The Groves of the Fire Lord

The Groves of the Fire Lord

The land of Airithrin is infamous for it's hellish environment. As a place where the elemental plane of Fire is leaking over into the Material Realm, this is not quite surprising. The difference between a fire spirit and a demon is minimal to mortals who cannot stand the presence of either for very long. Nor does it help that many demons share an affinity for fire, and many flame and fire spirits are amoral and care little for the wars waged between Light and Dark. But Airithrin is famous for the groves of the Fire Lord. The identity of the Fire Lord is unknown, nor is it known if he contains Airithrin's borders, keeping it from spreading, or if he created it himself. The groves are famous for their peach trees. Among the first plants to be hybridized to survive in a land of fire, the fire peaches are the personal favorite of the Fire Lord.

Fire Peaches

The Fire Peach is an easy to miss tree. It's trunk is the color of basalt, while it's leaves are the color of ash in a cloudy sky. It is a relatively safe plant from Airithrin and when branches are snapped off of it, they only glow with embers for a few seconds before going out. Like all trees now native to Airithrin, the fire peach is hot to the touch, and while uncomfortable, prolonged contact is not dangerous. The blossoms of the tree are a vivid white color that can be seen for miles, while the fruit, once grown and ripe glows like a hot coal. The fruit is hot to the touch and can inflict second degree burns with ease. Biting into the fire peach generally is a bad idea, as the nectar inside is well above boiling temperature, and can flash to flames when exposed to the air. Demons and elementals strongly desire these peaches and make their own fiery peach wine from them. Alchemists prize the peach as it is a good source of various reagents used in their studies. Pyromancers also favor the peach as once they attain the ability to resist intense heat and flame, they find the fruit to be amazing.

Lava Stone Tree

Barely recognizable as a tree, the lava stone tree looks more like an airy excretion of rock, glowing with heat. The tree grows like a large bush, favoring multiple smaller trunks to support the weight of the leaf canopy. The leaves themselves are impressive, large as a man's hand and thick as a well cut steak. They are also roughly 8 to 12 pounds each, and burning hot to the touch. The tree produces large seed pods that when ripe burst. These seed pods usually dont burst unless something disturbs them, like a passing creature or elemental. The creature is usually splattered with a mixture of seeds and gluey lava like sap to ensure that the knuckle bone sized seed sticks to them long enough to move away from the parent tree. Lava stone trees are very dangerous to mortals, as their ambient temperature is near 700 degrees, the sap from broken limbs is very sticky and once started burning, burns like napalm. Elementals and demons have long favored the lava stone tree for making arrows and bows, as it is very springy and tough material.

Lava Banyan Tree

A very common tree in Airithrin, the banyan is stout trunked, and deeply rooted. The tree is one of the few that can make things more bearable for mortals, as it absorbs heat from the air around it, making banyan copses and groves among the coolest places in Airithri. Of course, this means that it's only miserably hot around them rather than lethally hot. The tree can be tapped to produce a stream of nearly boiling hot sap that once cools to ambient temperature can be consumed for a miserable sustenance. The tree is unfortunately for adventurers, host to a great number of fire aspected insects, such as fire hornets, solar wasps, red bees, inferno ants, and the like. The tree produces multi colored berries that are hot to the touch and resemble blackberries or raspberries. These berries, in addition to being roughly 200 degrees in temperature, also happen to be highly toxic. Banyan poison can be distilled from these berries and its effects cause the victim to suffer a negative fever, their body temp plunging several degrees, followed by a general paralysis of the GI tract, followed by asphyxiation as the lungs stop working.

Fire Gem Tree

While not the favorite of the Fire Lord, perhaps the most valuable. Fire gem trees resemble typical trees in Airithrin, iron grey trunk and ashen leaves. It's real value comes from the fruit it produces. The tree once every decade produces great clusters of fire gems from hanging pods on it's branches. Depending on soil and other conditions, the tree can produce fire rubies, fire star rubies (demon eyes) three different shades and types of fire topaz and one very special tree in the Fire Lord's inner courtyard has twice produced harvests of fire diamonds.