Blooming Grove

The , also known as the Bone Orchard to the residents of Shadycreek Run, is a graveyard and temple to The Wildmother and the Archeart in the Savalirwood six miles northwest of Shadycreek Run.

Description
A magically warded sanctum that contains the tombs of those that had been touched by The Wildmother, this grove has been watched over for generations by Caduceus Clay's family.

The Grove is surrounded by the cursed blighted woods of the Savalirwood. The old stone temple is surrounded by three consecutive rings of five-foot tall rusted iron-bar fence built to hold back the continually encroaching razor-like grey-purple thorn vines. The fences were placed up over time to block out the corruption but as they failed, more interior fences were raised up.

The magic containing this area maintains the vegetation even in winter and changes the winter trees, swamp and bog-like dense vegetation to unique and varied flowers, green oaks, and a humid summer-like air. "It is an unexpected and extreme shift in temperature and weather. There is something unnatural, or at least magical, that maintains this little pocket of untouched paradise. ... [There] are small pools and bits of bog where the soft greens and browns of compost fall into green, thick, algae-covered bits of water."

On the far end, towards the core northern side of the area, is a 20 by 30 feet stone building like an old stone steeple. It stands windowless and open, each open window overgrown with green vines and leaves. The building has an old wooden single four-feet wide door. The front southeast side has a single, once-filled, arched window. The structure has a stone roof and is surrounded by old gravestones. It was around 100-150 feet from the steeple to the most outer ring of fencing.

There are dozens and dozens of stone tablets, about a foot to two feet high, with bits of script across them, that have partially fallen or leaning. Some of those buried there included:


 * 100, 200, 400 and 500 year old elven graves.
 * A ten year old grave containing the elvish name of Tyriel Casala.
 * Generations of members from a textile family known as Costala or Casala. Their graves grew red-purple flowers for tea.
 * A follower of Ioun named Ulysses. He wasn't buried by Caduceus.

There are at least three hot springs at the Grove: hot water, cold water, and a big one that's both. One of the springs is the Sacred Spring of the Unknown Champion, the resting place of the head of the champion whose interment was the reason for the creation of the Grove.

History
According to legend as told by Caduceus, the day after the Raven Queen's ascension (during the Age of Arcanum, perhaps a thousand years before 836 PD), three of the Raven Queen's heroes—Clay, Stone, and Dust—were tasked with removing the body of one of the heroes of "the war" from a city. With the eventual guidance of the Raven Queen, they split the body into parts and took the parts to various locations, and built temples that their families protected through the ages; the Clay family tended the Blooming Grove. The Blooming Grove is reputed to have been built just post-Calamity.

Caduceus lived with his family at the sanctuary-like graveyard of the Blooming Grove. Long independent of the clans and factions of Shadycreek Run, and long isolated from all other sources of "civilization," the area has an air of magic and superstition about it. This magic, obviously a type in tune with nature, has helped the area to be home to small frogs and other small critters. The Grove actually predates Shadycreek Run, and is being slowly overrun by the forest, which breached the third fence recently. Over time, the magic preserving it has given way and has fallen back to the power of the forest's corruption.

After her mate and her son were rescued from the Sour Nest, Nila offered to look after the Blooming Grove, in exchange for Caduceus agreeing to continue helping and traveling with the Mighty Nein. It is assumed that Nila and her family lived in or near the Blooming Grove thereafter, watching over the graves and the spreading corruption, until the Clay family returned to the Grove, escorted by Reani.