It is the day of Carnival. There is some miscellaneous preparation before the party (Miles tries to find out who's following him, for instance) but nothing particularly of substance.
Everyone goes to the party and drinks Carnival wine (well, okay, Magda and Milton are spoilsports and don't have anything to drink). Sidonie is crowned the Queen of fools and makes a few pronouncements, compelling Miles to play saxophone for everyone. Somehow Soraya and Miles manage to avoid making each other go berserk. Victor shows up and talks with Desiree on a balcony overlooking the feast.
Then some travelling players begin to put on a play for everyone.
The Play:
The play opens with the head player, already in costume as the YOUNG MAN, speaking the following verse:
My King, assembled worthy sirs
and ladies quaffing ale
if we might now draw focus to
our sad and tragic tale.If empty flagons beckon please:
do fill them now I say.
You shall not wish to rise until
the ending of our play.In finish, or perhaps in start
I offer this excuse
while stories may make dull the Day
this tale presents but truths.
The play is a pantomime sort of thing, with very exaggerated costumes with masks and some of the players holding things up behind as the set. If starts out with a YOUNG MAN working in a butcher shop. Suddenly the DUCHESS enters and whisks him away to her palace, where he is entertained in many ways: it's great. Soon he is just better at everything than the duchess: he impresses the court more, outfences her, etc.
The DUCHESS becomes jealous and late at night ambushes him in the main hall, striking him with her sword. He falls, apparently dead, and the DUCHESS flees. A WISE MAN appears and does some magic, and soon one after another the YOUNG MEN rise out of the body and head off. The WISE MAN hauls the body away.
The YOUNG MEN have different adventures, quickly sketched, but then begin to encounter each other. The encounters lead to a swirling dance, and all of the YOUNG MEN fall away revealing the original YOUNG MAN.
The YOUNG MAN returns to the palace but the DUCHESS will not have him. They duel and he slays her and takes her sword.
The YOUNG MAN comes forward and speaks to the Queen of Fools:
My story we have now displayed,
my picture in its frame.
And now I beg of you, my leige,
to recognize my claim.
However, Sidonie just acts confused, frustrating the player, who is surmised to be Sir Ten by our heroes. Desiree arrives and lambastes him for being sneaky, admonishing him to do the honorable thing. He takes off his mask and is indeed Sir Ten. Miles and Soraya start to distract the Duchess, trying to make sure she doesn't notice. Everyone else keeps partying... and now the narrative is going to get even more disjointed because all hell is about to break loose.
Under the effects of the wine the Duchess is rather slow to figure out what is going on but begins to get pretty paranoid about the possibility of Sir Ten being around somewhere. Miles and Soraya try to distract her, and she starts accusing them of keeping things from her. Just about then Sir Ten gives up on getting Sidonie to do anything... but it's too late, Magda and Milton have hatched a plan, and have Sidonie declare Sir Ten to be something like the Duchess's warder. There is a hush over the hall, then Sir Ten starts protesting... and the Duchess finally realizes who he is and goes into a berserk frenzy.
The players (actually Sir Ten's rangers) start throwing themselves in her way as Sir Ten makes for the Door to escape. Everyone spends a while trying to persuade him not to attack the Duchess before realizing he's just trying to escape. But when he gets to the Door, Miles causes it to stick closed. Why? We're still asking that. The Duchess kills her way through the rangers and then encounters Magda, who manages to bring her to a standstill despite her incredibly pumped sword. The Duchess starts declaring everyone opposed to her to be traitors. Sir Ten leaps in to defend Magda. Victor tries to find out what's going on. Desiree temporarily blinds the Duchess, leaving Sir Ten time to make a circle and escape through it. Victor tries to open the door and figures out that Miles is keeping it closed and thumps him. Miles and Victor wrestle on the ground about that before Victor persuades him to be calm. Sir Ten whacks Miles with the hilt of his sword for stopping his escape. Soraya uses the door and takes the Duchess through. Sidonie and Milton prevent Sir Ten from escaping in the circle. Sir Ten storms off, extremely annoyed. Everyone tries to figure out what the hell happened.
Soraya ends up in Hell and has to persuade the demon to let her take the Duchess out (after the Duchess is subdued by and extremely powerful demon called "The Boss"). Her demon decides to give her the Duchess (after all, this is the New Hell) and also a nice ruby pendant. Huh? She eventually brings the Duchess back to Mallory's where Miles has the Duchess freed from her bonds. The Duchess leaves in a cold fury. "My wrath will fall upon you like a rain of fire!"
Meanwhile Magda has discussed the situation with the Countess who promises to try to patch things up somehow when the Duchess returns.
Miles realizes that the Duchess's paranoia stems from the Seer telling her that Sir Ten will destroy her... but that that wasn't actually true until she heeded the prophecy and did something rash. He wants to tell everyone else, but the burning sensation in his left arm prevents him...
It's the first of March... in like a Lion!
Player Notes:
Charles, what was that proclaimation we had Sidonie read? Also, Andy, what was Miles's prophecy? -MIN
The proclaimation Milton and Magda wrote:
You've come and asked the Queen of Fools to recognize your claim,
Which makes you far the greater fool, but I can play your game,
And so you must allow me now to give to you a name.You seek to take the duties of the Duchess from her Grace
And so to you I give them, but without her noble place
I name you her protector, her champion, but leave your title base.
After the dust settles, Sidonie is discovered to have turned purely chimerical. The party discusses wacky plans for how to get her life back from Anastasia... -ALH
During the combat, Victor attempts to defend Desiree and gets whacked by the Duchess. Desiree takes him home to recouperate. -ALH
Oh yeah, in all the chaos I forgot Mile's prophecy to the Duchess before the play: -ALS
What is played is what was written:
what is fled first feared.
The foretold sprung from the foretelling:
your past and future nears.