The Root of Bloodshed

THE ROOT OF BLOODSHED (T1)
8/21/19 Players:
 * DMs: Whitney (John on Deck)
 * John (Dwarven Fighter)
 * Gairmen (Halfling Monk)
 * Codex (Warforged Cleric)
 * il Pappagallo (Changeling Bard)

Premise
A river runs through the inner and outer walls of Vigil. Outside the city walls by the riverside, there is a lumber mill that processes logs which float down the river, supplying the town with timber and firewood. These logs are cut at a logging camp that is two days upstream. Recently, however, the amount of wood floating down the river has trickled to nothing, and rumors of strange beasts harassing the loggers have spread. What is going on in that camp, and can a brave party of adventurers end this threat?

WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON:

From the fey presence in Vigil, their strange magics have seeped into the earth, and some plants may even come to life...A beautiful oak tree awakened, but its first few moments of thought were innocent for only a little while. Tendrils of demonic energy were corrupting its consciousness from the conflict between the demons and the faerie realm. Then, one moonlit evening, blood was shed at its roots, and the tree became fully corrupted and began to thirst for blood...

The logging camp is run by a brash, confident man named Reynard. He’s strong and competent, and he’s used to getting his way - but there was one thing he could not have. He was in love with a woman named Elaine, who was a seamstress/farrier/etc that helped the loggers with their equipment and draft horses. However, Elaine was engaged to another logger named William. One night, Reynard made his decision - he separated William from the other loggers and slew him, hoping to get Elaine for himself. Little did he know that William’s blood seeped into the awakened tree’s roots. The tree, tasting blood, has corrupted the wildlife and plant growth for miles and miles around it, creating monsters to seek blood and satiate its thirst.

Summary of Events
tl;dr: Party gets job to investigate why lumber mill has stopped receiving logs from logging camp. They defeat some corrupted animals/plants on the way, talk to the loggers, get a sidequest to look for a woman's missing fiance, talk to a pixie who reveals that the corruption originated from a murder, defeat an evil tree, and apprehend the murderer.

The party notices a job-board posting that states "SEEKING COMPETENT ADVENTURERS! APPLY AT LUMBER MILL AT RIVERSIDE UPSTREAM! PAY GOOD! RISK MINIMAL!". They accept the posting and head to the lumber mill, where they meet a gruff, money obsessed dwarven man named Bertrand. Bertrand tells the group that logs have stopped floating downriver, so he insists on the adventurers heading to the logging camp two days two or three days upstream. He is paranoid that the loggers could be striking.

The party buys some supplies and heads off. The first day, little happens, but on the afternoon of the second day, they are met with a few corrupted dogs (using blink dog and death dog stats) that attempt to kill them. They notice that the dogs all have glowing red eyes. They manage to successfully kill/drive off the dogs. They continue forward a little longer and encounter a field full of beautiful poppy flowers surrounded by oaks that are mysteriously alluring. A few of the group are charmed by the flower scent and walk into the field. However, it is a trap, as the oaks have leafy vines hanging off them which hide snares. The party shakes free of the snares and catches glimpse of some sort of imp-like creatures made of twigs that were administering the snare. During the night, they hear mysterious chanting that says "Blood! Thirst! Blood!"

The third day's morning sees the party enter the logging camp. They meet Reynard, the boss of the camp, who insists that the evil coming out of the forest is temporary, and if they wait it out it will pass. He dislikes adventurers, since according to him, they profit off other people's misery. He has a large chip in his ax that he insists is from its long use, as he is one of the most experienced men here. They meet with Pip, a young redheaded logger, who tells the party more details - he says that two of his friends have been killed due to mysterious creatures, and their bodies have been drained of blood. He says that 5 people have been killed in total, and 4 bodies have been found, all of which have been violently attacked.

The party decides to seek more information in the cantina of the camp. Inside, they encounter Elaine, the farrier/blacksmith/shopkeep for the camp. She is gruff, burly, and wears a soot-smeared leather apron. She is begging the people inside to get off their butts and look for her fiance William, who is one of the presumed-dead loggers. The cook, a tiny muscular halfling named Perkins, replies that Reynard forbid the loggers to leave the camp until the evil has passed. Elaine marches out in a huff. The party questions Perkins further. Perkins says that Reynard has been a good leader for a long time, so he trusts the guy's judgment. He does admit, however, that Reynard can be unreasonably stubborn at times. For example, he keeps chasing after Elaine even though the woman has a fiance.

The adventurers chat with Elaine, who promises them an extra gold reward if they should find what happened to William. She describes what he was wearing and tells them that he wears a necklace made out of half a silver piece - she wears the other half.

So they set off! On the way, they rescue a tiny pixie named Sparkletwig Fizzlebinkle from a hoard of corrupted plants and mud-creatures (stats of twig blights and mud mephits). He is minor pixie nobility and is like, 528th in line for the seelie throne. He ran out of the Feywild to escape scary demons. He has a gravity-defying tuft of red-orange hair, a tiny needle rapier, and big iridescent butterfly wings. He speaks in an obnoxiously high voice and refuses to talk with others unless they match his pitch. He says that the forest used to be fine, but after a "biggie" killed another "biggie", a tree turned evil and started thirsting for blood. Reluctantly, he guides the party to where the evil tree is. The party, after a long struggle, burn down the tree (stats of the Gulthias tree from curse of strahd) and defeat its minions it had crafted out of the nearby shadows and plants (stats of the wretched and needleblights). They find that near the tree's roots is a hasty grave. In the grave is a corpse of a human man. They find a silver piece necklace on him, so they surmise that this man must be William. Investigating further, they see that the man has been killed by an ax-blow to the brain, and inside the wound, there is a metal chip that looks like the chip in Reynard's ax.

They hasten back into camp. Reynard is busy boasting that he was right and the evil has passed, just like he predicted, but the party confronts him about his crimes. He fights back but the party defeats him and ties him up. Elaine is so distraught over the murder of her fiance and how Reynard continued to flirt with her even knowing that William was dead, she takes one of her blacksmithing hammers and knocks Reynard's front teeth out.

The party drags Reynard back to Vigil to hand him over to the authorities and receive their reward from Bertrand, who is glad to know that at least the loggers weren't striking!

Plothooks

 * Demon proximity can corrupt local wildlife
 * Gulthias tree may not be entirely dead
 * Sparkletwig Fizzlebinkle is minor seelie nobility and could be of use in later negotiations
 * The logging camp is low on men and leadership and may face struggles in the future.

Link to full Google Doc
Here!