Camae · Sector 272 Nostvary · Dragantwood · The Ranger's Rest
The Ranger's Rest
Overview
The old inn was abandoned, but when Duke Dragant moved to the area, he set about revitalising it. He put an advert out, inviting someone to bring the inn back to life. It's on a pilgrim route for people travelling from Rekrar to visit the temple in the forest. They all stop there for refreshments and some stay in the rooms. When Thorn left the army, he and his wife Kate applied to take over the inn. Impressed by Thorn's reputation, Duke Dragant invited them to his estate. They set about rebuilding the inn and were soon welcoming guests. Tragedy struck less than a year later when Kate was murdered while trying to stop a brawl in the common room. The murder fled into the night while Kate lay dying. Thorn struggled on, unwilling to give up on his wife's dream, but his friend, The Temple Guardian, convinced him to lease the inn to a young couple that he knew. Amara and Cass became the managers of Rangers Rest Inn and promised to honour Kate's memory.
Recorded Activity
Location Log
6 chapters recorded at this location.
- Ch. 1→
The Troll Under the Bridge
The Ranger's Return·06/06/0478 11:00amWarden Thorn drags a stubborn troll from the brook and greets the pilgrims on the road, among them the couple come to take over his late wife's inn — while his old comrade Vigdis returns with news that won't wait.
- Ch. 3→
A Second Pair of Eyes
The Ranger's ReturnThe morning after, Thorn wakes to a transformed inn and its warm new keepers, Cass and Amara. As he prepares to return to the ravine, the Duke's charming man Lucet Linder offers to ride along and lend a huntsman's eye to the hunt.
- Ch. 8→
Ghosts of the War
The Ranger's ReturnThorn buries himself in building his cabin until Vigdis rides in from the road with a haunted figure at her side — an old comrade long thought dead. The reunion is cut short by violence at the inn, and by a strength in his returned friend that no man should possess.
- Ch. 12→
The Bakers' Tale
The Ranger's ReturnThe night before the hunt, Thorn clears the inn's smoking chimney and stays for a drink, and Cass and Amara tell him how they lost a beloved bakery to a smiling nobleman's patient malice. Their tale of quiet, deliberate cruelty settles over him as he thinks about a killer patient enough to make murder look like a beast.
- Ch. 16→
Sera's Room
The Ranger's ReturnThorn wakes in the bed he shared with Sera, gravely wounded and impossibly healed, the sacred pool's magic burning strange and bright inside him. As friends keep vigil, he studies his wife's paintings of the forest fae with new eyes, wondering what she saw in Dragantwood that someone could not let her share.
- Ch. 17→
The Pool's Gift
The Ranger's ReturnFour days on, Thorn's mortal wounds have closed and something new burns beneath them — the pool's magic remade into a strange, thrumming fire. Stronger than he has any right to be, he makes his farewells to Dax and the innkeepers and sets out for the manor, resolved to force the truth into the open.