The two companions walked through the Silvered Woods slowly, taking their time. They had oft heard about these woods as they were growing up and had heard even more once they had begun their quest.
The stories of fairy type and other wildly different and magical creatures were many and often embellished to the point of obvious tall tale. But they had listened to them all and remembered them just the same.
They could hear the muted sounds of the wood. A scampering of squirrels up high, The cautious tread of a deer nearby. The birds were hushed but not entirely silent and it seemed the whole woods was somehow waiting or perhaps holding it's breath as the two strangers passed through.
The taller of the two caught a movement off to his left side and elbowed his friend, directing his attention with a hushed voice, "see there, to the left? Who is that?" Both young men could now see a robed man walking among the Oaks and Willows. He had seemingly come out of thin air, not having seen hide nor hair of him before that moment. Their casual stride came to a halt as they watched the strangely dressed man walking away from them.
"I don't like that at all." said Hector the taller and more robust of the two to his friend now standing at his right side. "I know", answered Robert. "How could a man just appear out of nowhere in the middle of these woods and one of us not know it?"
Hector had been very puzzled by the same thought. His just completed training as a Ranger, the third in a line of Rangers, should have prepared him to be much more observant than that. While Robert, also just finishing his training as a Warrior, had not been as thoroughly experienced in the outdoors, certainly had grown up in the outdoors much as Hector himself had.
As the two silently watched the robed man, lost in their thoughts, they also, out of fresh training, began to draw their weapons, almost unconsciously, to be prepared, they thought, just in case. They scarcely had drawn their weapons though when what they saw next, shocked them so much they almost dropped those weapons now in their hands.
The robed man was mumbling something. They could just barely make out the drone of sound coming from him when suddenly, the man walked right into a tree.
Now, he didn't walk into a tree and bonk his head to fall to the ground. No, the man walked into the tree and disappeared. Just the same way you or I might walk into a doorway. One second he was there, the next, he was gone. The two young men were stunned!
Hector began to slowly make his way off of the path and into the woods toward the tree the man had disappeared into. Robert, seeing his friend's movement, stayed right beside him. However, no sooner had either of them stepped more than ten feet off of the path than a poke in their backs and a deep voice voice behind them froze them in their tracks.
Slowly they turned around and behind them, holding a menacing looking sort of oaken club, was the very man they had watched walk into a tree just moments before. "We have very few trespassers into the Silvered Woods anymore." The man told them. "Of those who do, most seem intent on causing some sort of trouble when they are here." The man slowly shook his gray tinged but heavily haired head said. "So, What are two young adventurers such as yourselves doing in my woods?" He asked. "And you'll want to choose your answers carefully or my friend here may not be as forgiving as I am."
Around them, a tree seemed to have come up behind them and was threatening menacing branches that moved like arms. "Uh Oh", thought Hector, " I don't think I like where this is going." Robert could only stare around him and looked at his Ranger friend for some kind of encouragement.
In the bit above, the Druid spells demonstrated were; Pass Plant, The Druidic ability for Wilderness Movement and Call Woodland Beings with a Treant as the answering creature.
I love Druids as they are perhaps my absolute favorite PC class to play. Let's continue this story for a bit and see how much more of the Druids abilities we can show off as these two wanderers meet their first Druid.
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