, in the dark, unarmed. In his mask and black robe facing the audience, he introduces them to the night’s performance.

‘Before we begin, I must absolve my conscious. I know not this man, and am not fit to judge him. To only elevate him to one level of greatness denies him what others may have given him, posthumously. Regardless, a mortal is a mortal is a mortal, and we shall give the account of the last days of one worth remembering.’

‘I am Karl, Karlston Brass. I shall be playing Sergeant Kharl Khemed, and I am modest enough to think that we are only alike in name. I was taught by a great thinker that the goal of artist is to reveal the art and conceal the maker, so this is the last you will hear about me.

(Action Notation: Get into a modest guard costume during this scene. Very modest. Look very humble, human. Wear cloth uniform. Switch out mask for watch helm with a trick, illusion, flash of light, bow if I must)

(Editing Notation: Add introductions for final cast list, Etorix, Zovlador, Formians, Charles, extras; watchmen, formians, citizens)

‘And I must also further also welcome you to the Mausoleum reborn, given new life. I have the privilege of being under the employ of Sir Leonard Merrickson, your new caretaker. Gods have mercy upon his lively demeanor, lest this weighty duty consume him.’

‘As this is our grand reopening, I intend to show you a sight to remember. Ladies and gentlemen, I hoped you did not expect a solemn song. I give you, the battle between Zovlador and Kharl!’

Act I, Scene II False Start Synopsis: False impressions, cheap effects, establishing Kharl as not theater like.

Pure theatrics. Karl assumes a flashy Kharl Khemed armored costume, complete with glowing sword. Use flashes of light to illuminate the stage, the gate opened off stage, to the darkness. Stand before it, and shout to the approach of ever heightening music.

‘I am Sergeant Kharl Khemed, and I alone have the tenacity, courage, and heroism to face you, baleful bestial son of a beleaguered Balor!. Show yourself, your end shall be swift. Indeed, your end is so veritably nigh, I am shocked, shocked I say, that you have not already passed from this humble morta-‘

(Action Notation: Approach the gate dramatically, raise sword, look overly heroic)

Music crashes to a stop, suddenly. No planning or rhythm to it, force hands away from instruments mid measure. Karl approaches the stage, laughing a little.

‘My apologies, ladies and gentlemen. But you all know the problem. This may be theater, but that’s not how Kharl Khemed, a hero of the people, no, no. That’s vague. He was a hero drawn up from the ranks of the common man, to a lofty height of what they can achieve with out impersonating anyone, being true to who they are. And that is not how a man drawn up from such ranks speaks. That is how an over educated useless singer like myself poses drama. Regardless, I’ll bend my humble art to the task of portraying his character correctly. Once more, maestro.’

Karl gestures off stage, and the music resumes. Instead of a stately dramatic walk up to the gate Karl rolls his shoulders, and hefts a heavy bloodied non glowing sword. He leans back, and lets out a blood curdling cry of charge before taking a single step back and running through the gate, full tilt. He passes out of sight. Pause for 1 minute. Music turns from action packed to mysterious. The mysterious music gives way to drumming. The drumming is loud, powerful drumming to the sounds of the step of a slow, lumbering giant.

Kharl stumbles backwards back onto stage, staggered. His shield is shattered, his forearm covered in stage blood. He looks upward, his sword pointing towards the gate, shaking clearly. The music is drowned out by the drum, which becomes the only sound. Played as loud as possible, the beats slow to a painfully tedious pace. Kharl’s sword seems to be losing its resolve, the point dipping. Kharl straightens his posture, and yells.

‘No!’

He then charges the gate, the drums speeding up to match his foot steps. They clash just before the gate. Zovlador, played by a gnome or halfling in bright red costume steps forward and gives a deep throaty yell. The action stops, Kharl turns to the audience expectantly and says.

‘What were you expecting; I was going to sneak a giant in here to play the part?’

First Intermission, Curtains, 3rd party announcement, 3 minutes

Act I, Scene III Cliché Epic Battle Thing

Synopsis: Short Act, lots of epic fighting, shouting, and sword play, before we go back and start at the beginning.

Curtains pull back again, to reveal Kharl and Zovlador. They are standing in each other’s places. Our third party off stage announcer welcomes everyone back. Part way through, while he’s speaking, Zovlador and Kharl assume their correct positions, Kharl making a show of wiping his helmeted brow.

The action begins with a clash, and they fight continuously through out the scene. Zovlador speaks first.

‘Bow before your inevitable destruction at the hands of Zovlador, you puny, insignificant mortal!

Zovlador makes bends down as if he’s trying to crush Kharl, despite their relative difference in size. Kharl defiantly retorts, in the pleasantly accented rough around the edges voice you’d expect to hear from the local good guy smuggler at the seediest bar in town.

‘That the best you got, you big smelly bastard? Come a little closer, I’ll cut you down to size. The girls always said my size was my biggest advantage!’

More fighting as Zovlador slowly trudges along after Kharl, his foot steps still to the beat of drums. The enraged Zovlador shouts back at him.

‘Why do you resist, your puny human body can not flee forever. I’ll see to that!’

Flash of light from his outstretched hand, implying some sort of magical attack. Kharl stumbles. As Zovlador resumes his pace, Kharl charges heedlessly.

‘I’ll list the reasons, you overgrown sack of rothe shit!’

He then strikes in timing with his words.

‘Freedom! Sanctuary! A better life!’

More shuffling around and fighting, before he takes a defensive step back and speaks to himself, thoughtfully.

“Hells, and the things important to me. For my brothers! For my mother! For Rosie, and Lea, and that little red head number I haven’t got to yet!’

A beleaguered Zovlador pauses to cast upon himself (Editing Note: Find magician to play part, or hire good stage illusionist?). Kharl interposes with his sword, remarking as he does so.

‘And I’m not such a bad reason to fight for. Die because you’re trying to kill me, you thick headed overly dramatic giant!’

Consume them both in light, and close the curtains. The disembodied voice of Karl speaks to the audience.

‘We can’t exactly show you the climax of the battle just yet, though. Let’s take a look back, and examine how we got here.’

Act II, Scene I In The Beginning

Synopsis: Slaves escaping from Traensyr, arrival in Dunwarren mysteriously sheltered from the Drow.

Stage covered in darkness, no props. A group of huddled refugees crouch in the dark, bump around, sneak, run, and flee. They speak in harsh whispers, filled with fear. They take turns speaking, in no particular order.

‘Do you think we’re being followed?’

‘Shh, they’ll hear us!’

‘It’s so dark’

‘It’s so cold’

‘I’m so hungry’

‘What if we find a beast? We have scarcely enough weapons for all of us’

‘If we go back, they might feed us’

A firmer voice than the rest speaks up, previously unheard. Charles Bresley says ‘You all remember why we escaped, right?’

A concert of hesitant yeses is heard.

‘Then we’re not going back’

More running around, shuffling in the dark. A cry of ‘Look out!’ is heard. A crash, scream, and running.

‘Where’s Merryson?!’

‘Shut up and run!’

The sound of metal upon metal is heard, and a distant roar. This gives way to running, then the labored breathing of the exhausted. Quietly, you can hear a woman crying.

‘Johannes’ she whimpers ‘It was too soon for you to go. You were so small, weak, and gentle’

Charles embraces her in the dark, smothering her cries. Moments pass. An emotionless order is given in Elven.

‘Lasz!’

Arrows fall around them, revealing Charles holding Melinda, and their beleaguered fellows about them. The escaped flee off into the darkness, then off stage. The Drow then approach where the escapees were, and begin searching around for their tracks. They follow them to where they disappear, and the music takes on a ominous mysterious tone. They look up at a bare faced wall, where the tracks disappear. The drow search high and low, speaking back and forth in their tongue. The light never leaves the sight of the bare faced wall, and the drow’s language becomes more and more stressed, until the curse the sky and the curtain is pulled.

Act II, Scene II I Shall Watch This Night

Synopsis: Narration by Karlston about the mystery of Dunwarren, dangers of the realm. The survivors first work in Dunwarren, Charles taking up the mantle of the Watch. Karlston stands on stage in the dark, once again in his normal guise.

‘No one can say why our city is so sheltered, or why we are so drawn to it. Consider, my fair audience. Generation after generation of slave has fled to this exact spot, with out rhyme or reason, to things I’ve been known to take as an excuse for many a suspicious action. In popular news, there is a book on the subject by that controversial criminal, ‘The Scholar’. Some Scholar, eh? The man majored in ranting and raving about being misunderstood, I think. But he makes a good point in his ‘Tomb of Stone’. Why do we flee here, and why are we so unmolested by the countless dangers of this dark? I do not claim like he, we are like the giant deep lizards that come here to die. As I hope Charles will so admirably demonstrate to you, I believe we all came here out of a desperate plea to live.’

With out further adieu, Karlston disappears. It’s good to be a magician. Simultaneously, the stage is illuminated in eerie blue light, and the music takes on a hallowed church going tone. The assembled survivors are awed by the sight of ruined and ravaged Dunwarren, which is a dilapidated. Charles begins barking orders and getting people to work on surveying the place.

Karlston speaks up, invisibly. ‘And so Charles did begin the great work of preparing this Sanctuary for us, though it was no easy work. These ruins had long lied neglected, now home to all manners of beast, monster, rogue animatron, and restless dead.’

(Action Notation: As he speaks, the survivors have gone their separate ways across the set, cleaning, moving, digging, looting. They do battle with the various creatures outlines, in a confused and disjointed fashion. Charles brings order where he finds battle, forces people to aid him when he must bring his rusted sword (Note: Reuse Kharl sword prop?) to bear.)

During this scene, an undead gnome (use skull mask, pallid clothes) stumbles out of a make shift building, confronting Melinda. Melinda is unusually calm and curious for one of the survivors and declares

‘One of the citizens of this strange place. Is he a restless dead?’

On cue, the gnome speaks up, giving his best rendition of ‘Braaaains’ lurching towards Melinda. She steps back, and skillfully employs a staff to keep it distance from her. A spell from Melinda staggers it, drawing Ubel’s attention. Sauntering forward, a weighty mallet in hand, he readily declares

‘I got your brains right here!’

The gnome pointedly ignores him. Melinda speaks up

‘I don’t blame you, three years in the pens, he still thinks flatulence is the height of wit. Despite sleeping where he sh-’

She is promptly cut off by Ubel smashing the gnome on the head. Stage prop should be attached to the mallet to produce a spray of green slime, covering him and Melinda. Afterwards, they glare at each other, and resume their work.

Karlston, resuming his narrative ‘And so the day did pass. And the next day. And most of the next. The expedition did gather, humbled, bleeding, sore, and so very tired. They all gather around a pacing Charles Bresley, who fends off question after question with a dismissive wave of his hand and shouts of ‘No! Yes! I don’t know!’

‘What are we going to do?

‘Will we be safe here?’

‘I’m so tired’

‘Are we done running?’

‘I don’t want to run anymore’

‘We’re all so tired’

‘What about the rest of us? The children we left behind?’

‘What are we going to do?!

Charles silences them all with a growl, before declaring

‘We need rest. In this doomed landscape, this is a good of place as any. But I fear,’

Charles glances around his surrounding, taking in his companions. Looking upon the strange city, he declares ‘We have no reckoning of time in this eternally lit city of the dead. However, this shall be our first night. Those who need rest to regain their strength, take it. This night, I shall watch. Who will join me?’

The expedition spreads out, some finding places to hide, others places to watch. Melinda and Charles pick a few good men among them, and discuss the details of their watch as the curtain pulls. Charles and Melinda walk off stage together.

Act II, Scene III The Many Faces of Evil

Synopsis: Implications about Etorix, revealing of Dhogur, demonstration about the strength of the watch, evils of some men.