Wherein it is Revealed that there is a Princess Among Us

The group blinks into existence in the main clearing of the Wyrmwood Forest Fey Court. Most of the children are being carried by Kitsune, however Belladonna holds Hannah in her arms. As they regain their balance, greeted by the serene woodlands, Nira calls out, “I NEED A HEALER!” trying to revive Hannah who is limp in Belladonna’s arms.

In the glade there are many Kitsune and also various other fey (none of which look like those from under the mountain, Belladonna realizes), a few large androgynous bark-skinned beings hold Onyx between them, wrapped in a tangle of viny growth that extends from their bodies in an intricate knotted web. Carindrina positions herself between Onyx and the other children, staring at the unconscious child-like being and thinking about his last words to the group, “They told me it would be ok to take my friends.”

The healers in the group are trying to cast cure light wounds, lay on hands, healing potions, etc. Nothing is waking the children up. They switch to traditional medicine with no success. Adalia bent over Hannah and tried to discern what magic was holding the children hostage. This was clearly a dark curse that would take a wish, remove curse, or similar spell that was out of the capabilities of anyone in the current group.

Venus, curious about the magic, tried to investigate, but was so nauseous from the plane shift spell she couldn’t focus. Galia, in the background, was panicking at having her family involved in a rescue that was the result of her being tied up yet again in bad, uncontrolled magic. Belladonna realizes that this area has a lot less fey presence here than she initially felt, and the curse is very dark and very strong, almost overpowering her senses. Carindrina, sensing the lack of order, noticed that the fey who had come to help were not armored, they did not seem prepared for battle, and appeared to have simply shown up. They were not organized, everyone is very harried, they are trying to fix the children and not sure how to go about doing so. A leader is clearly missing and needed.

Nira, scanning the area, saw a pair of wings and a blurred face in the woods and was left with a feeling of warning that they needed to move the children to a protected space. The King and Queen were conspicuously missing. She tells the group, “There is something in the woods, something happened here, we need to move. I know where to go.” She wanted to point them to Weatherby, to visit a friend of a high priestess she knew, then realized that would be several days journey, and they don’t have a reliable way to blink or plane shift, and walking for days with several unconscious children may be difficult.

Belladonna immediately suggested Iron Key House. Galia suggested the Jade Tree Palace, it was safe, protected from outsiders and the Fey, and wouldn’t require them to fall asleep to get in and out of the forest. Adalia said she would like to try Jade Tree Palace first so they don’t worry about falling unconscious to get in and out of the forest, but if they thought it wasn’t safe, they would go to Iron Key House.

Carindrina agreed to the plan, then took a knee, placing her axe over her heart and sending a prayer to The Fighter, “Please send your passion for life and your desire for purpose and let it channel through me to protect these children.” Then she stood and yelled at the Fey who were no longer acting in an organized way, “YOUR CHOICE in this matter has ended. We are moving these children to a safer location. You either do this with us or you leave.”

They stared in shock, not bothering to retain their normal nonplussed nature. The two bark skinned fey holding Onyx released the vines from their bodies, leaving him wrapped and restrained for Carindrina to carry. Galia explained to the group that the Fey cannot come to Jade Tree Palace without explicit invitation, it is essentially another country’s territory and there are too many rules in place that they can not and dare not break. This reassures Belladonna very little, though she is slightly more at ease, and the group goes to the palace.

The palace rises up out of the ground in beautiful turrets formed from the rare Jade Trees native to the East Fingerling Islands. Their soft, luminous green color swirls in the dappled light, and there is a winding path made of small colored river stones in a beautiful mosaic pattern leading to the entrance, which is a large sweeping curtain of greenery and jasmine flowers. As they entered, they discovered a brightly lit courtyard with several cherry trees in full bloom. There is a stone fountain softly bubbling in the center, and stone benches placed under the cherry trees littered with a soft dusting of pink petals. There are several open arches around the courtyard leading into the main building, and two sets of curving staircases that frame the back wall leading up to the balcony and upstairs rooms. The walls are all the milky green of the living Jade trees that make up the palace. The rooms are lit with soft light filtering in from the forest, and the roof is a canopy of leaves and vines. Jasmine blooms cling to columns and banisters. It is beautiful, but chaotic. Kitsune come and go through all the rooms, some in human form, some in kitsune form, and some in fox form. There were at least a thousand people going about their day. There were children bouncing about the courtyard in fox form and splashing in the fountain. There are also the royal family’s snow leopards that lounge about the palace, keeping a watchful eye on everyone as they come and go. They look much more like normal leopards and less fey-touched like Juniper. They are typically quiet, but they will step in and intervene if some of the young ones get too rowdy.

Galia leads them into a room that her family has rushed ahead to line with beds. They begin laying the children down, but Carindrina still has a tightly bound Onyx slung over her shoulder.

Galia says, “ I don’t think we should leave him in the same room. We have other rooms, I’m just not sure how you want to do this?”

Furus asked, “Do you have any cells?”

Seeing Galia’s frown, Nira redirects, “Do you have a cage? Or do you have a place where you put unruly animals? Or a broom closet?””

“Or where you put somebody who hasn’t mastered their magic yet? Magic dampening would be great.” Adalia nods at Galia, having an idea.

“There is my room. The tower.”

“Are you ok with him being in there?” Adalia asks.

“I don’t want to sleep in there with him, but we can keep him in there.”

“You can sleep with me!” Furus gives her his best smile.

The group debates on who to take to the room and who to leave down here, whether they should separate everyone, or how to best monitor all the children and Onyx.

Carindrina puts an arm out, “I’m just going to take this time to mention that I am a little bit thrown to see this palace and that Galia is saying “my room” is the same fox girl that came up to me and said we were best friends because we drank honeywine together, and that you LIVE IN A PALACE!”

Nira laughed, “I forgot that not all of you stayed here the first night!”

Galia blushed, “I don’t always like to talk about it. There are family...things.”

They discussed whether they should try to teleport to Weatherby, but realized they would need to ask the fey or search for a ranger tree, so that was abandoned. The group decided to leave Midna with the children and take Onyx upstairs, but were having trouble figuring out how to relay messages up and down several stories.

Galia squealed, “Ok! Ok! I have an idea. You aren’t going to love it, but like you will like it, and it will be great! Just wait! You will see!” and sprinted out of the room.

Belladonna glared at the group, “No one wanted to tell us she was a fae princess?”

Adalia laughed nervously, “So are we going to try to wake him up or how are we going to ask questions?”

“I can bombard people with questions until they talk.” Venus suggested.

“Who knew that she was a fucking princess?” Carindrina tried to circle back.

Nira, Venus, Adalia, and Furus raised their hands, “I did!”

“Well her parents are the king and queen, so that makes her a princess, right?” Venus said dryly.

“Statistically most royalty run off and join the circus.” Furus joked.

Carindrina and Belladonna exchanged a commiserative look.

“You guys weren’t really interested in making friends. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you.” Adalia laughed.

“I mean-” Carindrina started, and Galia came running through the door.

Galia came back in, a large tray in her hands with velvet and small tree pendants with jade wrapped into the tree, “These were the pendants for the Jade Guard, but we don’t have them anymore because we are here and..well, we’re us. So like no one uses these anymore. They used them to communicate so you can have a command word and say a message or you can tap them and say something and anyone wearing one can hear you. We used them to play tag a lot. They are really old, no one will miss them. Plus, they hid them and thought I didn’t know where they were, but I do, and now we have them and no one will look for them.”

Nira grabs one, “I will never take it off.”

Adalia grabs one and is cackling with laughter at her friend.

The rest of the group each takes one. Belladonna suggests the codeword “Jade” to activate it. They also decide on the codeword “Pixie Sticks” (suggested by Nira) for when shit hits the fan and they need to call each other for aid.

32:15

//summary//they discover that Onyx has rings for each child, but there are actually 10 rings on him and 9 children. They don’t notice this fact. They try to remove the rings as they are the locus of the curse. They discover that the curse will only leave the child/allow the ring to be removed if it has another life that willingly takes the ring. Nira begins removing the rings from the children and manages to resist the curse most of the times, but does succumb and fall asleep, Belladonna, terrified for the children, offers herself to the ring and takes the curse. Nira, upon waking up, fights the curse again to free Belladonna. They inform the group that while under the curse, they heard the voice of the male vampire from the graveyard commanding them to “SLEEP”. They remove all the rings downstairs and the other group removes the ones on Onyx with mage hand and throw them into a strong box that Carindrina had and Adalia filled with holy water. They combined the rings and then the box was closed. The children were still asleep, but seemed to now mostly need natural rest and healing. Onyx, however, was still asleep. They noticed his metal necklace was actually a cursed collar that had spikes driven into his neck. If they were to remove it without knowing the unlock mechanism, it would kill him.

Then the debate was whether to bring the children’s families to them, or try to bring the children to the families. They discussed using the tunnel system to travel to the other towns and find their families. They also remembered that they found a cage in the Abbot’s house that was designed to hold evil. They were going to use the ranger map to teleport. Adalia had cookies that would get them to the bakery. Belladonna had a note from the Abbot’s house, but realized it would be gone forever if they used it in the map, there is also a chance that it would take them to where the Abbots are and not to their house. They recruited a white kitsune, who is very old and a healer, to watch the children, and decided to stop in town and hire Quinn the prostitute/assassin and Karkov to guard the children.

The group started to leave, walking through the palace. Belladonna was scanning the house for anything that could pose a challenge to the children. She notices a kitchen and a small badger climbing on the table and sneaking some food. She then sees two little fox kits run in and start bouncing around and trying to wrestle and play with the badger. Belladonna rushes in and grabs a kit by the scruff and begins admonishing it. The other kits that have followed in scramble and try to scurry away. The badger keeps shoving its face full of food and looks quizzically at Belladonna. Galia comes in and yells at the kits, “Guys! Cut it out.”
They proclaim that they were just playing and they wanted to keep it as a pet. Belladonna tries to gently explain that you can’t keep a wild animal, and one of the kits who had shifted into human form growls playfully, “ I am a wild animal! Grr!!” and shifts back into a fox. Belladonna has to smile, though she tells them, the badger wasn’t playing he just wants food. Galia shoves them out with her foot, sending the kits playing into the halls. Belladonna grabs some berries off the counter and tries to feed the badger. He isn’t too sure about her. She tells him, “I think you should go outside.” He stealthily climbs under the table and watches as she leaves a trail of berries. He follows at a safe distance. Belladonna calls to him softly, he wants to trust her but isn’t sure. He continues to eat the line of berries. He gets closer and closer and his cheeks get fuller and fuller as he is filling himself full of berries. Caridrina is watching all this from the tree with Onxy. Adalia tells Aquilla to go protect the badger. She walks circles around Belladonna and the badger and playful bats any nosy kits away. Juniper is a bit more aggressive and growls at the rowdier ones. The badger gets closer and closer to the berries and Belladonna. He reaches up to grab a berry from her hand and in a quick movement she swoops him up like a baby. He is surprised but happily snuggles into her arms. Adalia warns Juniper and Aquilla “NOT FOOD!”. Belladonna asks if she should keep it. Adalia says yes, you made a friend, you have to keep it!

They teleported to the bakery. Carindrin and Galia stopped at the Black Poppy to ask Karkov to be a guard for Onyx and Quinn to guard the children. The rest then walked to the Abbot house. No one stops them.

At the Black Poppy, Carindrina finds Karkov, “I have a task i think you can help with while we find the families of these missing kids. We have found them but now need to find their families and how to heal them. I trust you with these kids. Would you be willing to go to them?”

He stares at her softly, then grins and repeats the awkward wink that Carindrina gave him when they first me, “ I will of course help you.” he reached his hand out to touch her face, it hovered, then he pulled it back, realizing he may have crossed a line, “You are hurt. You look like you have been through a battle. Is everything alright?”

“We have been through a battle. And there are more to come. Will you help?”

“Yes. Would you like my brother as well?”

“Is he trustworthy?”

“He’s my twin, so I suppose I think so.”

“If you trust him, then yes.”

“I do. I can only do so much as one person, but with my brother we can take turns guarding.”

Carindrina nods and notices that Galia is in the corner very animatedly explaining the battle and everything that occurred to a very patient Quinn, “ I suppose Galia will have Quinn go with you. We can have a seat while she talks.”

Quinn goes into a room and comes back. Carindrina, knowing weaponry, can see that she has a small armory hidden in her clothes.

Carindrina asks where she can get the same clothes.

Quinn tells her if she is interested to stop at the tower and talk to Malick, tell him she sent her. The good part is that once you join, they don’t ask you for things, you ask for contracts. Done with the conversation, she leads the boys out and to the forest. Karkov tips his hat to Carindrina as he leaves and his brother eyes him suspiciously.

When they walk back, Carindrina reaches out to Galia, “ So you’re a princess huh?”

“Well, I mean, yeah. Uh, yeah, it’s fine though.”

“That was some pretty heavy duty enchantments and restrictions in your room.”
Yeh, im just not good at magic yet and im not like them. I don’t look like them. They don’t like me..

Your magic has saved us more than oonce, dont feel bad about it. My family doesnt like me either.

Are you really saying that or am i making you say that to make me feel better?

Galia i would like to see you try to make me do something.

Midna is not marked and cannot enter the house. In the house, they remember that anyone who is not good aligned will be damaged by the cage. They re-read the note from the Abbot house. Merchant Maurice--asked them to deliver skull to weatherby. The legend of the word linked to Glasserune sword. Khan and Bjorn seem like rangers pets. Greenblades--worked with eva to make roses. Waylan fredericks-venus spoke to his grandson, he runs the stables where eleanor was. Melinda,kerwyn,elron-capatin of the guards and his family. Maeve is unknown. Scratch mountain-where belladonna was held, unknown connection to other things.

It doesn’t look like anyone has really been in the house. The mechanism to unlock the cage is difficult but adalia cracks it and they throw onyx in. The cage glows in a pulsing rhythm, getting faster and faster. The group begins to leave and go find the families. The pulse and the humming was getting faster and faster, almost like a strobe light. Nira hesitates, and she sees Onyx’s eyelids flutter open. Nira yells out PIXIE STICKS!

The group scrambles to get back up and he stares out at them with horrible, dead, purple eyes.

Carindrina demands, “tell me your name.”

He stares her down and replies, “You know my name, you were my friend.”