Beneath the Boughs: Forest Free RP

[Lailyn]

“Aye, aye, there was all one wood once upon a time from here to the Mountains of Lune, and this was just the East End. Those were the broad days! Time was when I could walk and sing all day and hear no more than an echo in my own voice in the hollow hills. The woods were like the woods of Lothlórien, only thicker, stronger, younger. And the smell of the air! I used to spend a week just breathing.
- (Treebeard) Chapter 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

As Treebeard tells Merry and Pippin, there was once a great forest that spread from Fangorn westward to the Blue Mountains. Many of those woods were cut down by Men or destroyed by Sauron in the Second Age. Before the Drowning of Beleriand at the end of the First Age, there were also many forests, large and small, scattered across the landscape.

Ents, elves, dwarves and men have dwelt in or around, or traveled to, these forests throughout the ages. Here you may explore them as any of those (or other) peoples or other creatures in the following locations (or others you invent).

Fangorn Forest
Home to Ents and huorns in the Third Age, Fangorn lies southeast of the Misty Mountains. It used to be part of a much larger forest including a connection to Lothlórien. Ents guard and care for ash, beech, birch, chestnut, fir, linden, oak, rowan, and willows that grow here.

Derndingle: the bowl-shaped valley where Entmoots take place
Wellinghall: Treebeard’s home in the southern forest at the headwaters of the Entwash
River Entwash: crosses the forest to Rohan, its water are used to make Ent-draughts
Treebeard’s Hill: stony hill with a view over the forest
River Limlight: passes through the northern forest
Quickbeam's house: a mossy stone surrounded by rowan trees
Elinmead*: a meadow in the woods prime for stargazing
Ditherdell*: a deep, misty valley of twists and turns with thick undergrowth
Fern Falls*: a cascade in the foothills of the Misty Mountains

Doriath
In the First Age, it was a large forest and Kingdom in central Beleriand through which the River Sirion flows. It encompasses smaller woodlands and forests of oak, beech and holly bounded by rivers.

(Source)

Region: holly dominate this southern portion of the Kingdom of Doriath wherein lies Menegroth
Neldoreth (or Taur-na-Neldor): in northern Doriath, beech trees flourish between the Esgalduin and Mindeb Rivers where Beren first saw Lúthien
Brethil: a dark, dense woodland in western Doriath (later granted to the Haladin) lying between the Taeglin and Sirion Rivers. After the Flooding of Beleriand, Tol Morwen remained as an island.
Nivrim: oak trees on the west bank of the River Sirion

Other Forests of Beleriand

(Source)

Nan Elmoth: east of Doriath, the trees here grew tallest and darkest in Beleriand
Nimbrethil: a coastal birchwood on the Bay of Balar’s northern shore in Arvernien
Núath: in northern Beleriand, the source of the River Glinglith (not on map)
Taur-en-Faroth: wooded hills in west Beleriand on the west side of the River Narog within the Realm of Nargothrond
Taur-im-Duinath: between the Sirion and Gelion Rivers in southern Beleriand, said to be dark and gloomy
Taur-nu-Fuin (or Dorthonion): a dark and evil highland pine forest in northern Beleriand corrupted by Morgoth
Nan-tathren: the land of willows where the River Narog meets the River Sirion

Locations marked with a * are non-canon originals. Please feel free to build and expand upon these. No one owns them, we all do!

Rules
- ALL characters/races are welcome!
- This thread has no dedicated timeline. Feel free to play in any age/year and label if appropriate for your story.
- Label your location. RP is not limited to those listed above - feel free to play somewhere in between or another of your choosing or imagining. If you want to write in another canon forest setting, go ahead, but remember there may be other threads that cover those areas already.
- Please mark the top of your posts as Open (other RPers are welcome to join in) or Closed/Private (on your own or with another player either pre-arranged or one you meet along the way and choose to run a story with). If you want to join in with someone or are looking for a partner, please use the OOC thread or RP Request Form.
- Canon Characters: All canon characters are open to everyone. If it happens that two people want to write the same canon character, they are free to do so; all duplicates will be considered as existing in different universes and not interfering with each other, unless otherwise agreed upon by the players.
- Content Warnings to be used at the discretion of the writer, bold and placed at the top of the post.
- OOC is fine here if marked (no need to white out) or in the OOC thread, up to you.
- Please no bright/light colors. Small pictures only, please.

Any suggestions for additional locations for the OP, questions or otherwise, please @ me in the OOC thread. Thanks to @Moriel for the canon character rule wording.

[Lailyn]

“Time was when a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard. In those lands I journeyed once, and many things wild and strange I knew.”
- (Elrond) Ch 2, The Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

Fangorn Forest
And I walk in Ambaróna, in Tauremorna, in Aldalómë.
In my own land, in the country of Fangorn,
Where the roots are long,
And the years lie thicker than the leaves
In Tauremornalómë.
- (Treebeard) Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

Pippin described Fangorn as “dim and stuffy” and Merry said it did “not look or feel at all like Bilbo’s descriptions of Mirkwood. That was all dark and black, and the home of dark black things. This is just dim, and frightfully tree-ish. You can’t imagine animals living here at all, or staying for long.” (Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers)

"‘...and cross the Entwash before it finds the marshes. Yet they should not go too far up that stream, nor risk becoming entangled in the Forest of Fangorn. That is a strange land and now little is known. But Boromir and Aragorn doubtless do need heed this warning.’

‘Indeed we have heard of Fangorn in Minas Tirith,’ said Boromir. ‘But what I have heard seems to me for the most part old wives’ tales, such as we tell to our children. All that lies north of Rohan is now to us so far away that fancy can wander freely there. Of old Fangorn lay upon the borders of our realm; but it is now many lives of men since any of us visited it, to prove or disprove the legends that have come down from distant years.’"
- (Celeborn, Boromir), Ch 8, Farewell to Lorien, The Fellowship of the Ring

"‘You have journeyed further than I,’ said Legolas. ‘I have heard nothing of this in my own land, save only songs that tell how the Onodrim, that Men call Ents, dwelt there long ago; for Fangorn is old, old even as the Elves would reckon it.’

‘Yes, it is old,’ said Aragorn, ‘as old as the forest by the Barrow-downs, and it is far greater. Elrond says that the two are akin, the last strongholds of the mighty woods of the Elder Days, in which the Firstborn roamed while Men still slept. Yet Fangorn holds some secret of its own. What it is I do not know.’"
- Ch 2 The Riders of Rohan, The Two Towers

The Derndingle
"...they came at last to what looked like an impenetrable wall of dark evergreen trees, trees of a kind that the hobbits had never seen before: they branched out right from the roots, and were densely clad in dark glossy leaves like thornless holly, and they bore many stiff upright flower-spikes with large shining olive-coloured buds.

Turning to the left and skirting this huge hedge Treebeard came in a few strides to a narrow entrance. Through it a worn path passed and dived suddenly down a long steep slope. The hobbits saw that they were descending into a great dingle, almost as round as a bowl, very wide and deep, crowned at the rim with the high dark evergreen hedge. It was smooth and grassclad inside, and there were no trees except three very tall and beautiful silver-birches that stood at the bottom of the bowl."
- Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

Wellinghall
"Two great trees stood there, one on either side, like living gate-posts; but there was no gate save their crossing and interwoven boughs. As the old Ent approached, the trees lifted up their branches, and all their leaves quivered and rustled. For they were evergreen trees, and their leaves were dark and polished, and gleamed in the twilight. Beyond them was a wide level space, as though the floor of a great hall had been cut in the side of the hill. On either hand the walls sloped upwards, until they were fifty feet high or more, and along each wall stood an aisle of trees that also increased in height as they marched inwards.

At the far end the rock-wall was sheer, but at the bottom it had been hollowed back into a shallow bay with an arched roof: the only roof of the hall, save the branches of the trees, which at the inner end overshadowed all the ground leaving only a broad open path in the middle. A little stream escaped from the springs above, and leaving the main water, fell tinkling down the sheer face of the wall, pouring in silver drops, like a fine curtain in front of the arched bay. The water was gathered again into a stone basin in the floor between the trees, and thence it spilled and flowed away beside the open path, out to rejoin the Entwash in its journey through the forest."
- Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

Treebeard’s Hill
"The ground was rising steeply still, and it was becoming increasingly stony. (...) there was a rock-wall before them: the side of a hill, or the abrupt end of some long root thrust out by the distant mountains. No trees grew on it, and the sun was falling full on its stony face. (...)

In the face of the stony wall there was something like a stair: natural perhaps, and made by the weathering and splitting of the rock, for it was rough and uneven. High up, almost level with the tops of forest-trees, there was a shelf under a cliff. Nothing grew there but a few grasses and weeds at its edge, and one old stump of a tree with only two bent branches left: it looked almost like the figure of some gnarled old man, standing there, blinking in the morning-light."
- Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

Quickbeam’s house
"...nothing more than a mossy stone set upon turves under a green bank. Rowan-trees grew in a circle about it, and there was water (as in all ent-houses), a spring bubbling out from the bank."
- Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

A little bit about Ents
"And as they climbed the long slopes beneath Mount Dolmed there came forth the Shepherds of the Trees, and they drove the Dwarves into the shadowy woods of Ered Lindon: whence, it is said, came never one to climb the high passes that led to their homes."
- Ch 22 Of the Ruin of Doriath, The Silmarillion

“They found they were looking at a most extraordinary face. It belonged to a Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether it was its hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a smooth brown skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. But at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown, shot with a green light.”
- Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

“‘Some of my kin look just like trees now, and need something great to rouse them; and they speak only in whispers. But some of my trees are limb-lithe, and many can talk to me.”
- (Treebeard) Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

"Only three remain of the first Ents that walked in the woods before the Darkness: only myself, Fangorn, and Finglas and Fladrif -- to give them their Elvish names; you may call them Leaflock and Skinbark if you like that better. And of us three, Leaflock and Skinbark are not much use for this business. Leaflock has grown sleepy, almost tree-ish, you might say: he has taken to standing by himself half-asleep all through the summer with the deep grass of the meadows round his knees. Covered with leafy hair he is. He used to rouse up in the winter; but of late he has been too drowsy to walk far even then. Skinbark lived on the mountain-slopes west of Isengard. That is where the worst trouble has been. He was wounded by the Orcs, and many of his folk and his tree-herds have been murdered and destroyed. He has gone up into the high places, among the birches that he loves best, and he will not come down.”
- (Treebeard) Ch 4, Treebeard, The Two Towers

[Lailyn]

Doriath
"Southward lay the guarded woods of Doriath, abode of Thingol the Hidden King, into whose realm none passed save by his will. Its northern and lesser part, the Forest of Neldoreth, was bounded east and south by the dark river Esgalduin, which bent westward in the midst of the land; and between Aros and Esgalduin lay the denser and greater woods of Region. Upon the southern bank of Esgalduin, where it turned westward towards Sirion, were the Caves of Menegroth; and all Doriath lay east of Sirion save for a narrow region of woodland between the meeting of Teiglin and Sirion and the Meres of Twilight. By the people of Doriath this wood was called Nivrim, the West March; great oak-trees grew there, and it also was encompassed within the Girdle of Melian, that so some portion of Sirion which she loved in reverence of Ulmo should be wholly under the power of Thingol."
- Ch 14, Of Beleriand and its Realms, The Silmarillion

Neldoreth (or Taur-na-Neldor)
"Not far from the gates of Menegroth stood the greatest of all the trees in the Forest of Neldoreth; and that was a beech-forest and the northern half of the kingdom. This mighty beech was named Hírilorn, and it had three trunks, equal in girth, smooth in rind, and exceeding tall; no branches grew from them for a great height above the ground. Far aloft between the shafts of Hírilorn a wooden house was built, and there Lúthien was made to dwell; and ladders were taken away and guarded, save only when the servants of Thingol wrought her such things as she needed."
- Ch 19, Of Beren and Lúthien, The Silmarillion

Other forests of Beleriand
Nan Elmoth
"In that wood in ages past Melian walked in the twilight of Middle-earth when the trees were young, and enchantment lay upon it still. But now the trees of Nan Elmoth were the tallest and darkest in all Beleriand, and there the sun never came; and there Eöl dwelt, who was named the Dark Elf."
- Ch 16, Of Maeglin, The Silmarillion

Nimbrethil
"With the aid of Círdan Eärendil built Vingilot, the Foam-flower, fairest of the ships of
song; golden were its oars and white its timbers, hewn in the birchwoods of Nimbrethil, and its sails were as the argent moon."
- Ch 24, Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath, The Silmarillion

Núath
"Despite the shelter of the hills the winds were strong and bitter, and soon the snow lay deep upon the heights, or whirled through the passes, and fell upon the woods of Núath ere the full-shedding of their withered leaves."
- Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin, Unfinished Tales

Taur-en-Faroth
"Narog came through these hills in a deep gorge, and flowed over rapids that had no fall, and on its western bank the land rose into the great wooded highlands of Taur-en-Faroth."
- Ch 14, Of Beleriand and its Realms, The Silmarillion

Taur-im-Duinath
"But south of the Andram, between Sirion and Gelion, was a wild land of tangled forest in which no folk went, save here and there a few Dark Elves wandering; Taur-im-Duinath it was named, the Forest between the Rivers."
- Ch 14, Of Beleriand and its Realms, The Silmarillion

"Upon Amon Ereb they maintained a watch and some strength of war, and they had aid of the Green-elves; and the Orcs came not into Ossiriand, nor to Taur-im-Duinath and the wilds of the south."
- Ch 18, Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin, The Silmarillion

Taur-nu-Fuin (or Dorthonion)
"...all the forest of the northward slopes of that land was turned little by little into a region of such dread and dark enchantment that even the Orcs would not enter it unless need drove them, and it was called Deldúwath, and Taur-nu-Fuin, The Forest under Nightshade. The trees that grew there after the burning were black and grim, and their roots were tangled, groping in the dark like claws; and those who strayed among them became lost and blind, and were strangled or pursued to madness by phantoms of terror."
- Ch 18, Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin, The Silmarillion

"South of Ard-galen the great highland named Dorthonion stretched for sixty leagues from west to east; great pine forests it bore, especially on its northern and western sides. By gentle slopes from the plain it rose to a bleak and lofty land, where lay many tarns at the feet of bare tors whose heads were higher than the peaks of Ered Wethrin; but southward where it looked towards Doriath it fell suddenly in dreadful precipices..."
- Ch 14, Of Beleriand and its Realms, The Silmarillion

"Now the forest of Dorthonion rose southward into mountainous moors; and in the east of those highlands there lay a lake, Tarn Aeluin, with wild heaths about it, and all that land was pathless and untamed, for even in the days of the Long Peace none had dwelt there."
- Ch 19, Of Beren and Lúthien, The Silmarillion

Nan-tathren (or Nan-tasarion)
"And the River Narog rose in the falls of Ivrin in the southern face of Dor-lómin, and flowed some eighty leagues ere he joined Sirion in Nan-tathren, the Land of Willows. South of Nan-tathren was a region of meads filled with many flowers, where few folk dwelt; and beyond lay the marshes and isles of reed about the mouths of Sirion, and the sands of his delta empty of all living things save birds of the sea."
- Ch 14, Of Beleriand and its Realms, The Silmarillion

"Yet fairest of all are the willows of Nan-tathren, pale green, or silver in the wind, and the rustle of their innumerable leaves is a spell of music: day and night would flicker by uncounted, while still I stood knee-deep in grass and listened. There I was enchanted, and forgot the Sea in my heart."
- Of Tuor and His Coming to Gondolin, Unfinished Tales

[Marceline]

Under the Same Sky
Eryn Hîn
(Private)

“Kula! It’s time. Are you ready?”

Kula either ignored or did not hear the summons - they were far too busy splashing about in a little puddle left by the morning rain near their favorite leaf bed. Eyes closed, they spun in a circle, enjoying how the cool water felt swirling about their legs. The spinning was not without consequence: Kula stopped and, dizzy and giddy, staggered comically to and fro for several moments. Unable to regain their balance, they finally plopped down in the water and laughed.

“Kula!” Maca’s little voice sounded annoyed now.

“Oh no!” Kula whispered, struggling to their feet. They scurried up and over one of the Great Deku Tree’s long, sinuous roots as fast as their little legs would carry them - which is to say, not very fast at all.

“Yes! Yes! All ready, Maca! I’m sorry for being late.”

“Good,” said Maca. They smiled indulgently at their soaking wet patrol partner through a yellow leaf-mask. “Let’s go.”

The two taurhîn ambled along the big path lined with little lanterns, which led from the mouth of the Great Deku Tree through the Eryn Hîn and out into the wider world of the Ditherdell. The lanterns, fashioned in the shape of heavy, luminous beans hanging from sturdy vines, seemed to bow courteously to them as they went. Kula glanced this way and that, inwardly greeting all the trees they knew by heart as they passed them by, waving every now and then to a familiar taurhên going about their morning business. Kula’s gaze trailed along after butterflies and birds winging their way among the trees and the blue blooming brethil dínen. Of course, they kept an occasional eye out for Maca, just to be sure they were still on the right path and had not been separated from their more experienced patrol partner. Gradually, the sounds of the comings and goings in their cozy corner of the forest faded until Kula heard only occasional insect noises, the wind in the trees, and the merry sound of wooden chimes which accompanied all taurhîn movements.

“Ooh, it’s quiet,” Kula murmured, more to themself than to Maca.

Kula counted all the beanstalk lanterns they passed as the pair progressed toward the Lost Woods. So far, they had seen twelve. Gradually, the space between the lights lengthened until, once they had seen eighteen, they walked for an hour or more without seeing the next one. Was there a next one? Kula could not remember. The sun was setting and golden beams of sunlight fell upon the trees and the path, making it all look like autumn in spite of the humid summer season. The dust motes and little flying insects caught in the beams of light glistened with a nostalgic sheen. Kula stopped to look up into the canopy of leaves above and giggled happily.

“How many lanterns light the way, again?” they asked, hurrying again to catch up with Maca.

“Twenty-six,” Maca answered.

“Right.”

So many more! thought Kula. When would they see number nineteen? If they recalled their first and only previous patrol correctly, there was a lovely little pond near the twenty-third lantern, which they desperately hoped to splash in again. In the meantime, they wandered through hollow fallen logs and hopped through tall grasses to look at all the mushrooms and radishes sprouting hale and hardy from the damp earth. This was the joy in venturing out! So many wonderful sights and smells and feelings to be savored before the confounding, ever-present mists crept in from the Taur Laeth. When the stars emerged as night began to fall, their twinkling lights served as a shield against all worry for Kula.

The path led the two taurhîn up along a ridge in the land. Trees grew on it, below it, and many even sprouted out from the near-vertical sides of the ridge, clinging stubbornly to rock and loose dirt even as they reached their boughs toward the sky. If Kula looked back north, they could see the top of the Great Deku Tree standing tall above the Eryn Hîn. If they looked south, they saw a tangle of looming, crouching trees with boughs like grasping arms and hollows like anguished faces. The misty, desolate expanse of the Taur Laeth encircled their tiny home forest on all sides, both protecting them from outside intruders and hedging in the taurhîn to a tiny piece of the world.

The pair of patrollers paused to face homeward and bowed their inflexible little bodies, a gesture of respect for the Great Deku Tree. Then they turned to the south. The sun sank behind the mountains away to the west, and darkness slowly swept across all parts of the forest.

[Baphởmet]

The Meat Spa
Nearing the Forest of Túrindipië
(Private with Tara)

Umbalatsë was making good time. She ought to be in the Wildberry Kingdom before dark. She would be making much better time if she had the horse drawn carriage she wanted. It wasn’t like it would have put anyone out of pocket that much, and didn’t they want the undying appreciation of Umbalatsë, the future queen of the Lumpy Space? It irked her that no one offered to give her a ride. She had to walk to the Wildberry Kingdom. She. Had. To. Walk. The more she thought on it, the more she realized just how wrong this whole thing was. No one had given her a horse drawn carriage, no one offered a palanquin, no one even offered to let her ride pig-a-back! Finn, that handsome doof, was off on some adventure with Jake; Prince Bonibel had closeted herself in her tower doing some super weird (and super lame) science experiments with bodies she dug up; and even that whiny bureaucratic ninny, the princess of breakfasts or whatever she called herself, said she was too busy. It was truly outrageous. Outrageous! Umbalatsë absently began to pull and purplish-blue hair, a bad habit she picked up when she was annoyed and stressed. And hungry. The future queen of the Lumpy Space was getting very hungry. Would they have her beans in the Wildberry Kingdom? She’d heard all sorts of stories about the famous meat spas (the reason for this visit in the first place) and meat and beans went together like… meat and beans.

It was getting dark. The darker it got, the more nervous the young, lone princess got. There were wolves in these lands. Umbalatsë did not do well with wolves, not since that incident a few years ago. Once she could have been the Queen of the Wolves, but that royal title had been stolen from her by that… no, she was not going to revisit that. That’s exactly what they would want and she was not about fall into their traps again. No sir! Wait, was that a wolf howl? That sounded like a wolf howl. That was definitely a wolf howl. How far off was that? A few miles maybe. Suddenly she wished she’d paid better attention to math in school, if they had actually shown the practicality of math, like finding out how close a wolf is to you, she might have paid a little more attention. Probably not, but the chances would have been a bit more than zero.

Crickets, cicadas, and fireflies began their nightly show but Umbalatsë was in too big a hurry to pay attention. Normally, when she was not out in her makeshift room/amphitheater, she enjoyed a good bug show, but she had a date with a meat spa masseur and she was not about to miss it. Yes, that masseur didn’t know it yet, but they were about to have their world rocked. She also wanted to talk to Hrávapië, the leader of the elves of Túrindipië, the Wildberry Princess herself. It was lonely out here in the wide world with no one but wolves and racoons and bears to talk to (she was going to get that one bear back for stealing her beans). It would be nice to talk to someone her own age. Was Hrávapië her age? Who can tell with elves, and it was impolite to ask. Not that that had ever stopped her before. She really just needed someone to talk to and hang with.

Suddenly it felt very cold, a blast of wind out of the north mussed her hair and dress. She was lucky, the wind was so strong in nearly blasted her off her feet! It was the height of summer! There shouldn’t be winds this cold yet. “Globdammit! Lump off you stupid wind! Nobody needs you yet!” she shook her fist angrily at the sky. “Oh whatever. I’m almost there. I’m getting a steak facial as soon as I arrive and no one can say no to this!”