Ilphyl Palace Run

[spacetogrow]

Content Warning

Parts of Ilphyl’s past deal with religiously motivated child abuse, sexism (albeit fantasy sexism as it is against male drow), transphobia and fantasy racism. If you want to engage with Ilphyl’s Palace, but not this content, let me know and I can make sure you stay on an alternate route. I’ll also put warnings on particular rooms if it seems likely to come up, and use the subject lines of threads to add in warnings if it comes up unexpectedly.

Goal
Find and return Ilphyl's consciousness to prominence. You know it will take the form of a small bat, but aren't sure how you know this.

Comments

Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

The stairs leading down open out into a ground-level courtyard. Weren’t you below ground before? Unlike the tavern, the scene is twilight, though it is hard to tell if it is dusk or dawn with the building and trees covering much of the sky. Strangely, despite the color of the sky, you have little problem seeing detail and color, and even the shadows still have objects dimly visible in greyscale.

The surrounding building’s architecture feels elvish (lots of wood and curves), but the windows all have tight shutters, that are currently all open. To the left is a crowd of dark elves clustered around a stone statue of an elven woman holding a sword upraised, her hair in motion around her. The features of many of the gathered elves are indistinct, more suggesting a crowd than focusing on any one individual. The leader, a dark elf woman, is holding a blue mushroom. She sets it aside and begins to start telling a story.

To the right, you see Ilphyl kneeling alone in an alcove. Another statue is the centerpiece, showing a female elf (quite possibly the same elf) but younger and with body language more of determination than triumph. A garden of flowers (mostly night-blooming varieties) surrounds the statue, then a path rings the alcove. On the wall are a number of carvings, with shelves below them.

You also see a small, mostly empty bookcase to one side. A few books are on it, and a potted blue mushroom.

Straight ahead, you see a door with a clock above it reading 2:00. A few cobwebs cling to the frame, and there is a sign hung on it saying “Keep Out” as well as thorny vines clicking to only this part of the scene. The masked elf cuts ahead of you to take down the sign and clear the frame.

> Speak to Ilphyl
> Listen to the crowd of elves.
> Speak to the masked elf.
> Investigate the left statue and bookshelf.
> Investigate the right statue.
> Something else?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

[ILPHYL IS MEAN AND NEEDS TO GIVE ME MORE CREDIT 8(

>Speak to Ilphyl

[Approaches quietly since important stuff seems to be going on here... Kneels down beside her]

Who's that?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

Hmm?

Oh, it's supposed to be the goddess Eilistraee.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

Is she important to you?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

Yeah. Gods are scary. I can kind of deal with the ones that stand for things like the sea and the forests [they wave their hand at the carvings in the walls] because it's more like dealing with a very powerful elemental. The god of the ocean can be a jerk, but it's because she likes storms and giant waves, and doesn't really care about humans or elves most of the time.

Ones that deal with humanoid stuff are harder because they want what powerful people want. And that means they care what less powerful people are doing.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

Is this one one of the elemental ones?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

No. Eilistraae was the daughter of the god my family grew up worshipping, Lolth. She looks out for...

.... I guess people -- drow, I mean -- who want to follow their own path. Or she's supposed to, at least.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

Oh, is that why you like her? You want to follow your own path too?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

Yeah. And... I like knowing that not all drow communities are like the one I grew up in.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[beexceptional]

[Huh.]

[Okay, stuff that doesn't seem like plot progression, easier to think of this like a video game for Decision Making.]

[Lets see what this speech is about with the crowd.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

[The speech appears to be some kind of religious sermon from the lady.]

[The story the priestess tells is the a take on the origin of the drow. Elves were created when the god Gruumsh wounded the god Corellon; Corellon’s blood formed the first elves, and raised the first generation of gods from their ranks. Araushnee, god of destiny and artisans, was particularly beloved of Corellon, and she became his consort. It is said that Araushnee was the first to take a fixed form, and sway the elves to follow her example; the loss of the freedom of fluidity was a small price to pay for greatness. Corellon was displeased that his followers had rejected the changeable nature they had inherited from their divine Parent, but it might have been left as a disagreement, had Araushnee not attempted to kill Corellon.

[Araushnee who would become Lolth, was banished, and her children with Corellon accompanied her. Vhaerun shared his mother’s ambitions for their followers. But Eilistraae knew her mother’s followers walked a dangerous path, and some of their children and their children’s children would need help back to the light of the moon and stars.]

[It seems these elves are followers of Eilistraae from the emphasis of the story. The story ends with some kind of song or hymn in elvish. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Ilphyl glance over and then turn away.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[beexceptional]

[She frowned as she listened to the story. Just jump to murder for disagreement, huh?]

[Its]

[Unsettling familiar, honestly, and she hates that.]

[She glances at Ilphyl, and looked forward again. Can she get to the blush mushroom?]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

[Yep. The smell is of incense and sawdust, as the mushroom releases more spores.

[-- You and a gnome woman are being shown around what could be part of the same settlement by an older dark elf woman. Most of the residents are dark elves, though there are one or two half-elves or others. It's nighttime, but most of the residents seem to be acting like it's the day -- people doing chores and children playing.

A young girl grabs a toy out of a young boy's arms. An older woman steps in, reminding the girl to ask permission before taking something another person is using. You stop walking, to watch the scene play out, as the young girl apologizes and returns the toy.

"Ilphyl? You all right, kid?" The gnome asked, noticing that they had left you behind.

You don't answer. This seems to concern the gnome even more. Your guide glances at you, and then at what you are looking at. "Ah. Well, if I needed any proof that you were fresh up from the Underdark, it would be that. I'd wager your student, Madame Yebe, has memories of a sister who would not now be getting the lecture Jana is getting from her mother."

"Cousins, actually," you say, still having trouble forming words, and still watching the family as the woman reminds the two children abotu sharing.--

[Sorry, my past self summarized this memory and never went back to actually write it.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[beexceptional]

[Man, is it even safe for me to be breathing in all these spores?]

[Also what is sharing, can't relate.]

[This memory is a lot harder to relate to. Chloe is frowning to herself because why would a parent favor a cousin anyway, that's weird?]

[Lets head to the bookcase.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

[There are a few books here and another mushroom.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[beexceptional]

[Well, might as well keep up that spore count.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

[THis one smells of the sewa.

[It's also Ilphyl's first meeting of Tolovir, which is quite a long thread, but includes a lot of cultural exchange, and Ilphyl going from caution to curiosity as soon as Tolovir reveals he's from a different culture of dark elves]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

[Back here to check out things like the bookcase and also let Ilphyl know things seem okay]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

[the bookcase has a few books and a potted mushroom]

[You also have Ilphyl (or whatever bit of Ilphyl is represented here) looking over.]

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

[What's in the books?]

Oh hey. I think I set your bat self free. Do you feel any different?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

[Yep. They are handwritten notes. Some repeat what Ilphyl has been learning from Tolovir; some are rumors about other dark elf communities in Ilphyl's world, in the far north and south. There's even notes from a conversation Ilphyl had in Reverie with an elf from another world, with the clear indication of knowing 'this is someone from another plane' but still interested in another group of elves with sunlight issues and magic.]

[this Ilphyl appears to consider the question]

Yes, I feel more... connected to the outside world.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

That's great to hear. Hopefully, it will be enough to help bring you back.

Oh, I was wondering something. What's up with all the mushrooms here?

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

They're memories. They match the expression of each place.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[terribletwos]

Oh.

So I probably shouldn't try to taste them like we talked about.

Re: Courtyard (4:00)

[spacetogrow]

Not these ones, no.

[it does get a laugh]