Heya, so I'm currently in the process of coming up with an original plot and I need someone (other than my players so I don't spoil too much to them lol) to read it over and do a little bit of brainstorming with me. I'd love all the feedback, advice, and all that you can muster. I'm a new-ish DM, having only run one campaign before this, but don't hold back ahaha. Its supposed to sound whimsical and "fairytale like" at first, but its a dark world out there. And fairies in this realm aren't little flying pixies; they're the embodiment of magic. Let me know what you guys think if you have ideas or anything like that!
Here's the full story:
Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom, there was a charming king, a wonderful queen, and their beautiful daughter who ruled their land with courage and kindness. That was until the queen fell terribly ill on the day of their daughter’s ninth birthday. When the queen passed away, the kingdom fell into mourning.
Three months had passed and the king still had no queen to help him rule so he and his daughter traveled across the kingdom in search of a new wife and mother for the princess. Along the journey, the princess and her father were attacked by a terrifying beast that killed all of his guards. That was until a young woman stopped it with her magic. With the king impressed and believing she would be fit as a queen, he proposed to her.
On the day of their wedding, they made sure the whole kingdom was invited. The dwarves from the mountains came with a gift for the king: a dagger that would lead him to victory in battle. The elves from the woodlands brought a book for the queen that would teach her anything she wanted to learn. And finally, the fairies from the moors gave the newlyweds a mirror that would show them anywhere in the kingdom in its current state. At the end of the night is when something terrible happened.
A Wicked Fairy entered the castle and was offended no invitation was given to her. The king told her that evil had no place in their kingdom and for her to be gone. The king’s guards went to stop her, but she froze them with her magic. She then began to tell them that something was stolen from her and she wanted it back. Knowing nothing of the thievery, the king brandished the dwarven dagger and demanded that she leave or he’d cut off her head. The fairy, knowing what the dagger was, vowed that one day she would return; their loved ones would be ripped away from them forever and out of their suffering, her victory will rise and she will stop at nothing to ruin their happiness. She vanished into a cloud of smoke and the castle went silent.
For an entire year, the people were on edge until the day of their new prince’s birth to which a festival was thrown to brighten their spirits. Only, it didn’t last for too long. The Wicked Fairy returned and told them her curse would be enacted if they did not return what was stolen from her. The king reminded her that he did not steal anything from her and aimed his sword at her again only this time, she was not afraid. He lunged towards her with the dagger but it failed to pierce her. In one thunderclap, the sun turned black and a cloud of dark magic rolled over the land. When the smoke dissipated, their new prince was gone.
Trying to find out where his son went, he checked the fairy mirror but it only showed his reflection. He then consulted the elven book to find out a way to break the curse and defeat the fairy, the pages were all in a language no one understood.
Enraged with a missing son and the gifts not working, he did something that would change the kingdom forever. He banished the dwarves to the mountains and to create a sword that would never fail him again but the dwarves knew they could never replicate the one of a kind sword, so they never saw the surface again. He then outlawed the use of magic in his kingdom, thinking that magic was the root of all evil and anyone caught using it would be executed. Since the fairies were honor bound to the king, they couldn’t fight back and returned to the moors. Then finally, he enslaved the elves to work as servants in the palace and auctioned them off to the highest bidders.
The once magical kingdom turned into a miserable place to live. Now, sixteen years later, nothing has changed and the search for the lost prince continues.
Dude, this has tons of potential. Magic made illegal in an apparently high magic world sounds like a neat obstacle/set piece. Tons of fry involvement means that treks to the Feywild (or your homebrew equivalent) will be a huge plot point and provide tons of neat encounters. The banishment of the dwarves means that the kingdom in question could be in open war against them, seeing as the dwarves could well be insulted by the king's reaction to their blade not working and my try to rise against him. Proud elves enslaved? Holy crap, who even thinks of enslaving the naughtiest, most highbourn acting race out their? This is amazing fodder for tons of adventures.
I'd tackke this with the focus being the king's gifts. The king severed ties and sense with dwarves, elves, and fey folk due to the failings of their gifts in his most dire time of need. If a Maleficent brand dark fairie did this, that was probably her intention. Therefore, though the party may not know it at first, the character's overarching goal will be more to induce the needless wrath of the king so the dark fairy can be dealt with by all people as a united front. Best way to do that? Restore the true power of those gifts, one by one. Those are your Mcguffins and should be the crux of your adventure, with the secret 4th mcguffin being the prince himself.
The characters first must reach the dwarves, who are either waging war against the king that spurned and banished them or living in the underground and mountains in a self imposed isolation. Either way, they should be hard to reach, hard to gain the trust of, and loyal patrons should the party show they can restore the kingdom. Then, to the fairies of the moors, who have been weakened maybe by the lack of magic exercised in the mortal world (or something of that nature). The trick with them will be convince their rulers that mortal folk are worth investing in and trusting once more. Then, the enslaved elves. Maybe there's a rebellion led by runaway slaves, maybe the players will have to start one and free the elves, risking the king's ire being directed to them. One way or the other, only they can discover why the book doesn't work or who can now read it's dead language.
Sounds like you should suggest some fairy-tailored classes to your players, too. Archfey Warlocks, College of Glamour Bards, Circle of Dreams Druids, etc.
Okay, awesome! Thank you so much for the advice and encouragement! I really wanted something that was different, and that started with flipping the script on the typical cliches: elves are magical, nose pointed upwards creatures. What better way then to make them the opposite than by making them slaves?
So, i'm trying to come up with motives, as that's probably going to be the most prevalent question; Why did they do what they did. I also want to come up with lore on how these gifts were created. The basic backstory that I'm coming up with is there was something that went down when the first queen died and that him finding a new queen wasn't by accident and it involved this dark fairy some how. I know that The Dark Fairy wants the mirror and it was once hers, but I don't know why it was so special to her to enact a wicked curse.
As for the Dwarves, there is an uprising that wants to attack the human king definitely and them trusting any of the PCs, unless they're a dwarf, is very slim. They're in search of a weapon of some sort, but I haven't come up with what just yet, but I know I want it to have to do with the three gifts uniting somehow.
The fairies... i'm thinking that yes, they're weak now that magic is slowly dying, but I want there to be like some.... boss or something that's actually draining them of their magic or something? Like, they're using them to make some sort of magic battery or something lol. And fairy dust will totally be some type of drug that the mundane can take to gain powers or use a spell lol.
The elves. So I know I want there to be some type of "underground railroad" thing going on. Like, rumors of elves escaping and finding a new realm called "Haven" but it's all just hushed whispers and no one knows if its true.
I know I kind of want the brink of war to be like, always hanging on the edge and it could happen at any time. I know also that the prince was taken with the fairy but idk if she would treat him horribly or like, train him to be her side kick or something lol.
The fairy mirror could have more powers under the WF's power or in the fey realm or something, so no one really knows what they have. That would explain why she wants it back so bad. (Is that the object that was stolen?)
WF to Prince: "Look at how you father is treating those poor people because of no fault of their's? See what sort of man he really is in his heart? I can guide you on the true road blah blah blah..." I like the idea of WF trying to make the prince her puppet. He was a baby, maybe he doesn't even know the king is his father!
Yes! The object that was stolen from her was the mirror. I have to come up with why it was stolen and why its so important. What if the mirror was a ways to like, get to the Fey Realm and she wants it back because she wants to go there? Or like, something is there that she wants? I'll have to think about that..
I was also playing around with the idea that the Prince is a NPC that they meet on their journey, but have no idea its actually him. But I kind of want him to be hidden and he's the last thing they need to find to break the WF's curse.
Mirror as a portal definitely works. And I like the idea of some sort of seemingly incidental meeting with the prince without knowing who he is. Maybe he even helps them in some way? Then the major confrontation at the end.
The elves could very well be seeking asylum with the dwarves, making your underground railroads LITERALLY underground. They escape into the underdark, either hoping to find the dwarves by chance or following well established routes with guides and whatnot. Elves and dwarves being pushed together against man as their mutual foe will help that war-any-second tension.
The dwarves weapon could be part of a pair, of which the king's gifted blade was one. The weapon they seek could is an axe made of the same techniques and is bound to it through sympathetic magic. This will give the players a chance to gain the dwarve's trust by retrieving the weapon and maybe give some insight to the king's blade, how it works, and why it didn't against the dark fairie.
The dark fairie once had the mirror, but knew that it's power couldn't be manipulated or used by her. Only mortals can use the mirror to it's full potential, and so she began to plot. She allowed the mirror to bring taken by kinder fey and waited for it to be given to a mortal from their. That gave her the excuse to steal the prince, whom she hopes to manipulate into using the mirror to her own ends when he comes of age and power.
The power of the mirror could be that another world exists on the other side of the reflection, an exact copy of the world that the fairy wishes to corrupt and turn to her own demi plane. Maybe it's a world that leads one to the king/queen/God of all fey kind, and that she wishes to access its domain or its latent power using the prince as a key.
Either have the prince right at the dark fairie's side or have him somewhere she can keep an eye on him. Or, perhaps if you should want him to meet the party, perhaps he was saved shortly after being kidnapped by some faction/kind fairies and raised elsewhere. The dark fairie is always searching for the prince, hoeing to use him once she can whisk him away once more.
Use these or don't, I just figured I owe you the idea's you've been inspiring in my brain.
Alright, this is what I thought of! So, the mirror is a portal to a world that a fairy created but this fairy was dark. The queen then locked the fairy into that world but the WF was in love with that fairy who got trapped. She tried all her magic, but could never break him of it. So when the mirror was given to the king, she was PISSED because she could no longer talk to her beloved. That's the reason she wants it back but since the king has the dagger that could sap her energy, she can't take it away from him. But since they took away something they held dear, she takes the prince with her.
The dagger. I'm thinking that the dagger was originally a piece of a sword that was used in the first world to draw on the magical energy of the once great elves. (I'm thinking the elves were like the Roman Empire. Great and powerful, but fell really hard). So they will have to find a way to fuse the dagger with the other pieces of the sword which will be somewhere in the mountains or something.
Yes! The dwarves and elves will be working together to get them out of their slave owner's homes through literal tunnels underground. That's brilliant! I know I want the dwarves to be launching a war on the humans, but it's all hush-hush and only the leaders of the dwarves know about it.
That's where I'm most stuck. I know that like, its composed of the history of the world but.... hmm.
Okay, wait, I've got it. Since the elves were once the dominant race and they were overtaken easily, maybe an elf wrote all about the genocide and they give the book to the king because they want him to read about the terrible things that happened to them as a race in hopes that he doesn't let it ever happen again? And of course, it's enchanted because it has to update the history of the kingdom as time progresses. As for the language, it would definitely have to be written by the old world elves as the old language would be lost over time and the PCs will have to find an elf who can read the book.
So one of the big points is going to be the whys of the witch needing/wanting the mirror. Is it something malevolent and potent, like a way to gain more power (perhaps from another realm like shadow or fey), is it something of a point of pride that she owned this item and is strictly a 'fey reason' to want it back, or is it something more sentimental like it is her only way to see someone or something of great significance to her.
For the first it is relatively easy to say that it is a conduit of magical energy, and the elves did not know the depths of its true powers when it was gifted. The king was like a child paying with a smart phone thinking the only thing it is for is to play games when it can potentially do so much more. Summoning demons or similarly powerful entities might be a very real possibility or it can lead to some even more powerful item and that is why she had it (it can see anywhere right?). It could even be a key that keeps something so terrible sealed that the the witch cannot trust humans to control it should they inadvertently destroy existence as they know it.
For the second idea the 'fey reason' is just how I feel about a lot of the fairy tales from northern europe through the British Isles. Fey are seen sometimes as very rigid in their ways of thinking and have their own rules that they MUST live by. For fans of Harry Dresden his portrayal of the fey would be a good example of being stuck somewhat in how they can act. Other reasons for this could be the mirror is somehow tied to their life force and every use of it irritatingly took a portion of the witch's energy, leaving an itching feeling like someone calling out their true name three times. Or is this just an "It's mine and I do not relinquish what is mine and all those that would wrong me will be dealt with in the most harsh ways. Very petty reason but fey play by their own esoteric rules.
The sentimental reason would take a little more setup for it to be fulfilling for the players. The mirror was the only way she could view her family/descendants for some reason. Perhaps she herself was cursed to never be able to be with those that she cared about most, left with immortality so she could truly enjoy the anguish of being able to look but not touch. Very much a greek type punishment that never ends for her. Alternate ideas would be her fey lover scorned her and made it so she could not approach within a thousand and one leagues of him, and she still pines for him which has twisted her over time into a very awful person. Even that the mirror is able to see into other worlds when used properly and she can see her home land that she (for whatever reason) left and she watches the people that were her family (or descendants) keeping a watchful eye on them because she cannot return to that world for some reason. Whether those in the other world are mortal or immortal is up to you, but perhaps it even gave her a way to help them in small ways. Protecting them or hexing their foes, letting her participate in a world she left behind.
Hope some of this is useful.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
That's where I'm most stuck. I know that like, its composed of the history of the world but.... hmm.
Okay, wait, I've got it. Since the elves were once the dominant race and they were overtaken easily, maybe an elf wrote all about the genocide and they give the book to the king because they want him to read about the terrible things that happened to them as a race in hopes that he doesn't let it ever happen again? And of course, it's enchanted because it has to update the history of the kingdom as time progresses. As for the language, it would definitely have to be written by the old world elves as the old language would be lost over time and the PCs will have to find an elf who can read the book.
A book that has everything that has happened and will happen? A book of fate of some sort.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
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Heya, so I'm currently in the process of coming up with an original plot and I need someone (other than my players so I don't spoil too much to them lol) to read it over and do a little bit of brainstorming with me. I'd love all the feedback, advice, and all that you can muster. I'm a new-ish DM, having only run one campaign before this, but don't hold back ahaha. Its supposed to sound whimsical and "fairytale like" at first, but its a dark world out there. And fairies in this realm aren't little flying pixies; they're the embodiment of magic. Let me know what you guys think if you have ideas or anything like that!
Here's the full story:
Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom, there was a charming king, a wonderful queen, and their beautiful daughter who ruled their land with courage and kindness. That was until the queen fell terribly ill on the day of their daughter’s ninth birthday. When the queen passed away, the kingdom fell into mourning.
Three months had passed and the king still had no queen to help him rule so he and his daughter traveled across the kingdom in search of a new wife and mother for the princess. Along the journey, the princess and her father were attacked by a terrifying beast that killed all of his guards. That was until a young woman stopped it with her magic. With the king impressed and believing she would be fit as a queen, he proposed to her.
On the day of their wedding, they made sure the whole kingdom was invited. The dwarves from the mountains came with a gift for the king: a dagger that would lead him to victory in battle. The elves from the woodlands brought a book for the queen that would teach her anything she wanted to learn. And finally, the fairies from the moors gave the newlyweds a mirror that would show them anywhere in the kingdom in its current state. At the end of the night is when something terrible happened.
A Wicked Fairy entered the castle and was offended no invitation was given to her. The king told her that evil had no place in their kingdom and for her to be gone. The king’s guards went to stop her, but she froze them with her magic. She then began to tell them that something was stolen from her and she wanted it back. Knowing nothing of the thievery, the king brandished the dwarven dagger and demanded that she leave or he’d cut off her head. The fairy, knowing what the dagger was, vowed that one day she would return; their loved ones would be ripped away from them forever and out of their suffering, her victory will rise and she will stop at nothing to ruin their happiness. She vanished into a cloud of smoke and the castle went silent.
For an entire year, the people were on edge until the day of their new prince’s birth to which a festival was thrown to brighten their spirits. Only, it didn’t last for too long. The Wicked Fairy returned and told them her curse would be enacted if they did not return what was stolen from her. The king reminded her that he did not steal anything from her and aimed his sword at her again only this time, she was not afraid. He lunged towards her with the dagger but it failed to pierce her. In one thunderclap, the sun turned black and a cloud of dark magic rolled over the land. When the smoke dissipated, their new prince was gone.
Trying to find out where his son went, he checked the fairy mirror but it only showed his reflection. He then consulted the elven book to find out a way to break the curse and defeat the fairy, the pages were all in a language no one understood.
Enraged with a missing son and the gifts not working, he did something that would change the kingdom forever. He banished the dwarves to the mountains and to create a sword that would never fail him again but the dwarves knew they could never replicate the one of a kind sword, so they never saw the surface again. He then outlawed the use of magic in his kingdom, thinking that magic was the root of all evil and anyone caught using it would be executed. Since the fairies were honor bound to the king, they couldn’t fight back and returned to the moors. Then finally, he enslaved the elves to work as servants in the palace and auctioned them off to the highest bidders.
The once magical kingdom turned into a miserable place to live. Now, sixteen years later, nothing has changed and the search for the lost prince continues.
Dude, this has tons of potential. Magic made illegal in an apparently high magic world sounds like a neat obstacle/set piece. Tons of fry involvement means that treks to the Feywild (or your homebrew equivalent) will be a huge plot point and provide tons of neat encounters. The banishment of the dwarves means that the kingdom in question could be in open war against them, seeing as the dwarves could well be insulted by the king's reaction to their blade not working and my try to rise against him. Proud elves enslaved? Holy crap, who even thinks of enslaving the naughtiest, most highbourn acting race out their? This is amazing fodder for tons of adventures.
I'd tackke this with the focus being the king's gifts. The king severed ties and sense with dwarves, elves, and fey folk due to the failings of their gifts in his most dire time of need. If a Maleficent brand dark fairie did this, that was probably her intention. Therefore, though the party may not know it at first, the character's overarching goal will be more to induce the needless wrath of the king so the dark fairy can be dealt with by all people as a united front. Best way to do that? Restore the true power of those gifts, one by one. Those are your Mcguffins and should be the crux of your adventure, with the secret 4th mcguffin being the prince himself.
The characters first must reach the dwarves, who are either waging war against the king that spurned and banished them or living in the underground and mountains in a self imposed isolation. Either way, they should be hard to reach, hard to gain the trust of, and loyal patrons should the party show they can restore the kingdom. Then, to the fairies of the moors, who have been weakened maybe by the lack of magic exercised in the mortal world (or something of that nature). The trick with them will be convince their rulers that mortal folk are worth investing in and trusting once more. Then, the enslaved elves. Maybe there's a rebellion led by runaway slaves, maybe the players will have to start one and free the elves, risking the king's ire being directed to them. One way or the other, only they can discover why the book doesn't work or who can now read it's dead language.
Sounds like you should suggest some fairy-tailored classes to your players, too. Archfey Warlocks, College of Glamour Bards, Circle of Dreams Druids, etc.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
Okay, awesome! Thank you so much for the advice and encouragement! I really wanted something that was different, and that started with flipping the script on the typical cliches: elves are magical, nose pointed upwards creatures. What better way then to make them the opposite than by making them slaves?
So, i'm trying to come up with motives, as that's probably going to be the most prevalent question; Why did they do what they did. I also want to come up with lore on how these gifts were created. The basic backstory that I'm coming up with is there was something that went down when the first queen died and that him finding a new queen wasn't by accident and it involved this dark fairy some how. I know that The Dark Fairy wants the mirror and it was once hers, but I don't know why it was so special to her to enact a wicked curse.
As for the Dwarves, there is an uprising that wants to attack the human king definitely and them trusting any of the PCs, unless they're a dwarf, is very slim. They're in search of a weapon of some sort, but I haven't come up with what just yet, but I know I want it to have to do with the three gifts uniting somehow.
The fairies... i'm thinking that yes, they're weak now that magic is slowly dying, but I want there to be like some.... boss or something that's actually draining them of their magic or something? Like, they're using them to make some sort of magic battery or something lol. And fairy dust will totally be some type of drug that the mundane can take to gain powers or use a spell lol.
The elves. So I know I want there to be some type of "underground railroad" thing going on. Like, rumors of elves escaping and finding a new realm called "Haven" but it's all just hushed whispers and no one knows if its true.
I know I kind of want the brink of war to be like, always hanging on the edge and it could happen at any time. I know also that the prince was taken with the fairy but idk if she would treat him horribly or like, train him to be her side kick or something lol.
The fairy mirror could have more powers under the WF's power or in the fey realm or something, so no one really knows what they have. That would explain why she wants it back so bad. (Is that the object that was stolen?)
WF to Prince: "Look at how you father is treating those poor people because of no fault of their's? See what sort of man he really is in his heart? I can guide you on the true road blah blah blah..." I like the idea of WF trying to make the prince her puppet. He was a baby, maybe he doesn't even know the king is his father!
Yes! The object that was stolen from her was the mirror. I have to come up with why it was stolen and why its so important. What if the mirror was a ways to like, get to the Fey Realm and she wants it back because she wants to go there? Or like, something is there that she wants? I'll have to think about that..
I was also playing around with the idea that the Prince is a NPC that they meet on their journey, but have no idea its actually him. But I kind of want him to be hidden and he's the last thing they need to find to break the WF's curse.
Mirror as a portal definitely works. And I like the idea of some sort of seemingly incidental meeting with the prince without knowing who he is. Maybe he even helps them in some way? Then the major confrontation at the end.
Some thoughts.
The elves could very well be seeking asylum with the dwarves, making your underground railroads LITERALLY underground. They escape into the underdark, either hoping to find the dwarves by chance or following well established routes with guides and whatnot. Elves and dwarves being pushed together against man as their mutual foe will help that war-any-second tension.
The dwarves weapon could be part of a pair, of which the king's gifted blade was one. The weapon they seek could is an axe made of the same techniques and is bound to it through sympathetic magic. This will give the players a chance to gain the dwarve's trust by retrieving the weapon and maybe give some insight to the king's blade, how it works, and why it didn't against the dark fairie.
The dark fairie once had the mirror, but knew that it's power couldn't be manipulated or used by her. Only mortals can use the mirror to it's full potential, and so she began to plot. She allowed the mirror to bring taken by kinder fey and waited for it to be given to a mortal from their. That gave her the excuse to steal the prince, whom she hopes to manipulate into using the mirror to her own ends when he comes of age and power.
The power of the mirror could be that another world exists on the other side of the reflection, an exact copy of the world that the fairy wishes to corrupt and turn to her own demi plane. Maybe it's a world that leads one to the king/queen/God of all fey kind, and that she wishes to access its domain or its latent power using the prince as a key.
Either have the prince right at the dark fairie's side or have him somewhere she can keep an eye on him. Or, perhaps if you should want him to meet the party, perhaps he was saved shortly after being kidnapped by some faction/kind fairies and raised elsewhere. The dark fairie is always searching for the prince, hoeing to use him once she can whisk him away once more.
Use these or don't, I just figured I owe you the idea's you've been inspiring in my brain.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
Alright, this is what I thought of! So, the mirror is a portal to a world that a fairy created but this fairy was dark. The queen then locked the fairy into that world but the WF was in love with that fairy who got trapped. She tried all her magic, but could never break him of it. So when the mirror was given to the king, she was PISSED because she could no longer talk to her beloved. That's the reason she wants it back but since the king has the dagger that could sap her energy, she can't take it away from him. But since they took away something they held dear, she takes the prince with her.
The dagger. I'm thinking that the dagger was originally a piece of a sword that was used in the first world to draw on the magical energy of the once great elves. (I'm thinking the elves were like the Roman Empire. Great and powerful, but fell really hard). So they will have to find a way to fuse the dagger with the other pieces of the sword which will be somewhere in the mountains or something.
Yes! The dwarves and elves will be working together to get them out of their slave owner's homes through literal tunnels underground. That's brilliant! I know I want the dwarves to be launching a war on the humans, but it's all hush-hush and only the leaders of the dwarves know about it.
Nice idea with the mirror! What of the book, though?
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
That's where I'm most stuck. I know that like, its composed of the history of the world but.... hmm.
Okay, wait, I've got it. Since the elves were once the dominant race and they were overtaken easily, maybe an elf wrote all about the genocide and they give the book to the king because they want him to read about the terrible things that happened to them as a race in hopes that he doesn't let it ever happen again? And of course, it's enchanted because it has to update the history of the kingdom as time progresses. As for the language, it would definitely have to be written by the old world elves as the old language would be lost over time and the PCs will have to find an elf who can read the book.
So one of the big points is going to be the whys of the witch needing/wanting the mirror. Is it something malevolent and potent, like a way to gain more power (perhaps from another realm like shadow or fey), is it something of a point of pride that she owned this item and is strictly a 'fey reason' to want it back, or is it something more sentimental like it is her only way to see someone or something of great significance to her.
For the first it is relatively easy to say that it is a conduit of magical energy, and the elves did not know the depths of its true powers when it was gifted. The king was like a child paying with a smart phone thinking the only thing it is for is to play games when it can potentially do so much more. Summoning demons or similarly powerful entities might be a very real possibility or it can lead to some even more powerful item and that is why she had it (it can see anywhere right?). It could even be a key that keeps something so terrible sealed that the the witch cannot trust humans to control it should they inadvertently destroy existence as they know it.
For the second idea the 'fey reason' is just how I feel about a lot of the fairy tales from northern europe through the British Isles. Fey are seen sometimes as very rigid in their ways of thinking and have their own rules that they MUST live by. For fans of Harry Dresden his portrayal of the fey would be a good example of being stuck somewhat in how they can act. Other reasons for this could be the mirror is somehow tied to their life force and every use of it irritatingly took a portion of the witch's energy, leaving an itching feeling like someone calling out their true name three times. Or is this just an "It's mine and I do not relinquish what is mine and all those that would wrong me will be dealt with in the most harsh ways. Very petty reason but fey play by their own esoteric rules.
The sentimental reason would take a little more setup for it to be fulfilling for the players. The mirror was the only way she could view her family/descendants for some reason. Perhaps she herself was cursed to never be able to be with those that she cared about most, left with immortality so she could truly enjoy the anguish of being able to look but not touch. Very much a greek type punishment that never ends for her. Alternate ideas would be her fey lover scorned her and made it so she could not approach within a thousand and one leagues of him, and she still pines for him which has twisted her over time into a very awful person. Even that the mirror is able to see into other worlds when used properly and she can see her home land that she (for whatever reason) left and she watches the people that were her family (or descendants) keeping a watchful eye on them because she cannot return to that world for some reason. Whether those in the other world are mortal or immortal is up to you, but perhaps it even gave her a way to help them in small ways. Protecting them or hexing their foes, letting her participate in a world she left behind.
Hope some of this is useful.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."