Quivering Forest

The Quivering Forest was a forest stretching from the foothills of the Dragonspine Mountains in the north to within of Phlan in the south. It acted as a barrier to the great gray waste of Thar to the east. The Quivering Forest lay mainly on the east bank of the River Stojanow.

Geography
The section of the Quivering Forest that stood within the Domains of Dread bordered Mount Baratok and had an ever-present mist that made it only dimly lit during the daytime. During the evening, it would become completely dark.

Flora & Fauna
Morcant burl, a purple-hued hardwood, grew only in the Quivering Forest. Other plants found within this forest included safflowers, pine trees, and treants. The section of the forest within the Domains of Dread was host to both treants and needle blights.

Creatures known to inhabit the Quivering Forest included elks, squirrels, owls, ettercaps, sparrows, wild dogs, and wolves.

History
The Quivering Forest was first planted as a copse of trees at the time Phlan was founded, c. 367 DR. Due to its magical nature, it grew to a great forest in the span of a single human generation.

In 1306 DR, the Quivering Forest was one of the areas within Phlan that suffered from burning during the event known as the Dragon Run.

In 1350 DR, Ren o' the Blade traveled through the Quivering Forest on his way to the city of Phlan.

In 1383 DR, following the Zhentarim's takeover of the Moonsea region, Lord Cvaal Daoran of Phlan made a pact with the dark fey of the Quivering Forest, promising not to log or travel in the forest in exchange for their aid. When the Shadovar made moves against the Zhentarim later that year, destroying the Citadel of the Raven and Zhentil Keep, the fey protected Phlan from similar destruction.

In 1456 DR, his foolhardy son Lord Talaric Daoran violated the pact by sending loggers into the Quivering Forest. The next day he went missing from Phlan and was never seen again. Unknown to the people of Phlan, he had been killed by the green hag Jeny Greenteeth, a powerful unseelie fey that had a part in the original pact.

In 1488 DR, a wild elf ranger named Surruk spent two weeks patrolling the forest with a bow made of Morcant burl, making sure none of the more malevolent fey bothered anyone. That same year Halvin Graingle, a member of the Cult of the Dragon, set out into the forest in hopes of striking a pact with the fey living there for his organization. He came to meet Jeny Greenteeth and, failing at negotiating with her, was slain.

In the late-15 century DR, parts of the Quivering Forest were pulled along with a large section of the lands surrounding Phlan into the Domain of Dread known as Barovia. The section of the forest that remained on the Prime Material plane became a reoccurring entrance into the land of Barovia, dropping unfortunate travelers on the outskirts of a small mountain village named Orașnou.

Following its pull into Barovia, the Dark Powers of the Domains of Dread empowered Jeny Greenteeth and raised Talaric Daoran as a ghost to haunt her. Initially Talaric's ghost appeared infrequently, but over time it became more common. Later on through the use of divination, Jeny was able to determine that whatever brought the Quivering Forest into Barovia was not the doing of Strahd von Zarovich.

Other changes that occurred within the forest included many animals becoming larger and more threatening. The wild dogs and wolves of the forest became agents of Greenteeth, reporting the presence of any strangers to her. Many of the forest's wild elves became hostile towards others or lost their minds to madness.

Eventually, monsters from Barovia began to spill out into the Prime Material section of the Quivering Forest where the veil between the worlds was thin. These creatures included ghouls, invisible stalkers, spectres, werewolves, wights, wraiths, and vampire spawn. Buhrell Caah, a half-orc scout of the Emerald Enclave, tried to lead a group of adventurers into the forest to petition its wild elf inhabitants for aid, but they disappeared into the mist. He then stumbled across the village of Thornbud, whose inhabitants dubbed the supernatural mists the "breath of the dragon" and wrongly blamed them as the result of the green dragon Vorgansharax polluting the forest with magic.

Notable Locations

 * Greenhall, a wild elf encampment.
 * Thornbud, a village of pixies kept hidden by toadstools. Was located in the section of forest that had not been taken into Barovia.

Rumors & Legends
There were many stories surrounding the fey of this forest, such as farmers being punished for not leaving an offering from the year's first harvest or unruly children being taken away.

Appendix

 * Adventures
 * Ruins of Adventure
 * Novels
 * Pools of Darkness
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * Tales Trees Tell • Suits of the Mists • The Ghost • Reclamation of Phlan • The Darklord
 * Defiance in Phlan
 * Defiance in Phlan
 * Defiance in Phlan