"I've got the feeling that those guards are small potatoes and that the tree is the one that you should be worried about, big guy. Do you still want that axe?"

Orilo gets into a loose splinter position in ready to meet a charge. Though he looks to Anborn, and then back to his target. "As I said. Hardly a warm-up. And if I were honest, the axe is more bonus than our goal." He grin a small grin, but it errs on the side of cheeky all the same. "Shiver me timbers, boy! What's the matter, Annie? Afraid of getting a splinter? Just look at it. It's already all sappy from having an axe stuck in it for so long. We wood only be doing it service by putting it down for-rest. Though if you're low on the blessing of your god."

He straightens out and pats Anborn. "Probably time to branch out then. You know, show that tree the bite of your blade is far worse its bark." Orilo feigns a thoughtful look away. "Or is it that your bark is worse than your bite. Always get those two things confused. But eh, life can be a birch sometime. So why pine over a lost thought?" His asks, expression hardening again into faux solemnness. Stonecutter, on the other hand, cannot keep a straight face by the time Ori's done; and so, began bleating/laughing his butt off. 

"Good shot, by the way Winter. Keep up the covering fire." He says, answering any follow-up confusion by charging towards the tree knocking aside its remaining guardians in his path. All with the intentions of grabbing the axe... unless Elya had long since beat him to the punch. 

Anborn stares into the camera like he's in The Office.

"Those dad jokes hurt more than the cross bolt Winter put between my ribs."

LMFAO Inspiration for you, sir.

As Orilo rushes by, Corrin gives him a swat on the backside, "That's it, my gentle giant friend, get to the root of this problem!" And with that, the halfling offers the Big O the strength of a bull. 

Friendly swat: enhance ability

"Please. No more puns."

As a group, you are all easily able to cut down or destroy the tree and the blights. They slowly turn dark, and melt back into the ground from whence they came.

A very nice axe is on the ground.

"If you make no more puns or dad jokes, I will let you have that axe, big guy."

"I... Don't know what dad jokes are." He asks, seeming genuinely confused for a moment. "But all other things known, perhaps you should have the axe. That way those threats of yours will have an actual edge to them." Orilo smirks good-naturedly, or as much as the goliath could show as much. He takes hold of the axe, and if not buried deeply enough he pulls it up easily enough with the aid of Corrin's spell and starts weighing it in hand. "But relAXE, Annie. Let us just bury the hatchet here, and see about this tree now, shall we?" If there are no complaints or surprise, Orilo sets the work trying to cut the tree down.

"You can have the axe. I'll take the Sunsword when we get into Castle Ravenloft."

As you pick up the axe, it feels excellent and light in your hand, but you notice something about the hilt. The hilt is ornately carved, and there are places where it is barbed, like thorns.

It's a Sanguine Axe (1d8+1+STR mod damage). As you grip the handle in certain places, it causes you to bleed. You can willfully hold the axe and hurt yourself anytime. For every hit point of damage taken in this manner adds +1 to any attack roll and damage roll. Every time you use this feature, however, you are permanently drained of 5 HP from your master total which cannot be healed, ever.

There is nothing else of value on the dead body.

"Hn. So long as you actually use it." Ori then looks to Anborn and make stabby motions. "As in putting the pointy burny end into an enemy?" He teases, though his heart wasn't in it. True to his word, he works on or at least 'tries' to finish what the axe's original owner started in chopping it down the malignant tree. And if he can enlist the aid of the others, eventually work on uprooting the rest and setting it all ablaze.  

"I know how to use a sword. But you'll figure that out when I've cut off Strahd's head with it." Anborn pulls out the roots, since he figures that the sooner Oreo's destroyed the tree, the sooner they'll be able to return to Vallaki and rest. Once the tree has been uprooted (or it's established that it can't be uprooted) Anborn heads back to Vallaki, has precisely one glass of wine, casts Enhance Ability on himself (strength or Dex, whichever is more useful for massages) and gets ready to give Winter that massage he promised her .

(I'll let you two have fun with that before we continue!)

(Hope this is saucy enough for ya, boss)

Anborn felt a lot more comfortable doing this the second time around. Maybe it was because he was actually getting along with Winter (he hoped). Maybe it was because he wasn't in a shit mood like he was the last time he did this. Maybe it was because he didn't give an awkward, yet skillful massage to some dude that he brought back to life mere minutes ago as part of some crazy, wine-fueled idea. Whatever it was, there weren't a billion and one things going through his head as he turned around and waited for Winter to disrobe and get ready for the massage. Once again, he respected her boundaries, only touching the areas that she gave him express permission to touch. He wasn't going to make any assumptions just because she liked the last massage and smiled at him a couple of times. "All right, try and relax like last time and tell me which areas you want me to get to as well as the areas that you don't want me to get to."  

Massage check: 23

Really fun times behind the spoiler.

 Sex check: 22

It looks like Torm blessed more than just his hands this day. Or maybe another deity decided to give Anborn their blessing as he hears a voice in his mind saying, "Praise Bane."

It was difficult to say, when heading back over to Vallaki, why Winter for most of the walk had a small smile on her face instead of her usual scowl. Maybe it was because she finally had come to a realization that these people cared about her wellbeing, so quick to rush to her aid when she was knocked down twice, without the rogue having to ask. She made sure the two clerics were well aware of her appreciation before she had gone to her respective room in the tavern, but before she went up, she made sure to let Anborn know she would be waiting for him in her room for that massage.

When morning came, Winter was first to rise, feeling... Content. When she fixed herself up, dressing appropriately for the mission ahead, she shakes Anborn up from his slumber. “Let’s go, hotshot, we have a vampire to slay.”

Anborn gets up feeling much better than he has in a while. "I suppose we do. Almost forgot about that. Best not keep the others waiting." He puts on his armor and his coat and then heads downstairs. "Morning everyone. Are we all rested up and ready to go kill Strahd?" 

"Good morning. It's time, isn't it?"

THE GATES OF CASTLE RAVENLOFT

After winding through the forest and craggy mountain peaks, the road takes a sudden turn to the east, and the startling, awesome presence of Castle Ravenloft towers before you. You stand before twin turrets of stone, broken from years of exposure. Beyond these guard towers is the precipice of a fifty-foot-wide, fog-filled chasm that disappears into unknown depths.

A lowered drawbridge of old, shored-up wooden beams stretches across the chasm, between you and the archway to the courtyard. The chains of the drawbridge creak in the wind, their rust-eaten iron straining under the weight. From atop the high walls, stone gargoyles stare at you out of their hollow eye sockets and grin hideously. A rotting wooden portcullis, green with growth, hangs above the entry tunnel. Beyond this location, the main doors of Ravenloft stand open. A rich, warm light spills from within, flooding the courtyard. Torches flutter sadly in sconces on both sides of the open doors.

"And, once again, I enter the belly of the Devil.." Leo breathes.

Anborn is unimpressed by Castle Ravenloft. "Maybe it's just me, but I was expecting that the mighty Strahd would take better care of his castle. But I guess that it'll make it easier for the Barovian people to tear it down when he's dead." Anborn hears Leo's words as they enter. "I mean, it's better than where you were when we met you. Now do you remember where the sword is? The sooner we find it, the sooner I can use it to cut off Strahd's head."