Barony of Heartsgrove

**Ruler**
 **Ruling House**
 **Resident Houses**
 **Seat**
 **Settlements**
 **Beliefs**

The **Barony of Heartsgrove** was formerly part of the larger Barony of Sarcelfen. As part of an effort to heal the Withering Wood, Duke Maxen Montclair and Baroness Cassandra Lyon agreed to partition it from the rest of Sarcelfen and hand it over to the Rangers of Mirwood for study and treatment. Located largely north and east of the tower of Sarceline, the Withering Wood is an area afflicted by a magical effect gone horribly wrong. The area is filled with trees bearing thorns instead of leaves, wild brambles grow in excess, the grass is sharp and serrated, and the animals of the forest display rabid aggression. The area hosts a dilapidated manor home, two ruined towns, long since completely abandoned and collapsed, and various other minor villages is ruins. Near the center of Heartsgrove is a single healthy tree - for which the area gets its name.

## The Heartsgrove

This tree, the Heartsgrove, is a large weeping oak estimated to be around 500-750 years old. Great roots break the ground in a massive sprawl stretching nearly 50 meters from the single massive trunk. Twisted and bulged, the tree itself has grown thick and powerful over the many ages, more so than the many others of Sarcelfen. The key and stark difference here is that the tree remains fully alive and in perfect health. Bearing broad green leaves every month of the year, the Heartsgrove has stood out as singularly immune to whatever cursed the rest of the Withered Wood - and indeed the seasons themselves. Despite its health, however, the tree hosts neither animal nor insect. There are no birds nesting in its canopy, and no critters dare collect its acorns. Whatever has affected this tree may not be entirely natural.

## Caister & Piscator's Rest

The villages of Caister and Piscator’s Rest existed in ruin and memory for nearly seventy years. A thriving goldsmithing town and ferry port respectively, the two villages were evacuated following the Sarceline Accident. For decades, they remained abandoned, slowly collapsing and falling into rubble as the many storms, seasons, and years passed them by.

With the reclaimation, they are now growing townships fortified with palisade walls to protect them from the dangers still lurking in the woods. The Bredbeddle gold mine near Caister has been reopened as well as the ferry ports leading to Vries the capitol of Mirwood,

## Current Status

Heartsgrove is on the mend. The magical affliction, an "accident" caused when the spell of a jealous nobleman intent on harming the land of his rivals backfired, has been reversed. The Rangers of Mirwood still patrol the lands, seeking to cull the remaining afflicted animals, and local druids tend to the plant life, rejuvenating pockets of forest as they go. Piscator's Rest sits as the current capital until the ruined Wildewood Manor can be rebuilt to provide a more centralized location.

The Heartsgrove Tree has fallen, a slumbering Ancient Protector fallen victim to the same magic that afflicted the land. Its spirit tormented by decades of clinging to last thread of Life the land held. In a final moment of clarity as the affliction was dispelled, it instructed Thomas to plant it's last acorn, now purified, so that a new Ancient would be born in time. This acorn was planted near the site of the Heartsgrove Tree, as a symbol of hope.