Vaer Quethrolas

Vaer Quethrolas (lit. “Where The Ghost Elms Grow" in Elven) is the seat of wood elven power in nation of Cymbia. Also known as the Hidden Palace, it is the dwelling of King Maoras and Queen Sionne, ruling dynasts of the wood elven kingdom. Like all sites in the Wombwood, Vaer Quethrolas has no fixed location and cannot be located except by an elf with permission to approach.

Features

Grown rather than constructed, the palace spans across five ghost elm trees. Entirely arboreal, Vaer Quethrolas is over one hundred feet above the forest floor and is practically invisible to anyone on the ground. The palace’s chambers, halls, verandas and even doors are all formed from the branches of the living trees.

• Ambassador Tree: Where visiting diplomats are housed and entertained.
• Bastion Tree: The central tree, where the palace guard is house and where, in times of danger, all the palace inhabitants can fall back.
• Court Tree: Where the two dynasts rule from their thrones.
• Royal Tree: Where the king and queen dwell with their newborn daughter.
• Servant Tree: Where the household – the butlers, maids and cooks – dwell.

Inhabitants

A small army of guards and staff dwell in the Hidden Palace. Approximately a dozen servants and handmaidens serve the dynasts and they are protected by twice that many elven guards – elite warriors. Three squads of elven rangers patrol the surrounding forests, mounted atop giant owls, and these can arrive within an hour of summoning. In addition, a pair of treefolk dwell within the palace. One watches over the garden atop the Servant’s Tree and the other, a Sworn Seed to Princess Nimria, watching over the nursery in the Royal Tree.

Campaigns

All Hail Yog 

• The Child: In Hemson 895, the four marked – Agnoment, Desdemonia Malice, Dr. Hughbert Hilkington and Erick Idylvain – arrived at Vaer Quethrolas, guided thence by a traitorous elven ranger. Fighting their way into the palace, they established a foothold in the Court Tree but eventually tripped the alarm, forcing the royal family and their retainers to flee into the Bastion Tree and to activate its thorny defenses. Thereafter, disguised as a wood elven emissary from the Torchwood, Desdemonia gained access to the Bastion Tree, under the auspices of delivering a potion to cure the supposedly poisoned princess. Meanwhile, her companions assaulted the Bastion Tree, seeking another entrance and sparking battle with the ironwood treant in the Nursery. From inside, however, the disguised Desdemonia managed to charm King Maoras and convince him to open the drawbranch, allowing the villains access. A desperate battle was waged, between king, queen, rangers and villains, with the Princess Nimria in the clutches of the succubus before, at the last moment, the Marked of Yog made their escape, aided by a high elven emissary – actually a Yogothic spy.