Short Synopsis
The party lures out the cultists from the dining hall and destroys them. Rolann drags out one cultist and is followed by another. Illidan and Rolann kill the pair of cultists. Next, the party charges in to next room to fight three cambions and a number of manes.
A violent battle ensues in which Rolann is knocked unconscious twice and nearly slain. The leader of the demons, a lady cambion, manages to escape. After the battle, the party destroys the tree and release the prisoners.
The dwarf cleric Grim Milestone, who was a prisoner, tells the party that these demonic trees are the means by which the demons are possessing humans. Destruction of these trees will release the humans and send the demons possessing them back to the abyss. There are two more known trees – one in Clearlake Temple and the other at the Asylum.
Long Synopsis
Jax politely asks the cultists for some help down the hall. Being neighborly, a pair of cultists obligingly get up to offer some assistance. Their hospitality was rewarded by being clobbered by Boarstack and Nord. Boarstack tossed one of the bodies into the room and Jax persuades the cultists that he would need some more help. The cultists’ attempt at community engagement ended when the party slaughtered them.
Meanwhile, a disguised Rolann offers to get help from the western room. When he goes inside, he finds an eerie looking tree being guarded by cambions and manes. There are also prisoners behind iron bars at the southern part of the room. A cultist begins questioning Rolann and Rolann responds by casting hold person on the cultist. As Rolann drags out the cultist, one of the manes appears to merge or possess a human victim. This mane-man notices Rolann and tries to follow. Illidan and Rolann deal with the incapacitated cultist and the mane-man exiting the western room.
Nord notices a tattoo on the body of one of the cultist that causes him to freeze. When Kelderrin pokes him with a mage hand, Nord snaps and charges into the Western room. The rest of the party follows him. Inside the room, Nord engages with a lady cambion. As the others hustle inside, they are attacked by two additional cambions that were hiding in the corners. The lady cambion unleashes a cone of cold against most of the party. In response, Illidan and Rolann team up on one cambion. Jax and Nord face the lady cambion. Boarstack fights the last cambion until Kelderrin pops in a polymorphs that cambion into a pet turtle.
The tide turns in the favor of the party. Illidan and Rolann slay one cambion, but Rolann is severely wounded. The lady cambion realizes that she stands alone against the party, and starts making her retreat. On her way, she knocks Rolann unconscious. Just as Illidan revives Rolann with a potion, the lady cambion unleashes a wall of fire on Illidan, Jax and Rolann…who collapses once more in the flames. Boarstack retrieves and resuscitates Rolann. On the other side of the wall of flames, Kelderrin is charmed by the lady cambion’s feminine charm person spell. While Jax attempts to attack the lady cambion, Kelderrin is trying to keep them from fighting. The lady cambion is mysteriously healing herself while she fights Jax. Jax realizes that he is fighting the lady cambion on his own (with Kelderrin unhelpfully trying to make peace), and Jax decides to make a tactical retreat. The lady cambion makes her getaway.
After the battle, the party destroys the abyssal tree. Nord deals with the last cambion (in the form of a turtle) by throwing it into the prison cell. When the turtle takes enough damage, it reverts back into the form of a cambion. Illidan bravely taunts the cambion to turn its attention from the prisoners. The party quickly dispatches the cambion. Rolann and Kelderrin manage to free the prisoners. One of the prisoners, the dwarf cleric Grim Milestone, tells them that the demonic tree is used by demons to possess humans, and that by destroying the tree, the demons are sent back to the abyss and the humans freed. She identifies two known locations of other evil trees. One is located at the Clearlake Temple and the other is at the Asylum. The party returns to the One Eyed Jack to speak with the High Captain before they decide what to do next…
