Lord Kenneth Killian ap Daireann
Retinue
Ken maintains a few Enchanted humans as retainers at Cat Feadh. Most of them were acquired through Alyssa's music industry contacts. They include Nell Banker, an aspiring songbird; Jersey West, a back-up dancer; and Davey Voss, a would-be country song writer and acoustic guitarist. Besides the potential Reverie these servants may provide later, Ken has them working for their privileges at the freehold. Nell is the house maid. Davey and Jersey split general caretaking chores with Nell. Davey also drives for Ken, as chaffeur. Jersey can cook decently enough to rate as house chef. Though all of these humans are given very small stipends ($250 a month), they gain the privileges of living in a freehold. Money can't buy that!
The Baronet also employs changeling aides at the Lodge of Avernus. These include one vassal and two retainers. The vassal was appointed to him by Baroness Antoinette Kirs. The Pooka-knight, Lady Letitia "Tish" Chiriga ni Leanhaun, adds her own sly and serpentine flavor to the defense and upkeep of Cat Feadh. The mercenary Redcap Grump, Casey Vega, doubles Ken's estate's deadly reputation as a Thane of Avernus. The Thane is highly a capable warrior, and combined with Ken's prowess, makes this Unseelie holding fairly sturdy. Ken pays Pooka and Redcap in small monthly stipends of cash ($500) and four drams of Dross harvested from the freehold. (By noble right, Ken retains one dram from Tish as baronial tithe.) While this payment is small, Casey is secretly glad to live in a freehold; he was nearing the Undoing in his last lifestyle. Tish doesn't have much choice, but she lives for the politics of it all anyway. Nobody can complain; everybody's happy. More or less!
Chimera
Short Sword
Level: 2
Origin: Fead'ha, as he calls his Irish-styled short sword, was a gift to him from Dougal sponsors in pre-Shattering days. It bound to him through challenge and quest.
Description: The blade of this short sword is four inches wide, but only twenty inches long. The edges are sharp enough to cut, but its main purpose is to thrust, as the sharp point illustrates. The weapon seems to have been crafted from bronze, blazoned in some infernal forge. The metal is brass in color, but when light reflects off the blade it seems to blaze bright orange-red, as if the sword were on fire. The guard is a simple cross, while the grip is wrapped in leather. The pommel widens just a little into a small ball, upon the base of which is inscribed the Daireann blazon. Ken keeps the sword sheathed in an unmarked black leather scabbard.
Effects: Stabbity-stab!
Glamour Costs: Sword: 0
Activation: Thrust, thrust, parry, thrust...good!
Buckler
Level: 2
Origin: Equipped to him just before the Resurgence in preparation for the new banal world, this small shield was forged by noble armorers in his Arcadian domain, Fea'ta're.
Description: The shield is approximately forty inches in diameter and made of polished steel. Leather straps crisscross the concave design, and a sharp spike extends four inches from the center of the buckler. A hand-strap secures one's grip on the shield on the inside of the shield. The shield contains no designs or inscriptions on the outer surface, but tiny ancient fey runes were written on the inside just above the grip. They read "there is no difference between offense and defense".
Effects: This buckler provides minimal shield defense, but its light-weight was designed for battering and spiking attackers in lead-ins to the wielder's counter-attack.
Glamour Costs: Buckler: 0
Activation: Put it between head or body and incoming swords, knives, arrows, et al.
Leather Armor
Level: 1
Origin: Like his spiked buckler, this armor was given to Ken just before the Resurgence. He was warned that times had changed and warriors had to be faster and more mobile on their feet. The heavier chain mail he used to wear was abandoned for this lighter leather shirt.
Description: This is a pull-over shirt of fine leather that is thick but not too stiff. It covers his entire torso, front and back, but stops at the waist, shoulders, and neck. The tanned leather boasts only one design, symbolic of the warrior. Crafted in steel on the front of the shirt is a griffon.
Effects: This armor provides minimal defense to the guarded regions of his body, but offers maximum mobility.
Glamour Costs: Armor: 0
Activation: Wear it well.
Knife
Level: 1
Origin: Geimfead is Ken's original weapon dating back millennia -- the Sundering at least. This knife accompanied Ken on every quest, into every battle, in which he ever participated. Its origins are lost in time, but it is probably as permanent as Ken's fae soul.
Description: Geimfead is a cruel-looking knife around 12 inches in length. It appears to be crafted of iron (not wrought iron, duh!), though the element involved in its forging is unearthly, harvested from the heart of fae volcanoes. The grip is bound in leather hide, long soiled dark with use. The pommel is unremarkable; the knife lacks a guard (or else it'd probably be considered a dagger). However, the blade is quite unusual. Instead of a single straight edge, it involves two curved edges. One is longer than the other, and they end in slightly pronged tips. In short, it was stylized after a naked flame.
Effects: STAB! Stabbity-STAB!
Glamour Costs: Knife: 0
Activation: Cut and stab people and stuff.
Cat Feadh (Freehold)
Mortal Seeming: ~In the furthest quarter of the Rolling Hills suburban district of Kansas City, Hearth Estate rises. It was rebuilt after a terrible fire in the 1970s consumed most of it, and the rubble was filled in with earth to form a hill upon which the new house stands. A tall fence of steel bars surrounds the entire estate, including its five acres of yardage. The gate opens electronically by remote at the driveway, which winds up from the country road that leads here to the garage. When approaching Hearth Estate, the panoramic view of the horizon this area provides is quite something. This is largely prairie land out here. The broad mansion juts up from that shallow hill in stark contrast and impressive stature.
Curiously, the entire yard is bereft of any foliage at all. The earth is dry and cracked. Strangely, though it can dampen in rain, snow never settles in the estate's acreage. It melts as soon as it falls, even if it settles past the fence in the grasslands beyond. However, many fat and tall boulders are scattered over the gentle incline of the hilly yard. And many of the smaller stones were arranged in a sort of Zen garden experience. The true purpose of their organization may be random coincidence or something strange. But there are just rocks: shale, granite, limestone, as dry and earthy as the ground itself. The only noticeable feature is the small gazebo-like building in the backyard, structured out of granite. Two rows of tiny stones are embedded in the earth and lead from this gazebo to the back of the house, forming a narrow path.
The mansion itself must cover tens of thousands of square feet. It is largely rectangular in architecture, with the center bulging outward in a cylindrical style. Sharp brass rods jut up from the black-tiled roof at the four corners. The attic house spirals above all them all from the very center of the mansion. The mansion was built gray granite stone by stone; its foundation lay deep in the hill. Many windows surround the house on both floors and in the attic, though they are all draped in velvety curtains of burgundy, ivory, and muted monochromatic patterns like plaids. A flagstone path leads right from the garage entrance to the front door.
A great porch shadows a great oak door at the center of the mansion's front. The porch extends halfway to the left and right corners of the building, and the stone overhang provides respite from the beating sun. Tropical flora also seems to abide well here, provided they are more adaptable plants. One can expect to see outdoor palms and perennial flowerpots decorating the porch. Rose bushes survive around the base of the porch where the soil has been tilled with extra care. A bench creaks and swings gently at one end of the porch. A brass mailbox by the door identifies the owners of the home, reading "Currie & Killian".
That oak door provides the only immediate means of entrance. A side door leading from the kitchen into the garage is not readily accessible, since the garage is usually kept shut. The two-car port contains Ken's personal vehicles. Various tools are likewise kept in here, which carries the typical garage scent of grease and oil. Past the garage door's outer screen and inner wood portal lies an expansive kitchen. The floor is layered in soft but dense macadam concrete. Hand-woven carpets in a rainbow of colors are splayed strategically over this floor. The kitchen, nicknamed the Mapleworks, is a solid 200 square feet. Rich hardwood with dark maple finish defines the cabinets, cupboards, and counters. They surround much of the kitchen walls and a long counter is set in the center of the kitchen, too. A sink is set in that center counter, but most of the space is for preparation. A refrigerator stands side by side a separate freezer. The kitchen contains all the amenities of a modern kitchen, in fact, and always stays well stocked with the foods the owners like the most. (Indeed, to make sure the Redcap Thane doesn't eat the chef, the cupboards are kept very full of junk food!)
The kitchen's open thresholds lead two directions: one goes directly to the dining room. The other leads down a short hall and into the living room. The dining room is called the Red Room and it's a long affair extending from the middle of the house to the rear, encumbering about 400 square feet. A long wooden table of cherry wood rises in the middle of the room, surrounded with a dozen chairs of similar craftsmanship. Candelabras set as centerpieces. Three brassy chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The floor is carpeted in burgundy, matching the curtains on the windows and complimenting a related hue on the walls. A thick, rounded rug sits beneath the entire table. Decorations on the walls include favorite paintings, famous prints, and a coat of arms salvaged from the rubble left by the original owners of the home. Beside the way back to the kitchen, an open threshold leads down another hall. Also, at the back end of the dining room is an auxiliary flight of stairs leading down. An oak door blocks the route after only half the flight. But the owners won't hesitate to inform guests that the stairs lead to their cherished wine cellar, filled with racks of their favorite vintages.
The wine cellar is a narrow basement, cool and dry as to be expected. It is poorly lit with but a dangling light bulb. Down the dusty cement corridor leads a wanderer to another door, this of pine. Beyond lies the basement proper, which is an unfinished level filled with a combination of storage boxes, miscellanies, and rubble from the previous incarnation of the house yet to be sorted or discarded. Undeveloped, the basement lacks a nickname worth giving to visitors. It's just...the Basement! The only other route out of this basement is up a flight of rickety wood stairs and through a steel hatch that leads up to what has been dubbed the Throne Room.
However, to get to the Throne Room that's located in the rear center of the first floor, one must transverse several other halls and chambers first. The halls from the kitchen and dining room converge on a central corridor. This main artery befuddles visitors by providing several pine doors through which to pass. The hallways themselves are paneled in wood with brass trim with brass light fixtures, and a variety of country-style decorations line the walls. Shelves with figurines, vases, and carvings align next to paintings and tapestries. Along the way from the kitchen and dining room, one would pass a few smaller, private chambers. From the kitchen, a small room opens into the quiet little Sitting Room with comfortable chairs, sofas, recliners, and copious reading light. The room seems layered in comfortable velvet, from the design of the carpet to the upholstery of the seats. The tableaus and shelves and carvings match the warm feel of the small room. The next door over leads into a small bathroom with quiet pale tiles. This small bathroom only contains a sink and commode, but it's always kept sparkling clean. Meanwhile, from the dining room, one can stumble upon the Study. This room is filled with shelves containing mostly reference materials, a large wooden desk with swiveling chair, and a quiet amount of lamplight. The room seems almost cramped, but it's spiced up with a few houseplants and Ken's favorite painting, a genuine Duchamp. The room is bathed in an indigo so deep in hue it's almost black. Golden trim near the floor and ceiling help brighten the chamber, but clearly Ken prefers this room to be small, dark, and private.
The main hall leads back to the Gate Room as well as other rooms yet to be explored. The Gate Room greets a visitor with a high ceiling and brass chandeliers set with candles, not electric lights. How they're kept lit may be a mystery to visitors, since dragging a tall ladder out twice a day seems silly. But the wealthy are known to be odder than that! The floor is layered with smooth ovaline stones carved from shale. Long, smooth carpets in deep red splash color on the ground. Tableaus of cherry wood boast various trinkets and treasure to catch the eye. By the door, a nearby coat closet and hat rack accepts outer garments. Tall windows flanking the front door invite even more light into the Gate Room, dimmed only by pale curtains. This deceivingly smallish chamber holds two pine doors that lead back into that main corridor. But two flights of steps against this wall, set between the doors, converge and break off again. They lead right up to the second floor and to the main hall of that level. Doors block the view of the second floor from the Gate Room though.
Continuing right from the main hall, one finds the spacious living room, which they simply call the Den. Here lie comfortable chairs, sofas, loveseats, rocking chairs, and recliners. A multi-media sound system complements a full home entertainment system, complete with DVD player and even a video game center. A long coffee table centers the lush upholstery of the many seats. A few tall lamps are well placed throughout the living room. Against the outer wall, a small but warm hearth bears a crackling fire behind a grate. This is actually the mansion's secondary fireplace, but it's often used as the first. The small hearth spreads heat through the room and it isn't unusual for it to be lit all year round. The chimney to which it is attached pumps wisps of smoke up into the sky. Rich wood tones offset the dark gray of the shale ground and a huge Persian rug beautifies the floor. Once more, tasteful country-style decorations litter the walls and shelves of this room. There's even a bar in the far corner of the room, where Ken keeps the "hard stuff". Right up from the bar spirals an auxiliary staircase to the second floor.
The auxiliary staircase leads up to the far end of the second floor's singular and wide center hallway. But most access the second floor from the Gate Room. They discover this main artery corridor is wide and spacious. Its decorations and colors are similar to the halls below. But it's even brighter and warmer, due to the wood flooring over which carpet is laid, and extra lights provided to counter the presence of only two windows at the front of the house. Nine pine doors, sometimes locked by the inhabitants, mark the chambers of this floor. Around the middle of the hall, a thread dangles down. Pulling this brings the attic staircase gently down.
The closest six doors lead into what are the quarters of the house servants and employees. Nearest the main stairs lie the West and East rooms. Beyond are the Rain and Sun rooms, and past them are the Summer and Winter rooms. Regardless of their names, they are largely all alike. They contain different decorations, especially based on the inhabitants' taste, of course. But they're all small chambers about 100 square feet each. They each contain a queen-sized bed, a writing desk, lamps, a dresser and closet, and two windows to gaze out through. The colors and decorations of the room vary with each inhabitant's flavor, though nothing garish is to be found. Best of all, each of these rooms comes equipped with a small but private bathroom, complete with bathtub, sink, and commode. The benefit of refurnishing a house nearly from scratch is the ability to redo the plumbing and wiring as the rebuilders see fit!
Past the Summer and Winter rooms on the right lay the doors to the Library and Master Bathroom. The Library contains warm blankets and excellent lighting. There are no proper seats actually, but beanbag chairs unceremoniously tossed in the middle of the thick rugs on the floor. Long shelves cover most of the walls, and books fill all of those shelves. There are books of all flavors here, though none of them are anything a wizard would particularly covet. It's just a superb personal repository. The Master Bathroom is off-limits to all but the baronet, of course. This 120 square foot chamber is tiled in ivory-like panels. Only a few lamps offer light in here, perhaps to give it more of a romantic feel. The large, round bathtub clearly designed to host two bathers surely encourages that sentiment. It even doubles as a spa.
Finally, across from the Library and Master Bathroom stands the door to the owners' master bedroom, also called the Lordchamber. This huge bedroom encompasses 200 square feet alone, although some of that includes its huge walk-in closet for the pair's immense wardrobe. Dressers and shelves include a number of favorite knick-knacks and personals, as well as some of their more favorite pieces of art. That includes a marble statuette of a lion in the corner of the room. Attractive, sweet-perfumed flora also decorates the Lordchamber. But perhaps most impressive of all is the imperial-sized bed in the middle of the room. This old-fashioned bed is curtained on all sides, and royal purple silk drapes down around the bed to keep it dark and warm.
Of course, the Attic cannot be forgotten. However, it is also off-limits. Alyssa claimed this small but classic attic for her own workspace. The woodwork of the attic was repainted and recarpeted, of course. But Alyssa's files and music are scattered across the floor and desk. It may look like a mess to anyone who was to violate the sanctity of her private study, but she knew where everything was. After her death, Ken left the room untouched.
Central to the entire mansion, meanwhile, is the Throne Room previously mentioned as existing on the first floor, against the rear. Besides the main hall and Gate Room, the Throne Room occupies the entire center of the house. By the main hall, a heavy oaken door bars immediate progress into the chamber; upon the door is nailed a brass sign that reads "Baronet Kenneth Laird Killian, ap Daireann, 2005". The room beyond encompasses 500 square feet easily. Copper panels surround every wall and even the ceiling that rises some twenty feet. The floor is carved from stone, with shale flagstones set into the ground. A red carpet leads from the door towards the center of the room. The first thing one sees, however, is a huge fireplace. The stone fixture dominates the Throne Room, standing free in the middle of the chamber instead of against a wall. The hearth is easily seven feet tall and six feet across. Open grates let harmless sparks from that blazing inferno fly to the stone floor. Though firewood keeps this great hearth lit, it smells more of brimstone in this room. Set above the mantle hangs a coat of arms in brass, revealing Ken's personal family honor with a pair of criss-crossed daggers over flames, and a phrase in Ancient Gaelic that few today would understand. The fire casts an eerie glow over the stone floor and especially the copper-paneled walls, which seem to serve to both insulate and conduct the resulting heat.
But the copper panels are not plain. Indeed, the fire illuminates in fascinating style the impressions made in the panels. Though few would realize this, the impressions are based on murals set on the stonewalls behind. The scenes depict fantastical places: high castles, hunts for wild dream-beasts, romantic encounters, and a starry horizon with the moon and sun are among the impressions found on every panel. The red carpet that heralded a guest's arrival into the Throne Room breaks off into two routes that circle around the central fireplace. They conjoin on the other side and lead back three quarters to the end of the room. Here they end before a slightly raised dais of stone. Sitting on that dais is a thick, broad chair -- a throne, ultimately -- of dark gray rock (basalt, no less). The throne was melded to the dais, it seems. A royal purple mantle bearing Ken's coat of arms again drapes over the rear and a matching cushion eases the lord's seat. Cleverly disguised at the foot of the throne is a hatch. This hatch opens to the basement; clearly meant as a getaway device. Beyond the throne is a space of about ten feet before one reaches the rear wall. Directly behind the throne (and fireplace, consecutively) is the only part of the wall lacking a copper panel -- or a mural, for that matter. Instead, a golden arch frames that portion of the wall, as if there should be a door there. But the granite stonewall there instead is blackened as if exposed to fire.
Overall, Hearth Estate is most immense and welcoming. However, the sense of welcome brought on by the country home-style decorations is partly negated. This is due to the barren yard and a profound sense of heat that the whole mansion radiates. No matter where one goes, it feels like sitting right in front of that huge inferno in the Throne Room. It can quickly grow very uncomfortable. And there's just no escaping it.
Fae Mien: ~The Lodge of Avernus changes little when Enchanted eyes are set upon it. But the landscape and atmosphere drastically alters. The steel fence blackens and spikes up twice as high, each post jutting sharply to the heavens like a spear. The ground remains barren and cracked. But the dark cracks…seem to waft tiny wisps of black smoke up. Closer inspection reveals pinpoints of color that suggests that deeper, deep in this earth, red-hot magma flows. Just as frightening is how the sky darkens around the mansion and indeed the horizon itself is painted a dark, smoky gray. The two chimneys pump out a little smoke from the fires that burn, but surely they cannot be responsible for that perpetual cloud? It hangs over Avernus as if the lodge were a volcano.
In the backyard, that gazebo darkens as if crafted from basalt. However, a curiosity appears in the middle of the gazebo floor. A large sundial, as large as a standard globe, it set in the floor. This whole device makes it seem probable that it was crafted by Dougal nobles or perhaps even Nockers. Whichever the case, the gazebo actually grinds and turns so its doorways face different directions! However, it doesn't turn at will. In the winter, the doors go north and south. It faces this direction through winter until summer, when it turns again to face west and east instead. Unfortunately, though this is the gateway through a Trod, it only functions during summer and winter. Though it faces the directions in summer and winter, it does not work in those seasons. It turns on the solstice, then its magic ceases to function on the equinox. The Trod works like a teleportation device, but it is attuned only to the lord of the land. Thus, only Ken has the power to activate its travel. In the winter, the rider is conducted to Cat Rauth or back. In the summer, the traveler is conducted to the Dame Fortune fairy-ferryboat freehold, always on the Blue River that time of year. (Unfortunately, this transportation brings a visitor into the dungeons or brig of either Unseelie freehold, who prefer to screen their guests closely! It's wise to call ahead of time before hopping on the Trod!)
Meanwhile, the inside of the mansion largely changes little. That feel of constant heat is even more palpable, however. Everything, especially the metallic fittings and trim, seems to glow with its own inner incalescence. Of course, the Throne Room is the center of the freehold. That huge "walk-in" hearth boasts flames of deep, rich purple. This balefire burns bright and high, radiating Glamour and the lord's raw ambition to master the Dreaming. The balefire occasionally bursts or sparks. Those tiny cinders fly into the air, but immediately sprout tiny bat wings and a beautiful if demonic visage. Most of these little "ash fairies" soar right back to the balefire and dance in the heat, occasionally cackling in glee. A few others fly past the hearth and beyond the throne to another place of attraction for their elemental natures. Where the copper panels halt for the gold archway, the stone vanishes to the Enchanted eyes. Instead, there's a wall of sheer fire! The burning indigo flames are hotter than any source of fire one can imagine. Though the "ash fairies" occasionally fly through the flames, few would dare to follow -- the fire is very "real", very hot. But this, of course, is the Rath of this holding. Beyond this door of fire lies the Near Dreaming. It connects Cat Feadh to all of the dream world and the fantasies beyond. This is the home that eternally inspired Alyssa renovated. This is the house Lord Kenneth Killian built.
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