Deep within the Sea of Trees, a small colony lived in harmony with the Astralwood. Populated by humanoids that called themselves the Astralwood Enclave, the group was generally divided into two sects: the Speakers of the Forest, responsible for ensuring that the community sustained itself in harmony with the land, and the Keepers of the Forest, who were responsible for protecting the enclave from the Sea of Trees' various threats. The Keepers would fend off threats wandering from the Sea, while the Speakers would find ways to live with such creatures in harmony.
Chopping wood and maintaining lookout at the periphera, the junior Human Paladin Ghalwin Forrester was finished up his shift alongside his pet mouse, Pip Squeak. As he did so, he was relieved by the captain of the Keepers, Arbor Forrester, head paladin of Ilios - his father. Despite Ghalwin's best intentions, he had a tendency to get lost in his own head, and did not keep a lookout at the edge of the forest's Vanishing Grove. He was chastised by Arbor, not for the first time, and sent back home without much in the way of fatherly love.
As Ghalwin was lost in his head, his Giantborn friend Jarmo Maulgrave was lost in his studies. The trainee Blood Hunter largely did whatever he was told in the enclave, and was somehow responsible for the carpentry of new housing at the Astralwood's edge. He was interrupted by a reedy young druid, Cormac Orcharder, who nervously let him know that Arbor requested that he fix his handiwork: one of his treehut's had tilted, nearly falling off of it's branches. Jarmo dutifully went to work, righting the house through sheer muscle and hammering the nails back into the trunk in the exact same way as he had before.
Seeing this play out, Ghalwin waved down the goliath, and the two made their way home to cook a family dinner. They had been best friends for a long time, occupying the same space in the Enclave's great tree, and were both initiate Keepers. As they walked away, Jarmo did not notice that his house began to tilt again immediately.
Ghalwin's half-sister, the Wereborn Shakti of the Wildhunt, had no such responsibilities beyond "finding herself" as a Druid. Roaming outside of the safety of the Astralwood, she was surrounded by a strange illusory mist that led her to a hill unmarked by any map. She turned to escape, but the mist seemed to prevent her, and after minutes of running and a brief little cry, she steeled herself and went up this strange landscape. There, she found a circle of stones and a large dead tree, and noticed that the mist surrounded the hill in a perfectly circular fashion.
Shakti saw that one of the cairns was loose and investigated, finding a blood-soaked jagged spear hidden underneath it. She reached for it and heard a deep voice carried on the wind. "Long have I waited for one who is worthy. My spear hungers for blood. Retrieve it, and rule these mountains in my stead, just like the mighty warriors from the early days of the Whispering Wall."
The spear burned, leaving behind only a strange card, and the ashes blustered northeast beyond the mist, toward the Vanishing Grove. As the mist receded, Shakti noticed a brilliant white castle in the same direction, and turned to run back to the Astralwood. In her great tree home, she went to speak to her mother Ylyana the Starseer, but had second thoughts on reporting what she found. Ylyana, quick to worry but eager to divine, told Shakti that she had had felt today was a day of prophecy.
They went down to an extremely awkward family dinner, where Ghalwin prepared a beautiful stew and Jarmo "helped." As Arbor stared disapprovingly at his son, Ylyana demanded Shakti tell her secret, and the young shifter finally regaled the tale. Ylyana insisted that Jarmo accompany Shakti to find the spear, as clearly the circle of stones were a prophecy relating the Curse of Oregrove. With her mind set, she denied Ghalwin the chance to protect his half-sister, declaring that she "could not lose both of them."
After dinner, when his parents to the tree's upper branches, Ghalwin declared his intention to escort Shakti; Jarmo tenderly confided that he needed Ghalwin around. Shakti relented, and the three raced down to the ground floor. She Wildshaped into a Riding Horse for her goliath friend as Ghalwin stole his father's mare Snickerdoodle, leaving behind only cryptic notes for their family. Under the light of the full moon, they rode off towards the Vanishing Grove.