Crystal Gardens

At a glance

The Crystal Gardens are a vast glass-domed garden complex on the shore of Rivalis’s lake and the town’s most prominent building.

Contains separate rooms maintained at different temperatures, said to feel almost magical.
No one has emerged from the Gardens in weeks.
Ewing claimed that its plants have begun to come alive.
One of Ewing’s best cooks was apparently lost there.
Littleleaf works there and said strange events have always occurred inside.
Only halflings are normally permitted inside while Rivalis attempts to reclaim the Gardens.
The exterior rose gardens have blackened.
The gray corruption is worst around the Spring and Winter Gardens.
A magical network resembling a nervous system connects the plants beneath the soil.
The party killed an alien, bark-covered creature in the main Arboretum; the network absorbed most of its remains.
The alien growth emerged from soil brought from Lamordia by a powerful traveler and accepted by the druids.
Workers began clearing the gray rot more successfully after the creature’s death.
The central tree appeared brighter and healthier the following day.
Several plants with halfling-like faces now grow along the paths.
Approximately half the complex has been swallowed by the advancing Shroud.

Autumn Garden: Foul-smelling, with sickly plants in fading yellow and gold.
Herboretum: Humid, lush, oddly pristine, and inhabited by at least one weasel.
Phosphorescent chamber: Carpeted in singing violet fungi; mobile plants attempted to bar the party’s passage.
Main Arboretum: Scarred by gray decay and centered on old growth connected by magical veins.

Session 1: The party heard multiple warnings but did not enter.
Session 2: The party received special permission to enter, explored several chambers, and destroyed an alien creature donated by an unknown grower.
Session 3: The party learned that Lamordian soil spawned the creature and observed the Gardens recovering—as well as disturbing halfling-faced plants.
Session 12: The returning party saw half the complex lost behind the persistent wall of Mists.

Partially explored and demonstrably dangerous; approximately half is now within the Shroud. Growmaster Brambledu’s current situation is unknown.