The Witchmire Wood

The Witchmire Wood

The Witchmire Wood lies in the southwest interior of Oblivion Vale. It is a low woodland where the ground stays soft and sour and low fog is common. Open water is absent, as it is across the continent after the Drying. Travel and work depend on hidden wells, seep pockets, and stolen cistern casks. Many maps label the wood as contested because supplies vanish and witnesses disagree.

Ground and Cover

Witchmire is built of low trees with black bark and heavy roots that break the soil. The ground alternates between cracked clay and dark mud. Fog sits between trunks and hides distance and movement. After storms, roots lift and settle, and narrow paths change shape. Old work sites leave long stains: tar pits, ash rings, and racks where hides once hung. Branches hold rag strips and dried offerings that mark routes. Boot prints and dragged tracks are common, then stop where someone brushed mud smooth.

Water and Movement

Wells in Witchmire are small, irregular, and often concealed. Many are sealed under boards, clay plugs, and nail lines to stop casual theft. Seep pockets form in low basins, then dry without warning. Crews carry casks meant for ration yards, either bought through smugglers or taken by force. A broken seal can doom a camp, so seal plates and stamp marks become targets. Travel is done in short pushes between known points, with strict counting of every skin and cask. People avoid loud pumps and open digging, because both bring raids and claims.

Routes, Markers, and False Trails

Route marks in Witchmire are practical and crude. People drive iron nails in bark in simple patterns. They tie rags at knee height to stay visible in fog. They hang bone charms to mark a camp’s nearest water point. These systems are reused by everyone. Patrols reuse them. Orcs reuse them. Smugglers and desperate refugees reuse them. This creates false trails. A marker may lead to a dry hole, a burned camp, or an ambush site. Some routes are intentionally double-marked to split groups.

Craft Work and Salvage Economy

Witchmire has a long history of shortage crafts. Small tanneries use shallow pits lined with clay and salt. Tar kilns are built low and covered to hide smoke. Resin is cooked into salves and glue, then sealed in small tins. Bone charms are carved from animal remains and from stolen grave goods. Crude ward poles stand near paths, made from posts, iron nails, and bundles of bone and hair. Some wards are meant to keep animals away. Others are meant to warn of raiders. Many are simple comfort, because fear never leaves the wood.

Human Presence and Weak Control

There are no stable towns in Witchmire. The interior cannot support large cistern yards, and fog makes defense costly. Instead, there are small work camps that rise and fall. Some operate under quota for nearby fort lines and timber agents. Others are illegal yards run by desperate families, smugglers, or rogue foremen. When a camp is abandoned, it is stripped down to bare poles. Nothing is left that can be tracked or reused by enemies. Officials try to control output through permits, sealed tallies, and seizure writs, but the wood eats paperwork faster than it can be enforced.

Border Forces, Writs, and Burn Orders

Fort commanders on the southwest lines treat Witchmire as a supply zone and a threat zone at the same time. Patrols focus on convoy routes, known well lines, and smoke signs. When raids spike, commanders issue seizure orders that take casks, hides, and resin stock “for the war effort,” often leaving crews ruined. Burn orders are used to destroy illegal camps and deny cover to orc warbands. These actions reduce some threats, but they also increase hunger. Hunger pushes new camps into the wood and feeds the same problems again.

Orc Warbands

Orc warbands hold the edges in shifting camps. They prefer woodland cover because it hides movement and gives fast access to raid routes. Hunger and exile drive most strikes. Orcs target convoys, lone craft crews, and well sites at night. Many carry token cords and seal plates taken from victims, both as trophies and as tools. A warboss who finds a reliable seep can hold fighters longer, but that also draws patrol burn campaigns. Orc camps travel light and expect loss. They take what they can carry: casks, food, nails, and cured hides.

Faith Rites and Entry Customs

Many travelers pay rites before entering Witchmire. Some seek Life blessings for endurance and recovery. Some seek Death rites to avoid unclean endings in hidden pits. Many swear Fate oaths tied to silence, fire control, and shared water rules. The gods do not speak, but narrow repeated blessings make these rites feel practical. Camps keep shrine boards with tied cords, stamped tabs, and ash cups for offerings. Some crews also place a “first sip” share for the dead, because burial in the wood is often impossible.

The Green Hag in Witchmire

Green hags thrive where law is weak and food is low. Witchmire gives them fog, isolation, and many desperate targets. A hag can pass as a tired craft worker, a healer, or an old guide when visibility is poor. She uses local craft culture as cover, offering salves, charm bundles, and “true” route marks that seem to work. Then she demands tribute that grows over time. Her most damaging method is well poisoning. She does not need to ruin every source. She only needs to create doubt so groups fight each other, waste time, and split water. She also keeps people alive as leverage, because fear pays better than a clean kill.

Hag Marks and Claimed Sites

A hag often claims an old craft site as a base. Tannery pits and tar kilns give concealment, and their stink blocks tracking. Some ward poles in the wood are hag work, not human work. They are placed to draw people off safe paths or into dead ends. A common pattern is a “fresh” charm bundle where everything else is wet and old. Another is nail lines that point inward toward a clearing that seems safe. People who know Witchmire treat any clean shrine as suspicious, because real camps rarely have the spare time or spare supplies to keep anything clean.

The Succubus on the Fog Roads

A succubus is a recruiter devil that hunts need and shame. Witchmire has both. It moves along work camps, patrol rings, and convoy routes because people there carry debt, fear, and private guilt. It often poses as a relief aide, a clerk with travel marks, or a stranded survivor who needs escort. It isolates targets from their crew, then offers a short solution for water, protection, or a clean pass mark. It pushes consent and signatures more than force. Afterward it uses letters, rumors, and staged “witness” claims to turn allies into enemies. It prefers control that lasts, because long control creates steady access to supplies and secrets.

Why Witnesses Disagree

Witchmire produces conflicting accounts for simple reasons. Fog limits sight and makes distances feel wrong. Tracks vanish in mud. Markers are reused by enemies. Orc raids happen at night and use stolen tokens and familiar calls. A hag can poison a well and leave two groups blaming each other. A succubus can pull a leader away from camp and return with a different story. When survivors reach a fort or a ration yard, they often change details to avoid blame. This makes Witchmire hard to govern and easy to exploit.

Living Rules Crews Follow

Even crews that laugh at superstition follow strict habits in Witchmire.

• Keep noise low, because sound carries in fog.

• Keep fires small and covered, because smoke marks a camp.

• Do not boil tar or resin at night, because the smell carries far.

• Share water in measured turns, because a hidden ladle starts fights.

• Sleep ready to move, because camps are abandoned fast.

What Makes Witchmire Endure

Witchmire stays in use because its products matter: hides, tar, resin, and bone craft. The lack of open water makes every camp fragile. The fog makes patrol work expensive and uncertain. Orc raids, hag pressure, and infernal recruitment turn every shortage into conflict. The wood remains contested because no power can hold it without spending more than it gains.