The Book of the Courtier

"How can I turn down a spooky, treasure-filled ruin with a giant spider inside?" you say, gallantly. "Fear not, milord, I'll get it out of your hair!"

"Yes, well," Viscia sniffs. "Don't die. And do try to keep Esme relatively safe. She is my only child, after all."

"She shall be safer than a playpen made of pillows! Probably!"




"Okay! Okay, let's motor." Esme returns with a whopping great whacker in her mitts. "I call this one The Destructisector."


"Have fun, you two, I suppose." Viscia says, uncertainly. "Kids these days, I don't know."


"So! Where are we going?" asks your new traveling companion. It's a lovely day out today.




"The ruins! We're going to face down that great big spider of your father's."

"Ha! You're going to get eaten and I am going to see it. Are you gonna try and kill it?"

"Anyone can kill a spider. I am going to tame it!"

"You are most definitely going to get eaten. Awesome."



Outside of the Castle Rookery is Rookery Town, a hamlet of around ten score people. Lying a mile or so out of its borders is the Tower of Viscia's Wizard, where he presumably studies unspeakable tomes and such.

And beyond that, carved into a great cliff face, lies the Rook's Ruin.