The Grimwood Glades

The Grimwood Glades

The Grimwood Glades lie in the southeast of Oblivion Vale, where the Southern Shield meets the Ashcrown frontier. In official ledgers it is often written as the Grimwood Glade. The Glades are not a wide forest. They are a chain of small clearings split by tight woodland, thorn belts, and broken ridges. Old roads cross them because there are few safe routes left. Since the Drying, there are no rivers or lakes to support camps. Travel depends on guarded wells, buried cistern pits, and sealed water casks carried by escorts.

Ground and cover

The Glades are a patchwork of open ground and tight brush. Trees grow close and low, with grey bark and rough roots that break the soil. Thorns and cut stumps line many tracks. Ash dust sits in ruts and clings to boots, rope, and wax seals. Broken carts, split barrels, and bolt scars mark the road edges. Wind carries grit that cracks lips and infects small cuts. Patrols burn bodies and gear after raids, leaving charred rings that stay black for years.

Signs and control points

Ridges hold watch posts and small towers. Rope lines cross side paths with warning tags and seal marks. Some tags are lawful notices that name a fortlet or outpost and the penalty for trespass. Others are raider tricks that push convoys into a kill lane. Many clearings hide shallow pits where cistern lids are buried under soil and brush. Locals mark these pits with small signs outsiders miss, like a bent thorn line or a notch cut in a root. Wells are sealed with iron lids, locks, and stamped plates. A well yard often has two gates, so a crowd can be held outside while guards work inside.

Roads, casks, and inspection law

Most water still moves in barrels. Each cask carries wax seals, tally marks, and travel papers that claim its origin and intended stop. Many loads also carry coded Ledger Marks used to track goods across the south. Escorts count barrels at every pass gate and re-count them at every yard. Missing barrels can trigger arrests, executions, or a forced return march that kills by delay. Officials treat empty barrels as suspicious because they can hide stolen water or smuggled goods. This creates constant searches, confiscations, and roadside interrogations. In the Glades, inspection law is a weapon used to control who reaches water first.

Border powers and old war memory

Human fortlets and dragonborn outposts watch the same roads and do not trust each other. Human officers claim Ashcrown scouts steal water and move border stones. Dragonborn officers claim Southern Shield patrols forge convoy seals and sabotage pass gates. The region still carries scars from past pass wars over tariffs and convoy rights. Scaffolds, cage posts, and burned clearings mark old execution sites. Both sides treat travel writs as life or death documents. Both sides use strict inspections, curfews, and road blocks. Violence often starts over a missing stamp or a broken wax mark.

Fortlets and outposts

Human fortlets are small, hard places built around a well yard, a store shed, and a holding pen. The Southern Shield is survival-first and runs harsh public discipline. Water theft is punished severely and publicly, because one broken well can collapse a whole route. Fortlets cut burn lines through brush to deny cover, even when it costs timber. Hanging cages on the road side serve as threat and warning, and they also hold suspected thieves until an inspector arrives. Dragonborn outposts sit higher on ridges and use stone platforms, pass gates, and high watch towers to spot caravans early. Their escorts follow strict ration calendars and honor law, and their punishments for betrayal are severe. Both sides keep ledgers of water movement and lists of approved escorts. Those lists are traded, stolen, and forged.

Plague exile clearings

Some clearings are plague-exile camps. They are fenced lots where the sick, the suspected, and the unwanted are placed and left to die. Guards stand outside the fence, not inside it. Water is rationed to the edge and reduced when convoys run late. When a camp fails, it is often burned, stripped, or abandoned. The south gives strong authority to death rites because quarantine and burial are daily work. Even so, many camps receive no rites at all. The ground is left soft and foul, and scavengers move in fast. These sites create a steady flow of grief, theft, and revenge, which keeps the Glades unstable and keeps patrols nervous.

Survival economy

People who live here survive by hiding supplies and moving fast. They bury caches of dried food, spare straps, and seal wax in root gaps. Fires are kept small and smoke is covered, because smoke draws patrols and raiders. Barter matters more than coin. Salt, pitch, cloth, medicine, and clean water skins are the main currency. Empty barrels are valuable because a barrel can be a bribe, a disguise for stolen water, or a tool for hauling. Many families keep spare travel papers, even if they are false, because a delay at a gate can kill a child before the next yard.

Orcs and other raiders

Orc bands use the trees as cover and strike at wagons, ration stores, and water barrels. They watch patrol timing and hit when escorts split at inspections. They take seal pouches, stamps, and tokens so they can move stolen goods through the next checkpoint. Orcs in the Glades are many bands, not one force, and they fight each other when water is scarce. Human raiders also operate here, including deserters and hired crews who know seal law. Some raids are arranged by rival officers who want a convoy to vanish without open war. Bodies are often left in plain sight, because fear slows travel and creates more mistakes at the next inspection.

Green hags

Green hags thrive in the Glades because law is strained and hunger is high. A hag can disguise itself long enough to enter an exile camp, a relief line, or a fortlet yard. It poisons wells, ruins small hidden crops, and spreads blame between border forces. It keeps victims alive as leverage and forces tribute through fear. It sells false safe routes that lead convoys into thorn belts and kill zones. When a feud starts, the hag benefits, because both sides waste supplies and trust. Patrols often blame orcs first, which gives the hag time to work again.

Dryads and woodland bargains

Dryads exist in the Glades because some trees still sit over seep-fed pockets. A dryad is tied to one living tree and the water it hides. In a land without open water, this makes a dryad a power. Some dryads trade safe paths and seep locations for blood, vows, and stolen tools. Some punish cutters who bring fire too close. Others act as informants to keep raiders away from their grove. Dryads do not care which crown holds a road. They care who threatens their tree and its water. Their bargains are strict, and breaking a bargain often ends with a missing traveler and no tracks.

Awakened trees

Awakened trees appear in the Glades as weapons and as failures. Border forces sometimes force trees into thought to create living sentries at road splits. Bindings also fail, and some trees awaken after taint, bad rites, or careless magic. Many remember axes and fire and strike first. When one roams, it targets caskyards and store sheds because it learns what humans protect. It moves slow, but it can break a gate and scatter a convoy. Patrols nail warning tokens into trunks to mark safe trees, but these marks do not hold any true control.

Earth elementals

The broken ridges hide old stone seams and ore grit. Digging for new wells and cisterns can break older seal layers. When blood soaks into salt seams, earth elementals can rise as a hunger of dirt and stone. They crush walls to reach buried moisture and ore. They can collapse pits and trap crews, then wait for thirst to finish the work. Some dig crews leave salt and a cut hand’s blood at certain sites to keep the ground quiet. When an elemental becomes active, routes are abandoned, wells are sealed, and whole clearings go silent.

Wickerwild presence

A Wickerwild dragon hunts forest borders and shrine roads, and the Grimwood Glades draw it in. The Glades are full of ward tags, bone tokens, and warning charms hung on rope lines. Wickerwilds treat these objects as treasure and take them from travelers by force. They stalk quietly, then strike fast, using brush cover to break sight lines. They learn local ward signs and choose routes that bypass watch posts. After attacks, twisted offerings are sometimes found near the road, placed as a claim. Some dryads tolerate this only if the dragon stays away from their tree.

Current condition

The Grimwood Glades remain contested ground. No side can clear the woodland without starving itself of timber, and no side can hold every clearing at once. Convoys keep moving because the roads still matter, and that keeps raids constant. Exile clearings remain because border rulers use them as disposal and threat. The spirits remain because hidden water still exists. The ground remains dangerous because digging is never safe. In the Glades, survival depends on seals, silence, and leaving before the fighting shifts to your clearing.