Mahoon, Iniri, Virigo, and Fariya abandoned their druid camp, now under new management of one foraging halfling. Welby figures even a weird druid festival beats the nastiness roaming the woods.
Up the hill the wicker giant is still aflame despite having burned all night. The anticipated ritual requires a full moon which everyone knows only happens at night so the general plan is to explore the last three campsites on the hillside from which the smells of breakfast and music waft enticingly.
Cautiously but openly approaching the nearest breakfast club, the party sees four druids, three resting and one preparing a breakfast stew. Welby compliments their fantastic-smelling breakfast but they aren’t generous by nature and reluctant to share their meal. Theridan quickly forages a delicious magenta mountain pineapple and relations thaw a little. One druid, Sauruki, shows an interest in anything about the ritual and seems eager to keep the party in camp. Sauruki’s reluctant companions are Ragnad, Comnall, and Murcadh. Theren introduces himself as Roll En, his nom du jour.
Welby partakes of the thin soup, garnished with pineapple, with Sauruki’s three companions. Theren-come-Roll-En notices that Sauruki is clandestinely flashing a triangular sign with his hands. Theren emulates the sign back and they drift away from the others to have a little huddle. Welby thanks the other three druids for their hospitality, but they reveal their contempt for Sauruki’s generosity with their breakfast. They refer to him in druidic derogatory slang, Givy McGivypants.
Sauruki’s undertone conversation with Theren suggests he’s from the Crushing Wave rival cult here to disrupt the Eternal Flame’s ritual and Theren’s smooth deception holds Sauruki’s confidence that Gar Shatterkeel dispatched “Roll En” to assist. Sauruki has already arranged for the demise of his companions, not to mention Welby, by poisoning the soup. He’s willing to help dispose the rest of Theren’s companions, but Theren thinks maybe they’ll be useful as fodder later.
Sauruki and Theren excuse themselves from the others to go look around, in fact planning their shenanigans for later. Theren manages to convey his ploy and Welby’s condition to the party before departing. They scout around the Scarlet Moon Hall and wicker giant within dilapidated walls encircling the keep tower augmented with scaffolding.
When Sauruki and Theren have gone, Haerelben restores Welby to good health. Sauruki’s companions have already passed out from the poison so Haerelben rights them as well. He explains how Sauruki attempted to liquidate them with soup, and Allana persuades them to feign death to keep Sauruki deceived. Ignoring the warnings of the druids, the party sans Theren sets off to meet the bugbears in the next camp.
Upon approaching the bacon-making bugbears, Allana observes one of the four slipping off into the heavy surrounding woods. The remaining three huddle around, weapons in hand. Welby hears movement in the woods and walks up a tree. When Haerelben requests an audience, a pair of wargs crash out of the woods in flank to assault Meega and Polar Bear Theridan, surrounding the party with the javelin-throwing bugbears. Meega takes out Warg One and Allana triple crits Bugbear Two, an excellent start. Welby sneaks an attack to finish Bugbear One, and Polar Bear Theridan bites Warg Two to death. The last bugbear attempts to flee but Meega catches him and knocks him out. Meega scoops him up and they hastily return to the druid camp.
Theren and Sauruki return from their scouting junket to the druid camp where the “poisoned” druids unfortunately overhear Theren remark that he sees Sauruki’s poison has worked. When Sauruki leans in to loot Ragnad he gets stabbed by the angry druid and the other two leap up to attack their murderers. Comnall transforms to a bear and Murcadh to a killer bunny rabbit. Sauruki deploys a Water Weird from a tank strapped beneath his robes and sics it on Ragnad who transforms to a wolf. It’s an even fight and Theren takes quite a beating until the rest of the party can return.
The conundrum becomes whether the party will defend Sauruki from the druids thus maintaining Theren’s ruse, or the druids from Sauruki. Sauruki solves the puzzle by throwing a sleet storm over everyone, causing the druids to flee. Theren pleads with Sauruki to spare the party for his later schemes, but with Meega in his face Sauruki really can’t capitulate. His Water Weird begins to drown Meega. Theridan, having found his way out of the sleet, heats the metal in Sauruki’s Water Weird apparatus, but he refuses to drop it leaving Theren no choice. He levels his crossbow at Meega, which pleases Sauruki, but then swings it around and unloads three bolts into Sauruki as Meega swings her axe into his dome.
Meega claims the Water Weird that tried to drown her. Sauruki also carries orders from Gar dispatching him to disrupt the wicker giant ritual.
Haerelben insists on resting before the ritual begins. Allana on watch sees folks filing into the courtyard already. Despite that, completionism requires a quick visit to the last unvisited camp from whence music has been heard. Passing through Lytin’s camp on their way, the party finds that Lytin and party have departed.
In the last camp, a druid fiddles while wicker giant burns. Pixies dance in the smoke of her small fire. She introduces herself as Gariena and her appointment to participate in the ritual, arranged by Aylbrith and Ingulf, is very soon. There’s just enough time for Haerelben to perform some phat moves, winning a Scroll of Skywrite from Gariena.
Gariena departs for the ritual. The party hangs back and then follows using Theridan’s pass without a trace. At the courtyard entrance they observe Gariena check in with the guards who escort her out of view to the wicker giant. Her screams of terror suggest the ritual no longer appeals to her.
Theridan springs to action sending a tidal wave into the courtyard. The wave doesn’t extinguish the wicker giant but does knock down one guard while Allana eldritch blasts the other guard into the wall. Welby spider walks up the wall where he can pick his shortbow targets safely out of reach of the guards. Meega hoists Haerelben to the top of the wall and he casts hold on the priest and guard attempting to feed Gariena into the giant wicker fire. She breaks free and flees the courtyard as a panther.
A priest runs to the wicker giant and cultishly implores it to, “Arise and cleanse this place of the unworthy!” Whatever he talks to does not obey.
Theren begins placing crossbow bolts into the guards and claims his first victim. That makes the priest paralyzed by Haerelben dream of fireballing Theren and escaping Gariena, but the priest can’t move.
Guards positioned upon the tower scaffolding in position to cover the combatants suddenly find themselves in cold blackness caressed by milky tentacles. The Hunger of Hadar summoned by Allana whispers and slurps at them and they forget all about trying to fight.
Meega crashes through the dilapidated wall like some freakishly large pitcher of colored sugar water, “Oh yeah!” She and Haerelben close with a clump of guards and priests in the courtyard and distract them enough to allow Welby his choice of sneak attack targets. They focus on one of the priests and Meega kills him.
The priest at the wicker giant repeats his incantation, again without effect. Probably nothing bad will come of this.
Rhino Theridan gores a druid knocking him down, backs up, and regores him dead. Allana helps Theren take out the unparalyzed guard while her hunger spell claims its first snack. A new guard brings out two hellhounds who make directly for Theren.
The priest repeats his incantation to arise the wicker giant for the third time, and three is the correct number of times to raise the fire elemental to cleanse unworthy Meega. Meega activates the Water Weird and goes to work on the elemental along with geyser-wielding Theren.
Allana eldritch blasts each hellhound into the hunger and Theren tosses a thunderstone just where they went through, probably knocking them farther inside. Only hungry Hadar knows for sure.
Meega, swapping out her secular axe for Giant Slayer, plows damage into the elemental. Theridan, shifting from rhino to snake, puts a lethal bite into it.
Welby, Allana, and Harry mop up the last of the guards who weren’t fed to the hunger.