Session 7 — The Mound Had a Boss

Session 7 — The Mound Had a Boss

The party stood at the treeline behind the Durst Windmill with two traumatized children, a glowing standing stone they hadn't read yet, and an earthen mound that had acquired a door the last time they were here. The dolls in the mound moved in ways that suggested too many joints. Brother Moro asked what the group wanted to do. The general consensus was: not that. The general consensus lasted about twenty minutes.

What Happened

The night had left the mound open and whatever was inside it had not left. From the tree line, Sable rolled a 15 on Active Perception and heard multiple small childlike voices — some crying, some cackling — along with movement she would describe as brisk and jointed, coming from inside the mound. She retreated behind a tree, which was her considered tactical assessment of the situation.

The party spoke with the two children rescued from the windmill crates. The boy was seven and named Freek — two E's, he was clear about this — and the girl was five and named Myrtle. Freek explained that hags had come to his parents' home selling pastries and his parents had simply handed him over, which they seemed happy about in a way that was not normal for Barovia. The party filed this under Things Barovia Does and did not dwell on it. When Freek and Myrtle spotted Ireena Kolyana and Ismark Kolyana, their eyes went wide. Ireena and Ismark had the look of people who had not agreed to this.

The party examined the six standing stones. Five were in poor condition; one shorter stone — furthest from the group — was intact and slightly glowing and had a wolf carved on it. Its inscription read: The living walk together. The dead walk alone. A sixth stone, also shorter, had a wagon wheel carving and was in bad shape. The four largest stones each bore a different carving: dragon, raven, gargoyle, Leshy. Brother Moro noted these may have crumbled in conjunction with the hag deaths during the previous session. They had not crumbled. The mound had opened.

Freek and Myrtle were left with Ireena and Ismark at the treeline. Brother Moro bummed a Light spell from Merich, put it in his lantern, and the party entered the mound single file.

The air inside was warm and damp, like breathing through a cloth. The walls were living roots and packed earth, ribbed like the inside of something large. Columns of roots and vines ran from ceiling to floor. The cavern opened into a single large chamber. Dozens of dolls — some hanging from vines, some stacked in piles — turned their heads in unison as the party entered.

From the far side of the chamber, something shifted in the shadows.

The Nightmare Lumber King rose. A creature of twisted bark, knotted root fists threaded with sickly green luminance, a humanoid chest of petrified sinew, and a carved wooden mask where a face should be. Its dark eyeholes began to glow green. It touched the ceiling. It roared.

The dolls, to no one's surprise, evaporated from the scene rather than help.

Combat proceeded as follows:

Sable opened with Hunter's Mark and put two crossbow bolts into the Lumber King — 11 piercing and 6 force, then 10 piercing and 6 force — from the back of the formation, in the dark, where the light couldn't reach her. Celeste's Eldritch Blast landed for 14 force. Merich took two shots from behind the lantern cone for 8 piercing combined. Nobody was happy about the initiative order, but it was the initiative order they had.

The Nightmare Lumber King used Root Snare on Brother Moro and the summoned cat — roots erupting from the ground rather than from the boss himself, a small but important distinction that the cat learned too late. The cat was frightened and restrained. Brother Moro took 7 bludgeoning and was not restrained, which he accepted as a reasonable outcome. The King's presence was unsettling enough that Wisdom saves were required; some were made and some were not.

The King demonstrated a Legendary Action: Return to the Earth, burrowing 15 feet underground to heal using D8s. The party recognized this as Phase Two behavior and adjusted fire discipline accordingly. The cat, prone and restrained and frightened, continued to have the worst combat record of anyone present.

In the third round of combat, Brother Moro landed a Stunning Strike that connected — the Lumber King failed its Wisdom save at 14, failed to meet the threshold, and was stunned. Stun means incapacitated: no actions, no reactions, no movement, attack rolls against it have advantage, Strength and Dex saves automatically fail. Brother Moro then knocked it prone. A 6'0"-something creature being knocked prone by a regular human whose unarmed strikes were not yet magical is the kind of thing D&D lets you do with enough ki points.

The Lumber King fell backward like a tree in a forest, which it had technically always been. The summoned cat was underneath it. The cat rolled a 12 on its Dex save. The Lumber King stood at 10 HP and slid it to 4. Brother Moro then hit with a nat 20 for an additional 15 bludgeoning, reducing the cat to a conversation about resummons.

The cat died. It was a summon, so this was temporary. It was still happening to a cat.

Three shadow shades had materialized from the Lumber King's shadow earlier in the fight, spawned by Celeste's Scorching Ray landing unusually hard — the DM noted it took more fire damage than anticipated and produced a reaction. The shades moved on Brother Moro: one miss, one hit for 9 psychic, one crit hit for 7 psychic. Merich killed the first shade for 13 damage with one Eldritch Blast and it giggled as it evaporated. Sable shot the second for 11 and the third for 11; both made sounds suggesting distress before dissipating. Celeste took the last one down with a single Eldritch Blast for 9 damage.

The Lumber King burrowed again and came back up in a different position — no longer prone, no longer stunned, healed. It cast what the DM identified as Waking Nightmare on Sable and Brother Moro: both made Dex saves; Sable rolled 17 and passed; Brother Moro made it; they took 21 and 10 psychic damage respectively (half and full), and Sable's next attack would be at disadvantage. Sable noted that she had been crouched in the dark not moving for two turns and the Lumber King had tremorsense from being a thing made of roots in the earth, which is the kind of thing you don't notice until it fires psychic damage at you.

Merich and Sable combined for 41 damage on the Lumber King across two rounds. Celeste finished it with a double Eldritch Blast — 12 and 9 force damage — and described the kill: the blast spread through the vines like something catching light, the wood grain glowed green, and the whole construct caught fire and collapsed. The Nightmare Lumber King had 2 HP remaining when she fired. It was close enough to count.

The dolls that had been watching from the mound entrance were gone. Nobody had seen them leave.

Loot.

Brother Moro collected strips of bark and vine from the Lumber King's chest, still warm. Woven into wraps, they would give a plus-one bonus to AC, render unarmed strikes magical while worn, and leave his hands and arms looking bark-like for a full day after removal.

Merich received a hardened chest plate grown from the Lumber King's bark: the Lumber King's Gift. A heart-shaped knot of wood marked where the creature's chest had been. Properties: plus-one AC, resistance to bludgeoning damage for one hour per long rest, and a faint green glow through the wood grain whenever a spell is cast.

Sable collected magical sap from a knotted mass of veins at the center of the chamber. She rolled a 2 on the harvest, which produced two vials. During the subsequent long rest she licked the sap residue from her fur, experienced significant night terrors, and concluded the sap was probably a paralytic. Ten uses per vial.

Celeste found a plain silver ring under the pile of rocks that had been in the corner of the chamber for the whole fight, which turned out to be not a pile of rocks. It was wolf-engraved silver and had the look of something that had belonged to a previous adventurer. She added it to her collection of rings she now needs identified.

The party regrouped with Ireena and Ismark at the treeline. Ismark reported that the standing stone with the wagon wheel had glowed briefly while the party was inside the mound, shifted slightly in place as though something had shifted back into alignment, and revealed words that had been unreadable before: Not all roads serve the devil. Some roads defy him. Sable characterized this as hopeful. Nobody disagreed.

The party took a long rest. Celeste resummoned her cat. The party leveled up to Level 6.

Back to the Tser Pool Vistani Camp.

Merich and the party traveled back to the Vistani camp with Ireena, Ismark, Freek, and Myrtle in tow. The camp looked much the same, with some new faces and some familiar ones missing. Toma's forge-cart was still up. Madam Eva's tent still glowed from within. Yelena was comforting a crying woman near the bonfire.

Celeste went directly to Madam Eva with the wolf-engraved ring. Madam Eva performed a full ritual identification — Celeste drew a tool card — and identified the ring as the Dream Weaver's Thorn. Each day, the ring deals two poison damage to its wearer and stores that damage inside itself until the wearer chooses to release it, targeting another creature. Two days of wear currently represents two stored poison damage. The ring is a slow-charging weapon. Celeste took this information, weighed the two poison damage per day against the eventual discharge, and kept wearing it.

Merich went to Toma and delivered the memory dream dust from the hag coven — a material Toma had requested. Toma confirmed he was devising a poison recipe and this would help. He implied the finished product could be used as a weapon coating. He awarded Merich a something for completing the task. The sword, Mercy's Bite, was retrieved from escrow and passed to Merich. Its properties: a magical silvered longsword, one additional D4 radiant damage per hit, attunement required; once per long rest when striking a creature below half hit points, the wielder may choose to not deal damage and instead force a Wisdom save — on a failure, the creature is stunned until the start of the wielder's next turn. The sword goes silent if used to kill an innocent, even accidentally, until an act of redemption is performed.

Merich tested this on the Lumber King by retroactive implication and agreed it was good.

The grieving woman.

The crying woman near the bonfire turned out to be a Vistani woman recently widowed — her husband and son had been found dead on the road. When Merich expressed condolences and she asked if the party had seen anyone suspicious on the roads, Merich rolled three consecutive Deception checks (21, 24, 21 with guidance) and convinced her that the deaths were probably the work of halfling mercenaries riding camels. She found this description very plausible. She began crying harder. The party exchanged a look.

The same woman was recently bereaved of most of her family. The party had two children who did not want to go home to parents who had sold them to hags, and whose two NPC companions were unwilling to become parents. Merich connected these facts with a Persuasion of 22. Freek reminded the woman of her late son Marco. The woman took both children back to her caravan. Ireena and Ismark did not comment. They had been through a lot.

Hag potions identified.

While at the camp, Madam Eva identified the three hag concoctions taken from the windmill cabinet:

The party decided to keep them for now. The ingredients of Mother's Milk were not discussed further.

The session ended at the camp, overnight. The next destination is forward, toward the road — and whatever needs doing on the way.

Key Decisions

NPCs Met

Locations Visited

Items Found

Loose Threads