Monday, September 19, 2011

The Big Smurf* - Part 1

"Once upon a time, in the middle of a far off place known as 'The Cursed Lands', a village made up of mushroom houses held a population of tiny, blue people known as...The Smurfs.

One day, while...OOF! OW! Clumsy?! Please be careful! You interrupted me in the middle of my introduction to the first adventure."


"Oh, gee, sorry Narrator Smurf. Papa wanted me to come over and tell you we're not starting in the Smurf Village. We're starting in The Kingdom."

"Really?"

"Yeah, um, here...these are the new pages."

(Flips through the pages and quickly tries to organize them).

"I see. Thank you Clumsy. I'll start again..."


(Clumsy stumbles off, knocking over another pile of papers, and a spare microphone).

"Once upon a time, in a far off place known as 'The Cursed Lands', there was a Kingdom of poor resources but happy people. Though conditions were tough and the castle had seen better days, it's inhabitants were kind and just and worked hard to improve their lot.

Just outside the castle were several villages, each poorer and less happy than the next. In one of these villages, a terrible fate had befallen a young peasant boy..."


With that, our story began.

As it turns out, a Knight (Sir Bellerive), his Paige (Johan), the Paige's best friend the court jester (Pirlouit or PeeWee, whom we settled on calling Peewit) and a small entourage of men from The Kingdom, enter a small dwelling in a village on the outskirts of The Lands. There, they find a family whose young son has been asleep for three days and can not be woken up. The parents have tried everything (loud noise, water on the face, smelling salt type approach, etc.) but to no avail.

Word has it this is the seventh such child to be find this way. Four in this town and three in the adjacent one. Villagers are worried, fearing plague, faeries or worse. And there's nothing worse than worse I assure you.

A knock at the dwelling's door turns all eyes toward it. As the lady of the house/shack opens it, in walks a slightly stooped, thin, balding fellow in a tattered black robe over red-brown tights and soft leather shoes. He introduces himself as a herbalist, potion maker and wise man by trade. His name is Gargamel.





One or two members of the crowd have heard of him. They toss out words like Charlatan!, Hoax! and Dark Sorcerer but Gargamel plays the part of concerned citizen of the Kingdom meerly trying to help. He looks at the child, pull out a small vile and after proving it is not a poison or the cause of the malady (by putting some on his own tongue), he passes the vapors of the concoction under the child's nose. The vapor is silvery grey (jokes are tossed back and forth about it being Vicks Vapor Rub - "Didn't you know his first name was Victor? Vick Gargamel.").

Gargamel, nods, steps back and shakes his head in sadness.

"Oh this is just as I feared", the old alchemist says. "This is the work of a dark fairy. A Chaucer. It steals the breath of those who sleep, especially children. Luckily, there is a cure but it is difficult to obtain."

The villagers beg Gargamel for the answer to what will save their children. Even the King's men hang on his every word now. He smiles.

"Why, Essence of Smurf of course..."

AD
Barking Alien


*Each of the adventures in this campaign are going to be named after the title of a movie. In this case there is a double meaning in that the title refers to 'The Big Sleep' which in turn means death. It also refers to Insano's goal of building a 'giant' mecha smurf.








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