The Living Forest
The island's north-western crescent, rising gently from misted shores into a perpetual snowfall of pale pink and white. The Kitsune keep it: priestesses of Inari, and the spiritual soul of the Elderlands.
The Land
An undulating bedrock of weathered limestone and moss-choked granite karst, fed by pristine subterranean springs and cascading rills. The canopy is dominated by colossal immortal cherry trees whose trunks twist like polished bone and whose roots drink directly from spiritual conduits.
Beneath the sylvan arches grow fragrant camellias, creeping blue wood-sorrel and thick mats of emerald star-moss dotted with dew that glows faintly at dusk. The wildlife reflects the sanctity: white stag spirits with lacquered antlers move soundlessly through the groves, silk-feathered songbirds nest in the boughs, and jumping-spider weavers string dewdrop catchers across ancient stone shrines.
The Ninefold Shrine stands at the head of a climbing path of gates. South-east across the island lie the Gates; inland, the Foxglades.
The Kitsune
Dedicated priestesses of Inari, maintaining the sacred groves with quiet discipline and ritual grace. They wear ceremonial white and vermilion woven from wild spider silk, and their tails run snowy, pale-gold or sunset-orange.
Unlike the wild tricksters of the lower glades, they treat their immortality as an ancestral responsibility: purification rites with sacred bells, stone fox lanterns kept lit, offerings of fried bean curd and wild berry nectar prepared to a calendar four centuries old. Their magic is a refined light-weaving, and much of it is spent warding off corruption drifting in from across the outer sea.
Encounters
Roll d100. The safest ground in the province, which is a real and deliberate achievement. Most rolls here are wonder. CR is scaled to Faerie size — see Challenge by Size.
| d100 | Encounter | CR |
|---|---|---|
| 01–12 | 1d4 Kitsune priestesses on a purification round, bells and offerings in hand | — |
| 13–22 | 2d6 pilgrims climbing the path of gates to the Ninefold Shrine | — |
| 23–30 | 1d3 white stag spirits with lacquered antlers, moving through the groves in silence | — |
| 31–37 | 2d8 fireflies in the fog after rain, and the whole forest lit at once | ½ |
| 38–44 | 1d6 silk-feathered songbirds nesting in the cherry boughs, who sing back | 2 |
| 45–51 | 1d4 jumping-spider weavers stringing dewdrop catchers across a stone shrine | 1 |
| 52–58 | 2d6 crickets and thrips in the star-moss, keeping the shrine calendar | ¼ |
| 59–65 | 1d3 newts, shrine-keepers by long custom, and it is not a joke | 5 |
| 66–71 | 1d4 mistcap gatherers in standing fog, who will share the tea and the news | — |
| 72–77 | 1d3 honeybees working the camellias for the shrine's offerings | 1 |
| 78–82 | 1d2 frogs in a karst spring pool, devout, and the tongue arrives first | 9 |
| 83–87 | 1d2 hummingbirds over the wood-sorrel, the one thing here that starts fights | 7 |
| 88–91 | 1d2 wolf spiders on the limestone, which the Kitsune do not drive off | 3 |
| 92–94 | 1 praying mantis at a shrine gate, courteous, and waiting to be addressed | 8 |
| 95–96 | corruption drifting in off the outer sea, and a ward that needs holding for an hour | 10 |
| 97–98 | 1 jay in the cherry canopy, mimicking a priestess's bell | 13 |
| 99 | 1 great horned owl in from the Foxglades, which the wards do not cover | 23 |
| 00 | 1 fox through the sacred groves, which is either an omen or Inari, and nobody will say | 24 |