With no more questions, the Venture-Captain concludes the mission briefing and you enjoy the rest of the tea ceremony. Afterwards, you start packing for a long journey.
It's winter by now, and snow blankets the landscape. In the open fields, with nothing to stop the snow from blowing all over, it's freezing cold. The icy wind stings your face and any exposed flesh it can find. Luckily the roads are well-maintained and though travel is slightly slower, you experience no delays or detours.
It takes several weeks to even reach the Forest of Spirits, let alone cross through it. You meet several groups of travelers heading to Minkai and nomadic herders roaming the plains, but none of them have seen the missing group of Pathfinders.
When you enter the Forest of Spirits, the atmosphere changes. Because of the density of the trees, the wind and snow die down to a pleasant snowfall, turning the journey from a somewhat harsh trek to a pleasant winter wonderland. You get the feeling that this forest is alive. Not in the sense that the trees walk around, but that there's a rich ecosystem kept perfectly in balance. Squirrels, birds, foxes, and deer flit through the bushes, and you see bears lumbering through the woods in the distance. Sometimes, from the corner of your eye, you see movement, but as you turn your head, you can't quite make out what it was, and you constantly have the feeling of being watched.
You visit several more villages to restock (and relax a bit), but none of them have seen the Pathfinders, either. Tracks on the road and remains of campsites indicate the passage of several caravans, but upon investigation, there are no indications of any of these groups coming to harm.
Eventually, you come to a small village nestled deep in the woods, just far enough from the road that you could easily miss it. When you start your regular inquiries, you're immediately sushed as they see you're not from around here and that you must have travelled a long way. Before you can say anything, you're hauled off your carts and put in a nice roomy spare house with heated floors. The villagers immediately start cooking you a lavish dinner and you're put in a hot spring afterwards. The villagers don't want to hear anything related to work while you're relaxing. Baffled but completely relaxed, you fall asleep.
The next morning, you feel better than you've been in ages, especially the last few weeks. You're dreading leaving this place, but the mission comes first...
If you want to ask the locals for information, impressing them with Diplomacy, Medicine, and Performance will give you more information.
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Hoya looks miserable, her paws leave melted snow marks whenever she walks. But she seems to be constantly cold, trying to find shelter behind other agents. For short period Rawiri sits next to it, but the burns are too much.
Whenever they would make fire Hoya would be first to lie in it, purring silently. She would give hard look to anyone trying to push her out, or hang a cauldron over her.
Rawiri would wrap himself with warm clothes, the snow bothered him. As much as it limited flames he felt limited as well. He was moving slower and lacked his usual fire. In the evening whenever they burned fire he smiled and looked at the dancing flames. At times when he sat on the watch, he would chat with Merian
"I think I begin to understand why you are carrying that barrel of water with you, I do miss my flames. How can one live in such a place. Thanks for deciding to wake up and keep watch with me, it is always easier if you are not alone. So you told me about this god Yamatsumi? I didn't know you were familiar with Tian Gods ..."
But whenever he would wake up another agent Merian would be gone.
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As they arrive to the village, Rawiri has slept like a baby. Soft bed, warm room, and bath...
He would then spend some time chatting with locals and trying to tend to wounds that some have
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After a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable evening, Corona wakes the next morning with a desire to repay their hosts for their generosity. While the others fan out to chat with the locals or do some work at the village infirmary, she heads out to the village square for an impromptu dance performance.
"New Friends! It's not much but I wanted to do something to show our thanks for being so nice to us yesterday! I hope you like it!"
While the only music playing is the music in her head, Corona puts on what she thinks is a pretty good performance. She's certainly done better, but she's also done much worse, so all-in-all, she's pleased with her efforts.
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Rawiri talks to the villagers and thanks them for their hospitality. He finds out that this village is a kind of spa village, where weary travellers get to relax on their journey through the Forest of Spirits. Most of their accommodations are very cheap, since their services are so good, traders tend to give them a good price on their wares. It's a mutually beneficial relationship.
Sunshine starts tending some wounds. There aren't any serious injuries, but common injuries happen, such as minor cuts, some bruises, and so on. He talks while treating the villagers and they're very happy for his kind services.
Corona goes out to the village square and starts a slow, sweeping dance, dancing to the song of the sky. Soon, villagers gather and some pick up instruments to follow along. Soon, the village resounds with the harmony of the heavens. Corona's slow dance speeds up and starts whirling like a dervish, dancing all over the square representing the ever-expanding universe, its heavenly bodies perpetually spinning around each other. finally, her dance ends, the cadence of the cosmos still ringing in everyone's ears. Exhausted, she sits down and a rousing applause erupts around her.
All together, by the end of the day, you've found out several things:
- This is the first village that has actually seen the Pathfinders coming by. Since you're travelling in the opposite direction, you should've crossed them by now.
- There are several paths you could take through the Forest of Spirits, since obstructions or pockets of more active wildlife force travellers to take a detour.
- The caravan chose an older, lesser-used path through thicker woodlands, despite warnings from the villagers. They were determined to take this path, but they did not explain why, exactly.
"Maybe! But it doesn't matter - where they went, we have to follow," Settie chirps. "Into the woods! Into the woods~"
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"Oh yes, getting back out before it gets dark is probably important," Corona agrees. "It's too bad we don't know why they took the old path to start with. Did they think it would get them to their destination more quickly? Curiosity just get the better of them? I don't think they heard about anything neat or we probably would've heard the same story...hmm..."
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The group reconvenes at the village square to share intel and plan how to proceed. Suddenly, several villagers come rushing onto the square in a panic, yelling about the forest attacking them. All the villagers remaining on the square scatter. You all wonder what "the forest attacking" could mean, until three pine trees walk into the square, taking swipes at any remaining villagers.
Yellow pine tree advances and stops just before Sunshine, but seems out of actions to take a swipe.
Yellow - Nature check to identify
Rawiri
Purple - Nature check to identify
Corona
Sunshine
Smell of the Pines
Red - Nature check to identify
Rawiri may act!
All of you are so relaxed by last night's treatments that you all get one free reroll against a save triggered by an enemy.
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Rawiri moves toward two other creatures.
He stops and closes his eyes and reaches to the flames. The fire that allows life to exist, the heat needed to cook meals as well as devouring flames that consume all. His skin begins to burn, his eyes shine with bright light and his hair begins to move
"Go Hoya, protect sunshine"
Rawiri, undaunted by the sight of trees advancing on him, walks forward and casts a spell. Suddenly, the very air around him shimmers, as if looking at a desert mirage.
The purple pine tree advances on Rawiri, but once it enters the hot zone, it takes a few steps back and circles around the fiery dwarf in search of less combustible prey.
Yellow - Nature check to identify
Rawiri
Purple - Nature check to identify
Corona
Sunshine
Smell of the Pines
Red - Nature check to identify
Corona, Sunshine, and Smell of the Pines are up!
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"Oh! They really weren't kidding about the forest attacking!"
Corona takes a moment to try to recall anything useful about these angry trees and then focuses, calling down a beam of moonlight against one of the closest ones!
As she does her physical form grows lighter, making it more of a challenge to keep her footing and interact with the physical world.
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Sunshine whirls his spiked chain around, biting deep into Yellow's bark. Sadly, the spikes don't seem to sink in as deep as Sunshine would've hoped. Then, Sunshine notices his chain comes free with a lot of pine sap, slowing down his movements a lot.
Smell of the Pines and Corona have a think about what abilities these kind of creatures have, and together come up with a lot of information. Resinosa and Corona's combined forces bring down Yellow . Purple and Red both look in shock as Yellow is reduced to charcoal, and both lock eyes with Corona.
Corona and Smell of the Pines know the following:
These creatures are known as Pine Brutes, big dumb bruisers of trees. They have a vulnerability to fire and specifically axes. On the other hand, their tough bark resist piercing and bludgeoning damage.
One other important piece of information is that these pine trees produce sticky sap, which can act as a tanglefoot bag when the tree either hits you, or you hit the creature. Releasing the weapon means you automatically succeed.
Their Fortitude save is really good, but being the lumbering trees that they are, their Reflex save isn't stellar.
Red roars in anger when it sees Yellow perish and trundles towards Corona, completely ignoring Rawiri in front of it.
Rawiri
Purple
Corona
Sunshine - Reflex save or become Clumsy 1
Smell of the Pines - Reflex save or become Clumsy 1 for Resinosa
Red
Rawiri may act!
Hoya runs to the other side of the tree, but it's too slow to react. Hoya's teeth sink in the bark, but the bark is tougher than expected. The fire, on the other hand, does its work perfectly. Purple catches on fire, and it does not appreciate that at all.
Purple tries to pat itself out, but only manages to set more of itself on fire. Still though, the main fire seems to have lessened significantly.
Purple, in a wild frenzy, foolishly decides to strike back at Hoya in retaliation, but pulls back as it singes its hand.
Mercifully, its fire stops burning, but not before turning a big chunk of the pine tree into charcoal.
Rawiri
Purple -18
Corona
Sunshine
Smell of the Pines - Reflex save or become Clumsy 1 for Resinosa
Red
Corona, Sunshine, and Smell of the Pines may act! Resinosa still needs to make a Reflex save or be Clumsy.
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"Guess it's kind of obvious that fire works really well, New Friends," Corona remarks cheerfully. Seeing Sunshine focus his attention on Red, she moves to try and finish Purple off by firing another moonbeam at it!
As she does, anyone looking closely can see that Corona's feet briefly lift off the ground before touching back down. She takes a step to the north and blinks in surprise.
"Oh...I feel strange!"
Your body is drawn further skyward. You are enfeebled 2, and the penalty from your minor curse increases to –3. You are treated as one size smaller for wind effects. You gain a +2 status bonus against Trip attempts, you only take half as much damage from falls, and you gain the effects of the Powerful Leap and Quick Jump skill feats. You weigh only half as much, and your Bulk, should someone need to carry you, is also half as much.
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Sunshine whirls his chain around, but sadly doesn't connect with Purple.
Smell of the Pines throws a withering glare at the pine brute, but it isn't very intimidated by a small leshy. Resinosa's tendril, on the other hand, leaves quite an impression, and Purple goes down.
Corona then aims her Moonbeam at the remaining Red tree, and it strikes true. Thanks to Rawiri's incendiary aura, Red catches on fire as well.
The red pine brute does not appreciate being on fire, and sets its sights on Corona. It walks out of Rawiri's aura and weaves between Hoya and Resinosa, then lashes out twice at Corona.
The impact of the branch also leaves behind some sticky sap.
It then tries to swat Corona with its other arm-branch, but it goes wide.
Corona's Moonbeam continues to eat away at the tree thanks to Rawiri's spell.
Rawiri
Corona -7 - Reflex save or become Clumsy 1
Sunshine
Smell of the Pines - Reflex save or become Clumsy 1 for Resinosa
Red -18
Everyone may act!
Hoya runs behind the remaining pine brute and manages to crunch through one of its root-legs. Still aflame, the brute loses its balance and falls to the ground, lifeless.
Combat over!
As the corpse burns, the villagers come back onto the square and thank you for helping out. As a token of gratitude, they give you three pieces of low-grade cold iron ammunition. They say that if you're going through the Forest of Spirits and encounter a hostile kami, these pieces of ammunition work really well on them.
After all the wounded are taken care of, the villagers drag you out of your guest house again and treat you to a nice spa treatment as an additional thank-you for defending the village. You get full-body massages, face masks, manicures, pedicures, the whole shebang. After another night's rest, you feel completely relaxed and ready to find the missing Pathfinders.
Rawiri gets a Hero Point for setting trees on fire!
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Rawiri packs his belongings "Ok Hoya, we are back on the road!"
He turns toward his ally
"I haven't seen you Merian during that fight, where were you? We fought odd treelike creatures, you should see them burn, it was beautiful. I haven't seen your barrel of water for some time, where have you put it?"
The next day, you (reluctantly) head out again to find the missing Pathfinders. The road branches off several times, only to rejoin a short time later. The endless rows of conifer trees offer a serene yet monotonous backdrop. Luckily, none of them lash out at you, so whatever happened in the village must've been a one-time thing.
Soon, it becomes clear that taking the wagon along with you becomes impractical, if not outright impossible. Banks of snow and tree roots make the travel excruciatingly slow, and you wonder whether you should've left the wagon behind in the village. But it seems the Pathfinders before you had similar problems. You soon spot snapped off branches and a broken wagon wheel from the people who went before you.
At some point, you see two >>bizarre<< >>shapes<< coming from the woods towards you. They move slowly, and as they get nearer, you see they're see-through. They're clearly heading towards you, but slow as you go, you can outpace them if you want.
What do you do?
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Smell of the Pines spends most of its time trying to find any trace of the missing Pathfinders; its eidolon spends her time looking around.
As the team meets some kami, it indicates that “From what I understand kami are kind of nature spirits. I’m willing to try to communicate with them rather than try to avoid them.” It looks at its fellow Pathfinders “Althought, I am open to opinions.”