Deep within the Tranquil Forest, pale green poisonous miasma lingered year-round.
The branches and leaves of ancient trees intertwined into an impenetrable canopy, filtering sunlight into mottled, cold light.
In the heart of this forest, considered forbidden ground by most intelligent creatures, lay an astonishingly vast aboveground castle and a labyrinth of intricate underground passages.
The castle was built from a mixture of dark gray living ancient wood and obsidian.
Vines wound around the outer walls like blood vessels, faintly pulsing with natural magic.
The castle walls rose more than thirty meters high.
Their surfaces bristled with sharp wooden spikes and moss-covered observation holes.
The moat held no running water, only thick, dark green venom.
Foul-smelling bubbles rose from its surface from time to time, releasing dizzying acidic fumes.
Yet the forest surrounding the castle had not been allowed to grow unchecked.
Clearly, every ancient tree there had been carefully positioned, with many forming natural watchtowers and ambush sites.
Platforms woven from vines had been built among the crowns.
Lizardfolk sentries stood guard on them, wearing moss camouflage and carrying blowguns with poisoned darts.
Farther away, in a forest clearing, stood dozens of hide tents and barracks built of wood and stone, the settlement of the green dragon's followers, the Greenclaw Clan.
It was dusk, and more than a dozen plumes of cooking smoke rose from the camp.
Groups of dragon-blood kobolds returned carrying freshly hunted marsh elk.
They skinned and butchered their prey with practiced efficiency.
Other, powerfully built half-dragon warriors trained in the clearing, their green-scaled fists striking wooden posts with dull thuds.
Closer to the castle, dozens of dragonkin priests in hooded robes sat in a circle within a stone formation.
They chanted prayers to nature in low voices, maintaining the poisonous miasma barrier that enveloped the