Howling in the Grove
Howling in the Grove
Read aloud
Dinner at Ravenbrook Keep falters when Lirael Moonwhisper arrives, rain beading on her cloak and the smell of crushed leaves clinging to her. Crescent Woods has turned against its pilgrims, and beneath its bruised canopy something vast groans as if the trees themselves are trying to speak. She asks you to reach the moonwell before the grove's guardian makes another victim.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Cross the corrupted woods and find the source of the violence.
- 2Resolve the guardian's crisis, preferably through the Rite of Returning Green.
- 3Recover the second shard of the Nova's Heart.
- 4Win the trust of the grove and secure the Evergreen Court's aid.Optional
The clock
The corruption is creeping from the western weirwoods toward the moonwell. Each delay gives the grove spirits and roots more time to impede travel; after the party reaches the hollow, every round spent attempting the Rite brings a root-swarm attack.
Scenes
- 0:00A Warden at Supper
- 0:45The Grove Takes Hold
- 1:45Bitter Sap and Bruised Light
- 3:15The Rite of Returning Green
- 5:15A Message in the Evening
Cast
- Lirael MoonwhisperQuestgiver and grove warden
- Saelis ThornwakeWitness and potential ally
- The Guardian of Crescent WoodsAntagonist and possible ally
- Cindreth ValeoreanRemote ally
The hook
Set the scene
At Ravenbrook Keep, Lirael interrupts dinner with a warning from Crescent Woods. The hall smells of candle smoke and roasted roots, but the grove warden's wet cloak brings the sharp scent of rain and crushed leaves. She describes pilgrims attacked beneath a canopy that now filters green light into a bruised purple. As the party gathers supplies, a distant wooden groan rolls across the keep's courtyard, and they set out toward the border.
How Lirael Moonwhisper asks
Lirael arrives at dinner at Ravenbrook Keep, interrupting the meal with urgent news and a direct appeal to help the pilgrims and save the sacred grove.
Rumours
Scenes
about 6 hours0:00
45 min
socialThe table is here
1. A Warden at Supper
The dining hall at Ravenbrook Keep, where warm candlelight and the smell of supper contrast with rain and crushed leaves carried in on Lirael's cloak.
Lirael describes the attacks and asks the party to reach the moonwell. The party can question her about the pilgrims, the guardian, and the grove's old rites while choosing supplies and a route.
NextLirael leads the party from the keep beneath a lowering sky, following a trail of wet leaves toward the darkening treeline.
0:45
60 min
skill
2. The Grove Takes Hold
Crescent Woods' outer threshold, where damp soil gives underfoot and roots tug at boots and packs.
The party enters the woods and confronts the grasping roots at G1. They can force a route, find a safer line, or free a pilgrim caught in the living tangle. The woods' groans grow louder as they advance.
G1: The Grove ThresholdNextBeyond the threshold, the path sinks into the western root-ring, where bruised light and the smell of bitter sap lead toward the moonwell.
1:45
90 min
exploration
3. Bitter Sap and Bruised Light
Western weirwood groves, with corrupted bark, knotted roots, and a bruised glow leaking through the canopy.
The party explores the corrupted ring, crosses difficult terrain, and encounters unquiet grove spirits. They may investigate the bark, comfort the spirits, or push directly toward the hollow. Evidence suggests the guardian's rage contains grief rather than simple malice.
G2: The Corrupted Root-RingNextA final ring of roots opens onto the moonwell, where the guardian shifts its immense weight and the water shivers against stone.
3:15
120 min
combat
4. The Rite of Returning Green
The central moonwell, ringed by exposed roots and low branches. The guardian blocks the well, and the shard's light pulses beneath its bark.
The party faces the Corrupted Treant Guardian at G3. They can fight to defeat it or run the Rite of Returning Green as a clock alongside the fight. The Rite requires four successful root-strand checks before three failures; at the start of each round the Rite is active, a custom root-swarm attacker appears.
G3: The Treant's HollowNextWhen the guardian falls or draws back from the well, its last groan rolls through the branches, and the party must decide how to carry the shard out of a grove still struggling to heal.
5:15
45 min
social
5. A Message in the Evening
The edge of Crescent Woods at dusk, then Ravenbrook Keep as lamplight returns and the day's mud dries on the party's boots.
The party recovers Elyndra's Shard, tends to survivors, and learns the immediate cost of its choice. That evening, Cindreth sends his comparison of the shard's residue to the first fragment, while reports arrive that hostile forces are moving toward Ravenbrook Keep.
NextAs Cindreth's message fades, a horn sounds beyond the keep's walls, and the party turns toward the approaching threat.
Behind it
What people believe
Pilgrims have been attacked in Crescent Woods, a sacred grove near the Sylvros border.
The grove warden, Lirael Moonwhisper, asks the party to reach the central moonwell, stop the guardian's rampage, and recover a shard of the Nova's Heart. The party may try to cleanse the moonwell and spare the guardian, but the spreading corruption makes each delay dangerous.
Background
Crescent Woods is a sacred grove on the Sylvros border, near Ravenbrook.
Its moonwell and ancient weirwood guardian have long sheltered pilgrims. Now Elyndra's Shard, a fragment of the Nova's Heart associated with healing and restoration, has lodged in the guardian. It magnifies grief the guardian already carried, driving it to violence without wholly corrupting its will. Bruise-colored light and creeping corruption spread outward from the western groves.
The stakes
If the party fails to stop the guardian, pilgrims remain in danger and the corruption continues to spread from the western groves.
If they destroy the shard by force, the grove is only partly healed. A peaceful resolution preserves the guardian and gains the Evergreen Court's aid, but the danger beyond Crescent Woods is already moving toward Ravenbrook Keep.
Encounters
3G1: The Grove Threshold
Skill and exploration
A narrow path beneath interlaced weirwood roots. The ground is slick with moss, and roots rise and twist across the trail.
Foes
Animated grasping roots, custom environmental hazard
ComplicationAt G1, grasping roots seize at ankles and packs. A creature that fails a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check is restrained; it can use an action to attempt a DC 13 Strength check to escape. Characters can avoid or redirect the roots through careful movement, cutting, or magic.
ScalingFor a smaller or less capable party, allow a clear route with a successful DC 13 check by one character. For a larger party, have roots target two separated characters at once. This is a hazard, not a creature stat block.
G2: The Corrupted Root-Ring
Exploration
A ring of ancient trees with bruised light filtering through the canopy. Corrupted bark borders a muddy, root-choked clearing.
Foes
Unquiet grove spirits
Animated roots
ComplicationG2 is difficult terrain. A creature touching corrupted bark takes 1d4 necrotic damage. Unquiet grove spirits may be negotiated with, calmed, or fought. Use suitable low-level spirit creatures from the table's ruleset, or treat each spirit as a custom hazard that distracts and blocks passage rather than adding a lethal combat.
ScalingFor a party already depleted, the spirits warn and obstruct rather than attack. For a stronger party, add one spirit that joins the guardian's defense at G3. Keep the root damage and difficult terrain as stated.
G3: The Treant's Hollow
Combat
The central moonwell lies inside the guardian's hollow, surrounded by exposed roots and low branches. The guardian blocks access to the water and shard. The ground is uneven and tangled.
Foes
Corrupted Treant Guardian
Root-swarm, custom encounter attacker
ComplicationThe guardian begins under its false appearance. Before it acts, a character who succeeds on a DC 14 Wisdom (Nature) check notices the telltale movement of its branches and roots. During the fight, the Rite of Returning Green can be attempted alongside combat. At the start of every round the Rite is in progress, one root-swarm attacks as a single additional attacker using the guardian's Slam profile, at half the guardian's current to-hit modifier and a flat 10 damage. This is a custom encounter rule, not an official stat block.
ScalingFor a party struggling at level 4, the root-swarm attacks only characters within reach of the moonwell and stops when the Rite ends. For a strong party, grove spirits can interfere with movement but should not add another full-strength attacker. The guardian's statistics are custom or adapted by the GM for a hard level 4 boss; use the supplied Rite outcomes as written.
Cast
4Lirael Moonwhisper
QuestgiverQuestgiver and grove warden
WantsLirael wants to save the guardian and the grove, recover the shard safely, and prevent further harm to pilgrims.
“The roots know the difference between a trespasser and a frightened pilgrim. Help me remind them.”
Saelis Thornwake
Witness and potential ally
WantsA wandering Sylvros herbalist and witness, Saelis hopes the party will understand the guardian's pain before choosing whether to kill it.
“It is trying to mend what grief has split apart. I fear it no longer knows where to stop.”
The Guardian of Crescent Woods
Antagonist and possible ally
WantsThe ancient treant guardian wants to protect the moonwell and the shard within it. The shard's influence has turned its old sorrow into desperate, indiscriminate violence.
“Leave the well. The wound is mine to keep.”
Cindreth Valeorean
Remote ally
WantsArchmage Cindreth Valeorean seeks to compare this shard's influence with residue from the first shard and identify the force behind both.
“Two fragments, one pattern. I will send what I learn as soon as I can trust the inference.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
Elyndra's Shard, the Mending Light's Shard. Once per long rest, as a bonus action, its bearer can touch a creature to restore 1d8 + the bearer's proficiency bonus hit points. Its influence may compel its bearer, on a failed save, to spend at least one action fixing the nearest wounded, damaged, or incomplete thing, even if doing so is unwanted or poorly timed.
Druidic Cloak of the Grove, a custom magic item gifted by Lirael for peaceful purification. The GM should define its properties for the campaign rather than assume an official item profile.
On a win
With four successes, the moonwell clears and its water catches a clean silver-green light.
Elyndra's Shard separates from the guardian, which slumps among the roots, wounded but lucid. Lirael offers the Druidic Cloak of the Grove, and the Evergreen Court pledges formal aid. The restored guardian's breath smells of rain-soaked bark as it speaks, then turns toward the groves where the corruption still lingers.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party accumulates three failures during the Rite of Returning Green.
- The moonwell erupts. Every creature within 20 feet takes 3d6 necrotic damage, with a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw for half damage. The guardian enters a permanent feral frenzy for the rest of this encounter and cannot be reasoned with this session.
- The party defeats the guardian by force instead of completing the peaceful Rite.
- The party can still recover Elyndra's Shard by destroying it directly after defeating the guardian, but the grove's corruption is only partly addressed. Pilgrims remain at risk until another remedy is found.
- The party retreats or is driven from G3 without resolving the guardian's condition.
- The guardian remains hostile and the shard stays embedded until the party returns with a new approach. Lirael's trust is strained, and the Evergreen Court withholds formal aid for now.
Complications (d6)
- 1A pilgrim's dropped brass lantern rolls into the roots. Retrieving it requires crossing grasping roots at G1, but its light can guide the party through the next patch of choking undergrowth.
- 2A low branch snaps down across the path. Each traveler must spend an action to clear it or detour through difficult terrain, losing time and arriving as the grove spirits gather.
- 3A wounded grove spirit mistakes a character for the guardian's attacker. A calm approach or a DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check reveals what it fears; otherwise it distracts the party during the next encounter.
- 4A corrupted root pulses beneath the leaf litter. A character who touches it takes 1d4 necrotic damage, as at G2, and hears the guardian's grief in a voice like splintering timber.
- 5The woods briefly open onto a clear path, but a fallen pilgrim is trapped beneath a living root. Freeing the pilgrim earns Saelis's trust; leaving them delays the guardian's pursuit but risks their life.
- 6The moonwell's glow flickers through the trees. The next root-swarm manifests immediately if the Rite is underway, drawn by the party's proximity.
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