The Grey World is a strange Dimension that was discovered during the quest Duchy Get Quest (Part 1), in the Millennium Forest. According to Lady Merehiki Songheart, these woods contain many portals to other planes, and she briefly theorised that this was some kind of afterlife. However, once the visitors left this place during Duchy Quest 2: Satyr Boogaloo, they exited not to the Millennium Forest, but to the Pines on the Continent, suggesting that there might be a portal there too.
Outside
In the vicinity to a portal to this demiplane, trees and plants begin to change - new vegetation appears, which feels familiar, but which one has never seen. Things appear a bit more vibrant, but they seem to be moving more slowly - or maybe, the wind just died down.
In the air, there is a shimmering tone of gorgeous, diaphanous music, like multiple stringed instruments playing in ethereal harmony, though to the trained ear of Dolen Harven, it felt like there was just one player.
The Portal
The portal itself is a grey stone gate, some twenty feet high and thirty feet long, vines and greenery wrapped around it. It looks like it's been here for a thousand years, maybe more. The dead apparently cannot cross this threshold, according to Xylandras, so she needed to be carried into the Grey World by the Adventurers. Merehiki Songheart was unsettled by this portal, but was willing to enter it while holding Xylandras; Meinzer was terrified by it.
When Syltorin Margaster analysed the magic in this area, he detected heavy amounts of Conjuration, though it felt strange; and hints of Illusion, Abjuration, Necromancy and Divine affecting the plants. Passing through the portal feels similar to entering the Portal of First Landing.
Inside
Ahead, the world doesn't seem to change, nor what one leaves behind. Slowly, realisation hits that things are changing. The sun is no more, gone when one passes under the shadow of a tree. Despite this, light is abundant here - gorgeous, filling light that does not blind. With every step, the stone gate behind barely moves, always there behind the visitors.
Finally, there is an orange-red fire in a forest clearing; it flickers quickly, then slowly, as if parts of it are dying and then starting again, and the eye is playing tricks. Other colours spark out sometimes - greens, purples, blues, blacks.
A woman is tending to the flame - Verse. She is reading a book, and occasionally stabbing the fire with a stick, causing it to burst into chromatic sparks.
The instrumental music heard through the portal originates in the woods beyond this fire. This forest looks like the forest which the visitor first saw, perhaps as a child, or whenever they had seen a forest for the first time in their life.
The instruments seem to be moving, fading in and out. When Xylandras was brought here, she was allowed to walk out of her lantern, and after calling this place home with a smile, she ventured into the woods, and seemingly joined the music-makers beyond.
Purpose
Verse said that she cannot say what the Grey World is, and even if she did, it would be another lie (curiously, Syltorin couldn't detect any falsehoods in her words, and felt like she simply refused to tell them about this dimension; she confirmed this, and offered to cobble together a lie that they would like). Only those who travel with her will learn what that place means, but it is a journey without a promise of return. She offered the Adventurers to come back here when they wish to go on an endless adventure.
Verse revealed that this is indeed another Plane of Existence, one that she created for the purposes of her goal - there is a monster in the Grey World that must be destroyed.
After Merehiki theorised that this was some kind of afterlife, Verse claimed that life and death don't matter much in the Grey World, and that mortal bodies age dramatically there - one year, for each hour spent on this Plane.
When Merehiki had a later realisation about what this place was, Verse warned her not to say it just yet, because their conversation would be at an end. Apparently, one can say certain things in the Grey World that break reality in the right circumstances, and while Verse can reset things, visitors would need to leave.
Where Merehiki is from, Continenta, there is talk of a Grey Curse and a Grey World, a land where gods go to die, and souls are trapped forever between life and death. The Gray World itself encroaches on the Material Plane, stealing colour and turning everything into stone. Nobody knows what caused it to exist. She believes that Verse trapped the source of the creature that causes the curse, and she might be trying to kill it somehow and bring an end to that corruption. All of this was told by Merehiki only once the Adventurers left the Grey World.
The Monster of the Grey World
When it is killed, it will mean Verse's death. It is constantly approaching her, but she cannot beat it yet. A mistake made this creature; it was corrupted, and because of it, her world died, but she was not there at the time. Hell is better than what this monster brings.
"Beware of that which is Grey. It will wash over you and corrupt your soul. And then, like all things in good time, you will turn to stone." - Verse |
In the meantime, for an eternal moment, she sits by the fire, to read the stories and talk to those who find her.
What follows might have been the monster in question:
A distant rumbling, echoing thunder. Immensely bright white light upon the horizon pierces through the trees, blinding the visitors, and causing pieces of their vision to disappear. A high-pitched squeal, a choir of a million voices singing and screaming at once. They blacken the periphery, but it's a light brighter and closer than the sun. The visitors feel dizzy, and in a moment of panicked clarity, they realise that they cannot comprehend what they are looking at. Verse commands them to leave, raising a hand. The trees move towards the light, popping into existence, and rolling towards the horizon. The screaming light grows distant as though something is pushing it back, but it’s still there in all its horror.