The group’s passage through the remainder of the tunnels beyond the dark cavern went smoothly enough. It seemed as though all threats had receded after that faithful encounter with the creature, and they could feel the weight of dread slowly leaving them with every step they took away from that awful place.
The walls of the tunnels beyond grew increasingly peculiar, though, the sheer black slate of the deep reaches of the Feydark giving way to large crystalline formations that caught the light of their torches and reflected it back at them with a thousand different hues. The strange formations would continue and grow in frequency as the group progressed, and after a full day of travel, the crystals was practically ubiquitous with the stone around it.
Moreover, the scattering of the lights they carried with them became so prolific that they would never have noticed a second light source further down the tunnel if Elxidor's torch hadn’t been extinguished by a sudden gust of wind from the same direction.
It was a draft that came from further down the tunnel, and it carried a strangely sweet and refreshing scent with it. Like drops of dew upon a fresh spring field of all things. It was then that they caught their first glimpse of the glow in the distance, and they proceeded cautiously, allowing the far-off light to illuminate their path rather than lighting another torch.
The sight that awaited them as they emerged from a low rocky depression was as unexpected as it was mystifying.
What was revealed to them was a sea of stars reaching all the way to the horizon, quite the concept considering there was still a ceiling above their head. Upon closer inspection, however, it became clear that the ground beneath their feet also appeared to be filled with stars in a great ocean that stretched out as indefinitely as the sky on the surface above. This place was truly a marvel, unlike anything known to the mortal realms.
As they took a tentative step into the shallows of the great underground lake, the ground beneath the surface began to waver. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that the rocky bottom of the pool seemed to drop away almost immediately past its edge, seeming to fade rather than recede, becoming ethereal before completely vanishing. The water's surface was like a thin, newly formed sheet of ice, yet underneath, its contents flowed freely.
After gazing into the depths for a moment longer, it dawned on them what they were looking at. The starry image shifted and whirled beneath their feet. What they had stumbled on was the wondrous border of the lands of the fey and the celestial realm. A boundary between worlds not spoken of anywhere in the mortal texts of the prime material plane, Carric informed them, and he was fairly certain of that fact. Yet, here it was, a whole world buried within another far beneath its surface.
This left the party with a dilemma. The boundary between planes, seeming thin and unsubstantial, gave the impression that one would fall through if they applied any pressure to the surface at all. With no one certain of the course ahead of them, it seemed as good a time as any to rest for the day, and so they set their camp on the shores of the starlit sea and pondered their next move.
