Groundskeepers

As the eerie silence settles over the greenhouse once more, the FGC catch their breath. An examination of Emmaline's remains reveals one key oddity – the human brain that topped her monstrous plant form doesn't appear anywhere within her remains.

The Aftermath

Taking a moment to explore the greenhouse, the party finds a few things of note. There are several well-worn worktables at the far end of the greenhouse which is clearly where Emmaline conducts her experiments. Many of them appear to be work in grafting species together to create newer, hardier, or more poisionous or arcane variants. Pots large and small litter this area and create shadowy corners among them. The air smells heavily of fertilizer and pollen. (You are suddenly very glad you didn't torch the place.)

Searching the worktables and the pots that are nestled among them, a few things jump out (figuratively, not literally). Clearly, Emmaline was a master of arcane botany, as many of the specimens here simply shouldn't be.

* A large apothecary jar in a dusty, shadowy corner under one of the worktables. There's an inscription on the front, in spidery handwriting, which none in the party can read. It appears to be written in Infernal. Wiping the dust from the jar reveals a humanoid brain, suspended in midair. * Next to the jar is a small, plain wooden box. Inside it is lined with a worn velvet, upon which sits a pair of rings. * A tender, small green plant that looks delicate, with several of its larger leaves wreathed in yellow. Erash identifies this as Dryad Leaf. * Several pots of roses that are clearly magical in nature. One has red blooms, with petals that shimmer and glow at the edges like embers of burning paper. The gentle fire is not hot to the touch. One has black blooms, with dewy acid-green droplets that sit on the petals. And one with white blooms, each petal etched with fractal like patterns that resemble frost on a window. Phelan recognizes these as Chromatic Roses, which only grow in the Feywild. * A partially infected sapling that appears to have the same decayed coloration as the Savalirwood. * A purple-flowered plant that caused Phelan to jerk back as if assaulted. He quickly identified as Aconitum lycoctonum, more commonly known as Wolfsbane. It's notoriously difficult to find and typically doesn't do well under cultivation. He's been looking for some for a long, long time. * Journals. Lots and lots of journals, filled with a spidery handwritten script and botanical sketches in pen, ink, and watercolor.

The Journals

Abandoned notebooks here feature beautiful botanical drawings of the deadliest plants you can imagine. Notes in an elegant hand document experiments that leveraged arcane botany to create potent poisonous plants.

One section of the research catches your eye. The drawing details a tree in full color watercolor that can only be the twisted, purple and ash foliage of the Savalirwood. Ferric, who had a nonverbal discussion with Emmaline before the fight, recalls seeing this painting coming into being in his mind in an accelerated time-lapse, with a question attached to it. The notes detail experiments grafting specimens of these trees onto various plants. The author describes the trees as “ravenous and malevolent” in their emotional tone — which Ferric recognizes as the outcome of a “speak with plants” kind of approach to botanical observation.

A sprawling illustration of roots graces the facing page. Notes in this area also reference the abbreviation “A2” and include additional botanical sketches of teardrop-shaped, violet fungi with strangely graceful tendrils that emerge from it’s center. The terms “Mycorji?” And “Shedaklah?” Are scrawled in the margins, and the number “222” and doodles of “A222” appear repeatedly.

The notebook also contains some potion recipes and experimental elixirs, including one named the Draught of Deathcure and one labeled Magebane Poison.

Weed Killer

Upon awaking the next morning after the battle with the ill-fated Emmaline, the FGC can't help but notice that the plants that choke the back of the manor and overrun the hedge maze haven't receded. In fact, the ones that they damaged fighting their way to the center of the maze the day prior have healed.

Back into the hedge maze they go. Beyond the greenhouse, they find the overgrown walled garden that was visible from the balcony of the manor. Picking the lock on the gate, they enter the secret area and find a horriffic sight: three spare bodies that Emmaline is clearly keeping in reserve, as well as the dessicated corpse of an elf woman, who is herself a plant-humanoid hybrid monstrosity. Most of the limbs of the body have been replaced with now-dead plant matter. There is no sign of the missing teenager here, however.

Erash burns the bodies to ash and the group advances on the greenhouse again. After another bout with a now-frenzied Emmaline, who knows she has nowhere to go this time, they successfully defeat her.

This time, to make sure, Erash sets of two fireballs within the confines of the greenhouse while the party waits outside. The concussive explosion rips through the building, blowing out all of the glass in the walls and ceiling, and setting off secondary explosions of fertilizer and chemicals used in the maintenance of the plants within.

With that, the party returns to the manor. The next morning, they're relieved to see that the magical overgrowth has finally started to recede.