As the rest of the consortes labor to have Marcus brought back from the dead, Valerius and Mendelor mount conjured steeds and make off into the Westwoode, in search of the Wizard of the Green Tower. Each man carries two dragon eggs, which Valerius hopes to bargain for some spells and Mendelor hopes to trade for an enchanted axe. After a day’s travel they pass deep into the forest and leave behind all signs of civilization.

That night Mendelor spots strange faerie lights flittering through the trees, and after midnight they hear the sounds of branches breaking in the darkness. Mendelor calls out and a tremulous voice answers. Mendelor commands the speaker to step into the light, and a curious old man emerges. No larger than a child, the man has snow-white hair, great bushy eyebrows, a hooked nose, and large round eyes. He introduces himself as Wodrid, a poor cobbler, also seeking the Wizard of the Green Tower. Wodrid explains that throughout his life in a small Frounter village, he has been an outcast and ridiculed for his small stature and strange ways. Lately he has learnt that his fellow villagers believe him to be a changeling, swapped at birth with a human child. The nervous Wodrid claims that he seeks the Wizard to learn the truth of his origins.

While his story seems credible enough, Valerius and Mendelor both note that Wodrid bears a shortsword and carries several enchanted items for trade with the Wizard, including a couple of potions and a pouch of magic dust. Suspecting that Wodrid may in fact prove every bit as good a cobbler as St. James, Valerius and Mendelor allow the stranger to stay, but keep a wary eye on him at all times.

The next day the travelers continue on into the Westwoode, and Valerius notes that they appear to have crossed over the barrier between worlds, for the wood now seems passing strange and full of power. Shortly before noon the group encounters a large white rabbit, who stands erect and cries “You’re going to be in trouble,” before bounding into the forest.

The group presses on through increasingly forlorn and boggy ground. Mendelor realizes that they have walked into a grove of three odd trees that are somehow, to a forester's eyes, not quite right. They appear to be large, twisted birch trees with few leaves, but their branches sway despite the lack of any wind. Almost as soon as this curiosity is noted, the trees lurch forward and attack. Valerius conjures a fusillade of fiery bolts that incinerate one tree; meanwhile Mendelor and Wodrid are battered by the two other trees, which lash out with scythe-like branches.

The group falls back out of the reach of the branches, where Mendelor finds that his arrows cause the trees little harm and can Valerius call up more fiery bolts. The magician also summons up several tiny spirits of flame, and these blazing creatures finish off the horrible trees. The group finds tangled among the roots of the blasted trees many splintered bones, but little else.

Valerius attempts to patch up Mendelor and Wodrid, and the group stays put long enough to allow Mendelor to regain some of his lost strength. After a day they strike out again, and early the next morning chance across a wide, wet clearing, almost a hundred yards across and dominated by a circle of seven standing stones, each one over twice the height of a man. Intrigued, Valerius discovers that the stones actually hum with sorcerous power. The magician speculates that the stones probably focus arcane energy, but as he is unable to determine exactly how the circle works, the group continues on.

That night Mendelor spots two luminescent globes circling the camp, moving ever closer. He rouses his companions, and Wodrid is frightened to see the lights, saying they are boggarts, evil and dangerous spirits—although the small man is unable to explain how he knows such things. Mendelor nocks his bow and looses a couple of arrows at the lights, which promptly wink out. Wodrid claims that the boggarts have simply turned invisible, so Valerius conjures a cloud of glittering dust that reveals one of the boggarts as it creeps into the camp. The boggart was only twenty feet away before being exposed by the magician’s spell, appearing as a warty, twisted little man with a long beard. In response to being discovered, the boggart lets loose with a wretched howl. The howl is answered by another, and the second boggart then appears only a few paces away from Mendelor, who now finds himself bewitched into confusion by the howling.

Valerius flings several more magical bolts at the boggarts, but finds them utterly ineffectual. He then summons up the rime thrall Glaze-Nape, a monstrous spirit of frost. Meanwhile the boggarts assail Mendelor, but even while enspelled the woodsman proves too quick for them. In his enchantment Mendelor strikes out blindly and badly wounds one of the boggarts; meanwhile the rime thrall impales the other boggart on a great shaft of ice. One more axe-swing from Mendelor is enough to finish off the remaining boggart. The corpses of the strange creatures slowly transfigure into pale, fluttering lights, which then fade into darkness.

Once Mendelor recovers from his daze, the group settles back down and the rest of the night passes uneventfully. The next morning Wodrid announces they are very close, and Valerius spots the spire of the Green Tower in the distance. Between them, however, lies some wet and boggy ground, filled with dead trees and pools of standing, mist-haunted water. A narrow, elevated foot-path of crude timbers snakes through the fen. Valerius calls up a phantom steed and thus mounted the group proceeds upon the path. The foot-path increasingly spans larger and larger pools of dark, brackish water.

While crossing one such pool, Mendelor notes that something huge is surfacing next to the bridge. Valerius begins to call up Sushsool, a spirit of water, just as a monstrous turtle—large as a house—emerges from the depths and snaps out at Mendelor, who ducks from the looming jaws. The water spirit then manifests and begins to attack the turtle, just as Valerius spurs on the steed. In the blink of an eye the entire group is standing on the far banks of the fen, the turtle behind them and the Green Tower soaring before them.

As Mendelor and Valerius turn toward the tower, they suddenly find themselves caught in a zone of magical silence. Mendelor turns to Wodrid, who in an instant magically transforms into a small feathered horror, part man, part owl, with cruel beak, sharp claws, and huge baleful eyes. As fast as lightning Wodrid draws his sword and plunges it toward the woodsman. But the creature’s blows cannot penetrate Mendelor’s mail shirt, and the woodsman quickly recovers from this nasty surprise. Valerius backs out of the field of silence and begins casting a spell, calling down more fiery bolts that blaze into Wodrid. Mendelor slashes out with his axe, knocking the owl-monster back.

The creature responds by attempting to utilize a debilitating magical gaze, but both Mendelor and Valerius resist this new assault. Another swing of Mendelor’s axe decapitates Wodrid, and in death the strange thing transforms yet again, assuming the form of a large owl.

Mendelor and Valerius turn to the Tower and knock on the large green door, which opens wide to allow admittance to a colossal marble hall, lined with galleries and decorated with sumptuous frescoes. In the center of the hall is a great brazier, filled with a roaring flame over ten feet high. A terrible voice sounds from out of the flames, commanding the visitors to step forward and state their business.

Mendelor and Valerius bring forth their eggs and make their requests. The voice announces that the Wizard is amused by these gifts and will give Valerius some of the spells he has requested; and if Mendelor is willing to devote himself to his axe, the weapon will in time reveal a hidden enchantment. Grateful, the two heroes leave the eggs and depart. Once outside the Tower vanishes and Mendelor and Valerius find themselves standing in the very spot where they first entered the Westwoode.

All values are given as 3E experience points.