The Last Challenge of the Token Stones

By Maradas Graham

In the town of Innismoor, near the back of the town lie several stones in a small collection, each jutting no more than foot or two out of the ground. While the casual observer gives these stones nothing more than a passing glance, those who know their history know the power contained therein. While they have been used as sitting stones or the playthings of children for centuries by the mortal inhabitants of that town, they were used by the Fair Folk for centuries before that as the place for duels and contests.

The field surrounding those stones, back when the Fair Folk came and went from Innismoor as if it were part of their realm, had been cleared and leveled to use as a market and fair grounds. There were hundreds of merchants from all around the realms, both Fair Folk and mortal, who would come to hawk their wares. Along with them would come entertainers of all types and measure, from jugglers too magicians to actors. These fairs would happen once a year, and were a cause for much celebration amongst mortal and faerie alike. It was one of the few times you would see Seelie knights drinking with redcaps or leprechauns dancing with the common folk. Boundaries and limits between folk were dropped during these fairs.

The highest points of these fairs were the jousting contests, held each year by the Seelie King. All comers were welcome to enter; the prize, a boon from the Seelie King. Contestants came from the four corners of the world to compete. Mortal, Seelie and Unseelie competed side by side for the prize. Eventually the prize became secondary to the victory, as he who won at the festival was all but nobility in the eyes of the people. Over time these contests began to be used by those wishing to settle disputes, whoever went farther in the competition being the winning party. This practice grew more wide spread over time, the site eventually becoming a favorite of Fair Folk to carry out duels regardless of the presence of the festival.

Now you may be wondering, gentle reader, what part the stones I mentioned before played in all these duels. Over time a duel was created around these stones, but who first practiced the duel none can say. The Duel of Tokens was first recorded by Lord Wilinghum, Master of Dueling Lore of the Seelie Court, in a duel between Sir Lawrence Cassad of the Seelie Court and Lord Shardin Felarus of the Unseelie Court. The Duel of Tokens is begun by each participant placing a token of their lady on one of the stones, and it ends when one of the participants has taken the token of his opponents lady. This duel became the duel of choice amongst many of the noble Seelie and Unseelie as it reeked of honor, romance and chivalry.

Unfortunately though time would not have it. Over time the mortal world began to reject the Fair Folk, finding their festivals too loud, too dangerous just annoying. They found all these duels to be bad influences on the children, or thought they encouraged idleness and would have nothing to do with them. Over time the people of Innismoor grew to resent these visitations of the Fair Folk and let the field grow over, become uneven and in time even built houses around it. With each new change the Fair Folk would come less and less, the festival coming every ten years, and then once a century. Now it has not been back since my youth. So too the duelists stopped coming to practice the Duel of the Tokens, chased away by the worries and drudgery of the mundane world. Now no one fights the Duel of the Tokens, one shred of romance and adventure of the Fair Folk stripped away.