<div class="floatleft">(https://www.naturallyamazing.com/americasparks/10489.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>GM Post<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>January 1st, 2018<br/><strong>Status:</strong>--<br/><strong>Notes/Triggers:</strong>A Gory Death...and a Summons. Music to set the mood... (link!) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUOMPRxcquE&index=1)<br/><strong>Tagging: </strong>Everyone.<br/><hr/><hr/><br/>Of course it all began on a Monday, the most banal of all days.<br/><br/>Well, that was where it began for everyone except one person: the Autumn Sidhe of House Beaumayn, Calla. That was when her story meaningfully ended. Her body turned up just near one of the dams at Robbers Cave State park. Her straw-yellow hair was splayed over the icy white frost near her, and she was just two feet from the dam, one of her beautiful pale arms detached from her body...yet the arm still looked as if she was reaching for the dam.<br/><br/>Of course, the park authorities called the police, and they took the body away on that lonely winter day. What the authorities did not see was that on the dam, covered by frost...something was there.<br/><br/>An officer said to a park ranger, "Do you hear that?" If anyone had looked closely at the park ranger, one might have noted his eyes were...very bright purple. And under his eyes looked red, as if he'd been crying.<br/><br/>"Hear what?" the other man replied, as an ambulance took Calla away.<br/><br/>"It sounds like singing."<br/><br/><div align="center">~ * * * ~</div><br/>And the stories of six brave Changelings began with a letter. For some, the letter turned up inexplicably or in an odd place--a cabinet, a backpack, a tree! For some, it was in a mailbox. It was a beautiful letter, though, on old parchment with elegant black and purple etchings of flowers and swords all around the edges, evoking a sort of grim yet thrilling call to battle. It was clear that whoever wrote it wanted to give the reader a sense of rising excitement yet solemnity. The writing was in beautiful calligraphy, but the message it conveyed was blunt in tone.<br/><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Georgia;">If you have received this missive, it means you are one of the six I have chosen as my champions. Some of you were harder to find than others. I apologize for the possible strangeness in which you found your missive.<br/><br/>Lady Calla of House Beaumayn is dead. You may not have heard of her. She was quiet, in her own way, but there is a foulness upon her death that leaves me uneasy. <br/><br/>Be the heroes you are meant to be. Investigate and avenge Lady Calla's death. Her younger brother, Harald, waits at the Little Dam at Robbers Cave State Park to speak with all of you. Be kind to him. And be wary. He says there is a miasma or eerie power from the waters of Lakes Carlton and Wayne Wallace.<br/><br/>Honor, glory, and the chance to emblazen your name in Legend shall follow, should you accept this task.<br/><br/>~ Duchess Gabriella Cox<br/>House Beaumayn</span></span><br/><br/><br/>It was not a direct order to attend. But anyone who received the missive would likely consider that given the Duchess clearly had a method for finding each of them, it seemed unwise to turn it down. And besides...this was adventure. This was vengeance! This was looking into the cold face of death and shouting: No!<br/><br/>And nothing was more awakening for the spirit than that.<br/><br/><div align="center">~ * * * ~</div><br/>Harald, inheritor of everything Lady Calla left behind, was now technically Count Harald. This did not sit well with him. He was dressed, to mortal eyes, in the plain earthy attire of a park ranger, complete with beige hat. He was alone at the dam, waiting for the six chosen by the Duchess to arrive. He had gotten in touch with her nearly immediately. He was not doing well having been the first on the scene to find his sister dead.<br/><br/>His fae mien was another story. As all Sidhe, he was painfully handsome, as all of male Sidhe often were. He was blond like Calla, his hair long and to his lower back. His ears had delicate points to them. His fae attire was black, silver, and purple regalia befitting a noble of House Beaumayn. His eyes, however, were red from tears, but the irises were nonetheless a rapturous purple, like vibrant heather.<br/><br/>He waited for the Duchesses champions. Robbers Cave State Park was trivially easy to access; one just had to drive out to it, park, and head to the dam, which was not that far from the main park entrance.