Seeing Wilhelm drop into the mud, Gorruum croaks something sharp in boggard at Ubagub. The huge slurk pushes ponderously through the swamp, enduring a nasty blow from one of the trees branches. Responding violently, the slurk grabs the branch in its mouth and shakes the entire tree violently, like a dog pouncing on a squirrel.
The tree slashes at Ubagub, but the rascally reptile squidges/slides through the muck and flips it's tail to jink sideways on it's belly slime and get's missed. Ubagub's fangs slash into the tree, and it comes away with a mouth full of splinters, yumm!
T1 : 48
Seeing Wilhelm go down, Dante charges to his liege's aid. Charging the tree, attempting to place himself between the tree and the downed paladin. Or at least distract the tree.
"Anastacia! Protect Wilhelm!"
The tree slashes at Dante, and the scythe like limb slams into his back as it slams down over his head, peeling his plate armor like it was nothing more than thin tin. Blood splatters over his horse's flanks as he slams into the tree with his greatsword.
T1 : 68
"Tree tree! Ikit make you burn burn!"
Ikit races forward and throws a bomb over Ubagub's body at the tree.
The fire explodes up the tree's bark and it's leaves seem to all catch on fire at once. It slowly topples.
Anastacia rushes to Wilhelm's side. "Again I beg your forbearance, Great Pharasma. This one is not quite ready for you."
Anastacia calls on the divine to bring Wilhelm back to consciousness.
Then she orders: "Dante! Finish those trees off! Make sure they are completely dead. I don't want my healing channeling to bring them back to life too."
Wilhelm groans, biting back a gasp as his punctured side flares with agony from the movement. His eyes flicker, and he finds himself looking up to the sky, still sitting in his saddle. Triumph wickers, looking eagerly to the side and back to him. He sits upright slowly, minding his still bleeding side, and bites back a scream at the jolt of agony in his side. "My thanks, Anastacia. Those things were fiercely strong. I wouldn't have expected a tree to be able to do so much damage to man in plate." Laying hands to his own wound, he prays for Iomedae's blessing.
As the glow fades from his hand, a long splinter is slowly ejected from the ghastly wound in his side and the blood flows to a throbbing trickle. "I see that they are both dead. Was I the only one horridly hurt?"
"I have gotten a decent slash in my side as well, but from the looks of it I think you were the one closest to earn a spot next Anastacia's deity." Turning away from the others Natalie starts looking at the remains of other unfortunate souls who traveled this way. "I really don't like these woods, I should have gathered more knowledge about this place to avoid surprises like this."
Upon Anastacia's prompt, Fhârn continues to hack away on the other tree for good measure. Better safe then sorry! Glad that his fly spell was still operational, Fhârn levitated a few feet above the ground avoiding the swampy muck.
"This was the last of these, but there might be more. I suggest we do a quick sweep of the area as soon as our wounds are mended. It would reflect poorly upon us if we told the dryad we slain them, and then have her decapitated by a scythe tree the very next week or so ..."
Gorruum watches as the fiery tree topples, only to be quickly extinguished in the damp waters of the swamp. Seeing Wilhelm's gruesome injuries, he checks himself over and finds a gash where one of the trees struck in the heat of battle. The boggard looks around the terrain and fixes his eyes on a patch of lichens growing on one of the trees. He collects those, a handful of broad-leafed plants, and a couple of short vines. He sets the lichen against the wound, covers it with one of the broad leaves and then binds the mixture with a pair of vines. After doing the same for Ubagub's wounds, he asks, "Gorruum help? Make hurt less."
Looking in the roots of the first tree, Natalie finds 3 pieces of amber worth 100 gp each and a folded up bundle of cloth that appears to be a robe of bones. In addition, 42 cp, 55 sp, 6 gp, and simple silver ring worth 65 gp are found in the bones scattered around to the south of the dead log.
Additionally, she notices an intact body inside the log.
With a sigh, Dante dismounted his horse and went up to Wilhelm and Anastacia.
"Are you alright my lord?" he asked. Damn trees, lucky it didn't hit my spine. he winced as he rolled his arms in socket. The branch had punctured his armor and pierced right next to his right shoulder blade.
Blood dripped from the hole, but he didn't think his lung had been punctured.
"Check this out my lords, a completly intact body inside the tree trunk. Guess the really do 'eat' thier victims." Natalie puts the valueables into her purse and hold up the rope as if studying it, inviting others to tell if its something they can use
"Good thing I'm not pig-headed like some..." Anastacia stares at Dante long enough to let everyone know who she is talking about. The cleric slogs through the mud to help Fhârn make certain the trees are beyond healing. Once that nessesary task is finished Anastacia raises her symbol of Pharasma high.
"Gather round everyone. Lady of Graves, Goddess of Birth, Death, and Prophecy. Lend me you righteous might, grant us your gift of healing."
The symbol emits it's transparent wave of healing, closing wounds and restoring life.
Seeing as noone was in the danger of dying anymore, Fhârn decides to make use of the other four minutes of flight.
"The trees reacted when you shot 'them', right Anastacia? I'm going to take my sling and some pinecones and check the trees still up. I don't think they would pass up a good fight, but it never hurts to check..."
A chill shudders up his spine as the cleric's holy light washes over him. The hole in his back sealing.
He laid a hand on Anastacia's shoulder and cracked a wry smile. "I may be pig headed, but at least your lady found reason to heal me. Thank you for your aid."
Anyone checking out the hollowed out tree trunk that the scythe trees were standing next to? Natalie said she saw a body inside.
"I just wanted to give us a light, I didn't realize I was aiming at our enemy." Anastacia tells Fhârn. Then Anastacia speaks to the archon, in celestial, briefly , sending it to accompany
Fhârn in his exploration.
To Dante she replies. "I suppose I shouldn't get annoyed when you shout your orders. It's probably just the ingrained habits of an old soldier."
The dark clad cleric almost smiles. "You should thank Pharasma, it is her power that I channel."
"When I channel the healing energy, it heals all living souls in it's radius. So, we if want prisoners, they must be secured. If not, then the fallen must be truly dead, not just mortally wounded. Otherwise, we would be fighting them a second time."
"Aye. But it was the reaction I seek to replicate, not the intention!" Fhârn grins and flies away, with the archon in tow.
_________________________
A few minutes later he return. He doesn't appear worse for the wear, and he quickly confirms that he found no more scythe trees.
"It would seem that we are in the clear. Unless the murderous trees exercise a great deal of restraint, I think we got them all. And the dryad only mentioned two if I recall correctly ..."
Since he had been given his new collar, the raven was alot more sociable. Since this meant a small upswing in Munin - people interaction, perhaps not everyone was pleased.
During the fight with the scythe trees, he had spent it observing from a safe distance. The branches on those things looked perfectly adept at smacking something raven-sized out of the sky and when they struck flesh and metal, they tore deep gashes. As such, Munin was more then happy to let the ground hoppers deal with the menace.
Afterwards however, Natalie's mention of carrion caught the birds interest and he flow down to inspect. Landing ontop of the log, he 'knelled down' and leaned his head over the edge and looked inside.
"Caw-hmm. Anyone we recognize ? And is it properly dead?"
The body is not properly dead, it's still got a slow heart beat.
"Caw! I don't think it is edible just yet. This one is still alive ..." the raven remarks and bobs his head up and down. He 'sits up' properly on the log again and puffs up his feathers. "...but I can fix it if it is a problem?"
Hearing the Raven talk Natalie decides its best to check on the poor soul's condition.
"No Munin it's not a problem I'll just check his vitals. Natalie turns calling for Anastacia's attention "I think we might have a live one in here Anastacia, I also think that your mending skills are far superior to mine.
"Alive? I'd best have a look." Anastacia slogs through the mud, glad that she has high boots. At least the mud isn't getting on her socks.
"Pharasma grant me your vision, allow me to observe the spark of life."
Anastacia casts deathwatch, she is not sure that Munin knows undead from unconscious.
As near as Natalie can tell, it's still alive, but barely. It's also wedged into the log, nearly directly in the center as far as possible from each end of the log.
Anastacia looks into the log, and can tell that the body is alive, although critically wounded. Stable, but slowly dying.
"What do you purpose we do Anastacia? Shall we try dislodge him from the tree trunk? And if so then we might need som lore muscles to help"
In his current state, tugging on him would likely re-open his wounds and kill him.
"Caawwwwww" Munin exclaims with a disappointed sigh.
"Pig head?" Gorruum looks curiously at Dante and mumbles, "Metal head. Not pig head." Clearly he has not yet mastered this strange tongue. Anastacia's magic is also a strange revelation. After feeling his wounds close more quickly than expected on their own, he peeks under the swamp vegetation. Then pulls it off and prods at the renewed skin. Then repeats the same with Ubagub's wounds. Pondering the unexpected healing he joins the others inspecting the body in the tree.
Giving out a little sigh of exasperation at the others discussing the poor soul stuck in the tree, Shimmer walks her shiny scaled behind and places a curing hand on the near dead one.
The body (a man's body) jerks and spasms as the healing energy flows into it, and the man slowly begins to come around.
Corwen coughs weakly as the healing energy floods through him, then freezes as he remembers his predicament. Cocking his head so as to be able to squint out of the log, he regards the kobold's scaly snout and glittering eyes as she peers back at him.
"Er... hullo there," he says weakly in Draconic, the rolling lilt of the River Kingdoms on his tongue. "You have me at a disadvantage." He remains motionless, awaiting a response.
Natalie looks at the man clearly not understanding a word he is saying,
but she is certain that the man is of half elven heritage so she tries speaking in the common tongue to the man: "Hi there, how are you feeling? I'm not familiar with your language, but if you can understand me then we are not going to hurt you."
She hold out her hand to the man wanting to help him get on his feets, and introduces herself in broken elven "My name Lady Natalie and who you might be?"
Reassured by Natalie's words (and in no position to argue anyhow), Corwen gives a half-grin and takes her hand. With the aid of the kobold and the female half-elf, Corwen extricates himself from the hollow log. He moves stiffly, and his face is pale and drawn. His clothes, while decently made, are torn and caked with mud, and hang loosely from his frame, suggesting recent weight loss. In fact, he looks somewhat skeletal.
Corwen is rather short for a half-elf, standing at just 5'7" tall. His white-blonde hair is long and straight, and he has fine yet masculine facial features (and is also somewhat vain about his appearance). He wears simple silver hoop earrings up the length of each ear (four each side), and favours dark or black clothing. He is easy with a smile and a laugh, but also seems to be constantly keeping a keen eye on everything that happens around him. He is slim and lithe rather than well-muscled, and carries little extra weight on his frame. His voice is of a medium pitch, and well-modulated, though it displays a hint of the lilting twang of the River Kingdoms.
Eying the diverse bunch surrounding him warily, he nevertheless gives a sketchy bow - one reminiscent of a country performer rather than one suited to a noble's court. "You've my thanks, friends," he begins, then looks around the area until he spots the fallen scythe trees. "Good riddance," he mutters, regarding their remains with annoyance and anger.
"My name is Corwen. Again, my thanks. I would have been carrion for your bird friend here before much longer." To Natalie he says in elven with a cautious smile, "And it's a pleasure to meet another of my kind, and a fair lady at that."
Gold Lizard and Light But Dark are shamans? The boggard continues to watch with curiosity as the half-elf is freed from the tree. As soon as the man speaks, he croaks "PAR LAY!" then quiets as Natalie engages the man in conversation.
"And I am in not doubt sure Munin would have liked that if it were the case. Was a good thing we decided to have a good look around, might I ask what brings you out here?" Natalie says in common for all to understand.
Corwen takes a moment to consider his words. "I was trying to make my way to Brevoy. I had companions at one point, but found myself travelling alone in the end. My pony and I wandered into this area at night, and were swiftly set upon by those giant tree-things. After nearly being decapitated by their branches, I managed to hide in this log. I heard my pony fall. I've been in there for days. I couldn't ask for some water, could I...?"
"It's good we were hunting these scythe trees then. You were close to dying." Anastacia hands her water skin to the half-elf.
"Ah, thank you m'Lady," Corwen murmurs, then drinks deeply from the water skin. Having drunk most of it, he gives a contented sigh and returns it to Anastacia with another slight bow.
"So where are you folks headed, anyhow?"
"Thank you, Dante, I seem to be in one piece. I'll be giving my armorer fits fixing this, but better to be alive to hear his complaint then the alternative." Flexing slightly to test the wound, he suppresses a groan. He sighs in contentment as Anastacia's healing magic washes over him. "I believe my wounds are well enough for now, thank you Anastacia."
Wilhelm dismounts, investigating as Felicia heals the gravely injured man. He stands back as the others help him from the log and introduce themselves. Standing aside, Wilhelm is a tall young man standing just over six feet tall and clad in muddied, bloody armor that shines through with gold filigree in a few places.
Wilhelm's appearance... sort of.
He smiles, extending a hand and says, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Corwen. I am Baron Wilhelm Orlovsky, lord of Domierov and the Greenlands." Wilhelm steps back and hooks a gauntleted through his belt, "To answer your question, we were heading here. The destruction of these scythe trees was our objective for now. We have been seeing to a number of matters and, unfortunately, I don't see us returning to Zatoksta for some weeks. You are familiar with our kingdom?"
Corwen smiles and takes Wilhelm's offered hand, although has to stop his smile from slipping as the Baron mentions his title.
If you make that check, you notice that Corwen seems instantly uncomfortable with being in the presence of the lord of this land.
"No m'lord, I'm not familiar with these parts at all. Zatoksta, you say? What are your travel plans from here then...?"
With an annoyed/amused glance at the raven, Fhârn called Munin back to his side. The raven in turn gives him (and Natalie) a hurt look, as if to say 'would I? I that am so innocent?'. But it doesn't take a sense motive roll to see trough that display! After curtailing the bird, Fhârn introduces himself with a nod at Corwen.
"We will, I suppose, travel back trough the forest to visit some of the local colours. There are some promises we will make good of and slaying the trees were the start of that."
Anastacia takes back her waterskin absently. Then she stands back to let Wilhelm do his job. At the same time, she is sizing the half-elf up. Just because he got himself into a pinch doesn't mean that he is on the up and up.
"Stomping out sparks, before they flare into fires. And there's plenty of sparks."
Corwen hesitates for a moment, seems to make a decision, then speaks on. "Well, m'lords and ladies, I'm only a poor traveller with nothing to my name but what I carry... and whatever's on the remains of my pony. But I can be a handy fellow to have around, and I know how to use these weapons at my belt. Might I be a chance to tag along with you fine folk in exchange for whatever help I can give? I'll admit, I've no food or water left, but I do have coin and my skills to pay my way." He looks to Wilhelm and Anastacia, seeming to assume that they may be the decision-makers for the party.