The party finally reunites, and prepares for action...
Our dramatis personae:
Ser Adon de Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good. Married to Ser Alys.
Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.
Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good
Returning to rejoin her husband :
Ser Alys de Adon-Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral. Imagine a slightly greener take on Grace Jones... Married to Ser Adon.
also featuring:
Ireena Kolyana (a human warrior, daughter of the Burgomaster of Barovia, Twice-Bitten reincarnation of Strahd's unrequited love, Tatyana) - upgraded as a sidekick.
and introducing:
Alexei the Vistana (a young human expert, sent to pay off his debt to the party by his Vistani elders after they rescued Arabelle from certain death when Alexei lost her in town. A late teenager who is so taken by Ireena and the excitement of the adventure that he's forgotten he planned to be sulky and surly for his 13 moon exile) - upgraded as a sidekick.
All characters are presently 6th level, except the sidekicks (because I forgot, doh).
30th November
The morning brought a joyful reunion as Ser Alys arrived, spurring her horse briskly along the spur of the Old Svalich Road which led to the Wizard of Wines Vineyard. The forest was preternaturally quiet; the usual feeling of being watched, or perhaps hunted by hungry eyes, wasn't present for the first time since they had arrived in Barovia. No wolf howls, no dangerous rustling, shambling corpses, angry druids or worse. Something had changed.
After a decent breakfast provided by the Martikovs, they sat on the veranda discussing the plan to explore the ruined mansion that they'd seen some miles away. As plans were drawn up, and horses saddled, Ser Adon suddenly remembered the unfinished business. Perhaps it would be wiser to deal with the dark grove with the menacing-looking giant tree up on Yester Hill. The Gulthias Tree, made of the same material that had allowed the Forest Folk's druids to control the blighted plants that had threatened to kill them all when they arrived here at the vineyard. After a brief discussion, there was unanimous agreement that this needed to happen.
The journey back to Yester Hill was uneventful, and soon Ser Adon was explaining what had happened and where it had happened. They reached the darkened, twisted grove of near-dead trees without event. Sunlight didn't penetrate the foliage, and there was an otherworldly presence.
They settled on a plan to destroy the tree in the centre, but as they circled around, some of the blighted plants emerged, one or two at a time. Easily destroyed individually, their numbers grew steadily until a fireball was thrown. At this point, the entire grove erupted in movement and the giant tree in the centre started to emit a low moan. More fireballs, scorching rays, and a barrage of magic missiles and crossbow bolts and arrows. The creatures died, but Alexi was peppered with sharp needles, and then Ser Adon rushed the Gulthias Tree, steeling himself against the bone-curdling moaning. Ireena approached, only to be grabbed by the tree, lifted high in the air and then to suffer from its burrowing roots, drinking her blood. Ser Alys joined her husband, despite the terror that the moaning triggered [frightened condition] and attacked more. Eventually, a combination of supporting attacks and Ser Alys aiding Ser Adon to plunge the Bloodspear into the tree. The tree's branches thrashed around in response to the pain it was suffering as its lifeforce was drained. Ireena was thrown into the air, already badly wounded, and plummeted towards the ground and certain death, only to find herself slowing like a feather and falling into Kelwarin's arms as the sorcerer used his powers to save her. The brutal onslaught on the dark tree, combined with the use of the Bloodspear, led to its death, with dark power and blood surging into Adon. He scarcely controlled the urge to sate himself on the blood. With that final blow, sunlight broke through into the glade and the sense of evil and oppression lifted.
They rested, finding a drained body by the trunk bearing a magical axe which was especially deadly to plant life which would probably have been useful earlier on. They also found a set of stone steps at the base of the tree trunk, protected by meshed roots. The axe made short work of them, though a thorn on it pricked Ser Alys' hand when she cut into the tree roots.
Unable to resist, they headed down underground using the rough stone stairs. The walls of the stairs were covered with roots from the Gulthias Tree above, some still dripping blood. Detecting magic and checking for evil showed faint traces of both, but they couldn't tell if the Gulthias was dead or dormant. They reached the bottom of the stairs to the sound of faintly dripping water. Ser Adon lit his Javelin, casting light around and revealing an underground chamber with a lake stretching into the distance. Perhaps 30 feet out was an island, with what looked like the kind of monolithic stone that they had last seen at the Old Bonegrinder. Gaddock checked out the area with his familiar, revealing that the tree roots from above were twisted into a funnel above the monolith - a kind of altar - which was desecrated with blood and gore that had dripped from above, presumably from sacrifices into the tree's body. There were many carvings on the monolith, similar to those seen before. They showed three women, one of whom had sacrificed an eye as an offering to gain the ability to see with a third eye. Perhaps these were the Fanes, the old religion, defeated or corrupted in the past.
Kel checked the depth of the lake with a stone with a light spell cast upon it, revealing that it was deepest around the island itself, perhaps three body lengths in depth. Ser Adon used the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind to light the area as if it was daylight. The roots instantly shrivelled, turning to ash and bones and skulls tumbled to the floor on the island around the altar after the cage that contained them shrivelled away. Ser Adon swam over and cleaned the shrine as best he could. As he finished, a voice came into his head, a hoarse woman's voice; 'Free mine sisters. Destroy the Usurper. And cleanse this land of shadow.' He as also granted knowledge of how to call upon the Seeker, one the Fanes, the sisters, for advice, one time only as a boon.
After this, they headed back above ground and home to the safe haven of the Wizard of Wines.
GM Notes:
Having spent the last week gently preparing for the party to visit Argynvostholt, they decided at the last moment to return to finish the task they'd left undone. I called a fifteen-minute break, found my previous notes and quickly boned up and set up the VTT.
I was rusty at first with Roll20, but it started to come back to me. There were a lot of moving parts in the combat, but it flowed and I enjoyed using the legendary actions. I was worried that there wasn't enough threat, but the reality was that the party were clever, maintaining distance and whittling down the enemy.
Once again, the characters found a link to the Fanes. Wanting to know more has changed their plans further - they're intending to head to the Abbey at Kreszk to see if they can find anything useful to gain an advantage against Strahd.
We had some fun with the audio on Discord, and some issues with Roll20 not liking browsers other than Chrome. Overall a fun session. The underground lake at the end (straight out of Dragnacarta's remix) became the payoff for the fight in the first half of the session. I'm looking forward to returning to this next week.
20 October 2021
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