Arborolus

The metropolis at the foot of the Spineback mountains, where three rivers braid together. Founded ~1,500 years ago by druids who grew the first towers from a single oak grove. The closest of the Star Atlas nodes to where we were when we left Hollow Creek — we drove south to get here.

What It Looks Like

• Living-wood mid-rises — 6 to 10 stories, organic curves, bark-skinned exteriors. Modern glass and steel grafted in where humans got impatient.
• Streetcars on living-wood rails — you feel them more than you hear them.
• Three rivers converge through the city center.
• Heartwood Cathedral at the center — a 200-foot living-wood spire. That’s our Antenna.
• Six bookstores within four blocks of the main square. Food carts with handwritten menus. “KEEP ARBOROLUS WEIRD” painted on a streetcar barn on Cooperage Street. It’s been touched up by anonymous hands six times in twenty years.

What It Smells Like

Sap, baked bread, warm copper rails, ozone from the trams, river water, fried things.

The Mood

The first city we’ve been in days that isn’t on fire. People here are alive. Real. Buskers on the bridges. A streetcar passes carrying 30 commuters — about half wear small green pins. The city has actively resisted the Grove for nearly a decade, but the Grove is patient.

Festivals

• Hurdy-gurdy festival — about 6 weeks out. Posters all over town. The whole city seems to be in on the joke and also genuinely into it.
• Burley Gertie’s — burlesque show running in the cathedral district.

Where We’ve Been

• The Verdant Mare — our inn
• GroveWell Clinic — three blocks from the Cathedral; we infiltrated it
• Heartwood Cathedral — the spire’s antenna (we’ve seen it from outside)

Where We’re Going

• Old Tracks Antiquarian — Royvan’s “Cousin Edward” runs the shop. Greenlace pointed us there.
• The inside of the Cathedral spire

Last Updated: Session 8