Campaign Date: Quoct 14th - Quoct 15th; Imperial Year 220

Characters:
Gutboy Barrelhouse, dwarf barbarian-2, CG Christopher Vedder
Crom the Ogre, human fighter-1, NG Christopher Vedder
Stalwart of Bor, dwarf paladin-1, LG Adam Vedder
Dominus the Mage, human wizard-1, LN Adam Vedder

Log:

The heroes returned to the Sunless Citadel ready to do battle with the forces of evil. They encountered an enclave of goblins led by a ogre and supported by a cadre of twig-monsters. The villians put up some stiff resistance to the returning heroes. In the battle Crom almost falls, but Stalwart is there to aid him with healing to get him through the battle.

The group ventures down a large hole in the floor to an series of caves even further below the buried castle. There they find several storerooms and some caves meant to grow mold and fungus for food. They fight and defeat a lone ogre who patroled the caves and chased off several goblins and skeletons who were attending to the fungus farms. Eventually the group came to a cave where the floor was covered by a thick layer of moss-like fungus, and up on a low mound was this astoundingly twisted and evil inteligent tree. Barak, the druid who attended to the tree called it the "Guthias Tree". Apparently, during the reign of the Witch-Kings a vampire lord was killed here -- staked in the heart. The stake was made of still-living wood however, and the evil of the vampire lord creeped into the sapling wood. The result was this tree of raw malicious evil that spawned the evil twig monsters who had been menacing the nearby county of Hercule. Furthermore, standing by the malicious druid Barak were the Countess' niece and nephew. Both of them had been horribly disfigured by the Guthias Tree. Their flesh had become woody and barklike, and their minds had been long since lost. After trying to convince the party that the power of the Guthias Tree was too much for them and they should flee, Barak orders his skeleton, goblin, and twig minions to attack. The battle was in doubt for much of the battle thanks to a well-placed entangle spell from the druid and some well-timed counterspells delivered by Isabel, the Countess' niece. However, in the end the heroes won the day and the Guthias Tree was burned and destroyed. The heroes find several items of treasure as well as a note to Barak from a mysterious Jael Arachnos.

The heroes returned to Hercule with the signet rings of the Countess' kin. After a tearful exchange, the Countess paid the heroes their reward, thanked them for their help and sent them on their way back to Fort Trefrey.