Three tales woven into one...
In the Neverlight Grove, in the Underdark, the darkling bard Rhianne, at Sky's request for a story of the Feywild, told the tale of the Prince of Frost, lord of the Vale of Long Night, formerly a land of light and joy in the timelessness of his ageless youth as the Sun Prince, made frigid and frozen at his bitter jealous despair of losing the love of his betrothed to a mortal hero. Considering Rhianne's tale of that dire realm, Kuhl found it strange beyond measure that the Feywild he now experienced consisted of basking in the gentle twilight glow of a sun that never rose under a sky where the moon and stars never fully set. Instead of snow and ice, he sat on soft, pleasant-smelling grass, with a baby bunny rabbit warming him as it nestled in his lap. Then again, in contrast to this idyllic scene was a monstrously huge giant spider looming over the seated half-elf, his friends Fargas and Surash, and his grandmother, Takari.
"We of the fey have never been able to resist the paradigm of three," the spider, Yarnspinner said, speech wispy, silken, and pleasantly lulling. "So, it should come as no surprise that my reason for sending for you is a tale of three parts, which I will attempt to weave succinctly into one rather than let the words expand in the telling as is my wont."
The voice of the spider emanated from somewhere behind a pair of leglike segmented mouthparts which bobbed slightly as he spoke. This might be considered cute, given their fuzzy nature, if their movement didn't also give glimpses of the large, wicked looking fangs behind them. The four front eyes of the giant spider, orbs of blackness with an oily sheen of green, stared an unnerving seeming blank stare out at an audience consisting of awakened animals and fairies as well as the companions.
"First there is the tale of the Seventh and Last Daughter of the King of Elf Mound, who possessed an innate talent for stories, able to tell as many as you liked on a whim. She who wed the Goblin King and told her tales during the long winter seclusions of his cold lands, in the halls behind the stone walls over which water cascaded and salmon leapt, where the pine logs blazed to make their home snug in the rock, and where the mead flowed from golden horns."
"An elf maiden married to a goblin king?" Dawnbringer telepathically questioned. "That is a strange union. But their home in stone sounds cozy and it does not sound like she is a prisoner. Maybe the relationship between goblin and elf is different in the Feywild?"
Kuhl wondered about that as well, but the storyteller moved on with his tale leaving no pauses to ask questions.
"The eladrin bard, Wilderhelm Grymmwald, scribed the stories of the Seventh and Last Daughter of the King of Elf Mound, sitting at the feet and while he wintered in the lair of the Goblin King, capturing the words that spilled forth from her lips with the scratching of quill on parchment. She told of moonlit revelries beneath the silver boughs of the primordial world, of slumbered strife which awakened in deity and titan hearts and caused the breaking of worlds and realities, and of course of tragic mortal and fey love and that which befalls when passion is shared between those for whom the flow of time is like a rushing mountain stream and those for whom it flows like a meandering river. All this the bard recorded, page by page, until no space remained for any more writing. If the book that resulted sounds like the perfect one to bring here, the Clearing of the Telling, to read for the enjoyment of the dwellers of Fablerise, your judgment is as accurate as an arrow loosed from the bow of the Green Lord."
The half-elf was confused. What did his mother's ring, the object that lured them here, have to do with a book that sounded like it was an anthology of stories? He shifted slightly as he glanced over at the others and the rabbit resting on his lap opened an eye and raised an ear in question. Fargas and Surash were so intent with listening they didn't notice Kuhl's look, but grandmother Takari met his gaze and gave a small shrug.
"The fall of Cendriane, once the most radiant city of the eladrin, whose crystal towers now stand silent and empty or shattered and fallen, also plays into this tale," Yarnspinner said, continuing his story. "For the book of Wilderhelm Grymmwald found its way to the library of that doomed city. When cataclysm came from the war magic the drow and eladrin unleashed the dryads of the oaks in the Great Central Glade cried out for salvation. With the rustle of leaves and the stirring of boughs and branches their pleas traveled the wild domains until they found their way to the ears of the Bramble Queen, who heeded. Her emerald eyes narrowed and through foliage and root she traveled, bursting forth from the shadows in a spray of earth and shaking dirt from her blood red tresses. Then a dark pact was forged, and a labyrinthine maze of thorns and briars raised to surround the Great Central Glade and bring it into the demesne of the Bramble Queen."
The half-elf had never heard of the Bramble Queen. The story made her sound like a savior, but the way the giant spider described her bursting forth from the shadows and forging a 'dark' pact hinted at something sinister. And Yarnspinner's next words only heightened his uneasy feeling of this fey being.
"The Bramble Queen is one of the eldest of the children of the Green Lord. Some say Aurilandur the Frost Maiden is her mother and she was conceived the first time winter whispered it's coming and brought about that first nascent autumn to stain the green world in pigments of yellow, orange, and red. Others say her mother is an arboreal power of the deep twisting woods whose name has been so lost to time not even Oberon, the Green Lord, remembers. But whoever her mother is, the Bramble Queen is old, dangerous, and powerful and has no love of civilized, learned things. Thus, Wilderhelm's book, and all the books held of that library bordering the Great Central Glade, were lost when it was drawn into her realm."
"Why do I have the bad feeling he is going to ask us to retrieve this book?" Fargas side whispered to Kuhl. "And how do we say 'no' to a spider with fangs as long as I am tall?"
"In my estimation, Yarnspinner's fangs are actually longer than he is tall," Dawnbringer observed telepathically. "But that doesn't make his general sentiment wrong."
His friend spoke so softly that the half-elf barely heard, but Yarnspinner shifted a pair of his hairy, segmented legs in the halfling's direction. Webbing stretched between these legs and based on the manner of the spider's movement, Kuhl got the impression he listened with these silken threads. Whether the impression was true or not, the giant fey had heard Fargas's words.
"You are astute, master halfling," Yarnspinner said. "Long have I desired to read the tales told by the Seventh and Last Daughter of the King of Elf Mound. But retrieving the book is not why I brought you here."
"It's not?" the halfling asked, breathing a sigh of relief. "Things just seemed to be heading in that direction."
"Where was I?" the giant spider asked.
"The book you don't want us to retrieve was drawn into the realm of the Bramble Queen," Surash supplied. "Along with other books in that library."
"Ah, yes," Yarnspinner said. "Long have I desired to read that book. But that is not why I brought you here, because I found another for that task. I despaired at ever finding one who might successfully do it. Plenty possessed enough bravery. Among the awakened animals of Fablerise is a honey badger who was willing to try. But I just couldn't bear the thought of letting them take the risk. And so, it seemed my curiosity over the tales of the Seventh and Last Daughter of Elf Mound would never be sated."
"If it is getting through brambles that is needed," Surash observed. "A herd of awakened goats would be better than a badger. They'll eat right through brambles."
"They wouldn't even need to be awakened," Fargas said with a laugh. "Even the normal ones are so voracious I've seen them stand on each other's backs just to strip the leaves and bark off a low hanging branch."
"You know I never considered such a solution," the giant spider said, one of its leglike mouthparts tapping at a massive fang in contemplation. "But I don't think it would work. I'm guessing the result would have been a bunch of slaughtered goats. I thought more along the lines of sneak in and sneak out. But the question was always who to send? I never could decide. Until recently, after I was invited to a croquet tournament hosted by the Lady of the Pale Tower and won top prize."
"What's a croquet tournament?" Fargas asked.
"I had never heard of the game either, until I played it," Yarnspinner said. "Croquet is a game that involves hitting a ball through a series of hoops with a mallet. I am surprisingly good at it, though in hindsight it would probably have been better if I wasn't. Still, I'd like to set up a course here so the denizens here could try it. Fablerise has plenty of grassy fields, but we would need a patch where the blades are really short so the ball can roll. I hadn't thought of how to manage that, but your goat idea has merit. Goats assisted by a few families of rabbits to eat down an area. Oh dear, I seem to have lost the narrative of the story again. How embarrassing. This doesn't normally happen. My name is Yarnspinner after all. But I am most used to telling the stories to awakened animals, who rarely interrupt with questions you see."
"You won top prize at a tournament hosted by the Lady of the Pale Tower," Kuhl prompted.
They seemed to be finally getting to how all of this involved his mother's ring now hanging about the neck of the fox who led them here. The companions encountered the elk riding minions of this Lady when they first escaped the Underdark and the ring had been provided in trade to her for their passage out of the Underdark.
"Yes, top prize of the tournament," the spider said. "Thank you for the reminder. A silver ring engraved with a bow over a round moonstone with a sword depicted underneath. A pretty and shiny keepsake to be sure, but more valuable for the promised favor it held from the Maiden of the Moon."
The half-elf nodded, thinking he finally understood. The story revealed how Yarnspinner ended up with the ring and it seemed he wanted to use the favor to retrieve this book he spoke about. But why did the fey spider need him? Perhaps because his mother had given him the ring he was the only one who could invoke the favor? And why did Yarnspinner seem to express regret of winning it?
"Here was the answer to my prayers," the spider said. "Or so I thought. For if anyone could venture into the labyrinthine thorn maze surrounding the Great Central Glade of Cendriane, which included the library, and retrieve Grymmwald's book and return it was the Maiden of the Moon. So, I made my request. But she, of course, could not enter the lands of another archfey without causing a cascade of pacts and alliances to be invoked that would surely bring the courts into open war. And so, her champion swiftly went in her stead, her black blade forged with blood magic and spun with shadows not of this world, nor even the mortal one, but yet one more realm removed, strapped to her back."
Kuhl's breath caught and heard his grandmother's do the same. Conceptually he knew who the spider spoke of, but his mind couldn't immediately accept it. His namesake grandfather had wielded a dark sword like the one described by Yarnspinner and Takari had wielded it after him, and now…"
"Janestra," Kuhl's grandmother breathed, speaking the name of her daughter with dread anticipation.
"Even so," Yarnspinner said. "Would that I never asked for that favor and she never tread that labyrinth of briars and thorns."
"Why?" Takari demanded, standing. "What has happened?"
Kuhl stood as well, the resting rabbit leaping down from his lap at his first stirrings. His companions Fargas and Surash got to their feet as well.
"She entered the land of the Bramble Queen, and something befell her," the spider said, moving his furry leglike segmented mouthparts in what could be interpreted as an open handed gesture of innocence. "But she still lives. This much is known."
"How is it known?" the wood-elf asked.
"Because the Maiden of the Moon has demanded her champion be returned," Yarnspinner said. "And the Bramble Queen refused citing the right of conquest as her basis for keeping her. Oberon called for a conclave of Green and Gloaming courts before things could escalate further to settle the matter."
"Then she will likely be returned," Takari said, a sigh in her tone.
Any relief she felt with that statement proved to be short-lived.
"Reason says it should be so," Yarnspinner said. "For why should the Green and Gloaming courts go to war over one mortal champion. But when has reason held sway when the passionate pride of two archfey is involved?"
The giant spider paused, seemingly to let them ponder his question. Kuhl didn't need to look to archfey for examples of pride leading to disastrous conflicts. In elven history lineage disputes had started the Crown Wars which led to three millennia of bloody fighting involving magic so powerful dark elves were driven underground to become drow.
Yarnspinner let out a sound the half-elf interpreted as a sigh.
"Curiosity over the tales of the Seventh and Last Daughter of the King of Elf Mound preyed upon my good reason, and I regret the stirring of the hornet's nest I unleashed. Now I only seek to detangle what I have spun."
"How does bringing us here help with that?" Surash asked.
"A very good question," the spider said. "One that I can answer now that you know all that is needed to understand. With the Bramble Queen called to conclave an opportunity arises for her captive to escape, which would be better for all involved - daughter of the Green Lord included. Yet for if I send forth the animals of Fablerise to spy and find and to peck and nibble at bonds I'll have, in fey minds, picked a side, an outcome I wish to avoid. But you can act, mount a rescue, and earn no ire."
"Us?" Kuhl asked.
But even as he said this understanding dawned.
"Just as the Bramble Queen can cite the right of conquest," Yarnspinner explained. "You can invoke the right of family. Within the ties of kith and kin there is no picking of sides and only one way fey believe appropriate to behave."
The statement caused the half-elf to look to the wood-elf Takari and she to him. For his part, he was ashamed to find his emotions conflicted on the matter of family and he involuntarily glanced away when their gazes met. When it came to 'kith and kin' he first thought of the aunt who raised him, then of those he served with in the Evereskan Tomb Guard, all dead, and then of his companions in his escape from the Underdark. He had been very young when Janestra chose to become the bearer of a dark sword rather than his mother and barely remembered her. Even Takari, his grandmother, was really a stranger - one who had taken an active interest in his well-being the few times he interacted with her to be sure, but still someone he hardly knew.
"So, you will earn the enmity of the Bramble Queen if you send your animals to help Kuhl's mom escape?" Fargas said skeptically. "But not earn it if you help her family do the same? That seems a very fine distinction."
Yarnspinner made a huffing sound that the half-elf interpreted as laughter.
"I am a spider. Walking and weaving fine lines is in my nature, whether they be silken strands or ones of fine distinctions."
"Given Yarnspinner's size," Dawnbringer said in Kuhl's mind. "I doubt the silken strands he walks are all that fine."
"So be it," Takari said. "I claim the right of family. Send these others home and me to this thorn maze to rescue Janestra."
Her chin lifted and her jaw set and her green eyes filled with fierce determination that made the half-elf decide at that moment the fey were right. When it came to family there was only one choice.
"I am going as well," he said. "It's a bramble maze, so a blade good at cutting through such things will be needed. I happen to have one."
The last part was in response to the shaking of his grandmother's head, and he waved at Dawnbringer sheathed at his belt for emphasis, but though she stopped shaking her head, she still looked uncertain.
"He's right," Fargas said. "Dawnbringer will be something you want in that thorn maze. Unless you plan on bringing along a couple of leashed goats to chew your way through the maze when you take a wrong turn. But I'd advise the sword of radiant light instead."
It was a joke, but not delivered in the manner of banter, rather to cajole someone to choose the practical. Takari seemed partially convinced.
"If we rescue your mother," she sighed. "She will kill me for putting you in danger."
"You mean when we rescue her," the halfling said.
He gave his own resigned sigh at her surprised glance.
"Yeah, I'm going too," he said. "This is what comes from hanging about big folk and a paladin no less, my mother would say. But what was I supposed to do? Ask them to seal me back in my web cocoon and wait for a party of sensible halflings to rescue me? It was either go with him or become a spider meal. I chose the better option. To my way of thinking, Yarnspinner, probably not your spider kin."
"Surely there were books of alchemy in this library of Cendriane," Surash mused. "It is worth going to see."
The wood-elf gave yet another sigh accompanied by a brief, shallow smile.
"It makes me glad to learn Kuhl has such loyal friends," she said. "But it is too much to ask. This is not escaping the Underdark. This is the affairs of archfey."
"Friendship?" Fargas said, brow wrinkling in confusion. "Who said anything about friendship? This is about not having an aasimar and a half-drow kill me when I next see them, because when they ask me 'where is Kuhl?' my answer better not be, 'I don't know' and 'he left to do something dangerous without me'."
"I agree with that assessment," Surash said. "And I want to go for the same reasons."
Takari gave a mirthless chuckle and looked to the Feywild sky with its twilight light and stars and moon that never quite set.
"So be it," she said, huffing out a breath. "It will be the death of me. Janestra is going to kill me for bringing you, Kuhl. But it is our best chance of rescuing her and in truth… I didn't bring a leash to harness a couple of goats."
The four companions shared a grim nod of resolve.
"So, it is decided?" Yarnspinner asked.
"It is," the half-elf said before his grandmother changed her mind.
"Very well," the giant spider said, shifting backwards into the cover of the forest more gracefully than its bulk would suggest. "I cannot get you directly into the Great Central Glade, but I can spin a portal to bring you to Cendriane outside the bramble maze where you can enter it. From there, you are on your own, even as Janestra was."
With that, spindly segmented legs moving from back to front to bring webbing from the spinneret of his abdomen forward, Yarnspinner wove, and the beginnings of the borders of a hanging web doorway, like the one which brought the companions from the High Forest to Fablerise, began to form.
As usual, I don't know if this works. At this point Kuhl is 5th level and this is probably way too advanced for 5th level, it involves Archfey after all (not that I plan him to meet any other than Yarnspinner). But he is more of a tag along and hopefully the story will progress in my head beyond straight combat.
Whew! Man, I had a hard time with this one! I deleted big sections again and again. I know you all know what I mean when I say I had this idea and then I went to actually try to turn the idea into something and I'm like, "Damn it! This was a BAD idea!"
The Prince of Frost, the Bramble Queen, and Cendriane are all canon to DnD (4th Edition). There is also mention of dryads in the 'Great Central Glade' that are 'particularly vicious'. So, semi-canon. I did not explore into the Bramble Queen's official background lore, but made up my own crap about perhaps being the daughter of Auril the Frost Maiden. Why? Because her back story is that she was once a beautiful fey princess and then she got spurned in love and became the Bramble Queen. You know what the back story is for the Prince of Frost? He was once the Sun Prince and just a delight, and then he got spurned in love and became all evil. Oh, how about Strahd the titular vampire of the Curse of Strhad? Broken heart. So when I read that back story about the Bramble Queen I was like, "Come the frick on! There is such a thing as using a trope too much you know..."
Oh yes, I got the idea of using the Elf Mound by Hans Christian Andersen as part of the back story from watching a video by MonarhsFactory on You Tube. Hilarious! I love her commentary as she reads. It was great!