Azenwrath

An evil treant who originally inhabited Forlorn. It was the creator of the Black Grove. It was felled and used to create numerous magic items such as scrolls and staves and has now become a unique golem seeking to reassembled its scattered body.

Background

Azenwrath is an ancient, ancient treant. It is the first dread treant in Forlorn and perhaps in the Demiplane of Dread. However, Azenwrath was not always the corrupt dread treant it is today. Once it protected a druid's sacred grove, perhaps all the sacred groves of Forfar. However, with that land's corruption into a Ravenloft domain by the actions of Tristen ApBlanc, so too was Azenwrath warped by the land or at least driven insane by the corruption of the land and its creatures.

Over the years, Azenwrath germinated foul progeny such as Death's Head Trees and quickwoods. As a dread possibility, Azenwrath may have started the Black Grove, a society of dread treants mocking the druid's grove frameworks, to form a third force in the fight between the purification of the Forfarian druids and the destruction of the deforesting goblyns, with Azenwrath as the Grove's first Black Hierophant.

In 739 BC, Azenwrath was hunted and slain by Kyall, a mortal wizard. Tristen ApBlanc allowed Kyall to destroy (or even manipulated into destroying)) Azenwrath as the evil treant had earned Tristen's considerable enmity. Kyall subsequently used the wood from the tree for various magic items and nonmagic items, such as wands, scrolls, and the like. Many of these were sold and spread across the Demiplane of Dread. However, Azenwrath did not rest peacefully. Whether it was the creature's own obsessive clinging to life or a quirk of magic, Azenwrath animated one of the scrolls Kyall made out of its wood and used it to destroy them. It then brought together its pieces left inside the fortress and set out to gather the rest.

Some bandits stole several statues from one of Kyall's customers and a scroll and eventually sold them to the people of Canondale. This inadvertently set the village up as a target for Azenwrath's rampage. (This situation is played out in the Lesser of Many Evils module.)

Gurrent Sketch

Azenwrath's mindset is entirely motivated by negative emotions, particularly the obsessive desire to regain its lost parts. Azenwrath is very direct and violent in pursuing this goal, though if left to its own devices may simply be content to take its parts and leave. If unable to retrieve its parts in a quick amount of time, Azenwrath's intelligence begins to dwindle as it enters a pure feral state. It kills any oppostion and may tear apart an entire community that destroys its missing parts before they can be reintegrated into the golem's body.

Special Characteristics

Azenwrath can animate any objects made from its body and even utilize scrolls, within 50 miles. The eerie animaiton and whispers from such objects heralds the approach of the golem. Azenwrath can animate any trees near its body parts. Azenwrath can also control any scroll (not merely those made from its body) in close proximity to it, even integrating them into its body.

Game Statistics

• 2nd Edition: unique Spellrune Golem, 12 Hit Dice; Chaotic Neutral
• 3rd Edition: never given statistics for 3E

Publication history

Azenwrath was first introduced as a detailed NPC profiled in the 2nd Edition sourcebook Children of the Night: The Created, along with a small adventure module, The Lesser of Many Evils. In the 3rd Edition sourcebook Ravenloft Gazetteer I, Azenwrath is mentioned as the creator of the Black Grove and the ancestor of its current leader, Ruinnoake.

Associated Modules

• The Lesser of Many Evils

Associated Dread Possibilities

• The Black Grove

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

		Children of the Night: The Created Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I
		Children of the Night: The Created - p29
		Children of the Night: The Created - pp28-30
		Children of the Night: The Created - pp28-30 Ravenloft Gazetteer Volume I - p68