A Prisoner Released

Glomdoring remained vigilant in their guard of the Traitor’s prison, watching and waiting as the Wyrd took its toll on His frozen form. Stifled cries and hushed whispers reached out to those who would come to watch, the only hints of life that remained from the Elder. As the days progressed, the contact became more frequent, and about a month after His imprisoning, He began to share words with those gathered. Manteekan maintained much of who He was, yet the Wyrd began to take hold of the Elder, visible in shadows of crow feathers that flitted over His icy eyes and vines that stretched outward from His prison rimed with frost.

Another month passed, the contact with Manteekan sparse, yet changes were happening. Viravain soon called the the Forest, eager to see the transformation the Elder had underwent. Gathering the commune at the Master Ravenwood, She reached out to Manteekan, who manifested before those gathered as a hazy figure that spoke in murmurs. The Wyrd had become victorious over the Elder, and He was bound to its power, His body still held within its grasp, yet His mind released from the prison. Viravain bid the Elder show Himself, but He refused, for He had been slighted by the very children He would awaken.

Understanding the importance for this loyalty, Viravain granted Manteekan His request and gathered the forest at His prison in the Wydyr. A show of His renewed strength, Manteekan called upon one of His own, a redcap named Bralki, to oversee His prison and to assist with the gathering of tributes. Many would come to assist with this gathering, including Daganev, Calesta, Tylwyth, Tarkenton, Athree, and Phulbelishi of the Glomdoring who were soon joined by Kethaera of Hallifax, whose curiosity would bring her before the Elder. The redcaps and slaughs remained stubborn, even while the barghests and squonks went willingly, yet at the word of their Awakener and those gathered, soon they would all come to pay for their disloyalty.

Pleased with the tributes, Manteekan appeared before all gathered, His form nothing more than haunting mist that settled within the air, His physical form ravaged by the Wyrd, and what was left it remaining bound in His prison. The Wyrd would not leave the Elder without a reminder of His new loyalty, however, which manifested in a noose of thorn and vine wrapped about His neck. As a gift to those who would come to assist Him, Manteekan bid His Bralki to sell a new fae, the squonkabonk, the twisted cousin of the squonk, to those who helped.

Glomdoring was quick to welcome the Elder to their commune, and Manteekan would just as quickly accept. However, what will having a Traitor within their pantheon hold for the Commune? How exactly has the Wyrd changed the Elder? Many questions lingered in the minds of the Forest. Questions that could only be answered with time..