The Everburning Forest

Many are the layers of the Abyss which resemble, in some way, the forest and jungles of the mortal world. The Forest of Shrouded Pines is of course well known, as is the Jungle Of Gears, and many others. The Everburning Forest is a slightly more unusual destination, as it is a particularly difficult place for non-natives to survive in, even by Abyssal standards. Searing flame, lung-destroying smoke, and storms of blazing ash are just some of the many attractions… and then there’s the locals, tormented beings of living wood, as eternally aflame as the surroundings….

Oh, and demon-hide canoes.

The Everburning Forest

It is a forest fire the size of a continent, one which will never end… well, at least not until the Abyss does, and that’s not likely to occur. The terrain beneath the ever-blazing woods is fairly normal, even mundane… rolling hills, a few small mountain ranges, rivers and lakes. The forest itself is, to the extent anyone has bothered trying to catalog the firey flora, typical of northern, temperate, climes — mosty pines and the like, with some other trees. Of course, with leaves either burned off or constantly blazing and regenerating, botanical classification can be problematic.

The strange nature of the plane has frozen (if one can call it that) each tree at some seemingly random stage of burning. Many are crowned with blazing leaves, ever crumbling in the flame, ever regrowing. Others are nothing but blackened, charred, wood, smouldering and sputtering. There are patterns to this, clusters of growth in various states of conflagration, and this makes it somewhat possible to map, chart, and label regions…. here is the field of Charred Pine, there is Ash Valley, and so on.

The "lakes" and "rivers" of this plane are, basically, ash-filled mud, highly acidic (merely touching the "water" is enough to do 2d6 acid damage, and anyone submerged in it will take 4d8 per turn until they are freed, with 10 ongoing (save ends).) As with many other layers, a portion of Dralika runs through here, though travel upon it is dangerous due to its nature — few normal craft can survive for long, so the most common mode of transit is canoes of demon-hide, often made from still-living, still-aware demons who will curse, fume, and threaten foul vengeance on their passengers.

Vision is almost impossible. The smoke is thick and choking, and stings the eyes, granting everything partial concealment to anything more than 10 squares away and total concealment to anything more thean 20. (Thick goggles will increase these ranges by 5 each).

Some of the beings here are demons from other planes, sent here as punishment, or to hide from even worse fates. The "natives" are not technically demons… they are incarnated souls of Treants which had turned to corruption and evil. (Some claim that they are, in fact, Druids, Shamans, and others charged with protecting the wild who betrayed this trust and were given these forms in an example of typical Abyssal justice. As the natives are howling mad with pain, no one has bothered to ask them.)

Other than a few insane beings who have established small camps (magically protected) here to study the plane, the only reason to voluntarily come here is that there is a market, in some of the stranger bazaars and trading houses of the planes, for particularly fine and rare samples of the burning wood. It can be used to make a fairly potent reagent of interest to some mages…

Balefire Ash Level 10+

This dark ash never cools, and blisters the fingers of those who touch it. In the right hands, though, it can blister souls…

Level 10 200 gold

Level 20 5,000 gold

Level 30 125,000 gold

Power (Consumable, Necrotic): Free action. Expend this reagent when you use a power with the Fire keyword. If the power causes ongoing damage, that damage becomes necrotic and any saves to end it are made at -2. If the power does not cause ongoing damage, it now causes ongoing 5 Necrotic damage at level 10, ongoing 10 Necrotic damage at level 20, and ongoing 15 necrotic damage at level 30.

 Blazing Treant

A creature howling in madness and pain, this is a massive tree-like being, with flame gouting from every orifice and knothole. Crowned with burning leaves, it whips its charred and blackened branches before it, knowing no purpose beyond destruction.

(Just to be clear, Blazing Trees allows the creature to create up to 3 Burst-2 effects, so long as each one is within 10 squares of it.)