The Dead Forest
A vast span of forest dropped unceremoniously into the middle of a large cavern. All the trees are long dead, their bark slowly peeling and falling away. Fallen leaves coat the black soil in a thick blanket. Bodies of dead woodland animals (and a few humanoids) are strewn across the woodland, reduced to pale bone by long-deceased decomposers. Dead insects crunch underfoot. The only surviving things are the translucent glowing "ghostcap" mushrooms and the termites that float thick in the air. Strangely enough, though, those in the forest long enough begin to hear it as if it were alive: wind rustles the leaves, bird calls or cicadas echo from nowhere, and branches sway as if bending to phantom winds.
Natives, and those around long enough to know better, do not take from the Dead Forest - despite the fact that wood is worth its weight in gold within Mekanax, and other things of value may be found inside. It is considered beyond foolish. "The forest sleeps lightly," as the Chuuas put it.
Plot Hooks: The forest, which died so quickly and abruptly for no worthwhile reason, has become a vast restless spirit of itself. It is, essentially, in denial; it pretends it is not dead. It is aware of the indignities piled upon it, however, and so further wrongs are met with powerful vengeance and retribution. The forest haunts those who steal from it, becoming ever more threatening, until eventually it simply kills the individual foolish enough to ignore its warnings.
1.) Victor takes a lantern from the forest, off a body he finds inside it. He later returns it and apologizes.
2.) The minions of Mekanax do not enter the forest. Ever. Even the Mad Machine knows better.
3.) The forest takes pity on Arana. It protects her.
Grumblehorns
One of the more-curious species of fungus within the plane, Grumblehorns are sentient mushrooms with permanently-foul dispositions. While more intelligent than some of the motile races, the Grumblehorns nevertheless have neither a major purpose nor a significant contribution to the planar balance due to the fact that their only true love in life is making themselves feel better than other people by annoying those other people. They are, basically, "trolls."
The main activities a Grumblehorn engages in are arguing, complaining, and feeding. Grumblehorns feed off decaying organic matter, and they have a multitude of methods for obtaining such food. They beg, charge tolls in dangerous areas as payment for not alerting hostile entities, and hire their services out as (bribable, but generally acceptably-decent) watchmen for borders or other not-entirely-sensitive areas. The fact that they have no desire whatsoever for valuables or other shiny things, only food and annoyance, makes them relatively functional-if-annoying guards.
Plot Hooks: Victor and company must make it past a toll-mushroom near Mekanax that threatens to scream (and thus summon Harvesters) because it doesn't like, trust, or have any interest in protecting anything but itself - and "lying scum" like Victor (who wound up mistakenly saying something wrong to the Grumblehorn, possibly misclassifying it) can't be trusted to not hurt it.
"Come on..." Victor muttered in growing desperation. "It was a mistake. An error. An accidental lapse in judgement. Can't you let it go?!"
"Sure, you say that." Came the reply. "But you've already lied once. Maybe this is a lie. Maybe everything you've said is a lie. Maybe you're trying to get past me to go summon the crawlers yourself, onto me?" The tiny mushroom hmmmmm-ed as if it expected the frazzled explorer to break down in sobbing confession. Instead he just gritted his teeth and massaged a temple with his free hand. "But you just said they ignore you!"
"Well I never said I thought your plan was smart. It's just as typically stupid as should be expected from a nefarious ne'er-do-well like yourself. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give you a chance to iron out the kinks in this murderous scheme of yours." Victor twitched. "It's not my plan!" he hissed. "I just want to get by without getting killed!"
"So you say. But you've already lied."
Palindromes
Never odd or even
Madam, I'm Adam
Rise to vote, sir
Rats live on no evil star
Won't lovers revolt now
No devil lived on
O stone, be not so
Borrow or rob
Cain, a maniac
Dammit, I'm mad
Devil never even lived
Do go to God
Dogma - I am God
Don't nod
Doom an evil deed, liven a mood
Dr. Awkward
Egad, a base life defiles a bad age
He did, eh?
He lived as a devil, eh?
Is it I? It is I!
Live not on evil
Madam... in Eden, I'm Adam
Name no one man
Now Eve, we're here; we've won
Now, Sir, a war is won!
Was it a rat I saw?
In words, alas, drown I.
Name no one man.
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to a new era?
"Everything Will Now Come Your Way"
A crushing room, with this written in the center in a very tantalizing manner.
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