The Dead Forest
The Dead Forest groans. Whether or not wind blows through its branches, the trees produce a constant low sound that carries across the canopy, and the source of that sound is visible to anyone willing to look closely at the bark. Human limbs protrude from the trunks. Mouths are embedded in the wood, still moving, still forming sounds from lungs that decayed long ago. Eyes stare from the grain. Teeth and nails jut from the surface. Bloody sap drips from every wound in the wood, pooling on the ground and drawing the attention of everything dead that wanders nearby.
The forest is a plant mutation infected by the Grave Mind itself. It changed a few generations ago when the first dead trees pushed through the ground, their roots clutching at buried corpses for nutrients and absorbing the bodies into their branches. The trees act like venus fly traps now: grasping the closest dead body and absorbing it whole. This behavior keeps the forest largely free of wandering zed, which makes it, paradoxically, one of the safest travel routes in the region. A series of waypoints with small cabins and strongholds line a marked path through the trees. Stay on the path and the Dead Forest is safer than most roads in Mountaina. Stray from it and the trees will find a use for you.
If the trees have not received enough nutrients, they begin hunting live prey. Rover caravans periodically hire the Wardens to drive zed herds into the forest to keep it fed. The forest reproduces and spreads as it feeds, branching out to new ground almost overnight. Without the Wardens constantly culling new sprouts with fire and machetes, the Dead Forest would likely cover most of Mountaina. The mouths in the bark still bite. The bandits lurking in the darker parts know this and use it.
The forest is a plant mutation infected by the Grave Mind itself. It changed a few generations ago when the first dead trees pushed through the ground, their roots clutching at buried corpses for nutrients and absorbing the bodies into their branches. The trees act like venus fly traps now: grasping the closest dead body and absorbing it whole. This behavior keeps the forest largely free of wandering zed, which makes it, paradoxically, one of the safest travel routes in the region. A series of waypoints with small cabins and strongholds line a marked path through the trees. Stay on the path and the Dead Forest is safer than most roads in Mountaina. Stray from it and the trees will find a use for you.
If the trees have not received enough nutrients, they begin hunting live prey. Rover caravans periodically hire the Wardens to drive zed herds into the forest to keep it fed. The forest reproduces and spreads as it feeds, branching out to new ground almost overnight. Without the Wardens constantly culling new sprouts with fire and machetes, the Dead Forest would likely cover most of Mountaina. The mouths in the bark still bite. The bandits lurking in the darker parts know this and use it.
Geography
Dense woodland of gnarled, mutated trees fills the Dead Forest, located within Mountaina east of the Unbearable Mountains and north of Bull City. The trees display human limbs, mouths, eyes, teeth, and nails embedded in their trunks, and bloody sap drips from the bark constantly. A series of waypoints with small cabins and strongholds line a marked path through the forest, providing the safest travel route in the region. The forest reproduces and spreads as it feeds on the dead, branching out to new ground almost overnight. Without constant culling by the Wardens using fire and machetes, the Dead Forest would likely consume most of the surrounding region.
