Crying Woods

The Crying Woods, also called Nemorlachria, is a malevolent, magical, near-sentient forest located to the northeast of the Elennian Peninsula. It is bounded on the west by the sea, on the north by The Great Prairie, and on the east by mountains. A large lake on its eastern border is the current home of the The Floating City.

On the map above, the Yellow X is It'lal, the Red X is The Floating City, and the Blue X is a Reptilian Village.

In ancient days, this forest was home to both drow and a race of intelligent reptiles. After a brutal war, which ended in the devastation of both races at the end of the second age, the Crying Woods rejected all animal life, and became malevolent. In the Cataclysms that followed, it barely managed to survive, and its hatred toward all creatures became stronger. Now the forest is actively hostile to all non-plant creatures, and it fights them in its ways.

Therefore, any creatures (except plant creatures) are attacked if they enter the Woods, with a few exceptions:

• A clan of green dragons who have somehow made a pact with the Woods.
• A tribe of elves have found a way (via an ancient Teucri artifact) to merge an elven soul with the heart of the Wood. The merged soul can mitigate the Woods' longstanding animosity toward some creatures. The current merged soul is a former adventurer and member of The Crimson Shields of Hope adventuring party.
• The drow retain the secret of magic crystals that allow them to move safely through the Woods.
• On very rare occasion, the direct act of a god has lifted this animosity. Rumor has it that Domi, for example, once interceded in this way.
• There are rumors that reptiles survive on the fringes of the Woods, but if true, no one knows how.

There is a rumor in the Float that a Lost City of Gold that exists somewhere in the Crying Woods.

Some of the flora of the Crying Woods includes:

Purple orcs. These are not orcs at all. They are some kind of a plant in humanoid form, spawned by carnivorous trees, and born in pods that hang from the branches. These ‘orclets’ are fast, and able to swarm and overpower much stronger creatures. Their claws seem enchanted, causing those they hit to fall into a deep sleep. When slain, orclets grow with magical speed into trees themselves, as if they were seeds all along.

Through similar fey magic, other "animals" have managed to live in the Crying Woods by adopting the plant type. These include

• Woods Parrots - Squat, about a foot long, its feathers are jet black, its short beak is bright red. Sports a brilliant blue crest on the top of its head. Excellent mimic.
• Woods Monkeys - Tiny, white-furred monkeys with big black eyes.

Other plants include:

• Vanilla Pods – brown, about 6” long, carrying a beautiful aroma of rich vanilla.
• Spiny Sunflowers - grow in bog mud (which is, by the way, beneficial to the skin as a softener). These flowers shoot out spines, like arrows, at intruders, usually waiting until they are stuck in the mud. The spines are strong as steel and vary in length.

Here are two maps of the lands around The Crying Woods. Note that on the map on the left, the scale is 25 miles per hex; on the right, it is 50 miles per hex.