Devil's Tree

## Summary

The party holds a small memorial for Edmund Edmer in front of Van Richten's Tower. Talice Tewin summons her dogs to help bury her not for a joke but for Edmund's burial. The group ponders where to head next because the skeletal dragon clearly wanted to go after Talice. They decide on Vallaki because of their reputation.

As they leave, they hear the rustling of a needleblight. The group get ready to fight and find Sorin Firewing in the middle of the woods surrounded by needleblights. The party saves him while taking out their frustrations at the same time. They wake Sorin up who had come down with a case of amnesia. The rest of the party teases him about who he is but decide to head for the Wizard's Winery.

The party arrive at the winery only to find that it had been attacked and burned down. However there weren't any corpses around and the gem remained in it's proper place. Talice takes the seed for safekeeping only for a vision of a dead tree on a hill to the south enters her mind. Ezmeralda notes that it's likely Yester Hill in the south. As they head there, Jade asks Sorin for some sparring practice later. Krik offers his services but Jade declines.

When they arrive, Jade and Talice race up the hill with Jade getting to the top first. They come upon a makeshift statue of Strahd so Jade asks to burn it down. Sorin suggests not giving out smoke signals so Jade tries to kick it down but stubs her toe. Krik then pushes it down. Warwick sneaks up to the gnarled tree and noticed a shiny battleaxe embedded in it with a humanoid skeleton underneath it.

Ismark turns around to find Strahd riding a flaming horse into Yester Hill. He alerts the party as Warwick morphs into Ireena. He calls on several druids and berserkers rise from the graves around the hill and they come up the hill chanting a familiar phrase: 'He is the ancient. He is the land.' Krik quickly takes the axe from the tree (getting stabbed by thorns in the process) while the rest of the party prepare to fight. The druids circle the gnarled tree attempting to do something. Jade decides to attack with Warwick but the group isn't phased. The rest of the group jump in to help them with Talice transforming into a horse in case Ireena needs to flee. Warwick also takes on Ireena's appearance to confuse Strahd.

The group tries to take down the circle of berserkers and druids as Strahd approaches. Talice runs with Ireena while Sorin tries talking with Strahd. However Strahd turns him into a peacock so Warwick flees with Ireena and Talice. When the spell wears off, Sorin joins the fight. Salem uses the bodies of the dead berserkers to protect himself as Ezmeralda gets knocked out. However the party is too late in stopping the gnarled tree from being awoken. It becomes a massive tree blight known as Wintersplinter as it absorbs the remaining three berserkers. Warwick tries to help Krik take it on but misses his shot. The tree blight wallops on Krik as Strahd tries to blight Sorin but the fighter resists the blight. Krik finds out the the axe he picked up works well on the tree blight.

Strahd's horse then sprouts flaming wings and goes after Talice, Warwick and Ireena. Talice quickly runs back to the party where Warwick finally takes the last shot to end Wintersplinter. Strahd makes a comment on Edmund being replaced by Sorin. He sets his gaze on Ismark who's trying to pull Ezmeralda's body away but Jade defiantly steps in front of him. She strikes him and he feels the attack. Strahd retaliates with a blight spell knocking Jade unconscious. Warwick counters with a poisoned arrow and while the arrow does hit, Strahd draws out the poison from his body. Talice breaks the transformation and summons pixies to confuse Strahd and attempt to heal Ezmeralda. Sadly the healing doesn't work but Strahd gets confused and misses an attack on Krik but does grab him. Salem does wake up Jade with his newly learned healing spell. Sorin jumps onto Strahd and pins him onto the ground. Warwick and Talice try to shoot Strahd but comes up short. Strahd's horse begins attacking as Salem lays a curse on Strahd forcing him to retreat via mist.

The party cheers for their victory in their own ways. Ismark hugs Jade for saving his life while Warwick tells Ezmeralda to let go of her grudge towards Talice. Salem investigates the tree to find the second seed gem. Talice gets a vision from it to find that the final seed gem is in the Amber Temple much to the group's dismay. As Krik makes his arch, the spirit of one who resided at the base of the tree. He tasks Krik with finding his weapon. Krik is drawn to it and finds the blood spear. He tests it out on Salem's zombie and feels invigorated from it. Jade hopes the spear can talk to Krik but it doesn't. Krik gives the thorny axe to Sorin only for him to note that it doesn't hurt the fighter.

The party decides to head back to the remains of the winery and camp out in the basement for the night.

## Notable Events

* A memorial is held for Edmund Edmer
* Solar Flare arrives to take on the role of Sorin Firewing
* The party returns to the Wizard's Winery to find that it had been attacked.
* The party arrives at Yester Hill
* The party has an encounter with Strahd
* A large tree blight named Wintersplinter is taken down
* Strahd is forced to retreat
* Krik gets a blood spear and Sorin gets a nature killing battleaxe