In the north of Thring is the great crumbling pile of Castle Dinivar, once one of the most splendid of the Duchy.
Mounts: **At Castle Dinivar (17.11), northmost of the **Thringish holdings, the knights ride upon black ostriches bred for their prodigious size. These beasts are fleet-footed and vicious with their beaks, but they are also prone to madness and early death; the sages say their bodies are too large for their souls to animate.
Although Castle Dinivar has seen better days the young heiress, Lady Naideen, loves every stone and has been taught the names of many of them by her old great-aunt and much besides. Thanks to her aunt she was knew enough to talk to the caged firebird that her father bought for her and knew enough to soak peas in a dish of her blood by moonlight so she could feed them to her firebird and have it grow large enough to carry her out her window before returning to its true size at dawn.
On the back of her firebird she has travelled far and wishes to travel father, but her father’s mind is set on finding a husband for her, as her mother is sickly and soon a new Lady of Dinivar will be needed. So at night she went into the woods and sang an old song that called the snakes from their holes and they came to her, whispered in her ears and writhed about her so that only her head could be seen. When she sent them back to their holes they left behind a stone with the shape of a snake’s egg but instead of white it was covered in orange scales that shone like gems. She then set it in the breast of a manikin that she had shaped from the wax of the giant bees (10.10) and poured wine in its mouth so that it might move.
And Lady Naideen smiled knowing that no matter how many men her father sent for, she would have to marry none of them.
Connections:
- With the (near) extinction of horses, the knights of Dinivar have taken to riding great black ostriches (16.16.05).
- Someone used a wax golem similar to Lady Naideen’s manikin to attempt to assassinate and replace Viceroy Orhan of Jahur (19.31.01).
- The songs that Naideen sings and the snakes that she visits are holy to one of the nine gods imprisoned in the Prison of the Nine (29.14.54).
- Naideen is missing one finger (02.04).
Hooks:
- What wants to marry Lady Naideen and become the next Lord of Dinivar?
- Why is Lady Naideen so confident that creating a giant beeswax golem will keep them from marrying her?
- What abilities/features do giant beeswax golems have? I imagine that they look human enough to fool anyone who doesn’t look closely.
- What’s up with the snakes in the forest? Which forest?
- What is the significance of orange gems (or scales that look like them)? This is the third place they’ve appeared now (the dragon of the Boiling Seas (15.15), the gems of the dwarven monastery (03.04) and here).
- Why would someone want to learn the names of the stones of a castle?
