The place's current contributors hold two levels of personal chambers within the tower, above the tavern's main floor. Within these chambers are articles of artistic, personal and social interest that have been gathered over the years by several different people and brought there for safekeeping. For obvious reasons, this personal space is locked and warded to keep the mischievous out.

Certainly, the world surrounding the tavern may seem mostly wild, but within the walls and halls built by mortal hand, all is a bit more civilized. Unattached from the nearby towns, the Dragon's Heart retains solidarity under its own roof. Royalty has tried, but can not hold rein on the happenings, or demand taxes from the patrons. The tall, proud and strong wooden structure, standing on a stone foundation that is sized for a building many times its own, is free from the pitfalls of external political play.

Please visit the new Maps page for the most current descriptions of the inn and tavern. A major site overhaul is long overdue, we know. Thank you for your patience.

All that remains to be seen of what must have been a monastery is  its old, stone foundation and the tall, worn tower that stands high above the inn's profile. Built in, and using part of the old foundation, the Dragon's Heart sits squat and thick-walled. Surrounding it close on three sides is the forest that had long been encroaching on the abandoned foundation, having torn through most of its already gutted structure over the century, or more, that it lay unknown to any page of history.

Evidence of the fire that had first put the site in ruin can still be seen in many charred stones, scattered throughout the nearby underbrush and the garden that has recently taken the place of the forest, within the sanctuary's remains and behind the present inn's stables.

Standing, still, through the years, seemingly untouched by the tragedy that ended the reign of its original inhabitants, the bell-tower is now populated by forest bats that often display a certain outrage at the advent of new and civilized life within the past some months since the inn was built against it, but hold steadfast to their home there; periodic assaults are waged on any and all birds who invade their personal space.

"Because people are too concerned with fame and fortune, they are always apprehensive about being honored or disgraced. They constantly fear disaster and harm themselves by this. What is the reason? It is because people believe honor is something to be prized, that winning the respect of others is the noblest of things. It is on account of this that they are terrified of losing their honor. Disgrace is shameful and embarrassing, and is therefore to be feared. The reason we have disasters of this kind is that we worry too much about ourselves. If we can forget about the "self." What is there left to worry about? Therefore, if a person is willing to sacrifice himself for the world, then that person is worthy of being entrusted with the world. People should be unselfish and self-forgetting. If you can set life and death aside, and if you are unmoved by honor and disgrace, fortune and misfortune, then is there really anything left to be afraid of?"

Lao Tzu.