Grove Hall

The **Grove Hall** is a location in Neithernor. It was the second location that Deirdre Green knocked to.

## Description

The Grove Hall is a walled grove that is shaded, and full of towering white trees that explode into a white and silver canopy above. The endless trees are planted in a perfect grid so they resemble marble columns in some great hall and their white branches and silver leaves slope into a nearly perfect replica of a vaulted ceiling. Very little sunlight makes it through but what does is bounced off the white tree trunks and leaves a serene glow below. Grass grows, but it’s a deep blue-green, like a night sky over a sea. There are old stone benches, some still “uncrumbled” but the bottoms of the trees spread out wide, leaving comfortable little nestly spots to lie in between the roots. Deirdre described it as the definition of tranquil.

The exterior of the Grove was surrounded by a fortress made of dried vines. Some were reedy tendrils, some were thick as a fist, and they reached even higher than the grove’s walls, as if a living castle had grown from the ground and surrounded the grove, protecting it. The vines were so tightly coiled that they couldn't be seen through, but a few purposeful-looking gaps allowed streams of light in. A dense forest existed outside of the vines.

## History

The Grove Hall was first encountered by Deirdre in "The Three Manners of Magiq." Deirdre wanted to explore the rest of Neithernor, but realized that the door to the Warren could not be opened. Realizing that the Mountaineers had used a combination of knocks to get past the Chronocompass on the Fletcher Dawson website, she tried using it as a knocking combination. Using the combination from the road to Fragment Thirteen, Deirdre knocked into what she dubbed The Grove Hall. The Grove Hall was described as being almost maze-like by Deirdre, who was unable to find a way out beyond knocking back to the mundane world.

Deirdre returned to the Grove Hall in "The Storm - Part One." She spent days searching the grove, looking for a clue on how to learn figuration magiq. She used a string to make sure she didn't get lost and could find her way back to the knocking door. At the far west wend she stumbled on a small stone statue in the path, a fat toad. She soon realized that more statues were in the area, one for each animal in the poem The Minnying of Ojorad. Deirdre realized that all the statues were facing east, so she followed the path. At the far eastern wall was a sort of sepulchre carved into the wall. It had an arched stone roof and columns, but the door was made of cut crystal, the color of indigo. Light moved behind it. It wasn't a tomb, but a doorway. Carved into the arch were the words “May His Majesty Pass This Way Again.” There was no way to open the crystal door, since it had no hinges or clasps, just a slab of transparent mineral. After casting her first figuration magiq, imagining a story of all the people in her life who had passed on, Deirdre was able to pass to the other side of the door.

In "The Storm - Part Two," Deirdre explored the other side of the wall, finding her way blocked by vines. She followed a "hallway" that had been created by the vines, but eventually her way was blocked entirely. Looking up, Deirdre saw the skeleton of a giant armored bird and realized that the wall of vines was created as a way to protect the Grove during the War of Neithernor.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.deedsdone.co.uk/2017/08/25/the-three-manners-of-magiq/
2. ↑ http://www.deedsdone.co.uk/2017/08/31/the-storm-part-one/