Stone of Growth

A weathered standing stone in the homestead fields whose presence measurably accelerates crop growth, and whose keeper is Elara.

Stone of Growth

The Stone of Growth is a weathered standing stone, roughly two blocks tall, set at the edge of the MacGruder Family Homestead's eastern field. It predates the homestead, the road, and by every available indication, the Archives. It is the most thoroughly documented artifact in The Forgelands, because its effect can be measured with a hoe and a ledger.

Documented Effects

Crops within roughly forty blocks of the Stone grow measurably faster and yield measurably more than identical plantings elsewhere. The evidence base is Bronwyn MacGruder's yield ledgers, kept season over season with unchanged method: the homestead's eastern field outperforms every comparable plot in the world, consistently, in every crop tested. The effect strengthens in the weeks following Elara's visits and fades — though never fully — in her long absences.

Physical Description

The Stone is a single piece of gray-green rock, unworked except for a spiral of shallow grooves on its eastern face that hold morning dew longer than the surrounding surface. Moss grows on it in patterns that Bronwyn's sketches suggest repeat on a roughly seasonal cycle. It is warm to the touch at dawn. No tool the homestead owns will mark it, and after one attempt, none has tried again.

Custody

The Stone has not been moved and will not be. Elara is regarded as its keeper, a term she supplied once and has never expanded on. The arrangement, insofar as anyone understands it, is that the Stone stays, the field prospers, and nobody digs.

Field Notes

Drugal's assessment remains the standing summary: "It was farming before we were. Let it work."

Related Records

Related Locations

MacGruder Family HomesteadActive
The farming compound and family seat of the MacGruder villagers, anchoring the agricultural district of the northern plains.
Cherry MountainDiscovered
A cherry-grove mountain on the western horizon, surveyed but deliberately left wild, and the most likely place to encounter Elara.

Related Characters

ElaraUnknown
A wandering keeper bound in some way to the Stone of Growth, who appears in The Forgelands on her own schedule and answers questions by deciding which ones were asked.
Bronwyn MacGruderActive
Keeper of the homestead's walled garden and its ledgers, the most careful observer in The Forgelands, and the only person Elara visits deliberately.
Drugal MacGruderActive
Patriarch of the MacGruder family and master smith of The Forgelands, whose standards define what counts as proper work.

Related Artifacts

Forgotten SeedUnknown
A single unidentifiable seed of unknown origin, currently held in secure storage, which Elara says was planted too early and will therefore sprout late.
Whispering WellDiscovered
An ancient stone well outside Savanna Villa's wall whose water never stills and which produces faint sounds with no identified source.

Referenced By

Forgotten SeedUnknown
A single unidentifiable seed of unknown origin, currently held in secure storage, which Elara says was planted too early and will therefore sprout late.
Whispering WellDiscovered
An ancient stone well outside Savanna Villa's wall whose water never stills and which produces faint sounds with no identified source.
Bronwyn MacGruderActive
Keeper of the homestead's walled garden and its ledgers, the most careful observer in The Forgelands, and the only person Elara visits deliberately.
ElaraUnknown
A wandering keeper bound in some way to the Stone of Growth, who appears in The Forgelands on her own schedule and answers questions by deciding which ones were asked.
The AgrariansActive
The farming faction of The Forgelands, practical stewards of soil and season who measure every proposal by what it does to the land.