Off To See the Wonderful Wizard of Wines

The day starts at the Blue Water Inn with another early morning encounter between Xuza and Rictavio. Rictavio once again prepared breakfast, consisting of an apple and a steak, and headed out, supposedly to eat it with Geoff. Xuza did not investigate; instead, he focused on his own cooking.

After breakfast, the group sets off from Vallaki with the rising sun to make it all the way to Wizzard of Wines to rid them of their blight problem. To protect Geoff from Morganthas’s wrath, he was left to stay with his father, Lucian, accompanied by Ireena and Freek.

After just over half a day of travel, the party arrives at the Vineyard, only to be greeted by the Martikov family in the forest just outside the grounds. They learn that Davian Matrikov—the father in the family that runs the business and Bart’s closest associate—had been captured by druids coming from Yester Hill who were currently holding him hostage at the main house. Raven scouts sent out by the rest of the Martikovs scouts had noticed living bushes patrolling the grounds and sounds of something big coming from inside the house; the druids were definitely up to something terrible.

The travelers promise to lend their aid to the rest of the Martikov family staying in exile from their home and begin their approach toward the Vineyard. By combining skill and luck, they manage to stealth all the way inside without being detected. Once inside, they learn that the druids are poisoning the wine supply with the help of a giant blood toad. By combining good communication with boldness and a winged warlock’s abilities, the party manages to defeat the toad, the druids inside the Vineyard, and the blights working for them without alerting the blights patrolling the grounds outside. In the aftermath, the group manages to successfully (i) save Davian, (ii) take one of the druids as a hostage, (iii) find a potent artifact that Eva had seen in her premonitions, and steal the blight-controlling staff from the druids, (iv) destroy said staff to clear the outside grounds of blights and (v) (barely) not get killed by the cooling system of the cellar. All in a good afternoon of adventuring.

The rest of the afternoon and evening are spent enjoying the hospitality of the Martikov family, who were very grateful for getting their Vineyard back. The evening saw good food, even better wine, and a dancing druid on the fields. Prompted by the last of these things, Davian told the party of the troubles the Vineyard was facing, which had resulted in their current arrangement with Bart. The party decides to further help the Martikovs by agreeing to the next day, travel to Yester Hill in order to put a stop to the druids once and for all and hopefully reclaim one of the magic gems that had brought prosperity and fertilized the land. Who knows, they may be able to find the Martikov scouts that Davian had sent out before the Vineyard had been overrun.