Gloomwode
Gloomwode closes around the old road between Sarn Valley and Ebstone, where the dead now march beneath the trees, cutting off trade and attacking the last soldiers holding the route. At Brackendor Tower, troops ordered to reinforce Globurn are fighting to keep another enemy out of the valley.
Beneath the Firs
Ancient firs tower over the forest, shutting out much of the daylight. Cold streams cut through the undergrowth, and fog gathers between trunks so broad that travellers can lose sight of one another within a few steps. Blue spores drift through the dim air, mingling with the violet flicker of necromantic light.
Feared long before the Storm enclosed Tidefall, Gloomwode has become dangerous even along its travelled paths. The road’s stones lie slick beneath black moss, split by roots and edged with broken shrines. Deeper in the forest, boots and wagon wheels carry through a silence without birdsong, giving passing patrols warning of the living on the road.
Gloomwode Crossroads
At the forest’s edge, four roads meet beneath a blackstone statue of Saint Rolas, the Saint of Mercy. Routes lead towards Sarnath, Sarnlock and the open moor, while the western road enters the trees, passing Brackendor Tower on its way to Blackstone Fort and Ebstone.
For centuries, pilgrims stopped here to rest and pray. During Sarnath’s conquest of Ebstone, children were taken from their families and forced into service, a cruelty remembered in the song “Sons of Baleron”.
Storm worshippers still pass through on their way to the coast, though most merchants have stopped risking the journey. Beyond the crossroads, the narrow road leaves little room for wagons to pass, and the trees press close enough to conceal an ambush.
The Dead on Patrol
Blackstone’s skeletons march in squads, blue light burning in their empty eye sockets and armour and weapons striking a steady rhythm. Captains lead them through the forest as archers support the soldiers closing with swords and spears. They attack without fear and keep fighting until their bones are broken apart.
At Brackendor, the defenders have watched their enemy’s tactics change, with shield formations protecting advancing archers and later assaults concentrating on sections of wall weakened in earlier attacks. As the garrison’s defences fail, the army facing them adjusts its attacks.
Around Blackstone’s approaches, skeletal mastiffs known as bone-hounds dart from cover to bite and withdraw, trying to cripple their victims before the pack closes in. Their joints click and clatter through the brush as they circle wounded prey.
Brackendor Holds
Twenty-one marks beside Brackendor’s door record the assaults its garrison has survived, with burned and shattered skeletons filling the western ditch. Inside, six soldiers remain in a tower built to house sixteen, with provisions for roughly two more weeks.
Sergeant Benedict Alms was preparing to take them to Globurn when the first undead appeared. He stayed because abandoning the tower would leave the eastern road open, allowing the dead to threaten the valley and the siege army from behind. Four messengers sent for help never returned.
After thirty years on the borders, Benedict has little patience for promises of glorious rescue; he needs people who understand the danger and can act without wasting lives. Oren Fallow keeps repairing the battered defences with what remains, while injured soldiers return to watch because there is nobody to replace them. Holding Brackendor means finding a way to stop the attacks before their supplies and strength run out.
Lydia Wode
Lydia followed a skeletal patrol west through Gloomwode and returned with something Benedict had almost given up on: a chance to strike at Blackstone itself. Her scouting could put a small party within reach of the Nekramancer without sending the garrison against his walls. When guards sent to confirm her discoveries never came back, she blamed herself and became determined that her work should save the soldiers still alive at Brackendor. She will help anyone willing to attempt the journey prepare to reach the fort and kill its master.
Blackstone Fort
West of Brackendor, old trenches and burial mounds surround the fort that once enforced Sarnath’s rule over Ebstone. Rusted weapons and collapsed siege engines lie beneath the moss as skeletons patrol the earthworks, with more able to pull themselves from the graves when the living approach.
The Nekramancer has claimed the stronghold and the generations of remains beneath it. His army reaches into both Gloomwode and Ebonwood, making the old border fort a threat to the regions on either side.
The garrison at Brackendor believes the attacks are being directed from within Blackstone, and its scouts have learned what a frontal approach costs. Benedict will share their findings with anyone capable of reaching the fort, hoping to spare his remaining soldiers another disastrous expedition.