The Chelon Rose

Act 3: the Somnambulist

z z z z z z The Tales of Martin of Brune z z z z z z

The Tale of Martin of Brune

____________________________________

Raven sits down next to Martin, who is curled up on deck with a bottle of wine in hand.

Raven looks up at the sky as he asks, "what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing important I guess" Martin sighs, "I suppose you would like to know what happened to me after the Apple Tree Inn was burnt down"

Raven just shrugs. Martin begins telling his story anyway.

------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

Soul Martinson is swinging gently to the rocking of the boat on a hammock in one of the below deck cabins. He is deep in meditation chanting softly to himself, while holding a holy symbol in this closed palm.

Once finished his meditation, Taric, from a nearby hammock, asks "so what became of you and Martin after the invasion of Palace?"

------------------------------------------------------------ Meanwhile up on deck

"Of course, I had weighed the probabilities and realised the Chelon Rose weren't going to do this one alone. So I took the initiative and jumped out of the closest window of the Apple Tree Inn, thinking to seek help from the town guard."

"Of course my way did not go unchallenged and I had to take on a small troop of Orcs led by a Ogre before reaching the end of the alley way and the relative freedom of Westgate Square."

"It was then that I realised Palace was on fire, and the walls had been breached in some places to the north. It would not be long before the place was over run."

"My thoughts then turned to the safety my son Soul and so I headed straight to the monastery of Vein where he was staying."

"I arrived at the monastery to warn them of the invasion and demand my son, so I could take him to safety. When they finally assented, I took Soul back to the Apple Tree Inn thinking to meet up with the Rose. But the Inn was no more and the rose were gone."

---------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"My father has an enormous fear of fighting, though seldom admits it. So when the odds do not look good, the first thing he does is run away."

"He skulked about in the shadows of the alley way by the Apple Tree Inn until the patrolling orc was well out of sight, then climbed up the wall by Westgate Square, thinking to make his getaway."

"From there he ran along the wall near where it passes the monastery of Vein, where he came across a group of monks evacuating novices onto the wall. I was among them"

"One of the monks, who recognised my father grabbed him, saying 'the city is under attack, the north wall is breached, take your son and head south, you hear, head south to safety.' I then went with Martin south."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on deck

"I paid an elderly gentleman for his little river boat, and in no time at all myself and Soul crossed the river under the cover of the marshlands around Rabbit Island. We found the far bank unpatrolled, and from there struck a steady course south. Of course, we were careful to avoid any of the roads and made our way cross country, skirting the Riburg forest and hunting occasionally until we eventually reached Purse."

------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"We reached the outskirts of town where Martin stole a little river boat of an elderly man who apparently knew nothing of the invasion as he was fast asleep. It took quite some time to cross the river as the boat drifted off course and became tangled and bogged in the marshlands around Rabbit Island. When we did eventually cross the river, we were not sure where we were. And this pretty much set the pattern for the rest of the journey. We struck a random and rambling course south as Martin desperately sought some sort of road. Weeks we travelled lost and close to starvation (except for the berries the monks had taught me how to find from the woods) until by fluke we stumbled upon Purse."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on deck

"At purse I set to task learning all I could about the Orcish invasion, both of Palace and of Florat. Purse is where I first began developing my tales about the invasion of the Central Kingdoms. Here I would recount them night after night at various inns and street corners. The stories were very popular and we did well for a while, with plenty of silver for the best wine and the best parties."

"Once Florat fell however, I decided it was time to move on. We struck out along the western route to Indigo. Town after town I would stop and tell the tales. At first we did very well, but after a while I think there must have been other Bards with the same idea, as I could only seem to earn enough to scrape by."

------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"At purse we began hearing all the stories of the invasion from the refugees pouring in from Palace and Florat. Martin was fascinated by the stories and would listen for hours. He would then recount them night after night at various inns and street corners (many he would claim as his own). He earned a surprising amount of money doing this, but of course he spend it all on fine wine, women and parties, and we had hardly enough for food."

"We started heading south after Florat fell. He would stop at each town telling the stories and continued to do well. Too lazy to do it himself, he would have me run about like a monkey collecting all the thrown money during and after the show. This is when I first started to put money aside for food, lodging and other basic needs. He would assume that I paid for the food and lodging out of the one or two silver he would toss to me after a show. He really did not seem to understand how much things costs."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on deck

"Well word had preceded me, because when I arrived at Indigo, a number of inn keepers asked me to perform at their establishments. This I was glad to do for food and board or sometimes a small fee. Of course my primary aim was to perform at the famous Inn of the Cascades. Once I did this though, the romance of Indigo had faded a bit and I decided to move on to the Free Cities."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"Martin is no good with money and I am not even sure he can count. He is certainly no good at accounting or negotiating. Fortunately the brothers at the monastery had taught me well. At Indigo many innkeepers were competing for Martin’s performances. Martin would let me negotiate with them, not having any interest in such things himself. I decided the only fair way to resolve where Martin was to perform was through bidding. The innkeepers were very competitive and would try to out do each other with huge bids. I started keeping a schedule of performances and an account of revenue. Indigo is where I opened our first bank account. I told Martin nothing of this, for if he thought he had any money he would just waste it."

"It was all going well until Martin finally performed at his favourite inn, the Inn of the Cascades, where his hero Gerry the True often performed. He had been wanting to for weeks but when it finally happened, Martin froze up. It was the first time I had seen him flop. He had lost his nerve and would not perform again. I had to cancel many shows and had to start returning money. The innkeepers were furious. We both decided it would be best to start over again in the Free Cities."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on deck

"The Free Cities were pretty smooth sailing really and I had plenty of work. In fact most innkeepers seemed to be expecting me. You know, I think my son Soul would run about asking innkeepers if I could perform - sweet kid. They even payed for my services, I was beginning to earn some money again. Soul sort of handled that side of it though; he seemed to be good with counting all the money. Even had a little book he called his "ledger". Cute really."

"The parties though, that was my end of things. This is about the time I started organising really big parties. I had some great times and the local people just loved it. Probably all the free wine I supplied helped."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"By the time we reached the Free Cities, I had things sorted out in fine detail. Arriving at each town I would interview each of the innkeepers, arranging a schedule of performances for Martin and performance fees. Soon however this became too time-consuming and I had to hire staff to run ahead to the next town and start organising the schedule for me. We were earning quite a bit so I started to invest money in the tea and silk trade, which is still earning good returns. Eventually I started our own company called Martin of Brune Enterprises. Martin does not realise that he has about 20 000 gold pieces in bank accounts, investments and in his own company. He does not even know about any of these. He thinks the small income I give him is the only money he earns."

"When I started giving him a reasonable income I knew he would waste it on large parties, but the parties fuelled publicity and I saw it as a sound investment. In fact everything he did seemed to fuel publicity including the scandals like sleeping with the famous actors wife, or having a hundred people raid a wine warehouse during one of his parties."

"That is until he went one scandal too far..."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on deck

"I guess I knew the wine was stolen, it had to be cheap for a reason. But I needed lost of wine for my next party and this stuff seemed really good. It even had a fancy little crest on the bottom and looked like it was made by some dandy or another."

"Soul warned me the guy with the patch looked shifty and he thought whoever owned the fancy crest might be looking for his stolen wine. Yeah maybe I should have listened to the kid, sweet kid and honest too, those monks had taught him his morals you know."

"But anyway, the party was raided by guards and I was lucky to escape with my life. Can't say the same for everyone though. I don't think I will be having another party in this part of the world for a while."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"So I did some research and found out the crest on the bottles belonged to the notorious Patriarch of Elstorop. But by then Martin had already bought all the wine."

"Well of course the man with the patch had set him up and the party was raided, as I knew it would be. Fortunately I had a secret exit planned and some fast horses prepared and we got away safely. But after that martin had to go into hiding. And… well… you know the rest of the story."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on deck

"You know Raven... I worry about my son; sure he has a good head on him but he just doesn’t seem to know how to have any fun."

------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile below deck

"You know Taric... I worry about my father; he’s just a hopeless drunk that can't seem to handle any money or responsibility. The only thing he is good at is having fun."

created: 14 February 1998 | Last Updated: May 17, 2003

© Skabo