DM Creo wrote:The Citizens of Baldur's Gate that had celebrated victory a year earlier, now return to their sobering lives...Many Bauldarians are with out jobs and poverty again is on the rise.
Subject: The Procurer of Tales (redux)
And so...Artim makes effort that good fortune builds among those that most need it.Steve wrote:In the East District plaza, in the foreground to the Elfsong Taven patio, a man is attempting to entertain a few commoner youths, with a show of dexterity, flipping a gold coin through his fingers, then, throwing the coin up into the air, grasping it firmly as it begins to fall toward the ground, finally, opening his palm to the audience, to show the absence of a coin, there.
The man seems to gain just as much enjoyment from the act, as would the audience show him.
At one point in the play, the man, with a charming voice, ends the show of dexterity and slight-of-hand magic, to hold a single gold coin up to the youths. Upon one face of the coin, he shows them a carved moon, then turning it, he shows them the back, a cloak.
"Listen now...for I shall tell you this tale for free...as it was once told to me...this tale, of The Fateful Coin.
As has been told by parent to child, priest to acolyte, since time can be remembered, it is said that that Luck—that which each an everyone of you may posses—plays a crucial role in each being's life.
When each new-born baby cries and finds it's own voice, the Lady that Smiles, Tymora the Fair, flips a coin formed from the memory of her own mother—though it is not her mother, alone. For our Shining Lady has a sibling, a sister, called the Lady Doom, thee or those without the blessing of luck, do heed. This dark sister, she is the one that calls the way the coin will land, while it spins in the air, for it is expected that it will land on of one of two sides—the moon or the cloak."
The man—Artim would be his name—pauses the telling to again, roll the coin along his fingers, showing both sides to the audience, leading them into that belief, that there is but only two sides to each coin.
"If, it is said, the Lady Doom, is right, and the call she has made does land upright, that person is cursed with misfortune for the rest of his or her days. A terrible, terrible fate...but, I am sure, that has not happened to any of the likes of you..."
Artim smiles at the youths, such to ward off any of their own doubt.
"If Lady Doom is wrong, though...it is said the Lady Luck smiles on that child for the rest of his or her life! And for you young ones...I can see that glimmer of luck already, dangling from the edges of each of your smiles!"
At first Artim is smiling along with the youths, but then, his face becomes calm, almost pensive.
"For some rare beings, the coin—said to be touched in the air by an invisible power beyond the Gods— lands on the edge...."
With these words, Artim lightly flicks the coin into the air, letting it reach its upward trajectory and then, fall backwards downward...where he then catches the coin upon the back of his hand, the coin, precariously balancing there on edge...seemingly ready to fall to either side, but maintaining this upright moment.
"...And these luckless—or, as it is said, those beyond luck—these few can forge their own fates, for they have been granted more freedom over their destinies than the powers of Luck and Doom, themselves...."
Finishing his tale, the performer again flicks the coin up into the air, but this time he launches it high over the heads of the youths, for which one can see, they all begin to raise their own hands upward, with the desire to be that lucky one to catch the coin, of fair wealth to many commoner youth...but with his other hand, mostly hidden during the tale, Artim launches another volley of coins, that match the downward fall of the first coin, so that upon these youths, a light but literal shower of coin, is gifted to them...with each youth, hopefully gaining.