Chapter 1 - Kem, City of Gold

The crew creeps towards the stage cautiously. Halfway to the stage and a wind from behind the stage billows the heavy blue and red curtains outward. When they settle back down you see the impression of a face in the curtain as tall as a man, as if a giant was pressing his face into the soft material. The impression of lips curves upward in a smile. From up above you, a metallic clink rings out. One of the large center aisle chandeliers comes hurtling down!

The crash is almost deafening in the large theater as glass shatters, metal crumples, and stumps of wax candles thump to the ground. Not to mention Butterfly's screams. The center aisle and some of the nearby seats sparkle with glass shards like crisp snow. Anyone looking back at the stage sees the face has disappeared from the curtain and it is once again a calm plane of blue fabric. Once the echoes fade away, and Butterfly stops screaming, a haunting piano melody begins playing from somewhere on the stage behind the curtain.

The main aisle forks at a small orchestra pit, diverging right and left to a set of short stairs on either side of the stage. The stage itself sits three feet above the main floor, so only Theodore can comfortably see over it (if the curtain wasn't blocking the view). Inside the orchestra pit are a dozen instruments: a pair of violins, a cello, several woodwinds, a drum, a handful of brass instruments, and a pair of cymbals. As you watch, they float up as if held by invisible musicians and begin to play themselves, giving accompaniment to the haunting piano melody behind the curtain. You feel the air temperature plummet and your breath fogs in front of you.

Hagrac reaches out but touches nothing, although his hands feel even colder. The air there seems a little denser, somewhere between air and water.

Theodore looks behind the curtains. What he sees is not two goblins in a trenchcoat, but four children's dolls playing the piano. They are hairless, dilapidated, cracked and chipped, and some caked with mold. One is under the piano working the pedals, and the other three are playing the keys. Perhaps sensing Theodore, they slam many keys in a great cacophony and then stop. Their ceramic heads all turn in unison to look at Theodore, even though their bodies remain facing away from him. Their eyes are black pits with glowing embers inside.