Battle of the Bards: Rue Stilthorn

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Rue Stilthorn is a man in no need of introduction. He is a bard of great renown and admired by all. He has sailed stormy seas with dread pirates. He has explored dark caves full of feral beasts and crazed goblinoids. He has found the lost ruins of the LUMINA OPERA HOUSE. Yes, the one who has written the words that you are reading is none other than "The Man of a Thousand Hues"! But don't think bias plays a role in this retelling of my journey. I seek the truth, and the truth I shall tell! Even if this piece is the last act of sanity I have left in me, the world will know what became of Rue Stilthorn!

A Musician's Physique

In my prime, my physicality was mediocre at best. I loved to drink and eat just as much as I loved to regail all who would listen. Thanks to my proclivity to wander and adventure I kept my body in a state that could best be described as well kneeded dough.

The only markings on my body that were visibly identified as unique was my formiddable tan line. I was rarely seen shirtless, not because I was ashamed, but because I felt a good bard should be seen in costume, ready to perform at the drop of a hat.

I used to love holding up at a corner table in a bustling tavern with my scribblings scattered.

I could be considered a handsom man if not for my unkempt beard. Because I spent so much time wandering and adventuring I never saw the use in keeping a clean shaven face. Instead I let my hair and beard grow wild and I did little work to tame it. When my search for the LUMINA OPERA HOUSE intensified I saw little need for hygene deep in the forests of THE GILDED COAST. However, my shabby look didn't come to full fruition until later in my life when my search for the opera house intensified.

Many who knew me well identified me by my boistrous laughter and my excitable tone. There is a certain subtle twinkle of madness that takes a bard's eyes just as he is leaping head first into a story. That twinkle was always present in my eyes as I never truly left the worlds I created in song and fiction.

rat smashing and dirty sea shanties

As a bard of the sea my specialty lies in crafting epic ballads and beautiful sonnets that drip like honey from the comb, strait into your ears and into the vague, grey space in your head where reality takes its shape. And by epic balads and beautiful sonnets what I really mean is dirty sea shanties about storms and vengeful women! My chosen artform is drunkenly shouting in the direction of the sea!

Early in my career as a bard I was known to wield a belaying pin I acquired from my time at sea. When I chose to return to the shore I attained work as a legendary rat slayer, using my belaying pin to rid taverns of rodent infestations. It was easy gold and free ale. Any bard starting out would be lucky to be in such a position.

jobs are for the ones who went to school!

education

School is a trap! School is the place where one goes to have their mind shoved into a tiny bowl where it has no hope of expansion. To think freely means to venture out into the world and experience it. To suffer its dangers and learn from mistakes.

employment

I fell into the role of a bard because I never wanted a real job anyway. Jobs are for the ones who went to school. I was happily unemployed but was willing to trade my artistic and adventurous services for housing and food.

an unexpected call to the sea

I grew up in DREYCOT, a small coastal town just outside the city of TOWER OF NINE JOYS, with little ambition beyond exploring the nearby wilderness of NINE ELMS and listening through the back door of the local inn to the raunchy stories and songs the sailors used to recite to each other. My mother, MUA, passed away when I was very young and my father, URTH was a sailor who left home for distant ports more often than not. My grandmother, KAYLEIGH who's mind was lost to confused, intertwined memories made sure I was housed, and fed but payed little attention to my daily activities. In my youth I took it upon himself to stop attending school feeling that there was much more to learn from the sailors down at the harbor.

The Kayleigh returning to the port of Dreycot with her hold full of plunder.

It wasn't long before I was earning good copper every morning hauling the catch of the day to the fishery and spending it at the inn on ale in the evenings. It was at this point in my life that I learned the joys of drunkenly shouting my favorite shanties. I was happy and not much would have changed in my life had I not been caught bedding the daughter of a farmer named BEN SNAKEBASHER, (He was known for bashing snakes with his war hammer) who was visiting on trade business from the inland. The farmer demanded I marry the girl. Instead, I fled to the harbor to sign on to the first ship that was leaving port.

The town of Dreycot is quaint and unassuming, I was too big for it. But, it will always be home to me.

The only ship that was leaving port was the GAINSBOROUGH, a vessel everyone knew to be involved in piracy. Although, the crew was on their best behavior when docked and they all payed well so the town didn't seem to mind. The captain, a dwarf named THELDUS DEEP BLOOD claimed his first mate needed minding and if I was willing help for a lesser cut of the spoils I could sign on. I gladly did so, not fully realizing what I was signing up for.

Only after escaping a war hammer wedding (a wedding where a burly farmer wielding a war hammer forces a young man to marry a girl he barely knows to accommodate well established social and religious customs) did I realize the scope of my duties. The first mate to the captain was blind, had two hooks for hands and had, as the story goes, accidentally sliced his tongue and lips off with his hooks. This poor creature was kept on the crew because the pirates felt he was lucky in some way. I spent many months caring for MARTIN, the blind, dual hooked pirate with a gaping hole for a mouth.

Eventually, I would find himself struggling with a deep seeded longing to do something artful. I always enjoyed inventing shanties about Martin's antics.

Later, I would attempt to publish a book titled STILTHORN'S SHANTIES where I would include all of the lyrics I could remember from this period in my life but the book was a commercial failure. Because I had taken a loan from a bookie connected to a local crime syndicate to publish the book I promptly took to the sea to start another adventure elsewhere.

the search for my lumina

The longing I had to create art eventually drove me to abandon my pseudo piracy and return to land where I would teach myself to master reading and writing at THE HOLY ACADEMY OF GOND. Against my better judgement I used much of my earnings from caring for the pirate Martin on starting an education at an institution that worshiped GOND, the god of craftsmanship, innovation and imagination.

I spent much of my time studying subjects that pleased me, which were poems, sonnets, ancient myths and modern fiction. However, I completely neglected my course load and failed every class I was enrolled in. After two years I was expelled but I left the school with the knowledge of a legend that would steer the course of the rest of my life.

THE LUMINA OPERA HOUSE was once a mecca for the arts but its location had been lost to time. Becoming obsessed with the concept of the opera house I determined that finding it would be my next great adventure. After several years of searching I was about to give up when I learned of a series of tattered scraps of sheet music written by an elven

minstrel named KHIIRAL REYTHYRA. The legend was that Khiiral was a musician known to frequent the Lumina Opera House in its prime. To remember how to get there Khiiral had sketched a map of the opera house's location on the back of his sheet music. I dedicated the majority of my time in pursuit of KHIIRAL'S SHEETS. If one were to collect all of the missing pieces one could find the location of the Lumina Opera House.

rebuilding my lumina

The ruins show evidence of a fire. I suspect this was the catalyst to Lumina's downfall.

Years passed and after many adventures I discovered the location of the Lumina Opera House. The opera house was hidden deep in the WOOD OF REFLECTION. Over the centuries the forest had become wild and unruly and the creatures had grown accustomed to a lack of humanoid contact. The forest was lousy with hyper aggressive giant goats ready to gore anyone who came near with their horns.

Overjoyed by my discovery I began to explore the ruined opera house and the remaining structure showed evidence of a fire. However, the skeleton of

the building remained intact and strong through, what I suspect, were magical means. As I began to assemble the materials and tools required to restore the opera house to its former glory I learned that the structure was infested with beings that came lurking out of the shadows in the night. Every time I shined a light source in the direction of the beings they were nowhere to be found. I would find my tools broken or missing each morning and I would hear distant whispers in the night while I tried to sleep. It would seem that the opera house was haunted.

years spent with my Lumina

It's been years now and I've all but given up on restoring my Lumina. I have been reduced to short bouts of lucidity, which I utilize in the time of this writing. I am sure that I have met the thing that lurks in the shadows of this place but I have no memory. Nor do I have the will to leave. I suspect I will become nothing more than another shadow skittering across the rafters in the night. If that is my fate, then so be it. As long as I can remain close to my Lumina...

taboos

To me, there are very few things that are taboo. If one chooses to make blood sacrifices to Asmodeous then so be it. If one chooses to be an art thief then so be it. However, when one commits an action that hinders or destroys the act of creation then there is a problem. I beleive that all beings are alive to create and express themselves however they wish. But, when one deliberately keeps another from creating, then it is time for intervention.

motivation

At my core, I am motivated by truth. I try to express the purest form of truth in every piece of art I create. As a bard of the College of Creation I see the very act of creating as a deep seeded truth. I feel that I am alive to cut through the surface level of existance and unearth the tiny pinprick of light that exists at the center of all concepts. Even my hunt for the Lumina Opera House was motivated by truth. I relish in the act of showing an individual the obsurdity of thier existence and then bringing the individual to the relization that obsurdity should be embraced.

stats

quotes

"The world is nothing more than a luminescent flash of dancing lights that would continue to do so even if no one was watching..."

— Rue Stilthorn

"After you watch a toothless pirate with no tongue or lips literally shovel caramel into the gaping hole that is his mouth, you stop caring about what people look like."

— Rue Stilthorn

"Well, it wasn't my intention to run naked through the steets! It's not my fault, I didn't know she was a succubus! She could've led with that, you know!"

— Rue Stilthorn

"Oh, my sweet, sweet Lumina..."

Acomplishments

My greatest accomplishment was discovering the long forgotten location of the Lumina Opera House. Beyond that, I always prided myself on never having recieved an award, diploma, badge or certificate for anything!

Failures & Embarassments

After discovering the location of the Lumina Opera House I set to work on restoring it. My greatest failure would be my succumbing to the sinister forces that occupied the Opera House. I would eventually spend decades squandering my creative genius as a reclusive hermit, driven mad by the spirits that dwell within the opera house, planning a grand show that would never actually take shape.

Mental Trauma

The majority of the mental trauma I would endure wouldn't occur until later in my life. There was a reason the Lumina Opera house was left abandoned and forgotten. It is the site of a great tragedy and the opera house clings desperately to the shadows of the souls who were involved in its colapse. The echoing sorrow of the past permiates through my imagination and plants the seeds of madness. My creative genius will grow but my connection to the prime material plane will wane, thus hindering my efforts to manifest the material requirements needed to put on a grand show. I currently act as the physical personification of this phantom's woe and i've become a rambling vessel to express some injustice commited against it.

favorite spell

intellectual characteristics

Everything I know about the world I learned through verse and song. The only intellectual persuit I bothered to partake in was the persuit of knowlege concerning the location of the Lumina Opera House.

""Why bother paying attention to if a story is true? What matters is the lesson that lies at the story's core. What's that little pinprick of light that allows the story to live?

— Rue Stilthorn