Mean Dryads attacking the Children of Āhua

Cathance looked up from the dragonchess problem she was ostensibly studying (really, she'd been preoccupied with trying to learn ray of frost, ever since inspecting the storm tunnels with Quelenna) to stare at the red-haired firbolg who'd just entered the Freelancers Tavern.  The young Child of Āhua was clearly not well off; she looked like she'd been living on the streets.

Curious how that circumstance had come to pass, Cathance wandered over to talk to her, as did Tuala and Kalleth.  Her name was Terrance and yes, new to Freelancers Guild.  The folks in Mantzur had been unsure how to handle Terrance's obsession with talking to the plants, and had sent her to Cliffshadow ostensibly to ground her.  She ended up living in the park.

A dwarf joined them, dressed more appropriately as a dayworker for the farms between Haven and Three Rivers.  His name was Osric; he'd been recently working in the stables with Tahia.

They decided to find out if there was interesting and suitable Freelancers work, so they went up to Arnari's office to find out.  Arnari looked them up and down… up at Terrance, and down at Osric, although she spent more time on Terrance.

"I have 4 missions, that might not kill you," Arnari started…:

• No rush, but she promised to offer it:  House Aldous wants to start a new hippogryph breeding line.  They will pay 100gp per egg, or a trained hippogryph gelding, for 10 eggs.
• Lakeview is having a spider problem, since Freelancers sent a team to kill off the giant frogs.  Popoki, the mayor, is offering 100gp per spider head.  NOT per spider leg.
• Investigate and track down Jamie.

Cathance interrupted.  "Is that the guy who hired the shitheads at the Pilot's Guild?"

Kalleth glowered and rumbled, "We know Jamie."

Arnari replied, "He hires people to paint dick graffiti around Cliffshadow, and yes, he hired the thugs harassing the Pilot's Guild gryphons.  People were vandalizing the Skyguard Outpost, and it seemed to be him.  Most recently, they were vandalizing the Temple of Serenity."

She glanced briefly at Kalleth.  "A prior mission failed to track him down."

Kalleth declared, "He's a bigger criminal mastermind!"

Arnari sighed.  "Lastly, there are mean Dryads attacking the Children of Āhua."  Terrance looked surprised.  Osric looked curious.

Cathance asked, "How… big, are the spiders?"  Arnari replied, unkindly, "Big enough to eat you."

Cathance kicked her feet as they dangled off the edge of the chair she'd climbed into, as Terrance interrupted, "Not into spiders."  Arnari declared, "You could ride it!"

Tuala said, "Dryads."
Cathance replied, "Jamie, or Dryads."
Osric finally spoke. "Dryads."
Kalleth declared, "Prefer Jamie, but will do Dryads."

Cathance turned to Terrance.  "Is Terrance okay, here?"  Since the mission would involve travelling down to Mantzur to talk to the Children of Āhua.  Terrance smiled at Cathance and shrugged.  "Maybe?  I was happy, talking to the plants."

The conversation wandered into the Park, and discussion of Gillian and the Daystar worshippers.  But the Freelancers would travel to Mantzur, and help with the Dryad problem.  Korfel Goltorrah would pay 100gp each, even to Terrance.  Terrance was a Freelancer now.

The road to the Children of Āhua was free and clear, and an easy travel.  Terrance seemed distracted by the foliage, and Osric actually brought a pitchfork.  The Freelancers got to Mantzur by evening.  Cathance and Osric had never been there, and were both surprised to see trees in all states of the year; some blooming, some fruiting, some without leaves.

They were not long in town before Korfel greeted them to discuss the mission.  He said nothing about Terrance's change in station, but merely raised an eyebrow.

Cathance asked him, "What can you tell us?"

"The Dryads have been attacking people to the south and west," Korfel told the Freelancers in his deep, slow voice.  "We cannot say exactly where; the people who are attacked aren't… coherent on return, because they'd been charmed."

Cathance followed up with, "Are the people getting attacked from here, or live outside?"

Korfel gave her a strange look.  "They live here," he told her.  "We try to keep it that way."

Terrance intervened.  "Anything similar about the people getting attacked?"  Tuala almost stomped on her question.  "Any likely valleys, terrain, and so forth?"  Terrance continued, slightly more concerned, "How many people?"

Korfel held up his hands.  "10-15 people."  Everyone was surprised.  "When did it start?!"  Korfel shook his head.  "Before the bloodhawk problem."

The daylight was almost gone by then, so the Freelancers decided to stay in Mantzur.

The next day, the Freelancers headed south and west in search of where these Dryads could be.  Osric led the way, and Cathance, unhappy they were not searching in an orderly fashion, kept asking the Tortoise to provide guidance to him.  Perhaps the Tortoise heard her, because Osric found a place to ford the river. 

Terrance talked to the trees as the group looked around.  She told the others that she was just telling the trees they were looking for the Dryads.  The trees themselves, looked a little weird.  The wind whistled weirdly, too, in response to Terrance.

They were crossing an open glade, with the dwarves in front, when suddenly a large patch of vines and weeds erupted and tried to entangle them!  Kalleth, Cathance, and Terrance were entangled, but Osric managed to avoid it.  Tuala was further behind.  Looking around, they saw a dryad at the edge of the glade!

Terrance started talking to the vines, and after a short time, they relaxed their grasp!  She moved to the side, to not step on them.

The dryad sneered down at Cathance.  "Your clothes are so…. Unique."  Cathance was not having it and sent the necrotic hand of chill touch to grab the dryad, causing her to writhe in pain.  <narrator voice: Shari rolled a nat 20.>  She moved right up to the dryad, although was too short to get in the dryad's face.

Tuala sent a firebolt into the dryad, which looked equally painful.  Tiny skyliths and thalassae faded in and out around his head as he did so.  Kalleth called upon Toka to grant his blessing on Tuala, Osric, and Terrance, then issued a champion challenge to the dryad to compel duel.  The dryad ignored it and sneered down at Kalleth, "You are also Unique, with your lack of beard."

Osric tried to reason with her.  "What is causing this?!  Why are you attacking your friends?"  "Pitchfork boy," she insulted him, "This is the most fun I've ever had."  Alarmed, Osric moved away from her and dodged.

The dryad returned her attention to Kalleth.  "Why don't you defend me?"  Kalleth snapped, "Why do you need defending?"  Realizing her attempt to charm Kalleth failed, she waved her hand.

Four 8' shrubs wandered into the glade, from each of the ordinal directions!  Tuala groaned, and Terrance looked dismayed.  The shrubs shot needles, like darts, at everyone but Terrance, hitting Osric and Tuala.  The shrubs which missed with their needles appeared to topple <narrator voice: because the GM rolled a 1 for both of them!>

Terrance ran to the shrub in the southeast corner of the glade, and beat it with her club.  Cathance sent the necrotic hand of chill touch to uproot it.

Tuala had no delusions about who was in control of this.  He sent another firebolt at the dryad.  She withered when the firebolt hit.  Tiny skyliths faded in and out around his head as he did so… no thalassae this time.

The remaining three shrubs remained rambunctious.  Kalleth scowled and looked around, <narrator voice: and rolled a nat 20 on perception> to see another dryad!  He called out to her, "STAND DOWN and let us talk!  It's not going to end well for you!"  He pulled out his longbow and tried to shoot the needler shrub in the northwest corner, but he missed.

Osric pulled out a sling and sent a rock flying at the shrub in the southwest corner.  He hit it, but it was a rock, which did not hurt the shrub much.

The shrubs sent needles at everyone but Terrance again.  Cathance got hit badly in the shoulder, and was bleeding a lot.  Terrance pulled out her dagger and attacked the same shrub Osric had sling'd with both club and dagger, damaging it.

It was time to try ray of frost, Cathance decided.  She raised her hands, pointed her crystal at the dryad, and cried out the words; then to her horror, an undulating, warbling mass of chaotic energy hurtled from her fingers towards the dryad.  Chaos bolt!  The dryad staggered as it hit and wrought psychic damage upon her.  Cathance looked at her crystal and her fingers speculatively.  Tuala's eyes also widened in horror, but he shot another firebolt, this time at the needler shrub in the northeast corner of the glade, lighting it on fire, skyliths dancing around his head.

Kalleth pulled out his flail, and hit the shrub in the northwest, which was nearest to him.  Osric – who really did have a pitchfork – charged the burning bush.

The shrub Terrance had attacked, hit her with flailing branches; Terrance went down, gravely injured.  The burning shrub tried the same with Osric, but missed.  The shrub next to Kalleth also tried the same.  He was injured but still up; however with Kalleth's concentration broken by a rambunctious shrub, Toka's blessing evaporated.

"Really, you should be helping me," the dryad said to Cathance, who, eyes widening, decided this was the best idea ever.

Terrance roused herself, shook her head to clear it, then stabbed at the roots of the shrub next to where she lay.  The shrub withered, dead.

"You GUYS, stop!  The dryad is our FRIEND!"  Cathance yelled at the others.  She moved in front of the dryad, ready to defend her from attack, and turned towards the others.  "Don't ATTACK her!"

Tuala shot a firebolt at the already-burning shrub attacking Osric, entirely missing.  The thalassae rejoined the dance of mini skyliths around his head.  Kalleth hit the shrub nearest him with the flail, killing it.  He turned and moved towards Cathance.

Osric, kind of panicking about this mobile burning bush attacking him, pulled out his pitchfork and started wildly stabbing downward at it until it died.  Then he moved away from it, next to Terrance.

Unbeknownst to Cathance, the dryad behind her pulled out a club and swung at her.  But the dryad overestimated her height, and entirely whiffed.  Terrance, seeing this, stood back up, and tried to sling a rock at the dryad, not that anyone would know this from the direction the rock actually went.

Cathance helped the dryad.  Tuala, seeing this, cast protection from evil and good on Cathance, enabling her to snap out of the charm.  The tiny skyliths and thalassae had not yet faded out before she turned around and faced the dryad, furious.  "You BITCH!" she shrieked.

Kalleth cast command at the dryad, "Halt!"  <narrator voice:  and the GM rolled a 1 to save.  But Cathance had helped, so the dryad had advantage, and rolled an 18.  But Tuala has a reaction, restore balance, which cancels the advantage, so it was a 1 after all.>  The dryad halted.  Kalleth stepped up to her.

Osric tried to knock out the dryad, but failed.  Terrance sent another rock at her with her sling, and did not miss; the dryad shrivelled.

Cathance looked up and around at the other Freelancers.  "Sorry guys, I don't know what came over me."  Kalleth exclaimed, "I know!"  Terrance just shrugged.

Kalleth came over and looked at Terrance.  Calling upon Toka, he used divine rock energy to heal Terrance entirely.

Osric looked around the glade.  "The not quite right feeling is gone," he noted.  "Nature feels at peace."  Terrance gave him a pained look.

Cathance and Tuala looked over the withered dryad corpses.  The dryad who'd charmed Cathance had a cloak with the colours shifting.  The other dryad had a weird little charm, with thorns and untanned fur.  It felt off, somehow.  They could not figure out what it was.  Osric took it to carry back to Mantzur.  Maybe Korfel would know.

Since getting to the glade had taken most of the day, and people were injured, the group decided to camp in the glade overnight and head back the next day, and did these activities without incident.  Osric put the weird charm under his pillow for the night.

Upon arrival in Mantzur, they reported into Korfel, who asked, "Well?  Did you find the mean dryads?"

Kalleth declared, "Yes we did!  They were controlling, uh, rambunctious shrubs!  We tried to negotiate, but not sure anything worked, so took them down!"

Cathance nudged Osric.  "Show Korfel the thorn thing!"  Osric produced it.

Korfel took it.  "This is bad news!" he exclaimed.  "This is a hag's token!"  He cast produce flame and immediately destroyed it.  "I'm not sure what this can do; it varies from each hag."

Osric said doubtfully, "I shouldn't have slept with it on my person overnight."  Korfel turned on him.  "You had it!"

"The dryad did," Osric corrected him, "But I brought it back."  Korfel scowled.  "How long?"  Osric told him, "Just overnight."

Korfel then cast dispel magic on Osric, just as Tuala cast protection from evil and good.  Osric was fine.

Korfel produced 150gp each!  Ok well really it was platinum; he does not have hundreds of gp sitting around Mantzur.  He then prepared a scroll to be taken to Arnari, requesting Freelancers help with a hag.

• Osric → level 1 druid
• Terrance → level 1 rogue

Upon return to Freelancers Tavern, the party prevailed upon Dryali to identify the cloak, which was a Cloak of Elvenkind.