The Druid Who Came Back

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Davian Martikov gives it from his menu at The Wizard of Wines ("Heard anything interesting?"). Four things must all be true first:

• the winery has been reclaimed, so he's standing in the yard;
• The Black Row is past Rumored: Davian has told you about the Seventh Row, or you've already caught its picker (Andrei's rumour alone isn't enough);
• you burned the Gulthias tree on the crown of Yester Hill in The Wizard of Wines;
• your party is level 7 or higher.

If the Black Row hasn't started, or you've only heard Andrei's rumour, the first time you ask him for news he gives you the Black Row. Ask again and he tells you his pickers see a lantern going round and round the burned crown of Yester Hill at night, like somebody digging. He wants it stopped. The journal opens at Rumored.

Step by step

1. Climb to the crown after dark. Travel to Yester Hill and take the path up to The Crown of Yester Hill. The planter is there only between 19:00 and 6:00. Who you find depends on what you did on the hill and in the press house:
   • Mother Ruxandra, if you spared her after the summit fight. She carried a cutting of the tree against her skin the night it burned, and she's planted it. "You spared me. I'll spare you nothing." There's no choice: the fight starts at once.
   • Kostin, if you talked him out of his faith in the press house and didn't spare Ruxandra. He has brought back a clean young tree from a valley "where the trees only drink rain". Nature DC 13 ("Look at the sapling") shows that the old tree's roots under the hill have found his sapling and are feeding it. Then you can pull it up yourselves, or tell him "You can be the one to pull it." If the roll fails, he begs you to leave it, and you can still pull it or walk away. Every choice wakes the hill, and Kostin never fights you.
   • Zorica otherwise. She's the circle's youngest, a girl of sixteen who was away on the Krezk road the night the tree burned, and she's planting the twig her teacher told her to keep against her skin. She blames you for Mother Ruxandra too: burned with the tree, she says, or, if Ruxandra fled the crown before the fight, gone where none of them can find her. Persuasion DC 15 ("It drank your teacher. It will drink you. Put the spade down.") gets one try. On a success she drops the spade and stays out of the fight. If it fails, or you pull the cutting up, or you leave her to it, she fights.

   Talking to the planter moves the journal to Found.

2. The Ash Effigy (ash_effigy). Wintersplinter's ash gathers round whatever was planted and stands up, twice a man's height. Its embers are Twig Blights.
   • Spared Ruxandra: The Ash Effigy, Ruxandra (a Druid) and 3 embers, or 4 embers at level 8.
   • Zorica not talked down: the Effigy, Zorica (a druid) and 3 embers, or 4 at level 8.
   • Kostin, or Zorica talked down: the Effigy and 3 embers, or 4 at level 8.

   The Effigy has 150 HP below level 8 and 175 HP from level 8. It's Huge, with AC 15 and two ash fists at 15-foot reach. Choking Ash (recharge 5–6) is a 30-foot cone: DC 16 Constitution save, 5d8 necrotic damage, and blinded until the end of its next turn. It has Legendary Resistance twice a day and two legendary actions a round, a fist or a step.

   Fire does nothing to it. It has burned once already. It regains 10 HP at the start of every turn, but cold damage stops that for a turn, and it takes extra damage from cold. Bring every cold spell and frost weapon you have. Winning moves the journal to Burned.

   

3. Tell Davian. Back in the yard, ask him "Heard anything interesting?" again. There's no separate report option. He says the hill looked grey this morning, not black, and pays you: Daern's Instant Fortress and 300 gp from "the barrel I was saving for my own funeral". Godrick Pendlebrook, Liriel Dawnsong and Wren Featherfoot +1, and Thistle +2. The quest ends at Done.

Choices and endings

The quest has one ending and one reward. The difference is who you met on the crown:

• Ruxandra. She kept her promise that the tree would call her back, and she fights beside the Effigy.
• Kostin. Once the Effigy is down, he stays to keep watch over the hill. When it's a hill again, he says, he'll plant something small, a long way from the middle.
• Zorica. Talked down, she finds red lines under the skin of her wrist where the twig lay, and stays out of the fight. Otherwise she fights beside the thing she planted.

If you're stuck

• Davian has no news about a lantern. All four conditions must hold: winery reclaimed, the Black Row past Rumored, the tree burned, and level 7. If he talks about the Seventh Row instead, ask again. If you left the tree standing, this quest never comes.
• Nobody is on the crown. The planter is only there at night, from 19:00 to 6:00.
• No reward option. The pay-off comes through Davian's "Heard anything interesting?", not through a separate menu line.

Rewards

• Daern's Instant Fortress
• 300 gp

What your companions think

• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you put out the lantern on Yester Hill
• Liriel Dawnsong: +1 you put out the lantern on Yester Hill
• Thistle: +2 you put out the lantern on Yester Hill
• Wren Featherfoot: +1 you put out the lantern on Yester Hill

Fights

• The ash of the whole crown stands up round the thing in the turned earth, grey and smoking, twice a man's…, in The Crown of Yester Hill: The Ash Effigy, Druid, Twig Blight. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Davian Martikov, Stefania Martikov, Mother Ruxandra, Kostin, Zorica
• Places: The Wizard of Wines, The Crown of Yester Hill
• More in Yester Hill: The Barrow on Yester Hill