The Dark Forest

Gathering themselves after their frantic firefighting efforts, the Dreamers set out to find the arsonists who set the village ablaze.  They are unprepared for what they will find.

## Plot:

With the dreamer's findings to do with a Flame Cult, Virakai, Lucius, and Realta determine to seek out any signs of the forces at play within the woods. Gwendoline and Saoirse alert the party that, back when they were setting up camp, there was the sound of what seemed like people, and then the din of a dragon's pained roar that followed. Amidst the war with the dragon aisles, and the flames in this nameless village, little else was thought at the time but that it might have been a dragon rider raiding the countryside. The party journey's into the woad, with Lucius finding nothing, no sign of travel, but suspiciously so. With this, Lucius is able to track the absence of any distinct smell of tracks directly to a massive hollowed out tree, roughly the side of a wooden keep, hidden deep within the woods. The tops of what used to be a giant Ash tree, not severed at the line of the surrounding tree tops, seemed to hide a series of Ironwood trees, and a small encampment, upon a giant, yet smaller stump in the middle of this wutland.

Lucius, Realta, Friend, and Virakai, find, and met with an old man of the wood, named Aerdollan, and a Lord of the fey courts, Veskalairos of the Summer Court. When inquiring about the cult and any sign of flames, Aerdollan kindly assured the adventurers that no flames would burn the woodlands here. Food was offered, conversation had, and general civilities exchanged. It became clear that Aerdollan, while kind, was disillusioned with the conflicts ongoing in these lands, believing them to be a part of a horrific cycle of violence, brother against brother. Meanwhile Veskalairos struck up a friendship with Lucius, with the latter offering a carved piece of wood from the moonlit lands to this strange, and highly poetic fey wandering Lord. The fey nobleman was so taken aback by Lucius offering that, bursting into tears, he offered a tear to Lucius to keep. This gesture, being lost on Lucius, (as it would be anyone else who wasn't a half crazed fey lord) resulted in the consumption of the tear, which first angered, then saddened, then intrigued the fey Lord in turn. Beginning to leave the woods with the best wishes of Aerdollan and the Fey, the party begin their journey back. It is at this, with some distance now between them and their hosts, that Lucius attempts to breakdown the mixed messaging of Aerdollan while within the walls of the Witchlight Hollow. He concludes that Aerdollan and Veskalairos, being kind and honest folk, had never once disclosed any direct answer to their knowledge, or relation to the flame cult…

Meanwhile, back in the burned out village, Saoirse, Doc, and Haze examine the bodies of the small farmhouse, seemingly at the center of the blaze, with the burned out husk of one denizen, and the poisoned remains of another. Docs surgery, with Haze acting as another set of organ juggling hands, finds that the crisp charcoal body was near the start of the fire itself, while the poisoned body seemed to have had liquid pewter, lead, poured down its windpipe. Saoirse analyzes the formation inside the body, remarking between them that it appears more like a birthing tube than lungs at this point. With a horrifying crunch Doc breaks through the outer metal shell of the lung, partly crystallized fossil like flesh, to find a perfectly smooth egg made of Lead within. Saoirse concludes that this egg was intended to be caught in the fire, and the symbols of flame, and alchemical Lead symbology of rebirth and transmutation, draws their collective minds to one word. One impossible word. Phoenix.