A hill to the north of
Ornisk. It has a persistent
First World portal which periodically opens up and lets hostile
Fey through.
Portal origins
The portal was created from the material plane by
Tristian using divine magic. He intentionally made it unstable, requiring it to be periodically maintained from the material plane. If left alone for long enough, Tristian believes it will close.
When the portal first opened, a
Dryad and a large number of
Spiders came through. The Dryad refused to surrender even in the face of certain death, as "she will kill me if I do not do this".
After Tristian interfered with the portal,
Shamblers came through and were killed one by one, followed by a terrified Dryad. While she wasn't interested in talking, with a bit of coaxing and a bit of torture, she revealed that she was being forced into this by Nyrissa, whose power was being underestimated. She said that far stronger Dryad than her would come through with armies that "are still being cultivated and grown", and that the portal would only grow stronger. The Dryad was ultimately executed.
Kiede / Samuel surmised from listening to the Dryad that the Fey cannot see through the portal, Nyrissa only gives them limited information, and that she does not have an active army but rather grows them as needed. It was also observed that the Dryad was not a newborn, but older, suggesting that Nyrissa has considerable sway over other Fey. This is backed up by the
Defaced Sisters being over a thousand years old and being extremely devoted to Nyrissa.
