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Belak the Outcast is a druid who was cast out from his druidic order. He became an unwilling servant of the Gulthias Tree.
Biography
Early life and exile
Belak the Outcast was expelled from the druidic society because he dared to expand nature's reach in ways he felt their puny minds could not grasp.
Gulthias Tree
After wandering about for some time, Belak stumbled upon the Sunless Citadel and upon exploring its depths came across the Twilight Grove deep within its heart. In the center of the grove he found the Gulthias Tree and learned what this tree really was.
For 12 years, he lived in the grove researching in and maintaining the grove. He made great effort to distribute the fruit and its seeds that the tree could reproduce. These seeds when planted would eventually grow into Twig Blights which would spread quickly across the lands. He wanted to spread the horrid creatures as far as he could and pressured the local goblins into helping with the distribution of the seeds.
Belak eventually managed to capture some wayward adventurers and make them the first couple supplicants of the tree. These supplicants were under his control and he used them to help defend the tree.
Defeat and arrest
Belak was handed over to the Freeburg authorities.
Appearance and personality
Belak was a middle-aged human man with dark brown shoulder length hair and brown eyes. His face was creased and weathered, rough and rugged with a brown beard hanging a bit off of his chin. He wore brown robes and smelled strongly of wet earth and decaying vegetation.
Powers and abilities
While there, he discovered the Gulthias Tree, a strange and twisted tree that grew from the exact spot where a vampire had been staked to the ground long ago. The necromantic energy mixed with the verdant leylines of the tree and caused a horrible thing to grow. Belak spent years mastering the secrets of the tree and became its shepherd, figuring out that the seeds of its biannual fruit bore plan monsters bound to his will, and that sacrifices could be given to the tree to warp them into supplicants.
Stories about a the fruit guided a druid named Belak the Outcast to the depths of the Grove. Belak was booted from of his druid circle because he “dared to expand nature’s reach in ways they couldn’t grasp” (SC, 30). Belak was likely dabbling in necromancy. The vampire tree was perfect.
Belak persuaded the goblins of the citadel to sell the red apple every summer to the nearby town of Oakhurst. The villagers planted the fruit’s seeds in the hopes of growing it for themselves. Bad move. The seeds sprouted Twig Blights bent on murdering anyone unlucky enough to find themselves lost in the surrounding forest.
Belak wanted to colonize the surface with the “children of Gulthias.” What’s more, he stopped selling the fruit to lure adventurers into the Grove where he could strap them to the Gulthias Tree and transform them into mindless slaves.
But why would the Gulthias Tree bother with spreading Twig Blights? I think that even as a tree he wanted to build a following of blights and PC slaves. After all, “[h]is goal is the creation of a nation-state under his rule, a theocracy where all must give obeisance to a vanished, long-forgotten dragon named Ashardalon” (HNS, 28).
In the final chapter of the The Sunless Citadel, the players kill Belak and destroy the Gulthias Tree, accidentally releasing his dark soul. Perhaps, this was Gulthias’ plan all along; tricking adventurers into destroying his wooden prison.
The epic of Ashardalon features all sorts of trees. We have the Gulthias tree, the tree of unborn souls, and a mystical sapling named Semphelon. Notice some cool contrasts here. Gulthias was an undead tree, the Bastion held the trees of life. Belak shepherded the Gulthias Tree because he dabbled in the necrotic arts, while Semphelon preserved duridic lore to protect nature. The trees symbolically weave together images of life and death, hope and despair. This duality is captured in the polarity between the red and white apples. The Demogorgon threatens to overthrow this balance by cutting off one of his heads. Ashardalon tries to cheat death by causing a cosmic catastrophe. He replaces his life force with a demonic entity and feeds his dead chest with the fount of life. All of these extreme measures threaten the multiverse. The adventure series as a whole shows the value of the cosmic balance and the evils which arise when we try to disrupt it for selfish ends.
The tree, called the Gulthias Tree, is shepherded by
a twisted druid, Belak the Outcast. He was drawn to
the buried citadel twelve years ago, following stories of
oddly enchanted fruit to their source. The druid found
an old fortress that had been swallowed up by the
earth in some sort of magically invoked devastation.
With the previous inhabitants long dispersed, vile and
opportunistic creatures common to lightless dungeons
infested the subterranean ruins. At the core of the old
fortress, Belak stumbled upon the Twilight Grove. He
discovered at the grove's heart the Gulthias Tree, which
sprouted from a wooden stake that was used to slay an
ancient vampire.
A perfect, ruby-red apple ripens on the Gulthias Tree
at the summer solstice, and the tree produces a single
albino apple at the winter solstice. The midsummer fruit
grants vigor, health, and life, while the midwinter fruit
steals the same. In the years since Belak's arrival, the
enchanted fruit has been widely dispersed through the
surrounding lands, promoting good and ill. The seeds
of either fruit, if allowed to sprout, grow into small plant
monsters known as twig blights.
Garon, the barkeep of the 01' Boar Inn, remembers
the last time anyone, aside from Talgen and Sharwyn,
asked questions about the Sunless Citadel. About thirteen
years ago, a grim human named Belak stopped
by, and he had a very large pet frog.
What about the goblins/fruit/Belak? "The Outcast, he
lives below. He grows the fruit, which he gives to the
goblins. The dragon-thieving goblins are his servants!"
What about the goblins/Belak? "I've heard the goblins
talk about the Twilight Grove down below. A wicked
old human called Belak-a spellcaster, I suspecttends
an enchanted garden and harvests fruit from
something the goblins call the Gulthias Tree, but they
speak of it only in the most terrified of whispers. The
enchanted fruit grows on the Gulthias Tree."
What's the deal with the fruit? "The midsummer fruit
restores spirit and vigor to those who eat it; the pale
midwinter fruit steals the same. Belak allows the
goblins to sell the fruit on the surface, but I don't
know why."
What about the lost human adventurers? -rhe goblins
caught three of them over a month ago. and they were
captives with me in here for a while. They aid their
names were Talgen, Sharwyn, and Sir Braford. The
goblins kept them in here only about a week before
they removed them. Belak wanted them, and th at"s the
last I've heard about that."
Because Durnn and his hobgoblins usurped control of
the Durbuluk tribe, Gren! hates them. She also wants to
protect her tribe, so she is willing to negotiate a truce if
Durnn falls. Gren! also hates and envies Belak, and she
wants him gone from the citadel so she can control the
Gulthias Tree.
If captured and interrogated, the goblinoids here know
what Erky in area 34 knows, with the following addition:
Belak wanted all the living human prisoners sent down
to him, but in a fit of anger, Durnn slew Talgen. Thus,
Durnn sent only Sharwyn and Sir Braford down to the
Twilight Grove.
Belak prepares various experimental concoctions in his
laboratory and the small chambers that lead off it (see
the sections below), with the fumbling aid of goblins that
serve him. Any noise or disturbance in the main area
draws all the monsters, although those in the northwest
chamber respond most slowly.
One goblin and two goblin
commoners monitor the health of a diseased giant rat,
which is strapped spread-eagled onto a wooden bench.
The rat suffers from horrible tumors that look woody
and fruit-like. Its tumors stem from an elixir Belak created
to infuse twig blight traits into giant rats.
The arboretums hold small samples of traditional Underdark
ecosystems, which aren't difficult for Belak to
nurture. The stone doors leading to them are unlocked.
In his study, Belak stores seasonal
records of growth, precipitation, harvests, and similar
notes for the surrounding lands for the last dozen years.
One interesting tome titled (in Draconic) Treasures
of the Fire Lords has a glyph of warding spell with an
explosive runes effect on it. The glyph is on the second
page, and it's triggered when someone opens to that
page. Otherwise, the book is blank.''
What are you doing? "I am Belak, called the Outcast. My
circle expelled me, the fools. Why? Because I dared to
expand nature's reach in ways they couldn't grasp. I
have found what I sought in the Gulthias Tree."
What is the Gulthias Tree? "It's beautiful, no? It lives,
though it looks dead. In an age long past, someone
staked a vampire on this very spot. The stake took
root. And so grew the Gulthias Tree, reverberating
with primal power for those who can tap it."
What's with the stick-monsters? "The twig blights grow
from seeds of the tree's fruit."
What's going on with the fruit? "I give fruit to the goblins
with orders to disperse their seeds on the surface.
Deceitful beings that they are, the goblins barter the
fruit, but the seeds are dispersed all the same. My
plan for colonizing the surface with the children of
Gulthias continues."
What did you do to the other adventurers? "They were
the first supplicants. The Gulthias Tree has accepted
them, and they are mine to control, just like the twig
blights. You can't save them."
Why are you talking to us? "Though your remains would
enrich the compost, you'll serve my needs better as
supplicants. You shall retain your lives, after a fashion.
Surrender and submit peacefully, or perish!"
