Rad stands up and yells out "COVER YOUR EARS!" Before slamming his hammer into his shield casting Thunderwave using his Channel Divinity for maximum thunder damage.

An enormous boom of thunder erupts from Rad's shield. 

Constitution Saves:

Twig: 6

Cor: 6

Garth: 20

All of the Twig Blights were thrown back, some of them even burst apart into nothing. After a moment, Rad looks around and sees Cor and Twig also on the ground, unmoving and unconscious. Garth is up, but he's clutching at his chest and breathing heavily. Other than that, the area is very quiet, still recovering from the echo of the enormous thunder.

(Out of combat.)

"THAT'S, what I'm talking about." Rad lets out a whoop and then looks around. "Oh... oh no." He quickly goes over to Twig and Cor and uses a cure wounds on each of them.

Twig healing 9

Cor healing 10

Twig and Cor come back to consciousness to see the sun disappearing behind the horizon. As it does, they start to see some light begin to reflect off the light-colored bark of the trees. It seems to be a blueish-white light originating from somewhere to the Southwest, near the center of the forest. It is now clear why the forest is called the Brightwood Forest. 

“Why the tree did poke...boom?”

Twig sits up,  disoriented, achy, and groggy, and stops trying to speak once she sees the beautiful, shimmering trees. 

“Not so terrible looking at ni—” Twig stops speaking and begins looking around, under herself, in pockets and in her pack. 

“Where is Oliver?” Twig looks worried. I hope he didn’t get hurt with the Thunderwave!

Twig begins to frantically search for Oliver, but can't find him anywhere. After calling his name a few times and moving about, a tiny furry head pokes out of her leather breastplate. It cautiously looked around to make sure it was safe to come out. Apparently, it had hidden in the breastplate when it saw the Twig Blights coming. Once it determined that the coast was clear, the chipmunk hopped up onto Twig's shoulder and began angrily chittering at Rad; its tail twitching in agitation. There was even one point in its tirade where it shook a tiny chipmunk fist for a moment. With one last chitter, it darted down Twig's arm and began munching on some dried fruit.

"You could've just shook me to tell me it was my turn at watch. I wouldn't have been that grumpy." Cor says holding his head with both hands

Twig shakes her head at the chipmunk. I can’t believe I was actually worried about you. 

She looks to her companions. “So, we now have a bit of a predicament. Rest, or follow the light? As keen as I am to go and see what the source of the brightness is, it feels particularly unwise to go in injured, when some of the trees might attack us. But we won’t be able to see the way in the daylight....” Twig stops to think for a second. “Oh! We could rest tonight, mark the direction of the light on the ground, and head for it in the morning. Then we’ll be partway there once it’s dark tomorrow, and be able to keep walking at night, if we think we are close enough.”

Rad gives the chipmunk the stink eye before turning to the group. "We can't stay here, not after a boom like that. It'll have alerted everything in a half mile around us. We need to move, now."

Twig blushes at her oversight, grateful that no one can see it thanks to her fur. “You are absolutely right. I must be a bit shell shocked still.” Twig gets to her feet and begins packing her bedroll.

Holding his chest, Garth takes a few deep breaths before speaking. "I agree that it would be unwise to wander into the forest at night. However, I also think we aren't safe staying here. I recommend picking up camp and moving back about 100 yards, that way if any trees decide to drop by we'll have more notice."

Looking at the bright spot in the forest, gave a thoughtful expression. "Perhaps we can make a large mark on the ground, pointing in the direction of the glowing tree. In addition to that, we could tie a piece of bright cloth to an arrow and shoot it into the forest towards the glowing tree. What say you?" He glanced at his companions as he finished.

"It's still pretty early, we should follow the path for an hour or so, just to get away from here and then we should still have enough time to rest for the evening." He begins collecting the firewood that hasn't been burnt yet. "We don't know what lives here and I'd rather not find out."

Twig looks from one adventure to the other, not yet trusting her judgment, but not wanting to stay overnight tonight in the forest. Twig begins to help pack the firewood as they would need it regardless of which way they went. 

Twig looks around to see if she can see anything new now that the sun was down and the forest was living up to its name.

Perception: 14

“Do we know that none of these sticks are going to come alive and attack us?”

You can see the trees, but none of them appear to be moving. You see light reflecting off of the trees in pulsing waves, but all of the trees reflected the light. 

"C'mon people lets get moving." Rad start to head toward the glow. "If we stay here, we will be attacked again, if we move we might be attacked again. I'm also out of healing until we rest so the sooner we get to a new place to lie down, the better."

Twig stares at Rad, not following him. 

“No. The tree-creatures waited until sunset to attack. They are likely nocturnal, and apparently indistinguishable from dead trees. We might make camp in the middle of a nest. I like Garth’s plan much better. We have slept on these plains for over a week now with no issue. Going in now, injured and with no healing might actually be suicide. If you really want to be an hour away, it should be in that direction” Twig pointed back towards where they came from on the dark plains. 

Garth picked up a piece of wood the group gathered earlier, and began to make a shallow line pointing towards the glowing tree 10 feet long.

"Any bright strips of cloth we can tie to an error? If we shoot it towards the crystal tree, we should see it after we enter the forest in the daylight in case we get off track from this marker I'm making." He grunted as he continued to make the mark.

Twig borrows Garth’s crossbow and one bolt and cuts the bottom hem off of her shirt. She then affixes it to the bolt and climbs the tallest nearby tree. From there she scans the area and shoots the arrow as far as she can towards the light source

(gonna do an attack roll for accuracy)

19

It flies pretty true and sticks into a tree. Fortunately, this tree does not start to run away. 

Rad concedes "You're right, rushing in will just be dangerous without much benefit. We should move back about 1000 ft into the plains and make camp. I can't do much right now on my own."