The Grand Tavenrias Hall

The Who:

First Impression - Cygnette Titanos is a slightly taller than average woman with bedroom eyes, kissable lips, and likely the best set of breasts ever blessed upon a woman, with the clothing style of a noblewoman and the demeanor of the demure girl next door.

Doubletake - She is Saerithian, and not a Tarasceen human, though she doesn't have the cold pallor of Saerith, nor the typically flint cold eyes and hostile nature of those dangerous women. Her jewelry is very modest in appearance, but profound in nature, most being of superior or legendary quality and all magical. Her style of dress is likewise, technically her different outfits are panoplies, though she completely avoids the rococo and baroque stylings of Searith and tends more towards the Siamsan style. She 100% avoids the Tarasceen style of women's clothing and dress that leaves breasts bared, or only covered by sheer panels. She is wealthy, highly educated, and her manners are precise, the demeanor of the girl next door is just another part of her outfit and accessories.

Getting to Know/First Date - Cygnette has left her homeland of Saerith finding it long since inhospitable. Some of this was the arctic climate and dreary tundra interspersed with barbarians, literal barbarians, and the ongoing continental feuds between them and the other nations. The rest came from her dislike of the Byzantine intrigue at home, and that having no real claim to any royal position, leaving was better.

Things on the to-do list in Terrasquestone:

Go shopping in the Great Market, Saerith has nothing that compares. The fur market is better there, but everything else is a joke in comparison.

Try as much of the new and exotic food, spices, and drinks, again, Saerithian cuisine is spartan in comparison. Bloody meat, black bread, clear liquor.

Establish a home and become a Tarasceen citizen, host parties and galas

Getting to Know/3rd Date - Technically, Cygnette is a political exile. Her branch of the family fell out of favor with the High Queen. Some threw themselves at her mercy, some attempted a rebellion, and a handful sent apologies and exiled themselves to remove themselves from the matter. It is all Saerithian nonsense, and better left far away. It's a terrible place, makes Tir an Bas look positively temperate. She is interested in experiencing the Gyre, but so many people have commented that she might not be able to fit into it, which causes her embarrassment and confusion. She superficially is not aware that people are thinking of the helical descent into the Gyre, and are comically imagining her breasts causing her to get stuck. Rather, she is worried that she is ungainly and fat and everyone is mocking her. She is also an accomplished sorceress, competent in Abjuration, Alternation, and Enchanting. Most of her clothing she has had a hand in making and she is functionally a 'clothingmancer', something she finds amusing.

Skeletons in the Closet

Her full given name is Cygnette de Tavenrias ni Praxingdrell Titanos. Her great grandmother is Sidious Praxingdrell and is the High Queen of Saerith, and rumor holds that instead of giving up power gracefully, or even just waning in power, she is following the path of necromancy and seeks to become a Liche. Rather than be drawn into that nightmare scenario, Cygnette took her possessions and chartered a Nyirian ship to bring her across the sea to Cridhedun, Krakenport. Then, she traveled overland protected by hired soldiers and mercenaries and her own power, to reach Terrasquestone. Such a mighty place should be beyond the grasp of the soon to be undead matriarch.

Insecurity is an unfortunate cornerstone of Cygnette's personality. Her mother was not considered a very proper Saerithian noblewoman. Her relations with the subjugated barbarians were too cordial, she didn't carry out the regular rites with proper zeal, and there were rumors she took a husband. This might seem odd, but in the Saerithian fashion, a noblewoman never weds, and any congress with a man involves magic rituals to ensure pregnancy and culminates with the father to be being sacrificed as the final part of the ritual. When done properly this sacrifice coincides with his climax. Saerithian women only have sex to procreate, and thus preserve the matriarchy. That her mother knew the same man many times over several years was a scandal, and even claiming this was barbarian rape didn't mollify the scandal. Loving parents, horrifying to Saerithian nobility.

She also took too much to her father. He was tall and bronze-skinned, and barbarian women were known for wide hips, pendulous breasts, cow-like expressions, and being ... unpleasantly fragrant and always moist. That she has large breasts and a generous body is embarrassing. A proper Saerithian woman is thin, pale, with a drawn aquiline face, sharp nose, specifically small breasts, and a demeanor as cold as a Saerithian winter. Her manner comes from being treated very poorly at home, with her higher-bred counterparts comparing her to a barbarian whore, a two-legged cow, and worse. That she had greater magical aptitude than most of them was unimportant, and that she didn't share in any of the typical Praxingdrell blood deficiencies wasn't seen as a boon, but further proof of her trash breeding. A proper noblewoman is supposed to be anemic, frail of bone and stature, and other issues related to a tad too much inbreeding.

The Where:

The Grand Tavenrias Hall is spoken of, but very few people know where it is.

The Hall is a Rococo work of architectural flamboyance and excess. The building is made of three different shades of elgelchalarite, a dungeon-sourced pink marble containing a stunning amount of elgachel, a pink dungeon gemstone. It is obvious this is not Tarasceen sourced since almost all of the quarried stone in the area has the typically orange hue associated with the city. The hall has seven floors, rooms, and facilities for over a hundred guests, as well as three ballrooms, the largest being central and named Tavenrias Hall.

Inside, the hall maintains the use of different hued elgachalarite stone, though most is pale pink to almost white, whereas the outside is much more bold and daring in its use of dark and vibrant stone. Following the rococo style, everything inside is overdone, there are many fine pillars, and overwrought staircases, every ceiling that can be vaulted is, and the walls are covered in brocaded silk wallpapers, exquisite tapestries, and any of the vaulted ceilings are covered with rococo style paintings, typically flowers, naked people in various Kama Sutra like poses, and spell circles and hermetic diagrams laid out with floral and natural motifs.

Entrance and Guardian - the main defense of Tavenrias Hall is that almost no one knows where it is. The Guardian is Cygnette de Tavenrias ni Praxingdrell Titanos.

How does that work?

The Grand Tavenrias Hall is a piece of Cygnette's luggage. The large bag is literally the hall, appearing as it normally does minus the fact that as a piece of luggage, it has a handle on the top. While it is weird Cygnette has a personal bag shaped like a building, it is hardly the strangest or most distracting thing about her, and in a place like Terrasquestone, the wealthy do play games of being weird to show they are wealthy. If enough people noticed her bag, within a few months, ladies carrying bags shaped like buildings could become normal. Entering the Hall requires to use of an activation phrase. Upon uttering this phase, the guest is apparated into the foyer of the Hall, where they are met by the concierge, and bellhops, and given the welcome to the hotel treatment. 

Puzzle/RP Challenge - The Grand Tavenrias Hall has fun and games with its rooms. The different rooms should have something weird about them, something ridiculous, stupid, rococo, and over the top. A room that has a massive pink stone bathtub as the centerpiece. A room where the beds fold down out of the walls, a room where the sleeping area has to be reached by a ladder, a room with a lattice wall running across it, and the only way through is a 'doggy door' in one corner. The beds are on the other side. One wall is dominated by a massive very explicit painting. The brocaded wallpaper is a series of interlocked penises penetrated vaginas but all done on a stitching level of smallness. None of it should really come across as romantic, but much more awkward. 

Trick/Setback - The facilities and amenities of Tavenrias Hall are likewise ... wacky.

The Saerithian Tea Room was made into the Hall as a proper place for Saerithian nobles to meet, have their infamous sour tea, bitter cakes, and carry on with their cold gossip and battles of bloodless wit. It is a properly unpleasant place. The food is awful, and there are no alcoholic beverages served.

The Hannin Bathhouse likewise was made to remind Saerithian guests of the waters of the Nyir Hannin, or the Hannin River. Guests who visit the bathhouse are in for a very rude experience. The Hannin is a glacial-sourced river, and the water in the bathhouse is accordingly cold. The salt and mineral content of the water allows it to technically be below freezing temperatures and remain liquid. A proper noble can demonstrate their validity by showing how long they can endure the brutal cold. Many of the fixtures in the Bathhouse are made of ice. The one concession made to the cold is that guests can request Ninne, a distilled liquor made from a number of unusual sources. In Saerith it is usually made from root vegetables, spoiled grain, and the like for commoners, and nobles will have ninne made from truffles, rare vegetables, and other strange sources.

There are rumors that there is a sauna, a nenni bar, and a limohomatye. The sauna allegedly contains stones stolen from the heart of the Jokulsmorder in Saerith that fill the stone chamber with enormous heat and throwing chunks of ice into the central pit creates a cleansing steam. The nenni bar allegedly pours a dozen different varieties of nenni, some spiced with herbs, and a thick and creamy black beer. What is a limohomatye? It is a place to eat fish eggs, a caviar bar. So far, no one has actually found any of these facilities, but some are still looking.

Climax/Battle - The Hall hosts regular galas and soirees, these are major affairs.

Reward/Twist - drawing a blank here

The When:

The Grand Tavenrias Hall was formerly located in Saerith, within sight of Suilail Zer, the Black Tower of the Praxingdrell Matriarchy. Its stones were hewn from the pink stone pits located within the shadow of that terrible monolith. It was originally created for visiting dignitaries and nobles to stay in when visiting the Queen, as some had voiced that the black oppressive weight of Suilail Zer was discomforting and they didn't like staying in the fortress. Some likened it to being put in prison. This was also rather accurate as the difference between a prisoner and a guest in the Black Tower was that the guests were sometimes allowed to leave. So, Hydeous Praxingdrell had the Tavenrias built. The colors are a stark contrast to the black stone of the capital and fortress. The interior is rococo and over the top in feminine stylings with an emphasis on sex and nudity and how awkward that can all be.

The guests of the hall were supposed to be so embarrassed by the gaudy nature to opt out of its pink nightmare and pick the austere and brutalist offerings of the tower. What right-minded individual would choose otherwise?

And then it became popular. Features were added, the sauna and the freezing baths, the tea room, and the exquisite caviar suite. The Hall was always busy and bustling with activity, and the great hall it contained was constantly being reserved for galas, soirees, masquerades, and the like. The guests were not shamed, they were having great fun. Few things could have enraged Hydeous Praxingdrell more, and she had the palace shuttered, the entire staff executed and their corpses hung on the walls for a full winter to demonstrate her pique.

Tyrannia Praxingrdrell would celebrate her ascendence to power by reopening the hall and putting it back into business, and largely leaving it alone. It would be later discovered that Tyrannia would don a disguise and visit the hall to indulge in caviar and the masquerades with no one knowing who she was.

Eventually, Sydeous Praxingdrell would come to power and oversaw the downsizing of the importance of the Hall, and reducing it to being where distant branches of the family were to stay when visiting court. This would be where Cygnette entered the picture and decided to stay on at the Hall with the interest of becoming the acting proprietor of the facility. She hoped this limbo position would take attention off of her as a failure of Praxingdrell eugenics, and as a potential claimant against any of Sydeous's core brood. She was accepted on and took a junior leadership position in hospitality. This seemed like it would be a very good fit for her, as she enjoyed time in the Hall and found it charming rather than a screaming faux pas or insult as so many others did. 

Then came the disaster at Carswick. The Queen's favored daughter was crippled and allowed to commit suicide as an apology for her failures. The following reprisal cost the matriarchy dearly in soldiers, dragons, and even left the Queen herself in a long restorative slumber, during which the ghost of Nimrazeonne possessed her own corpse to act as regent. This triggered several things, the most pressing being the awakening of Sydeous Praxingdrell, who had been in a deathless slumber for several centuries. Sensing the deathless demise of her prized daughter Dracothelle, she returned to the mantle of power. The ghost of Nimrazeonne was banished and she took the throne. It was not long after when she made the Deathless Decree that the matriarchial line of Praxingdrell was to be ended and that she would be the last to bear the name and was already more than halfway through the process of becoming a liche, immortal and imperishable.

Cygnette divested herself of the Praxingdrell name and took her father's surname instead. Others more associated her with the hall and she was alternately known by several names. Individually, the members of the blood were being summoned to the black keep, and almost none returned, and the rumor grew that Sydeous was consuming their blood and souls to empower her transformation to true undeath. Divesting of the name was not enough, when it came to blood magic. Cygnette and others decided that it was time to flee Saerith.

She concocted a daring plan. The first step involved securing safe passage from Suilail Zer to the Grand Duchy of Nyir, and then from Nyir to literally anywhere else. The anywhere else was secured by reaching a Camliel bound cargo ship, carrying Saerithian spices and ninne to trade for Saimsan silks. Getting to the ship would involve bribing a member of the Dragonwing to carry her as a passenger on his dragon. The final part was how to manage the escape. This was done through the use of her magic and burning several powerful magic items. She converted the hall to a pocket dimensional space and made it into a piece of luggage with her 'clothingmancy' magic. With everything of importance inside, she picked it up from the cloud of dust raised when she converted it, was hoisted aboard the back of a black dragon by a man enchanted by her breasts, and made good her escape.

The dragonknight was paid his price that evening and returned to the black tower. Much to his surprise, he was taken captive for his role in stealing an entire building from the Queen and was made an undead deathknight for his troubles. Hardly a promotion, he remains bound to serve her though his flesh rotted away inside his armor and he can no longer speak, ride, or fuck as he was once want to do.

The ship carried Cygnette to safety, and beyond the long reach of her undead great grandmother.

Where to go but Terrasquestone. There were certainly places strong enough to resist Praxingdrell, but some of those would easily side with her out of desire for power, and she had no desire to trade Suilail Zer for somewhere like Lichelight or Doomguard. The Council of Lords kept the Orange City free and independent, so what better place could there be?

Cygnette is now a resident of Terrasquestone. She can unpack the Hall if she desired, but doing so would make it part of the Gygaxian Gyre and that is something she really doesn't want to do. At least not yet.

The Gyre is aware of the pocket dimension Hall, and of the lovely Cygnette.

It wants her for its harem, and her hall for its collection.