{6,2} Bloodwood

Hex Description

The Bloodwood proper is an extremely dense forest that has been subjected to a curse/blessing where all the inhabitants have voluntarily subjected themselves to which causes them to be in constant agony by having thorns growing out of them in order to ward of the Horrors that attacked {3,0} Barsaive and the {4,0} Badlands . The Blood Elves as they are know are highly isolationist and very few that enter the Bloodwood ever return. Outside the Bloodwood there is a village of flying halflings and the ruined city of Parlinith which is still infested by Horrors.

Quests

• Return to Sender: The party learned the location of and a brief history of the ruined city of Parlinth. Bad weather forced them to land in Spartan Outpost on the way but eventually they got to the ruins. They learned that the person they were talking to was probably in the court of either Charcoalgrin (An Ancient Black Dragon) or Twiceborn (an ancient cadaver woman). While hiding from Twiceborn zombie minions Dr Therycs jumped into a portable hole and was sucked into the astral plane when his bag of holding entered, narrowly avoiding sucing Serval in as well. After fighting some golems and recovering some of the ancient research that doomed the city for the Haven chronicler Vardeghul, the party made it to Charcoalgrin's and held an audience with the long winded dragon. They learned the fate of Folgaris, talked with his spirit and released it before returning to Haven and Jaytown.

• Secret Santa: Sent to the Bloodwood to recover some Blackthorn so Papillion the Butterfly King could make a perfume for the party the party learned that the elves of the Bloodwood under went a ritual to avoid the attention of Horrors by causing thorns to grow out of their skin (and every other living thing in the woods). Learning this the party ran away, looking for a less scary place

• Going Postal: The Elven Court of the Bloodwood attempted to recruit Quinn to replace their former spymaster in Travar

• Time to Die…It’s a Safe Space:Pauli, Gor'vox, and Lancelot go to a corrupted forest to meet a Planetar named Sathia. They agree to spar, and the players successfully kill the Planetar- although he will likely return.

• Saving Diaynuss: Kerel, Cillan Feredir, Alister, and Shala went to the Bloodwood following up on a lead to enhance Kerel's bond with the Ruby of Folgaris. The party was denied entrance initially but eventually all but Shala parleyed there way into a meeting with Queen Alachia of the Bloodelves. Shala was deemed up trustworthy and forced to remain outside. While the party was gone he murdered the guard and stole his gear and is now wanted by the elven court. Meanwhile the party were able to negiotate the release of Diaynuss and Kerel gained the blessing of the Queen unlocking a hidden reserve of magic.


• Arcanum: Sap Specimens from the Great Forest: The party visited the great forest at the behest of the Arcanum research lab, and negotiated with the awakened trees and dryads for the perfect sap to harvest.


• A Glimpse of Shadow: Wittlee, the Master of Evil leads a group to investigate a portion of the Bloodwood that was taken over by a Shadow Boxer. After being captured by the blood elves leaving the shadowed area Whittle was freed at the request of a Shadow Dragon so he can fulfill a future prophecy. The others were freed as well to serve as his minions.


• The Evil Eye Mage: Malaclypse, Pr!me, Solus, Asulf, and Nikolai hired by High Priestess Crux from the Spartan Outpost and setout to the Bloodwood to infiltrate Skyfall Keep, to prevent the evil eye mage "Magus" from blowing up the moon. About halfway up the tower Asulf, and Nikolai turned back, but the others pressed on and at the brink of death; as "Magus" blasted them to pieces -- with the moon about to blow and the mage looking victorious -- they prevailed and stopped the cataclysmic event: BY THE POWER OF THE GODS!


• The Deathmist Vault: Grexes, Treytyr, Inmaia, Hunman called from Jaytown by High Priestess Crux, of the Spartan Outpost, who had taken note of another strange presence in the Bloodwood -- a vault of some sort -- that blocks her scrying abilities: sent them forth to check it out. The Vault was swarming with bandits, and Grexes, barely wounded, fled but the others held true battling untold horrors; unearthing a dastardly plot to poison the village of Haven with Deathmist Extract and turn them into mutated spore zombies: hatched by the dastardly Xavia and her twisted ogre "the butcher" who were vanquished by the valiant party; whom also liberated Haven's captured citizens.


• An end to Deforestation Pt1: Those in the Bloodwood have long know it was at best not safe to enter in to the deep forest, and if you needed to forage timber to be quick about it however now: It seems the very plants have become even more aggressive than usual and even those that could once vanish from there powerful grasp are now dismayed at the forces these weeds and trees wield. The priestess, Crux at the spartan outpost has sent for Jaytowners to go investigate, and Malaclypse, Solus, plus Trehgan went in -- on the way there (Solus rambling about burning the forest down, flew right over a sleeping Troll Amalgam which Trehgan smelled luckily) a furious battle erupted that pressed the party to its limits with there lack of fire based damage output -- and they noted that when they teleported around the creature their magic was disrupted / distorted and a force crushed them when getting near to or going away from the beast.

Environment: Forest
Hex Modifier Applied: Torturous Teleport
Landmarks: The Bloodwood, Ruins of Parlinth, Village of Haven

NPCs: Twiceborn, Charcoalgrin, Vardeghul, Torgak

Status: Scouted
Difficulty: Unassailable (10/15)
Uncovered By: Paul (DM), Sir Kerel, Cillan Feredir, Dr Nereil Thercys, Serval Ljonsmidd