The Boughs of Videmarch

What follows is a short preview of the story for an adventure module I am writing. I hope you enjoy and please remember any constructive feedback is appreciated.

This is a tale of the town of Videmarch. A tale concerning the guardian willow and its sheltering boughs. This hulking willow tree that appeared one day as though from nowhere, sits outside the town on a lonely hill. It has become the symbol of the town, its very visage set upon the crest of Videmarch. In the shade of this willow’s branches and vines weddings have been held and festivals celebrated. Children would swing from its branches and lovers would secret away to hide within the shade of its sheltering vines to profess their love and carve their names into its ample trunk. 

    That time is long past. Now the tree stands as a cursed monument to the former glory of Videmarch. The foresters and merchants have ravaged the surrounding forest and sell their bounty to the kingdoms of Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. Livestock are set to graze the fields around the willow and the ground is given no rest for the grass to restore properly. The merchants have no care beyond meeting their quota on livestock for trade. Years have passed and the town has grown from a small rural village to a bustling burg of trade and wealth. The people thrived and the willow sat ever silent.

     One cold morning a child of Videmarch decided to go play beneath the branches of the tree, but much to their horror, they found someone there to meet them. Swaying from a branch was a merchant hanged by the neck. In the years since then numerous Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and Orcs have been found hanged in the branches of the tree. The bodies of the monsters hanged from the tree have fallen and decomposed into the soil around the willow leaving it gnarled, sickly, and misshapen, unable to bear leaves. So now the tree stands cursed and truly lonely, no one visits it for fear of what may be found within its branches. The people of Videmarch have taken to calling it The Reaping Willow and no one knows who is responsible for the deaths.

-Logan (Draconic Coffee)