018_20250410

Notes

The party starts just when they arrive at the gate of the Palace of Heart's Desire. Next to the gate they find a plague with the following text

The lion or the hart must wear the crown.
But which one should it weigh down?

The gate is unlocked and the party enters. In the garden they find a pavilion from which several voices can be heard. They enter the pavilion and meet 7 people. 5 of which have a very big discussion about whether clotted cream should be applied to a scone before or after the jam. The party mingles a bit into the discussion.

The people in the pavilion are:

There are 2 others that are frozen in place. A male halfling and a female orc. Trying to move one of these people seems impossible.

In the back of the pavilion there is food on a table. Next to that the party finds a package with their names on it. Opening it they find the following items:

The party thinks this is a package delivered by Sir Talavar. 2 of the 3 items were requested by them to him.

The people in the pavilion say they are patiently waiting to be invited by Zybilna into the castle. It has been quite some time for some. They do not advise the party to just try and enter the castle. As that is rude. Even with the Rule of Hospitality.

They party however likes to find out what happened here so they leave the pavilion behind and enter deeper into the garden. Here they find a circle of 12 moss covered standing stones in a ring. They start cleaning the moss of these stones because they like to know if there is more symbols or anything on them. As there are symbols on the inside facing part of the stones.

They find nothing else. But they know this might be a teleportation circle. If you can memorize the symbols you could use a teleportation circle spell to teleport to this location.

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After this, they head to the west tower like structure that is in the middle of the garden wall. A stair leading up to a door is found and they go in. Within the building they find an iron lion. It speaks to them. Though it seems to repeat the same phrases depending on what the party asks.

“We and our counterpart were created as a pair to protect the gardens from intruders in Zybilna’s absence.”

“Our presence here means that our mistress is gone. Where? We do not know.”

“The palace receives visitors even in Zybilna’s absence. Guests are to remain in the garden pavilion until Zybilna deigns to grant them an audience. It is not our responsibility to protect visitors.”

“Zybilna created the crown as a key that guests can use to reach certain areas of the palace in her absence. The crown has two forms: one made of silver needles, the other of golden roses.”

“To transform the crown of needles into its gold form, it must be placed on the brow of the correct iron guardian. Which of us, Envy or Wrath, is the correct guardian? We cannot say. Placing the crown on the incorrect guardian banishes the guardian to its demiplane, along with the crown.”

“Once the crown is transformed into its gold form, either guardian can wear it without being banished. Certain doors inside the palace become unlocked or locked, depending on which guardian wears the golden crown.”

They decide to go towards the other building on the east side of the garden wall. The door however is high up on the garden wall. But with a rope and some Flying clown boots it is easy work.

Above the door a plague reads "Wrath". They enter and seem a simular building but with an iron hart. It seems to repeat the same messages that Envy did.

Now the party heads into the castle via the other door on the walled section. The door is unlocked and they enter into a workplace where 5 goblins are frozen in place. Though they like to know more about the crown first. So they leave the castle and head back towards the garden.

After which they go towards the pond that is in the middle of the garden. They expect it has something to do with all of this. They are scared to touch the water, but eventually someone does. The fish in the pond gather and form a delicate hand made of water. Holding a silver needled crown. They take the crown but quickly notice it is very hard to handle without stinging yourself on the needles.

When they old the crown however it seems to speak in a gentle voice. It says the following:

The beginning of Whenever

The end of Ever After

The start of an Age

The finale of every Moment

The first in History

Leaf quickly find the answer. Wrath needs to wear the crown. So the head back to Wrath and put the crown on his head. The crown changes into a gold leaved crown.

After giving the crown to Wrath they go back into the castle via the door they entered into earlier. But this time they see a slender guy trying to stay hidden behind a cupboard. He is dressed as a butler and his name is Thinnings. The party likes to know why he is not frozen like the goblins. He was away on an errand and when he came back everyone was frozen like this.

He knows to tell that the League of Malevolence is in the castle to protect Zybilna's cauldron for some reason. Though they can hardly do that as Zybilna's pet the Jabberwock is curled up around it. Thinnings tells them that Zybilna is next to her cauldron to. But simular frozen in time.

Thinnings can't handle the Jabberwock, but tells that Bloodybeak can probably do that. Bloodybeak is a great owl that is kept upstairs in the aviary.

Thinnings is also able to tell that the League of Malevolence is searching for a unicorn horn. He has seen people from the Hourglass Coven use it to unfreeze people by touching them with the unicorn horn and speaking their name.

Thinnings doesn't like to join the party into the castle. He is skilled enough to stay hidden from the League of Malevolence.

At this time Osros turns to threaten to kill Thinnings. Because he does that sometimes. Thinnings is confused. He seems to feel that they are on the same page and doesn't understand why he should be so rude suddenly.

Osros leaves the room and Thinnings last but not least tells the party where they can find Zybilna and that there is another intruder that recently entered the castle. He is 2 rooms further up.

The party agrees to investigates that. Moving to the next chamber they find what appears to be a kitchen. 8 pixies are frozen in the air around a giant layered cake. On a table next to the case are 3 giant rats frozen in place. Out of one wall thick creepers with large leaves are growing into the kitchen.

First they look behind a door and find a balcony that leads into a center area of the castle. Below they see a maelstrom of dark clouds and vortexes churning. Above the sky is visible. In the center of this area a tower extends towards the sky connected by 4 bridges.

They go towards the room Thinnings pointed out where the intruder would be. This is what they see.

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This is where we end the session