The Cursed Woodlands Prose in Eregost | World Anvil
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The Cursed Woodlands

To the West of the Authenian Republic, close to the city of Venator Turrim, lies Grey-Antler Woods.   I went to this place eight years ago, when I was still just an adept in the school of Abjuration. I was assigned to investigate sites of untamed magic, and in my optimism I eagerly went to this cursed forest.   I used my talents to ensure that I would not fall victim to the horrors of the woods myself, and I can confirm that had I not, I would have died in those woods or suffered a worse fate.   The woods themselves are massive, and once inside appear endless. The first anomaly I noticed was that although I entered these woods halfway through Spring, all the trees were sporting Autumn colours, as if separated from the seasons of the outside world.   I regularly tested for Fae magic in the area, but it always came back as negative, so I can put aside the theories from scholars that Grey-Antler is under the influence of an Archfae.   Many victims of suicide can be found throughout the forest, and most of the corpses appear to have been at least partially eaten. After two weeks in these woods, I finally saw a living person. I used an invisiblity spell to remain hidden from him as I approached, as I was certain that the woods had warped his mind to some degree.   As I came closer, I was disgusted by what I saw, the man looked on the brink of death due to starvation, and was eating the corpse of another man, with a deer skull beside him. As he finished eating his meal, he began to claw at his own flesh, ruining his pale, stretched skin. He proceeded to use a rock to fracture his own skull, and then placed the deer skull on top of his bleeding head. To my surprise, he began to transmutate, his limbs became longer, his hands became jagged claws and the deer skull seemed to graft itself to his face.   This specimen was no longer human, and so I decided that the best course of action was to study the entity to the best of my abilities. I cast a magic circle on the ground and managed to ensnare the creature.   For one week I studied the creature. It was incredibly hostile and showed no signs of the man it once was. I fed it human remains once to see its feeding behavior. It tears flesh apart with incredible savagery and supernatural strength, ripping through bone with ease. The creature was not undead, as it still had a pulse, and showed no signs of being charmed by Fae or infection from an aberration.   After I learnt all i could from the creature, I decided to put it out of its misery. Should anyone have to defend themselves from a similar creature, I would advise using fire, as it seemed to be the most effective method of termination that I tried.   I went back to the Authenian Republic and submitted my findings to the Archives. They were pleased, as few who enter that forest return to document their experience. They allowed me to name this classification of entities, so I chose the ancient Authenian word for Bearer of Hunger, "Wendigo". Several more sightings of Wendigos have been reported by colleagues of mine who went to study Grey-Antler Woods, but no specimen has ever been subdued in a way that it could be brought back to the Arcane Committee for further study.   If you are entering Grey-Antler without sufficient power to kill a Wendigo, get out as fast as possible with as little noise as possible. Then consider yourself lucky.

By Church Paratir, Grand Archivist of the Authenian Archives

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