Loose threads: What causes the regeneration and mutations within the forest. Who is the "mother" that was mentioned by the demon ape.
Participants: Neithan, Archiebald, Sauda, Cati, Ser Cadulon Beaumeriochus, Tara Tula.
Locations: Everbirth Forest
Short summary:
We entered the forest and destroyed many mutated beings who will soon regenerate, besides a giant ape demon that was brought outside and seemingly died for good.
Full Report
The journey started by meeting at the pub and looking over the information written down by previous groups, that was ultimately of not much help besides knowing the guardians of the forest were a Ghoran and a Blodeuwedd, and letting us know the foes could regenerate. With that done, we set sail to the north and arrived after five days.
The edge of the woods was severely burned, likely by that blue dragon who lives nearby, or perhaps the heavens themselves send down storms to destroy this place. Either way, it didn't seem to work very well, as the plants were slowly regenerating, and the inside was thick with gigantic mutated plants, some of which tried to ambush us, but were destroyed without much issue. One of them seemed to have grown around a boar skull, likely the result of mutation, or perhaps the Moonflowers have spread to this jungle as well.
After that, we spoke to an owl who turned into one of the guardians, a plant creature who spoke to us in Aklo:
"Ts ts ts. Listen carefully next time. You might unwittingly insult me. I am not the Sproutling. This place is merely a site of a disaster long past, with no memory to cleanse it. Self contained within the boundless energies of this forest, trees so old they'd remember ancient civilisation. Not that they would speak of them to anyone. Mutants I presume would be referring to the new species that have grown to call this place home in the last two years or so? Then the answer would be - look anywhere. Just about anything you see could be called a mutation."
Beyond that, the threat of some mutated monkeys was mentioned, and we set forth to deal with them. There were quite a few, some had wings, some were huge, some threw poop at us, but they all fell quite quickly. Their leader, apparently an Angazhani, a creature known to be a minion of Angazhan, a Demon lord of Apes, was waiting for us, and he spoke of what was seemingly causing the mutations:
"If you think all this is my doing, then you have another, bigger issue on your hands than me. I was the victim of these twists myself. I was created by them. Do I not have right to payback?"
"That which speaks through the forest itself. Look around you. Do you think it natural? Nothing dies here, no matter what you do with it. Our prey feeds on us from within just as we feed on them, seeds grow within our stomachs into trees, limbs we never had burst through our skins!"
"A corpse...? No, Mother is no corpse you can dig up and remove. You're wrong to assume you can deal with her just like that. So... let's at least make it fun while you're still here"
He also attacked us after that, and was swiftly defeated. Taking the corpse out of the forest stopped its regeneration, so the effect has a limited range. Further investigations are needed to find this "mother" and stop her influence on the place, perhaps the dragon would have useful information.
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