In the southwest corner of Terrasylvae (or perhaps, the lands that surround it; we’re still working on the full boundaries of Terrasylvae), across the river stands three pillars of stone. At the base of these pillars lie the corpses of the dead men who have tried to reach the top and failed. Why do they climb to their deaths? What is it that drives them to the top?

It begins, as all good Terrasylvan lore does, with a little bit of magic. In the days following the sundering of the two realms, there were three faerie sisters who wanted to travel to the mortal realm one last time, to take in all the sights and pleasures that their own realm did not offer. Oberon let them return, but made them swear that they would not return with any objects from the mortal realm.

Naturally, the moment the three sisters were away from their King, they did exactly the opposite of what he told them. They returned with three objects: a cup, a ring, and a key. For their disobedience, Oberon transformed them into the pillars of stone, stripping them of all their features, leaving the objects they took from the mortal realm forever encased at their tops, and forever out of the reach of fae and mortal alike.

Now each of the objects the sisters took has its own tale of its supposed magical properties. The ring either grants invisibility or eternal life. A few others claim the ring is cursed and by putting it on, the soul of the sister will consume you and you will be forgotten as she takes your body and does with it what she pleases (which is rather gruesome, but perfectly fae-like).

The cup is another object that grants immortality. Some say it was stole from a king’s table, and that no drink could ever hold poison within the cup. (The cup has the least amount of stories around it. Probably because no one could think of something better than “not dying” as a magical property.)

But the key is what holds the most intrigue. Indeed, that particular sister has her fair share of dead suitors lying at her feet. What did the key go to? Is the lock still in existence? Legends go that the key is the way to opening back the fae realm to the mortal world, that it is the key to Oberon’s personal treasury (I have to ask why an iron key is the way into a fae’s treasure chamber. By their nature, faes are supposed to be unable to touch iron). But the one rumor that most accept as the truth is that the key is actually the key to Haute’s domain, the key to freeing him from his prison.

Then the debate starts as to what is actually imprisoning Haute in his domain and what ways (if any) there are to free him.

Yet despite the legends and dangers present, still people try to reach the tops of these stone columns, only to fall to their deaths below. There are some skeptics who don’t believe that there’s anything at the top of these stones at all, that they’re myths created by vindictive people, or even Haute himself.

But there have been days when an unmistakable glint of sunlight on metal stretches across the land, and if you look carefully with a spyglass at the tops, there’s a vague shape on top of all three, something that’s not quite rock like, that doesn’t belong.