MarcinOn

Tree-ific Trio

Six years ago, I ran a oneshot for 3 friends. To tell the truth, at the time it was more my sister, her friend, and our coworker/acquaintance. I had just come off the end of my previous (and first) campaign - Ancient Rift - but was feeling the pull of DMing again and other than my sister who had played in Ancient Rift, the other two were just interested in trying it out, so I offered to run things and give them a taste. The session went well - we ran Matthew Colville’s Delian Tomb (renamed the Rowych Tomb) and then since it went by fast, we went a little farther and the team fought a sea hag on the coast. At the end of the night the fateful question was asked - When’s the next one?” This was June 2, 2019.

Session two was a couple weeks later - June 23, 2019. It featured the return of Vera Monnett the Human Fighter, Reed Tealeaf the Halfling Cleric, and The Alchemist Ol’ Johnny McCormack the Red of Scotland III the Dragonborn Bard. Ol’ Johnny had been a wizard in the first session, but we had all agreed that the character was more suited to being a bard, and thus a bard he always was.

The first arc of the story rose up from nothing - some simple adventuring around the local area. The party got caught up in dealing with a vampiric tree that was sucking the life essence out of a nearby druidic grove. They defeated it only after a portal was opened with the stolen magic and a couple of slaad escaped. Session 10 and level 5 were achieved with the defeat of the tree, the slaadi, and general celebration. They dubbed themselves the Tree-ific Trio.

The party were summoned to receive rewards from the Queen for their service, but along the way they met an important ally. On October 20th, 2019 a new member of the party arrived - another of my sister’s friends had shown interest and we invited her to join us. Demorah Lundi the half-elf warlock joined the party as they travelled to the capital, and the Tree-ific Trio had already outgrown their name.

In Arc 2 of the adventure, our trio of four headed into the desert to explore a dragon’s tomb and found therein the soul of Ragrian the aforementioned dragon, trapped within a gemstone. They started to have suspicions about a number of NPCs who were acting weird, but stuck to their guns and just got on with their quest. This became a theme in the years to come.

Returning to the capital from their quest, the party was questioned about disappearances, but ultimately took another quest and headed north to look into a demonic incursion. At this point, the main threads of the campaign were starting to take root - demons and aberrations were entering the material plane in small groups, though they wouldn't stay small for long.

However, Arc 3 really kicked off when the party returned again to the capital and found it encased in ice under the control of the headmistress of the Wizard’s College - a white dragon named Isyria Verglas who had decided it was time to strike. This was also the introduction of the first guest character - Astral the Tiefling Ranger (a friend who had played in Ancient Rift) aided the party in defeating the adult white dragon and saving the Kingdom of Angrath.

With the Queen indebted to them yet again, the party gained rewards such as entering into the Queen’s royal guard - the Dawnsguard (gaining permissions and support), plots of land, and the first of Ol’ Johnny’s menagerie - the hippogriff named Griffy. Additionally, amazed by the party’s strength, they gained a kobold follower named Ixi who would go on to chronicle the Tree-ific Trio’s exploits.

Arc 4 involved further demonic incursions and then COVID hit. March 2020. But we were 30 sessions in, and weren’t about to let a little pandemic stop us - it’s safe to say we were much more than just acquaintances now. A number of online sessions kept us going, if a little less satisfied, and saw the Tree-ific Trio (now at 6 members) researching leylines of power and having their first run ins with mindflayers, eventually being forced to run from a crafty Alhoon alongside a short-term guest character - Kemmler the Gnome Wizard.

Back in person, the party travelled to nearby isles, where further aberrant dangers seemed to be brewing. Then on August 22, 2021 the unthinkable happened. Vera’s brain was devoured by an illithid, and a party member died with no return, only halfway to level 20. The next session - September 18, 2021 we welcomed Nova Duskvale, the Elven Druid/Barbarian multiclass to the Tree-ific Trio (still at 6 members) and shortly after managed back-to-back fights against a Brainstealer Dragon and an Elder Brain.

Arc 6 began ever more strange adventures, when in return for helping them preserve the life of two NPCs - Anton the Dawnguard Sorcerer and Nova’s brother Taran, the party had to repay an agent of Reed’s gods with materials gathered from across various planes of existence. To aid them in their adventure, a new guest character joined - Acrylox, the Fire Genasi Artificer. From the Heavens, through the Elemental Plane of Air, and to the Plane of Fire, the party journeyed and succeeded, eventually returning to the material plane safe and sound.

Arc 7 saw the beginning of solutions to the planar problems, with a way discovered to close the tears in reality and stem the incoming mix of demons and aberrations. To find materials and magic sigils, they were aided in underground tunnel and strange dwarven wizard tower explorations by a fourth guest character - Huldan the Dwarven Fighter. Once they were armed with knowledge, Kemmler rejoined the party for a session to close a tear and prove that the magic worked. Yet further tears were opening and a more permanent solution needed to be found. In the background, Kemmler would go on to establish the B-Team, uniting the four guest characters to close another tear in a side session.

In Arc 8, the team finally caught up to and faced off against the Alhoon, though not before it lured them into fighting a green dragon in its lair. In the loot, a magic mirror allowed Ol’ Johnny to regain what he believed to be his original Scottish form, becoming a human, and causing much confusion amongst the Trio’s allies.

Next, they delved into the feywild and collected memories that would aid them in curing illithid tadpoles from the previously rescued Anton and Taran, though they found they only had the materials to cure one. Choosing to save Anton, Taran remained in the care of Virtaus - Reed’s god’s servitor. It was around this time that Ol’ Johnny finally accomplished one of his long-term goals: awakening Griffy.

Searching for a way to finally close the tears and protect their material plane, the party discovered that they would need to attune themselves with beings more powerful than those that had caused these tears in the first place - the Elder Gods. Thus, the party undertook trials to prove themselves worthy of the Ancients, succeeding and gaining powerful magical rewards. Oh, and somewhere along the way, Ol’ Johnny picked up another hippogriff, this one named Griffina. The Tree-ific Trio grew to 7, and Griffina was awakened soon after.

Finally began the gauntlet. From level 18 to 20, each level was dedicated to a final boss. At level 18, the party pursued the mindflayers, taking on a fresh wave above the isles in a fleet of nautiloid spelljammers and eventually facing off against Dyrrn, the Lord of the Illithids. At level 19, the party turned north and battled waves of powerful demons, eventually coming face-to-face with and defeating Baphomet, the Prince of Beasts himself.

And finally, after some more small preparations and a dungeon full of soul searching, sessions 83 and 84 featured a two-part boss fight against the avatar of an Elder God: Pathos, the Raging Zealot. These sessions saw a return of all four guest characters, and after over a combined 8 hours of combat (less than 3 minutes in game of course), on September 1, 2025 the campaign came to a close victoriously.

It started as a oneshot, but somehow six years went by and it’s hard to believe that this adventure has ended. These words don’t even begin to describe the amount we laughed (often at the hijinks of Ol’ Johnny), or the number of times heads were held after a puzzle was finally figured out. For two members - Reed and Ol’ Johnny - this campaign saw their very first D&D characters ever grow from level 1 to level 20.

So in review, there are thousands of things I could have done better as a DM: battles that could have been more interesting, plot threads that could have had less holes, backstories that could have been more detailed, voices that could have been sillier, and certainly notes that could have been more organized. I didn’t always feel like prepping, and sometimes I was low energy at a session. But my only real takeaway is this: the campaign didn’t need to be perfect, the prep didn’t need to be incredibly in-depth. What mattered was the people and the story we told together.

To conclude, thank you to the Tree-ific Trio and the B-Team. It’s been an incredible journey.

- Marcin, 2025

The Trio and Friends

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