Druidic Groves

==Grove Law==
The following points make up the law of the grove, upheld by all except the steward and those with special dispensation from the steward.
*No trees or plants within the grove maybe harmed, cut, or pruned. No one may pick or cut branches, berries, nuts, or fruit, either; visitors can eat or otherwise use only that which has fallen to the ground.
*No one may fight within the grove.
*No bird or animal within a sacred grove may be harmed. If a hunted animal should flee into the grove, hunters must break off the chase; they cannot shoot at the beast from outside the grove once it enters.
*No one may fish in the waters of a grove, nor foul these waters in any way.
*None may light a fire within a grove’s bounds - not even tinder or a pipe.
The maximum penalty for violating the law of the grove is death, though a druid may apply a lesser penalty in certain cases. The punishment for violating these rules-or for more serious defilement of a sacred grove depends on the offender‘s motives, the damage, and the druid’s inclination. If a cruel wizard damaged a sacred grove with a Flamestrike in an attack on the steward, the druid would think death a proper punishment - preferably death by fire.
==Magical Druidic Groves==
===Least powers===
An enchanted sacred grove always radiates magic, although never good or evil. It has the following properties:
*Druids entering the grove feel a watching presence and a sense of power. Over time, they learn the powers of the sacred grove, through a vision or infuition.
*All druids are more resistant to magic while within a magical grove.
*All in the grove are rendered immune to magical fear while within it.
*Natural (nonmagical) lightning never strikes trees or beings in the grove.
*Evil enchanted creatures cannot enter the grove unless it has been defiled
===Lesser Powers===
*Awakened Plants: The grove's magic has "awakened" patches of weeds, creepers, or bushes with semi-intelligence and the ability to entangle intruders. They will act to protect themselves and defend the grove.
*Bountiful: The sacred grove produces lots of edible berries, nuts and fruit, all year long.
*Control Temperature: The steward of the grove may make a grove's temperature rise or fall within the natural boudaries of the grove's climate. This ability affects the entire grove.
*Faerie Fire: A Nature worshiper (even a nondruid) may cause a ghostly luminance to appear, centered on the character or upon any of the trees, rocks, or standing stones in the grove. The faerie fire can be summoned once per person in a given day.
*Healing: Worshippers of Nature and those allied to the grove's steward recover ar an increased rate of natural healing while in the magical sacred grove. Healing-related spells produce increased benefits.
*Prophecy: A druid who spends the night sleeping in the grove may receive a magical portent in a dream concerning the past, present, or future. The nature of the prophecy remains the Player's or Event Host's decision, but it should never contain more information than necessary. The portent usually warns of danger or hints at a task Nature wishes the druid to perform.
*Protective Aura: The sacred grove generates a protective field that covers the entire grove and grants increased resistance against unnatural afflictions to all within it.
*Still Winds: Worshipers of Nature in the sacred grove (even nondruids) can cause winds to calm, as long as they concentrate on maintaining this power. This power protects the sacred grove and those in it from sandstorms, tornadoes snowstoma and the like.
*Water of Purity: Water from a source within the grove or dew gathered from the grass in the area has purifying properties - added to other liquids, it neutralises poisons, acid, mundane filth and the like. The water loses these special properties as soon as it is removed from the site.
===Greater Powers===
*Ancient: One of the trees within the grove turns into an Ancient, with all the associated powers and benefits.
*Beast Speech: All animals can speak and understand speech while within the grove.
*Concealment: All mobile beings (not normal plants) within the grove when this power is invoked become concealed, like Night Elves using Shadowmeld.
*Earth's Power: When druids or shamans in the sacred grove cast a Plant or Earth-based spell within its boundaries, they increase the spell's effects.
*Peaceful: Anyone entering this grove may notice odd sights, like predators and prey playing together. Those who make a successful attack against another within this grove must suffer all the damage themselves; the wounds they meant to inflict appear on their own bodies.
*Reincarnation: If a druid's ashes or remains are buried in the sacred grove, the character becomes reincarnated in a new body near the grove in a few days.
*Waters of Life: Any source of water within the grove has unusual healing properties. Anyone bathing in or drinking the water (maximum of once per day per person) is cured of wounds, poisons and natural diseases. The water loses all special properties outside the grove's boundaries, however, so characters cannot use it as a healing potion.
*Scrying pool: A source of still water within the grove, such as a pool or well, may be used for divination.
*Magic Fruit: The grove has a tree whose fruit or berries have a magical effect when eaten. Each has a distinct appearance to set it apart from common fruit - lustrous golden apples, for example.
*Forbiddance: A druid can secure the grove to prevent incoming teleportation, plane-shifting, ethereal penetration and the like.
==Defiled and Cursed Groves==
Some sacred groves tell a tragic story: Their plants have been dug up, trees burned or chopped down, water sources fouled, or standing stones overturned and broken. Perhaps their clearings once served as altars to other priests in the worship of strange gods. Such groves have been defiled, stripped of all their powers until druids reclaim them (described below).Other events may result in a still worse fate - the grove becoming cursed. For instance:
*A terrible event takes place within the grove's boundaries: Someone reads a cursed scroll, a mighty demon passes through, a druid dies violently, or another highly charged event takes place.
*The grove is deliberately defiled but not destroyed. When plants begin to grow back, the grove may retain some twisted vestige of its origmal power.
*If the druid who sanctified the grove strays badly from the path, the grove's beauty and powers may become warped-perhaps as a waning to the erring steward.
===Sample Properties of Defiled Groves===
*Entrancing: This curse can apply to any grove containing a source of water or plants bearing fruit, nuts, or berries. Those who eat natural fruits of the grove or drink its water become charmed. They refuse to leave the grove, claiming they must defend this beautiful place. They resist forcefully if anyone tries to harm the grove or take them from it. The charm is broken if those it has entranced leave the grove, or it can wear off.
*Poisoned Ground: A terrible poison lives within the ground, although the plants in the grove are immune. Those who touch the vegetation (icluding grass) with bare skin are likely to become very ill. Characters who eat fruits, etc., from the grove become ill and are likely to die.
*Haunted: The life forces of people who die in a haunted grove or near of its boundaries are drawn into one of the grove’s trees or standing stones. The trunks of the trees or the surfaces of the stones contain twisted images of the dead trapped within. While trapped, these souls cannot be raised, resurrected, or reincarnated. To defend itself, the grove can summon any of its prisoners’ spirits as ghosts or banshees. Resanctifying the grove ends the curse and frees the trapped spirits, who now may be reincarnated, raised, or resurrected. Destroying the grove before resanctifying releases all the trapped spirits as malevolent ghosts or banshees to haunt the region henceforth.
*Perpetual Season: The grove, locked into a single season, never experiences a change in climate. Though a grove locked into winter isn’t ever popular, a grove of perpetual spring or summer may seem like a blessing. While winter blizzards rage outside, the day is warm and sunny within a grove of perpetual summer; grass is always green, trees always leafy, and flowers ever blossoming. Nevertheless, druids consider this redundant setting horribly unnatural.
*Hungry Trees: The trees in this grove have been animated by a hunger for flesh. They are essentially evil Treants. Masquerading as normal trees, they suddenly attack anyone entering the grove. They never cross its borders unless attacked from outside the grove, though; in that case, they re-enter the grove after defeating (and consuming) their foes.
===Reclaiming Cursed and Defiled Groves===
Druids whose sacred grove becomes defiled or destroyed must perform a ritual of atonement, plus find and punish the guilty party.The first step in reclaiming a defiled grove involves repairing any damage it has sustained: planting new trees, restoring damaged standing stones, and so on. Then, a druid must perform an uninterrupted ceremony within the grove to ask for the renewed blessings of Nature.Reclaiming a cursed grove poses additional difficulties. After performing the above steps, the druid must complete a task to balance the forces behind the curse. The nature of the task is up to the Event Host, but it usually involves a dangerous quest in a real or symbolic attempt to ”undo” the curse, punish those who caused it, or make amends for the act that led to it.After concluding the task, the druid must return to the grove to invoke Nature which removes the curse.
Category:Magic item