The Orchard Behind the Moon
The Orchard Behind the Moon
“A rescue through moonlit thorns where beauty is a prison and every promise has teeth.”
— Hook · rescue
“Illarien Veyl is gone, taken through a door of moonlit petals into the Feywild by the archfey Eridanthe. Her parents beg for help, though their words slide like honey over a lie they do not fully understand. Find the hidden path, survive the beauty that wants to keep her, and bring Illarien home before the court names her its newest masterpiece.”
— Hook · rescue
At dusk, the Veyl estate garden is too still, every leaf edged in silver and every reflection a fraction behind the world. Lord Cael and Lady Merrow speak to you with glassy smiles and ask if you have come to enjoy the roses, though their hands tremble around a portrait of Illarien they cannot stop looking at. Then the portrait blinks once, and a trail of petals drifts toward the orchard gate.
Thiara Veyl
The parents can only offer pleading, formal hospitality, and half-remembered clues because they are glamoured. Thiara arrives separately with urgency and guilt, asking the party to act quickly before the archfey's court makes Illarien impossible to recover.
Rumours
d4 · table- 01The orchard gate only opens for someone who has already lost a memory to the moon.
- 02Eridanthe prefers willing guests, but her definition of willing is a legal one, not an honest one.
- 03Thiara was seen speaking to someone made of briars and shadow just before Illarien vanished.
- 04The Veyl family keeps an old mirror covered because it once showed the house as it really was.
If the party fails, Illarien becomes an ornament of the court, Thiara's corruption hardens into a larger threat, and the border between the mortal world and the Feywild weakens around the Veyl estate. If they succeed, they save a life, expose a hidden pact, and earn the attention of powers that do not forget debts or trespasses.
Background Lore
Illarien, the youngest child of House Veyl, vanished after following a path of moonlit petals into the old orchard outside the family estate. Her parents, once sharp-eyed and protective, now speak in syrupy half-truths and cannot seem to remember the shape of their own grief, as if the loss has been wrapped in glamour. Thiara, formerly an ally of the party, has returned as a corrupted agent of Tharos and the Shackled One, helping unseen hands tighten around every door that might have led to Illarien. The trail points toward Eridanthe, an archfey who steals not with cruelty but with reverence, carrying away what she calls a flaw into her realm of perfected beauty in the Feywild.
Illarien has disappeared into a Feywild realm ruled by the archfey Eridanthe, and the party must follow the trail, survive the realm's dangerous beauty, and bring her home before she is claimed by the court. The way in is hidden by glamours over the Veyl family, strange fey bargains, and the interference of Thiara, an old ally now corrupted by Tharos.
