The Game: Chapter 03
CHAPTER 03
Feyic Vault, Astraena
Four hours prior to midnight one fortnight and three days after August's first full moon
The P.A.R.T.Y. sits around a crackling fire in what was once a stable (or an animal prison, depending on who you ask).
Keef and Lyriel are off to one side, discussing morality and similar topics, while the rest have their attention fixed on Cassandra, their prisoner.
She has spoken for nearly an hour, telling the tale of a young girl who possessed an affinity with woodland creatures, and eventually set off into the wilds to seek her fortune among them. Over time, she learned that Nature would heed her call, as would many animals.
One day, perhaps a decade ago, she stumbled upon a gate of twisted briers and brambles in which a squirrel had become entangled. She freed the creature, and it transformed into a man she would come to know as the Master. With her help, they were able to unlock the gate and venture within.
This was how the Master and Cassie came to discover the Feyic Vault, and how they came to live above it.
Eventually the pair discovered Veilspire's tomb, but the Master forbid her from disturbing anything within it or near it out of respect for the deceased. As the days passed, the Master worked on ways to get through the trials, while Cassie spent her time collecting animals to help them.
At night, both were visited in dreams by someone who claimed to be Veilspire himself. It was here that they learned how to transform forests into swampland, albeit at a painfully slow rate.
One day, Cassie awakened to find that Nature would no longer heed her call. She ran to the Master in tears, but he seemed to be expecting them.
"I was visited in a dream last night," Master told her. "He predicted this might happen, and showed me the cure in a vision."
The Master then took her to a hidden room, in which they found an iron choker engraved with vines laying in the middle of the floor. As soon as Cassie put it on, the clasp molded itself back into the metal, and her connection with Nature was restored. She's worn it ever since.
Over time they recruited more to their cause, but the only one who stuck around for any length of time was Binkles. He seemed to thrive on their mission, and was positively gleeful about receiving dreams from the great Veilspire -- though he grew fearful of incurring the wrath of Wildheart in the process.
This fear grew so strong that Binkles asked the Master to brew a potion for him that would remove his ability to be afraid. The Master complied, but something went wrong -- Binkles lost the ability to feel most emotions, and it ultimately drove him mad.
The Master took this failure personally, and devoted himself more feverishly to accessing the vault, which his dreams suggested held the cure along with countless other treasures.
"That was three years ago," she concludes, "and still we remain unable to penetrate the Vault's defenses. On the plus side, the swampification of the forest around this area continues to go well. Veilspire says it would go faster with more druids, but very few are willing to see the truth."
[Crossroads]
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:46, Tue 15 Oct 2013.