Lushgut Forest

Choking the valley floor between the Stonecage Cliffs and the entire northwest region of the Menagerie Coast , the Lushgut Forest is a monument to the fury and anger of Melora . It is said that a terrible battle between Melora and Zehir took place during the Calamity, when the Cloaked Serpent plotted an ambush by a shrine to the Wildmother. This ambush poisoned and slaughtered an innumerable number of Melora’s chosen. In her anguish and rage, Melora’s scream shook the heavens and birthed a twisting, thorny woodland that crushed and consumed the serpentfolk of Zehir, sending the dark god fleeing the valley. The Lushgut Forest remains a physical manifestation of the Wild Mother’s vengeful nature; her wrath is embodied in the tall, curling boughs that still ooze toxins from the poison left in Zehir’s wake. The poisonous denizens of the labyrinthine wilderness of shadow and fumes are rumored to protect something that lingers near its center, and scholars still debate if these slithering sentinels are born from the will of Melora or the spite of Zehir.

The deep woods of the Lushgut Forest are also home to a civilization of goblins and bugbears known as the Vinewreathed Enclave. This druidic order is led by bugbears who have used their natural magic to break the control which Bane, The Strife Emperor , holds over their westward goblin kin. They are devotees of the Wildmother, whom they know as an-Melzidanye.

Type
Forest
Location
Menagerie Coast