Session 7 - The Gulthias Tree

22 Thaumont 1010

General Summary

After their short rest, the party continues to systematically explore the upper floor of the grove (it appears that there is a lower floor of the grove as well). The party finds a staircase down, and before descending decides to finish searching the current area. Backtracking to side passages they'd passed, the party finds more farming rooms and encounters another Bugbear along with some goblins. It appears that the goblins will not return to town with a bugbear present, so the party is forced to kill them all, which they do with relative efficiency. Nothing of any real value is found here.
However, in one room the party finds another strange hole with a glowing worm inside. This time, the party decides to investigate further. The worm appears to be a Fire Snake, an immature Fire Salamander, and burns when struck. It does damage to several party members before they are able to defeat it. The party skins the Fire Snake (not very skillfully), in the hope that this skin is of value to Kiorna Kester back in Saltmarsh. They also find a sapphire in the snake's nest.
Once clearing the previous rooms, the party returns to the staircase, and very cautiously moves forward. Strangely enough, the long passageway appears to be harmless! At the other end of the passage, there is another staircase back up to the same altitude as the prior area. This too has a hallway. but this time, there are doors along the passageway. In one of the rooms, they find some scrolls, which none of the party are able to use, but may be valuable to someone, along with a book bound with dragon scales.
Finally, they find an "office-like" space with some books, notes on growth behaviors, and a desk. While searching through this, a couple books are found that appear interesting. One it turns out, is trapped! A blast of cold pounds into the party, and everyone takes some damage (some more than others!). After using most of their remaining healing capacity, the party finishes exploring the room and finds some gems and 165 gold pieces.
Moving on through the second door that was within the office, the next room appears to be a much larger cave area, with more of the glowing purple fungus. The party encounters some goblins and several more hostile shrubberies, and dispatches them.
As they move along, the cavern continues to become larger. While scouting ahead, Leo's familiar Flametalon is narrowly missed by a spell cast from below, forcing him to return to Leo.
The party advances with care to the final section of the grove, where find a broken down castle like scene, and upon their approach, Belak (apparently a Druid) tries to convince the party that they should become his thrall rather than fighting. In his monologue, Belak explains that on this spot, a vampire was killed by a wooden stake. From that stake has grown this sickly looking tree, the Gulthias Tree. It has powers of some sort, and the party is given the feeling that this tree is fundamentally evil.
After hearing Belak out, the party is not at all convinced to work with him, and decides to fight Belak as originally planned. In addition to Belak, there are two other humanoids, but they are no longer human. Braford and Sharwin appear to have bark-like skin now, and are under the control of either Belak or the tree itself. When Belfur attacks Braford, Braford blocks the blow with his sword and, with a great flash of light, Belfur's summoned weapon is shattered!
Belfur shows off some new tricks he learned, and teleports to within melee range of both Belak and Sharwin, forcing them to deal with him. A giant frog leaps from the Gulthias Tree and attempts to swallow Leofingal, but is slain before it's successful. The party is able to work down all three of the major enemies efficiently, and even without any remaining healing capacity, the party comes out on top.
After some consideration (and harvesting the current year's crop of one fruit). The party decides to burn the evil tree with magical fire. By now the party has collected both signet rings from the missing adventurers. Unfortunately, they were unable to save any of them. Besides the sword, which appears to be magical, the party also finds that Belak's staff is interesting. Since it appears to be a druidic staff, Elincia claims this, though she feels ill-at-eese holding it. Belfur takes the magical sword that was used against him.
With the tree engulfed in flames, the party decides to leave the large cavern and rest, ending session 7.

Report Date

09 Dec 2019