Motif · Book 5, The Butcher's Masquerade

The naiads

Horned, fanged, blue-tinged river people who take bodies off the bank in under a second, slaves of the elves since the coup that killed Signet's mother; the Confederacy of dukes who took her palace could have waited and inherited it, and now let it rot because they will not tax while still tithing to the high elves. Their curse, cast by a high elf, keeps Signet dry in the rain.

Segment appearances

Chapter 5 — Zockau
Chapter 10 — No dinosaurs of any kind
Chapter 11 — The Recital
Chapter 13 — Elites in the trees
Chapter 14 — Were-castors
Chapter 15 — The kids' menu
Chapter 16 — Clint and Holger
Chapter 17 — The security checkpoint
Chapter 21 — CrawlCon
Chapter 22 — Samantha, open wide
Chapter 23 — Congratulations, Murderer
Chapter 24 — The rock chucker
Chapter 25 — Fort Freedom
Chapter 26 — Wonderwall
Chapter 27 — Claude Sludgington the Fourth
Chapter 28 — Premature Questjaculation
Chapter 29 — Blood and ink
Chapter 36 — Swole
Chapter 55 — Save the toraline
Chapter 56 — Zerzura
Chapter 63 — Enchanted Hammer of Fast Forward
Chapter 64 — The attendant entrance
Chapter 67 — Slate Butterflies
Chapter 72 — Cat-nac the Magnificent
Chapter 74 — All Eyes on Me
Chapter 75 — Sic 'em

Progression

A blue-tinged thing with horns (ch. 10); a confederacy that could have waited (ch. 25); slaves of the elves since the coup, and a curse cast by a high elf (ch. 26); a fundraiser nobody came to (ch. 27). Samantha volunteers to rule them (ch. 28).