questions about the living blade

After the pcs met with Timbre and she released the bond on the living blade, they realized they could save the seela. But in their normal odd ball fashion they then hit me with a bunch of off the wall questions that they want answers from the dryad

1. What happens to the seela if the person carrying the sword dies before a new First Tree takes root?

2. Can the bond be passed on to another person like a descendant? If not would it not be better for a long lived racelike an elf or even Tiljann herself to be the bearer?

Also two of the party members got hit by the cursed mirror and are now ugly and have a -6 and a -5 CHA. No one is high enough to cast the needed spells to break the curse yet. The cleric has cast Lesser Restoration to help them with the ability loss but I had some other issues.

1. With this being a curse of a high level, I had ruled that the ability loss was semi-permanent and that the Lesser Restoration would only restore it for 1 day. This is needed as the half orc drops unconcious due to being below 0 CHA. This means that the cleric must save 2 spells slots per day until the reach Seaquean. Am I wrong or being unfair on this?

2. The curse also makes the bearer ugly. This is VERY traumatic for our vain bard. Will disguise self or alter self hide this or will the curse overpower this?

I know it sounds like I am being overly harsh on the party but so far they have been going through this campaign like it is a cakewalk. This is even after I have increased the hitpoints in each encounter and occasionally upped the enemy numbers.

I'd say that the sword wielder could will the sword to someone else, even as he's dying, so as long as that person got to the sword within a few minutes, it could maintain the link. But if you want to make sure the players don't act too nice and hand the sword over to a local so it'll be safe, you could explain that in order for the forest to grow, the bearer of the blade has to grow in power and wisdom. So it has to go out adventuring.

I never thought we'd knock out someone with that curse. Seriously, the half-orc started with a 6 Charisma?

You could have the Seela offer a charm of some sort to mitigate the effects slightly. Maybe something that belonged to Gwenvere or another nymph back in the day, which would at least get him up to 1 instead of 0.

As for the vain bard, sure, there's plenty of precedent of hideous monsters hiding their appearances with magic. But perhaps it could be a chance for him to learn a lesson.

If nothing else, when they get to Seaquen, the mages will be able to break their curse.