DRK-01
Briar Gate Trailhead
Past Black Briar’s Briar Gate, the pavement narrows toward a ranger kiosk, gravel parking area and large wooden map board. This is the most common formal entrance into the Dark Forest.
The Grimmstone Visitor’s Guide · District DRK
Dark Forest
A neighborhood with its own stories, loyalties, and peculiar definition of normal.
Visitor information →Field notes · Public edition
Welcome to Dark Forest
Rural settlements, cabins, hunting trails, and long journeys beyond the dense city blocks.
Filed by the Office of Inconvenient Geography. Please do not correct the street signs; they take it personally.
Eight places to begin
Places worth finding
These are selected from the district location reference, with private campaign material withheld.
DRK-02
Blackwood Ranger Station
Blackwood Station is the primary ranger facility inside the Dark Forest, larger and rougher than Black Briar’s urban-edge station. Rangers coordinate searches, maintain trails, monitor fire and weather, and record changes in routes.
DRK-03
The Bleeding Spur
The Bleeding Spur is a weather-beaten roadhouse at a major forest junction, serving hunters, rangers, loggers, locals and travelers. Its red neon spur is visible through rain long before the building appears.
DRK-04
Hollow Creek
Hollow Creek is the largest permanent settlement inside the Dark Forest: several dozen homes, a general store, repair shop, volunteer fire shed, post boxes and a little clinic clustered around a creek crossing.
DRK-05
Graves Family Farm
The Graves farm is an old working property of pasture, orchard, barns and a weathered farmhouse occupied by Juniper Graves and her daughter Briar Graves, whose family carries dragon blood.
DRK-06
Black Briar Lodge Outpost
The Lodge Outpost is a fortified but modest field station maintained by the Black Briar Lodge for hunters operating deeper in the forest.
DRK-07
Moss & Antler General Store
Moss & Antler is a forest general store selling groceries, fuel, batteries, work clothes, camping supplies, hardware and a little of everything residents forget until they need it.
DRK-08
The Crooked Mile
The Crooked Mile is a winding stretch of old road between Hollow Creek and the Deepwood. Surveyors insist it measures almost exactly one mile. Drivers frequently disagree.
The people who keep the district moving
Five organizations to know
Public reputations only. The archivist has been instructed not to publish confidential correspondence again.
DRK-F01
DRK-F15 | Complete Game Master Lore Edition
The Dark Forest is not a unified kingdom. Its communities, packs, courts, covens, hunters and older powers overlap without agreeing on who owns the trees. Some protect neighbors; others protect boundaries; a few protect secrets. Their disagreements create playable politics rather than fifteen interchangeable combat encounters.
DRK-F02
The Pale Hounds
The Pale Hounds are neither ordinary dogs nor a single species. They are a wandering order of trackers who perceive trails left by promises, fear and things that cross boundaries. They have repeatedly warned other factions of the Thing Between the Trees.
DRK-F03
The Court of Thirteen Pines
This court maintains the Thirteen Pines as a meeting ground and claims authority over seasonal passages, invitation rituals and certain old footpaths. It treats politeness as a practical technology.
DRK-F04
The Ashen Circle
The Ashen Circle grew from practical healers, charcoal burners and ward-makers after repeated wildfires. They practice disciplined fire and ash rites, not indiscriminate destruction.
DRK-F05
The Hollow Creek Compact
The Compact is an agreement among households, tradespeople, volunteer responders and neighboring farms to share labor, fuel, medicine and information. It is not a secret militia.