Episode 22 - Flying High

After defeating a Gibbering Spider, a huge arachnid that nearly killed Folan, the heroes continue their journey across the endless bridge. Still taking psychic damage regularly and unable to rest, they soon find a group of five corpses, their lives apparently drained very recently. Upon one of the bodies they find a message that says, "The young one is not what he appears to be." Following clues and hunches, Thorn and the others confront the child. His ruse discovered, the child dissolves into sand and the bridge along with him. The group then find themselves only a few feet away from the shore whence they started.

After a day of travel through the woods of the northern Shadow Marches, the party stops to camp, and the Coat of Eyes whispers to Fie, saying: From the depths of Khyber, my master and mistress arose and ruled over this earth for ten million years till the wretched dragons defeated them. But no prison lasts forever. They will rule this world again. You are going in the right direction. Go north. Go far to the north, to the ice and cold. Your actions please me. When the master and mistress rise again, maybe I will keep you.

Before sleeping that night, the party again encounters faeries. Several gremlins try to steal Fie's coat, but the coat is now bound to Fie's flesh. The faeries leave, but not before many of the little folk beckon Sypheros to come with them. Hagstone is confused and troubled by the repeated appearance of faeries.

A day later, in the densest part of the woods, the party meets a nymph. She says:

"Hello, mortals. The little people told me of your coming. Why are you in my woods?"

"Long, long ago, there were brave mortals in this land, but neither men nor women ever dreamed that food was to be got out of the ground, but only from the trees and bushes. Mortals ate what nature provided. They hunted, cooked acorns, and brewed honey. The fey walked among them, for the mortals were as the animals and plants, ever being born, growing, and dying, and they did not offend us."

"But then a foolish fey called Fro brought to the mortals knowledge of the seed and plough. Mortals learned to tear up the earth, and soon the abundance wrought from the earth led men to raise stones into high cities and to burn the dark green forests. Then the fey fled from the blasted land, only coming out in these remote places."

"Some say Fro also created the Fomorians, that race of terrible giants who rule vast underground kingdoms in the Feydark. The Fomorians once challenged the Faerie Courts for control of the Feywild. They fought a terrible war. My mistress loved a great soldier in that war. His name was Torrheval." The nymph appears angered now.

"He was wrong to leave her. My mistress is the fair Selephra. How could any leave her?" she says angrily.

She then looks at Sypheros closely and says, "You are so like him in appearance. Will you come with me to Thelanis? Will you come to my mistress' palace?"

Sypheros refuses, and the nymph flees.

Hagstone again is worried about all the faeries.

As they emerge from the deep woods and approach the border near Droaam, the land of monsters, suddenly hippogriffs descend from the sky, seizing four of the party members and flying off toward the cliffs to the west. Now separated into two groups, what will become of our heroes?