Enchanted Forest

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Amongst these dark and sinister woods lie the lairs of spriggans, fauns, tengu, and other creatures capable of bending the minds of unwilling intruders to their will. Powerful illusory and hindering magicks are the norm, rather than the exception.

The Enchanted Forest is five levels deep. The dungeon features either the Crypt or the Forest; if the Forest is present, it can be found between Vaults:2 and Vaults:3, and contains the entrance to the Tomb.

A staircase to the Enchanted Forest.

On the other end of these stairs lies the wooded home of spriggans, tengu, fauns, and all manner of terrifying hexes.

The Enchanted Forest is a nature-themed branch located within the Vaults. Although it contains no rune, it is guaranteed to have several treasure vaults on the bottom floor, and the entrance to the Tomb can be found somewhere within. The Enchanted Forest cannot coexist with the Crypt; if you find one, the other will not exist in your game.

Layout

The Enchanted Forest is five floors deep, its entrance found on Vaults:2 or 3. Each floor tends to consist of a series of wide and narrow paths through random clumps of trees, bushes, and plants, with the occasional pond or river thrown in to break up the monotony. Expect to find a stone vault surrounded by mummies and containing an entrance to the Tomb on Forest:2 or 3.

A large portion of Forest:5 will contain a massive village of spriggans, led by the Enchantress. Clearing this out will yield you several treasure vaults.

Useful Info

Expect a wide variety of animals (most of the nastier beasts of the Lair plus some of the less exotic inhabitants of the Spider's Nest), as well as many tengu, spriggans, centaurs, and satyrs. By this point in the game, the wild animals you encounter will be mostly harmless, but the humanoids are much more dangerous: spriggans and satyrs can hit you with very unpleasant Hexes, while tengu casters can simply inflict large amounts of non-elemental Conjurations damage. There are also several unique monsters here, ranging from the annoying (spirit wolves) to the brutal (treants). Several of these have dangerous unique abilities, and should be handled with caution until you're familiar with them.

If you happen to have access to some mid- to high-level Fire Magic, the spell Lightning Bolt, or any equivalent wands, you can clear out massive portions of the Enchanted Forest by simply lighting a few trees on fire and letting the ensuing inferno do its business. This will make it much harder to find any sort of cover, but does greatly reduce the threat posed by enemy dryads and spriggan druids.

Recommendations

The number of poisonous animals that lurk in the Forest makes poison resistance a good idea, but it's not a requirement by any stretch of the imagination. Much more important is that you have decent magic resistance; the spriggans and satyrs will torment you with Hexes every time you come across them. As far as elemental resistances go, tengu casters can hit you with almost anything, but electricity resistance is by far the most critical. Cold resistance also helps when facing spriggans, as they'll happily hit you with Ensorcelled Hibernation before stabbing you in the back.

A source of flight certainly doesn't hurt; there are enough aquatic enemies in the Enchanted Forest to make melee combat aggravating. Also, stasis is particularly handy when dealing with water nymphs; consider swapping in an amulet of stasis any time one gets close.