The darkness begins covering the forest as ight quickly approaches, outside a tall wooden wall five figures make their way into the forest carefully paying attention to their surroundings. A meek myconid with a twisted staff and wizened eyes looks around the forest in fear, a large white lizard following close by with several bags tied to its body all of which are empty. A small ogre with a bronzewood club strung across its back shows a mild lack of stealth as his large legs crush the bushes and branches under his feet. A small shadow flits between the treetops following the group from above as a wyrmling jumps nimbly branch to branch, a coat of gnoll fur covers her body while various daggers glint in the approaching moonlight. Finally in the middle of the group a short figure can be seen wearing poorly made leather armor, a wolfs head cane shines in the night as the gremlin peers around its surroundings with a wary eye.
"Wug you have to try and be quieter just in case there are monsters. Remember the Naga that hurt you from when we met? There could be stuff like that in the woods!" I mentally send to Wug using the ring on my finger, smiling in relief as the ogre begins to watch his steps with more attention as the sounds of snapping bushes and branches lower to a much lesser degree. We move through the forest with haste as we follow Sheer's directions from above, stopping several times as she warns us of large monsters that are moving through the night. We move as a tight group throughout the night without anything happening to us and as the sun begins rising we take a break within a formation of rocks that make a decent enclosure.
"Ok so after traveling through the night without stopping I think we're about halfway there. I think from here we should be more careful and rest every few hours just in case the gnolls have scouts out that way we're not exhausted during combat." Sheer says while glancing towards me as if asking if that's the right course of action. I nod in her direction as we all take out random food items as well as small wobbly fruits the size of a soccer ball, the skin translucent as small seeds float inside of the pink liquid found within. We ended up finding several of these fruit tree's while building up the clearing and I was amazed that these were almost pure water that had a kiwi flavor. After we all finish our meals we spend a few more minutes resting before we start heading out once again this time allowing myself to take the lead as Wug slows a small bit to conserve his energy. Before long we come to the edge of the forest and can see a large flat plain stretching out in front of us, extremly long grasses growing among a lot of it as we all show hesitation towards entering the grass. Finally after a lot of grumbling between our group we decide to have Wug go back to our front so he can flatten us a clear path and we have Pearl follow closely behind as her tongue flicks out quickly, trying to sense if there are any living creatures nearby. The rest of us follow closely as the sun above us moves across the sky slowly, the heat beating down upon us becoming a little bothersome as all of our bodies are tense. As we finally find a small clearing in the grasses we sigh in relief, the area is just large enough for us to rest in with a large tree lacking leaves or vitality sitting in the center of it. As we approach the tree Mog all of a sudden yells at us in warning before several thick roots unearth themselves and lash out at Wug. The ogre reacts quickly grabbing one of the roots and pulling with all his strength before a creaking sound is heard coming from the dead tree in front of us. We all take our weapons and begin hacking at the root as Wug holds it taut, the damage finally weakening the already dead and moist piece of wood and letting it break as a loud scream comes from the tree. Two yellow eyes open on the trunk, glaring at us in malevolence as a maw opens on the tree and it begins spitting out rotten purple vines.
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(Withered Treant Level 4)
A once majestic protector of forested and wild area's, this guardian perished long ago and somehow was brought back from the dead. Although its great defense has been worn away after death, it's body now holds extreme hatred of the living and it has cultivated vile poisons within it.
I grimace as I realize this is the first time we've encountered an undead and it isn't even a normal zombie or skeleton that's easy to kill but a damn tree monster. Wug charges the treant's body while grabbing his club before jamming the center of it into the gnashing maw of the tree. I yell out to try and split its body near the mouth and am surprised as a long white needle zooms through the air and pierces one of the treant's eyes. I look behind me and see Sheer pulling out another thin needle made of bone before throwing it near the other eye before grimacing as the needle thuds into the trunk mere inches from the eye. Mog is casting his minor heal repeatedly trying to counter the damage Wug is taking as well as the poison that's splashing out of the maw of the treant. Pearl is growling behind me as I turn to look and am stunned to see her surrounded by the bodies of several beetle the size of a Labrador. I inspect one of the insects and grimace as I read the info.
(Plague Beetle Level 1)
Large beetles that are attracted to area's with a lot of death, these creatures pose little threat to the living but in large numbers can swarm opponents for a fresh meal.
As i watch Pearl dispatch another of the beetles i decide to leave her to it and activate my desperate charge ability towards the treants trunk as well as using the wolf head canes ability. I watch as a soft yellow glow surrounds everybody and notice that not Wug is making actual progress instead of just defending and that the attacks that hit the treant are gouging deeper than before. As i approach my cane swings back almost like its an instinct and suddenly with a burst of speed I club the side of the treant with all my strength, causing a large hole to be blasted through it's side allowing Wug to inch his club into the hole and start breaking through the trunk. As i begin falling to the ground in exhaustion I watch the group finally break the tree in half, the treant making one last gurgling roar before going silent and slumping to the ground in real death.
As I struggle to sit up Sheer approaches and gives me a hand, helping me walk to where the group is standing and looking at the dead treant in disgust and relief. Mog begins healing everyone as Pearl drags one of the beetle corpses over to me while repeatedly smacking the body with her tail until i finally realize what she's saying.
"Guys try to get some of the plates off the beetles if they aren't to beat up, they'd make better armor than what we have and I'm not sure if we'll come back through here." I say as Wug and Sheer begin peeling the carapaces off and putting the few that are intact into one of the bags hanging on Pearl, while Mog is crouched near the treants body doing something.
As i stumble over I realize Mog is carefully taking pieces of the bark off the treant's body as well as casting regrowth over different pieces causing fresh healthy roots to come out of and replace the undead rotting ones.
"Treants are rare so I thought it would be worth a try to regrow it I don't know if it will work though. We should also get sheer to grab some of that poison that's sitting in its throat it would be good to coat her daggers and those needles she made." Mog says quietly as he finally sits down and smiles in exhaustion. After I pass on the words I fall over beside him before telling everyone we'll camp here until we're rested up and we take a watch shift of two people per shift. Once Wug and Sheer take out their food and weapons I finally give in to my exhaustion and pass out.