Legends of Avantris - Curse of Strahdanya | Ep. 12 | The Raven Child: Part 1

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

To help save the livelihood of the Martikov family, the Azran Expedition turs its sight to the Wizard of Wines in hopes of purging the blight that afflicts the vineyard.    Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/LDnt1KrUbUA?si=J_xhNnEdXb0iBJ8d

You are back at the Blue Water Inn and listening to Kursus Throdanya, a legends of Aventhras podcast. Last time, the Azran expedition uncovered a mysterious cult that Fiona Vocter seemingly leads in her basement. They explored the rest of the Menor House, absconding with the Vokter's malnourished daughter Stella. With even more innocence rescued by the so-called heroes, I visited the enchanting young Victoria Isaacs in the night, planting the first seed of doubt in her complete. mind. With sights set to the vineyard, can they restore the Martikov's livelihood and ensure sanity for the upcoming festival? This episode is brought to you by our generous supporters on Patreon. If you would like to become a patron, please visit patreon.com and search for Legends of Adventress.

With that out of the way, let us proceed with the first part of Chapter 6, The Raven Child. You wake up in the morning and you're all feeling a bit out of sorts. The previous day, the encounters that you delved into having been quite a moment for all of you and causing some internal conflicts. As you wake up in the morning, knowing that

there are many paths ahead of you and which one is the right one to take. I'll wake up in your rooms. What do you do? So when I cast clairvoyance, that was it before I went to bed, right? And I didn't tell anybody anything. That was my understanding.

We're in the Lads room. I'll assemble everybody. Professor, before you begin, I don't mean to interrupt. I wanted to take a moment to apologize to you and everyone here. These last few days or weeks or however long it's been since we've been together, it all starts to one together. The point is that I didn't quite handle myself in the most professional way yesterday. and I understand what needs to be done moving forward,

and I will try not to be so rash as we advance. I guess my only question for you is, and I heard you loud and clear, Professor, and I won't step out of line again, but what do we do if she makes the first move? Well, Shepard, first, I understand. Emotions are high, and we find ourselves in quite the predicament. Our very lives are at stake, and it's a very good chance we will all die.

Whatever else you do here in Borromeo. As far as if she strikes first, at this point, she hasn't made any move to attack us. I'm hoping that she, at least in series, she knows that we're all capable, and I believe that's why she hasn't just right out killed us. Or perhaps she wants to dine with us. Maybe she doesn't know exactly what our plans are. She is toying with us, Professor. She's playing her little game treating us like mice as if you were a cat.

When she intends to strike or when we become too much of a threat to ignore, she will not ignore us. So just so I understand, if it comes to it, we are to defend ourselves. to the utmost of our bill. Yes, yes. Self-defense is key. It trumps everything else. And we are all on the same page,

and I look at Victoria a little bit. If she raises a finger to harm us at all, harm, then absolutely. But I don't want her to open her mouth. We see fangs and you shoot her in the face. We shouldn't do that. Let's please avoid that.

All right. I wish it. I will not slay the counter. until we are in her throne room in Castle Ravenloft. Exactly right. Garrix has commanded me to follow the fate of the cards, and I intend not to strike until the time is right. But before we continue, Shepard,

there is no need to apologize. Well, I mean, I just wanted to make sure, you know, we're all on the same page, and I will try to keep myself more level-headed, like I know I can't be. level-headedness can be pragmatic but pragmatism is not

everything remember our conversation earlier you mentioned professionalism the fire inside you the fire in your blood is an asset not a threat

not a detriment you have to apologize for when it flares up and guides your actions Uh, yeah, uh, duly noted. All right. Starnex, thanks. Yeah, yeah, all right.

I should probably tell you all something. Last night, I looked into the tea leaves, and I peered into the bedroom of Lady Wachter, presuming that she might go back there without the threat of us killing them. And she was indeed there. The body of her husband had been returned, charred beyond recognition but

sure enough there it is preserved yet again by her magic she was there and life goes home for her we should have let it burn but it was a precaution to keep it somewhat unburned in case

we needed proof I suppose I should have thought I use my magic but either way what's done done is done, and I don't believe we need to actively pursue Lady Water.

She may come after us, but I believe we've learned all we can from her, and we have the journal. And I believe that we've made enough of power play where she won't come against us. I may be wrong. I agree. She may be wicked.

Montflaz, Victoria. My last back and professor. but she is not a fool she knows that if she desires to seek vengeance against us she will die that's right we should take some caution she might have

someone follows us again you should be where yes I agree I believe while we're in this land we can't let our gob down we should keep our eyes over our shoulders at all times I agree

And if we do notice we are being followed by that shambling creature she calls a man's servant, Shepard, I would pray you would not temper that fire within you and remove the man's brain from his skull. I'm not going to let anybody hurt any of this. Thank you. Kana will have walked over to the professor and poured herself a cup of tea. imagine you have prepared and she'll sit down next to him and hand him the other cup

if he has not started drinking yet. I believe it is best that we pursue our original course of action and that we make haste for the vineyard. If we dawdle on Madam Wachter too much longer we may become distracted and unfocused.

Agreed. After all, as they say in my homeland, one who chases after two hairs will not catch even one. That's really wise. You know, Kana, you keep blowing me away with those phrases. Thank you, Shep. And you're strangely appropriate for our situation.

Yes, Kana, exactly right. From now on, that would be the motto of the Asran expedition. Chase one hair. And one hair and look. We can circle back to the lady on our return. I imagine this will not be our last time in Velaki. Yes, yes.

And I believe that getting the wine and perhaps making an ally of this burglomaster, especially with Lady Wachter, still at full power, is definitely. And, Kana, I must ask you one. favor. Of course. Just throughout our journey, if you could just stay with Miss Victoria, don't let her one roth alone.

I'm in a tot. Oh, I understand, yes, I understand. I just, we've shown some troubling, yes, troubling signs. And I'm not saying you've done anything, of course not. I just, I worry that if you were to get snatched, you should have someone by a side to defend you, as all. I think what the gentlemen are saying is that this is just very dangerous territory, and it keeps getting more and more dangerous by the day, and we can't risk losing anybody because we need to be at full strength. Well, I think you're meaningful, I will not be babysat, for sure.

And I don't mean to say babysat, but I'd rather have someone in a very large suit of armor and a very large, large weapon at your side in case any foul creatures Trudania otherwise were to descend upon you to carry you off to Kravamov. We all know you're more than capable. Yes, yes, of course. None of us would have gotten this far if we

weren't. But you all like me, us arcane wielders, we are not the most durable, as we say. So, why not we should all pair up, isn't that right? Victoria, I would never question your allegiance to this expedition. But I would be honored to protect you.

Thanks, you, Carl. I don't go anywhere without Sarnax. You stick the two funny-looking guys together, and we just do our thing. That's right. That leaves you alone, then. I have, I have Lucas. I point to the invisible space, and he picks up my teacup.

And to be fair, I don't let the, I don't let the, investor go anywhere alone either, really. That's wise. Another cup, Lucas, thank you. Thank you. And you see, like, fatigue of horror. If it is any consolation cup, I do not think that Victoria

would be snatched up by the countess. Rather, I think she will go willing when the time comes. Now, now, sorry, Max. Come on. It's quite an accusation for you to make. Simply a prediction, not an accusation. And we shouldn't presume at all. I just we all need to keep our wits about us.

We know that her charm is very, very strong, almost magically so. I won't deny that I feel so pulled to this land in general and to the Camtess. Yes. I believe that means I'm on the track of what I'm looking for, the reason that I came here in the first place. I just hope, don't worry, that your heritage may be pulling you in wicked directions. That's all.

I just want to keep everyone safe. It is my expedition, and I plan to ensure that all of you survive and make it out of it. That is all. So what's on the docket for today? We find the wine. If that takes us all the way to the winery,

then that's where we're headed? Yes, we should leave immediately. We'll head out the gate to the west. We'll find this wizards of wine, winery or vineyard. I forget exactly what it was called, but we should follow. We shall go there. Along the way, let's keep an eye out over our backs to make sure we're not being followed. And let's see if there's any sign of the shipment being stolen, be set upon by highwaymen, anything like that.

And then as we get there, perhaps we can figure out where this gem goes. We can speak to the men there. If I'm still alive. Conno, why don't you take the lead? Let the professor tell us where we're going with the map. Sarnax and I'll bring up the rid of this term. Is that all right? I agree this.

I will be in leave. Thank you. I look forward to the break from this town. Yes. I need to get out to him. If it is all right with all of you, I'd like to make a stop at the church to speak with Father Lucian,

just to ensure that the safety of the child, I'm concerned in your vision, Professor, that there was no movement from Lady walked her to check on her child. Perhaps she doesn't miss her at all. perhaps she snatched her up too. I'd be best to check on her to make sure that Stella is okay. I hope she's just getting along with the other children, all right?

I mean, that would be lovely if she'd add some people to talk to for once and maybe forget about all those horrible things. To me, I would send Stella to a different town altogether. I think she is far too close to her wicked mother. As long as she is on holy ground, she will be safe. The father and Irene will take good care. We can make a pit stop if you'd like. On the way off.

You don't mind. Yes, of course. So I will finish my tea, and I'll finish reading my book so I can prepare and divine. And then I guess we'll proceed. You're rolling for how you're going to fuck me later today? I am going to roll how I'm going to fight you later. Oh, geez, guys. Hard.

Seven. I'm going to put it. You don't need to tell me what they are. Wow. I just know at some point during the session, and I'm going to roll really well, and he's going to say, I don't care what you rolled. It's an eight.

Hand wave. Don't even bother. So I used to be like, oh, I keep rolling the numbers. I want to roll out you natural 20. And look, no. Against you is way better than me than me getting on. Super clutch. It's just also flexible, right?

Whatever you roll, there's going to be a perfect moment for it. So are we going to the church and doing the RP thing there? Yeah, it's really great. Yeah, we can do as Newt puts up. While we're on the way to the church, if you guys are going to lead, I'm going to, like, pull Sarnax back Just a little bit sore out of your shot. Sarnax, buddy.

I don't mean to be forward, but have you ever heard of being a little too blunt? Maybe just, you know, be a little bit more tactful with the things that you say to our party members? For what purpose? Well, listen, I'm not the most tactful individual either, but at times it helps to be a little bit more gentle and not to offend anyone. that we have to live with. But I have found in dealing with the common folk, the non-believers, that it is what they wish not to face, they wish not to speak of, they wish not to think about.

That is what they need to hear. And eventually, the truth drags them along. Is that how you feel about me, common folk? We are all common folk, shop. I would say that as a compliment. If you were high-born and noble folk, I do not know if I could feel anything but hatred for you. Well, I've said before that you certainly have a way with words,

and that stands true. So thanks again for this. And I just kind of give a pat on the back and proceed to follow the rest of the group. And so you are heading to the church first. Yes, feel. You make your way through the streets of Vlaki. And do you notice that you're getting significantly more looks from the town's foot because they pass by? Almost as if your names, your reputation, proceeds to.

You see those who might have given you a slight smile now look at you with questioning eyes as they dart back into their home. into their homes or down alleyways or shuffle past you with a much more quickened pace. No one confronts you, but no one attempts to speak to you either, as you make your way through the streets. You find yourself at the entrance to the church. The door is closed as it normally is. You take one of the handles and you pull it open. You see that inside is once again completely empty. All but, Father Lucia, who is at the very front to the altar

kneeling down in prayer. I will step in and make my way to the front and I will have a seat in the first queue and just wait for him to finish before I grab his attention. I would say you've been here enough times to see

that he is in prayer most. the day, so you have to interrupt him. I'll walk up to the behind him a couple stairs down from where he's praying and I'll do like a 90-degree bow and I will say, good morning, Father Lucian. How are you today? You see a deep breath

as he turns around his eyes are significantly more sunken in. His cheeks seem to be hollow. He looks exhausting. I hope you do not have another child or woman or anything for me to take care of today. No. I know we're not trying to start an orphanage here.

I'm sorry, father. He looks at you and you see a faint smile. I know. The town has its problems. But I am at capacity. Sorry, John. I didn't need to interrupt. No, no, it's fine. We are eternally grateful for your hospitality

and for taking you in all of these children and women, we are very concerned for their well-being, and we feel this is the safest place for them to be in your arms. Well, since you have recovered the bones and the land itself is sacred now, it is the safest place for anyone to be, including yourselves. What brings you, Lady Kamah? I wanted to check on Stella and see how she is doing. She is kindling the change as best as a girl in her state can handle it.

She is mad. There is madness in her. She's weak and she has been starving, and it will take days, maybe even months, for us to discern how to best help. but we have a gentle hand here and we will make sure that she comes to all right her mother has not even bothered to ask about her where I have sent my ears out to find out

what is going on throat down and she pretends as if her daughter has not even left the home so I believe that she's probably relieved that she's gone That was my fear Would it be all right if I spoke with Stella?

No, Reliance. She would not. She needs rest. She needs care. She does not need to be reminded of what happened last night. But in a week, it would be great for you to see her.

I will most certainly return and pay her a visit. I'm sure she would love that. But we need to keep her come. She needs to sleep most of the day. And Erena, Irene, how is she doing? Well, she, you know, Irene, she comes from a much more well-to-do family than this church can provide. So she makes do with the meals and the sleeping quarters, but she does not like them.

She lets us know, but she is bubbly and happy, and she takes care of the children. And that is the best that we can ask. I'm glad she's able to be helpful to you as well and brighten up the room. Don't think we could handle the influx of aid without her help. Well, thank you again. We really are indebted to you. He reaches out and he grabs your hand. Thank you for what you have done.

Do not mean to seem ungrateful for the aid you have provided this cow. I am but very tired and weary about what lies ahead for all of us. And he squeezes your hand tighter than you would expect. Be safe. Darkness is coming. Is there anything we can do for you while we are out? We will be returning, but we have other. errands to run.

The church has survived many years. It will survive many years more. We are just as we need to be. But thank you for your thoughts. So keep yourself safe and he looks between all of you all.

And pray me looks at Sarnat's moment. To whatever God brings you comfort. I do make you a read. Thank you for me. May I use your washroom before.

He's so juicy. And I'll bow 90 degrees to him and I'll go in a washroom, turn on the water, pull the ladle out of my bag, and I will fill it, pour it over my left hand, fill it, pour it over my right hand,

fill it, pour it in my hand, rinse out my mouth and dry it, put it back in my mouth, and I'll pack in my mouth, back in my pack. As I just take a moment to meditate for like two minutes just to calm my breath and lower my blood pressure as I cleanse myself for the day and I walk out and meet up with the rest of the room. Anybody want to do anything else in the church?

You will meet outside and you begin to make your way outside of along the path that leads outside of the city of the Lockies. This is a road you have not traveled before. but it is similar in size and in structure to the road that you used to travel here. You make your way through the barricaded gates of Velaki. The guards look at you almost as if they're looking into you and through you is if they know something that you don't. Suspicious lines all of their faces,

but they don't hold you. They don't pause you. simply allow you passage and continue to watch. You can feel their eyes burning into your backs as you make your way out of the city of Vlophe and down the pathway, constantly checking on the small faded map that was given to you. The winery circled in red evening, and you make your way down the path.

The sky is overcast. The wind is slightly chilly, and it feels strange to be in the wilderness again. Though Velaki wasn't what you'd expected it to be, there was a comfort and a safety to being in town with life all around you, people there to question and find comfort in and answers. And now you are on your own again, winding paths through the unknown land of Robia.

I certainly would feel a bit looked upon at Tom. Now that you mention it, yeah, a little bit. Professor, I know you did whatever you normally do, but I wouldn't be surprised if when we get back, we might have to answer some questions. Well, hopefully by then we'll be saviors of the lost line. We've saved the festival. And we can use that social capital to quell their fears.

We did get mixed up in... some unfortunate business the past few days. I think that people are held to this unnatural fear from the lady walked her. And living in the same city as she is in, I imagine, they fear her anger of what we have done. I believe they have feeling like we are going to purge their way of life and fire. will change everything forever and the change is what scares. Part of me fears

maybe they wanted Virgo Master to be relieved from the situation. Maybe we stopped something from happening that they wanted to happen anyway. It's hard to understand what the majority of the people feel

in the city. It's a strange land and I hope we've not. put our noses where they shouldn't have gone made changes to things that we have not enough information about. By the way, preventing a staunch ally of Chardania from becoming the burgomaster as a noble task. And we did the right thing.

But is at our place? We're here to learn, to observe. Yes, and we're here to survive. and the more power that the countess gains and her allies gain, while we're here, it makes life harder for us. I do sense a bit of imbalance. Ever since we stepped foot in this land, but ever more so, I fear that that imbalance is grown. I think we may have helped it in some way by doing what we did when the lady walked away. but many people may not believe the tale we told yesterday.

Well, either way, we can just continue onward. And just let Valki escape your minds for a few days. But does not think on it. I think we all need a break from that. We must return before the festival. Yes, yes. And that will hopefully be a nice enough break to, to regain all wits.

We'll see how this gem reacts to the soil. So I guess we'll continue onward. There's a fork. I don't know if we could be to the fork. Can you continue to walk? So I would suggest in a medicine and tell me if the group disagrees that we would be in a hustle, we wouldn't be taking our time.

Yes, yes. We would be pressing forward at a good pace. Yeah. At the risk of not being stealthy. Right. Trying to make it back in time. for at least maybe if we don't get to the beginning of the festival, trying to make it before the festival ends, I think.

So you know that the festival starts the very next day in the morning, but it culminates in the evening. Yeah. Yeah. So we have one night and then a lot of tomorrow, right? Yeah, yes. And you know that the truck down to the winery is going to take you around five hours. Okay.

Yeah, we'll help it. Yeah, we'll go just. So you travel for 15 minutes or so, communicating with each other, talking about the situations in town. You find your way, when you find yourselves coming out into a small clearing with a road forks into different directions, and standing in the very center of the clearing, appears to be skeleton, completely lifeless. His arms draped over his head, completely slumped down, not going to be.

moving at all. What is it draped over? It's just standing there. It's standing out. It's standing in the very center. We all see this? Of the road are clearing. Of the road where the road forks.

So you're coming out, it's completely lined with trees. You come out into a clearing where the road forks, the fork on the mat that you just asked about. And in the very center of that fork, you see a skeleton standing there. Its arms are hung down. Its head is bent over. As the wind whips around it, you hear the jingling or the, um, the tingling of the bones as it, they clink against each other and the movement of the wind. But the skeleton itself does not move.

I immediately look at it and use hunter's sense. As an action, I choose one creature. I can, damn it's T. TN. Just error out of me. I clicked it. Five of five. Basically, what it does is as an action, I choose a creature I can see within 64.

feet. And I immediately learn whether the creature has any damage, immunities, or resistance, or vulnerabilities, and what the creature is, if it's not hidden from divination magic. I can do it three times per long rest. Oh, nice.

It's one of my monster hunter features. You channel your innate monster hunter abilities and you focus in on the skeleton, the middle of this junction. and you can't discern anything about this. All right, everyone, hold up. I do not know what that is.

We're going to whip around and see if there's anyone behind us. If you look and there's nobody behind you. I have one hand on one of my weapons. If that was some sort of undead or some sort of skeleton like we've seen before, I think I'd know. Well, then perhaps it's simply a skeleton. Maybe that's how they denote forks in the road. May I take a closer look?

We'll get with your spear. Does it look like it's, like, is it on like a post or anything? It's literally just standing. It's just punched over. Take a closer look and we can proceed. All right, Connell, let's get a little closer. Just be ready. I'll walk up to it.

As you walk up to it, you hear the grinding of bone on bone as it writes itself. His head still down, as its head leans up, you watch as the jaw falls open. It looks like it's screaming. at you as you see the body of a raven tumble out of the mouth and land on the ground. You immediately realize

this is a raven that you killed at the windmill. Its body now beginning to decay. Feathers completely removed from the signs of it where the flesh beneath is slowly beginning to

fall away. Oh gosh! Oh! Oh! Oh, no. This is clearly the illusion treachery of the countess. I'm staring into the keeping eyes of the skeleton with my spear, my hole I'm at the ready. The hollow eyes of the skeleton stare back at you, its mouth completely at gate. It looks, though no sound issues from him, in an eternal scream. As you hear the grinding of bones, once again, as the arms move,

and one of the arms raises up and begins to point in the direction you're heading. I'm going to go with the Sarnax on this one. It's some more trickery. We're being taunted. They know whoever this is, they know where we're going. So is it pointing to one of the forks? Yes, it's pointing in the direction you know that you're heading. Oh, okay.

What is the meaning of this skeleton? Well said. Roll of persuasion, Jeff. I got a 21 for persuasion. and I'm not, I'm like, not scared of it at all. You continue to stare into it. You say this, and it stares back. It's empty eyes.

Issues out of the inside of the skeleton, but the jaw does not move. There's no motion to the skeletons. Strange, disembodied voice that bubbles up and spills out this horrific, feminine tackle. That sounds very similar. to a laughter you had heard before from the hags, from hacks. Oh, my God.

I have now drawn both of my weapons, and I'm pointing them at the skeleton. It's probably an illusion. Just dispell it. Let's get on with a lot. Did you hear that? Professor, tell me you heard that. Yes, I heard it. These are tricks.

Just like the body in the gallows, it'll just vanish. Just disturb it. I'm going to hold up my hand, recognizing the laugh and continuing to make unblinking eye contact with it, I will say, are the hags still alive? Roll persuasion check. 15. You stare into the empty eyes of the skeleton, and you hear nothing. There's no way. Sorry, God.

Allow me. And I cast a spell magic on the skeleton. Okay, roll for it. Okay. It's a fail. That will be a six. We have two twists. We do.

A six. Okay. You extend your hand out and you extend your hand out and you cast this magic over the skeleton. You see it staring directly into your eyes, the jaw hanging a limb wide open in an eternal screen as all of a sudden, the skeleton, the bones begin to shake and it collapses to the ground. This is real. There's no way.

Those foul creatures are still a lot. I won't mage hand and gently pick up the raven corpse to see if it's actually an actual raven corpse. Your mage hand moves its way down and grabs a whole of the corpse. You expect to see the incoorial fingers of your mage hand disappear into the illusion,

but it firmly grabs hold as it carries it to you, and as it gets close to you, you're able to see that this is the body of that raven. You can see the same markings as you remember seeing the impact when it fell from the sky and steep asleep. Vitorra, what did you say?

What if there are more hacks? Why would you say something like that? Why are you taking that turn with me? It's a reasonable logic to bring forth. You want to know what'll happen? If we find more hags, we'll kill them. We'll kill every goddamn hag we see so the children are safe. Well, that is just fine, Mr. Shepherd.

I would ask you to not take that tone with me. More goddamn hags. You're kidding me. Shepherd, I would not potentially worry about that. there may be an alternative that we are cursed. It is a possibility, my hypothesis, that in a dying breath, a hag may have cursed us, we're all three. So now we're just dealing with some echoes, some whispers.

This is a physical skeleton. This is the actual corpse of the raven that I killed. A curse can manifest in many ways, Professor. And we know that the raven isn't necessarily. necessarily tied to the countess. We know that the raven is tied to the order of the feather. Indeed. Why wouldn't

it shifts back into its true form when it dies? Did I recall back when I had to detect magic and the raven died, it no longer has magic on it? So I will say that you detected the magic, so you knew it was magical,

i.e., what you detected was the fact that it was a shapeshifter. So it didn't have a school of magic in the same sense why it was a difficult role, or it was a difficult thing for me, right, to try and how you would have seen that. So you knew that it was magic, but you didn't know how. You don't know the age of the person you would have been. Do I think that to spell magic might shift them back? Is that a reasonable thing that Clayton would think based on?

I would say it's definitely worth trying. I'm going to get free of loving real quick. I'm going to take the raven like literally not stealthily really but like sort of as they're talking and shepherds yelling at Victoria

I'm going to kind of like take the raven just sort of to the side of the road rest it down and I'll kind of like a lot of year 50 foot cone of yell I'm yelling towards you

Yeah, I was just yelling in her direction. It wasn't at her. Hold on, sorry. Thanks. Dean could be on wonderful. Starmary. While he's looking that up, could I lean over, kneel over the bones,

and kind of tumble over them with my naggiat and see if there's anything suspicious about them, anything moving through Nick or anything different? Roll investigation. This is totally. Natural one. So three. Looking through them, you definitely see that there are scratches in the bones, but it's hard.

to tell, especially with them completely disassembled like this, where they would have lined up, if it would have been markings when it was active, et cetera. And they're piled altogether. It's hard to sift through. You're spilling up dust and clouding your vision. You're unable to find anything. So I will lay it down, take a good couple steps back. And I will say,

augumentum and cast a spell magic other 16 You begin to cast your spell And you wait for a moment You seem as nothing changes So finally the form of the raven begins to shift

And you lockgate And you walk and you hope As you watch a logate and a longate And it stops far too soon A small girl Maybe 12 chubby cheeks an eternal smile

on her face her eyes closed her hair matted covered in dirt fucking not hell I turn around from the bones mid-sentence professor do you want me to

what where did she come from this was the raven I dispelled her magic this was the true form we just can't fucking win we need to

I will write several notes I want to kind of write down a general description of what she looks like maybe do a little sketch so that I know in case we need anybody and I'll say we need to bury her

we must take her to the inn do you have a way to prevent her from decomposing not at the moment I'll get to fucking digging I cannot bury her out here away from her family we shouldn't return her yes do we know what

family she belonged to and I want to run over to the body and gently see if there's like anything about her that would discern who she is going to that scene yeah did anything like it looks like the innkeepers

yeah uh 12 looking at her a lot of the Barovians almost seem to look similar there none of them are wildly different in feature

there are a few but she definitely looks Barovian in nature but it would be hard to discern a particular family you know that you've met very few of the Barovians she could be the daughter of anyone I don't think it's right to try to take her all the way

the winery and then all the way back to Volaki. It isn't right. Then you give her a proper burial. I'd return her to the soil. I'm going to I'm going to... No, no, I was going to say I'll just take...

I think we've done it. I had a shovel from earlier in the expedition. We were... Yeah, Section Zero or whatever, right? Go off to the side, just not into the woods, but off the path and just start to dig. Shepard, save your strength. I'm not... It's fine. It's fine.

We will burn her body. But we should still make some sort of small grave site, right? Maybe we create a grave for her and we burn her in it rather than leaving her ashes out. No, no, we must take the body with us. Why, Professor? We have to inform the family. We can't just show up and say, oh, yeah, we found your daughter's corpse. and just have them trust us, outsiders?

You saw how everyone was hoping at us this morning. This would just be another nail in the coffin, so just be... Why must they know that we had anything to do with this situation? Because it was us that killed her unknowingly and accidentally for certain, but... We would lie about that. I would put the blame on the evil nature of this land. I and I would as well, but it wouldn't be right to just lie about something so brave and says. People are going to just accept that, sarnass.

Word on the wind travels fast. I imagine the happenings of last night have already spread all over the lands of Borovia. We may already be guilty before we even arrive to the vineyard. Having her in our grasp, I don't think will help our car. cause, but I will certainly follow any direction. I'm happy to carry her if you'd like. Mr. Morgan

Rapper up? Professor. Producer Ticana. Sheph. Sarnax in the morning? Professor. Yes. Understand that you feel

a particular need to make things right, given that you are the one that killed this creature. I killed a child. You did. Killed... Knowing or unknowing this being

deserves respect. You killed a bird, professor. That does not mean his conscience is not clear. I understand. I killed a child that can turn into a bird. Did I think it was a bird at the time? I didn't even think it would die. Professor, I have

doubted your judgment several times, but I am doubting it the most and the most gravely in this moment. You would weigh us down with this burden. Yes, I would. You would distract us from our goal, potentially endanger all of our lives

from the guilt that you feel from this. I would walk many miles with this child in my arms if it meant returning her to her family. I would do the same for my master. I would carry him home where he belongs and bury him if I ever found his body in Borovia. She deserves a proper burial, and I disagree.

I don't think she should just be burned here in the middle of these woods alone. No offense to your god, Sarnax, but I don't believe this is the time. It's not our decision to make how she is set forth to this earth after death. I was the one that first suggested we take her to the inn, but if we do not believe that she's related to the innkeeper, it will bring nothing but danger, for us to wander about with the corpse of a child. seeking out her parents.

All eyes will be honest more than they already are. It will delay us with our goals getting to the winery, finding the nature of the soul. All right. All right. Just give me a moment, please. I would like to very gently and delicately search her person for any kind of memento or anything that shows who she is.

if she's like a name tag on her dress or anything that would be like a keepsake that we could keep as proof that we... Roll an investigation check. You begin to carefully look through the clothing of the girl before you. And at first, you don't notice a thing

until you find a small folded up piece of parchment. And as you want to fold it up, you are met with a letter written in common. My dearest Basha, be safe as you travel through the woods and report back to us as often as possible. It is dangerous out there. To not get involved in things that you shouldn't, simply scout the area and let us know the dangers that are there. If they've taken our gems, we will find out to not. Do not communicate with them or anyone else.

Stay safe. Stay with your brothers. I love you. Come on. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of avatrous and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas,

shroud over salt marsh. You can also go to The Crooked Moon. to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies, like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. I don't, but this letter says they may be from the lion. She may be from the wife. But it's carry her there, and then we can burn her if they are not aware. the skeleton did point towards the winery with the child in its clutches.

Maybe best take her there first. Wrap her up, please. Wrap her up. May I please get the letter back, please? I'll help you wrap her up. Okay. All right. We'll go and see who's still at the winery.

Perhaps we can bring us rest there either way. Shall we make peace? I think we're better. Yeah, yes. All right. Professor, when lives are at stake, when there's danger abound,

terrible things must be done, but beyond that terrible things can happen. Innocence can be covered. can be collateral to not let that reality cloud your judgment please all of our lives

depend on it you're right honor please so case you slowly wrap up the body of the girl before you and Kana you take her into your arms you hold her against you

her forms cold and lifts but you hold her tightly as you solemnly begin to make your way down the path in which the skeleton pointed you to, and you walk silently. The eeriness and the stillness of the trees around you, unaffecting, as you make your way along the path. So you've traveled for about two, maybe three hours. You know that you've got another hour and a half to two ahead of you.

Is there anything you'd like to do? Not me. I would like to keep an eye out. for any hag business any like wooden fetishes type of trees I'll be casting my lantern kind of will be walking to one edge casting my invisibility revealing lanterns around

I think I would want to be just given that I had a very near run in with like a huge wolf I would be keeping an eye out that scared me a little bit I'm keeping an eye out listening for twigs mapping I'm keeping an eye out for any signs so then let's roll in through perception

I'm sure. I'm not natural Twitter. I gotta give it up. 25. 24. Are there next?

17. 10. 21. Okay. You continue in silence for the next hour and a half, nearly two hours. The woods around you are quiet.

You find no other strange event so you're looking over your shoulder at every chance you get, expecting anything, everything. You're traveling in the early hours of the day. You've got an early start in the forest themselves didn't seem to have come alive just yet. As you find yourselves spilling out into a clearing,

the vineyard up ahead, situated in the midst of the vineyard, the winery is an old two-story stone building with multiple entrances, thick ivy covering every wall when iron fencing along. its roof line. Following the trail, it ends at an open loading dock on the ground floor. A wooden stable of more recent construction is attached to the east side of the winery next to the loading dock. And west of the winery is a crumbling well in a wooden outhouse. The actual vineyard extends in front of you. There are now two paths forking, one into the vineyard and one slightly into the vineyard and through to the winery.

To the winery then, professor? Yes. What does the soil look like, the ground going up to the winery in this vineyard? I'm sorry, what? Like the soil on the ground. It's like, is it long,

fertile farmland, or what does it look like? It looks like normal ground. There doesn't seem to be anything special about it. Are there like vines growing out of it or like, is Is it up? Is it like, is it stuff growing?

So you're not at the vineyard. You see this way, way ahead of you. Okay, got it. So you're not actually. Yeah, we're on way back. Oh, okay, okay. Sorry, I thought we were there. I would say, I mean, you're, this is just what you're,

I'm saying like it opens up. And you can see this down kind of in the valley. Let us proceed. Yes. Is the child's face hidden? She's wrapped up. Let's proceed. A light drizzle began.

fall. Unpainted faces blindly follow the trail which skirts north of the sprawling vineyard before bending south towards the stately building of the winery. The fog takes on ghostly forms as it swirls between the neatly tended rows of grape vines. Here and there you see rope-handled half barrels used for hauling grapes. North of the trail is a large stand of trees. A man wearing a dark cloak and cowl stands at the edge of the trees. Back in you too. Yes, yes. I'll put the hand back on. And I will be in the back, Professor.

Yes, please, please. So you are at the vineyard. There is a pathway that leads toward the winery. Along the tree line is a man. He's back in you towards the tree line. Oh, away from the vineyard. I narrow my eyes and I just start approaching. Careful professor. Hello, my good man. The man looks up the hood falling away from his face, and you immediately see the resemblance to the innkeeper, older, more haggard, the kind of resemblance you'd see between a father and a son.

He continues to beckon you forward. Get out of the vineyard, please. Get into the three line. I immediately. use Hunter's sense on this thing. If it's not hidden by divination magic, then I know what they really are. Where a Raven?

Okay. Damage immunities, vulnerabilities. Immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks that aren't silvered. Okay. Yeah, that's cool. All right. Thank you. Are you the owner of this winery?

I am yes. what brings you here? What are you doing? The winery. It is not safe here. And you see, as he says this, as you step up to the edge of the tree line, that more shapes begin to emerge.

As you see two men, two women, and two small children begin to crowd around the men. Tell them all we're here. Yes. Well, let's get into the tree line first. Please, and just you back against you in. And as you make your way in through the tree line, you see where they've chopped down a bit of the foliage that was encroaching along the tree line.

And they've set up a small encampment, tense fortification where they've taken down some fencing and built their own small barricade. Well, first, before we discuss, my name is Professor Clayton Azran of Ms. Talaura University. This is the Azran expedition to Borovia. We are here to learn more about Brovia, documented and return home. We arrived here because we heard that there has been an issue and that the shipments have been missing. The inn. Tell them where we're staying. We're staying at the end. The Blue Water Inn. I believe the innkeepers are related to you.

You see a look of disgust on his face for a moment. So we have heard of the family. relation, you are not unknown to us. And first, can you give us any details about the danger? Yes, why are you out here in the woods? Because the land itself has overtaken the vineyard in the winery. We cannot go home. But you want the wine.

Yes, that is. the goal, there will be mass unrest in Balafi. He looks between all of you and his eyes linger on Kana for a moment. And he looks back around all of you, almost unfazed. You look capable. Could you remove this stuff? I mean, we're here to help. We just need to know a little bit more about what we're actually looking at here.

Yes, what exactly do you mean the land has taken over? The land itself, the... creatures of the earth climb up out of the winery and they have overrun the entire place. There are six full casts of wine in the winery currently. Three that were loaded onto the wagon to be taken into town and three in the basement, in the cellar, as well as many, many bottles of wine, but to get to them, you will have to get through the creatures in the earth. Professor, this is an orth dying over.

They are creatures of the earth. You do not mean exhumed the corpses. Do you mean plant matter? Yes. They are fine, sordy men of plant, and they ravaged the entire family. We were barely able to get out with our lives. How, how did this happen?

What caused this happen? What caused us? It was but maybe a week ago. You've been hiding out in the woods for a week? This is my livelihood. I cannot leave it like this, but we don't know what to do. We're not asking you to abandon it. I'm just, I'm upset for your position.

What is the nature of the soil that produced these creatures? We are lucky that we built this vineyard on fertile land. Can I see if this guy's telling the truth? Okay. If I get decent vibes. Oh, like, That's hard to tell. He definitely seems

a nervous, uncomfortable. He definitely doesn't seem like you trust you, but he seemed worried to just let you walk up to the vineyard, but now seeing you,

seeing Shepard's muscles, the weapons at his side, seeing Kana in her armor, seeing what you're potentially capable of, you can see a bit of hope in his face that you might be exactly what he needs to free his winery of this infestation.

We will solve this problem for you. Return your livelihood if we can deliver these casks of wine to Velaki. If you can rid the winery of the infestation that is here, you may have all that remains. Sarnax, produce the gem, please. And you see his face drain completely of color. what do you mean? And you see as the people behind him

hold onto him, they're all looking at you, strangely. All but one, one of the women is staring at cotton and at what you hold. I have to beverting my gaze, but acknowledging that she's staring at home. What's gem, professor? What do you hold it? Your child.

Oh, God. I'm just sorry. In the back, trying not to look so suspicious. I see. The gem, professor, shouldn't we wait? What gem do you speak of? Do not wait. Show me now.

I believe we need to show him the gem now, Sonax. We have other things to show him, too. I would rather show him the gem now. I'll pull out. Keeping it very close to myself. This gem. Where did you find this? And he reaches for it.

No, this is my This is my livelihood. We have none left. You do not understand they have taken it all. What? The other mother she took one and then the druids. They came and they took the other. Where did you get this? Wait, who is the other mother? We found

this in a pile of children's bones. The wicked woman of decay and death in Verres. She took the first and then the druids came and they took the other. But this one, this one was lost to me. Where Was it?

It was... You said you stayed at the inn, my foul son. No, it was not in the inn. Where was it? Tell? Give me, my gem. It was the old bone grinder, the windmill. And you see all of them, their faces fall for a moment.

The woman staring at Kana crumbles to the ground. She's not her. She does not have her, please. Tell me, she does not have her, and she begins to rip and tear at this girl as the body falls. No, my God. She did not die those eggs. There's women they killed her.

She crumbles over the woman. Over the girl, tears streaming. All of the people behind her. Tears streaming down their face, gasping. No longer interested in the jam.

Please tell me this is not breath. Vasha, my sweet Vasha. This is Vasha. How long ago? How long ago did he stupid? Uh, judging by the body? David, Davin, you can fix her, can you? A few days.

Only a few days. Only a few days. A few days. A few days. She looks to the old man and he is staring down in near horror as he looks at her. I don't know if I can. But I will try. I will try for you, Stefania.

You can help her. I will try. And you see as. from his cloak, he pulls out a long withered staff, sinks it into the ground. Give me the gem. Give him the gems, Sonax. Of course.

His hand shaking. If he rips it from you and you sees he places it into the staff and firmly embeds the staff in the ground, link your hands with me now. Do this. Us? As I say, all of you, on the ground now. Of course.

You all link hands. as he gets down on his knees. Stefania in the middle, crying over the body of this girl. All talk of everything that you had brought to them completely off the table

as they focus 100% of their attention onto this child. He gets down onto his knees, he sinks his fingers into the ground. And you see as his shape shifts for a moment, almost raven-like, but back into human form,

as he begins to chant. as he begins as he begins to emanate a strange green magic he chants and he chants I need all of you to roll a D20

Oh Oh my good God damn roll God damn roll Come on Just the good boy Come on That ain't good

That ain't good That ain't good Natural one. Seven. Can we twist some of these? Yeah. So we know we need to. I don't know we're willing for it.

I don't even know what we're doing straight for. No, we're not adding anything to it, right? You're not adding anything. 11. One. Let's twist your one. Okay. I think that's reasonable.

Let's twist your one at least. The one is just so fucking bad. Come on. A two. Oh. It's faded. It's faded. So when I'm ready, I got a seven.

Should be two more in there. Yeah. I got a 13. Was I think only one over 10? 11. 11. I got a four. A two and a four.

We suck. Hold on. From a metagaming perspective, I would really feel comfortable having at least three over ten. Can we twist? We don't even know what we're rolling for. Roll an archana check for me. Both you and Sarnat. Or you can you roll a religion check.

Oh. Oh, fuck. I do. Okay. Well. It's just the rolls, you know? That's my good die, too. Hold on.

12. Religious. So, what did you get? I got seven. Seven. I'm asking Maya. 11.

My arcana was a 12. I rolled a 13. You got a what? So I got a natural two, and then for my, just D20, and my religion was a nine. Okay. What did you get? What did you get? Me?

Yeah. I got 13 on my D20 and a 12 on the archa check. Okay. They can't all be happy. We do it we can. Sometimes the fit, sometimes fate is just dictated by the dice. They are.

He begins to chant as all of them. All of them, but Stefania begins to chant in unison. You feel the ground move beneath your feet. The sound in his voice as he chants is almost as if he's begging the earth

to do his bidding. And none of you understand this ritual. None of you understand this magic that he's using. Sarnax, you are the closest to anyone that can understand what he's doing. There is an earthly magic to what he's using, but it is unlike the holy fire that is within you. It is far more primal, far more natural.

As he digs his fingers into the, earth and begs and begs all of you linking hands around him. The people who you have yet to even introduce yourself to are swaying and chanting as Stefania cries and cries. And slowly the chanting stops, silence, all but the weeping of this woman over the body of her daughter. As slowly you see her head move is a deep inside. take of breath from this small girl causes the head of Stefania to bob up and down. And she holds her tightly as I rolled a natural 20. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. And you see as she begins to grieve and she reaches up for me. My back hurts a lot. Sweet the girl, please, please do not say anything she is. wraps her arms around her and then one arm shoots out without even looking and grabs Kana's hand. Thank you.

Thank you for bringing her to me. Thank you. She holds her tightly. What happens, my dear? What happened? Your brother said you flew off. I told you to stay with them. And she says, I don't know, Mommy.

I feel asleep. Well, fine. I don't know. It's all hazy. I don't remember anything, Mommy. but my head hurts and it was so dark. But I just want to go home. Oh, look at the professor and try to get his gays.

Give him an annoying look. Well, surely we found her body along with fowl hag magic. And I want to kind of get a sense, so I feel like she's not undead. She's like straight up fucking like alive. She looks normal. She looks like some type of resurrection magic had been utilized. You look to Davian, and he looks far more exhausted. You can see his chest heaving, his heart pounding.

Every ounce of magic he had within him seems to be sacked. And he looks like he's on the verge of passing out from the energy that he expended to do this. No doubt shall hag magic Are there any other hags in the area? You have You have done us a great service this day I'm glad we could I could not have done that without this

And he looks to his staff And the gem that's centered in it This gem produces life magic It is what Fertilizes the ground That this vineary stands on This is what allows us to have a livelihood. Honestly, it was just pure dumb luck we even found it.

If you had not brought both of these to me, and as quickly as you did, Basha could have been lost to us. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. That's all. I will not lie to you any longer. It is these gems that we've lost. That is the reason these blights have cursed this land.

Do the gems keep them in bay? No. But once they knew that the gems were gone, I sent out so many of my family. So many members of the Martikos to look for these gems. Years ago, I believed my son had stolen this gem brought back today.

But a part of me believed it might have been these women on the hill. Who are these women on the hill? I'm unsure. I sent them. out my children to look. Not because I wanted, but because

they begged me to. Without this winery, we could not live. Without this winery, we have no livelihood. We have nothing. And when the second gen went missing, in the druids began to hunt

our winery, we knew they must have taken it for whatever foul magics they do upon Yester Hill. Yes to him. But we still had won until recently when we believe that horrible woman of death in Varez took it.

That we had none, and we panicked. I sent all that I had out, all but who you see here, to scout everywhere, to find at least one gem. And my little, my little sweet grand daughter Vasha, I did not want to go, but she is getting older and she promised and he looks down, but a smile graces his face. She would stay with her brothers.

I will not make that mistake again. When our defenses were weakened, the blights came over to divinery. And we have been unable to do anything with the stock we had left. But at least this one jam, if the winery is clean, we can return home. but I fear that Yester Hill and that bigot woman in Perez they will not leave us

leave. Where is Verres? It is a long a path back from once you came. We? I do not think it is a place you want to go. You look strong, that

that woman. There is something about her. She is not It is not safe. Where does she live on this hill? She does not live on the hill. Her fluids live on the head. Holmiraez.

Where does she live in what sort of dwelling? I do not know. We have scouted the outskirts. There is something strange about the home she lives in, this small hut. It has a magic to it. But what it is, I don't know. Have you ever seen this woman? I personally have not seen her, but my eldest have come back,

and they have told me tales that she has deadened the land around her. We don't have much time now. What can we do to help you restore the winery? I don't know. Can you kill the infestation in it? Yes. Damn right. We can't.

If you can do that, if you reach us, if he reaches out, he stumbles for a moment, he's old. He's at least in his late 60s as he stumbles forward and he crumbles to his knees, but he motions you back as he digs his staff into the ground and writes himself. He reaches out and grabs both of your shoulders. Do this for me, please. I ask so much of you, but you have done so much for me already. I wish to feel sorrow that I ask you to go into this dangerous and do these things. But I need your help. I will not, I will humble myself and tell you I need your help.

My family needs your help. Some of that wine is more than an even trait. It is the least we can do. have all the wine in the winery now. With this gem alone, we can begin to rebuild. One of the plots is still fertile. If I can replant this soon, I will be, I will have grapes. We will have wine production again within the week.

You, you have saved our family. You have saved our winery. I want to be clear. We're not doing this for the wine. We happen to be here and we're only trying to set things right. We're here to help. If you want to, if you want to feel like you need to repair, us with anything. You can do me one thing.

Anything for you. You tell me everything you can find out about that woman in that damn small. I will send out two of my most capable sons. Not the children, please. No, not the children. And anyone who's already seen her, just get as much information as you can.

I will have them scout, and I will have them bring back what they know. Thank you. That's all I ask. Please keep your children and your grandchildren away from Hanks. I was only aware of what They've slaughtered them all. You see a look on his face,

almost questioning look. But not necessarily pride, but almost admiration. They are gone. The covenant of hags settles in. Old bone grime of the windmill. They are dead. No, we're not going to lie,

because we're worried that they might not all be gone. but at least the ones in that God-forsaken women are dead. I am not familiar with eggs. I've never seen one in my entire life, nor do I am I much of a reader. But I will take your word for it that they are gone. They were obviously very dangerous. Do what you can.

If this woman in this swamp turns out to be anything even remotely related to a hag, she will die if it is the last. thing that I do. I hope he's not the less. And he looks down at Fasha, who is just held tightly in the arms of our mother, both of them crying,

just completely wrapped with sobs. But it's that quiet and deep sobbing of happiness, of thankfulness, of hope. And he looks down at the both of them, you have already done much for my family. I cannot thank you enough. No, no, please think nothing of it. But we owe you this.

Would you honor a very simple request? Do not see why not. That, what you just did there was the power of that crystal. It was, yes. And in your hands, this crystal and the others, year round, maintain that level of fertility. and light magic on Barovian soil. They were planted before the days of

the looks around almost as of checking to see if you're being listened to. They were planted before the days of Stolamian. Their magic has persist since when the land fell dark and began to die, the land in which these seeds were buried. They did not succumb to the darkness, and we have upheld them ever since. Then, my simple requests,

a plot of land in your vineyard, what is needed for a small orchard, if all three crystals are returned, do you consider that a fair trade Roller's way. So one crystal is for the druid. One crystal we just returned, and one is with the wicked woman on the... Probably a heck.

Okay. Do we know where the third crystal came from? We don't really know. I mean, like... Other than it came from the doll. We know that based on our investigation that we think with what else was in that clone of the doll, that doll probably dug around, that pile of children's teeth and bones. Okay.

Well, you're studying. The Lord Jam might have been with the other hats. So, yes. In the stone circle. The stone circle after the windmill. Do we know he looks at you? I will do this. We have gone many years without the champagne.

I would not do that to the land of Borobia again. But they could do without the weakest of our bodies. I will cut the weakest the weakest. yield. The land is not the weakest, but the grapes did not make the best wine. I will give you this land, this land only, but only half of it. It will be a very small plot for trees. I shall be able to make that work, and I find that amenable. And you will promise me that the crops that this soil yields, you will do nothing to disturb.

I will not touch it unless it begins to encroach on the land around it. I don't presume that it will, but I do not know what the nature of the soil combined with the

magics the whole will do. I hope it is not disrupt, but I thank you for your agreeableness to my proposal. I think you all. for reuniting my family. And the least we can do. Bringing back this gen.

Thank you for... Thank you for letting us be part of that ritual. It was breath. And we will return your livelihood right now. Please, be safe. Do I get any response around the Yester Hill, uh, Prince? I have not been there.

began to encroach on our lands and we did what we could to keep them back. But once they had the gem, they have been relentless. Are they allies? They chant. Rituals. I've never heard the like. Are they allied with the countess? I do not know.

If she visits the people, I would not see it. We do not venture up to that. land. It is cursing. Do you often get visited? Are you often visited by the countess herself?

She does not come. She does not bother you. She does not. This is what we will do. We will reclaim the vineyard. Do you now have that gem. We'll get you back to your life. Do not worry about the druids and the woman beyond reconnaissance.

To not engage. Do not get close. Just learn what you can you return the wine to the vineyard, to the lackey. I will do you one better. Do not waste your time heading back to the loki. Yes. I will. Sorry, I apologize.

Keep kidding. It is a horrible place. I've stayed away from it for a long time. But I do all my son a visit. I will personally, with two of my sons, take the wine back for you. If you greet the vineyard, of the blight upon it.

Damn right, we will. Unless you quell the evil with yester Hill, they will multiply. Oh, right then. You're doing us a bigger favor than you could ever know. Yes, thank you. The reconnaissance will be a valuable information so we know which to strike next.

And you are done. If you survive, do. We will meet back at divinery. When divine is delivered and the hill is quelled, and I will have for you the information you seek. Do you my friend and I put my hand out? He reaches out his hand still shaking.

He steadies his arms. He reaches forward. He shakes and he tries to grab your hand firmly, but you can tell how weak he is. It's going to be all right. I promise. It will together. We will bring hope back to the market of him.

Professor. Yes. Team meeting. all right yes we will be on our way and if it's worth anything I don't believe your son means you any ill will and they've done nothing but be kind to us

I owe him an apology and that he will get that's good to hear thank you for more than you could possibly know and if you need anything more of us please call upon us and I quickly introduce the whole group

I will send a raven if I need you. Keep an eye out. But, no, not all. Are of my ilk. How will we know that they are of your ilk? You will have to ask questions of the raven? Yes. Keep your eyes out and look for three signs.

We will thank you to this. We will... Go with caution always. he walks over and puts his hand on Vasha and sing to me. I'll turn to the rest of the group, I'll say. Before you go, he reaches his hand out with the staff, and with a dexterity that you did not expect, he spins it around and slams it into the ground

as a rush of energy spills out around you. you all have now have the blessed spell. Oh shit. Go forth. Like we are blessed. You are now blessed. Okay. I'll turn to the group and I'll say,

all right, Tasman Expedition. Let's get to work. You make your way out of the small outcropping that the Martikov family had created for themselves the shelter against the infestation at the winery.

And you find yourselves, once again, along the tree line and staring out at the vineyard in front of you. You see three plots, one of them still looking slightly fertile, and you're staring out, one of the plots looks more fertile than the others. And you can almost see the procession of when the stones themselves, the seeds, as Deviant called them, had been taken. One of them far off towards the back of the winery seems to be in significant disrepair. the next in less, there's still hints of life left in it, but for the most part it is nearly

completely dried up. And the final one, looking as if there is potential there. You know this to be the one that he plans to renew with the return of the first scene. But all seems to be quiet as you look out over the three plots of land. the vineyard off to the back the two-story stone building is large and it's definitely in a bit of disrepair

but you can tell that it's lived in that it's worked, that it functions but all is quiet there are no signs of life the infestation he spoke of so far no remnants can be seen do you. Go ahead. I knew you were just so ready I'm so sorry.

He's all right. I'm all fired up now from fairy tale. Is the loading that you mentioned connected to the two-story building? You can't see it from here, but you imagine that it is. Okay, okay. Please. That was a great question. All right.

And I'm glad that you've listened to my descriptions. Before we head down there, we got a little bit of talking to do. All right. Yes. Sarnax, this is it, man. This is the fire. This is what you were talking about. I'm ready.

This is the best I felt since we set foot in Barovia, and my friends, I've got good news. We're heading down there. We're going to clear out whatever Godforsaking druid magic or whatever bullshit he was talking about. And him offering to take the wine back to Valki is the best thing that could have happened to us. Please, please tell me you heard what he said about where this woman lives.

And I'm going to stop you for just one. second, this blessed spell is different. It has a duration of one hour. Oh. So it is not a one-minute bless. It is a one-hour bless. We'll get moved short. Sorry. So G-4 to attacks and saving throws, right?

Yes. Okay. Tell me any of you heard what he said. He said it was in Verres. Therese. B-R-E-R. Oh, but the name's not a poor professor. All right. What is important? He described it as drought. Oh?

We're going in there. We're going to kill whatever God-forsaken creature she is. We're going to make this right, and we're going to fulfill one more fucking card. Well... You're a genius. Quite right.

I was a little emotionally overwhelmed. I must have missed that part. All the matter now is that we kill whatever fucking that creature she is, and we're one step closer to get in the fuck out of this place. Victoria, remind me the exact wording of our reading. Yes, it's from the Nine of Star. The Chandra card.

This card tells a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope. I see a dead village drowned by a river, ruled by one who has brought great evil into... And that's going to be a ye fucking ha. Shepherd is good to see you in reanimate. I'll feel a real good, sorry and ass, and I give him a slap on the shoulder.

Do not waste your energy. Let's go. We must make haste. The fire. He's in you. And do you know the best part about dealing with plant creatures? Oh, I bet I do. They are flammable. Now, just let's remember that this is dangerous.

Yes, I'm Marcus and I cast major armor on myself. Please, let's be ready for anything. Please do not act recklessly. The intent here is to give these people their home back. Yes. To burn it to the ground. We're going to keep everything in ten. No wayward fires.

No, understand? I have the vested interest in keeping these fine wear ravens in business. That is true. They will tend to my sacred crop. If Garris is there, I hope he's watching. I hope he is as well. All right, can we satisfy Mr. Morgan's Itch and get on with it?

I just want to say one thing. We did promise that we would take care of the druids on the hill. Oh, that's going to be another shop as well, my friend. That would be first. I just want to have. I believe we need to stop there after here. I agree. That, that woman, she ain't going anywhere until we have something to say about it.

We'll make sure to strike her after. We are ready. There's one place she is going, the soil of you. That's right, my friend. All right. I'm glad everyone is very excited. Let's please focus. I withdraw my weapons.

Like, give them a spin. I'm like, to the fucking thing. Yes, Shepard. Continue. Continue. And I just say it in the back, ooh. Yeah. That's my puppy.

Second time he's ever smiled at the campaign. A two-teen grin. Are we ready, Professor? Yes. All right. Let's lead the way. You said you're doing anything beforehand. You're just charging.

He made armor? Oh, you may jar-man. I made armor. That's kind of what I meant. Are anybody doing offensive spells or anything? Hold on. Can we at least approach someone? How long is Shield of Faith last?

One minute after John. Oh, fuck. The cast a director. Well, I will get ready to catch field. It's about. The glantuan is sleeping back and forth. I have to use the back. I'm also going to cast major rumors on myself.

I'm so weird. I'm sweating, but it feels good. Perhaps we should spread around the house fit and get and look at the outside. As long as you don't get too far from each other, I agree. We find a point of entry. We locate the wine and we clear a path. All right. Shall we?

So we'll just kind of spread on. I'll go first. And then I guess Shepard behind Cobb. Runn-Nax to Conn. As long as Sarnax is bringing up the reek. I will be in the middle. I will be.

And then the two of you in the back. They're in between. Oh, I think we'll have a phone. Two of us have from Star-Nax in the back. The cast is in the middle. Gotcha, gotcha. You begin to make your way through the the rotting fields of the vineyard.

And you find yourself to be about, I would say 100 feet from the building is the ground beneath your feet begins to move. The earth begins to turn, hands

reach up, out of it. Granges, twigs, vining, and covered in thorns. Everywhere, all around you, the soil begins to pop and turn over and explode with this strange infestation of life. Life is you begin to see encircling you all around you as far as your eye can see vine creatures.

They pull themselves out of the earth, dirt still cleaning to them mud on their strange, elongated vegetative faces. And as you look at all of them, you see as their teeth, almost thorn-like, begin to chump and chatter. all begin to move towards you and you all roll for an issue. You see as all of these entities pop out of the earth around you and they

look at you, their wooden appendages clattering against their wooden bodies as they begin to move forward Victoria. What do you want to do? So I want to ask a little bit, though, about the earth that they turned up, like what

is it rough terrain or like hard and difficult terrain or it just They just came out of it and it's filled forth out of the earth. Okay. You now understand why it looked like there was no infestation, even though he had claimed there was. It seemed that they had been sleeping beneath here. I see.

So I am going to, I'm going to look off to my right where these have come forward. And I'm going to put my hands out and make like a sweeping up motion and cast what the hell is it called? Irrupting Earth out in front of me trying to just keep them from coming at us. Yeah, so they have to make a deck saving through.

And then how many are in there? Three. One fail, one makes it, and so two fail, one passes. Yeah, so 23 damage to 28 and 10. All right, you see 28. 8 and 10, they're hit with this earth. And even though they seem to be made of plant matter, the magic

imbued in them, this strange shadowy shimmer seems to rip the lights out of both of these entities. 28 and 10 are removed from the board. And 17 would take 11 damage. You see that happen to 17 as well? Oh, perfect.

Okay, and that is now just difficult for you. I'm going to move up. 5, 10, 10. 15 and take aim and say, we got this and fire at this guy right here. It's going to be a 10 plus 9 is 19. That hits. I'll get it for 11 points of damage.

That's max damage. Nice. You let force your bolt fly. It pierces into its chest and you see it explode into nettles as it is removed. Then I'll take aim at another one next to it. Okay. Which is coming up 15. That's going to be a 17.

Uh, to hit. Yes. That hits. Nine points of damage. You let forth your second bolt fly. It pierces into it. It lets out a loud shriek, but it continues to lumber forward. Bonus action attack on the same one.

Okay. A lot. 28. That hits. Another nine points of damage. You seize, it shambles forward. You let loose another shot and it erupts into a pile of nettles. They're not real tough.

Give them hell. That's my turn. All right. You see that it's directly out of the front of this, of this winery. The door opens up a hooded figure in a large animal skin cloak. Antlers atop its head makes its way out a staff in its arm as it lunges forward. It parts through these blights. It looks directly at all of you, tilts its head up.

and you can see the skull of an animal placed directly on top of its head, the horns protruding out, but its eyes glowing with the strange, greenish-orange magic as it looks out in all of you. Excuse me, what the fuck? So it is going to move forward

a full 30 feet. Actually, if you say it cast something out itself, it's going to get right into the middle of you, so directly behind Shepard. Oh, no! Oh, and cast something. Bug, and that will be its turn. Fog.

Front row. Now is Connestown. Connest turn. I'm going to take out my nagianata. I'm going to swing at this druid creature. That'll hit with a 26th. Oh, will it? Yeah.

Lips. So that does seven points of slashing damage, and this is silvered. To which to who? To the drood. Okay. Druid. To the drood. The boog.

Gros. Your Nogonata makes contact as it slides into this entity. You see as the blade makes its way through the leathery outfit that's, or the leathery high that slung over its shoulders. It grits its teeth as you

as it takes the damage. You begin to see the blood pull around the front of the cloth. And it takes, how much damage you do you think? Seven points of slashing. All right. And then I'll use a bonus action to channel my fighting spirit to give myself advantage. Oh, no, never mind. I should have done at the beginning of my turn. I'll just take another swipe at it. I'll do that next time. This one should hit with a 25.

That hits, yeah. Ooh, very nice. 13 points of, sorry, yeah, 13 points of Sassi damage. Once again, you slide. Once again, you slide. your Noni Nata up through this entity, and it takes the full force of the damages. It just stares down at you completely shrouded and a animal skin. Layton. Everybody got blessed. Oh, shit.

So he is, he clearly means a swarm, right? Like, we know, based on everything that we know. This isn't like a nice guy. He doesn't have to. That's a decision you have to make on your own. Oh, great. Is he or she? Can we tell? I can't tell. Is it holding any weapons?

And it's a staff. A staff? Mm-hmm. Like a walking stick staff? Yeah, very much like a walking stick staff. Not nearly as intricate or interesting as the staff that you saw Davian holding. It's much more of just a rotting piece of blood. Fire bolt at this one here. It's the lead it hits. It does, uh, oh, two. Uh, eight fire damage. that's so good

better tantric now and I'm going to move over here you let loose the fire bolt it is no one second she like heist in your briefcase loo

yeah like adjusting your hat and like grab it's a cool move let loose your fire bolt and it uh it sinks into its chest and it does the amount of damage you expect it to do it's still shambling

towards you oh fuck so it's still alive so do you I think it did extra damage because it was fired. Nope. So I will just call out if I can. I would say with these ones as close, you can see they seem to be made from

nettles, these like needily fine like the stalks of rose bushes. Very thorny, but it's more like needle prick. I will say, call off your constructs and we will kill you. That's what else. Is that you or did we hear that? That's what you heard.

That's what I needed. I didn't know if that was just DM the Lee. It is now Monsters. One's turn. They are going to move 30 feet towards you. So one is going to attack Clayton. So that one's going to miss. One is going to attack Synax.

16? 18? 18? Actually, three are going to attack Victoria at range. What's your AC 12? Oh, one of them's going. I think it's 13 because I didn't major murder. I got a natural 20.

So one of them's going to hit. And then you're 19? I don't know. It's 13. Oh, 13. So two of them are. Wait, natural 20? One hits normally and then I got natural 20.

Blind. Disappear. If they can be blinded, if they can't be blinded, then it doesn't work. Oh, condition immunity is blinded. No! No! I appreciate everything on us. I appreciate it.

I appreciate you being honest. So would I tell that they don't have eyes? Would Sarnax realize that they don't have eyes? I would say this close you can see that the wood that they appear to be made out of like this vine-like structure. It seems to be, I hate this word, juicy. Fleshing. Well, they're like, they're like succulent. Yeah.

And so they do have approximations of faces. They have these mouths with sharp needle-like teeth where their eyes should be are these almost not. where it's like the material they're made of kind of twist and turns into this rough approximation of what an eye would look like, but there's no actual eyeball in the stock. It's not a reasonable. So I would assume you would think you'd want. Yeah. For all hands and they're needleblights.

Got it. Got it. For the camera. I can't. I'll still use it. I'll try. If they have a rough approximation of a face, like I'd go for it, you know? Yeah.

Not only how come. One of them is a natural 20 on you. The other one's a hit and one of them could fail. So the natural 20 is going to be, ooh, sorry enough. 22 points of piercing damage. As they raise their hands up and you see as they shoot needles from their body directly into. Sorry, I can't use this fireball. All right.

So that's those three. There are three that are going to attempt to hit Kana at range. Both of those guys. And then, poor shepherd. Yeah, bring it on. Eight are going to attempt to hit Shepard. It's been fun. Yeah, you're fine.

It's like that they're all rain. So your AC is still 16, right? Correct. So that's two misses. Natural 20. Okay, so when that one hits me, I'm going to hell out your view. Okay. Well, it's hitting you from range.

I can hell surety from 60 feet. Oh, perfect. Then yes, you can. That's awesome. Okay. So four hit, one's a natural 20, four miss. So four hit. So why don't you...

I'm going to do the natural 20 first. Holy fuck. I'm not going to survive this. There's no way. 16 points of damage for the natural 20. Okay. So then what I'll do is just resolve. It's Dex 11. You only have to make it in the Dex DC of 11

and take half as much of this damage. What is it? There tens. Yeah. 16. So he passes but takes half of 17 plus six... Half of 23. which would be 12 or 11. You let out a burst of hellish magic as flames incinerate this entity in front of you. It made a critical hit on you, but it was also a critical error as you watches, it shrivels and returns to the earth.

26 points of damage. For the other four? Yes, for all the other. I'm a deep shit. Holy fuck. I remember when I said I was going to dumpster the, uh, the druid and might not even get to my turn.

That's all of their turns. The other ones are not close enough to do anything. Are they going to sprint? No. Sarnax, yes. Yeah, I'm going to hold up my lantern seeing that Don't forget you have health potions. That this is the case. Lots of them. Do we? Help potions? Yeah, you all have health potion. I think I have one. I think I have one.

You stole health potion as both Sarnax. That's right. I'll hold up my lantern and my hand will glow a small little, almost like a seed of fire will appear in my two claws. And I was like, you are all still flammable. Yeah, fucking get it. And then I am going to cast it into the middle of everyone close to our squishies

and trying to get as many as I possibly cat. Yeah, baby. Oh, let's say you can get that entire area you can get. Yeah, I can get all of them. Amazing. And I will cast fireball. Can you tell me how many, can you tell me? Can you tell me how many are in there?

Uh, oh, a lot. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I count six. You two are here. 16. Over half. They only have like 11 HB, right? Mm-hmm.

Yep. If they pass, they still die. Really? 27. Oh, yeah, there. You let loose this raging hole of flames. And you completely incinerate this entire... My fucking man.

All of these? Yep, every single one of them have gone. I have a leavenety team. That's my lizard! By fire be burned! Holy shit! That's fucking clad! Gotta fucking give it out.

All right, Victoria, it's your time. So I'm going to just step, step like over here. I know it's a rough dream, but I'm not going to hold up my hand and energy, swirling energy is going to appear in my hand. Kind of looks like a skull sometimes. and then I'm going to throw it out at the Druid in front of me

and cast chaotic or chaos bolt. That didn't good. Oh, you mold max on bless. It's 12 to 12. Oh, 12. So I'm guessing the 12 misses, probably. 12 hits. Oh, wow.

Okay. Let me double check and I'm pretty sure. Yes, your AC is 12. Okay, so now I do 2D8. Who did you target? The druid. Oh, oh, Drew. She thought you were targeting.

Oh, sorry, yes. No. Oh, yeah, no, it still does. Oh, shit. He's right. He's a huge. I'm going to dumpster this one of fucking. He's a girl.

He's not dexterous. He's not wearing armor. Okay, so it's going to do 18 damage, and it's going to be psychic damage. 18 psychic damage. You, clotting onto your prayer beads of Illamator, you extend your hand shakily, you extend your hand shake leaves, you channel the chaotic magic within you, the eternal fight of good versus wickedness, as you let out a bolt of psychic energy. These two bolts swirl and twine as they slam into this

creature. It barrels over, grabbing onto its temple. As it lets out a loud scream. You see as it rears up its eyes flaring with light. As it looks up to the sky and begins to say something as the life drains from them and it falls to the ground. Oh, shit. Oh. That's a shit kind of damage, dude. So, Druid's dead. Yes.

All right. Yes. So that's the whole fight. Shepherd. I like spin around to like, she does the thing that face. What the God damn it, man. I just, uh, I take,

I take sight on the next two closest to me. Probably these front two up here. Oh, your turn is done? Oh, yeah. The ground beneath you begins to shake. Oh. as it becomes even more tumultuous than it had been before. For all of you, this is now difficult terrain.

As the rocks rumble and move, I need to move every single thing that you'd killed back onto the board, but upside down, these are different creatures. These look to be larger made of twigs and vines as they move towards you. Every single one of them is their move now as they begin to move. You hear a knocking sound coming. from the vineyard from the winery itself

shaking and shaking as the door once again burst open another druid slightly frailer more feminine in shape begins to make her way out did all the other guys die no they're still there but you have all of these ones as well Sarnax I hope you save every spell

slot in fireball pills and why should not have spelled magic we've all been there buddy there should technically be 24 of these. Is it Shepard's turn? It is a shepherd's turn. I cast fucking Hunter's Mark. Yes.

It was action on this motherfucker druid. And I unleash two fucking fucking multi-shots. You do that. Head shot. Head shot. Head shot.

Bless the beating. Oh, I might need the bless. You can cast them both shots. Yeah, I'm going to do. So that's going to be 12 plus 10 is 22. And then 50. Point two and 50. It's going to be 8, 9, 10, 11,

21, 21 points of damage. to the femaleist struid. You see as she walks her way out, there's almost a regalness about her and she looks out over the land around you. You do not hesitate as you let loose a bolt from judgment and then from redemption. One hits her in the shoulder,

she rears back. She lets out a gas as she's hit in the opposite shoulder. She looks, a look of shock on her face. The feathers tied into her hair fall down over her face as she slumps forward. She looks like she's,

feeling pretty rough. I spin my gun and say, one more, baby. And that's than somebody else's turn. It is Conister. No. I'm going to run up and say, fight me, you fools.

And I will take the Dodge action. I love it. That's so great. Clayton. Oh. Well, I'm not sure I'm capable of much here, but I would like to move over here. You take opportunity attack on that one guy?

And I would have to take an opportunity attack from that guy. Okay, sure. I'm going to hit your fucking shit. Oh, not. That was 17. Um, three, uh, 20. Uh, I would like to catch shield as a reaction.

Okay. So it doesn't hit them. Um, and then I will say, well, it won't be quite as flashy, but Audentus and fire's going to shoot in a 15-foot cone. Hey. He is against all those guys.

That's like perfect. We really, I just, those weren't footwill. Yes, you do that. Uh, Dext. Dext. 16 saving throw. Do they take half a nothing? And you said it's a 16?

A 16 saving throw. Do they take half or no? Okay. So one. Go for it. Because they might die anyone. One, uh, one saves. Okay.

That's not a lot of it's only 3D6. I mean, that could be more than, way more than a fucking enough. Come on. We got a thousand damage. So the one that passes stays, the other ones, the other ones all die. You let forth,

forth a blast of fire from your hands. hands in a conal pattern, being able to shield your friends from this magic that infuses your veins as you blast away a significant portion of them. Is all ground difficult terrain? Yes. Okay. So I'm like out of movement. I will stay right there.

Okay. Monsters won. Yeah, no, they're all going to attempt to attack Kana. So two of them are attempting may attack on you. So at disadvantage. Yep, you're disadvantaged. It's a misdemeanor. It's also been a miss.

because they're just a advantage. And then the other three are running, but also disadvantage. I don't know what. How many are you missing now? All of them, thanks. That's four? Yeah, no, I'm rolling at disadvantage.

Yeah, no, they all miss. Our next. I'm going to... The whole separate's really hurt, too. Really hurt is... I'm going to step forward behind Kana, three spaces. I can only move three spaces, right? Yep.

Yep. Look, I don't have a lot of hit points, but that's just because my max isn't great. I'm feeling all right. And then I am going to look at Shepherd, and I will say, Garex will carterize your wound, Shepherd, and I will cast a healing word at a second level. And it's going to hurt so good. And it's going to hurt so good. And we're going to do 2D4 plus five.

Ooh, yeah. That could be worse. 12 points of healing. Oh, I'm like, I'm good as new. I can do this all day, baby. Hell yeah. And then I am going to look at the one next to Kana and say, And sacred flame it.

Okay. And just has to make a deck saving throw. 16. Fails. Fails. It explodes into hopefully plant matter. But what is, how much dams do? So horribly as a DM.

I was rolling like hot fire last night as I guess. It really were. That will be 11 points of radiant damage. Okay. So it kills it because it's 11. Yeah. Victoria. It's so good.

It's your turn? I'm just going to cast like a black flame is going to come up from my fingertips and I'm going to reach out and cast firebolt at just the closest one over here. Okay. 17 to hit. Six fire damage.

You let loose a bolt of fire as it swirls and undulates. It makes contact with this and it almost explodes upon hitting the dry wooden surface of these creatures doing significantly more damage than you would expect it. It ignites into flames and then ash as it crumbles to the ground, barely any remnants of it left. Do I see that? Oh, yeah.

My eyes wide and any big grin. Now these are flammable. This is your time to shine. It is Gerex's time. And it is monsters too. They are all going to move their 30 feet. They do not, or 20 feet, they do not seem to be hindered by the ruptory. Sorry, they can't get to me.

And so they're just moving, they're just moving straight towards all of them. I'd like to not be a devilish pin cushion anymore. They're 30 feet? 20. The druid is going to move out the 30 feet. Uh-oh. Even better, baby.

You see as the druid hunkers down and you notice as the outstretched arm begins to shift and work as her skin turns to bark. Oh, casting bark skin. Never even once. It's just like druid. major armor. I'm going to

fucking blow her head off. Shepard, it's your turn. My hunter's mark is still on the old druid, so I'm going to start by taking one attack at the grid. Get it. Well, it's going to be... Yeah, I mean, it's an 18 plus 4 is going to be 22.

To hit? A druid? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's going to be 18 points of damage, sir. For one attack. You see, if she moves forward, not can. about the damage that you had done to her. She is set on a path. They are claiming this vineyard for their own.

As she moves forward, she shields herself with skin of bark, but that does not deter you as you let your bolt fly. It pierces into the not work of her chest. As you see her gasp, a look of shock on her face. As she opens her mouth to say something, blood begins to spill from the corners of her lips. She reaches down and feels the blood on her chest.

She falls forward dead in front of you. All right. Who's next? And I take two more shots at these guys coming up here. Fucking something up. I just feel like we're fucking something up here. I don't feel good about this. That's going to be a 25.

So I'm not going to move my hunter's mark yet. So that's only going to be seven point. Sorry, six points of damage. Okay. you let your bolt fly, it pierces into it. Oh, this is one of the new ones. Yeah, one of the new ones. You see it splinters apart.

Then I'll take one more shot since it didn't die. Oh, no, if it dies, it's going to attack. Yeah, the next one. Sorry. So it's going to be 22 plus three is 25. Yeah, another six points of damage. Their AC is 13 on these ones. So you see as two of them splinter apart as you once again, bring your

your weapons back to you ready for more. Yeah, and I move back 10 feet because of difficult terrain, and that's my turn. Okay. You now see as once again the ground begins to shake as five more of these needle-like creatures, the original ones that you're face spill up out of the earth directly in the ground next to you, as if they're reanimating themselves from the broken bodies of their, of the former. So they are going to make an attack

on each one of you. These are the new five. Sinak has not disadvantaged, so I should have done that. 20 minutes. So he is making a claw attack. Eight points of

piercing damage as it sinks its elongated twig-like nails into your flesh and begins to pull your skin apart. Crete him. I'm going to use my reaction to make an attack on the one that hits our axe for Sentinel. Okay. Yeah, I'm sure.

What was the DC or the AC? The AC of these ones is 11. Okay, this hits for the 12. Wow. And that'll do seven points of slashing damage. You take your Naginata and you pierced through it and you sever a few, you sever one of its limbs from it, is still hanging on.

So, one is 18, 21 to hit, Clayton. 21 to hit me. Shield the kid. 13 to hit Victoria. Hitting.

Barely hit. And 11 to hit Shepard. Miss. Okay, so just you. Just going on in its claws. Six points of piercing damage if it rends your flesh with its claws. It's Connor's turn.

Oh, no, it's there still be four-round Connor. They are going to, two of them are going to attempt to attack Sarnax within, from range. One of them, natural one, the other one misses, and then three of them are going to attack Kana. Two 17s, so that's a 20 to hit. Yep. And so that is going Four points of damage. And I'm resistant to it because I'm dodging, so two points.

Okay, now it is common to turn. Okay. Well, I will hold my ground back to back with Sarnax. And I will just continue using the dodge action, just trying to see, keeping an eye on the door to see if anywhere druids come out or if I hear any sort of commotion on the inside in case there are additional waves of these coming. so I will just continue to dodge.

Okay. Clayton. I'm going to look at him and be like, You're not worth it. Incendium! And I'm going to summon a flaming sphere and place it right here. Beautiful.

That's beautiful. I'll look at that D2. As a bonus action, I will send it into number number 19 here. Okay. It means a deck saving throw. 16. 12. It takes

seven points of fire damage. Right. It, you see it's engulfed by flame, but it is still holding on. Starnax, it's your time. I'm going to pick up what the professor is laying down, and I will say, excellent idea, professor,

and I will swirl around and also cast my own flaming sphere within 60 feet. I'm going to place that. and I'm going to slam it as into this bad boy. Deck saving throw? Iron made it 12.

Oh, 12 fails. Doody 6, right? Oh. Is it 2D6? They have four hit points. Two points of fire damage, but if they're vulnerable, they die. Yeah, no, they are. Boom!

Just it down! You can curl it into it, and you watch as it erupts into flame. That's amazing. So we just got to, we just need like 30 turns to bounce the flaming spheres around. Got it. So Sarnax, Victoria. Give him hell. Vicki.

Vicki? Vicki. Oh, you're screwed down in a nickel. Yeah. I'm just going to, the one that's popped up directly in front of me, I'm going to kind of startle cast my fire bolt again. So 16 to his hits. Uh, pretty damage.

Right, you, uh, it's the needled light in front of you, but it seems to be able to hold on. Actually, I'm going to drink a potion. Okay. You see as the ground on either side of the door begins to till itself, as it turns over and over and over again, almost humanoid size, fine entities can pull themselves up out of the ground. I need to put this on either side of the vineyard doorway area.

Monsters won. They are going to rotate. They're all going to rotate. around, saying within Kana's graph. Which ones are these? The ones that are in front of Kana. All these guys. Oh, wait.

They have to make tax saving throws. How many are in there? Four of them. 14, 16, 18, 16. So all with one pass. So the one that failed takes 10 damage and the other take five.

Okay, you can take the one that failed away. Which one is that? Just pick whichever one you want. So they're going to move up to Kana? No, they are avoiding Kana. They are enrolled to see if they saw what she's been doing, so they're going to move over to Sarnax. Okay. And they're going to attempt to attack Sarnax, but not leaving range of her if they can avoid it.

So, like, they're not going to try and pick up with any attempts. Okay. And these two moving forward, or these three moving forward? They can actually, I'll say they can reach. They're going to move forward like 15 feet just around the side. They're just going to skirt around. There you go. And so one, two, three, four on Farnat,

and the other two are still going to attempt to attempt to happen. So, what about 27? So one of them around us. I assume the other ones are just a mistake of all or DECAL. Seven points of damage to you, Mike. Go. One miss for you, Maya.

And one hit for you. Okay. A nine points of damage. Okay, so that is reduced to four. And then I'll use my reaction to hit, I'm guessing, the same one that I hit last time that went to hit Sarnax. Does that make sense? There should already be kind of damaged.

I don't need to use plus. That should be a 22. Yep. And that'll be, I can read it. We roll lines, which is juicy. There we go. Eight points of... Okay.

Slime, and she slashed into it, and it falls to pieces of the fucking. And then I rolled for the ones that are on Victoria, Clayton, and Shepard. One hits Victoria for seven damage. This is the opposite of plants versus the offense. So that was Monsters 1. It's now

Shepard's trend. I move my hunter's mark to this creepy-looking dude right here. As a bonus action, and I fire off one shot. 26 plus 3 is 29 That hits For 8 plus 5, which is 13 points of damage

All right, you shoot into its chest It rears back, but it continues to slowly make its weight more due. I take another shot at it. Oh, 17? 17, yes, yes. For another 12 points of damage. You let another blow. fly through into it and it looks

like it's having a rough time but it is still really strong. All right and that's my turn. I don't move because I want to take an opportunity to tax. Kana. Seeing that more of them are moving past me, I'm going to use a bonus action to

channel my fighting spirit so I have advantage on these attacks until the end of my turn. I'm going to attack the one behind me next to Sarnax. Nagina, that should hit with a 22. That does hit. 10 points of slashing to this one, 25.

If you see as it, you obliterate it with that. They're all at about half health. Okay. So they have roughly five health left apiece. Number 20 behind me. I will use this on this one. An 11. 8.

12. That's 11? Okay. Nice. That'll do 13 points of slashing damage to number 20. Yeah, they all have five help. Blows the up of. It's easier if I can tell you that stuff so you can help you manage it all.

I will preserve my action search for now, so that is my turn. Clayton. As a bonus action, I'm going to shove the flaming sphere into this guy here. Okay. So we need to make a deck save? 14. I'm called a... Three.

Three? Yes. So one takes 11 points of damage. Right. He's annihilated. And then as an action, I will look at the one on Victoria. I will take Matos and shoot fireball damage. Yeah.

And do some damages. It looks, it's not even wounded a little bit, so it looks. Nine points of fire damage. You let forth the bolt of fire and it ignites. Okay. And withers. He is monsters too. So all of the,

all of the lights are going to move forward, their total amount of sleep, which is twit. Are they in melee range of anyone? Yes. Three in Conno. Oh, yes. So three in Conno's range are going to attend.

So one miss is one hit. another one hits and it is doing three points of damage. Okay, and that's the end of their turn? Yep. So let me just roll. They only have a melee attack. Okay, so they all, these guys. They all have four hit points.

So, wait, it was here, right? Yeah. So they die and they die. It's turn next to turn. I am going to look at me as I grabbed this. I'm just fed up with this at this point. Just from like that. Yeah, fucking give him the business, man.

How good are you a dodging, Shepherd? Uh, you would know, you would know from our time together that I have a close relationship with fire. I would say I can get all of these, right? I'm in there, too. Yes, I would say you could. I would say, but yeah, I would say, I will say, I will look at Shepard and I can see, I see the fire in New Shepard, and now be bathed in fire. Along with all of you! And I will cast Fireball.

Deck check? Holy. Deck saving throw, 16. I think all the right tokens instantly die. There's no way that you can roll less than. Natural 19 plus age of 27 for deck check. So, and I'm resistant to fire, so I'll take half and half. There's no way you could roll eight damage.

Four, six damage. 18. Yeah. No. And every single one of them, yes. 29. A 30, 33 points of fire. 15 and seven.

Yeah. Every single one of the blights in the area. You see if once again, Star-Nex raises his arms up in the air and calls forth a storm of hellfire onto the ground around you. Yeah. Incinerates every single one of those. I have one on him, right? And I said it's seven points of damage. Oh my gosh

Well that I grew tired of this What happened to the two of mine blights? I've got a question about the fireball Yes Two, one of the guys that I targeted Took massive amounts of damage Imagine he died

But it was 30 points of damage to the other guy He died as well If you failed or if he passed That's a great question So because we already swept him off the board and I wanted to make sure that that mattered. Because those guys were busy. All the plates.

We remove them all. What's the DC, Mike? 16. I rolled 30. I rolled 33 points of fire damage. I rolled a 16. So, me to beat. He has a negative one deck.

So, that's going to be 66 points of fire. These are the guys with the 20 speed. So they're not dexterous at all. I grew. He's tired of this. They're completely gone. All right.

They have 26 hit points. Oh, yeah. I love it. I love it. Annihilated them. down the United States. Thank you. Victoria, it is your turn. All right.

Guys are gone now. I'll spin around. Let me repay the favor of Professor. And I'll, again, with the black fire, we'll shoot for my fingertips and I will fire bolt number 27th. Get it.

Get it, girl. That's good, girl. Nineteen. There you. That's 25. Plus a whole bunch more. Uh, that is 11. Damage.

Okay. You extend your, your arm out. and a swirling bolt of fire makes its way through the air as it collides with the body of this entity. It singes the needles along its form as it turns to ash at Clayton's feet.

Is that your turn? That is my turn. All right. There's only one of these left. And I believe it's one of the stupid. Yeah, I rolled a three. So it's going to attempt. Kana.

Are you... Not a disadvantage, but I'm not dodging. Well, that's fine. It's still going to miss as it attempts to swipe in on you. Shepard. I'm up. You're up. There are three left in play. There are only three left.

So I'm going to focus the one that's behind Kana first. As I'm taking aim and I'm smoldering from the fireball. I say all right, Saranx. You get well, Shepard. Give him hell, buddy. Embrace the fire, Shepherd. So I'll take one shot.

Thank you. Fifty four vampires. Oh, my God. Thank you. We are really blessed. Thank you. So it's going to be 22 to hit. That hits, yeah. I did not move my hunter's mark, so that's just going to be nine points of damage to this one. Nine points of damage? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, it is a four hit. I will target the one that's in front of Kana. All right. You let loose one bolt and you incinerate it as you let your next one fly. That was a 12 plus 23 points. That hit? That hit. You literally can't.

That's going to be nine to the one in front of Kana. Yes, you let the bolt fly. through this one was already looking weak as it was roughly and about it was severely damaged and you let your bolt fly and it cinerates bonus action last one of course yeah oh hashtag blast you best best stress yes yes you're not nine points 11 points of damage um you you watch a shepherd looking around seeing this the remnants of this vineyard um a light in flame from the fire bowls the fire bolts, the two flaming spheres that are still swirling in the air around you, the corpses of what feel like hundreds of plant-like entities. As you center yourself, you take out judgment and

redemption. You let one blast fly and another, and as you spin around, you aim for the last one. As the bolt enters in on its chest, it lets out a loud screech as the damage overtakes it. And in just as quick of a moment, no, silence overcomes the vineyard. I notice that my hat is smoldering. I take the hat off. I throw my hat on the ground and stomp on. I'm like, damn, it, sarnax.

You've got to be a little bit more careful next time. Glory. You did phenomenally shepherd. Wow, you too, buddy. That was nice. You got that garrick, man. He knows what he's doing. Is everyone all right?

Never better. It's a perfect time. You all use the power. of fire phenomenally, except for you, Kana, but thank you

for being our shield. I will always stand back to back to you, Sarnax, even though water and fire do not quite meet. But when combined

you will destroy all of our enemies. Let us proceed with caution there may be more beneath us. Yes, very well. You look out

over the land around you and the ground is still, the ember of the remaining remnants of the fireball and the spheres of flame are still crackling as they're slowly succumbing

to the mist and the moisture of the ground around you. And the silence is almost eerie as you listen. You can hear the faint creaks of the wooden structure that is the vineyard up ahead of you. But as you listen in, you don't seem to hear anything more than just the resting of the house, the natural movement,

and the faint wind that is whipped up around you. Karma, shepherd, beyond God. Please approach the door. These mortals now think that they have mystery over life and death in Borovia, a foolish presumption that will only seal their doom. The girl may live, but far worse things creep in the darkness

drawing ever nearer. What manner of blight lingers over the vineyard? Find out in the next part of Chapter 6. the Raven Child. In the meantime, if you wish to watch Legends of Adventuris tell similar stories of Dungeons and Dragons every week, you can follow us on Twitch, join our community on Discord, and support us on Patreon. All links are in the show notes.

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