Ilsa shook her head. "We came here without the key. Why can't the necromancer?"

Roth shrugs, looks to Ilsa, and asks, "Do we care?  For all we really know, he's the necromancer's goon, but a way out is a way out."

"I do not care. But it doesn't make sense." Not that a lot makes sense to Ilsa or that she cared about much. The only thing in Hgylak's favor is that he seems to be offering them a way out. This keeps him on the "Do not kill, yet" list even though every bone in her body told her he deserved to die.

"Eor's identity matters because it was he who told Owl where to find the key; that Pig held it safe," Shirok explained patiently, ignoring most of the other conversation going on around him. "It matters because Owl wrote that it was Eor who ordered him to poison Bear.

"If you have any hope of making this place safe once more, it must be understood what corrupted it in the first place."

"I. Am impressed." Stan had been having a hard time following what was going on in this crazy place. The druid's wisdom was proving a valuable asset in unravelling the mystery.

Hyglak’s tic surfaces again as he nods to Garret and accepts the cleric’s word.  He gestures for the party to follow him as he then leads you north-northeast.  Again, he shrugs at Ilsa’s observation at the seemingly flawed temporal mechanics of the Wood; and outright ignores Roth’s jab about him being a goon for the Necromancer.
“Eeyore is just like that,” the warrior explains as the party travels.  “He always liked to sow a little chaos in whatever was going on.  He was one negative bastard, let me tell you, but he was good people.  He would never allow anything to happen to Criss or the Wood, and he fell defending it.  Or, at least, Rabbit thinks he fell.  He’s probably still around though, in the trees and water.  He believed in all that spiritual crap.  But I guess with him being the spirit of this place, that kind of makes sense.
“Anyway, yeah—he knew Xanhast had the key.  He knew everything that happens in these woods.  And that whole thing about him poisoning Bear, if what you say is true then it must have been one of his pranks.  Being cut from the same cloth, so to speak, he would have known that it’s damn near impossible to harm Bear; for any real length of time anyway.
“So, what brings you guys to our neck of the woods, eh?” he asks with a wide grin.

"It sprung up in our way."  The elf tells Hyglak before noting, "Not a very good sanctuary if just anyone can walk in.  Seems more like a prison."  He thinks another moment and continues, "I wonder what, if anything at all, keeps the necromancer out."  As the group follows the man, Roth consciously makes the effort to ease his way into a position with Hyglak between himself and others in the group.

"That's was I said," Ilsa grunted in agreement with Roth's statement.

Are we there yet... Porto states his cliche with all the cliche attitude, but this was more about having to walk a long time rather than...wait a minute... Shirok couldn't you just show the map to Hyglak and we wouldn't have to walk such a long way, would could just point and boom, we're there.

"Necromancer, backson, invasion, corruption. This isn't really our fight, is it? It's not even our time."

"A guardian spirit that sets the other guardians against one another, and endangers his wards by aiding traitors to his cause," Shirok replied, once more ignoring the other conversations. (Although he did wish that Porto hadn't mentioned the map; no sense in revealing it.) There was no condemnation or heat in his voice; he simple spoke what he saw as the truth. "Eor fell to the backson, but they did not come for him alone. It might have been Owl, but it might very well have been someone else.

"When we spoke with Rabbit, she made it sound as though Criss had chosen us for his champions, that we were needed to fix the corruption at the heart of this place. So now I ask why it is that you are so eager to see us leave."

Stan kept his voice low, meaning to whisper to Porto.

"Maybe because he knows we want to leave."

Whispering back. Twenty copper pieces says that he tricks us and takes us to the necromancer, so we'll have to fight.

"Like I said," Roth notes to Shirok, "Maybe he's one of the Necromancer's goons, and wants us out of the way, or wants us to let the Necromancer in.  Either way, I'm of the mind to leave the ONE other person in these woods to his fate.  It's a shame, but we aren't the ones who left a child in charge with too much power.  He IS our captor as well, trying to make slaves of us."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Ilsa asked, hoping he'd say the magic words.

“Rabbit was right about you,” Hyglak says to Shirok as he leads the party onward.  He remains close to the druid in order to more easily converse with him, all the while mostly ignoring the others as they speak on other things behind them.  “You are quite perceptive.  But I won’t say he actually aided Owl in anything.  More, he kept him busy.  And you are right, the Backson didn’t come for Eeyore.  They want Criss.
“And yes, Criss has chosen you as his champions to set things straight and that is how you got in—because Criss called you here.  I don’t know how, but you seem to have made great strides in dealing with the Backson monsters and Owl.  Personally I don’t think Criss was man enough to actually kill him.  Well done.
“I believe Criss is allowing you to leave,” he finally addresses Shirok’s question, “because things are beginning to return to normal.  Why am I so eager?  I don’t know.  Maybe the sooner you leave, the sooner Criss and I can get back to wasting away in here,” he says with a shrug.

The trek continues through the Six Pine Trees, over a branch of the river, and past Rabbit’s house.  For several hours Hyglak leads the party through the prairie, heading directly for a giant tree looming on the horizon.  As you make progress toward it the sky beyond the tree darkens and you see several flashes of lightning arch across the sky.  Hyglak pauses a moment to consider the storm so far away.
“That is the boarder of these woods,” he says, “to enter that storm is certain death.  But do not fret, we won’t be going that far.”

The prairie seems to extend for miles and miles into the distance, and no matter how long you walk, you never seem to make any real progress.  Suddenly, there appears to be a great roll in the landscape as you crest the top of a hill.  Looking down into the depression, you see a strange sight.  Positioned near the center of the dip stands what appears to be a statue of some beastly creature.
It looks similar to a bear, but with more delicate features and not as stout.  It’s head appears more canine than a bears, and its fore paws less powerful.  Its feet are long and it has a thick tail.  On its abdomen is carved a pouch and in it sits a smaller version of the same creature.
“Lady and gentlemen,” Hgylak says loudly, so that he may be heard by all.  “Meet Milne.  She has stood watch here since the Wood was formed.  Marvelous, isn’t she?  She was modeled after a fierce creature our King had in his menagerie.  It was a formidable combatant and cunning beyond that of most hunters.  Criss was so taken by it, the King had a replica made and placed here, to watch over his son.
“Once you pass this depression, you will find that you are able to approach that large tree quite easily.  Climb the bee tree and the gate is at the top.  Ready?”

Ready! Porto says, he feels optimistically good about this. What's the worst that can happen.

"Giant bees could swarm and carry you off."

"The tree could come alive and beat you senseless."

"The Backson's agents could cut you down as you climbed up."

"Shall I go on?"

I'd be delighted. But I have a question. I asked for the worst, and you give me three different answers. Which is the worst? Porto says with a coy smile. There are several things he knows she could says to completely shut him down, but he hoped she wouldn't say any of them.

"It's never that easy."

Stan activated the wand, hoping he wouldn't be blinded by some great aura on the edge of the woods.

"It's not that I don't trust you, Hyglak. It's the necromancer I'm worried about."

detect magic

"Having your skin flayed from your body, slowly, with a dull knife, while your feet are held to flames that peel away your muscles, exposing raw bone, while termites gnaw at your genitals and burrow into your body, and..." Ilsa stopped when Shirok gave her a look.

But I asks you, which of those is the worst, the gnawed at genitals, or the flaying? Porto says rather enjoying this conversation.

Shirok shook his head slightly at Ilsa when she began her discussion of horrible things, and spared an odd look for the halfling when he decided to continue nonetheless. Not really a topic that needed to be discussed, especially considering the questions that still lingered. No sense in giving the possible enemy ideas.

He considered Hyglak for a few moments. The man was rude and occasionally openly hostile, yet he hadn't lied. He was committed to the defense of this place; if he was willing to let his ward's chosen champions leave and wasn't being stopped by wiser heads...

"Fine," he said after a moment. "We shall leave. But I suggest you take Criss and leave this place as well," he added. "You cannot grow, cannot evolve past the threats that face you if you stand still."

"All at once. Or you were you not listening?" Ilsa snarled.

"But you are both wrong."

Stanley Fetchin gazed longingly into the storm at the edge of the world.

"To love and to be loved, with worlds between, that is the worst of all."