Post-15S PSL Post!

[necroyalty]

Ebonspire

[ Welcome to Ebonspire, capital of the kingdom of Vanth! There's skeleton guards patrolling the streets. You're pretty sure at least some of the shopkeepers might be ghosts. There are plaques everywhere dedicating random structures to be in the memory of people you've never heard of. Creepy statues and bas-reliefs seem to stare at you from the corners. The city is clearly built to be as much for the dead as it is for the living. Death is everywhere, and yet the city, like all cities, constantly lives and breathes.

Little flowering garlic plants and wild roses grow from public flowerbeds and urns, and the city glows at night with an eerie amber. The streets are paved with black cobblestones that are kept fairly clean in all but the most forgotten of alleys, and the sound of hoofbeats against those cobbles reverberates in a ghostly fashion whenever traffic passes by. Bats roost underneath the large stone bridges that overlook the river that slashes the city in twain. Crows study the movements of humanoids, scavenging garbage heaps in back alleys for food. All but the most elite of neighborhoods seem to have roving clans of stray cats that no one seems to care too much about. In forgotten back alleys all over the city, cobwebs gather in places you didn't think it possible.

In short, this city is Halloween as fuck. And Ambrosine likes it that way.

It's also surprisingly modern for what you'd imagine a medieval RPG city to be like, with things like hospitals and newspapers and public grammar schools and coffee shops; a university; a park where residents can take a breather. Also, indoor plumbing, thank the gods. There's even the workings of a public library - one of the first in the kingdom - that's still under construction and building its collections via donations. Still no wifi, though.

But enough about that. ]

The Obsidian Palace

[ Anyone wishing to visit Ambrosine has probably been contacted by her via a Sending spell if she knows you're there, or otherwise she's found some way to give you a proper letter of summons so that you can actually get past all of her guards without too much trouble. The castle is black and pointy, with colorful stained glass windows all over the place that lend some lightness to what might otherwise be an oppressive structure. Its furnishings and gardens are more understated than the pomp and circumstance one might ascribe to royal families of other worlds, but everything still feels pristine and stupidly expensive. A lot of the hallways have ornamental mirrors. Between the mirrors and the light pouring in from all the stained glass windows, one might think Ambrosine's afraid of something.

You're led to a guest room with a bed big enough to fit three or four average-sized humans. There's ample space and furnishing for you to relax and unload your thing. Each guest room also has a small bookshelf and collection of its own. It's just light reading; books on herbology, tawdry romance novels, books of old-school fairy tales with the gory endings intact. That kind of thing. The castle also has an alchemy lab and a fuckhuge library, both of which Ambro will gladly make available to anyone who asks. Really, you're left to your own devices whenever you're not in Ambro's company. She trusts you. She might wish she didn't. Please don't ask the servants for anything too weird; they're just doing their jobs.

Ambrosine is a busy woman with a country to run, but can often be found in her private office looking at paperwork when not holding court or at some other engagement.

If the princesses are here and not with their mentors for some reason, they'll probably have a lot more free time than their mom, when they're not studying. There's also Ambrosine's brother, the resident party planner/gossipmonger, and Ambro's beloved Tempest, the Queen Consort, an elusive elf (?) woman with cobalt eyes and an annoying laugh.

Have fun! ]

Comments

[katzenpfote]

[When Caleb visits, it's not for fun. Not this time. He'd sent her a message that he was coming as he was coming. The rest of the group was camping back in Nirn other than Beau, who had insisted on coming with him for protection. She'd given him space once they arrived and settled in - as much as he liked the other's presence at times, right now it would take way too long to explain everything.]

[The other wizard looks flat out exhausted when he enters Ambrosine's office, sinking down in a chair after a weak bow of the head to her. It takes him a few moments to speak, breathing in and out and finally lifting his head to look at her.]

We have... a problem. Not only my group, but everyone on our continent and potentially the entire world. Maybe the planes beyond it, especially if they realize that there's a connection to other worlds.

Have you ever heard of a fiend named Obann, a group or entity called the Angel of Irons, or a creature known as the Laughing Hand?

[necroyalty]

On all accounts, I have not.

[She's wearing a pair of reading glasses that Caleb might recognize as some Eyes of Minute Seeing as she puts some paperwork down.]

But let's examine what the both of us do know. I presume this is related to the conversation we had some time ago regarding the Dark Prince?

[katzenpfote]

I don't know. It's... I can imagine maybe. I don't know... they took one of our allies. She has some kind of history with them, but they took over her, somehow.

I don't... I don't know what to do.

[He's breathing hard, running his hands through his hair and tugging on it slightly.]