Burr turned to Soren and whispered, " Leave the wolf here to cut off any who try to escape us.....if you will."

Burr headed toward the stone hallway trying to peer through the second smashed door..

Perception-6

Stealth- 15

Zefla follows Burr and as they pause at the second smashed door, she listens up the tower to help try and find the shameful druids.

Perception  20

Giles follows behind Zefla, remaining silent, nodding and pointing to the west.  He inches along quietly, hoping they can look into the doorway and surprise whoever lies in the room beyond.   

(Unless he senses an imminent threat, Soren silently asks Thorn to guard the entrance from unwanted creatures entering or exiting per Burr's idea.  The summoned wolf spirit goes reluctantly... he would rather sink his teeth and claws into a dark druid or their corrupt creations than guard the door).

Lower Level

Upper Level

Listening by the ramp, Zefla can hear a soft creaking as if one is walking around upstairs.

Still masked by the power of Giles' scroll, the party peeks through the broken double doors into a long, wide room.  The rich smell of fermenting wine fills this large, two-story chamber, which is dominated by four enormous wooden casks, each one eight feet wide and twelve feet tall.  A wooden staircase in the center of the room climbs to a ten-foot-high wooden balcony that clings to the south wall, which has four windows set into it at balcony level.  Stacked against the wall underneath the balcony are old, empty barrels with “The Wizard of Wines” burned into their sides.  The balcony climbs another five feet as it continues along the west and east walls, ending at doors leading to the winery’s upper level. Underneath these side balconies are several doors, some of which hang open.  Beneath the sloping roof stretch thick rafters, upon which scores of ravens have quietly gathered. They watch you with great interest, the only parties in the room to have notices you so far.

For the ravens are far from the only occupants of the room.  The balcony creaks, drawing your eye to a wild-looking figure hunched over the westernmost cask, pouring a flask of thick syrup into it.  She wears a gown made of animal skins and a headdress with goat horns, and her hair is long and unkempt.  Suddenly, you see something skittering across the floor. It looks like a small creature made of twigs. It moves from its hiding place under the stairs and disappears behind the one of the middle casks.  And then you see the rest.  The room is practically filled, on both upper and lower levels, with these small wooden monsters.

For now, only the ravens in the rafters have laid eyes on your party.

Soren dare not speak to the ravens for fear of ruining the party's magically-enhanced stealth, but he is almost certain these are not corrupted ravens at least, or they would have alerted the twisted druid at the back end of the barrel room.  He makes eye contact with the birds and simply nods, finger to lips.

Perception to confirm these are ordinary ravens (not corrupted like the blighted creatures):  13

Soren's quiet whisper is for his companions' ears only, and deadly flat.  "Ambush and slay the druid first at range.  A hunt without mercy.  Then the blights if they remain animated once she is gone.  Unless one of you sees a better path to the kill."

The druid doffs his shield and unlimbers his longbow (un-silvered arrow nocked).  At the door, Thorn takes a few steps towards the group inside, his assigned duty to guard the door partly forgotten, overcome by his rising bloodlust to destroy the corruption he senses in waves through Soren's telepathy.

Burr looks at the ravens then to Soren, the druid spoke of the corvids as friends before...perhaps this was a good sign.

As much as he wanted to charge in and start swinging he followed Sorens lead and pulled out the crossbow sighting on the druid and waiting for the signal.

Held action ( Fire when others do) vs druid- Attack: 16 Damage: 11

Giles speaks in a whisper saying “What if they flee out of the other side to warn the others?  I can send a guiding bolt to light up the Druid for your attacks.  If you wish.  Should we look elsewhere before we attack, or go ahead now..”

((Giles is maintaining concentration on pass without trace, read from the scroll.  But I don’t think it disappears when we attack, correct?  It isn’t like invisibility is it?))

[Yes.  The spell is still active and doesn't break during combat.  Giles does need to maintain concentration, but so long as his concentration isn't broken, or he doesn't cast any other spell requiring concentration, the Pass Without Trace will last 1 hour, which should be enough time to clear or fail to clear the winery, unless you find a way to take a short rest.]

[As we already have attack rolls made, I think we are locked in for going in through the front door.  Here is what we will do... I will roll up initiative once everyone settles on their actions/movement.  But... since you all have a chance to plan this out, I will let you decide what order to go in for the first round, during which the enemy will be surprised.  After the first round, we will switch back to whatever order the initiative dictates.]

Soren:  These appear like normal ravens.  Further, you see several dead ravens on the balcony, along with many lost feathers and blood.  It looks like the ravens may have fought a losing battle against the monsters here.

Hearing someone up the stairs, but not liking the fact that their druid was on the balcony and they were on the lower floor, Zefla decides to head up the stairs to get a better shot at the creature.  But she continues to sneak up the stairs, wary of what she might meet at the the top.

(Sorry, I know we're kind of in initiative, but she'd want to get closer if she can.  If there is nothing really there to stop her, she'll dash and fire off an arrow at the druid.)

Giles whispers “Let me lead this, when you see the flash of light, let him have it!”  He gets into position where he can see the Druid and he casts guiding bolt to lead the attack, hopefully striking the Druid with a searing bolt of radiant light.  Whoever has the next attack does so at advantage when the Druid is covered in shimmering light.  

Guiding bolt : 24 to hit, for 13 points of radiant damage to the Druid.  

Knowing Zefla's potential for attacking sneakily, Soren would wait to ensure she's the one who takes the shot with advantage from Giles' Guiding Bolt.

Soren only targets the twisted druid if she still lives after Zefla's attack.  If not, he steps back and targets the closest upstairs blight instead.

Soren Longbow to hit druid or upstairs blight (regular roll, NOT with advantage):  22
Soren Longbow damage on druid or upstairs blight:  8 piercing (using non-silvered arrow)

After releasing the shot, Soren addresses the ravens in the rafters, his voice coming out in series of quiet raven-like quorks (Speech of the Woods):

"Dark winged kindred.  I am a druid, yet not dark and twisted like the one here.  We are sent by Davian Martikov, whose lair this is, to free it from this corruption.  Aid us now if you can.  And tell us of any other foes or dangers here if we prevail."

Nettle uses her 60' fly speed and Flyby capability to flap her wings in the face of the next closest surviving blight, providing advantage on the next attack against it (taking the help).  Returning to Soren's shoulder once done.

Having already edged closer during the lead-up to battle, and now forgetting his guard duty entirely in a fit of feral blood lust, Thorn the wolf rushes headlong into the room past the party and savagely buries his teeth into the closest blighted creature, with advantage due to Nettle's help.

Thorn's maul/bite attack on closest downstairs blight (at advantage due to Nettle's help):  22
Thorn's maul/bite damage on closest downstairs blight:  14 piercing

Seeing Thorn abandon his post, Soren himself steps back and north 15' to better watch for enemies behind himself.

When Zefla reaches the top, she sees the door she expects to get to the balcony of the fermenting room, but something else catches her attention.  She looks towards the area over the loading dock and stops short, holding her breath.

Over a hole that opens up to the lower area perches a man with wild hair, rotted teeth, and skin painted red with blood. He waves a gnarled staff made from a black branch.  He is peering down the hole at something, perhaps Soren's pet wolf, and muttering to himself.  He seems almost curious, or amused and hasn't noticed her yet.

To Giles, she telepathically sends him a message, There is another druid up here.  I'm going after him.

Loading an arrow, she shoots at the man..

Attack: 20, Damage: 9 

Sneak attack: 3

With her bonus action, she attempts to hide, slipping behind the doorway.  

Stealth  21

ROUND 1!

The party springs into action.

Father Giles steps into the room and launches a bolt of light which catches the druid on the far side of the room completely unawares.  She is staggered and glows with a shimmering light.  

Soren, expecting an arrow from Zefla, instead sees Burr step forward and connect with crossbow bolt which hits the druid in the shoulder, spinning her around.  Soren knocks an arrow and lets it fly, striking the corrupted druid in the throat.  Her body collapses on top of the wine vat lid.  The blights in the room begin to chitter and move, at the disturbance and those with faces seem to look in your direction, but the death of the druid does nothing to dispel or disburse them.

Nettle and Spike team up and destroy the nearest twig blight, the wolf spirit's jaws crunching mercilessly on the dry wood of the monster.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Zefla sees the druid's eyes watching from above as Spike runs out of the loading dock and toward the fermentation room.  Before he can react, she fires an arrow that hits the painted druid in the leg.  His eyes snap to the arrow and then scan the room wildly.

Back in the fermentation room, the ravens up above spring to life, cawing and flapping their wings.  A swarm of them descends to the floor, converging on one of the blights.  When they depart back to the rafters, another blight is dead, along with a raven.

ROUND TWO!

The Druid upstairs springs from his perch on the winch, though he doesn't seem to have seen Zefla.  He laughs, maniacally and then howls, "Listen!... the soil itself yearns for undying decay, an immortal rot that defies feeble notions of life!"

Then he continues into the NW corner of the room and pushes on the wall.  A hidden doorway opens and he passes through.  It closes behind him.

1. Druid 2
2. Zefla
3. Soren
4. Burr
5. Giles
6. Blights

First Floor

Second Floor

Burr yelled as he dropped the crossbow and slid the maul into his hands, " Someone go check on Zefla....me and the birds can handle the twigs!"

He gave a wicked grin and charged forward grinning wildly, swinging the heavy hammer at the nearest enemy.

BA-Rage.

 vs Twiggy Attack: 18 Damage: 11

Giles shouts back quickly, “I’ll go!” and turns toward the stairs.

Cursing under her breath, Zefla takes chase after the druid, attempting to push the wall in the same spot he did and readying a dodge action as she follows him in case he is ready for her.

 If she can get through the door and isn’t attacked, she’ll use her BA to dash and try to catch up with the Druid

(I hate dodging, ask my husband - I never do in our live game lol)

((OOC:  I have no idea why after naming Soren's spirit wolf Thorn, I then started calling him Spike.  Fixed now in my posts.  Nettle, Bramble and Thorn.))

((OOC:  Also making some assumptions in this post as I described in the OOC chat... will retcon if these assumptions are wrong.))

Soren's jaw sets in anger as he hears the other, unseen (to him) druid howl the blasphemous words upstairs.  He looks grimly at the owl on his shoulder.

Nettle uses her 60' fly speed and Flyby to wing upwards, past the blight at the upper level on top of the nearest large cask, flapping her wings and pecking at the corrupted creature (help action) before continuing eastward through the eastern door to join Zefla in giving chase as far as she can.  If the upper eastern door is not open, the owl flies through the lower eastern door instead and up the spiral stairs to similarly give chase with Zefla.

Soren trots back (10-15' east, back towards the doorframe) to get an angle on the blight atop the nearest cask and looses an un-silvered arrow at it.
Longbow attack on blight atop cask, to hit (advantage due to Nettle's help):  19
Longbow damage on blight atop nearest cask:  11 piercing

The druid quorks out to the ravens on the rafters, who have shown themselves to be allies here and have now lost one more of their own (spoken in raven):
"Let us finish these corrupted creatures together, and then mourn our fallen, which I believe my smaller companion Zefla calls a 'battle cry.'  Do not be alarmed at the wolf you see below, nor the large skeletal bear that will appear in the air.  He is here to strengthen us all."

Then (bonus action), the druid briefly closes his eyes and the large, incorporeal skeleton bear (Bramble) emerges above him in mid-air (Bear Totem Spirit).  (All allies within 30' of the ghostly ursine form gain 8 Temp HP, including those behind cover that Soren cannot see.  I think this includes all PCs, Nettle, Thorn and maybe the ravens - Soren tries to include them all.  Also anyone within 30' of Bramble at any time has advantage on STR checks and saves).

Thorn barely notices any of it.  The slavering spirit wolf charges towards the same blight that Burr swung his maul at (assuming Burr missed).
Thorn maul/bite attack to hit (advantage from Pack Tactics):  25
Thorn maul/bite damage:  8 piercing

(From his vantage point around the eastern doorframe, Soren tries to watch both the raging battle in the cask room as well as watch the party's rear.)

Zefla races after the fleeing druid, quickly locating the latch in the wall disguised as a hook-shaped stone.  The panel opens to reveal a bedroom.  She steps through, ready to dodge in case of ambush. This room contains a four-poster bed, its headboard carved in the likeness of a giant raven.  The sheets are filthy, as though dirty animals have been sleeping in the bed.  A soft black rug covers the floor between the bed and the door.  In the corners of the south wall stand two slender wardrobes with a tapestry of a church hanging on the wall between them. The tapestry is rent as though cut by daggers.  Beneath the tapestry sits a handsomely carved rocking cradle.  To the north, under a window, is a plain desk and chair.  Other furnishings include a wooden chest and a freestanding mirror in a wooden frame.  Someone has smeared a spiral pattern on the mirror in an uncertain dark material.  She does not come under attack and there is no sign of the druid.  To the west is an open door.  She dashes through the room in pursuit.  Behind her, she hears the soft click of the secret door closing again behind her.

Passing through the open door, she emerges into a combination kitchen/dining hall.  This room contains a rectangular table surrounded by eight chairs, an L-shaped cupboard, and a floor-to-ceiling closet pantry.  Next to the pantry is a small iron stove, which looks like it has been beaten or kicked repeatedly, as it is covered in dents and may no longer be functional.  The kitchen is a mess.  Most of the contents of the cupboards have been turned out and strewn on the floor, and the table is covered with piles of dried mushrooms.  The pantry door is closed.  There is a closed door directly south, and an open door to her southwest.  There is no sign of the druid here either.  

Soren slays the twig blight that had been perched atop the nearest wine vat.  Then he calls forth his bear spirit.  The fearsome spectral visage of a skeletal great bear appears in the air above him.  Despite its gruesome appearance, all the party members in the room feel a burst of vigor and power.  Each gets 8 temp hp.  [Zefla, unfortunately, is by now more than 30' away].

Thorn pads past Burr and rips apart the twig blight the warrior had been eyeing.  Meanwhile, Nettle flies out the lower door [the upstairs door is closed] and up the ramp to the second floor to look for Zefla.

Not one to be outdone by a dog, Burr charges further ahead past the stairs to the next blight.  He brings down his maul, but apparently not with enough force.  The hard wooden branches that make up the creature fail to break [attack missed].

Father Giles retreats from the downstairs battle and dashes up the ramp, past the little owl.  He sees a winch and platform for loading the wagons below.  Looking down he can see the wine wagon and the open gate where they entered the building.  There are a pair of closed doors up here but no Zefla. 

In the fermentation room, the twig blights begin to march.  They move with a gruesome simulacrum of life, sliding and undulating along the floor as though walking.  Those on the ground floor converge around Burr and Thorn, while most on the walkway moved slowly toward the stairs.  A couple of the more adventurous blights climb over the balcony, their wooden limbs extending unnaturally to lower them to the floor.  One of these moves toward Soren, while another climbs up onto the vat near him in the same place as the one he had just killed with an arrow.  

Two of the blights close on Burr and attack, but he fends them off [attacks miss].  Three more surround Thorn, and 2 of them pierce the spirit wolf with their thorny claws.

Attack:  15  Damage:  2

Attack:  19  Damage:  4

There is another flurry of commotion from the ravens and the swarm descends again, this time picking off one of the blights on the upper walkway.

Round 3!

Upstairs druid - ???

1. Druid 2
2. Zefla
3. Soren
4. Burr
5. Giles
6. Blights