Sonya gestures, muttering under her breath, before releasing turning over her palm and blowing an ever enlarging cloud of silvery, glittering motes at the fey swarming the ancient crone of a troll.
Green's earthbreaker drives one briarfey into the dirt with a twig-snapping sound, and he successfully bites into the flailing arm of the second.
Sonechka and Dolgrym each affect several of the creatures with their spells. The old troll spits out a few unintelligible words until flame springs from her hand. She begins to burn the grappling pests from her.
Norton withdraws to reach Murak
Furiel throws more webs which drape across the thicketed stumps to the south. One briarfey evades the spell, and whips its long claw-tipped arm at him. Those held in the webs are wide-eyed terrified... though two quickly pull free - extricating themselves right at Furiel and Dolgrym's feet.
The three blinded briarfey back off from the old troll and curl up defensively.. while three more wrap round her legs. As they do, the surrounding plantlife produces green shoots which aid in binding her.
The leader rushes in to assist his ally in doing the same to Green.
Two icy blasts miss Norton as he makes his way out of the thicket.
The Green Man's focus switches completely to the fool that would rush in to attack him.
in the blood red haze of his rage, that seems like a challenge that cannot be allowed to go uncontested.
AoO with Bull's Strength with Fey Bane hammer
Damage
Dolgrym swings his magical weapon at the evil fey.
Attack with Bull's Strength with Fey Bane hammer
Damage
The briarfey leader ducks under Green's first swing... Green's ax shaves the tips off the thorns atop its head. His second swing nearly kills it... The faint spirits orbiting Green during his rage slam into the briarfey leader, and bring it down.
Dolgrym's swing hits his foe hard enough that pulpy remnants stick to the hammer.
The old troll lifts her head and hands to face the sky, and yells out a few phrases.
The old troll says a few more words then hurl a growing ball of flame to the ground at her feet. Though she has her back to the group, Dolgrym, Sonechka, Green, and Furiel catch some of the fire. The stick-like branches of the thicket blast apart and burn up as near-harmless glowing bits... leaving only charred soil and stumps in the area.
All of the briarfey on and around her die from the fiery explosion... she feels around and snatches one up and into her mouth before it drops from her side.
With the area around the troll cleared, you can see more of the briarfey who'd been hiding... now without cover.
You can hear the children to the east yelling "Let him go! Let him go!" "No no no! Just run!"
Reflex
The Mage was crisped by the fire. "Hey, watch it!"
Furiel withdraws from the fey around him.
Noton mounts and spurs Murak around the thicket to reach the children.
The briarfey within Furiel's web continue to struggle with extricating themselves... and the webs obstruct their line of sight enough to make ranged attacks ineffective.
The four at the edge of scorched clearing hurl icy bolts at the troll then back away a few feet back into uncharred thicket.
Two of the four slowed fey lash out at Sonechka and Green.
The two nearest Dolgrym move right up on him... like they'd done to the troll before wrapping her up in foliage under their control.
Dolgrym keeps hammering away with his feybane weapon at the creatures.
Bull's Strenth attack with Feybane weapon
Damage
Sonechka recoils and screams in outrage at the flames burning her eternally chilly skin and singeing her feathered cloak. She turns to one of the closest briarfey and her scream explodes from angry to something that could shatter glass.
The fire washes over The Green Man, but in his rage, he cannot feel it.
Instead he keeps hammering at the enemy, seeking to turn them all into a bloody paste for daring to harm children.
A couple icy blasts fly from the two slowed fey from which Furiel withdrew. They miss their target.
Several more attempt the same with the troll while creeping backward into the uncharred thicket.... one hits.
One finally breaks free from Furiel's web, and breaks for the hatch... retreating underground.
The old troll growls low, and moves vaguely in the direction she was struck. Once she reaches thicketry not yet cleared, she gestures then points at the ground just in front of her.
A burning globe of fire appears, and rolls north... burning the dry brush, and the fey in its path (where it remains for a few seconds).
Norton keeps riding to the kids.
"Get behind me." he shouts to them, then if in reach he attacks the nearest threat.
As Norton nears the three children, he sees the eldest boy wrapped in thorny vines up to his shoulders - two fey are affixed to his hip and thigh. With his one free hand, the boy is attempting to keep a third briarfey from lashing onto the girl - who is resisting her older brother's urges to flee without him.
As the entangled eldest boy see's Norton "Yes go! He's human... a soldier .. a knight!"
Furiel pulls his cloak tight and joins the chase to help the children.
He soars thirty feet up and 70' to the kids.
The dwarf keeps hammering away with his feybane weapon at the fey closest to him. "Just give up already, you damned fey!"
Bull's Strenth attack with Feybane weapon
Damage
Sonechka, still angry at having been burned by the troll's fireball, backs away from the briarfey menacing her and sends a wave of baleful energy at the malevolent little beast. "My friend has something he wants to say to you."
While not in the most tactical mindset, The Green Man does realize that if the enemies here are beaten first, it would free up his allies to act where they please.
As such he moves towards the two fey left menacing Dolgrym and Sonechka and strikes out at them with weapon, tusk and spirit.
Dolgrym and Green destroy the two briarfey remaining nearby.
The old troll's ball of flame ignites the thicket, and the fire spreads around her. More and more of the tiny fey come out of hiding to swarm her as she begins chanting to the heavens. They are frantically focused on bringing her down.
Smoke begins to rise from the hatch within the briars.
The youngest child (8yo boy) stands wide-eyed and motionless, the young girl (10yo) swats defensively and cringes but does not leave her brothers' side. The oldest child.. a boy in his early teens remains entangled by two briarfey.
Norton and Murak move around the kids to hit the briars that are holding the boy.
With Norton, Murak, and Furiel surrounding them, the briarfey slip from the young teen boy, and attempt to retreat into the thicket. The youngest boy is still frozen in fear, and the girl is sobbing - cringing each time the old troll roars.
The fires grow around the old troll, and the smoking ground begins to collapse under her weight... Her scaly hide darkens, and begins to split... her protection against fire chars and sloughs off. It is clear the entire area will burn without a serious effort against the fire, and it looks possible that the troll will perish.
No more fey are near Green Sonechka and Dolgrym, but smoke is thickening.
Now free, the young teen boy looks to Norton and Furiel...
"You've come to help! Has mother sent you? Where is she?!"
The Green Man heaves a massive sigh as the rage fades.
It does not take him long to realize that the fight is not yet over, and now he must battle on shaky legs, with burning lungs and black spots dancing in his eyes.
His mind now clear, he also realizes the danger of their position.
"The ground, it's going to collapse! Lady Alkaeva, Master Sharpaxe, we have to move, now!"
Dolgrym double moves away from the danger as fast as his short legs will carry him.
Though the spread of fire is quick, everyone gets clear of the thicket without further injury.
The children give their names... Davner, Vernda, and little Luke.
Davner the early teen boy.. "Mother went to ask the plant man for help." he looks and gestures vaguely northwest.
"Mister Leshy." Vernda "corrects" with a nod.
Davner shrugs unsure and continues "She left us with our uncle, and his sons. The faeries found us where we were hiding in the woods, and told Uncle Trenn that trolls catch on fire real easy, and they'd help. The three of us stayed here while they went to fight the trolls. The faeries came back, but they didn't. Didn't go so good they said." he looks worn down, distressed... "Anyway... mother should've been back by now."
Vernda offers... "Mother said Dad was too far away to help us, but maybe she changed her mind, and that's why she's late. That could be, right?"
The Green Man shifts uncomfortably, unsure of what to say at first.
The Fey could very well have allowed the uncle and his sons to die against the trolls, so they could keep the children, and the mother and Mister Leshy...well...
"Listen kids, we could take you to Stagfall, trust me, it is better to wait for your mother somewhere safer than here.
I promise, there are NO trolls in Stagfall at the very least."
The Green Man kneels down so as t not make himself seem to large and intimidating.
"Have any of you kids ever seen a castle? We're rebuilding ours as we speak, it'll be truly grand once it's completed."
Davner the eldest shrugs "Dunno.. how would she find us?"
The ten year old girl Vernda doesn't buy it. "You have a castle...."
Davner is fairly set on finding their mother, but realizes he cannot protect his siblings.
They will go with you wherever you decide to travel.
"Well, we're coming back this way after we have dropped you off, so we'll look for her, and we can also leave a message for her to find in this area.
As for the castle, the Broadhammer clan is rebuilding it for us, dwarves are masterful craftsmen, but maybe a touch slow compared to most others."
"By the by, tell us more about this mister Leshy, we might like to talk to him later, and we can ask about your mother at the same time."
Davner shrugs "He's a man made of plants who lives on the other side of the river."
Vernda has more to say... "He protects a secret part of the woods. He doesn't like people too much, but he isn't mean really. He can do magic with flowers and trees. He likes mother because she helped make Father's boss stop cutting wood near his woods. But now father is so far away he almost never comes to see us."
"A man made out of plants? Sounds almost like a nature spirit, there seem to be a lot of spirits in these lands.
...
So wild and majestic...
Ah, do you know the name of your father's boss?"
Dolgrym wasn't good at coddling children. He thought taking hem to Stagfall was the proper course of action as well. His ears perked up at the sounds of the 'plant man," however.
Know. Nature
Furiel helps get the kids to the castle.
Then they can look for the parents and plantman.
"Mister Karrasin."
After a full day of travel, you reach the Narthropple camp. You find it currently occupied by the hunter team assembled by Norton. They'd just begun eating.. a second boar is still roasting on the spit above the campfire. A half-elf woodsmen is tending to the boiling potatoes, and gravy. "Share camp for the night, or forging on to Stagfall? It'd be after midnight before you get there... and you can see, we've plenty eats t'feed ya.."
"Also found a boar's nest between here and there. Big one. Might be that Tuskgutter. Gruesome ring of carcasses around it. Quite a few sizable boars around, but the big guy wasn't around. That area is pretty thin on game."
"I'd say it would be a shame to pass on such an invitation.
I haven't had boar for far too long, and I bet the kids wouldn't mind a good meal either."
Dolgrym's mouth was watering at the very smell of the succulent boar, and he quickly nodded his head in approval. "Be a damned shame to let all that good meat go to waste. I'd be happy to break bread with you fellas and bunk down here for the night. It sure smells better burning than we do," he laughs, calling back to the troll's fire that had nearly roasted the whole group.
Furiel nods and helps the kids get washed up for dinner.
Finding a box to sit down on, The Green Man sighs contentedly.
Days like these will likely become fewer as our lands grow, and grow more civilized.
They say the king and the land grow to resemble each other, so I guess that means I will become more civilized as well...
"The majesty of the land, the untamed wild lands.
I vow that we must keep some of the land like this, just like this..."
The children warm up to the hunters rather quickly... they are more of the sort which the children are accustomed. As a result they become more comfortable with you... your qualities which differ from woodsy rural folk become intriguing rather than intimidating. On the road they'd been polite, but nervous and withdrawn... now you see normal wonder and curiosity in their eyes.
The hunters laugh along with Dolgrym, and comment that you do still have a smoky scent to you.
Rook appreciates Green's words... "I'll raise a mug to that, M'Lord. Gladdens me to hear it from ye. These are lands like no other... no woods sing like the Narlmarches."
Vernda adds "Did you know... Mother says it's the faerie dragon king buried under ground that makes the forest special."
The hunters shrug, and shake their heads.. unaware of that alleged fact.
The Green Man pulls a little on his beard in thought.
"That's not an entirely unbelievable tale, this land, it's wild, the kind of land you would find fey living in.
And a dragon, it changes the land it lives in, even in death."
A wistful sigh escapes his lips.
"You know, back in the old country, to the far north, there lives plenty of a type of dragon called a Linnorm.
Great big beasts they are, they lack wings, and they don't have any hind legs, but they are as powerful and fearsome as a normal dragon.
To become king, you need to slay such a beast in combat, then you mount it's head on your wall as a sign of your right to rule."
Sonechka takes slices of boar so red they might as well have still been bleeding as she bites into them. She smiles her chill smile at Green, lips blood red and her dark eyes flashing like a cat's in the flickering light of the cookfire. "I would wait until we can face trolls more readily before we start tilting at dragonkin, my lord."
"Oh, no fear of that, at least not as far as Linnorms are concerned.
As the story goes, there was a war between dragons and Linnorms, and the dragons won.
As part of the peace agreement, the Linnorms may not venture south."
The Green Man grins and scratch the back of hi head idly.
"But fighting dragons, that is the dream of every hero isn't it? To defeat a mighty beast such as that."
The Green Man opens his mouth to make a comment about not intending to tilt his "lance" against any dragons, but out of the corner of his eye he notices the children.
Wisely, the jest is left unsaid.
"Hmmm, seeing as we are safe enough, and about to sleep, let me see to our wounds."
Sonechka takes another bite of her almost-bloody meat. "I would not care to fight a dragon, regardless. If the chance ever presents itself I will look for... less straightforward options than combat." She nods her thanks when Green heals them. "Thank you, my lord."