At the edge of the ancient Spiritwood Forest sits Fatuma Hallow—a small town that leans hard into its haunted reputation. Cobblestone streets, Victorian storefronts, and permanent Halloween décor make it feel playful on the surface… but the charm is just polished enough to hide what’s really watching from the tree line.
Spiritwood isn’t just a forest. It’s alive—a vast, listening presence with its own rhythms, needs, and warnings. Those attuned to it can feel when its pulse falters, when its “lifeblood” slows, and when something unnatural is choking the flow beneath the roots.
When Spiritwood is threatened, it doesn’t rely on coincidence. It chooses protectors—people called to step forward when the balance breaks. That calling is tied to an heirloom: a pendant made from the crystallized sap of Spiritwood’s oldest trees, a living connection that can awaken and summon a guide to train the next Protector.
Magic in this world is both art and language. Runes are words of power—but sigils are how those words become a living spell, shaped by curves, angles, crossings, and intent. The result isn’t just “casting”—it’s communication, a way to give the forest a voice and ask it to respond.
And beyond the town’s lantern-lit streets and tourist-friendly haunted slogans lies the real danger: rifts—tears in reality that can open into hostile realms. Some are held back by ancient standing stones etched with glowing runes, containment sigils designed to keep the worst of the Cosmos from bleeding through. But when those seals weaken, the Abyssal Rift pushes back.
This is the world the Mystic Detectives step into—where cozy mystery aesthetics collide with ancient responsibility, and where the truth is always deeper than the decorations.