Tales From The Archrym | S1E2 — The Last Dance of Queen Tyntella — Chapter 1: Kaemon
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CHAPTER 1: KAEMON
Once upon a sanguine summer, reports of strange attacks spread quickly throughout the Kingdom of Dauda. A colony of kaemon moved in from the stagnant marshes of the outer wastelands and harrowed the kingdom.
Queen Tyntella was young and headstrong, and often went against the wisdom of her advisors. She developed a reputation for defying convention and doing things her own way, which was amusing during times of peace, but proved devastating once the shadow of death fell over Dauda. The people cried out, but the crown offered no help.
"For what coalition of mortals can stand against death itself?” Queen Tyntella argued. “Apart from our sincere petitions to Fyrios, there is nothing to be done of it. If indeed we do nothing, let us do it with joy in our hearts."
The castle Brumeveil rested strategically on an island at the center of the Great River Cloaking, and drawbridges connected the castle to each bank. The castle was well fortified and stocked with enough supplies to withstand even the longest siege.
The Queen gathered to her island three hundred and thirty three of her dearest family, closest friends, and esteemed nobility; along with the most prestigious chefs, decorators, artists, musicians, and storytellers renowned throughout the kingdom. With her favored few safely across the river, she ordered the bridges raised, for it was well known that kaemon—who made their abode in the stagnant filth of the marshlands—were unable to approach, let alone cross the clear purity of fresh running water. Taking every precaution, the Queen ordered her guards to let no person, living or undead, across the river.
Messages arrived by Raven from across the river with regularity. One message in particular bore an inflammatory drawing on it, which mocked Dauda’s Coat of Arms. The Griffin of Dauda had been replaced with the image of Morgrulth—the chthonic dragon ridden by Njal, the Moonless King of Shadows. Even more insulting, Tyntella’s own family crest had been replaced with Njal’s infamous mark—the syzurag. The implication was clear; it was Njal, not Tyntella, who now ruled in Dauda.
Soon, every messenger raven that flew across the river delivered an altered rendering of Dauda’s coat of arms. The drawings infuriated Tyntella to the point that she ordered her archers to shoot the ravens down before they could fly across the river, a decree which effectively cut off all communication between the island castle and the rest of the kingdom.
After enduring such mockery, the queen no longer felt any guilt for the fate of her people as she herself took refuge. While her people suffered and died at the hands of the kaemon, Queen Tyntella and her favored few reveled and danced each night beneath the glow of the Varabaruvian moons. They danced for weeks as sanguine summer swelled into edematous autumn.
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