We started, still in the encampment of the former residents of the winery. The head guy provided a sketch of the outside of the one building, surrounded by grape vineyards. There were several entrances but only one road. We attempted to get more information out of him (secret underground tunnels? (Plants have dark vision?, other roads?, numbers?, etc) but got nothing of any value beyond the map. We also grilled him for potential motivations for these Druids. Evidently, they had been harassing them for months but a week ago, they just attacked and took over. Questions about whether there were any druid ruins under this place or near the area again came to naught. Motivation was a reasonable line of questioning given that the Druid we fought last time seemed to return to his normal self before he died. So, we were thinking maybe if we could figure out why they were corrupted, maybe we could fix that and therefore save them. We also revisited Loki’s back story during that. He remembered that Stradhanya had somehow captured/corrupted/banished the 3 gods of the Druids so now they must worship her. (Not quite the backstory DG wrote but whatever.) Loki’s destiny was to free the 3 gods or some such. But ultimately, we ended up back at the “attack the winery” adventure as it was our only lead. At the very least, we needed information.
In the middle of all this, Lady Petrina did a tarot reading on Loki to try to get more information out of him. Again, we got nothing new. But while that was happening, the NPC started asking questions about this Petrina behind her back. I mean we didn’t really know anything about her other than she was a player character. But that’s true of all of us really. Anyone of us could be a spy. That launched a big discussion about her backstory and the backstory of the Dusk elves. Some of this was rehash for Andy who missed last time. She didn’t seem to eat or sleep. Someone with that name was stoned 200 years ago. How do we know she wasn’t a vampire? (She a Reborn.) She did have a reflection in a mirror. Ambrus tried to unlock her memories with his tattoo. But ultimately, we ended up back where we started.
We finally got back to assault plans. Loki offered to do some recon as a squirrel but Petrina revealed her undead sprite familiar. It could fly invisible so Mr. Grey was sent, looking for the best approach path. It seemed an impossible task but then Wade announced it was to be a skill challenge so all these discussions were mostly for naught. The first challenge was an Investigation roll to find the optimal path so he gave that to us based on Mr. Grey. Next was an Animal Handling to understand what the ravens flying above were up to. Kharn thought they were sort of leading the way along the best path. (More fuel for the “not all the druids are evil” notion.) Near the end of the fields was a Stealth check to stay ahead of the closing Thorn Blights. Ambrus rolled that, assisted by Ezra who he had turned invisible in hopes of helping him sneak. Then an Acrobatic dash into a store room which dog Loki lead. Then an Athletics roll to lock the door behind us which Ezra did. I think Ambrus took a couple points from thorn fire but all and all, it was a success.
The storeroom was more of a closet but the next room was 2-3 stories high to hold big vats of wine. There were stairs up to a catwalk above and lots of doors. Kharn went first and spotted a fur clad Druid pouring some thick liquid into a vat. He raged, wolfed and charged up to her. There were also around 6 of the small Twig Blights. Combat ensued. Neither were much of a threat. The Druid did manage one Thunder Wave but hopefully it was dismissed as part of the rain storm outside. Loki used a short sword to stay quiet. Ambrus got knocked into a wine vat. About the only complication was that after most had finally hacked their way through the minions and got up to where the Druid was, Lord Q pulled her down with a cantrip. And she tried to make a getaway. There were some contentious discussions amongst the rule lawyers about how that movement all worked. She did manage to get through a door. Patrina was not able to best her strength to open it but Kharn had no trouble. She was finally cut down. Nothing was learned or earned and no short rest needed. Lord Q questions the ravens in the rafters but they had nothing very useful to say.
After some discussion about what to do next, we went through the door she was trying to go through. It led to stairs going down to a cool basement. We all headed down, in initiative order. It was a wine storage room. The first half, the racks were empty but the second half had wine bottles. Wade pulled us out of initiative order but the next action, Kharn and Loki found another Druid and 4-5 big Thorn Blights in the second area. The Druid cast Entangle but only Loki failed his save. These Blights were much tougher and had range attacks that did like 3d6. Kharn recklessly pursued the Druid, taking several opportunity attacks and got beat up pretty good. The Druid wasn’t too effective but had a lot of hit points. The Blights were tough. When the Druid was dropped at 1AM, the chronicler went to bed. I assume the remaining Blights were finished off and they stopped there. Assuming another encounter doesn’t come down here, we were much louder this time, it’ll be the short rest or press on discussion next time. It appears to be another one of those “fight in every room” type maps.
