It had begun when Green found a cryptic note laying inside the Hollow kept by the Onyx Court. What concerned him the most was that he didn't know how long it had been there. The little leathery object was not out in the open; it was hidden away in the special crevice where the Iceclad Armiger kept his logs and Lore - a hidden alcove thick with roots, tinkling dream catchers, coloured stones and crumbling old books. He didn't notice it till he did some cleaning and reviewing the Freehold's accumulated Lore.

And there it was...

Now it was hours (days?) later. He'd deciphered the breadcrumbs, trekked through the crumbling ruins of the Cottage Network and made it out into the Hedge.

He had been there before, long ago: a glade created when a mighty Hedge tree had fallen. The tree remain, broken, frozen in time. Sure moss, mould, toadstools and lichen festooned that great trunk now, but it wasn't like the fallen giant was being consumed; more likely, it was simply evolving into a different aspect of the landscape.

He knew the tree. He knew of the deep cleft within it - an uncomfortable squeeze for some; a hidden cache for someone like him. The cache, he found, was not disturbed. No one had riffled through the bag of clothes, the medical kit, or the preserved goblin fruit.

But there was a scroll. Rolled up. Sealed with heavy wax that smelled of the wind blowing off a glacier and felt like pine needles.

And it was addressed to him by persons unknown whose names were more like titles:
Mary of the Last Watch
Jack Under Bridge
Gladys of the Frozen and Wrathful Heart
Con Who Walks in Shadow


Unbidden Lords and Ladies all.