M2S10

## Wintersplinter

The party travels to Yester Hill, an ancient gathering-place of the Forest Folk.

## Continuity

### Next session

Session 11

“
*In Barovia, salad eats you!*
”
— Aellun as he sees Wintersplinter.
**Wintersplinter** was the 10th session of the Strahdborne campaign. In this session, the party freed the Wizard of Wines and traveled to Yester Hill, where they encountered the product of a vile ritual.

## Summary

Strahd, as usual, struts about arrogantly, taking Tzulft into his fold. The halfling fighter he feeds to the dark forces of Barovia. The party shows restraint in this encounter with Strahd, having learned that he is no pushover, and not wishing to risk another encounter while they remain wounded.

Strahd taunts Ismark, "firing" him from his position as Burgomaster of Barvia and appointing his sister, Irina, in his stead. He laughs, mockingly saluting his future brother in law. Impressively, Ismark is able to maintain his composure through all this. Szoltan and Yevgeni do not, and they throw themselves at the ground before Strahd, hailing him as their master.

The party talks to the Martikovs and their surly patriarch, Davian. Davian himself is dismissive of the party, though his patronizing and antagonistic behavior does not stop him from asking for a series of favors--namely, finding the gems that give the Wizard of Wines its famous quality. The party accepts.

After Davian leaves, his son, Adrian, throws in some gold to sweeten the offer. He also provides a series of magical items to the party to make their war on the plants easier.

Szoltan, Yevgeni, and Salas take the wine back to Vallaki, while the party travels to Yester Hill, one of the bastions of the Forest Folk.

Yester Hill is a vile and accursed place, home of the Gulthias Tree, the legacy of Gulthias the Vampire, Father of Blights. There, the party is surprised to encounter Strahd outfitted for battle, sporting Dwarven-made Gothic-style plate mail. Accompanied by a servant, he impedes the party from disturbing some Druidic ritual, but claims that he is merely interested in witnessing the proceedings, as one would witness a gladiatorial event.

Led by Coldias, the Forest Folk summon Wintersplinter, an enormous tree blight. Part of its great power comes from an unusual gem, surely from the Wizard of Wines. Guided by Coldias, Wintersplinter begins its assault on the party.

## Quests

### New

* **The Man-Eating Salad (Everyone):** Destroy Wintersplinter.
* **Treasures of Yore (Everyone):** Recover the three gems used at the Wizard of Wines.

### Ongoing

* **Pyromaniacal (Everyone):** Attend the Blazing Sun Festival (two days remaining).
* **The Devil is in the Details (Everyone):** Investigate the strange Toy-Maker.
* **With a Little Luck (Everyone):** Find Arabelle.
* **A Throw for the Ages (Everyone):** Suplex Strahd.
* **With Friends Like These... (Lautrec):** Leverage your newfound position to accomplish your aims.
* **Under New Management (Everyone):** Investigate the coven of hags at Old Bonegrinder mill.

### The Deck of Fate

* **The Fount of Knowledge (Everyone):** Discover the source of knowledge below the guardian of a garden.
* **The Symbol of Hope (Everyone):** Claim the holy symbol by finding the tomb of a great wizard with a famous staff.
* **The Blade of Light (Everyone):** Wield the sunlight blade in the den of wolves near the moonlit lake.
* **The Ally of Righteousness (Everyone):** Identify your pivotal ally, the man in disguise.
* **The Shadow of Barovia (Everyone):** Defeat Strahd.
* **The Moon (Aellun):** Find the place filled with bones, for the clues you seek lie there.
* **The Everstone (Arbrek):** The power you seek lies within an evil tree, growing atop a hill of graves.
* **The Headsman (Gromash):** Find the fortress within the fortress, which contains the treasure you seek.
* **The Phantom (Lo-thak):** Find the location of the one who gave birth to evil, for she is the key to your goals.
* **The Balance (Thalia):** Discover the whereabouts of that which you seek.

### Completed

* **Aqua Vitae (Everyone):** Investigate and fix the root cause of the delay in wine shipments.

## Reflections

* **Example:** "Example"
* **Lo-thak:** Curses. A hundred- nay, a thousand curses. Today would have been just carefree had the beast Strahd not stood before us, preventing us from stopping the forest-folk's ritual. He is the cruelest sort of predator - one who toys with his prey and delights in its suffering while it bleeds to death. Now, rather than just a few druids, we have to face a tree-blight with enough strength to hurl boulders through the air. Not only was I almost crushed by one of these boulders, the tree-blight nearly flattened Thousand-Pierced himself in one strike. If I still had use of both my arms, I would have taken the Martikovs' beautiful bow and slain the forest-folk win just one arrow through the eye. But alas, it's all I can manage to not lose my other arm to the flying rocks. We will need to get creative to fell this tree before it fells us.
* Thalia: "I have finally had the opportunity to meet Strahd face to face. Frankly, I can't say I'm impressed. He can cross his lands in a blink and raise powerful and completely obedient vampire warriors, yet he allows barbarians and monsters to rampage unchecked. No sense of honor, duty, or propriety - but what else can we expect from the man who I'm told insisted on being a coffin-bearer for a man he himself killed? He doesn't even pretend to care what anyone thinks of him, and why should he? He has the luxury of being the most powerful being in Barovia, so no-one else's opinion matters. This is not Roulan, where even the highborn must mind their reputation because there are always informants and superiors watching, and even the king must be wary of uprisings among the masses or nobility alike. Finding a strategy to deal with Strahd must wait though, I must first eat my words about our earlier encounter with the forest folk, because AGAIN we're trying to man a barricade against a clearly overwhelming force with no backup! There MUST be a better way to do this..."
* **Aellun:** "... We've failed. I know the others won't hear it, save maybe Thalia, but the moment Strahd decided to step in, there was no way this would end well. Gromash or Arbrek would consider these words cowardice, and even straight-headed Lothak would condemn me for not pressing harder, but they're missing the bigger picture, of what we were intending to do here and beyond this battle. I may not make my intentions as clear as the others do, but I want to see Strahd deposed as much as any of them, and I know that he's far too strong to confront as we are. To ready ourselves for such moment, we need to avoid drawing his attention wherever possible, and nothing seems to raise his interest more than openly standing up for ourselves. Any action here save retreat runs directly counter to that. If we had defied his warning and tried to take out the priest during the ritual, he would have dealt with us as before, and this is assuming we could manage with a single silent strike without drawing their attention - had we missed, it is possible they'd have continued and summoned the spirit anyway, only worse still, we'd still have to deal with Strahd. Now that the druids have summoned their great spirit, victory will be bitterly earned, and even that may not leave us better off - should we defeat it, and that is no simple guarantee given what it could do to hardy Gromash, we will be left drained and at the mercy of Strahd, having given him further reason to take an interest in us. Worse yet, he may even take us seriously, and if he did that I have no idea how we will survive. Not that I would advocate for retreat either, I'm not yet ready to take the cruel calculus of allowing that beastly thing to wander and devastate the innocent farmhands who've trusted us with their safety, but I worry that the day I must seriously consider it is looming ever closer. Curse thee Strahd. Curse thee for stacking the deck when you already held a magnificent hand. And curse me for no longer being the man who would have done the smart, harsh thing, rather than the right one."
* Arbrek: ”What a fine set of dwarven armor that Strahd has. No doubt a wise man to have commissioned something as well crafted as that and the inscriptions in it are truly masterwork. If only I could look at some of that master smith's other work too. Now that would be a good time, unlike trudging around in this fog and mud. Although the witch said what I need lies near, and I am ready to learn the secrets from this place. It’s a good thing I sharpened my axe as now we will need to fell two trees before we are done with this place. Battle is upon us. Time to test my craft and gather the kindling I will need for the ritual.”
* Gromash: "I thought the fight against the vegetarian druids would only bring more salad to chop I was not expecting the battle of the winery to be just the appetizer with the main course of the evil veggies right in my face i feel all my senses raging and all I see in front of me is a giant carrot(referring to the giant tree) the King of veggies he how commands salads, ready to be chopped and smashed into tiny little pieces by mi friends and Mia." (Mia is the name Gromash's Grate axe).

## Appendix

Strahdborne Sessions
**Chapter 1: The Gates of Barovia**
 Session 1 · Session 2 · Session 3 · Session 4 · Session 5 · Session 6

 **Chapter 2: The Fall of Vallaki**
 Session 7 · Session 8 · Session 9 · **Session 10** · Session 11 · Session 12 · Session 13 · Session 14 · Session 15 · Session 16 · Session 17 · Session 18 · Session 19 ·

 **Chapter 3: The Muster at Krezk**
 Session 20 · Session 21 · Session 22 · Session 23 · Session 24 · Session 25 · Session 26 · Session 27 ·