Fellreev Forest

The Fellreev Forest is one of the largest woodlands in all the Flanaess with the Vesve being larger and the Adri being of similar size. The Vesve is more important to Iuz, since the hated Highfolk and forces of Furyondy lie therein, waiting to be crushed, but the Fellreev also holds opposition to Iuz and his forces simply cannot hope to occupy this vast area of cover, refuge and security.

The Fellreev is a mixed forest of alder, birch, fir, oak, scrub oak, and some sablewood and pine. Carnivorous plants, especially hangman trees, are not uncommon in the depths of dense forest. The flora of the Fellreev do not provide much sustenance. There are few fruiting trees, wild tubers, or yarpick with their nutritious nuts here. The Fellreev’s animal life such as squirrels, rabbits, foxes, bears, small deer, a few timber wolves to the north, wild dogs, otters and water rats along the Artonsamay and Cold Run are likewise only fair hunting at best. The shores of Lake Aqal teem with wildlife, but the huge monsters there are too great a hazard for most hunters to risk hunting there. So, surviving in the Fellreev is not easy, especially for those who have fled into it for refuge and lack woodland foraging skills.

Locations and Settlements in the Fellreev Forest:

Why is the Fellreev important to Iuz? The forces therein are not numerous and they do not have the strength to mount battles against Iuz’s armies. They are, in truth, not much more than a nuisance. However, there are three particular reasons why the Fellreev is important. First, there are repeated rumors that one Hierarch of the Horned Society escaped there. The rumor is quite true, and Iuz knows it, but he is unable to scry the location of the escapee. Second, Lake Aqal is a mysterious, magical location, swarming with huge monsters, and anyone able to discover and use the magical forces responsible for the great size of the monsters might become powerful indeed. Third, there is the great necropolis of Nerull’s Bane. Any potential source of 20,000 undead troops is of obvious importance!

Elves of the Fellreev Forest
Humanoids of the Fellreev Forest
Humans of the Fellreev Forest
Druids of the Fellreev Forest
Tribes of the Fellreev Forest

A Unique Alliance
Skannar Hendricks, a powerful chieftain of the Reyhu group of bandits, is a lot smarter than most. Fleeing from Iuz, attacked by a band of 200 Dazark encountered on the first day in the forest, his men then took something of a drubbing from the eastern wood elves, though they managed to slay a powerful fighter/mage. He decided that he really needed some allies. The wood elves didn’t seem to want to simply murder the bandits wholesale, so Hendricks talked peace with them.

Incredibly, this alliance has worked. Hendricks’ men include fewer evil, and more neutrally aligned men than most bandit gangs. Likewise the elves have many neutrals. There was some room for understanding, since both hated Iuz and his ores. So, the wood elves have allowed Hendricks’ men to build a couple of strongholds in the Fellreev and after a joint battle against a large force from Fleichshriver in Patchwall, 584 CY, some kind of friendship has been cemented.

The two races have begun to develop a wary respect for each other and teach each other their skills. The elves have shown the bandits the skills of forest hunting and snaring, and how to mount forest ambushes. The bandits brought very good weaponry with them and have given the elves some, and they even managed to bring a hundred good horses which have been bred successfully at Fort Hendricks. Wood elves are now to be seen galloping along the Fellreev margins on raids against Iuz’s supply lines. Skilled rope use and the building of fortified forest villages have also shown the elves talents some of them have found worthy of learning. There’s a mutual admiration in combat skills too. The bandits respect the elves’ agility, speed, and their talent for ambush, while the elves respect the bandits’ brute strength and mastery of two-handed weapon use.

However, it is the intelligence and charisma of Hendricks and the Clanmaster of Fanlareshen which have cemented this alliance, together with Hendricks’ very public proclamations of what penalties will befall any of his men harming any of the elves. Swift execution was meted out to one group who slew and looted the bodies of a wood elf outpost, with their goods and a dozen horses being given to the elves in recompense. The elves now know that Hendricks is a man of his word, and his own men have a very healthy respect for their smart and powerful leader.

Finally, this alliance has some magical strength at its disposal. Elven mages and fighter-mages are not generally of high level, but there are many of them, and Hendricks brought two high-level specialists with him, both of whom provide devastating magical strength in battle. The alliance of elven scouts, spies and ambushers with human battle and strike forces has proven very effective. To date, they have held their lands and even begun to inflict annoying losses to Iuz’s forces in terms of both supplies and casualties.

The Marauders of Iuz
Iuz’s operations within the forest tend to be poorly organized and rather haphazard. Local rulers don’t coordinate their actions properly, preferring to try to out-do each other and thus gain Iuz’s favor. These forces come from many lands and may have already been noted in earlier chapters. This section collates information about them and provides more detail.

West: To the west, the camp of the Breakers in the Land of Iuz dispatches Kazgund and some jebli orc forces on raids into the north-western forest. Schaluennforn, the mage commanding the camp, also sends in search parties to document the monstrous life of Lake Aqal and report back to him. Raiding and search parties tend to be undermanned and suffer significant casualties at the hands of the western wood elves and the monsters of the lake. Also, human slave labor is used for foresting The Fellreev forest in the northwestern fringe and wood is shipped back to the camp for building and fuel.

Along the central western fringe of the Fellreev, raiding parties of uroz enter the forest, hunting on a fairly non-systematic basis. The uroz may come from as far as Molag, but more often they are from Trystenn or Zalgend. Their mission is to search and destroy. No few of them fall prey to undead from Dahlvier’s County, however, and Nezmajen of Darkpool has a few score orc zombies in his legion.

Around the southwest fringe, hunting fiends from the Estates of the Fiends in the Horned Lands ride nightmares to hunt whatever sentient life they can locate. They actually dress in hunting apparel in a travesty of normal hunting parties, favoring red jackets and green-brown riding breeches. These ghastly nocturnal expeditions have denuded most of the forest south of the Ritensa of woodsmen and bandits.

South: The camps north of Fleichshriver dispatch uroz and jebli orcs, together with hobgoblins, into the Fellreev south of the Artonsamay. These lands are largely controlled by Iuz’s humanoids and contain a fair scattering of small, semi-permanent, crude encampments. Increasingly, these forces are trying to press across the river, where they meet stiff resistance from the wood elves and Reyhu bandits. The land north of the river, especially to the west and within 20 miles of it, has an escalating number of skirmish battles. The elves and bandits acquit themselves well, so far. As of yet, priests and mages of Iuz have not been sent to this skirmish zone in sufficient strength to have a decisive effect, remaining instead at Fleichshriver to help with magical research there. Sending undead to attack has not been successful, since the elves detect and deal with them very swiftly.

East: Rookroost and Groucester provide most of the troops for raiding the forest east of the Cold Run. A variety of orc tribes are used for raiding together with hobgoblin support, but priests of Iuz and human warriors are also used to control and discipline them for more ordered incursions. Before his death, Kerzinen of Rookroost often added fiends, most notably bar-igura, to these forces and they have thus been successful for the most part. Fort Skagund’s forces dominate the eastern Fellreev, but close to the Cold Run itself, they have to deal not only with the elves and Reyhu bandits, but also with a fair number of free bandits. Kerzinen usually tries to recruit the free bandits into his armies, but has had little success. Fort Skagund raiders favor a mix of small units who mostly skirmish rather than battle and whose primary role is spying and mapping, and large warbands with combat mages and priests carrying numerous scrolls and other minor magical items, allowing maximum force to be used in deep, hard, punishing strikes.

Forests

Fellreev Forest

Greyhawk Samaryllis Samaryllis