The Riverwild

To the north of Bridgetown stretches a vast, heavily forested river valley. To Bridgetown residents, it is known as the Riverwild, a place full of dangerous beasts and malicious fey. To the native fey of the forest, it is the Kingdom of the Green. The forest is ancient, with titanic trees standing over 100 feet tall in places. Oak, birch, elm, and maple are the predominant species, but many are of strange varieties - oaks with bright pink leaves, elms with purple bark, maples with cobalt leaves that ooze a sky-blue sap, birches with rainbow-hued leaves in stark contrast to their bone-white bark. To view the forest from above is to be mesmerized by a swirl of color produced by the trees. The undergrowth is relatively sparse throughout most of the region, with a few exceptional areas growing great briar patches that are impassable without druidic magic. Ferns, holly bushes, dogwood, and thick carpets of moss grow within the shade provided by the great trees, while a multitude of vibrant flowers proliferate in the bright sunlit clearings created when one of the forest titans fall. Travelers passing through the forest may notice something odd about it, because for all its age it also bears faint signs of being cultivated in places. Nothing so overt as the neat rows of an orchard, or the coppicing of trees that signals the presence of foresters, but subtler, older signs - the trees are healthier than they should be, patches of flowers grow more densely than they normally would, and trails are clearer than animals would make them. Digging deeper, one finds the tell-tale signs of ancient habitation, such as stone pavers buried a yard beneath the sod, or the crumbled remains of a cottage foundation beneath the roots of a young oak. Moreover, some of the stranger-looking trees, upon closer inspection, turn out to be the remains of an elven tree-dwelling, built into the sides of living oaks and elms. Search further within the forest and you can find even clearer signs of elven habitation - still-standing buildings, bridges, guard towers, and even an abandoned city await the curious explorer beneath the canopy.

Type

Forest, Temperate (Seasonal)

Included Locations