GH 01 - "Burden to Bears"

General Summary

Hello and welcome back to Phonic Fables - Green Hunters of the Dragon Queen Edition, a product of The Techno God, free to consume on World Anvil, Discord, and platforms like Spotify under Wizards of the Coasts’ Fan Content Policy. This journey is shared by myself, my Partner in Life, Katie, and some friends we’ve met along the way, Rachel and Jarod, who have given consent for their characters and tales to be shared here as well. This content is not official in any capacity, and is merely a rendition of stories Wizard’s IP has already published throughout the years. The foundation of lore from the books we use, mine and my players' creativity and passion, and little moments of spontaneity create this tale. With boundless joy, my scribing and reciting of these tales, is something I am happy to share with y’all. Now, settle in for the first real episode of Phonic Fables - Green Hunters of the Dragon Queen Edition, where we delve into the tale with gusto and forte! Recap Session 0 When we last left off, the trio Zelana, Orlais, and Reymira had first met in and around the region of Phandalin. Zelana and Orlais had taken a quest to secure a local farm in order to recover it and its soil for the community to continue thriving, a small scouting party of Orcs tried to kidnap Reymira, and the three of them decided to join up and head North in the morning, together.

Session 1 - “Burden to Bears” - an Introduction Quest

The dew of the early morning day quickly sloughed off the grass and plants they trudged through, North through grassy hills, they avoided a more scenic route to the East, down the Triboar Trail. As the trio reach a Southern edge of the Neverwinter Wood, a small path begins to creep over a less-oft traveled road, weaved alongside a small outlet of the hill. Trodding on, they enter the threshold of large trees and are assailed with verdant colors through the crowns of leaves overhead. The sounds of nature stir both more and less as the trio continues, the leaves rustling from unknown animals, birds chirping and singing songs as they dart to their next locale, but with eyes peeled, Reymira would see no threat in the distance. Oralis was quite familiar with these hills too, though he did frequent those to the South of the town more, known as the North Hilted Hills, divided by the Sword Mountains that run East-West, the hills are split North and South. The farm's main house began to crest over the service road. Reymira mentions ahead of time that it’s nothing special, ramshackled and boarded up in places. Walking at a normal pace, they look around and discuss where to look first. Taking in the sight of the farm, they could all tell that it was indeed abandoned, by the looks of the field, and quality of the buildings, it would be at least a decade, maybe a bit less - Orlais more or less relies on the quality of the fields in his assessment as an Outlander. A small three-animal stable, a garage of sorts for a carriage to rest in, and a tool and feedshed were all that could be seen, aside from the long-since-tilled farmland, and a small outhouse about 20 feet away from the main building. The whole farm was quite small, but was also built along a trail that went East back towards the Triboar, and North to another nearby town, a large village really, known as Littlekindle.

Into the House

A few steps past the garage, in the main house, a couple muffled whispers are heard through the wall. They all step towards it’s entrance, “shush, they’ll hear us” and “oh, hush yourself, am only tryin’ tah have a little fun” are heard, though the latter is more than a bit quieter, even for a whisper. All three of the party member’s heads turn towards the sound as they step towards it, and in even quieter tones, they whisper a quick plan to breach the house from multiple points, using Sereena the Rat as the signal. Orlais simply wants to jump through the window for style and Reymira posts near the door. Zelana scours the outside edge of the building, looking for a backdoor, and she finds one - ajar. She sends back Sereena, then creeps up a step or two, being careful not to make any noise. As the rat turns the corner back towards Reymira, the Trio each enters with a BANG, CRASH, THUD as doors and windows alike, slam and shatter. Reymira enters with her monk-trained fist at the ready, punching the first person she sees, the door and momentum of the punch knock back the… Satyr within, falling prone and scrabbling backwards, hooves scratching the surface of the wooden and already olden bowed floor. Orlais has a crossbow aimed and readied before the last shard of glass clinks to the floor, and Zelana immediately notices blood, a lot of it - her time on the streets helping her to notice concealed wounds as an aspect of her lifestyle in the streets of the City of Many Splendors. The Satyr is wounded! She yells to the others and waits for the approach, slowly making herself small, and apologizing. Hovering around the Satyr as they speak, is a Sprite, everyone has either read or experienced a tale involving these two creatures, so they all had some semblance of the tricky nature of Fey and Fey-like beings, not being liars, but oftentime withholding certain truths as tricksters, chaotics, and creatives of many kinds. Satyr’s were often revelers, but Sprites were more often than not of the trickster sort. The two of them speak in a language unknown to anyone in the party though, they surmise it is likely Sylvan, as a native tongue for both... The Sprite in particular is almost always muttering something to the Satyr, but it’s hard to tell at times with small whispered voices in a language you don’t know! Frightened, and otherwise cornered, he allows Zelana, and then Reymira, after a begrudging apology, to approach. Reymira assesses the wounds and sees three deep gashes, and lots of bleeding. Zelana looks around with Orlais for supplies, but he keeps his crossbow trained in their direction as he looks around. They each participate in mending the wounds of this Satyr, to the point where his life is no longer in danger - the lacerations tended to. Naturally, as she begins to treat the wounds, Reymira asks how he got them, the two Fey talk about bears and caves, and playing with a baby bear, and getting attacked by the mother, and losing a special pipe of some kind? It’s all very confusing. There were lots of words, and it was hard to follow along at some parts, but bears being nearby could still be a threat, so Reymira had finished the patch job and was back up and near the door, leaning against its frame - looking outside at full attention, but seemingly relaxed in that position against the door. Orlais had lowered his bow at this point, but still had it in his hands. The story the Satyr shares seems to be truthful at first, but the more the Satyr speaks, the more it seems to Reymira and Orlais that he is spinning a tale. “Bears don’t chase people to farms because you smell like their baby.” Reymira says after her and Oralis exchange a glance. He slowly raises the crossbow once more, focused and aiming, “What really happened?” Reymira is activated from the lie, though, and with Zelana facing away from the door, and Orlais’ eyes sharp and forward, she is able to step out the front door, and begin patrolling the farm anxious to spy what real threat may lurk, potentially tailing the Satyr. She doesn’t hear the truth as a result. The Satyr retells the story from where the lies began to creep in, but before he was able to get to a place to admonish himself for kidnapping it in the first place, a deep, grumbling, **raagh** came, muffled under the blankets and other lived-in decorations of the space that stacks in the corner like a fort. A trapdoor, and inside the space beneath it was the baby bear, covered with more blood! It seems that the Satyr was looking for a roving portal of the Feywild, and needs his pipes to ‘summon it’ to a nearby location, but he dropped it when he was using it to command the baby bear to run away from Papa who had just come home from a fish hunt - should be just outside the mouth of the cave. The story remained embellished, but they figured the baby bear needed to get home, at least. They got the bear out of the basement and washed it up, the blood was the Satyr’s so the bear was in no threat, thankfully.

Into the Woods

When Reymira returns from her scout, and is caught up on the information, she pulls out some bits of Rabbit, a hunt that she had completed a couple days ago and was starting to turn, there should be enough to get the bear to a nearby grove. The Satyr says a pond lies there, and is just up a small hill from the cave where the bears reside. Sure enough, with the Satyr playing with the bear, and strokes of affection towards it as the cub eats the Rabbit bits, they make it to the grove with only a few bites left. While the Spite and Satyr distract the bear in the grove, they split up to find berries for the bear, as well as other traces of the bears’ foraging. Upon returning with the berries, they find The Satyr and Sprite distracting the baby bear, now named "Burly", with Druidcraft, so the newfound trio deliberated on what to do. The pipes could help lead the bear to the cave, but they are so close now… they look beyond the grove’s bushes, but there is too much of a span in the way and down the hill before the cave for them to get the baby there quietly and safely. Zelana climbs a nearby tree, and the span breaks a bit, not enough to peer into the cave, but enough to see it in the near distance. It should be close enough for someone with quick feet to dash over and back, grab the pipes, of which she saw no sign of, and hopefully distract Burly long enough to grab the pipes and head back - sounds simple enough. Once Zelana shimmies down and shares her thoughts, once they decide who is going to go - Reymira, the Sprite shares that they like this plan, so, they climb over onto her shoulder and sit down, waiting for them to leave, sharing no clues that run through their devious, little mind. Oralis decides what he’ll do, and pulls out a glassware jug of deep amber, almost brown, and hides within their Genie Vessel. A little wooden ship within, hosting a sort of throne at the wheel. He sits and looks through the displaced bottle, an extradimensional space of sorts that muffles sound and sight - to a degree. He lounges in his matchstick thone; while Zelana also hides, though behind a tree, the Satyr continues to distract Burly with berries gathered nearby, and Reymira struts out from behind the grove’s patchwork treeline atop the nearby hilly gnoll. As Reymira emerges, she hears the Sprite begin to whisper in her ear, sweet nothings that could not be repeated, but this is how the Sprite casts and concentrates their spells, so Reymira deals with the waves of soft-spoken chills that run up and down her body; as a whoosh of invisibility blankets the two of them, and Reymira stealths forward silently, impressed and in awe of the small creature’s power. Despite distractions from the whispering Sprite, Reymira makes it to the mouth of the cave with success, though… a lumbering sound would approach, great and ferocious as it is, brown fur tufted and floofy - the mother of the cub! A roar emanated from her maw, a few feet from Reymira, Rey moves cautiously, but has a funky smell that appears to catch the attention of the bear, not bathing in a few days has that effect it seems. Unable to keep focus on where she was going, paying attention to the darting gaze of the great bear in front of her, she stepped on the pipes! SNAP The mother bear roars with a mighty arghh and lunges towards the smell and sound combined now. Reymira is able to dodge the unaimed claw, and subsequently rolls away. She grabs the broken pipes, and makes off for the treeline - the Sprite breaks the invisibility and the bear dashes after Reymira in her great strides. They dash past the treeline, bushes shivering as the bear approaches, fearful of its advance, and the Sprite turns the both of them invisible once more, emitting the last of their power! Planned though, it seems, as the mother bear sees her cub and begins to avert her focus to Burly, as he splashes in the water of the pond in the grove, as Zelana and the Satyr hide behind a distant treeline.

Settling Down

Well, the plan was a success! Of sorts… so, still invisible, Reymira grabs the bottled ship, and dashes off towards where Zelena and the Satyr had gone to linger. Having gotten the pipes back and making their way a safe distance from the bears that were happy to be reunited, Orlais would emerge from his amber jug. Along that quiet forest path, on the way back to the farm, the Satyr thanks the party by putting them to sleep with a little song and a tiny jig. He recognized that Orlais would be unaffected by his song of sleep that plays from his pipes, as an Elf of some kind, and asked that the Sprite to use a poison, which would only inflict paralysis, but not the poisoned condition to Orlais. As the others fell to slumber, Orlais would watch as the Satyr and Sprite judged them, their gear, and the Sprite even… touched each of them on their foreheads. It was a gift called Heart Sight, Orlais was familiar with it from some book he read while sailing across the Trackless Sea, something certain Fey could do to… look within. They exchange words; mentioning a person named Valanym'yr, and in a fearful manner at that, before scurrying back towards the Farm with what seemed like genuine apologies, familiar with their lies at this point. Oralis was paralyzed there for some time, watching the Sun fall the remainder of its journey to rest, he waited for his paralysis to end and his party member’s sleep to dissipate. But then, maybe an hour or so later… a small Violet Dragon scampered up and spoke directly into Oralis’ mind. They introduce themselves as Vhena and impart three things to Oralis: the first is knowledge that the Satyr and Balyfort cause problems in these parts of Neverwinter Wood all the time as ‘tourists’ of the Faewild; the second is a boon left with him as a gift from Valanym’yr, under the condition that he not tell anyone about her or mention her to the others in the trio; the third is a lesson on how to utilize the boon. Vhena speaks in Sylvan out loud as she is bestowing the gift, making a slight touch to Orlais’ left ear with their claw, a slight shimmer and appearance of what is essentially an ear tattoo, inked with Sylvan writing. Vhena speaks one final line before disappearing into a shimmering light of invisibility, “Be kind to the plants, Orlais, and they shall teach you much, in kind.”

Dragons & Discoveries

The stiffness of Orlais’ body begins to fade, and though he is sore from what was essentially planking for nearly 2 hours, he stretches, feels for the tattoo, and… surely enough, a green light glows faintly into his cupped hand; however, as he wakes Reymira and Zelana, he only mentions what he was asked to be forthright with, and did not mention Valanym’yr’s name. Zelana thought it strange that Vhena and Cryovain were sharing the same region, her Draconic Ancestry gave her unique insights into this, but then Reymira would share something that would alter a certain truth. A few days before she left her monastery, atop the Sword Mountains near Icespire Peak, a few days after Cryovain’s apparent arrival, she was outside the frost covered stone ashram, a great brazier burning atop its peak with a Silver-Colored Continual Flame Spell, the building’s shape and the flame, made the monastery look like a candle. It was known as The Order of the Silver Crescent, this building was the Waxing Moon. As it was known, through their Silver Sages that inhabit it, the Silver Flame resembled knowledge shared that empowered those that learned it to become aflame, but what color the hues would dance to depend on the flame that resides within. She would speak of a discovery she had made. A meeting of two other Dragons, if it was odd for Vhena and Cryovain to coexist in the same space, what about Dragons that talk to and ally with each other? Atop the monastery, near that silvered flame and within it, she saw the visage of one of the Dragons, and the silhouette of the other that spoke into the argent flames. She could not hear the form of the silhouette, its voice being carried by the wind, but the one in the reflected fire had a voice clear as a bell in Reymira’s mind. A soothing sound as if a melody, but tinged with bittersweet news. The two Dragons spoke of Cryovain’s arrival, and that this Young Dragon arriving mattered little. They had reports from a Silver Sage of the Southern Waning Moon that the presence of “The Cult” to the South had spread. The visaged Dragon then spoke, tail fumbling about as if nervous fingers, but nothing could be heard from them, still. Wonder occupied Reymira’s mind as much as dread, and the icy winds were biting through her pelts, but entranced as she was, she stood atop the perch, still as well. In more ways than one though. The musical voice emanated into her mind once more. It spoke of other dangers, and said to the visaged Dragon, “Waves of chaos, shadow, and tyranny will soon reave across this coast in a way we have not seen since before the Second Sundering. Danger is coming here whether we like it or not. I will be in touch, Freika, and keep watch over our argent youth.” After sharing this experience with the trio, they lingered in the cool evening breeze of the night that had long since fallen. Crickets chirping, rustling leaves, and silence amidst Reymira’s rest to her tale. Zelana surmised that what she might be talking about is a Lauth, or a group of Dragons, but those are rare enough in legends. Whatever the Lauth’s goals, the truth remains that many forces were at work in this region, and whatever Cult was working its machinations would soon be center stage on the world in one way or another. The walk back to the farm was brisk, but they kept pace and kept close and made it quickly to find that the Satyr and the Sprite known as ‘Balyfort’ had come back and taken all their other belongings. Each of them taking different corners, and Orlais keeping watch at first, they all get a Short Rest in, to head back to Phandelver (Should be Phandalin) at first light, well, ‘first light and five more minutes’ for Zelena whose sleep inertia had yet to catch up despite the nap earlier. Heading back to town, back South through the hills and wandering paths that Reymira knows - Cryovain, the White Dragon could be seen far to the Southeast, circling high and edging closer to the Western trail, but still a ways up. In awe, the trio looked up and marveled at the… Young Dragon, Zelena was able to tell when it was finished with its arc and went back toward the East with haste, but little else given the sheer distance. Reymira mutters under her breath, as they walk back towards town, remembering those at the Green Dragon Inn, “Damned Dragon Hunters.”