old farming village on forest edge with an old church and large graveyard. wolves in forest and vampire ledgends

The Silence of Oakhaven

Oakhaven sits like a jagged tooth at the edge of the Whispering Woods, a cluster of grey-timbered hovels clinging to the side of a steep, bramble-choked hill. The air here is heavy with the scent of damp peat and the sharp, metallic tang of ironwood smoke. To the north, the Old Church of Saint Andral looms over the village, its spire cracked by lightning and its expansive graveyard overflowing with centuries of nameless stone markers that seem to creep further down the hill each season. As the sun dips below the canopy of the forest, the village falls into an unnatural silence. Farmers leave their tools in the muck and retreat behind thick oak doors, sliding heavy iron bolts into place. The wolves of the woods are restless, their howls carrying a cadence that sounds hauntingly like human song. The locals speak of 'The Pale Guest'—a legend of a noble who never aged—but most simply keep their heads down and their silvered charms clutched tight.