Night drags by as Jason worries over Lilly. For the first half nothing seems to change, but as midnight passes a puff of black smoke rolls off of her and she settles down into a fitful sleep. By morning, only the most immaterial of black wisps still come off of her. To Jason she seems to sleep much more peacefully.
Breakfast is tense but they need to continue onward. To stay in the clearing would be asking for trouble. There was no attacks last night but with the praying mantis dead this situation would not last. The group packs up and Jason puts Lilly in her harness. Whatever else happened they lacked any way to help her while out here in the wilderness.
Much to the groups relief the day passes peacefully. Not that they expected much with how the previous days had gone. With a predator like the giant praying mantises flying around, especially that big one, the group can only assume they have culled the area of most dangers.
The next several days proves this out as things go peacefully now that they know what to look out for. While praying mantises are excellent ambush predators their ability to hide does not scale up so well and the group just stays away from thick foliage. A few do pass over the group but Rosha is now knows to listen out for them and they manage to hide each time.
It has now been a couple days since they last saw one and the forest is both thicker and more active. They can see deer and rabbits along with a few smaller predators like foxes and bobcats. Lilly had recovered after three days of rest but the group still felt pressed to continue forward at a sped up pace. Rosha doesn’t even complain about not being able to hold Lilly.
Three weeks into their journey and not much had happened. While Jason and Rosha are bored with it Courtney is happy. As she puts it, “a boring trip means you're doing it right.” While there are monsters around the group is too much trouble for too little benefit. Barely past level ten and traveling as a group makes them a tough nut with too little meat.
They know that is about to change though. The tribe of boar folk they planned to stay the night at informed them of it or at least they did after the party got used to how they looked. Unlike the animal kin, those races named animal folk took more after the animal than not. Though the group expected something to change even before they met the trip. They had seen a giant wall of trees since a couple of days ago and the boar folk just enlightened them to the significance of the strange feature.
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About a hundred years ago, this entire forest was like the coming area. A deep dark and ancient forest with trees wide enough to need a family joining hands to reach around it. The human kingdom was constantly under threat because of this. Monsters bred at a great rate in such a primal land. Before because of various border conflicts they put the forest on a back burner but with a peace brokered by a traveller it came to the forefront.
They declared a great crusade with promises of land to those who pushed back the wild. This battle with more in common with a massive lumber camp than an actual war proceeded with great success. Trees older than the kingdom itself fell one after another as wave after wave of monsters got put down by an endless supply of adventurers looking for levels and loot.
Then of course after the kingdom declared the crusade a roaring success it all went downhill. That wall of trees marks the edge of something above the petty squabbles of kingdoms and man. With the first axe strike on one of those trees the very land rose up. No one is sure what lives in there though some guess a treant of some variety. Not willing to be defeated that easily they kept felling any tree outside of what was revealed to be a giant circle.
High level monsters are more akin to natural disasters than a solvable threat so after sweeping the massive number of deaths under a rug it was still declared a victory. The boar folk elders where more at home in the forest so had requested their land be next to the remaining forest. Of course the so-called victory did not last all that long as within a couple years trees started to sprout in the previously forested areas.
They made a few small attempts to keep the land clear but nothing worked. Most of the newly made villages had to be abandoned with only a few more forest ready races staying. The only good news was that the new trees slowed their growth after reaching a normal height. Ever since this tribe of boar folk had actually been living decent lives out here.
The tribe's shaman had a theory. The monster at the center of it all had paid little attention to what happened in the forest. However once the kingdom made that effort to cut down the forest it woke up to the fact that all those monsters just leaving the forest might bring back trouble. Now it must cull them to keep attention away from itself as no true threats had left the forest ever since. Of course the kingdom won’t forget what happened so they actually pay the tribe to monitor it. Lucrative for them when they would have done it anyway while out foraging.
Besides that the group learned the common monsters they would be facing. The giant praying mantises kept away from the deep forest. In fact, most ambush predators seemed to have disappeared. Not that the boar folk were complaining. Only the giant spiders stuck around. Besides that though most of what they would fight is plants. Venus fly traps, sundews, and more active hunters like the assassin vine. About the only thing lacking are the fungus based monsters.