Clarification of things Urman was able to learn from reading Lady Ironwood’s diary:
– Lord Ironwood went missing the night after a small feast was held in thier keep. He reappeared several days later in the company of the Witch, where they slew several servants. The Witch herself murdered Madelline Ironwood, the daughter of the house.
– She believes the Witch to have been one of the guests, but doesn’t say who.
– Madelline’s body was not recovered.
– Carlon Ironwood, the heir, had already left for the wall to complete his combat training before the feast. The last surviving servant, the butler, was going to be sent with a letter from her to bring him back. No mention is made of the butler actually leaving.
– Lady Ironwood discovered the addition to the secret basement some weeks after the Witch’s attack. She beleieved the Dryad imprisoned to be an Elder Dryad, and then Warden of the Vala Wood, and likely one of the progenitors of the woods.
– The Lady used the family money to attempt bolster her studies in releasing the Dryad, allowing her to procure a number of magical and alchemical items. Such an approach to magic had always been her way, as she lacked raw magical talent.
– The Darkwood creatures, once just an occasional feeble sprite, seemed to be gaining power as time passed, and were now prevented her getting close.
-At a loss on how to properly use the Mistletoe to bolster her magic to purge the Darkwood tree, she intended to visit first the Finnesheim Library and then the Elven Enclaves.
– She had managed to synthesise the poison and had begun on working on an antivenom to inject into the tree. (The lab had a broken alchemical set with congealed and dried substances within, notes on the desk cover her work on that.)