Forest of Getting Lost

The **Forest of Getting Lost**, also known as the **Labyrinthian Forest**, is an impassable forest in which the trees behind you move whenever you are not looking. Careless hikers who entered this forest were sometimes not found until decades later, if at all. To make matters worse, the forest also seems to have a degenerating effect on the human brain, driving the stray insane with visual and auditory hallucinations. The birds in this forest also have a habit of mimicking human voices, screams and calls for help. Although there are no real dangers in this forest and enough edible (but hallucinogenic) berries and mushrooms to survive in it for a lifetime, in many places there are remains of bones or hanged corpses of strays who could not find a way out and took their own lives to escape. Beware of some of the mad hermits, as they are not to be trusted..

## Origins

The Forest of Getting Lost was not always a singular mass of vegetation. Back in ancient times, many different forests covered the land, separated between them by plains or rocky terrain. These areas covered a huge strip of land, from the coast of the Sea of the Lamb, bordering the bogs and swamps of central Giantstep to all the way to the Frozen Lake. Over time, these spaces were conquered by the Khenomeric Empire, using them as sources of wood and for magical experimentation. The khenomeri wizards had learned many different sorceries, and many of those involved interacting with nature to succeed. As such, the forests were slowly but surely infused with magic, giving the woods strange properties. It is said that, at the height of magic in the Khenomeri Empire, the wizards had enchanted some areas to allow travelers to move many miles into a couple of minutes, saving many days of travel.

However, this all changed after the War of Supper. The royal victory over the Magoclergy made most wizards quite nervous about their future, and many magical communities began forming within the forests, when before that they lived in luxurious spires in the cities. Many of these communities started hiding their congregations using spells to distort space, or even bringing magical creatures to guard certain points. This culminated in the edicts of Pharahkhan Kyle I to abolish magic in the kingdom. The previously lauded wizards began hiding and running away from Khenomeri, least they were found guilty of sorcery and punished accordingly. Many simply gave up on their ways to live a normal life, but the majority decided to try and run away to faraway lands to try and save their lives and their craft. Most of the runaways decided to cross the forests at the center of the empire, which attracted a lot of attention from the authorities. The gathering of wizards made some think they could actually fight the khenomeric armies moving towards the region, but in the end they decided against it: even if the wizards could win and retake their power, the population was wholly against them, locking them into a never ending battle.

Thus, they pulled their sorceries together and set up hundreds of high level spells, turning the forests into impassable terrain. No entity without a lot of magical experience would be able to cross the forests unscathed. This worked, and it allowed most of the khenomeric wizards to flee the empire. However, these spells did not dissipate with time, but they grew in strength and influence. The forests began growing towards each other, following the wishes of the wizards who enchanted them, even if the terrain was not apt for it. For a couple of decades, the few wizards still allowed in the empire were able to either slow down the growth of the forest or create passages across it. Eventually, however, it became apparent that the diminishing magical powers of the Khenomeric Empire were not enough to control the forest, which grew to neatly cut the empire in two halves.

Ever since then, the forest has become a great wall that blocks the north and the south of eastern Giantstep. Few even attempt to cross it anymore, and the few who do even fewer actually manage to survive it. Events such as the migration of the swamp ogres have become legendary because they managed to shortly break the impassability of the forest.

## Flora and Fauna

The little we know of this labyrinthian forest's inhabitants come from the testimonies of hermits that used to call the forest their home. As such, there is little guarantee to their validity.

Several species of creatures have been described to exist in the Forest of Getting Lost. One of them is a man-eating fox that is able to shapeshift into a woman in order to lure unsuspecting travellers. Another creature described by these hermits is the **Vermithian**, a giant chameleon that lurks in the forest's canopy which uses its elastic tongue to capture humans, digesting them alive.

A more ferocious animal is the **Saber-Tooth Tiger**, a beast so large but yet so agile to the point where it has learned to masterfully navigate between the thick navigation of the forest. It is also said that it can blend with the environment in a way that even the Vermithian would be envious of.

Even though their appearance suggests nothing devillish, the **Oakcritters** are anything but cute. These little imps with their wooden skin are known to trick humans into consuming hallucinogenic mushrooms, only to call their tribe to eat them alive little by little, all while the human is into a pain numbing trance.

All of these creatures pale in comparison with the **Leshen, the Spirit of the Forest**. The previous descriptions' details all vary from person to person, but every hermit (mad or not) has stayed consistent in his description of this beast. Standing over 4 meters tall, its body is made up of tree bark, while its head is made up of a stag's skull and antlers. It is unknown if it is a singular creature or part of a species, but all accounts agree on the fact that the Leshen dwells in the most ancient parts of the forest and in the giant cave complex underneath it. Whenever the forest is threatened, the Leshen is able to call other creatures to fight for it.

Although it's difficult to say, many naturalists have speculated that the Leshen was created by the spells of the Khenomeric wizards when they first cast their spell that gave birth to the Forest of Getting Lost. If this hypothesis is true, then perhaps part of what makes this gargantuan forest impassable to this day is the power of the Leshen, which still retains some of the enchanting prowess bestowed upon by the Magoclergy eons ago.