The Feysworn

### Notable Members

Elkas Marin, Tireas Orith, Elvis Rollenrock, Tiffin Bushtackle, Baal, Rolo Burbage, Rodkeith Spudley, Freth

**The Feysworn** were a one-time adventuring band who became involved, somewhat involuntarily, with investigating the murder of Indus Mengsk and the recovery of the stolen  Autumn Ring. Their involvement with the conspiracy and their efforts to return the ring to their patron Apatia led to major changes within significant magical powers including the Wizards’ Pavilion, the Lust Court of Vampires, and both the  Autumn and  Winter Courts of the Fey.

## History

### Rough Beginnings

Before becoming feysworn, the various personalities making up the adventuring group found themselves trapped within a dungeon, each shackled to the wall with firm manacles. After conversing, they realised the only thing they all had in common was their recent travel plans, all on their way to the city of Ora by barge. Using cunning, wits, and might, they managed to extricate themselves from the dungeon and escaped to the nearby town of Randa. They quickly made their way to the local tavern, The Pasture, to debrief and decide on a course of action. While there, the townsfolk confronted them and petitioned them to fight the inhabitants of the house.

They inform the small band of adventurers that the small manor house was owned by minor noble Don Carlo de Tori. He had lived there 350 years and required sacrifices - seven tributes per month. The local village usually kidnapped travellers to avoid depleting their own ranks, and ambushed the passing barge as it made its way downriver. They ask for forgiveness from the survivors and for their help freeing Randa from the influence of Don Carlo and his ilk.

Accepting the villagers’ heartfelt plea, the motley crew ventured back up to the manor and gaining access to the building from a variety of entry points: some of the group simply knocked on the door, while  Tiffin in particular climbed to the first floor to try and remain hidden. Baal led the front door group and gained an audience with Octavia de Tori, the daughter of Don Carlo. When negotiations with her didn’t proceed to Baal’s advantage, Baal took the opportunity to use her warlock powers to detonate a magical explosion aimed at Octavia, hurling the host across the room. A fight ensued, with Baal and her companions gaining the upper hand and killing both Octavia and her bodyguard Killik. In an adjacent room, they discover Elvis Rollenrock, a Gnomish monk of the Order of the Tall Redwoods. He was destined to become another of the vampires’ victims before his rescue and joined the crew out of gratitude.

Tiffin meanwhile managed to seduce Ocatvia’s twin brother and Don Carlo’s son, Felix, allowing Baal and the team to make good their escape. Joined the next morning by Tiffin the party then wandered to a nearby town, encountering some Orcish highwaymen along the way and making quick work of their foes. Reaching the next town with no further incident, the party were asked by the locals to locate a missing local boy: Barnabas. The locals told the team that the nearby woods were both magical and dangerous, and with Barnabus missing for several days, they feared for his safety. Another villager, William went looking for Barnabas a few days after his disappearance but he too never returned.

The villagers provisioned the party with winter gear and hearty rations and they set out for the woods. After half a day’s ride, the adventurers discovered the corpses of two horses, still hitched to a tree. Pushing deeper into the woods they uncovered a pack with a ‘W‘ on it, and following the trail of broken twig they eventually discovered a mysterious pond. At the edge of the frozen water they found two lumps of snow, hiding two sets of common clothes. A notepad hidden within one clearly belonged to Barnabus, and tells of the pond making odd noises late at night.

### Meeting Apatia

Staking out the pond, the team are joined by a dwarf around dinner time. He introduces himself as Elkas Marin, a Horizon Walker who has been searching for a portal to another plane he has felt opening late at night. He reported that it has taken him some weeks to pinpoint the precise location, and he joins the adventuring crew for the evening. Late at night, they were awoken by splashing and happen upon a winter fey bathing in the pond around midnight. The party startled her, and she is both delighted and offended. She offers them their own lives if they can best her in a contest of their choosing, and Baal suggests gnome tossing. Elvis is appointed the official projectile and is hurled by both the party and the fey.

Using her supernatural strength, the fey bested the strongest of the party by a healthy margin and won. Rather than the lives of those who happened upon her, she asked only for three favours. All present were branded with three delicate snowflakes behind their ears, and the fey called upon the first favour immediately. She showed them an image of Indus Mengsk, a Member Wizard of the Axis Pavilion. She asked simply that they locate his killer and return to her an item stolen by the killer, indicating Mengsk had stolen it himself. Giving them a necklace, she shared her name: Apatia, and said the pendant will summon her when they have their prize.

Apatia opened a Bridge in the air, directly into Mengsk's bedroom in Axis, and threatened to turn them all into wolves if they failed her. She also cautioned that the  Watchmen of the Pavilion would arrive in only 5 minutes. because she'd called them.

### The Game is Afoot

Upon entering the room, the team realised immediately that Mengsk’s throat had been obviously slit. Examining the room, they quickly located a member’s Coin for the Blind Eye Tavern and a scrap of luxurious red cloth torn from a fine garment. Their time ran out when Elkas sensed the opening of portals in the room, an indication that the Watchmen were only seconds away. Fleeing through an open window, they escaped and found accommodation in a nearby tavern known as the  Good Knight’s Rest. The next morning they located a magic shop in town - Liam's Enchanted Arcana - and petitioned the eponymous proprietor for more information about the fey and the nature of their bargain. Liam educated the party about the fey and their ways, and offered to help if they needed any further magical assistance or resource in the future.

Late that night, Elvis dreamwalked to the Monastery of the Order of the Tall Redwoods and met with the Abbott,  Johnny. In front of Johnny he saw three cups of tea, and questioning who the third was for, was startled to see Apatia appear and join them at the table. She says to meet her at the Blind Eye the following evening, and gives them the instructions on where to find it and how to gain entry. At the appointed hour, the party entered the Blind Eye but Apatia was conspicuously absent. Instead the party took the excuse to enquire after the coin they had recovered and noted that its owner was a Tiefling known as Tor, who was sat in the tavern at a table in the back.

### Hot on the Trail

While evading the party’s questions, a stranger walked in to the bar, and Tor clearly signalled that he should return another time. The handsome stranger left, and When confronting him led only to evasive and dismissive answers, Baal magically charmed the Tiefling. He volunteered under the influence of Baal’s spell that he was staying at a house in Axis on  Shoe Lane, but the spell quickly wore off and he left the tavern. Tiffin quietly began to follow him as he left the bar, while Rolo, Rodkeith, and Tireas made their way to Shoe Lane to begin a stakeout. At the same time, Elkas, Baal, and Elkas returned to visit Liam’s Enchanted Arcana to procure a Locate Object spell, attempting to locate the original article of clothing their scrap of red cloth came from.

Tiffin followed Tor through many back streets, and his unpredictable movements suggested he was well-versed in trying to lose a tail. Tiffin was dogged in her pursuit, however, and Tor eventually revealed he was aware of her presence. She is intercepted by an Orc assigned to protect Tor. Tor confronted Tiffin, asking her why she has been following him for so long, and while Tiffin tried to use her buxom appearance to claim she was simply a sex worker looking for a new client, Tor revealed he recognised her from the Blind Eye. He leaves her to the pleasure of the orc, though her talents allowed her to escape with her life.

At the same time, the adventurers who went to stake out Shoe Lane failed to reveal anything of great use, except that the wildlife on the street was behaving erratically as a wide array of cats and birds plagued them. Elvis, Elkas, and Baal realised they were unable to afford the spell, and so they shifted from the boutique and bespoke atmosphere of Liam’s shop to the chain  William Warlock's Wizardry Wonders. There, Elkas secured the spell on finance, giving a cup of his blood as collateral.

They three used the spell, and it guided them to  Plorth Street, a street lined with high-end shops in the garment district. The spell led them to  Aloysius Mandrake: Sartorial Experts, an expensive-looking shop whose gold leaf logo was a top hat and open scissors in the shape of a skull & crossbones. Entering the shop, they were greeted by Ambrose, a portly halfling shop assistant, who advised the party the shop was closed. They left, but not before noticing a bolt of red cloth and a cloak made of the same fabric on a dress form in the back room. The cape was also conspicuously missing a chunk the same size and shape as their recovered piece. They left as asked but hiding nearby to stake out the shop, saw Tor emerge from a nearby member's club and get into a private coach.

The morning revealed the night's follies. Rolo and Rodkeith, exhausted from their failed stakeout at Shoe Lane, slept all day and only woke for dinner, where they were joined by Baal & Elvis. Tiffin returned and bid them a brief hello but went immediately to sleep, exhausted from a lucrative night of sex work and pickpocketing.

### Friends Lost

Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, after getting very drunk with Elkas, Tireas was approached by a jet-black coach, from whose interior a silken voice wafted, offering the drunk wizard a ride home. He declined, but was forced inside at the insistence of a large Orc, and squeezed between him and an even larger Goliath. Much to Tireas’s dismay, the coach and the voice who offered a ride both belonged to Tor. The Tiefling revealed quite candidly he has handed over the Autumn Ring, and that he was merely contracted by the Lust Court of Vampires to retrieve it and to kill Mengsk.

He went on to say that he had given the Ring to Erde Tilegi, fulfilling his contract, and that he was a lieutenant of the Mordevi Crime Family. He attempted to force Tireas into reveal the whereabouts of his companions, but he valiantly resisted. As the carriage pulled into a depot, Tor and his bodyguards attacked Tireas, and while the wizard was able to fell both bodyguards, he was ultimately overcome and tragically killed by Tor. Before he died, however, he was able to send a short message to his companions with the last of his strength:

*Erde Tilegi, son of Lord Tilegi, has the Autumn Ring. Ghaunadaur has taken something from your mind.  Autumn Fey fought Wood Elves. Sorry Rolo.*
Elkas blacked out and awoke in the local drunk tank with two companions: a very muscular blonde woman, who introduced herself as Cynthia; and a very grizzled dwarf covered in tattoos, who went by Thondar Leadbeard- both admitted for fighting one another in the street. Elkas didn’t wait long before he was brought before a local magistrate and booked into jail after entering a not guilty plea. His bail set at three gold pieces, a price he could not pay, he was put into a holding cell with both Cynthia and Thondar. The trio resolved to break out of jail. Thondar attempted to use a metal piece of the bed to wedge the door open, but failed and Cynthia instead lifted the door off its hinges.

Rolo, Baal, Rodkeith, and Elvis caught up at the bar, and discussed the information given to them by the late Tireas. Making friends with a party of Goliaths, they decided to infiltrate Mandrake’s garment shop to gather further clues, and are joined by one of the Goliaths: Riverwalker. They attempted to enter by more surreptitious means, but ultimately took a more straight-forward approach and burst through the main shop window. Activating the security systems, the small team were forced to fight the now-animated mannequins. Rodkeith fought particularly hard as he had made a promise to take a sex worker from the local  Fiery Rose on a date. The team fled the shop, unable to gather further intelligence, and Rodkeith was able to keep his promise to his new romance: Angela.

### Friends Made

Baal and the others returned to the Good Knight’s Rest to find an attack party of Orcs and thugs waiting for them. Weakened from their recent fight with the mannequins, they only just managed to defeat the attackers. Their search of the inn confirmed it had been deserted, and the party agreed that they were no longer safe staying there. They defected to a new pub -  The Triumphant Bear. The next day Rodkeith, in an effort to process his new infatuation, wandered into a whittling class run by a local adherent of Lathander, Freth. Speaking to Rodkeith, and learning of the machinations of the vampire courts within his city, Freth agreed to join the party in their efforts.

Baal received a courier’s message at the Triumphant Bear the next day, sent from the Madame of the Fiery Rose. She had contacted Erde Tilegi as a go-between, and arranged a meeting for that evening. Meeting at the Fiery Rose, Baal Was seduced as she attempted to purchase the Autumn Ring, but Tilegi declined her offer. At her insistence, he promised to take the offer to his father if she would meet him at a tavern known as the  Pink Swan the following morning.

Elvis, Rolo, and Baal spent the rest of the evening laying low in the slums of Axis and Rolo asks after a local homeless man who he suspected might have information. They meet with the gentleman, known as Smokin’ Joe, and paid him a small sum of gold for his information. He claimed he would to return briefly with their information, but disappeared into he night. Tracking him, the trio found him wagering his payment on a dice game in the  Sham Rock, a local dive. The three were forced to gamble to reclaim their funds, and won their initial payment and a small extra consideration.

### Masquerade

Elkas and Freth made their way to the Tilegi Menor to discover that Cynthia was the Head of Security. Publicly pretending not to recognise her fellow felon, Cynthia quickly pulled them into a side room and forced them to explain themselves. She revealed there was to be a masquerade ball that evening, and security was tight, but she agreed to sneak the party in to pay back Elkas for the jailbreak.

The Feysworn all spend the day getting ready and arrive in full disguise that evening. Upon entering the main hall, they recognise many senior figures of government and allied magical nations and after a brief interlude of dance and drinks, their host - Lord Tilegi - gave a rousing speech. He confirms that representatives of the Autumn Court, Wizards’ Pavilion, and local nobility were in attendance, as well as members of the  Blood &  Flesh Courts. Baal cast a spell covering a portion of the main hall in magical darkness, and the party snuck into Lord Telegi's private study during the commotion.

### Masks Removed

Confronting the intruders, the security forces of the Manor ensued within the study, with Lord Tilegi himself eventually joining the fray. Freth, summoning the power of Lathander, smote the vampire lord with a mighty and divine fist, causing his head to burst apart. The party quickly took control of the Autumn Ring and contacted Apatia on their amulet. She told them to meet her in a small, secluded courtyard in Axis to hand over the Ring. The party obey and travelled swiftly to a snowy courtyard, awaiting the arrival of their patron. Apatia arrived and takes control of the ring briefly, but is quickly intercepted by Dyctinaea herself. The Autumn Queen thanks the party for their service to Apatia, who she revealed conspired with a member of Autumn nobility,  Oraiste - the Autumn attendant at Tilegi’s party. Oraiste was captured as Apatia’s companion-in-arms and a traitor to Dyctinaea’s court and both the Winter and Autumn fey are taken back to Realm of Autumn, Aedis Mors for punishments unknown.

After the Autumn party departed, Sycra addressed the Feysworn, and explained that Apatia’s betrayal and imprisonment did not free them from their debts, but that the remaining two favours were now owed to Apatia’s superior, who would reveal herself in time. The party then went their several ways, with Elkas and Cynthia running away together, and Rodkeith returning back to Enisti with his new fiancée: Angela.

### Aftermath

> "Perhaps it is as you say. Then again, perhaps everything has occurred according to my design: I am relieved of an embarrassingly obvious traitor in my own High Court while depriving my sister of the most promising strategic mind in hers, not to mention installing a loyal party in the highest magical office in a neighbouring nation, and freeing myself of any bargains made in my name by that same traitor, all at the same time. Perhaps. Or perhaps not."
>
> Dyctinaea

As a result of the Feysworn’s actions, several major magical nations were forced to re-evaluate their positions. Erde Tilegi succeeded his late Father as Lord of the Tilegi family, but his inexperience and the ensuing power vacuum greatly diminished his House, moving it from second within the Lust Court to fourth. The recently vacated position of Master of the Plostri Wizards’ Pavilion was filled by Archibald Fleming, a known Autumn Court ally, as his previous competitor, Indus Mengsk, was unavailable to hold the office.

The Winter Court was deprived of one of its brightest, and suffered major strategic setbacks at the hands of Autumn. Oraiste, a vocal opponent of Dyctinaea, was discovered to have sought the Fey Queen’s mantle for her own, and attempted to steal the ring to ascend in rank. Bound by its power as a creature of Autumn, she offered Apatia the opportunity to ascend above her own Queen if she would help secure the Autumn ring without Dyctinaea knowing. Dyctinaea, however, found out and was rumoured to have arranged for its theft herself, promising the Lust Court access to safe passage through her forests for their supporting role. This rumour is complicated by the compensation sought by the Autumn Court from the Lust Court for their involvement in the theft, though their increased presence within Sylweald has not gone unnoticed.

## Relationships

	+ Sycra - Queen
	+ Unnamed Winter Fey - Current Debt Holder
* Cynthia - Ally
* Thondar Leadbeard - Ally
* Angela - Ally
	+ Lord Tilegi † - Adversary
	+ Erde Tilegi - Adversary
* Mordevi Crime Family - Adversaries
	+ Mr Crossfield - Adversary
	+ Tor - Adversary