The group camps and sets up the same watch as before. This time, no one wakes up to wooden claws scratching their face. They awake refreshed about 1000 ft from the treeline.

(Long Rest for each of you has been edited to your Character Sheet.)

"I'll help. I definitely want to be fully rested for this adventure. I would rather not die or even be seriously maimed." Cor says as he starts to grab his stuff

It is now early morning (around 7:00 AM) and the sun is rising above the horizon. The light from deep within the forest is no longer shining, but you can see the marks in the dirt that you had made the previous night to point the way in the early morning sunlight. 

"Well, let's get this over with. How bout we go see if we can find that tree?" Garth said, just finishing with his hurried breakfast.

Twig leaps to her feet, excited to get going. She pulls on her pack and triple checks that Oliver is on her shoulder, and starts moving towards the forest. 

(Alright. I'll move us along.)

The group moves into the forest and follows their markings in the direction of the light source from the previous night. As they walk, they are attacked by several more Twig Blights, but the group dispatched them with ease and took no injuries, despite being caught unawares by the tree creatures. The group's experience fighting the creatures the night before allowed them to be much smarter about how the beasts should be handled.

The party eventually made it to a clearing with a very small pond and a large tree that seemed to be made of glowing light, even in the bright morning sunlight. At the base of the tree by the pond sat what appeared to be an elven girl. 

Upon entering the clearing, Oliver scrambled down Twig's body and climbed into one of the neighboring trees, visibly uncomfortable.

Geez, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Garth glanced at his companions before carefully scanning the clearing.

"That don't look like no vicious wyrm, but I also doubt that's a harmless little girl. What do you think we should do?" He whispered softly while he scanned their surroundings.

Perception: 22

Noticing the chipmunk’s behavior, Twig examines her surroundings, the tree, the pond and the elf girl, ready to shoot anything that might attack the group. 

Perception: 4

“I’ll talk to her, but be prepared to defend?”Twig whispers in reply. 

(OOC: if you [action ] Ready [ /action] an action, you can attack in response to something, without it counting as your action when you do it. So you can get an extra attack at the beginning of a fight you know is going to happen. It counts as your action in the turn you “ready” it)

Twig catches a ray of sunshine right in her eyes and the glare makes her squeeze them shut until her vision can recover.

Garth can't see anything besides the tree and the girl. He can't tell if there's anything in the pond, but it doesn't look nearly as big or deep as the one that the Dryad had. He is positive it can't hold anything like the Merrow. He also can't see any Twig Blights close by. 

"Hello little girl. What is your name? Mine is Cor." Cor says in Elvish as he walks a few steps closer to the water

The girl looks up at Cor. "Quest?" She asks softly in common.  

"Uh no. I said Cor. But I'm on a quest." Cor continues in common

"What quest?" She asks again in common. 

"We wish to end the Blight that has overrun this land and the first step is to gather a bit of bark from this tree." Cor says with a little innocent smile

The girl stood, and her form shimmered briefly. Her voice takes on a strong raspy quality and adopts a thick accent.

"Oi warned yer ter stay away, oi 'ad me servants 'tack yer, an' yer still came on. Yer tink yer can take meh tree from me? oi alone 'av ruled dis forest fer over fifty years an' yer won't take et from meh. yer 'ill suffer de seem fate as yisser predecessors."

The girl pointed over to a hollow in the trees where you could see the remains of other people, presumably adventurers who had trespassed. Her shape suddenly changed and she was taller and thinner, with long claws extending from each of her fingers. Her skin transformed to a sickly green color.

The Green Hag cackled madly as she dropped the illusion.

For Garth:

Twig puts her hands up in a mollifying gesture.

”Oh, goodness, you fully misunderstand. We have no desire to take any of your domain from you. We were sent by a sorcerer who wants a bit of bark for some magic I certainly don’t understand. We had no intention of intruding, but since we are already here, might we simply take a piece and be on our way? If you let us, you can be sure we will warn others not to come here and bother you. If you dispatch us, no one will know to leave you be, and they’ll just keep coming.”

Persuasion: 17

Cor jumps back at the change and gets Ready to fire Witch Bolt.

"Guys, I'm hearing a weird noise off somewhere in the trees, can't tell from where yet." A note of apprehension entered Garth's voice. He gripped his sword more tightly, readying himself for the perceived fight.

Ready Sword

The hag replied, "Yer 'ill never 'av de magic from me tree!" and began cackling again.

As the Green Hag was cackling, you hear a couple whump sounds getting louder above you. Just as the hag's cackle crescendos, the upper half of her body completely disappears and is replaced by a green, lizard-like head. The head lifts up and swallows half of the hag down a long throat that leads to a large lizard-like body with wings. The dragon smacks its lips a couple times and turns its head toward your party. It lets out a tremendous roar directly at you and squares up its body.

Initiative Party: 

Twig: 23

Garth: 5

Cor: 8

Rad: 14

Average: 

Initiative Enemy: 

Monster: 11

Initiative Tracker Round 1:

Players<<<<<<

Monster

(I'm going to say that the Readied actions don't work in this instance since you were all ready to attack the Hag and had no idea you were about to be attacked by a dragon.)