The Eldsbrujah

In the southern parts of the Reunian countryside, both in small villages and large cities there is story told to children to keep them away from wandering to far into the nearby woodlands. The story of The Eldsbrujah. Its name is derived from old Reunian and can be loosely translated to The Elder Crone. The story features five kids that are out picking shrooms for dinner in The Granwei or the great white, a forest with thick and mighty spruce trees. The kids encounter a Hag that lures the children into her home and feasts on their bodies for months, keeping them alive, slowly draining them vitality. The story is grotesque to the point of redundancy and is believed to be just a fairytale.

Summary

Be it dark night or bright daylight, one should never go wandering to far into the woodlands of Reunian. The lush forests though tempting and alluring with its green mossy flooring and colourful fruits and shrooms is also home to a dark enigmatic entity. The Eldsbrujah. The Elder Crone.  One early Yielding morning, when the sun stood atop the mountains summit and shone down upon the village of ______, Corinne and her 4 neighbourhood friends were out picking shrooms for dinner. Aimlessly wandering through the forest with no care in the world the children stumbled upon an old hut built into a tree. Thick and strong roots buried in the ground, a small round door seamlessly blending with the rest of the tree. Long brown tendril like branches hung over the nearby flora like hands reaching out. The leaves colored a deep dark green, and on the side was a small window.  the children curious as children be could not contain themselves and Corinne walked over to the window. Barley being high enough to reach the window sill she stood up on her toes and looked inside. By a small stove stood an old woman clad in dark mildewed robe with long black hair like streaks of ink running down her back. Intrigued, but scared Corinne started to back off, but with her focus on the door her foot caught a rather large curled root. But a second later the door opened revealing the womans face. Her nose long and bent, wrinkles upon wrinkles upon skin so grey she might as well be dead. The children screamed and started running into the forest. Corinne froze up, petrified with fear. The old crone twisted her hand and the roots beneath her tightened around her. Her screams echoed through the forest. The other children could hear her terror. Then silence. The other children kept running, tears of fear running down their pale white cheeks. Beneath the feet they could feel the ground move and like brown purple worms roots burst out wrapping around their fragile young bodies. One after one they were wrestled to the ground as the hag approached one by one. Terror was the last they knew, and none were found or heard from again. If you walk into the woodlands of Reunian you can still hear their screams of terror as they echo in the memory of the flora.

In Literature

If the story ever was recorded in a book or parchment it has not been found. The story has survived mostly on word of mouth and is believed to have changed over the decades. Several historians date the story back to the early 200 AAR, and some writers and poets believe it might be Braalin The Bard who wrote it due to some similarities in writing style, though this can be attributed to Braalins influence over the last 1000 years.