We left off last week in the middle of a battle with a vampire and many others on the plateau that is home to the druids that stole the winery’s last Gem. Without that Gem, the wine industry may very well dry up. To most, in this dreary place, that is all they have. We are fighting with Adrian, the son of Davian, who runs the Winery.
The attacks begin with the Vampire looking to Misty, more as a snack than an opponent. She says, “So hungry!” as she latches on to Misty, riding her down as Misty falls unconscious. Haldar responds with a bow shot to the Vampire but misses. Dain is attacked by one of the wild men and missed. Kyana uses Word of Radiance against two of the creatures, one of which saves and the other only takes minor damage. She then sends a spiritual weapon against the vampire and hits her! Kyana is attacked but missed.
One of the druids casts entangle on an area in an attempt to slow Haldar’s movement. Haldar is ineffected by the difficult terrain but the vines attempt to grasp him and fail as well. Dain attempts to hit the one in front of Tatyana…err…Kyana and smacks him for a good bit of damage. He then moves to interpose himself between Kyana and her attacker. She backs away as he shouts, “I’ve got this one, go save Misty!”. Snoggly suddenly becomes four Snoggly’s. Well, that ought to be confusing for the time being. Zanfyr, the wolf, moves around behind one of the enemy and attacks and hits it for a good bit of damage.
Snoggly is attacked and one of his illusionary selves takes the hit for him and vanishes. Adrian is attacked and hit for serious damage. Rinn rushes to attempt to knock Misty, and because of her proximity to Misty, the vampire, out of the moonbeam. He failed to move them. Misty failed a save against the moonbeam and is officially below 0 hit points. Adrian swings and misses against his opponent. The large stick vampire begins light up with a bright green glow within its chest. Some of the sticks that make up a good bit of its body start snapping. All of this as five of the druids surrounding it continue to focus their beams on it.
The vampire attempts to feed on Misty but Rinn’s attempt to move them from the moonbeam seems to have distracted her and she misses. Haldar called his shot in an attempt to max out his damage and hits her for a lot of damage. Dain is attacked but missed. Kyana’s spiritual weapon attacks the vampire and smacks it pretty good. Kayan, sends a Guiding Bolt against the vampire and with its critical hit, scores a good deal of damage which does end its unlife. Rinn is attacked and missed. The moonbeam causes more damage to Misty. Followed a successful death save.
Dain strikes his opponent. Haldar sends bow strikes against the stick vampire. Zanfyr, the wolf, attacks his opponent and take him to the ground. Snoggly is attacked and he and his images are missed. Zanfyr is attacked by his opponent. Rinn attempts to carry Misty away but he’s unable to pick her up. He attempts to drag her away but fails again. In a final attempt to assist her with the moonbeam, he lays over her, draping her with his body and his cloak, hoping to block the moonbeam from damaging her again. Adrain hits his opponent and kills him and moves on to the next person.
The sticks on the vampire start breaking apart, more and more. Black sticks begin breaking through and they begin to wave around, lashing about. Haldar manages to avoid being grasped by the by the entangling vines and about that time, Rinn notices that the vampire is healing and regenerating and shouts it out to the others. Haldar pulls a stake out and runs to her to jam it into her heart. Her body lunges upward and blood sprays forth from her mouth. She falls back and her once beautiful face dissolves into bone at first, her body following the same course, and then the skeleton she has become, dissolves into dust. She is no more. Haldar might have gained another inspiration point but he already had one. He then takes off to attack and distract one of the four remaining druids.
Dain is attacked and is hit. Kyana moves and then sends her spiritual hammer against a druid. Turning her attention to the stick vampire, she casts a Guiding Bolt and it breaks into hi doing a good bit of damage. That spell also lights him up so that everyone has a much easier time hitting him. Misty attempts a death save and succeeds. Dain breaks off of his opponent and moves 25 feet toward Rinn and holds a Lay on Hands spell to use on Misty when Rinn gets her to him. Snoggly fires a magic missile at the tree vampire for a good bit of damage. Zanfyr attacks his opponent a hits him attempted to put him on the ground again but failed.
Snoggly is attacked and is his opponent was actually able to strike the right image. He took a little damage. Rinn finally succeeds in picking up Misty and taking her to and placing her on the ground by Dain. Dain used his Lay on Hands spell to heal her for 15 points. Adrian attacks the opponent against Snoggly but misses. One of the druids breaks off and moves to attack Haldar and hits him but he seems okay. Haldar changes to his short sword and shield and returns the attack.
Haldar disengages and moves away from the two that are on him. Zanfyr is attacked and missed. Kyana fires another Guiding Bolt at the stick vampire and hits it. Misty is back on her feet and uses a patch from the robe which gives her a healing potion of which she takes and moves back behind a rock for cover. Dain runs at one of the druids and shield bash/body blocks him in an attempt to break it’s concentration. It does force him to drop his beam. Kyana forgot to use the spiritual weapon which she does and smacks a druid for a good bit of damage. Snoggly starts throwing fire bolts at the stick vampire and hits it for some damage as well as sets it on fire.
Wolfy Zanfyr, attacks his opponent again and misses. One of the druids on Snoggly and Adrian attacks Adrian and put him on the ground. Rinn pulls off a distracted sneak attack using Boo to attack and run to draw the attention of a druid and Rinn then smacks it for a good bit of damage using his bow shot. Haldar take a shot at the one Rinn was attacking and it’s a good hit but doesn’t break its concentration. Zanfyr is hit. Kyana casts a sacred flame on the one that Rinn and Haldar attacked and put it down. One more beam is dropped. Only one bean left to stop them from whatever they are trying to achieve. Kyana’s spiritual weapon toward one of the druids and smacks it for a good bit of damage.
Dain and Kyana are attacked with a Thunderwave which pushes Kyana about 10 feet away. Misty moves up to attack one of the wildmen and hits it and tries to follow up with a claw attack but misses that one. Dain attacks the druid in front of him and hits. Snoggly throws another firebolt at the stick vampire again. Boots barely escapes being trampled by the returning Debbie! Rinn was as attacked and missed twice. Zanfyr attacks his opponent again and hits him Then he drags him to the ground. He’s stioll alive but only barely. Rinn disengages from his opponent and moves toward the final druid maintaining a beam. He utilizes Boo to make a sneak attack. Boo hits for one point of damage while Rinn follows up with 15 points of damage which breaks the druid concentration and now all of the beams are down. Boo’s sweeping attack carries him far enough away to be safe.
The branches on the stick vampire stops waving around it’s branches. Zanfyr’s opponent gets up and hits him. If enough damage to knock him out of the wolf form. Kyana fires a bow shot at the big stick vampire. Dain is attacked and missed. Kyana attacks her spiritual hammer, late again, and misses the druid. Misty makes two good attacks. Rinn is attacked and missed. Dain smacks the druid in front of him again. Snoggly throws another firebolt at the stick vampire and hits. The fire does even more damage. Zanfyr wild shapes into a brown bear and attacks twice on his opponent. His opponent is looking pretty rough. One of the wild men goes berserk and attacks Misty and hits. Rinn and Boo jointly attack a druid again with Boo hitting it for one point of damage while Rinn follows up with 16 points of damage. The druid dies. Rinn turns to face the other druid on him and growls at him saying, “It’s your turn next!”. Rinn fails a save against Thunderwave and takes 10 points of damage.
The stick vampire begins to come apart, the black tree at its core is inert and on fire. Haldar fires at it again and since it is inert, it’s easier to hit and always takes critical damage. Zanfyr, the brown bear, is hit for a good bit of damage. Kyana does a good bit of damage to the stick vampire. Dain’s opponent strikes him for a bit of bludgeoning damage. Misty attacks the one in front of her and strike him twice. He’s still standing. Dain takes down one of his opponents and turn to the next druid and growls at him saying, “It’s your turn now!”. Snoggly firebolts the stick vampire again and misses The fire that is already on him is still causing damage. Dain makes his save against the Thunderwave against him and and takes a little damage but no other impact.
Zanfyr the bear hits his opponent with his claw attack and puts him down. Zanfyr moves to his next target. Misty is attacked and hit but is still standing. Rinn moves to use his sneak attack using Boo as a distraction and take him down. He and Boo move to a good position to attack the stick vampire on their next round. Snoggly fires another firebolt at the stick vampire and further damages it. Kyana attacks it and more pieces break off. The light at it’s core is falling in it’s body. Misty missed twice on her opponent. Dain smacks his for a light damage. Kyana’s spiritual weapon attacked the druid in front of it and take him out.
Snoggly hit’s the stick vampire with a firebolt again and this time splits it open and the gem we came for dropped out of it, onto the ground. Zanfyr attacks and hits his opponent twice. Rinn moves up and grabs the Gem and moves away to protect himself. He then uses Boo to attack a remaining druid as a distraction, but Boo actually killed it. Haldar takes out the last opponent. Rinn calls out, “Where is Adrian?”, as he turns looking for him. Adrian is down and Haldar moves to help him but it is too late. The medical machine is putting out that constant tone, indicating that even the paddles won’t work now. Haldar suggests that we put the life Gem on him to see if that helps. Rinn thinking it’s worth a shot, opens Adrian’s shirt and places the Gem on his bare chest, crossing his hands over it to hold it there.
Dain casts a cure on Adrian to see if the addition of a healing would help. After a minute or so, smoke starts coming from his body, from his nose, mouth, and ears. It’s made up of the smell of sulfur. He suddenly wakes and his breath is a terrible sulfur smell. He rolls over and begins to get up. Dain uses his divine sense to try and determine if he is something evil or not. He doesn’t sense anything and Kyana uses her holy symbol and touches it against him and it has no affect. He coughs and sulfur smoke billows out enveloping Misty, Dain, and Zanfyr. Misty stops, drops, and rolls. Zanfyr and Dain both move away. Adrian moves away as well. When asked, he didn’t remember where he had been, only the sense of horror. Snoggly and Misty both suggest that he had been in hell.
As he talks, little puffs of smoke come out of his mouth. Misty points out that Adrian still has the life stone. Rinn moves forward to try and retrieve it from him, telling him that he should take it and put it away for safe keeping, until we get back to the winery. Adrian asked if it had been within the stick vampire and was told that it fell from the statue once it was destroyed. Adrian asks about the Gulthias tree. Rinn assumed that was what made up the core of the stick vampire but Adrian assured him that the stick vampire was not the Gulthias tree. They move towards what remained of the stick vampire and Haldar asks about the Gulthias tree. Adrian points at the far gate and upon further inspection, we can see trees and movement at a good distance beyond that gate. He says, “Down there is the Gulthias tree!”.
We begin the time honored tradition of looting the bodies. Haldar and Rinn move to the far gate to scout what’s in the distance. Adrian continues to examine the stick vampire and tells us that it is like the stick blights of the winery but massive in size. They used the stone to attempt to give it life and intelligence. Misty walks up to Rinn and gives him a meat pie. He eats it and makes a constitution save. That gave him 2d8 healing for a total of 14 points. It also gave him a temporary 6 points of constitution gain or 20 temporary hit points. Rinn sends Boo out to see what is beyond the wall. He uses Boo as an extension of his own senses to gather information about what is beyond there. He sees a copse of trees and in the center a little raised area where stands a big, black, almost bloody tree standing there. He can also see movement, something along the likes of the blight creatures.
Haldar goes to the stairs leading up to the platform where we first saw the vampire. It looks off towards the misty area that we assume is the border of this land. There are no other raise platforms looking off in any other direction. As he looks out at the mist, he sees shapes moving in the mist, slow, subtle, almost human like, giants. It is like people milling about at a party, but giant people. No real features present themselves. It is as if he is looking into another realm. Dain and Kyana look to see if they perceive anything more than what Haldar saw. We think it might be the realm of the gods looking in on us or perhaps Strahd is watching us through the mist.
Dain, thinking that whoever it is, shouldn’t feel superior in anyway, eaves at the figures. Snoggly wanders if it could be a view into the past or future. He also points out that this is where the vampire was standing and looking when we arrived here. Dain wonders aloud that perhaps these are the souls of those lost to the mist. Kyana see scorch marks on the stone beneath them. The center of these scorch marks are clean but the outer area is blackened. We don’t perceive that they are movement. They are different sizes and placements. The distance from the platform to the mist wall is measure in mile. Kyana are fire based but not lightning based.
Haldar, out of the corner of his eye, sees through a brief break, the top of a gigantic white spire of like a tower. It was only briefly in view. Haldar suggest that we should move away from the platform and do something about resting. Rinn suggested that we might be safe where we are but Adrian counters that by saying that the barbarians have hunting tribes that come and go through here all the time. After a little discussion, it is decided that we are not that far from the winery ad that maybe we should return there to rest. We’ll do a short rest up here before we start back. Zanfyr stays in bear form.