S3 E12

Summary
The façade has begun. Everyone in the country is wearing masks. Adelais and Greta travel by carriage to the palace in search of Tektite and go shopping for a green dress. Prince and Stevens uncover some history at the museum in Le Grande Drip. Meanwhile, Tektite is being kept 'comfortable' in a luxuriant room with locked doors.

Appearances
In order of appearance
 * Adelais
 * Greta
 * beige boy #3
 * beige boy #4
 * Prince
 * Stevens
 * carriage driver #3
 * carriage driver #2
 * Biscuit
 * Besh
 * palace guard #1
 * palace guard #2
 * palace guard #3
 * Tektite

Locations
Frandelle
 * Le Grande Drip
 * Clothes shop
 * Le Palace
 * Hotel

Quote of the Week
TBD

Events
In the morning, everyone has their ball masks on

a few people are wearing green masks, some masks are fancy, some are animalistic

majority are self-made, or been made to fit the person

seems like people have tried to encapsulate their personalities into the mask

there’s an array of materials as well, paper, material, metal

Adelais has a bunny festival mask, reveals her chin

The mask they picked out for Tektite has a beak and is black with gold swirling patterns and red feathers

The escorts with Prince suggest that he can explore the country freely, for as long as he wants

Prince, I’ve been here long enough, presumably there are other places - where would you go? that’s not the palace, and not here?

Beige boy, umm, I perch here

Prince, perch here?

Beige boy, you ask.

Prince, is he a bird Mr Stevens? he doesn’t look like a bird

Stevens looks puzzled (if that is possible), he appears to be a bipedal humanoid, Sir.

Prince, he seems obsessed with perching that’s all

Prince, well you may perch here, but you’re supposed to follow me

They look at each other and then look back

Prince, are you able to think for yourselves

One looks to the other, gets no response and returns the gaze to Prince

Prince, I thought you were the golem (looks to Stevens)

Prince insults the beige boys

Prince, while I continue questioning our escorts maybe it is worth having a quick chat with our driver and see where he has been ordered to take us and whether we can go elsewhere

Stevens, indeed sir, sounds like a most agreeable cause of action, and may I suggest in future to leave the monosyllable quips to me

Stevens stands there waiting, and Prince goes back to insulting the escorts

Stevens realises that Prince meant for him to go to talk to the driver

Stevens heads towards a carriage and the driver is tending to the charamellion

Stevens lightly places a hand on the charamellion and casually says intriguing creature sir

Driver, sacre bleu!

Stevens, are you referring to me?

Driver, oui non, you! and he gestures

Stevens, grand

Driver, yes

Stevens, yes, I am aware that my presence can be somewhat overwhelming, I am escorting the ambassador of Hygard, and we are directed towards the palace, however we are not needed there yet, my master wishes to take on some of the sights of the country - you look like someone who would know of these places

Driver, eh, how do you look?

Stevens, forgive me, sir, it appears my internal translator has a problem understanding Frandellese

Stevens infers the driver means “what are you looking for?”

Stevens, my master is quite well travelled, as an ambassador visiting the palace subject for appropriate Frandellese small talk and places of interest

Driver, um, each place has a this historical, er, you look (gestures eating) to food, you look to see

Stevens, food is unlikely to be of interest

Driver, oui non, you look

Stevens, perhaps culture?

Driver, culture, er, on roads today, um, mask

Stevens, yes, we are here on somewhat related business to the facade and have business with the jade lady, it would do us well to have some background on the history and traditions of Frandelle

Driver, I cannot say, historical, but er, museum

Stevens, this could potentially be of interest

Driver, er, I can take you, um, I can take, (gestures to Prince) but you

Stevens, I need no contrivance, I merely mean I can travel unaccompanied sir,

I believe our escorts were intending to requisition your services for the palace, so it would make sense that you would escort us to the other places on route

Driver, ahh, we make lips (gestures to the escorts)

The driver attempts to leave the conversation and towards the escorts

Stevens turns to let him pass and makes the hand wave he has seen (a dismissive looking wave, flick of the wrist)

Stevens talks with the charamellion

The driver walks towards Prince, gives a nod and says “ello”

Driver speaks Frandellese at the escorts

words that Prince understands are palace and museum and papiers

Prince, museum see, what I’ve been asking

Driver, er, you go to museum?

Prince, sounds good

The driver gestures to the carriage

Prince insults the beige boys some more, “why couldn’t you have offered up this information”

Prince is giving Stevens time to talk to the charamellion

Stevens asks the charamellion about places they have been and the cool places they have seen

The charamellion likes the places with the water

Stevens offers his palm as a salt lick because he has been in the sea air

Charamellion is licking his hand and tasting it

Majority of the charamellions are beige, some are grey

Prince walks over when Stevens finishes talking

Prince gets into the carriage, and leans out of the window to whistle to Pabu for one last time

Adelais and Greta remove some clothing / the corset due to how warm it is

Inside the carriage is really warm, the journey to the palace is hours

They can see a town in the distance, the desert is barren

The journey is inclines and declines but it never dips harshly

At the start of the journey Greta is customising his mask with eye-lash glue and feathers

Greta, bit hot in here

Adelais, yeah just a little bit, got to get there soon though right

Greta, yeah

Adelais, being inside in this heat makes it feel longer doesn’t it

Greta, I might have to use some of that water on my face if it gets any hotter

Greta, so like what we gonna do when we get there, we’re following where we think Tektite is gone?

Adelais, we’ll just ask where the court is, we’ll wait outside the exit for him to come out and that’s at least two parties together and no one left by themselves, which is better

Greta, yeah at least we’ll be in the right location when Tektite comes out and by the palace ready for his facade, and we’ve also gotta deliver Tektite his mask

Adelais, once we’re together again it’ll be fine

Greta, you know what I was thinking, that I wasn’t allowed to wear green, I wonder if there’s an expectation of loads of Frandellese to wear green in respect to the jade lady

Adelais, I know I don’t have any green if that’s what you’re thinking

Greta, if you are Frandellian then maybe you need to be wearing green or there will be a political assumption

Adelais, I assumed because I wasn’t born here

Greta, clearly I am not Frandellese and can’t wear green

Adelais, Greta, is this you asking to go shopping?

Greta, well no, but yeah

Adelais, well I wouldn’t want to cause a political upset, I think we’re going to do a bit of it and I don’t want the upset to be over dress code

Greta, I imagine this won’t affect Prince

Adelais, well easy enough to pick something up

Greta also customised some parts of Tektite’s mask

Greta, yeah I think Tektite would like some feathers

Greta, do you want any on yours, I got all this stuff here

Adelais, it’s so cute and so pretty, I feel like if I add anything I might it might go wrong

Greta, well I can help you if you want

Adelais, as long as you have stuff to spare

Greta, look at all this shit I bought

piles of arts and crafts from the mask stall

Prince, Stevens and escorts arrive at a new destination

One of the escorts gets out and holds the door for Prince

The other waits for him

Prince steps out

The driver gets off the carriage as well

Prince is  blinded by how bright it is

Prince, where are we?

Driver, er, um, I’ve made you the museum

prince, ah very nice of you

driver, if you are ambassador it is not nice, it is done

Prince, need to tell the people of Hygard this, they could learn a thing or two about these guys (he does a back of the hand slap on Stevens’ arm)

Stevens is super warm, sun baked

Prince and Stevens are outside a rather large building with large, open doors

Either a space has been cleared, or there are not many people here

Everyone you see is wearing masks

Behind them there is a lake

the air is a bit more fresh

Stevens, which city is this?

This one is Le Grande Drip

There are a couple of clouds in the sky

Prince heads to look at the museum

Prince, let’s go Mr Stevens.

Prince learns that the museum is a war museum, there is nothing recent for reference, it’s all old war stuff, suggesting they haven’t had any form of conflict in a very long time and that is why the building is there to commemorate that fact, with the help of Stevens you can only identify a few references to the old Jade Lady, a lot of the old wars seemed to be swords versus spells, the Spells are on the side of the Frandellese, their enemies had some very wild magic which was deemed illegally dangerous, and fortunately died out and became history here

Frandellese weapon users, few and far between but they would only willing go into battles their “beautiful art” would overcome, if you were into swordplay you were all in

Stevens learns (he can read Frandellese) there is no mention of the museum being war, it is the Frandelle history museum, seems the only bit of their past is worst preserving, like a “cautionary tale” - it is ambiguous but the role of Jade Lady existed to “oversee the war”, she was never involved,  “oversee the war” is the phrase that is written

The “age of war”, as it is referred, was definitely over a thousand years

Any hints on the succession of the next Jade Lady - Prince finds a passage and requires Stevens assistance to read it

Prince, this looks like it could be important

“In the latter days of the age of war the Lizard King came from below, he pronounced a Lady of Jade and she has chosen each since.”

Stevens pours over the rest of the passages to find any further reference of the “Lizard King”

There are no more references

Prince looks for pictures of lizards

There is no more mention of the lizard king from below

The text / type is common with special characters

Prince is looking for phrases that contain Tyrant of the Peak

Prince finds nothing

Then he looks for Voice from Above

Prince finds a display which ancient attitudes towards the Free Kingdoms

Stevens looms over and says “allow me Sir”

The display gist is as far as written records go the Free Kingdoms have been something of a passive ally

Anything that suggests what the Voice from Above refers to - the Jade Lady hasn’t had to speak to the Voice from Above since the age of war

Prince looks for Mortallous

Prince finds sailors continue to spread the myths of Mortallous, “this is silly”

it’s a sailor thing

Prince and Stevens are there for a while

The carriages had two wides benches opposite, can fit three people on each bench,

Adelais and Greta finish their journey

There’s a moment of finally! And why is this no better, as it is warm outside

Adelais fans herself with the door

Greta, I think I might die out here, Adelais

When they stop the driver says, “excuse”

Adelais, hello

“would you go straight to the palace?”

Adelais, I assume there is somewhere we can move our things to stay

“I bought you to the city, but we can go further if you want to stay”

Adelais, how long a walk is it

“um, one bell”

Greta, one bell, one chime of the clock - are the courts by the palace

Driver, um you need a court

Greta, we might need to find someone who went to court

Driver, you just came from court

Greta, oh then he’s not going to court

Adelais, our friend went to court and then he was taken into a carriage, do you know roughly when

Greta, like this one

Driver, I did not go, not today

Greta, oh no, a different similar one

Adelais, we asked and they said that he was probably being taken here - you know what this isn’t your problem

Greta, I guess what we do need, is a

Adelais, a shower!

Greta, somewhere to freshen up and somewhere we could bed, not an inn here

Driver, hotel

Greta, and somewhere we can buy something green, a shopping district

Driver, green?

Adelais, yes

Driver, ooh um, I know (gestures over to somewhere, street and then turn)

Adelais, all right thank you

Adelais, so I mean I don’t want to go straight to the palace looking like this

Greta is literally wearing pants, masks and high heels

Adelais, let’s find a hotel and walk, it’s only an hour

Greta, yeah get all this glue off my hands (from the crafting)

Adelais, so to answer your question, here will be fine - how much do we owe you?

Driver, one coin

Greta, silver coin? gold coin? what material do you want this coin to be fabricated from?

Driver, eh, white

Greta, silver coin

The driver takes it

Greta, ja’dore

Adelais, thank you very much

The driver gestures a bow like wave of the hand and Adelais goes to shake her hand

The palace is the same pastel colours as the town they were in before

They get their stuff out of the carriage and tidy up

The capital has a channel running down the street and the light posts have to be on stilts because there is water flowing through the city

Slake has not pinged back to Greta yet on Tektite’s whereabouts

Greta, well a hotel again

Greta gets back on Besh

Adelais gets on Biscuit, who has been having a great run free for 3 hours with his new best friend Besh and charamellion

Biscuit only just slows down and goes “I got it” on the carriage when the carriage stops

Besh was enjoying the run, unless anyone looked and then she moved away from Biscuit

Adelais tells the driver to “make a beautiful day” as they leave

Greta and Adelais get to a hotel, throw their stuff down, clean and pay for the hotel

There are more people at the capital, all wearing masks, not very of them wearing green

Adelais and Greta put their masks on too

The place itself won’t have it’s own bathhouse, the building is opposite

Greta struts around with a tiny towel for a while

Everyone looks fancy so Greta puts on fancy clothes

Adelais puts on a clean tunic in blue and boots

Greta has a floaty gauze skirt and hot pants

Adelais and Greta begin to walk towards the palace

Greta has Tektite’s mask with him too

They have supplies, like water

There are festival buntings and banners, etc. noone’s is setting up stalls but on the buildings there are, on people’s houses, there are banners with heraldry on

Different house heraldry

it is only on places that are houses, and it isn’t all of them

where it is, it is a green banner

Adelais keeps an eye out for the symbol on her shield, the mason le trade

Adelais looks out for anyone who has eyes the colour of hers

There’s definitely a moment of “could that be?” but then they are gone

Foreign folk are rare but not absent, Greta is massive and warrants a few looks but not as many as they might expect

They head towards the palace

The palace bears more resemblance to a ziggurat

the outside seems to have a long overhang of roof supported by pillars, within that it is a lofty - halfway between ancient greek and bunker

The pillars and the roof are nice, with statues flanking the steps

for all its beauty there is something imposing about it - military

Adelais walks passed at least one place that has clothes, but no green dress leaps out

Adelais, it needs to be above the knees or with a slit, so I can still fight

They find the green dress in the shop, it is pointedly singled out

It is very nice, there’s no price tag

Greta, eh, how much is this dress?

the shop person, eh?

Greta, to buy

the shop person, oh buy

Greta, how much?

the shop person holds up one finger

Greta shows silver, no, gold, yes

One gold

The dress is classy in Frandellese fashion, and Greta can customise it

Adelais is really pleased that Greta did that

Adelais is holding onto the bag carefully, pleased

Onward to the palace again

Greta and Adelais get to the steps

Slake hasn’t pinged up

Greta recalls Slake

Greta has the knowledge that Slake has been bound to the plane so he can’t be summoned or unsummoned

Greta, something's not right with Slake, something has happened

Adelais, did he get shot or something

Great, nah, I think he’s still here, I can feel him, it’s like he’s separated somehow

Adelais, if Tektite was taken to the palace maybe they have some kind of barrier, I’m not even sure if that kind of magic exists

Greta, yeah there are some kinds of witches wards

There do not seem to be any guards

There are people giving the palace a wide birthe

There are no carriages near

Adelais and Greta walk up the stairs

They get up there and a bit of the ways on the building, are massive double doors

Two beige boys stand there

Greta and Adelais go up to them

Greta, “all right both”

Adelais, “hello”

Greta, “I don’t know if you can help us, our friend who we travelled here with was escorted this way in a carriage and we were wondering if he was brought to the palace

(blank face)

“it’s all right, I can give you all the time you need”

“he’s about 4-5 foot hunch over, he’s got scales, he’s a dragon folk, purple and orange robes”

(blank face)

Adelais, “if he’s not here, do you know where they might have taken someone like him?”

Greta, “a foreigner who’s been through the court”

(blank face)

Greta, you’re not supposed to talk to us?

Adelais, “he went through the court and then to a carriage and then we think he came here”

“court” (points)

Greta, fuck sake

Adelais, shh

Adelais, a town map?

(blank face)

Adelais, okay thank you for listening

They both go back down to the bottom of the stairs

Adelais, there’s no reason that Tektite is here, was taken here, maybe if we find a list of buildings, a map we might find a place that could be a court

Greta, yeah

Adelais, give me one moment to do a check via religion (she does the Erebe symbol)

Adelais, hello Erebe, it is me again, you’ve helped me a bit before, I know you can see what we’re trying to do with this saving the world thing, if there is a small sign to point me in the direction that would really help, thank you very much

Out of the blue Adelais gets a twitch in the leg, and stumbles

Greta goes to catch her

She falls to the right

Greta, you all right what happened there?

Adelais, I think it’s this way ( she points at where her hand fell ), I don’t get leg twitches, and I feel like I got this leg twitch right when I asked Erebe for help

Greta, okay, right, I’ll go with you, okay, lead the way then

Greta and Adelais go in the “Erebe” direction

After credits
The camera pans down through the ground to focus on a room similar to the one Jack Prince came into, but much more luxuriant, the chairs are nice, the cushions are many, the table is carved all fancy, the doors are something military

Tektite sits

An individual wearing beige enters

“the lady of jade will need to speak to you, but not until you have answered our questions”

Tektite goes to stand up, mid sentence, and then sits again at the resolution with a “thank you”