The Verduran Forest is the largest woodland in Avistan. Despite the fact that it sprawls across some of the oldest and most powerful nations in the Inner Sea region, the druids, fey, and other residents of the wilderness have always resisted incursions from nearby civilizations. In nations like Andoran, this resistance has often led to violence, as Wildwood druids, protective fey, and local centaurs clash with exploitive logging companies. Yet not all relationships proved so antagonistic; in Taldor, the empire still holds to the Wildwood Treaty it signed in 3841 ar, which grants the forest legal protections and limits the amount of resources locals could take in any given year.
Here and there in the wilds of the Verduran Forest, a seemingly normal plant suddenly reveals themself as a leshy, a curious little human-shaped plant crafted by a druid as a companion or minion. Sometimes, leshys outlive their druid creators, while many others are set free to live their own lives. Most of those who live in the Verduran Forest today have stories along these lines, yet recently the forest’s clusters of leshys have seemed thinner and fewer. You are but four of these stories.
It’s hardly unusual for the leshys of Verduran to come and go as they please, but this morning it has become impossible to ignore the fact that your numbers have dwindled significantly. Many of those who remain grow fearful, and as the larger and more powerful leshys in the area, it’s your duty to protect the smaller spirits. It’s time to admit something is wrong. It’s time to investigate.
Reaching Rings is a fungus lechy. Their rather handsome blue head is but the crowning blue ring. Arms and legs also sport blue frills. From amongst those around their waist protrudes a belt with a sharp rapier hanging from it.
It looks around the clearing, having thought long and hard about the forest.
"There is a problem." speaks Rings.
"Our numbers diminish, but without obvious cause. Are we being hunted? Lured away? Or is it just that fewer new leashy come to replace those that have returned to the forest floor?"
Popkorn steps forward brusquely, her attitude and angry scowl belying the festive red and green snapdragon plants that make up her body. "I too have noticed that many of our kin no longer share the forest with us. If this continues unabated we will all meet the same fate. If this is the natural way of things, then so be it, but if not, then I will not go down without a fight. Who will join me in finding the reason?" She raises her flail; the tiny skulls whirl menacingly at the ends of their chains.
A strikingly handsome leaf leshy, adorned with various shades of teal greens and golden yellows, sprouts out of nowhere. "Greetings dears! Didn't mean to startle you. I'm Fluff Fang. You can call me, Fluff."
The leshy moves around effortlessly through the brush talking with its hands. "I was just telling bedtime stories to the young ones. They so love hearing of my epic adventures. Tis true, I embellish some ... but I've learned not to let the oh-so-boring truth get in the way of a perfectly good story!" The good-natured leshy clearly lives to entertain.
When the discussion turns serious with talk of missing leshys, Fluff Fang agrees. "Oh yes, please dears, count me in! Happy to support with helpful magic or an inspiring tale!"
Pulling out a talisman, Fluff Fang turns to the barbarian, "Popkorn, I have an old owlbear claw. Might look good on that flail of yours?" She hands it over.
BOTTLESPEAKER is gourd on sticks surrounded by armor.
"Indeed. Many of my friends have vanished and so few are born. There is something afoot here and I intend to find out what."
A littler version of him pops her head out the tope of Bottlespeaker's head and echoes "Indeed!"
"My manners! My name is Bottlespeaker and this is my dear friend, Twinsprout."
The heroes are the closest thing the local leshys have to an authority - they and their missing companions are very delicate creatures, unable to even speak, and so can offer little assistance. Fortunately for them, they might have a lead! Near them is the river’s rapid flow that makes it difficult for lightweight creatures like leshys to cross. Normally, swimming isn’t required, however.
In her youth, Popcorn found herself at a loss at this very spot when the sprites she enjoyed playing with flew across the water with ease and taunted her from the far side. Though there was little she could do that day other than fume in rage, Popcorn returned the next morning and used vines and fallen branches to build a leshy-sized rope bridge strung between a pair of trees on opposite banks. In the years since, many local leshys have learned of the rope bridge and come to appreciate its convenience, and particularly enjoyed using the bridge as a sort of swing to sit on and sway back and forth over the river.
When our heroes arrive, Popcorn’s carefully crafted handiwork lies in ruins. All that remains of the rope bridge are fragments of vines hanging from the trees on both banks.
Bottlespeaker 'tsk, tsks' over the destroyed bridge and starts wandering up and down the bank looking for clues.
"Oh dear, oh dear. These lavender flowers near the bank belongs to one of our own."
Looking across the river intently he confirms his suspicions, "And those footprints over there are most certainly NOT from one of our own. I do believe there has been a plantnapping!"
Twinsprout loudly reiterates, "Plantnapping!!!"
Rings looks at the ruined bridge. "Nicely made to have lasted so long. You picked good vines.." they comment
"And they were cut! This bridge would have lasted much longer without a blade.."
They slide over to the river band. "I wonder if they left any footprints?" they ponder "The vandals.."
"You are right Bottlespeaker. There are Lavender flowers over there!"
Finally their gaze travels to the far shore. "I think they went that way... why else destroy the bridge?"
Again the nod "Plantknappers. We should skin them!"
With all the information our heroes have so far, they must know who took our poor lavender leshys! And to do so, they must follow the tracks. But how, the bridge is broken, sad, and the tracks are on the other side of the river. What will our heroes do?
Repair the bridge: Repair the rope bridge with a DC 18 Crafting check, as long as they can reach overhanging vines and branches on the opposite bank to start the repair work. Anyone with Reach *winks at vine leshys or Large creatures* can reach the other ends of the overhanging vines and branches on the opposite bank.
We're lazy or we have no choice: You can simply travel downstream for a while to cross the river at a shallow spot.
Fluff Fang is grateful for the camaraderie in tracking the missing leshys. Marveling at the group's technique, Fluff excitedly says, "Ooohhh! Reaching Rings and Bottlespeaker, aren't you the capable ones!" The bard is genuinely pleased to be in such good company. "But the poor missing dears -- we must save them!"
Seeing the broken bridge, Fluff frowns. "Oh, fiddlesticks. I can't reach the other side. I can, however, create an invisible helper." If no one else has any options, Fluff says, "fervent servant" and casts Unseen Servant. The bard directs the invisible butler to repair the rope bridge.
Popkorn examines the remains of her rope bridge and stomps her foot in annoyance. After listening to the findings of the others, she says, "I see enemy action at work here. I do not believe that our leshy brethren have come to a natural end. We must follow these footprints and find out who they belong to and what happened to our friends."
Popkorn ties to determine what is required to repair her bridge.
If she determines that crossing to the other bank is needed, she wades into the water and attempts to swim across.
If she needs to jury-rig something to get the bridge back up, then she gets to work.
"Well, unless one of us has started to where shoes, I'm saying that someone from the civilized lands broke the treaty and has started harvesting out kind. No need to skin him, or them, Mr. Rings. It would be far more effective to bring proof to their authorities so they can put enforcements into play that will prevent some other greedy outsider from doing the same thing."
"Frankly, this gives me hope."
"Hope," yells the diminutive clone.
"Our brethren may still be alive and we have an opportunity to not only halt the terror, but also reverse it."
As the others work, Bottlespeak continues a stream of encouraging words and Twinsprout interjects with the occasional reinforcement.
Rings looks doubtful. "Their word against ours... and humans.. side with humans." they mutter.
Still, Leshy side with Leshy, and Rings helps out with the bridge repairs.
Popcorn swims the river and reaches for the vines from the farther end of the bridge and lets those on the sideline get it and begin fixing the bridge. Reaching Rings takes the opportunity to fix the bridge as quick as the leshy can while Popkorn helps. Eventually the bridge is fixed and everyone who did not wish to swim can cross the river. Hooray! They can follow now the tracks that would perhaps lead them to the plantnapper, as they say.
After crossing the river, they see the footprints in which the trail includes both footprints and the occasional lavender flower.
Satisfied by a job well done with the help of his friends, Popkorn turns from admiring his newly reconstructed bridge and looks down to examine the footprints. He tries to determine where they are going...
... "This way."
"Oh... Yea. I somehow missed that entirely. Let's go."
"Let's go!" echoes his little friend.
Reaching Rings eyes up the tracks and then, realizing that Popkorn seems to know what they are doing, follows along. They watch the forest keenly, eyes open for trouble.
"Did any of you know Lavender?" they ask.
Thanks to Popcorn, the leshy barbarian leads them as them follow the footprints of the plantnapper. After following the trail of footprints
from the riverbank for an hour, they come to a small clearing in the forest, in which sits a recently used but currently unoccupied campsite.
A search of the campsite reveals half-burned candles that smell of jasmine and the mostly-eaten remnants of a meal of trail rations.
"Plantknappers stay here.." notes Rings.
"Most curious...CURIOUS!" comes the echo.
"Why all these shells and out of place stones? And feathers?"
Bottlespeaker sifts though the debris with a thoughtful look, though only another leshy could tell it was thoughtful as his face is largely immobile.
As he starts looking around for tracks, he notices a rustling in the brush and lurches suddenly towards the commotion his staff raised, attempting to surprise the observer. The tiny version of himself ducks back inside Bottlespeaker's head and, from the right vantage point, you can see her tiny eyes peering out of one of Bottlespeaker's larger eyeholes.
When Bottlespeaker points out the feathers and shells, Fluff Fang pipes in, "Oh my ... these are lucky charms. Many of the young leshys have them as keepsakes! We must be on the right track!"
When the group hears rustling in the leaves, the nurturing bard decides to take a chance. Stepping forward, the leshy calls out, "Helllloooo...I'm Fluff Fang. It's okay...please come out. We're friends and we're here to help."
Once they reach the campsite, Popkorn gives it the once over.
"Bottlespeaker is right. Fire pit full of shiny shells, smooth stones, and mostly burnt feathers. We are on the right track."
When she gets the feeling of being watched and hears a shuffling nearby, Popkorn whirls around. "Who there! Come out now! If I have to go find you, you will not like it."
Rings just draws their rapier and looks around.
"Might be more plant knappers..." they say.
Being easily noticed by the group, the local pixie named Glimmer waves at the group and then tosses a satchel filled with teardrop-shaped blue seeds down to Popcorn’s feet before fluttering down to speak to them. "Wow, I get scared by that!" she exclaims while laughing and bantering on Popcorn's attempt to coerce her to get out. "It's a fine day today and I was picking these seeds and then I counted them, but I found they are short by a few pieces and I kept looking because the seeds in that bag are just your type!" she tells Popcorn and continues."Cook ‘em up and munch ‘em and you’ll toughen up for a bit!" and she continues speaking faster and faster, talking about how it took her a lot of time to pick the seeds up, and it was somewhat windy, and she continues talking more and fluttering there and here, reenacting how was her day and asking even our heroes how is their day. "But why are you here anyway?"
Making small talk and because the creature seems to like to talk, Bottlepeaker asks, "Say, um, Glimmer. I noticed some fine looking shells and stones. They yours?"
"PIXIE!!!"," shouts Twinsprout, as she climbs completely out of Bottlespeaker's head to watch the creature, almost rudely staring at the Pixie and occasionally repeating things she says in a hushed whisper. She seems entirely fascinated by her.
Fluff Fang freezes when Popcorn gives his ultimatum, and is very happy to see a fun-loving pixie, who is equally talkative as Fluff. Feigning admonishment to Popcorn, Fluff says, "Popcorn dear, you'll have a hard time making friends with that approach." Considering, Fluff adds, "Although ... it seemed to work in this case. Maybe you can teach me to be more ... imposing." The beautiful Fluff Fang tries to look menacing, but fails miserably.
Turning to the pixie, "Nice to meet you, Glimmer! I'm Fluff Fang. You've clearly met Popcorn. The others are Reaching Rings and Bottlespeaker."
Fluff smiles and continues talking (of course), "We're on an adventure to find some of our kind. They've gone missing from our home. Have you noticed any leshys passing through?"
When Popkorn spots Glimmer, she groans. "Not you again. Can I not have a moment of peace in this forest?" The sprite had been a semi-constant thorn in her side since Popkorn had left the druid that made her. It was in fact Glimmer that had given her the sobriquet of 'Popkorn', and throwing food with some accuracy at Popkorn's head was a speciality of hers. When Fluff chastizes her for being rude to the sprite, Popkorn grumbles under her breath "Glimmer not friend... not exactly. Pain in the head, mainly"
Popkorn picks up the bag of seeds and looks at them. Glimmer may be mischievous, but she'd never tried to poison her, "Cook ‘em up, you say? Okay, let's see what happens." Using the abandoned camp's fire pit, Popkorn places the seeds on a flat rock and slowly applies heat to them.
Reaching Rings just looks on for a moment or two. Eventually they say.
"Glimmer... did you see some others in the area recently? Maybe with Lavendar?"
Glimmer looks at the tiny pieces of shells and stones that would be big relative to her size. "Eh, those are not mine."
Glimmer’s eyes widen when she hears about missing leshys, and she exclaims, “So that’s what might that fella was on about! I was out gathering neat new seeds when I came upon this campsite while it was still occupied. And there is this human man with shiny teeth, messy red hair, a green and yellow outfit, and muddy boots. When I arrived, he’d just finished yelling at a squirming burlap sack and said, “Be quiet or I’ll throw more than your toys in the fire!” The sack went still after that, and the man enjoyed his lunch in peace. I watched for a bit but didn’t confront the man; I then grew bored when he took too long, so I settled in on my tree branch for a nap. I only woke when I heard you all arrive a while ago. Now I ain’t sure when the man left the campsite. Couldn’t have been too long though, since my naps don’t last that long!” she tells them her story. “I didn’t want to end up in that sack along with whatever else he had in there — oh! You don’t think it’s your leshy friends do you?” she says defensively as she looks at Reachy Rings.
As Glimmer tells her story, in the background is Popkorn cooking the seeds. The sack Glimmer tosses to Popcorn contains four large blue seeds that taste quite bitter if eaten raw. Properly cooked up by the barbarian leshy, the seeds pop loudly into a fluffy pale blue treat, at which point each seed functions as a barkskin potion. Hearing the popping sounds, Glimmer excitedly flies toward Popkorn and is amazed with that cooking. "You're the best as usual." she exclaims and claps her hands happily. "I think you better be going. But I won't be coming with you of course. He might go that way," Glimmer tells them while pointing to the same trail of boots you found. "Quick! You might still be able to save your friends!" she then pushes Popkorn from behind with her tiny arms but the leshy would not budge even a bit.
"It looks like things are just as we suspected. I sure hope we can catch up and save poor lavender."
Bottlepeaker is just as anxious as Glimmer to get on the trail.
"Grab your treats, Popkorn, and let's get moving. Luckily we do not need to rest like those humans do."
Fluff Fang is impressed with Popcorn's cooking and wonders, "Can you do more than pop corn?" With Popcorn's permission, Fluff takes one of the four barkskin seeds.
When Glimmer tells of the scary red-haired, metal-toothed boogeyman, Fluff Fang stiffens. "Those shiny stones and feathers we found ... those were their toys! He's a monster. The poor little dears are in real danger. We must hurry." Fluff is quick to follow Bottlespeaker along the trail.
Popkorn examines her popped blue seeds with interest. Even after all this time it still amazed her how just applying heat to certain things in just the right way turned them from inedible or even poisonous lumps into something delicious. Popkorn's petals glow a little redder than usual with Glimmer's appreciative reaction. "It was nothing really." Determining them to be of potential use in the near future, Popkorn hands one out to each of her companions and keeps the last for herself.
Ignoring Glimmer's ineffectual pushes, Popkorn looks up the trail and sees the boot prints leading away. Saying "Not far now. Let's move quickly," she starts heading that way.
Reaching Rings pauses. "Horrible as plantknapping is... have you wondered about *why*?" they say.
"If it were just forestry, or murder, or wanton destruction... then they would just kill them. But this is definitely a Knapping. Oh do I hope they are not working for some evil wizard."
Popkorn nods her head. "Definitely plantknapping. Means friends still alive somewhere. Must follow these prints to find out where. Then we free them all and take revenge on the knappers so they never do it again." She grips her flail tighter in her anger and picks up the pace a little.
Bottlespeaker starts thinking out loud. "There is a clue, though I am no detective, so I do not know what it means. I must assume that the disappearances are all related. So whomever or whatever it is that is doing this is not after any one particular leshy. It could be a mad wizard or alchemist after exotic ingredients of all sorts, or botanical madman trying to create something by... I don't know what. But... should it become necessary, I suspect one of us could act as bait."
Fluff Fang agrees with the group. "Oh dear. You're all probably right. A plantknapping...."
The bard hums a little rhyme as the group makes their way.
♫ "Onward we're tracking our leshy friends.
Our will and persistence -- it never ends.
Discovered some clues and a Glimmer of hope.
Marching on to fight evil! There's no time to mope." ♫
Without wasting their time and with hunches of why their leshy friends are plantknapped, our heroes leave the place and continue their search, following the same trail. After another hour of following the trail, they come to the southern edge of the Verduran Forest. Here, the trees give way to fields of crops and wildflowers, and a small village—Petalbrook — can be seen just a bit further on. The plantknapper’s trail leads in this direction, only to fade away once the tracks lead onto the road leading into the village.
Fluff Fang, dreadfully worried about the plantknapping, tries to focus on the Verduran Forest, full of life. Upon seeing the colorful wildflowers and adorable village, Fluff remarks, "Oh, isn't it all just fabulous?" Staying undercover of the treeline, Fluff Fang follows the group.
Bottlespeaker is using Investigate.
Rings also merges into the crops along the side of the road.
"No sense in letting them know we are here... before we want them to know." they say.
From among the thinning trees, a curious and brave deer decides to investigate the strangely mobile bundles of delicious petals, leaves, gourds, and mushrooms, which are our heroes, that have stumbled across their path. It’s only a moment later before the deer approach them and start to nibble on them, which is
bludgeoning damage
Having not noticing the deer that is just behind them, it nibble another!
bludgeoning damage
As Twinsprout cowers in fear, Bottlespeaker does what he does best and tries to talk the dear out of making a snack of them.
"Ah, my wild friends. We are not food, you know, and if you do not desist my good friend Popkorn will most likely get all nasty. Now move along."
Though the words do not register on the dear, his meaning is somehow conveyed and the dear give Popkorn a look and move off.
So intent on following the tracks was Popkorn, that she did not spot the deer until it surprised her and nearly tore her head off. She jumps away and is about to bring her flail across the creature's head when she hears Bottlespeaker trying to calm them down. Knowing that these deer were creatures of the forest like her and too stupid to know any better, Popkorn holds off on her rage to see if the druid can do something. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. Should have been more aware of surroundings."
Bottlespeaker is quick to approach the grazing deer and calmly talk to it. He tries to befriend them with soothing words=, convincing it that they are not for nibbling. The deer stares at him for a while before it turns back and moves away.
Fluff Fangs HP 35/35
Popkorn HP 37/53
Reachy Rings HP 30/38
Our heroes move the other way and toward the village, lest the grazing deer changes its mind and they will be nibbled again.
The village of Petalbrook is friendly enough to visitors, and safe enough for its citizens to ensure the classic feel of small town comfort. This close to the Verduran forest, and with several productive fields nearby, the villagers have no trouble securing food. The wildflower fields also make Petalbrook an ideal place for beekeeping. The village produces a considerable surplus of honey, which it trades with other villages in exchange for crafted goods. The citizens of Petalbrook are no strangers to leshys, and while they might react to our heroes' arrival in town with curiosity or vague amusement, they won’t overreact to the arrival of a group of leshys in the same way they might at the arrival of a group of dangerous looking criminals or forest monsters.
After the encounter with the deer, Bottlespeaker chants and waves and Popkorn is healed for
points of damage.
And a goodberry for Reachy Rings that heals for
points of damage.
Bottlespeaker, in his typically friendly way (accompanied by his equally friendly familiar), starts asking around about a red haired human with a, possibly, squirming sack.
Fluff Fang looks at Popkorn with concern. "Oh you poor dear. Good thing Bottlespeaker encouraged it to leave us alone. Otherwise ... " Fluff shudders and is about to offer magical healing, when Bottlespeaker once again comes to the rescue.
Upon reaching town, Fluff Fang excitedly says, "Ooohh...an audience!" The bard doesn't miss the chance to regale the townsfolk with stories of their journey.
♫"We're leshys. And we've traveled from afar.
Fixing bridges, rivers we have crossed.
A sprite gave help, but deer leave nasty scars.
All to find our friends who have gone lost."♫
Popkorn lets Bottlespeaker's healing magic reattach his torn neck and head petals until only a few small bruises remain on a couple of leaves. "Thanks. Much better now."
Once in Petalbrook, Popkorn doesn't waste any time. She stomps up to citizens and demands they tell her about the whereabouts of a human man with shiny teeth, messy red hair, a green and yellow outfit, and muddy boots carrying a possibly squirming burlap sack. "You seen human who look like that? Better tell me if you have. Him bad man with my friends in bag. Tell me quick or else. Don't have time to waste."