WH8.5 – The Druid’s Warning

A hush falls over the Bluff Watch as the door creaks open and Sereth of the Verdant Veins steps inside, mud still on his boots, his travel-worn staff glinting faintly with green runes. His voice carries like wind through reeds:

“The veins are stirring. The earth groans beneath your picks, and the roots whisper of blood. Beory’s patience grows thin.”

The miners jeer, some tossing pebbles or laughing. One dwarf shouts back, “Beory’s patience? The only thing cracking is the ground where we dig — and we’ve been fixing those collapses for months!”

Sereth fixes the room with a long stare and turns to the PCs:

“If you would walk the path of truth, come with me. There are fissures in the hills that should not be — and what sleeps there is not natural.”

Quest Giver (NPC)

Sereth of the Verdant Veins (NG Human Druid): A gaunt, intense figure with moss-colored eyes. He rarely comes to town, preferring the hills, but when he speaks, it is with Beory’s authority. Sereth is frustrated that the miners mock him and seeks impartial adventurers to prove the threat is real.

Obstacle & Objective

Sereth leads the PCs to a set of fresh fissures in the hills outside Cragford. The earth is cracked in jagged lines, and a strange coppery smell wafts from below. Within the fissures, the PCs find:

Ritual Chalk Markings: Circles and triangles scrawled along the stone. Claw Marks: Deep gouges that no pickaxe could make. Residual Energy: A faint hum in the air, growing louder as they approach the fissure center.

The PCs must investigate the site, piece together what is happening (Arcana/Nature DC 13), and either fight or drive out the cultists using it as a ritual focus.

Encounter Areas

Collapsed Hollow: PCs crawl into a chamber where roots dangle from the ceiling. This serves as the ritual site. Puzzle Element: Ritual chalk lines can be disrupted (Arcana DC 14 or Religion DC 12) to weaken the summoning effect, giving advantage to PCs in the fight. Combat Encounter: Cultists are mid-ritual, their whispers echoing. If interrupted, they summon unnatural darkness as a last defense.

Scaling Encounters

Lv 2: 2 Twig Blights + 2 Cultists. Lv 3: 2 Cultists + 1 Shadow (emerges from fissure). Lv 4: 2 Cult Fanatics + 1 Shadow.

Rewards

Base: PCs earn Sereth’s gratitude and advantage on Persuasion checks with Flan villagers in future quests. Bonus: The ritual chalk and claw marks point toward a greater network of corruption, serving as a breadcrumb toward the duergar or Varag Thul’s influence. PCs who sanctify the fissure with holy water or druidic rites may gain a one-time Blessing of Beory (advantage on a saving throw against charm, fear, or disease).

Stat Blocks (Condensed)

Twig Blight – AC 13, HP 4, Claws +3 (1d4+1).

Cultist – AC 12, HP 9, Scimitar +3 (1d6+1).

Cult Fanatic – AC 13, HP 33, Command, Hold Person, Spiritual Weapon.

Shadow – AC 12, HP 16, STR drain on hit.

DM Notes & Flavor

Lean on atmosphere: rustling grass, faint tremors, flickering ritual candles in the fissure. Allow for non-combat resolution: disrupting the ritual circle may cause cultists to flee in terror as the magic backlashes. Sereth should feel like the moral center of the arc — if the PCs side with him and present evidence to the miners, it helps de-escalate the growing human/dwarf/Flan tensions in Cragford and Highmere.

This quest ties together the sabotage (WH9.1–9.3) and smuggling (WH8.4) threads with a supernatural revelation, shifting the story from local politics to the greater, cosmic danger under Yyrth.