Author: Eric Swanson
In prep for Grimdowns, specific to campaign being run.
The party needs to camp one night on the trip to Athlapoole and finds a good spot (‘prospect and refuge’) near a copse of mixed trees – oak, holly, beech, etc. Beedel is unable to relax or settle down for the evening, and shortly “You feel that something in the nearby copse is amiss, and is calling to you. It’s like a burr in your boot that keeps digging into your skin.” [Pause] Upon entering the copse he finds a small oak tree (about eight feet tall) that’s being strangled by vines. Oak being a sacred tree, and particularly sacred to the Vale and Nandhe, he knows this must be healed. “Beedel, you feel something different about this moment – you feel energy in the earth beneath your feet and know instinctively that you can harness the magic of the land itself to draw off the choking vines and heal the oak. Looking around you spot mistletoe growing – in fact in your vision it’s glowing in the dusk.” (If Tazia is here she can see the draw of the land, and the tree, working on Beedel.) Taking a sprig of the mistletoe, you kneel before the stricken oak, close your eyes, and let your mind sink into the earth – letting go of control. You begin quietly chanting in a tongue no one understands; and as you do, the vines unwind themselves from the oak and crawl across the ground to climb old deadwood.” Beedel has used a spell (cantrip) for the first time – Druidcraft.
The oak leaves ‘unwither’ and the tree straightens itself; from somewhere you hear a sound of relief from pain (‘ahhhhhh’) and words spoken in sylvan, for those who understand it, “Thank you”. Beedel falls to the ground moaning, then screaming and writhing in pain. “You feel a prickling and burning all over your torso and legs, pain around the crown of your head and ears, and a terrible pain in your groin (like being kicked repeatedly). You writhe, claw and grasp at your body.” A green light is visible coming out of the ground and moving over his body. The grass and plants within the light wiggle about and grow before your eyes. [P4P]
After about half a minute Beedel begins to calm, then by the end of another very long minute the pain is over. Passive perception (15): His body is somewhat transformed, though not obviously; he has much more hair on his torso and legs (not like animal fur, but like an extremely hirsute man); along the sides of his head, under his hair at the crown, small ridges of horn – reminiscent of a rams’ horns – have come out; he ears have developed a minor pointedness; and other ‘satyr-like reproductive traits’. None of this is obvious to anyone, though particularly aware observers will only notice that his beard or stubble (or however he wears it) is quite a bit thicker and darker than it was.
Beedel is exhausted by this, and feels the lingering effects of physical shock and trauma, including aches in all the places transformations took place. (He’s at ½ of full hit points. DC15 wisdom check to immediately recover 5 HP.) He can feel that some of his prowess as a warrior has left him, but he’s also imbued with new abilities, able to draw on the magic of the land itself. (Fighter level reduced by one, druid level one replaces it.)