Blood Druids at Yester Hill Will Kill You

The day starts at Wizzard of Wines, where the Martikov family takes care of the party. The party arises with varying amounts of hangover from the previous night’s festivities and dancing. After a hearty breakfast prepared by Stefania Martikov with the help of Xuza, the party sets off south toward Yester Hill.

On the way, Strahd himself visits the party. Strahd flies in on a black and flaming horse that resembles a rocking horse in one of the rooms in the Vineyard. The purpose of Strahd’s visit remains a mystery to the party; he gifted Darren with a lovely whetstone, supposedly to thank Darren for his service. Darren immediately tries the whetstone on his sword- a decision he would regret just an hour later- and finds that it makes his decent but fairly mundane sword much sharper and magical.

When continuing their travel, Bob (short for Bobrikov)—the druid they had captured the day before—seems flabbergasted, both over having met Strahd, but even more that Strahd had not immediately killed them. Before long, the group arrives at Yester Hill with Bob still securely tied in his wine barrel.

Climbing the hill, the lost travelers were met with a far more sinister scene than they had expected, perhaps the most sinister scene of their time in Barovia. The group walks in on some form of a ritual. Olivenka Martikov, the Urvin’s daughter, is being held hostage by Keshgar, the blood druid, and coerced to watch the Gulthias tree consume Claudiu (Stefania’s son) to transfer his life force into an effigy of Strahd. Hurrying to intervene, Darren also hears a voice in his head. The voice was very eager to stop the druids with violence. Darren quickly realizes that the voice comes from a magic spear thrust into the Effigy.

With an invisible warlock and a charmed Bob speaking on their behalf, the party approaches Keshgar to (at least try) negotiate a peaceful solution. Olivenka makes a desperate plea to save Claudiu, which is quickly followed by a hard slap in her ace from Keshgar.

With negotiations quickly turning sour, a battle breaks out. The party is challenged not only by the formidable might of Keshgar but also by the considerable distance between the Effigy and the Gulthias tree and the other druids performing the ritual at the tree. With clever use of magic that aims to make the terrain (considerably) more difficult to traverse, to set fire to tree-like structures, and save the innocent people, the party prevails, managing to both lay Kashgar to rest and save the life of both Olivenka and (the considerable worse off) Claudiu. During the battle, Darren frees the sentient spear from the Effigy. The spear proved a formidable weapon, allowing Darren to deal more significant damage than before. The spirit living in the spear introduced himself as Kavan, the first chieftain of the Kavani tribe. The spear urged Darren to visit the amber temple to rid the land of Strahd once and for all.

The party’s victory was hard earned but short-lived when they realize that their new “friend” Bob, the druid, had managed to escape during the battle, and the rest of the inhabitants of Yester Hill are closing in on their current location to deal with the intruders and the fire currently raging at the altar. Since the party had already taken quite a beating, they opted for a tactical retreat back to the Vineyard. They manage to escape and make their way back to the Vineyard. When hearing of the events, Davian promises to send their own troops to ensure the remaining inhabitants of Yester Hill are contained. He also gives the party four barrels of wine as a thank-you for reuniting his relatively unscathed family.

While the Martikovs extend an invite to stay another night at the Vineyard, the group decides to travel back the same night, seeing as they have a tournament to get to the next day. Seeing as the impromptu trip to Yester Hill prevents the group from fulfilling Urvin’s wishes of going to the dragon’s house, the group instead agrees to take Olivenka with them, hoping that a reunion with his daughter will earn them some points in Urvin’s eyes.