Originally occupied by a mad Lizardfolk Druid obsessed with the secrets of the Fey, what would become the Faeriefort was once a part of a long cave tunnel in the Murkmire Marshlands. Through a summoning ritual, the druid dragged hundreds of tiny, winged fey from the Plane of Faerie into the Prime Material. She tried to bind them to her service, but a wily Fairy named Coriander Thorn resisted. He rallied the others, and together they swarmed and killed their would-be master. When the battle was done, however, they found the magical nature of her binding prevented the feyfolk from returning home.
With no way back, the fey lived out of the druid’s cave, flying in and out while learning of the forest and the villages of the Smallfolk beyond it. When part of the tunnel roof collapsed into a sinkhole, Laceleaf Flashlashes raised the idea to claim the hollow as their peoples new home. Over time, they shaped it into something resembling a mortal village, though everything was scaled to their size. The sun never touched its walls, but they filled the place with soft lights, mossy lanes, and clustered huts, making it a settlement that mirrored mortal towns in miniature. Above the sinkhole, they raised a fort to serve as both entrance and watchpoint, giving them control over who entered or left.
The fort itself was simple, but effective. Built of scavenged wood and strengthened with minor Abjuration spells, it was small, but designed to be large enough for a Human to descend by ladder and reach the village below. Narrow slits and drilled gaps lined the walls, allowing fairy archers to fire at intruders or ward off the constant threats of Murkmire, such as Snakes, Rats, or Mosquitos. The fort turned the fragile fey colony into a place that could be defended, and it gave them a sense of permanence in a world that was never meant to hold them.
The fairies built shops, inns, and homes in the style of human villages they had only glimpsed from afar, each one compressed into the scale of their world. Roads were mossy trails, taverns were hollowed mushrooms or carved stumps, and wells were fed by trickles of enchanted water. Using these same observed agricultural practices, they turned a nearby cavern into Sprite's Hollow, sealing it with an arcane door only accessible to fairies.