Minstrels Assaulted By Audience

by Darcwulf, Staff Writer
Last Updated: Kirinor, Paleswelt 13, 2008

Solanthas - A recent series of performances by a troop of elven minstrels reached a calamitous conclusion when the audience stormed the stage and assaulted the performers.

For the past week a troop of elven minstrels who call themselves the Wanderers of Astarin have been putting on regular shows in Solanthas. Three times a day the elves performed their shows on a purpose built stage in Markham square before the gathered crowds. Their shows included plays based on popular Solamnic favorites like the Canticle of the Dragon, the Battle of the High Clerist's Tower and the Battle of Sanction. Interspersed in between these were classic elven legends and histories like - the First Dragonwar, the Discovery of Magic and the Founding of Qualinesti. The trouble however, was caused by a lament sung as the finale of each show, which is based on a more recent event - the failure of the Knights of Solamnia to assist the elven peoples.

"This song - "Steel Hearts" is an utter travesty," said Lady Harriet Walter currently visiting Solanthas for the summer festivals. "The knights have their faults certainly, most especially the one sitting on the throne, but why should they help those pointy eared reprobates. Did they help us during the War of the Lance? No. They holed up in the forests and left us and ours to get slaughtered. The people of Solanthas put up with that slander for over a week waiting for somebody to do something official, yet nothing was done. I can't blame the people at all for what they did."

The incident started this past Misham evening when as was usual during the performance of "Steel Hearts" elves began to circulate through the gathered crowd. As they went these elves carrying bowls asked for donations to help the dispossessed elven peoples. Witnesses say three men dressed in the armor of knights, began to heckle and jeer the performers, the rest of the crowd turning ugly fast.

"The shouting and yelling was scary enough," said Lisle Hugo a human apprentice bard. "But then those stupid knights tossed their tankards at the poor elves and the whole audience seemed to go mad. They charged the stage and pounded the minstrels; I never thought fists could draw so much blood. I saw my friend Serena Briarvale, who had been collecting donations, tossed over ten feet by those knights into a stone wall. The clerics say it is lucky she wasn't instantly killed."

"We have come to believe these knights are imposters," said Annalise uth Urhann, Knight of the Rose. "The description of these three fit those of three mercenaries seen leaving the city shortly after the incident. We have over hundred knights out searching for these men and we are offering a sizeable reward for information leading to their capture."

The Wanderers of Astarin have departed the city, reportedly heading for Caergoth.

Adventure Hooks

If the party has links to the knights of Solamnia track down the imposters. The Steel Legion would interested in protecting the troop and in knowing who is behind the attack. Others might just want the reward money.

Minstrels Assaulted By Audience

Adventure Hooks

Related Stories