A Gimble in the Wabe Session 2

A Gimble in the Wabe Session 2. 

The Giant Turnip

I had another player join, and he created Theolis a human ranger from the Southern Utari Tribe. We decided he was the blood brother of the other players father, and pledged to follow and defend his brothers children.

The party is now:

Tekka the Half Elf Warlock

Her Twin Brother Pasco the Half Elf Bard

Their Half Brother, the Man-Fey Bata the Druid

And their human “Uncle” Theolis the Ranger

After having been chosen to serve the Queen by finding golden acorns in their slices of Queen’s Cake at the King’s Day moot, the party headed north from the edges of the Maze-Marsh towards The Glade, where the Faerie Queen holds court.

On their second day of travel they came across severed rabbit heads tied to a tree, and while investigating the gruesome scene Theolis who is wood-wise and perceptive heard the oncoming attack of Kobold Scouts. He warned the others and they party engaged the vile servants of the Jabberwock. Kobolds are the lesser of the Goblins that serve the pale green worm of the dark woods, but they are cruel and employ sly tricks and poisons. The scouts that the party faced were decapitating captured bunnies and stuffing the heads with poison spiders to be used as sling shot. Two of them advanced with wicked blades and hacked into brave Theolis wounding him. Tekka and Pasco hung back and used the magics of The Archfey and the Song to attack the Kobolds. A psychically charged insult from the Bard, a blast of eldritch magic from the Warlock, and the swirling dual short swords of the Ranger made quick work of the blade wielding kobolds while the others rained poison bunny heads down on them. Tekka moved to a better position from which to attack the slingers while Theolis engaged another charging foe. With one goblin left, Tekka heard the cries of a wounded bunny but decided to  make another attack to finish of the foes. AFter defeatng the kobolds, the Warlock came to the aid of the wounded rabbit just in time. The party earned the gratitude of Count Roarandux servant of Prince Gultharion third of his name, Lord of Bunnies, Rabbits, Hares, and Keeper of the Great Warren.

In return for saving his life, Count Rorarandux led the party to a Elfin tree village called a gwel, and let them know that he would tell his liege of their deed and welcome them to the Great Warren should they ever venture there.

Standing at the base of the Elfin gwel with night falling, they sought shelter. Ruan the Elfin Moon Wizard agreed to welcome them and award them up to three Feeboo cards if the guessed three riddles. The Elfs love riddles and games, and without much deliberation the party agreed to play along. The riddles were answered and the weary travelers gained shelter and three magic cards.

Feeboo is a game of the Tulgeywood, players are bound to magic cards that summon tiny monsters and fight each other. The winners monster grows more powerful and it’s owner earns a bit of XP.

While the party was partaking of Elfin cheese, pears, and dandelion wine, Ruan The Moon Wizard introduced a gruff and seasoned Northron woman. The warrior proved to be Lady Haldora, one of the Queen’s Knight’s of the Thorn and sacred protectors of the wood. Lady Haldora told them she had been sent to evaluate those younglings who found golden acorns and to get some rest for they would soon face their first test. During the night, Pasco the Bard sang a song of the Southrons for the Elfs, and in return they let him read an Elfin scroll that told the story of the ancient Wizards on the Moon who used their power to become silver towers.

Lady Haldora kicked the party awake in the morning and told them of their task, a Fey farmer named Snoggle had grown an enormous turnip that he could not pull from his garden. They were to go help the faerie harvest the tuber.

“And be careful, the last lot of recruits were killed by a troll. Hopefully you will do better.” She added.

On the way to Snoggles farm, they found Bata the Druid who had been separated from them. While lost in the woods, Bata had undertaken a quest on behalf of a shrubbery. While they headed west towards the farm, they came across a porcupine requesting help from a cougar who was asking for help to remove quills from it’s maw. The party decided to help both on the condition that the cougar not eat the porcupine and that the porcupine lead them to Snoggles farm.

Upon their arrival at the dell where Snoggles farm stood, they found the fey farmer drinking yeasty beer from an earthen jug in the company of a mouse. He threatened to sick his grandmammy on them until they revealed they had been sent by a Knight of the Thorn and he became gracious.

The turnip did indeed prove to enormous, and after trying brute force, clever tricks, and magic spells it would not budge. The mouse derided their efforts. Finally they recruited Snoggle and all his family including the ferocious grandmammy and it almost came out of the loam. The mouse continued to laugh and Bata threatened it until it too agreed to help. With all the party, the farmer, his wife and daughter, the grandmammy and the mouse pulling, the turnip finally came free.

Apparently the players had never read this story… which is OK because I added a twist.

Holding onto the bottom of the inappropriately large root vegetable was an angry scarecrow who stared at them malevolently and then slashed at them with wicked claws. Farmer Snoogle cried “that he’d a known that scarecrow weren't buried deep enough!” Tekka having used up her spells trying to free the turnip took to cover and began blasting it with her cantrips. Theolis bravely charged with swords, though they seemed to do little damage to the creature. Pasco inspired his half brother Bata with Bardic song. And Bata used his Druidic powers to make his club a magic shillelagh and proceeded to beat the animated scarecrow back to dust and straw.

After defeating the scarecrow, they spied a hole in the turnip patch that appeared to lead down into an underground structure. Tekka immediately jumped in and the party followed after securing a rope to the turnip for a route back to the surface. Once In the darkness they realized they were in fact inside a buried stone structure, and finding a locked door wisely decided to rest for a bit before proceeding. It had been a long day after all. A grateful farmer Snoogle welcomed them into his diminutive home and they passed the night eating and drinking in comfort. In gratitude for helping him with the turnip and defeating the scarecrow Snoggle presented them with an ancient and pitted silver dagger he had unearthed in his field.

I was extremely proud of my characters for literally jumping at what they took to be a dungeon entrance. Perhaps a bit of the old school is rubbing off… they even exercised caution once inside.

The next morning, Lady Haldora arrived with a wagon to take the gigantic turnip to the Queen. After hearing of the scarecrow from the farmer she asked the party to explore underground and try and determine from where it came. They descended into the earth again. The underground structure proved to be the crumbling  basement of an ancient and tumbled tower of the Kingdom of Clubs. The first men to live in the Tulgeywood. Bata opened the locked door with thieves tools, he had been raised a sneak and the dilapidated mechanism proved no match. Inside, were three more doors one of which was guarded by skeleton sentries wearing the armor of the first men. The skeletons seemed oblivious so the party tried a different door inside of which they found a similar room to the first, partially collapsed and covered in earth and rock. Examining the collapsed rubble Tekka poked a grey ooze with her spear. Everyone backed off except Bata, who shillelagh’d  it into little gelatinous bits until it was no more. Inside the ooze they found a key. They used this key to open the remaining unguarded door. In this room stood a wight, an old Club warrior somehow animated by evil.

Theolis the Ranger fearlessly jumped into the pit with the Wight and attacked it with swords that did nothing… The Wight drew a black longbow and felled Tekka with a single shot. Pasco inspired Bata who jumped into the pit swinging his magic shillelagh. Theolis changed his tactics and attacked with the silver dagger gifted by Snoggle. The Wight, consumed with hatred for life and wary of the dagger reached out with malice and drained the Ranger who was wounded and reduced in vitality. Pasco then revived Tekka with a Cure Wounds spell, and Tekka blasted the Wight with Witchbolt. An arc of blue lightning running from her to the creature. Between the shillelagh and the witch bolt, the Wight was destroyed before it could successfully drain someone else. The party took its evil weapons and decided they needed to rest before opening the last door.

I was a little nervous about the Wight but between three spell casters reliably doing damage every round and a Ranger to soak some damage it went well. The Wights Life Drain is a nasty attack and good alternative to level drain. Tekka was reduced to -2 HP, a condition which in any of my other D&D games would have required a save vs death at -2 but alas this is 5e and she was easily brought back into the fight with a cure spell. Had she not been saved, she still would have had to fail three saving throws... I'm very much on the fence about this level of "carebearness" in 5e.

Farmer Snoogle’s hospitality was uncertain until Pasco entertained him and his family with a song. They spent another night with the Fey farmers, and on the morn descended into the ruined tower again. The remaining door was flanked by skeletal guards who seemed to just watch them passively. After discussing the possibility of ignoring them, Bata suggested that no animated skeleton was friendly and the party decided to attack. Quickly smashing the guards the door was opened to reveal more skeletal sentries , now hostile and guarding a treasure. Pasco took an unlucky stab in the melee, but the animated club soldiers proved no match for Theolis’ swords and Bata’s shillelagh.

The players who are veterans of many dungeons tactfully used a doorway and quickly figured out that the ready action could be used to pulverize any skeletons that came through.

The chest was dutifully plundered revealing a modest clutch of moonstones, two scrolls and a potion. The party returned to the surface having cleared the remains of the old cellar of any reanimated evil. Something had caused farmers Snoggles scarecrow to come to life, and possessed the decaying remains of the club men, but what? Some darkness seems to have invaded the Tulgeywood, can our brave hero's discover the source and stop it? Will they get more cheese along the way?

Tossing The Weasel

The faerie folk of the Tulgeywood are fond of games and take the outcomes of contest very seriously. Magic treasures, homes, even children are commonly wagered between the Fey. It is considered to be good form to make up a game on the spot, but there are a handful of games that the faerie folk often play.

Hide and Seek – A point is selected for a base, here the seeker closes their eyes and counts to 60 (ten rounds) during this time the hiders conceal themselves. The seeker then attempts to find the hiders who may either stay hidden (passive perception versus passive hiding) or attempt to sneak to the base (active sneak versus active perception).  The number of rounds away from the base (1-6) that a hider has concealed themselves adds to their hiding rolls, but also indicates how many sneak checks must be made to reach the base. If a hider can reach the base before the seeker finds one hider, then the hiders win. If the seeker finds a hider before one reaches the base then the seeker wins.

Toss the Weasel – Two baskets are stuffed with five weasels that have been drugged with the pollen of the drowsyflowsy and one that has been insulted to the point of indignation. Each player straps a basket to their head. Players take turn reaching into their own basket and tossing a weasel into the other player’s basket. The first player to miss the toss or grab the irate weasel loses the game. 1 in 6 chance of grabbing the irate weasel, decreasing in odds as sleepy weasels are tossed. The others players basket has an AC equal to 10 plus the others players DEX modifier +1.

The Name Game – Two player’s trade insults until one of them is genuinely offended. A player can absorb a number of insults equal to their WIS modifier. Insults after this point require a WIS save vs DC 8 plus the opponents CHA and proficiency bonus. A failed save indicates the insulted takes offense and loses the game.

Feeboo –Prince Doog is the Fey Lord of Toys, he crafts tiny magical monster cards called Feeboo. Any Fey worth its sparkle will have one. Feeboo players pit their monsters against each other. The winning monster will absorb strength from the loser and become more powerful. Feeboo players are magically bound to their cards, and a successful monster shares some of its power with its owner. The current Feeboo champion is Sir Kewish the Thorn Knight, and his Tanari Feeboo Warble.

Feeboo cannot be purchased or bartered for; they can only be given as gifts. Once given a Feeboo is bound to its owner and will not function outside of their presence. They take the form of a small golden placard until they are played and then the placard transforms into a tiny and adorable monster.

New Feeboo transform into a random CR 1/8 monster from the Monster Manual. Play involves combat within a 100 ft circle (scaled to the size of the tiny monsters of course). The winner absorbs the CR rating of the loser, adding to its own rating and subtracting from the loser. If this allows it to advance a step (from 1/8 to ¼ to ½ to 1 to 2 etc…) then the Feeboo transforms into a random monster with a matching CR. The loser also transforms randomly into a lesser CR monster. If the losing Feeboo is CR 1/8 and goes to 0 it is permanently destroyed.

The winning player of a Feebo match earns 1/10th of the XP that would be gained from defeating the opposing monster.

Players that have lost a monster do not lose the card. They may use it to summon a new monster but it is hesitant to fight. In the first round it loses initiative, and makes attack rolls at a disadvantage. After the first round it fights normally.

Goat Jousting – The knights and nobles of the Queen's court relish in the joust. Wargoats are bred and trained just for the purpose of carrying armored knights in the tilts. Jousting uses the rules found in Chainmail.

Wrestling – Though not a common among the Fey, the animal denizens of the wood love to wrestle and everyone wrestles on King’s Day in honor of the fallen Beast King. Wrestling uses the grapple rules, once an opponent is grappled the use of the throw maneuver will pin them. Weapons are not allowed in wrestling matches, but biting, kicking, and clawing are all acceptable maneuvers for the contestant that might be grappled. (Rather than trying to escape the grapple via another grapple check.)

Smashy-Face – The Northrons play a game of sorts. Two contestants are stripped naked and have their favored arm tied together with their opponents. They are then given padded clubs that do 1d6 subdual damage. Each contestant attacks at a disadvantage and gets no AC benefit from dexterity. Whoever knocks their opponent to unconsciousness first is the winner.

Swamp Hen - The Southrons play a game of contesting willpower. Two players face each other ten feet apart armed with spear and shield. They throw spears at each other until one player surrenders. The loser is taunted as a swamp hen.

You return to the party with magnificent facial hair.

Absent Characters

I run a game on Roll20 every Saturday night. My players are all adults; they have careers, and most of them have kids. I understand that not everyone will make every game, and I don’t pressure anyone to prioritize role playing over real life, and especially over family. I get it, I am a husband and father and sometimes you just can’t give up 4-6 hours on a weekend night.

Absent players can be a problem however. I have tried in the past to build campaigns structured in such a way that allow room for a player to not be present, but their character to still be accounted for. Sometimes we assume they are present but just off camera. If the fiction allows it they may be off doing something else or somehow incapacitated. A good friend of mine runs AD&D 2E  and when a player is absent (or even away from the table) they are considered to be swallowed into a negative energy matrix, re-emerging when they rejoin the game.  In my western game Last Pale Light, an absent player can even earn XP if they let us know this is what their character is going to be doing.

I have on occasion had to put certain plot elements on hold, or planned stories and encounters that involve one character and never used the elements because the player was absent. This is how it goes; I cannot worry too much about it, especially when running a game every week.

I do like concrete mechanics accounting for absent characters however. The negative energy matrix might be a bit meta for A Gimble in the Wabe. So in true D&D fashion I’ve come up with a random d12 table.

Lost in the Woods

When a player is absent, the character is assumed to be lost in the woods. The very plants of the Tulgeywood are sentient, and the forest is full of mischievous animals, faeries and other creatures. Sometimes the trees lead you down a path you didn’t expect. When the player returns to the game, they roll on the following chart to determine what happened to the character while they were lost.

What happened when you were lost in the woods? Roll 1d12

1	You have no idea, but you have lost your shoes and your pockets are full of moss.
2	You got into an angry and misguided bet with a raccoon haberdasher. Make a CHA save vs DC 10 plus your proficiency bonus. Failure means you have lost your hat or helmet. Success means you now have a sweet coon-skin cap.
3	You woke up underneath a magic tree covered in the sticky juice of its fruit. Make a CON save vs DC 10 plus your proficiency bonus. Failure means you age 2d6 years. Success means you now have 1d6 pieces of magic fruit. When eaten make the CON save again; fail and age 2d6 years succeed and the fruit grants the benefit of a long rest.
4	You return to the party with magnificent facial hair. If you already had facial hair, it’s gone.
5	While you wandered the woods a finch fell in love with you. It will follow you until the end of the next adventure. It will do anything you ask but it cannot stop twittering its devotion to you, making it hard to sneak or hide.
6	You fought in a battle between the forces of the Hart and the Cougar. Roll 1d6. 1-2 you fought for the Hart Army, 3-4 the Cougar. 5 you were simply caught in the middle. 6 is your choice. Make a STR save vs DC 10 plus your proficiency bonus. Success means you gain your proficiency bonus x 100 XP. Failure means you return to the party with 1 HP.
7	You were seduced by a faerie. Decide if you want to make babies then make a DEX save vs DC 10 plus your proficiency bonus. Success means you get your choice, failure the opposite occurs.
8	In your wanderings you came across a flower that changes your gender when eaten. You must eat it, make a choice.
9	You found an amazing clump of peat. Squeezing it in your hands while reciting a couplet about a mundane item or weapon will make the object appear. The peat only works once.
10	You danced with the Fey for what seemed like years. If only you could remember what happened. Make a WIS save vs DC 10 plus your proficiency bonus. Success means you gain your proficiency bonus x 100 XP. Failure means you can’t remember a thing.
11	You were tricked by Brownies into harvesting mushrooms. Roll three times on the mushroom table and gain one dose of each result.
12	You undertook a quest on behalf of an earnest shrubbery. Gain one random magic item appropriate to your level.

Once upon a time ...

Last Saturday we started our 5e game in the faerie tale world of the Tulgeywood (renamed from the Alfenwood because Jabberwocky). I had three players show up and we spent most of the evening making characters. I want to do session recaps on the blog like I did for our Ravenloft game, it’s good for me as a DM to remember what happened and it’s fun to go back and read about the campaign afterwards.  This will hopefully be the first of many posts following the party as they fight the sinister forces of the Goblin Wood.

The purpose of the game is to play with the 5e rules and explore a bit of High Fantasy, a realm to which I seldom venture. In this world, good and evil are very real things. Goodness embodied by the Faerie Queen, and Evil by the Jabberwock. The characters are expected to serve the Faerie Queen. I am trying to hew as closely to 5e as written, but I had to limit races, classes and make up my own backgrounds to to fit the setting. Determining how well 5e holds up to homebrewing/houseruling is part of the purpose as well.

In the recaps I will make comments on the action and game (probably using my curmudgeonly old school voice) which will be denoted by italics.

Session One

Character Creation

I made a players guide for the Tulgeywood that includes races, classes, backgrounds and some information on the setting.
A Gimble in the Wabe Player's Guide Google Doc

The party so far consists of:

Tekka the Warlock (Tim)

Tekka is the Half-Elf daughter of Isonash a Southron Hunter and Sennara the Elf Maiden. She has a twin brother named Pasco. As a young child, Tekka was raised by her mother in an Elfin gwel. The Elfs recognized her potential for magic and encouraged her to make a pact with the Archfey, the spirit of the Tulgeywood. After she made the pact and completed her Elfin education, she returned to the Maze Marsh and spent her youth hunting and learning the ways of the Utari in the company of her human father. Tekka has not yet undergone the Utari rite of passage to become a woman and his still considered a child.

Pasco the Bard (Drew)

Pasco is the twin brother of Tekka, son of Isonash the Man and Sennara the Elf. He spent his childhood with the Elfs and displayed an aptitude for learning and music. They taught him to sing the ancient Moon Songs and the history of the Tulgeywood. Once grown, he returned to the Maze Marsh with his sister, and lived amongst the Utari storytellers. From them he learned to play instruments and perform the stories that tell the history of the Southrons. Pasco has not yet undergone the rite of passage to become a man and is still considered a child.

Bata The Druid (Zac)

When the Utari Hunter Isonash returned to the Marsh from living with his Elf Maiden, he never took a Southron Bride. He did have a relationship with a Dryad and the fruit of this union was Bata. Bata the Man-Fey was taken by his mother to the Faerie Queen and given to her care as an infant; he has never known the Dryad that bore him. At the Queen's court, Bata was raised as a Druid in the care of Shimrood, a Treant and head of the Druid Order. Once he physically matured Bata was sent south the Maze Marsh in order to learn from his father and siblings the ways of the Utari and to undergo the rites to become an adult.

Yes they are all related, how’s that for a bond…

At some point these characters will have to choose to undertake the Utari right of passage. For a woman this means stealing a Grey Bear cub and raising it to adulthood then slaughtering it for its meat and hide. For a man this means removing the heart from a crocodile and offering it to the Reed Witch.

Character creation steps in 5e are all wrong. We tried to follow the book with the first two characters, and it resulted in players redoing skill selection because of choosing background last. Also, choosing race and class before rolling ability scores is so unnatural that the player that made the third character (Zac) actually asked if he could roll abilities first to draw inspiration. Future characters will be made in the following order: 1. Roll ability scores 2. Choose Race 3. Choose Background 4. Choose Class

We also dispensed with the bonds, flaws, etc. I used custom backgrounds to suit my campaign (there is a lot of implied setting in the default backgrounds) and couldn’t be bothered to make all the tables. Maybe I’m missing something by skipping this part of character creation but I suspect not.  My players have been doing this for 20+ years and don’t need charts to make a realistic or memorable character.

Session Recap

The game began at the Kings Day festival, held at the end of the warm season (Grillib) and the beginning of the cold season (Brillig). The folk of the Tulgeywood gather in moots to trade crops and crafts, honor the dead and remember the fallen King of Beast by wrestling matches. The party of two twins and their half brother travel north from the marsh to the wood in order to join a moot and celebrate King’s Day.

I figured the best way to try out a new version D&D is to jump immediately into grappling rules.

The wrestling challengers were a wolf, elk, and bear. Tekka decided she would wrestle the wolf. They circled each other and Tekka successfully grappled the beast. She was surprised when the wolf spent it’s next action to bite her. Perhaps this fairy tale is not so sweet…

Her brother Pasco, remembered that he could inspire her and began to play his shawm. Tekka used the inspiration to pin the wolf.

I made a ruling here to determine if something was pinned. Once an attacker has a target grappled they can pin it (make it prone) with another grapple action (Contested ability check). Turns out this ruling was right on the money, since per the actual rules an attacker with someone grappled could use an action to “Shove” in the same way, which when successful makes the target either prone or five feet away.

Tekka’s was next challenged by the bear, and she accepted. After a long match of back and forth with neither able to pin the other and Pasco using up all his inspiration they called it a draw. The bear gave Tekka an old claw as a mark of respect.

The party then partook of the Queen’s Cake baked specially for the King’s Day celebrations. Each of them found a golden acorn in their cake, a sign that they had been chose to serve the Faerie Queen. Accepting tradition, they said farewell to home and began their journey to the Glade, where the Queen rules from the Mushroom Tower.

I called it a night, Bata’s player was sad that he didn't get to hit anything with his shillelagh, but it was late and I’m an old man.

We are all (I think) looking forward to the next session. I’ve decided to call the game.

A Gimble in the Wabe.

Fairy Tales for Fifth Edition

A bit of lore for my upcoming 5th Edition game. Apologies to Zak S for the Queen of Hearts bit.

Once upon a time the first woman wandered the world alone. One night she slept under the boughs of the Tumtum tree and dreamed a dream of light and living things followed by a nightmare of darkness and death. When she awoke she had split in half, one side the Faerie Queen resplendent in silver and green and the other the Queen of Hearts, terrible in a vampires red beauty. The Queen of Hearts shied from the morning light and fled to the darkened east, while the Faerie Queen caused the Tulgey Wood to grow around her, stretching from the mountains to the western sea. The Faerie Queen wondered her woods alone until she came upon the Wabe and there she danced a dance to praise the moon and sun. When her dance was done she was no longer alone, for from the Mountains the Beast King had seen her dance and became enraptured of her beauty. They kissed beneath the stars, and from them sprang the fey of the Tulgey Wood; Pixies and Brownies, Satyrs and Sprites,  Nyads, Dryads and countless other creatures. The animals of forest and mountain and the fey of the Tulgey wood lived happily ever after under the reign of the Faerie Queen and the Beast King.

Except that ever after wasn’t forever.

The first betrayal was the Jub Jub bird who flew above all else and came to believe that it was superior to the groundlings. The Jub Jub bird longed to make a nest above the clouds and chose the moon as a home. It broke the crystal sphere around the moon and caused the Elfs to fall from the sky to the forest floor. The Queen accepted the Elfs into her realm and gave them leave to live in the trees.

The next betrayal was the Bandersnatch, who grew so frumious that the Queen allowed the Elfs to live in its trees that it began to eat all the other creatures. First it ate the squirrel and hare as was its right, then it ate the boar and hart and the Queen accepted its hunger. Then it ate the fox and wolf and the King admonished it, then it ate the lion and bear and the Queen commanded it to eat only the nuts and berries of the wood. The Bandersnatch by now had grown monstrous large, and full of vengeful hunger. It broke the Queen's commandment and ate the elf and faerie. The Moon Wizards opened a door at the edge of the wood, and the Beast King wrestled the Bandersnatch down and threw it out of the Queen's Realm.

The Bandersnatch sulked in exile and roamed the world outside the wood nursing vengeance in its heart. In exchange for their mountain home, it revealed to a Prince of Men the path opened by the Moon Wizards to the Tulgey Wood. This Prince, fleeing the darkness to the East led his people to the wood and the Faerie Queen accepted them. However, men are doomed to darkness and although they were fleeing from strife they could not escape it. The Prince declared himself the King of Clubs, and fought against the foes that pursued them to the wood. They raised stone castles and towers across the Tulgey Wood and waged war against the evil Queen of Hearts. They lost, and the Vampire Queen of Hearts took the King of Clubs head back to her castle. The Club Kingdom fell and its people dwindled to shadows in the ruins. Those that did not become ghost and wraiths took shelter in the Northern Fells and Southern Swamps swearing fealty to the Faerie Queen.

All the while the Bandersnatch lay in the darkness of the mountain, hatred and hunger for revenge against the Beast King and his Queen burning in its belly. The Queen of Hearts learned of the Bandersnatch from her Club thralls and ventured to its cave. She convinced the Bandersnatch that its hunger would be sated only by devouring the Jub Jub. This was the last betrayal. Driven mad by frumiousness and the honeyed words of the Heart Queen it climbed the tallest peak of the mountains and leapt to the Jub Jub’s nest on the moon. In its hunger and fury the Bandersnatch raped and devoured the bird. And then fell to torpor its cavernous hunger temporarily sated by the the pregnant Jub Jub in its belly. The Queen of Hearts stole upon the Bandersnatch while it slept, cut the Jub Jub from its belly and then removed the egg from the mangled bird. She sent her Slithy Toves to carry the egg to the Tulgey Wood and set Mome Raths to guard it. They built a secret nest at the Wabe and from the egg sprang the Jabberwock.

The Jabberwock was born of lies and betrayal, hatred and hunger. It grew into a great green serpent, pale and hideous in might and malice. The Queen of Hearts nursed it with blood from her breast and tried to bring it under her will but the Jabberwock proved too mighty to tame. The Vampire Queen abandoned it to the Wabe, but not before she sang it a song of deceit enchanting the creature to consume and defile the Tulgey wood. The Faerie Queen heard this song from across the woods, and for the first time in her life she grew afraid. Comforting his wife and Queen, The Beast King vowed to slay the Jabberwock and set off with a mighty host to face the creature at the Wabe.

Long did the Beast King and Jabberwock struggle, wrestling at the Wabe while the host of the Faerie Queen faced the Slithy Toves and Mome Raths. Great are the tales of valor of the Battle at the Wabe; how the Chief of the North Men hew the heads of a hundred Mome Raths, The Witch woman of the Marsh succored the Beast King's wounds when he was first cast down by the Jabberwock, how the Moon Wizards held the Wabe against the Slithy Toves. The valor of the free people of the Tulgey Wood was not enough however, The Jabberwock overcame the King of Beast casting him down thrice and on the third time the King died. The Queens host fled the field and would have been overcome but for the valor of Nicnevin the Elf Maid who held the rear and made a stand in the ruins of the Knaves Tower at the river crossing.

The assault of the Jabberwock ended at the river. All the wood east of the Sweetail fell under darkness. The trees became black and twisted the animals corrupt. The Jabberwock defiled The Wabe and the body of the Beast King. From the defilement sprang forth the goblins and they multiplied in sick fecundity amongst the brambles and shadow until the Tulgey Wood was split, the Faerie Queen's Realm of Light to the West and the Jabberwock and the Goblin Wood to the East.

The folk of the Tulgey Wood held onto hope however, bound together in their struggle they pledged fealty to the Faerie Queen. From the Animal Princes to the Moon Wizards and tribes of men, all still ight together to preserve what remains of the Queen’s Dream against the evil of the Jabberwock.

The End.