Kingswood

Connects to: 08.16, 18.06, 18.07.01, 30.12.01 50.11.

Ancient beyond the reckoning of any of the lesser-lived peoples, the court of the Bloodied King claims domain over Kingswood, living just as they have for a thousand-thousand years. The Court at Kingswood refuses all diplomatic ties and even the curtest of communication.

The elves of Kingswood kill anyone found within or near their lands during the daylight hours. They cannot be swayed into allowing human traffic through their forest, citing the terms of an ancient covenant with a long forgotten Prince of Men (29.07.03).

Those who dare to walk beneath the trees of the wild wood long enough to see the light of the sun filter through the leaves can see much wonder and terror that the elves would prefer to keep away from mortal eyes.

Hex Summary:

• 22.04 (The Door at Dun’s End): an attempt to open a dimensional door into the elven Holt lead to a door that leads elsewhere.

• 22.06 (The Western Edge of the Kingswood): it is not wise for outsiders to walk beneath the trees when the sun is in the sky.

• 23.08 (The Gloompatch): in this dark patch of woods the local spiders are considerate enough to draw up the horoscopes of outsides.

• 23.10 (Sir Alard’s Bower): longs years ago Sir Alard jilted an elven lady here and has never found his way out of the woods since.

• 24.05 (The Scab): in this cavern an impoverished community of gnomes lives in igloo-like structures made out of blocks of raw clay.

• 24.07 (The Sleeping Vale): here human ladies who have caught the eye of elven lords lie dreaming the centuries away.

• 25.04 (The Sundial Inn): the best place to stop for travellers making their way through the winding tunnels of the Welt Road is the subterranean Sundial Inn.

• 25.07 (The Nest of the Mockingbird): There is a mockingbird that lives in the Kingswood that repeats the last words of those who have died within.

• 27.03 (The Death of Cows): a bizarre tree that feeds on cows.

• 27.09 (The Orphans’ March): along path road elven pipers once lead the copperhair children that were tithed to them in the woods.

• 28.07 (The Library without a Floor): the deep pit of the elven library sinks so deep that were are men down there whose ancestors were sent to check out a cook book.

• 29.07 (Holt of the Bloodied King): the beating heart of the Kingswood and the hall of the Bloodied King himself.

• 29.10 (Tehaar’s Hunting Grounds): the haunt of one of the most feared hunters of the Kingswood.

• 31.07 (The Rockery): an enormous cairn that is raised year by year for a lost giant lady.

• 32.05 (The Dryad’s Bridge): the dryad’s tree lies fallen across the stream, leaving the dryad mad and ravenous.

• 33.04 (The Goblin Markets): litte trafficked here can be acquired elsewhere.

• 33.08 (The Pool of Telanar the White): the pool of a demigoddess of healing and stasis.

• 34.04 (The Tower of the Bastard Prince): born of both elven courts, the Bastard Prince considers himself the true ruler of all elves. He waits for the stars to align so that he can claim his crown.

• 34.05 (The Cat Tree): here the rare fruit from which winged cats are born can be plucked.

• 34.10 (Green Iron Mushrooms): iron rations do grow on trees, or at least on men hanged in them.

• 35.04 (The Rhyming Bear): the home of an exiled nordabjorn.

• 35.06 (The Ferryman): a finger bone is a reasonable fare.

• 36.04 (The Garden of Amelar): a rose maze filled with strange plants and fierce hawks.

• 36.09 (The Fugitive Gods): the resting place of the little gods that have been exiled from the City of Shuttered Windows.

• 37.06 (The Wild Men of the Wood): eschewing metal and clothes the wild men live in the Kingswood under the very noses of the elves.

• 37.07 (Zor’s Home): Zor is a vatborn creature of uncommon beauty that belies the flaw in his mind.

• 38.05 (The Kobold Bolt Hole): a dead tree where kobolds hole up during the day while travelling through the woods.

• 38.06 (The Wood that Won the War): where the hawthorn that all elves despise grows.

• 39.08 (Features): possibly the most magically-accomplished community of tadpoles in all of these lands.

• 39.09 (The Roots of Dream): in the places where the wall between this world and that of dream grows weak things can reach through.

• 40.06 (The Broken Spear): a tower of strange and twisted metal that, if stories can believe, was once wielded by a god to slay dread Tiamat herself.

• 40.09 (The Frogs of the Witchwater): a few still retain the human speech of their ancestor.

• 41.09 (The Grandmother of the Ford): a crone that asks travellers to take her across the ford on her back could not possibly be a trap, could she?

• Elves: Pre-Tolkien elves: fey, mysterious, and capricious, rarely leaving the Kingswood and harsh to intruders.

Connections:

• The people of the village of Aggoth (18.06) perform rituals that they believe placate the fey of the wood.
• Elves are skilled at summoning elementals, what have they learned from the Moon Child (18.07.01)?
• There are hideouts of the Scarecrows (08.16) hidden within the Kingswood and barred against the elves with rods of hawthorn.
• The orcish slaver known as Brigadier Kalas Montra-brey, the Elfcatcher is one of the view brave enough to raid the Kingswood when the sun is up (30.12.01).
• A favorite subject of elven art is the bird of paradise, whose struts they often imitate in their dances (50.11).

Random Encounters

Inspired by: Random Encounters in a Spooky Dark Forest, Danny Peck, Secret Santicore 2011

1. Flowering vines whose scent causes a feeling of great happiness and wellbeing that makes it very difficult do anything violent (including defending oneself).
2. A tree bearing several hanged bodies on which mushrooms grow in great numbers. These same mushrooms are a popular ingredient Sundial Inn cooking and are not usually seen elsewhere.
3. Along the course of a small steam, all of the trees bear leaves that are a strange sickly yellow.
4. Chirping vampire bats fly out of the night. They will focus their attacks on larger targets (for example pack animals).
5. Dozens of large rats scurry past the feat of the party, squeaking happily.
6. A dappled cat begins following the party and refuses to be driven off, if killed the dapples on its back will spell out the name of its killer in elfish.
7. A great white hart is seen grazing on some grass, if approached it becomes clear that the deer is feasting on the remains of a human hunter.
8. An elf bearing a human infant.
9. If near the Welt Road at night: a small caravan trundles through the woods. There is a blockage of some sort in the Welt Road tunnel and they are seeking to bypass it by going aboveground.
10. A band of travelling performers have made a camp and invite the party to join them. They say that they are on the road to Lanford-on-the-Zann and have never heard of the City of Shuttered Windows or any other location in the Shrouded Lands.
11. A ragged human with clothes made of freebark grins at the party through bloodstained lips. He holds meat of some sort in his black-nailed hands.
12. A beautiful youth or maiden runs heedless through the woods, already covered with bramble scratches. In the distance a hunting horn sounds…