Telspinner's Tale
This story is set in the forgotten realms world of D&D, please review and let me know what you think about everything from sentence structure to better words to use and of course the plot.
Prologue
A street in the city of Baldur's Gate echoed with footsteps as a gnome walked slowly with its stubby little legs toward one of the most visited taverns in the city. A creaking sign swinging above the door read 'Elfsong Tavern'. He was only half the height of a human and wore many pieces of different coloured cloth which had been stitched together by an obviously inexperienced hand. He appeared fairly old, his hair was greying and had a few distinguished wrinkles, but still had a good century left and wasn't yet frail. He was also carrying a small harp but was still big enough for him to have to hold it in both hands. He stood before the tavern door, an old battered and splintered thing, but was made from Elven Oak so it still had quite a lifespan left to provide sound security. The gnome could hear drunken cries of bliss beyond the door and bright yellow light shone from two cross panelled windows. He needed a story and began getting his mind's creative juices flowing to spin up a tale.
He opened the door and the patrons of a variety of races turned towards him to see the new visitor, his mind began flowing with what would be the start of his story. A story although untrue would decide whether or not he would go into the history books of Faerun like many bards before him, but not many of these were gnomes.
Seeing that it was an unarmed gnome the patrons went back to their drinking, confident that no trouble was arising. The gnome could hear an eerie female elven voice echoing about the tavern, many of the patrons appeared to be here just to hear the soothing melodic voice. He walked up to the counter and looked around observing what would be his audience. A majority were human, no surprise there, Baldur's Gate was a human city after all. A couple of elves sat at their own table talking in the same language as the haunting voice, a halfling sat on the counter because he was too short to sit on any of the chairs, he held a small mug and looked like he was falling into a happy slumber. A female elf was sitting on her own away from the rest of her kind. When the gnome got closer he realised why; it was a half-elf and they weren't liked very much by humans and especially elves. The half-elf was wearing pale grey robes which identified her as a wizard.
A particular feature in the Tavern caught the gnome's eye. There was a small wooden statue of a beholder sitting on a bench with some candles casting light on it for the patrons' to see, a beholder is a fearsome looking monster which looks like a ball with tentacles coming out of it, on each tentacle was a small eye and on the middle of its ball shaped body was one huge eye. This wasn't an ordinary figurine; he could sense a magical aura emanating from it. He reached the bar counter but couldn't see over it. He tied the harp onto his backpack and then climbed onto the stool and then pulled himself onto the counter. The halfling looked at him with a smirk of understanding; this was common among the shorter races. A blonde haired elven woman was putting some mugs down on the bar and spotted the funny looking gnome. After a little giggle she said:
"Welcome to the Elfsong tavern, what can I get you?"
He pointed to his harp after pulling his backpack off and said "I've come to sing a story".
The elven woman beamed with a smile which seemed to have a magical glow, but it was really that everything elven females did looked perfect and beautiful. "Great" she replied and then yelled "Gyuap, set up the stage we've got a bard here".
A depressed looking half-orc walked into the bar area from the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a feather duster. He walked to the stage and began setting up a gnome friendly chair and stands for instruments.
"Going to be using any illusion magic to liven it up?" asked the elf.
"Yeah sure" replied the gnome
"Ok, what's your name then?" asked the elf.
"It's Telspinner or Tel for short" he replied.
"Great, start anytime your ready Telspinner". He climbed down to the stool and jumped back onto the wooden floor and headed to the stage. The half-orc had left the area and everything he needed was ready on the stage.
He walked up some gnome sized steps to a gnome sized chair and when he turned back to sit down he was as tall as the patrons. He strummed his harp and it blended well with the elven voice. This would work to his favour he thought.
"Once upon a time in the plane of limbo" he sung. He held up his hand and caused the lights in to tavern to dim, catching the patrons' attention and causing the noise of talking to stop. The patrons knew that gnome bard performances, rare as they were, had a reputation of being a good visual and audio spectacle. Tel waved his hand over his face, changing it to the appearance of a grey skinned creature which looked like a demon as it moved past. It had two small horns on top of its head and a cruel looking smile. It had white hair which almost as long as Tel's body, and his eyes began to emit an eerie red glow which unsettled some of the tavern patrons. Tel began a song to describe the setting and complimented it with a spell which changed the wall behind him to what he described. The sky looked like a mix of every color and the ground looked splintered and random. The scene zoomed up to a house which was built with a variety of materials which seemed to be slapped together randomly. This made the house look like a pile of rubble. "This, my friends, is where the hero of our story begins his journey".
Kindly edited by Kiri-Ryu