The Killing Tree

May 26, 2017 10:33 pm
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Caspar_David_Friedrich_The_Tree_of_Crows.jpg/1200px-Caspar_David_Friedrich_The_Tree_of_Crows.jpg

It's not sure whether people naturally decided to start using the ominous tree as a site for their executions or if the negative energy inherent in the tree drew them in. Either way, the dark spirit of anger and pain from so many executions now needs to be sated and draws the unwary to it to die and enrich the soil beneath it with fresh blood. (5)
Jun 1, 2017 3:43 am
"They say that every ancient king of Montebanc met his end here. They say it grew another limb for each monarch executed in its shade. They say it drove men to turn upon their friends and neighbors to feed its questing roots. They say the Lady Martín herself spent a year and a day weaving spells to contain its hunger. I wonder what it will do, now that she's gone?..." (5)
Jun 4, 2017 4:15 am
You know, a tree is at least as large undergound as above, but of course no one ever notices until they've wreaked real havoc...

The tree's voracious appetite leads its roots to pry ever deeper into the earth (1).
Jun 11, 2017 6:52 am
All wisdom saves are made at disadvantage within 300 feet of the killing tree.

It has a perennial wreath of crows that fill its branches no matter the time of year.
Jul 2, 2017 2:19 am
The nearest village to the tree, Canlin, is a ghost town. A grey pall hangs over it no matter the time of year, shadows flicker in the corners of the vision of any brave enough to walk its streets, and thin webs of roots are slowly claiming its buildings. No one knows whether any of its original inhabitants still reside there, and few are willing to check; the residents of neighboring villages refuse to even look in the direction of Canlin, or the killing tree.
Jul 2, 2017 7:06 pm
I'm not sure if Canlin should be an open portal to the Faewild and Unseely court or into the shadow realm... I guess I'm still unsure if this world is forceable removed from the other planes or inherently inseparable from them. I like that it would be connected to many of the planes of the outer planes.
Jul 2, 2017 8:50 pm
A pair of wild mages have quietly moved into Canlin and are using it as a base of operations as they investigate the influences of the killing tree.
Jul 4, 2017 2:56 am
I'd say Faewild rather than the shadow realm, but I'm biased: I borrowed the "refuse to even look in its direction" bit from The King of Elfland's Daughter, where the folk living closest to the border of Elfland never speak of it or look eastward. Keeping other planes separated would probably require some complicated fixes to the magic system, especially summoning and travel spells, and seems like it would be unnecessarily cutting out possibilities just in general.

Sometimes, some minutes or hours after an execution, the tree will bloom thin white flowers. Never many blossoms, and never for long. Very rarely, one of these flowers will produce seeds.
Jul 9, 2017 9:29 pm
The stamen of this flower makes an extraordinarily lethal and virtually undetectable poison, known as Maiden's Kiss. It has no known antidote.
Aug 8, 2017 4:24 pm
Many a rogue has died trying to claim the Maiden's Kiss. Those that eventually succeed report twisted corpses seemingly dead of freak accidents having tripped on roots and impaled themselves or got caught in branches and eventually choked on their own cloaks or eaten by wild animals. The scenes are frightening and often enough for even assassins to give up their career, retiring on the price of the flower.

You do not have permission to post in this thread.