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Lenora's Journal for Our Phandelver Campaign Transition into Curse of Strahd
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<blockquote data-quote="Rhenny" data-source="post: 7351471" data-attributes="member: 18333"><p>Session 40 – Wintersplinter and the Gulthius Tree</p><p></p><p>Bynn worked to purify the wine in the large casks as soon as we woke up early in the morning and then we set out south on the path toward Yesterhill. As we got deeper into the forest path, we saw a flaming horse fly above us toward the area where we were headed. All of us were spooked by this except for Brigby and Bynn, who urged us forward even though we felt the dread of Strahd.</p><p></p><p>Bynn as wolf and Syvrina both scouted ahead as I maintained contact using my message spell. They saw the hill and the cairns that surrounded it making two concentric circles. As we neared, a storm above blasted lightning into the area atop the hill where our scouts saw a strange statue in a small clearing surrounded by muddy, mossy burial stones. Around the statue, we also saw a circle of druids and berserkers chanting and dancing, and as we got closer we saw that the statue was a gigantic image of Strahd made from sticks, at its center a green gem glowed with strange power. Again, lightning struck down from the sky as if called by the druids themselves and some of the statue fell away.</p><p></p><p>Quickly I called out to our group as I prepared a fireball. Syvrina notched and fired an arrow at one of the druids and then I lit up the entire top of the hill with flames. The druids suffered a lot of damage, but the berserkers not as much. Additionally, my spell seemed to make the green gem flare and the statue of Strahd crumbled down even more than before. Brigby called to his god and unleashed a sleet storm of his own that blanketed the top of the hill in a 40’ radius, making it tough for the foes to keep their feet. A few druids fell and were unable to continue their ritual, but a third steadied himself and called for more lightning to strike the gem. With that, the statue of sticks toppled completely and the ground beneath the gem broke as tree limbs and roots burst from the ground, freeing a huge nasty tree creature. Bynn could hear the foes chanting “Wintersplinter, Wintersplinter, ravage the land.”</p><p></p><p>Bynn as wolf bounded toward a druid and took him down with one nasty bite. Then Fid, rummaged through his possessions to find the Gulthius Staff. He tried to break it, but could not muster up the strength on his first attempt. With extra reserves of energy, he managed to try a second time, succeeding. The staff itself screamed a high pitched dying sound and from the outskirts of the forest we heard the sound of more high-pitched screams mixed with the sound of cracking branches. Then, from the south we saw an even larger tree creature emerge from the forest, this was the Gulthius Tree for sure.</p><p></p><p>The Gulthius Tree moved toward the center of the hilltop, and we were uncertain if it was friend or foe. Fid stepped aside and let it pass. As it got to the top of the clearing, pushing berserkers and Wintersplinter away from its path, it called to the storm above and the clouds roiled in torment. This did not seem friendly.</p><p></p><p>Bynn and Syvrina attacked a few of the berserkers near them, as Fid ran through to get to the Gulthius Tree. I detonated another fireball before Fid got to the tree, which took out most of the druids and injured the berserkers, but did very little to the two tree creatures. Bynn the wolf ran back taking hits from Wintersplinter and a berserker, the damage from the tree forced him to take his Half-Elf form, but he put some distance between himself and the foes. Then, our druid called down lightning from the storm, killing a berserker and injuring Wintersplinter too. </p><p></p><p>Some berserkers tried to move, but they slipped in the ice storm that Brigby maintained. Then Brigby shot off a potent shatter spell which injured The Gulthius Tree and killed two berserkers. Fid hacked once at the tree doing some damage, but then he stumbled and hurt himself in a second attack. </p><p></p><p>Realizing that the trees were resistant to fire, I opted to cast Haste on Fid, and then Brigby shot off another empowered shatter that hurt both trees. Syvrina, hurt by Wintersplinter and wrapped in roots wriggled free and pulled herself out of combat to a safer position as Wintersplinter grabbed Brigby with grasping roots. Fid, hit by a berserker, gathered his second wind, called upon his fighting spirit and took out his cursed blade. With two hands, he hacked at the Gulthius Tree, hitting it three times in succession, taking advantage of his great weapon mastery to chop out huge chunks of the nasty tree creature. Right after that, The Gulthius Tree drew in the storm and the air around us and it became harder for us to breath. We were not sure what was happening, but it felt horrible, and we didn’t know what would happen next.</p><p></p><p>Bynn unleashed another lightning bolt as Syvrina fired arrows at our foes. Wintersplinter went down, but The Gulthius Tree remained and continued to draw in the oxygen around us. Seeing an opening, I rushed up to a berserker and stabbed with rapier, but missed the mark. Dropping the ice storm so that Fid could wade into battle more effectively, Brigby moved up on two berserkers and hit them with a thunderwave; then I jumped up to greenflame blade attack two of them. Finally, Fid hacked again and The Gulthius tree crashed to the ground.</p><p></p><p>After finishing off the final berserker, we searched the area atop the hill. A strange spirit of a long dead god, pre-dating Strahd, spoke to Bynn and chose him to find a magical Blood Spear buried in a cairn. Then to the south, we spotted something white poking out of the ground. We moved over to investigate and found a skeletal hand poke out from the ground clutching a tome. Fid grabbed the tome and tossed it gently to me. I inspected it quickly to find that it was an ornate tome, very old. Nearby, we also found another dead body and a battle axe with its blade buried into the side of a tree. </p><p></p><p>Before traveling back to the vineyard, we took an hour to heal using healing spirit and I was able to indentify the items we had found. The Blood Spear was magical (+2) and could grant temporary hit points after striking a foe. The axe was an Axe of Pruning, designed to do extra damage to plant and plant creatures alike. The tome was The Tome of Strahd, a magical book created by Strahd himself. I spent some time reading through it and found Strahd’s own account of his own history, his love for Tatyana, his murder of his brother, Tatyana’s fall, and his own conversion to vampirism. He spoke of the sun sword and how he was seeking to find and destroy it, and he spoke of his own resting place under Ravenloft, in a sealed chamber. This item may be one of the items that we will need to eventually face the devil, Madame Eva’s prophecy guiding us to our first major victory. I quickly stashed the tome in my pack as Brigby took the battle axe and Bynn attuned to the Blood Spear, and we made plans to jog back to the Wizards of Wine and then on to Krezk to meet up with Esmeralda to share our victory and aid Esmeralda to remove the curse from Fid’s cursed blade.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rhenny, post: 7351471, member: 18333"] Session 40 – Wintersplinter and the Gulthius Tree Bynn worked to purify the wine in the large casks as soon as we woke up early in the morning and then we set out south on the path toward Yesterhill. As we got deeper into the forest path, we saw a flaming horse fly above us toward the area where we were headed. All of us were spooked by this except for Brigby and Bynn, who urged us forward even though we felt the dread of Strahd. Bynn as wolf and Syvrina both scouted ahead as I maintained contact using my message spell. They saw the hill and the cairns that surrounded it making two concentric circles. As we neared, a storm above blasted lightning into the area atop the hill where our scouts saw a strange statue in a small clearing surrounded by muddy, mossy burial stones. Around the statue, we also saw a circle of druids and berserkers chanting and dancing, and as we got closer we saw that the statue was a gigantic image of Strahd made from sticks, at its center a green gem glowed with strange power. Again, lightning struck down from the sky as if called by the druids themselves and some of the statue fell away. Quickly I called out to our group as I prepared a fireball. Syvrina notched and fired an arrow at one of the druids and then I lit up the entire top of the hill with flames. The druids suffered a lot of damage, but the berserkers not as much. Additionally, my spell seemed to make the green gem flare and the statue of Strahd crumbled down even more than before. Brigby called to his god and unleashed a sleet storm of his own that blanketed the top of the hill in a 40’ radius, making it tough for the foes to keep their feet. A few druids fell and were unable to continue their ritual, but a third steadied himself and called for more lightning to strike the gem. With that, the statue of sticks toppled completely and the ground beneath the gem broke as tree limbs and roots burst from the ground, freeing a huge nasty tree creature. Bynn could hear the foes chanting “Wintersplinter, Wintersplinter, ravage the land.” Bynn as wolf bounded toward a druid and took him down with one nasty bite. Then Fid, rummaged through his possessions to find the Gulthius Staff. He tried to break it, but could not muster up the strength on his first attempt. With extra reserves of energy, he managed to try a second time, succeeding. The staff itself screamed a high pitched dying sound and from the outskirts of the forest we heard the sound of more high-pitched screams mixed with the sound of cracking branches. Then, from the south we saw an even larger tree creature emerge from the forest, this was the Gulthius Tree for sure. The Gulthius Tree moved toward the center of the hilltop, and we were uncertain if it was friend or foe. Fid stepped aside and let it pass. As it got to the top of the clearing, pushing berserkers and Wintersplinter away from its path, it called to the storm above and the clouds roiled in torment. This did not seem friendly. Bynn and Syvrina attacked a few of the berserkers near them, as Fid ran through to get to the Gulthius Tree. I detonated another fireball before Fid got to the tree, which took out most of the druids and injured the berserkers, but did very little to the two tree creatures. Bynn the wolf ran back taking hits from Wintersplinter and a berserker, the damage from the tree forced him to take his Half-Elf form, but he put some distance between himself and the foes. Then, our druid called down lightning from the storm, killing a berserker and injuring Wintersplinter too. Some berserkers tried to move, but they slipped in the ice storm that Brigby maintained. Then Brigby shot off a potent shatter spell which injured The Gulthius Tree and killed two berserkers. Fid hacked once at the tree doing some damage, but then he stumbled and hurt himself in a second attack. Realizing that the trees were resistant to fire, I opted to cast Haste on Fid, and then Brigby shot off another empowered shatter that hurt both trees. Syvrina, hurt by Wintersplinter and wrapped in roots wriggled free and pulled herself out of combat to a safer position as Wintersplinter grabbed Brigby with grasping roots. Fid, hit by a berserker, gathered his second wind, called upon his fighting spirit and took out his cursed blade. With two hands, he hacked at the Gulthius Tree, hitting it three times in succession, taking advantage of his great weapon mastery to chop out huge chunks of the nasty tree creature. Right after that, The Gulthius Tree drew in the storm and the air around us and it became harder for us to breath. We were not sure what was happening, but it felt horrible, and we didn’t know what would happen next. Bynn unleashed another lightning bolt as Syvrina fired arrows at our foes. Wintersplinter went down, but The Gulthius Tree remained and continued to draw in the oxygen around us. Seeing an opening, I rushed up to a berserker and stabbed with rapier, but missed the mark. Dropping the ice storm so that Fid could wade into battle more effectively, Brigby moved up on two berserkers and hit them with a thunderwave; then I jumped up to greenflame blade attack two of them. Finally, Fid hacked again and The Gulthius tree crashed to the ground. After finishing off the final berserker, we searched the area atop the hill. A strange spirit of a long dead god, pre-dating Strahd, spoke to Bynn and chose him to find a magical Blood Spear buried in a cairn. Then to the south, we spotted something white poking out of the ground. We moved over to investigate and found a skeletal hand poke out from the ground clutching a tome. Fid grabbed the tome and tossed it gently to me. I inspected it quickly to find that it was an ornate tome, very old. Nearby, we also found another dead body and a battle axe with its blade buried into the side of a tree. Before traveling back to the vineyard, we took an hour to heal using healing spirit and I was able to indentify the items we had found. The Blood Spear was magical (+2) and could grant temporary hit points after striking a foe. The axe was an Axe of Pruning, designed to do extra damage to plant and plant creatures alike. The tome was The Tome of Strahd, a magical book created by Strahd himself. I spent some time reading through it and found Strahd’s own account of his own history, his love for Tatyana, his murder of his brother, Tatyana’s fall, and his own conversion to vampirism. He spoke of the sun sword and how he was seeking to find and destroy it, and he spoke of his own resting place under Ravenloft, in a sealed chamber. This item may be one of the items that we will need to eventually face the devil, Madame Eva’s prophecy guiding us to our first major victory. I quickly stashed the tome in my pack as Brigby took the battle axe and Bynn attuned to the Blood Spear, and we made plans to jog back to the Wizards of Wine and then on to Krezk to meet up with Esmeralda to share our victory and aid Esmeralda to remove the curse from Fid’s cursed blade. [/QUOTE]
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