Crossing the area of dead earth, bereft of living plants, was a bit unsettling, not at helped by the view of just what it was that he was trying to reach with this ill-fated trip. The woods ahead of him, less than a few yards away now, seemed surreal. They were out of place, not quite right - they looked like someone had transplanted an alien forest right here, and then completely forgotten about it.
Nevin entered the woods cautiously, one hand resting on his whip. While it wasn't a weapon with which a normal person could easily snag a kill, he could quite handily defend himself with it - it did have the rather unfortunate, for its victims at least, tendency to draw blood into itself, and Nevin could enhance that quality by running thin crimson threads from his hand along it's length. The hungry threads would draw blood out from the wounds, and the Plynt barbs would absorb it. All in all, while he wouldn't be killing most things with one blow, the pain of the barbed whip, plus whatever drainage occurred… It would have to be a ridiculously determined beastie that kept coming after one or two lashes.
No, that wasn't accurate. Who knew - the animals in these woods might not have normal pain receptors anymore. He would have to exercise caution - while gathering a sample or two, to keep in a glass container for later study, might be enjoyable, and indeed his fingers were itching towards his dagger to do just that - his primary objective lay beyond these woods.
That blasted, enigmatic tower. Even now, he could see the ruined top of the tower piercing up through the treetops, thankfully orienting him as he trudged through the woods. It was a damn good thing, as the trees and plants in this place didn't grow right. Impossible to notice from outside, Nevin could now see that many of the signs travelers used to guide them were just wrong. Moss grew in every which way, not just on the northern face of rocks, rivers flowed in contradictory patterns within themselves.
If he didn't have that visible landmark to guide him, Nevin would most definitely have gotten lost, even worse than his luck normally had him. This place could quite easily entrap someone for ages in here, and if weather conditions got worse he could see people wandering the woods until they died. The alchemist took a deep breath, and pressed onwards, fighting his way through the ever thickening woods.
