Between the River Stacnek and Hangman's Road, on the edge of Bloodroot Forest north of Malko, is an eerie place tainted by the coming of chaos and the opening of the Pernicious Gate.
It is said that once the caress of chaos has been felt, the corruption of it will last forever more, and this taint spreads ever wide to north and south and east and west.
Here it sinks into the roots and the ground. It blackens the soil and twists the bark and branches of the trees into spectral shapes. Here the wind doesn't breeze and rustle through the leaves; it sounds in the hollows and crevices, wailing in bitter sorrow.
The wailing of the woods can be heard for miles in the small hours of night, keeping superstitious peasants awake and children crying in the village of Death Knell to the west. It is a godless sound that scratches scars on the soul that never heal. It is a sound to drive men mad.
Upon a time this land had been prime hunting ground for the lords of Malko where stags and pheasant could be shot or trapped. Now it is an empty lifeless warren of frightening dark and leery spectacle. It is a place of value to nothing or no-one except perhaps to the elves of Bloodroot Forest who care little for the taint of the Chaos Vein or to the Daemons who wish to pervert every corner of our bright realm.
To men it is a lost stretch of land, useful only as a place to take back from the brink of damnation; a place to purge with fire and raze to ash; a place to stand and fight and say, "No more."
But even if this dreary location were ever purged so; burned and stripped to blackened stone, would it ever truly lose the taint of chaos? Or would the wailing continue across the scorched and barren earth?
Surely this place, like all places touched by chaos is damned forever.
In-Game Effects:
Within the Wailing Woods, three dice are rolled for the Winds of Magic and the lowest one discarded.
"Good" forces suffer -1 Leadership throughout the game unless they are Stubborn, cause Fear or are Immune to Psychology.
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