Appendix • Blood & Chocolate

"*Lords and ladies of the Fey, esteemed guests, staff, and general audience! I warmly welcome you to this year's Spring Confluence Ball, and invite you to listen to our performance: a musical pantomime that was inspired by real events, before I chose to ignore all of them, to create a tale of love and loss, of good versus evil. An experience driven by imagination and insanity, intertwined with a musical accompaniment that serves to provide an unforgettable experience. I hope you all enjoy this adventure, as we present to you...Blood and Chocolate.*"
 ― Hector von Dusken

## Transcript

### Scene 1: Shadows over Capria

Light in the ballroom dims. The very air seems to darken, and with the sharp thrills of violins and a distant, barely audible murmur of voices, the scenery shifts into a view of a grand fortress, silhouetted against the sunset. A magnificent structure of turrets and minarets: the seat of the Baron Pizziere du Capria, ruler of Capria.

The music shifts to a more sombre tone, and with the last rays of the dying light, a darkness begins to seep out from the ground, forming diminutive fingers and clawed hands that climb over other; reaching, tearing, ripping apart. And with a rush of air and a swell of brass, a figure cloaked in darkness appears overhead, a shape with long leathery wings, long spindly fingers with sharpened claws at their tips, a hunched back and a head bearing the weight of a spiked crown.

The illusion, so tangible it seems to have mass, swoops over the crowd, eliciting oohs and aahs, and a chorus of high pitched screams from a group of enthralled pixies, who immediately scatter, maniacally slinging spells at the empty air. One of the waiters turns into a sheep. But unperturbed, the shadow’s fingers move nimbly, the crawling dark following its every mark.

Faster and faster, the shadow swelling and swelling with the music, until bursting through the coiling sea of black come a group of four boggarts, small, bulbous, spherical, frog-looking creatures, moving around on tiny hind legs and inordinately long arms, that they wave madly around, gleefully scattering the rotting leaves, darkened flower petals, and rotten food which they seem to have completely encased themselves in.

Like a puppeteer, the dark winged figure guides their movements, or attempts to, as the boggarts have seemingly completely lost the plot and are now wildly bounding around on their freakishly long arms, throwing clumps of leaves and half-eaten food into the air. Two of them accidentally knock into each other at full speed, sending half a fish flying off of one’s head, barely missing Hector’s head, who pirouettes gracefully without breaking tempo and lets the fish fly past into the path of the other two boggarts, who immediately get into a wrestling match, disappearing back into the darkening shadow, which grows and grows and grows, until the ballroom goes completely dark, to the worried gasps of the gathered fey.

And the music pauses. A breath, the silent murmur of a distant persistent whisper. Then light. A small pinprick at first, at the heart of the stage, growing brighter and brighter, until a crescendo of music and forward steps the Madame Orchidia de La Cravatte, keeper of the Legendary Cravatte and the Eternal Flame. A brave and adventurous woman, or rather, orchid, played by none other than Aurora, who has been now decked out in a splendid, illusory costume of massive pink petals around her head, and is holding above her head a burning mote of light that pushes back the shadow and sends the last two remaining boggarts screeching off into the crowd, still flinging wet leaves at everyone.

Beside her, with a clunk of metal and the thud of a spear, stands the stalwart Principe Lancaiter, played by Ironstrong-4, whose magnificent leather hat is now a bright sunflower yellow, flopping with every step. Cursed with the Gaze of Metallica, which has turned his beautiful sunflowerness slowly but surely into metal, the exiled Principe has travelled north to face the shadow and rid himself of his curse.

Behind them, another three figures burst onto the stage, having slightly misjudged their cues. First, the Ambassadeur Laurent du Crème, played by a very uncomfortable looking Dieterich with an illusory cake costume surrounding him. A priestly piece of confectionary from the distant land of Confissairie, whose diplomatic mission in the name of Queen Espierre du Chocolat (his baker) and the Cakemother, a kind and loving goddess, has led him to Capria in the hopes of uniting the Barony and the other kingdoms in the face of the rising darkness.

Second, High Arcanist Longman of the Butterfly Peaks, played by a gangly Oondak with an overly large wizard hat that keeps slipping down over his face, and a pair of magnificent butterfly wings lifting him slightly, yet precariously, off his feet. The expert mage, having been tasked by the Golden Papillionidae itself, could not let this shadow roam untested, and had joined this fellowship in their quest to face the darkness.

And last, but certainly not least, Madame Orchidia’s most loyal and trusted companion. A bush. Not really able to see all too well, Yuli stumbles onto the stage, almost slipping on a banana peel from the boggarts, and comes to a stop by knocking her forehead into Oondak, who floats helplessly adrift, trying to correct himself.

The crowd cheers as our heroes come onto stage, and the surging Eternal Flame in Madame Orchidia’s hands casts aside the darkness with a triumphant flare of music, radiating out into the corners of the room in a kaleidoscope of colour. Faeries all throughout the room begin to hover helplessly forward on insectoid wings, gathering around the edges of the stage, and indeed the crowd as a whole seems to be enthralled by the display, which is only helped along by a clever flick of the wrist from Lyra, who sends a quartet of dancing lights to spin around Aurora.

Alas, as the light fades, the scenery shifts to show the shattered ruins of Capria, and the remnants of the great fortress. Devastated by the loss, Ambassadeur Laurent du Crème, on a pointed glance from Hector, falls weeping to his knees, and the Madame Orchidia places a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, while the Bush reaches out a vestigial branch, and almost pokes Dieterich’s eye out.

With a gasp, Arcanist Longman steps forward, pointing to the peak of the ruined fortress, the top of the Baron’s Keep, where the smallest hint of light flickers in a window, a sign perhaps that the Baron may yet live. Rising to his feet, resolutely, Ambassadeur du Crème takes the lead, ready to fulfil his duty to his queen.

And with unwavering stride, towing along the hovering Arcanist Longman, and the mostly blind Bush, the group heads off stage, and the scene fades to black.

### Scene 2: The Fate of Baron Pizziere

Our next scene opens at the top of the Baron Pizziere’s ruined keep, where our heroes enter the stage amidst the desolate remnants of a destroyed throne room. All around, beneath the quiet jitter of strings, whispers continue to echo.

Tension builds, the music growing more and more discordant, until at last, atop his throne, nailed to it in fact, we see the Baron Pizziere, his cheesy doughy body mutilated, the various toppings of his face ruined by the sharpened lance of sugar cane that has been driven through the centre of his slice. Melted cheese and marinara sauce drip down the haft of candy cane onto the floor, where a boggart in a rat costume appears to be chewing half a pixie. It freezes in the spotlight, and slowly backs offstage, leaving behind a single pearlescent wing.

The music turns mournful, yet still tense, as the group examines the illusory corpse, and find, clenched tightly in its string cheese hand, a crumpled piece of sugar paper. The Ambassador du Crème reaches for it, and the spotlight shifts to the side, where in the meantime, disguised by his sunflower yellow floppy leather hat, Principe Laincaiter has stepped quietly away from the group, drawn to a glint amidst the rubble. Here he finds an orange jelly button, half turned to copper. Without drawing undue attention, he tucks the coin inside his shirtless shirt...

The focus shifts again, the rest of the group reading the contents of the sugar paper, except for Yuli, who is looking entirely the wrong way. Horrified expressions spread across their face faces, and though the contents remain hidden to the audience, it is clear they spell dire tidings. All doubt is removed, when the sky above comes alive with churning clouds, a storm of brown, and a rain of flavoured milk, as colourful flashes of lighting reveal hidden amidst the clouds the briefest flash of a broken chocolate crown, and the scene fades to black.

### Scene 3: A Bonfire of Dreams

Here, the music turns quiet, backed up by the ambient patter of falling rain, and when the scenery lights up once more, it is a simple rotating projection of scenery passing by, landscapes and mountains and forests and hills. With a deep breath, Hector lets the last note on his violin hang, then puts it aside, and steps up to the grand ivory piano, that has been placed in the shadow of the willow tree at the centre of the stage. Tentative fingers hover over the keys, and then with an exhale that seems to lift a weight off his shoulders, he begins to play.

The scene opens around a bonfire, where our heroes gather, the flames casting an extra flickering layer of pink and red light on the shifting landscape that continues to circle the stage. It is the middle of the night, the scenery darkens, and the music softens. The Ambassadeur Laurent and the Madame Orchidia sit around the illusory fire, and behind them, looming half hidden at the edge of the firelight, Bush.

The Ambassadeur is at his lowest, holding the crumpled paper from Baron Pizziere’s castle in one hand, and a soggy piece of cake, his holy symbol, in the other. Small pieces of cake fall away under the continued downpour of rain. Opposite him, Madame Orchidia sits in equally contemplative silence, the eternal flame in her hand beginning to flicker and fade. And she looks up to see her companion falling into doubt and despair.

It is at this moment that the music gains a hopeful tone, and Madame Orchidia moves to sit beside the Ambassadeur, holding him in a deep embrace before speaking to him, pointing outwards to the surrounding countryside and the stars above, that remain unruined. But though the dimming eternal flame brightens ever so slightly, Laurent’s cake continues to crumble, his doubts persisting.

Around the edges of the campfire, shadows once more begin to dance, and a boggart sprints past chasing a panicking pixie, disappearing into the swelling darkness at the edges of the stage that bear down slowly upon the trio at the bonfire. Until Bush steps up beside the Ambassadeur du Crème and begins to mumble, and in unison the whispers that have been lingering all through the performance grow louder, and the shadow seems to pull away curling away back into nothing.

The spotlight narrows onto the bonfire, and when it widens once again, the scene has shifted, and the trio have been replaced by Arcanist Longman and Principe Lancaiter. The two sit quietly by the fire, each one in silence. Longman is focused on his spellbook, lost in thought, while a golden butterfly flutters around him unnoticed.

Failing to drawn Longman’s attention, it flutters instead to Principe Lancaiter, landing at the rim of his giant sunflower hat. The two sit quietly, staring into the flames, where visions of the Principe’s home begin to appear. Vistas of wild plains and reed-filled valleys, a great caravan of Sunflower Lions passing through the wilderness, fending off wild packs of Rose Wolves and Maple Bears, a memory of the home Lancaiter longs to see again. And at the forefront, his parents, his brother.

The music shifts to a sorrowful tone for but a moment, before the visions in the flame shift upward and reveal a moon of metal shining above. The fire dies down, and the spotlight shifts to Arcanist Longman, who stands, having seen all that transpired within the flame. Impassioned by the vision, the Arcanist begins to tear through his notes, pointing animatedly at the sky and at his journal, until at last he beckons for Principe Lancaiter to take his hand.

Together, the two chant an incantation that grows louder and louder with the music until…it halts, repelled by some unknown force. And Longman huffs in frustration. But all is not lost, for the butterfly hovers nearby still, and it whispers into Longman’s ears, urging him on. The incantation begins again.  Bolder. Louder. And in a crescendo of piano and violins, a barrier of glass seems to shatter all around the stage.

Principe Lancaiter’s hands, cold metal and steel, turn for but a moment into greenish stems, the curse only briefly lifted, before it takes hold again. Progress. But not enough. Still, our heroes are emboldened, and they shake hands, promising that Lancaiter’s curse would be lifted and he would be set free.

The scenery shifts, away from the fire, away from the group, to focus on the storm that has continued to rage throughout this night, and the shadowy figure hidden in the dark, with fingers on puppet strings, and eyes burning yellow, and the scene fades to black.

### Scene 4: La Festival du Chocolat

Music swells into a prideful surge of harp, brass, and a chorus of singing voices that drown out the high-pitched squeals of a pixie bashing a boggart on the head with a shoe. We are in the Palais du Chocolat, Queen Espierre’s seat of power, and our heroes burst into a ballroom in the middle of the royal festivities, seeking to speak with the queen.

But in the turmoil of this political function, reaching the queen proves difficult. Tension fills this illusory ballroom within a real one. The nobility of Confissarie are all gathered here, appearing as glassy spectres that pass around our heroes in droves. With them are delegates from Gardenia, and amidst the many food barons and the plant lords, it seems none know who is to aid who with the disaster unfolding in the north.

The music turns tense, full of anxious whispering and conspiring. And through it all, hovering above our heroes, unseen and untouched, are a group of six pixies, one of which is carrying a shoe. They are dressed in tatters of red and black, and atop their heads are driftwood crowns modelled to look like horns. With a triumphant fanfare, Queen Espierre enters the hall, and in a sudden the pixie spectres raise their heads and raise pointed fingers in her direction, and chaos erupts.

Shadows burst through the scenery, falling upon our heroes in one fell tide. Amidst the illusory attendees, many reveal themselves to be double agents, clothes turning red and black, illusory knifes drawn and flickering. And with an explosion of dead plants and rotten food four screeching boggarts stacked on top of each other burst teetering onto the scene, almost knocking a largely blind Yuli on her ass, and ricocheting off Dieterich, who is sent reeling into the willow tree with a sickening thud.

The maniacal boggart quartet appears to be dressed in the chewed remnants of a giant gingerbread man costume, part of which appears to be made of metal. The crowd gasps and screams. The pixies, freaking the fuck out and forgetting all their cues as this tower of boggarts careens towards them, begin slinging bursts of fire, an entangle spell that trips an almost recovered Ambassador Laurent, and a polymorph that turns the topmost boggart into a dolphin.

Still screeching, the boggart tower crashes through the illusion of Queen Espiere, and with the music scrambling to be heard over the complete chaos, the gingerbread tower sprints off the stage, now carrying an illusory Queen and a very real dolphin.

Our heroes, pretending to sling spells and swing swords at the illusory shadows, while dodging very real spells from the panicking pixies, rush to follow the crumbs of the gingerbread monstrosity that had abducted the queen, and the scene fades to black, aside from the explosion of purple and green of a faerie fire spell going off, illuminating a chittering dolphin desperately trying to leap at a swarm of pixies.

### Scene 5: In the Court of the Crimson King

In a flurry of transition, the full orchestra comes into play, the music turns action-filled, as the final conflict of this saga of confissarie and gardenry comes to a head.

In a flare of colour, the scene unfolds. Our heroes burst into the inner chambers of the Palais du Chocolat, where the gingerbread boggart abomination turns to face them, now actively swinging a dolphin with a pixie in its mouth as a weapon. From all around, the other pixies are throwing everything they can find at the boggart tower, and our heroes are caught in the crossfire, desperately trying to act like they’re fighting pixie marionettes while actually fighting a clusterfuck of cutlery, shoes, and an animated chair.

The Principe Lancaiter, spoons bouncing off his exposed metal chest, lunges forward to meet the boggart tower in a deadly duel, spear against dolphin, The two engage in a carefully choreographed dance of blades and aquatic mammals, which lasts for about two seconds before the dolphin smacks Ironstrong straight in his head, dealing him a deadly blow.

Gravely injured, Principe LAncaiter falls away into the arms of Arcanist Longman, who unleashes an illusory blast of arcane fire at the boggart tower, which scares the top boggart, causing the gingerbread head to fall off. The crowd cheers, as the boggart tower collapses into a tangle of flailing boggart limbs, but those cheers turn into wails of despair, as one of the pixie throws a table that knocks Longman head over heels.

All seems lost. Ambassador Laurent is huddled behind his shield, protecting the Madame Orchidia. Arcanist Longman is concussed. Principe Lancaiter’s skirt has fallen over his face, rendering him blind. And all throughout the barrage continues.

Until a hero steps forth through the chaos, cutlery bouncing off her bright orange ghillie suit, sporks and dessert spoons caught in the fake grass, and an angry squint trying to see what the fuck was going on. The Bush.

Now, the incoherent mumbling and whispers that have persisted throughout this entire performance crescendo into a chorus, as the Bush raises her arms (in the wrong direction), and unleashes an actual blast of psionic energy, tearing away the ghillie suit and  liquidising the dolphin, the animated chair and two of pixies that were kicking the dolphin’s head.

The crowd goes wild. Cheers and clapping and champagne glasses thrown into the air. The other pixies fly away screaming, one of them faceplanting into the willow tree and falling unconscious. Blink Dogs start barking madly and teleporting everywhere. A naiad actually faints into a puddle. And the music turns triumphant, as Madame Bush turns aside the shadows and rescues our group from certain demise.

But alas! The battle is not won, and before our heroes can celebrate, a black portal unfurls and a humanoid individual steps through, with deep red skin the texture of stone, wearing a pair of silken pants and a doublet. Two leathery wings erupt from his back, and shadow trails in his wake. Atop his head rests a spiked iron crown, magnificent in its design, adorned with red and white flowers, and from below peer angry, burning, yellow eyes.

The crowd boos and hisses, and a champagne glass flies through the illusory villain, shattering somewhere in the background. But the creature stalks forward, unabated. Bravely, our heroes rush forward, but with a flick of the puppetmaster’s fingers they crash to a halt. Madame Bush tries to resist, summoning a powerful blast of energy, but with a single point of its finger, the illusory reality seems to crack like glass, and the crowned creature returns her to her bushy form, the ghillie suit wrapping around Yuli and throwing her aside. The chorus that had lifted so triumphantly moments before is abruptly silenced.

Madame Orchidia tries to raise the eternal flame, and again reality cracks with another point of the creature’s finger, the flame begins to flicker and fade, and the Madame falls to her knees and then to the floor, the light snuffed out, her skin greying. Desperately, a golden butterfly dances onto stage, freeing Arcanist Longman, who throws back his pointed wizard hat and casts an illusory ray of magic at the horned villain, beginning a flashy arcane duel that casts the ballroom in resplendent fireworks of light.

Freed next by the golden butterfly, Principe Lancaiter hefts his spear, and rushes towards the create, finding purchase and plunging it into the creature’s side. And for a moment, victory seems possible. Until it doesn’t.

In a burst of illusory flame, Arcanist Longman lets out a roar and throws his most powerful magic at the puppetmaster, only to watch as it flicks it back at him. The fire, first pink, now dark and bloody crimson, engulfs Longman, and when the flames fade, all that is left is a pile of ash, and a wizard hat. Principe Lancaiter tries to plunge his spear into the creature once more, but with another shattering of glass,  the creature appears behind him, spearing him through with a candy cane lance, and Lancaiter is no more.

And at last, the puppetmaster’s attention turns to Laurent, who has watched helplessly as his companions fell one by one, and the creature strides forward, reaching for the cake amulet around Laurent’s cakey neck, and takes a giant bite out of it, before giving the audience a mocking bow, and disappearing through another fiery portal.

Freed of his bonds, Laurent falls to his knees, holding the body of his fallen queen in his hands, surrounded by the bodies of his fallen companions, and before the scene fades to black one last time, he raises a face caked in cake towards the last traces of the shadow, a hateful expression clear to all.

Lights fade. Music quietens. And a lone violinist, Hector, steps onto stage, playing the last notes of a mournful dirge, as the spotlight narrows and narrows and narrows, and at last, with the final note left hovering on the air, goes out.