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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 5301119" data-attributes="member: 9546">WHO SPEAKS FOR THE TREES?The sound of unintelligible cursing echoed through the woods.  Just visible through the trees, a small wagon sat mired in the middle of a swiftly flowing river as the waters threatened to overwhelm its sides.  Two ponies hitched to the wagon floundered in the swirling waters, close to panicking.  Two more wagons sat safely on the far bank.  A group of gnomes, several battered and bruised, stood by shouting and bickering among themselves.  As the companions emerged from the trees, the gnomes spotted them, and several of them called out.“Help us!  Please!” they cried.“We don’t need their help!” one of the gnomes, obviously the leader, snapped.“We’re done listening to you, Jubilost!” one of the others retorted.  “You’re the one that got us into this in the first place!”“You boys sort it out amongst yerselves!”  Tungdill growled.  “We’ll save yer haul in the meantime.”He and Stevhan quickly waded into the river and cautiously approached the ponies.  The animals rolled their eyes wildly, but the presence of the druid and the ranger seemed to calm them.  Though their sides still heaved in fear, they allowed themselves to be touched.  Tungdill quickly unhitched them from the wagon, and then Stevhan led them back to shore.  Tungdill then scrambled atop the wagon, and when Davrim tossed him a coil of rope, he caught it and lashed it securely in place.  “Now lads!” he called.  “Heave!”Velox, Davrim and Stevhan wrapped the rope around their hands and hauled with all of their strength.  At first the wagon didn’t budge, but then slowly, inexorably, it began to move.  Several tense moments, and grueling pulls later, the wagon was safely back on shore.  The gnomes cheered and surrounded the companions, pumping their hands and pounding them on their backs.  The leader, sporting a black eye and a swollen lip, approached sullenly.“I guess we owe you our gratitude,” he said glumly.  “You’re welcome to join our fire tonight.”___________________________________________________________“I’m Jubilost Narthropple,” the gnome leader introduced himself.  “Me and my crew are exploring this region, doing some surveying and mapping.  We’ve got our eye out for an abandoned dwarven outpost in these parts.  Don’t suppose you’ve come across one?”“Dwarves don’t abandon anything,” Tungdill grumbled.  “They always come back, even if it’s a hundred years later.”“Yeah, well…,” Narthropple cleared his throat, “we’re just mapping and surveying, like I said.  Anyway, we got jumped by a bunch of thieving kobolds today.  We showed’em what-for, but not before they panicked the ponies and sent’em into the river.  Guess we're lucky you came along.”“Have you found anything interesting in your explorations?”  Velox asked.  “We’re doing some exploring of our own.”“You know,” Tungdill said in a low-pitched voice to Mox, “surveyin’ is another word for spyin’.  Maybe we oughta just execute the lot of’em.”Mox fixed him with a cold glare, and the dwarf smirked as he relit his pipe.“Maybe we have, and maybe we haven’t,” Narthropple snapped at Velox’s question.  “That sort of information is valuable.  What have you got to trade?”“Well, as I said,” Velox replied, “we’ve done some exploring ourselves.  Perhaps we could trade information.”Narthropple seemed to consider this, then nodded slowly.“I suppose that could work.  Let’s see what you’ve got.”In the end, Narthropple’s maps proved very valuable indeed.  He told them of a dryad grove two days to the west, and an abandoned keep a day’s travel to the south.  He’d also stumbled across what he believed to be a hodag den to the north, as well as the hunting grounds of a forest drake.  Lastly, he told of a lone giant his band had seen wandering the hills to the south.  The companions thanked the gnomes for their assistance and, after passing the night in their camp, took their leave early the following morning.______________________________________________________________Mox decided that they should search out the abandoned keep that Narthropple mentioned.  It might make a suitable location for a new town, she reasoned.  Their path there, however, would take them through the Narlmarches and the area the gnomes had said belonged to a dryad.  They’d only put one day between themselves and the gnomes, though, when they stumbled upon something wholly unexpected.  The river they’d been following made a sharp bend, and widened into a deep pool dotted with lily pads and fringed with waving reeds.  Several freshly felled trees lay beside their stumps on the shore of the pool, their crowns dangling in the water among fading tendrils of mist.  A half-dozen, angry-looking men stood a distance away from the pool, their glares fixed on two other men who stood, axes in hand, at the edge of the water.  In the middle of the pool, a woman treaded water, her head the only thing visible above the surface.  “My Lady!  My Lords!” one of the men cried out when he saw Mox and the others.  He immediately went to one knee, as did his companions.  Only the two men on the pool’s edge remained standing.  “What is going on here?”  Mox demanded.“I’m Corax the Woodsman,” the man who’d spoken replied as he rose to his feet again.  “That witch attacked us!”  He pointed towards the woman in the pool.  “It’s getting so’s a decent man can’t make a living with all these damnable fairies in the woods!  Now she’s got Jensen and Barts there ensorcelled!”Mox looked more closely at the woman in the water, and noticed that she was not, in fact, human.  Her skin was pale blue, and her hair deepest green.  Her ears were tapered, like an elf’s, and her eyes had no whites.  “Nixie,” Tungdill offered.  “River fey.”“I would say that tale contains but a kernel of truth,” the nixie said.“Then what is your side, Miss…?”  Mox asked.“I am Melianse,” the nixie said.  “I politely asked these humans to leave after I found them cutting down my trees.  I was forced to charm two of their number after the one called Corax threatened to hang me from the nearest tree to ‘drip dry.’  Those trees had been growing here for over 200 years.  I would dare say they deserved a better fate than serving as some grubby peasant’s slop table.”“You see what I mean?”  Corax shouted.  “She’s crazy!”“Surely there are other groves that you could harvest,” Mox said to the woodsman.“Beggin’ your pardon, My Lady,” Corax bowed, “but them’s Coachwood.  Rare in these parts…and valuable.”“Coachwood, hmm?”  Tungdill mused.  “If I ‘member rightly, there was a grove of them up near the Tatzylriver, where them folks are settlin’ that new town.”“Would that work?”  Mox asked.“Yes’m!”  Corax nodded.  “That’d do just fine!  Now if only that witch’d gimme back my men!”“There is still the matter of five trees that I’m owed,” Melianse said calmly.  “If I’m not compensated, I will take a human life for each one.”Mox’s face became clouded, and anger flashed in her eyes.“You may not have heard,” she said coldly, “but the so-called Stolen Lands are now part of the Barony of Kardashia, of which I am the Baroness.  I will not be black-mailed for what are rightly our resources to begin with!”“You tell’er, m’Lady!”  Corax and the other loggers whooped.“A lofty claim,” Melianse replied, her voice ice, “but claiming the land, and holding it are two very different prospects.”As energy began crackling around Mox’s fingertips, Velox quickly stepped forward.“We are not looking for a confrontation,” he said.  “Is there no peaceful way to resolve this?  I don’t know of any way to replace your trees.”Melianse remained silent for several moments.“There may be a way,” she said at length.  “There is a dryad a day’s ride west of here.”“We’ve heard of her,” Velox nodded.“She has in her possession several magical tokens.  If these are planted in the ground, their enchantment will allow them to instantly become full-sized trees.”“Do ya want us t’kill’er for’em?”  Tungdill asked.“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Melianse smiled.  “But I’m sure she may want some favor in return.”“Don’t they all,” Davrim sighed.“If we agree to do this,” Velox said, “will you release these men?”“Of course,” Melianse nodded.  “Does that mean we have an accord?”______________________________________________________________The trees ahead parted to reveal a peaceful forest glade dappled with sunlight.  A small pond lay placidly at the roots of an enormous oak tree with a scattering of leaves floating upon its surface.  Birdsong twittered from the branches high above.  A woman kneeled by the pond, quietly weeping.  She looked up as she noticed the arrival of the companions, and it was then that they saw she was not a woman at all.  Her hair seemed to be made of Fall leaves, while her gown appeared to be woven from reeds, rushes, and flowers.  “Who are you?” she asked, wiping back her tears.  “If you mean me harm, be warmed I am far from defenseless!”“We are not enemies,” Velox said.  “We were sent here by Melianse.  We’ve come to beg a boon from you.”The dryad shook her head sadly.  “What have I to offer?  My life is forfeit!”“What do you mean?”  Mox asked.  “I am called Tiressia,” the dryad replied, “and my tale is a tragic one.  Several weeks ago, a foul and evil creature invaded these woods, and ever since then, we’ve been hunted.”“What sort of creature?”  Davrim asked suspiciously.“A carnivorous, intelligent plant known as a scythe tree,” Tiressia said.  “It apparently craves the taste of the flesh of my kind.”“You said ‘we,’” Velox said.  “Are there more of you?”Tiressia turned towards the trees and called a single, melodious note.  A few moments later, a creature emerged.  He had the upper body of a young man, but the bottom half of a goat, and a pair of small horns sprouted from his brow.  His face was a mass of bruises, and several healing lacerations crisscrossed his torso.“This is my lover, Falchos,” Tiressia said.  “He suffered his wounds trying to protect me.  We only just managed to drive the scythe tree away the last time.  We shan’t be able to do it again.  I have appealed to the other creatures of fairy nearby, but they fear for their own safety.”“We will deal with this problem for you,” Mox stated, “but we need something in return.  Melianse told us that you have in your possession several magical tokens…tree tokens.”“All that I have is yours if you would do this thing for us!”  Tiressia cried.“Then set your mind at ease,” Mox promised.___________________________________________________________The sweet stench of decay hung thick in the woodland clearing.  Knotted branches of sickly trees lined the perimeter, creating a thick canopy that blocked most of the sunlight and cloaked the hollow in shadow.  Withered vegetation struggled to grow in ragged clumps among the multitude of bones strewn across the forest floor.  Velox took point as the group cautiously entered the killing ground, and so it was he who first saw the tree move.  He tried to warn his companions, but the battle fury took him, and when he opened his mouth, only the tongue of the Celestials would come forth.  The huge tree surged forward, unfurling branches that ended in wicked, hook-like scythes.  As Davrim and Stevhan stepped to Velox’s side, one of the massive branches swung in a deadly arc, slashing across both the ranger and the inquisitor simultaneously.  “I might not know much,” Tungdill roared, “but I know a little somethin’ ‘bout trees, and not a one of’em I’ve met cares fer fire!”The druid hurled a rolling sphere of flames towards the scythe tree, and it wailed in fear and pain as its dry bark caught fire.  Davrim and Stevhan rushed in, both hacking and slashing at the dense trunk, but with two mighty swings of its limbs, the tree swatted them both away.  Before it could recover itself fully, however, Selena added her own fireball to its dilemma.  The great tree reeled, and Velox drove his sword deep into the fleshy pulp beneath the bark.  It fell, and continued to burn, becoming a massive bonfire in a matter of moments._________________________________________________________Tiressia was overjoyed when the heroes returned with news of their victory.  She gladly rewarded them with six of the tree tokens, one more than the nixie required.  In addition, she promised to lend her aid in guarding the Narlmarches, and keeping them apprised of any threats within its borders.  Melianse was equally pleased when the companions returned to her pool and presented her with the tokens.  She pledged her loyalty to Kardashia, and vowed to watch the rivers along the Greenbelt for trouble or rumors of danger.  Kardashia’s influence was growing…but so were the rumors of trouble to the south…</blockquote>

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