Should I tidy myself up, I wondered?

I didn't feel especially dirty, and I thought that my slightly weathered state might convey a certain scruffy charm.  Besides, didn't lowfolk think of us elves as wild nature spirits?  The rabbit priest (priestess?) I had encountered outside the antglade was absolutely filthy, and that was a respected religious leader!  Clearly, they did not place cleanliness next to godliness!  Then again, mine was a cult that valued sartorial excellence .. Oak had looked neat & spiffy when I saw her.  She smelled nice too .. which reminded me, hadn't one of them - Rowan, or that, that .. OTHER femme I didn't want to think about .. somebody, as I dimly recollected, had at one point called me a "smelly hobo."

That clinched it.  Some grooming was in order.

I pulled my brushes out of Elfintory and got to work, using some water from my decorative basin.  I also applied a cantrip to make my green satin suit shine like a lizard's scales.  After a bit of work, I thought I looked quite dashing, and my Ixies agreed (those who weren't busy restraining Angela somewhere in the bushes nearby.)

"OOH," I said, suddenly getting an idea.  "What if you built a large statue of me?  That would give a pretty impressive effect."

"With what would we make it, Sire?" Typantronn replied.  "And at what scale?  We've little more than a day in which to work."

"Twould come across a bit self-aggrandizing," another Ixie pointed out.

"And what's wrong with that?" I retorted.

"Why distract from thine own greatness, Sire?"

"Good point," I conceded.  Indeed, why rely on cheap props when it was I myself who was truly great?  They should be focused on me, not on a bunch of slapped-together effigies!  I needed to think of an impressive entrance to really wow the cultists when they arrived.  Their journey through the thick forest would set a tone of anticipation .. then they would emerge to see .. what?  Aside from my own majestic presence, what assets did I have to work with?

I had the circle, with its sparse decoration .. a gang of helpful Ixies .. and a bottle of elvish shampoo.

After a brief brainstorming session, we decided it would be most impressive for me to rise from the weeds atop the central dolmen, amid a swarm of butterflies, and shout "WELCOME!" in a booming voice.  I would save the shampoo to bestow upon the cultists later, after the ice was broken.

The Ixies wrangled butterflies and we did a few practice runs.  We all had it down pretty good by the middle of the next afternoon.

"Quick everybody!" I hissed as I heard rustling in the woods, not far away.  Suddenly I was extremely nervous.  "Get to your places!  They're coming!"

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