Hedging your bets

So, the Hedge wizard's main place in Skund Forest has been made accessible! In a series of posts, we will be taking a look at it, and giving some snapshots of what you can expect to encounter on your way there. You've already seen the topmost platform of a certain magical tree, but let's start from scratch.

You should first head your steps towards the village of Pekan Ford. From there, you should travel in a general northeast direction, past the wolf trail, until you get to a crossroads from which a small building can be discerned:

Here, the deep rutted, well used road continues off into the distance.  The odd spring flower lines the side of the road, a welcome change from the churned up muddy trackway and dense coverage of fallen leaves.  Skund Forest spreads out to the east, southwest and southeast, a small building lies to the west and some plains lie to the north and northwest.  Ten miles to the northwest are the Carrack Mountains.

It is a very chilly autumn prime's afternoon with almost no wind and scattered puffy clouds.

There are three obvious exits: west, journey south and journey northeast.

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The building looks well-constructed, albeit rather more elaborate than one might expect to find in the middle of a forest.

Taking the route to the west, you go through a  deeply shaded holloway, a leafy tunnel of sorts with high earthen banks that takes you towards the mysterious construction.

The path ends on a shaded dell outside an unassuming building that looks like little more than a garden shed, with a bench, lamp and book scraper outside. The look of the last one should starting ringing your alarm bells, though:

Some hedge wizard with quite the sense of humour has forged this boot scraper in the shape of a pointy hat, complete with the Unseen University crest on it.

Entering into is the cosy wooden hut - almost a shed, really - you find yourself in a comfy country kitchen.  The walls are hung with colourful paintings of various herbs and vegetables, and a sideboard bears a vase of dried flowers flanked by a steaming teapot and a plate of scones.  A window looks out into the Forest of Skund by the south door, and another provides a preview of the gardens to the north. Trying to eat some of the scones (delicious, by the way!) gives you more clues about the magical unnaturalness of the place:

You take a tasty-looking scone from the plate.  A drawer of the sideboard slides out with a pointed creak, and you drop 10p into it.  The drawer closes again with a satisfied sort of noise.

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The drawer is made from the same Skund pine as the rest of the sideboard.  It absolutely definitely does not have teeth, or any arboreal equivalent of them.

The hut also includes in another room The Multicoloured Swap Shop, tended to by Madrigal the Red, who is also rather talkative and willing to give you a few tips about wizardry and the place you've arrived to:

The overwhelming theme of this shop is colour.  Well, and shelves, but mostly colour.  The north wall has been painted in swirling patterns of red and brown, splashed with occasional touches of gold, while the west wall is green and blue.  A square purple counter sits in the southwest corner, completely failing to unify the blue and green with the yellow and white flowers that cover the south wall, whilst the east wall is painted in jagged stripes of light and dark grey.  Overall, the general effect is like being entirely surrounded by a herd of zebras on strong acid.

There is one obvious exit: east.

Madrigal the Red is lounging beside the counter.

A cluster of glimmering stars is swirling overhead and a polygonal crate is sitting in a corner.

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l madrigal

Relatively short and slender, with a waxed and curled moustache and a perfectly groomed beard, Madrigal Ogg has come a long way from Lancre Town.  Since even the most tomboyish of young girls' best chance of escaping wifedom and motherhood was to become a witch, and a keen analytical mind could only be an asset, that seemed like an obvious choice... until Granny Weatherwax laid eyes on him.  "Entirely the wrong mindset for witching," she said.  "Go and be a wizard instead.  Heaven knows they need some good Lancre oak around the place.  And another thing.  You're not a girl.  Stop listening to everyone's expectations and go be who you really are."

He is in good shape.

He is lounging beside the counter.

Holding : an oak walking staff (left hand).

Wearing : a pair of poppy-field boots, a pair of black jeans and a moorland Ohulan tweed jacket.

Leaving the hut through a different door from that which you entered it leads just just opposite a magical hedge maze, but what lies inside and beyond will the topic of another entry...