Heartwood Host

Once, in the far reaches of the boreal north, there stood a forest unlike any other. The Heartwood, as it was known to weary travelers, was a stretch of silver birch trees so radiant that they gleamed in the pale sunlight, their trunks luminous as the moon. A warmth - strange for the cold north - seemed to emanate from their boughs, not in heat but in spirit, as
if the trees themselves wove a quiet song of welcome. Those who passed through left with lighter hearts, as if some unseen kindness had brushed against their souls.

But a blight fell upon the Heartwood, creeping in unseen, slow as a whisper yet relentless as the tide. It was no ordinary sickness but something far more insidious... a blackening, a hunger. An extraordinary strain of fungus burrowed into the trees, drinking their life forces from within. The silver trunks cracked and withered; their luster swallowed by blackened shadow. Where once there had been warmth, now there was only cold silence. The forest, once a haven, became a place of hushed dread.

Travelers spoke of it only in murmurs. They told of trees that no longer swayed with the wind but stood unnaturally still,
their blackened limbs twisting in unseen torments. They told of shadows that
moved where no light was cast, and of voices that stirred in the empty boughs. The Heartwood became a place to be feared, a place where light was swallowed and the forest could not be seen for the ashen trees.

The Heartwood slipped into legend, its name spoken only as a warning, until whispers arose once more. Not of curses, but of cure. Those who dared harvest the blackened fungus, the Chaga, found that when eaten or brewed, it possessed an astonishing power. It warded off illness, strengthened the body, even turned back the hands of death itself.

Now, there are those who seek the Heartwood again, they enter the hushed, blackened land, hands trembling as they pry the fungus from its dark cradle. Some return, their health renewed, their bodies untouched by sickness. Others do not return at all, vanishing amongst the trees.