Knightly Letter: Ileas 15

Ileas,
 
After quite some eventful days in the Feywild we are finally back in Wolf's Rest, and even on time for the festival where we would announce the name of Wolf's Rest to the population.
 
But maybe it is best to focus on the past few days, after our encounter with Yarnspinner we woke up to realize the environment had changed dramatically, no longer in a flat forest we saw that there were now ruins and mountains in the vicinity, with the tower hiding between some mountains.
 
We first decided to visit the ruins, but besides a goblin stealing Dadroz' crossbow we didn't really find anything noteworthy there. So the only destination left was once again the tower, and along the way we were met by a Faerie Dragon who called himself Waffles. He warned us that the tower was guarded by Dlardrageth, who by Waffles' description definitely sounded like a dragon and was very protective of the place. If Yarnspinner's story was true though this would be the knight cursed by King Ulther. But as we arrived at the clearing of the tower a lot of those details left us as we were gaping at the pristine tower with a window at the top, two bright eyes appeared from a cave telling us to leave, and in response to our questioning a blaze of moonlight escaped from it and left all of us, except for Hayley, much worse for wear.
 
Deciding to retreat we took a while to rest up, Hayley deduced that the type and age of the dragon would likely be an adult Moonstone dragon, defined by their ability to turn invisible. While deciding on what to do next Hayley sent out Fiachna to scout the tower, thinking birds would not be noticed. Hayley reported back that the top of the tower was a beautiful bedroom, with a four poster bed that had a queenly figure sleeping in it, her frail figure, pale face and green lips revealing a curse must have befallen her as well and she is in a sort of statis. There was also a magic sword stuck in a wooden pedestal. Regardless, when Fiachna snuck in and tried to get closer to the queen the servant girl, who had been hiding under the table, ran out to call for the dragon guarding the tower. Fiachna of course, got out before it got that far.
 
This of course left us to decide what to do. A tower, a dragon, a sleeping cursed queen and a magic sword all sound like the ingredients of a great story. Gael at least, did not seem to care for it, instead looking to retreat back to Irminsul, research the situation and come back later. And while I get that giving things a second thought can save a lot of trouble, I doubt we´d get back in as easily as we did now and we do have an opportunity here. And while dragons were formidable, they aren´t unbeatable. And most of us all seemed intent to try to break the curse on the Queen and Dlardageth, hoping Hayley's brews that broke the curse on Tommel would be strong enough to break the one by an Archfey like Ulther.
 
Though in the end, the discussion was decided by Hayley noticing through Fiachna that Dlardrageth had gone from his cave into the Queen's chamber in his now human form, who looked quite old, watching her and gently holding her hand. And that his place at the cave was now taken by the servant girl. So hoping she would be more receptive to our inquiries we approached her. But after Lil attempted to deceive her by implying we were sent by Ulther to check on the queen she ran for the tower. Thinking quick, we decided to have Gael climb the side of the tower with a curse breaking brew to give to the queen while we buy him the needed time. And only a few seconds after the girl entered we saw the elderly knight on the balcony jump down and theatrically change into a dragon before landing in front of us.
 
Our attempts at buying time were poor to say the least, my sister tried convincing him we were emissaries from Ulther, and as he revealed he would not explicitly let anyone working for Ulther through since his curse was worded such that he could decide who gets through, and after she showed an Immerglade stone I tried to convince him we knew Sylvesse and floating the name of Vincent. I did not think it through properly since the one with the closest connection to those two was crawling up the tower. In the end it was Hayley explaining our story from the start, that we got here by accident, and our feeble connection with the Immerglade that he believed us. Saying Sylvesse did talk to him about a group like ours and that we had his permission to enter. Dlardrageth explained the curse on the queen was placed by the High King himself, but that it puts her into stasis and that she would probably not last long once freed. This made us worry Gael was just about to unknowingly free the queen only to doom her to one unexpected day, but somehow, the sight of the servant girl who we learned was named Dynia, stayed his hand in the end.
 
When we all went up we got the chance to confirm Dlardrageth's suspicions, Queen Titania would barely last a dag if she were to be awoken from her statis, we also learned that the shiny sword in her room was a manifestation of her power that she moved into the sword, giving the one who is able to pull it the right to rule the Immerglade Kingdom and increasing the list of interesting swords in the world. In the end Dlardrageth decided to think it over if he wants the curse broken or not, he could commune with the Queen in her dreams so he will take the night to think. So as he retreated we were left with Dynia who led us to some beds and cupboards with food. She was apparently sent by Ulther to attend the Queen.
 
Just when we were about to go to sleep Liliana entered the room from the staircase below, which was strange because she was supposed to be sleeping a few floors up. Apparently Dlardrageth came to her saying Vivienne was there for her and took her down "by dragon". Vivienne had to meet Lil outside as she was denied access and told her Ulther was very angry with us, and besides destroying the gate we came in from had assembled a hunting party that would come for us. So she advised that we should at least leave tomorrow, and she would be very happy to provide a gate to Keralon, only payment she required is that we ask her nicely.
 
Now when we all got down there, and Vivienne sat on her conjured frozen throne, I was worried about Tommel, since we left his body near his broken gate so the best course of action would be to pass by this grave to pick him up before traveling back to Keralon. Vivienne sighed and said she could give us that stop, but asked what I could give her for it and proposed a price: one swing of my sword. Now compared to the grand magics of Luke and Hayley, sharp arrows of Gael and Dadroz or the shattering slashes of my sister I'd admit my swings are quite mild by comparison, but a shiver went down my spine regardless. But what kind of Lord to these people would I be if I'd refuse this offer, especially since our gateways to this place were closing off and we'd soon be hunted in these lands. So I agreed, hoping my sister's faith in Vivienne's good nature was well founded. She put down some runes and taught us a way to activate them, they would teleport us to the gate where Tommel was buried and she would await us there tomorrow. And with that we went back to an uneasy sleep.
 
The next day Dlardrageth came to us and said he communed with the Queen and they agreed to break the curse and spend one more day together, and afterward she's gone he'd take one of Hayley's potion to break the curse on him, hoping his advanced age would kill him as well when he returned to being human.
 
When the Queen first awoke she took a while to get to her senses, surprised by how much she and Dlardrageth aged. When she saw Gael though she called him 'Vincent', like the name on the tombstone Tommel lead us to. After correcting her she did realize he was the boy Sylvesse mentored and not Vincent, though neither of them really pushed the topic any further, probably because the queen was starving after spending centuries or millennia in a magic induced coma. We decided to take our leave and leave the two for one last day together, when we went downstairs to play some music we saw Dlardragth leave for the mountains with the queen on his back. We mostly spent our day relaxing: walking the premises, playing some music with Dynia (who would be coming with us after a nightly talk with Gael) and leafing through some books in the bookshelves but they were mostly light reading for relaxation, no grand tomes of wisdom. I did notice Hayley going up to look at the sword.
 
By the time the sun had gone down the Queen and her knight consort returned to her bedchambers, and by the time we got up there she looked very pale indeed, but very happy regardless. She had some last words for us: that she was happy there were knights like us still around, who wanted to oppose King Ulther, and specifically for Gael she was happy Sylvesse found such a fine young man to mentor, if Gael had any burning questions about Vincent, Sylvesse or the Immerglade he definitely held it back as he did not press it. We left the couple alone for the few minutes they still had left together and about fifteen minutes later Dlardrageth did come to us, with reddened eyes, announcing the queen had indeed passed away, vanishing when she did and that he was ready to drink one of Hayley's potions now. He offered us the hoard he had collected over the years, mostly tribute by fey that were scared of him as he would have no use for it. We asked him about the sword but he revealed it would be fine, and Hayley confirmed this, she had identified the sword with magic and it has strong magic protecting it, killing anyone who is not worthy of pulling it. She also added that none of us would be so it's best to just to leave it. With that, Dladrageth took the potion, drank it and went upstairs, to die in peace. Though later we did see that he jumped from the highest window in the tower, I don't think I need to elaborate on the implications.
 
We collected the hoard and some of the torches in the tower that were everburning and used the runes Vivienne had left for us, appearing on the coastline where we first entered. Vivienne was sat, as she usually was, on an ice throne overlookign the sea, and quipped she should've set a more specific time. But the hours we gave her did mean she took that time to revive Tommel, who came from beyond the trees. This of course saved us an awkward trip to the temple but even then, it was hard not to be grateful of her effort. She then opened up the gate and we ended up right in the ruined church of Wolf's Rest, a short walk from our beds.
 
Tommel said he didn't remember what happened, he remembers fighting Davozan and then awakening next to Vivienne. We did not tell him he died, as with the Hag's deal he has enough on his mind. So after a week away from home, more than half of which spent in the Feywild, we finally could sleep in the comfort of our own home. Dynia was given one of our fresh new bedrooms that were finished in the time we were gone.
 
The festival was two days away, and we still have important news to share with the courts: Mirrdin and Anaya might be among us once more.
 
Write you soon,
Alistan
 
P.S.: If my letter seems a bit 'off', for some reason Luke is hanging over my shoulder as I'm writing this and it's throwing me off.