Along the western foothills of the Daalands lies an ancient band of forest some several hundred miles long. Unusually thick, briar-tangled, dark and ominous for the usually lightly forested Clashlands, locals avoid the woods at all costs, and readily advise travellers do do the same. This ill-famed forest is called the Werewood, and anyone who walks under its eaves soon learns why it unnerves so many.
Scattered through the Werewood are trees that resemble people - usually frightened, agonised people, their bodies wracked and twisted, with thorny twigs bursting out of their skin, and leafy branches jutting from distended mouths and eyesockets. The tree-figures are generally found throughout the forest, but tend to be concentrated along the few winding, overgrown paths, and here and there are clustered in eerie glades. Orcs, goblins, dwarves, elves and even humans, slope-browed and lank-limbed can be found caught in such poses, as if they were frozen in the transformation from flesh and blood to bark and sap. No dryads are found trapped in this way - in fact, no dryads are known to live in the Werewood at all. Those who dare to spend the night in the forest swear they can hear muffled sobbing far off and all around, and soft creaking of timber that sounds like moans of pain. Few spend a second, and those that do or who venture deeper into the woods often disappear… perhaps to become lignified themselves.
There are various stories about the origin of these tree-figures. Some speak of a sorcerer, a dwarf called the Green Warlock whose tower can be found like a gnarled stony spinal column somewhere in the Werewood. He is reputed to ensorcel those that trespass on his domain, to prevent intrusions and further his research into herbalism and plant-magic. Another legend concerns the archon Haedoreous, leader of a dryad community in the forest centuries ago, who witnessed his children slain and seedlings torn up. It is said he called down a great curse, that all who entered the Werewood would be turned to living wood to replace his murdered family. The third figure associated with the area is a fearsome shifter warlord named Yul Gamash who leads his raiding parties to strike into the Clashlands from a hidden redoubt in the forest. He seems to have no concern about the Werewood's reputation, except as it provides cover for his attacks, and some say he wields an enchanted artifact or the power of the human gods to condemn his enemies to tree-form.