Pathos Delta (concept)
Biozone: Pathos Delta
The Pathos Delta is the name for the large temperate rainforest and scattered bogs that fill the Bay of Swords and straddle much of the Pathos River. Weather here tends to be cool and mild year round, with a long growing season and a near constant rain sprinkle. The rainforests primarily consist of spruce and fir closer to the rivers and coast that quickly begins to intermix with vast swathes of evergreen red cedar at higher elevations. While most of the understory is covered in a thick layer of lichen and ferns, the moist climate proves a perfect habitat for fungi which grows throughout the rainforest in abundance.
Despite the region's beauty and abundance of food, settling the backwoods has long been considered treacherous. The limestone soil has poor drainage for the delta and sediments coming down from the mountains, and this has created a series of craggy cave networks that stretch from the delta to the Sulzegg Basin. It is not uncommon for adventurers hunting the Pathos Lymrill, or settlers seeking a new home, to find themselves tumbling down a deep cavern due to a sink hole they hadn't seen.
Every step so far into the Pathos Delta has been with deliberation and caution. While the locals said we had little to fear as long as we followed the trees, it is hard not to worry about accidentally falling to your death. Regardless of the small panic each of us feel when the ground gives a little, it is difficult to not gawk at the forest's beauty. The thick, mint colored lichen grows all around us, with colorful sprouts of fungi spreading out across the tree barks and roots. A gentle mist hangs in the airabove us, giving the flora a shine through the scattered beams of sunshine that managed to breach the dense canopy.
We climb across a rocky stream and breathe in the brisk air as salmon jump through the water beneath us. Even if we do not manage to find our quarry, our time here shall surely be memorable.