D20 SYSTEM✦ Normal

The Root-Dream Fracture

# Wilderness# Dark Fantasy

Veteran players are thrust into the heart of Greatwood Village, a settlement on the brink. The ancient Guardian Treant, Oakheart, is suffering violent, reality-warping hallucinations, causing root upheavals that threaten to destroy the village. The Logging Guild, desperate to expand and survive a harsh winter, burns a potent hallucinogenic incense to pacify the treant and clear paths. Players must navigate a fractured landscape of waking dreams and desperate survival, choosing whom to trust and what to sacrifice.

Chronicle Prelude

The players arrive in Greatwood Village, a once-peaceful hamlet now riddled with fissures from the treant's spasms. The air is thick with a sweet, cloying smoke from the Guild's incense burners. Buildings lean at unnatural angles, and villagers whisper of moving shadows in the wood. The central square is dominated by the massive, trembling form of Oakheart, its bark cracked and oozing sap that glows with a faint, sickly light.

Environmental Traits

The entire region is destabilized. Oakheart's hallucinations are manifesting physically, causing localized reality tears where the forest itself seems to dream. The Logging Guild's incense provides temporary calm but is slowly poisoning the treant's mind and the forest spirits. The players' goal is to resolve the crisis before the treant's final, cataclysmic upheaval levels the village and the surrounding woodlands.

Legendary Archetypes

Rayan

HP:45

STR:16

WIS: 12

CHA:11

Key Factions & Autonomous Nodes (8)

Lirael, Elder of the Communion
An aging woman with bark-brown skin and hair like dry moss. She wears robes of woven leaves and carries a staff of living oak. Her eyes are weary but fierce, and her hands are stained with sap and soil.
Korvus, Guild Alchemist
A man of middle years with soot-stained fingers and haunted eyes. He wears a leather apron over practical clothes. The scent of chemicals and desperation cling to him.
Elara, Village Herbalist
A sharp-eyed woman with practical leather apron and numerous pouches at her belt. She moves with quiet efficiency, her hands always busy grinding herbs or preparing poultices.
Old Thorne, Hermit of Phantasmagoric Hollow
An ancient, grizzled figure wrapped in tattered furs and moss. His eyes are unnervingly clear, lacking the glaze of the hallucinations. He lives in a cave woven with protective wards of feather and bone.
Root Manifestation of Oakheart
A monstrous, twisted treant formed from corrupted roots and pain. Its bark is cracked and weeping glowing sap, and its eyes burn with mad, green light. Whispers hiss from the splinters in its trunk.
Dream Wraith
A shimmering, translucent humanoid form that wavers like a heat haze. It emits a low, droning whisper and leaves a trail of faint, glowing pollen.
Guild Enforcer
A sturdy individual wearing a leather jack emblazoned with the Iron Bough Guild logo. They carry a heavy cudgel and wear a look of stern, suspicious authority.
Communion Acolyte
A young druid with wide, earnest eyes, dressed in simple robes of green and brown. They carry a staff sprouting fresh leaves and a pouch of healing herbs.

Chronicle Prelude

Environmental Traits

Legendary Archetypes

✦ Related Cases ✦

The Frost-Melting Verdict

The Shambling Mound Rampage of Shadowthorn Wood