20 Kythorn 1491
In the early hours of the morning, Yndrus sits awake and spies an exhausted dwarf hobbling towards him. He’s older, malnourished, dehydrated, but otherwise not injured. Yndrus presses the poor dwarf for what happened, gets a name (Elkhorn), and wakes his friends.
Phee makes up some tea, while Molliver, upon waking, leaps atop the dwarf before anyone can react.
Dwarf tells his tale, which parallels The Party’s adventure. Except this poor dude apparently was being held in a dungeon at Loomlurch. Apparently when Endelyn expired, Skabatha screamed her sister’s name into the night and disappeared. When she was gone, dwarf escaped and made his way to Molliver - he’s a fellow member Valor’s Call.
Party collects quite the pile of friends at this stage, and head back to the travelling mirror. Glister, Gleam, Hurly, wish to go through to the carnival, while Molliver and Elkhorn, want to stick with the party.
First the mirror connects to the Little Oak and Amidor with Pollenella stroll through to fill Will in on getting Star home. Clapperclaw and Squirt follow after. Hurly, Glister, and Gleam decide to stick around the castle until Amidor returns with Star, then will go through to the Witchlight Carnival.
Yndrus does one last quick explore of areas that had been missed earlier while everyone sorts themselves out.
Eventually they make their way back to the turret where the birds had been.
They ring the bell a second time, much to Phee’s joy. This time there are six of them, the same number of persons.
Hop on, folks! Once they take off, mystery time passes where everyone only has faint memories of the flight. Eventually they come out of a doze as the birds approach a dreamlike building with delicate spires, monstrous vines choking sections of the walls. The cranes drop the party off just inside the outer gates of the palace. Each bird pulls a feather from themselves and gives one to a party member.
Hundreds of birds burst from the canopy of the nearby woods, soon followed by an ominous crashing. A huge sinuous green dragon, the Jabberwock, smashes into view and takes off, landing somewhere behind the high walls of the palace.
The party observes their immediate surroundings. Streams and ponds dot the area, and there’s a nearby pavilion with laughter and music emanating from it. There’s a ring of standing stones as well.
The place is strange, the streams don’t seem to be moving, pixies suspended mid flight. What were first taken to be statues dotted around are actually living beings, frozen in place.
Yndrus and Phee go to investigate the stones. They look to be teleportation stones, connecting to other stone circles (like the one near the Korreds, for example). Mell creeps up to the pavilion to peek into it and see what’s going on. There are about half a dozen guests. One of which is a Bear, and he’s having a tea party with several others, two of which seems frozen in time. There’s a string quartet of badgers playing a jaunty tune.
Phee, very excited just rushes into the pavilion while Mell decides whether or not to pull out her instrument and join in.
The bear is thrilled to see Phee and she asks for tea. At this stage, Mell cracks and runs in as well, grinning from ear to ear.
The bear introduces himself to Phee as Bodger. Other guests include an elf who isn’t frozen but looks very statuesque. An old woman with a quill that scribbles everything down that she says. A guy who looks like a farmer with a pumpkin that has a mouth. The frozen members are what looks to be a visiting Halfling and a fierce orc warrioress.
Yndrus asks about the dragon, who it belongs to. The revellers assume it belongs to the lady of the house.
There resumes some heated debate around whether or not cream or jam should go on a scone first.
After a time, Phee and Yndrus get an odd sense of.. something… creeping up on them. Something strange about the passage of time here, like one could get lost in it.
Mell’s mind feels full of cotton and only half listens to Phee debating what comes first, the chicken or the egg, with Majera d’Valzey (the old lady).
Yndrus is getting progressively more bothered by the weird time dilation going on. He suspects it’s some kind of side effect/overflow of the powerful time magic cast on the palace.
Molliver and Elkhorn had the sense not to enter the pavilion, and Molliver pokes their head in to tell the party he’s done some recon. No sign of his compatriots around, and apparently the frozen water can be removed and regains motion as a result.
Mell meanders over to the frozen halfling to see if by moving it, they will become unstuck. No suck luck, and while she hangs on the halfling Yndrus shakes her out of her stupor. Disconcerted, she heads out of the pavilion.
The Party resolves to take a closer look around the courtyard, investigate a couple towers, an axe lodged in a stump, wooded area full of webs, a fountain, pond full of frozen hovering dragonflies, and a pair of stairs leading to the main palace.
They check the tower first. It has a bronze plaque near a closed door that says Envy. Phee checks the area with her detect trap/secret doors wand and there’s nothing. Yndrus tries the door, it’s unlocked! Inside is a room open to the sky and a big iron lion on a pedestal. It greets the party and announces itself as Envy.
Phee offers a gift and it bends towards her, sniffing deeply. “You have her smell.”
Phee grins and wafts her scent on flapping wings towards the lion.
After some chats with Phee, she learns that “We are here to protect the garden from intruders. If we are here, she is not.”
Mell bends a knee to the lion (following suit of Phee) and informs the lion of Zybilna’s plight, humbling asking how their group might find their way into the castle to bring aid to the queen.
Instructions ensue, and they learn about a key in the form of a crowns beneath the waters of the pond. In order to transform the key, the correct crown needs to be placed on the correct guardians head. The other iron guardian is named Wrath.
The Party leaves the tower and keeps exploring the garden, coming upon the axe and stump next.
The axe is exquisitely made, completely untarnished. Yndrus gives yanking it out of the stump a try, and it moves just the tiniest amount but no further. Morgort gives it a shot as well, rolling her shoulders, gets a bit of elbow grease going, and heaves with such gusto that both her and axe fly backwards. She executes a perfect back-flip and lands for a bow. She is absolutely besotted by this axe. It’s simple, but so perfectly executed in its form.
Mell has a good look for any clues alluding to the crowns and guardians, but finds nothing. Phee discovers her bloom magic cannot affect the frozen flowers. So far the only thing that’s able to be manipulated that they know of is the water. They continue on in a clockwise fashion, coming upon the webbed forested area. The “forest” turns out to be lots of fragrant rose bushes. They work their way into the area. Phee notices that the ground has been agitated, as though something has been digging. She freaks out and warns the party.
Ettercaps!
After a successful defence against the Ettercaps, The Party gathers at the centre of the rose garden to investigate a statue of a Satyr playing a set of pipes. Wrapped around it is a thorny vine with five blossoms growing on it, each a different shade. Blue, black, white, green, and red, each with a different scent.
Phee licks the one that smells like acid, then the one with an icy scent. She’s burned and chilled upon her tongue respectively, but otherwise the flowers remain a mystery.
They travel on and come across a fountain frozen in time. Mell squats by the stream and starts moulding a gelatinous version of herself in the putty water. Phee sticks her head into the fountain water.
She pulls her head out as she stares a bit vacantly into the distance, unable to speak. Yndrus peers closely at her, something is very not right. The spark within her.. well she’s alive, but her spark is gone. Yndrus says that perhaps we shouldn’t go diving into the pond without more thorough investigation.
Morgort pokes around the fountain for clues. Phee begins cleaning herself like a cat.
Mell checks out the fountain. There are lots of carvings of different types of animals next to humans. In the hopes of maybe reversing the
effects, Mell shoves Phee’s head into the water again. No change.
Mell kneels before it and tries to sense the school of magic from the fountain. Transmutation. She definitely thinks she’s an animal. And Phee starts going for a wander, at which point her friends herd her towards the pavilion in the hopes some of their new friends might have seen this issue before. Phee spots Bodger and starts treadling on his fur with her hands.
Bodger says he once was like Phee, but isn’t anymore. Mell starts shoving food into Phee’s face in the hopes that it restores her sanity. No change. Bodger further explains that he was helped by a person, but they aren’t anywhere near.
Majera d’Valzey thinks that it’ll wear off with a bit of time. She may be able to help, depending on the magic, given an hour or two. Yndrus and Mell resolve to leave Phee in Bodger’s lap to check out the pond. Mell, having learned something from her fool friend, settles under a willow next to the pond and detects whether or not the pond is like the fountain. There’s magic, something amorphous down in the centre, but otherwise not gonna transmute anyone who touches it.
Morgort touches the waters surface, and a black water made hand rises out of the water with a crown of silver needles. A school of fish darting underneath the water coalesces into a rough humanoid shape and tips the crown slowly towards Morgort.
She’s not keen to touch it or wade out into the water, so carefully hooks it onto her glaive. She does a good once over of the crown, appears startled and drops it. “It spoke to me.”
She touches it again.
The beginning of Whenever
The end of Ever After
The start of an Age
The finale of every Moment
The first in History
Yndrus hearing this, is looking very smug. “Wrath. The crown is meant for Wrath.”
With crown in tow, The Party, sans Phee, checks out the other tower. There’s no obvious entrance, no stairs, door, windows. There is however, a walkway up on a 10 foot wall that connects to the tower, which she hops up onto and drops a rope for the rest to follow.
There’s a door leading to the second tower from there and Yndrus, with the crown, enters. Inside the tower is filled with hawthorns. At the heart of the thicket stands a great iron deer. It introduces itself as Wrath.
Yndrus offers to place the crown upon its head and the beast kneels before the Druid. The moment the crown touches its head, the statue turns to gold. A soft click resonates around the area, like a pulse of magic.
Yndrus asks if Wrath knows about the fountain, to which he replies “Don’t drink from it.”
The doors are supposedly unlocked to the palace, but The Party checks in on Phee again to see how her situation has progressed. She’s definitely still cat, but Majera seems to think she can help out.
Phee comes back to herself in bits, realising she’s under the table, a bit drooly and vaguely aware that she was cat for a while. She’s a tad bemused, and Yndrus fills Phee in on what the party has been up to.
The group peers through the windows along the front part of the castle, then climb back up to the walkway by the Wrath tower and open a set of side doors into the palace.
Yndrus spies a flicker of movement as something hides out of sight. A voice asks them to leave, and no they won’t reveal themselves to the party.
Phee convinces the voice to reveal themselves by mentioning Zybilna is her patron. A little creature about Phee’s size creeps out of a wardrobe. “You’re here to help?” Introductions happen. They are named Thinnings.
The group learns where the cauldron is located - upstairs, where the Jabberwock also hangs out. Also, members of the League of Malevolence have made it into the palace, and Thinnings thinks they know approximately where they are. One in a tower, the rest in the throne room.
Mell morphs into Thinnings as she asks if there’s a way to slip through servant bolt holes and such. Unfortunately she doesn’t pick up Thinnings’ skill to become flat like paper, so not helpful. With a pout, she shifts back.
It’s suggested to find Zyblina owl, Bloodybeak, because it’s the only creature that may be able to take on the Jabberwock.
Thinnings peers at the unicorn horn in Mell’s hand (which she’d produced earlier) and asks if she knows how to use it. Apparently, to use it, it must be touched to the creature in need of aid and their true name must be spoken. Alternatively, the party could destroy Zybilna’s cauldron.
Where is she then? Thinnings isn’t sure, but knows where she is not.
Yndrus tries to convince Thinnings to stick with the party and offer aid in the form of their knowledge of the place, but he declines saying they’re too large and loud.
Mell tests the horn on one of Thinning’s friends, and it works! Goblin Two is awake. Mell shows how it was done by waking up Four. Mell then pitches that the group could do with a bit of help with distractions and information. Unfortunately they’re not helpful at all, and flee outside claiming it’s well above their pay grade.
The party converses with Thinnings a bit more and decide to head out in search of Bloodybeak.
After a listen at a nearby door via Yndrus, The Party opens it and spies eight pixies around a large table, with large vines growing around the area. There are three dead giant rats dead on one table, and a cake on another table.
Phee investigates the rats for poisoning. The rats were killed by having their necks snapped, so Phee takes that to mean the cakes is safe and proceeds to leap into it for nom times. Mell comments to Yndrus that she’s learned nothing from the fountain incident.
Yndrus investigates the beanstalk, which seems to be unaffected by the curse. Mell gets Phee’s attention and asks if she would climb the beanstalk and see if there’s a way up to another floor.
She spots a toad with a wizard cape perched atop a chest and spots it blinking. She starts a dialogue. It introduces itself as Iggrik, and Phee immediately yells to the party down below about it. She’s met with shushes.
Rope is rustled up and Phee secures it to drop down for the others. Some weird shit goes down and Phee ends up licking the toad. Psychedelic, wheee!
Morgot and Iggrik get along well immediately. Mell takes the time to mess with Phee and casts an identical illusion of Iggrik next to the real Iggrik.
Plans are exchanged and Iggrik mentions that the Vorpal sword would be helpful in case the party is unsuccessful at waking Bloodybeak. It’s behind a locked door at the top of a different tower. The toad is willing to help out with information.
He explains that the lion, heart, and a book are connected to the locks of the castle. He shares the location of the book and that if one writes their name in it, it will open the castle to them more.
They also cast a powerful spell to ensure that the true name of Zybilna is not revealed to anyone. Natasha.
Iggrik finishes off by giving the chest to the party. Phee leaps on it and the loot is Boots of Flying. The flying fairy puts them on. Eventually they are bequeathed to the least mobile of the party, Mell.
The Party bypasses a hungry giant and finds Bloodybeak. They unfreeze it, yay! And the party manages not to get eaten, yay! Bloodybeak flies off and starts circling the castle.
The party presses on. Found Zybilna, too dangerous to get to her past the sleeping Jabberwock, went to seek out the sword on the upper floors.
They solve a couple puzzles and come across the frozen form of the leader of Valor’s Call, Strongheart.
They unfreeze him, fill him in on what’s going on, and keep heading up the tower they’ve found themselves in. They come across the book of locks. Party crosses out all the names of the League of Malevolence as well as the Hourglass Coven, then sign their own names. They also discover the name of a scribe they found earlier, by the name of Kalimanzaros. Another flight up the tower and a room with the sword is revealed! Phee gives the sword (Snicker-Snack) to Morgort and inside a nearby chest is an ornate scabbard and a gold helmet with heart antlers and a shimmering silver cloak.
As Morgort holds the sword, she hears indistinct, silvery whispering in her mind.
Party toddles off again, but can’t get back down the way they came. So they head down a flight of stairs and stumble across Kelek leader of the League of Malevolence and a bodyguard with a flaming sword, along with three scaly pets on a set of leashes. Party, trapped, decides to go after them with the element of surprise on their side.
Safe to say this was the closest call in a fight so far. Everyone save Morgort went down at one point, as well as a death from Phee who only survived due to Strongheart and a revivify spell.