Thanks for the help Raze. I've not discarded any bloodstones but I have used then for purposes other than opening up homestead portals. I can't remember if I still have all the inert stones I'd accumulated so it's good to know that that shouldn't matter.
You cannot use them for 'purposes other than opening up homestead portals' because using a blood stone or auto-consume a star stone automatically unlocks homestead rooms. Even using them for quests like curing Alfie opens a new room.
What can happen is that ZixZax does not reset when unlocked rooms are not visited or when newly unlocked rooms are left with Rift Travel instead of their portal the first time. This would block further rooms from being unlocked, their unlocking would be queued though.
So maybe you go to the homestead and check if Zixzax is still standing in front of one of the portals instead of sitting next to the Weaver.
