Dridder forest
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Danger: Hazardous
Sub zones: Supprozad, Web Fells
Inhabitants: dridders, trapdoor dridders, bolas dridders, chilotaurs, earth mouths, tonorions, podmaws, sack vines, doormat plants, gloomlotus, umbras, terror hyenas, guloks, skridions
A vast and very ancient forest, south of Negav city and the Ascarlin mountains, and west of Chidokai forest. As its name suggests, it's now home to several large tribes of dridders. Many great trees in this area have white trunks and seem to be petrified, as if some unseen force is literally sucking the life from them. The tree limbs and canopy are thick with webs, obscuring what little light makes its way through the tree tops. As such, the forest is a very dark place, which adds to its gloomy atmosphere. The forest borders a swamp on its eastern edge, which causes the ground to become moldy and uneven, and the air humid and oppressing in that zone. It should be noted that this area has the smallest concentration of dridders, as they prefer to dwell underground and the damp soil makes tunneling nearly impossible.
Traveling through this forest is very dangerous. Even if you were able to avoid all the giant dridders roaming the place, the forest holds many other deadly creatures and natural traps such as massive spiders, monstrous worms and various carnivorous plants. Furthermore, the areas that are the most free of vegetation tend to be the most dangerous, as they are frequently filled with webs intended to trap hapless victims. This forces many people to chose the more sinuous, overgrown paths through the forest, which slows travel and increases the likelihood that you will run into trouble. The swampy region likewise has its own perils. Many monstrous species of insects inhabit this area as there is less webbing. Quick mud is another danger, sucking many unwary travelers to their doom. Beneath the forest spreads a complex system of caves and tunnels. Some are natural, and some are not. The dridders inhabit this complex, trap ridden labyrinth, using it not only as their main home but also as a means of quickly moving from one area to the next, often with the purpose of surprising victims passing through the woods. Indeed, travelers are advised to avoid these cave entrance at all costs. While dridders are the primary cause of concern, many predators can lay in wait within them.
There is a rumor that somewhere, deep within the forest, stands a majestic mansion. The structure is beautiful and its quiet, flourishing garden makes a striking contrast with the eerie air of the surroundings. A magical force field forbids any access to the mansion and the incredible power of this protection leads many mages to wonder who exactly inhabits this place. The local dridders either frown in anger when they see it, or ignore it entirely, adding even more to the mystery.
Supprozad
Danger: Normal
Inhabitants: dridders, podmaws, sack vines, doormat plants, gloomlotus
Supprozad was the once glorious capital of the dridder empire of Sineria. Even despite the thick jungle vegetation that has reclaimed large parts of the gigantic ruins, it's easy to tell how majestic and grandiose it was. Intricate, ornate motifs and finely carved bas-reliefs are still visible on many walls, and remnants of spiraled stairways with delicately sculpted banisters can be seen soaring up, before being abruptly interrupted by a collapsed wall. Here and there stand the broken, cracked remains of beautiful and proud statues.
The citadel was a large one for a dridder, but for humans it's very hard for them to simply wrap their minds around the sheer immensity of the place. Towering structures loom from every sides, and one would have no trouble whatsoever flying a helicopter through those vast halls. It creates a strange, dwarfing world, where, unlike in Ur-Sagol, the ancient structure is fighting a loosing battle against nature. Most of the ground is covered by vines, moss and bushes. A large part of Supprozad was situated underground, but the city appears to have crumbled in on itself, making those parts mostly inaccessible for dridders. Smaller races could probably get there through a maze of small cracks and crevices, but dangerous creatures roam the zone, just like in the jungle. According to legends, Supprozad was ravaged by Guardians in order to deal a crippling and final blow to the growing expansion of the Sineria empire. The scorpion Quaz is said to have been part of it, as old scriptures tell of legions of insects blanketing the ground and cloud of them covering the sun, descending on the city.
The majority of dridders now prefer to stay away from this place, seeing it as cursed ground and a symbol of folly and excesses of the past. However, some of them are desperately clinging to the past and still live there, either nostalgic or demented, trying to act as if the city was still alive. Turning around a corner of a hall, you could suddenly arrive in a clean part of the ruined city, often no more than a single room, that doesn't bear the mark of the passing time, with a door and clean curtains. Sometimes you can hear a dazed music coming from it, full of an indescribable sadness and nostalgia.
Web fells
Danger: Normal
Inhabitants: Dridders
The Web Fells is the name for the chain of mountains situated between the Mist ocean and the Torrential coast, and lying south of the Dridder forest. It forms a collection of hills, high valleys and plateaus running right south from the forest. They are a craggy and foggy place, with only the higher peaks being able to rise about the mist. Most of the non-rocky areas are lonely, grassy valleys, treeless and scattered with strange cairns and monoliths. This area was part of the Dridder Empire before its decline, which the Dridders used to explore southwards while avoiding the windy Mist Ocean. They built many small, but elegant, fortresses and keeps which now lie in ruins. However, they are not always abandoned - while larger dridders have mostly left for areas with more prey, human-sized dridders are fairly common here. They hide in the ruins of their Empire and many have turned to banditry. Many would declare themselves "Lords" or "Kings" of particular small valleys, demanding tithes from anyone living there. All these various self made nobles often fight each other for scraps of territory or resources. This area is very dangerous for any non-dridder traveler - it is likely they will be captured and made slaves. Many passes have been strung with webs to block off or catch such victims. There are rumors, however, of bands of dridder knights wearing heavy armor, patrolling the area and defending big and small alike from the tyrants of the Web Fells. What exactly is the nature of these reports is still conjectured.
- Credits to Veeshan123 for some ideas to develop the forest and to Jaette-troll for the Web fells.
