Harmony Session 12: The Hidden Grove
General Summary
We last left our heroes trudging through the muck of Swango Swamp in search of Lord Vine's hidden grove. Therein, they hoped to find the last seedlings of the white flowers that once bloomed throughout the swamp. Their goal was to use these flowers to somehow restore Swango Swamp to its former glory, cure the Heart of the sema's corruption, and save Lord Vine. No big whoop.
Searchin' Sludge
Days passed as our adventurers slowly crawled north along Vardura's western mountains. At night, they could hear the muddy footsteps of some strange creature lurking in the mists, but declined to further investigate until morning. Instead, that morning brought a small group of sema scouting this edge of the swamp. Upon a closer (and much more aggressive) examination, it was clear that these sema were suffering from malnutrition, their existence in Swango Swamp having become more difficult since our heroes' arrival. This trend continued as our heroes exterminated the pests and moved on. After a few of Gorr's delicious bluefruit, the party picked up the pace in the hopes of finally encountering the lumbering creature that "walked with the swamp". Thankfully, their plan worked, and they soon found themselves slowly (but definitely NOT stealthily) creeping up on hunched humanoid implacably marching forward. Gorr, feeling a strange connection with this thing, tapped it on the shoulder. It slowly came to a halt and turned towards Gorr. It was a mud golem, but with the shoulders, face, and upper torso intricately carved from mud to look exactly like Gorr. When the swampkin made eye contact with the golem, he realized this manifestation of himself represented his own desire to find the grove. Apparently, having given and taken of the swamp these past weeks has made Gorr a bit more Swango than before, and Swango a bit more Gorr. The mud sculpture turned away and once again began slowly and steadily marching forward. Gorr knew if they followed this subconsciously-created avatar of his inner desires, they would find the grove. Trusting the slowness of the creature would be enough to keep track of it, the party made camp and let Mud-Gorr slop off into the night. They would catch up in the morning.SWAMPKIN ONLY
After two days following Mud-Gorr and doing little else, they finally reached their destination. The golem made a sudden turn into the base of the mountains and squeezed between two boulders. When the party followed, they found Mud-Gorr standing in front of two great swangrove trees that grew in an arch over a passage into the mountains. Then, without ceremony, the mud golem disintegrated into a pile of dry dirt. RIP Cooler Gorr. Our heroes entered the passage and were almost immediately blocked by a deep patch of all kinds of poisonous thorns. Gorr casually bogwalked through without harm, finding his ability to do so greatly enhanced on the path, but the others were stuck. As Gorr continued to scout forward, the rest of the party debated the best way to navigate the thorns. Ultimately, they decided that just diving in and going as fast as they could was their best option. Thankfully, they were right, and they passed through mostly unscathed. Unfortunately, they ran right into a fight! While waiting, Gorr had crept forward along the passage and disturbed some bulbous violets growing over a tree felled across the path. The defensive plants attempted to grapple Gorr, but he was able to slip out and wild shape into a wolf to counterattack. When his friends finally traversed the briar patch, they quickly dispatched of the carnivorous plants and carefully moved forward. The next obstacle was a long stretch of murky swamp water. Wolf-Gorr bogwalked to the other side once again with ease and emerged with an understanding of the trap before them. The muck was designed to suck intruders down into the underground waterways and send them miles across the swamp to the Heart. Falling through would mean quite the setback. Malachai set them up by casting a helpful entangle across the first half of the muck, but they were on their own after that. With Wolf-Gorr holding fast to a guiding rope, an exigent save from Azarki, and an Evervoice-boosted SWIM out of Pilgrim's Wordmaker, they were able to finish their mad scramble and make it safely, however muddily, to the other side. Before them lay a sparse clearing leading to a bramble-lined cliff edge that looked over the western border of Vardura and across the hazy Vast. Though this must have been the hidden grove, there was no sign of the white flowers.The Seedling Queen
It only took a few moments of desperately searching the grove before the final trap was sprung: two shambling mounds suddenly manifested to threateningly block the exit. A loud screech announced the arrival of a vine drake, swooping at Enoch. The brutal attack immediately put the wizard down, but the good Azarki was standing by ready to get his friend out of the danger. Meanwhile, Gorr continued searching, but found no sign of the healing flowers. The swampkin knew there was no hope fighting the vine drake and that the answer had to be elsewhere. He closed his eyes and pushed tendrils of his swampy countenance deep into the soil and expanded his awareness into the earth. Suddenly, he felt it: an open space buried deep beneath him. Without another thought, Gorr bogwalked down into the hidden cavern. Gorr was immediately wrapped up in a hazy warmth like that from his visions. All across the floor, up the walls, and trailing from the ceiling hung countless vines dotted with blooming white flowers. Across the chamber, a mangrove grew up the cavern wall, entwined within the vines. Its branches wrapped around a fist-sized ball of light that illuminated the space. Arm-thick roots jutted up from the ground to surround the base of the tree, creating what looked like a deep basin spilling over with the flowers. Suddenly, a single bright sound slid from the root formation and poured into Gorr's ears like honey: the clear and unmistakable cooing of an infant. Gorr shuffled through the white flower carpet of the grove to look into the basinet. There, a small infant swampkin, made entirely of white flowers, gazed its big black eyes back at Gorr and smiled.Rewards Granted
- The Seedling Queen
- A few days with Cooler Gorr
Missions/Quests Completed
- Find the hidden grove
Created Content
While getting to know each other a little better, our heroes discussed some places from Keshloam they enjoyed and asked if anyone had been.
- Pilgrim asked if anyone had been to Triad's Landing, the largest port city in the Ascendancy. Azarki had been, having visited most ports in Keshloam on a Kevin-Kevin ship.
- Azarki asked if any had visited his home, Ar'Pata Atoll. Malachai said he had been as part of a dig for the Bari Historical Society and had found a skull with a crown attached to it.
- Malachai asked about Triad's Grace, the capital of the Alerki Ascendency when it was whole. He was really interested in learning about the various artifacts and mysteries, Pilgrim included.
- Enoch asked if anyone had visited his home town of Sernovia. Though far away from the actual conflict in the War for Sernovian Independence, the city has regularly produced dozens of feats of archanical engineering, including the Tesseractis Wheel and the advanced blacksilt weaponry that keeps the Gattish forces at bay. Though none of our heroes had visited, most were aware of the decades-old conflict, of which Enoch said "couldn't get much worse."
- Finally, Gorr asked if anyone had been to The Icehost, the frozen plain home to the nomadic druids that brought Gorr to life. None had visisted as there really was nothing to see there. At least, supposedly.
Report Date
03 Oct 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Related Plots
