Eadric

Only a few minutes' flight away from the gates of Clan _______'s main fortress lies what used to be a large crater. Nobody was ever sure if it was the result of a meteor impact or an ancient explosion, and nobody will ever be sure, because the crater has been converted into an amphitheatre. Any extra-terrestrial microorganisms that may have survived there have been crushed under a finely painted stone stage and carved away to make places for dragons to perch along the walls. Not only is it open to all visitors, but it's even safe for visitors, as Ustasi has confirmed that the background magical radiation is higher than normal, but still within safe levels. Mutations caused in spectators would be highly unlikely and probably beneficial if any did happen, which they won't.

Among those who perform on the Crater Stage, none have quite the following from out of flight that Eadric does. This is, of course, because Eadric is a wanted criminal and overall charlatan who is being followed by many dragons looking for revenge, but the audience doesn't need to know that. To his fans, he's a nocturne with such a good memory for mimicking that he can perform the voice of every character in a play by himself. To be fair, most of those voices are his own. And it's not like he's going to return the ones that aren't, so they may as well be his too.

But regardless of his sordid past, what Eadric lives for is being the centre of attention on stage. That's why he performs every part himself, adapting the scripts of already existing plays to fit the situation of only one actor being on the stage. He's written a few of his own, but all he's good at are epics about a single hero, and sometimes he'd like a bit more variety than that. What's the point in having all these voices if the only one you use is the narrator one? And the master playwrights deserve some respect too. They've written some captivating stuff, after all. Eadric didn't connive his way into possession of all these unpublished scripts for nothing.

Eadric may bill himself as a one dragon show, but that doesn't mean he always performs alone. There are some stories that just need multiple bodies on stage at once, and there no real way around it. In classic Eadric fashion, that just means that the nocturne works in the loopholes of his own claims. He'll perform with anyone but other dragons. This is usually beastclans — it turns out a lot of talonok have a flair for the dramatic. But anything that Eadric can argue isn't a dragon counts, such as a robot, or animate plants or rocks in the shape of dragons. Even his pet rattlesnake counts, though it's a rather poor actor. Not bad at making sound effects, however.

When not on stage, Eadric spends his time following others around. To be able to mimic more voices, he has hear those voices in the first place. This starts out benign enough, as Eadric merely strikes up conversations with his targets and occasionally tries to listen in on others. Quickly though, he'll become a real nuisance. How can Eadric hear how the flames of rage sound in a voice without its owner being sufficiently annoyed? Or get a deep understanding of what sadness does to their words without them being in the midst of a tragedy? And those things don't just happen on their own, Eadric has to be actively causing problems if he wants to really understand how to put emotion into one of his mimicked voices. It's better than the alternative of him stealing it for good. (Both for the victim, and for Eadric, who has a lot of fun causing trouble.)

If there's anyone Eadric does not like, it's Jenna. She keeps trying to insert herself into his performances, regardless of the the very obvious one dragon restriction. And on top of that, she assumes she'd be the star of the show! That's clearly not true, and even if they did work together, it's obviously Eadric who would be the audience's favourite. He's got hundreds of voices to her one, and she just can't stand up to such weight of numbers.

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Under the secrecy of night, Eadric slunk down the passageway that lead to the tunnels under the fortress. Or he would have, if they ever turned off the lights around here. Even this tunnel was filled with candles, and very few ever bothered to come down here. It was really ruining the whole vibe. Yes, it was generally considered to be a clan member's own business whether they wanted to be wandering through the dangerous and unexplored tunnels or not, but that wasn't the point. Eadric was here for the inspiration! Sneaking around and acting like a criminal was the goal. How else could he understand the character of Virruk, the wrongly convicted tragic hero who spends the first act wandering through the waterways beneath Lanterlea without living it himself?

Here was the antechamber, where the candles began to run out. One tunnel that led onwards still held some. That would lead to the portal room, which was completely unsuitable for Eadric's purposes. If Virruk had access to a portal, it'd completely invalidate the entire plot! No, he'd need to go down some of the unlit passages. Somewhere down here were the unused dungeons — perfect for a bit of in-character monologuing. Also countless uncharted passageways that dated from times far before Clan _______ was founded. What adventure! Eadric's plans didn't include exploring any of them though, and supposedly the majority of them were caved in and needed excavation. But the fact that they existed made this jaunt all the more real. It would really help with the method acting. Also the evidence disposal.

It wasn't serious evidence or anything. Nothing to get worried about. Just a bit of stone that had resisted his attempts to destroy it. Eadric would normally toss something like it into the ocean, but that would make it easier for the maren to find it, and that was the exact opposite of his goals. So the tunnels it was! As he delved deeper, away from all of the candles, his eyes began to glow to make up for the candles' absence. Eadric was quite the magician, even most of if his skills weren't exactly the usual purview of a light-elemental dragon. Being his own light source was certainly within his abilities. A lesser dragon would've needed to carry a lantern down here to the dungeons. But not Eadric.

Even warding the darkness away with his own magical light, something about about the atmosphere down here was oppressive. Hadn't they kept that skydancer paladin down here at one point? He'd had a few run-ins with her before. Hard to imagine these crumbling walls and rusted chains could have kept someone as strong as her contained. He picked up one of those chains and took a closer look at it. A thin layer of frost glistened upon the ancient metal, weakly sparkling under the light from his eyes. It wasn't that cold down here, was it? Something about the chains spooked Eadric, and he tossed them to the ground. Better to finish this up quick. Anywhere around here would be fine.

Quickly, his nerves keeping him on edge, he approached the back wall of the cell. There, he scraped around with his claws looking for some loose mortar. The walls were much warmer than the chains, oddly enough. And unfortunately quite solid, despite their age. Hmm. He drew a small knife from within his vest. Shame to get this all dinged up, but if that's what it took. Eadric jammed the knife between two bricks and began to hammer on it with one hand. The noise echoed unnervingly through down the tunnel. There was no way anybody would be around to hear him, but his heartrate wasn't listening to his mind. He hit the knife harder, probably hurting himself more than the mortar. Please, let something give way!

Then, with an awful grinding sound, something shifted. Bricks scraped as they moved, leaving a crack wide enough to shove the stone into. Eadric did just that, and turned tail and ran before anything else could happen. He didn't want to think about how his knife was definitely not what had opened that hole. Nor about how there was definitely an empty space on the other side of that wall, presumably connected to the far side of one of the caved-in tunnels. And he most certainly did not want to think about the whiffs of sulphur and soot that had emanated from the other side. The wall would probably close back up. Yeah, it would have to. He certainly pushed that rock all the way through, and didn't get it stuck in there so that the crack couldn't reseal even if it wanted to. Yeah. Of course he did. Nothing to worry about. Nobody had caught Eadric yet, and it certainly wasn't going to be some dusty old wall monster that'd get the legendary performer.

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