Rodania S2E03 Summary: The Grove’s Last Stand

Campaign: Restoration of Rodania
Date: Growfest, 995
Setting: Grove of Echoes, Duskwood, and Eastward Estate

Main Characters:

Jornan Eastward – Halfling Paladin and Baron of Eastward, rallying his forces against the forest’s corruption.
Ciaranna Lyndis – Half-Elf Bard, tactician and soul of the group.
Darius Quarterling – Half-Halfling, Half-Dwarf Rogue, coordinating precision strikes.
Eldrous Pith – High Elf Necromancer, commanding skeletons and spirits in battle.
Roland Varrow – Human Fighter with psionic powers and brutal efficiency.
Tharuk Stoneveil – Goliath Warrior, shielding allies with quiet resolve.
Syriana – Half-Elf support caster, struggling to contribute in a magical warzone.

The battle to protect Kelgrim Deeproot during the purification ritual continues with brutal intensity. The party contends with waves of ghosts and Will-o'-Wisps, fighting to keep the druid alive while navigating the magical fog and haunting whispers of the Grove of Echoes.

Roland cuts through spectral enemies with relentless force, using his action surge to clear the battlefield. Drack Drakeshield continues to rage and carve through foes, while Jornan brings divine judgment, smiting wisps with radiant fury. Darius delivers surgical precision and battlefield control, while Ciaranna provides distraction and bardic inspiration to her allies. Eldrous reinforces the party with undead minions, magic missiles, and spiritual apparitions that battle ghost to ghost.

When Zathrix's reanimated corpse finally falls, Kelgrim’s ritual enters its final phase—but then the forest fights back. Vines lash out to interrupt the purification, forcing the party into a desperate skill challenge. Each round, players must succeed in strength, dexterity, or relevant skill checks to prevent cumulative failures. If five failures occur, Kelgrim will die.

Tension builds as several party members narrowly succeed. Drack and Tharuk use brute force to rip away vines. Syriana and Ciaranna use sleight of hand and agility to slash the roots. Eldrous anchors the effort with arcane power. Each successful check keeps the ritual alive, but two failures bring the count dangerously close.

Suddenly, a Bodak emerges from the trees—an agent of the forest's corruption and a manifestation of the Grove's deepest rot. Its mere gaze threatens death or psychic devastation. Jornan bravely strikes it down with divine smites, but the Bodak survives, retaliating with its deadly vision cone. The battlefield becomes a deadly puzzle of movement and line of sight, forcing the party to consider cover, angles, and risk.

With renewed strength, the party launches their final assault on the Bodak. Jornan leads the charge, striking true with divine smites. Drack and Roland unleash relentless melee blows, Eldrous supports with spells and summons, and Darius and Ciaranna coordinate damage and defense.

The battle pushes everyone to their limits. Kelgrim completes the ritual just as the Bodak falls, releasing the Grove of Echoes from its curse. Mist lifts, sap withdraws, and faint birdsong returns. Kelgrim declares himself the Grove’s warden, and the Barony of Eastward is granted the Touch of Renewal—a magical boon granting healing once per long rest.

The aftermath unfolds at the Eastward Estate, still under reconstruction. Roland trains alone in the moonlit yard, struggling with purpose and belonging. His silent drills are interrupted by Alcaster, who questions his conviction. Their exchange is quiet but heavy—an invitation for Roland to find not just a fight, but a reason to fight.

Elsewhere, Darius receives an unexpected visit from Orwin Fenlake, a shady figure from his past. Orwin delivers a black-sealed scroll from a mysterious figure known as the Hollow Hand, a name tied to grand larcenies and shadowy schemes. Darius shares the encounter with Jornan, who authorizes him to investigate further, though they agree to remain cautious.

Later that night, Darius experiences a vision. The enchanted lantern from the Duskwood flickers erratically, revealing a hooded ranger and whispering, “You hold the last light. The path is still waiting.” Seeking answers, Darius consults Eldrous and Ciaranna (Lorella). Through arcane examination, they confirm the lantern is an artifact known as the Lantern of the Lost Path—a beacon bound to forgotten duty. Its true purpose remains obscured, altered by unknown forces, but it serves now as a tool of protection and direction. When wielded, it grants resistance to charm and fear from undead.

Eldrous travels alone to the long-abandoned city of Elderhearth, drawn by arcane signs and the stench of disrupted necromancy. He walks among fractured towers and ash-laced stones, but finds no trace of the recent battle between the legions of Orcus and the Spawn of Kyuss. The field is not bloodied—it is empty.

One thing remains: a mangled corpse twitching unnaturally. As Eldrous approaches, it spasms and begins to transform, sprouting strange protrusions and twisting like melting wax. He readies a spell—but then it collapses, lifeless. Moths erupt from the body, fleeing skyward. One remains: a single white moth, still and watching. It lands silently near Eldrous and does not flee, even as Corvus, his raven familiar, caws in agitation. He feels a pulse—faint and distant—the presence of the Mothkeeper. No words are exchanged, but Eldrous knows he has been observed... and perhaps judged.

That night, Drack walks the edge of the forest, unsettled. The wind carries whispers, and he sees a shimmer between the trees—a tall, armored figure cloaked in shadow, a vision wrapped in frost and moonlight. The figure is familiar, though impossible. A memory made flesh, or something worse. It doesn’t speak. It simply watches him.

Drack calls out. No answer. He advances—but the figure dissolves into mist. Where it stood, the grass is blackened, as though scorched by frost. He returns to camp silent and restless. Something old is following him... or calling him.

As the others sleep, Ciaranna dreams.

She walks through a mirror of the Eastward estate, but the world is draped in twilight. The walls breathe. The garden is made of bone and frost-covered roses. At its heart stands Olythrae, the Mothkeeper, tall and ethereal, her body wrapped in fluttering shadows that pulse with forgotten memories.

Olythrae does not threaten, nor comfort. She speaks in metaphors—of cocoons, of unbecoming, of the weight of memory. “You sing the song of someone else,” she says. “What will you become when the melody ends?”

A white moth lands on Ciaranna’s hand. She looks down—and the dream shatters.

She wakes with the ghost of frost on her palm and a faint tune in her ears—one she cannot remember but knows she once sang.

Jornan awakes to find a sealed letter bearing a snowflake insignia. The sender: Vaelinne Frostveil, emissary of the Winter Court, requesting a midnight meeting in the Grove of Echoes. Though suspicious, the party agrees to attend.

In the moonlight beneath bare trees, Vaelinne appears—an Eladrin of commanding grace, wrapped in starlight and chill. She offers an alliance between Eastward and the Winterfang Pact. In return, she promises magic, warriors, and covert assistance against Claudia Marque and the Summer Court. She speaks of balance, betrayal, and opportunity—but not without cost.

Ciaranna recognizes her from Caladriel, once an honored guest of her mentor Vaeltherion Iceborn. Vaeltherion had warned her long ago: “Winter does not lie. It simply does not tell the whole truth.”

The group deliberates. Despite the tempting offer, Jornan refuses. He speaks with clarity and weight—Eastward will not bind itself to Fey courts. Not now. Not ever.

Vaelinne smiles, thin and frostbitten. “Winter does not beg. And it does not forget.” Then she vanishes.

Jornan takes a dagger and draws his own blood, swearing before Kelgrim and the gods that he will never shackle Eastward to powers he cannot understand. The others join him—Tharuk, Roland, Darius, even Ciaranna—each pledging themselves to the path ahead.

They have chosen independence. But the Fey remember.