The Wickerwild

The Wickerwild

The Wickerwild is a dense forest in the northwest interior of Oblivion Vale, near the Dreadhorn Peaks. It is hard to cross and easy to get lost in. Sightlines are short, routes shift often, and the forest breaks plans through terrain alone. Violence is common because survival depends on what can be taken and held.

Land and Conditions

The forest canopy blocks most light. Trees grow close together and lean inward, closing paths behind travelers. Thick brush and thorns form natural walls that force slow movement and frequent detours. Fallen trunks and tangled roots break travel into short, dangerous stretches.

The ground is dry and cracked in open areas, but shaded hollows hold rot, fungus, and damp air. Resin hangs heavy in the smell of the forest. Old streambeds cut through the land as empty scars and create uneven footing that slows carts and animals.

Survival and Control

Life in the Wickerwild depends on hidden sources and guarded ground. What little sustains people is fought over, hidden, or defended with force. Theft is treated as a death sentence because one loss can doom an entire group. Lies about safety and resources are common and often intentional.

Groups that survive do so by secrecy, traps, and threat. Claims change hands often, usually through ambush or betrayal rather than law.

Paths and Signs

Old paths exist, but they never last. Brush reclaims them quickly, and storms erase markings. Locals use simple signs made from branches, bones, or cut wood to mark danger, safe gaps, ambush ground, or places where fire will bring death.

Some signs are honest. Others are traps meant to steer travelers into dead ends, hostile ground, or places already claimed by force. Outsiders who trust markings without local knowledge rarely survive long.

Resources Taken

People enter the Wickerwild for timber, resin, charcoal, and rare plants. Straight trunks are cut for construction and defense. Hard wood becomes tool handles and weapons. Resin is taken for sealing, patching, and fuel use. Charcoal is made in hidden pits to avoid drawing attention.

Herbs and fungus are gathered for medicine and preservation. Most crews return with less than planned. Time is lost to injury, theft, and detours. Many never return at all.

Who Goes In

Most who enter are short-term crews sent to take what they can and leave fast. Bandits and stray fighters use the same routes, since bodies disappear easily in the brush. In hard years, armed groups move in to seize ground and push others out.

Dwarven traders sometimes meet crews at the forest edge to exchange goods, but they avoid deep travel. They demand proof that nothing was taken from ground they already claim.

Control and Conflict

No single power controls the Wickerwild. Dwarves watch the approaches because the forest matters to their survival, but they do not hold it. Human patrols sometimes burn out camps or clear bandits, but they cannot stay without losing people.

The result is constant turnover. Camps rise and fall. Claims shift with hunger and fear. When a new source of survival is found, violence usually follows before any authority can act.

Shrines and Hidden Rites

Old stone shrines remain from before the Drying, cracked and abandoned. Newer sites are crude structures made of woven branches meant to hide activity. Groups choose the forest because oversight is weak and smoke brings attack.

Some groves show warped growth. Leaves darken out of season. Game becomes bitter and makes people sick. Locals mark these places and avoid them. Rites are kept quiet and hidden, because noise or flame invites death.

Night in the Forest

Fires are avoided. Smoke can be seen from far away and draws attacks. Insects rise in thick clouds after dark, making silence hard. Sounds carry strangely through the canopy.

Many travelers move without speaking. Shouting or metal noise brings attention fast, and attention in the Wickerwild is usually fatal.

Law and Belief at the Edge

Settlements near the forest enforce rules because they must, but control is limited. Disputes are settled by testimony and threat, not fairness. Healers treat who they can with what little they have. Burial rites are strict to prevent worse outcomes.

Magic is rare and feared. When things go wrong, unlicensed spellwork is blamed first, whether true or not. Most who have power hide it or deny it.

Current State

The Wickerwild remains contested and deadly. People keep returning because they have no other choice. Hunger pushes them back into the trees, even knowing many will not come out. Nothing changes because the land is still dry, and survival still demands risk.