Dreadwood

By comparison to other forests of Zimildran, such as the Shadewood or Bukmar, the Dreadwood is quite small. However the rumors and tales surrounding its nature are chilling enough that it merits mention, as it is a place avoided by all except the bravest, or most foolhardy.

Occupying a small space in the northeast reaches of Harsonia, near the borders of the Snow Marches, the Dreadwood is a cold, dark forest of what many consider unnatural tendencies. Stories of the wood include tales of the trees whispering to each other and to travelers, instilling fear and doubt in them as they make their way under the great boughs. Even during daylight hours, the canopy of the trees shrouds the ground so that it would be like nightfall, and in the deepest nights no starlight or moonlight can pierce the veil overhead. Those who would dare to sleep within the forest’s borders would be burdened with restless slumber that is plagued by terrible nightmares of an invisible horror that stalks ever behind the travelers. Waking the next morning, an adventurer would like find himself to be hopelessly lost, as if the trees themselves moved and shifted in the night.

The only known path that leads into the woods is an ancient, unnamed trail that was once a great Terekor road, though now is overgrown a barely discernable among the tangled roots and thorny underbrush. The path leads to one of the largest Terekor ruins known to man; a great fortress that once stood within the tangled labyrinth of the Dreadwood, an ancient ruin men now call Geistgate. Only a handful of humans have ever laid eyes on it, and only one has claimed to walk within its halls. Isaac Gowerly of Harsonia, an explorer and hunter in the eastern wilds, is a quiet and solitary man, and though he does not easily share his stories of Geistgate, when he does he is often laughed out of the tavern for his lies. Very few believe Gowerly’s words, and since he claimed to venture into the Dreadwood alone, there are none who can support his claims. But none can deny the chill they feel when he speaks of hearing footsteps other than his own, or the echoes of voices down forgotten halls within the ancient fortress of the woods.