Drellen Forest¶

Drellen Forest is what happens when a place learns that visitors are temporary.

The woods beyond Forest Station are dense, old, damp, occasionally useful and only intermittently interested in remaining where they were yesterday. To most travellers they look like ordinary woodland. That impression generally survives until something whispers from beneath a mushroom, a flower appears to be growing around an old memory, or a path returns you to the same tree from a direction you did not take.

For players, Drellen is primarily a gathering and progression location. It is a place to collect useful materials, improve Foraging Mastery, complete daily gathering contracts and slowly catalogue the stranger things that grow beyond Mysteria.

Reaching Drellen Forest¶

Drellen Forest is reached by the Undernational Railway. Once the train has deposited you at Forest Station, the Foraging Grounds become available alongside the local shopping district.

The station staff may advise you not to get lost.

This is less useful advice than they believe.

Foraging Grounds¶

The Foraging Grounds are the heart of Drellen's gameplay. Instead of simply exchanging Energy and time for a little Gold, players now return from the forest with actual materials, discoveries and Foraging Mastery progress.

A typical forage works as follows:

Choose a foraging activity.
Spend the required Energy.
Wait for the activity to complete.
Return to collect your haul.
Receive a mixture of materials, modest Gold, Experience and Foraging Mastery XP.
Possibly experience one of the forest's less explainable incidents.

Different activities use different loot weightings. Safer, shorter trips tend to produce ordinary materials, while longer journeys into the deeper forest improve the odds of unusual finds.

What Can Be Found¶

Drellen currently contains 20 discoverable flora, fungi and anomalous specimens divided across four rarity bands:

Common — dependable gathering materials found frequently throughout the safer parts of the forest.
Uncommon — less predictable specimens that appear in more selective conditions.
Rare — valuable finds that reward longer or more specialised foraging trips.
Exceptional — things that may technically be plants, fungi or natural objects, provided one uses the word "natural" very generously.

These materials are stored in the player's dedicated Gathering Satchel, separate from ordinary inventory items.

The important point is that Drellen's rewards are intended to become useful elsewhere in Incartum. The forest is being built as a supply location for systems such as Apothecary recipes, consumable crafting, contracts and future cross-location material requirements.

Gold and Experience are therefore deliberately kept modest. The forest's real value is what you bring back with you.

Foraging Mastery¶

Every completed forage awards Foraging Mastery XP. Mastery ranges from 0 to 100 and represents experience navigating, identifying and surviving the forest rather than the player's general character level.

Increasing mastery provides practical advantages such as:

improved gathering quantity;
better chances of finding rarer materials;
reduced Energy costs at higher mastery milestones;
access to deeper activities that inexperienced gatherers cannot safely attempt.

At Foraging Mastery 20, players unlock the Deep Forest Expedition.

This is not a promotion.

It merely means the forest has stopped assuming you will immediately die.

Deep Forest Expedition¶

The Deep Forest Expedition is a more demanding gathering activity with greater rarity potential than the ordinary foraging routes.

It costs more time and Energy, but gives experienced players a reason to continue developing Foraging Mastery once the common plants have become familiar.

The deeper forest is deliberately positioned as a progression reward: better knowledge creates access to better opportunities rather than simply inflating the Gold payout.

Daily Forest Conditions¶

Drellen does not behave the same way every day.

A rotating Forest Condition alters the day's gathering behaviour. Conditions may affect the quantity, rarity or general character of what can be found, encouraging players to check the forest before committing Energy to a particular activity.

In practical terms, this gives Drellen a changing daily identity and creates days when particular materials or types of forage are more attractive than others.

In less practical terms, the forest occasionally decides what sort of day it is having and everyone else must accommodate it.

Random Encounters¶

Foraging can trigger one of a number of atmospheric forest encounters. These are not intended to turn Drellen into another combat zone; they exist to make the woods feel like a place rather than a progress bar.

A routine gathering trip may involve strange sounds, questionable wildlife, misplaced objects or evidence that somebody else has been walking nearby.

There are currently 15 encounter texts woven into the gathering results.

Some are warnings.

Some are probably warnings.

Field Journal¶

Every unique specimen discovered in Drellen is recorded in the player's Field Journal.

Undiscovered entries remain hidden until the player personally finds them. This turns gathering into a collection activity as well as a resource system: players can attempt to complete the catalogue rather than merely farm the most profitable material.

The journal is particularly useful for players who enjoy completion goals, lore discovery and seeing tangible progress outside combat statistics.

Daily Gathering Contracts¶

Drellen also offers a rotating daily gathering contract. These requests ask players to provide particular materials in exchange for a reward.

Contracts are tied into familiar corners of Incartum, including requests associated with:

Veska and the Apothecary;
the Nightmare Casino;
the Ball & Chain;
the Castle of Knowledge.

These contracts are important because they give gathered materials a purpose beyond accumulation. A mushroom is considerably more interesting when Veska needs six of them by sundown and refuses to explain why.

Skills and Bonuses¶

The foraging system is built to work with the wider Skills modifier system.

Foraging-specific bonuses can affect areas such as:

material quantity;
rare-find chance;
Energy-cost reduction.

This means future passive or active skills can improve a player's performance in Drellen without requiring the forest itself to be rewritten every time a new bonus is introduced.

Why Visit Drellen?¶

Drellen is intended for players who want progression that is not purely combat-based.

A visit can contribute to several forms of advancement at once:

build Foraging Mastery;
collect useful crafting materials;
complete the Field Journal;
fulfil daily contracts;
benefit from future gathering skills;
earn a small amount of Gold and Experience while doing so.

Most importantly, Drellen helps connect locations together. Things gathered in the forest can become ingredients, contract items or resources elsewhere in Incartum, making the world feel less like a collection of isolated pages and more like a place whose systems depend on one another.

You may also find something that should not be growing there.

Please refrain from asking the station staff about it. They have enough paperwork.