CoS Chapter 6: Yester Hill

6.1: The Trail

Svalich Woods music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg_QwWE_5cY
As you step into the Svalich Woods, the path behind you vanishes—swallowed by the creeping mist as if it never existed. The air is thick and damp, clinging to your skin like cold fingers. The towering trees loom overhead, their gnarled branches blocking out all but the faintest slivers of light. The deeper you go, the more the mist thickens, swirling around your feet. Shapes move at the edges of your vision—too tall to be animals, too still to be living. Once or twice, you swear you see figures standing between the trees, watching. When you turn to look, they are gone.
The forest is eerily silent, save for the occasional snap of a branch that does not belong to you. The distant hoot of an owl is cut short, followed by a wet, choking sound. You step over rows and rows of roots that pulse slightly underfoot.
Some time for roleplay in the forest. Finally, a faint light glows ahead—like fire, but wrong. Flickering in the fog, it shifts colors from sickly green to deep crimson. It does not illuminate the path but instead seems to draw the shadows in tighter. You are close now. Yester Hill awaits.

Yester Hill

Yester Hill: https://5e.tools/adventure.html#cos,15

Ambience & Image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHN5CID_YR8

Close up Yester Hill: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJZtw-3XsAAwXw4.jpg:large

Stepping from the deep Svalich Woods, you see a hill covered with dead grass and cairns of black rock. Dark, ominous clouds gather high above, and a single bolt of lightning strikes the hilltop. West of the hill, the land, the woods, and the sky vanish behind a towering wall of fog.

Up the hill

Dirt trails run along two concentric rings of cairns that encircle the hillside. Each cairn is a ten-foot-high mound of slimy black rocks.

6.2: The Reunion

Atop the hill is a wide ring of black boulders and smaller rocks that collectively form a makeshift wall enclosing a field of dead grass. Lightning strikes the edge of the ring from time to time, illuminating a large, misshapen tree that stands at the core of this hill. Blood oozes like sap from its twisted trunk. Embedded into the trunk, strangled by roots and covered in blood, is a shining crystal.
Skulking around the tree are six humanoids that can yet again be best described as wild—their bodies draped in tattered furs and caked in dried mud, adorned with feathers, bones, and scars carved into their flesh, their lips murmuring fevered chants as they drag staff and claw through the dirt. The brabblings, only heard by Beelze, seem to appraise a name: Wintersplinter (Barawedoo).
A seventh humanoid stands in front of the tree, his back facing you. A goat skull covers the back of his head, and his body is coverd by layers upon layers of furs and pelts, so that even his skin is not visible. He is holding a large, black staff with a black Dahlia growing from it.
Stealth - optional suprise round. Void Hera makes remarks in Druidic.
Speech music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z2mf0kjEP8
As the leader turns around, you see that the black staff has grown roots that wrap around his wrist and elbow, and etch into his skin. More surprisingly, perhaps, is that he is in fact not wearing any pelts. Instead of skin, the man has brown-furred arms that end in sleek claws. Clever Scarf, as this man looks at you, the whole battlefield seems to fall silent and slowly fades into the background. A bolt of lightning hits the nearby black rocks, and time seems to freeze completely for a brief moment that is forever etched into your soul. In the light of the bolt's flash, in the goat skull's shadow, you can see the green eyes of a cat whose shock completely matches your own. Your breath quickens. Your fingers tremble, perhaps with anger or fear. The man standing in front of you is none other than the man who sold you into slavery. He begins to grin, though his expression betrays nothing but rage.
Rain begins to fall.
"Hah. Of course. Of course it would be you. It was not enough that your very birth condemned our people to fire and ruin. It was not enough that you stole and ran and lived when you should have perished. No, fate had to bring you here, to me, to see what you have made.
The Gulthias Tree begins to pulse. An eye opens from between the roots.
I knew—I knew—that your cursed blood would find its way back to me, like a parasite returning to its host. You and that miserable, hollow husk of a brother were born to bring suffering, to poison everything around you, and now? How dare you live, how dare you walk on this plane like you are equal to me?
As he throws up his arms, the sky begins to rumble and twist even further.
They are all dead, Clever Scarf. The tribe is no more. I remember the screams. I remember the heat of the flames, the way the air turned to poison. I remember watching everything turn to ash. And where were you? Hiding. Scurrying like insects, like the vermin you are. The tribe died, and you crawled away from its corpse. You and that wretched brother of yours, the two omens of ruin.
The Gulthias Tree's bark begins to open up more, and eye after eye becomes visible in the shivering trunk.
Do you even wonder what became of your him? Or did you forget him, just as you forget everything else you leave behind? I took him with me, to these wretched lands. Do you want to see him? Do you want to see what has become of that weak, sniveling thing that shared your face? Maybe now, he hates you more than I do.
And these fools around you... you will forget them just as fast. It is by your hand that they die today! I have killed many, but you—you and your wretched brother—you I will unmake. I will pull you apart, piece by piece, until there is nothing left to remember you by.
The Gulthias Tree begins to move, slither on the ground, as the eyes begin to focus on all of you. I would like you all to roll initiative.

6.3: The Fight

Gulthias Tree music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lnPD9BOQ-U

Druid fight music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PjZyAIo8FQ&t=12s

Muriel Vinshaw: https://www.strahdreloaded.com/Act+III+-+The+Broken+Land/Arc+J+-+The+Stolen+Gem#Meeting%20Muriel

Enemy statistics on Homebrewery.

Void Hera (Empty Hero) is here. He has become a druid of Strahd, and has made a pact with The Eternal Bloom, granting him immortality. As such, even when defeated in a fight, he will live. He is still weak here, but will continue to grow stronger. His body is entangled with creeping roots (mud and blood on face), his staff has a black dahlia on it. He went from loving money to power. He hates Forgotten Owl and Clever Scarf, because he thinks their birth was the cause of the volcanic eruption that wiped the tribe away.

BOSSES Void Hera: 102/100
4th: 2/3 5th: 1/2 6th: 1/1 Wild Shape: 2/2

Round 1

Suprise round?

Round 2

Gulthias Tree, awoken by Void Hera

Void Hera

3 Druid Naturalists

3 Druid Assailants

12 Twig Blights

4 Needle Blights

2 Vine Blights

Round 3-4

The 2 Druids from the Wizard of Wines join (1 Assailant, 1 Naturalist), together with multiple blights.

4 Berserkers join.

Afterwards

Bloodied druid rune (from Void Hera) in the Gulthias Tree: "My work is not complete."

6.4: The Aftermath

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHN5CID_YR8

Prisca's Dream

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sZcB_OuBPg

As you get pulled from Beelze's dream, you see yourself being lost in a swirl of mist once again. However, you do not wake up at the Wizard of Wines. Instead, you find yourself still swirling in the mists. Beyond your vision, just barely a silhouette, is a visible, though colorless, porcelain mask. For the first time, you hear the words of your patron for yourself, as your symbol to the Raven Queen glows brightly.
"My child, my lost child, I can just barely reach you through these memories. The Domains of Dread are outside of our reach. I cannot help you. No God can. You are on your own."
"Though I have once reached that place. My touch can be found in a thick swamp, at the tomb of my first and only champion in those dark lands."
The mask begins to crumble. You are lost in the mists, and wake up only at the next of Beelze's memories.
Prisca gains Death Ward until used.

Strahd & Arculeus

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnnXe1SDGrE

Arculeus' body is missing

As you look towards the dead Gulthias tree, you see the missing Arculeus, eyes wide open, cradled by Strahd von Zarovich himself. Thick blood gulps from Arculeus' not quite dead, but still unconscious neck. As Strahd licks the last drops of blood from his fangs, he speaks. The flaming horse is nowhere in sight.
"What wonderous vitality you have for one that died bare moments ago, Arculeus. I'm happy to have you back."
"There are now two champions of the Eternal Bloom. How interesting..."
Strahd gives the unconscious body of Arculeus to the party.
"I thank you dearly for your services. My brother will provide you with a reward in your near future. For now, unfortunately, I am busy. I will ask you to leave me alone."
As you begin to walk to the woods, the roots slowly shiver towards you. Moving shapes are visible in the darkness ahead, too vague to be anything living. Though, this time, the shapes come closer, the woods seem darker, and the mist is thicker.
"A sadistic smile creeps its way onto the Count's face, seeing you realizing your mistake. Ah… you thought my generosity was endless? No, my dear guests. You were given one passage through my domain, and you have used it. The forest does not open for you again. Good luck."
"And, of course, my dear Ireena, you need not worry about your safety. You are still under my protection."
If the players do not listen, dire wolves come from the bushes.

Svalich Woods - Skill Challenge

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg_QwWE_5cY

When just in the woods, Beelze's book begins to glow, as the Wizard of Wines' Gem begins to pulse.

7 Successes vs 3 Failures.

Failure 1: Combat encounter vs Blights

Failure 2: Combat encounter vs 2 Bone Naga's

Failure 3: Get out at a random spot

Complications:

Their own footsteps in the dirt

Grappled by plants

Quicksand

Massive wolf - red eyes

Rotting smell

A decapitated owl

Succeses: 7 Failures: 2

At the River Crossing

Rahadin stands and gives them a letter from Strahd. He also gives a gift to one of three. The first to step forward gains an item:

Clever Scarf: Dagger of Venom

Phant: Red Wand of Blasting (Circlet of Blasting)

Victor: Black Wand of the War Mage (+1)

The letter

My most cherished friends,
It would seem congratulations are due. I am deeply impressed by your tenacity and perseverance in the face of such daunting challenges. Indeed, I find it most fortuitous that my beloved Ireena found herself in your talented company at the very moment she chose to leave her familial home. I would rue the fate of any who would allow her to come to harm, and find your dedication to her wellbeing most reassuring.
I bid you dine at my castle in five day’s time, so that we can meet in civilised surroundings. We have much to discuss. Your passage here will be a safe one.
I await your prompt arrival.
Eternally your host, Strahd von Zarovich
Day 20: Dinner days
Planning: Going to Werewolf Den
Raven River Crossing
Todo: Krezk, Abbey, werewolf den <-, viktor dark power, The Second Gem