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Shu whips out a scroll of mage armor and casts it on Shu.
"You go break wood!"
My guess is that he has not edited it from the battle at the lodge. Exiel also has not edited out his protection from evil, but I am aware of it and taking it into account.
Shu tags Mu with mage armor.
Badr and Eldanar are still up
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So we don't hold things up, Eldanar can declare 2 consecutive actions when he posts (should not make a difference in this case).
The trees move in on Exiel and attack him with their woody limbs!
(flanking)
Exiel handily fends them both off.
New round, Eldanar post 2 actions
Edit: not flanking Exiel after all. Short of 10ft of movement. XD
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With 2 well-placed shots, Eldanar blasts 2 sizeable holes in the trunk of the nearer of the two ambulant trees, causing it to stumble backwards. The tree looks surprised (if indeed trees can look surprised) that such small chunks of metal could cause so much damage to it, and it eyes Eldanar warily as it finds its footing once more.
Neither tree appear to be in particularly good shape at this point. Shu pre-declared an action.
Shu makes a quick gesture with his hand and with a quick incantation fires a small green bead of corrosive fluid at the nearest tree.
and manages to peg the tree with the spash of acid. The tree bellows as it buckles under the unslaught. It appears to be just barely standing now.
Now waiting on Guilford.
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Exiel chops deep into the trunk of the treant he'd previously hacked, and twists his blade, causing the wood to split even further. The treant staggers back, thrashing about in pain before collapsing to the snow, nothing more than curiously-shaped firewood.
Shu, with his great knowledge of all things wooden, notices that the remaining treant is barely holding together - the two shot from Eldanar earlier had severely damaged the creature, and created a weakspot that, if eaten through, would cause the creature to snap under its own weight. With a well-aimed shot of acid, Shu burns right through the weak point, and the creature creaks as the compromised lower half of its body buckles under the weight of the upper half, and it falls to the ground, also thrashing about for a few moments before ceasing to move.
You spend the next few hours watching warily for moving trees as you follow the trail, but thankfully, no other trees move to attack you.
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The trail descends from the ridge and proceeds through the woods for some distance before you come to a clearing. More than a dozen boulder-sized chunks of ice litter the clearing, and in the distance, on a raised mound of snow-covered earth, a small hut stands perched on four tree trunks shaped in the likeness of chicken legs.
As you enter the clearing, an image of a shivering young Ulfen girl suddenly appears amidst the ice boulders. She looks at you for a brief moment, then darts away, moving deeper into the field of boulders. She looks distraught and deathly afraid, though you are not sure whether it is you that she fears, or something else. As she ducks behind a boulder, you hear a soft, terrified voice call out
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. Please don't hurt me! I never meant to call you names!"
You get to the boulder and look behind it, but she is nowhere to be seen.
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Badr's understanding of ghosts is that they resemble white floating bed-sheets with with black holes for eyes and a mouth. He would not know a ghost if one painted itself purple and danced naked on a harpsichord before him singing 'ghostly ghosts are here again'.
Eldanar and Badr call out to the girl, but there is no response. Eldanar looks around, but cannot see any trace of her. He is pretty sure that if she were around to be spotted, he would have spotted her.
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The party stalls as Badr and Eldanar try to look around for the little girl whilst Guilford waits warily at the edge of the forest. An uneasy silence fills the clearing, though at one point some of you are almost certain you hear a soft sobbing in the wind... but if you did, it faded as quickly as it started.
As Eldanar rounds a corner around an ice boulder, he sees the girl again. She is sitting on the floor this time, a short distance away from him, her hand raised towards him imploringly. Yet at the same time, she seems to be looking at something other than him, perhaps something behind him?
"Please don't keep me here. It's so cold. I miss my mother."
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"This reminds me of story I once hear." Shu says, then slips into storyteller mode, complete with wide eyes and theatrical gestures. White witches of Irrisen erect huts like this along their border.
"Some say structure resemble fabled chicken-legged Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, with purpose to ward off trespasser. Each contain porcelain doll that hold corrupted soul of stolen child. At night doll come alive and hunt any foolish enough to invade Irrisen. Only way to free child soul is to destroy doll, though attempting such probably cause it to attack, regardless of time of day."
His story ended, he reverts to his usual flippant self.
"I say we climb in hut. If we see doll, then count one two three, and proceed with target practice."
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"You speak wisely, Shu. Perhaps it would be best for one of our stout warriors to try smashing the doll to bits with a heavy hammer or mace? This way it can't get into the snow. Maybe Badr or Eldanar can shoot it where it is. In any event, I think it's best for us to keep our distance and prepare spells in case this plan fails. I would be very happy if we could help send this poor soul to a peaceful rest."
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With nothing else to do, you continue forward towards the mound. You find that there is a path leading up the mound to the hut.
As you walk along the path, however, the apparition appears yet once more. This time, she looks straight at Exiel and Eldanar, her eyes clearly focusing on the two of you in between her sobs. She says to you
"I have to get away! And you should too, before they see you! Before they find you! Run. RUN! RUUUUUUNNNN!!!"
And then she is gone yet one more, her pleading voice lingering in the air just a second longer than her appearance.
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Exiel grits his teeth, his every muscle tensed, his eyes narrowed with fury.
Thank you for the warning, little one. But I too know what it is like to be imprisoned as a child, to have a curse inflicted upon you as a child. Though in my case, I deserved my curse. It was justice, whereas your affliction was a result of sadistic and cruel tyranny.
Snapping from his reverie, Exiel composes himself and whispers to the air.
I will not rest till your soul is freed from this curse. I only pray that destroying your prison does not cause you more pain than you have already suffered.
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Shu laughs at Mu's comment. "Metal pole, indeed!"
Pu sticks his head out and peers over at Eldanár, then chitters angrily at Mu before retreating to his turban, leaving two beady eyes glaring from within the fabric.
Shu cackles like an old woman. "I think he take that personally!"
When Eldanár asks about witches Shu rolls his eyes, but says nothing.
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You finally reach the top of the mound, Eldanar a little ways ahead. He is the first to reach the small hut. It stands here on four legs, each one a single tree trunk whose gnarled roots that resemble the toes of a giant chicken. The hut itself is constructed of heavy logs with a patchwork roof of shaved bark shingles. Inside the hut’s open doorway, a small figure sits on a carved wooden chair, staring across the clearing at the trail on the other side (the side which you came from).
The doll's face is that of an old crone, though it sports the downy flaxen hair of a little girl, and it bears an eerily strong resemblance to the countenance of the phantom girl you just encountered. Equally unnerving are the doll's mismatched eyes - one a blue gemstone, the other a small round mirror the size of a coin, reflecting the world around her.
Knowledge Arcana
Exiel recognises the mirror eye as a potential scrying device, and furthermore that the witches of Irrisen have spells that can employ ANY reflective surface as a scrying sensor.
He also realises that the blue gemstone eye is a soul focus, the prison which the doll's soul is locked in. Even if the doll is destroyed, the soul gem can be used to simply make another doll, and for the girl's soul to be freed, it is the gemstone eye specifically that must be destroyed.