Among the oldest manifestations of the Devourer Wurm’s conscious will on Caen are the Gallows Groves, trees that sustain themselves on blood, whether provided by deliberate sacrifice or incidental slaughter. These hungry watchers have been warped and shaped by generations of obeisance to the Devourer Wurm and have stood mute witnesses to the offerings of both druids and cultists for so long that even the wind through their branches seems to whisper its approval. Found in forests scattered across western Immoren, the presence of many such trees in one area invariably marks the site of a massacre or a place of ritual sacrifice. Devourer cultists seek out such places, spilling blood in acts of savage worship to feed the endless desires of the revered trees. Sacrifices are hanged from branches and left to slowly water roots with their own blood and viscera. These trees, which have little need of the sun, grow as leafless spires of bleached wood. The best-fed trees appear as towering charnel houses, their branches and roots littered with rotted ropes and bleached bones.[1][2]
Having endured millennia of fire, war, and the axe of man, those ancient trees that still stand have gained an disturbing form of sentience and now prowl the deepest forests as ominous scavengers. When sacrifices become scarce in a given area, a tree might vanish only to reappear in another part of the forest, its roots drinking deeply from the carcass of a dead animal. While unable to actively strike out at prey, they are irresistibly drawn to blood-drenched soil. The trees silently appear amid the camps of the Circle’s warbands as if they had ever been rooted in place, though their positions shift and change after battle is joined, reappearing wherever blood runs freely. Leading druids send their will into these ready conduits of Orboros’ power to be unleashed upon those marked for death. Cultists of the Devourer view the arrival of these dark wardens of the forest as a sign of approval and sometimes respond with frenzies of sacrifice. The very presence of the trees saps vitality from the living as wounds gape wide to pour blood upon the thirsty roots of their destroyers. Their life-sapping emanations are invaluable in battle, allowing blackclads and their warbands to overcome even the most resilient foes.[1][2]
Druids who make use of them will cultivate the same groves for years, forging relationships akin to the bonds they have with their beasts and in return are gifted with the ability to use the trees as extensions of his own arcane will. As a tree grows with age and soaks up more and more blood, glowing runes appear upon its trunk. Unwary people journeying in dark forests have mistaken the light of these runes for fellow travelers only to find brutal cultists ready to water their groves with the blood of sacrifice. Senior druids insist auguries and portents can be discerned by examining these runes as they slowly change over decades of feasting.[2]