Into the Verdant Expanse: The Husk Murders

Three Iridescent Church convox detectives — Cedric Corot (lizardfolk sorcerer), Mickey Ironroots (dwarf kineticist), and Krod Snodman (shoonie fighter) — travel to the logging town of Wrenford to investigate 48 husk-murders linked to a mysterious tunic-wearing visitor. They discover the commune of Green Father worshippers and learn a member named Lyric Burke disappeared into the Verdant Expanse six months prior. A rare starward 'Feyrock' necklace found in his home guides them deep into the mile-tall forest, where they battle giant mantises and eventually hear a child's cries for help in the darkening mid-boughs.

1. The convox (Cedric, Mickey, Krod) takes a day-and-a-half train ride to Wrenford. Cedric spreads propaganda (poorly); Mickey notices a train attendant's raiment has an unusual greenish shimmer.
2. Arriving in Wrenford — a Scranton-like overbuilt town of ~2,000 people at the edge of the towering Verdant Expanse — the party gathers information and learns of the 'Green Father' worshippers living on a commune outside town.
3. At a local bar, Cedric identifies a strange herbaceous/piney note in the house beer (confirmed by Krod's Super Taster). Mickey befriends a logger whose raiment is predominantly green with tiny vines growing on it.
4. The party visits the commune the next morning and learns that Lyric Burke, a commune member, went on a pilgrimage into the Verdant Expanse six months ago and never returned — the only person to have left recently.
5. Searching Lyric's one-room home, Mickey finds a hidden necklace with a green stone carved as a leaf. Using Plane of Earth lore, Mickey identifies it as 'Feyrock' — a rare stone from somewhere starward, not native to Færrin.
6. The necklace vibrates and pulls toward the forest when held; Mickey puts it on and it acts as a compass, guiding the party deeper into the Verdant Expanse.
7. Shortly after entering the forest, the party is ambushed by three camouflaged Deadly Mantises. Despite a rough start (Cedric is restrained), the party dispatches them efficiently — Krod's fighter debuffs and crits, Cedric's chaotic fireball-turned-sonic, and Mickey's drifting pollen stance.
8. The party rests in Cedric's Planar Palace (Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion), then continues deeper into the 'mid-boughs' where light dims to twilight and the forest grows unnaturally quiet.
9. Mickey surveys wildlife, learning about vine serpents, chorister birds (hypnotic singers that lure victims to predators), and ooze residue on trees.
10. A child's voice cries for help from a clearing ahead. After prolonged debate about whether it's a trap, Krod circles the clearing, confirms the boy has blood, and uses his extending rune to cut the branch gripping the boy's ankle from 60 feet away.

Cliffhanger Krod's strike severs the branch from 60 feet away, freeing the boy's ankle. The boy looks surprised but doesn't immediately react menacingly — the party doesn't yet know what the child truly is.

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