Svalich Woods

The Old Svalich Road
Black pools of water stand like dark mirrors about the muddy roadway. Thick, cold mists spread a pallor over the road. Giant tree trunks stand on both sides of the road, their branches clawing into the mists. In every direction the mists grow thicker and the forest grows more oppressive.

A perpetual rolling blackness of thunderclouds casts a gray pall over the land. The darker silhouette of Castle Drakken looks over the valley from its 1,000 foot pillar of rock. Castle Drakken dominates the small village of Nerva. The castle stands high atop a natural pillar of rock against the cliffs to the north of the village. This dark part of The Evergreen Forest that surrounds the village and cliffs is known as the Svalich woods.

A deathly stillness engulfs you as you enter into the dark Svalich woods, thick carpet of fog greeting you. Yet the woods are patrolled constantly by the wolves and serving beasts of Count Melon.

Jutting from the impenetrable woods on either side of the road, high stone buttresses loom up, gray in the fog. Huge, ancient, iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars. Two statues of armed guardians silently flank the gate. Their heads, missing from their shoulders, now lie among the weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence. These are one of only two gates, this one, to east of the village, and another west of the roads that lead up the mountain to the castle.

Towering trees, whose tops are lost in the heavy gray mist, block out all save a death-gray light on this side of the gate. The tree trunks almost touch. The thick, damp undergrowth presses in on them, making it impossible even to see one another at all times.

The woods have the silence of a forgotten grave, yet exude the feeling of an unsounded scream.