Untamed Wilds session 17!

Our next adventure started with the party entering the southern woods near Cloudkeep. Their mission was to find a coven of witches and gain information from them regarding an ancient evil from the mythic past. Jewell the cat folk warlock, Yucatrill the new artificer harpy, Stone the warforged war wizard, Kadence the centaur barbarian, Limbsmasher the goliath wizard, Kiva the harpy swashbuckler, Chance the cat folk ranger, Japachi the lizardfolk druid, and Awesome Dude the harpy rogue set forth. As the party made their way into the witch infested forest Japachi noticed they were being followed. They encountered a trio of hungry displacer beasts. The combat was swift and after a few rounds one beast was dead and the two fled into the woods. 

The party argued about chasing them until they realized the artificer’s gun may have alerted most of the forest of their presence. They made to move deeper into the woods and noticed a hooded figure floating above the path in the direction they were headed. Awesome Dude attempted to diplomatically approach the figure but Kadence had already thrown a javelin at the figure. The figure collided with a nearby tree and dissipated into a cloud of bugs, leaving the javelin behind. Not liking the bug trick the party made their way to a small shack surrounded by a three-foot-tall iron wrought fence with green skulls on the corners. There was a small gate as well with a large iron lock on it. Not wanting to be impolite, half the party hid in the trees, while a few other members went up to see if they could get a better look.

Stone knocked on a plate of metal on the fence near the lock and after a few moments an eight-foot-tall woman in a fashionable dress came out of the shack. She greeted the party and asked why there were here and started sniffing the air, counting the travelers by smell. They mentioned the crypt and what they saw there, the dark tendrils of energy, the undead giant, and other important information. She told them to look under the mountain near the large lake within the giant lands, if anyone was hiding a giant pyramid from the old times it would be there, and that old undead creature loved his pyramids. She asked the party what they would give her, now that she had given them very good intel. The party joked about giving her Awesome Dude, but there was a popping noise and three more witches showed up on their side of the fence. Combat ensued and trouble was had. Kadence became grappled after charging one of them, Kiva was hit by a tree wielded by one of the others, and the spell casters had the misfortune of standing near the other one. the artificer harpy attempted to fly over the fence, he was successful but also took necrotic damage, having passed through a magical barrier that was unnoticed by the group. 

The skulls lit up as well and seemed to be charging up for something. In the battle the artificer attempted to rise above the witch inside the fence and shot her a few times with his thunder gun, also he found the top of the dome, took some more necrotic damage and tried not to die, he knew if he passed out, he would fall back through the dome again and take damage from the fall too. The two green skulls came after the party, snapping at them with their terrible teeth but were mostly defective. Kiva tried to give the witches her bone and gold goblet of blood she had found in the last adventure as payment for the information. She dropped one of them on a witch and it just hit her with a tree again. The lead witch approached the fence and pulled the goblet through the barrier with a mage hand and cackled madly. Jewell blasted one of the three witches over the fence, forcing it to take damage. It got back up and came back around using the gate at the front. At this point two of the witches had fallen and the lead witch and her surviving sister thanked the party for the entertainment, defeating their two lesser sisters, and the goblet. They left and went back into their shack and the skulls pretty much just bit at their ankles until the group broke them. 

Confused the party packed up and started their journey home. They camped out for a bit in a clearing near a stream and Jewell sent her familiar out to scout the area. He found a sickly-looking tree with a face and realized it was a sickly diseased tree giant. The party found out from Jewell what was out there a moment before a large boulder bounced behind the camp. The party, knowing trees hate fire launched fireball after fireball at the tree and its two allies, burning the surrounding forest as well as destroying the animate trees. It was a quick battle with five fireballs in two rounds. The party survived and now has a lead on where to find this undead threat and where their old ranger Striker might have been taken.

The party is now 8th level