A handful of brave folk traveled from distant lands to answer the King's call for aid. Despite the many roads through the lush forest, a heavy, eerie silence hung in the air. The forest creatures moved about with cautious strides. Everyone who passed through sensed unseen guardians watching them. Many noticed that locals stayed close to their homes and farms. The royal summer house seemed nearly abandoned. The Queen herself prepared a feast to receive these brave folk. While many were enjoying the fine repast, a ghost became apparent at the Cat Spirit Shrine; it was the King's Mage with a cryptic message about his death.

Saddened by this news, the King hastily held audiences with all who have come to help. In this renewed urgency, offers of aid were quickly accepted and promises of reward were vague. Distrustful of mages, the King sent his squire to summon all the mages for an audience while he kept the newly pledged around him.

Two mages held back from the rest bickering with each other; both were mysteriously silent about their purposes. Not even the threat of being skewered on the young squire's sword spurred them to the King. After all were gathered and waiting, they stepped forward chanting. A magical shield of light formed around them as they walked and soon also enveloped the King. As they passed warriors fought the urge to drop their swords; others stood unable to act. They mocked the King and announced that the strength of Mage Pom Flourmount and Mage Osten Greatworth could not be denied. They demanded that he reveal the secret of the Treasure of Pan-Tree. Each demand was more persuasive than the last. After casting a spell that tied the King's life to his castle so that would die if he left, the mages demanded again. Then it happened that the mage holding the shield of light faltered and fell dead accusing the other of trickery to keep the treasure alone. With the protection gone, the second mage fled, but was quickly cut down by the King's new allies. Neither left a clue as to the twins whereabouts, only a mysterious mark on the first mage's hand.

Then it happened that an Ent shuddered awake in the presence of the entire court.

That night, weary travelers retired to the tent camp on the royal grounds. As darkness fell, torches & campfire were joined by a fairy ring of lights protecting all those welcomed by the King & Queen.

The next morning, everyone filled their bellies with a hearty breakfast.

After a final plea from the Queen to bring her children home safe, the adventurers followed the roads into Pan-Tree forest. After an Ent spoke of three gnomes meeting terrible fates when a mage crossed their paths, one group discovered a gnome's home on the far creek bank. After a muddy crossing, they listened to the bathing gnome's riddle-speak about the gnome brethern possessing a key to the treasure of Pan-Tree for the heirs. The group departed with a little gnome treasure. Then they headed up the hill through stinging nettles and stumbled across warning signs at the bases of three dead gnome homes. Just beyond they discovered the keep of Mage Pom Flourmont, which seemed to be abandoned and unguarded by magic or man.

A little further upstream the grouped recrossed the creek where flat stones had fallen and scattered from an old bridge. Scouting back along the trail revealed a forest guardian and fairy garden. The guardian simply demanded to be picked up and once in hand, the holder was bound to the guardian's tower. The only way to break the spell was to make the guardian fall asleep. The fairies sensed the group's desire to restore the Twins and gifted each who approached with a precious stone from their garden.

Sometime after the kidnapping, the Queen's dragon friend laid a nestful of eggs. Concerned that royal home was unsafe, a group of fairies took the dragon's eggs for safe-hatching. The distraught dragon headed off into Pan-Tree forest in search of the elusive fairies. In an effort to help, the Queen tasked the Royal Dragon Tamer to find the eggs and the dragon, then bring them all home safely. The Royal Dragon Tamer started on Hawks Flight towards the Hawk Shrine to ask a gift of vision. Soon quite a crowd amassed around the Hawk Shrine.

It is well-known in the land that the Hawk Spirit rewarded the King & Queen for the realm's peaceful freedom with blessings of healing and vision.

The Hawk Spirit gifted those helping find the heirs with this message:"Unto my charge young were born, to guard evil from this land they were sworn, stolen away before this gift was bestown, to receive to together when fully grown.

and the Twins' crowns. Any who touched them saw through the eyes of the hawk: finding princesses' crowns in the mists of the island beyond the rainbow bridge.
With this news, the party dispersed in different directions.

Ookami Ryu, a member of the Order of the Fox, decided it was time to visit the Fox Shrine for his daily prayers. Edric, Kaziranz, Fairy and Gram Drake decided to go along with him after stopping briefly at the Rabbit Shrine. At the Fox Shrine those who ventured forth found this message: "To receive the gift of the sly and cunning fox, write name on paper and put in box with a token offering."

While Ookami Ryu communed with the Fox Spirit, Edric - a war priest of Hadur- took the time to pray to his diety. When they were finished, Ookami Ryu plucked a flower from the field, handed it to Edric, who was knowledgeable in the ways of plants, and asked if he knew what it was. He didn't know and the subject was dropped. Then the two followed the other three deeper into the forest on a deer trail.
Soon the meandering group saw a tower on the ridge and investigated. Hackett Baummeister stood guard and warned the group that powerful, evil magic built the keep. He pointed out the seven giants, ents, who were felled by Mage Osten Greatworth when they tried to stop him from taking root in the forest. Another nearby ent was tortured and stood silent with a horrific grimace. Ookami Ryu and Edric approached to question Hackett the woodlander, while the others circled around behind the keep. Then suddenly Edric collapsed unrevivable, the strange mark on his hand almost going unnoticed - it was the same as one of the mage's who died the night before. Edric's death urged the group to dispell whatever evil lay in the keep, but they had to get through the woodlander.

Fairy's attempts to approach distracted Hackett Baummeister enough to be caught by surprise when Kaziranz attacked. His magical, constantly-commenting sword, though sharp, would not strike a true blow (unless it was drunk, which dulled the edge) hacked the woodlander to pieces.
Apparently, Hackett was the last protection on the mage's keep. Fairy entered without incident and found a statue of a young girl. Suddenly they knew that it must be one of the prinesses. There was another statue in the other mage's keep. Taking this statue with them, the group hurried to recover the other one.

As the group headed towards the creek to follow it to the other keep, Kaziranz mentioned that he, with Jiacamo and Blossom, had dispatched the troll that guarded the bridge to Coons Romp Trail. Crossing would be quick and easy, as long as the Hag did not delay them. When the group arrived at the bridge, the Hag was nowhere to be found. Yet the beutiful maiden they encountered carried the Hag's gnome-cage and referred to the Hag's hobgoblin as her own pet.
During her ramblings about hunting "those dirty little creatures that Hobby finds so tasty," the maiden/hag pointed to a trail where she had chased a gnome, only to lose him in a tree. Despite the gnomes aid thus far, the maiden/hag was not enough of a threat to bother with killing.
The King's Squire (who had died and been revived several times) arrived with a local farmer (bridge troll in former life) acting as a guard. His presence was enough to push the group to quickly recover the other statue.

After taking the Princesses, frozen in stone, to the Queen, the Royal Dragon Tamer approached the group to ask if any of them had seen the dragon. She had finally found all the dragon eggs. (Apparently, the fairies had lost one and it took her the better part of the day to find it.) Blossom and the King's Squire had both seen the dragon and they led the group to it. The Royal Dragon Tamer presented the eggs and coaxed the dragon back to the royal home where she was warmly greeted by the Queen.

The Land of the Dead - the misty isle beyond the rainbow bridge - was a popular place to visit. The dead were given two tokens by the Valkyries who escorted them to the misty isle - one to pay the Lord of the Dead, the other to mark them as dead.

Each person who entered the Land of the Dead was given the roll of a die to determine their fate. Kaziranz managed to leave revived, but missing his swordarm. Some were sent among the living as hideous monsters. Others left as ghosts of their former selves.
The Valkyries spent the day following those who tread dangerous paths, collecting the dead and helping spirits when needed.

Jiacamo, Blossom the werebear-girl, the King's Squire and the Royal Dragon Tamer were quite busy during the day visiting gnomes, fairies and animal spirit shrines. They discovered the pieces of the talisman called "Death's Tears" that the gnomes hid at the behest of the Royal Mage.

They brought the pieces to the Queen, who beseeched others who came to rest during the day to help put it together. Many conjectured that precious stones from the Fairy Garden fit into the holes of the talisman.

Ookami Ryu took the task of finding the right stones to fit. Once completed, he delivered the talisman to the Queen.
When Queen held the talisman and the stone princesses were brought to her, two Valkyries appeared - called forth by the magic of the Lord of the Dead imbued in the talisman.
The Valkyries told how this incident had come to pass, then completed the spell to restore the Princesses...and they were transformed and fully restored.
The Queen & King were so delighted by the return of the Twin Heirs, that they decided to reveal the Treasure of Pan-Tree to all: the unicorn heritage, with all it's magical gifts and responsibilities to guard against evil, passed down by the Queen - once a unicorn herself, before falling in love with a warrior-turned-king.

In gratitude, the King & Queen also brought forth a royal coffer for all to share.

Out-of-Game Pictures:

THANKS to Joe for building the keeps, Mom (Phyllis) for all the excellent food, Robin & Dad (Jan) for planning & executing the game with me, and Ben for your reassurances & support.

Thank you to everyone who helped make the game happen by being part of it! Your travels were greatly appreciated and hopefully well rewarded by the experience (if not, by the loot).

Congratulations on hosting your own Live Adventure!

Happy 40th Anniversary!