Expedition 35: Heart of the Bluewood

### Summary

We explore Mae'ra's Conservatory in the center of the Bluewood, fighting glassified animals and eventually finding a sanctum of Mae'ra. With Mae'ra's mind ambivalent, Marzipan takes the sapling from the entrance.

### Detailed Writeup

We get started, passing through Arha’s pass without incident. We see the zombie place off in the distance, but our goal is the Bluewood. Marzipan and Jamie are eventually able to find our way to the stairs. On the way, Calliope finds a growth of diamond on one of the trees, worth 900 gp! After several hours we arrive at the grove. We remember the trap pit. Marzipan tries to talk to the tree using psychic connection. This does not work. We also remember the traps on the staircase. We reach the lair of the umberhulks. Arha is quaking in her armor. Jamie checks on her.

We begin down the stairs. Calliope investigates for traps with Lahont behind her to disarm them. Marziapan’s guidance is stronger than usual. Calliope finds several traps, avoiding most of the traps, bar one pressure plate. Seemingly nothing happens when that is pressed down. There is a discussion about what it did, including poison gas. We continue on. Marzipan and Lahont hear something moving downstairs. We get to a small landing with decayed plastered walls and carved stone floors. There is a massive circular doorway in front of us. There is text in stonetongue: 1.One day Mae'ra went to Ithria, and asked: 2.Of your three children, how old are they. 3.And Ithria, coy and unsure of this new god, said: 4.Multiply together their ages, Mae.

5. and you should get 36. 6. And Mae'ra looked and she thought, and found Ova too, 7. yet she could not determine the answer. 8. Returning to Ithria, she asked anew.

9. Ithria showed her a number: 10.This is the sum of their ages, to put your question to bed 11.And yet Mae'ra looked, and could not decide. 12.Finally the parent bequeathed, and said:

13.This is my oldest, take her and know. 14.And Mae'ra took the land and smiled, she knew.

15.What were the ages of Ithria's children?

Lahont tries saying 3, 3, 4. This does nothing. Jamie goes and pokes the 3, it glows, pressing 3 again makes it grow brighter, and finally pressing 4 causes lightning to shoot out. Jamie dodges well, taking ten damage. We go back to the drawing board and come back with 9, 2, 2. Lahont goes up this time and presses 9, then 2, then 2. This makes all the text glow. The door opens a little, glitches, and only opens 8 inches. Jamie and Arha go to pry it open with Marizpan’s guidance. The door is dragged out of the way. There is another room with iron bars separating it from a glimmering substance. There are doors to the left and right. We hear the shifting of bone against rock. Calliope starts to ritual cast detect magic. Lahont takes a look and hears a soft noise of odd description, sounding kind of like a squish. There are dark shaded creatures with antennae that stick off their heads, low to the ground. They are rust monsters. We discuss plans. We disrupt Calliope’s ritual.

Arha moves forward and dodges to draw them in while the group uses range. This works well and makes the rust monsters retreat. We take out another one in the retreat but they disappear into small carved holes on the other end of the chamber. Some of us start blocking off the holes while Calliope recasts and Lahont checks out some maps in the room. Calliope senses nothing magical within 30 feet. It is difficult to find material to plug the holes.

Lahont’s map reveals the guest room to the right. The left has “staff Only”. Forward is labelled as a large forest. Beyond that is a chapel. We decide to start with the guest room, where the rust monsters went. We kill the rest of the rust monsters. Calliope investigates the room and finds a few scraps of paper under the bedding. It is the older currency. She also finds a large cache of eggs. We destroy it with Calliope’s firebolt.

We check out the amenities area next. We find an area that looks like an information desk with filing cabinets. Calliope recasts Detect Magic. Marzipan checks out the map. There is religious iconography and it is Mae’er related. After the spell is cast, Calliope checks out the cabinets. Weathered pieces of paper, some maps and some trifold and fliers about things. We find out that this is a Conservatory of Mae’er, though the word in Conservatory has a more religious meaning. Lahont opens up the locked filing cabinets. It is a lockbox filled with paper currency, flint and steel, and a small dagger made of an unusual metal. Calliope does not recognize the metal, though it is lighter than steel.

We go to the ‘staff only’ room. This room is dimmer with many small chambers, looking like offices or barracks. There is also a staircase leading downward. We decide not to go down there yet. We check out the other amenities buildings. One is a kitchen serving area with a black circle that Marzipan takes. There is also a small amount of salt. The last building is a bathroom. There is a mirror and water basins and pipework though nothing flows.

We head down the stairs, Calliope finding traps. We check the doors while Calliope recasts detect magic. Some of the doors are locked, Lahont opens one and finds an office. It is nice. They find a painting that they try to take out of its frame. Jamie opens a door and sees a humanoid shape not really moving. He calls out to us. The thing starts speaking in stonetongue. Lahont hears it ask, ‘What is your authorization?’ Lahont replies we have the authority of a cleric of Mae’er. The thing questions Marzipan about where he got his permission. Once it determines that Marzipan did not get permission from the people long dead, combat starts.

It throws sand at us and we start feeling sleepy but we put out so much damage and it cannot hit us so we take it down. Inside that room is a bathtub of acid. There was a paper in the golem that Marzipan shows to Lahont. Additionally in the room, there are small bits of golem building stuff. A slab of clay, tools, and etc. There is more Veadrian Steel that Calliope now recognizes. Jamie collects some acid. We clear the clay off the golem and collect some Veadrian steel. It takes 20 minutes.

We rush around popping our heads in the rest of the doors. Only one more of them, a heavy metallic door with a glass window that leads to more doors and chambers. Lahont realizes that the door is electrified. Calliope grounds it briefly though gets shocked by it. Lahont unlocks it and Marzipan goes in. We are under the Forest section from above. There are chambers with animals: lions, eagles, etc. These creatures are glassified, though they still move. There are more chambers beyond. There is a doorway with a barred window on it. That doorway opens to a short hallway (10 ft or so) with big windows. There is another door beyond it. Many of the chambers are made for viewing creatures.

We keep investigating the rooms and hear a sharp noise. We go to check it out. We see small shapes between small and medium size. They have vicious claws and beaks. We do not know what they are but they are glass velociraptors. Jamie tries to calm them down. They attack. We split up to take the two groups. The raptors get some hits off and then we see the T-rex start coming at us, also glassified. We try to deal with the raptors and most of them go down. The t-rex and the raptors knock Marzipan and Arha out given the sleep damage from earlier. Lahont and Jamie and Calliope are able to take out the t-rex. This causes shards to fall on everyone. Arha and Marzipan stay asleep though. All the animals are roaring from the excitement of this fight.

Calliope heals Marzipan back to consciousness. Marzipan uses prayer of healing to nearly top everyone off. We head back up to the main forest room. There is a small gap to get through some bars that we crawl through. Here, there are a lot of low trees with broad branches. All glass. We see a pathway around. Not sure where to go, Arha tries to pray to Allocer. Their presence is strong here, though Arha cannot get a clear answer. Seeing this, Marzipan tries to determine if Mae’er is alright with this. The Wild Mother responds with confusion, not sure what Marzipan is talking about. Marzipan, Calliope, and Lahont head into the forest to find the center. They find that it is a boneyard of creatures. They find that the chapel is the place, so Arha and Jamie start making their way there. Just then a lion jumps out, hitting Marzipan. Combat breaks out.

Marzipan easily takes out the lion with one cantrip. Arha and Jamie see glassed cages along the walls with small access doors in the back. Some have shattered, some are whole. One contains a large reptilian creature. Another a glassified grey ooze. There are two huge doors with large metal knockers. Arha knocks. Nothing happens. We try to push the door open. Something is keeping it closed. Lahont realizes that it is barred and talks Jamie through removing it. We open the doors.

The chapel is tall, about 120 ft in height. There is a series of benches and chairs leading to a space. There is a series of stone stairs creating a dais with an altar on top. On that altar is a mass of twisted vines. Marzipan prays to the Wild Mother again. The vines twist and mass and sit up. It exclaims that it is a servant of the Wild Mother to which Marzipan prays. Arha tries to talk to it about getting the heart of the forest, but it claims that there are no hearts here and that she should go to the center of the actual forest. Marzipan tells the creature about his plan to make a home for his people. Finally, the creature says, “Take or do not take, the mother is of two minds.” And also that taking the heart would hurt and heal the Wild Mother. The tree will grow basically anywhere. Calliope asks about setting up shop in the Bluewood but gets no useful answers except that it is a bad idea. The thing gets tired and tries to punish Calliope, but Marzipan wanes it and barely is not turned to stone.

We leave.

We grab the sapling that is the heart. We then get moving and find an umber hulk. We fight it very fast, then head back. Arha does panic a lot at the umber hulk though.