The Exit Is Missing Four Hearts

Jonah found the maze's first clear objective. In a chamber pulsing with energy, a door broke open and revealed stairs leading upward. At the top waited a purple portal, the kind of exit that looked important enough to make everyone suspicious before it even failed. It failed because it was incomplete. Four heart segments were missing. Without all four pieces, the portal would not activate. The maze finally gave the party something more concrete than scattered traps, roaming eyes, cursed intimacy, and sad books. They had to find the missing hearts. No pieces had been found yet. That mattered. The discovery did not end the maze. It redefined the maze. Every side room, trap, NPC, book, lover statue, lonely satyr, treasure cache, and separated corridor could now be measured against the same question. Where are the hearts? The dungeon was large, and the answer would take more than one session.