Xandril rushed into the second floor room where his newfound companions stood amidst the debris of their recent fight. Twigs and vines were strewn all over, and the mud covered bloody body of a druid lay crumpled in one corner.
"Oh, I missed it all, did I?" Xandril asked. "Never mind that, there are people in the basement! They speak a strange language too!"
"Yess, we ssaw them as well," Seesil said, turning to the others. "Two druidss, one of them wounded by an arrow. Amongsst the wine."
"Ah, that would be the one I shot earlier," Eld said confidently. "Let's try to sneak up on them."
"There are two ways into the cellar too, it sounds like," Xandril said. "Maybe we can surround them."
"I'll take Colin and Seesil, you take Rek and Sagira. Are can stay up here and sleep off that weird drunkenness he had during the fight just now," Eld said.
"Rek will bring Diplomacy," Rek said. "New name for hand axe."
"Great Rek, that's great," Eld said offhandedly.
Seesil raised his hands and chanted a quick spell. The group began to blend with the shadows around them as they were affected by Pass without Trace.
Splitting in two groups, Xandril led Rek and Sagira down the stairs he had found at the south end of the building, while Seesil showed Eld and Colin the spiral stairwell he and Sagira had explored earlier. As they crept down the stairs, Eld heard Xandril's voice in his head. "We'll wait until you draw them out, then try and surround them," the bard explained.
Eld crept past the wine rack towards the partial wall dividing the east and west ends of the cellar. He peeked around the corner and spotted the two druids, still working to heal the wild haired man's arrow wound. Eld drew and nocked an arrow, sighted on his original antagonist, and fired just as Seesil stepped on an unbroken bottle while Colin stumbled into the wine rack with a thud. The druids turned toward Eld in time for the wounded druid to duck out of the way of Eld's shot. With a cry of alarm, both druids ducked behind the table next to the wine rack on their end of the cellar.
Cursing bad luck, Eld ran into the room and fired another arrow, this time pegging the wounded druid in the shoulder. The half-elf immediately ducked back around the corner of the dividing wall.
Hearing the sounds of combat, Rek let out a guttural roar of rage and barged through the door in the south wall of the cellar, charging past the startled Xandril and leaping across the table at the unwounded druid. She swing her axe, burying it in the wine rack next to the terrified druid's ear as the ghostly forms of Rek's ancestors appeared and began to pester the druid. Pulling her axe free of the wine rack threw Rek off balance, leaving her open to any riposte the druid might muster.
The first druid stood to his full height and laughed loudly. He spoke something in druidic, and then raised his hands. Dark energy streamed from his fingertips and flowed around the entire party, flowing around corners to reach everyone in the area. Eld, hiding behind the dividing wall, was horrified to find the wall dissolve before his eyes, leaving him exposed to the druid on the opposite side. The entire basement seemed to dissolve away in fact, and the party found themselves standing on narrow pillars of stone, surrounded by an empty void. Eld blinked hard, and looked away, reaching behind himself to see if he could feel the wall. "This has to be an illusion," he thought, attempting to reconcile the situation he saw with what he thought must be true.
Nearby, Sagira dropped to her hands and knees, staring into the apparently bottomless abyss surrounding her, her mind spinning. The wounded druid cackled atop his own pillar, while his companion began chanting a spell. Sagira saw her friends looking confused at the edges of the pillars they found themselves on, each looking confused except for Seesil, who looked worriedly at Eld and Colin. The second druid completed his spell with a shout, and the sound of shattering glass filled the air. Shards of wine bottles whizzing past everyone, scratching and scraping along skin and armor alike. Red, Colin and Xandril found themselves pushed back by the lacerating glass. Colin and Rek quickly found their footing again, but Xandril staggered to the edge of his pillar, his arms windmilling as he worked to stop himself from falling off.
"What have we gotten ourselves into this time?" Sagira muttered.
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Seesil meanwhile, shook his head and cleared a minor lightness from his brain. The lizard folk was confused when Colin and Eld, on his side of the cellar, suddenly began looking worriedly at the floor. "There is nothing there," Seesil thought. Thinking through the past few moments, the lizard druid realized the black tendrils that had crept around the corners must have affected his companions' minds. "Best way to stop that is to knock the caster off balance," he thought, turning into a wolf shape and bounding around the corner. He leapt at one of the druids, snapping at the dirty man's ankles, but the druid simply stepped away from the attack.
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From her perspective, Sagira saw Seesil shift into the form of a wolf and bound across the pillars surrounding her, agilely bounding next to her friends without harming their equilibrium before landing next to one of the druids. The druid laughed and leapt back to the edge of his platform. Inspired, Sagira conjured a bonfire under the druid, who leapt back again off of his pillar. However, rather than plummet to his death, a new pillar formed underneath the druid when he landed. "In my world, I make the rules!" the druid called out in a raspy voice.
"Maybe so," Colin muttered, "but you cannot escape my divine judgment." With a gesture, the cleric summoned a pillar of sacred flames on the second druid, who yelped in pain as he was scorched by the radiant fire. Another gesture from the cleric saw his spiritual hammer materialize in the air behind the second druid's head, but the druid managed to duck out of the way of the blow.
Eld, convinced he was in an illusion but unable to get see reality, closed his eyes and reached his hand behind him, seeking the reassuring feel of cold stone against his skin. Even his sense of touch betrayed him however. His hand seemed to stop in midair, and he felt something like stone, but as soon as he opened his eyes it even felt as though there was nothing but thin air where his hand had stopped.
No such doubts weighted Rek's mind however, as she steadied herself and leapt across from her pillar to the second druid's pillar, her axe swinging a hair's breadth from the druid's face.
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In the real world, Seesil continued to nip at his enemy's heel. "Irritating false druid, feel the true use of nature!" the injured druid howled at Seesil, waving his hands. A dark grey cloud gathered over his head, and a bolt of lightning struck next to the wolf-form lizard. Following the other druid's lead, the uninjured druid also called a bolt of lightning, this time managing a searing jolt to the lizard folk that knocked him back and out of his wolf shape. Seesil hissed in frustration, and with a guttural growl his claws grew in size. Seesil slashed at his target, clawing another deep bloody gash in the injured druid's side.
Sagira had been studying Seesil's movements, and realized that although it appeared he stepped from pillar to pillar without noticing, her eyes were actually filling in the details a little after the fact. In fact he stepped in midair, and a hearbeat later she saw he was on a pillar. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes again. Before her was the familiar wine cellar. Her friends were standing carefully around nonexistent pits in the floor, except Seesil who was relentlessly clawing at the enemy druid in front of him. The spell's hold on her broken, Sagira raised her arms and unleashed a bolt of pure chaos, which zipped right over the head of one of the enemy druids, splashing harmlessly on the cellar wall and causing the wall to freeze over as the chaotic energy spent itself.
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Underneath the featureless gray sky of the illusion world, Xandril steadied himself on his pillar. "Mud is not complimentary to your complexion!" he shouted at the druid Colin had targeted. Despite the poor imagination behind the insult, the druid staggered back as though slapped, looking himself up and down as though to assess the truth of the bard's statement.
Colin continued his assault on the second druid, calling down another pillar of holy flame and following it up with a second blow from the floating ethereal hammer behind the foe. The enemy druid screamed in pain as both fire and hammer blow struck him at once, but he maintained his feet.
Rek pulled out her hand-axe called Diplomacy and flung it into the thigh of the druid Colin held at bay, then ran to jump to the druid's pillar. However just as the half-orc reached the edge and moved to jump, a small voice of self preservation managed to take control of her limbs even through her rage, and she came to a sudden halt.
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"You cannot escape! Nature is ours to command!" shouted one of the druids, holding aloft a strangely bleeding staff and pointing it at Sagira. A beam of silvery light fell out of the cellar's ceiling, surrounding the tiefling and causing Sagira's skin to smoke and burn in the pure luminescence.
"Don't try to out burn me," Sagira hissed, glaring at the druid. The druid was suddenly surrounded by a burst of red and purple flames as Sagira channeled a Hellish Rebuke, and he screamed in pain.
"Nature's process is not to be twisted to serve ones such as you," Seesil said vehemently, savaging his foe with elongated claws again. "But you are too far corrupted to realize this."
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Rek's opponent pulled a scimitar from his robes and slashed at the half-orc, but the blow went wide. "Hey, is that a leaf in your hair or are you just ugly?" Xandril shouted.
The druid turned to the bard, tears streaming down his face. "You don't know what I do to get this look," he cried, stung to the quick by the druid's poor insults. The druid's protest was cut short as Colin summoned another pillar of flame that burns his body to a crisp, and he crumplds to an ashen heap on the floor.
The group blinked as the illusion shattered, and they found themselves back in the wine cellar. "Welcome back to reality!" Sagira called to her friends, hurling a trio of scorching rays at the remaining druid. The rays slammed home but only singed the druid's hair into an even wilder mess. Eld took advantage of the distraction to duck around the corner of the wall he always knew was actually still there and fired an arrow which pierced the druid's armor and lodged deep in his ribcage.
"Your staff is short and unimpressive!" Xandril called out in support of Eld's attack. The druid looked at his oddly bleeding staff, then looked down in slowly dawning comprehension, a spell fizzling out in his distraction.
Sagira attempted to send three more scorching rays at the druid but they all flew wide of their target. The third cleaved a hole in reality next to Sagira, and a confused and angry badger appeared and latched itself onto Sagira's arm. Sagira yelped in pain and surprise, but Colin swiftly came to her rescue with his spiritual hammer, clubbing the summoned badger to death.
"Oh give it up," Eld muttered, and fired another arrow. The arrow flew true, piercing the druid's heart. The man fell to the floor, dead. "Alright, let's see if they have anything good," Eld said with a whoop of triumph. He knelt to examine the druid he had just killed, and picked up the staff. A sense of unease swept over him as he touched the gnarled, spongy wood. "Hey Seesil, here's a staff for you!" Eld called out, handing the staff to the lizard folk.
While the others looted the cellar for any remaining treasure, coming up with several unbroken bottles of wine, Seesil sat and worked to identify the staff. After several minutes, he stood up. "Ssagira, this sstaff is evil. I need a fire."
Sagira happily lit a bonfire near the druid, and Seesil tossed the staff into the flames. As it burned, the staff let out an unearthly scream. Everyone held their hands up to their ears to block out the horrible sound, except Seesil who took the painful racket with aplomb and satisfaction. As the scream dwindled into the crackling of the flames, Eld marched up and slapped the lizard folk. "Warn us next time you do that, you thrice damned lizard!" the ranger said heatedly.
"We all need a moment to calm down," Colin advised. "I will pray for our wounds to be healed."
"I will help as well, I have a healing sspirit I can call upon," Seesil said, glaring at Eld.
The group gathered around, and after several minutes felt renewed and refreshed from the combination of clerical and druidic healing. Seesil, in a sense of cosmic justice for the slap, refused to allow the healing spirit near Eld.
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"I wonder if there's any treasure down here," Eld pondered, as the group recovered their strength.
"I'm pretty sure the wine is the treasure," Colin said.
"But it's unnaturally cold down here, isn't it Seesil?" Eld asked.
"I ssuppose, although we are underground. Could be many things keeping it cool," Seesil responded.
"Well I'm looking for treasure," Eld declared. Standing up, the half-elf began quartering the area.
"Do we need to loot this place?" Xandril asked. "I thought we were doing a favor for these people."
Colin shrugged. "No precept against looting in my faith," he said.
"I found a door!" Eld called out. "It was hidden, blended in with the wall here! I'm going in!"
The party gathered around the ranger as he checked the door for traps and then carefully pushed it open. Xandril drew his rapier and cast a cantrip that made the blade shine like a beacon, and followed Eld into the revealed tunnel, with Colin behind him. As they progressed, the tunnel walls became less hewn and more naturally formed, as well as becoming colder. They soon found themselves in a shallow cave. The cave had three stepped tiers along the far wall, and every surface was covered with a strange brown moss. Eld stooped and began poking the moss with his dagger.
"Hmm, this is bloodroot, I recognize it," Eld said. "It's not safe to touch it with your skin, it gives off an intense cold. Oh, and don't eat it. But this must be how they're keeping the cellar so cold."
"Does that mean I shouldn't burn it?" Sagira asked, walking in behind the trio.
"Yeah, we probably shouldn't destroy their means of keeping the wine chilled. We're here to rescue the wine after all," Colin said.
They retreated to the cellar where Seesil was scraping the ashes of the staff into a small bottle.
"I'll go up on the roof and keep watch," Eld said.
"How will we get the wine back to town?" Rek asked.
"There was that cart in the loading dock," Sagira pointed out.
"I can pull the cart when I am in my giant iguana form," Seesil offered. "But I need to rest and recover my strength first."
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Eld climbed up to the roof and surveyed the field. The vineyard was littered with broken twigs, but nothing seemed to be moving. Except one patch of trees. He drew his bow, but lowered it when Davion Martikov and his family emerged.
"Is it safe?" Davion called out to Eld as they approached.
"Yes, we took care of the druids," Eld replied. "We were just going to get the wine loaded up and back to town."
"So you found the horses?" Davion asked.
"Horses?"
"Yes, they're in the stable next to the loading dock."
"Oh, then Seesil doesn't need to be an iguana."
Eld climbed down and followed Davion and his family inside the winery, where they met up with the rest of the group.
"Good news, there are horses," Eld said.
"I have been using my magic to purify the wine vats," Seesil said. "I saw that druid pour something into one and wanted to make sure things were alright."
"We really appreciate that," Davion said. "The shipments can resume."
"Irwin will be glad," Colin said.
"Can you make a trip yet today?" Arf asked.
"Yes, my sons will load up the cart and head out, they should reach Vallaki before sunset and can return on the morrow."
"Let me accompany them, I want to make sure the wine gets there and check in with Irwin," Arf requested.
"Very well, we would appreciate the help," Davion said. He turned to the rest of the group. "Thank you all for rooting out the druids and allowing us to return. I have a further request though, if I may."
"Please, tell us how we can be of assistance," Colin said.
"The druids here are but a symptom of a deeper problem. I used some magic... seeds in order to grow this vineyard in an otherwise barren land. The druids took those seeds when they attacked me. There are three in all, they look like green gems. Could you help me get them back?"
"Why did they druids take the seeds?" Sagira asked.
"Well, I got them from them originally. I didn't steal them, per se, but I helped myself to them. The druids weren't using them for anything good," Davion explained. "I know they've taken two of the seeds. The third went missing a little while ago.
"Where are these seeds?" Eld asked.
"I know one of them is a little ways south of here, in Yesterhill where the druids come from. The second is in the ruins of Berez, south of the Luna River crossroads. I don't know where the third is. I don't need all three to keep going, but without them this vineyard will die within a few seasons."
"Ok, we'll help you," Eld said. "But on one condition. When we get the seeds you use them to grow some barley as well as the grapes. You need some diversity in alcohol out here."
"That sounds like a deal!" Davion said with a laugh.
"Can we sstay the night here?" Seesil asked. "I need to meditate."
"The saviors of the winery? By all means! We have extra bunks upstairs you can use," Davion said.
"I have a few other questions, have you ever heard of a village drowned by a river?" Eld asked.
"That sounds like the ruins of Berez I mentioned, yes. One of my seeds should be there," Davion explained.
"Great, great, thanks. How about a pool blessed by a white sun?" Eld asked, looking through his notebook.
"That doesn't ring a bell," Davion admitted, a little confused.
"Ok, final question. Could you get me a map to where the druids are?"
"Yes, certainly," Davion said. He pulled out a sheet of parchment and began sketching. "The druids are in Yesterhill, about two miles south of us here," the winemaker explained as he drew. "They have a camp around this large hill, that will be Yesterhill. You can't miss it, there's a giant evil tree in the middle of their camp where the druids perform their rituals."
"Sagira!" Eld called out. "Giant evil tree you can burn!"
"Hurray!" Sagira responded. "A reason to keep going!"
Davion looked amused. "Just follow the road south of here. The hill is close to the beginnings of the mist."
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Overnight, while the others rested, Eld got to gather with Davion and his family and built a small distillery. "Here, this is how to make a good brandy," he said as the morning approached.
"I can see how this would go over well with the locals," Davion said. "My thanks."
"Just keep up your end of the bargain when we get back with your gems. I need more variety than just wine."
Arf arrived back with the cart around mid morning. "Irwin said thanks for getting the wine shipments going again," the dwarf said as the group gathered on the winery veranda. "He wants us all to be there to discuss our reward. Also he said someone was looking for us. But not a bad someone," he added this last at worried looks from the rest of the group.
"Great!" Eld said. "We're going to go take out the rest of the druids first though."
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The group headed out around noon, and walked south at a steady pace. The journey was quiet, although as they walked they observed darkening storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Soon, a tall hill came into view, ringed by cairns made of black stones. At the top of the hill was a large wooden statue. The clouds had turned black by then, and occasionally a bolt of lightning would flash and strike the hill.
"Right, so when we get there, we kill anybody who isn't us, got it?" Eld said.
"Good plan," Rek agreed.
The group walked cautiously up the hill, ignoring the rings of cairns and the ring paths around the hill that alternated with the cairns. The climb was as uneventful as the journey to the hill. An ominous stillness hung heavy in the air, punctuated by the occasional bolt of lightning. As they got closer, it became apparent that the lightning was striking somewhere behind the giant statue, but a ring of large black boulders obstructed the view of the hill's crest.
"Anyone want some magical support?" Xandril asked anxiously as they approached the ring of boulders. "Anyone? Just me? Fine, your loss." The bard sang a brief ditty about owls, and suddenly looked somehow wiser than before.
The black boulders stood ten feet high, and were placed in a tight ring around the top of the hill. The wooden statue loomed, fifty feet or taller behind them. A single pathway led between the boulders.
"Ok, let's flank the entrance," Eld said. "I'm sure there will be trouble up here. Rek, you go in the front, Colin, you take the left and I'll take the right. Rek, wait for us to climb the boulders to give you covering fire, then go in."
"Understood," Rek said.
"We'll hang back here," Sagira said. "If there's trouble we can always come in with flaming bolts."
Rek walked to the path between the boulders and waited while Eld and Colin moved to the flanking boulders. At a signal from Eld, he and Colin moved to climb the boulders.
As soon as their hands touched the stone however, lightning shot from the clouds. One bolt struck the ground next to Colin, throwing the cleric backwards away from the boulders. A second bolt slammed directly into Eld, knocking him to the ground unconscious. Climbing to his feet, Colin rushed to Eld, chanting a healing spell as he arrived to bring the ranger back to the world of the aware.
"Back to the road!" Eld croaked as he came to. He and Colin stumbled back to Sagira and Seesil. "Don't touch the rocks," Eld said in a hoarse voice.
"No kidding," Sagira said dryly. "Look, Rek went inside anyway. We should catch up."
The group runs into the circle of boulders behind Rek and Xandril, who had followed the half-orc inside. Rek was poking the statue with her axe. "It's made of wood," the barbarian declared, turning to the rest. "What happened to Eld?"
"Don't ask," Eld muttered.
"Should I set the statue on fire?" Sagira asked eagerly.
"Wait a moment," Seesil said. "Let me ssee if the statue is magic. I worry ssetting it ablaze could unleash something bad at us."
"Fine, fine," Sagira said sullenly.
While the druid chanted his ritual to detect the magic in the area, Eld pondered a different question. "That lightning is not hitting the statue, so where is it striking? It seems to be hitting the same point over and over." The ranger drew his bow and fired an arrow in a long arc, hoping the lightning would strike the arrow mid-flight, or that the arrow would hit an enemy somehow, but he was disappointed on both counts.
Seesil looked up. "The statue is magic, at least something at the heart of it is," he said. "So are the boulders. And the cairns. And the hill itself! There is magic all around!"
"Does that mean I can set fire to the statue?" Sagira asked.
"Doesn't the statue remind you of someone?" Colin asked. "Cloak, fangs... he's on the money. That's Strahd."
"Please do not set fire to the statue yet," Seesil pleaded. "Let us see if we can get the heart out of it first."
Strong thick roots surrounded the base of the statue, apparently holding it up. "If I cut these, the statue comes down," Rek said, taking her axe to the roots. She gave up after a few hits, however. "Roots keep growing back, I can't make progress!" she groused.
"What about the statue itself?" Eld asked, from a safe distance away. Rek took her axe and swung it at the statue's leg. The axe bit deep, but as the ranger withdrew the blade the wood was already regrowing.
"Now can I set it on fire?" Sagira asked.
"Yes!" Eld said, backing up further.
With a grin, the tiefling hurled bolts of fire into the statue, but the flames failed to catch on anything, and with a sad expression, Sagira extinguished them.
"The lightning is striking the middle of that copse of trees," Colin said, looking down a so far overlooked path leading south down from the crown of the hill.
Xandril looked up from where he had been singing a song about Strahd, trying to make up catchy insults. "Maybe we should go investigate that?"
The group gave a collective shrug and headed out of the circle of boulders down the hill. Rek led the way, and before long they passed through a circle of stunted and withered trees to find a clearing. In the middle of the clearing stood a tall, twisted tree that seemed to ooze blood.
"It's the ssame wood that the evil sstaff was made out of," Seesil said.
A surprisingly shiny axe was embedded in the tree, next to a decayed corpse. Surrounding the tree were six druids. As the group approached closer, the druids turned, looked at the approaching adventurers, grinned, and scattered.
"Damn it!" Sagira cursed, "I was going to get all of them with a fireball!"
TO BE CONTINUED
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