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Day One
Elempi's father had been all the way to Umbar in his day. He had returned with the oldest tome the village had seen, and won renown thereby; and the hand of a fair maiden named, if bargain one could call it. When Elempi was a name of Umbarian origin, and so the babe's father settled on it. Elempi is translated from the Umbarian tongue as bard of little account; or in the slang of that land, two bit poet. Elempi did grow into his name. He gained a reputation for the wittiest doggerel that any had heard, but never a serious line of verse passed his lips. He married Nar and their only child was Diamond. But Nar was drowned in the sea in a sudden gale while her fishing husband was safe off the coast. Elempi grew sad for the loss, but gladness came when Diamond married Nogrod, the village jester who, though not given to verse, took up where his father-in-law had left off for jollity. Nogrod and Diamond gave joy to Elempi's declining years. with three children, though Diamond lost that same number to illness and early death. Yet the three who lived to walk on two feet were lovely girls. Their grandfather loved them and delighted in them.
Until this day. The sun rose over the distant Ered Luin, shedding light upon fragmented, rushing clouds that broke off the sea as if fleeing in fear, chased on crying winds by the gods.
The villagers found a corpse lying at the foot of the Rock of the Watchers, who looked still out to sea. But a single tear slid down the quiet face of each. The corpse was Elempi, and was marred cruelly by wanton maulings that were far more than needed to kill.
"Papa!" cried Diamond, kneeling by the corpse.
"This is murder!" grated her husband, Nogrod. "It is the evil the Watchers warned of! What should we do?"
Lalaith said, "The Watchers said there would be a wizard among us. That one will save us."
"How do we know that is so?" asked Lommy.
"So the Watchers spoke, according to the old tales," said Alcarillo.
"Cursed by the evil one," said a voice they had not heard before, "werewolves three." It was the Lady Watcher.
All the Seal Folk, after a moment of stunned silence, erupted in a chaos of questions. She did not reply, but looked out to Sea.
"One cursed new each Night shall be," said the Man, not taking his eyes from the sea.
Now the stunned silence was not broken, for fear had overcome them all.
"Two remain," the Lady intoned, "for one was turned again."
At last, mormegil the mayor spoke. "The good wizard may help us, but we must do what we may," and this one laid out a plan for the village to talk amongst themselves and choose one each day from their number whose life should end as sundown, in hopes of ending the life a werewolf. Each of the Seal Folk acknowledged that it was a desperate measure, but needed nonetheless.
Suddenly Diamond wailed. "They've taken his heart!" Sure enough: almost surgically, the chest had been opened and the heart removed, carefully cut. What diabolical purposes did the evil wizard have for this? All wondered, but none could say.
So the Day began.
Play Officially Commences for Day One at 6pm EDT.
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