There were no questions or comments forthcoming on the Oasis, so Jigano decided to keep moving right along, not wanting the silence to sit for too long. Once he saw the pencils pause and eyes return to the front he took a breath, launching into the next segment. "The Woodlands have several curious and interesting inhabitants, such as snow moss and hanging snakes, but these are generally harmless - or even helpful, in the case of snow moss and peppermint bark. What you want to watch out for are the Banshees and the Wicker Women." He put up another board, this one more an artist's rendition of a banshee from Safrin's book and reports from the Monster Hunter's Guild. "The Banshees might look like women wrapped in rags from behind, but they're reported to have a skeletal appearance, usually found either singing or weeping. They don't appear to be sentient in a way that we can communicate with. Attempting to disturb them will only anger them and result in their chasing you until they catch you and strangle you to death." He looked grimly out at those gathered. "And since they're some sort of lost soul or undead, they don't get tired or need to rest, so they can chase you until you tire. Though there haven't been reports of them outside the Woodland, I wouldn't rely on that to mean safety if you can reach the Fields or town. There's still more we need to learn about them, but as dangerous as they are it's a difficult prospect." And he wasn't going to ask his Loreseekers to go poke one to find out what their limits were!
"The other dread ladies of the Woods are the Wicker Women, though they're more common across the border in the Greatwood, I think," he said, with a nod to Tarasha. "These are trees which won't chase you, thankfully, but their branches move and they're carnivorous. Look for gnarled branches twisted around nearby trees and bushes, and piles of bones at the trunks. If you brush against them one of their branches will move - faster than you might expect - to curl around you and pull you in, trapping you there until you starve to death and your body goes to feed its roots. Beware of damaging it in your attempts to escape; their sap is a potent hallucinogen, and once you get it on you may not regain your senses enough to even try to escape further."
While he was on the subject... "Not in the Woodlands but in the Outskirts there is a similar plantimal," Jigano explained, pulling up another board, this one with a sphere of jumbled sticks drawn on it. "Tangleweeds are like tumbleweeds, if you've ever seen those before; dry-seeming collections of sticks that blow across the landscape. It's unclear if they move on their own or only when blown by the wind, but they're mobile and tend to travel in packs. Like the Wicker Women, they respond to touch by lashing out with a limb to wrap around whatever they bumped into. Rather than a hallucinogen their sap is a numbing agent, and if they can wrap around a creature and numb it so it can't move they can slowly digest it." Not a good way to go, especially if, unlike the Wicker Woman, the prey was aware of what was happening the entire time, just unable to feel it.
"The other dread ladies of the Woods are the Wicker Women, though they're more common across the border in the Greatwood, I think," he said, with a nod to Tarasha. "These are trees which won't chase you, thankfully, but their branches move and they're carnivorous. Look for gnarled branches twisted around nearby trees and bushes, and piles of bones at the trunks. If you brush against them one of their branches will move - faster than you might expect - to curl around you and pull you in, trapping you there until you starve to death and your body goes to feed its roots. Beware of damaging it in your attempts to escape; their sap is a potent hallucinogen, and once you get it on you may not regain your senses enough to even try to escape further."
While he was on the subject... "Not in the Woodlands but in the Outskirts there is a similar plantimal," Jigano explained, pulling up another board, this one with a sphere of jumbled sticks drawn on it. "Tangleweeds are like tumbleweeds, if you've ever seen those before; dry-seeming collections of sticks that blow across the landscape. It's unclear if they move on their own or only when blown by the wind, but they're mobile and tend to travel in packs. Like the Wicker Women, they respond to touch by lashing out with a limb to wrap around whatever they bumped into. Rather than a hallucinogen their sap is a numbing agent, and if they can wrap around a creature and numb it so it can't move they can slowly digest it." Not a good way to go, especially if, unlike the Wicker Woman, the prey was aware of what was happening the entire time, just unable to feel it.
