Putridius Festerkin, also known as the Timberblight, is a dark druid revenant and a former member of the Slayer's Take. As an NPC, he is played by Nick Williams.
Description[]
His true form is described as made of pure rot, a dark entity of warping energy and fungus remains,[3] although apparently able to take humanoid-like shapes, such as hands.[4] When the adventurers faced him directly, he had a translucent purple body of visible elven traits, surrounded by black spores, and with a solid core.[5]
When talking to Heldwell after coming back to "life" he manifested as a mouth in the slate.[6]
History[]
Background and legend[]
According to a certain ghost story, Putridius was once part of the prestigious guild, but he himself had a bad reputation and was considered a dark druid. He resented the forces of nature, as he knew he could never be as strong as them, and in his resentment and envy he tried to use his magic to subdue and corrupt those same forces. Putridius visited the Dead Man's Table (a flat rock formation in the Vesper Timberland), and there began an evil ritual to abandon his mortality, which members of the Slayer's Take tried and failed to stop, dying in the process; ultimately, the ritual was interrupted when the very nature Putridius was trying to attack struck him down. The place where the corrupted druid fell ended up blighted as well, and has been barren ever since.[7]
The truth about his past, which Festerkin himself revealed, was that he joined the Slayer's Take, but as soon as Osysa learned about his capabilities she banished him. He also insinuated that it was the ginosphynx the one that stopped his ritual, and that's why he was using the guild's trophies as revenge.[8] The ritual failing was actually a misconception, as Putridius himself explained that he had been using souls in order to cause his own transformation, but the process ended up requiring more than he had anticipating, thus being left unfinished when he was defeated for the first time.[9]
The Re-Slayer's Take[]
Around 839 PD,[10] when the group known as the Re-Slayer's Take started going on adventures together, they started defeating different udead threats using the weapons granted to them by the Spectral Hand, and learning over time that most of the enemies defeated were at one point connected to the Slayer's Take. During one of those missions, dealing with an undead aboleth in Shoresight Isle, Timpani Guff used his powers to close a portal the ghost was using to access the Ethereal Plane, and as he was finishing, a voice (presumably from the Timberblight) talked to him and cast Contagion, leaving the firbolg weakened and confused.[11]
After the adventurers traveled to the Utesspire Mountains by accident and asked the goblins of Hug Hive for help, Putridius sent his forces (including skeletons, marionettes, plant-based monsters, and an undead mind flayer) on a big attack against the settlement. Through the illithid, he started with a psychic attack that hit most of the people of Hug Hive, and threatened the Re-Slayers too. They, however, started preparing for the attack, and with the help of the local goblins neutralized most of the Timberblight's forces; the latter had been acting through the skeleton of the mind flayer, but when it got destroyed, it revealed the corrupt druid's rotting form, which left immediately.[12]
Putridius returned to Dead Man's Table, in the Vesper Timberland, and eventually he sensed the proximity of the Re-Slayers there, looking for him. He projected his voice to tell them about his resentment towards the guild that rejected him, and when they reached the top of the plateau he invited them to come closer to fight. The Timberblight surrounded himself with poisonous spores and started using psychic and necrotic attacks against the adventurers, knocking some of them unconscious (including Poogs, wanting to kill him specifically to take something from the Re-Slayers); he, however, was outnumbered, and after being Confused by Idrin Shadowstep and stunned by an elk stampede caused by Farah Vallari, Putridius was disintegrated by the massive radiant damage of Frog's luminous punches, activated as she was taking Poogs away from the dark druid.[13]
That same day, in a meeting with Osysa, the sphinx asked if the Re-Slayers truly believed that the Timberblight had been defeated, and Kashaw gave Frog a book with information about monsters the Slayer's Take had defeated in the last two centuries, implying that some of the high-ranking members of the guild still thought that Putridius could come back.[14] Indeed, in the following hours the Timberblight came back to "life" and talked to Grimm Heldwell, explaining to him that he wanted to complete his old ritual and that he needed his help to get more souls, promising power and respect. After some hesitance, the wizard agreed, and after asking him to call him Putridius, the dark druid revealed the stabbing knife Poogs had used against him, now covered in silvery toxin. When Heldwell picked it up he felt thorns sending a wave of magical energy through his arm, as his pact with the Timberblight was forged, and both him and his new master started laughing.[15] Following his new patron's plans, Heldwell traveled to Gurt Stumpstuck's swamp and stole his green lantern, which pleased the Timberblight.[16]
Abilities[]
- Immune to the blinded, deafened, exhaustion, charmed, and frightened conditions, to necrotic damage, and resistant to non-magical attacks.
- Aura of Poison: Deals potion damage and the poisoned condition, which ends if the target leaves the area of the spores (which stay visible even if Putridius doesn't).
- Shield projection (unclear if it is an actual ability with mechanical benefits or if it is just a narrative way to say that an attack doesn't hit him).
- Necromantic melee attack.
- Psychic blast attack.
- Spellcasting:
- Mind Sliver
- Invisibility
- Contagion
Appearances and mentions[]
- The Re-Slayer's Take
- "The Carnivorous Cube" (RTx01), mentioned only (first mentioned)
- "The Bog House" (RTx02), mentioned only
- "The Dark Well" (RTx09), voice only
- "The Rotten Soldiers" (RTx11) (first appearance)
- "The Timberblight of Dead Man's Table" (RTx12)
- "The Cat's Cathedral" (RT2x01), mentioned only
- "The Masked Man" (RT2x02)
- "The Dire Descent" (RT2x03), mentioned only
- "The Monstrous Mine" (RT2x04), voice only
- "The Befuddled Bravehearts" (RT2x05), mentioned only
- "The Confounding Cavern" (RT2x06), mentioned only
- "The Promised Pact" (RT2x07), mentioned only
- "The Melancholic March" (RT2x08), mentioned only
- "The Decomposing Domicile" (RT2x13), mentioned only, unnamed
- "The Hopeless Hostages" (RT2x14), mentioned only, unnamed
- "The Mummified Menace" (RT2x15), voice only
Quotations[]
- (after his deal with Grimm Heldwell) "The pact is forged. May the rot guide you."[17]
Trivia[]
- His name derives from the Latin putridus (rotten/decayed/putrid).
- Even before meeting the actual Putridius, Timpani Guff was convinced that the dark druid's story was actually true, and he believed he might be behind the strange phenomena happening in the Vesper Timberland. The firbolg also thought that the Slayer's Take didn't believe such suspicions because they were aware of this possibility, and they were trying to cover it for some reason.[18] This ended up being true to a degree, since Heldwell, the member of the guild that had been communicating with the firbolg was the one hiding the information from the leaders of the Slayer's Take.
- The general description of this figure as a corrupted druid with a complicated relationship with the nature that empowers him might identify him as a blighted druid, although it isn't confirmed.
- In a way, Timpani Guff's character mirrors Putridius Festerkin's story: an unusual druid who was rejected by the Slayer's Take and started a project of his own that was, in a way, still tied to the guild. The main difference is that, while the Timberblight resorted to resentful vengeance, Timpani thrived after finding friends and allies with whom to do good deeds.
- While controlling the illithid skeleton Putridius was wielding a white twisted wand that he left behind after its defeat,[19] but it is unclear if this was a tool used by the mind flayer or the druid's original focus.
- While Farah compared his nature with that of a revenant, given his circumstances and his ties with a specific form of plant-based undead, she assumed that he was completely gone when they defeated him, which turned out to be a mistake.
References[]
- ↑ See "The Rotten Soldiers" (RTx11).
- ↑ See "The Timberblight of Dead Man's Table" (RTx12). Timpani failed a saving throw with an 18.
- ↑ See "The Rotten Soldiers" (RTx11).
- ↑ See "The Dark Well" (RTx09).
- ↑ See "The Timberblight of Dead Man's Table" (RTx12).
- ↑ See "The Masked Man" (RT2x02).
- ↑ See "The Carnivorous Cube" (RTx01).
- ↑ See "The Timberblight of Dead Man's Table" (RTx12).
- ↑ See "The Masked Man" (RT2x02).
- ↑ George Primavera confirmed the date on Discord. See a photo of his answer.
- ↑ See "The Dark Well" (RTx09).
- ↑ See "The Rotten Soldiers" (RTx11).
- ↑ See "The Timberblight of Dead Man's Table" (RTx12).
- ↑ See "The Cat's Cathedral" (RT2x01).
- ↑ See "The Masked Man" (RT2x02).
- ↑ See "The Monstrous Mine" (RT2x04).
- ↑ See "The Masked Man" (RT2x02).
- ↑ See "The Bog House" (RTx02).
- ↑ See "The Rotten Soldiers" (RTx11).
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