Blessing of the Unicorn

**Blessing of the Unicorn** is a sidequest for Lapis Emberpike. In the quest, Lapis must journey to the Feywild in order to find the mythical unicorn and so that it may use its healing touch to heal her dying father.

## Characters

### Non-Playable Characters

* Heto Emberpike
* Nika Moonsmith
* Conder Fleetfoot
* Erendriel Beiberos
* Aurelia Calster
* Elmspine
* Mother Summer
* Avlor
* Wilds Guardian
* Mango
* Faryth Earno
* Kayleigh Foxtrot

## Plot

The story opens in the town of Whalehale, with a young Lapis rushing home to her father, Heto Emberpike, after selling a fish in the market. At home, Lapis greets her father and remarks about whether or not he has taken his pills, implying that he is in his old age. Later on, the doorbell rings, revealing a young delivery girl and Lapis's friend, Nika Moonsmith, who came to drop off bread and milk. Nika remarks about Lapis "always seems so tired lately," and suggests that they should grab another one of Lapis's friends and head down to the Twisting Troll Tavern.

Lapis agrees, and so they leave Lapis's house and grab a young halfling named Conder Fleetfoot, who promptly agrees to accompany them. The three of them go down the town and arrive at the tavern, to which they notice a strange man that they've never seen before wearing a midnight blue cloak. Nika proceeds to launch into creepy legends and gossip about the man. Afterward, Nika tells Lapis that she's too focused on Heto and never thinks about herself, to which Lapis responds by running home to take care of Heto. However, upon returning she finds Heto laying facedown in the backyard garden after collapsing. Conder arrives, saying that he was worried about Lapis, only to find her crouching next to Heto's crumpled body. Lapis snaps at Conder to go get help, so Conder leaves and returns with a dwarven doctor. The doctor takes Heto to his office and Lapis follows behind after Conder leaves to go and tell Nika what happened.

Lapis ends up sitting alone in the doctor's office for a few hours until the doctor comes and tells her that Heto is essentially old and dying. After Lapis talks with Heto and returning to the waiting room, the door bursts open and a drenched Nika and Conder come in, Nika holding a strange book under her arm. Nika tells Lapis that she has found a way to save her father and orders her to come with her. Lapis, intrigued by the possibility of saving her father, follows Nika into the rain and up to the strange abandoned windmill they talked about in the tavern. As they walk, Nika explains how she got a book from her grandmother written in Sylvan talking about all kinds of magic and entities, and at some point in the book, it mentioned the unicorn, whose touch from its horn can heal any sicknesses or ailments. The book also spoke of witchcraft, which Nika had been dabbling in. Lapis disapproved of this and advised her not to, considering witchcraft's controversial nature, but Nika paid her no attention.

Nika ends up leading Lapis and Conder to the strange windmill on the hill where the man in the blue cloak is rumored to stay. Nika then casts witch bolt to blast a hole in the side of the house and allow them entry inside. Lapis was distraught by Nika's actions but hid with her and Conder when the owner of the windmill came down to investigate. Nika wants to knock the man unconscious and take him hostage, but Lapis convinces her to reveal themselves. The three of them do so and face the owner of the house, who turns out to be a young moon elf by the name of Erendriel Beiberos. To their surprise, Erendriel is not angered by the house, but instead rather amused. Instead, he is more interested by why they broke into his house in the first place and seems quite convinced he can take them down himself if necessary. Nika explains to Erendriel that she saw him casting a portal spell earlier that day, something only a conjurer could do. She assumed that he could open portals to other planes of existence, and had planned to "barter" with him to arrange a trip for him to escort them to the Feywild.

It is here that Nike reveals her plan to use the unicorn in the Feywild to heal Lapis's father. Erendriel is put off by this plan and says that her quest to find the unicorn is a fool's errand until Nika points out that Lapis is a virgin, and since unicorns are attracted to virgin maidens, that will make finding a unicorn much easier. Erendriel is swayed by this and orders them home for them to think things over. When the three of them return in the morning with their bags packed, Erendriel is prepared and Nika gives Erendriel a sack of silver coins, implying that they talked things over before departing. Erendriel uses an amulet of the planes to transport them to the Summer Woods where they meet Aurelia Calster, a friend of Erendriel's. Aurelia explains to them how the Feywild works before giving them a map and sending them on their way. They run into a treant named Elmspine, who gives Lapis a box after she confides in him and tells her not to open it until the end of their trail. After that, Lapis is separated from the party and runs into Mother Summer in her cottage, who delivers her an ominous prophecy about the future of her quest.

Afterward, the four of them walk and run into a grove it seems like the trees are laughing. Erendriel tells them to walk faster, but Nika gets fed up with Erendriel's vagueness and launches into a rant, which prompts the creatures, which turn out to be dryads, to emerge from the trees and take Erendriel. After that, Nika threatens them to give Erendriel back by striking one of the trees with witch bolt and killing one of the dryads. This prompts the remaining three dryads to try and attack them, sending them on a chase through the woods until Erendriel arrives, dispatching two already wounded dryads with black tentacles with the help of a stranger with a great sword, and sending the rest into the woods. Erendriel then chews out Nika, saying how her reckless actions endangered all of them, which prompts a fight between the two of them ending with Nika storming off into the woods.

The remaining party members take this time to set up camp, to which Erendriel introduces the stranger as Avlor, a vedalken who was also imprisoned by the dryads, but for much longer. Nika eventually returns to camp, insisting that she take the first watch of the night. Right before they go to sleep, Erendriel takes Lapis into the bushes and gives her his amulet of the planes, saying how if something happens to him, they'll need this to leave the Feywild. In the morning, Lapis asks Avlor for bandages to patch up Conder's wound from the other day, but when Avlor can't find them it is revealed that Nika had them, as her left arm is bandaged with bandages. Lapis finds this suspicious, as Nika won't give her a straight answer as to why she needed the bandages, but she eventually lets it drop.

The party walks for a while more to a river that marks the end of the lands of the Summer Court, and to pass into the wilds they must pass a test of morality from the Wilds Guardian. Lapis, Avlor, and Conder all make it through, but just as it is about to be Erendriel and Nika's turn, a raging owlbear suddenly appears, distracting the Wilds Guardian and leaving an opening for Nika to race across the bridge, dragging Erendriel with her. Lapis argues with Nika, insisting that they go back across the bridge to help the Wilds Guardian, but when Nika can't change her mind about leaving, she casts charm person on her and leaves the site. Later on, when the spell is almost about to wear off, Nika tells the party that they are going to look for logs and takes Lapis into the woods, where she ties her up.

Nika then argues with and blackmails Lapis, telling her what could happen if she were to tell the party what she did, and how it would be better for both of them if she kept her mouth shut. After some arguing, Lapis agrees and Nika sets her free, returning to the party to continue their walk to find the unicorn. As they walk, they come across a strange creature watching them from the treetops, which Erendriel explains to be a feline fowl. Conder tames it and names it Mango, thus making it his pet.

The party then travels deeper into the woods, eventually coming upon a group of boggles. The boggles steal the amulet of the planes from Lapis before knocking her unconscious, where she proceeds to wake up with the party on short rest after they defeated the boggles. Lapis hears crying from somewhere deep in the woods and goes to investigate. After a bit of searching, Lapis comes upon a clearing with a haphazardly-made hut and a young summer eladrin crying inside of it. The eladrin introduces himself as Faryth Earno, and after discovering him Lapis decides to take him in. Nika, however, isn't very pleased with this. The two argue violently, which ends with Nika storming away into the woods. While Nika is gone, Lapis tells Erendriel about what happened to the amulet, before Faryth comes up and gives it to them, explaining that the boggles brought it back to him. Eventually, Nika returns from the woods, saying that she changed her mind about Faryth.

The party then travels the rest of the day without issue, before settling down off the road for the night. While she sleeps, Lapis is woken up by a frightened Faryth, telling her that he's "scared of the lady Nika's talking to." Nika, whose currently keeping watch, is sitting silently and doesn't appear to be talking to anyone. Lapis tells Faryth to calm down and go to sleep, to which Faryth reluctantly agrees to. The next morning while traveling, the party walks down a strangely twisting path lined with flowers on either side. Lapis spots a pair of wings and a head bobbing in and out of the petals, to which she tells Conder about. Conder immediately gets excited and believes that they're faeries, and he wants to see one. Making sure Erendriel isn't looking, he and Lapis venture into the meadows. The faeries play pranks on them to gouge their reaction, before revealing themselves to be pixies when they flutter around Lapis and Conder curiously.

It is then that Faryth, looking for Lapis, runs up to her. Immediately, the pixies fly away. Faryth tells them that everyone is looking for them, and Lapis and Conder return to the path, telling Erendriel that they saw pixies. Erendriel explains to them that they've entered deep into tiny fey territory, and to keep their eye out for any pranks they fey might pull—though, he does note that they are mostly harmless. As they walk, the party gets hit by pranks such as mud in Nika's canteen and getting hit in the face with glitter. Nika, however, doesn't take kindly to these jokes and says increasingly vile things about them. This leads to a jinx being placed on the party where they're followed around by squirrels, and every time one of them says the word "time," they all get pelted by walnuts.

Later on, the party comes to a wide river with a single bridge. However, the bridge is currently filled up by a very large snail, with a bunch of tiny faeries trying to help him across. After talking to them, Conder discovers that the snail is very old, and a bunch of the faeries are helping him across, which shouldn't take more than an hour or two. Nika, however, geta incredibly impatient at this prospect and storms over to the bridge, demanding that the faeries let them pass. As she argues with one of the fey and Lapis tries to diffuse the situation, a small flock of sprites arrives, shooting Nika with one of their poisonous arrows before aiming for the rest of the party.

Lapis is knocked unconscious, and when she awakens, she finds herself in the middle of a cell in some kind of sprite prison with Nika with all their stuff gone and a sprite guarding their cell. After Lapis convinces the guard to let them out, Nika knocks the guard unconscious and both of them retrieve their things. Nika then orders to Lapis to check the guard, and after looking through his things they find