The night went quickly after dinner. As Florven and Karrn cleaned up with some water magic that Florven could summon, the group got ready for the night. While the two mages didn’t have much in the way of armor on, they and the two knights went to bed with their full kit still being worn. Even Drost, who was wearing full plate armor and was covered in armor.
Matt took his gauntlets and helmet at least, and left them with his pack. Everyone had some kind of sleeping bag or bedroll that they had set up, except for Drost who was just leaning back in his chair. Apparently Dwarves don’t need sleep, but they can do it if they want, and so Drost usually took up night watch. He had asked Matt to change the chair a bit so he made the back a bit wider and more concave, and changed the legs into a rocking wedge. He also made the dwarf a foot stool. While everyone had something to sleep in, Matt didn’t buy anything but he was a Shaper so he was just going to make one with the leftover wood from the tree they already knocked down.
Passing through the barrier felt interesting, a slight tingle for the second he was stepping over the boundary. It disappeared soon after, so he didn’t pay much mind to it. Getting back to the tree Matt cut himself another few feet of the trunk and after severing the branches, started to roll the log back to the camp. As he returned to his spot, he began disassembling the log into fiber so he could make a bedroll before he had a thought.
He could make anything he wants, and he still has a good amount of wood, so why doesn't he make something better than just a bundle of cloth on the floor? Smiling, Matt cracked his knuckles as he pushed his connection into the wood and started shaping the log into as many planks as he could. He was grateful for the ability since he could use every bit of the wood and didn’t have to worry about actually getting the right size and shape out of the log.
He had to go back and get some more wood, this time grabbing branches and twigs instead of more log, but after a bit he had a small pile of planks. Laying them out on the ground, he fused them together to make two three and a half squares with the corners connected by beams. Matt was glad he didn’t need nails as this wouldn’t have been possible without them normally.
Fusing the two squares together to make a rectangle, he then grabbed some more and made three foot long poles extending up from the corners, and then reinforced them with cross beams. Then shaping the entire frame's durability and hardness, he was complete. Moving back to the fibers he had made, he quickly wove them into a sheet of fabric three feet wide and six feet long. Making some rods a bit longer than three feet, he fused the short edges of the fabric into the rods length.
Finishishing the entire structure, Matt grabbed some wood and by connecting the corners of his fabric and the corner pole of the frame, he made a one piece suspended hammock. He probably could have made the frame with less wood, but he didn’t feel like experimenting right now and just did something he knew would work.
Stepping back, he observed his work and was satisfied. It might have been a bit much but since he had this power, he was going to use it as much as possible. Turning around, he saw that the other adventurers were watching him with various levels of amusement and Matt felt his face redden a bit embarrassed. Apparently his expression was too much for them because Karrn, Janica and Drost started to laugh. Even Florven was snickering a bit, which Matt ignored as he stomped over to his hammock and laid down. He made a blanket and turned away from the cackling adventurers.
Eventually they quieted down and went to sleep, leaving Matt alone with the sounds of the forest, the crackle of the fire and the sounds of Drost whittling something while he kept watch. It was peaceful. Turning onto his back, Matt looked up into the sky again and felt his gaze being drawn to Connection. Was it really a god, or just what the people of this world believed. He definitely felt the energy within him stir as he gazed at the golden moon, so maybe there was something to it. Were they the reason he was here? Some grand plan to change the fate of Helinos? Probably not, the void he was in didn’t feel anything like the energy he could feel inside him or when knights or mages did things so it was probably a third party.
Not that it mattered much in the end, he supposed. He was here now and he would need to do his best to succeed in this place. And he felt like he was on the right track, like he was doing something right. And it was exciting, going through a forest with a goal in mind was very fulfilling. Maybe things would change his mind in the morning when they actually faced danger, but there was no use dreading that when it was inevitable.
Putting the thoughts out of his mind, he just stared at the moon's soft light until his eyelids grew heavy and he drifted into sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
They cleaned up camp in the morning and had a quick breakfast of grilling the rest of the vegetables they had, before setting out. Matt had packed up the actual hammock part of his bed by rolling it up and storing that and his blanket in his bag, but he just disassembled the frame back into a pile of wood. The rest of the party were going to stash their luggage in trees or otherwise hide them, but Matt had an idea and he quickly turned the planks into a large box that he and everyone else stored their non essential bags in before he closed the box and sealed it.
Matt wanted to know what to do with the chairs but Karrn told him to just leave them, they would either get used by other adventurers or return to nature, in which case leaving them was fine. Setting back off, the party started heading to the target. Matt had put his gauntlets and helmet back on, even had the faceplate attached. He had discovered that it was a bit hard to breathe when he was moving with the solid plate of wood, so he made some slanted air holes along the side of it that made it much better.
The formation had changed, with Matt now being next to Janica in the center/back row of the party, with Florven standing in front as he led the party forward with Drost and Karrn standing either side of the healer, ready to react to danger. They had to kill a few more tree stalkers that ambushed them, but Matt was able to trap all of them and Janica killed them with a new spell that instead of setting the bush on fire, it sent a small dart of blazing fire that pierced the creature and killed it instantly, consuming only it into charcoal.
As they got deeper into the forest, Matt noticed how the trees were getting denser and larger. He supposes this was how the forest got more dangerous, with the stronger monsters living in the denser woods. As they moved through the forest, Florven halted the group and had everyone start moving slowly. Apparently they were getting close, so Matt readied his bat as he focused on their surroundings.
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Eventually, they moved through the woods and came to the edge of a large clearing, maybe fifty feet across, with an interesting scene taking place. Towards the edge of the clearing was a large, thick ivor tree completely bare of any leaves. And while normal ivor trees are fairly straight, this one was twisted and split into several places. The tree stood very tall, maybe twenty five or so feet, and had long branches that extended out and covered a large portion of the clearing that looked to be darker than the pure white of normal ivor. Looking deeper, Matt saw there was similar discoloration around the middle of the main trunk.
The forest was mostly clear of foliage, artificially so where Matt could see spots where a bush used to be, and scampering about the empty clearing were several tree stalkers. A small group of three were the most noticeable, as they were dragging a large animal that looked like a deer but had lighter fur with dark brown spots, and had three antlers instead of two.
The stalkers were dragging the carcass towards the big tree, and when they reached they quickly set it down and moved out of the way. Matt was confused why they did that, since nothing happened for a few moments but suddenly one of the large limbs of the tree slammed down over the deer thing, and Matt watched in horror as the branches wrapped around the body, tearing it into pieces and staining its limbs red as it brought the body to the trunk and the trunk split open into a jagged maw made of splinters and sharp spikes made of wood.
The mouth opened wide and the creature that Matt realized as being the wood fiend dropped the corpse into its mouth and started to mash the body into a gory mess, horrid crunching sounds that made Matts stomach churn, and eventually its meal disappeared into whatever twisted system the monster had as a throat and stomach.
The monster was very messy and didn’t get all of the creature into its mouth, and as it returned to its previous still position, all of the tree stalkers that Matt had noticed where also as frozen still surged forward and started to fight amongst themselves for scraps, and Matt understood what the living situation was like for the monsters in this clearing, and how the hierarchy was set up.
Seeing movement next to him, Matt saw that the party had come to a silent understanding and as Florven shifted to Matt, he whispered very quietly into Matt's ear that he almost missed. “Janica is going to start with a bang, try to stay out of the clearing. If you can, focus on taking care of any stalkers still out there after this.” Matt only had the chance to nod before he watched as Janica took a deep breath, and stood up.
“Blazing Explosion Fire Ball!” Janica called and after collecting the spell into her wand, flicked it and sent a giant ball of flame streaking towards the group of feeding stalkers and before any of the monsters could react, were consumed in a roaring explosion that shook the trees and rattled Matt's bones. While Matt was stunned, the rest of the party jumped forward and got into position, and as the fire faded away and revealed the charred corpses of all the stalkers and the singed bark of the fiend, the let out a course roar that sounded kind of like sandpaper, and the battle began.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Karrn charged forward, blazing green aura trailing behind him as he engaged the wood fiend. The monster roared again as the long overreaching branches all slammed forward to restrain the swordsman. Karrn’s sword flashed and severed several of the thinner branches as Karrn danced through the web of wood.
As one of the main trunk limbs of the creature that was much thicker than the other branches started sweeping towards Karrn’s back, Drost had blurred forward at a speed unseen before in an amber blur, colliding with the giant trunk with a crash as their shield not only stopped the attack, but knocked it back as cracks appeared in the wood. Drost was unharmed and standing strong, right where they landed, not having drudge an inch.
“Haste!” Florven called as he twirled his staff and launched an orb of glowing light, hitting Karrn in the back who smirked as he felt the energy wash over him and he blurred forward even faster than before. As the wood fiend tried to engage Karrn again, it was distracted as a smaller ball of fire slammed into its main body and knocked it back slightly with a pained growl.
Janica was jumping around at the edge of the wood fiends range, dodging out of the weakest branches that tried to get her, but both because of her movement and Drost drawing the strongest of all the branches and somehow always being in the way of the monsters attacks, Janica was able to move in and out of range as she fired smaller spells repeatedly at the monster, continuing to burn the monsters surface. It didn’t seem to be doing much fatal damage, but every firebolt definitely hurt the creature.
And Florven stood still in the back, standing in that same stance he had when he cast the barrier last night, watching the battle with a watchful eye and casting the occasional spell that he grabbed in his staff and flung towards one of the party members when needed, either a buff or a heal whenever a branch attack clipped one of the fighters. It seems like staves have a longer range of being able to throw spells than wands, so Janica needed to be a bit closer but Florven could hang further away.
And Matt was still sitting at the same spot, unmoving and just watching as much more competent adventurers where doing what they do best. He felt a bit overwhelmed, feeling like there was truly nothing he could contribute. And then he felt wood move in his material perception in the same way the monsters he has spent the last fifteen hours training himself to find, and he moved.
As it passed through a bush that was the last thing separating foliage from the clearing, Matt grabbed it with the wood of the bush and stood up. Moving quickly, Matt took a few steps towards the bush and thrust his gauntleted hand into the bush and grabbed the neck of the tree stalker at the base of its skull.
Squeezing hard, the stalker let out a strangled his as the claws of his gauntlets started to pierce the soft parts of its vine like skin. Reeling his hand back, Matt slammed down his weapon into the monster's skull, breaking something vital in one swing as it died.
Letting go, Matt quickly shaped the creature's corpse to get the core, which he then fused into his left hand gauntlet that he had grabbed the core with. He could have added it to his bat, but it already had several in it and he might need something differently.
Looking back over to the fight, he saw that it was mostly unchanged. Karrn had cut off most of the wod fiends' smaller branches, leaving only the large thick limbs that resisted being cut. There were several more craters and pockmarks of charred surface as Janica continued to launch spell after spell at its body. Drost continued to be an impenetrable wall in the way of the monster's attacks, keeping their party members safe and Florven managed to repair any damage that did slip through Drost’s defense.
And while this would look like they should be winning, Matt saw how the monster wasn’t slowing down, but instead growing faster. It appears that the party wasn’t able to do any decisive damage to the monster, and while they were chipping away it was mostly becoming enraged. However Matt could see that the party wouldn’t be able to do this forever.
Janica had to take longer between each spell as she ran lower on mana, and Florven was starting to sweat as he focused less on buffs and only healing when needing it. Matt couldn’t tell much about the knight’s condition, but it couldn’t have been perfect.
Matt wasn’t able to focus on the fight too much after that as he felt another tree stalker enter his perception, and he moved forward to take care of it. While he couldn’t help with the main fight, he could deal with any distractions so the party can focus on the wood fiend.