D&D is For Nerds - Vampire Infested Barovia II #12 Treant High or Treant Low

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

The party is punished by their own poor memories as they travel on the back of trees and prepare to fight other trees. Hecktor gets an unexpected brand new horse while Pip tells us about the tragic tale of Trumpets.Want ad-free and even more bonus content? Just check out Imagination Adventures+ on our website or on Apple Podcasts! Music by the ever wonderful Lepidora, you can check out her music here. And head to peddlerspress.store to peruse our D&D themed merch store and help support the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ahem. You're listening to the Sandspants Network. No water anywhere. Still, we are marooned. Stranded in Barovia. Mists around us like prison bars. Strahd our jailer. We must

escape. We must kill. Strahd must die. Robin. Robin. Or other bird. Maybe I gesture with a hand to the vulture. Please help. My cries be heard.

I need a creature made of wood are there any in this neighborhood ah pip you are following eleniel who is following the vulture who is hopefully yeah oh yeah that's all thinking about pip it's a it's one of a classic and i imagine pip has had many of these in his long and storied careers, and wants to hunt the, how much do I trust Emmanuel moments. As you're moving through the woods, they begin to get thinner and thinner and thinner, and eventually you can see Luna Lake in between the trees. Okay. You come out by the lake's edge, and the vulture, sawing in a kind of east, northeasterly direction. It begins

slowly circling around a tree right near the lake's edge. It looks like any other tree in Barovia. It's alive, actually, so I guess it's not like any other tree in Barovia. Not to say they're all dead, but it's just not uncommon

to see a dead tree. But I know what you mean. It's alive in that it is alive as a tree is alive yeah yeah the yeah the vulture circles around this tree lazily and continues to do so as you approach while you and eleniel are getting closer yeah both of you spotted at the same time you maybe i assume you're having different reactions eleniel stops and gives like a oh yeah like she's really shocked and excited it's maybe this is the most animated and happiest you've seen her ever yeah you realize as you approach the tree is not when i well when i say the tree is sitting by the edge of the lake i mean literally the tree is in a seated position, legs crossed. That's so funny.

Okay. In front of the lake. I'm just feeling relief that Emmanuel was right on this one. The tree turns to look at you, or you think it turns to look at you. It doesn't actually have a face. It's a weeping willow. And so you can tell it's turning to face you as the veil all around it slowly turns and then parts, just revealing what looks like any other part of the tree trunk. Yeah.

Maybe I'd like to Elanula like, Emmanuel's not typically an angel, she says in a heart whisper. I'll like my, you know, head cocked toward her, just cock my head back. Like, I don't want to get involved in whatever that is. She takes a knee. You see she's looking on in rapture. I, I'm probably going to talk to the angel. Is that okay? She, Eleniel gives you a side look like she doesn't trust you.

Would you like to talk to the angel? I mean, I mean, I mean, this is not like one of those situations where I know what to say. Emmanuel's sort of mum on the subject once you get the treant. So Eleniel from her kneeling prostate position stands back up and says, I wouldn't even know what to say. Okay. You speak. Let me think.

All right. I'll, like, walk. I imagine, like, what's the shore like? Is it muddy? Pebbly? I would say it's pebbly. Okay. Each of the stones beneath you, hence Lunar Lake, each of the stones beneath you looks

like a tiny moon. Oh my God. Okay. Maybe I'll like, as I walk over, I'll lean down, pick one up, pop it in my pocket. There's a brief moment in the back of your mind where you're like this was once not a place this was not once the this once was not the realm of strad yeah you're like this place might have once been beautiful some reason I've been thinking that this whole session I've been like what was this place before but anyway I uh yeah I'll approach the um the tri tree on the edge of the lake.

It sighs. Hi. Shock to find one of you here in Barovia. We need help, is the thing. With a blight tree, tree blight. We need help with a tree blight. And I've been led to understand that you can provide that. The treant sighs once again. Yeah.

And then you see it slowly turn back towards the river. One of its branches reaches out and dips into the water there. It retracts back up and the rippling waves cascade out. It feels like they go further than they have any right to go. And then the tree slowly rises to a standing position and turns to face you like it's expecting something else from you. Oh. Like, even my eyes on it just whip

out Emmanuel. I, like, look through Emmanuel. There's nothing in there. You'll be expecting maybe a glance back at Elaniel. You could see she's standing up and she's walking over to be next to you. Hey, Munt.

The treant shakes slowly from side to side in kind of obviously a no gesture. Okay, okay. The treant reaches down with both of its arms. Yeah. And then you realize why it's reaching down, actually. Elaniel steps past you, and with its willow, wispy arms, it picks up Elaniel and brings her close into what you assume must be its face. Once again, it just looks like any other part of the tree. Yeah.

Elaniel leans in very close. She puts her head up against the treant's head, and you can see that she's whispering something. Okay. I assuming Eleniel has it I'll just sit down on the pebbles and just wait to figure out

just to see how this goes. While they commune you hear somewhere behind you I scramble up and look in the direction. You see several other treants approaching. Oh my god. Finding one was insane.

The fact that there's more is crazy. They are... One of them, maybe another one of them, is also a weeping willow, but there are many other types of trees. You see an oak, you see a pine. One of them, you can't even tell because it's a dead tree but it moves and seems to be acting all the same they don't really have they don't have a human like or humanoid body they have their trees yeah absolutely yeah they move as trees they have

as many limbs as the tree might have and they have no clear or defined faces as they get close they slow down and form like a circle if you will or a semi-circle around the three of you the triant eleniel and you yep uh eventually the triant slowly puts eleniel back down she stands up and turns to you and says, They will help us. That's great. That's fantastic. There's so many of them. They cannot all help us, but any who can will. Yeah, I mean, whatever help we can get, we'll take.

They will show us where to find the Heart of Sap. It is a gem, I think, or something similar. It was stolen from the Wizards of Wine. Right, yes, that's right. The tree blight has it somewhere within it. Oh my god. If, with the appropriate weapons, we are able to cut it out, the tree blight will die. What are the appropriate weapons? What would that be?

She shrugs. The treants will not explain. I do not understand poisoned weapons no other weapon will damage the tree blight perhaps that's what meant what's meant by the appropriate weapons poison seems right they were scared to speak of it yeah well then probably poisoned weapons i mean that's something we can we can manage we can manage that the treants can slow or uh hold the tree blight while we fight it that's that's great uh how how long have i have we have i been out actually i haven't asked that uh your tumble it was a few hours perhaps okay i can't have gotten that far maybe to the wizards of vines maybe a little further the treants know the ways through the

forest they can guide us they also know where your friends are yeah that's good that's that's good i like maybe turn to one of the trees lead on maybe it's not a real it's not one of the trees just a regular tree for a brief second you think you've done that. You've accidentally spoken to just a regular tree. But then you realize it is actually the dead tree. Oh, thank God. And it turns and walks and leads you on. I would say your group reconvenes when on either side of the lunar river

you spot each other. Did you find the robin or whatever? It was a vulture. Which is far more thematically appropriate I suppose. The dead tree walks right up to the

gap between each side of the river and then slowly lowers itself down so that it forms a bridge to allow you across. I walk over and I am so happy you are not

you're alive. I go in for a hug and just complete it, I guess. Yeah, I stiffen up and then reach around and give you a pat on the back. Yeah, I really thought that might have been the end of it there. But Boris is dead, so

small miracles. I have his heart. That's symbolic. What are you going to do with that one? I don't know. It'll probably just go into a potion like regular, to be honest. But anyway, these. Right.

Here's your pop. Thank you. There's the trance. Pop pecks your hand. Okay, I drop pop. It'll be hanging around my feet, I know. There's the tree ants. Ah! Pop pecks your hand. Okay, I dropped Pop. He'll be hanging around my feet, I know. Pop, yeah. Yeah.

Every now and then you feel a pecking sensation on one of your boots, and you have to move because it's sharp. I appreciate it. I know it's hard to understand, but it is for some reason important. It is. Okay. These are the tree ants. They say that they'll help us

You look over And you see Tarpos Is communing with one of them In the same way Eleniel did Yeah Is Eleniel with us Right now Yeah Eleniel's with you

I think Eleniel can explain it Better than I can She's not really paying attention To anything that's happening She keeps looking at the tree Ents like She's seeing the face of God Nevermind

They're her angels So No I know The She's The elves with the beliefs I look at You don't care Anyways of God. Never mind, they're her angels. No, I know. So the elves with the beliefs... I look at people. You don't care.

Anyway, so what the treants... So what the treants are going to do for us is they're going to slow down the free blight, and they say that within it somewhere is something called the Heart of Sep, a sort of gem. One of the gems... Oh, what the Wizards of Wyand are using to make their

but we need to get it out with a poisoned weapon i'm fairly sure we need to carve it out well think about a tree blight is it can't be damaged by anything other no mundane or magical weapon yes only those that have been poisoned so is is there a particular um do we need to get a particular weapon or is it any of our weapons that we make poison? I think it's just well, wouldn't it be nice if a manual was clear? I think it's just a poisoned weapon.

If I'm right. Kribbit secretes poison. That's true, and Kribbit was Kribbit nods, this one can make poison. So if Kribbit comes with whoever is going to He becomes, Kribbit becomes wet. Take a couple of steps away from Kribbit.

Kribbit made poison. His clothes are so dirty. We don't need it now. Give Kribbit bolts. We've spoken about this in the past, Kribbit. You said it won't last that long. Oh, not here now. Kribbit points to the treants.

Yeah. No, Kribbit. God's no. These are the good. I know it's hard to tell because it's all trees, but these are good trees. Kribbit, excuse. That's very polite of you, Kribbit. Kribbit's very polite.

What that one mean? Look at Kribbit and shrug I don't know, my dude Party have many rude people Kribbit not one I'm nodding, I'm nodding along Kib rude Nodding real hard

The best known methods to slay the tree blight Are to use a poisoned weapon As the blight cannot heal a poisoned wound. What poisons do we have? Well, I have a couple of poisons possible. I can make some poisoned bolts and poisons you can put on, you know, if you have a knife or a sword or anything like that. The magic doesn't work?

No. All right, just poisons. Okay. Well, if you can make some. All right, maybe I'll doisons. Okay. Okay. Well, if you can make some. All right. Maybe I'll do that now. Do you need anything? Can we, while they commune, anything around here?

Well, Tarpos is done by this point. Ah, okay. Without permission, Kribbit begins climbing one of them. Yeah. I assume they don't mind. They don't seem to notice or care. They are just trees. So, Tarposage, you learn anything? Nothing

we did not know. Tar-Post, you can communicate with the trees, yeah? She nods. They speak Druidic. Yeah. Do you ask them if they are currently growing? Because it's a fungus. Any tree ant poison uh tapos goes back

and feels rude to us she communes with one of the oaks and you see the oak gives like a but i would say that each of the trees are able to contribute some each of them are able to contribute, yes, some treant poison. Yeah, yeah. I know it's not it's not a poison for treants. It's just as plants made but I assume it grows on treants. It grows on treants. If it's on their bark, it's fine. But if it gets

into them, that's when it poisons and kills them. So in a way, I'm doing them a favor. Sure. I suppose you'd have to harvest it off them, because they don't want to touch it. So you go around with a scraper and get it off them? Sorry. Sorry about this.

Sorry. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you very much. The pine tree shutters like you're tickling it. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about this.

You get seven doses of tringent poison. All right. That's good. That's great. All right. So you and they know where the Yeah, they said that they could show us the

location of the heart of Seb. Do you know where the, I asked maybe Tarpos or Elenio so do we know where it is? Is it got anywhere with these people? Tarpos and Elenio look darkly at each other and they say,

Tarpos says, We cannot save Wines. Not hit yet, but we cannot get there in time. I maybe look at Muriel. Has she taken that? Muriel seems to have retreated within herself. Did she fly and warn them? Muriel, when you say, actually, of course,

when you first look at Muriel, you see Muriel is beginning to take flight. She doesn't even need to be told. Of course. I forgot she could turn into a damn raven. Muriel takes a few steps and without saying anything, turns into a raven and flies you know in the direction of Wizards of Lions.

I just call out, be safe. I would like to combine and I'll make maybe three of these. Some shambling moss for gripping. Some treant poison for plant spain and let's call

it raven feathers for radiant damage, just to have a third thing in there. Sure. You combine them. Maybe treant poison, the fungus, isn't actually very poisonous on its own. Yeah. Like, if it burrows its way into the treant,

that's bad for them. But you will say, like, chemically activate the treant poison and you increase its potency. You do a pretty good job. How many doses did you say? Three. Three doses? Yep, you get three doses, which would be 15 pieces of ammunition

or five hits each, I guess. So 15 hits with a weapon. Okay, so I think I'll coat five in treant poison, like coat five of my bolts, and then I will just have the other two in flasks that I can give to whoever once we come up with a battle plan. Do we know what the blights will attack with? Poison with?

Great question. I think they're most likely to just hit us with really big branches. Look, I'll do some reading and some research so that we know what we're up against. Everybody else can figure out a game plan. I guess, can you read and walk or get into the... Get into a tree.

I'll read and walk. Will they let us? Yeah, you can climb up into the treants and they will take you. I don't know if they're that faster than you, though. They're probably slow, to be honest. They move slowly, but they take big steps. That's true.

I don't know if a train has a faster speed than you, though. That's very funny if they don't. Yep, they're just as fast as a person. They take big steps, but they move slow. That always lets us chill. It lets you read. It's kind of rude, but all right. Well, yeah, they don't have too much trouble carrying you.

You make a beeline through the forest. Rather than trying to find just the nearest path, you just make your way quickly as possible towards Valakai. You'll have to cut around Mount Gakus because you just, frankly, the treants are not going to be doing very well climbing up. Actually, no. No, actually, the treants climb part

of Mount Gacchus. Oh my god. Of course they'd be able to. Yeah, they're big enough. That's cool. You, on the backs of treants, yeah, well, that also justifies why you were fucking climbing them. You climb the treants as the treants climb part of Mount Gacchus. At a certain point, you cross over a road. The road that you know would lead you either further higher up into Mount Gacchus

or back down on a winding path towards Valachai. You skip that entirely. This is not the highest point in Barovia. You can see you're on essentially Mount Gacchus' K2. Yeah, sure. You're on the second highest peak of Mount Gacchus, and you get the best view of all of Barovia that you have ever seen. You can see north up to the massive Lake Zarovich, simply enormous,

easily the largest feature out of anything. You can see to your southeast is the highest peak of Mount Gakis. Any village or whatever the village is there, though, is obscured by the mountain. You can see what is left of Valakai in the distance. You can see even in the distance to the east, to the east distantly, you think you can kind of vaguely make out the village of Barovia. Very prominent, once again, as always, is Castle Ravenloft.

And finally, you also see another, a second castle. It's quite close to you, actually. This one, I don't know if its name has been revealed to you, but you can see that there is a second second castle. It's quite close to you, actually. This one, I don't know if its name has been revealed to you, but you can see that there is a second little castle. It's not nearly as big as Castle Ravenloft. Do you know what that castle is, Pip? Yeah, I think that's Argenvostolt.

I think maybe Keening went there in his travels, but I never did. Can we see the tree blight from here? And also Wizards of Wine. Wizards of Wine is quite smaller comparatively, so it might be hard to make out, but I'll roll.

Pip, you have in this instance, you have fair eyes. Perhaps your treant is just in a better position to see it as well. You can see, at this point, you've been traveling for several hours once again the tree and suddenly move about as fast as you but because they can avoid more obstacles yeah you actually probably make better time yeah you can see that in the time that it's taken you to get from luna lake to where you are currently the of Wines, there is billowing smoke coming from there.

You can tell it's already been hit. Hopefully they flew away from there. Right. What? So are we, I just got a hands on temples. So do you think we are probably hitting this triblight today? I mean, you've made a lot of distance in a very short amount of time. You don't think you'll hit Valakai today,

but it's plausible that you could hit Valakai tomorrow. Are we waiting in Valakai for the Treant? Or are we going to... Well, that's not my plan. Okay. I think we can cut it off, to be honest, at the pass. I think we should, yes, cut it off to be honest at the pass I think we should yes cut it off as well and I think this is absolutely a time sensitive issue

yeah reading through Emmanuel it's going to I mean we saw it back at Yesterhill it's going to try and eat us basically it's going to try and grab us with it's roots and chuck us in it's terrible mouth but it'll also most likely be surrounded by other blights.

So, I mean, we've fought blights before. We know what we're doing there. Don't get stabbed by the needle ones. If they're tiny, dance. That'll distract them. Don't laugh. So cold and then fire, right? Cold and then fire combined. But then also do dance?

For very tiny ones, they can get distracted if you do a little dance and then there is of course the druids themselves and then there's the druids themselves and i don't have as much information on yes um when some with vampires sure when somebody's turned how much of them is still there i want to like give you like a sad look like i know exactly what you're going to talk about how much do think I've got time? How much longer until we hit the tree blight? You've got heaps of time.

You don't know exactly where the tree blight is. It's quite big. I assume it's just beyond. If Wizards of Wines is on fire, I reckon we're aiming for this kind of the intersection near Lake Baratok. I forget the name of that. Like near where the tower was. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I got it here. Raven River Crossroads. Raven River Crossroads. Although it's probably not going by the road. It's probably also taking a straight line. Good point. I mean, yeah. The tridents seem to know where it's at.

The Spallage Woods around Raven River Crossroads. So I guess, yeah, if we... Because the tridents know where the light is right the trillions seem to understand where the blight is yeah okay so with that information we can try and cut it off well and truly before it's valakai um well hector i assume you're asking about a go gash yeah oh yes yeah i was wondering if any part of him will stay his hand or if he's fully under the thrall of strut. I mean, we said our goodbyes to Gogash in Valakai, and those goodbyes will probably remain.

Well, in the early days before the rebellion, In the early days before the rebellion, there was a kenku, a little kenku named Trumpets. And she was called Trumpets because she made the sound of a trumpet and it was pretty entertaining in Barovia where you didn't get much music. It makes sense. One day, trumpets disappeared and we were all pretty distraught because at night trumpets would well she'd sort of hoot and and play music and we wondered where trumpets had gone about three days later trumpets returned changed took 20 of us maybe 25 to take trumpets down and even then she wasn't killed we had to chain her up and throw her off the eyeless river bridge because we couldn't take her down permanently so a go gash is gone and i think the sooner you i understand that i'm saying how much of a go gash is there is he still as much as i hate to

admit this pip i think on my best day i could not take a gogash. Yeah. He did have a tendency to pick up people and tear them in half. A goat, a goat. What I'm saying is he is now a very big threat. Yes. There's no gogash left. The gogash you knew is long gone. I understand that.

What do we know about vampires? I'll take out Emmanuel. What do we know about vampires? I'll take out Emmanuel. I was hoping that maybe we could at least talk to him and he would give us a moment of respect. I think speaking to a gogash is a great way to get tricked by whatever's wearing a gogash's skin. But I'll give you the page on vampires

if I can find it in this fucking book. Ghoul undead, ghoul explosive. Gorgash was there when the blight was summoned. There is a good chance that he is going to be there. Yes, and there is a good chance we will have to fight him and, God willing, we'll kill him. We took down the pretty one. Yeah, briefly. But we might be able to do the same for Gorgash, yes. we took down the pretty one briefly

but we might be able to do the same for a gogash yes and don't imagine for a second it doesn't pain me because it does but there's nothing doing but anyway there it is read up pass it around to be honest and then I'll

curl back into the tree branch. Catch some Zs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You look very... Yeah. Are you okay? Shockingly, yeah. Eleniel nursed me back to health.

Can I give him a once over to see what his conditions are? Well, his shoulder is a mush at this point. Yeah. I think my lungs were damaged, but they aren't giving me as much trouble as before. He doesn't have a lot in the way of collarbone at this point. Maybe I reach up to my collarbone and I'm like, you should have seen the other guy um yes what like what uh conditions does pip currently have he has two levels of

exhaustion and i think that's it right now exhaustion yeah um i'm gonna cash in a home remedy remove one of those levels of exhaustion sure Sure, you're on one level of exhaustion. I picked this up travelling around near Zemdjata or something like that, but someone got their lungs pierced by a spear. Oh yeah. You seem to be having trouble. Oh yeah. Having trouble breathing.

Yeah. I think it is your lungs maybe sticking to your ribs and your collarbone. You're going to make me throw up. Anyway, hold still. I'll try and do what I can. Pip's so stressed because this sounds like a real dangerous home remedy.

We're also in like a shifting tree. I'm sorry about trumpets. I help him out with his lung issue. You feel way worse, Pip, but then a little better. Like a valve sort of situation. You're piercing a little bit of that. Reinflate his lung. He's re-inflating your lung a little bit.

Oh, that did work. You just got a little valve now in your chest. Thank you. He'll heal within the week okay um yeah i appreciate it oh that's oh that's such a relief oh my goodness sam jada what was you doing in sam jada uh i was just um yes heading there as as part of my training as a knight reaching out to the gnomes and seeing they had an issue with a um well actually weirdly one of their uh no to the gnomes and seeing if they had an issue with a, actually weirdly, one of their... You know much about gnomes? Yeah, a little bit. You know how they always have this

is it magic or is it technology? And then you've got the offset that religion often, they never really make a kind of a head poke through or not. But they made a device which summoned a demon. Oh, right.

You just pressed a button. And it was there. So I had to head there with a couple of people from my order. Destroy it. Yeah, amongst a few other things. No more spellcasting or reading an old book. Just a button. It was terrifying.

Siding with magic, then. Fair enough. It's not about really choosing one or the other. They both have potential to do great good, but I guess also great evil. It is about trying to figure out, I guess, a balance and try to do the least amount of harm. Alright.

You get a short rest. Riding on the backs of the treants. Tight. Tight, tight, tight. I don't think anyone really needs the short rest. Riding on the backs of the treants. Tight, tight, tight. I don't think anyone really needs the short rest. Does nothing for me. Thrippet heals everyone by an extra. Oh, that's good. Six. Feel my valve close over?

Like a mat. Well, in that case, I'm going to cast Cure Wounds twice. Using bad, gross magic. Magic. Pip's brow furrows as it happens Who needs it really? The two of you

Us guys Like actually though the NPCs are largely fine at this point Gorob Lushen Kribbit and Eleniel have taken a few knocks, but each of them are going to heal via maybe one of their own things. Okay.

What is the tactic? Is the blight... Is it elemental? Is it a... No, it's a plant. It's just a plant. An animate plant, but a plant. a plant it's just a plant an animate plant but a plant so wouldn't okay we we just here's here's what i'm imagining we find it first of all we strike we

get most of us to uh kind of run interference on the blights that would be swarming around its roots and base and then a small team of us climb it and try to find the heart of sap. Have we been given any idea of where specifically the heart of sap will be? The trance will tell you. If we were to climb it, will it be able to hit us? I think it could try, absolutely. I think it will hit us. Yeah, I think that's inevitable.

Any weak points, basically, if we are on top of it, is it hard for it to hit us or is it easier well no so the way it normally attacks is its roots reach up and feed itself so if we're on the trunk where the mouth is it's almost designed for hitting something climbing it in a way but yeah exactly it can eat us like so much popcorn scoop us up um so there's there's not an elemental affair or a operation no it's a tree just a tree just a tree i was so hoping you'd say that i was going i was thinking about saying it but i was i was like i hope pip says it's a tree it's a tree it's a tree is um is eleniel or tarpos like order like within earshot of me uh you could speak at i'd say no okay because i would

like to ask them to ask the tree where the heart of sap would be so that i can you could yell sorry i thought you were asking if you could speak without being heard no no you could just yell okay i'll hear you yeah eleniel yes could you ask the trees where specifically the heart of sap is on the blight i think we'll need to know that before going in. Eleniel communes with the tree and turns back to you and says, They will not know until they can see it. They will try to tell us as best as they can. Do they know if anything else is around the blight?

No, they know only its location. This place is so polluted. This place is so polluted. This place is so polluted they did not even know that the tree blight was here until we pointed it out to them. It's frankly incredible that the tree ants have managed to survive in this shithole. Not really the place

for something like them. I guess we're very far away from, I guess, Jassida Castle Ravenloft. Yeah, I suppose. Perhaps the... The most possible kind of lake. Once within the borders of the village of Barovia and Castle Ravenloft itself,

the trees become significantly more hostile. You are maybe only just learning that it gets worse. That you're currently doing Barovia easy mode. Oh no. You would have known this. Yeah. It gets so much worse near the castle. I guess that's why I went as far away as humanly possible. You know there are

on the Slavich Road there is two sets of gates. One just on either side of Barovia basically. Those gates mark the personal boundaries of the village, the township of Barovia, basically. Those gates mark the personal boundaries of the village, the township of Barovia, and then Castle Ravenloft. Within that area, Strahd, I mean, like, Strahd controls pretty much everything.

But within that area, you just assume Strahd is watching. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Okay. Right. So you're more of a tactician than I. What do you propose? Well! Just looking up from head towards Pip, then looking up, I guess, to the left.

Yes, yes. What I think. What you think. Ooh, look at Gorob. Big tactician. Gorob Lushen, you know, it is very, very important. You know, if one of you or both of you were to come up with a game plan that was successful, I mean, it would definitely go a long way in impressing somebody, don't you think?

Your attempts to trick them bounce harmlessly off their smooth, smooth brain. Who would they be impressing? Us, I'd say. I'm not impressed by a single thing they do. Gorub and Lushen begin loudly having an argument. Thankfully, you can kind of, as always, tune them out a little bit. Over that, they both have a crush on Tapas. I was trying to hopefully maybe get them to work in unison perhaps as a form of competition that will aid us as opposed to…

Yeah, no such luck. The treants come to a slow stop. One of them, the lead treant, the Weeping Willow that you met at the beach, gestures with one of its large branches. The Weeping Willow is maybe the only one of you, the only one of the treants that is riding unencumbered. You, each of you would be on a different treant, but this one has none of you on it. It gestures ahead of you.

You now in, it's probably coming on nighttime. So it's the second day, I think. Yeah, the second day that you've been with the Treants and having travelled as fast and as far as you can Argenvostolt is now kind of in your rear view mirror and you're coming on the Lunar River crossing

you have met up, after all of this walking you've met up with the river again, obviously if you had followed the river it would have been a much more meandering sort of journey. But at the Lunar River crossing, just before it, to the west of it, but heading towards Valakai, you can see on the road a giant canopy treetop making its way through the woods. It looks like it's been following the trail. Weird. Well,

scary. Well, I'm guessing whatever else is traveling with it needs the way. Needs the trail, yeah. Okay. Alright, I see. Game plan. What is it? You and Cribbit, or you Set it on fire, then freeze it. Wait, freeze it the... Set it on fire, then freeze it.

Wait, freeze it, then set it on fire. That's for the little ones, yes? It'd probably be helpful on... Well, no, it won't be on the big one. So for the big ones, you've got... You, Andelaniel, you can fire poison with arrows. Yes, and also I hold out one of my poison flasks. It should give you five good hits if you apply it to a weapon.

And we will need something sharp to cut out the heart of Sep. Tarpos gestures with her spear and says, I would lead a distraction. Yes. Stop druids. You, she gestures to the two of you, stop, kill tree. Right. Yes. Little frog man with me. Kribbit of you. Stop. Kill. Tree. Right. Yes. Little frog man with me.

Kribbit nods. Okay. Right. Two-headed ugly man with me. Goroblushen are quiet. No. Those poor boys. Confidence shattered.

Elf with boys. Eleniel looks at the two of you and nods. Yeah, I nod back. Okay. Right. We kill the tree. You distract the druids. Number one priority should be slowing it down at the very least.

The cold poison thing that you made before we got to Yesterhill, will that also work with this tree, or is that just... Or will that just work on the smaller blights? Is it a kind of poison? Remind me. You're the one that gave it to me, Peter. I make a lot of potions. Was it poisonous?

It was cold and maybe poisonous? You check it. It's gone off. Dip it out. Oh, no. It went off. You kept it for too long. Should have refrigerated it.

Yeah. I made that one wrong. Dip it out. Whoops. Why do we get so punished for our terrible memories? I guess canonically everything stays consistent Will you need to refrigerate anything else? Maybe

Who knows? Only if we forget what was in it to begin with What was in this? And it just rots before my eyes You made it up again The second you forget it begins I guess I have to keep better notes and it just rots before my eyes. You made it up again. The second you forget, it begins. Oh, no.

I guess I have to keep better notes because all I had was cold poison. Five hits. So was that a poison that also applied cold? Or was it a cold that acted like a poison? I think it was a cold poison. It had cold properties and poison. But now I guess it's on the ground. It's good stuff. I love it. I think it was a cold poison. Had cold properties and poison. But now I guess it's on the ground. It's good stuff.

I love it. Tarpos sighs. I love it so much. Frog man on his back. Kribbit. Kribbit's on a different train. But Kribbit looks at you, Hector, and nods. He's going to be climbing onto your back.

Kribbit will give you poison. Kribbit will be your poison, yeah. Elf woman with me. Millennial nods. I guess the other poison thing? Well, the poison I gave you will still work. Okay. I know what poison that is.

That's tree poison. Tree poison? It begins rotting. Tree poison? Tree ant poison. Yeah, there you go. What's made of tree ant poison? Does it become more potent?

I remember that. And then, you know what? I'll take the, if you've got poison already, I'll take my, cause I made three, I'll take my second one and I'll give myself five more poison bolts. I got ten poison bolts. Alright, keep track. My arrows are gonna start rotting. Or else your arrows will leave me left.

You... They'll lose the point. I'll go off. Alright. Things become more potent if you Give me some obscure lore that you remember Things become less potent when you forget What's on your character sheet

Adam, can I use this good boy card? You recall one specific piece of lore Related to the current situation You have to remember it You can't play a card to remember it I thought I had loophole I thought I had gone genius mode on your ass.

Alright. So, anyway, it's coming on at about, oh, by the way, you notice that the creatures in Barovia kind of scatter for your little treant army. You have been unhindered the entire way here.

Also, to be fair, a lot of it has been mountain climbing and there's not a lot of creatures that live on the sides of mountains in Barovia. There's a couple goats here and there, I imagine. And also that... No, I think you know of this. There is apparently one... You've never seen it? You've only heard of it, but there is apparently one

big, mean, son-of-a-bitch goat. Yeah, I've heard there's a big goat around somewhere. Goat? Yeah, big goat. It's evil. It's a straight up evil goat. You would know enough to know as well that the way people of Barovia talk about it, not to

give you any ideas, but if you were to slay it, it would be kind of seen as a big deal. Okay. Question, While we are riding these treants, if I was to cast something that requires 10 minutes of casting time, can I do that? You have 10 minutes, sure.

Whilst I do it. Cool. Alright. That's great to hear. Adam. Yeah? I would like to summon my steed. Alright. Alright. Rock and roll. Yeah, you probably wait till you get down off the mountainous terrain to summon it. Yes, yes, yes. Now, is that a spell slot?

I believe, yes it is. Okay. You attempt to summon Orion, and then you feel, as the spell concludes, you feel no magic. It ends. The spell ends, you feel no magic. It ends. The spell ends. The horse is not summoned. Where's Orion? I lost the spell slot as well, Adam.

Be nice to me. I'll say you don't lose the spell slot. My God. But Orion, something's wrong, and you cannot summon Orion. You could summon a different one if you wanted to, but you can't summon Orion. I'd be scared you were going to summon a skeleton horse. If you don't call a specific name,

there is a chance you get a skeleton horse. Yeah. Okay. So I can summon, I'm just casting the summoning seed, and I'm expecting Orion, and if I still let it go off, but not Orion will pop up. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, the spell concludes with the name that you are trying to summon,

or name of the creature that you're trying to summon, which you can leave blank to just get any old, and then it just calls anything to your side, whatever is appropriate, I suppose. Okay, well, I guess if Orion doesn't work, I'm like, oh, no. Put that to the back of my mind. That's another problem. And then I will just, as if I was doing it again for the first time, cast it again.

All right. This time instead of a horse that has the constellation, because you are summoning just a random celestial horse, or attempting to summon a celestial horse. Highs or lows? Let's go with lows. Lows? All right.

Yes, you do not get a skeletal horse. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, as far as you're concerned. I feel like an alien horse is going to be bad. Horses are already scary. This is using warlock magic. This is using cleric paladin. This is using god magic. She's already.

Yeah. Oh, no. The horse knits itself into reality in front of you. Instead of having a body of a constellation, it has, when I say, what do you call the hair on a horse? Mane? Mane? No, that's just the hair on their head and neck, isn't it? Do you mean like its pelt?

Its entire, yeah, pelt. Would you call it a pelt? I am. Yeah, you could say pelt. The pelt of the horse, when I describe it as golden, I don't mean that it has a golden colour. I mean it literally looks like it is made of gold. The horse is summoned before you. Its hair is a slightly lighter, no, actually its hair would be a slightly darker color of gold, and it looks like a more pure form of gold.

Gold gets darker the purer it is. When it turns to you, you can see it looks at you with eyes filled with constellations. They're regular horse-sized eyes, but if you stare into its intelligent eyes, it feels like you're looking, you're gazing into constellations. They're regular horse-sized eyes, but if you stare into its intelligent eyes, it feels like you're looking, you're gazing into constellations. When the horse shifts, it shimmers with a light

not dissimilar to the sun. Oh, that's good to hear. That's awesome. That's a cool horse. I talk telepathically. I am solar, it says. How many magic horses does this guy have? Well, as many as there are thank you for coming solar

solar bows deeply to you I feel solar in on the situation at hand in that we are going to be fighting a rather large tree say no more laughter laughter laughter laughter laughter are going to be fighting a rather large tree. Say no more.

No, that was good for this. Yeah, just so we're going to, it's sorry to summon you so, I guess, quickly into what is going to be a very dangerous situation. Solar maybe actually does give you a, I was created for times as these Solar I am imagining is like a kind of broader tough looking horse

like a Clydesdale the size of a Clydesdale but it's not got the appearance of a Clydesdale he's just a very big horse at some point I'll hop down off the treant and I will get onto Solar alright, you mount Solar the rest of you maybe you climb down off the treants because I will get onto solar. Alright. Nice. You mount solar. The rest of you,

maybe you climb down off the treants because they're not faster and it will be a hassle to do that mid-fight. Cool. I will get Cribbit on my Cribbit climbs onto your back. Pip, how good are you at firing your crossbow from a horse's

back? Me and horses don't really get along, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine, it's fine. I'll climb on. It's your horse, so. We'll keep pace with everybody. Don't want to, like, lay ahead. You get up to the bridge.

The road here is an X intersection branching to the northeast, southwest, southeast, and northwest. There is a that snapped wooden road sign that you recall is still, well, it's where you left it I suppose. You can see

the remains of some sort of fight that happened here not too long ago. There is a body slumped halfway over the bridge. Can I have a quick glance at the body? Yeah. You wonder over to the body. Awkwardly slump off the horse.

And then I'll head on over. Well, I guess, yeah, we head over there. Oh, that's right. You're both on the horse. Sorry. I was thinking that you had to climb down off the tree. Well, if you both grab the body at the same time, you pull and get the body to turn around and face you.

Pip, you have a very sinking, awful feeling. Before you've even started moving the corpse, because you can see it is the body of a dragonborn. Oh, fuck. When you turn around and it faces you, you cry out in astonishment. It is your own dead face. Hector, you see just a Barovian. Has Barovia ever tried to pull this shit on me before, Adam? No.

Okay. Are you okay there? Do you know this man? Do I know? Yeah. You look at Hector, look back, and it's a Barovian. Some random person. Did you know him?

No. I thought I did, but I don't. It's just some guy. I want to look at the guy. Does they have maybe similar appearances or features of, say, Kenan? No. Well, it doesn't look like anyone you know, certainly. Can I make out what kind of attack happened here?

It looks like he was strangled. Oh, fuck. You can see bruising around his throat, and he quite obviously has signs of having choked. Put my hand up to my own throat. Looks like he was choked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe, maybe.

Is it choked by human hands or hanged? Choked by... Or vines. Or by vines. Good point. It would be choked by human hands. Somebody killed him. I guess it's not

so uncommon in Barovia for random acts of violence like this. Anyway, it's not important. Well, I mean, it's a human life, but other than that, it's not important. There's a big tree coming. I'll go stand back by the horse. Rattled, but trying to hide

it um yes uh maybe take the person off the sign put it on like the side of the road as it were we don't have time to anything else but yeah look there's a very very funeral as a guy's gonna get very quick again a very quick prayer of penia uh ferry the soul off to the land of the dead and I'll head over to Al to the horse and help Pip up you climb back atop

the horse the treants array themselves on either side of the road you can hear in the distance you know it's

coming closer you could probably actually you can see it above the trees it's quite big it's coming closer. You could probably actually, you can see it above the trees. It's quite big. It's significantly larger than the treants. Fuck. Obviously, way bigger than any of them.

Do I think it would actually be more practical to go from the top of a treant onto the tree blight or to climb from the ground up the roots to the tree blight? Both of them have risks and advantages. Obviously, climbing up the tree blight from the bottom means that you're going to be exposed to

the tree blight more. But it means that you won't have to jump from treant to tree blight. So, I don't know what you see as the more realistic option. The jump incurs less attacks of opportunity, but will be a very important athletics check. That's the difference, I suppose.

Plus, I guess if you're on a treant, you've got some height advantage. That's kind of what I was thinking. Not against the tree blight. Never mind. The tree blight will have a high advantage on me. I don't think it could ever not have a high advantage. Did you need to head back to the tree? I'm like, maybe I'll look from the tree, like the tree blight to the tree end,

and then like trying to make up my mind and look down at the horse. Slop off the back of the horse. Slop off. Slide off the back of the horse slop off slide off the back of the horse yeah i think i'm gonna have a better chance up in the tree and yes i can at least run around and try and dodge yeah you yeah you good luck then i'll uh start scrambling up one of the treants one of the closer ones to the road okay and get up into one of its branches eventually it gets close enough for you to see it in its full shall we say majesty it rounds a corner and instead of seeing just the

top of it you can see the entire creature as i said previously it's a tree kind of the size of krezek it's massive simply It has, on its front face, unlike the treants, it doesn't really have a, I wouldn't call it a face, but it certainly has a mouth. A massive open maw that has teeth, and I mean teeth, inside.

Razor-like fangs. Not unlike a shark, except going line after line after line after line down into its black maw. When the tree blight rounds that corner and the treants and the tree blights see each other properly, there is a tremendous as the tree blight shakes and shudders. The sight of the treants has enraged it. The treants, for their part, all of them, as if they were breathing, they kind of swell a little bit,

and you all hear loud and clear from all of the treants. They charge each other. Okay, all right. As they begin charging as they begin charging the earth begins to shudder beneath you, I assume Hector you're using that as your cue to charge as well

is it just the tree blight? no, as the tree blight begins charging forwards you can see many tree, many different types of tree blights scattered all around it begin like a mass spreading themselves and sprinting out towards

you. Scattered in among them you can see our druids. Also as you get closer, you can see like ants on the side of a tree. There are more tree blights, smaller ones crawling all over the tree blight.

Some have to dance. Yeah. In addition, you can see there is Keshgar with his side torn out. Oh, fuck. And when he bellows, you can see straight through his mouth and out the back of his head.

Oh, my God. Up in the height of the tree, screaming at you. We're going to go to initiative. I would like to cast Shield of Faith as I'm charging. Well, you cast Shield of Faith as you're charging.

You can't really engage in combat, you're too far away, but you get a round to prepare if there's anything final you want to do. I can't make a potion or anything in a round can I? it's an action cool cool cool in the round preparing I'm gonna whip together

just like a real slap shot potion, not even a potion I'm gonna get some lycan hide I'm gonna get some angel feathers for healing, so lycan hide for resistance to just some angel feathers for healing. So lycanide for resistance to just damage. Angel feathers for healing, just in case that'll help me some more.

And some shambling moss. And I'm going to make a little cloak to fucking fling around my, like, jam some feathers into it, rub the shambling moss on it so that it all sticks together, and then flick it around and drape it over my back for just some damage resistance.

Okay, I see. Is that really a potion? I'm really sorry. I drop it to the ground. You fuck it up, I'm sorry. That's okay. The tree just hops over a rock. As you're shoving the feathers in, the tree jolts

and the entire thing falls out of your hands. Never mind. I will do Shield of Faith as a paladin spell. It looked like, did you do that on purpose? It looked like when you cast the spell, you just touched your head, and obviously you meant to be like, boop, on yourself, but the way that you touched your head was kind of like

you're drawing a line from your forehead down your nose. That's cool. Maybe I do that. Maybe that's how you put the patio, like you do the sun on your face or whatever. You look like an idiot. Yeah, straight light is a lot better than a big circle. Yeah. It's a sun ray.

Sun ray, sun ray. Maybe three fingers down, then it's like the three rays. And I'll channel divinity to make my weapon magical. So it emits a bright light and adds five to my attack rolls. All right. As you get into range, when you get into range, it's Tarpos's turn first. She draws a big circle on her face. It looks really cool.

Damn. He looks really cool. Damn. He fucking got us. No. Tarpos clutches with her hand and leaps down from the tree, and she comes into kind of like a bit of a rolling run. As she starts sprinting forward, the spear low at her side, that hand that she has clenched, you see it begins to drool with green energy.

She hefts it back and throws it. A bowl of green energy soars out of her hand and explodes like a grenade among the treants. When the green mist clears, there is a crater when all tree blights have been destroyed.

Sorry, we're all blights. I keep calling them tree blights. Just regular blights. It's a conglomerate of twig blights have been destroyed. Sorry, we're all blights. I keep calling them tree blights. Yeah, just regular blights. It's a conglomerate of twig blights, poison blights, needle blights, and vine blights. All right. I don't need a roll for that. That is 8d8 with double damage to plants.

Ooh, baby! She doesn't have a lot of those, though. Hoo boy! That was Tarposs's turn. Pip, it's your turn. Okay, am I within range that I could make the jump from this tree ant onto the tree blight? You're 60 feet away. You could wait.

The tree ant hasn't had its turn yet, but if you let it get closer, you can if you want to wait. Okay. Can I from my... Obviously, I don't have a height advantage on the tree blight, but do I have a height advantage for any blights that might be threatening my allies yeah absolutely tarposs is kind of in the thick of it already okay i'd like to just from where i am just regular regular bolts work on blights yeah i'll just fire regular but i don't want to waste any of my good bolts but i'll fire just maybe i'm basically at this point

providing cover i'll just fire bolts down around tarp to try and give us some space. You could try to, if you fire at one of the smaller twig blights, you're kind of guaranteed to take one of them down. Yeah, I'll do that. Or you could try a bigger blight, less chance to take it down, but it's a bigger deal if you can. Okay. You know that if you kill higher level blights, smaller blights in that area will become chaotic.

Chaotic good. No, it'll just be... The little one's just piranha of freaking Tar Boss. Yeah, no worries. Yeah, I get the... First attack hit. Second attack also hit.

So it'll be quotation marks damage, but you might still do enough. Yeah, all right. You down a needle blight, about the size of a human. Looks like a rose bush almost. The first shot blasts it open. The second shot destroys its innards. It collapses forwards.

And in a small area around it, other smaller, lesser blights begin being like, they become a little confused. There's a strict hierarchy among blights. Yeah, yeah. And I would also like to, this is not really an action.

I mean, it's like an interaction. I would like to have the realization that I don't know where the heart of sap is and maybe grab like a, like if I'm in the branches of the tree, just slam one of the branches into my forehead and be like, where's the heart of sap? Okay. To try and communicate with the trio. To be continued... It's only available to Sants Pants Plus members. The further adventures of the Greyhill Free Company

if you want shorter campaigns with beautiful guests. And D&D is for Nerds, not Ognot, where all our non-canon D&D adventures go to rest. Just search for D&D is for Nerds on your favourite podcast app of choice and join us on this epic quest of D&D podcast discovery.