CDQ needed or not?

[Verideth]

Hellos. Gots two questions.

First question:

I would like to try and change the area right by Fort Wayfare. It is a druids worst night mare. All blown up and dead. Stickly plants left in the wake of a mage battle I assume.

I have been trying to tend it. Have put notes on the druid forum and my journal. Does something of this magnitude require a CDQ?

Second question:

I would like to replant the crops in front of my new house in Port Hemp fields. There is one stalk of barley and some tobacco on the side. What could I replant and how would this get done? Dont want anything crazy. Was thinking pepper to replace the tobacco and a cherry tree to replace the one stalk of barley.

Thanks!

Byron player of Verideth

[Weeblie]

I will only answer the second question, and to be absolutely certain, you probably have to wait for Dorg or someone more official to shime in.

Second question:

CNR will not be replanted.

[miltonyorkcastle]

First question: It would take more than one CDQ, to be sure, and likely something on par with a WLDQ. Certainly a legitimate goal, though.

[darkstorme]

*chuckles*  Thinking big today, I see.

The Hallowlight is actually vastly improved from its previous status, when it was badly blasted indeed, which, in turn, was reclaimed through either a ECDQ or a plot-level quest.  It would probably require multiple CDQs/GCDQs to recover that area - if it can be recovered without altering a write-up currently in publication.

As for the crop replants... pepper is like Baker's Yeast in that it is not a harvestable CNR - it is purchaseable only and serves as a small (but vital) gold sink in the economy.  Cherries are a hard(er) to acquire commodity, deliberately, as they are used in some of the higher level food crafting.  As such, they're placed in hard-to-reach locations.  Planting a cherry tree (a fruiting one) in the Hempstead fields would defeat that careful balance decision.

While, of course, I don't have final say on module changes of this sort, I would suggest that this would either be difficult or impossible.

Edit: Beaten out twice.  *sighs*

[osxmallard]

See this quoted post from Acacea about the area:

I noticed a couple times this entire forest being described as twisted and corrupted and all that. That is actually not the case. The Broken Forest was for a long, long time really messed up and actually "Broken" - not just one area, the entire forest (liches, deep dwarves, cursed undead of the race wars, you name it). The whole thing was filled with undead you had to get through, dark magic and all that junk. After a rather complicated quest by Rhizome (though I have never heard of a quest by Rhizome that wasn't complicated...!) involving the many factions of the really broken forest, it was 'cleansed.' The dead were laid to rest, other factions wiped out, another controlling influence destroyed, and the seeds of the forest replanted. Healed. Done.

The area that remained in game was not representative of the entire forest - that was Shadow's grave, and had undead around it because of Selian. Likewise, when she had her temper tantrum it totally decimated that section of the forest that was once 'protected' by undead. Prior to that, it was not the whole forest that was crawling with them, nor did she burn down the entire forest. Shadow's grave wasn't really even 'infected' or anything, it was just being protected. Before the completion of the bridges, you could hear adventurers trying to dissuade over-eager paladins from wishing to 'cleanse' the wood, because a) it already was, and b) the undead in that section protected a destiny.

So, unless these details have changed, it is not accurate to say the whole forest is severely screwed up. If it is, what has happened to it since its healing that has messed up the whole forest and not just the area surrounding Shadow's grave?

I can't find anything about the tantrum in LORE, but it doesn't seem like the forest could not be replanted or grow after the number of years since the event.  What caused the trees to die off -- was it just the initial 'battle' or 'effect' of Selian?  Why wouldn't the forest grow after the event?  Was it just the lack of sun towards the end of the dark age?  Is the land forever cursed?

[Verideth]

Thanks for the comments.

I figured a little piece of woods was a small goal. I see it is not!

Either way I will try and understand it will take several CDQ's if even possible. At the least it is a good goal for my PC and could lead up to a World leader quest one day if I reach 20.

Thanks folks!

[Dorganath]

Best I can tell you definitively is that it was put into its current state by a tantrum from Selian after the bridges were completed on the Serpent Isles during the Soul of a Lost Ancient campaign (i.e. the war against Bloodstone).

Druids should know that nature heals slowly. It's actually far less "cursed" now than it's been for ages.  The Treants and Twig Blights and Assassin Vines and things are serving a purpose, even if that purpose tends to be deadly to people who wander in unaware of the danger.

It was a plot-level event that made it how it is, and it will surely be a plot-level or WLDQ-level event to change it to something else.

[LynnJuniper]

Basically, Selian and Shadow were having a bit of a long distance relationship after Shadow gave his life for a cause Selian didn't agree with. The grave acted like Skype/a phone/the internet. A device so that Selian could stay in contact with Shadow.

And then an agreement was made to remove this contact.

And Selian went insane like a bat out of hell. Selian, being one of the former Seven sisters, and a quite powerful ..sorcereress was it? Known for her temper, kind of just...went s'plody on the forest.


Atleast that's the version I remember. Not sure if it was rewritten, but if it was it'd be a shame, Selian was one of my favorite Layo NPCs.

[osxmallard]

In 1399 is when Selian destroyed the forest?

In 1402 Bloodstone was defeated, dark ages started.
In 1420 Sun came back out.

It's currently 1438.  Why hasn't anything grown back into the forest over the past 18 years?

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Stuff HAS grown back. Vines, twig things, the occasional tree...

[Dorganath]

In 1399 is when Selian destroyed the forest?

In 1402 Bloodstone was defeated, dark ages started.
In 1420 Sun came back out.

It's currently 1438.  Why hasn't anything grown back into the forest over the past 18 years?

You'll have to ask Leanthar that, but a guess would be that if the magic Selian used to put it into the state it's in now still lingered, then it likely interferes with the normal growth cycle.

I'll also point to the Dread Forest on Tilmar, which was ruined centuries ago and it's still a twisted, nasty place....and relatively close to the grove of a famous druid.

[mixafix]

There was a previous plot quest to recover this area, and for reasons within that tale it was not fixed. These details should be available in game. However if you contact me I will arrange for a rp event to explain them and you may then cascade it if you wish as much of it may have been lost to memory.

[minerva]

Events such as this also are great places to find out about such things.

[darkstorme]

I figured a little piece of woods was a small goal. I see it is not!

The thing to remember - about all in-game areas - is that what you see is at best a limited representation of what is actually there.  From a cursory glance at the Map of Mistone, the Hallowlight forest is several hundred statute miles wide - and it only has one, rather small, area devoted to it in the module.

The scope of the world cannot, due to mechanical limitations, be represented in-game.  But always remember that what you see is only a fraction of what is there.

[osxmallard]

However -- I believe that one, rather small, dedicated area devoted to the forest in the module was the only part that was destroyed by Selian, the remainder of the forest healed by Rhizome or maybe it was Triba at another point in time.

Again... I quote this same section of Acacea's post:

The area that remained in game was not representative of the entire forest - that was Shadow's grave, and had undead around it because of Selian. Likewise, when she had her temper tantrum it totally decimated that section of the forest that was once 'protected' by undead. Prior to that, it was not the whole forest that was crawling with them, nor did she burn down the entire forest. Shadow's grave wasn't really even 'infected' or anything, it was just being protected. Before the completion of the bridges, you could hear adventurers trying to dissuade over-eager paladins from wishing to 'cleanse' the wood, because a) it already was, and b) the undead in that section protected a destiny.