Sharwood
Lying to the East of Camber and the North-West of Gladsheim is the large forest
called Sharwood. The woods are
dense and the undergrowth is tangled and few people choose to travel through it
if they have any other choice.
Within the
forest lie a few small villages and these are mostly made up of hardy woodsmen
who have little interest in or time for outsiders.
There is scant welcome in these villages for anyone passing through!
The pathways are narrow and overgrown, some of them disappearing almost
completely in the summer months when the trees and plants are at their most
dense and there are very few camping clearings for travellers to use.
Bandits and
deserters roam through the woods, looking for easy prey to fall upon or even
attacking the villages if times are very hard.
Wild animals such as wolves, bears and the cat-like Gimathe hunt through
the depths of the wood in search of food. It
is easy to get turned around and lost in the dark and tangled forests and bogs
and marshes seem to spring up from nowhere.
And yet people still go into Sharwood on a regular basis.
Why?
For many
reasons! One reason is the deer
that are so prolific in the forest. Their skins are used in decoration and for bookbindings and
their meat is highly valued by the richer population of Shardar.
There is a kind of tree called the Blue Elm that has a very fragrant wood
that will keep its strong scent for many years.
This has great value in the construction of fine furniture, again for the
richer people in Shardar. The tree
is quite rare but when a woodsman does find one it will be quickly felled and
brought back to either Gladsheim or Camber for selling.
Also native
to Sharwood is the Red-Eye Fungus, a small plant that grows only on the limbs of
the highest trees of the forest and can be sold for as much as 10 Falcons for
one plant. The fungus is small,
circular and white with a large red spot in the middle of it.
It looks much like many other mushrooms or toadstools and it can be
easily over-looked if the gatherer is not aware of its worth.
The reason for the value of this plant is simple, it is a hallucinogenic.
The smallest taste of the Red-Eye can place the user in a dream like
state for up to an hour at a time. During
this time they will see many visions that spring from their own subconscious and
many oracles and seers use this plant as an aid to reaching the answers that
they require.
Unfortunately,
the Red-Eye is extremely addictive and one taste can be enough to get the user
hooked. Unscrupulous herbalists
know of the addictive qualities of the fungus and are quite prepared to give
away free samples knowing that their customers will have to come back for more.
As far as anyone has been able to discover, the Red-Eye grows only in
Sharwood and no one has successfully managed to cultivate it under any other
circumstances.
The use or
selling of this plant has been banned in both Camber and Gladsheim but as
always, it is quite possible to get supplies of it if the customer knows where
to look. Many of the herbalists who
enter Sharwood to seek the Red-Eye will employ guards to protect them because
the bandits that use the woods know of the value of the plant and will often
follow a herbalist until they have found the Red-Eye and then attack and steal
the fungus from them.
There is a
rumour that a black panther, brought back from Dargoth by a Baron, has escaped
into the Sharwood in the last couple of years and is still roaming through it.
Various sources have reported sightings of a gigantic cat in the wood
although there has been no way of verifying these sightings as yet.
It is possible that the people who have seen this animal are getting
confused by the Gimathe, a cat-like creature that is about the same size as a
hunting dog.
The Gimathe
has a grey skin that has darker patches on it and this makes it very easy for
them to blend in with the undergrowth and for them to stalk their prey without
being seen. They are solitary
creatures, only coming together to mate once every two years.
They can be vicious when cornered but will usually leave humans alone.
The population of Gimathes in Sharwood is falling because they are being
hunted for their pelts and for trophies.