SCENE 01 – The party decides to proceed directly to Acorn Manor, the halfway point between the pre-Verdant ruins and the Acronaut Polyandrium. Leaving the outrigger and orrery parts behind, they advance through the dense forest but, needing to find their orientation, climb up to the Thrash. There the discover the fate of Jein’s lost sail fabric:

Lost in the storm, the fabric made its way to a tribe of small tree-dwellers, no bigger than an Ardent child. Harnessing the sail, they fashioned gliders and each successive generation advanced the art and perfected it.

Now facing the descendants of those original tribespeople, the party is able to communicate their plight to them and are able to work out a trade for gliders which will carry them over the Thrash.

SCENE 02 – The gliders make travel to Acorn Manor much easier and the party makes great time, landing on the runway and climbing down to the clearing. The Manor and clearing appear just as it was described to Fluvis 80 years prior.

SCENE 03 – Jein is the first down the long ladder leading to the clearing and he sees a young Ardent girl in a yellow dress disappear into the brush. Following her trail, Jein sees a broken window in the manor’s side and is able to climb up a fallen oak trunk to peer inside.

The window opens an ancient library, the air filled with floating yellow motes of dust. Stepping inside, Jein feels the moldy carpet squish under his feet; the boards creak under his weight, and he sees that the manor is riddled with trees growing straight through it.

SCENE 04 – Following the sounds of crockery and utensils clacking and tinging at the end of a long corridor, Jein sees a flickering light ahead. Standing at the doorway, the party sees what appears to be a family in Victorian dress sitting round the dining table, their clothes and forms made entirely out of an intricate weaving of supple yellow vines. From their feet are hundreds of tiny tendrils that lead into the floorboards. The party gets the impression that these vine-creatures are mimicking the movements of ancient Ardent people, and cannot shake the feeling that they are marionettes being controlled from below.

In the corner of the room is an ancient hearth, but instead of a roaring fire is a dense tangle of bioluminescent vines, flickering as if fire, but in perfect imitation.

SCENE 05 – The father-vine stands up and motions a greeting to the party. He pulls out a chair and motions for one of them to sit down. Jein accepts the invitation and sits. The vine-family is miming having a meal and passing empty plates around.

The vine-gran offers an empty plate to Jein and he accepts. When he grabs the plate, whiplike tendrils whip out and lash his hands to the plate and she pulls him forward.

SCENE 06 – The party then enters into a desperate fight against the vine-things, and the fire belches forth glowing, thorn-covered plantlike whips to tangle them up and pull them towards the hearth. The party knows that if they get pulled into that maw, they will get swallowed into whatever intelligence is controlling the plant life in Acorn Manor.

SCENE 07 – Rokko hears a sound he knows intimately: the heartbeat of a Leviathan. Leaving the others to battle the vine-family and hearth, he runs down to the basement and behind a locked door finds the Leviathan controlling Acorn Manor: a massive, thorny, being of immense power.

Rokko attempts to reach the Leviathan’s mind but it is too powerful, too ancient, and too alien — it scorches his mind in return. Jein is able to leap into the room and barely pull Rokko free.

SCENE 08 – Everyone is freed from the vine-creatures and climbs out of the house, except for Mr Navigator, who gets caught under a falling tree when the Leviathan shakes the Manor. Jein returns to the Manor and frees Mr Navigator just in time, as a massive quake begins.

The party gathers up what they can, climbs the tree, and flies off into the darkness leaving the quaking, heaving hell of Acorn Manor behind.