Rehash
In the Year 1400 of the Age of Faith, Prendor was in the midst of a civil war, known popularly as the Prince's Rebellion. It was initially led by Crown Prince Patrick, the son of the King. Prince Patrick revolted when King Harl ordered the destruction of the Colossal Avatars at Mount Aothlenn in Oldshire. He was joined by his brothers Prince William the Exile, Prince Edward, and Prince Gideon "Starlight". Other notable nobles joining the rebellion were Duke Nathaniel Gryne of the Courbonne, Duke Tristan Kierny of Oldshire, Duke Draco Furon of Pyraea, Duke Simon Bale of Mystria, and the Chancellor Othelius the Mourner.
In a horrific and unexplainable explosion at Mount Aothlenn, many of the leaders of the Prince's Rebellion were killed, including Crown Prince Patrick himself and his brother Prince Gideon, Othelius, Tristan Kierny and his brother Sean, and Sir Philippe-Emmanuel Gryne, the rebellion's most famous knight and heir to the Courbonne. Prince Edward returned to his father's fold shortly thereafter, as did the Duke of the Courbonne. The only territories remaining in rebellion as 1400 AF drew to a close were Pyraea, Mystria, and Oldshire.
The Castle of the Star
The children of Prince Gideon Harmonant and his wife, Lady Flora of House Bale, were many. Most remained throughout the early days of the rebellion at their home, the Castle of the Star, though the eldest son, Prince Jacob perished with his father and (it was thought) his mother at Mount Aothlenn, and the youngest, Prince Walther, remained a ward of the King in Larrae. The other children were: Princess Elissa, twin to Jacob; Prince Elias and Prince Josiah, twin brothers; Prince Lukas and Prince Oberon, also twin brothers; Prince Simon the Lame; and Gideon and Flora's adopted half-orc daughter Willa. When he heard of the Mount Aothlenn disaster, Prince Gideon's chosen custodian of the Castle of the Star, Sir Waylan Muld, imprisoned the Harmonant children in the dungeons there.
However, the Harmonant children escaped, and in the process learned that the man they thought was Sir Waylan Muld, was actually a doppleganger called Fradat-Nar, who was in correspondence with others named Zarthosht and “Lord Vareshna”. The doppleganger had killed Sir Waylan Muld and taken his place over a month ago. The Harmonants discovered the body of the real Sir Waylan Muld in the crypts, hastily buried in the tomb of his brother Sir Fletcher Muld. Fradat-Nar tried to impersonate the Harmonants’ ally, their father's kindly old chaplain Father Eldon Wilde, pretending to be a captive of goblins who were actually his servants. Then when it appeared the Harmonants might escape, he attacked them. But they proved more able than he expected, and Fradat-Nar was slain.
During their escape, the Harmonants found a portait of their mother that changed in an eerie magical fashion, depciting their mother's changing moods. This was their first hint that their mother had somehow survived the Explosion at Mount Aothlenn. They also found a mysterious glowing stone, the magical aura of which indicated an overwhelming power indicative of an artifact nature. Simon guessed from a dream he had that it was called the Eye of the Avatar. In their escape, they also took revenge on Sir Niles Kerby, the cruel knight that the doppelganger had kept as their gaoler, and who had brutally murdered their would-be rescuer, guardsman Brice Walderman.
The Harmonants were aided in their escape by the aforementioned Father Wilde, their mother's handmaiden Rowena Winterbrook, who aided the Harmonants despite her sick daughter, and a merchant by the name of Carter Longshanks who served in the employ of the Crake merchant family from Wynt. Following Rowena’s advice, they chose to escape to Mystria, where they stayed with their grandfather Duke Simon Bale, a leader of the rebellion.
Blackwater Keep
At Blackwater Keep, the Duke’s feudal estate in the Mystrian swampland, the Harmonants got to know their mother’s house and its dealings. Their Great Aunt Amelia Wurshing, sister to the Duke, tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to arrange marriages for the young royals. Their Aunt Rose Bale, the shy younger sister of their mother and the Duke’s daughter who still remains a maid, was kind to them, but quiet. The Captain of the Guard at Blackwater Keep was Sir Grimwold Balrimple, a gruff, full-bearded man of great loyalty to his lord’s house.
They learned that the key to the Duke’s power was his relationship with his most powerful vassal, his nephew Robert Molrose, Count of Zendron. The Duke’s other sister, Great Aunt Magdalena, was married to the Count’s father to tie the houses closer together in an earlier generation. Their son James was living as a ward in Blackwater Keep. And the Count’s uncle, Sir Geoffrey Molrose, remained the Duke’s closest friend, and was entrusted to lead the armies of Mystria. To Princess Elissa, the Duke gave the sword of his daughter Marigold Bale, who was a Bladesister, enshrined in legend for her glorious victories over Altaran forces during Sir Philip’s War. According to legend, she was slain in battle by the monstrous Prince Trevan of Altara.
The Harmonants spent a great deal of time in the nearby village of Blackwater, at the main inn in town, the Blackwater Blade. There, they befriended the innkeeper, a dwarf woman named Helga Goldhair, daughter of Olga Goldhair. And they got to know the visiting Baeler of Mystria, Jean-Marc Aloinde.
While staying at their new home in Blackwater Keep, the Harmonants investigated a strange cult that was harassing the peasants of the village of Blackwater. The cultists were revealed to be orcs from across the sea that worshipped a strange snake god named Ethlyssar. The orcs had as a captive Prince Drenlan, a lizardman prince from the Horde's neighboring kingdom of Sauria. As Iokrag, the orc shaman who led the cult died at the hands of the Harmonants, he let slip his last word, "Willa...", which astonished the young royals (especially Willa) as they had never told him her name.
Some time later, a goblin army suddenly and mysteriously emerged from the caves under the Mystwood and lay seige to Blackwater Keep. The Harmonant children escaped from the castle using secret passages out of the tombs and snuck into the army command tent to discover an unsent letter from Garag-Nor, the hobgoblin marshal, indicating the army was bought by Sir William Grace, the King's marshal, without the King's knowledge.
The Harmonants then sought out and persuaded the Duke's nephew Jon of Casken, son of Lady Amelia, to bring his army to lift the seige. To convince Jon of Casken, they needed to persuade his vassal Baron Glen Griddick of Mawmouthe not to attack Casken while the army was gone. To that end, they agreed that Josiah and Lukas would marry Baron Griddick's hideous daughters Honora and Mirielda, a promise that has not thus far been kept. The Harmonants also learned there that Jon’s mother Amelia had arranged the marriage between Baron Griddick and his wife Mildred in order to thwart Jon’s interest in marrying her for love, and that Jon had still not forgiven his mother. The Harmonants then joined Jon of Casken in the lifting of the siege and routing of the goblin army.
A few weeks later, the Duke's allies from Oldshire paid him a visit. The Duke of Oldshire was 10-year-old Stephen Kierny, whose father Sean Kierny had died at Mount Aothlenn. With the young Duke came his aunt, Juna Kierny, another sister of Flora and daughter of Simon Bale, and widow of Tristan Kierny, the previous Duke of Oldshire. Also attending was the young Duke’s regent, Count Arthur Cannlen and his wife Gwendolyn, a sister of Tristan Kierny.
During their stay, the 10-year old Duke of Oldshire Stephen Kierny disappeared, along with the Duke's ward James Molrose, son of the Duke's powerful vassal Count Robert Molrose of Zendron. The Harmonants discovered a mystical portal in the pantry of Blackwater Keep that seemed to appear and disappear. They went through the portal after the missing children and found themselves in another world: the demiplane of Orbion.
Orbion was the realm that the Elf Druid-Queen Perawyn took her people to many years ago, along with the good faerie creatures of Aethe, to protect them as magic faded from Aethe for a time. The Harmonants discovered in the village of Winterheld that Queen Perawyn was ill, but that were she cured and conscious, she would be able to reunite them with the lost children and return them to Aethe. At the urging of her High Guardian Girian, the Harmonants undertook to seek out a cure. While searching, they discovered a dryad who agreed to point them toward the cure, but only on the condition that one of them provide her with a child, as was prophecied. Simon agreed to the bargain.
The dryad pointed the Harmonants to a hideous ancestor of theirs, Myrtle the Green Hag, who had been posing as a Bale family servant for many years until the portal opened. She had then slipped into Orbion, and poisoned the Queen. They discovered Myrtle had also poisoned the two missing children. Apparently, the portal's appearance was linked to the birth of one of Flora's children, and now follows the Harmonants around, appearing occasionally to allow them access to the town of Winterheld and to Orbion's more magical environment. The Harmonants dispatched Myrtle and cured Queen Perawyn.
Fully healed, Perawyn sent everyone back to Blackwater Keep, but upon arrival they discovered that time passes erratically on Aethe compared to Orbion. Their two-day trip to Orbion had been a month in Aethe. During that month, Duke Simon Bale had despaired of finding the missing children. The Count of Zendron had become very angry with the Duke over his son's disappearance and without the Count's support, Simon Bale had been forced to make peace with the King, and the King sent Sir Robin Bristolan to quarter in Blackwater Keep for a time to ensure House Bale’s loyalty.
Oldshire had fallen to infighting among the Counts. The Duke’s disappearance left House Kierny without an heir. Stephen’s maternal cousin Myles Hyllrune (with the support of House Plynell) and Count Robert Sithwyck had both declared themselves Duke and were battling each other for primacy. Houses Llan and Brywen had negotiated a return to the King’s good graces. Stephen Kierny and his regent returned to a single remaining loyal vassal, Count Riley Wythre.
Also, though not necessarily connected, the day the Harmonants had left, the Duchess of Pyraea, Margaret Furon, yet another of Flora’s sisters, lost her fourth child in childbirth. The Duke of Pyraea, Draco Furon, had viewed this as a sign and sued for peace as well. The rebellion in Prendor had ended, and the King was now seeking his rebellious grandchildren.
The Lyceum
The Duke of Mystria sent his grandchildren to the Lyceum in the Hathenian city of Suzergne to keep them safe in a foreign land, and out of the reach of the King of Prendor, and to get them an education in the meantime. There they befriended several other noteworthy Prendorians who attended the school: Adrian and Tancred Pendall, twin brothers who were the sons of the Duke of Archondel, Melodia and Beatrice Gryne, the daughters of the Duke of the Courbonne, and Philippe de Molliens, the son of a prominent Prendorian merchant family, and the dwarf Morgrim, who became fast friends with Oberon. Also while in attendance at the Lyceum, the Harmonants met (unknowingly at the time) their half-brother Victor, who was working there as an assistant to groundskeeper Ivon Bogue. Prince Lukas, at the Promotion Fundraiser Ball at the end of their first year, attracted the amorous attention of Ismerine Carnenne, the half-elven professor of rhetoric and composition.
Together, the Harmonants and their friends uncovered a terrible plot by the Implexor (Chancellor) of the Lyceum Charles Cavanaugh to turn the students there into an army of nightlings who would conquer the nearby city of Suzergne for him from the ruling Baeler Garnault Salle. The Implexor was using a vial of water tainted by a corrupted artifact to infect the students.
Upon confronting the Implexor, the Harmonants learned that Cavanaugh was in fact another doppleganger called Ainyu in league with Lord Vareshna, who had been dealing with a group of theives and brigands from Larrae called the Masked Martyrs, via their local leader Zela de Larre. They also killed his hired assassin Giacamo “Graves” Ganorelli of Treverac, who had murdered Mayor Anselm Laroque of the nearby town of Montmarnet.
They rescued their friend Philippe and several other missing students including Milo Haguus, Guillaume Gaulle, and Nathaniel Courve who had been captured by the Implexor, as well as the reformist Elosian Prophet Eric de Caember. They then helped conspiracy-theory-prone dwarven Professor Vermmond Haguus (Milo’s uncle) to concoct an antidote, saving the Lyceum and the city of Suzergne. Eric de Caember was grateful and he became a mentor to Oberon.
After the terrible events were over, the Harmonants learned that the corrupted artifact that had produced the Nightling water was in fact an Eye of the Avatar, and that it was high in the Mountains of Sorrow above the Dwarven mining village of Mirth, behind a powerfully sealed door called the Candlenox Door, that opened once a year, during the festival of Candlenox. The Harmonants traveled to Mirth, and got to know the town of 800 dwarves, mostly miners at the nearby mine Khad Markun, and briefly met the Lord Mayor Thrain Andorian.
The Harmonants traveled there and entered the door, discovering drow elves were performing terrible experiments in the caves there to try and find a way to use the corrupted Eye of the Avatar to defeat their enemy, King Nirikken of the dwarven Kingdom of Turingard. After vanquishing the drow menace, the Harmonants discovered the cursed artifact and lifted the curse, finding also another artifact after slaying the white dragon Nidhogrym: a glass tablet. Though Oberon had a dream in which writing appeared on the tablet, there was no trace of any writing. When the Harmonants decided to leave, they discovered the door had closed, and they were trapped for a year.
In the fight with the Drow, Josiah had died. Oberon was able to revive him using the powerful cure for Myrtle's poison, but only with the help that Prince Gideon's spirit was able to provide Josiah in the Afterworld. During that spiritual experience, Josiah learned from his father's ghost that his mother was not in the Afterworld, that she must be alive. He also learned that in order to find her again, the Harmonants would have to allow themselves to be taken captive by the Prendorian agents who would be waiting when the Candlenox Door reopened. They decided to do so.
The King's Court
In Larrae, Victor received a mysterious package with letters from Prince Gideon acknowledging that Victor was in fact Gideon's bastard son, and from Victor's mother begging her son's forgiveness and explaining that his stepfather had loved him very much, and that she did not want Gideon to be hurt by rumors of a bastard. There was no indication who had sent the mysterious package.
Princess Elissa was eventually married to Jon Algar, the Duke of Erodel in the neighboring realm of Altara. Her brother Prince Elias joined the knightly Oathsworn Order, a chaste organization of knights dedicated to the protection of others, and accompanied her to Erodel as her personal champion.
Prince Josiah fell in love with and married Anita Fletcher of Wynt, a commoner and exiled republican dissident. Josiah then made a public declaration of republicanism and renounced the throne, and the monarchy of Prendor. He was promptly disinherited and exiled by the King, whereupon he fled Larrae with his new wife, presumably to Wynt.
Willa has not been heard from for some time. She never attended the Lyceum with her adoptive siblings, but rather went her own way in an attempt to learn what she could about her true parents, who she never knew.
In Larrae, the Harmonants were reunited with their younger brother Walther, who had been a ward of the King. During the Prince's Rebellion, he had been somewhat a hostage, but upon the death of his father, the King began to treat him more like family. King Harl has been gradually lessening the restrictions on the rest of the family for the year they have been in Larrae, but they are still restricted to remain within the city walls of Larrae.
Although Prendor is largely at peace, one conflict remains. Prince William the Exile holds the title of Duke of Dryadern in neighboring Altara and remains at war with his father. Duke Thavian Melicter of Gloriana and Duke Dayne Turrant of Brascany have led an assault on Dryadern that has fared poorly against Prince William's superior generalship. Rumors abound of a coming reprisal by Prince William.
Simon and Oberon, in their studies of the arcane and divine magic of Aethe, have discovered that a terrible force is corrupting magic, and has been for some time. Spells cast normally have a lethal effect on nearby life, killing plant life and spreading disease and affliction. With some effort, these effects can be avoided, either by controlling and limiting the power of the spell, or exchanging some measure of control over the spell's effect for control over the corrupting side effect.
Meanwhile, the nation of Prendor is in shock over the death of Sir Victor Balroy, the King's chancellor and beloved bastard half-brother. The King's physician Luther Stills has declared he died of old age. The king will need a new Chancellor soon.
Also, the city of Larrae has been abuzz lately over sightings of goblins within the city walls. Not long ago, goblins were regarded as mythical in Prendor. But after the siege of Blackwater Keep and the recent sightings, people have begun to believe, and to panic. And to make matters worse, Tymon of Zendron, a popular priest who was an outspoken advocate for the poor, was recently cut down in the street, and multiple bystanders reported goblins were the culprits. The people of Larrae are frightened.
In a horrific and unexplainable explosion at Mount Aothlenn, many of the leaders of the Prince's Rebellion were killed, including Crown Prince Patrick himself and his brother Prince Gideon, Othelius, Tristan Kierny and his brother Sean, and Sir Philippe-Emmanuel Gryne, the rebellion's most famous knight and heir to the Courbonne. Prince Edward returned to his father's fold shortly thereafter, as did the Duke of the Courbonne. The only territories remaining in rebellion as 1400 AF drew to a close were Pyraea, Mystria, and Oldshire.
The Castle of the Star
The children of Prince Gideon Harmonant and his wife, Lady Flora of House Bale, were many. Most remained throughout the early days of the rebellion at their home, the Castle of the Star, though the eldest son, Prince Jacob perished with his father and (it was thought) his mother at Mount Aothlenn, and the youngest, Prince Walther, remained a ward of the King in Larrae. The other children were: Princess Elissa, twin to Jacob; Prince Elias and Prince Josiah, twin brothers; Prince Lukas and Prince Oberon, also twin brothers; Prince Simon the Lame; and Gideon and Flora's adopted half-orc daughter Willa. When he heard of the Mount Aothlenn disaster, Prince Gideon's chosen custodian of the Castle of the Star, Sir Waylan Muld, imprisoned the Harmonant children in the dungeons there.
However, the Harmonant children escaped, and in the process learned that the man they thought was Sir Waylan Muld, was actually a doppleganger called Fradat-Nar, who was in correspondence with others named Zarthosht and “Lord Vareshna”. The doppleganger had killed Sir Waylan Muld and taken his place over a month ago. The Harmonants discovered the body of the real Sir Waylan Muld in the crypts, hastily buried in the tomb of his brother Sir Fletcher Muld. Fradat-Nar tried to impersonate the Harmonants’ ally, their father's kindly old chaplain Father Eldon Wilde, pretending to be a captive of goblins who were actually his servants. Then when it appeared the Harmonants might escape, he attacked them. But they proved more able than he expected, and Fradat-Nar was slain.
During their escape, the Harmonants found a portait of their mother that changed in an eerie magical fashion, depciting their mother's changing moods. This was their first hint that their mother had somehow survived the Explosion at Mount Aothlenn. They also found a mysterious glowing stone, the magical aura of which indicated an overwhelming power indicative of an artifact nature. Simon guessed from a dream he had that it was called the Eye of the Avatar. In their escape, they also took revenge on Sir Niles Kerby, the cruel knight that the doppelganger had kept as their gaoler, and who had brutally murdered their would-be rescuer, guardsman Brice Walderman.
The Harmonants were aided in their escape by the aforementioned Father Wilde, their mother's handmaiden Rowena Winterbrook, who aided the Harmonants despite her sick daughter, and a merchant by the name of Carter Longshanks who served in the employ of the Crake merchant family from Wynt. Following Rowena’s advice, they chose to escape to Mystria, where they stayed with their grandfather Duke Simon Bale, a leader of the rebellion.
Blackwater Keep
At Blackwater Keep, the Duke’s feudal estate in the Mystrian swampland, the Harmonants got to know their mother’s house and its dealings. Their Great Aunt Amelia Wurshing, sister to the Duke, tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to arrange marriages for the young royals. Their Aunt Rose Bale, the shy younger sister of their mother and the Duke’s daughter who still remains a maid, was kind to them, but quiet. The Captain of the Guard at Blackwater Keep was Sir Grimwold Balrimple, a gruff, full-bearded man of great loyalty to his lord’s house.
They learned that the key to the Duke’s power was his relationship with his most powerful vassal, his nephew Robert Molrose, Count of Zendron. The Duke’s other sister, Great Aunt Magdalena, was married to the Count’s father to tie the houses closer together in an earlier generation. Their son James was living as a ward in Blackwater Keep. And the Count’s uncle, Sir Geoffrey Molrose, remained the Duke’s closest friend, and was entrusted to lead the armies of Mystria. To Princess Elissa, the Duke gave the sword of his daughter Marigold Bale, who was a Bladesister, enshrined in legend for her glorious victories over Altaran forces during Sir Philip’s War. According to legend, she was slain in battle by the monstrous Prince Trevan of Altara.
The Harmonants spent a great deal of time in the nearby village of Blackwater, at the main inn in town, the Blackwater Blade. There, they befriended the innkeeper, a dwarf woman named Helga Goldhair, daughter of Olga Goldhair. And they got to know the visiting Baeler of Mystria, Jean-Marc Aloinde.
While staying at their new home in Blackwater Keep, the Harmonants investigated a strange cult that was harassing the peasants of the village of Blackwater. The cultists were revealed to be orcs from across the sea that worshipped a strange snake god named Ethlyssar. The orcs had as a captive Prince Drenlan, a lizardman prince from the Horde's neighboring kingdom of Sauria. As Iokrag, the orc shaman who led the cult died at the hands of the Harmonants, he let slip his last word, "Willa...", which astonished the young royals (especially Willa) as they had never told him her name.
Some time later, a goblin army suddenly and mysteriously emerged from the caves under the Mystwood and lay seige to Blackwater Keep. The Harmonant children escaped from the castle using secret passages out of the tombs and snuck into the army command tent to discover an unsent letter from Garag-Nor, the hobgoblin marshal, indicating the army was bought by Sir William Grace, the King's marshal, without the King's knowledge.
The Harmonants then sought out and persuaded the Duke's nephew Jon of Casken, son of Lady Amelia, to bring his army to lift the seige. To convince Jon of Casken, they needed to persuade his vassal Baron Glen Griddick of Mawmouthe not to attack Casken while the army was gone. To that end, they agreed that Josiah and Lukas would marry Baron Griddick's hideous daughters Honora and Mirielda, a promise that has not thus far been kept. The Harmonants also learned there that Jon’s mother Amelia had arranged the marriage between Baron Griddick and his wife Mildred in order to thwart Jon’s interest in marrying her for love, and that Jon had still not forgiven his mother. The Harmonants then joined Jon of Casken in the lifting of the siege and routing of the goblin army.
A few weeks later, the Duke's allies from Oldshire paid him a visit. The Duke of Oldshire was 10-year-old Stephen Kierny, whose father Sean Kierny had died at Mount Aothlenn. With the young Duke came his aunt, Juna Kierny, another sister of Flora and daughter of Simon Bale, and widow of Tristan Kierny, the previous Duke of Oldshire. Also attending was the young Duke’s regent, Count Arthur Cannlen and his wife Gwendolyn, a sister of Tristan Kierny.
During their stay, the 10-year old Duke of Oldshire Stephen Kierny disappeared, along with the Duke's ward James Molrose, son of the Duke's powerful vassal Count Robert Molrose of Zendron. The Harmonants discovered a mystical portal in the pantry of Blackwater Keep that seemed to appear and disappear. They went through the portal after the missing children and found themselves in another world: the demiplane of Orbion.
Orbion was the realm that the Elf Druid-Queen Perawyn took her people to many years ago, along with the good faerie creatures of Aethe, to protect them as magic faded from Aethe for a time. The Harmonants discovered in the village of Winterheld that Queen Perawyn was ill, but that were she cured and conscious, she would be able to reunite them with the lost children and return them to Aethe. At the urging of her High Guardian Girian, the Harmonants undertook to seek out a cure. While searching, they discovered a dryad who agreed to point them toward the cure, but only on the condition that one of them provide her with a child, as was prophecied. Simon agreed to the bargain.
The dryad pointed the Harmonants to a hideous ancestor of theirs, Myrtle the Green Hag, who had been posing as a Bale family servant for many years until the portal opened. She had then slipped into Orbion, and poisoned the Queen. They discovered Myrtle had also poisoned the two missing children. Apparently, the portal's appearance was linked to the birth of one of Flora's children, and now follows the Harmonants around, appearing occasionally to allow them access to the town of Winterheld and to Orbion's more magical environment. The Harmonants dispatched Myrtle and cured Queen Perawyn.
Fully healed, Perawyn sent everyone back to Blackwater Keep, but upon arrival they discovered that time passes erratically on Aethe compared to Orbion. Their two-day trip to Orbion had been a month in Aethe. During that month, Duke Simon Bale had despaired of finding the missing children. The Count of Zendron had become very angry with the Duke over his son's disappearance and without the Count's support, Simon Bale had been forced to make peace with the King, and the King sent Sir Robin Bristolan to quarter in Blackwater Keep for a time to ensure House Bale’s loyalty.
Oldshire had fallen to infighting among the Counts. The Duke’s disappearance left House Kierny without an heir. Stephen’s maternal cousin Myles Hyllrune (with the support of House Plynell) and Count Robert Sithwyck had both declared themselves Duke and were battling each other for primacy. Houses Llan and Brywen had negotiated a return to the King’s good graces. Stephen Kierny and his regent returned to a single remaining loyal vassal, Count Riley Wythre.
Also, though not necessarily connected, the day the Harmonants had left, the Duchess of Pyraea, Margaret Furon, yet another of Flora’s sisters, lost her fourth child in childbirth. The Duke of Pyraea, Draco Furon, had viewed this as a sign and sued for peace as well. The rebellion in Prendor had ended, and the King was now seeking his rebellious grandchildren.
The Lyceum
The Duke of Mystria sent his grandchildren to the Lyceum in the Hathenian city of Suzergne to keep them safe in a foreign land, and out of the reach of the King of Prendor, and to get them an education in the meantime. There they befriended several other noteworthy Prendorians who attended the school: Adrian and Tancred Pendall, twin brothers who were the sons of the Duke of Archondel, Melodia and Beatrice Gryne, the daughters of the Duke of the Courbonne, and Philippe de Molliens, the son of a prominent Prendorian merchant family, and the dwarf Morgrim, who became fast friends with Oberon. Also while in attendance at the Lyceum, the Harmonants met (unknowingly at the time) their half-brother Victor, who was working there as an assistant to groundskeeper Ivon Bogue. Prince Lukas, at the Promotion Fundraiser Ball at the end of their first year, attracted the amorous attention of Ismerine Carnenne, the half-elven professor of rhetoric and composition.
Together, the Harmonants and their friends uncovered a terrible plot by the Implexor (Chancellor) of the Lyceum Charles Cavanaugh to turn the students there into an army of nightlings who would conquer the nearby city of Suzergne for him from the ruling Baeler Garnault Salle. The Implexor was using a vial of water tainted by a corrupted artifact to infect the students.
Upon confronting the Implexor, the Harmonants learned that Cavanaugh was in fact another doppleganger called Ainyu in league with Lord Vareshna, who had been dealing with a group of theives and brigands from Larrae called the Masked Martyrs, via their local leader Zela de Larre. They also killed his hired assassin Giacamo “Graves” Ganorelli of Treverac, who had murdered Mayor Anselm Laroque of the nearby town of Montmarnet.
They rescued their friend Philippe and several other missing students including Milo Haguus, Guillaume Gaulle, and Nathaniel Courve who had been captured by the Implexor, as well as the reformist Elosian Prophet Eric de Caember. They then helped conspiracy-theory-prone dwarven Professor Vermmond Haguus (Milo’s uncle) to concoct an antidote, saving the Lyceum and the city of Suzergne. Eric de Caember was grateful and he became a mentor to Oberon.
After the terrible events were over, the Harmonants learned that the corrupted artifact that had produced the Nightling water was in fact an Eye of the Avatar, and that it was high in the Mountains of Sorrow above the Dwarven mining village of Mirth, behind a powerfully sealed door called the Candlenox Door, that opened once a year, during the festival of Candlenox. The Harmonants traveled to Mirth, and got to know the town of 800 dwarves, mostly miners at the nearby mine Khad Markun, and briefly met the Lord Mayor Thrain Andorian.
The Harmonants traveled there and entered the door, discovering drow elves were performing terrible experiments in the caves there to try and find a way to use the corrupted Eye of the Avatar to defeat their enemy, King Nirikken of the dwarven Kingdom of Turingard. After vanquishing the drow menace, the Harmonants discovered the cursed artifact and lifted the curse, finding also another artifact after slaying the white dragon Nidhogrym: a glass tablet. Though Oberon had a dream in which writing appeared on the tablet, there was no trace of any writing. When the Harmonants decided to leave, they discovered the door had closed, and they were trapped for a year.
In the fight with the Drow, Josiah had died. Oberon was able to revive him using the powerful cure for Myrtle's poison, but only with the help that Prince Gideon's spirit was able to provide Josiah in the Afterworld. During that spiritual experience, Josiah learned from his father's ghost that his mother was not in the Afterworld, that she must be alive. He also learned that in order to find her again, the Harmonants would have to allow themselves to be taken captive by the Prendorian agents who would be waiting when the Candlenox Door reopened. They decided to do so.
The King's Court
In Larrae, Victor received a mysterious package with letters from Prince Gideon acknowledging that Victor was in fact Gideon's bastard son, and from Victor's mother begging her son's forgiveness and explaining that his stepfather had loved him very much, and that she did not want Gideon to be hurt by rumors of a bastard. There was no indication who had sent the mysterious package.
Princess Elissa was eventually married to Jon Algar, the Duke of Erodel in the neighboring realm of Altara. Her brother Prince Elias joined the knightly Oathsworn Order, a chaste organization of knights dedicated to the protection of others, and accompanied her to Erodel as her personal champion.
Prince Josiah fell in love with and married Anita Fletcher of Wynt, a commoner and exiled republican dissident. Josiah then made a public declaration of republicanism and renounced the throne, and the monarchy of Prendor. He was promptly disinherited and exiled by the King, whereupon he fled Larrae with his new wife, presumably to Wynt.
Willa has not been heard from for some time. She never attended the Lyceum with her adoptive siblings, but rather went her own way in an attempt to learn what she could about her true parents, who she never knew.
In Larrae, the Harmonants were reunited with their younger brother Walther, who had been a ward of the King. During the Prince's Rebellion, he had been somewhat a hostage, but upon the death of his father, the King began to treat him more like family. King Harl has been gradually lessening the restrictions on the rest of the family for the year they have been in Larrae, but they are still restricted to remain within the city walls of Larrae.
Although Prendor is largely at peace, one conflict remains. Prince William the Exile holds the title of Duke of Dryadern in neighboring Altara and remains at war with his father. Duke Thavian Melicter of Gloriana and Duke Dayne Turrant of Brascany have led an assault on Dryadern that has fared poorly against Prince William's superior generalship. Rumors abound of a coming reprisal by Prince William.
Simon and Oberon, in their studies of the arcane and divine magic of Aethe, have discovered that a terrible force is corrupting magic, and has been for some time. Spells cast normally have a lethal effect on nearby life, killing plant life and spreading disease and affliction. With some effort, these effects can be avoided, either by controlling and limiting the power of the spell, or exchanging some measure of control over the spell's effect for control over the corrupting side effect.
Meanwhile, the nation of Prendor is in shock over the death of Sir Victor Balroy, the King's chancellor and beloved bastard half-brother. The King's physician Luther Stills has declared he died of old age. The king will need a new Chancellor soon.
Also, the city of Larrae has been abuzz lately over sightings of goblins within the city walls. Not long ago, goblins were regarded as mythical in Prendor. But after the siege of Blackwater Keep and the recent sightings, people have begun to believe, and to panic. And to make matters worse, Tymon of Zendron, a popular priest who was an outspoken advocate for the poor, was recently cut down in the street, and multiple bystanders reported goblins were the culprits. The people of Larrae are frightened.
posted by Abram | 8:05 PM
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