The North of Norvaegard, Stellhart, was known for many things, but it was known most for its dangers. One of which were the monsters that inhabit the nearby areas, and among them lay a stretch of dense woodland known simply as the monster forest.
It wasn't forbidden ground. Knights patrolled it now and then, and more than a few trained their squires here, testing them against beasts too unpredictable to be simulated in the practice yards. But the forest was never taken lightly. A lapse in judgment here could still cost a man his arm or his life.
The trees grew thick, their trunks veined with creeping moss, their roots twisting up from the soil like half-buried bones.
The air held the sharp tang of sap and the faint musk of predators that claimed the shadows as their own. Every so often, a distant roar carried through the branches, low and resonant, a reminder that this was no ordinary wood.
