I'll see if I can get around to posting the image on these new boards soon.Babytalk
Slowly and quietly, Karis opened the door to the nursery. He silently slipped inside and closed the door behind him. The evening sun was shining a reddish light into the colorful room while a magical musicbox played in the background, depicting a dancing pixie moving rhythmically to a soothing lullaby. Almost tripping over a teddybear which Imoen had probably left on the ground, he moved towards the large crib in the center of the room. It was a lavishly decorated crib, made from oaken wood, draped with silken cloths and inlaid with many carvings. 'Only the best and luxurious for my child,' Viconia had said. Karis had smiled when hearing her say those words.
He slowly bent over to look inside the crib. There, dressed in a playsuit and wrapped tightly in a warm blanket, lay Vierna DeVir, only three days old. 'Our daughter... my daughter' Karis thought with a warm smile.
She was sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of the bustle and going-arounds of the Keep. Karis regarded the tiny Drow baby, noticing baby Vierna's tiny pointed ears sticking out from under her fluffy white hair. 'She's so tiny, so beautiful, so fragile...'
It hit him that this was actually the first time he had shared a private moment with his newborn daughter. Whenever she wasn't in Viconia's arms, there was always someone else giving Vierna all the attention she deserved. On more than one occasion, he had found Imoen and Nalia hanging over the crib, making strange noises and conjuring up magical lights to make Vierna giggle. It was also the first time he had ever heard Nalia utter the words : "A-oo, goo-goo, gah..."
Then there was Minsc, constantly holding out Boo to Vierna to keep her happy, or Jan, hauling all kinds of strange gnomish toys and contraptions to please baby Vierna. And, of course, despite all the advanced toys and inventions, Vierna was still the most interested in grabbing hold of Jan's nose.
Mazzy stopped by this morning too intending to stay for the week, and was carrying a stuffed dragon almost twice her size. She was downstairs right now, sharing the latest gossip with Nalia. Mazzy told them she had recently formed a new adventuring troupe and was on her way to perform great deeds again soon.
Smiling once more and deciding to leave Vierna to rest, he silently walked over to the dresser and closed the musicbox. But as soon as the music fell silent, a soft cry of protest sounded from the crib.
Immediately, Vierna's pouty expression turned into a happy smile again when a warmly smiling Karis looked into the crib once more.
"Hey," Karis said. "Did I wake you, Vierna? I'm so sorry..."
He looked into Vierna's azure blue eyes... His eyes, according to Imoen. And her name... A Drow name, he was told. Viconia had named her daughter after her own wean-mother, but even after all the two lovers had been through, she was still remarkably tight-lipped about that particular person. All he knew about Viconia's wean-mother is that she was an ancient Drow herbalist, who had raised all the children of house DeVir.
He decided to pick up his child to hold her in his arms, but he didn't know what gave him this thought. In fact, he was deadly afraid that he might accidentally drop her. But, being careful to support her head, like Imoen had showed him, he took Vierna to his arms. The baby elf was happy to get the attention, snuggled against her father's tunic and closed her eyes again.
'My daughter. Oh, gods, I'm a father!', Karis realized, and suddenly a thousand thoughts hit him all at once. Certainly, he had seen Viconia through her pregnancy for the past two years, but the reality only really sunk in when he was actually holding his child. A sense of utter panic overcame him... 'I don't know anything about being a parent! How will I teach Vierna? What will I teach Vierna? What kind of rules will have to be set? What will I do when she will start seeing boys?...' These and countless more questions and self-doubts coursed through his mind in less than a second.
'Ok, Karis,' he thought to himself, 'Get a grip... Just take a few deep breaths... Gorion must have gone through this too.'. In the meantime, Vierna was still sleeping in his arms. Karis felt a tear run over his cheeks at the sight of the sleeping girl.
"Well, ssinsrig," he heard from behind. Apparently his lover had snuck into the nursery. "It seems our child has bewitched everyone in the Keep," he heard her say with a gentle touch of humor in her voice.
"Viconia?" Karis whispered to keep from disturbing the sleeping child. "What are you doing out of bed? You only gave birth two days ago!"
"I can be the judge of when I am fit enough to leave my bed, Karis," Viconia said with a hint of irritation. "I feel strengthened enough not be confined to our bedroom."
"Perhaps you should wait a few more days?" he suggested. "If only to be on the safe side?"
"Hm, perhaps," Viconia conceded. "But now that I am here, I might as well take a look at our little dalharil, no?" she smiled and gently ran her hand over Vierna's little head.
"She's asleep..." Karis said.
"You didn't turn off her musicbox, did you?" Viconia chuckled.
"Well..."
"She loves that infernal thing Nalia bought her. Can't sleep without it," Viconia sighed.
"She seems to be asleep now," Karis whispered.
"Hmmm, did you know that, in the Underdark, when a Matron Mother gives birth, she immediately gives her offspring to a wean-mother without even looking at the child? I used to consider this perfectly acceptable, but now... I shudder at the thought," Viconia said. "But it's what my mother did to me..."
"That sounds horrible...."
"If it wasn't for Vierna, my wean-mother, being so... caring, my childhood might have been much worse," Viconia said. "Who knows, I might not even have been able allow my... feelings to resurface later in life... I would probably have not been able to be so close to my brother, if it wasn't for her kindness."
"Sounds like you cared for her a lot," Karis smiled.
"I did," Viconia mused. "I often recall her smiling face, the soft tones of her voice as she sang to us. She raised all the children of the DeVir nobles, you see. But still, the tenents of Lolth eventually corrupted all us. All of us, except Valas..."
"And you..." Karis added.
"No," Viconia half-smiled. "Lolth had me in her pincers too, until..."
"Until you rejected her," Karis said.
"Perhaps..." Viconia said with a thoughtful expression.
"What kind of parents will we be, Viconia?" Karis asked. "We both know nothing about raising children. Should we consult the Big Gnomish Book of Parenting?" Karis chuckled. "Chapter 1 : Give your newborn a turnip to play with..."
"I think not!" Viconia interrupted. "Perhaps we should follow the path of many other parents : Muddle through and learn as we go along? There is her heritage to consider... from both sides of the family, in fact. We should decide early how, what and even if we should tell her about these things..."
Suddenly, Vierna's eyes snapped open again, and the Drow baby took on a pouty expression, after which, Karis and Viconia were assaulted by a vile smell...
"Uh-oh," Karis muttered, not having the luxury to hold his nose. "Someone had an accident."
"Perhaps you should stop eating spicy foods then, ssinsrig?" Viconia chuckled, but soon grimaced from the smell.
"Hah, hah," Karis replied dryly. Carefully, Karis activated the enchantment on the diaper. Immediately, the diaper magically cleaned itself and Vierna seemed to calm down again.
"Has Nalia finished her work on that self-cleaning diaper she had mentioned?" Viconia asked.
"No, she said it would take at least another five months to do the research alone," Karis chuckled, "and we're pretty lucky to have these ready just before Vierna was born, or we'd have to do it the old fashioned way. Nalia is considering a whole line of magically enchanted baby-supplies, by the way."
"Well, now that Vierna's happy again, perhaps we should leave her to sleep," Viconia said and gently took the baby from Karis, rocked her a little and put her back in the crib. After flipping open the musicbox again, she motioned Karis to follow her outside. After kissing the baby Vierna on the forehead once, he complied.
"Hmmm, I wonder though," Viconia said as they walked through the corridors, "seeing how you are a practitioner of the Sword as well as the Art, you must know more about how this diaper actually operates?"
"I don't really know," Karis replied. "Perhaps the waste is teleported, or dimensionally displaced, or even absorbed by the diaper's magic. Nalia would know more about this..."
"Heh," Viconia grinned. "So there could be a very confused lich on the negative material plane, wondering why his lair has suddenly become so smelly?"
"Who knows? Perhaps it's a secret we'll never know the answer to, either..." Karis chuckled.
"There seem to be a lot of those around...."
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In the meantime, baby Vierna drifted in a peaceful slumber, looking at the colorful ceiling and listening at the soothing music, unware of the future life she was going to lead...
You can see the picture below. Isn't it cute?
http://www.gamejag.c.../BabyVierna.jpg
