Bricca Vale

> *“One, two, angry ghost out the blue!’*
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> *Three, four, getting gored by giant boar!*
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> *Five, six, goblins poking with their sticks!*
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> *Seven, eight, trees creaking all with hate!*
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> *Nine, ten, direwolf gutting you like a hen!*
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> *No matter from where you hail*
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> *In dirty robes or shining mail*
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> *No place will make you scream and flail*
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> *Like our good old Bricca Vale!”*
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- Part of a rhyme from Rike.

One of the largest stretches of wilderness on the northern hemisphere, Bricca Vale provides quite a contrast of blistering sands and humid jungle to the south and temperate, lush woods to the north. Appropriately, the lands of sand worms and giant scorpions give way to the lands of giant wolves, forest folk and gods know what else.

## Description

Compared to the dry and deadly deserts that border it to both east and west, the forests of the Vale teem with life and are home to many creatures both high and low. Watch your step for you can end up as another victim of a hungry bulette, the infamous land shark. Or perhaps you will find yourself slowly choked by an assassin wine and be turned into plant fertilizer. The woods closest to the settlements there are clear and safe…but even then, hungry, desperate or even malicious creatures dare to get up to the city walls. Isn’t that, then, when the citizens call for aid of the mighty adventurers to deliver them from harm? Why, it might lead to sights most wondrous. Lairs of monsters, ancient ruins swallowed by the wild.

For the most part it is a serene wood. Sunlight gently streams through the canopy to give rise to thick, lush undergrowth that gives home to critters both big and small. The prey is plentiful and a skilled hunter will not find themselves wanting for fresh venison, as long as they can slay whatever they have in mind. For animals in those parts can be quite fearsome! A mistake in confusing a badger with a werebadger can lead to some quite unfortunate consequences. To the victor go the spoils in the end.

Although the woods are dense and thick with plentiful wildlife, they are hardly uninhabited, both by humanoids and other intelligent creatures of all sorts. Villages of forest elves and humans are strewn across the expanse, thriving on what the land gives them and occasional trade with cities like Rike. Vegepygmes, centaurs and kobolds are some of the examples of creatures an intrepid adventurer might encounter, both hostile and neutral to them.

## Geography

Explorers, merchants and curious wizards have given a fairly good idea of what the Vale is like, at least from the outside. The warm, wet jungle in the Vale's south is not unlike the flourishing woods surrounding Falador; in fact both those places share plenty of similarities, though where warm and cool air meet near Rike, more turbulent storms occur. Further north the jungle turns into a warm temperate forest with plenty of rain. Only major hilly regions lie to the east where winds are hampered and encourage the proliferation of grassy expanses. To the west the bedrock is deeper and clay ground prevails, leading to a swampy region nearly on sea level. On the northern outskirts of the Vale, the swamp becomes cold and slushy and mixed evergreen woods appear.

## Resources

There are plenty of goods that can be harvested in the Vale. Many are not readily available, but the selection at the Rike markets is still significant enough to warrant interest. Primary exports of the area are in form of material components for spellcasters and natural goods, as well as wild beasts and more unusual slaves.

A wizard or sorcerer would be quite pleased with the selection of components available in the area; powdered unicorn horn, direbat guano, even dragon scales if one has enough money or courage depending on how one wishes to acquire it. Minerals are not nearly as common in these parts, but there ought to be metal veins and precious stones in some parts.

## Rumours

For enough gold, even a dead man can talk. The truthfulness of those words is up to you to determine. The main source of rumours is Rike, but there are villages and towns beyond the southern shores.

* They say that dragons nest deeper in the woods and swamps far to the west, primarily green and black wyrms, as well as wyverns.
* There are ruins in the cooler woods to the north, remnants of the past days when the woods had a much greater human population. Can you uncover whatever valuables remain?
* There is talk of witches and a hedge wizard or three working away on their magical research far away from civilisation in the safety of their homes.
* Deep in the heart of the forest's north, the canopy grows so thick that light cannot pierce it. The creatures here are twisted, aberrant things, and a powerful vampiric necromancer makes his home among these lightless depths. His castle is like a black lantern, the windows glowing with candle light that would seem dull anywhere else. People with connections to less legitimate markets might hear rumours that this necromancer is interested in slaves.