The potion brewers

Weslyn - 970s/980s

978 – 986: Solace from Runof at Grom's funeral was to be one of the few father-son moments shared between the two druids while their elder was laid to rest on a plot in front of his cottage. Within days of Grom's death, Runof had torched his father's cottage, destroyed the school of knowledge, and set off on the open road as a nomad while trying to make peace with his son. Within the first two years of their lifelong track around Ireland, Weslyn and Runof were firmly settled into a cycle of camping and moving around either on foot or by cart. The duo took in spectacular views of the lands of Carlow, Wexford, Kildare, Offaly, Laois, Kilkenny, and Tipperary as far as the River Shannon and Lough Derg. 

On the latest stage of the journey, they had come into the Comeragh mountains searching for a new place to set up camp. Runof spotted an enormous oddity sticking out of one of the mountain valleys: an apple tree taller than any tower in Ireland sticking out from the flat grassy plain like a sore thumb. This would be the beginning of the creation of Dreid as Runof soon left Weslyn alone to go on a hunting trip. The arrival of a pesky wildcat into the druids' camp would enrage Weslyn so much that he would yell into and smash an apple from the giant tree into the ground hard enough to form a small crater. After chasing off the wildcat in the form of a dog, Weslyn returned to the camp and discovered a smaller tree that sprouted a human baby which was to become his son and the next druid in the family line. 

Several years after the creation of Dreid, the trio had moved on to a forest clearing not far outside the village of Galway. The morning after setting up camp for the night, Weslyn awoke to find Runof was nowhere to be found. Initially, he thought his father had just gone out on another of his hunting trips or to fish down by the bay, but worrisome thoughts began to erupt in his mind as he saw all of Runof's belongings and bags were gone as well. Weslyn dragged the young Dreid and his own supplies along in a small sled carved from fallen wood in a desperate race to find his father. He did not know if Runof had been kidnapped, suffered an accident, went to find better lodging in the village, or if his father had simply gone off and abandoned his family for pastures new. 

Weslyn checked by the bay, in the village, and returned to their original campsite hoping Runof would have returned, but it became even more obvious that the elder druid had seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. At his wits end, Weslyn reached into his bags and pulled out an old Celtic war horn. The bellowing noise reverberated throughout the forest, calling all the resident creatures from the biggest deer to the smallest bird together. Weslyn pleaded with the creatures to help him find his father, but after a week of searching, there was still no sign of Runof or where he had gone. Weslyn finally resigned himself to the fact that his father had left him and his grandson for good. 

For years, Weslyn had observed Runof's attitude toward him, seen as an unnecessary add-on to his nomadic lifestyle who could not be trusted and would be ready to leave at any moment as Weslyn had done in the past and how Runof had done there and then. Despite being a father himself, Weslyn had felt more like an orphan since the death of his grandfather Grom, destitute and alone in an unforgiving world. Rummaging through his supplies, the druid discovered the recipe for the potion of invulnerability hidden inside and a small batch of preserved ingredients ready to prepare a small batch when the occasion called for it.