Having escaped the ape, our remaining travelers decided to rest before entering the forest. They did encounter an orc on their journey, Zokon. He decided to travel with our group, thinking he may be able to make a few coin. The group made camp setting up watch. When they woke up they saw that the majority of the prisoners had run away. The group started discussing what to do, but couldn’t come to an agreement. Miro stealthed away to the forest, to see what was going on. He encountered a walking cauldron, upon looking a bit further he noticed a small nyktera sprite.
Miro brought the sprite back to the ground, who introduced himself as Sparky. The group continued discussing what to do then they finally decided to just head into the forest. It took a few days but they eventually came to the large tree. Surrounding it were a group of zombies and skeletons. They attacked one at the edge of the area they were patrolling, and all the undead started to take cover.
The group debated a bit before finally deciding to proceed. As they did the undead swarmed them, but they used some healing spells to damage them, as well as some Horizon Thunder Spheres to take out most of them at once. After their victory, they took care of their wounds and found that Zokon was infected with Zombie Rot.
They investigated the large tree and realized it was a willow tree. They saw a gated entrance into the tree, and an engraving of a sword. Fang and Zuko recalled the symbols as being the same design as that on Willowblade’s insignia.