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Challenge #04859-M110: The Haunting of Stelgi Manor

Countess Vermyr Stelgi has inherited a substantial tract of land after the death of a distant cousin who had no other heirs. She moves quickly to spruce up the palace, hoping to make it into a summer home owing to the northerly quiet. That involves properly disposing of the departed cousin’s eclectic (some might say ghastly) collection, though some things in that palace might not appreciate being removed… -- Deathshead419

Like most buildings that had been in a family for generations, it was a heap of conflicting architecture. Varying portions of it had been raised, refurbished, renovated, rebuilt, and then left to run down. Some of it had potential. Most of it could use more than a little spackle or Tape of Mending. The Countess Vermyr Brigide Hester Stelgi, second of her name, decided to wait and see before she decided to raze it all to the ground.

Besides, most of it was very well-dressed stone.

The staff formerly in her cousin's employ had aired a guest suite for her, and cleaned the final mess from his bedchamber, but otherwise left the chambers untouched. They knew well her cousin's odd habits and quirks, and were well used to leaving everything inanimate alone.

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Challenge #04858-M109: Hated Unreasonably on Sight

Life's most valuable lessons often come from the strangest places. -- Prompty.

Viscount Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, ninth of his name (aged seven), had been kept busy learning all the things a young Viscount needed to know. Dressage, Dancing, Diplomacy, Archery, Arts, Economics, it went on and on. He was allowed some hours free to spend in his own pursuits. Which, until he needed to replace some art supplies, Kormwind he had spent in the Dojo's library.

He carried his papers, of

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Challenge #04857-M108: Domesticity

Leave that for somebody else to do. They came, they saw and they left it. -- Prompty.

Some warlords operate on Veni, vedi, vici. The Harukh'ai approached the Elven settlements with, Veni, vidi, ruinam reliqui in mind. At least, they did when the Ormani got around to writing epic poems and studies around it. Several centuries after the the conflicts settled down into hardy perennial territory disputes.

The Harukh'ai had a reason. Taslanae had to wonder why Yinmanou approached the kitchen with

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Challenge #04856-M107: Second Chance for Stuff

Tip Shops. Everything from from over-ordered new clothing, 2nd hand furniture, building material and odds and ends. "One person's rubbish is another's treasure." -- Prompty.

Places like this had a Smell. Somewhere between dust, old makeup, and the Stygian depths of an Escherian book emporium. Regardless of whether the items for sale were new or recovered in one way or another, they all had the scent of too much time.

Maebe thought of it as the smell of second-hand dust. It made

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Challenge #04855-M106: Learning Experience

Trying to get a group moving in the right direction. Pick one of these. Schoolchildren on a trip. Visitors to a 3 hour specialist sale event. Agreeing to go anywhere. -- Prompty

"Stop, look, and lis-ten," chanted Educator Dees, primary teacher for the newly literate and numerate class.

There were five kids to each educator, not that that did anything to prevent the inherent chaos of fifty children on the field trip. Some were talking animatedly at each other, some were play-wrestling,

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Challenge #04854-M105: Call of the Favour

1: "You are aware, of course, that where you are going is more than far beyond us?"/ 2: "Yes. There's no horse that will be able to make the journey." 1: "Then how do you plan to get there?"/ 2: "We'll need something more than a simple horse." 1: "What do 'we' have in mind?" -- Anon Guest

"It's ten thousand leagues, and we have to get there in a handful of days. We don't have horses for all of us. We

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Challenge #04853-M104: No Need to Fret

Let me tell you of a bard I once heard sing. The voice had a strength and depth that no magic in the world could recreate. I felt the desire to steal them away and keep them for myself, but I knew the world needed them more. And so I became their patron.

https://peakd.com/flashfiction/@internutter/challenge-04840-m091-fey-touched -- Anon Guest

Legends tell of a Bard who can charm savage beasts with the sound of hir voice. One who can make

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Challenge #04852-M103: Queen's Gambit

For 60 long years Queen Essarea has held her kingdom together through sheer force of will. But at long last her strength is flagging, old clans once subdued are preparing to open old feuds for power, and her heirs lack the careful combination of ruthlessness, charisma, and measured kindness which Essarea employed during her time on the throne. What will become of six decades of relative peace once her eyes close for the final time…? -- Deathshead419

It's not unprecedented, but there's

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Challenge #04851-M102: With Adequate Reason

Trudy enters her awkward teenage years with a new obsession. Haunted by dreams, she begs and cajoles her parents until they bring her to a lake in the middle of a swampy waste. Here she finds the source of her begging dreams, a human prince who had been turned into a swan. Just the sort who’s magic curse would reach a girl who used to be a goose…

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04708-l324-from-menace-to-midwife -- Deathshead419

The Will o' the Wild

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Challenge #04850-M101: Treasure Trouble

Menson V'lek has inherited a map where his father buried a pirate fortune. The story goes that after a shipwreck during a great sea chase, the old man buried the gold he could not carry and high tailed it out of there. But something doesn’t quite add up with the old man’s story or his map, leading Menson to travel to the isle to unravel the truth. -- Deathshead419

[AN: Had to change a little spelling because found a real

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Challenge #04849-M100: Stolen Mercy

Victoria Constance Emilia Stanford has become a goddess, enjoying her new form and her husband. Alas, it seems that some desperate folks from a drought stricken land would like to enjoy her powers, for they kidnap her from the shores in the dead of night whilst her husband and father in law slept.

This is unlikely to end well for anyone involved…

Sequel to: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04815-m066-bride-of-the-son-of-the-volcano-god -- Deathshead419

There was a new goddess, though few in Arunem could

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Challenge #04848-M099: Sorely in Need of...

You get to be the Avatar of the local Goddess/God for a year, you have a certain freedom of how you do that. But at the end of that year you are back to being mortal and have to face any consequences. So watch how you rule. -- Prompey

It's an odd little town, to say the least of it. For a start, there's a large temple to Zeb centrally located near all the other important public services. Devotees of the

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Challenge #04847-M098: Mnemonic Intervention

Their plumage was red, black, and yellow. Beings thought they were either venomous, or poisonous. But they've never heard of the false coral snake, or other such pretenders. -- Anon Guest

"Red then yellow, kills a fellow. Red then black, venom lack." -- Terran Mnemonic.

It's rather shocking that truly dangerous creatures bear the same rough colour scheme. So it was no shock that the dangerous things became marked in a similar fashion... and then dangerous people. The code was well established

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Challenge #04846-M097: Passing (it) On

Elderly and Kobold don't normally go in the same sentence. But since this village protected their kobold neighbors, and vice / versa, it was not unusual to have one, now, die of old age rather than other circumstances. Some were even being born to other warrens with the memories of tunnels reinforced so they would not collapse again. Before too long, around the world, kobold tunnels collapsing due to lack of proper reinforcement was starting become a rarity rather than commonplace.

https://peakd.

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Challenge #04845-M096: Mineral Health

They found a dragon who made a deal with them. Scrub my scales and you can keep whatever loose scales fall off. The family was shocked at such a boon. Now, four generations later, they had a full service spa for dragons of ALL sizes. Loose scales scrubbed, claws polished and trimmed, wings massaged, oils rubbed in to help with loose skin, the works. Loose scales that fell? Those were kept, polished, and made into jewelry and sold in a gift shop

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