MMC Summary: Session 10 - The Trial of Spring

Present Party: Keviks, Lupan, Nana, and Wren. Lupan's player was late to the session, so when The Spring Lord arrives, that is when Lupan's player entered the game.

Setting: Dragon's Valley, in the kingdom of Midtia. Also, briefly, the plane of Alfheim.

After the shocking meeting with their new traveling companion, Quest Carron - the legendary hero turned dragon demigod - Wren, Lupan, and Keviks decided to travel to the Lancers Loft tavern to have a few drinks. Quest accompanied them while Nana tended to the prince for the night. 

Kressa
Aarakocra Monster Slayer Ranger
(Made by me, on Heroforge)

Keviks went to the bar late, and looked for the party's friend, Kressa. They'd traveled with her and the rest of her party on their way to Dragon's Valley. The two of them went on a nighttime flight together. Both of them had come from armies, and had been all but born into conflict.

Keviks asked Kressa if she could keep her eyes open, if she ever found herself in Rockland or Lakeside, for Dalkom Grisdain and Qliqel Ureik. He told her that they were people he knew once, and they worried him. She said that she would keep her eyes open for them, and let him know if she'd found or heard anything.

After that, he flew back to the bar to rejoin Lupan and Wren.

~~~~~

Lupan, upon hearing that his four-part mysterious fey adventure was going to begin tonight, started drinking. Wren asked the bartender if she would be able to perform, but he - a pallid elf by the name of Olix - claimed that he had someone booked tonight. The performer's name was Spark. If he was alright sharing the stage, Olix didn't see a problem.

"Spark" of Summer
Half-Tabaxi, age 18
(Official Art from "Twisted-Wonderland")

When Spark arrived, the party was shocked to see a young half-tabaxi gentleman - not much older than eighteen-year-old Fang, it seemed - with tan skin, long brown hair, and bright green eyes. He carried a lute on his back. When he was introduced to Wren, he called himself "Spark of Summer, the local disgrace of the nobility and the only half-tabaxi everyone wishes actually died."

It was a well-known fact that half-tabaxi (a type of offspring that only sometimes results from sex between a human and tabaxi) had the tendency to contract terrible diseases that often rarely led to them living a full adult life. Most people pitied them. Several doctors and clerics searched for cures to their disease. 

Still, Wren wasn't quite sure what to make of that introduction. When she asked to play, Spark seemed to be concerned about the money he'd make. It seemed as though he needed it for something. She told him to forget it, and he thanked her for that. She found out from the bartender that Spark was actually the bastard half-brother of the current Baroness Summer. Bastard children in Midtia were frowned upon, and frequently cast out of their families. 

Spark's performance was excellent, and filled with music the likes of which Wren had never heard. She spoke with him while he was taking a break, and found that many were original. At the end of the night, she tipped him an extra six gold pieces, which he was incredibly thankful for.

~~~~~

The next morning, the party woke up to find that Lupan was missing. They figured that it had to do with his quest given by The Spring Lord. While they were concerned, they decided to venture out anyway, and begin to conduct a couple of the interviews for the Royal Selection.

"Deceit"
Quest's Disguise
(Made by me, on Heroforge)

On the way, the party actually found that by calling out to Quest, they had a chance to actually talk to him. Figuring that he might know some things, being a demigod, they found him back at the estate they were staying at, and asked him some questions.

Quest actually knew where Lupan went. He was, in fact, off with The Spring Lord and probably in Alfheim, which is why he isn't back yet. He also seemed entirely unconcerned about the fact, and even let The Spring Lord into Lupan's room last night.

Nana brought up the illusory image of the person who'd shot Mond, her raven familiar, out of the sky in Kystad. She asked if Quest knew who he was or if he'd seen anyone suspicious like this. As it turns out, he had seen someone similar last night. Nana used the spell Detect Thoughts (the saving throw for which Quest willingly failed) and saw the memory directly. It was a drow man, in dark armor, very similar to the armor in the visage. He had white hair, styled in a mohawk. Quest didn't catch much of what he was saying because he'd been drunk, but he did catch this individual saying something about shooting birds out of the sky and how he wanted to do it again. It was the closest thing to a lead the party had in a long time. They asked if Quest would keep his eyes open for this person, and he obliged.

"Solstice" of Summer
Tabaxi, age 19
(Art by u/bazs24 on Reddit)

The party interviewed Solstice of Summer first ("Solstice" being her preferred name), curious about the dynamic of the Summer family as a whole, with Spark's situation and now knowing Fang's gender preferences. When they arrived, while they waited for Solstice to arrive, some of the party heard an argument further into the house. They were too far, however, to make out specifics. It died down before their interview started. Solstice didn't speak much about her brother. She only said that it was her mother's dying wish that the boy not be kicked out of the house or the family. She said that he rents a room here. She also apologized for the argument, saying that her older sister and Spark often fight.

On the way to their second interview, the party actually crossed paths with Spark again, who was busking on a street corner. They noticed that he had three scratch marks across his cheek. Wren healed him, and asked if he was alright. He insisted that he was, and told them that it happened quite a lot. It was a huge part of the reason he was looking to leave, but whether or not his sister would let him was a different story. His mother had wanted him to stay before she died the year before.

Vendove Reithil
Firbolg, age 35 (physical age 19)
(Art by @inimeitiel on Instagram)

Their second interview was with Vendove Reithil, a firbolg. She seemed like a very sweet young lady with a passion for gardening. Her family had been working on ways to grow crops on a large scale using artificial light. She wanted to help this technology spread across Midtia.

Both her and Solstice claimed that the other women in the Selection who lived in Dragon's Valley were very lovely people.

When the party finished, they decided that they wanted to do the last interview too and get them all over and done with. However, before they could set out again, all of their visions faded to white.

~~~~~

Oberon, The Spring Lord
(Made by me, on Heroforge)

Lupan woke at three in the morning in his room in the Wind estate to The Spring Lord, entering in his full, nearly ten-foot-tall form this time. His skin was a deep green color. His hair and long beard were also green. He wore minimal clothing and a flower crown, both in shades of pink and purple. The staff in his hands had pink and purple flowers. The butterfly wings on his back were the same colors. The Spring Lord cleared Lupan's head from the alcohol he'd consumed, and he asked if Lupan was ready (which he most definitely was not, but decided to go anyway.)

The Spring Lord informed him, "We have a vested interest in your redemption because you have a destiny, Lupan. One that you don’t yet know, and that’s alright. It’s not my duty to tell you. But! I am here to set you on the right path.”

"I was told this would be a four-step process," Lupan said. "So... do you have three other friends?"

He laughed. "Well of course I do. I'm The Spring Lord. Spring. There are... three other seasons, three other courts of Alfheim..."

Lupan was dumbfounded, still unsure, but the archfey continued.

“What happened was wrong. Today, we take the first steps to making wrongs right. You see, when things happened the way that they did… when you left… for many of those souls, they lost their closure. They’re stuck. They can’t return to Alfheim as they might have, and they can’t go to Valhalla if they qualified. They’re… stuck. And if you go through with this… they’ll be unstuck. It’s a four-phase process. This… this is phase one. Spring is about birth, and rebirth. About new life. It makes sense that you would start with me.”

The world faded to white, and Lupan found himself in a familiar place: the forests where he grew up. In the distance, he heard singing and when he followed it, he found his (much younger) mother, holding him in his arms as an infant. The Spring Lord sped time up, and soon, Lupan watched his mother walk through here with him and his little sister. Then, even later, all three of them alongside his father. Lupan recalled how rare it was that his father ever came on walks with them, even in times of peace between the warring elven tribes of Isverden.

"My mother always taught me to learn to listen to nature," Lupan told the archfey.

"A good skill. It is often that the trees guide us places, guide us towards certain goals and actions."

The world faded again, but now they found themselves in a place so familiar to Lupan that he cried: his tribe's camp. Looking around, there were many women and children around, but not many men. Lupan's younger sister - not much different than he remembered her, five years ago - knelt by a fire, cooking something or other. He noticed the lack of men, and remarked that there must be a war on.

"No," said The Spring Lord. "This is present day... and there is no war on." He turned his head to look at Lupan. "Five years for elves and fey-kin, that's a short time. You decimated the army. There are few men here because you killed most of them."

"Peace never lasted long..."

"No... no it didn't, and it likely won't..." He smiled. "Didn't I say you had a destiny?"

They disappeared again, but this time, they were in an unfamiliar forest grove with trees covered in pink and orange leaves. In front of Lupan, over sixty feet away, The Spring Lord hovered several in the air. Below him were his friends: Nana, Keviks, Wren, and Keviks's animal companion, Kindred. They were trapped in cylinders, made of some kind of pink magic.

Before Lupan, four creatures materialized. They were elves... elves that Lupan knew. The last time he'd seen them, he'd been fighting alongside them until his rage consumed him.

"Welcome to the Trial of Spring!" the archfey shouted, and these creatures attacked.

Lupan - the party's barbarian - raged for the first time. He fought. Along the way, he was coherent enough to realize that the only way to free his friends was to touch the barriers surrounding them. Lupan did lose control of his rage at one point, and for a brief moment, he could not distinguish friend from foe. Before he could do any harm though, Nana managed to cast Charm Person on him. He lost his rage, and seemed decently coherent again but his attacks were off.

These creatures they were fighting were strong, but seemed to get weaker the more people who surrounded them directly. They were not Lupan's fallen comrades, it seemed. They appeared to be fey impersonating them, speaking only in Sylvan.

When they spoke, they asked Lupan, "Why did you deny it?"

Some, when they died, died looking at Lupan. Some had scars made of light pink magic, showing where and how they'd died. The corpses, even after death, could still move in some way. One such corpse clutched Lupan's war pick at one point.

They kept asking, "Why did you deny it?"

The Spring Lord called out to Lupan. "Well, aren't you going to answer them? Why did you deny it?"

"Because I'm ashamed!" Lupan screamed.

Everything went quiet. The one remaining creature on the field let the visage melt away, and before Lupan was a faceless creature of bright pink light. It disappeared as The Spring Lord approached Lupan.

"Because you're ashamed, is that what you said?" he checked.

"Yes..."

"And you have a right to be. What you did was wrong, and you will have to face the consequences. You cannot deny what you've done anymore. Are you prepared to do that?"

"That is terrifying..."

"Yes it is. But at the end, everything will be made right again." He smiled. "Congratulations. You've passed."

The Mark of Spring

He placed a hand on Lupan's shoulder and a tattoo appeared there, of a purple flower.

"In addition to that..." The Spring Lord leaned in. "I am going to give you my name, which you can use to call upon me once in a time of great need - but only once." He whispered it, so only Lupan would hear it. "Oberon."

The world faded to white again. Lupan found himself alone in his bedroom, absolutely exhausted from the day's events.

~~~~~

The rest of the party were back where they'd been when they left, but they'd left closer to noontime. Now, the Heimdall church bells were ringing for 6:00 in the evening.

The party turned, very surprised, to see Finch approaching. He'd just received a letter, and so had Wren. He said that a changeling had delivered hers, and he'd accepted it to give to her. Then, however, he read his mail, and suddenly had an inkling that she'd received something similar.

Wren had a letter from her mother, Lady Mulcaster... and an invitation to an engagement party back in her home city of Lanti for her older brother, Orion, and one Vekea Keenstalker. The party was to take place in about two weeks. Finch had also been invited on the account that his family - the Pomeroys of Rockland - were good friends of the Mulcasters. Finch and Orion were even considered fairly decent friends. His parents and sister were forcing him to go on their behalf.

"Keenstalker" was the last name of the woman Keviks was searching for... but her name was Nithea.

The question remained then... who was Vekea Keenstalker?

~~~~~

ART LINKS

https://twisted-wonderland.fandom.com/wiki/Leona_Kingscholar

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/a8se8i/art_anchor_wizard/

https://www.instagram.com/inimeitiel/?hl=en