Skogsrå

The **Skogsrå** is an antagonist in *Bramble the Mountain King*. A dangerous forest spirit who regularly lured men out to their deaths at night by seducing them with her beauty before cruelly killing them and using their sacrifices in order to strengthen her own magic.

## Biography

### Background

Once there was a peaceful village near a great forest. One night people began to see a beautiful woman with long, dark hair lurking in the shadows during the full moon. Men started to follow her into the forest. Some of them never returned, and those who did had lost their minds. Eventually, the villagers had enough. They took all the dark-haired women of a certain age and put them on trial for witchcraft. They started to execute them, hoping to find the right one, yet men kept disappearing during full-moon nights.

The villagers grew more and more desperate and burned down a large area of the forest in the hope of finding this strange, beautiful woman, but to no avail. The villagers had lost themselves. They killed their own mothers and daughters. They burned down more of the forest that had served them with resources. Then one night when the moon shone at its brightest, five brave men took matters into their own hands. They put on their coats and walked into the burnt forest to hunt for the woman with the dark hair. After a time, they saw the beautiful woman standing in a clearing. The men were instantly enchanted and followed her deep into the forest's heart.

She was a shapeshifter that mimicked what men wanted to see in order to lure them away. When they were close enough to touch her, she transformed into something monstrous. She ripped their chests open, hung them up in trees, and drew strange powers from their still-beating hearts. And no one would ever see them again.

### Bramble the Mountain King

The Skogsrå conjures up an illusion of Lillemor to lure Olle into the clearing where she is waiting for him. Angered by such a deception, the young boy fights the shapeshifter by destroying the corpses sustaining her magic with the light stone and, once she is weakened, attacking her from behind with the light stone in the form of a sword. After delivering the final blow, killing the Skogsrå, Olle realized what he had done, and wracked guilt, briefly threw up before continuing on his journey.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

The Skogsrå has the appearance of an unclothed woman with pale white skin, black hair, and glowing blue eyes. She also has moss covering most of her body, two horns on her head, beads adorning her hair, and a large hole on her back where her heart can be seen.

### Personality

She is seductive and deceptive, having been able to lure unsuspecting men to their deaths through her illusions. And judging by the way she killed those men, she didn't have any regrets as she wanted their blood to sustain her life force and magic.

### Abilities

She is able to use the blood of the men she's killed to conduct several feats.

* She can create spikes of blood at the base of trees.
* She can conjure "blood clots" that burst and kill those nearby.
* She can create waves of blood that drown those caught in their path.

## Trivia

* You can find out more about this antagonist's background on the wikipedia article Skogsrå.
* She is one of the few bosses that Olle fights directly.