The King and the Blue Troll

**The King and the Blue Troll** is a stageplay based on the reign of Emperor Ezo the Wise (although known colloquially as a king) during the Period of Three Emperors in the sixth century. The plot revolved around King Ezo's dealing with Ohlro the Blue-Troll and the scheme by his brother Vargas III to fool Ezo's advisor Baron Consear Lovell into slaying his king. The play is narrated by Consear's wife Synthia Lovell.

# Overview

## ACT 1

> "*I beseech you, Lord, as loyalest of servants*
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> For a blue fire roars, and easterly approaches us
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> To you, King, summon our men
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> To lay down this threat upon our land*"*
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> ― Consear Lovell
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The first act sets the stage for the troubled setting. The noble House Uthrarion, rulers of the Nerathian Empire, has waned. Fractured into competing branches, the house splits against itself in a series of bloody civil wars and political infighting. By 560 AON three individuals claim the title of Emperor: Vargas III, Javis II, and Ezo the Wise. Each assembles a kingdom carved from the former Empire's remaining domains. Vargas rules the west, Javis the east, and Ezo the south. Ezo and Vargas are brothers, it was their father Mecival the Bloody who last ruled a united empire under a hard-fought iron grip. Vargas was his rightful heir, but was seen as even madder than his father and despised by many of the nobles who witnessed Mecical's oppression to maintain rule. Consear Lovell, High Baron of Therund, is among Vargas's opposition. He seeks out the well mannered and respectful Ezo, who is living as a hermit, and champions him as Emperor instead of Vargas. Meanwhile, Javis, heir to the Uthrarion branch overthrown by Mecival, returns from exile with the support of the Dwarves of the Runedar and intent on retaking the throne.

At present the three emperors are in a stalemate, unable to fully consolidate power across the Empire. In the untamed lands of the Stonemarch and Trollhuant Warrens, unopposed by the weakened empire, the various tribes are rallying to the banner of a surprisingly articulate troll by the name of Ohlro, known as the Blue Troll. Consear Lovell cautions about reports that the army of the Blue-Troll marches against Ezo's capital of The Moonstair.

## ACT 2

> "*The battle turns to us Mikhail*
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> But thus I wonder
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> Whereabouts our King’s gone hither*"*
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> ― Consear Lovell
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The second act details the Battle of Fort Edhelm, in which Ezo's army turns back that of the Blue-Troll. While Consear leads the military in the field, Ezo is surprisingly absent. In truth the king goes to an old nutmeg tree on the hill opposite the battle and meets with the Blue-Troll himself. The two have a long winded discussion on the merits of rulership and how best serve their people, as well as the competing differences of their cultures and inevitable wars that arise from them. In the end Ezo convinces the Blue-Troll to leave his lands and head south, thus bringing an end to the battle. These events are witnessed by the elf Alanias, who later relays them to her secret lover Semnias. Semnias himself is secretly a spy working for Emperor Vargas.

## ACT 3

> "*It is that which I wish not true*
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> But that possibility that
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> Sheathing a blade before us
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> He hath driven the dagger to our back*"*
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> ― Consear Lovell
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The third act enters the conspiracy against King Ezo. Semnias, twisting the information given to him by Alanias, spread lies that Ezo is working in consort with the Blue Troll. This conspiracy contends that rather than been defeated, Ezo had welcomed the trolls forces to sneaqk into the kingdom and began blaming most of the country's ills upon these invisible "blue devils". Semnias' goal is cause such internal strife that Ezo would be deposed and his liege, Emperor Vargas, can finally usurp his brother's land. The paranoia becomes so severe that even Consear Lovell, longest ally of Ezo, begins to believe in the plot. Over time he is convinced that something must be done about the King for the good of the country.

## ACT 4

> "*Our King’s evil has poisoned the land*
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> Is it nor righteous that we save it
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> Cost be damned but the price
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> Of human life lies steep*"*
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> ― Consear Lovell
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In act four the lies about the Blue Troll rage out of control. It is seen as an excuse for all ills which befall the land, purported as a scapegoat by both the peasants and aristocracy. A plague has also come to ravage the land, spreading hand in hand alongside the lies. All this is blamed upon the King, who struggles to sustain order. Consear Lovell now himself plots to poison Ezo to "save" the kingdom, although officially still advises the King as a friend.

## ACT 5

> "*Were it not for his word, the poison would likely grasp my lips*
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> Nay, for I have already supped upon that chalice
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> In deception I saw that Blue-Troll in all evil
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> In fear I sought its extinction through a friend
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> And now that he has left me I see
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> That twas I who were that demon
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> That I sought been slain
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> And it’s evil lain driven from my heart through
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> A final kindness
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> But that which still leaves me in hence pained*"*
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> ― Consear Lovell
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Act five is the conclusion. Consear executes his plan and poisons the king. However, elsewhere his wife Synthia Lovell comes to learn from Alanias of Semnias' plot. Jilted by her lover and dying from the plague that wracks the land, Alanias tells all. Synthia, realizing that her husband is about to kill an innocent, rushes to stop him. Yet she arrives too late and Ezo has already been poisoned. Consear is stricken by grief with this realization, and nearly drinks the poison himself. He is stopped, however, by Ezo. With his last dying breaths Ezo bequeaths the kingdom to Consear as his successor (Ezo himself had no wife nor children). Consear honor's Ezo's wish and rules very fairly through the turbulent times to come. Notably wizened by the whole ideal, he never falls prey to such deception again, stifling other plots by Vargas and preserving the independence of the land. Many years after his death, it is Consear's descendants who will aid in the eventually reunification of the Empire.

# Campaign Appearances

## A Heart of Sorrowful Power

Although the exact date the stageplay was written is never divulged, it has become quite popular by the 1400s AON. During The Party's time in Hammerfast the Throne's Foot Theater Company put on a production of it. After their lead actor playing Consear Lovell was murdered by the Hunter of Alleys, Lorec Lavender enlisted Psych Diety for the role. The play was performed on July 24th to great success with a large crowd, that included Enel Enlee, Blarg Deaff, Hraagrak Firecook, and Question Mark. Commemorative pins and cups were for sale at the event.

Among the actors were

* Psych Deity as Consear Lovell
* Lorec Lavander as Synthia Lovell
* Helmer Jackson as King Ezo
* Siveldrid L’idrea as Alanias
* Big Belefus as the Blue Troll
* Kim Killigan as Semnias

# Trivia

* Psych remembers that in the future a trashy movie adaptation of *The King and the Blue Troll* is created using way too much CGI and explosions.
* The King and the Blue Troll is primarily based upon true events from the Period of Three Emperors, although some aspects are heavily embellished.