7. September 3rd, 2024 The Palace of Heart's Desire

The Flame of Faerun started exploring the Palace and actually met a talking bear of all things along with some other people who were told to wait outside before they could get an audiance with Zybilna, the owner of the palace and this domain of the Feywild. Upon inspecting the garden they were in, they noticed a plaque with an inscription that read:

"The lion or the hart must wear the crown. But which one should it weigh down?"

Searching the garden for an answer, the party eventually made their way to a tower where an iron lion named 'Envy' stood guard and offered the following information:

“We and our counterpart were created as a pair to protect the gardens from intruders in Zybilna’s absence.”
“Our presence here means that our mistress is gone. Where? We do not know.”
“The palace receives visitors even in Zybilna’s absence. Guests are to remain in the garden pavilion until Zybilna deigns to grant them an audience. It is not our responsibility to protect visitors.”

Asking information about the crown, Envy offered the following information:

“Zybilna created the crown as a key that guests can use to reach certain areas of the palace in her absence. The crown has two forms: one made of silver needles, the other of golden roses.”
“To transform the crown of needles into its gold form, it must be placed on the brow of the correct iron guardian. Which of us, Envy or Wrath, is the correct guardian? We cannot say. Placing the crown on the incorrect guardian banishes the guardian to its demiplane, along with the crown.”
“Once the crown is transformed into its gold form, either guardian can wear it without being banished. Certain doors inside the palace become unlocked or locked, depending on which guardian wears the golden crown.”

The party eventually made their way to the pond in the garden after exploring the unlocked parts of the palace for a bit and a delicate hand made of water, black as winter’s night, silently broke the water’s surface. The hand clutched a crown made of silver needles. Below the hand, under the surface, a school of shimmering black fish takes on a vaguely humanoid form.

Once they took the crown, the holder heard the following riddle:

"The beginning of Whenever
The end of Ever After
The start of an age
the finale of every moment
the first in History"

This riddle was figured out to be fairly literal in it's meaning. The beginning of Whenever, 'W'; the end of Ever After, 'R'. Following this pattern the party figured the correct guardian to give the crown to was Wrath, the one they'd yet to meet. Leucius figured this out without the riddle, smart man.

Placing the crown on Wrath's head, the crown transformed into a crown of gold roses and the sound of a door unlocking was heard throughout the castle. All the doors with the hart above their doorframe could now be opened.

The party continued to explore the palace and eventually found Zybilna's butler, Thinnings. He revealed that everyone here was stuck in temporal stasis, save for the League of Manevolence, a group looking to steal a unicorn horn. Thinnings revealed that the unicorn horn can be used to break someone out of temporal stasis by touching the unicorn horn to them and speaking their true name. He knows that Zybilna is not Zybilna's true name and think's it is Iggwilv. Thinnings is unsure if there is a unicorn horn in the palace but encouraged searching the palace just in case there is one around.

The party eventually went downstairs from the top floor in the middle of the part of the castle surrounded by an ongoing thunderstorm, only to be met with Kelek and Warduke of the League of Malevolence. They were accompanied by two cockatrices and two Glasswork Golems whom Kelek summoned by speaking the rhyme "Knights of glass, protect my ass!". A battle ensued.