🌿Regroup at Melma's

After the Grafter's Hollow infiltration, the party heads back to Melma's to explain about Myron, and everything else they discovered. Melma is of course distraught, as is the party, and they decide to get high with Melma off some of her herbal marsh moss once they've finished discussions.

While they're all smoking, Mama Licklittle suddenly arrives to scold Melma. The others manage to hide before she enters, and watch on from the corners of the room as Mama gives Melma abuse and slaps her. Davos intervenes, and checks on how Melma is after Mama leaves

🤝 Recruiting the Marsh Factions

The party spend the rest of the night and following morning preparing for their respective expeditions. They decide to split up, sending Lyra, Ember, and Melma to seek out the Albarettas in the Narrow Valley, while B, Xolo and Nicholas, who Melma advised them to seek out for help, journey to the Clungwaters above the waterfall that streams into Little Thorn.

🐦 The Albarettas

Upon reaching the Narrow Valley, the team realize that the path is littered with ditches, collapsed trees and thorns - unable to be traversed on foot or raft. Instead, they must scale the trees, heading into the perilously tall valley in search of the Albarettas.

They struggle at first, with Lyra and Ember falling over one another into the debris before eventually getting footholds up the trunks. After sometime, they find themselves in Albaretta territory, and realize they are being spied on by Albarettas who have taken on their tree forms.

Eventually, they are swarmed by Albarettas who knock them into a web trap, weaved by one of their apparent leaders. Lyra speaks out, and exclaims how they come in peace in order to help Myron, and they decide to escort them to the High Tops - the part of the Narrow Valley where they have set up flying zones, nests, and walkable paths and platforms high above the marsh.

🐦‍⬛ Meeting with Caross and Nila

The team are granted audience with the leaders of the Albarettas - the web-weaving bird from before, Nila, and an incredibly tall and imposing heron looking bird who leads them - Caross.

It is during this audience that they come to the realization that the Albarettas aren't even aware there is a feud between themselves and the Licklittles.

Despite this, Caross is hesitant to help, explaining that they are a clan of stoic warriors, and that Myron must prove himself without help. Lyra however convinces the clan that sending their soldiers to war with the Grafters would be an opportunity to reveal who of them are worthy warriors. Nila and Caross agree, however on the stipulation that they don't directly help Myron once he is freed.

🐸 The Clungwaters

Meanwhile, Xolo, B, and Nicholas venture up the waterfall into Clungwater territory. By casting an air bubble helmet on themselves, B allows herself to traverse the water, and is able to swim alongside Xolo and Nicholas who are already capable.

They climb up the branches and vines behind the waterfall, and eventually drag themselves into the stream above. The three of them journey down the main river, and decide to head into a thicket of leaves and trees that the river runs through in hopes of finding them there.

This leads them into a raising grounds for baby Clungwaters, and they are quickly surrounded by little frog people, and are confronted by Slin and Luna - two Clungwaters who are able to shift using the waters, Slin able to inflate himself to float, and Luna able to shrink. Xolo magically communicates with them, and convinces them to lead them to their leader - Tarkus.

👑 Meeting Tarkus

The team are led further upstream by the pair to the Lily Estate, a grand open mound of streams filled with Clungwaters, and moreover, one gigantic Clungwater who sits above them all, their supposed leader. Atop the mounds, appear a series of industrial pipes that is flooding water into the marsh. Tarkus is sat in the largest of these, and the party consider if the water from these pipes is the reason the marsh creatures have such unique, magical biological augmentations.

The team learn that Tarkus is only interested in consuming, and they fear that they will be eaten by him too. Xolo cooks up food, and barters with Tarkus, explaining that there will be loads to eat at Grafter's Hollow if they come and help. The Clungwaters seem thrilled at the idea of Tarkus growing larger, and so he agrees to join their assault, looking forward to eating all he can in the process.

🌱 Reconvening at Little Thorn

After their respective expeditions, the teams regroup at Melma's and share their findings. They begin to prepare for the next days raid, when Little arrives at the door and lets them know that Mama is looking for them, and demands their audience at Licklittle Hall immediately.

🌳Confrontation with Mama

The party come to the hall as instructed, where much of the town is onlooking in uncertain curiosity. They are led inside, where Mama is waiting with the rest of the Licklittles, and begins to lash out at the party, and Melma, announcing to the rest of the Licklittles of Little Thorn that they are conspiring with their enemies behind their backs.

Ember speaks up to the people of Little Thorn, revealing what they have learned - about the Grafters, about the seeming 'enemy' factions of the marsh not even being aware of the supposed feud that Mama keeps peddling. She manages to gain momentum as the onlookers listen attentively, finally giving into their concerns and doubts about Mama, eventually turning to her for a response or an explanation.

This causes Mama to crack, as she starts to berate the party and the town about their lack of loyalty and respect. She roars, exclaiming how had she not acted, the town would have been done for - that she has seen the Grafters and what they are capable of, and that she had no other choice to do what she did. This dawns a revelation upon the procession - that Mama had given up her son Blunt to them as a bartering chip, and has been allowing the Grafters to steal away the occasional child from Little Thorn for their research and grafting, under the condition that Little Thorn remains safe for the rest of the Licklittles who reside there.

The party are astounded, as is Melma and the rest of the clan, but before there is time to settle with what they have all just learned - Mama lashes out, and commands her sons to take down the party alongside her, as she whips the vines of the hall into motion, locking them all inside.

⚔️ Battle at Licklittle Hall

The session kicks off as Mama Licklittle traps the party and onlookers inside Licklittle Hall - instructing her sons and husband to deal with the party alongside her.

The battle swings into motion, with Mama using her whip-stick to shift the tree to her liking, embalming it in fog, healing from drinking it's waters, and loosing the lily pad flooring to trap the party in the viny waters beneath.

Meanwhile, Door uses his pencil-stick to animated wooden structures to life to distract and interrupt the party, Little darts around attacking widely with his log-stick, and John Roos lunges onto them violently with his duel wielded sickle-shovel-stick. Melma desperately fights alongside the party, dancing about on her floating lily pads and casting through her wand-stick to hold back her family best she can.

The party are forced to meet the Licklittle's onslaught with force, focusing all their efforts on taking down Mama while attempting to sway the others to stop fighting, who are clearly hesitant. John Roos however, is completely on Mama's side, and slashes at the party relentlessly until he is finally scorched down by Ember.

In a moment which revealed to all Mama's true colours, while John Roos was down and dying, she instead continued to lash at the party and heal herself, allowing her son to fall. The incident shot through the Licklittle family, and acted as a turning point which saw Door and Little shifting sides, now working with the party to put Mama down at last, who is now gone manic with rage.

She struggles to a final breath on her knees, but is eventually smited by Lyra, who surrounds herself in a spirit shroud of lost Licklittle spirits, and disintegrates Mama with a blast of concentrated necromantic energy, wilting her away to a blighted, fungal carcass.

🌿 The New Head of the Licklittles

The onlookers rejoice desperately, released from the fear that Mama had bestowed onto them, now fully realized as they watched her descent into madness unfold. The party stand tall after their victory, turning to confront the clan alongside Melma, who delivers a speech to finally unite the Licklittle clan, and inspire them to come together to liberate the Marsh Way and find peace once more. She is raised as new head of the clan, approved by her father Door, and the Licklittles delve into the night in preparation for the battle that is to come the following day.