Fairy Trail
Duskmeadow Fringe - March 22
Cai's accounts
Drake, Razzy, Matheus, Cai
We set foot for the Fae Monarch. Razzy and Cai are feeling anxious and maybe unlucky today - worried about their curse.
We follow the general direction that the mole man told us. We first see lots of goats, and a young man in the distance - sobbing. He sees us approaching, greets us - he seems anxious. He is Yik - his family has the goats - why are you crying? I have 8 goats and I think I lost three in the past couple hours. Drake asks if he heard about the fairies. He knows about them. Is there a monarch? He has not heard about an important fairy. He says if we find his goats he will show us the trail of the fairies.
The goats seem to show disdain towards us. His parents live just beyond the swamp. We tried to convince him to show us the trail while promising to bring back the goats later, but he refused and left.
As we walk around the forest, towards the highground, we hear some rattling. We wish to not engage. The brisk noise becomes less frequent. Matheus has a feeling of sadness, might come from some canine creature. He goes towards the creature even though Drake warned him not to. He sees a fox, trapped. Matheus calms the fox down and disarms the trap. Gives the fox a ration and tries to communicate with it. They seem to understand each other.
We think through smell, the fox can understand where we can find the fae, by smelling Razzy, who is a half-witch. At some point we notice it smelling goat shit and it gets quite excited smelling it. Matheus asks “where? Where is it?” And the fox runs towards the East when Matheus removes his clothes and follows it. Cai, in the meantime, points to all and any little flower asking Razzy, “is this the one?”.
We found the goats! 3 of them! We can now get them to Yik in order to learn about the path. Matheus starts itching. We found holy! We continue until we find Yik and by that time Matheus’ rashes are getting worse. We walk together for 1 hour towards the trail.
Razzy figures Matheus has an allergic reaction to iron because he touches it in a place so divine.
The boy takes us further in the forest, we end up in a very beautiful clearing. We hear a faint singing. Yik says to be careful. He heard of stories of devilish fairies. He offers a green apple. And feels bad when we don’t take it. We take it after all and Drake eats it.
We follow the beautiful trail, it becomes more difficult to traverse. As we reach the top of the hills, we see trees broken by small and large creatures in different directions. We continue to the path that the melody is heard. Matheus feels the presence of animals. He feels closer to them and slightly away from us - he feels like we might be prayed upon.
The song reaches a crescendo. We see bushes but the place is still cold and humid. The sun should hit here. Lots of fungi, berries, lots of them. Further on we lose the track of the sound, but Razzy picks it up, towards SW, slowly leaving the group. Razzy notices that Drake is a handsome man, he suddenly looks like the ideal man. She guides the rest of the group but the trail seems weird - at the top of the hill she sees 3 wolves looking at her. Cai thinks she is the only sane one and stays a bit in the back. She thinks she saw Drake and Razzy hold hands..
The crescendo goes away. The song becomes clearer - we hear lots of people talking. But we can’t see anyone. There’s sunshine on Cai, it’s like her head is pink. He is disciplined so he remains focused to the path. Razzy sees movement and now the music clearly comes from over some branches and leaves. She stops and uses her camouflage suit. They don’t look like people, they are thinner and smaller, maybe some are flying, some are without feet, but with hoofs.
Cai asks: “They eat, they glow, they dance. Do they grieve?” Somehow Cai’s head is full of flowers. They seem real but not to Drake, he is convinced they are an illusion. He approach them with transparency.
“Oh, right on time, come in, come in, we are just starting, you are welcome and we heard you before”. There’s a full banquet with foods, even our favorites. Everything is made of wood (the furniture). We see fay well dressed, noble. They all look beautiful to us. We see a lord coming towards us “I am Finerona and I’ll be your host in this event, we have food, dances, you are guests here”. Matheus already eats some food and they are all very happy about it. Cai tells the rest “Careful. Beauty’s just another kind of bait.” And she observes her surroundings, everything seems weird, all the small details seem out of place. Drake feels out of his depth, doesn’t want to offend the fay, but he remains suspicious. He is polite and generous, he thanks them and asks about the monarch. Close to Razzy, there is a lady with the finest silk and most beautiful rings, she brings Razzy a plate. Is she the monarch? She wonders. Tell her she is a part-witch, “Are you the queen?” She says no, she is not special, not royalty. The worse on her is a little scarf, light brown. “Is it because of this?” and gives it to her. Razzy thanks her and asks her name “Valiana”.
Cai claims she has a stomach ache to avoid eating. But the fay grabs her and aggressively asks her to eat the food. Cai asks Drake for help, pulls her arm a bit and waves at him. He tries to reach towards her, when an elf delicately touches his chest and says “i’ll handle this” and goes towards Drake explains that we don’t mean any offense and apologises on behalf of Cai.
The child says “momma, she doesn’t like my food” Cai explains it’s her stomach ache. The mother looks back at her, to see what Cai says, she explains she likes them, just doesn’t wanna eat.
Can I come live with you? The child says. Why, you don’t like your mother? It’s oke, you can go…
And grabs the hand of the little fairy child. “Can the dead see you too?” Throwback to the last time she held the hand of the stone child.
They can tell us where the queen is, but all of us need to tell them stories of her life.
They point us to the trail we need to follow. Matheus and Drake don’t want to take the fay away from her mother.
“How old are you?” I don’t know!
The child doesn’t wanna stay and the mother says “it’s rude, I thought it was nice there, and the stories you shared?” Well, sorry, we cannot take care of you, the stories were only the positive ones. They dont like this at all and the mother says “I regret the time we spent together”. We move on to the trail.
At some point we see a naked man-looking like person with antlers. There are some children as well, they look like they are deformed creatures. Following from afar - stalking us. Drake shares this with us. They are distinctly different from the other fay - uglier. He wants us to keep going without interacting but be wary. Eventually they reach closer and the green man comes plainly towards us. He makes a sign to lower our weapons. “We are not here for a fight”, the 2 meter tall man says playfully. He approaches them amicably. Now lots of the small creatures come out as well - looking fay or human like creatures. “Why are you following us?” - you are going to the queen I was told.. What if we play a game until you get there?
Drake: “will you lead us to the queen if we win?”
He wants to race to the end..
Can’t we do this another day?
Don’t you have the fairy?
Razzy claims we have this scarf as a safe passage. If you give me that, I won’t chase you. He re-does her scarf perfectly.
Drake” what happens if you catch us?”
The guy says “I’ll give you a warm embrace” - while he’s digling his ding.
Drake suggests a duel between him and the man only.
He agrees! We found his soft spot.
The goblins get excited and the Horned Knight as well.
Drake gives Razzy his horse to carry until the end of the race.
Drake runs very skillfully, for many moment he feels the creature’s breath behind him. But he is faster. He arrives at the margin of the lake, half a second before him. The creature doesn’t look tired, he kneels in front of him and lowers his head with his antlers (bows). The queen of the forest is here, welcome.
Drake is exhausted! He needs time to catch his breath. And once he does, thanks the creature. As the horned knight leaves, we hear the hornets of the queen receiving us.
There’s a big oak tree, that makes a throne, with many fairies around. There’s a green woman there, weating beautiful jewlery and nods us to come closer. “Welcome to my domain, I just felt great stories around you people” says with criticism and astonishment.
Everyone sort of looks towards Razzy, who introduces herself and asks for help.
“Are you not here for my presence? Are you here for me to lift your curse?”
I will do it in exchange of your service, once.
Razzy and Cai accept her terms. Razzy will be called anytime for a favor and Cai loses her voice for a while. She also says that she can tell more about the curse of Cai.
We get a note for Hilda.
Cai’s hair forever stays with flowers growing.
Razzy now always thinks Drake is the most handsome non-fay.
Drake's accounts
The 22nd of March
A group consisting of Drake, Cai, Matheus and Razvan left Sigisfarne to head southwest to look for the fae monarch in order to seek help with the molemen vendetta.
They encountered a young shepherd with goats called Yik, crying in the woods. He says he lost 3 of his 8 goats.
They find a fox caught in a trap. Matheus frees it and it stays with the group and leads them to the lost goats.
They return to Yik to deliver them and Yik thanks them and gives Drake an apple that instils him with confidence and energy and he tells them to head south and follow the singing if they want to find the faeries.
On the faerie trail, the strange and beautiful environment causes changes to the group and their senses. Cai’s hair turns pink and flowers grow from it and Razvan becomes smitten with Drake.
They find a faerie banquet. The faeries there seem to have been waiting for them and have been aware of them walking their trail that Yik pointed out. They spend some time there, partaking in the food, all except Cai who seems suspicious of it. They share stories from their everyday lives in the village and of their travels and delight the faeries.
One of the faeries, a child, offers food to Cai who refuses, making the child angry. Its mother intervenes and Cai, with her help, explains she doesn’t want the food but doesn’t dislike the child, which seems to calm it down. The child then asks to live with Cai and be taken back to the village, which Cai reluctantly agrees to, but then asks the group’s opinion. Matheus and Drake voice their concern about the idea and the mother leaves with the child in tow, clearly angry. Another faerie gets in a conversation with Razvan, who compliments her jewellery, in particular the cravat the faerie is wearing. The faerie gladly offers the cravat to the half-witch, who accepts.
The group leaves the banquet in time and notices another faerie following them with a large escort of goblins. The faerie knight approaches them and when Drake asks him what he wants, he says he wants to play a game which turns out to be a race to the castle of the Queen. Drake counter-offers that the race be a sort of tourney duel between him and the knight only, goblins and the rest of Drakes companions not to intervene. Terms are set: If Drake wins, the knight escorts them all out of the woods safely when their task is done. If the knight wins, he embraces Drake. The mercenary outrider asks the faerie knight to point out the direction of the castle, in case he stops hearing the song, to keep the race fair. The knight does so, anxious to start the race.
Drake hands his horse Dandy to Razvan and nervously tells his group he’ll meet them at the castle. The race begins. Drake manages to keep up, just barely, and reaches the castle just ahead of the knight, who pays his respects. The two become fast friends and the rest of Drake’s group meets them outside the castle, unharmed by the goblins who are nowhere to be seen.
The audience with the Queen begins and the group explains their predicament. Offers are made. the vendetta will be lifted for each person individually, with a different price for each: Razvan’s one-time service, to be called upon at a later time and Cai’s voice for a time. Matheus shows no interest in an offer to lift the vendetta. The Queen asks for the group to take her offer to Hilde, another victim of the vendetta, on a piece of parchment written in gold. Drake accepts the task.
They return to Sigisfarne with the faerie knight’s escort.
People
Locations
Folklore
Chapters
Goatherd
Drake, Razzy, Cai and Mateus travel southwest, towards the woods by the fields. They are again on the fringe.
They find Yik, a young goatherd, who lost 3 of his goats. He asks for help to find them. They don’t help.
Further into the sparse woods, Mateus feels a fox is hurt. He finds it trapped. She helps them find the missing goats.
On the way back to Yik, bringing his goats, the group finds holy. Yik retributes by walking them to the entrance of the Fairy Trail.
Darker Woods
The Fairy Trail sings. They only have to follow the music.
They find three wolves, who speak on Mateus’s mind: “Your companions are mere prey compared to you. Never let them forget that.”
The path does not make sense, almost in circles. Meanwhile, flowers grow on Cai’s head.
Music gets to a crescendo. They arrive at the Queensweald. Suddenly, to Razzie, Drake is as beautiful as Fae: his features become her ideal of beauty. Branches and leaves work as a gate to a fae banquet.
Banquet
Fauns, faeries, pixies, elves and dryads. Plenty of good food, on tables with 3 or 5 legs. They offer and expect the people from the village to eat well.
Beautiful place, with a pleasant song. Lords and ladies wearing silks and jewellery. One lady offers Razzie a brown cravat. A tall mother elf offers Cai her daughter.
For hours, the Fae listen to happy mundane stories told by the men from the village. It is all very interesting and engaging for everyone.
They leave. Cai doesn’t take the young elf girl. The Fae are appealed that humans will not share their happy lives with a young elf girl.
Forest Queen’s Palace
On the way to the Forest Queen’s Palace, they meet the Horned Knight. The Knight expects a game of chase. Drake counteroffers a chase duel between the two, and to everyone’s surprise, wins. The Horned Knight kneels, recognising he was bested by a man.
The Horned Knight takes them to the Queen’s court. They are well received and the Queen listens to their plea.
Cai has her vendetta from the molemen lifted in exchange for her voice for a while. Razzie has hers lifted in exchange for her service once.
The people from the village are taken back to the edge of the Queensweald by the Horned Knight. They go back to Sigsfarne. Changed.