_Cursed Feywood and Ancient Battleground_ --- ## **Overview** The **Deadwood Glades** is a blighted, unnatural forest of skeletal trees, whispering shadows, and still, stagnant air. It lies just west of **[[Duskwatch]]**, its eastern edge touching the dark waters of **[[Blackmere Lake]]** and the shattered stones of the **Broken Causeway**. At its heart stands the infamous **Dark Tower**, once the seat of a necromancer who nearly ascended to lichdom thousands of years ago. The Glade has been shunned for generations, its grim reputation keeping even the bravest hunters, woodcutters, and explorers away. Long ago, the forest was a living tapestry of fey groves and mortal paths. That beauty ended when mortal heroes and fey allies clashed here against the necromancer’s forces. Though the necromancer was destroyed, the battle poisoned the land, corrupting the ley lines that run beneath it. --- ## **Geography & Features** - **The Blighted Trees** – Once oaks, elms, and silver maples, now leafless husks with pale, bone-like wood beneath flaking bark. - **The Whispering Wind** – Carries disjointed voices, often repeating fragments of last words spoken by the dead. - **The Thornbelt** – A dense wall of blackthorn and ironwood deep inside the Glade, almost impassable without magic or fire. Said to have grown from the blood of the fallen. - **The Rotstream** – A sluggish, blackened stream winding through the Glade. It is rumored to rise from a once-pure fey spring now tainted beyond healing. - **Blackmere Edge** – The Deadwood’s eastern fringe presses right to the banks of [[Blackmere Lake]], twisted roots and pale trees crowding the water’s edge. - **The Broken Causeway** – A ruined stone road leading from [[Duskwatch]] into the Glade. Its shattered span over the Rotstream has long since fallen, leaving jagged stone piers like teeth in the mire. - **The Dark Tower** – The skeletal remains of a blackstone keep. While its upper floors are ruined, a spiraling stair still descends into chambers steeped in foul magic and older horrors. --- ## **Historical Significance** - **The Necromancer’s Reign** – Centuries before recorded history, the necromancer drew on the Glade’s ley lines to fuel rituals intended to achieve lichdom. He was slain before completing the transformation. - **The First Battle of Deadwood** – Fey courts and mortal kingdoms united to destroy him. Though they prevailed, the magic unleashed in the final clash blighted the forest beyond natural recovery. - **The Watch at [[Duskwatch]]** – Founded in later centuries to guard the eastern grassplains, [[Duskwatch]] grew into the largest settlement in the region, its existence shaped by the constant shadow of the Glade. --- ## **Current Threats** - **Fey Corruption** – The Glade stands atop a thin veil between the Material Plane and the Feywild. The corruption is a mingling of necrotic energy and warped fey magic, intensified by the ley lines. - **Demonic Presence** – Demons have claimed the lower levels of the Dark Tower, using it as a staging ground for raids into the grasslands. - **Elyndor the Withered Hart** – A cruel fey spirit claiming dominion over the Glade. He hunts intruders for sport, trapping them in dream prisons to feed on their despair. - **Restless Dead** – With [[Anam]]’s return, undead stir once more in the Glade’s shadows for the first time in thousands of years. --- ## **Notable NPCs** - **Elyndor the Withered Hart** – An antlered, gaunt fey wreathed in shadow. His motives are malicious, though his bargains are alluring to the desperate. - **The Black Thorn Coven** – Three hag sisters who tend the most corrupted parts of the Glade. They bargain in equal measure with demons and twisted fey. --- ## **Adventure Hooks** 1. **The Missing** – People have begun to vanish from [[Duskwatch]] and nearby villages. Tracks often lead toward the Broken Causeway. 2. **Blackrazor’s Rest** – Whispers speak of a soul-devouring blade hidden deep in the Dark Tower’s lower halls — a weapon that could either turn the tide against [[Anam]] or doom the realm. 3. **The Fey Prisoners** – Some taken by the Glade yet live, preserved in Elyndor’s dream prisons. 4. **The Demon Portal** – Once sealed by ancient heroes, the portal beneath the Dark Tower flickers with unstable energy once more.