LOCALE: Desdrylna's Wood

From: Jimbruce <john.hughes_at_...>
Date: Sun, 07 Mar 2004 08:25:38 -0000

Just to get the locales rolling...

A copy of this has been placed in the Locales directory of the group's FILES folder.

John

Whitewall Locale: Desdrylna's Wood

Desdrylna's Wood skirts low hills some three kilometres west of the city, and stretches north-south to the outskirts of the Lunar camp. It is a deciduous forest with stands of birch, trembling ash, irontree and sartar oak.

In peaceful times, pigs roam here feasting on pannage of acorns and beech-mast for much of the year. It is a ready source of firewood, charcoal and wild herbs. Many birds live on the forest edges, and some are propitiated with simple offerings by visitors. Bark altars to the bird powers of the forest and to Desdrylna herself dot the winding forest trails.  

The Power of the wood is ancient, uncommunicative, and powerful. Some say Desdrylna is a powerful dryad, others the Nightjar Woman. Most believe her to be mad, spurned of old by a young Storm God, abandoned and betrayed. Her keening is sometimes heard among the boughs of the forest, an omen of ill-fortune ahead.

The clatter of armies is awakening the Power from a sleep of centuries. Her dreaming is interwoven by increasing moments of fearful lucidity.

No weapon may be drawn within the wood. To do so is to risk the ire of Desdrylna, which is sudden and swift.

Axes and other implements are permitted in certain spots, which are known by the foresters and charcoal burners that form Desdrylna's impromptu priesthood.

DESDRYLNA: NIGHT JAR WOMAN OF THE WOOD Defend Wood (Direct Birds, Fearsome Boughs, Fierce Keening) 12w3. Strike Weapon Bearer 4w3, Confuse Intruder 12w, Bird Blessing 19w2, Bird Call 12w2, Keen Ill Fortune 15w2, Take Material Form 9w.

Story Seeds

• The neutrality of the wood, and the difficulty in bearing weapons there, makes it an ideal place for Lunars and Heortlings to converse, cajole, spread rumour, and issue personal challenges.
• The wood has three distinct areas. In the Friendly Woods, anyone may share of the wood's bounty. Most city dwellers know this area and its trails. To enter the Heartwood of the upper slopes, proper propitiation must be made. Most of the forest folk who knew this ritual fled at the onset of the siege. A grove in the Heartwood contains Desdrylna's sleeping form. To intrude here is to awaken the Power in all her anger and madness.
• A Rinliddi priestess (or other powerful Talker) may befriend and begin to heal Desdrylna. She hears everything within her wood, and may be a valuable source of intelligence.
• Desdrylna senses a 'storm god' within the city as a powerful heroform or quest ritual proceeds, and assumes solid form to enter the city and seek out her love.
• ??