Troupe Lore, Vol.1

Sedug'hou, a natural born pale-skin, used to supply a wandering troupe with Pinkdust, an aura drug that filled its user's mind with random musical melodies. This troupe was not a whole lot different than my own, except for the fact that they absolutely despised Drow. They called themselves SilverEye Troupe. We were in competition a lot; the lack of theaters in Aabahran at the time made it difficult to find a decent stage manager that would not rob the audience. Ironically, Gal Ranidon had likely the best theatre, albeit a smaller one.

A few extremists in my own group (a half-breed and three drow) booby trapped mandrake grounds in Emerald forest and waited for Sedug'hou to come harvesting. I have been told that the group witnessed him acting like a complete bastard to the pixies and over harvested most of the faerie fire to brew into Pinkdust, but racism likely fabricated this story. The three drow and the half-blood rigged one of the plants to caltrap Sedug'hou, and it worked. They dragged him back to our camp with his wrists and ankles bound.

I watched from a lonely tent (I was only seventeen at the time) toward the main camp fire as the four slapped the chained up Sedug'hou around. After the half-breed ducked out for fear of going too far with the plan, the drow had cut off three fingers on Sedug'hou's right hand. They then force fed him Pinkdust until he died from shock and burnt his body in the fire. The smell woke up most of the Troupe.

The three rebel drow argued with the Masters of Harmony (there were always three Marrow leaders, all of whom were dark-skins at the time) until a judgment was made. The three murdering drow were revoked their rations of Pinkdust and removed of their music publishing privileges. They never performed on a stage again. A year later, they stalked the Master Rhymer of SilverEye Troupe, a dwarf, and stabbed him five times in the back of the neck while he was sleeping.

Their Syndicate contract and bounty was posted publicly two days after that: it was for seventy-five million gold pieces if all three of their heads were together. It is rumored that Messalantha collected them, and if it were true, I would not be surprised. SilverEye Troupe and my own troupe were both outcast from social performances; neither side got hired for noble audiences again. SilverEye liquidated shortly afterwards, and my own troupe devolved into god-hating anarchist pastors of unity and oneness rather than songsmiths.