The Sanctuary

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Stavroula and Ida look for street food while Uusi is away. They purchase funnel cakes with dryad syrup from a satyr vendor manning a cart, who introduces himself as Robby. He is friendly and a little shy. Stavroula is enchanted to speak with another satyr as she rarely encounters other satyrs in Fenside.

The party (including Glob) reunite the following day to travel south to the Mage Blight, identifying it as the most nearby and urgent issue of the three. At a bridge crossing they spot Robby's cart upturned in a stream and being plundered by goblinoids. They manage to scatter the creatures and recover some of the remaining dryad syrup.

Following the road leads them to a location marked with a sign reading "Rubrik's Dryad Sanctuary". The party detours into the sanctuary where they are soon met by Robby, who is grateful that the party was able to recover some of his syrup. He introduces them to his two brothers: his younger brother, Gilly, who seems wary of the strangers, and his older brother, Terry, who is substantially larger than the other two and has a calm, confident aura.

They are welcomed into the satyr's household and meet the Sanctuary's patriarch, Rubrik. Rubrik is exceptionally old for a satyr and is likely being kept alive and vital by Hibiscus, a dryad he is pairbonded to. The satyr brothers explain that all of the dryads in the Sanctuary are their sisters. Rubrik permits the party to stay overnight if they agree to assist with chores. Terry smokes a pipe and recounts the story of how satyrs came to be before everyone settles in and falls asleep.

The following morning the party members are assigned their duties for the day and split up. Stavroula and Terry harvest sap from tapped trees to process into dryad syrup. Terry apologizes for his father's occasionally intense moods and explains that he's been magically charmed to the point of paranoia. The eldest brother carries Stavroula around on his back and converses extensively, as his dryad sisters aren't much for conversation.

Ida and Robby walk to the river to catch fish and speak at length. Robby expresses a wish to leave the Sanctuary eventually and envies Ida's free-roaming lifestyle. A number of dryads interrupt them and one named Briar cradles Ida's face and asks her to be her girlfriend. Robby shoos them away.

Uusi and Glob rake fallen leaves under the watch of Rubrik. Uusi employs her magic to make the task easier, prompting Rubrik to ask where she learned magic. Hibiscus emerges from her tree and beckons Rubrik to join her for a rendezvous.

Left to their own devices, Glob knocks on a tree and requests a blessing from the dryad within. She tells him to bring her a boggle. Just as Uusi and Glob are about to begin the search, a corrupted dryad rushes out of the forest and attacks them.

Gilly is caught in the crossfire and downed by her. The rest of the party rush to intervene and subdue the dryad. They gather Rubrik (who is enraged at the party "attacking" his daughter) and Hibiscus, locate the corrupted dryad's tree and perform a ritual to purify it.

The dryad is named Lily. In her right mind again, she reports nightmares of floating through a dark landscape toward an obelisk and visions of a man with flowing dark hair. Uusi intuits that Lily was somehow being influenced by the Mage Blight.

With the tension dispersed, Glob and Uusi resume their search for a boggle, not realizing the "quest" is a ruse. Uusi locates a boggle burrow and flushes the creature out with magic missile. Together, Uusi and Terry force it into a barrel, but several of Uusi's parchments are ruined by boggle slime in the process.

They bring the boggle back to the dryad, Tulip, and are rewarded with a kiss for their efforts - Glob receiving a chaste kiss on the forehead, Uusi receiving a much more passionate kiss on the mouth (which she has little reaction to).

Exhausted from the day's affairs, the party remains at the Sanctuary another night. They say their farewells to the brothers and dryads the following morning, resuming their trek to the Mage Blight.

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