Terlalecyn Marthane

I can remember almost to the day The Lake Arya School for Musicians and Creative Writers was built in our town of Lake Arya.  From that day I wanted to be a Bard. To play music and tell stories that people would be enthralled by; that would be the life.  I was five years old, and even then I knew that that could never be.  I was the second son, and in the Marthane Clan the second son is always pledged to the clergy of Lathander, The Morning Lord.  My brother, Arthur was five years older than I was, and he was free to be anything he wanted to be.  The only thing our father, the Mayor of Lake Arya, expected of him was to marry well.  We have two younger sisters: Cecily and Elizabeth.  My mother died giving birth to Eliabeth.

I spent all my spare time at the school, following the dean, Mansy Staw around.  I idolized him.  He was an adherent of Akadi, Queen of the Air.  It didn’t take much urging for him to regale me with stories of Her exploits.   As I got older, I would do odd jobs for Mansy, he let me pick a musical instrument (I chose the zither) and he taught me as much as he could about it, even though we both knew my destiny lay elsewhere.  We planted an orchard near the school and by the time I was 13 I was driving a cart filled with apples to market every week to make money for the school.

As one might expect, my involvement with the school (and Mansy) didn’t sit well with my father, but he had other things on his mind that year.  Arthur was now 18, and my father had found a match for him.  She was a high elf named Miranda, the daughter of Valum Helvig the Lord Protector of Melinir.  The wedding was set for spring on the shores of Lake Arya.  As the ceremony drew near, everything else plodded along at its regular pace.  Two days before the wedding, I was making my usual run to market when a squirrel skittered across the road, I plowed the cart into a tree, trying to avoid the little guy. Apples went everywhere.  I jumped down from the cart and started picking up apples.  I was met with a gruesome sight as I turned back to the cart.  A leg was protruding from beneath the apples. A leg I recognized.  The leg of my brother. I had heard rumors that Arthur might have gotten himself involved with some unsavory characters, but now I had the proof.  I drove the cart back to town and solemnly reported my brother’s death.

The next morning, I found myself in my father’s office and to my astonishment he was telling me that I must take Arthur’s place at the ceremony tomorrow, I must marry Miranda, for Arthur, for the family.  In the hallway as I left I overheard my father tell a guard to arrest the dean.  My mouth went dry.  He thinks Mansy has something to do with Arthur’s death because the body was found in the apple cart.  Then I had another horrible thought.  What if he (or someone) had the body put there to frame Mansy. All of this went through my head as I sprinted to the school to warn my friend.  Thankfully, this was not necessary.  Mansy had already left town.  Somehow he had gotten wind of what my father intended.  He left me a letter on his desk telling me that he had long neglected a precept of Akadi’s teachings:  One must not stay too long in a single place.  “if I stayed in Lake Arya for too long, it was because of you Terl.”  My eyes filled up with tears.  “You must go out and see the world son.”  I found the address of a school that was out in the desert pinned to the letter.  I set out the next day to find it.

There was no wedding that day.  Neither the bride nor the groom showed up.

I spoke to many bards on my journey and heard rumors of a goblin and a Kordian Statue.  I don’t know what to make of this but it doesn’t matter.  Someday I will find out what really happened to my brother.  Today I go to the desert to become a Cleric of Akadi.

From the Journal of Refrus Revlis

Having had occasion to review Revlis’ account of our childhood and early adulthood, I can find very little to quibble over with his version of events.  Therefore I shall take up where he left off and tell the tale he could not know.  As Revlis said, I had been obsessed with finding the flask, so I burst into his room in a blind rage and demanded he produce it.  The next thing I remember I was lying in a bed and I soon found out that I was at the Temple of Kord and Panril Shortankard, the Abbot was by my bedside.

Panril explained to me that the monks had found a way to counter the Djinn’s magic (with Kord’s help) and bring me here to the Temple.  He said he would relate the full story to me in good time but for now I needed to rest.  I spent the next two weeks convalescing at the Temple.
One morning I decided to search for Panril, hoping he was ready to tell me what he had not that first day, and found him in the courtyard, tending to a small seedling tree.

“Ah, Refrus, my boy, I was going to check on you as soon as I finished here.”
“Thank you sir, I’m feeling much better and I wanted to see if you had anything else to tell me before

I left the Temple and to thank you for giving me so much help.”

“I’m glad your condition has improved….Now let me see…Ah, yes…I had spoken to you and Revlis about becoming Paladins of Kord.  Have you given any more thought to that?”


“Forgive me sir, but I was under the impression from what you said before, that there was more to the story of how you rescued me from the djinn’s magic.”

“And so there is.”  He went back to tending to the seedling tree.  “Isn’t this a beautiful little tree?”

“I suppose so.”

“I was thinking, if you like, you could take this tree to Threll for me.  On the way you could take two of our finest men and begin your Paladin training.”

I didn’t know what to say.  I had no idea where Threll was.  Sure Revlis and I had always talked about becoming Paladins someday, but after what had just happened,  if my best friend could make a wish that I never existed.   I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

Panril pointed out a bench and asked me to sit while he told me a story and I must admit it was a fascinating one.

Threll had once been a huge kingdom in the far south east that encompassed thousands of miles, but by the time King Ambrose had come to the throne it had been whittled down to not much more than a township on the edge of the Lluirwood Forrest.  Ambrose and his father before him were both devout Kordians.

“So, you can understand.” Panril continued.  “That we knew we had to help them when we got word of what had happened.”

“What happened?”  I had to ask.

“A rogue druid of the Circle of Desolation besieged Thell and killed all the vegetation in and around the now small township.  Not a tree, not an acorn survived.  I need you to take this tree and plant it in the town square.  When you do Threll will become consecrated Kordian soil.  When the tree reaches maturity the blight should  be ended.”

I got up from the bench went to the seedling and stared at it for the longest time.

“I’ll do it.” I said.  Turning back to Panril.

“Excellent.  Go and enjoy your day.  You and your two trainers shall set off for Threll first thing in the morning.”

I was so taken by the Abbot’s story and the life changing decision I had just made that I had completely forgot why I had sought out the gnome that morning.  Then  Panril said:

“You don’t remember her do you?”

“Who?”

“Miranda.”

At the sound of her name, all the memories flooded back.  He was right.  I had forgotten her.  How could I have forgotten her?

“I’m sorry my boy.  My men weren’t able to reach the wedding site in time.  The Djinn’s magic had already taken her   But we know where she is, although not precisely.  She is in the Feywild. “

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?!”  I demanded.

“I wanted your mind clear when you were deciding to follow Kord.  I would have helped you remember her whether or not you became a Paladin.  Now listen, there is glade not far from Threll with an entrance to the  Feywild and a court there ruled by Queen Pryozha.  She may be able to help you find Miranda.”

I left the courtyard with much to think about.

Cusler, Kelvan and I left at first light the next morning.  It took us almost half a year to reach Threll  and by that time I was well into my training.  King Ambrose greeted us with a banquet and I presented him with the seedling.  The next morning we planted it just where Panril had said.

The next sixteen years of my life was taken up with training and searching for Miranda.  As Panril had promised, I found the glade and I found Queen Pryozha, she was a great help, but I never found Miranda.

Over the years Cusler and Kelvan helped me put together a small band of Knights to guard Threll.  My training is at an end.  I am a Paladin of Kord  The seedling is now a towering tree, but for some reason the blight has not abated.  This morning I received word from Queen Pryozha that her realm is in danger.  King Ambrose has asked we, the city knights to venture there to see if we can help.



We call ourselves:  The Order of the One Tree.