A Kingdom in DisarraySummary
The scene: An Alberian city. As people lament the turmoil in their kingdom, they hear rumors from a former Dyrenell soldier that the seventh scion has been possessed by the Other. Amidst a backdrop of distrust towards the royal family, rumors race like wildfire across the land.
Dialogue
Noble: Please, you already took so much! Any more will ruin me!
Bandit: Ain't my problem, boyo. If ya wanna hate someone, look to this kingdom what won't provide work or bread for the masses.
Villager 1: It's a m-monster!
Villager 2: Water's flooding in! Everybody run!
Villager 1: The paddies and fields... My home... It's all been washed away.
Villager 2: How are we to live now?
New Bonds
A Small Roadside Town
Villager 3: Thieves again, I hear. A bunch of shops and storehouses got hit. How many cases is that this month?
Villager 4: I hear there was a town destroyed nearly overnight by some kind of ghastly fiend. These times are frightful ones indeed.
Villager 5: Everything's been a complete mess since we became the damn Dyrenell Empire. What are the guards even DOING?!
Villager 4: Passing strange, if you think about it. King Aurelius bringing back the very empire that revered the Other?
Villager 3: Yeah. And Prince Leonidas and Princess Chelle are still shut away in their own cities, not saying a thing...
Villager 3: Also, I hear Prince Phares has gone missing. Just what is going on?
Villager 4: And what happened to the seventh scion? Didn't he sneak into the capital so he could challenge Zethia to some kind of decisive showdown?
Villager 3: Yeah, that IS strange! You'd think the winner would be strutting about and crowing over their great victory.
Villager 5: Hmph. The whole thing's just a sibling quarrel to them. They don't care what effect it has on us.
???: If you seek news on the seventh scion, then I am your man.
Villager 3: Huh? Who're you?
???: A former soldier of Dyrenell.
Villager 5: Ha! You've got some nerve to show your face in here when your people are the reason our lives have been so hard!
Villager 4: Save your bellyachin' for the people in charge, not the grunts. Or EX-grunt, in this fellow's case.
Former Dyrenell Soldier: I, too, am a victim of the royal family. My unit was suddenly disbanded and left to fend for ourselves without coin or provisions.
Villager 5: Sounds like you've had it hard as the rest. Now what's this news about the prince?
Former Dyrenell Soldier: Right. I heard this from my former superior officer. You see, the prince...
Villager 5: ...Blimey! What's that supposed to mean?!
???: They say he returned to this world.
???: Well, I suppose the story DOES add up. So the Other came back...
???: And not only was King Aurelius possessed by the Other, but so was Princess Zethia...
???: So that's why the kind Auspex suddenly became the cruel Empress...
???: It must be because of the Other's power that we've had so many fiends showing up lately. Frightful stuff, that!
???: And now it's Prince Euden who's been... No wonder they don't want to tell us anything.
???: I'll tell ya what it means: The Other and the dragonblood royals are all monsters of the same ilk!
???: ...Hey, keep this a secret, yeah? Mum's the word!
???: Ooo! Tell me!
???: Well, I have it on very good authority that the Seventh Scion...
???: ...has been possessed by the Other.