One last song

Maybe one day I won't sing about you I'll sing a song about someone new.

Someone New

The cauldron sits at the heart of the Broch, a golden island in a sea of darkness. Actually reaching the fortified steading at the heart of Black Boughs is no mean feat, even for the Navarr. It lies deep within Brocéliande, and there are no roads to follow. The vallornspawn throng the cursed woods in spite of the Winter curse hanging heavy over the territory. The miasma coils between the trees, making every fight a potentially fatal encounter. The challenge of actually reaching the Broch serves, perhaps intentionally, to discourage all but the most committed.

In this case “most committed” means over three hundred Imperial champions and their followers. Every nation save the Imperial Orcs is represented; there is even a Freeborn hero come all the way from Madruga to explore the far eastern shores of the Empire. Many travel together for safety. Some sneak along shadowed paths, avoiding the vallornspawn. The steading welcomes them all. The heralds of Rhianos serve them their onion soup, infused with the rich power of the Summer realm. Then, as often as not, they leave the next morning. The influence of the cauldron, and the urging of the heralds, mean few can resist the siren call of the forest. The dangerous, monster-filled, mystery-haunted woods of Brocéliande.

Nothing lasts forever, sadly. The cauldron's power - like all things - must eventually diminish, and pass from the world. As Autumn lengthens toward Winter, the magic begins to fail.

A few late stragglers make it to the Broch in time to taste the last of its potence... and then it is done. The gold fades, and the cauldron is nothing more than a cauldron. After some discussion the cauldron is left in the keeping of the Navarr. It will remain in the Broch as a monument to the grand adventure of 384YE. The heralds of Rhianos have no interest in tarrying in the relative safety of the steading. With their duty to oversee the cauldron done, they are eager to join the heroes exploring the depths of Brocéliande.

Over t’comin’ season many of us’ll be exporin’ Brocéliande t’hopefully see a bastard vallorn heart - an eternal is givin’ us safe(ish) passage, i don’t understand it but it’s makin’ the researchers happy. The more of us that go, t’more we can find out ‘n’ t’closer we get to t’heart- Do y’want to join us with t’Spears of the Pines to see what’s there.

Travid Longest Path, Senator for Therunin

Into the Woods

The first order of business is to secure Elerael in the south and Boar's Dell in the north. The number of Druj in Brocéliande has been on the rise ever since their unexpected involvement in the battle against the Heirs of Terunael. Reports suggest that more of them have been sneaking over the borders from The Barrens in the months since. It seems to be only a matter of time before they establish a more significant presence. They are adept at avoiding direct encounters and melting back into the woods whenever they meet a questing knight or a Navarr scouting band.

Imperial champions receive additional support in both Boar's Dell and in Elerael. The Senator for Therunin has reached out to the Great Forest Orcs who also have an interest in keeping the forces of the Mallum from threatening their new home. They soon prove to be effective allies who know the overgrown paths of Brocéliande surprisingly well. After they first fled the Barrens to avoid enslavement by the Druj, many of them made temporary homes for themselves in Boar's Dell. They clashed from time to time with the northern Navarr, but rarely seriously. They abandoned their settlements here in 377YE when the Druj were driven from the Barrens, eager to return to their ancient home under the Eaves of Peytaht.

Their time in Brocéliande gave them some familiarity with the vallorn. That knowledge has only grown in the last few years as they dwelled in Therunin. Many of them have joined Navarr stridings and travelled the Empire, encountering abominations in Hercynia and even Liathaven. For the most part they view the vallorn as an unspeakable corruption. It is a horror that twists the natural power of the forest, creating a mockery of life. Hunters and warriors with keen spears, scouts with sharp eyes, and healers eager to battle corruption, join the Empire's heroes in the quest to explore Brocéliande. They favour the Navarr, understandably, but they are happy to fight alongside any Imperial force save perhaps the Dawnish.

The Druj are quickly driven out, their scattered forces no match for the Imperial heroes. The Mallum orcs are skilled at avoiding open battle when the numbers do not favour them and an army, even a Navarr army, would have struggled to bring them to battle, strung out as they are. That strength becomes a weakness once the Empire is able to deploy large numbers of small military units through the area, allowing them to scour the regions clear. Scores of Druj are put to the sword while the rest flee East towards the Barrens.

With the periphery secured, sentry posts are established along the borders. The watchers will stay vigilant not only for orcs from the Mallum, but also against any potential expansion of the Brocéliande vallorn. With the threat from the Druj ended, the Navarr and their allies are able to secure the most important routes between the steadings. They are even able to carve a few paths through the vallorn itself. Slow erosion will eventually close these paths again, but for now it is possible for small groups to pass safely from Elerael to Boar's Dell, or to seek the sanctuary of the Broch.

Thought the Druj have been quickly defeated, the green horror that infests Brocéliande is magnitudes more terrible and it seems almost impossible that it will ever be defeated. The miasma has lurked her for centuries condemning those who fell here to a macabre existence as husks. Some of these ghoulish threats show clear signs of having once been Imperial champions. The scions of ancient Navarr stiridngs and steadings swallowed by the vallorn long ago. Proud Dawnish knights who ventured here seeking glory, Highborn cataphracts and unconquered who bodies were corrupted by the miasma. Relics of courageous lives ended by the vallorn, some of them stretching back to the foundations of the Empire and beyond, are gathered from husks finally laid to rest.

The virtues demand that we face the greatest spiritual threat faced by the Empire at this time. We send Hazelponi of the Shattered Tower with 75 doses of liao to urge the priests of Highguard to support the attempt to reach Terunael whatever the cost. Let us pierce the black heart and thwart its malice.

Hazelponi of the Shattered Tower, Autumn Equinox 384YE, Vote: in the Highborn Assembly with a Greater Majority 346 to 22

Rage and Ruin

First though is the matter of the Heirs of Terunael. These crazed cultists appear to have forged an alliance with the vallorn, or at least found a way to live in unity with it. Many were once Navarr, although they abandoned their oaths and embraced the chaos of the vallorn. Their power was broken when they were defeated in Brocéliande, and driven from Hercynia and Therunin. The last remnants of the secret conspiracy hide in Liathaven but their time is done. Perhaps one day they will be a threat once more, but for now they are shattered and scattered.

Some remnants of their mad scheme still lie beneath the boughs of the deep woods however. Pushing into the depths of the forest, protected by the vigor of the Summer realm, fragments of their presence are uncovered. A collapsed steading, given over the to vallorn, but with signs that people dwelled here until only recently. A glade warded with Winter-infused stones containing the ruins of an encampment, surrounded by murderous briarspawned husks. Even a battlefield in the east of Vale's Lament where Highborn and Heir fought each other to mutual destruction. In each location, a handful of clues are gathered. A handful of relics that might provide some insight into the Heirs and their ultimate goals. Several of these clues point to a hidden steading in the depths of Dark Ranging. As the pieces are brought together, an expedition heads into the deep woods to investigate.

There they find the remnants of a structure, infested with husks and partially colonised by ettercaps. There is little sign that it is the result of human or orc hands - rather the living trees themselves have been woven together into a wooden fastness. An irregular, sprawling mass of trunks and boughs, undergrowth, brambles, and less identifiable things. Tunnels and chambers burrow and coil haphazardly within the vegetation. Vines twisted together into ladders connect a maze of cramped passages and unevenly shaped rooms. Here and there efforts have been made to make the place more unhabitable, but they have rapidly fallen apart under the irresistible fingers of the vallorn miasma.

Exploring the edifice is no mean feat. Powerful husks lie within, and a nest of ettercaps have taken over perhaps a third of the structure. As with the insect-abominations encountered elsewhere, the ettercaps fight with a particular cunning. They employ much more sophisticated tactics than any other vallornspawn so far encountered, working together to lay ambushes and lure the unwary into traps. The husks are just as dangerous - many of them evidence magical abilities beyond the norm for the briarspawned. The two groups do not cooperate except by accident but they make the cramped and labyrinthine confines of the abandoned Heirs of Terunael stronghold that much more terrible.

Adventurers from across the Empire gather in the Broch, ready to face the dangers of the vallorn like never before.

Those Imperial heroes venturing into Dark Ranging receive powerful additional support from outside Brocéliande. The Gray Pilgrims of Highguard are committed to the destruction of the vallorn, and the freedom of those souls trapped in its vegetative web. Highborn priests have consistently supported efforts to fight the vallorn. Now they send supplies of liao, healing herbs, and potions gathered from their congregations to those fighting in Brocéliande, and when news of the Heirs of Terunael stronghold spreads, they go further. Lay followers of the Way, committed to the virtues, leave their homes and travel north into the deep woods. Many are veterans of the war against the Druj, and of recent engagements with the vallorn. They offer both spiritual strength and practical, military support to the adventurers wherever they can.

Together, the adventurers delve the secrets of the Heirs' hidden base. The heralds of Rhianos warn against a dreadful horror that lairs there. They claim it is something not of the vallorn, but similar enough that it might as well be. As the explorers press deeper into the twisted structure they encounter the first signs of something else. Something different to any vallornspawn they have previously encountered. Tracks of something large gouged into woven walls, floors, and ceilings. Echoes of voices shouting or singing or arguing. A thick yellow sap that thrums with Spring magic under the fingers of cautious magicians. The source of this odd spoor is uncovered at the very heart of the fastness where a great chamber awaits. Reminding some of a cancerous wooden cyst, the place brims with Spring magic - a regio tied to that realm opens here. The first to reach it mistake the creature for part of the structure. Until it moves with terrible speed and lethal force.

It takes the form of a massive, twisted tree, dragging itself along on muscular coiling roots that also serve to trap and trip those who get too close. It has a maw set into its trunk - its body - full of splintered wooden teeth. It has dozens of coiling boughs - reaching arms tipped with tearing talons. But the horror of this murderous tree pales into insignificance when the source of the voices is made clear. Bound in the branches are heads - human heads. Some still bear the marks of Navarr tattoos on their withered skin. As the abomination moves, they begin a terrible chorus of shouts and screams. Yet these are not husks - they appear to still possess intelligence and awareness. They cajole and threaten the Imperial heroes arrayed against them, spouting the slogans of the Heirs of Terunael, urging briars and Navarr alike to abandon the fight and join them in immortality.

The fight that ensues ranges back and forth through the cramped interior of the Heirs' stronghold. The beast proves surprisingly flexible,sometimes falling horizontal and dragging itself through the narrow corridors like a dreadful worm. In the end, though, it is overcome. It attempts to flee back to the central chamber, but the courageous heroes stop it. With axe, and spear, and burning brand, they put an end to it. It writhes and screams as it dies, and the heads bound into its branches shriek along with it, and then it is dead.

After the fact - after it is possible to properly examine it - it seems that this is some terrible spawn of Yaw'nagrah. A herald of great power, sent by its mistress to support the Heirs of Terunael. The true castellan of their twisted fortress. Indeed, with the herald gone, the structure itself begins to unravel. The trees and undergrowth that creates the structure begin to resume their normal shapes - inasmuch as anything in the vallorn is normal. One final horror is confirmed by the magicians and physicians accompanying the heroes - the heads were indeed still alive. The heads of former magicians of the Heirs of Terunael, willingly bound into the body of the herald. There is whispered speculation that in some way they remained bound together, as well as to the horrible tree-thing that was their host. A powerful coven of Spring magicians, made immortal by Yaw'nagrah. but at the most unspeakable price.

As the wooden stronghold falls apart, the adventurers make an orderly retreat. The remaining vallornspawn likewise quit the collapsing fortification, fleeing into the nearby woods. The last remaining fingerhold of the Heirs of Terunael in Brocéliande is excised. Not only has a terrible spawn of Yaw'nagrah been destroyed but valuable lore about the vallorn and its powers has been seized.

And I hope it makes you burn.

Echoes and Abominations

Vastly older, more powerful, and more omnipresent than any legacy of the Heirs of Terunael is the vallorn itself. Even if Brocéliande is not quite the largest known – that “honour” goes to untouched Visokumo in Axos – it certainly seems to be the most malignant. Right now, smothered in Winter magic it seems almost quiescent. The vallornspawn are slow to respond to the intrusion of so many questing heroes. But as the seasons turn, they become more and more agitated. And the further the explorers push into the depths of the cursed forests, the more dangerous the abominations become.

For some the myriad ways the vallorn expresses its corruption prove exhausting. Husks, ettercaps, twisted beasts, predatory vegetation, abominations that bear no resemblance to anything familiar; the cavalcade of monstrosities seems to have no end. Many Imperial adventurers have only faced husks before. Here in Brocéliande they are forced to face the truth that they are the least of the vallorn's forces.

That is not to say they are some minor nuisance. The margins of the vallorn are choked with former humans and a scattering of orcs who have been entirely overwhelmed by the miasma and remade as something absolutely profane. It is a sobering moment to come face-to-face to an unnatural husk that was once a courageous thorn, or an ambitious questing knight, or a loyal soldier of the Empire. The vallornspawn husks hold a distorting mirror up to those who dare to push into the twisted forest.

The deeper into the forest the heros travel, the stranger the husks become. Perhaps, as some scholars believe, human and orc husks slowly transform over time into something more baneful. And there can be no doubt that some of these husks are truly ancient. Beneath the bark and the briars, there are husks formed a thousand years ago in the aftermath of Terunael's fall.

The motion to push towards the Heart of Terunael could take us deeper into the largest vallorn in the Empire than ever before. Priests who are accompanying this expedition who are able to do so, should take the opportunity to insight and investigate vallornspawn encountered as close to the Heart as possible.

Nathair Autumngale, Autumn Equinox 384YE, Vote: in the General Assembly 1256 to 23

There are increasing stories of encounters with husks that wield magic to enthuse or heal their fellow abominations. They turn the forest against interlopers, bending brambles to capture living adventurers, or exhaling great gouting clouds that sap strength and vitality. There are also more encounters with the rare vallornspawn hulks – giant creatures whose blows shatter armour or send grown warriors sprawling. Most assume the husks are the result of ogres falling to the vallorn, yet there are many more of these things than can be easily explained that way.

For the most part, though, even the stranger husks are predictable. They wait quiescent in the miasma until they sense the presence of humans or orcs, and then they attack unrelentingly until they are destroyed or the intruders are overwhelmed. Without this directness, without this headlong rush to silence the beating hearts of the untainted, they would be a much greater threat.

And there are plenty of other threats in Brocéliande. Multiple swarms of ettercaps nest in the deep woods. Chitinous insect-beasts with the proportions of humans or orcs seethe and boil despite the withering that holds the territory in its sere embrace. They wield weapons seized from fallen foes, bind scraps of metal or leather to their carapce with vines, and fight together with a cunning that far exceeds that of any natural beast. There is little doubt among those who face them that they are aware of themselves, and their enemies. They also possess a uniformity of form not found in true vallornspawn – no more marked difference between them than between any two humans.

Fortunately, they seem no more inclined to wander than the husks do. Not at the moment - not with that ubiquitous curse soothing them, whispering of the deep silence of Winter and the quiet season. But when a party of adventurers strays into their territory, they close around the trespassers like a beartrap, a noose of living warriors that ruthlessly, implacably, mercilessly fight to destroy those who have violated their invisible borders.

The Fruit of Loss

It might be a simple matter to avoid the ettercaps if not for the fact that without fail, they have established winding settlements of wood and earth around the locations the heralds identify as the gardens of abomination. There are half a dozen of these, scattered haphazardly around Brocéliande. Places that reek of vallorn and out-of-control Spring magic.

The ettercaps swarm near them but do not stray into the actual “gardens” themselves. Here the chaotic madness of the vallorn is manifest in every living thing. Everything unique, everything distorted and twisted out of any sane proportion, a fever dream of sickness and life wrapped around each other like murderous snakes biting at each others' necks. Those who penetrate the gardens of abomination do not emerge unchanged. They do not manifest physical transformations like the horrors that lurk there, but rather their nightmares will forever be shaped by the things they have seen there. Monstrous aberrations that defy classification, where flesh and wood seem fluid and interchangable.

Those brave enough to risk these pits of obscenity learn that each one is folded around a powerful Spring regio, interpenetrated and absorbed into the fabric of the vallorn. They also return with treasures; fruits of the forest filled with nascent Spring power. There is talk of sap that provides miraculous healing, of misshapen fruit whose rind grants anyone brave or foolish enough to eat it a burst of unparalleled endurance, or fleshy flowers whose juice focuses the perception of Spring magic to allow a magician to wield unparalleled power. Assuming, of course, that one is brave or foolish enough to consume them and draw on the vallorns fragmentary strength locked within.

There are no remnants of old Terunael within these places; anything that might once have marked them out as belonging to the former masters of Brocéliande has long since fallen into utter ruin. Nor are they the only regio in the forest – they are simply the most powerful. It is notable that there are very few regio within the bounds of the vallorn that are not attuned to the magic of Spring. A scattered handful at most, primarily aligned with Winter. Those explorers who find such a place note that the vallorn hangs back from the Winter regio. Although its spawn do not balk at pressing into such places in pursuit of trespassers, they offer occasional respite from the relentless horror of the vallorn.

A Power That Preserves

There is one other place, deep in the heart of the vallorn, that provides a sanctuary all of its own. On the outskirts of the vallornheart, less than half-a-day's march from the ruins of the city, is a grove of ancient weirwood trees. The heralds of Rhianos know of it, and it's rough location, but actually reaching it requires the concerted effort of dozens of champions. The vallorn holds the grove in a jealous embrace. Hundreds of husks – themselves among some of the oldest ever encountered in Brocéliande – throng in the forest around it. The approach is guarded by several dreadful, unique abominations – a riverbeast whose heads open up like tooth-lined orchids, an ape-like behemoth with four arms and one eye and venom-tipped spurs on hands and feet, a serpent with hundreds of raking taloned legs, and an almost incomprehensible creature not quite a translucent cat and not quite a shimmering crab

Together, the heroes of the Empire are able to defeat or drive off these guardians, and press through to the weirwood grove where they discover...

Peace.

The trees are untouched, the land between them pristine. There is no miasma here – the air is pure and fresh albeit tinged with the cold hand of the coming winter. The spawn of the vallorn press around the edges but they do not venture among the trees.

Something similar was encountered in Liathaven when the West Wood was cleansed of the vallorn's presence. Living weirwood, it seems, is anathema to the corruption of the vallorn. It provides a safe location for heroes to camp – as long as they do not become too complacent.

There are signs that the Imperial heroes are not the first people to find this grove – merely the first people in a very long time. The remains of old structures are unearthed, beneath centuries of leafmold. There is little time to explore them in detail – but it seems that there were half a dozen weirwood buildings here a very long time ago. Rusted pieces of iron, and a few scraps of tarnished bronze are all that remain of whoever built them.

Or almost all. The first adventurers to fight their way through to the sanctum in the vallorn find one other remnant of the last people to camp here. A squat stone monolith, carved with angular designs, standing alone near the middle of the grove. A singing stone. “The last singing stone, protected from the years and the malice of the vallorn by the voices of the trees” as the heralds of Rhianos have it.

There's no way to be sure how long it has waited here, or where it came from. Many of the Navarr heroes who visit the grove have seen something similar – but that stone is lost to them now. The vates confirm that it has similar powers, and against all the odds those powers still remain active. A true artifact of lost Terunael. There is little argument when the Navarr claim it. Discussions begin as to the best way to transport the heavy stone out of Brocéliande. A challenging task; those who undertake it are likely to be fighting vallornspawn every inch of the way.

The remaining heroes who have found the Sanctuary Grove (as one Highborn dubs it) begin to plan the final leg of their exploration. A base camp is estblished among the trees and the approach to ancient Terunael itself begins.

So many secrets and mysteries, so many hints, so little certainty.

All That Remains

The walls of Terunael are broken. Ruptured by the vallorn as it rose and spread. They were no doubt splendid once. An impenetrable ring of white granite girding the heart of the Terunael Empire. Back in their day, when they were whole, they would easily have been equal to the walls of modern Temeschwar. Now they are just a boundary marker, more overgrown rubble than wall.

Beyond them... Terunael itself. The city after which the entire Empire was named. First and greatest of the Seven Cities. The exemplar after which Hacynian, and Emrys, and Béantal Dol, and Liathaven, and Seren, and Cavan were modelled.

For the heroes of the League or Highguard who have made it this far, it is perhaps a little sobering to think of Terunael as a city. To see in its destruction an echo of Sarvos, or Temeschwar, or Bastion. To see the utter ruin that it has become, transformed by the vallorn and the hubris of its masters.

Echoes of its former splendor are all that remains. This is the heart of the vallorn, and there is no peace here. Massive vallorn-warped trees thrust up through what were once wide avenues paved with stone. Many of the buildings are gone. Every remaining structure is wrapped in greenery, smothered in ivy, and bramble, and less identifiable vegetation.

There is no river, but everywhere are pools and wells connecting to cisterns under the fallen city, fed perhaps by some deep aquifer far beneath the ground. Sadly, the waters are as infested with the vallorn as anything else, choked with plants and home to horrible hungry beasts.

A delicate task, the exploration of Terunael, and one made possible only by the power of the golden cauldron. Without it, the miasma would likely overwhelm all save the strongest. It is thicker here than anywhere else in Brocéliande, visible as a thick green fog that settles and pools among the ruins, as often as not hiding ancient briarborn husks. Or worse things.

The vallornspawn here partake of the strength of the vallornheart itself. They prove extremely difficult to defeat – given even a few moments respite they recover from all save the most terrible blows, regenerate severed limbs, and return stronger than before to destroy the trespassers. There is no hope of a direct assault – those who have come this far must move carefully and with purpose avoiding the beasts of the ruined city and fleeing if they attract attention.

Yet there are wonders here, still. The Terunael knew how to build. How else would so many of the cities' buildings have survived a millenium under the weight of the vallorn? There is plenty of evidence of white granite here, and mithril, and even weirwood. The aesthetic is not always pleasing to modern eyes – the Terunael architects and engineers preferred straight lines and squared corners to a degree that sometimes proves unsettling (even beyond the living horrors of the city). Streets and avenues are straight, columns are square rather than cylindrical, there are few signs of public statuary such as one might find scattered across a city of Highguard or the League. It is hard to believe that when Terunael was alive it was in any way beautiful.

These buildings had purpose, undoubtedly, but sometimes it is hard to tell what that was. For every obvious bath-house, or marketplace, there is a structure like the partially-collapsed step-pyramid covered in intricate, angular designs, its inner chamber is open to the sky, found a short distance from the eastern walls. What was it for? It would be easy to guess that it had some ritual significance but nothing about the building hints at what that might have been.

There's one structure that attracts particular attention when it is found, especially among the heroes of Wintermark who have come this far. It lies right at the periphery on the western side of the city, where it is one of the few that have survived the vallorn's crushing weight. The squat building of white granite with the fallen-in roof proves to stand over several underground cellars or galleries that have become home to a particularly vicious breed of venomous ettercap. The beasts aren't important.

What is important is that the interior walls of this structure are marked with familiar runes – Wintermark runes. Several of the heroes who explore here are struck by how eerily reminiscent of the runeforge beneath far-off Skarsind it is. Beneath the omnipresent foliage are the shattered remains of what might once very well have been a runeforge; and again those broken remnants put the explorers in mind of the ruins of Gildenheim Runeforge.

What is a building that seems patterned after a lost subterranean forge that many speculate was build by the mythical trolls doing here, in the heart of Terunael?

A mystery. And any hope of solving it will need to wait. The season is growing late, the protection of the golden cauldron beginning to falter, and there is one more thing to be done.

The Heart that Aches

Winter is nearly here, and with it the magical vitality of the golden cauldron begins to wane. There is one final chance to push on, the penetrate the greatest of Terunael's mysteries. The vallornheart itself.

From their makeshift camp at the Sanctuary Grove, a number of courageous explorers plan their approach to the centre of the city. To the immense trees that form the heart of the vallorn, where the miasma is at its heaviest, where the vallornspawn are thickest. Not to harm it – it is as beyond the harm of a handful of heroes as a mammoth is beyond harm from the mountain hare. But to see. To gaze on the wellspring of the vallorn, on the fountainhead of Terunael's folly, on the place where the Navarr arguably began.

No living brand, or thorn, or vate has ever looked on a vallornheart. Here, now, at the heart of the largest vallorn in the Empire, there is a chance for some at least to gaze upon the face of their enemy for the first time since the destruction of Miaren...

The Restless City

But what they see there – what they saw there - is not for me to tell. Let them speak themselves, if they wish. For now my story of heroes and horrors is done.

Brocéliande – Terunael – continues to slumber but its sleep is restless. Without the blanket of Winter magic, this great adventure would have been impossible even with the courage of Imperial citizens, and the power of the golden cauldron, and the unfathomable whims of the eternals.

The last of Rhianos' supernatural vitality fades as the Winter Solstice gathers momentum. It is time for the explorers to withdraw from Brocéliande, to think about what they have learned, to weigh the treasures they have carried out of the accurséd forest, and to wonder if the price was worth the prize.

Game Information : How Far You Go

The adventure inspired by the Regent of the Eternal Sea, has been a triumph. Imperial heroes have pressed deep into the unknown territory of Brocéliande and returned with both valuable prizes and hidden lore. After some discussion, however, we've decided to slightly alter the way we provide those rewards. This differs from the way the wind of fortune rewards were laid out, by reducing some of the randomness, and focussing instead on a key choice that every player involved can make. Each of the players who assigned their military unit to Brocéliande can pick one of three possible destinations where their character has gone - which in turn will determine which additional reward they receive. The three choices are:

• The Sanctuary Grove - if your character fought their way through to the Sanctuary Grove then you receive a wain of weirwood taken from the ancient site.
• The Gardens of Abomination - if your character went to the Gardens of Abomination or other areas of strong vallorn corruption they will receive five additional "chaos fruits".
• The Heart of Corruption - if your character pressed on to the Heart of Terunael they will receive no additional reward but instead get a briefing sheet describing what they witnessed, in their player pack at the event.

You can only chose one of these three destinations for your character - there was not enough time in a single season for any character to be involved in more than one of these three crucial fights. Either your character went to the Sanctuary Grove, the Gardens of Abomination or the Heart of Terunael.

Unless they email in, a player receives one additional wain of weirwood and is assumed to have gone to the Sanctuary Grove. Any player who sent their military unit to Brocéliande can email plot@profounddecisions.co.uk and request either the rewards for the Gardens of Abomination (five chaos fruits) or the Heart of Corruption (a briefing sheet of what lies there).

These rewards are in addition to the standard rewards below.

Game Information : Standard Rewards

The adventure in Brocéliande has been an unqualified triumph, and a great deal of treasure has been brought out from the vallorn woods. Rather than their normal production, military units that participated in the grand adventure will receive specific rewards. Thanks to the force assigned to this opportunity, a standard military unit receives 15 random measures of forest resources, and 17 random herbs. These represent treasures taken from vallorn infested areas, seized from the Druj, found in ancient ruins, or gathered by the side of monster-haunted lagoons.

Every explorer will receive a unique consumable gathered from the vallorn gardens. It's not immediately clear what they will do - there seem to be several "strains" of fruit - but they are at least comparable to a powerful potion in their general effect. In addition to their immediate use, farmers in Astolat, Casinea, and Mournwold have spoken of eerie plants and flowers steeped in Spring magic that grow in places the vallorn has touched; it may be possible to plant some of these fruit in fertile soil and cultivate them although it is toosoon to say what the outcome might be. More information about this option will be provided in the Winds of Fortune.

In addition to the individual rewards, each military unit has a chance to gain a share of a random rewards. Some of these rewards take the form of ribbons. These represent relics of fallen explorers; relics of the heirs of Terunael; and ribbons representing relics of the Terunael civilisation. In addition, 20 rings of ilium uncovered from the untouched vallorn-infested groves will be distributed randomly among the military units assigned to support the adventure.

This expedition has recovered valuable lore as well. Breaching the walls of Terunael and reaching the vallorn heart will reduce the amount of time needed for the Great Library of Hacynian to research the weakness of the vallorn - if it is built - by six months. The Navarr have also recovered "the last singing stone” from the Sanctuary Grove – it is currently under the watchful gaze of the nation's egregores, The Advisor on the Vallorn will receive a short additional briefing providing more information about the Heirs of Terunael, their understanding of the vallorn, and their schemes.

Finally, there are some unlooked-for rewards. The Highborn pilgrims who aided the adventure into Brocéliande have returned with treasures of their own. Every congregation that gave up liao and Synod votes to support the expedition will receive five random herbs gathered in the forests and donated to the priests by returning congregants. Congregations are not however eligible for a share of the random rewards.

Participation

Anyone who took part in the expedition into Brocéliande is free to create stories about what they did there in keeping with the general content of this wind of war.

Rhianos' cauldron protected the explorers of Brocéliande from the effect of the miasma. The vitality it granted means that there are no lingering traumatic wounds among the survivors. However, the forest was nonetheless dangerous. Any player who sent their military unit to Brocéliande may choose to roleplay that their soldiers were wiped out by one of the horrors there; in return they can e-mail Profound Decisions to arrange a different personal resource of the same rank as the military unit they have lost, located in any of their nation's territories.

Everyone who went to Brocéliande has drunk of the golden cauldron. For many, the roleplaying effects of doing so will linger until the end of the Winter Solstice. Anyone who sent their military unit may choose to experience the following roleplaying effect: You are filled with the vigour of youth. Nothing seems impossible to you; the more risky an endeavour the more it excites you. As long as you continue to roleplay appropriately, you will also gain the benefit of an additional temporary hero point. This extra hero point is the first one spent when you spend hero points. It doesn't increase your normal maximum, and once spent it is gone. If not used, it fades by the end of the event.

Finally, any unlineaged human who went to Brocéliande has been exposed to significant amounts of Spring magic – especially those who explroed the garden of abomination. If you assigned your military unit, you could use this an explanation for gaining the briar lineage. If you wish to do so, e-mail Profound Decisions at plot@profounddecisions.co.uk.

If you already have the briar lineage you can use this as an impetus to increase your trappings, especially if you wish to add flowers to your physrep. This increase can be temporary if you wish – unlike the normal rules for increasing your trappings, the impact of exploring Brocéliande might be temporary.