Once the adventure settled down, Elle returned to Orlean to quite a mess. During her absense, the Grand Svalgard Opera had started taking small scale action against Elle's Theater and other establishments. It started small: pamphlets in Elle's area attempting to get patronage, offering free or discounted services to elicit business, the like. It had escalated, however, to buying town officials to publicly denounce Elle, intimidating patrons of her Theater, and even beating/threatening her employees.

Elle, upon finding out about this, saught diplomatic resolution by reaching out to the other Theater's owner, Baroness Mara Rutherfort. They met, but it wasn't just the Theater owners. Bura Bahl, a patron of Grand Svalgard Opera, was present as well. The meeting was short, as the message was clear: sell the theater to said owner, or be run out of business. They must not have known how Elle responds to bullying.

She went above them, as high as she could go. The captain of the guard was no help, and speaking with several other notable officals elicited no assistance. So she worked her way to the top and saught an audiance with King Leonard II. 

Unfortunatly, King Leo was unwilling to help. While he didn't ignore her plight, he informed her that without substantial proof that this was indeed Bahl's fault, action by a Baron against someone as unconnected politically as Elle was a hopeless fight. 

Elle was aghast. She had always seen and known about the corruption in Orlean, but did not realize that it extended so far. She struggled for quite some time trying to find a solution to the problem before things got out of hand with Bahl and his thugs. Finally, a solution dawned on her,

To understand this next part, you have to take a look back in Elle's history, back when she traveled the land with her family. Being Varisian, she had no real home, but her family did have a patron in Orlean. The patron would sponser them and give them a writ of passage, something that in essence gave permission to perform throughout the land and give the troupe credibility. In payment, the troup would spend a month out of every year performing just for the patron and his people. And Elle's Troupe had a very power patron that occasionally frequented Elle's theater.

Count Guzman received Elle warmly. Since the founding of her theater in the wake of her family's death, he was very supportive of her, not by giving handouts but by frequenting her theater and giving it business. When Elle came to him and told of the Theater's issues with the Opera House and Bahl, Count Guzman had a brilliant idea: He would do the same as Bahl, but with Elle's Theater. This unwritten but known protection would force Bahl to back off or risk the ire of a Count, which has more political sway (not to mention the ear of the King) then a Baron such as Bahl has. The unofficial agreement was met: the Count would make it known that Elle and her holdings were under his protection, while Elle would allow the Count to rent the hall free of charge, and any visit would be on the house.

Through all and all, three months later, the crisis was resolved. Bahl backed off, the theats, violence, and xxx stopped. Through all of this, Elle made some new friends. Count 'xxx' and her began speaking on a regular basis, talking about things from what Elle is attempting to accomplish with her theater to what new songs has she made. They became almost friends, but slightly more business related. Another person she grew close to in this time was a man by Leon. They met on one day when Elle was frustrated, drinking, and looking to make some bad decisions with the first guy she found. Leon approached her in this state, and began to talk. Elle wasn't interested in talking, but something about him made her pause. Eventually, she began to discuss what was going on with him. He didn't have much in terms of solid advice to offer at first, but just having someone to talk to outside of her immediate circle was nice and refreshing. He became a close friend to Elle over the next month, and now works with her both as a friend and ally. Upon hearing that she is one of the Heroes of Gold Bar, he has asked to join on the next adventure if allowed, and she has yet to bring that up with the party.

(more details to come, including some other character influence after speaking with players)

Count Vin Diesel. Nice. 

Good stuff Mike.