EXTRA - Gloamwood Pines and The Darkening Deeps

A little background on areas of Gloamwood Pine and the story about them straight from the Lore Department. (Via riftgame.com)

Gloamwood Pines

The village of Gloamwood Pines slouches in the darkening wood, its people sullen and mistrustful, refusing strangers hospitality even as they seek help to keep their village alive. Grisly murders have long plagued Gloamwood Pines, and though all evidence points to a huge beast, no amount of culling the local predators has stopped the killer.

Villagers also speak of the hag who lives in Deepwood Cottage. She was old when the toothless village grandfathers were but little boys, toiling over her curses or peering out at the woods with milky eyes visible through a slit in the curtains. Some say the hag and Gloamwood are one, and you might be tempted to believe it when you watch the knotted shadows grasp at the trees.

The goblin city
In the deepest part of Gloamwood, the waterways under a once-stately Mathosian castle play host to the frenzied stirrings of creatures from the rifts. Gloamwood’s goblins built a city into this chasm’s walls, their hovels lining a path spiraling deep into the bedrock. Every day, goblins skulk from this hole to wreak havoc through the woods.

It was all the people of Gloamwood could do to control the goblin menace, until the Gedlo priests came through the Fire Rifts, whipping their lesser goblin brethren into a fighting force bold enough to harass even armed patrols. Victims report muscle-bound, frenzied goblins who maul defenders at the Gedlo priests’ command.

Always vicious, the goblins’ newly focused ferocity is taking a heavy toll on their High Elf blood-foes, and Silverwood was almost razed in a recent raid. Uproar over this threat cost the Guardians the allegiance of the Elf prince Hylas.

The goblin menace

Civilized folk work hard to keep Gloamwood’s goblins in check, but the vicious little creatures have recently grown bold, spreading through the wood and attacking even armed patrols. The goblins are sometimes bigger and stronger than usual and mad with bloodlust, goaded by their Gedlo priests to greater and greater ferocity.

Unworked gray stones as high as ten men stand in the forest, arranged into an impossible formation. They have lurked in their clearing for centuries, radiating a forgotten, sinister purpose. The goblins have infested these Standing Stones, lashing out at anyone who comes too close.

The goblins built their city in the drainage system for Shadefallen Keep, expanding it with their own rude tunnels and gouging ever deeper into the ground. Adventurers bold and foolish enough to invade these Darkening Deeps might find the source of the goblins’ newfound aggression, rescue villagers from Gloamwood Pines or meet their end in a storm of fire and claw.  (Image Shown is Concept Art from RiftGame.Com)

From the report of Commander Oakheart, Paladin of the Sanctuary Guard, Gloamwood
Three times we’ve stormed the den of these filthy goblin priests and three times they’ve pushed us back. By now my sword shows more blood than steel, yet still we cannot break through!

I have heard tales of villagers taken prisoner, offered as sacrifices in these halls we cannot breach. As we struggled with the goblins, I noticed ten long, bloody scratches in the rock beneath our feet. A loose human fingernail lay where one of the scratches ended.

These degenerates have never shown such frenzy as when they defend these halls. My stealthier compatriots have seen goblins regard the chambers with gleeful reverence, as if they hide a weapon that will obliterate the fair races from Gloamwood forever.

Whatever they’re hiding, whether or not we receive reinforcements, the goblins have abducted one of my men, and I will not see him die under Gedlo daggers.