A seemingly unobtrusive man makes his way to the center of the courtyard mounts a pedestal that has been positioned there.
In a booming voice he calls out just as the sun begins to set.
'Ladies, Gentlemen, and friend Ogier I wish to personally thank you all for coming this evening. While Lady Jessea was kind enough to put this event together, I feel it is a personal honor to have been invited to do this program for you. I do hope you all have a marvelous time.'
With that the man falls silent and holds his fist up in the air.
A hush falls over the crowd.
Softly drums begin to beat. The man lowers his fist and the drums increase in intensity.
Appearing out of nowhere a flaming stick appears in his hand. Gasps fill the air as he takes the stick and takes the flaming end into his mouth and swallows it.
Coughing the man says,'I do deeply appolgize. It was getting a little warm up here. I needed something to cool my throat.'
'I can see you don't believe me. Let me explain, you see I was once able to drink water but I was cursed. Cursed by the dark one himself - or so he claimed - and I believe him. I all happened long, long ago. I was a lad of twenty years.
My story takes place in a small hamlet of Akotosh near the boarderlands. Its a hardy rugged country. Why, up there the men are stout enough to be oaks and the women even stouter. They claimed they were ready for any challenge. They commonly faced hideous beasts such as trollocs...
As the man continues to explain his story movement can be seen behind him. Men and women pantomime farming, building and various other labors. As the man says trolloc, a hideous beast appears, popping up from amidst the roses, quickly to be run through with a blade by one of the farmers who never seems to even pause from his labors.
The narrator continued,'yet there was one monster they not faced, Ba'alzamon.' The man visibly trembled before he continued. 'Having faced trollocs and worse, the people of the town began to openly mock the dark one. They felt he could not harm them. They were wrong.'
In the blink of an eye three things seem to happen at once. The man jumps doing a double backflip before landing neatly on the ground behind the pedestal. A woman's shrill screams fills the air as fire seems to shoot from out of the walls along the north end of the courtyard. The true monster appeared, Ba'alzamon.
The narrator shouted over the cacophony slowly walking toward the crowd, 'He came for them at night. They were completely unprepared. He wielded fire as normal men would wield swords, four of them at a time. He hewed through the town leaving none breathing in his wake.
'I was camped near to the town. I heard the commotion. I knew I had to help but not what was happening. A wiser man might have turned away.'
'Upon reaching the village square I knew I may have made a mistake. The air wreaked of death and charred flesh. I felt him before I saw him. I turned and saw his eyes. They were as fire and I knew death had come for me.'
'But then I saw her, this little girl no older than 10. Blonde hair trailing behind her she dove at the dark ones legs. Knowing I could not be outshown by a child I grabbed my staff and stepped forward.'
With this the gleeman pulled out a staff and began twirling it through the air.
'The heat was so intense from his eyes it immediately caught flame and I went for him. With the girl distracting him, I was able to thrust the flaming end of my staff through his chest.'
'He disappeared.'
'But his voice, I heard his voice in my thoughts. He cursed me. Laughed at me. Said he would make it so that I would wish I had never been born.'
'And so now here I am, cursed to walk the land telling my tale and forced to drink fire like a normal man drinks water.'
With that the company bows their heads.
'Thank you'
