From the outside it is dark and intimidating, but it is lush with life within
Dark woods south of the Stoneheart mountains and the town of Prymm. Outer reaches of the wood are dark, dangerous crowded and threatening, with trees that are said to move when you aren’t looking. Many adventurers enter but never leave.
At the center upon a plateau of earth known as the Pillar of Life upon which stands the intelligent tree grove and the center of druid society on the continent, unknowingly led by an ancient Elder Unicorn, defended by an entire clan of centaur.
The Stranglethorn is a wondrous place beyond the defensive outer limits of thorns and guardian tree beings, and the touch of the Feywild leads to fantastic flora and fauna. Magical Bloodberries grow in bushes and normally heal those that eat them, so long as they don’t eat too many. A single Goldencrest apple can feed a man for a day and fills them with a feeling of extra vitality. The illusive six-leaf Azurbloom, when smoked, is known to enhance the magical prowess of casters.
Points of interest:
Pillar of Life
Ironbark Village of centaurs
Key figures
Ironbark Knight Cythena is the centaur in charge of protecting the PIllar of Life and acts as first guardian of the Druid grove within. She is a wise and fierce leader, and is known for taking the fight to the denizens of the Bleakbriar swamp, often to the point of being chastised by the centaur elders.
Laylah Frostbloom and Cadriel, a married couple of an elven druid and her human ranger husband that protect the wood. While Laylah often lives at the Eternal Bloom druid grove, Cadriel fails to sleep in the same place more than a few days in a row: he can be found in the Ironbark Village and Boughaven or anywhere in-between. They saved an owlbear cub from luckless poachers, but not before they killed the mother, and he cub now follows Laylah around. Named Thornbeak, or just Beakie, the owlbear is very protective of it’s adoptive parents. Thornbeak is known to get lost in a barbarian-like rage and only the singing voice of Laylah can break the anger.
Ostryhynn Oakbeard is the leader of the Eternal Bloom and has been so since before anyone in the grove was born: he is so old that he looks to be an ent himself.
The Ancient Unicorn Yrander protects the grove, as both a celestial and a friend to the feywild denizens, it has ruled over the Stranglethorn since before the time of the Vosian Hegemony. While few know of the unicorn at the center of the wood, even fewer are aware of titan that lives below the Pillar of Life known as the Root of the World that Yrander is in contact with. From time to time, blood sacrifices to the Root of the World is required to keep the titan at bay.