The Forest and Imperial Woods

For miles around the Lonely Inn and the nearby town of Nanthalion, there is forest. Within this forest come and go all of the resident and visitors of this place. Many take the well-known paths or roads, and know better than to wander from its narrow, invisible lines of protection. Those with powerful means to protect themselves or with an appetite for endangerment take the other routes.

These other routes include walking by riverside, by hunch, by death wish, and by moonlight. Belariath has populated the Forest with more than its share of scourges and hidden danger, and it is vast beyond its proportion. In the center of the forest, which many enter without knowing it, that can shift by leagues on the will of the wind, that few ever recall, no one can hear you screaming. Or crying out in pleasure, as the circumstances may be.

Closer to town are the Imperial Woods. Nominally owned by the Emperor as a hunting preserve, that name should not give the casual traveller any illusions of safety. Robbers and cutthroats have found this wild area to be a perfect place to set up camp, from which they prey on the unwary.

More happens in the TLI-Forest than anywhere else, excluding the Inn itself, because it occurs in the shadows and in the hollows of toppled trees where no one will ever know of it. Be wary. Your back is always exposed in the forest, especially to the barks of the trees.

Many live here. Don’t wander far unless you know where you are going, and keep your weapons close, and your companions closer…