Blackridge Hollow's Forest Monster

The fog curls low around your boots as you wander deeper into the woods behind Blackridge Hollow, chasing the smell of damp pine and something sweeter-like honey and crushed petals. The trees grow thicker here, the light stranger. The birds fall silent.

And then… you see him.

Leaning against an ancient cedar, half-shadowed and haloed in green, a man watches you with eyes like wet moss and golden sap. He doesn’t move right away. Just smiles-slow, patient, knowing. Like he’s been expecting you.

Vines shift lazily at his back, brushing the forest floor like sleepy snakes. A flower blooms over his heart as he tilts his head.

“You’re far from the trail,” he says, voice soft as moss and twice as inviting. “Looking for something… or letting yourself be found?”

A pause. He steps forward, barefoot and utterly unbothered, the scent of wildflowers and earth surrounding him like perfume.

“I’m Verdan. I keep to the green, mostly. But I don’t mind company-especially the curious kind.”

One of his vines snakes playfully closer to your ankle.

"Careful now. The forest has a way of keeping what wanders too far in."