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Episode: But Strong in Will

Posted by Story on 12/11/23
Word comes down from the North that the guards set to watch the strange forest that seemingly consumed Helmsfirth returned to Stonesdeep in a frantic hurry, reporting that the entire wood was on fire. The blaze is visible as far north as Aviaron's Peak, and the entire region is caught up in a single, sleepless night, fearing that the massive fire that seems to have sprung from nowhere will spread even farther. By morning, however, the fire is gone as quickly and as inexplicably as it came. Helmsfirth is nowhere to be found, but neither are the trees. For that matter, neither is evidence of the fire. The land where the fire burned is seemingly untouched, and it takes several days hiking for scouts to discover anything differently. When they do, however, they find miles and miles of hills and valleys scorched through, the fire having burned so hot there's little evidence of anything that may have once been there, though there are reports of a broken, fire darkened old keep that seems to have been long, long abandoned. In the very center of this destruction, they find what might be the strangest thing of all. There's a plum tree, a tall, tall plum tree growing up out of the ashes, with a trunk that, according to at least one scout, looks remarkably like two lovers embracing.

Unlike all the blackened land for miles around it, the tree is in full bloom.