Hello, readers. I'm writing this from a hospital room following my surgery. But my recovery has gone very well and the doctor was talking about discharging me as early as tomorrow. I'm hopeful, because then I can catch the next Game of Thrones.
When we last left our heroes, they had decided to go inside the winery rather than face the swarm of thirty needle blights outside. Rather than roll a lot of dice and possibly start a marathon battle, I decided that the party was strong and/or clever enough to barricade the broken outer doors long enough for Lop to cast mending on them.
They decided to check out the basement of the winery first. There they found a second druid with a small group of needle blights. Amrus was able to sneak up on the enemies and get a surprise round, which he used throwing a screw he had looted from the barrel maker's room up above to create a distraction. He drew some attention, but the druid finished casting thunderwave, knocking 23 bottles of Red Dragon Crush to the floor and catching Amrus in the blast.
Tathora used silence to shut down the druid's spell casting, unfortunately her placement of the area prevented Lop, Cugel, and herself from casting any spells in the room either. Though to get the kids into the spirit of role-playing being in a silent room, Kyla got Hillary and Blake playing charades. Still, without their tank, Tarkir, or their other primary blaster Ap, they managed to finish the blights and the druid without too much trouble. They decided to loot some of the remaining bottle of Red Dragon Crush and set out for the second story of the winery.
They reached the loading crane over the loading dock. There they found the druid with the gulthias staff, a magic staff with power over blights and the ability to lets its wielder steal hit points on successful attacks. This application of the staff, incidentally, makes the wielder crazy. Most importantly, when broken it emits a scream that kills all blights in a 300 foot radius.
Lop opened up by casting web on the opening, blocking the druid's main escape route. Tathora then attempted to use command, specifically the disarm application. Unfortunately, the druid made his save. Still, between Sarra's whirling blades and Amrus's sneak attacks, the poor druid didn't last long. Lop used identify on the staff to determine how it worked.
They continued exploring the upper floor, finding the kitchen and dining room, the master bedroom where Amrus broke into the money chest and rooted around. Once again his desire to loot everything he finds butted up against the party's more general idea of trying to role-play benevolent adventurers. Trying to explain the idea that chaotic good is the general framework of Robin Hood or Batman seems to help. I have a feeling that an encounter coming up might push the situation further and not end well for Amrus (or the rest of the party, really).
The explored a couple of side bedrooms, including the one used by the children, where they found their first Blinsky toy: a Nightmare (a demonic horse with coal-black hair and fire for a mane and tail) named Beucephalus. These toys are scattered around Barovia, creepy play things emblazoned with "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!" This particular toy is a representation of none other than Strahd's mount.
The found the final unexplored room, a printing press for wine bottle labels that contained the last druid and her two vine blight servants. Once again, the party managed to make short work of the combat. The druids aren't effective close combatants, but their spells were fairly effective, but it takes them a couple of rounds to fully prepare: they need a round to cast barkskin followed by shillelagh to become fully effective. Blights, overall, are particularly weak, but are meant to show up in large groups.
The characters finally stepped out of the Winery and the swarm of needle blights, where they broke to Gulthias staff, killing all 30 blights in one fell swoop. For that, they got Inspiration. They're planning on spending some time with the Martikovs to get a long rest. Amrus took some of the poisoned wine, and Tathora was planning on preparing purify food and drink to handle to poisoned wine.
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