The Dark Grove

An area in a far part of The Druid's Respite, The Dark Grove is split off from the rest of the forest by a circle of ancient runes carved into trees and boulders and other blessed landmarks to channel a form of magic dome around it in order to keep it's inhabitants restricted to the cursed area.

When one enters the grove they feel a sudden sense of unease, although it soon fades as they begin to walk the wooden areas, the trees lined up in such a fashion that a series of curved paths spread throughout the grove, twisting and turning and crossing through one another to a near dizzying degree at times, the colors of the woods feel like they were put there by an artist who was low on paint, the leafs were a pale, almost watered down green at first before taking on more off color hues of fall leafs as one wanders further inside, the bark of the trees takes on a few streaks of light blues and purples which spiral in patterns along the trunks of the solid trees, the sky takes on a gently purple hue that give the grove a more 'mystic' feel rather than a 'dark' feel. The branches of the trees strayed far from the path as they all heavily covered the forest areas off the paths leaving them pitch black as the paths stay clear of fallen leaves or branches. The trees are set up very close to one another, making it near impossible for most normal and below average people from slipping between the trunks in order to enter the areas off the path, which few would want to do more than once as most come back with tales of beasts and horrors, at least those who make it back that is.

The tone of the grove starts to take a less pleasant turn as the colors of the forest become darker and the warm air of the bright forest turns into a chilling wind as the near musical chirping of birds and insects turn to a dead, empty silence. When one gets close to the inner most ring of the forest they come across a continuously flowing river of a black fluid circling an island of sorts that's cut off from the rest of the forest, the only way to cross being across one of the four bridges that are formed from bent and deformed trees on either side that have somehow grown together, their branches twisting and tying knots around one another to bind them.

Once one has crossed over the Black River they enter the inner most ring of the grove, The Corrupted Glade, light from the outside world barely manages to give illumination to the twisted trees and gnarled foliage of the area, there being a series of potholes littered the now jagged paths being filled with the same inky black fluid as the river, some of them only inches deep while others go far down into the ground, the dark liquid is often sucked up through the roots of the trees and is used to form the 'leafs' of the trees, which when they became heavy enough they'd drop off the tree and splash back into one of the pitfalls.The oddly neutral temperatured area has a dark, yet bizarrely comforting feel to it, as the dark magics that run through this inner most sanctum can corrupt the strongest of men into beasts while the weak are often driven insane and often plunge themselves into the dark depths of the Black River, serving as a fuel for the maddening powers that maintain the Grove and it's inhabitants.