For as long as anyone can remember, there have been legends about the miraculous Well of the Dreamer. No one was quite clear on what the water of the well did. The stories were wild and varied. But only stories. Or so everyone thought.
A few years ago, the Prince of the Realm came into possession of a map that claimed to reveal the location of the Well of the Dreamer. Needless to say, he and twenty knights rode out to find it. Everyone was of the belief that the Prince would bring back great stories of the great well. But that was not to be. The Prince did indeed return, but alone. He bore some scars he had acquired since setting out for the well. But that was not the worst. He returned, stone-faced and unspeaking, with terrible, blank eyes. Of course the opinion at the time was that intriguers had attacked the Prince, killed his guard, and put a spell on him. But no matter what any of the court magicians did, they could not break the Prince’s horrible silence. Inevitably, people decided that the Prince had indeed reached the well, and something there had done something to him. A steady stream of brave knights and greedy men followed the directions to the well, trying to find a cure. None returned.
Finally, people stopped going after the well. Still the Prince remained as he was. The last person to try to find the well was a dancer, who secretly loved the Prince. She went alone, and opinion is she found the well. She is the only other to return. But she returned in a similar state to the Prince, with the same blank eyes and expressionless face. She moved with jerky movements, like a puppet or a sleepwalker. She too bore some scars she had recieved in her quest for the well. Unlike the Prince, however, she spoke once after she returned. It is said that her voice was flat and devoid of expression. “The Well of the Dreamer is a well, and fine-named indeed.” (Or some other, more fitting mysterious statement.) After that cryptic remark, she too lapsed into silence. Since her return, no one has attempted to go to the well. No one knows what to do for either the Prince or the dancer. But the people are frightened, and the King is not getting any younger.
The people of the kingdom would be willing to part with much if anyone could find a cure, and someone who could go to the well, and come back unchanged, would be well rewarded indeed… Even someone who could give them a clue as to what is happening would find them grateful.
Perhaps the Well of the Dreamer is only a blind, and enemy magicians are indeed responsible for the affliction that the Prince and the dancer are suffering from. Their reasons remained to be seen…
Perhaps the Well of the Dreamer is well guarded by all sorts of unnatural monstrosities. Those who never returned were killed, and the catatonic state the Prince and the dancer are in is merely a result of the mental stress and shock they endured. They may or may not recover.
There might be no well, and the Prince was mortified that he’d made a fool of himself. He killed his companions, and returned, pretending to be under an enchantment. Of course, that doesn’t explain why no one else returned, or the state the dancer is in…
Maybe the Well of the Dreamer does have strange and wonderful properties, but it is also cursed. This curse is what the Prince and the dancer are suffering from.