Appearance

A slender, humanoid figure formed from living wood and moss. Its skin is rough bark, stained with amber sap that drips from fissures along its limbs. Its face is carved in wood with hollow, resin eyes that glow faintly; when it opens its mouth to scream, a torrent of sap and the sound of a man's voice erupt in unearthly chorus. It glides between trees as if the forest itself moves with it, leaving a slick path of sap in its wake. The sap bleeds from its wounds in bright crimson or amber, releasing a nauseating scent of pine and resin. Listening, you hear a muffled echo of a human scream from within the wind and sap, as if a trapped person pleads to be freed.

Behavior & Origins

The Screaming Sapwood is the corrupted heart of a once-guardian spirit of a grove. A man came to this grove seeking a cure for his dying child, and his grief fused with the forest's magic. The man's scream became part of the woods, and now the Sapwood bleeds resin like blood and cries with a human voice whenever trees are threatened. It hunts intruders, luring them into the grove with the scent of pine, then attacking with branch strikes while wailing a human scream to drive fear into them.