Juggling Show at the Broad Axe Tavern From: retrac@rice.edu (John Carter) Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1989 20:41:24 +0000 DANSE (your MC for the festivities :-) sits down, and the two jugglers (WADE, the gnomish local, and JERRY, the brightly dressed jester) begin to toss colored balls high in the air between them. The first couple of tosses are fairly simple, but as they become more familiar with one another, they start to execute more complex manuevers (behind the back throws, catches from between their legs, balancing the balls on their heads between throws, adding balls on the fly, and such not). The two jugglers seem to be at about the same skill level, but the colorful costume with tassles and ribbons that the jester wears makes him stand out a bit more. After a few minutes of this, Wade grabs a couple of plates from a nearby table (or wherever) and incorporates them into the juggling pattern. They spread out a little bit (since nobody was seated near Booth C to get in the way), and start tossing things across the room. Jerry takes notice of a few of the patrons that are paing particularly close attention, and begins to make up improvised little verses about them as he juggles. Maybe something like...: "Here sits a preistess - feathers in her ear, tending to a drunk man spitting up his beer!" -or- "A sight so queer, I know not what to do... I'd swear that I see a man that's all BLUE!" [I'm afraid poetry is not MY strong point!] You then notice the tall gentleman who was sitting across from Danse in booth C [Jade, for future reference] finish his lunch and make a spectacular entrance into the show. He slips off the edge of the booth into a handspring from the floor. In his collision with that surface, he seems to sprout two bright streamers, one from each wrist. He catches a few of the balls, but takes care not to seriously disrupt the pattern (successful DEX roll, if you care), choosing instead to spin and flip about it The three of them continue in a large three way juggling exhibition, mixing and matching their routines as best they can. You can occasionally see them talking back and forth before they make some dramatic shift. Then, Jade flashes an impish grin at the audience, pulls a small recorder from his belt, and begins playing a lively melody... while attempting to drag Danse to his feet to dance... Wade and Jerry take this occasion to break off their pattern and begin to show-off their individual talents. Jerry pulls a couple of throwing knives from beneath his costume and replaces the balls he's been juggling with the knives. Wade begins to throw the balls up in time so that one of the balls seems to bob up and down above him in time to the music. There's even an occasional flash of color and light going off to heighten the effect. Jade eventually manages to coax Danse into rising and dancing along with the tune, and surprisingly, Danse appears to be fairly nimble on his feet and even goes so far as to get up on the table in the booth to dance a little jig in time to the music. Jade smiles and then begins to go through the audience to get more people to start dancing, while keeping up his tune. [If want your character to add anything to the show, like begin to dance/sing/yell/boo/heckle/cheer/throw-money;-)/cast-spells/whatever, send me e-mail and I'll integrate them.] John Carter Internet: retrac@rice.edu Dept of Computer Science UUCP: {internet node or backbone}!rice!retrac Rice University Houston, TX Rootin' for the: Rockets, Reds, Dolphins & RedWings Referenced By Up