Plague in the Mountains (WIP)
![Armored paladin holding a braille book and magic staff, sword on his back, scars on his eye. Orrelius written in braille below him.](https://wyrmworkspublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Orrelius-9b-PNG-150x150.jpg)
A village has fallen to a plague. Can you rescue them in time?
The Shaggy Plague has afflicted a nearby village, and it’s up to you to save the people and prevent its spread, but the cure requires a rare plant that’s heavily guarded. Can you recover it in time?
Content Trigger Warnings
This adventure includes themes of disease, bullying, extortion, betrayal, violence, and death.
Background & Synopsis
A village is suffering from a plague, and Zilji Larka asks the party to help retrieve a rare herb that’s needed for a cure. The herb, known by sorcerer and apothecary Jaydrey, only grows in a particular mountain valley. As they near the valley, they encounter Orrelius and learn of a dragon in the area. The dragon has scouts who meet the party and learn of their quest. The party must get to the valley either by navigating rapids or exploring a cave. When they arrive, the young red dragon is there and demands the party pay tribute, or it’ll torch the needed plants. It offers them a quest to steal a gem from a nearby cottage at the top of a cliff. The cottage is an entrance to the lair of a silver dragon, the same dragon that gave Jaydrey her sorcerous origin. The silver dragon won’t relinquish the gem, so the party must find another solution. Once the party acquires the plants, they take them to the afflicted village, but on the way, they encounter werewolves but get help from a druid. On arriving at the village, while helping the suffering, the red dragon attacks with its dwarven minions, so the party must protect the village.
This adventure is designed for 3–5 characters, level 5–7, with a total of 18–20 levels.
Adventure Hooks
This adventure can serve as a side quest or as an introduction to a campaign featuring a war between dragons in the mountains.
Where are we?
This adventure can occur in any population center with a nearby village and mountains within a few days’ travel.
Opening Encounter
As the party walks through a city or town, a small clockwork griffon the size of a raven swoops at the party, then climbs straight upward and begins plummeting to the ground. Zilji Larka comes running to catch it, and if the party doesn’t interfere, he dives to their feet and barely catches it. He pulls out a pair of tools, casts Mage Hand, and holds the griffon with the spectral hand while tinkering with the object.
“I thought I had that stabilizer fixed! Looks like it needs some more adjustments.” He stops suddenly and looks up at the party. “Oh! Hey! You look like adventurers! Maybe you can help me!”
He tells the party that the Shaggy Plague has struck his village, and he needs help saving them. It can only be cured with a rare herb, kindleroot, that grows in the nearby mountains, so he’s looking for someone to go find it for him. “I’ve researched it and know what it looks like, but I need to head back to the village and help my parents. I don’t know how much time they have left, and you can find it in time, I got some help from the local apothecary that should at least buy them some time. I have to take the chance. She can tell you more about kindleroot.”
If asked, he explains that the Shaggy Plague is so named, because it causes a fur-like growth to spread over much of the body, but after about a month, the hair begins to grow inward. It begins with pain in the skin, then it attacks the arms and legs and causes gradual paralysis, then the organs eventually fail. “Now you understand why I need to cure this.”
Apothecary: Forewood & Pestle
The apothecary is a long narrow wooden building that’s more window than wood, but the interior is darkened by the plants hanging across the windows and growing up from the windowsills. Shelves filled with salves, potions, and other jars line the walls below the windows, tinted green from the leafy curtains filtering the sunlight. The air combines aromas of soil, mold, musk, and alcohol. Characters sensitive to strong odors or with pollen allergies are triggered and must attempt corresponding saving throws.
At the end of the long aisle that comprises most of the interior, a halfling, Jaydrey Forewood, bounces among a distillery, a table with ceramic bowls filled with a variety of powders and creams, and a few potted plants from which she carefully takes trimmings. Once the party begins to approach her, she looks at them like a mother to children returning home from a long trip. She notes a feature of each of the party and compliments them, asking sincere questions about their journeys, where a particular scratch in their armor came from, or anything else she notices from their appearance or words. This continues until someone from the party asks about the kindleroot or some other topic. The party notices that, due to her facial cleft, when she talks, she replaces dental sounds like D, T, and Th with other sounds, which may take them a minute to get used to, but her welcoming attitude soon eclipses that distraction. (We recommend that the GM describe her speech impediment instead of attempting to reproduce it.)
When they mention the Shaggy Plague, Zilji, or kindleroot, she stops abruptly and tilts her head with compassion. She begins pausing as she speaks, trying to keep her composure. She expresses deep concern for them but notes that the kindleroot is difficult to acquire. She has a friend who’s trying to get it but hasn’t been able to, because it’s too dangerous. When the party expresses interest in harvesting it, her voice softens with concern, her eyes filled with both compassion and protectiveness. “That’s so sweet, but the world needs kind people like you, and if you try that, the world will be poorer without you.”
Because Jaydrey fears for their safety and doesn’t want to be responsible for their deaths, the party must convince her to give them the needed information. She can be convinced if they demonstrate the following:
commitment to follow through
commitment to environmental preservation
magical prowess to handle unexpected challenges
ability to survive harsh environments
compassion for those in need
The party can demonstrate those by multiple people communicating their values, by telling stories of past accomplishments as examples, etc. At first, she does not specifically ask about any of those points. She’ll just refuse, telling them she doesn’t want their blood on her hands. Once their pleas convince her on two of the points, if they don’t cover the others, she’ll ask pointed questions. “But what about…?”
Once they succeed, her face lights up with hope, and her skin shimmers silver for a moment. She gives the party a drawing of a kindleroot plant, which has huge, spear shaped leaves, which are usually light orange. It also grows tiny flowers, which can be orange, dark gray, dark gold, silver and gold. A patch of them on a breezy day looks like a bonfire. She needs the juice from the leaves and flowers of twenty mature plants to brew antidote to cure the whole village, but if they cut them carefully and leave the shallow roots intact, they will grow back in case of another outbreak or simply to preserve their beauty. She also sketches out a map to show them precisely where to look. (Show Map to Kindleroot) If the party asks how she knows all this, she tells them that she’s been there before and studied the plants there, but then she gets a wistful look on her face and says, “But it’s been a long time. Too long.” If the party asks about the house on the right, she says, “There’s a little house up there,” but gives no more information.
Jaydrey suggests that the party get some rest at the town’s local inn and set out in the morning. During the evening, Zilji talks to them at the inn about his home village, its location and the environment around it, and the kind people there, all the while tinkering with a clockwork moose that he never quite gets working.
Before they set out, Zilji arrives to see them off and gives them a handheld white porcelain clockwork bear. “I’ve worked on this for a long time. It’ll protect you from extreme heat and cold when things get rough out there, but I’m not sure how long it’ll last.”
Zilji’s Bearable Environment
Wondrous Item, Uncommon
This white porcelain bear figurine has 2 charges. While holding it, you can expend a charge as a bonus action to produce an aura in a ten foot radius sphere around the bear. All creatures within the aura have resistance to fire and cold damage for 1d3 rounds. The bear can’t recharge and makes a loud popping noise, cracks, emits a harmless spark, and leaks a clear acrid oil when its final charge is expended.
Optional Travel Encounters
The pass into the mountains is two days from the town where the party started. The journey follows a well-marked dirt road, where the hills grow taller and longer as the mountains in the distance seem close enough to be over the next hill, yet never are, and each hill seems higher and longer than the one before, although that’s an illusion created by anticipation. The leaves on the trees gradually give way to needles on conifers, and the dirt underfoot adds the uncomfortable texture of growing rocks that announce the forthcoming cliffs.
Along the way, the GM may wish to include some encounters by choosing or rolling on the following table or skip to the next section. Use the Road through the Hills map if needed for these.
d6 | Encounter |
1 | A loud rustling in the forest approaches the party as fast shadows move toward them. A pack of six wolves chase an elk, which weaves around trees and runs directly toward the party. As it runs at them, the elk charges at a random member of the party in an attempt to get past. |
2 | Three ogres are patrolling the road. They’re messengers for Cheruss (See Chase the Dragon) who bring him food. If the party offers them more food for less work, they’ll accept it in exchange. |
3 | Two eagles fly overhead. Then they fly over again. They seem to be following you for several hours, then they fly away toward the mountains. |
4 | A horse-drawn cart full of crates comes toward the party. One of the front wheels is missing, and a bugbear is carrying the axle with difficulty. If the party helps her replace the wheel, she thanks them profusely. She refuses to answer questions about the contents of the crates. They’re full of medical supplies for the ailing village, and she doesn’t want anyone to steal them. If the party helps, they will meet her in the village, helping the sick. |
5 | A goblin merchant approaches the party and offers them homemade skunk jerky, only 1 cp each, or 10 for a dozen! He won’t take no for an answer, insisting that nobles consider it a delicacy. It usually goes for ten times as much, but he has a surplus at the moment, so he’s willing to sell it at rock-bottom prices! |
6 | The party hears the sound of a baby crying. Over the next hill, a mule-drawn wagon approaches, the driver carrying the crying baby and clearly stressed. He asks the party whether they have any leather that his teething baby could chew on. |
Interest Peaked
When the hills become so steep that hopelessness begins to threaten the party’s morale, from the summit of the next hill, the party notices a river slicing through a nearly vertical mountain wall, a sparkling blue thread through the vertical eye of a colossal stone needle. Jaydrey’s map denotes this river. The party has arrived at last.
The river is fifteen feet wide and averages four feet deep with fifteen feet of land between the bank and the cliff on each side. The cliff extends 150 feet upward and curves gradually outward, widening into a large valley.
Those with a passive Wisdom (Perception) higher than 15 notice that, while the mouth of the valley has no trees except some high above, the ground is littered with dry branches that crack loudly as the party walks over them unless they succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity (Stealth) check.
Around the first curve, Orrelius waits on a ledge eight feet above the ground. If the party doesn’t make a successful stealth check, he hears them and says, “Greetings, travelers. What brings you to this valley?” If he heard them coming, he has already cast Zone of Truth, and the party feels its effects but must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw to avoid its effects.
Orrelius is suspicious of the party, but if they tell him the truth about their mission, he tells them that he believes that the plant they seek is in a valley further in, but he’s also heard credible rumors of a dragon in the area, although the reports have conflicted widely as to the color.
If any of the party are injured, he heals them. He then asks for directions to the afflicted village, hoping to provide help to the most afflicted until they bring the cure. “I can’t help everyone, but if I can soothe them and fend off the Reaper until you arrive, we may accomplish more than if I join you.” As the party gives directions, if they use visible landmarks in their directions, Orrelius asks for additional environmental details like precise directions, the density of the woods and types of trees around the roads, inhabited areas, and other features he may detect with his other senses. If they don’t know directions to the village, he asks for directions to town so he can find and ask someone there.
Eyes of the Wyrm
The roughly circular valley widens out to a half mile diameter, most of it densely packed with coniferous trees with a visible corridor on the opposite end. Once the party reaches the mouth of the corridor, Gwanla Marblerock, a dwarven spy, sees them and welcomes them. She claims to be gathering mushrooms and berries (technically true at the moment) and offers them some pine nut bread with mushroom jam. She casually asks what brings them to the mountains, and if they tell her, she expresses sympathy and wishes them well. She asks which direction they’re headed, and if they show her the map, she offers them directions to a safer passage through a narrow cave.
Gwanla works for Cheruss, the young red dragon, and the shortcut she offers to the party is a trap. Once the party leaves, she takes an alternate path to report back to Cheruss. If the party successfully spies on her, they see her slip behind a brush pile into the side of the mountain. The tunnel she takes is small and narrow, allowing small creatures to walk in it single file, but medium creatures need to crawl, and most large creatures cannot fit.
Gwanla’s Tunnel
If the party follows Gwanla’s advice, they find an abandoned mineshaft in the left wall of the mountain before it curves inward toward the river. (Use the Gwanla’s Tunnel map) The walls and floor are wet with condensation, and a gelatinous cube fills part of the corridor and surprises unwary adventurers.
The mineshaft ends in an increasingly steep and slippery slope. Everyone must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone and slide into a thirty-foot pit at the end, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage. The pit is a cylinder, sixty feet in diameter. On the opposite side stands a fifteen-foot arch blocked by a large stone that, from inside of the pit, can only be moved with a successful DC 25 Strength check. The wall has a one-foot diameter window beside the arch.
If the party arrives here and makes any noise, Cheruss hears them and sends Gwanla (or another spy if Gwanla isn’t available) to check on them via the window. Once Cheruss hears the party’s status, he goes to the pit to talk to the party, rolling the stone out of the way. If the party attacks him, he uses his breath weapon against them and leaves. A few minutes later, four dwarven veterans appear, crossbows loaded, followed by Cheruss’s face appearing out of the dark corridor beyond. (Skip to Chase the Dragon)
The River Valley
If the party doesn’t follow Gwanla’s directions, they need to follow the river across the next valley. As they cross the valley, a hunting party of four saber-toothed tigers attempts to surround and ambush them. (Use Mountain Valley map)
At the valley’s far end, the cliff walls narrow until no dry land runs between them, and the river turns to rapids with only wet walls bordering it for two hundred feet. The party must find a way to get past the rapids. (Use River Rapids map)
Raft: Creating a seaworthy raft from trees requires a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. Proficiency with carpenter’s tools adds the character’s proficiency bonus to this check. The raft has 40 hp. The raft moves twenty feet per round and requires a successful DC 17 Dexterity check to avoid hitting a rock. Proficiency with water vehicles adds to this check. Each round the raft hits a rock, the raft takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage, and everyone on the raft must succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall into the water, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Those who fall in the water must swim or use their action to succeed on a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check to grab the raft, then use their action the following round to attempt to climb onto the raft, requiring a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Creatures with a swim speed have advantage on checks to grab and climb onto the raft. If someone on the raft uses their action to help, the person climbing on has advantage on the check, but the person helping has disadvantage on any check to avoid falling off in the event of a collision. Each round they are in the water attempting to climb aboard, they take an additional 1d6 bludgeoning damage.
Swim: Swimming the rapids requires a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check each round to avoid drowning. Failure indicates that the character begins choking. See Suffocating in the Basic Rules, Chapter 8. The swimming character must also succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check each round to avoid hitting rocks and taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Creatures with a swim speed or webbed digits have advantage on this check.
Climb: Characters may attempt to climb the cliff wall to get past the rapids. Climbing the rocks requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check each round to avoid falling. A climber’s kit gives advantage on the checks. Climbing closer than twenty feet above the water gives disadvantage on the checks due to splashing water making the rocks slippery. Winds buoy non-evil creatures that fall. Such creatures descend at a rate of 60 feet per round and take no falling damage but still suffer the effects of the water current and rocks.
Once the party gets past the rapids, the canyon widens out again into a field as long as the first but not as wide as the previous one. The green grass is accented by orange blades, and the far left quadrant appears to be ablaze as the kindleroot plants flicker above the green blades. Against the left wall, smoke wisps rise from a large cave entrance. (Use Kindleroot Valley map.)
As the party approaches the kindleroot, four dwarven veterans, crossbows loaded, emerge from the cave, followed by a large red dragon. Cheruss the dragon glares at the party.
Chase the Dragon
Cheruss likes his “fire grass” and won’t allow anyone to take it, especially for such a paltry reason as saving lives or ending suffering. “You want to end suffering? Point me to that village, and I’ll immolate the place!”
If Cheruss hasn’t learned the party’s purpose yet, he demands to know why they’ve invaded his domain. He doesn’t appreciate thieves who don’t work for him, and anyone who would steal from him is volunteering to be his next meal. At the same time, he constantly watches for ways to benefit himself in any encounter, and combat with even moderately formidable foes has no guaranteed benefit, so he manipulates the encounter to his advantage.
If the party tries to fight for the kindleroot, as soon as he notices them raising their weapons or making spellcasting gestures, he threatens to burn the whole field. He likes his landscaping, but it’ll grow back if he doesn’t burn the roots, and a season or three while it grows back is quick as a spark for a dragon.
He does not allow them to leave without paying a price for disturbing him, even if they give up on the kindleroot.
He considers negotiating with them. Atop the cliff in the previous valley, an old woman has a large ruby that he wants. She’s a powerful wizard, he says, so it hasn’t been worth the effort to get it himself, but he’d be willing to exchange it for the amount of “fire grass” that they need.
Get the Ruby
If the party attempts to get the ruby, they must get back to the other valley. If they came through the tunnel, they can go back the same way once they find a way out of the pit. (Cheruss won’t help them. He’d rather leave them there to die.)
The valley wall extends 150 feet vertically. As they climb, an eagle flies over and circles for a few minutes before flying back up the mountain. Winds buoy non-evil creatures that fall. Such creatures descend at a rate of 60 feet per round and take no falling damage.
After that, the climb changes to rough terrain for another 300 feet as the slope becomes more gradual. At this point, the party can see a large silver cottage, the eagle perched on the roof, and a nest with two giant eagles twenty feet away. All of the eagles watch the party closely as they approach.
Aside from the massive nest nearby and the mountaintop location, the cottage looks like an unassuming, well-maintained home. The windows, made of silvered glass, allow no one to peek inside. The single door is unlocked if the party enters without knocking.
Inside the cottage, shelves of trinkets, antiques, and other mementos line the walls among silver wall sconces and rows of old books and scrolls. Light comes in through the windows unobstructed. Portraits of humanoids of many different ancestries fill the remaining wall spaces with smaller ones on shelves. A successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check notices that one of the portraits on a shelf shows a younger image of Jaydrey.
If the party knocks, a feminine voice calls, “You’ve come this far. It would be rude of me to send you away. Come in.” An elderly human sits with her back to the door, reading the handwriting on a yellowed sheet of paper. She holds it to her chest, sighs, and sets it down on a small table beside her. She picks up a glass of dark brown liquid, takes a sip, and says, “Welcome to my home. You must be tired from that climb. Sit, and I’ll get you some tea and scones. How may I help you?” She grabs a wooden crutch, gets up, and tends to her guests.
The woman is Layni, the adult silver dragon who is the source of Jaydrey’s sorcery, shape changed into human form. The cottage covers the entrance to her lair, a vast network of chambers below the mountain, which she accesses through a trapdoor in the back room. She has tolerated Cheruss and kept him from terrorizing the surrounding countryside, knowing he’ll eventually move away in frustration. Every item in her cottage has sentimental value to her, as each belonged to an old friend, most of whom are long gone, along with many of their civilizations. She values these items, all she has left of those she loves. She does not reveal her true nature unless necessary, and she answers any questions about her age or nature with a cagey response like, “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman about her age?”
If the party mentions Jaydrey, Layni says, “Oh! You’ve met my daughter! My own blood!” She dismisses questions about the physical differences between human and halfling, assuring the party that love and commitment make someone family, not physical resemblance, and she answers every question with a corresponding question about Jaydrey.
If the party asks about the ruby, Layni gets suspicious and questions why they’d run errands for Cheruss. She knows he wants it and has no intention of handing it over to him to be just one more sparkle in his vault. If the party acts trustworthy, she’s willing to show it to them, opening an engraved brass coffer and producing a brass hair clip with a half-inch ruby setting attached to a red braid of hair. (The ruby is worth 5,000 gp.) “This is Sartyn. She lived under this very mountain long before your grandparents were born [present elves excepted]. Her descendants still live there.” (She refers to her mementos as if they are the owners, not because she’s confused, but because her memories of each are tied to the item.)
Layni wants to help the suffering village but can’t bear to part with the ruby. She’s open to suggestions on how to proceed but is reluctant to get directly involved. She would rather not “bully little Cheruss” and prefers to give the party the opportunity to solve their own problems. “That’s how you grow, my dear! You have so little time in your life, you need to use that time to develop your little mind and achieve your potential!”
If the party asks Layni to go with them, she agrees only as a last resort. She steps outside and changes to her true nature, a huge silver dragon who walks with a limp in her left hind leg. She speaks to the giant eagles in their language, to which they respond by flying up, then swooping down and picking up the party gently in their talons. When they fly to Cheruss’s cave, Cheruss threatens to burn the kindleroot, to which Layni says, “If you do that, I will freeze you so solid, they’ll sharpen blades on your eyeballs!” Cheruss insists that the plants are his property and will only part with them with an appropriate payment.
If the party negotiates for a different payment, Cheruss insists that the party could never give him anything he wants unless they’d like to offer one of their own for his next meal or provide him something he’d be unable to acquire himself. He is cruel and arrogant, so he meets too small an offer with, “That sounds like a fitting tribute to let you live. I accept it in exchange for your life. (He’s serious.) Now what can you offer that’s worth more than your lives?”
The dwarves working for Cheruss appear loyal to him, but they only serve him as an agreement that he won’t attack the rest of the village in the tunnels below the mountains. If questioned, they only admit the truth on a successful DC 20 Charisma check and then only if they believe that Cheruss can’t hear them. If the party convinces the dwarves to rally their community with the promise of assistance and helps them escape into a tunnel in the mountain wall, news of an uprising leads to Cheruss flying away, knowing he needs reinforcements to fight an entire community that’s no longer afraid of him. Layni is unaware of this arrangement, and if she learns that Sartyn’s family is being held hostage by Cheruss, she becomes enraged and chases him away, threatening him if he ever returns.
The Road to Recovery
Use Road through the Hills map.
As the party takes their acquired kindleroot to the ailing village, they see a humanoid in a cloak with shaggy exposed arms limping toward them from the general direction of the village. It may appear to be a victim of the Shaggy Plague but is actually a werewolf with two more hiding in the woods nearby in wolf form. Once it gets within thirty feet of the party, it and the hiding wolves attack the party. At the beginning of the second round, another wolf appears from the woods and attacks the werewolves on its turn. This fourth wolf is Eilwynn Ilaras in wild shape.
Following the combat, Eilwynn uses Cure Wounds on anyone who’s injured. If she or a member of the party received a bite from one of the werewolves, her Baseless Emotion triggers as fear that the injury will cause lycanthropy causes a panic attack. She sits down and focuses on her staff, running her fingers over the runes and staring intently at them for 1d10 minutes. Assistance will not reduce her recovery time, and she will meet attempts to assist with appreciation for the concern and a request to give her a few minutes. After the panic subsides, she tells them that those wounds should get checked soon as a precaution. After the encounter, she offers to travel with the party to help them, as she heard about the plague.
A Dose of Joy Is a Spiritual Cure
When the party nears the village, a small collection of halflings and gnomes living in wattle and daub houses surrounded by a stream and farmland, Zilji and Jaydrey meet them on the road and eagerly take the plants to a nearby hut where brewery equipment awaits the final ingredient. Zilji then heads back into the village to tend to the sick.
If the party enters the village, they find Orrelius near one of the homes, wiping cold water on one of the victims. The voice of any party member will sound familiar, but he will ask for their names again to jog his memory., “I pray you have come to bring blessings to this village. I’m thankful to be a vessel of hope and healing here, but even with my gifts, the disease spreads faster than I can keep up, and many whom I’ve healed have fallen ill again.”
If the party mentions the werewolves to Orrelius, he casts Remove Curse on up to three of the bitten. He tells them where to find some wooden buckets and rags and asks them to take the buckets to the nearby stream, fill them with cool water, and tend to those with fevers.
The GM may consider the backgrounds and other abilities of the party and encourage them to use their skills creatively to help in various ways, such as cooking, repairing neglected items, foraging for more food, etc. Cure Wounds and other spells can reduce the damage caused by the disease and sustain those closest to dying or in pain. The cure takes a day to prepare, so the party can use the rest of the day to help. The villagers express their appreciation, and those currently healthy or in early stages of the disease eagerly help the party.
Refined by Fire
Late the next morning, a scream echoes through the village. “Dragon!” (Use Village Rescue map)
If Cheruss is still alive, he has come to assert his dominance over the weakened village. If he still controls the dwarves, three dwarven veterans come riding on saber-toothed tigers from the road and threaten the villagers, who attempt to flee for safety.
Orrelius has already expended all but his fourth-level spell slots healing villagers but first casts Spiritual Guardian, then the second round invokes Spiritual Weapon on his sword and hurls insults at Cheruss, attempting a contested Charisma (Persuasion) check to get Cheruss to focus on him. “The bloated iguana is so weak that it can only bully a dying village!” If he gets Cheruss within melee range, he uses his remaining fourth-level spell slot for an Improved Divine Smite.
Jaydrey prefers to continue working on the cure while Zilji stands guard at the brewery hut. After the first round, Jaydrey will step in if the outcome is doubtful, moving as far from the hut as possible, asking Zilji to guard and monitor the cure.
If appropriate, Eilwynn enters combat using Entangle on the mounted dwarves followed by Thunderwave if possible, then uses Shillelagh, shortbow, or Wild Shape.
As the battle ends, Layni swoops in, having learned that Cheruss was heading this way. When Orrelius hears another dragon, he welcomes the challenge and starts threatening Layni until he learns that she’s an ally. If Cheruss still lives, Layni chases him away and returns to the village.
Layni lands near the hut, changes shape to her human form, and calls, “Jaydrey, my blood?” Jaydrey runs out of the hut and embraces Layni. They go into the hut together, still tending to the cure while chatting.
That afternoon, as the cure nears completion, Zilji asks Orrelius and the party to find those in the most advanced stages of the disease and bring them out for the first doses of the cure. Jaydrey and Layni bring out small cups of glowing orange liquid and ask the party to distribute them. After drinking, pain and other internal symptoms gradually begin to subside after an hour, the fur begins to shed after four hours, and in the worst cases, the complete recovery takes up to a day.
The villagers invite the party to stay for a celebration, quickly assembling a feast as children reenact the battle, sometimes arguing over who gets to be which member of the party until they decide to take turns. As they repeat the drama, they add more dragons and tiger-riding dwarves so more can participate, and the story becomes increasingly embellished with each retelling.