"By moonlight, the orchard gleams silver and red. Fruit hangs low, the skin of each apple veined like flesh. The scent is cloying - honey and blood. As you brush past the branches, they twitch, as if eager to graze your skin. Somewhere nearby, something breathes through leaves that shouldn’t move."

The party first hears of the orchard in a bustling market, where a merchant sells a strange, sweet-smelling apple “from the Valaran Hills” A passing druid turns pale and flees upon seeing it. Days later, in a nearby village, they find a terrified girl tied to a tree, teeth stained red, whispering about how "the orchard sings now."

Significant NPCs:

• Marta Fielden – Kindly apothecary who swears the orchard saved her sick daughter, but now hides the child from view.

• Sir Granic Thorn – Wandering knight investigating rumors of a cursed grove, driven by guilt over a long-dead squire.

• Brother Halven – Excommunicated priest obsessed with restoring the Orchard’s “true divinity” through blood offerings.

Rewards:

• A vial of ever-ripe bloodfruit, enhancing persuasion or deception.

• A charm woven from thorn and silver that grants immunity to compulsion.

• The dryad’s heartroot, which still pulses faintly - perhaps too faintly.

Lore Tie-Ins:

Legends speak of seven Sacred Trees planted by the Wardruids in the War of Thorns - and this orchard may be the fourth to awaken.