Hearth Grove

Hearth Grove (usually just Hearth) is the Ranger's home. It is a wide, mown field ringed by woods, with a ceramic fire bowl at its centre. Every outing starts here, and only a return to Hearth closes an outing. Residents look after the home while you are away, and you build on its plots between outings.

Description#

The approved art is H15. It is the user-approved H14 field with the home circuit added: a symmetric path loop, four building plots, a bench, the home duties board and three neuron yards. The fire bowl sits on a flagstone plaza with four lanterns at (512,214). A pond lies in the south-west, and the only gate is in the east, signed GLADE.

Three home neurons live in their own yards: north (Nell, the only named one), west and east. Each neuron's own axon runs across the lawn to a rosette of six small boutons on the hearth's axis. The user approved these lines on 1 November. They are drawn from the neuron kit, taper out of each sprite and lie on the ground, so they never block feet. In the alpha, small gold pulses travel along each line in pairs, once every six seconds.

The art direction asked for an open space, like the home base in Cult of the Lamb. The background holds only what never moves. Buildings, the podium and the tray are runtime sprites.

Residents#

• Pip covers home duties from the start.
• Mote moves in after the story step ii7, and Fen after the first home growth.
• Stella, an anchored Astrocyte, stands beside the north line. Nell is the north neuron.
• The residents walk real routes between their duty spots. See Home duties.

Services#

• Hearth podium: opens three squares for Imprints, companions and run records.
• Delivery tray: a finite Supply delivery in front of the rosette.
• Home duties board: shows who covers each duty, and lets you review coverage.
• Plots: four plots (P1–P4), plus two more after growth. See Hearth buildings.
• The hearth (Living circuit): shows the current story hint and offers the return's one recovery step.
• Observation points: stand beside the north, east or west line for two cycles to record an observation. The story uses these as evidence.

Connections#

The east gate leads to Nearfield Glade. Leaving Hearth starts an outing. A walk to Memory Meadow does not cost endurance, but the alpha still treats the trip as an outing. See Travel and movement.

Development#

• Art: H14 was approved on 30 October. The home circuit (layout A, tray, board, plots, duty pads, growth 1 and 2, neuron yards) was approved on 31 October at c4be9ce8 and 254c44dd. The neuron lines followed on 1 November (claude/cell-slime 4ebcfeb5).
• Plan: layout A, the duty-load rule, "a gap costs the recovery step" and "no Node station at Hearth" come from Claude B's home-base plan (doc 30), approved by the user on 31 October.
• Alpha: the lead installed H15, its collision mask, plots, axons, tray and podium in Placeholder 69c7b5470. Growth 1 and 2 art and collision are packaged but wait behind their story gates.
• Live preview: the published site still shows the older H14 background with a placeholder notice. The lead's audit found its hash unchanged.
• Not built: the Ready → home disturbance → scorch lifecycle waits for Claude A's painted-floor retune. The Arbor and Recovery nook stay closed until disturbances exist.

Gallery#

See also#

Hearth podium · Delivery tray · Hearth buildings · Relay post · Home art · Hearth boards · Home duties · Strain · Nearfield Glade

Sources#

1. b89f778c2:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-reconciled-game-integration.mdcopy
2. b89f778c2:src/main-game/alpha/README.mdcopy
3. 69c7b5470:src/main-game/game/maps.jscopy
4. 69c7b5470:src/main-game/game/home.jscopy
5. 69c7b5470:src/main-game/game/ui.jscopy
6. 5ed726064:art/environment/blender-study/hearth-grove/README.mdcopy
7. 5ed726064:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-10-31-environment-art-hearth-home-circuit.mdcopy
8. docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-02-lead-full-project-reconciliation-audit.md (working copy, not in Git)
9. docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-10-31-claude-codex-todo.md, sections C8 and C9 (working copy, not in Git)
10. .GAME_PLAN/ARBORWAKE_THE_LONG_WAKE_COMPLETE_GAME_PLAN_v0.5.md, §5 and §15 (working copy, not in Git)