Ishaldra groaned in pain. Her head was spinning and throbbing like someone hammered nails in there.

She remembered that she was healing a poor unicorn whose horn had been taken by some hunter. She was angry, but she did not let this change her mind from helping the poor creature. But then out of nowhere, her vision darkened as she lost her consciousness.

And then, this pain began harassing her head. She cast a healing spell to stop it. And she felt better than ever.

"Ishaldra..."

Her husband's voice echoed in the background. It was not his normal strict tone, but like a caring person.

"Please open your eyes."

She squeezed and opened her eyes slowly. Her gaze moved towards a masculine whom she was familiar with.

"Aghh?!"

But for some reason, her voice did not come out. It was like her neck had been seized to work. She cast another spell to heal it as well.

"Wh--Where am I? Why do you look so... vulnerable?" She uttered those words in confusion as she could not comprehend her husband to look like this.

He was the King Witchthorn, an Archfey of Kryptgarden forest, who was known for his strict and rock-hard expression. Thus, it was hard for her to swallow this side of him.

A part of her mind expected to be an illusion, but she did not feel herself under the effects of any illusion magic. The more she thought about it being an illusion, the more confused she got. Fortunately, her fey friends were here to fill the gaps of her memory.

From what they narrated, she came to realize that she was under the influence of magic of an evil green dragon named Claugiyliamatar, who was further assisted by the Dragon Cult in order to take over the entire forest. Due to their magic, the entire forest got corrupted. The air turned foul, the water became poisoned, the fauna started to died and the plants lost their colours. It was like the entire forest was placed under a cursed ritual.

King Witchthorn attempted to stop them, and fought against them. While he managed to defeat the Dragon Cult, the wizards of Thay joined the battle and deeply wounded him. After then, everything went into chaos.

The forest was completely under the claws of Claugiyliamatar and her Dragon Cultists. The Thayan wizards were just a cherry on top. Their necromancer leader was increasing her own undead army and they had no choice, but to ask help from other Archfeys.

All except Queen Titania, ignored their plea for help. They were completely helpless. Though the Queen never came to aid them, she sent her friend who turned out to be an Elder Lich.

"Elder Lich?! Are you even serious?!" She exclaimed in pure horror.

Elder Liches in general, were known for their extremely calculation and evil magic. They did not see the other creatures as an equal to them. Despite being intelligent for an undead, they had an instinctive hatred towards living. For the sake of magic, they would not mind killing their own colleagues. It was what made them a terrifying opponents. However, a part of her also knew that being evil did not define who you were. Her husband was the prime example of this.

She guessed that the lich was most likely an Archlich. A special aware variant among liches who could control their inner evil and remained neutral in their unlife. Though they often aided the civilization in the times of need.

Before she could speak any further, a shadowy figure appeared in front of them.

It was a tall figure, covered in black bandages and enveloped in a hopeless aura of darkness. The figure gently bowed and said in a husky tone, "The preparations are complete, Lord Satoru has requested your presence. Please follow me."

"Understood. I apologize my dear, but I will come back soon once the renovation is done."

She stared at him expectantly and let him go. Before leaving her, he asked other fey creatures and his own bodyguards to protect her. He was not in the mood of risking her life again as she glimpsed his indirect romantic side.

Until his business was done, she would wait for him.

King Witchthorn sighed in relief.

Everything went smoothly like his benefactor had planned. Titania was not exaggerating about this Satoru and his magic. And despite his job was done, the main course of their mission had come.

And it was to fix the forest.

Being a verdant prince, he was familiar with the laws of nature as he had experienced them very close. Yet, there were some points he had not understood about the mystery of nature.

As an archfey, it was his duty to maintain balance in the Kryptgarden forest and to protect his subjects from the invaders. He lacked the powers to push them away and it costed him something very precious. His wife.

He could not be dependent on other archfeys for help forever. Yes, this place was not like the Feywild, or infused with magic. It was a normal forest. But before being a normal forest, it was his and his wife's home.

He looked at the back of his benefactor's servant. The level of strength he felt from this servant of Satoru, was far greater than the combined strength of his own forest army. King Witchthorn could not help, but feel envious of thus Satoru and his powers. If he somehow gained the good graces of Satoru, or even made him the protector of this forest by any means, then he had no need to fear anything.

He racked his memories to provide any sort of information that could make Satoru indebted to him.

Slowly, both of them reached the centre of the forest which lacked much foliage compared to his home. Witchthorn knew that Satoru had a way to fix the forest, but how he was going to accomplish that? He never revealed.

"Ah, you have finally arrived." The caster in dark robes welcomed him. His presence was just as same as before.

"Is this the place?"

"Yes. But before we begin, is your wife currently fine?"

"Ah, yeah. She is just tired, but she will be fine. On the behalf of my wife, I give you my thanks for saving my people and their home. If you ever feel like visiting this place, please do come at my home. You will be given a warm welcome."

"No need for thanks. It pains my heart too, when I see a forest being desecrated like this. My friend will be angry if I just leave this forest unattended. And about your subjects, let's just say that saving the weak is a common sense."

The verdant prince quirked his brow. He'd noticed time to time, that Satoru had a soft spot for his friends. Was he a part of an adventuring party whose members died and left him alone? And then he chose to become an elder lich to save the memories or momentos of his friends? No, that did not make any sense.

From what he had seen, Satoru seemed like a powerful archmage who might be capable of accomplishing of great fears. The very idea of him not being able to save his friends sounded nonsense. Though he was indeed interested into this forest loving friend of his.

"Your friend sounds like an interesting person. Hope you bring him here as well."

"Well, I don't think it is possible for me." Satoru replied sadly.

Witchthorn frowned. He did not know what to make of his answer, but it was correct to conclude that something happened between them. And then, he was only left in his group. It seemed way more logical than his first assumption.

"By the way, how are you going to fix my forest? Do you have an artifact or something?"

"Not an artifact. But, I want you to use your illusory mist around me. I don't want any prying eyes while I do this."

The verdant prince nodded and through his innate skill, a large cloud of must covered the whole forest. He further spread the mist to new heights, turning them thicker than before.

"Is that enough?"

"Yes. This much should be enough."

Then, the archmage in front of him did something unexpected.

Multiple circles of magical aura covered him, with motes of light and unknown magical sigils and runes decorated the edges of the circles. The glow of this light was going above the heights of the tree. It was a surreal sight. One that he never saw in his entire long life.

"Pay attention to our surroundings."

Satoru's command brought him back to reality.

And after few more minutes, the rings of magic expanded from their original position and then, the world changed.

The once desecrated forest was no more. Instead, his sight was welcomed by a lush green forest, without any more poisonous fumes, the flowers that he had once seen in the Feywild bloomed at his forest floor, the trunks of the trees were covered under green moss and lichens. The smell of natural aroma filled the atmosphere like somebody sprinkled the perfumes.

"I have only seen Queen Titania doing such a feat. Are you by any chance taught magic under her?! Are you her disciple?! An Archdruid?!"

Note : I was thinking about how to start from here. The Forgotten Realm is a big place to explore after all. So, I have a question, should I send him as a magic caster Satoru, or the dark warrior persona to limit him?

Because even in his dark warrior person as a level 30, his stats will be a lot higher than a level 20 DD warrior. No matter how amazing he is as a caster, there should be a limit on his power.

So, that's all I have to finish this arc. Hope you all enjoyed it.

Fact : Those who are wondering about this campaign, it belonged to the "Corruption of Kryptgarden", a prequel of "Tyranny of Dragons".

Grim Fact : In the original campaign, Ishaldra was going to be killed by the adventures, leaving a maddened King Witchthorn in the wake.