Act VII - Dom Daniel: Another fine mess...

Scene I  Th'rsday 17th Frost.  Lake edge, Calenture.
Already present
All the Party. 
The party prepare for entry into the lake.  Roke and Mortimer make use of grease paints from Mortimer's equipment and put on clown faces. Dawn jumps in, Amelia follows. Five minutes later Serendipity, Mortimer and Roke enter, with Roke and Serendipity holding hands (and Roke taking damage).
[Exit into the Lake, Dawn, Amelia, Serendipity, Roke  and Mortimer]
The five move away from the shore and away from the light.
[Exit to divers locations Braegon and Pent]

Scene II  Th'rsday 17th Frost.  In the Lake.
Enter
Dawn, Amelia, Serendipity, Roke and Mortimer.
[Individually -- for they cannot see each other]

After some while a form of self-image begins to reassert itself. Familiar clothes and some equipment begins to appear on their unclad forms. Serendipity becomes as darkness, Dawn appears as herself in her red dress, Roke appears as himself is a woven cloak and peaked hat with ear flaps, Amelia appears younger, with longer hair and a silver arm, and Mortimer appears as a noble elf.

The current becomes stronger, then roiling, and each is straightened out, stretched and feels to be sucked down into a hole. Thence, within a bubble, and floating in a pale green liquid, each begins slowly floating to the surface.
[Exit]

Scene III  Sometime after the 17th Frost.  Dom Daniel.
Enter
Dawn, Amelia, Roke, Mortimer and Serendipity, one at a time, in that order.
As each enters they rise until they are standing upon an almost solid surface.  Dawn and Amelia stop at stage height, Roke rises some few feet higher (as though on a pillar), Mortimer rises a few above that, and Seredipity continues rising until she is some 10 feet above Dawn and Amelia.  (See Appendices for fuller physical description of Dom Daniel).
[Staging Notes -- it will be difficult to represent the nature of Dom Daniel without magical assistance in staging, as each actor walks as though upon a hillock, but a hill where the sides are liquid to those lower.  An Illusionist may be of considerable use in this endeavour].

The party spend some time familiarizing themselves with our new surroundings.  They appear to be in a valley of sorts, with greenish ground underfoot (at their various heights), rising up into cliff walls and growing paler as it does.  Distant figures may be made out atop the cliffs.  The party each remember that they know things, but cannot recall the specifics.  Seredipity concentrates for some time on her ability to create weapons of darkness and from beneath her a bubble rises. When it arrives and breaks at the surface she discovers that she can remember her talent, and also that she has risen an additional foot in height.  The party spend some time remembering things and rising with each memory.  Mortimer goes in search of others and discovers two women dressed in fine servant's clothes.  They are polite to this elven stranger, but cannot remember their names.  They walk into a cliff, and return shortly, one foot higher and announce that they are Maria and Isabella.  They were servants at the palace, and some time ago -- they are vague of how long their have been here -- after some sort of commotion they were cast into Dom Daniel.  They seem to know little else.

In the meantime a figure descends from part way up a cliff, apparently dropping bubbles and height and approaches Serendipity, the "tallest" of the party.  Dawn attempts to intercept a bubble and gains a "taste" of something unpleasant.
[Enter Mordecai]
The stranger introduces himself and indicates that his "master" is atop the cliff.  He speaks to Serendipity is a stilted and high faluting language, and offers to trade knowledge, which appears to be the common currency in this place. Mordecai assumes that the rest of the party are Serendipity's retinue.  Serendipity thanks him for his offer and gently puts him off, stating that as one newly arrived she needs time to consider options.  Mordecai offers as parting advice that Serendipity should not "start anything, because no-one will finish it".  As Mordecai leaves he summons make memory bubbles to gain height.  Dawn intercepts one of the bubbles and feels the memories wash over her, gaining the taste of something not altogether pleasant, but retaining none of the knowledge.

The party decide to move off, putting some distance between ourselves and Mordecai and his master, and also in the hope of uncovering some Proscenians of our acquaintance.  As we move we discover more of the physical properties of the place; the residual memory of the ground -- peaks and troughs stay until undone by another traveller. The ground becomes more viscous the higher one rises, and as one rises abilities becomes harder to use and more prone to failure.
[Enter A Queen, suspended from the fly]
We pass a hill top inhabited by a Queenly type. Amelia bows to her and she in return sprinkles sparkling faerie dust on Amelia that confers some from of blessing.  We move on.
[Exit Queen]

Serendipity and Roke examine the aura of the plane, which is magical in nature. Serendipity seeks to find what might break the plane and discovers as an answer the "Final Cataclysmic Darkness".  Roke attempts to find the exit boundary and learns that it is "at the edge of your understanding".  Mortimer discovers that he has no contact with the higher Powers, as though the link was disjointed in some way.  Roke backfires and goes catatonic.  When he recovers a short while later he recounts that he found himself alone and floating and enveloped in velvety darkness.  When Dawn backfires soon after she reports the same effect.  Spells cast at each other appear to have no effect. Stabbing Roke in the leg while catatonic appears to do him no harm, though he reports a feeling of "pins and needles".

[Enter and Exit, suspended from the fly, a number of Mythical, God-like and Brightly Coloured Figures]
A great roiling mass of figures, far above us, rolls overhead swamping us all underwater.  When the turbulence clears and the ground level reasserts itself the Party moves on.
[Exit All of the Party through a valley between two peaks]

Scene IV  Date unknown.  The Proscenian Court in Exile - Dom Daniel.
Already present
Il Capitano, Proscenian Courtiers and Guards.
Enter The Party.
Emerging from between two peaks, the Party come upon the Court of King Arturo in exile, arrayed in a bowl-like valley, the Guards occupying the high ground and the Courtiers mingling freely on a slightly lower level.
Il Capitano, dressed head to foot in black, does not appear all that pleased to see us.  He expresses surprise that we have weapons (apart from those present as part of our self image), and requires that we leave our arms before seeing the King.  We hand weapons to Amelia (those that are part of our self image reappear on us) and she stays behind to talk with a Guard.
[Exit Amelia]
The remainder of the party are taken before the court, where we meet the King, his Chancellor dressed as a Jester, a lute player, and a young woman who works for  Il Capitano.
[Enter King Arturo, Arlechinno, Brighella and Zagne]
King Arturo seems quite unaware of the oddness of his surroundings and confides in us his unhappiness that the Princess does not visit.  Arlechinno appears and disappears, and there are suggestions that it is useful for a Chancellor to be able to come and go as needed.

Arlechinno gives Dawn his bladder on a stick and the King assumes she is the Chancellor.  Arlechinno gives his stick to Seren who turns into a cat.  He subsequently turns her into a pie and there follows an odd conversation regarding the uses of cinnamon as a condiment for Baronesses.

The party questions Arlechinno regarding his ability in disappearance and he tells us that he can escape Dom Daniel by "forgetting". Arlechinno can and has helped Brighella escape before and is confident that Il Capitano could also do it.  The party suggests a council to discuss escape options.

We discuss with Arlechinno and he tells us of "decomposing".  The last part of the decomposition is hard; one must give up life, but not die.  Arlechinno decomposes and Brighella composes.  We discuss with Il Capitano and speak of conventions; dramatic, operatic and even Morris dancing.  We talk of icons and masks and the minimization of information, and after much discussing we arrive at the "Cunning Plan".

The Cunning Plan

The Party proposes a masked ball.  All of the Court are to take on the guise of stock characters, and it to be a vice-versa revel to increase the chance of a humourous rather than tragic slant.  The court will dance and over the course of the ball the character variants will reduce until only the archetypes remain.  Arlechinno, the jester will copy and mock each in turn and absorb them until only he is left.  Arlechinno will then escape Dom Daniel as he can, and produce forth Brighella who will re-compose the Court.  The dance will continue with the archetypes becoming variants until the final dance and subsequent unmasking, when the King will be revealed to be one of the revelers.  [Writing this some time later your humble author admits that in the cold light of day, or indeed anywhere outside of Dom Daniel, this may all seem a bit odd. But take it from one who was there; it was stranger still at the time].

Arlechinno lends to Serendipity his ability to create things from nothing and she attempts to make him a fine new jester's outfit for the masque.  The first attempt is rather black and spiky and perhaps more suitable for guerrilla street theater.  The second attempt is still rather combat oriented, but the third is excellent.  A black jester's outfit with a mirrored mask that will reflect the viewer's face.

The Party decide to attend as clowns, or "lazzi" as we do not know the courtly dances and forms.  Serendipity elects to be a bullying clown, Amelia a pratfaller, Roke will be clumsy, Dawn will mimic and be under foot and Mortimer will dress as a doctor and be a fool.  Arlechinno runs a clown school and teaches us pratfalls and schtick.

Also in preparation for the ball we send out scouts to find others who wish to take this opportunity to escape Dom Daniel; but little comes of this.

The Masked Ball

Scene V  Date unknown.  The Proscenian Court in Exile - Dom Daniel.
Enter variously
King Arturo, Arlechinno, Brighella and Zagne, a mysterious figure dressed as Il Dottore, all of the Proscenian Courtiers, Servants and Guards, and The Party.
(Should the producer wish to replicate the costumes worn by the party they may equip Amelia with a frizzy and blood red wig; Dawn in a reddish brown scholar's robe; Roke in various shades of blue; Seren in black and midnight blue; and Mortimer in the black robes of a doctoral scholar.)

The ball begins with courtly dances and proceeds as outlined in "The Cunning Plan" above. As the party forgets skills and gives up knowledge and abilities we sink. Odd attributes disappear and normalcy returns, Seren's tattoos disappear and missing feet return.  Mortimer becomes a halfling again.  The party and the court sink, and Arlechinno the Jester begins to absorb courtiers.  Dawn becomes stuck, unable to change, and then gives up her mortality; her wings fall off and she plummets. We try and catch her but she passes through us.  Arlechinno absorbs the party and the other named players until only Arlechinno, Brighella, and Il Dottore remain.  Finally there is only Arlechinno. (We surmise, and this will certainly do for a dramatic retelling.  Obviously once absorbed your playwright cannot say with certainty what transpired).

[An Aquatic Interlude]

In the lake of Calenture, the party encounter odd shapes, colours and flavours. We consume them and regain ourselves and our knowledge and abilities.

Scene VI  Sunday 27th Frost.  Lake edge, Calenture.
Already present
Braegon and Pent.
Braegon and Pent are waiting on the edge of the lake as they have done so every day for the past 10 days when from the lake begins to emerge a most singular procession of masked courtiers and servants.
[Enter Arlechinno, Brighella, Il Dottore, Zagne, all of the Proscenian Courtiers, Servants and Guards, and The Party, except for Dawn].
All appear much as they did in Dom Daniel, save that Seren is dressed in gold & white, and Mortimer wears an outsized Il Dottore costume.
Dawn's body is floating in the river. Braegon enters the water and ressurects her.
The last dance is held and then all are unmasked. one of the courtiers is revealed to be King Arturo, Zagne is revealed to be Zanni, and Il Dottore is revealed to be Il Capitano.

[Exit Arlechinno, Brighella, and Il Dottore, skipping].

(Staging note: at this point the costumes and indeed clothes of all present, with the exception of Arlechinno, Brighella, and Il Dottore unfortunately disappeared. Mortimer understands if the producers may wish to omit or alter this portion of the act in the interests of taste and public morality. However, the use of illusory clothing, dispelled at the appropriate moment and leaving the players in only their underwear should achieve the desired humourous effect).

[Exeunt Omnes]

End of Act VII

Act VI - Proscenia Again: O for a Muse... Index
Act VIII - Finale