Skinwalker-elf-fairies. They are to us what tigers are to tree apes and will casually hunt and kill people if they feel like it. They can flit between dimensions and frick with people's heads, which is how they negate the awesome powers of tool use, persistence hunting, telling people about that thing you saw, and remembering what happened and how to prepare for it happening again.
However, they are as smart as people if not smarter, enjoy conversation, and can be bought. You can be friends with one, but it might disembowel you on a whim and not feel bad about it after. You can bribe the local population, but they won't care why if the bribes stop. They are fickle. Some shamanistic occultists hang out with them but they are considered crazy. If you see one you should keep it in your vision and back away as much as you can before running, unless you have a gun or are a psychic, then you might have a chance, but if you are seeing it then that means it let you see it, so you really have to think about why it did that. They are beatable, but it is not easy and you are better off just appeasing them and not starting shit when you go check on the old recluse in the cabin at the edge of the village to find it empty with no sign of a break in.
The ghost of a great tree, cut down in an earlier age by a child of the gods when it tried to steal her voice. She allowed its spirit to remain, as part of an ancient pact. Mortals may not venture into the Deaf Forest, unless they offer a branch and their blood to the Old Oak so that it may persist into the future.
Depends on which one. The original forest was dominated by the fey lords, and mortal races cowered in caves. After the elves rebelled, they created and taught writing to the mortal races. Combined with the creation of agriculture and metal smithing, this sealed the doom of the fey. They still hold a grudge.
Nobody knows who or what lurks within the Devilwood....
>so, your party has decided to enter the devilwood? >hey, that's totally awesome; go ahead and let them roleplay entering the forbidden forest and traveling for a bit >describe untamed forests, wild & unspoilt >if they start looking for signs of the people who have gone missing... >...go ahead and have them find half of an old corpse or skeleton on the first or second day out >secretly roll dice and scribble something in your notes without showing the players >the next day >ask to see a particular one of their character sheets >secretly write something in your notes >write "sick (2)" on their character sheet >return it, telling them that they feel a bit ill -- nothing serious, just a little fatigue, aches, chills, fevers, et cetera >continue...
Here's the fun part:
>nothing much happens >maybe they come upon wolves hunting... them >they stumble upon a rock or cave full of poisonous snakes >other such things >their sick friend will continue to gradually feel worse & worse, eventually suffering mild penalties (-1 across the board), but, if they stick it out, their sick friend will recover with a bit of folk medicine >nothing much else happens...
But then...
>roll 2d6 during each sunrise & sunset (twice per day) >if the numbers match, something happens...
1. Meet very unusual NPC.
2. Discover the entrance to... a Dungeon! (Wow!)
3. RANDOM?
4. Wood Elves capture the party, bind & blindfold them, and convey them rapidly through the woods for what feels like a very great distance & time... they are brought before the Elvish Regent (further adventures ensue, but the party is almost guaranteed never to return home).
5. A dragon, soaring high on a thermal, spots the party below, and dives to attack... it should be significantly above their power level, so that only the luckiest cowards or dragonslayers survive.
6. Party is instantly killed without explanation; roll up new characters to continue playing.
Seriously forget fantasy, bears are WAY scarier. I only saw a real bear like once on. IT WAS BIGGER THAN MY CAR! Which admittedly was a shitty hatchback but still. Damn near shit myself.
And in not-early-colonial-america/Vinland there are hobbit villages, intelligent otter tribes, mute but wise and friendly bears that watch out for the hobbits in exchange for food, and ents.
Bats that gossip, whose valuable repertoire of information can be bought with offerings of delicious fruits. Take care not to give them a durian, however.
Cats who take humanoid forms and silently watch wanderers. They're rumored to have their senses connected to a mastermind who keeps the forest safe.
"Demons" who enjoy fighting the strong, and playing harmless pranks on those who can't fight.
Edgy witch-hunters who are always spectacularly and hilariously horrible at their job in one way or another.
Frankenstein-esque abominations who are soft-spoken and love to have lots of friends.
Gold coins that are gold when traded, but whose surfaces may be peeled like foil to reveal chocolate, if desired. This is the colloquial currency of the forest communities.
Hermit women with eternal youth and voluptuous features who will be more than happy to enchant an item of yours or brew you a soda if you ask nicely. Being extra polite gets you a massage that removes all fatigue and eases all worries.
Kids dressed as RPG classes and villagers who never age and have small communities dotting the woods.
Mad professors who always have a new invention that is amazing, yet short-lived and usually ends up exploding.
Skeletons who aren't spooky and scary, but are very musical, and will give you the opposite of a bad time.
Vampires who drain stamina through their fingertips, and have a crippling addiction to candy gemstones.
Wolfmen who raid farms for ripe vegetables; they find grinning pumpkins to be especially delicious. Can be turned away by juicing spicy peppers over the crops' fences.
Elves, but folklore inspired Elves, not Tolkien Elves. They're barely sentient forest spirits, with childlike minds and short attention spans, just as likely to help out a lost traveller as they are to lead a traveller into danger. They can deliberately stay in your peripheral vision, and can appear as small plants or features of a tree when looked at directly. If captured they can be used to make magical wooden objects through a grisly process that captures the essence of their spirit. If removed from the forest they wither and die, leaving a rotted wooden corpse that only vaguely resembles a humanoid form. They possess no memories, living entirely in the moment. They don't understand existential threat, and construe attacks as play and respond in kind. When restrained they tend to go berserk, and usually exhaust themselves to death instead of accepting captivity. Those who wish to convert an elf into a magic item must be well prepared, highly knowledgeable, quick to act, and incredibly lucky.
While not especially dangerous the woods are protected so that none may hunt there. Moreover while posing no threat in and of themselves this pair of rabbits will seem to follow the adventurer on their path. They will do nothing but whenever the wanderer makes long enough eye contact with them they seem to laugh to each other about something, almost tauntingly, before scampering into the brush only to reappear once said traveler has again assumed their hike.
Forests are terrible. I do not like them. I like coal mines.
there are no forests, but there is a bunch of bone brambles that look like trees. in the center of the maze is a hag
"Yes, can I help you?"
h-hewwo
I was expecting something horrifying.
He can be pretty terrifying if you're a squirrel, vole or a small rabbit.
>Greetings, Undead warrior.
>I am the primordial stoat Darkstalker Ermine.
Worst case scenario people wind up in Feywild, not knowing how to even get back. Best case scenario, Bugbear.
Skinwalker-elf-fairies. They are to us what tigers are to tree apes and will casually hunt and kill people if they feel like it. They can flit between dimensions and frick with people's heads, which is how they negate the awesome powers of tool use, persistence hunting, telling people about that thing you saw, and remembering what happened and how to prepare for it happening again.
However, they are as smart as people if not smarter, enjoy conversation, and can be bought. You can be friends with one, but it might disembowel you on a whim and not feel bad about it after. You can bribe the local population, but they won't care why if the bribes stop. They are fickle. Some shamanistic occultists hang out with them but they are considered crazy. If you see one you should keep it in your vision and back away as much as you can before running, unless you have a gun or are a psychic, then you might have a chance, but if you are seeing it then that means it let you see it, so you really have to think about why it did that. They are beatable, but it is not easy and you are better off just appeasing them and not starting shit when you go check on the old recluse in the cabin at the edge of the village to find it empty with no sign of a break in.
OP, who is being a homosexual.
The ghost of a great tree, cut down in an earlier age by a child of the gods when it tried to steal her voice. She allowed its spirit to remain, as part of an ancient pact. Mortals may not venture into the Deaf Forest, unless they offer a branch and their blood to the Old Oak so that it may persist into the future.
Cute and comfy pygmies who are more curious and playful with explorers than they are scared.
Hey! Good to see you're still at it.
I always love to see your art.
Thank you, I've been posting on /qst/ while building a website to showcase my autism.
To stay on topic, the woods are inhabited by a whole kingdom of pygmies and their tallie overlords
Usually wood elves in treehouses way high up.
I always like your art too, ever since seeing some of Baba. Hope you have/get good illustration gigs.
Depends on which one. The original forest was dominated by the fey lords, and mortal races cowered in caves. After the elves rebelled, they created and taught writing to the mortal races. Combined with the creation of agriculture and metal smithing, this sealed the doom of the fey. They still hold a grudge.
Forests are jungles on easy mode.
A giant Black person with 1000 dicks whose only purpose is to rape spammers
Psychic powered cannibals, ghosts(terrestrial and non-terrestrial), and rogue alien construction drones
Nobody knows who or what lurks within the Devilwood....
>so, your party has decided to enter the devilwood?
>hey, that's totally awesome; go ahead and let them roleplay entering the forbidden forest and traveling for a bit
>describe untamed forests, wild & unspoilt
>if they start looking for signs of the people who have gone missing...
>...go ahead and have them find half of an old corpse or skeleton on the first or second day out
>secretly roll dice and scribble something in your notes without showing the players
>the next day
>ask to see a particular one of their character sheets
>secretly write something in your notes
>write "sick (2)" on their character sheet
>return it, telling them that they feel a bit ill -- nothing serious, just a little fatigue, aches, chills, fevers, et cetera
>continue...
Here's the fun part:
>nothing much happens
>maybe they come upon wolves hunting... them
>they stumble upon a rock or cave full of poisonous snakes
>other such things
>their sick friend will continue to gradually feel worse & worse, eventually suffering mild penalties (-1 across the board), but, if they stick it out, their sick friend will recover with a bit of folk medicine
>nothing much else happens...
But then...
>roll 2d6 during each sunrise & sunset (twice per day)
>if the numbers match, something happens...
1. Meet very unusual NPC.
2. Discover the entrance to... a Dungeon! (Wow!)
3. RANDOM?
4. Wood Elves capture the party, bind & blindfold them, and convey them rapidly through the woods for what feels like a very great distance & time... they are brought before the Elvish Regent (further adventures ensue, but the party is almost guaranteed never to return home).
5. A dragon, soaring high on a thermal, spots the party below, and dives to attack... it should be significantly above their power level, so that only the luckiest cowards or dragonslayers survive.
6. Party is instantly killed without explanation; roll up new characters to continue playing.
Squirrels, probably.
Animals and undead (mostly just a nuisance and not a major danger)
Wendigos but they also have human slaves that will fight for them
>So, what lurks inside your setting's forest?
Bears.
Seriously forget fantasy, bears are WAY scarier. I only saw a real bear like once on. IT WAS BIGGER THAN MY CAR! Which admittedly was a shitty hatchback but still. Damn near shit myself.
Imagine a polar bear
this picture is just unsettling, i'm gonna put it as my desktop
Depends on which one, Ranging from wood elves to fey to wild beasts and monsters to dragons
Trees mostly
And in not-early-colonial-america/Vinland there are hobbit villages, intelligent otter tribes, mute but wise and friendly bears that watch out for the hobbits in exchange for food, and ents.
They're jungles not forests
Bats that gossip, whose valuable repertoire of information can be bought with offerings of delicious fruits. Take care not to give them a durian, however.
Cats who take humanoid forms and silently watch wanderers. They're rumored to have their senses connected to a mastermind who keeps the forest safe.
"Demons" who enjoy fighting the strong, and playing harmless pranks on those who can't fight.
Edgy witch-hunters who are always spectacularly and hilariously horrible at their job in one way or another.
Frankenstein-esque abominations who are soft-spoken and love to have lots of friends.
Gold coins that are gold when traded, but whose surfaces may be peeled like foil to reveal chocolate, if desired. This is the colloquial currency of the forest communities.
Hermit women with eternal youth and voluptuous features who will be more than happy to enchant an item of yours or brew you a soda if you ask nicely. Being extra polite gets you a massage that removes all fatigue and eases all worries.
Kids dressed as RPG classes and villagers who never age and have small communities dotting the woods.
Mad professors who always have a new invention that is amazing, yet short-lived and usually ends up exploding.
Skeletons who aren't spooky and scary, but are very musical, and will give you the opposite of a bad time.
Vampires who drain stamina through their fingertips, and have a crippling addiction to candy gemstones.
Wolfmen who raid farms for ripe vegetables; they find grinning pumpkins to be especially delicious. Can be turned away by juicing spicy peppers over the crops' fences.
This is the gayest forest I have ever read about.
Next time, ask about games instead of settings.
Next time be less gay.
Games, homosexual, do you speak them?
Kino
It started kino but got too repetitive and lolsorandum quite soon.
Still, original and whimsical encounters are cool.
Why do Japanese women love this twink so damn much?
French cat people guerrillas.
Elves, but folklore inspired Elves, not Tolkien Elves. They're barely sentient forest spirits, with childlike minds and short attention spans, just as likely to help out a lost traveller as they are to lead a traveller into danger. They can deliberately stay in your peripheral vision, and can appear as small plants or features of a tree when looked at directly. If captured they can be used to make magical wooden objects through a grisly process that captures the essence of their spirit. If removed from the forest they wither and die, leaving a rotted wooden corpse that only vaguely resembles a humanoid form. They possess no memories, living entirely in the moment. They don't understand existential threat, and construe attacks as play and respond in kind. When restrained they tend to go berserk, and usually exhaust themselves to death instead of accepting captivity. Those who wish to convert an elf into a magic item must be well prepared, highly knowledgeable, quick to act, and incredibly lucky.
While not especially dangerous the woods are protected so that none may hunt there. Moreover while posing no threat in and of themselves this pair of rabbits will seem to follow the adventurer on their path. They will do nothing but whenever the wanderer makes long enough eye contact with them they seem to laugh to each other about something, almost tauntingly, before scampering into the brush only to reappear once said traveler has again assumed their hike.
boars
What a question, a pissing poor whizzard Black person obviously. "Dare you enter my magical realm?"
Dinosaurs, zombies, israelites