Greengallows Cave
"It’s not the beasts that’ll kill you in Greengallows. It’s the moment you forget the plants want you dead too."
Greengallows Cave is a living snare, a rare oasis of light and greenery hidden in Everwealth’s western bones, where waterfalls feed mossy chambers and sunbeams filter through a fractured ceiling like the sun does a broken chapel window. Its beauty is the lure, but its true nature is teeth. Predators stalk every pool and path, from blade-furred Steel Bears to the vicious Tiderazors. The air is thick with growls, wingbeats, and the soft crunch of unseen feeding from beneath shallow pools. Poachers, fugitives, and foolhardy adventurers are drawn here by the promise of rare game. Most are reduced to part of the cave’s endless cycle of life and death before they can carry anything out. In Greengallows, the greenery doesn’t just grow, it feasts.Geography
The cave is a sprawling limestone throat carved into the side of a moss-clad bluff amid The Grandgleam Forest, its mouth half-swallowed by ferns and bramble-thickets. Within, the terrain is deceptively lush, not the cold stone and dripping black of most caverns, but a living cathedral of greenery. Shafts of sunlight knife through ragged fissures in the high ceiling, catching on spray from a thin waterfall that feeds a shallow, winding river. The current runs to an underground pond, its glassy surface fractured by darting pondfish and the ripples of things far less innocent. The air is damp and heavy with the smell of wet moss, crushed leaves, and animal musk.
Ecosystem
Greengallows is a paradox, a sanctuary of thriving plant life wrapped in a constant battle for dominance. Predators stalk predators, prey grows dangerous with venom or thorns, and every chamber carries its own small kingdom of tooth, claw, and poison. Freshwater draws life in from the hills, great Steel Bears trudge to drink beside flocks of Sparksprites, while Brambleboars root dangerously close to lurking Deathrattles. Poachers who think to profit from this richness often end up feeding it.
Ecosystem Cycles
The cave’s ecosystem ebbs and swells with the seasons. In the damp warmth of spring, Bomblossoms burst in violent seed-clouds, choking the air in some chambers and driving smaller creatures into deeper, darker reaches. Summer lures in migratory Virelings seeking the cave’s constant water. In autumn, Burnbrambles ripen, their smoldering thorns searing through undergrowth to claim more territory. Winter thins the weakest, but here, “thin” only means the predators grow hungrier and bolder.
Localized Phenomena
Beyond its vibrant life, Greengallows is haunted by sound. The waterfall’s murmur is joined by the growl of beasts, the clatter of claws on stone, and the wet tearing of unseen feeding. On certain still days, the air in the central chamber shimmers, an unexplained distortion locals call the “Sun’s Breath.” Some swear it makes the plants grow faster; others claim it lures predators to frenzy.
Climate
Despite its subterranean nature, the cave maintains a balmy, humid climate year-round. The sunlit fissures create warm pockets where tropical-like flora thrives, while deeper corridors remain cool and mist-wrapped. Sudden temperature drops often signal the approach of a large creature, the air shifting around its massive form.
Fauna & Flora
Greengallows is home to some of Everwealth’s most dangerous plants and animals:
- Burnbrambles - Thorn-vines that burn flesh upon even gentle contact with skin as-if set alight.
- Warchitins - Large mantid-scorpions with shells harder than hammered iron, fiercely territorial.
- Bombblossoms - Flowers that violently explode when disturbed.
Natural Resources
To those reckless enough to try, the cave offers rare alchemical reagents: Burnbramble resin, Bombblossom powder, and Sparksprite wings. All fetch high prices, if one survives the gathering. The underground pond’s fish are said to have medicinal properties, though they are as hard to catch as any prize in the Everwealth.
History
Once, local hunters considered Greengallows sacred ground, a place where life was rich and taking from it meant giving back in blood. After The Great Schism, poachers came in numbers, drawn by the cave’s bounty. Few returned, and those who did spoke of “green jaws” closing around them. Over the centuries, the place has claimed hundreds, their bones now buried beneath the roots of the forest that thrives in the dark.
Tourism
Only the arrogant or the doomed come here willingly. Would-be adventurers, desperate fugitives, and thrill-seekers sometimes try to cross Greengallows or plunder its depths for sport. They arrive boasting, leave screaming, and most never leave at all. The locals watch from a safe distance, betting coins on how many hours a newcomer will last.
Alternative Name(s)
'Poacher’s Folly', 'The Green Tomb'.
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