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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sanglorian" data-source="post: 5885660" data-attributes="member: 83822">That would be great if/when you get the opportunity.Haunt of the Witch Queen (23.16)For three generations, the finest knights of Thring have quested to destroy the Witch Queen. Whether she belongs to a witch clan is not known, but it is said that it was she who roused the clans to bar Thring from riding on Shuttered in the blockage of Blind Midshotgatepool.   By some accounts, the Witch Queen is a beautiful sorceress who lives in five towers of bone that sink and rise from the swamp like a grasping hand. According to others, she is a wizened hag who lives in a thatched house ringed by bluebells and daffodils, wearing the flayed skins of young men in the naïve belief that this lends her their beauty. Whatever the truth of these tales, all agree that she has a cauldron of black iron, large enough for three to bathe within. Bodies placed into the cauldron reanimate, although whether they are quite the same as they were before is unclear. Many of the cauldronborn, their skin pale and waxy, wander through the swamps with lanterns, leading lost souls to the Queen. One knight who returned ashen-faced from an encounter with the Witch Queen was exiled after he hacked to pieces the statue of the Green Lady in the Duke’s private chapel, screaming all the while that it depicted not Her, but the Witch Queen instead. Hooks Why did the Witch Queen rouse the clans? Does she belong to one of the clans? Which of the tales about her appearance are true? What is her connection to the Green Lady? Where do the human skins come from? What is life like for the cauldronborn? Which powerful person in the Shrouded Lands is cauldronborn?What connection does this Witch Queen have with the Witch Queen of Cragsend?EDIT: I just realised that we already have a Witch Queen! I've added a hook to reflect that. The Questing Beast and the Jester Prince (story for 16.16)All of you know why there is no king in the south yet a prince serves the Duke as court jester, so I will not bore you with that tale. What you may not know is why the prince has the Tarrasque emblazoned on his shield and why the Duke’s hunt so often follows the prince’s aimless rambles across the land. To understand that, you must realise that a troupe of knights can slay most any beast. Our own Duke has run down and slain boar, fey princes, manticores and that rarest of game, a king. But we need not speak of that. There is one beast that the Duke has pursued time and time again, always to return frustrated with lance unblooded. That prey is called the Questing Beast in the archaic tongue of Thring; it is the Tarrasque of Bergolast. The Jester Prince is the Duke’s guide on such expeditions, and always returns laughing with a song about how the oblivious Duke made camp in the mouth of the Questing Beast or rested his weary frame against the tree-like legs of the Beast. Once, the Duke had the prince beaten for his impudence – but the Sanguine Lady who nursed the bloodied prince confronted the Questing Beast just one week later, and drew blood before the elusive prey bounded away. Now the Duke dare not strike the prince lest the jester whisper the location of the Beast to another and rob the Duke of his trophy. Hooks Why does the Duke seek the Tarrasque so? Does the prince actually know the location of the Beast? If so, why? Why is the Tarrasque so recalcitrant? How could the Duke hope to slay it? What did the Sanguine Lady do with the Tarrasque blood on her sword? What happened to the king in the south?</blockquote>

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