Twilight Grotto of the Faerie Edgelands (Willow’s Eye ruins; Rhyl)

Posted on September 22, 2026 in Steel-Realms

Adventure Sourced Materials: Materials that are continuum applicable, universal, just descriptive, and/or can be independent of a specific adventure or session are moved from their original sources into the place, person, or item page after they are revealed to players.

The ultimate goal of maintaining and dealing with this place is the Restoration of the Willow’s Eye Temple in some capacity.

Encounters & Dangers in the Area

None of the normal Encounters in the Grand Duchy of Rhyl are likely to happen here. There are no normal Settlement Encounters > Patrols | Recruiting | Sellers | Begging | Crime

Defenses of the Grotto

Anger of the Spirits: If a character succumbs to the anger, they suffer a penalty to all actions = # Faeymarks; or -4 & Disadvantage of direct faerie blood

• Wood Weirds – like blights, but not evil. Protectors like goblins. Vulnerable to fire. Resistance to pierce and bludgeon. They attack fasdtest and most powerful during twilight.
• Mephit
• Mudmen – eyes in the ground!

The Tees on the Edge of the Grotto

The trees that circle the lip around the edge of the grotto are different. Squat and strong, shorter than the forest beyond – like a fence. Their trunks are 2m think and they stand 20m tall. Thick branches, and all coniferous.

Sunlight shines directly through the trees at sunup. Trees not of the normal variety surround a, irregular sunken pit 50m wide in places, 80m long, and 25m deep.

Faerie Bane: Those of faerie blood moving beyond this point trigger the defenses of the the grotto. Sylph and faeries that move in other ways than walking upon the ground find themselves will be ground-bound.

• Ground Binding: All creatures will be forcible drawn to the top of the ground – no other movement through, over, or around the tree ring at a distance of 75m around them by those of faerie blood is allowed.
• Nightmares: All of faerie blood must make a Sanity check with Disadvantage or suffer nightmares constantly > Success still means they suffer it automatically at night. All Initiatiive checks are made with Disadvantage.
• Sickness:

The Trip Down

The Ramp: Characters may decide to take the obvious ramp down the NE side of the grotto.

Layered over your perception is another world of strange alien landscape. The feeling of the ground beneath your feet seems to ground you, though you are deeply unsettled. The grotto feels wrong somehow, as it you are looking at something you should not be seeing.

Lowering: Characters may decide to somehow lower themselves into the grotto.

Pit Floor

View from the Bottom

As you set foot in the bottom of the strange grotto, the sky above you flashes. Diffused light returns to an emptiness above you. Then, slowly, an alien night sky is painted as you gaze around you. The landscape in the grotto grows increasingly hostile – you swear the trees around are plotting against you. You feel like every pinprick of a star in the sky is an eye upon you. Then it returns to normal, and you realize you’ve been holding your breath the entire time and gasp for air.

View Between Sunset & Sunrise

As the sun sets, shadows flicker throughout the grotto. It seems like they take on a life of their own, and the alien reality of some distant realm overlays on top of what you see every time you blink. It feels like everything is without meaning, without anchors to reality. Finally, another held breath is expelled and you take a massive gasp for air. The world is… not normal. The earthen walls of the grotto fade to darkness. Despite any lights you may have, the darkness does not retreat before it. There is no heat from your light, and all light feels like it is being pushed back against. Two moons appear in the sky, moving towards each other as the sun fades behind the horizon.

Father Tree, Guardian of the Ramp

Communicating: Speaks only sylvan, but understands Feyloise and Sylvan. It takes 10 rounds to even draw a breath to begin to speak.

!–
TREE: Says to wait for night

@ Dayt

Wind blows the boughs, whispering warnings in your ears – “transgress”, “anger like burning mountains”, “the roots of the world tree are bound with wroth here”, “sealed within is doom”

@ Night

At night, the stars above configure themselves in unknown constellations. A darkness that is not natural. A darkness that dances with the cold wind. Faint sounds of pipes and drums are heard. The wind bends the trees that groan, the stars are wrong, memory fails you…

Guardians: Wood Weirds

–>

Moonlit Shaft

A beam of moonlight streams down into a single copse in the grotto as the path of the two moons merge into one. It lights a dark shaft. You feel a presence, vast, ancient and aware. The copse contains a dark shaft, that is illuminated by moonlight, but 10m down becomes a black void that swallows light. The shaft is wider at the top, narrowing into a collar that is something a human could barely fit through – it reminds you of an oubliette. You shudder at the thought of what could be trapped in the dark, lurking to ambush you.

Through the dark collar…

As you pass through the collar, all light above you fades to black. You look around, seeing earthen walls that fade to darkness. Continuing, you feel like you are passing through a membrane. The descent feels like it will have no end, and like it will only lead to sorrow.

The shaft is the entrance to another dimensional realm, somewhere on the edges of the Faeywyld borderlands and a demi plane of a god.

You continue down, farther and farther, like climbing through water, letting yourself sink. Movement causes a churning of the darkness. There are constellations in the darkness – stars swirl around you – below, above and all around – as if you walk through the cosmic void of interstellar space itself.

Twilight Path of the Willow’s Eye: 1 = Twilight Grotto > 2 = Tree Top World > 3 = The Vaulted Hall of Worship > 4 = Misty Hall of Memories > 5 = Chamber of Contemplation > 6 = The Rainbow Path > 7 = Mistvale of the World Tree > 8 = Vision Pools of the Faerie-Norse