Barbed Fields

Official art of the Barbed Fields, by Clara.

The **Barbed Fields** is a desolate wasteland north of the Ghostlands in Xhorhas, ground zero for the final battles of the Calamity and home to dangerous creatures and errant magic.

## **Description**

Approaching the Barbed Fields from the Ghostlands, the area appears to be tinted gray and red. Close up, the sun-baked plains are a varying ruddy or brown color, dusty and textured with cracks at every inch. Ancient heavy impacts caused some large areas of jutting, jagged stone. The trees there are barren and gnarled, and the rain settles into puddles and eventually larger bodies of a heavy, occasionally bubbling, oil-like substance that is dark, deep brown-green and reflective.

    Sticking out of the ground deeper into the Barbed Fields are the large, rocky spines that give the area its name. Some of the spines are pointed and straight, while others are hooked, between 15 and 40 feet tall, and they are made of a deep, dark gray stone like that of the Penumbra Range, contrasting with the red and brown ground around them. The spines appear to have pushed out of the ground or to have been deliberately placed, and they are widely separated, often miles apart but sometimes with two or three in a one-mile stretch. These areas have larger craters and places where the land seems to drop off into heavy pits.

### **Points of interest**

#### **Arbor Exemplar**

→ *Main article: Arbor Exemplar.*
    Towards the end of the Calamity, before all of the Prime Deities left Exandria in the Divergence, the Wildmother buried this seed within the most desolate land. It is considered the sister tree to the Seed of Rebirth, which is the tree that resides in the center of the Abundant Terrace of Vasselheim.

## **Creatures**

* Gloomstalker
* Sorrowsworn
* Roc
* Udaak
* Horizonback Tortoise
* Sparsely populated birds: scavengers and birds of prey
* Spined armadillo-like creatures
* Insects
* Large roving beasts

## **History**

The Barbed Fields were ground zero for the final battles of the Calamity. The forces unleashed in the battle flash-eroded the landscape and left thick spires that, over the following centuries, were eroded further into more hook-like spines.

### **"A Dangerous Chase" (2x64)**

The Mighty Nein rode through the Ghostlands and into daylight, reaching the edge of the Barbed Fields. At dusk, the moorbounders abruptly stopped and sniffed the air, and they noticed a person sitting next to one of the trees. Caduceus determined it wasn't undead, but when Frumpkin (in vulture form) went to investigate more closely, it wailed mournfully and dashed toward the party. The creature, one of The Lost of the Sorrowsworn, was attacked by the party and their moorbounders but was joined by three more and a swarm of bats. After a successful fight, the party spent the night under the dome.

### **"Chases and Trees" (2x65)**

In the morning, a storm started moving in. The party explored a giant tortoise shell, inside it finding a rough map of the Barbed Fields. From its top, Nott saw what looked like a giant tree in the distance, roughly the direction they were traveling. They continued on, and the strange spires in the landscape seemed to be becoming a little more frequent. Eventually, they saw a dead udaak being feasted on by three gloomstalkers, who noticed them and began flying after them. After succeeding in killing the gloomstalkers, they set off again toward the towering tree as a cold rain began to fall.

That night, the party camped about 100 feet away from the base of the immense tree. Nott noticed unnaturally green grass extending about five to ten feet from the roots of the tree, which continued to grow outward during the night. In the morning, the grass was green about 200 feet out from the tree. Most of the party climbed or flew to its top where they could see that the rock spires circled and became more dense towards the center of the Fields, where there was a large chasm.

Their activity disturbed a roc whose nest was in the tree's canopy, and the party jumped for the ground as the roc began to circle.

### **"Beneath Bazzoxan" (2x66)**

During the battle with the roc, Jester *Polymorphed* it into a bat, and they discovered a baby roc in the nest at the top of the tree. The party mounted the moorbounders and charged off at full speed, eventually finding a cavern where they managed to hide from the pursuing roc. That afternoon, they rode past an orc village and were attacked, but drove them off. Towards nightfall, they saw Bazzoxan in the distance, and pressing on through the night reached the village after dark.

## **Trivia**

* Ashley Johnson thinks a lot about this region and its origins, and wants to know more about its many spines.

## **References**

1. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 0:41:00.
2. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) from 0:58:08 through 1:01:58.
3. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:14:00.
4. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:18:00.
5. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:10:19.
6. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) from 1:19:28 through 1:22:12.
7. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:14:19.
8. ↑ See "Chases and Trees" (2x65) at 2:41:48.
9. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 0:41:00.
10. ↑ See "Critical Role Campaign 2 Wrap Up" (Sx56) at 3:49:48.
11. ↑ See "A Dangerous Chase" (2x64) at 1:31:03.
12. ↑ See "4-Sided Dive Episode 20: Discussing Up To C3E82" (4SDx20) at 1:48:52.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Official art of the Barbed Fields, by Clara (source). Used with permission.
2. ↑ Fan art of the Barbed Fields, by BlackSalander (source). Used with permission.
3. ↑ Fan art of the Arbor Exemplar, by Kent Davis (source). Used with permission.
4. ↑ Fan art of The Mighty Nein viewing the Arbor Exemplar, by Rammaru (source). Used with permission.