Chapter 3: Thither

In the morning, the Witchlight Crew bids Quennan farewell and begins their expedition to Thither, under the guidance of Clapperclaw the Scarecrow and with DeLorean carrying your gear. Clapperclaw knows of a secret path through the misty mountains that separate the lands of Hither and Thither. You head east and trudge through the swamp for three days under a warm and friendly sun. With each passing of the day, the ground grows firmer and drier. You take this as a good sign that Bavlorna is still locked up in her cage.

Along the way, Clapperclaw shows you how to forage for food in Prismeer. It seems as if delicious snacks and meals can be found in the wild if you look with the right feeling in your heart and hunger in your tummy. Clapperclaw finds a freshly baked apple pie in the hollow of a tree, tea and biscuits atop a giant mushroom, and marmalade sandwiches wrapped in wax paper and a bottle of white wine floating in a basket in a river.

One night, while you are snugged into your hammocks strung around the campfire, Clapperclaw talks a bit about Prismeer and how it has changed. Apparently, Prismeer was once whole, but the Hourglass Coven divided into three kingdoms and each one is ruled by one of the hags. "The land has changed to reflect the hag that rules it. Bavlorna is obsessed with the present, so Hither became a swamp - it shows you how Prismeer is decaying right now. But Granny Nightshade rules in Thither, and she is obsessed with the past. So, Hither reflects Prismeer as it was - lush, verdant forests. But make no mistake, it has become just as dangerous as Hither."

He tells you a bit about Skabatha Nightshade, or Granny Nightshade as he calls her.

"Granny Nightshade is the oldest member of the Hourglass Coven. One of her favourite games is to offer to help those who are haunted by a mistake, but her deals always result in cruel twists; for example, I once saw an elf ask to be reunited with a lost love, so she transformed her into her loved one’s favourite sword. The two are never apart, alas."

"Granny Nightshade dresses up like an old toy maker, and she's obsessed with making toys. She's part toy herself, and even has a windup key on her back that rotates quickly when she’s in a good mood and slows down as her mood sours. When she is furious, the key comes to a dead stop. That's when you should be most scared!"

If you ask about the third realm, Yon, Clapperclaw admits his knowledge is limited. "I have never been to Yon. It is said to be ruled by Endylnn Moongrave who is obsessed with the future, and I shiver to think what will become of Prismeer. I have heard rumours that it has become a jagged, mountainous realm of dark storms and frightening calamities."

He falls into a melancholy mood at the mention of the future, and falls silent.

"So that's why they've decided to partition Prismeer! If their experiments with past, present, and future were to come into contact with each other, that could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy all of the Feywild, perhaps even all the planes of existence!"

"I thought it was because they could not stand each other and certainly would not put up with any meddling in their realm." Beven remarked. Beven absently scratched at his neck. He was starting to rethink this new armor of his scrounged from the bullywugs. Beven was unaware you could make leather from frogskin but from the smell and clammy feel he feels sure the bullywugs figured out how. It has all manner of metal things sown into it, some proper armor rings but also large buttons, gears, and other repurposed bits of scrap. He just hoped it was functional for he would not wear this for the look.

Though not the only ring on the Bugbear’s fingers, Zezzarr couldn’t help but fiddle with the token that Quennan had gifted him as the group departed Tsu’s inn.

It had been given as an invitation, and kept as a promise; to right the wrongs inflicted upon this place. In truth, the Bugbear didn’t feel worthy of wearing it; not in the company of those that had earned theirs. But the kindness of the Drow, and his assuredness in his giving insisted that Zezzarr wear the thing.

"And what might happen if we were to ensure that her windup key were never to slow?" the Bugbear ponders through great big puffs of pink smoke from his pipe.

"If stopping is unwanted, then it stands to reason that the faster it spins, the better for us!"

"We could build a winder-upper mechanism to turn that key as fast ss possible and lull her into such a good mood she'll just happily surrender and begone!"

Saying Quennan goodbye, the youthful gnome is a bit sad for a few hours before he realizes in what danger he is at the moment. Misty mountains? Dark swamps? Prime territory for getting lost... Keeping exceptionally close to Clapperclaw Jules seems more than a bit nervous in this environment. In the afternoon of the first day, he swings himself back into the saddle - maybe behind Twisp? - of the DeLorian and calms down quite a bit.

All this food-wishing wakes the hafling in the hafling raised gnome and it doesn't take long before he is surrounded by hearty delicacies of different origins.

Listening intently as the scarecrow tells of the Coven and the three kingdoms, the Waterhavian tries to memorize everything for later, while chewing contently on some raisin-bread spread with peanut butter and plum-jam.

With the weather on an upward trend, Reynard is in a much better mood despite the seriousness of the dangerous task ahead. "If Hither is the present and it was so... depressing," Reynard says, pondering, "I wonder what horrors to expect in Yon? "

He blinks rapidly at Twisp's postulation, "Could that really happen, do you think?" he asks, curious about the theory.

Clapperclaw admits that he doesn't know what will happen if you were to wind up Granny Nightshade's key, or if the universe would implode if the realms unite are reunited. The thought of the latter does seem to fill him with some foreboding, however.

In the morning, you awake in the shadow of the mist-shrouded peaks that form the barrier between the Prismeer's imposed provinces, Strangely, Clapperclaw takes a sudden departure from the eastward trail and leads you north, following a funny little path of misleading signs. Whenever you encounter a trail marker, Clapperclaw cleverly navigates in the opposite direction the sign indicates. After an hour of following the path, you begin to hear the sounds of singing voices. It sounds like a battle royale of barber shop quartets, with the voices signing different songs at different tempos with no regard to the harmonies between them.

You finally arrive in a colourful, if slightly flooded, clearing.


In the center is a ring of mushrooms, which residents of the Feywild will recognize as a fairy ring, a place of magical power. In Zybilna's time, the magic of fairy rings were used to power fey crossings, which allowed travel between worlds. Healthy rings could open a two-way crossing to another specific Fairy Ring anywhere in the multiverse. It was through this magic that creatures sometimes wandered into the Feywild, or Feywild creatures somtimes wandered out. Anyone who grew up in the Feywild knows that if they hold a wand or a stick of wood above their head and run in a circle counterclockwise while saying, "Three turns widdershins, and off we go!" then all the creatures in the Fairy Ring will be teleported to the sister Ring.

It isn't long before you realize that the singing is coming from the mushrooms themselves. They dance and spin, belting out tunes in various languages, but always in a nasal falsetto voice. A few of the animate mushrooms take notice, and beckon to you to come sing and dance with them! They seem very friendly and consumed with the joy of singing, but not terribly bright.

Reynard's not much of a dancer unless he's gotten a few drinks in him, so he just smiles and shakes his head. Darius, however, makes his way over and begins dancing to the tune, though he can't sing as he has no voice.

Beven takes out his lute and tries to play a melody to go along with their singing. It will be hard with all the mushrooms singing over each other but perhaps he can lead them in a direction.

Beven's strumming piques the mushroom's very short and adorable attention spans! Their delight transforms into a shower of fairy dust, which settles on your shoulders, blessing you. However, you can tell what they really want is a song. Beven can now see the magical leylines energies flowing through this place. It is beautiful!

Beven reaches back to his childhood to a children's poem his parents would read to him. Beven set it to a simple tune and played.

The little mushrooms listen intently to Beven's song and then try to sing it back. They immediately catch on, and all begin singing the song in unison. They seem overjoyed to learn a new song.

For lack of a singing voice, Jules seems a bit shy before taking a heart and walking into the middst of the shrooms. A shower of rainbow coloured sparks rains down on the gnome, as he opens his mouth and starts to sing. A song his parents sang when the returned from a evening spent in each others company in the taverns of their quarter. Just singing the first part (the second one is too ranchy for his first stage performance) the gnome remembers fondly the love they both share for each other.

And even as his voice doesn't do them justice, the memory of the harmonic times in the Honeyfriends home narrishs the small adventurer enough, that he only blushes a bit, bows and feels proud to have dared a song as he steps back.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beXW5s3ZCB4

Zezzarr claps his hand against his thigh and taps his foot to whatever tune seems to carrying along the best at any given moment.

He smokes his pipe, sending plumes of colored smoke around the gathering. Not overly musically inclined, he keeps to the side, joining in for as long as is polite when the focus comes his way, and then shrinking into the background once again; like an uncle at a wedding.

Once the group has ingratiated itself with the mushroom-folk, Zezzarr will begin perching several of the braver ones on his shoulders, hands and head, so that they can dance from a great height!

Jules puts on a good show, and several of the mushrooms adore his performance. But, he doesn't have enough gravitas to draw in sufficient numbers to get a blessing.

Zezzarr puts a few of them on his shoulder and their small gathering has a jolly good time.

Clapperclaw claps along to the music, his big claws providing a percussion instrument. He's got good rhythm and makes a decent musical collaborator.

After the dancing and singing subsides, Clapperclaw returns to the quest. "You know, Skabatha thinks I know of a pass through the mountains, but I always come to and from to Hither through this fairy ring. Skabatha poisons the rings in Thither while Bavlorna outright drowned the ones in Hither, but some - like this - one remain healthy. You might find some others! So, are we ready to go?"

Zezzarr sets the mushrooms back down, gently, one by one!

"Marvelous! Nice to see a bit of the old ways about the place!" he says, triumphantly!

"Yes, well, I’m quite ready to give this witch what-for!" he says, with a dash of anger.

"The quicker, the better!" he says, putting out his pipe and straightening himself up for the journey!

"I shall keep my eyes out for them. Such places should be protected." Beven intones.