Session 56

Recap

• Defeated the creature in the well
• Received a reward for dealing with this
• Continued with your travel
• Arrived at Rosemount, noticed that the statues were broken
• Brief chat in the tavern and rested

Plot Points

• Waking up in Rosemount
• Reaching the Abnoba Forest - an hour or so by cart
• Necromancer + frogs

The Heart of the Blight

After what feels like hours of wading through suffocating rot and choking spores, the forest finally opens into a grotesque clearing. The canopy here has torn itself apart, revealing a sickly, gray sky mottled with swirling black clouds that pulse like bruises.

At the center stands a towering, ancient tree, larger than any you have ever seen. Its bark is cracked and blistered, with thick veins of black sap coursing beneath the surface like poison through a wound. The tree’s roots spread wide, sinking deep into the earth and twisting unnaturally, breaking the soil into jagged shards.

Around the base, the forest floor is a tangled mass of fungal growths, thick mats of pulsating spores, and thorny vines that coil and twitch as if alive. The air here vibrates with an oppressive energy—a dark, living sickness that presses down on your mind and soul.

This is the source of the blight.

You see that embedded deep in the heartwood of the tree is a black crystalline core, pulsing with a faint, malevolent light. It hums with corrupt power—an alien force twisting the forest from the inside out.

Your guide’s voice trembles as they remind you: “The salve you carry—this is the only hope. You must reach the heart and apply it directly to that core. If you delay, the blight will consume all.”

But the forest does not intend to let you pass unchallenged.

Encounter Title: Heart of the Blight

Encounter Type: Objective-based boss fight

Level: 5

Party Size: 4

Difficulty: Difficult to Deadly

Location: Blighted Grove, heart of Abnoba forest

Objective: Apply the Salve to the crystalline core within 5 rounds

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🗺️ Encounter Overview

The party enters a clearing dominated by the blighted world-tree, corrupted by a malevolent crystalline heart. The forest fights to keep them out: vines lash, fungal clouds choke, and terrain shifts like a beast in pain.

A corrupted Treant—the forest’s twisted guardian—rises to defend the tree, imbued with unnatural vigor and rage.

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⚔️ Combat Objectives

1. Reach the Core: A PC must climb the central tree and apply a Sacred Salve to the crystalline heart.
   • Requires 3 total successful actions:
     • Navigate difficult terrain to the base (Athletics/Acrobatics DC 15)
     • Climb the tree's twisted bark (Athletics DC 16, 20 feet up)
     • Apply the salve (Arcana, Nature, or Religion DC 14)
2. Survive: The Blighted Treant defends the tree, supported by animated terrain and environmental hazards.
3. Resist the Terrain: The forest actively resists intrusion—PCs face choking spores, grappling vines, and pulsing fungal zones.

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🧟‍♂️ Blighted Treant (Boss Monster)

Large Plant, Chaotic Evil

AC 17 | HP 168 (16d10+64)

Speed 30 ft.

CR 9

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🧠 Abilities:

• STR 23 (+6) | DEX 8 (-1) | CON 18 (+4) | INT 10 (+0) | WIS 16 (+3) | CHA 12 (+1)

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💥 Traits:

• Corrupted Husk: Immune to poison, charmed, and frightened conditions.
• Poisonous Sap: Melee attacks cause targets to make a DC 15 Con save or be poisoned for 1 minute. Repeat at end of turn.
• Rootbound Rage: Gains advantage on all melee attacks while standing within 10 feet of the blighted tree.
• Thorn Lash (Recharge 5–6): Makes a 30 ft. thorn whip attack (+9 to hit) that pulls targets 15 ft. and restrains (DC 15 to escape).

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🪓 Actions:

• Multiattack: 2 Slam attacks
  • Slam: +10 to hit, 3d6+6 bludgeoning damage + DC 15 Con save vs poison
• Summon Corrupted Saplings (1/day): Summons 2d4 Blighted Saplings (use Twig Blight stats, +2 HP, poison on hit)
• Entangling Roots (Recharge 5–6): All creatures in a 20-foot radius must make a DC 14 Strength save or be restrained by living roots for 1 minute (save ends at end of turn).

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🌿 Environmental Hazards

The terrain is actively hostile, counting as difficult terrain across the entire battlefield. Additionally, each round, roll a 1d4 to determine a terrain effect:

1. Fungal Spore Cloud

• 10-ft radius cloud appears at a random point.
• Creatures inside must make DC 13 Con save or become poisoned and blinded for 1 round.

2. Lashing Vines

• The terrain lashes out randomly: each round, 1d4 vines attack (+6 to hit, 1d8 slashing, and Grapple DC 13)

3. Shifting Ground

• Earth warps. 3 random 10x10 ft. sections become sinkholes—Dex Save DC 14 or fall prone and sink 5 ft.

4. Crystalline Pulse

• The heart pulses. All non-plant creatures within 30 ft. of the tree must make DC 14 Wis save or be frightened until the end of their next turn.

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🌱 Minions: Blighted Saplings (x4 at start, more can spawn)

Small Plant, Chaotic Evil

AC 14 | HP 10

Speed 20 ft.

Attack: +4 to hit, 1d6 piercing + DC 11 Con save vs poison

Traits: Vulnerable to fire, Immune to poison/charm

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🎯 Applying the Salve (Objective Mechanics)

• A PC must reach the heartwood and spend an action applying the sacred salve.
• This is a skill challenge:
  1. Reach the base: DC 15 Athletics or Acrobatics
  2. Climb the twisted bark (20 ft): DC 16 Athletics
  3. Apply the Salve: DC 14 Arcana, Nature, or Religion
• Failures attract extra vine attacks or knock the PC prone.
• If interrupted or hit while applying, progress resets by one step.

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🔥 Optional Twist (Round 5+)

If the salve is not applied by round 5, the tree's core cracks open, spawning a Shadow Blight Elemental (custom creature) or causing the Treant to regenerate 10 HP per round.

Shadow Blight Elemental

Large Elemental (Aberration, Shadow, Plant), Chaotic Evil

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Armor Class: 16 (natural armor)

Hit Points: 126 (12d10 + 60)

Speed: 30 ft., burrow 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

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STR 18 (+4) | DEX 14 (+2) | CON 20 (+5)

INT 6 (-2) | WIS 14 (+2) | CHA 10 (+0)

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Saving Throws

Con +8, Wis +5

Damage Resistances

Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks

Damage Immunities

Necrotic, Poison

Condition Immunities

Charmed, Frightened, Poisoned, Prone

Senses

Darkvision 120 ft., Tremorsense 60 ft., Passive Perception 12

Languages

Understands Deep Speech and Sylvan, but cannot speak

Challenge

CR 7 (2,900 XP)

Proficiency Bonus +3

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🌫️ Traits

Blightform Body

The elemental can move through nonmagical plant matter, earth, and fungal growth as if it were difficult terrain. It leaves behind a trail of black rot that lasts 1 minute and causes the ground to be difficult terrain for others.

Shadowed Core

Dim light or darkness heals the elemental for 5 HP at the start of its turn. If in bright light, it takes 5 radiant damage at the start of its turn.

Aura of Decay (30 ft. aura)

Living creatures (not constructs or undead) that start their turn within 30 feet of the elemental must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or gain 1 level of exhaustion (max 1/encounter). A creature that succeeds is immune for 1 hour.

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⚔️ Actions

Multiattack

The elemental makes two attacks: one with Shadow Lash and one with Rotting Slam.

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Rotting Slam

Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target

Hit: 13 (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage + 9 (2d8) necrotic damage

The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be blighted (disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity checks) until the end of its next turn.

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Shadow Lash

Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target

Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage + 7 (2d6) psychic damage

If the target is in dim light or darkness, it must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the end of its next turn.

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Blight Surge (Recharge 5–6)

The elemental releases a surge of corruptive energy in a 20-foot radius. Each creature of its choice in the area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 27 (6d8) necrotic damage, or half on a successful save.

All nonmagical plants in the area wither and die instantly, and magical plants must make a DC 15 Constitution save or become inert for 1 round.

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🌌 Legendary Action (Optional for High Challenge)

If you want to use it as a mini-boss, give it 2 Legendary Actions (1 per round), chosen from:

• Fade into Shadow (Costs 1): Teleports up to 30 feet in dim light or darkness. Leaves behind black spores (10-ft-radius patch of difficult terrain).
• Tendril Grasp (Costs 1): A shadowy vine lashes out. Target within 15 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be restrained (escape DC 14).

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💀 Visual Description (DM Flavor Text)

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The creature that emerges from the shattered core is not made of flesh or bark, but of writhing roots, shattered bone, and congealed shadow. Its core glows with the same twisted light as the crystal, and its movements distort the air like heat off a furnace. Wherever it steps, the earth blackens and dies.

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🏁 Victory Conditions

• Success: Once the salve is applied, the heart pulses violently and explodes in radiant light. The treant shrieks, its corruption burning away. All blighted creatures wither and die.
• Failure: If the party falls or fails to apply the salve in 10 rounds, the corruption expands, killing the forest for miles.

Success: Cleansing the Heart of the Blight

As the final trace of the salve sinks into the tree’s ancient bark, the crystalline core at its heart trembles—then shatters with a sound like breaking glass and a scream that echoes not in your ears, but in your bones.

A wave of pure, radiant energy bursts outward. The black veins recede like shadows before dawn, burning away in tendrils of smoke. The pulsing spores shrivel and curl, vines twitch in their death throes, and the twisted roots begin to retreat into the earth as if finally at rest.

The corrupted treant lets out a sound not of pain, but of release—like the last breath of a long-suffering soul. Its massive form begins to crumble, bark flaking away like ash on the wind. What remains is a gentle heap of moss and petals where once a monster stood.

The air clears. Sunlight breaks through the canopy above for the first time in what feels like centuries. A hush falls over the grove—not the silence of death, but the stillness of healing. Life, tentative and quiet, begins to return.

Failure: The Blight Triumphs

Your hands reach for the salve, but it’s too late.

With a sickening crack, the crystalline core in the tree's heart pulses violently—and then bursts, not in light, but in thick, oily shadow. A scream like a thousand dying trees tears through the grove. The ground splits as black roots surge upward, tearing through soil and stone like claws.

The corrupted treant roars with triumph, its body swelling with renewed vigor as dark energy pours from the shattered core into its limbs. Thorned vines erupt from the earth, flailing with hunger. Spores thicken into choking clouds, blotting out the last of the light.

You feel it—not just the physical corruption, but the forest's soul twisting, rotting from within. The life here isn't dying. It's becoming something else. Something wrong.

The blight spreads outward from this place like ink spilled across parchment. Villages will fall. Wildlife will turn feral. The land will darken and forget the names of those who failed to save it.

The forest remembers. But not kindly.

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🕯️ The Witherrealm: Demi-Plane of Blight

• A pocket dimension, grown from the corrupted core of the Abnoba tree.
• Time flows strangely. Healing is dulled. Light is dim, no matter its source.
• The forest is sentient here—a parasitic dream of nature's decay, feeding on despair and memory.
• Echoes of the party's failures play out around them: ghostly villagers turning to ash, the treant reborn in nightmare form, companions who never were.