Finding the Tree--Barovia

General Summary

You set off for the tree with Constance in tow. Rose got a natural 20 on her Survival check to avoid getting lost, thus sparing us all from any tedious need to keep rerolling them every hour. Bless you, dice. You saw flashes of various creepy things that didn't seem to pose any threat to you--clearings that were clearly in the middle of summer or winter even though the rest of the forest was in autumn, huge boars that looked like a cross between shambling mounds and zombies. Vanya kept hearing snatches of a lullaby from his childhood, which Rose didn't hear and which he tried to drive away with countersong. There were also magpies and hooded crows following you and watching; you knew that those were birds associated with the fey, and they reacted with raucous laughter whenever you hurt yourselves or seemed to be in danger, so you suspected that they were polymorphed fey. Vanya was pleased by this; he didn't know much about the forest, but he knew how to play to an audience.
You eventually reached a small lake. To the left of it, you could catch flashes of brilliant color; to the right, you could hear a beautiful song (different from the lullaby Vanya had been hearing). Vanya briefly saw blood in the water of the lake, but it disappeared when he looked too closely. You decided that countersong made the right the obvious choice, so you headed in that direction. Rose had no trouble ignoring the song, but as you drew closer to it, Vanya found that the tones and intervals were the most haunting and unusual he had ever heard, and if he just listened closely enough, he was sure to be able to reproduce them . . .
Rose saw that Vanya was staring off into space with the same gobsmacked expression of the many, many people he'd fascinated with his lute, but fortunately, it's pretty easy to shake someone out of fascinate, so she snapped him out of it just as some kind of huge, fanged, squirrel-like creature started crawling down the tree toward him, still singing. Vanya countersang again and it hissed and ran off.
Later, Rose noticed that when you stopped for a brief rest, some toadstools sprouted up at her feet. With her ridiculous druidic knowledge nature role, she deduced that they were fairy toadstools, a kind of fungus that typically grew in Tepest and was used as a fey detector by the witchfinders there. It grew abnormally fast in the presence of fey, but did the same thing in the presence of many people with magical abilities, which had led plenty of innocents to the stake. Rose thought there might be a use for them later and pocketed a few.
You came close to where Rose had seen the tree, when suddenly Rose stepped right through solid ground and started to fall into a deep ravine, because hallucinatory terrain is a bitch. Luckily, Constance made an extraordinary reflex save, caught Rose with her tongue, and pulled her to safety, cementing her place on Team Party.
Across the ravine was a stream, where Vanya could see an old woman, singing the lullaby and washing blood from two sets of clothes: a woman's dress and an infant's swaddling clothes. Rose couldn't see or hear her, although if she concentrated she could see a vague, blurry outline. The woman asked Vanya if she hadn't already washed clothes like these for him before, then said there was still time for her services to be unnecessary--but it was running out. Vanya just kept countersinging, and Rose sang along for moral support. The washerwoman glared at them and told Vanya to run along, since he did that so well.
You reached the tree that, true to Madadh-Ruadh's word, was summer-green in autumn. Other than its vibrant leaves, though, it looked sickly, with horrible fungal growths sprouting from its half-rotted wood. Rose went under the tree and reached up with her spear to knock the berries down, but as she did, a root wrapped itself around her leg and a malicious face appeared in the grooves of the tree. The treant asked her why she had come to steal its berries, and you explained the basics of the situation. It asked why it should let you leave, when it had been so long since it had fed on the blood of sentient creatures and you had come so readily into its grasp. It said that it drew its nourishment from the land, and asked, "do you know who is The Land? Do you know what happens to all who drink from his veins?" You asked if it meant Madadh-Ruadh, and it said that it meant someone whose ties to the land were far older and stronger. 
Vanya, gambling on how spiteful the treant's face looked, pointed out how hilarious it would be to snatch this victory from Madadh-Ruadh in his own forest. The treant seemed amused by this but said that if it were to help them, it wanted to feed. Rose agreed, and the treant's roots sank tendrils into her leg and drank her blood. It asked to feed on Vanya as well, but Rose insisted that it only take her. After draining her significantly, the treant released her and allowed her to take its berries. It said that if she were to heal it of its disease, it would mark her as a friend to its kind; Rose said she didn't have any appropriate spells prepared at the moment, but she could come back the next day.
You left as the sun was setting, and in the distance, you heard a howl.

Rewards Granted

Magic berries Fairy toadstools

Character(s) interacted with

Bean-nighe Dread treant (you now know his name is Thornroot)

Related Reports

Previous session: The Hunt Begins--Barovia
Next session: Defeating Madadh-Ruadh

Report Date

20 Feb 2022

Primary Location

The forests near Lake Krezk

Related Characters

• Emyr
• Madadh-Ruadh