Ursa Forest Itself, and Encounters and Creatures
URSA FOREST
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Ursa Forest Itself, and Encounters and Creatures
Ursa Way Encounters
Description:
- An old oaken forest, more spread than tall, you into its damp silence.
- [The grey rainy cover still shrouds the sky, and the rain falls as steadily, but] beneath the old trees the light is scant, and the droplets reach you in a pattering from the leaves above.
- The Ursa Roadway runs true, smooth enough of dirt and gravel, but just off the road there bears an immediate wild and tangle.
- The underbrush appears nearly impenetrable, a mess of bramble and stunted aspen. As the forest deepens, the light dwindles. Bird calls now sound vividly against the silence. Other creatures rustle the undergrowth, too quick to be seen.
- Much here beckons your attention, but being and overarching are the thick, powerful oaks, spreading their green and quiet and dim over all the wood and its creatures.
- Generally, streams flow north from the southern hills. They are generally cold and cool--good troutstreams, although the fish (COPPERTROUT and different minnows) are generally small. There are caddis and dragonflies as well.
- The streams sometimes hold GRINDYLOW as well, especially in the deeper and wider sections and in the small lakes that can form in depressed areas.
- There is one stream, called by some the Pinkmouth (for its legendary (highly doubted) fey beginnings), which widens some mile or two north of the road into a slushy bog, or the stream contiues, or it's a big lake. It depends on the moods and events of the GRODAIR, fish-like fey creatures that congregate in this "Staukpond" or "Flushpond" or "Pink Lake" (various words for it, translation from the gnomish / or dwarven).
HISTORY
The Shivvarra in the southern Forest have a rich history, from the old Elven immigrants, to their Demon invaders, and on to the Westerners, who met some unknown fate and disappeared. The Shivvara and the Old Elven Presence in the Ursa GNOMISH VILLAGE IN THE URSA (example) Orbbin, Gnomish Village in the Ursa Forest The rest of the forest has been largely untouched by non-gnomish hands for ... however long the forest has been.
Passing through the forest, however, the Ursa Way has been here for a very, very long time, but recently, as of 500+ CE it has become almost urgently busy, with Teldekk's human miners and merchants, as Deepwash gold, silver, and sapphire make their way across and north, eventually to Blennd and Kuttosi and beyond. Now there are Dwarves who mine, and now from a much greater swath of the Deepwash. Their companies are back and forth regularly. Tennka is the most popular stopping point on the way north. It riots in Dwarven revelry and gusto. DISTORTION AND DESTRUCTION: THE NEW, SORECEROUS HUMAN OCCUPANTS OF THE URSA
- By a series of strange events unknown even to the gnomes, the old Shivvarran lands (and to a small extent the Ursa Forest proper),
with the vacuum created by the disappearance of the Westerners, attracted a strange breed of person--usually human, and individually--who uses magic in a distorted and destructive way. Perhaps these men were attractied to the residue of the demonic past.
Indeed, some of them tap into what energy remains and call forth a variety of unsavory creatuers from the abyss.
ENCOUNTER I: Black Bears and Orcs
Ahead on the trail are a black bear mother and two cubs, hurrying along, the mother glancing back over her shoulder. (Kahn should have DC12 to understand, that the three are in distress. If they determine so, they can try and see what's going on.. "Follow us," the mother seems to be saying. Lead to a den that's been caved in, by someone... Definitely done on purpose, by another creature. (by orcs, a group of them hiding out nearby, hungry.) The cave-in is hard to repair, and the orcs will set a HAZARD for the PC's if they leave and come back. The orcs will wait and see if the HAZARDs works, then descend if it does, otherwise run away.ENCOUNTER II: The Winter Hag (cr7)
A hunched lady in a rich fur-lined robe appraoches slowly from down the road; bent over as she is, she still glances up from her stoop with a kind, even joyful, smile. Her eyes are dark, but they sparkle, and her smile is wise and kind, despite bring full of yellow, cracked teeth. The woman leans on a wooden staff as she shuffles forward to greet you.ENCOUNTER III (forest hills): Wallabunk the Wood Giant (cr6)
Wood smoke smell, rising from a location to the south of Way From within the woods, the giant sayd, "Who goes there? "Who walks the wood, and why? State your attitude, and your purpose; Wallubunk asks; and you answer: "Why do you walk the wood? Who are you? What do you want? What is your attitude? "What do you say to the trees and shrubs and herbs? What do you say to the bears and deer? Wiley asks, and you answer." Wiley is hiding in the wood, completely concealed and hiding. He comes out after his questions are answered, with either a friendly or unfriendly attitude, and acts accordingly. If he likes the heroes, he will invite them to his home for a meal. He knows more about the werebears, will suggest that- they become very fierce and powerflu at the full moon.
- they have wandered the Rainy Hills for many years, and only now they're moving north, surrounding the temple of .
- supposedly there is a chieftan among them who wants a dwarven holy item, the Crusher (Zigg-ez in Dwarven)
THE BLUE WORM and the WEREBEARS
"NUNNY-HOO HILL"
Long, long ago the bears and the gnomes decided to formalize and ceremonialize a new alliance, of protection and sharing, and survival. But this pact or peace between the gnomes and the bears is anathema to the drive of the werebears. They are driven to destroy any bear or gnome that comes within a range of Nunny-Hoo:
NUNNY-HOO DESCRIPTION
- Babau
- Invidiak (B2, cr7)
- nabasu (B2, cr7)
- from Nabasu to Vrolikai (B2, cr19): formed from nabasu, in the abyss
- Bebilith (B2, cr10)
- vrock (Bcr9)
- Quasit (Bcr1) Succubus (Bcr7)
- COUGARS
- WOLVES
- MINK and WEASEL
- BLACK BEARS and GRIZZLY / BROWN BEARS
- URSAN GREEENFOOT MOUSE
- GIANT SPIDERS, GOLIATH SPIDER (B,cr11)
- GIANT MANTIS (cr3 or 11, B)
- GREAT HORNED OWLS
- DEMON BEAR OWLS
- SONGBIRDS, many kinds
- COPPERTROUT; streams flow down from the hills in the south
- MOSQUITOES (usually not too bad)
- GREENBOTTLE FLIES
- (GRINDYLOWS can also hide in the streams)
- GRODAIR... fishlike fey that live in the "Staulponds" and "Flushponds" in the marshes where the Pinkmouth (Flikka-Rikka) River empties into the forest..
- "Oaken Fathers"--the true deep old oaks of the Ursa
- Trailsong Oaks
- Stunting Aspen
- Balsam Fir
- Webcress
- Raspberry, Blackberry, and Thimbleberry: the staple of all bears in the forest
- Cubbins-Bubby (a kind of sweet-pea plant that grows in vines)
- Stump-Wubbies... Grow like a wood stump with reaching red branchlings... used by gnomes for rest on journeys
- Ragpar Bagbean... a unique variety of Ragbean grown only in this region... Has bright red flowers and ruddy brown seedpods. The Ursa Groggin-cubby is among the finests. (Ragbean: Ragbean and Groggin-Cubby )
- Wood anemonies of many kinds, mostly yellow or white flowers
- Lily of the Forest, small and delicate bells of a lavender or vague yellow color Sunwhite Thallus (grows in places where the sun reaches (when it comes out)) Soot Thallus (grows up in areas touched by demon forces of some/any kind)--mixed with demon spit to become explosive
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