Darkness had reigned in Ravenwood for weeks. The cloying blackness blotted out the spirits of those in Ravenwood, giving rise to despair and defeat. Even in the darkest places, however, a glint of hope can still glimmer.
Rangers Finnegan and Dawson, old comrades of Mertag’s, had been sent by the King of East Anglia in order to investigate the wood and assist its occupants. Even in dark times, a kindness displayed to a stranger can be repaid tenfold. The King remembered the friendship that the town had created with him, and was willing to send some of his best men to help guide them.
Meldryn had studied and reflected upon the issue for long enough. As the woods grew ever-darker and more perilous, the time to act had come. After several long years, with the assistance of Aramis the wise owl, the wizard had at last found contact with a force far older than those they had faced before. The ancient Woodland Queen, a mysterious and tempestuous figure that had not been seen in these woods for some time.
Meldryn helped to lead the intrepid band of rangers and townsfolk deep into the forest, by light of lamp and lantern. In a hollow of the wood, they found Queen Arasien of the Woodland Folk and her handmaiden, Aranel. The townsfolk approached warily, but Meldryn addressed her as one addresses a familiar friend, and this seemed to splinter the iciness of the meeting. She knew and remembered him in return. Still more, however, she sought answers and demanded responsibility be taken by the townsfolk for what had become of the Heart; they were more than happy to present Ilyn as a sacrifice to her ire.
She clarified to the townsfolk the nature of the magic in the wood, and how she was able to summon it from deep within the earth to enliven the Heart- if any life remained left in it. This would require a ritual with five magic users who had knowledge of the wood, who could come together to channel their healing powers. All the while, however, they were to be hunted by a danger that the Woodland Queen claimed even she could not control. A malignant spirit risen to reap vengeance on those who had wounded the wood.
Led by the Woodland Queen, Meldryn, and the King’s Rangers, the townsfolk traveled down to the river, hearing the gentle singing and whistling of a mysterious man. Up to his waist in the water in the dead of the darkness, the River Meister chipperly greeted the collective. Quite confident in his own powers, he insisted that he already knew everything he needed to know from the fish- but had no desire to return the sun to its previous state. Fish love the moon, and that was his main concern. Only after much coercion would he agree to assist in the ritual, and only in exchange for the return of the lost moon.
The townsfolk followed the River Meister’s instructions downriver, finding a glowing sprite playing among the fallen autumn leaves. The sprite claimed she had never seen the moon, only for it to be revealed that the moon had shrunk down into the palm of her hand! No threat of violence or request on the grounds of humanity could sway her. She only wanted to play, and agreed to return the moon to the sky on one condition: the whole of the group would perform a dance with her.
However difficult it can be to force a dance with over a score of explorers, the task was accomplished, and the moon rose again into the sky in all of its glowing glory. The sprite was older and more powerful than she seemed, and she agreed to join in our quest to restore the Heart of Ravenwood. There was only one more magic user to find. The brother of the River Meister, the Tree Meister.
Following the path through the woods, a mysterious, dark force haunted the shadows beyond reach. With glowing red eyes and a shrieking voice, the spirit’s cries echoed through the bitter cold of the night. The Woodland Queen warned those present not to stray from the path or lag behind- she would take no responsibility for what became of those who did.
The Tree Meister met the travelers with a somber aura, a far cry from his lookalike brother. He claimed that he had long been estranged from his brother, but would be willing to respond to the Woodland Queen’s call with some assistance from the townsfolk. They helped him to decipher a coded message from his brother, only to discover that it was only a letter to let him know that the villagers were being sent to meet him! Pleased that the message was not in reference to something befalling his beloved father, the Tree Meister agreed to join them.
The distant bugles of the malignant spirit drew ever closer, and as the group began to set out again, a scream tore through the wood. Their numbers had dwindled – Everett Underhand, a scribe, and Ignatious had all disappeared. The spirit still cried in the undergrowth, at times distant, at times terrifyingly near.
As the group began their journey to return to the grave of the Heart, danger hunted them at every step. The King’s Rangers insisted they douse their lights, as a pack of wolves were dozing in the undergrowth- a howl could set all the wolves in the wood upon them, or something even worse. Guided only by the hands of their companions, the townsfolk crept through the underbrush, as the slumbering wolves snored all around them.
Even this trial was not the last. A den thick with spiderwebs still remained, giant spiders creeping through the darkness and preying upon those who passed. Only light could ward them away, and all the while, the glowing red eyes of the spirit gleamed just beyond the edge of the path. As the spiders threatened and chased the passing townspeople, the spirit loomed near, stalking the villagers as they passed.
As the townspeople emerged into the clearing where the Heart had first burned, it seemed they had at last shaken the dangers of the wood. Encircling the heart, they prepared for the ritual, only to find a single problem. The River Meister and the Tree Meister had been the same man all along! His mind addled by his delving into the magic of the wood, the Meister was one man alone, leaving the count of magic users at only four. Meldryn bitterly reproached him, having been swept into counseling the Meister after his experience with his own brother.
Desperate, Meldryn and the Woodland Queen attempted to begin the rite regardless, while the townsfolk danced as they had been taught in the Moon Dance. The forest was aglow with torches as the villagers vied to restore the light. In spite of all their efforts, however, Meldryn could sense no flickering, no hint of life in the depths of the Heart. It was not working.
In the midst of the rite, however, the Woodland Queen suddenly drew away from the Heart. In the forest, the glowing red eyes of the spirit had ignited once more. Charging the villagers to not falter, she strode toward the glow of the spirit, its cadaverous, ominous form looming ever-nearer. With rotting flesh dripping from its skeletal figure and antlers splicing high over its bone-white face, the forest spirit lurched into the hollow, drawing behind it the missing adventurers from before, lost to a trance.
The Woodland Queen stood before the towering figure, devoid of fear and unarmed. She faced it, addressing it with a strange familiarity, and swearing that she was ready to pay the price that the wood demanded. She recognized the spirit, and it recognized her in turn. In dismay, the villagers looked on, as the Woodland Queen wordlessly led the spirit to the Heart, guided by a long, twisted staff.
Kneeling, wielding the staff, the Woodland Queen and spirit joined hands and held the Heart. As the villagers danced their rite, Meldryn’s laugh rang out. He had sensed life, and the Heart warmed, aglow again with the magic of the wood as it flooded through its ventricles and fissures. Now the villagers danced in delight, and the woodland spirit rose once more. At the behest of the Queen, it freed the prisoners from their spell.
The duty of the Woodland Queen and the Woodland Spirit is to guard Ravenwood, to act as the preventative and retributive guardians of the magic therein. With their duty fulfilled, they had only one more cause to remain. Turning, they granted to Meldryn the Woodland Staff, set with a broken shard of the heart. While they preside over the mystical and magical realm of the wood, upon him was bestowed the responsibility to the people of the wood. To act as a bridge between the Heart that was magic and the heart that was human. Grimly, humbly, he accepted this duty.
As the townsfolk jubilated and reveled in the end of the darkness, the Woodland Spirit took the Heart again into its care. It disappeared into the wood, to lay down again in the far depths of the earth and take the Heart with it. The villagers returned in glee and excitement to town, freed of the curse. Ravenwood again saved, the balance of the wood once more restored, the Woodland Queen looked upon a grateful realm. As the rays of a new dawn shafted down through the amber leaves of the trees, she turned and faded again into the depths of the forest, a last bugle ringing through the tree leaves.
What a day that was! I can safely say fending off woodland creatures has never been so… dark. 😉