Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Official Event: Winter Masquerade 2025

The lion looks embarrassed, but doesn’t loose his pride, nor his self esteem.
“As you wish, Mylady” he answers as he bows respectfully.
The he lifts his voice, and quite presumptuously speaks, “Guards, bréngt mir méng Mask.” and quickly a quite young man, dressed in military clothes with a red-white-blue flag stitched on his chest and upper arms, brings the lions mask. A red feathered mask, specially formed for the lions face, held over his eyes with a red leather band. It ain’t much different than before, just the feathers don’t fit his fur.
“I presume you are your highness Grand Duchesses of Winter? I bring kindest égards from son Altesse Royale, Guillaume, our Grand Duke.
Roude Léiw bows deeply and faints cleaning the soils with three wipes of his hand.

It was that time of year again, when Ollie felt a sudden compulsion to stick his head through holiday wreaths. He'd been testing out wreath-necklaces for days, but today he found the magic one! Sploot! and he was at a fabulous party! Tail-wagging frantically, the dog ran through the crowd on the dance floor, barking his excitement. "BORK! EVERYONE! IT'S ME! I'M OLLIE!"

"Ollie!" Cris turned at once hearing the familiar barking voice. She knelt and reached out a hand toward the golden retriever. "You're here this year too! How are you?" She smiled, looking up at Tairloth. "This is my friend Ollie and he's a Very Good Boy!" Fluffing the golden retriever's fur under the red Santa hat.

Hmph. No, she didn't know fungus folk. She didn't know an Underdark. The Wallow wasn't exactly a hub for cosmopolitan knowledge, but it wasn't completely isolated either. She was pretty sure she'd have remembered hearing about talking, telepathic mushrooms. A beat passed. Fungus folk... I guess that explains the... She trailed off, making a vague gesture with her free hand towards the glowing spores that still drifted through the air. Everything.

It was Ozni's reply beside her that made her once again bristle, though, because that was her second thing. She had mind tricks, and shapeshifting, and never once in her life had she heard of anyone else who could do what she could do without being some sort of monster, or a goddess in disguise. And here were two of them. Right here. At the party she was absolutely planning on robbing blind.

This party sucked.

(boo, hit send early)

"OH YES I am a VERY good boy!" borked Ollie, skidding to a scrabbling halt and bumping his head into Cris' hand in a demand for ear rubs.

"Noted, sorry!" Tairloth replied in a similar volume; being rather large and brightly colored, subtlety didn't come naturally to her and she sometimes needed reminders of that fact.

Tairloth happily raised their head as Chiara offered head pats, only to curl up in surprise at the sound of Ollie's boisterous introduction, a reaction Tairloth couldn't help but chuckle at. "And here I thought I'd be the one turning the most heads!"

Onzi with absolute glee seeing a puppy arrive on the scene walks over "Hi Ollie can I give you headpats and scritches"?

The Duchess nodded her satisfaction to Roude Léiw as he donned his mask, approving of his quick covering of the breach of etiquette. "Why yes, I am. Please, tell the Grand Duke that his presence was missed, but that we are thinking of him warmly on this evening. Since you are here yourself -- what drink can my servants bring you? Cider? Cranberry wine? Or perhaps... cocoa?"

"Of course," Niskali replies. He reaches into the concealed pocket containing the case, withdraws it, and places it onto the table next to the servant's champagne tray. It's a perfectly smooth rounded rectangular prism of opaque, frosted crystal in that pale ice blue, with a silver pentagon just below the surface at the middle of the top. Overall the case is around 20cm (~8 in) long by 15cm (~6 in) wide by 7cm (~2.5 in) deep, sitting comfortably in the pentatheic's hand before he sets it down, and small enough to let view of the thing be blocked from all but the most prying eyes by the servant and the warpriest's body and wings. He issues a mental command to his mask to activate all sensors and allows mana to flow through his nerves and muscles. He trusts the servant, certainly, but precautions must be taken and there are others who might be curious.... and grabby.

A brush of his finger above the silver and the top half of the case seems to melt away from the center, taking the two halves of the silver token with them until the metallic parts are on the sides of the open box. To one side is a small rolled scroll in a slender socket, sealed in silver wax with the visage of the goddess and, in the center of the case, a bevel-edged, mirror-polished platinum disc adorned with spherical gems in rich colours and clearly very precise sizes set in sockets in the disc's shining surface, and a single, many-faced diamond in a fractal shape which is at once a snowflake and a four-pointed star seated in the middle of the disc. Angular yet elegant runes are inscribed on the sloped edge of the disc with micrometer precision. He gives the center stone a touch and the gems all rise into the air forming a pattern of elegant orbits. Slightly larger iridescent stones make broad orbits, while smaller gems of more pure colour make narrower ones. Small drops of precious metals whirl around the gems. Two belts of tiny, glittering chips of blue quartz spin in sparkling rings, one near the median orbit of the stones and one far to the outer edge. It's an orrery of gems, light, and pure beauty. No wires, rings, or struts hold up the stones, and, in spite of the runes, there's not a hint of magic to those that can feel such things. The central gem shines with a gentle, icy radiance; a small investment of the goddess's own Power.

Niskali will wait until the servant seems satisfied before again brushing the star and then the bits of silver at the edge of the case, making the spinning stones neatly pack themselves away and the case close itself over the gift respectively. "Hopefully that is satisfactory."

Ollie's tail wagged so hard that his back half swayed with the force of its joy. "What a good idea!" he borked to Onzi. He tried to approach him for the offered head scratches, but was so excited by the idea that he just ended up zooming in circles around Onzi and Imp and their fungi friend for half a dozen rotations. When the zoomies were concluded he had forgotten that it was actually head scratches that were offered, and so he backed up into Onzi for butt-stratches instead, his head lifted up so that he could stare upside-down at Onzi over his own shoulder with a near maniacal smile, tongue dangling out of the side of his mouth. This means that Onzi gets his knees pummeled by the wagging tail. Sorry.

The barking did draw Imp's attention in a third direction - too many weird things, here - and, strangely enough, the poor canine seemed to draw her ire more than anything else. What. The Hell. Was that? Sounded like a canidae, the paws were the same, and yet he was running around all fours and what was that face? Looked like a direwolf, but small, way too small!

Imp's eyes flickered about, as if searching for someone, anyone, that thought this was as frightening as her. No one did. In fact, people seemed to be delighting in the... Um... Thing. The not-canidae. It talked. She found her hooves nervously shuffling back, away from Onzi, a smile still. Okay. See, this had reached 'too strange for Imp to deal with' levels, and the satyr suddenly decided this was the perfect chance to slip away, and find something to slip into the fabric of her dress. "It seems I'm out of drink." She announced, her voice a little too bright as she gestured with her empty flute. "If you'd excuse me, my friend, I need to find some of that... cider." She dropped another curtsy, "Enjoy your partying."

"Oh believe me, you've seen nothing yet", Cris assured Tairloth with a chuckle. "The Duchess's party never fails to amaze, you're in for a lot of things that will make even your head turn, if anything." She rubbed Ollie's ears. "I hoped you'd attend and look what I got you?" Fishing in the sleeve of her kimono, she drew two dog treats, one in the form of a star, the other a tiny bone. "And this is a dear friend of mine who has an affinity with fire", she explained to Ollie, nodding toward Tairloth. Then she smiled with her eyes at Onzi as he also approached Ollie for cuddles. Honestly, who could resist giving cuddles to such a sweet doggo?

Chiara, too, was momentarily distracted by tickling and petting the tiny dragon when she noticed its attention had been caught by something else. "A puppyyyyy!!!" she squealed, and forgetting everything about etiquette, she sprang in a little run and leaped to hug Ollie- or she would have if her mother didn't seize her by the hem of her ballerina dress a moment before tackling the golden retriever.

"Sweetie, no. Remember what I told you about jumping to hug dogs, they might be scared of it."

"Sorry, mummy..." Chiara's little ears pinned back, and she turned back to Olly, extending her handfor him to smell. "Can I hug you, Mr Pupper?"

The lion declines the Duchess’ proposition.
“Ah, no thank you, e gudden Mini dat wier mier léiwer. I mean a good glass of beer, would be my pleasure. I will tell son Altesse your words. My pleasure Mylady.”

He thanks her respectfully, showing noble manners and would pleased with his beer mix into the present crowd.

Of course, Zechs had gone to the dance floor to join the others, as...you do. It's a party. Why not fit in, for once?

Onzi, while giving Ollie butt scritches and being assaulted at the knees by the happy pup looks at Imp and bids her farewell for now.

The servant that had been attending to Niskali didn't gasp, but did open his mouth in mute wonder at the gift that was revealed inside of the case, eyes widening. "Oh. My." He said. "Yes, I am certain that it will be satisfactory. However, we cannot accept a gift without returning one of equal value. So please, you must accept..." Reaching behind his own back, he suddenly drew out a large box, gift-wrapped in gold colored paper with a big, red, velvet bow on top. He presented it to Niskali with a flourish, the large box appearing out of thin air like a magician's trick. "If you will take our gift, I can take the one you bring for the Duchess!"

Meanwhile, the Duchess snapped her fingers, and another servant came hurrying to provide Roude Léiw with his beer. "May your evening be full of joy and friends!"

Piemyth took the opportunity to flee back into the folds of Tairloth's cloak once Chiara was distracted, though they couldn't help but look a bit envious at how much attention Ollie was getting.

"I'm gonna hold you to that!" Tairloth responded somewhat challengingly; she had some doubt as to how much this event could surprise her, but she'd been wrong before.