trying to re create it on a sphere it won't do it, that being the case, it leads me to believe that there was something wrong with the particular scene I'm working with. I went back to my scene and optimized it, and deleted the history, and now it it is working. Now I can seve the groom, and it loads with sunks in other scenes I have animation in.
I'm not sure what was causing it, there's probably a rogue node somewhere.

if I can recreate it on a clean scene I'll be sure to send it your way. and thank you for the quick reply and willingness to help.