Seeds and Schisms

Expedition

The second attempt to get supplies out to the isolated Fort Keys consisted of Cain, Calukris, Kerissa, Knell, Stor, and Sebastien. Along the trail, Sebastien brought the group on a detour to investigate the burned woods around the first Rift Ripper, where they were ambushed by a group of blights. The group determined that these creatures - plants altered by necromancy to feed off blood rather than water - must have been remnants of the first rift in the region before Pulminov took control of it.

The party arrived intact at Fort Keys to find that, as described in scouting reports, it was practically devoured in plant growth and rendered almost inaccessible. After working out their own entry point, they discovered that more than half the people stationed there had survived an assault by a once-friendly treant, but had been trapped by the plant growth in the remains of the fort for weeks.   Answers were unfortunately difficult to come by, but the party gathered what they could: The treant, Fernherd, had long been watching over an awakened tree, soon to become a new treant, in addition to aiding Fort Keys to manage and research the abundant local flora. At some point, the researchers had secured a deal with Fernherd to study some of the awakened tree's seeds, which all displayed remarkably unique mutations and shed light on possible botanical breakthroughs. However, when the first Rift Ripper was deployed, and the surrounding forest decay was burnt to ash, Fernherd rushed from the fort, assumedly to protect the awakened tree. He was gone for a week before the fort's druid, Grazen, went to find him. Fernherd returned the following day, alone and scorched, and buried the fort in plant growth. Grazen only left behind notes and a map that gave the party direction, without definitive answers.   The party followed the map to find the awakened tree amidst scorched woodland, with Fernherd present and offering dead animals to its roots. The party concluded that the awakened tree was a blight, and a danger to what would grow from the ashes around it, but Fernherd was resolute in ensuring it would survive, as the only other would-be treant on Zorolai and a necessary part of the new forest's life. When Grazen had learned of this, he opted to take no chances and see that the tree and its seeds were destroyed, bringing him into a confrontation with Fernherd that ended with his death at the treant's hands. Fernherd had attacked the fort believing that they would share the destructive sentiment, but was unable to retrieve the seeds at the time, as they were grown in complete isolation in a magical lab.   In learning his side of the tale, the party led Fernherd to question himself and his judgement, having killed his own friend to protect a potential threat that he could not guarantee to subdue. In the end, they offered to return the seeds to him in exchange for destroying the awakened tree, asking that he take a chance on something new with a better chance of growing properly, instead of clinging to a dying hope to restore what he'd already lost. The party persuaded him successfully, and Fort Keys cooperated, but after the treant left with the seeds, many of the fort's denizens were left unsatisfied that Fernherd would not yet see justice.   Although the future of Fort Keys and the surrounding region were uncertain, its people were freed from their botanical prison, and operations linking back to Creston finally resumed.