NOT ALL FEY ARE FAIRIES
A ruined, circular keep loomed out of the forest, surrounded by towering, ancient trees draped with hanging moss. Four circular towers sprouted from the cracked walls like the trunks of great trees, at least one crumbled into rubble. Twisting vines and thick moss covered the walls in a coat of verdant green, which blended the ruins almost seamlessly into the surrounding woods. The overgrown remains of a path led to an open, arched gateway that gaped in the keep’s eastern wall, its doors long since rotted away. This, then, was the abandoned redoubt that Narthropple had spoken of. Cautiously, the companions made their way around the perimeter. On the southern side, they found an area where the wall had collapsed completely. It was there, rather than the obvious approach of the main gate, that they chose to enter. As they drew nearer to the walls, Selena paused, looking up at a series of complex runes carved there.
“These are elven,” she said, “but they’re old…older than any I’ve ever seen.”
Stevhan held up a hand to stop his companions as they reached the breach.
“Let me take a look at things first,” he said quietly.
He crept through the hole, quiet as a whisper even over the shifting rubble. At his side, Chester was, if possible, even more silent. A graceful tower rose out of the keep’s central courtyard, which was overgrown with bushes, undergrowth, and several sizeable trees. Like the outer walls, the tower was draped with vines and creepers, and several small plants had taken up residence on ledges and in cracks along its sides. The tower to Stevhan’s left stretched high into the sky, its upper reaches hidden in the forest’s canopy. The vines that choked the tower’s exterior, which were festooned with bleached humanoid skulls, nearly obscured the dark arrow slits. At ground level, a closed wooden door hid behind a cloak of hanging vines. To the ranger’s right, a wooden door made from roughly-cut timber planks, obviously of newer construction than the rest of the keep, blocked the entrance to another tower. Stevhan motioned the others forward as he moved towards the skull bedecked tower. He never noticed the door to the tower behind him slowly crack open.
Stevhan and Chester drew closer to the sinister tower as the others scrabbled through the breached wall. He turned once more to wave his friends forward, and that’s when the plants came alive around him. Vines and grass twined around his legs, while nearby bushes reached for his arms. Behind him, he heard Chester wail in pain and surprise. He spun in time to see the cheetah lifted bodily into the air by a thick, ropey tendril that seemed to have sprouted from the tower…an assassin vine! Chester quickly went limp as the plant wrapped tightly around his neck. The vine dropped him unceremoniously to the ground. Stevhan was too shocked to notice the shadowy form that emerged from one of the tower arrow slits and began climbing silently down the side of the structure.
Velox stood stunned by what was happening. It was as if the entire courtyard had come alive. Suddenly, a faint buzzing sound filled his ears, like the whine of swarm of hornets. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the barest flicker of movement, and then felt a searing pain in his thigh. When he looked down, he saw a gaping wound in his leg that was pouring blood. An evil giggling laughter came from several yards away. He looked around and saw a strange little creature crouched in the grass. It was about a foot tall, with pointed ears and pinched features. It gripped a small sword in its hand that dripped with the oracle’s blood.
“Not so smart, are you big’un?” the quickling tittered in a high-pitched voice. “But it’s not me you need to watch out for…it’s him!”
The creature began vibrating in place so quickly, that it shortly disappeared from view entirely.
Stevhan slashed the assassin vine completely in two as it reached for him. Instantly, the writhing vegetation around him went still…as still as Chester. Stevhan moved towards his friend, but stopped in his tracks as a shadow suddenly loomed up in front of him. On the surface, it looked like a slender elf with pale, green skin that had the texture of smooth bark. Its face was deformed, with a grotesque, toothy maw, and its hands sported razor-sharp talons. It wore nothing but a red and black loincloth, though its arms and shoulders bore a number of scar-like patterns. Before Stevhan could react, the thing slashed at him with its claws, and as they pierced his flesh, he felt hot poison spill into his blood. He reeled back as the monstrosity advanced on him, its mouth opening even wider. As it leaned in towards his throat, however, a whickering blade swung across Stevhan’s vision. The sword glowed with holy power, and as it struck the beast’s flesh, it seared through it, lifting its head cleanly from its shoulders. Stevhan looked behind him, stunned, and saw Davrim standing there, the inquisitor limned in golden light.
Selena drew a pinch of shimmering powder from her belt pouch and casually tossed it towards the spot where the quickling had vanished. In a flash, the evil little creature was limned in sparkling light. He cried out as he was struck blind by the brilliant light. Immediately, Mox released a volley of mystic bolts, and the fey shrieked and tried to run, stumbling through the courtyard. As it darted past Velox, the oracle hacked down with his sword, nearly cutting the little beast in two.
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Chester wasn’t dead, but it had been a near thing. Stevhan tended his companion’s wounds, and then secreted him away in one of the ruined towers.
“I’ll return for you soon,” the ranger promised as he pulled the door closed.
The others waited outside, at the base of the central tower. Velox nodded as Stevhan joined them.
The wide chamber of the main tower had an impressive vaulted ceiling. Though obscured in places by earth and undergrowth, the hall’s floor was crafted of smooth stone tiles in multicolored pastel hues. The walls of the chambers were decorated with faded frescoes of sylvan life, showing scenes of beautiful elves engaged in hunting, feasting, dancing, singing, and a bewildering variety of other idyllic pursuits. To the west, a graceful, filigreed stone staircase, garlanded with flowering vines, climbed to the level above. Cautiously, the group began to climb. They’d gone no further than halfway, when a cloying, violet mist began to fill the hall. The companions began coughing and choking as the mist entered their lungs. Their heads began to fill with maddening visions of dark, moonless nights; twisted, malignant trees; and hot, streaming rivers of blood. Clutching their skulls, they ran up the remaining stairs, desperate to escape the nightmarish poison.
The stairs ended in a circular room that featured wide windows draped with hanging vines that offered panoramic views of the keep’s overgrown courtyard and the forest beyond. An open, circular skylight in the ceiling provided glimpses of the forest canopy overhead. The walls between the windows were carved with exquisite, delicate nature motifs highlighted in gold and silver leaf. A riot of flowers, plants and bushes sprouted from the thick loam that carpeted the hall’s floor, as if one were walking in a fantastic glade elevated high above the forest floor. An elven woman stood in the center of the room, golden hair faming alabaster skin and green eyes. She wore a flowing, white gown of archaic elven style, tied at the waist with a blood red scarf. As the companions entered, she smiled beautifully at them, then raised her hands into the shaft of sunlight that streamed down through the open skylight. When she did so, the vines on the wall, the grass on the floor, and even the shrubs began to writhe, wrapping and twining themselves around the legs of the heroes. At the same time, the elven woman began to dance. Slow and seductive at first, she quickly moved into a gyrating, whirling, grinding dervish-like performance. Velox tried to move, but found he could not tear his eyes away from the performance. Davrim, Tungdill and Leaf were likewise enthralled, and even Mox, whose experiences in the courts of Restov had opened her to more…worldly…diversions, found herself smitten, and growing warm all over.
“Look away!” Stevhan cried.
When the ranger looked at the woman, he saw that her eyes had gone crimson, her skin splotchy and veined. When she opened her mouth, wicked fangs had sprouted and protruded over her ruby lips. He drew his bowstring back and released, but when the arrow struck the woman, it bounced harmlessly off her flesh, as if it were made of stone. Still, his companions were rapt…all save Selena. The witch climbed quickly to the top of the stairs and stood beside the ranger. She forked the sign of the Eye at the fiend. The woman hissed, and averted her gaze, but her dancing never stopped. Instead, her smile only broadened.
“Why don’t you fly away now, little witch?” she purred. “I will entertain your friends awhile longer, and then I will send them after you.”
Selena felt her thoughts grow cloudy. What the elf was suggesting sounded reasonable. What harm could there be? She turned and waved goodbye to Stevhan, and then floated gracefully up the to the skylight and into the air beyond.
“Now!” the dancing lady hissed at Stevhan. “You and I have unfinished business!”
She rushed towards him, her fingers hooked into claws. Stevhan dropped his bow and pulled his sword in a single, fluid motion. He swept the blade across her belly, and blood spewed like a fountain. The woman’s eyes widened in shock.
“Iron?” she cried.
“I don’t like your kind,” Stevhan smiled.
She tried to dart around him, opening her mouth as she moved towards Velox’s throat. Rooted to the floor though he was, Stevhan was still able to pivot as she passed. He swung again, hacking into her knees. She stumbled and fell. She looked up, one hand raised to cover her face as the sword descended one last time.
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“A what??” Selena asked.
Her mind was still slightly fogged, and she shook her head to clear it.
“A baobhan sith,” Leaf repeated. “They’re monstrous legends among my people. Twisted, evil creatures that drink the blood of the living.”
“A vampire?” Davrim asked, his blood still boiling when he thought about how easily he’d been rendered helpless.
“Yet not undead,” Leaf said. “They are fey.”
“I’ve never heard of so many different types of fey working together like this,” Stevhan said.
“Me neither,” Tungdill grumbled. “Ain’t natural. The whole thing stinks!”
“At least it wasn’t a total loss!” Mox said.
She held a beautifully carved statuette in her hands. It looked like a dancing elven woman, crafted out of pure marble.
“This looks like just the sort of thing Lily Teskertin commissioned us to find.”
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As the companions continued to blaze their way through the Narlmarches, they came upon a huge deadfall of trees and brambles that lay in a mossy heap, a mountain in miniature left from some violent windstorm several seasons past. Numerous cave-like hollows pierced the deadfall in many places, but one particularly deep one drew the attention of the heroes. Inside, it opened into a large, dim cavern, permeated with a heavy, animal musk. A snarling grunt from the far side of the cave quickly identified the source. Spikes covered the body of the vaguely reptilian creature, jutting forth from nearly every angle. The beast’s gaping mouth was filled with dagger-sharp teeth, and a sinister crimson glow filled its eyes. Squat and powerful, the creature’s arms terminated in massive clawed feet just as suited to digging as to rending its prey limb from limb. With a feral hiss, it charged forward. Mox met its charge with a huge explosion of fire that filled the entire back half of the cave, but when the flames cleared, the beast was still coming. The companions scattered, but Selena was a step too slow. The monster caught her on the spikes atop its head and tossed her a dozen feet into the air. She landed in a heap against one wall. Davrim and Stevhan charged forward while the creature was distracted, and both of them plunged their blades into its thick hide. It spun and bit in all directions, but gradually, its movements slowed and then ceased altogether. It was only at that point that they noticed the long spear protruding from its back. The lumberjack had been right: hodags did exist!
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Another day drew to a close in the gloom beneath the trees of the Narlmarches. It was Mox who first spied the dragon. Its yellow, reptilian eyes blinked once from the lower boughs of the tree as its gaze met hers. She opened her mouth to warn the others, but she was a moment too late. The creature’s maw yawned widely, and it spat out a glob of viscous fluid. When it struck the ground amidst the companions, it exploded into a noxious, green cloud of burning, acidic fumes. Mox managed to dive aside just before the cloud dispersed, and she answered that attack with an explosive ball of fire. The forest drake roared and flew down from its perch, but by that time, Stevhan was ready. The ranger, his eyes still streaming, rushed at the dragon and hewed into it with his blade. The drake roared again, and opened its wings, intending to take to the air. Before it could take flight, however, Stevhan struck again, this time severing its head from its long, serpentine neck.
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EPILOGUE
“So your mind is set on this course, then?” Mox asked.
“It is,” Leaf nodded. “I feel that I can better perform the duties that you chose me for if I can be closer to the populace. Being away for extended periods like this, I don’t feel like I’m doing you any good. Perhaps if I’d been in Veritas at the time, I could have put a stop to that whole business with that rabble-rouser a lot sooner. Trust me, it will be for the best.”
This time it was Mox who nodded.
“I understand,” she said. “We all have to follow our own path. I do trust you…completely. Ultimately, I think, it shall be your endeavors that make or break our new nation.”
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
And the trouble brewing with Tungdil and Mox - is it character-based or alignment-based? 
