Session 30 Report: Wintersplinter Returns?

General Summary

Yester Hill summit

In the midst of the stormy combat, two of the druids blasted Red with concurrent shockwaves, knocking him unconscious. The glowing green writhing roots around the base of the effigy then began dragging his body in, wreathing themselves around it. The fighting and the mysterious ritual, now getting even louder inside the cobblestone-walled space, continued. Things were getting dire for the Investigation Club when out of nowhere leaped a new face, a satyr calling himself Beair, wielding a lyre and a curved rapier.   Though they managed to fend off most of the remaining berserkers and druids and save Red from his entangled fate, the two remaining druids were able to complete the ritual, indicated by the cessation of their chanting and punctuated by a the sound of a loud roar mixed with splintering wood coming from the south. The last two druids attempted to run, one of them not getting far before being put to sleep by Beair. The other druid regarded their fallen comrade, then looked at the party and grinned smugly before continuing to run off to the south, toward the loud groaning and rumbling.   The group headed over to the effigy and finally recovered the glowing green gem embedded in its chest, also noticing some of the roots surrounding the effigy were wriggling even more and pulling themselves back into the earth. They then proceeded to interrogate the druid that had fallen asleep. Through some threatening and prodding, they managed to get a bit more information out of the now raving druid.

(in druidic)[YOU'RE TOO LATE! HE HAS COME AGAIN! THE SEED OF THE GULTHIAS TREE... WINTERSPLINTER IS ALIVE AGAIN!!]

Seeing that they weren't going to get much more out of the crazed wildling, they delivered a coup de grâce and set about making some space to rest before investigating the further. Conveniently, Beair apparated a tiny magical hut for the group to rest inside. The interior of the hut included some soft, large red cushions and pillows surrounding and inside of a circular depression. In the center was a table with a hookah. While they rested, Tavani spent some time with the old, gnarled staff they had found on one of the druids in the winery. It turned out it was a Gulthias staff. Conveniently, this would allow them to tread unimpeded among the plant creatures known as Blights of which the party had already run into many. Throughout their rest they also continued to hear the rumbling and splintering of something awful to the south, presumably Wintersplinter, seed of the Gulthias Tree.  

The glowing green copse

After a brief rest, the Investigation Club hid Red away in some brush and, along with their new member Beair, headed south towards a now strongly glowing green copse of trees. Tavani used the powers of the staff to sneak on and scout ahead into the small wooded area. Inside she found a clearing with 30 or more plant creatures: Twig Blights, Needle Blights, and Vine Blights. What they were all staring at, at the back of the clearing, was a giant, writhing, roaring, and glowing-green tree monster with a massive maw and swinging roots and branches.   The Club got to work coming up with a plan. Using the power of the staff, Tavani would make her way inside and spread oil over the writhing tree. As long as she didn't make a move of aggression toward the tree or the blights, she should be able to get in and out unscathed. Then, they would charge in and toss alchemist fire at the tree, engulfing it in flames. The plan went into motion, the tree caught fire and started screaming and writhing more violently, but all of the blights took notice and turned towards the party. Seeing an opportunity, Tavani used another power of the Gulthias staff. She broke it in half and it let out a horrible scream. At that moment, all of the blights let out snapping and crunching noises and shattered or sloughed to pieces. Wintersplinter, now fully engulfed, let out its own splintering howl and rapidly dried to a husk.