The Blog of Roon

Jenny-Wren von Adler pulled some downright Emilia-Eaglebourne–worthy stunts last session, in the final defeat of the Ruido Grande in Ilium. (Note that last modifier. We’re not done with the Big Noise by any means.) She bravely took on the biggest Big Bad of the lot despite being mournfully convinced he would splatter her all over the landscape—and he darn near did, but she squeaked out a win anyway.

Plus, she’s all but outfaced Ilium’s dragon ruler Noble Mercury, something that takes a fair bit of talent, not to mention guts. She spilled the beans about the illegalities permitted (indeed, suggested to) Troubleshooters to the Fourth Estate, in such fashion that coming down on her like a ton of bricks (as he no doubt wished) would simply have been impolitic of the poor dragon. So he’s going to smile toothily and anoint her a hero, and she’s going to grin back and accept the plaudits, and my goodness, won’t they both be walking on eggshells the whole time!

So, all things considered, I think somebody ought to get Renate an illustration of the fine old tale of the Eagle and the Wren for her upcoming (in game time) nineteenth birthday. She’s quite earned it.

Rien’s player asked me today where Renate got the nickname Jenny-Wren. I knew the sobriquet was old, and it is, but as I started looking about for wren-lore, I found a delightful variety of legendary echoes. There’s general agreement that the wren is crafty (though unmalicious except when threatened), a sly employer of others’ efforts, a fine home-builder and parent, and quite saucy when it suits her to be. If that isn’t Renate all over…!

See a few of the things I found, if you care to.

And, of course, Renate practices the Wrenfall fighting style, and I swear unto heaven I did not do that on purpose! Still. A good character name is a good character name, and I’m quite delighted with this one.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2004 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Dragonhunt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.