The Sidhe-Lord's Daughter

The heroes are contacted by Lucien du Lac, who needs their help. His family once ruled Avalon, and in Luthon is the crypt of a family patriarch - a holy man - whose effigy weeps blood every thirty-four years. He needs the heroes to recover the phials of blood that have collected.

The Mists of Avalon

The companions are taken via Porte to the crumbling ruins of the du Lac family manor outside Luthon, where they are met by an aging caretaker named Felton. En route, however, they have a scare -- Julian is almost taken from them, and only through a heroic effort on Sebastien's part is he kept from being dragged into the mists of the Walkway. When he emerges, Julien has a series of dark, angry red scratches on his arm.

The Manse du Lac is largely ruined, set against a broad lawn gone to flowering field with the eaves of Durham Wood beyond. Soon enough, the heroes set out towards Luthon.

Smoke over Luthon

The Earl of Luthon's estate is on the same road as the Manse du Lac, and the players stop off there for dinner, reconnecting with their friend. Marie-Celeste and the Earl turn out to be particularly friendly, but eventually the heroes head into the city.

There, they see a pall of smoke - from this new invention "coal" - hanging over the town, as well as busy industry and many, many sailors as Avalon appears to prepare for some great enterprise.

Beneath Rosin Temple

In addition to being an old church, Rosin Temple hides a Rose + Cross safehouse known to Marie-Celeste, who sneaks the heroes into the crypts and past the patrolling Knights of the Rose and Cross. Eventually, they find their way to the tomb of Gauvain the Fair, the du Lac ancestor Lucien had them seeking, and they take the four small vials of blood placed around his tomb.

Lucien Missing / Into the Dark Wood

When they return to the Manse du Lac, however, Felton tells them that Lucien has gone missing: he was wandering in the meadow and then disappeared. Pressed, Felton admits that the wood is a fairy wood, and that Lucien was taken by the Goodly Folk, though he seems frightened of them. He gives Aleksei a cold iron horseshoe for protection if they are going into the wood.

The companions enter the wood, crossing a stream, at which point there are met by Wil Moonless, the shadow-dark, knife-thin majordomo of the Arl of Durham who rules this wood. After some interrogation, Wil brings them to the court of the Arl, which is surrounded by a large ring of oak trees. They shriek as Aleksei tries to pass, and he reluctantly relinquishes his horseshoe. The wood also aggravates Julien's wounded arm.

The Court of the Oak King

The ring of oaks contains the court of the Arl of Durham, a giant-sized tree-like green man who finally comes to regard the companions. He is not the only fairy present, however: there are many, including the boulder-smooth Old Man River, a host of beautiful lords and ladies, and a young girl on the verge of womanly beauty with seaweed in her hair named Meryth. Lucien is there, too, almost crucified on a living tree with roots running all around and through him. He is barely conscious.

When confronted, the Arl tells the companions that Lucien has been tried and convicted of the seduction and murder of the Arl's daughter; she went walking in the meadow, the Arl claims, and Lucien seduced her and made her mortal so that she died. Some questioning reveals that this doesn't seem to have been Lucien at all, but a distant ancestor - Gauvain the Fair's father, Gauvain the Elder - but that the Arl's law recognizes generations as the same person. Troubled, the companions leave the wood.

The Crypts of the Manse du Lac

After some debate, the heroes decide to seek out the tomb of Arva, the Sidhe-Lord's Daughter. It lies, Felton says, in the crypts beneath the Manse du Lac. As they descend into the crypts, they discover a disused alchemy lab, likely set up by Lucien, and in it a broken set of mirrors that indicate a mirror-ghost is loose in the crypts.

As the companions wander the crypts looking for Arva's tomb, they are pursued by the mirror-ghost: it almost claims Julien, who it seems particularly interested in, but the heroes eventually trap it between two mirrors in the room containing Arva's Tomb. They open the tomb to discover the skeleton of a woman grasping a grapefruit-sized acorn in her hands; the heroes take the acorn and head back towards Durham Wood.

Confrontations and Conclusions

As soon as the heroes cross the eaves of the wood the acorn becomes a young woman, so beautiful as to make mortal men wish to weep. She cries - she wanted a mortal life, and is consumed by grief as the death of her husband returns to her, a grief made worse still as the heroes tell her that she must return to her father (whom she hates) in order to keep her ultimate great-grandson from being tortured to death. She is resistant but agrees, out of a many-times-mother's love.

Weary and sad, Arva and the heroes go to the court of the Oak King, where his courtiers all sleep. They awake as the companions enter, and Arva confronts her father, who agrees to release Lucien. The heroes go to him as Julian turns to the Oak King and asks for a boon -- his hand to be fixed.

There is a great pause, and then the Oak King nods to Wil Moonless, who approaches Julien and asks him to take his hand. Julien does, at which point Wil Moonless slashes off Julien's wounded hand and arm.

Aleksei steps forward to bargain for a replacement hand, agreeing to plant a seed in the Azov Forest in Ussura for the Oak King if Julien gets a new hand. He does so, but not before vowing to end the tyranny of the Sidhe.

The next day, Julien is returned to the heroes with a silver hand and Lucien - barely functioning from days of torture - returns them all to Paix with effort.

Persons of Note

• Lucien du Lac -- A Porte master and associate of Philip du Paix.
• Roger Northrup, 7th Earl of Luthon -- Queen Elaine's foreign minister and a Knight of the Rose and Cross.
• The Arl of Durham -- Also called the Oak King, the Arl of the Wood is the Sidhe ruler of the lands bordering the Manse du Lac. He is a great giant of a tree.
• Wil Moonless -- The shadow-dark, knife-thin majordomo of the King of the Wood.
• Arva du Lac -- The Oak-King's daughter, she married Gauvain the Elder three hundred years ago and died a mortal woman.
• Meryth -- A beautiful fourteen-year-old girl/woman, Meryth has seaweed in her hair and the Arl's ear.