What The Party Know About The Yellow King...

Having found the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree near to a forgotten vault they were exploring, the adventuring group known as Cobblethwaite's Companions learned from Gunther Treszhnak, dwarven landlord of The Golden Axe in Bendwyn, that:

Croatoa was the name of an ancient land in a long-forgotten children's nursery rhyme about a supernatural entity known as The Yellow King who would steal the dreams of naughty children and replace them with wasps.

The Sign

Later, while investigating the appearance of some stolen coins, the party ran into the ghost of Mardrid The Gentleman Bandit, who cursed Marigold, to help him exact some convoluted revenge scheme from his prison in Purgatory within 101 days or she was doomed to become his 'ghost bride'.

As a sign of the curse, the ghost branded Marigold with the sign of The Yellow King (much to the horror of Betty Entwhistle, wife of Marigold's wandering mentor Peter Entwhistle).

Instead of carrying out the ghost's demands, the party headed across The Bright River to the Huldre Forest to seek out the legendary Witch Of The Forest, who Marigold believed was willing to teach magic to a "virtuous woman".

While the rest of the party wandered the surreal, mind-messing, rooms of the Witch's magical hut, Marigold was given a potion to drink, which removed the brand, and - she was assured - the curse.

Returning to Bendwyn, the party met up with the long-absent Peter Entwhistle, who had been attending a Wizards' Conclave where the gathering had pored over the prophecies of Ja'rodidymus that suggested The Yellow King would be "rising" soon.

Peter explained:

The Yellow King was believed to be a dark avatar of Sateb  (the god of the afterlife who judges a soul's worthiness), that ancient, near-forgotten, legends said was imprisoned in a shadow of Purgatory called Croatoa.

The legends stated that the impossibly strong magical forces restraining The Yellow King prevented him from setting foot on Cidri, and so [I] wasn't particularly bothered by the prophecies of his return... except for one detail.

A single quatrain in Ja'rodidymus's text spoke of a "conjoined maiden, hag and mother creating a vessel" that would carry The Yellow King from the shores of Croatoa to the realm of men.

Sometime after this, Marigold realised she was pregnant and she has just had her worst fears confirmed - from the skinless lips of The Flayed King - that the child she is carrying is The Yellow King.

She is the conjoined maiden (because she was a virgin), hag (because she skilled in the ways of magic), and mother (because she was with child), as foretold.

Chapter Thirteen: Lost In The Nexus Of All Realities...

The Green Knight

Having slain the orc hunting party, our heroes plunged on deeper in to Huldre Forest, drawn by the sound of a running water, and soon came to the bank of river.

There was a narrow stone bridge across the fast-flowing river and on the far side stood a giant of a man, dressed in green armour and sporting a mighty battle axe, who declared that "none shall pass" and that the party needed to send forth its champion to best him in single-combat to earn the right of passage.

Marigold immediately recognised him as the "Green Knight" that guards the boundaries of The Realm Of Faerie.

The party discussed options and eventually settled on Marigold casting 'haste' on Davian so he could take on the giant.

The dwarf waded into furious battle, dropping his own weapon twice as he was so jacked up. The party tried a couple of sneaky moves - Marigold was to cast a web spell on the knight and Imogen wanted to swim across the river and sneak an attack on him, but every time they were thwarted by the magic on the Faerie Realm.

Eventually, after a quite brutal fight, Davian brought the knight to his knees and lopped his head off.

The knight's body, weapons and armour dissolved to leaves and blew away in the wind, leaving only his magical cape that Davian rightfully claimed as the victor.

Vasilia

There was a path here that the adventurers took, eventually being met by a beautiful, radiant woman who introduced herself as Vasilia.

It was her whistling that Davian had heard earlier in the forest - and, in true dwarvish style, he kept grumbling that he had a "bad feeling about this".

However, Vasilia said she was the daughter of the Witch of The Forest and would gladly lead the party to her mother - so the curse on Marigold could be lifted.

Vasilia led the party deeper into the forest, down magical pathways, until they found themselves in a clearing where a hideous crone was waiting outside a small hut - that lacked any doors and windows.

The witch, who referred to herself as Granny, appeared to know who everyone was, welcomed them and then transported them inside her hut - which was obviously bigger inside than out.

While she prepared her potion to lift the curse from Marigold, she told the others to "run along" and not get under her feet, so they climbed the vertigo-inducing stairs to explore further inside her strange hut.

Opening a door they immediately found themselves on a benighted street in Dranning, the region's capitol, and ahead of them a red-haired woman was calling out "Imogen, come to me" as she disappeared round a corner.

And so began a surreal chase through different planes of existence, and even through time, as every door the group opened appeared to take them somewhere totally alien and random. At different times they found themselves on sailing ships (one, crewed by mysterious luminous beings, was even in outer space), on rooftops, in orcish kitchens etc

At one point they even stepped back in to The Broken Blade tavern in Bendwyn - much to shock of Sir Browyrd, who was still holding court there - before disappearing through a portal that no one else in the tavern could see.

Imogen caught a glimpse of a creepy baby in a cot in one room and passed out from the horror and just as the group was starting to feel as though they were all going insane (they were in a particularly alien, spherical room where a floating cube was suspended in a sparkling beam of light, and had opened a door on one side of the room to see themselves - from the back - on the other side of the room!) they found the passage back to the main room of the witch's hut.

Granny: The Witch Of Huldre Forest

While they had been away, Granny had summoned the ghost of Mardrid The Gentleman Bandit, admonished him in an unknown tongue, and then banished him.

She then brewed a powerful concoction for Marigold to drink. This, the witch said, would remove the curse and when Marigold checked she noticed the 'mark of The Yellow King' had disappeared from her skin.

The reunited group was then transported back outside the hut and sent on their way.

Their hike back through the forest was surprisingly uneventful - really surprisingly uneventful - until they had almost reached the Bright River.

Imogen did some scouting ahead and (using a spyglass retrieved from one of the sailing ships the group had visited while 'in the witch's hut') saw a mass gathering of orcs, a war camp, on this side of the river, heckling the fort on the far side.

She also noticed that one of the orc banners was topped by the head of Tarl, the group's guide.

Unwilling to take on the orc army our heroes followed the river south-east, until they came to the ford by the ruined tower where they had found Margesh weeks earlier.

They crossed the river and made their way towards Bendwyn. This detour had taken almost a fortnight, rations had run out and the group were weak and hungry by the time they arrived at Kirchin's Temple Of The Lady Of Healing on the outskirts of the town... only to find that it had been ransacked.

Kahl, Kirchin's apprentice, had taken a beating in defence of the healing house but told his master that Sir Browyrd, Margesh Blackblood and Sir Browyrd's men had broken in, stolen the Sword Of Aquin and all Kirchin's silver and then left the town.

Meanwhile, in the town, our heroes learned that the orcs hadn't yet crossed The Bright River, but their numbers were swelling. At last estimation there were now several thousand poised on the far bank, waiting to invade...

Chapter Twelve: If You Go Down To The Woods Today...

Following on from the incidents of the last chapter, our heroes had returned to Bendwyn and cooked up a plan to cross The Bright River and plunge into Huldre Forest to find the legendary Witch, who they believed would be able to lift Marigold's curse.

Marigold said a tearful farewell to her parents (who she had just 'reunited' with after being kicked out of the house of Peter Entwhistle, her wizarding mentor), Kirchin had purchased some supplies, a brace of horses and a couple of mules.

Reluctantly, the group decided - much to Davian's chagrin - to hire a guide from Skarg's tavern. Marigold boldly went in there on her own and returned minutes later with a handsome forester called Tarl in tow.

Fort Bright

The group headed out of Bendwyn to the ferry across The Bright River, located outside the perimeter of Fort Bright which guards this entrance to the land of Elyntia.

Kirchin negotiated with the foul-looking ferrymen and got him to carry the party across for 25sp.

On the other side of the river, our heroes immediately felt a change in atmosphere, the air was hotter and clammier than they were used to and it wasn't long until they spotted a yellow dragon flying over head (which Marigold said wasn't a "good omen").

Tarl led them down the rough roadway, heading south, with the idea that at nightfall he would find the path he knew of that would lead to Huldre Forest, and eventually to the ruins of Landmaster Hall.

Tarl: Gone Too Soon!

Unfortunately, as they were making camp that first evening, they were ambushed by an orc war party - which included two boar riders. Tarl was killed in the first volley of arrows, much to the disappointment of both Marigold and Imogen who had both taken a shine to the rugged woodsman.

The fight was bloody and brutal. As Harry stood in the centre ground, singing a rousing battle song to boost the morale of the party, Marigold used her magic to accelerate Davian to "superspeeds" and everyone made a good accounting of themselves. Marigold's webbing again proved crucial as did the 'boost' that Harry's singing gave his comrades.

Eventually the war party was slain, but one of the boars managed to slip off into the darkness. Tarl was given a proper Mnorean burial and the other boar was slaughtered, then dragged over the rise, where our heroes made a new camp and cooked up the boar, away from the orc corpses.

Sleep was fitful as the air was rent with wolf howls, but eventually morning came (as did the carrion crows feeding on the aftermath of the battle) and our heroes headed towards Huldre Forest, even though Kirchin was unable to find the route that Tarl had spoken of.

Kirchin and Davian bring some light to the forest

With the ever-present stench and noise of the orc city of Dill on the southern horizon, the group made its way to the perimeter of the forest by nightfall and set up camp 50 yards or so inside the canopy of the dark, twisted trees of Huldre Forest.

They were quite unnerved by the constant mist on the ground, the creaking of the trees and the feeling that 'things' were moving and skittering around them.

They dined on boar meat and settled down for the night, taking it in turns to keep watch. Around midnight, while Imogen was on watch, her horse (Jimmy) - tethered nearby - gave a scream and fell over.

Flesh-Eating Critters Of Huldre Forest

Everyone was woken by the sound, and Imogen kicking them, and when the horse was inspected they discovered large chunks had been gnawed out of it (like 'cattle mutilation') and Harry spotted a dozen or so, tiny little furry critters disappearing into the darkness.

There wasn't much anyone could do, so they moved away from Jimmy's corpse and resumed sleeping. On Harry's watch he realised the little beasts were everywhere, running across the ground and through the trees.

The next day they set off again, pushing deeper into the freaky forest in the general direction (they hoped) of Landmaster Hall ruins.

Harry In Huldre Forest

At one point Davian heard a most unexpected sweet-sounding whistling through the trees and later Harry caught of a glimpse of a brightly-dressed man racing through the trees, but soon they came face-to-face with an orc hunting party.

A half-dozen orcs, carrying a couple of small, dead boar, were stood several yards in front of them. Marigold flustered her 'haste' spell on Davian and Harry's rousing battle song choked in his throat, but combat was joined.

Again, our heroes triumphed, but the battle was harder without Harry's morale-boosting tunes and Marigold's magical assist to Davian.

To be continued...

CAST:

• Kirchin (Pete)
• Davian (Kevin)
• Harry (Simon)
• Imogen (Meredith)
• Marigold (Clare)