> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Ancient Woods > [![[Ancient_Woods_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Codex/Assets/Locations/Points_of_Interest/Ancient_Woods.webp) > ###### Location Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Point of Interest | > Location | [[Farhaven]] | > Defining Feature | Ruins of a nameless ancient city, grown over by forest | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Active | The **Ancient Woods** is a dense, primeval forest north-east of [[Farhaven]], grown thick over the bones of a city older than any record. Its trees rise from ring upon ring of darkened, vine-choked stone — the ruins of a settlement laid out in vast concentric circles that tighten toward a centre few have ever reached. Travellers who pass beneath its canopy speak of a forest that feels watchful: of a faint, unplaceable magic in the air, and of great shadows that move between the trunks and are gone before the eye can fix them. ## Location & Geography The woods lie inland of [[Farhaven]], across the coastal fields and into the deep tree line to the north-east. Beneath the canopy the light fails to a cold green gloom, and the forest has a way of turning travellers back on themselves — there is no kept road, only a faint beaten path, and the deeper one presses the more the ruins crowd in on every side. At the forest's edge on the coast stands a weathered obelisk of stone, perhaps a hundred feet tall — plainly a relic of some older age. Those who study it find only a trace of ancient magic clinging to it, faint and impossible to name, its purpose long since lost. From its foot a thin path leads inland toward the ruins. ## The Ruins At the heart of the woods lie the remains of a great city, fallen so long ago that the forest has grown clean through it. Its walls and pillars are laid out in deliberate concentric rings, circle within circle, drawing inward toward a central confluence; the stone is darkened and cracked, furred with moss and bound in vine. Who raised it, and what became of them, is unknown — its history lost in the long silence that followed the [[Chaos Wars]], when whole peoples were unmade and their names with them. Whatever magic the place still holds is faint and unfamiliar, matching no tradition the learned recognise. The path simply ends among the stones, and what lies at the very centre of the rings remains a mystery. ## Dangers The Ancient Woods are no ruin to be wandered lightly. Predators den among the fallen stones, and the forest is easy to become lost in — its circling geometry seems almost designed to confound. Travellers have reported a great shadow-furred beast that prowls the perimeter of the ruins: a thing the eye can never quite settle on, leaving behind only large clawed prints and the certainty of being stalked. ### [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 18 - The Old Forest]] [[The Bloody Nails]] came to the Ancient Woods on the trail of [[The Finegolds]], guided past the coastal obelisk and into the trees. Among the concentric ruins they made a fortified camp as something massive circled in the dark beyond the firelight. At dawn they returned to a patch of freshly disturbed earth and exhumed it — uncovering the buried body of [[Harland Finegold]], the Finegolds' former leader, his throat neatly slit. #### [[Session 19 - Blood and Sorrow]] Deeper in the ruins, the party found the surviving Finegolds bound and gagged in a central clearing. The rescue turned to ambush: the assassin who had shadowed the group since [[Darmouth]] struck from hiding, felling [[Vaeleran]] with a poisoned dagger. The party rallied amid the ancient stones, revived him, and cut the assassin down before she could vanish into the trees. ## Trivia - The party never reached the centre of the rings, nor learned who built the city or why its magic lingers — the Ancient Woods keeps its secrets still.