When it is pointed out to him, Caeldrim casts Mending on both Barbara's helmet and shield to remove the dents in both of them. While mending Barbara's gear, Caeldrim says, “It seems that we are in an agreement that a short rest is the better option as it lets us recover, prep the Giant Boar Carcass so we can bring it back to town on our way back, and throw our adversary off guard. Assuming the foe even knows we are coming.”

With any assistance the others provide, Rocky has his Wildfire spirit assist in getting the Giant Boar Carcass hanging from a nearby tree while also making sure it's sufficiently smoked to not rot without being overcooked. Afterward, Rocky sits back and rests while letting the Wildfire spirit roam around as a guard to make sure the group isn't ambushed.

Barbara blink-blinks from the magic on her face, touches her lips, looks at her fingertips, then smiles at Amalar.  "Thanks and you're welcome."

She pets Mix's hair, trying to figure out the right words to say.  ~But then I'll be the one suffering the heartache of seeing you hurt?~  (Amalar kinda already covered that angle with Pyrus.)  ~Actually, if you want to keep me from being harm, Artificer's healing infusions or wizard's protection from elements are better bets than Paladin~  But they don't quite ring as the right thing to say at this moment.

Barbara smiles at Mix and says, "Then you're already a Paladin in your heart.  Thank you."

She chuckles at the interaction between Amalar and Pyrus.  "And thanks again, Amalar."

Pyrus blushes, boops Amalar on the nose in return, and answers in a teasing tone, "You're responsible and mature."

As promised, Barbara sings a hymn of victory.  (( Yay for Hindi Rocky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SVzUYlgk1c ))

  Joe thinks Amalar's speech makes perfect sense for the kind Drow, it would have sounded strange coming from himself.  "Being as rested up as we can between injuries makes sense. This is the sort of business where saying 'there are things tougher than wild pigs in our future' alas, isn't the least bit sarcastic."  Even without the excuse of 'magic made me do it!', incidental wildlife tends to be just as if not more dangerous than heartless mercenaries or the like.

Amalar giggles from Pyrus copying her and returns Barby's smile.

Mix blushes being called a paladin.

Amalar and Hunter rest with the rest of the group. Amalar takes the time to idly chat with the group, though she is sure to keep her voice to a relatively quiet tone, lest she attract yet another animal to fight them.

Hunter helps with the skinning/smoking of the boar carcass. Once he's done with that, he sits next to Rocky to rest.

Amalar is sure to cast prestidigitation to clean any residual gore off any teammates so they won't stink.

After finishing their short rest with the corpse of the giant boar prepped to be retrieved later, the group resumes tracking the trail towards wherever the Hollow Man came from. After two more hours of travel, the group comes across a tree that stands in a clearing blighted by decay and covered in fungus. The air here is thick with buzzing things, even in winter, and the ground crawls with insects.

Here is the pitiful wreckage of a once magnificent tree. Now, the plant is riddled with sick fungal growths; its thorny boughs hang wasted, swaying in the wind; its once great girth withered to little more than a black, lightning tortured canker swollen by disease. An elven head leers from the branches of this monstrosity, the meeting point of plant and flesh a cluster of lesions.

The Hollow Man's track lead straight to the tree.

Barbara is guessing that this... creature... is the master of the Hollow Man, and addresses it as such.

"I am Barbara Naur, and these are my friends.  Who are you?"

She stands protectively in front of the others, shield raised, sword lowered.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Sun 03 May 2020.

Amalar and Hunter are ready for combat and stand by to see how this goes. Will Barbara actually talk with this abomination? Or will it just break out into combat?

Either way, they are ready.

  While this tree with a serial killing monster's trail leading right to it falls under 'clearly evil', he also knows he'd be considered the amoral rude boy for just shooting it in the face before it is overtly hostile.

  Just because Joe has been spoiled by traveling with reasonable nature loving elves, doesn't mean he's forgotten the average sort adventurers have to put up with in a forest full of magical BS.

Caeldrim notices a few peculiarities about the tree and says, “This ancient tree was once a weeping treant...but it's been cursed into something darker for it is no warden of the forest.”

It is at this point in time that the tree moves and notices the party and a horse and frail voice can be heard in the wind, "You took my hands that chopped, my legs to fetch and carry... so now I'll take your heads," as the tree weeps and eight giant centipedes emerge as they answer her cry.

Caeldrim quickly casts Faerie Fire catching the Singing Tree and three of the centipedes within the area of effect, but one of the insects manage to resist the spell.

Caeldrim then tries to hobble the Singing Tree to further hamper it, but it resists the attempt.

OOC: For up to the next ten rounds, or as long as Caeldrim concentrates all attacks against the Singing Tree and the two affected Giant Centipedes have advantage.

Hunter charges in and in a tornado of blades, slashes two of the giant centipedes, chopping them to pieces! He half-growls, "You take and take and never give back. Your toll has come due."

OOC: Hit (23) and hit (22). Min dmg 4, but still takes out two centipedes.

Rocky summons forth his Wildfire Spirit which manages to severely burn the Singing Tree and kill two of the three Giant Centipedes near it, the spirit then flies up a few feet and at Rocky's command flings a Flame Seed at the Singing Tree which burns it even more.

OOC: Action to summon Wildfire Spirit, only one of the 3 Giant Centipedes makes it save, the other two burns to death taking 10 fire damage and the SInging Tree takes even more damage (20) from fire vulnerability. Bonus action is to use flame seed on the Singing Tree which burns it for another 16 damage (after vulnerability). The Singing Tree is now down to 30 health.

  Whoever made the phrase 'two out of three aint bad' popular, was probably thinking of times like this where you only manage one out of four.

  The first dagger thrown by Joe pins the skull of a centipede to the ground... The next three don't even come anywhere close.  Joe, you sure that feat is named Sharpshooter?

OOC: Murphy is very dedicated to my dice today. a pre-rolled initiative got a 1 in wastelands.  Then an action surge for a double 1s.

Still, at least my first roll hit and killed one of the centipedes.

Parne flies into a position to aid Caeldrim by being in a position to be both safe and to channel Cure Wounds to heal one of the party members should the need arise.

Amalar does a pretty fire-dance and says, "The suffering ends here." before thrusting her hands forward, a pillar of fire fwooshing from her hands and into the tree, shooting fire out its eyes and mouth!

She hopes that was enough. But time will tell if the tree attacks or stops doing anything.

OOC: Chromatic Orb hit (16) and did 21(3d8) fire x 2 = 42 dmg. Tree dead.

"Well that's confirmation that this thing was the source of the Hollow Man," Barbara concludes when it complains about having legs and hands destroyed and gets hostile.

She begins rushing the tree, expecting an outcome similar to attacking the queen bee, but... FWOOSH!  KABOOM!

Suddenly changing course to attack one of the last remaining centipedes doesn't go perfectly and Barbara whiffs.

The Singing Tree cries out, "Noo..." as it burns with the single elven head falling off of the tree. The tree itself turns bone white, resembling an ashen-faced woman of great beauty that is clasping a bright red apple.

The three remaining Giant Centipedes all try to bite Barbara but fail to get past her armor.

With nothing remaining under the effects of his Faerie Fire spell, the Alchemist stops concentrating on it. Caeldrim tries to take out one of the Giant Centipedes but the centipede avoids the Firebolt and resists the Hobble.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Sun 03 May 2020.

Hunter charges at two of the centipedes to Barbara's right so she won't have to worry about them and slashes them down! Is he making up for those times he kept missing in previous combats? Who knows? But can't complain about the results!

OOC: Hit(18) and Hit(17) two more centipedes down

Rocky flings a firebolt at the last Giant Centipede remaining and strikes it causing enough burn damage to kill the creature. Rocky then glances at the now 'transformed' Singing Tree and says "It would seem whatever curse or affliction that was placed on that creature has ended."

OOC: Rocky's firebolt hits (22) and inflicts 6 fire damage which drops the last Giatn Centipede.

  "It might have been evil in the first place though, considering how often 'cursed' monsters were horrible things that got cursed to become even better at what they do.  So don't go trusting apples from murder trees just yet."

  Not even Sci-Fi is safe from that.  This place reflects what's inside you! That's why Alligators get shark teeth, homicidal bears gain voice mimicry, and humans get random bizarre pointless death mutations... Okay why is this movie using the 'humans are the real monsters' speech again?
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:36, Sun 03 May 2020.

Caeldrim chuckles at Joe's statement and says, “Okay I'll use an Identify ritual on that apple to try to learn more about it while everyone else can search the area.”

OOC: Can post how and where your searching, also perception checks and investigation checks are beneficial for this.

Barbara hears "creature" from the Druid, and it looks like what she imagines a dryad would look like, so...

"I'm going to use my holy power, 'Heart to Heart' to save the life of this creature.  Then we can question it."

She approaches the tree, her hand glowing with holy fire.

Rocky notices Barbara moving towards the corpse of the tree and speaks up, "I do hope that tree found the peace in death that it was denied in life. I am quite surprised at how its form shifted upon its death, but that corpse of a tree is no creature... so there is little we can do for it unless you wanted to pull it up, put it on a wagon and take it to the town to have turned into a wooden statue. Personally I don't know if doing that would aid or hinder this area of the woods."

Hunter searches the area carefully and meticulously.

Amalar ponders. "I am... still surprised the horrid sound would come from this thing. Let's see if the creatures of the woods are still hearing the sound."

Mix is trying to hide the fact she was shaking in her boots. "Seriously, what is up with these creepy monsters?!"