Dragon of Icespire Peak ***CLOSED***

Vaxis strokes his chin tendrils. He reads the elven script out loud, for those that do not speak the elven language.

"Fascinating...all dragons tend to have those four qualities, with the chromatics having a bit more of vanity and greed while the metallics having a bit more of the other two. That being said, I do not believe these have anything to do with me specifically, but will unlock something pertaining to those virtues?"

Tabesha'l, first taken aback by the half-orc's impulsive gesture, relents and gives him the blade, nodding:

" Methinks friend Minsys hath the right of it: I am loathe to be the one saying this, yet I feareth the adage 'Less Talking, More A-Doing'  befits our present quandary. Ô Dear Barbarous Companion, I beseech thee... wouldst thee do us the honor ?"

She gives one of her trademark little curtsies and lets Minsys fit the first three keys into their designated locks, using the blade as the fourth 'key'. She also turns towards the rest of the group, giving a last, obvious warning: " We may wish to take a few decent steps backwards as our resident orc-born accomplishes his purpose, however ? Aye, just so..."

At first, nothing happens. As the party looks around at one another disappointedly, they suddenly begin to feel a slight tremor in the floor...the kind that it makes when large gears are turning...

The sensation grows and soon they all come to understand that the three keys and staff have set into motion some kind of large mechanism, bigger then the size of the room, possibly even larger than the size of the house. From his perch near the window, Minsys looks down into the courtyard and sees the flagstone floor receeding away, parting in the middle. Twig blights are scrambling around frantically, as if they were on fire and the large tree growing out of the central well begins to lurch as the support structure holding it in place gives way.

Another second or two goes by and they realize the large tree isn't lurching...it is...moving! Its branches begin to twist into arm stalks which reach down a pull the rest of itself free from the...whatever lies underneath. It too is a blight creature, one of immense size. Pulling its 300-year-old tree-sized leg stalks free, it then stands to full height - nearly 10 feet taller than the house itself.

The enormous blight lets out an ear-splitting howl, sending the blights running for cover inside...or perhaps after something else. A massive branch goes crashing through the upper floor of the manse on the other side of the courtyard from where the party now stands, taking out the interior wall. Looking through the window, the party can see all of the upper floor on the other side of the house!

ROLLING INITIATIVE:
17 - CONNAK
7 - TINK
20 - TABESHA'L
18 - MINSYS
18 - VAXIS
7 - TWIG BLIGHT 1
4 - TWIG BLIGHT 2
17 - TWIG BLIGHT 3
4 - TWIG BLIGHT 4
16 - TWIG BLIGHT 5
2 - TWIG BLIGHT 6
12 - TWIG BLIGHT 7
4 - TWIG BLIGHT 8
14 - TWIG BLIGHT 9
8 - TWIG BLIGHT 10
12 - VINE BLIGHT 1
12 - VINE BLIGHT 2
19 - VINE BLIGHT 3
15 - TREE BLIGHT

"Ohh..." Minsys starts and then turns to the others smiling.  "I hear wood from living trees is best to smoke meat with and and their sap is suppose to be the best base for syrup."  

"Whisker to me!" Feeling the ground shake, Tink will back away from the center of the building and places her back against the wall on the otherside. Loading a orange liquid filled vial, she prepares to fire on whatever it was that caused that shake once it appears. Whisker likewise stays by her mistress' side.

Move: 30ft west to the other wall
Action: Ready Action to Cast Fire Bolt at the first hostile creature that appears. Attack: 12 Damage: 9

Whisker Move: 25ft west to stand at Tink's side in the corner
Whisker Action: Dodge

Being the only one standing near/peering through the bedroom window overlooking the courtyard outside, Minsys was singularly aware of the exact nature of the threats outside and thus the only party member with a direct line-of-sight on any potential targets.

Tink repositions to a "safer" place and readies her spell, but at present she had no target fixated, so the orange liquid-filled vial stayed cocked and loaded in her clockwork bracer, set with a hair trigger to fire at the first sign of a discernible foe. 

In the courtyard below, Minsys saw a couple of the smaller twiggy creatures scurry inside, through the northeast door, which he believes leads into the ruined dining room at the opposite end of the hall from the manse's main entrance. They go out of sight after they move through the doorway.

TB 2 - Dash
TB 6 - Dash

(OOC: Minsys is next in the initiative count.)

"The trees awake," Minsys shouts as he grabs both axes from his waist.  He moves to the window and looks back over his shoulder.  "Meet me down there."  With that he jumps with axes in had at the big tree.

Athletics 18

If we got hero points or inspiration... 19

Attack: 17 Damage: 8

Attack: 27 Damage: 11

Minsys flies out the window, and while both his axes struck their mark, he failed to hold them steady as his weight drug him down the trunk of the massive sentient tree and tumbled the rest of the way to the bottom, landing unharmed, but flat on his face at the base of the wooden behemoth.

Immediately, two of the twig blights moved to attack the downed barbarian:

TWIG BLIGHT 7
Attack (Claws): 23 vs. AC 14 (Minsys); dealing 5 slashing damage on a hit.

(OOC: ADV on attack against Minsys due to being prone is cancelled out by the effect of his magical cloak.)

TWIG BLIGHT 10
Attack (Claws): 22 vs. AC 14 (Minsys); dealing 3 slashing damage on a hit.

(OOC: Vaxis is next to act in the initiative order)

Vaxis moves to block the path to the rest of the party. Being in a more dangerous position, and seeing Minsys in danger, he calls to the Platinum Dragon and begs for his aid!

(Casting Aid targeting Connak, himself, and Minsys. Before casting, moving 1 NE and 1 E)

" Arviithix, to me !" Tabesha'l rushes towards the window as she commands her familiar to take on its flying shape and turn invisible. Once she has a good view on the courtyard below, she raises Aerydesia's staff and points it towards the great tree being, putting on her most aristocratic airs and exclaiming grandly:

" Ahem... I, Tabesha'l Pananthyr, Grand-daughter of Aerydesia Pananthyr, herself Mistress of Yon Staff and of Thy Kin, Order Thee To Bow Down To My Will, Ô Thee Great Bark-Covered Monstrosity ! Cease and Desist Thy Grotesque Wrecking And Crushing this instant, or become the vile compost the good people of Phandalin shall feed their fields with... Obey Me, I Sayeth Onto Thee ! "

She keeps her eyes focused on the gigantic being, but sends an inner message towards her quasit: " Creature, while this... thing is kept busy with my prattling, I strongly suggest thou flyeth down and keep thine own abyssal eye on the rest of our potential foes: tell me what it is they art doing, whereabouts they art going and if there is anything we can use to our advantage, in what promisses to be a somewhat challenging situation. Trees are not known for their reasoning abilities and I fear my ancestor's name may not be enough to placate this one... But I do digress so: now, go !"

It was apparent the great tree heard her, but unclear as to whether it actually understood her or found value in her words. The massive treant began to twist towards the sound of Tabesha'l's voice, just as two of the vine blights began to scurry up it's trunk until they are eye-level with the 2nd floor window. Both seem to make direct eye-contact with the wizard before fading into a mass of vines and leaves.

VB 1 - dash
VB 3 - dash

Arvi poofs into bat form and then fades from view before flapping through the open window, letting out a tiny screech as he passes Vaxis. Coming to rest on the stone wall outside, he responds to Tabesha'l's request for a reconnoiter: "There are many of them Mistress, more than you can likely defeat, given your current state. It looks as though the well under this tree creature is actually a stairwell....it leads down. Might I suggest you retrieve both halves of you family heirloom and look for a place to retreat until this behemoth moves on?"

(OOC: Connak is next in the initiative order)

Connak will move 10 feet (left 1, down 3), take a bead on the massive treat and shoot at it...

Attack: 23 Damage: 21

... then he moves back to stand next to the west window (north side of the room).

Tabesha'l cursed softly to herself in elvish while she did her best to use the width of Vaxis' scaly back as cover, as the dragonborn was literally shielding her with his bulk. 

Vaxis growls as a taunt. He smacks his mace to his shield with a loud clang, attempting to draw some of the creatures attention away from Minsys.

Connak's arrow thunks soundly into the tree's trunk in the general area of it's "face" and the creature gives a slow howl. Most of the other blight run and cling to their larger cousin and then the tree swings another massive branch the eastern 2nd floor hallway, smashing it to bits and clearing a path of escape from the courtyard.

TREE BLIGHT - branch attack on building, then moves 15 feet to the east (difficult terrain due to rubble)
ALL OTHERS - grapple onto TREE BLIGHT

(OOC: Back to Tink for the start of round 2)

Realizing that she probably can't do anything useful from where she is, Tink and Whisker will run closer in an attempt to catch a sight of their foe.

Both Tink and Whisker will move + dash as far as possible till they have LOS of the Tree Blight.

From his position of face down on the ground, Minsys grits his teeth, pushes his body up a little and has just enough reach to make a wild attack at the fleeing tree.

AoO Attack: 16 Damage: 6

Minsys' scrambling attack proves ineffective against the tree creature, which ignores his desperate strike and continues shambling eastward through the wreckage of the upper hall that now litters the floor of the stone courtyard. He tears his rage-filled gaze away from the creature long enough to notice a spiral staircase descending into the darkness below the courtyard. The rotten stench of death and decay waft up from the short column and hit him in the face with on odor so foul it could gag an orc...or at least half of one...

(OOC: and Investigation or Perception check may reveal additional information. Also, Vaxis is next in the initiative order if the party wishes to pursue the tree blight and its kin.)

Minsys stands up and shakes his head at the putrid smell.  He eyes the tree that is fleeing and then the pit and then his surroundings.  He hated seeing the tree flee but he alone was not equipped to handle it.  He was tired and such a foe would demand a show of strength.  Sighing with exhausted resignation He looked down into the put.

Perception 5

The massive tree collected a few more minions once it was out on the lawn as it made a bee line for tree line (of the forest). With no one giving chase, or making ranged attacks, it seemed the tree-hemoth had perhaps been some kind of prisoner of the manse (Minsys noticed some heavy gears and other machinery surrounding the inner circular wall of the spiral stair) and thus just wanted to return to its woodland home, and thus did not return fire at the party members or further aggress against them.

Looking more closely at the stairway, Minsys was able to identify a false stair - the third one from the top - that was apparently a pressure plate of sorts, doing who knows what if triggered. Just then, the machinery went into motion and the portion of the "well" that had receeded (releasing the tree blight) started to grind back into place. It once again fell into silence and stillness, and upstairs, the three keys and the section of dragon staff were sharply ejected from their keyways in the strange mechanism, and clattered loudly onto the floor.