Borislav's been gone a while. You might've wondered where he wandered off to.

Turns out the answer is: somewhere cold, somewhere quiet, and somewhere with unfinished business.

This episode opens on him — alone, on the road, carrying his axe Hjarta Rifa ("Tear the Heart") and a whole lot of memory he'd rather not be carrying. Then he sees a face across the snow.

Vishni.

And Borislav is no longer on the road. He's back in the Glade. Back in the worst day of his life.

The flashback hits like the axe is named.

By the time he catches up with the rest of the party — who are busy processing their own delightful weekend of undead ravens, the Faceless God's job offer to Nyx, and whatever the Light of Doruusk did to everyone's soul — there's no time to sit in the trauma and share feelings.

Because Greydale is burning, the Order of Aegis Solis is already there, and the clock is very much not on anyone's side.

Feelings later. Running now.

⸻

Highlights

🪓 A cold open on Borislav, alone on the winter road
🗺️ We finally learn what he's been up to all this time
❄️ Hjarta Rifa — "Tear the Heart" — gets properly introduced
👁️ Borislav spots Vishni across the snow
💥 A brutal flashback to the Glade rips the past wide open
🖤 The rage returns — and it has a name attached to it
🐦‍⬛ The party reels from the undead raven and the Faceless God's offer to Nyx
🌫️ Everyone's still shaking off the Light of Doruusk
🤝 Borislav rejoins the party mid-emotional-crisis (perfect timing, buddy)
⏳ No time to grieve — Greydale needs saving, right now
🏃 The party races toward the fight before it's too late
😬 We are all extremely normal about Borislav right now
⚔️ The stage is set for a reckoning that's been years in the making

⸻

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Back in the Grey Plane, beneath the impossible boughs of the exiled Gulthias tree, the party finally stands before the source of the soul plague.

But the horror of what they find is far worse than the tree itself.

From its vast, twisted branches hang strange fruit.

Not apples.

Not offerings.

Not anything the world was ever meant to grow.

Within each swollen fruit, shapes stir in terrible silence—humanoid forms curled in darkness, suspended as if in utero. Half-formed. Waiting. Breathing. Becoming.

Around them move root-like shadow puppets, thin and twitching things made of bark, darkness, and stolen instinct. They tend to the fruit with awful devotion, crawling across the branches and roots like servants caring for a nursery.

A nursery of souls.

The party has only moments to take in the truth before the tree becomes aware of them.

The air changes.

The roots shift.

The fruit trembles.

And something deep within the massive trunk begins to wake.

Whatever has been feeding on the plague, whatever has been gathering souls from Light of Doruusk, whatever horror has taken root at the center of the Gulthias tree—it emerges.

Not as a beast.

Not as a spirit.

But as the tree’s will made flesh.

A guardian born from rot, shadow, and stolen life rises to defend the fruit. And it does not come alone.

The shadow puppets stir into violence. The roots begin to move. The Grey Plane twists around the party as the boundary between worlds grows thin and unstable.

What follows is one of the most dangerous battles the party has ever faced.

Seriously.

Eric might TPK the whole party.

WTF.

With the strange fruit hanging overhead and the souls of another world trapped in the balance, the party is forced into a fight where retreat may be impossible, victory may come too late, and every mistake could mean becoming part of the tree’s next harvest.

Because the Gulthias tree is not simply surviving.

It is growing something.

And now the party has seen it.

Some evils do not hide in darkness.

Some bloom.

Some are tended.

And some defend their fruit with everything they have stolen.

⸻

Highlights

🌫️ The party continues their journey inside the Grey Plane
🌳 The Gulthias tree is revealed in its full, horrifying form
🍎 Strange fruit hangs from the tree’s massive boughs
🧍 Humanoid creatures are seen stirring inside the fruit
🕷️ Root-like shadow puppets tend to the fruit like a terrible nursery
🩸 The harvested souls appear to be transforming into something new
👁️ The tree becomes aware of the party’s presence
🌑 Something at the center of the tree awakens
⚔️ A deadly guardian emerges to defend the fruit
🛡️ The party is thrown into a brutal, high-stakes encounter
💀 The battle nearly becomes a total party kill
😱 Eric almost ends the entire campaign and everyone is emotionally unwell
🌌 The Grey Plane twists as the tree fights to protect what it has grown
❓ The party begins to understand that the soul plague is not just feeding the tree—it is helping it create something
⚠️ The true purpose of the strange fruit remains terrifyingly unclear

⸻

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Back in the waking world of the Shadows of Stravia, the party follows the thread of the soul plague to the place where the nightmare first took root.

The old temple site.

In this plane, the Gulthias tree is gone—banished from the world after its destruction—but its shadow has not faded.

As the party travels to the site, they discover that the ruins are not as abandoned as they once believed. Strange guardians linger within the temple, standing watch over secrets that should have remained buried. But the party’s arrival was not unexpected.

A druid diviner named Bumbo has seen this moment coming.

Somehow, long before they arrived, Bumbo anticipated their path and prepared a way forward—a passage into the Grey Plane, a place between worlds where the Gulthias tree now exists in exile.

Neither fully dead nor fully alive.

Neither fully in Stravia nor beyond it.

From this strange in-between realm, the tree has begun lashing out across realities, harvesting souls through the plague spreading in Light of Doruusk.

But why?

Why does it need so many souls?

What is it feeding?

What is it building?

And what horror waits if the tree is allowed to finish what it has begun?

As the party crosses into the Grey Plane, the world around them twists into something unfamiliar and wrong. There, in that haunted space between life, death, dream, and memory, they finally find what they have been searching for.

The Gulthias tree.

Massive.

Impossible.

Still alive in ways it should not be.

And from its enormous boughs hang strange fruit—terrible signs of what the harvested souls may be becoming.

The party has found the source.

But they may be too late to understand what it has already grown.

Some evils do not return as they were.

Some take root somewhere worse.

And some bear fruit before the world realizes it is starving.

⸻

Highlights

🌑 The party returns to the world of Shadows of Stravia
🌳 The journey leads them back to the old Gulthias tree temple site
🏛️ The party enters the temple in this plane
🛡️ Strange guardians are discovered within the ruins
🔮 A druid diviner named Bumbo anticipated the party’s arrival
🚪 Bumbo prepared a way for them to enter the Grey Plane
🌫️ The Grey Plane is revealed as the place between worlds where the Gulthias tree was banished
🩸 The tree is harvesting souls from Light of Doruusk through the soul plague
❓ The party begins to question why the tree needs so many souls
⚠️ A greater plan begins to emerge from the horror
🍎 The episode ends as the party finds the tree and sees strange fruit growing from its massive boughs
🌌 The boundary between Stravia, Doruusk, and the Grey Plane grows dangerously thin

⸻

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