Ambush in the Weeping Woods

Life, Milestone

• On the morning of 30 Thornsreach, Warren departs Azmar on horseback, riding his loyal Leonian Warsteed, Goliath, bound for the city of Al’ean—a 10-day journey across hills and forested terrain. For five days, he maintains a steady pace, the road quiet save for passing merchants and migrating animals.

• On 4 Oathwane, he encounters an overturned carriage bearing the sigil of House Nevroti, a minor noble family from Al’ean known distantly to Warren through his father, Pietro Alder. The scene is grim—signs of struggle, arrow-pocked panels, and a haunting absence of bodies. Then, a scream cuts through the silence, echoing from the tree line of the Weeping Woods.
• Compelled by duty, Warren investigates and discovers a twisted tableau: brigands and House Nevroti guards alike strung up by living vines, their limbs unnaturally contorted, their mouths sewn shut with bramble. A deranged dryad, driven mad by something deeper within the woods, puppeteers them with chilling precision, forcing them to attack Warren and each other. Amid the chaos, Warren identifies the centaur Captain Kaylor, bearing Nevroti colors, barely alive.
• With blade and resolve, Warren frees the surviving guards and drives off the dryad, whose laughter echoes as she melts into the deeper forest. Kaylor, bloodied but breathing, thanks Warren and reveals a grave truth: Lord Casden and Lady Cassidy Nevroti, children of Baron Oswin Nevroti, were taken by the dryad into the woods’ heart.
• Warren, without hesitation, agrees to aid in their rescue, and together with Kaylor and what remains of the Nevroti guard, he enters the cursed canopy of the Weeping Woods, where reality bends and nightmares take root.