Corryn sends another telepathic command to his familiar to hold its Help until after his own attack; he then takes careful aim from his hidden spot and fires another crossbow bolt at the spider attacking Fodd. Sneak Attack (advantage due to hiding) 13 Damage: 11 (1d6+2 Hand Crossbow; +2d6 Sneak Attack).
Her then crawls through the undergrowth and changes position to hide (via Cunning action) again. Stealth: 15
Fodd wasn't really expecting to be ambushed by the second spider: usually when he bravely tells a companion to flee, they actually stay and fight. Still at least Mr Goldweaver was safe. And fortunately the spider's claws and teeth can't harm his indomitable spirit, shielded as he is by his pure heart (and thick, rusty armour). Pressed beneath the fat, hairy body, claws scraping down his armour, searching for the soft flesh beneath, Fodd summons the courage of his father and forces himself onto his hands and knees, pushing the spider off enough for him to turn and bring his shield into play. Thrusting it up into the spiders face he creates space to bring his sword into play, stabbing into the soft underbelly.
Ragnor, your jaws snap down and manage to affix themselves around where the giant spider's neck connects to its scaly torso. In a single wrench, you tear it open, severing the connection. The spider's lower body spasms a number of times, legs curling in upon itself as it slumps in death.
Corryn, from your position hidden in the undergrowth you take careful aim at the last remaining spider. Waiting for a moment when the combination of your swooping familiar and Fodd's bulky form distracts it, you fire. The quarrel flies true, but a sudden lurch by the spider causes it to strike at an odd angle, deflecting harmlessly off angled chitin.
Like a well trained marksman, you are moving before the quarrel has even reached its target, rapidly changing position. After a second of searching you find a dark alcove of roots where you conceal yourself once more.
Fodd, you slice your battered sword across the spider's abdomen, the strength of your arm prodigious as chitin and flesh part before your strike. Enraged by the blow and dazed by your shield bash to the face, the spider's retaliation is slow and predictable, the snapping jaws easily intercepted by your shield, from which splinters fly in all directions at the impact (11 to hit against your AC 18).
Corryn sends another telepathic command to his familiar to hold its Help until after his own attack; he then takes careful aim from his hidden spot and fires another crossbow bolt at the spider attacking Fodd. Sneak Attack (advantage due to hiding) 17 Damage: 15 (1d6+2 Hand Crossbow; +2d6 Sneak Attack).
He then crawls through the undergrowth and changes position to hide (via Cunning action) again. Stealth: 30 (+10 via Ragnor)
Although his arms ache, Fodd is inspired by the (admittedly remote) threat from the spiders to the maiden in the treehouse and is determined to slay the beast once and for all. Deflecting the spiders maw to the left, he is able to rise onto one knee and aim a chop of his bent blade at the creatures head. 10 to hit for 7 damage.
(DM, if I miss do I still have advantage from the owl? And if so, how do we negotiate re-rolls on here? Should i be rolling twice anyway, in case I get a critical 20??)
Ragnor leaps onto the spider, attempting to bring it down but succeeds only in tearing open its back. The momentary distraction and agony proves sufficient, however, as even though Fodd's swing flies wide, Corryn, your bolt corkscrews out of the darkness of the undergrowth and takes the spider right between its multitude of eyes. The smaller hand-crossbow bolt doesn't quite evaporate a head as one launched from a true arbalest might, but it still turns the spider's face into an utter ruin, snuffing its life out in a single kinetic release.
Silence reigns over the glade for a few heartbeats, broken only by the panting breaths of Fodd and Ragnor, who stand amidst the wreckage of defeated arachnids.
Suddenly, a piercing feminine scream of horror echoes out from the treehouse. Whipping around, you each see black and green vines erupt form the earth in innumerable waves, climbing the length of the tree in moments and plunging over the treehouse, pouring in through every window even as they encircle the walls and begin ripping it apart. The scream echoes again, an indecipherable mix of terror and pleading.
Drawn by the screams and the slight trembling of the earth that accompanies the vines growth, Ella and Horrence arrive panting in the clearing, winded from their sprint across the District and through the darkened forest. They find themselves on the north side of the glade, near to where the flanking spider had attempted to reach.
The vines continue to grow, enveloping the bottom half of the tree and tearing the treehouse apart even as they smother it from every angle. The vines leave only the crevices from which emerges the three spiders uncovered, and from these an eerie green glow emerges. A baleful, malevolent intelligence seems to fill these, and you can sense its gaze fall on each and every one of you. The monstrous tree, increasingly covered in vines suddenly lifts an entire network of roots with a tearing sound like the world coming apart at the seams and takes a lumbering step toward you.
As it raises its other roots to take another, an explosion of black flame erupts from the very center of the treehouse. Vines and splinters of wood explode in every direction, as, propelled by the blast, the smoking form of the young elven female with whom Fodd tried to speak earlier hurtles backward directly toward you. Her body hits the ground with a solid sound and she bounces, rolling twice to come to rest, unmoving, smoking and covered in the severed ends of at least a dozen vines a mere ten feet from where Fodd and Ragnar stand.
An earth-shattering roar of pain and fury echoes out over the glade as the entire top half of the gigantic tree, severed by the blast tips forward and, with a hundred branches, begins tipping and falling directly atop those in the glade (Ragnor, Fodd, dead spiders and blasted-girl).
Fodd responds as soon as the girl's body lands nearby, rushing to provide medical attention which - as is clear to everyone else - is coming far too late. Seeing the tree falling, he snatches her burned body up into his meaty arms and attempts to move it out of the path of the tree.
(DM - Athletics check? 21 or Acrobatics check? 4 )
.Corryn tries to help his colleagues by casting Dancing Lights again to illuminate a path away from the chaos while also slowly backing further into the wood/away, so as to better ascertain what is going on.
Having run slightly slower than her stride would let her in order to match her pace with Horrence through the forest, Ella cries, "Stay safe"at him, using her bonus action to cast Shield of Faith upon him - before using all her energy left to dash forwards to try and grab Fodd's arm and help him run with the broken girl in his arms.
(DM - I don't know how close we are to the others. If it's more than 30ft, I'll use my action to dash towards them. If it's less than that, I'll try and help drag him forwards a bit if I can)
(Also question - what do the others look like? I assume I can't see Corryn, but are Fodd and Ragnor looking beat up?)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Ragnor looks on in awe at the branches as they grow in size. While bounding away to a safe place 9, Ragnor tries to recognise the magic currently unfolding Arcana check 3
Horrencelook in horror at the scene which meets him and Ellaas they arrive. As he sees his new companions rushing from the lumbering tree in the near distance he shouts:
“I told you trees can be trusted. First growing everywhere, now wondering about like they own the bloody place. Time to make a nice cabinet”
With that he pulls out a wrap covered in engine oil, mutters a few words under his breath and casts [spell]grease[/spell] in the area surrounding the tree. (10ft cube area considered difficult terrain and creatures on it require Dex save DC 12 or knocked prone).
If the tree falls prone:
Horrence chuckles briefly under his breath and shouts at the group:
“Well come on then, let’s get a move on” and will use his movement to head away from the tree.
The entire upper half of the severed tree comes crashing down with a sound like a collapsing forest. A solid wall of leaves descends downward, partially obscuring the potentially dangerous branches plummeting in its midst.
Ella, you arrive at the clearing slightly ahead of Horrence and survey a scene of carnage. Three gigantic spiders lie broken and covered in ichor, two of them surrounding Fodd, a crag cat you recognize as one of Ragnor's wildshaped forms and an unconscious half-elf girl in black clothing whose form trails severed vines and wisps of curling smoke. The crag cat bears nasty wounds, and the girl looks completely senseless and fairly injured but Fodd remains unharmed for now.
As the tree begins to fall in their direction, Fodd grabs the unconcious girl and with Ragnor by his side they sprint toward where you stand in the treeline. Moving quickly, you're able to intercept Fodd and pull him along, only to narrowly avoid strikes from descending branches as Fodd throws himself forward, sustaining wounds in order to bear all three of you into the safety of the treeline.
Fodd, you put your head down and sprint with the single minded determination of the single minded. As you pass her, you scoop the unconscious, still smoldering woman up with your shield arm and tripping slightly, stumble to you feet and continue running. The branches reach you as you're within five feet of the treeline, smaller branches pummeling your back and head, leaves slicing through your face. With Ella's help, you manage to stay upright and shield the senseless girl with your broad back, but it costs you, as several powerful impacts threaten to crack even your mighty back (2 piercing, 4 blunt damage). You finally throw youself forward, bearing Ella, the girl and yourself in a dive toward the safety of the treeline.
Corryn, your dancing lights illuminate the falling tree but are almost instantly subsumed by falling branches. You note that the tree is significantly diminished, but now utterly covered in black vines. You also glimpse, just before the tree falls that black vines are beginning to snake their way from the slowly striding arboreal behemoth to the treeline. You spot one headed vaguely northward and another directly to the south.
Ragnor, you sprint for the treeline, paws pumping furiously on the grass as you attempt to outrun the descending branches. You mostly make it, sustaining only minor injuries as a few smaller branches rake your back (2 piercing damage). Glancing over your shoulder as you run, you attempt to discern the mystical force animating this tree. You are unable to draw any definite conclusions, but you believe you're witnessing a mixture of druidic transmutation and possession. The corruption of a once benign plant spirit by something darker, more malevolent.
Horrence, you point in the direction of the approaching vine-wrapped tree and a spray of grease erupts, coating the ground immediately around it. The tree begins to tremble, as if about to fall but vines burst forth from it in every direction, spearing into the ground around its feet and halting its fall. For a moment however, it is immobalized and heavily slowed, as its anchors must be pulled out one by one and reapplied if it is to move through the slick surface.
(DM: Rolling initiative on basis Horrence is taking an action, but its more to cover his retreat, so treat as you wish) Initiative: 13
(When my turn is up):
Horrence takes a small bolt from his pocket, peers through his glasses at it and whispers a few word and casts [Tooltip Not Found] before dropping it on the ground in front of him. The bolt begins to expand and mutate (transformer style) into a circular-looking robot (think the gun droids in the first Star Warsprequel).
(assuming ther is no one between the turret and the tree): As a Bonus Actin the turret will make a project a 15ft cone of fire towards the tree and the vines emerging from it (Dex save DC 12, on a failure tree takes 5 fire damage- half on successful save, and anything flammable catches fire). The turret will then move its full 15ft of movement away from the tree in the same direction as Horrence.
Horrence will also use this time to leg it back his full 25ft of movement away from the tree.
When it’s her turn, Ella will call out, “We can’t let that monstrosity reach the town!” and casting up desperate prayers to the goddess above, she’ll use her bonus action to cast Spiritual Weapon in her fear, summoning a ghostly, roundheaded axe hovering in the air to chop at the base of the tree (Attack roll 15, force damage 11). Still feverishly murmuring, riding the adrenaline from missing the tree branches so narrowly, she’ll cast Spare the Dying on the fallen woman in Fodd’s arms
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Fodd's initiative = 7
Breathing very hard from the run, Fodd lays the girl on the ground with surprising gentleness, then kneels beside her, placing his bulky form between her and the tree. Rubbing his chubby palms together to warm them he places them over whichever of the girl's wounds are in the least 'personal' places on her body. (Lay On Hands for +5HP to her)
You all wheel about to face the vine covered abomination shambling toward you, except Horrence, who backpedals furiously after depositing his turret.
Horrence, as you retreat your turret spits abruptly at the temporarily mired tree, which now more resembles a shambling mass of vines than an arboreal. The flame strikes it dead on and leaves a small circle of burned vines, but the flames find no purchase and indeed seem to sputter ineffectually against the rolling mass.
In response, the arboreal mound gradually lumbers forward, closing the distance to you by ten feet as it painstakingly pulls itself through the grease patch you summoned beneath it. The vines snaking from it north and south move much faster, shooting across the ground like serpents to begin wrapping around the base of two of the smaller trees on either side of the clearing.
Ella, you call upon the powers of your goddess and urge her to stand between the young woman in Fodd's arms and death's embrace. For a second, to your shock, you encounter resistance. As if some foul residue remains behind on the girl's spirit, willing her to die and churlishly rejecting your attempted interference. Your iron will pushes through however, scattering this obstacle and wrapping the girl's soul momentarily in a protective cocoon, arresting its slide toward oblivion.
At your command, your spectral axe appears directly before the vine-wrapped tree and hacks into it, vines parting and the ghostly blade biting deep into the bark beneath. A hideous cry emerges from somewhere within the creature's depths, half malice, half pain and all maddened rage.
Fodd, after a moment's nervous contemplation you place your hands gently on the girl's upper arms and pour into her the spirit and will of your idealized father. The man in your mind would never let something so trivial as grievous wounds slow him down, and so you will that same healing spirit into the black-clad half-elf girl in your arms. Healing light flows into her, color returning to her pale cheeks and her breathing growing from the tattered gasp of the near-dead to the more regular pulse of the merely exhausted and unconscious.
Ragnar and Corryn, what do you do?
((Note: After these two turns, we'll revert into proper initiative order. ))
Corryn sends another telepathic command to his familiar to hold its Help until after his own attack; he then takes careful aim from his hidden spot and fires another crossbow bolt at the spider attacking Fodd. Sneak Attack (advantage due to hiding) 13 Damage: 11 (1d6+2 Hand Crossbow; +2d6 Sneak Attack).
Her then crawls through the undergrowth and changes position to hide (via Cunning action) again. Stealth: 15
Roll to check if I'm still concentrating on pass without trace 12
Fodd wasn't really expecting to be ambushed by the second spider: usually when he bravely tells a companion to flee, they actually stay and fight. Still at least Mr Goldweaver was safe. And fortunately the spider's claws and teeth can't harm his indomitable spirit, shielded as he is by his pure heart (and thick, rusty armour). Pressed beneath the fat, hairy body, claws scraping down his armour, searching for the soft flesh beneath, Fodd summons the courage of his father and forces himself onto his hands and knees, pushing the spider off enough for him to turn and bring his shield into play. Thrusting it up into the spiders face he creates space to bring his sword into play, stabbing into the soft underbelly.
20 to hit for 9 damage
== Corryn, Ragnor and Fodd ==
Ragnor, your jaws snap down and manage to affix themselves around where the giant spider's neck connects to its scaly torso. In a single wrench, you tear it open, severing the connection. The spider's lower body spasms a number of times, legs curling in upon itself as it slumps in death.
Corryn, from your position hidden in the undergrowth you take careful aim at the last remaining spider. Waiting for a moment when the combination of your swooping familiar and Fodd's bulky form distracts it, you fire. The quarrel flies true, but a sudden lurch by the spider causes it to strike at an odd angle, deflecting harmlessly off angled chitin.
Like a well trained marksman, you are moving before the quarrel has even reached its target, rapidly changing position. After a second of searching you find a dark alcove of roots where you conceal yourself once more.
Fodd, you slice your battered sword across the spider's abdomen, the strength of your arm prodigious as chitin and flesh part before your strike. Enraged by the blow and dazed by your shield bash to the face, the spider's retaliation is slow and predictable, the snapping jaws easily intercepted by your shield, from which splinters fly in all directions at the impact (11 to hit against your AC 18).
What do you all do?
Ragnor runs towards the final spider looking to pounce on his new foe, leaping from a distance:
7 to hit for 10 damage. If knocked prone (DC 13 Strength) additional hit with 8 to hit for 10 damage.
Identical to last turn:
Corryn sends another telepathic command to his familiar to hold its Help until after his own attack; he then takes careful aim from his hidden spot and fires another crossbow bolt at the spider attacking Fodd. Sneak Attack (advantage due to hiding) 17 Damage: 15 (1d6+2 Hand Crossbow; +2d6 Sneak Attack).
He then crawls through the undergrowth and changes position to hide (via Cunning action) again. Stealth: 30 (+10 via Ragnor)
Although his arms ache, Fodd is inspired by the (admittedly remote) threat from the spiders to the maiden in the treehouse and is determined to slay the beast once and for all. Deflecting the spiders maw to the left, he is able to rise onto one knee and aim a chop of his bent blade at the creatures head. 10 to hit for 7 damage.
(DM, if I miss do I still have advantage from the owl? And if so, how do we negotiate re-rolls on here? Should i be rolling twice anyway, in case I get a critical 20??)
Ragnor leaps onto the spider, attempting to bring it down but succeeds only in tearing open its back. The momentary distraction and agony proves sufficient, however, as even though Fodd's swing flies wide, Corryn, your bolt corkscrews out of the darkness of the undergrowth and takes the spider right between its multitude of eyes. The smaller hand-crossbow bolt doesn't quite evaporate a head as one launched from a true arbalest might, but it still turns the spider's face into an utter ruin, snuffing its life out in a single kinetic release.
Silence reigns over the glade for a few heartbeats, broken only by the panting breaths of Fodd and Ragnor, who stand amidst the wreckage of defeated arachnids.
Suddenly, a piercing feminine scream of horror echoes out from the treehouse. Whipping around, you each see black and green vines erupt form the earth in innumerable waves, climbing the length of the tree in moments and plunging over the treehouse, pouring in through every window even as they encircle the walls and begin ripping it apart. The scream echoes again, an indecipherable mix of terror and pleading.
Drawn by the screams and the slight trembling of the earth that accompanies the vines growth, Ella and Horrence arrive panting in the clearing, winded from their sprint across the District and through the darkened forest. They find themselves on the north side of the glade, near to where the flanking spider had attempted to reach.
The vines continue to grow, enveloping the bottom half of the tree and tearing the treehouse apart even as they smother it from every angle. The vines leave only the crevices from which emerges the three spiders uncovered, and from these an eerie green glow emerges. A baleful, malevolent intelligence seems to fill these, and you can sense its gaze fall on each and every one of you. The monstrous tree, increasingly covered in vines suddenly lifts an entire network of roots with a tearing sound like the world coming apart at the seams and takes a lumbering step toward you.
As it raises its other roots to take another, an explosion of black flame erupts from the very center of the treehouse. Vines and splinters of wood explode in every direction, as, propelled by the blast, the smoking form of the young elven female with whom Fodd tried to speak earlier hurtles backward directly toward you. Her body hits the ground with a solid sound and she bounces, rolling twice to come to rest, unmoving, smoking and covered in the severed ends of at least a dozen vines a mere ten feet from where Fodd and Ragnar stand.
An earth-shattering roar of pain and fury echoes out over the glade as the entire top half of the gigantic tree, severed by the blast tips forward and, with a hundred branches, begins tipping and falling directly atop those in the glade (Ragnor, Fodd, dead spiders and blasted-girl).
Fodd responds as soon as the girl's body lands nearby, rushing to provide medical attention which - as is clear to everyone else - is coming far too late. Seeing the tree falling, he snatches her burned body up into his meaty arms and attempts to move it out of the path of the tree.
(DM - Athletics check? 21 or Acrobatics check? 4 )
.Corryn tries to help his colleagues by casting Dancing Lights again to illuminate a path away from the chaos while also slowly backing further into the wood/away, so as to better ascertain what is going on.
((Is there something that I might notice?))
Having run slightly slower than her stride would let her in order to match her pace with Horrence through the forest, Ella cries, "Stay safe" at him, using her bonus action to cast Shield of Faith upon him - before using all her energy left to dash forwards to try and grab Fodd's arm and help him run with the broken girl in his arms.
(DM - I don't know how close we are to the others. If it's more than 30ft, I'll use my action to dash towards them. If it's less than that, I'll try and help drag him forwards a bit if I can)
(Also question - what do the others look like? I assume I can't see Corryn, but are Fodd and Ragnor looking beat up?)
Ragnor looks on in awe at the branches as they grow in size. While bounding away to a safe place 9, Ragnor tries to recognise the magic currently unfolding Arcana check 3
Horrence look in horror at the scene which meets him and Ella as they arrive. As he sees his new companions rushing from the lumbering tree in the near distance he shouts:
“I told you trees can be trusted. First growing everywhere, now wondering about like they own the bloody place. Time to make a nice cabinet”
With that he pulls out a wrap covered in engine oil, mutters a few words under his breath and casts [spell]grease[/spell] in the area surrounding the tree. (10ft cube area considered difficult terrain and creatures on it require Dex save DC 12 or knocked prone).
If the tree falls prone:
Horrence chuckles briefly under his breath and shouts at the group:
“Well come on then, let’s get a move on” and will use his movement to head away from the tree.
The entire upper half of the severed tree comes crashing down with a sound like a collapsing forest. A solid wall of leaves descends downward, partially obscuring the potentially dangerous branches plummeting in its midst.
Ella, you arrive at the clearing slightly ahead of Horrence and survey a scene of carnage. Three gigantic spiders lie broken and covered in ichor, two of them surrounding Fodd, a crag cat you recognize as one of Ragnor's wildshaped forms and an unconscious half-elf girl in black clothing whose form trails severed vines and wisps of curling smoke. The crag cat bears nasty wounds, and the girl looks completely senseless and fairly injured but Fodd remains unharmed for now.
As the tree begins to fall in their direction, Fodd grabs the unconcious girl and with Ragnor by his side they sprint toward where you stand in the treeline. Moving quickly, you're able to intercept Fodd and pull him along, only to narrowly avoid strikes from descending branches as Fodd throws himself forward, sustaining wounds in order to bear all three of you into the safety of the treeline.
Fodd, you put your head down and sprint with the single minded determination of the single minded. As you pass her, you scoop the unconscious, still smoldering woman up with your shield arm and tripping slightly, stumble to you feet and continue running. The branches reach you as you're within five feet of the treeline, smaller branches pummeling your back and head, leaves slicing through your face. With Ella's help, you manage to stay upright and shield the senseless girl with your broad back, but it costs you, as several powerful impacts threaten to crack even your mighty back (2 piercing, 4 blunt damage). You finally throw youself forward, bearing Ella, the girl and yourself in a dive toward the safety of the treeline.
Corryn, your dancing lights illuminate the falling tree but are almost instantly subsumed by falling branches. You note that the tree is significantly diminished, but now utterly covered in black vines. You also glimpse, just before the tree falls that black vines are beginning to snake their way from the slowly striding arboreal behemoth to the treeline. You spot one headed vaguely northward and another directly to the south.
Ragnor, you sprint for the treeline, paws pumping furiously on the grass as you attempt to outrun the descending branches. You mostly make it, sustaining only minor injuries as a few smaller branches rake your back (2 piercing damage). Glancing over your shoulder as you run, you attempt to discern the mystical force animating this tree. You are unable to draw any definite conclusions, but you believe you're witnessing a mixture of druidic transmutation and possession. The corruption of a once benign plant spirit by something darker, more malevolent.
Horrence, you point in the direction of the approaching vine-wrapped tree and a spray of grease erupts, coating the ground immediately around it. The tree begins to tremble, as if about to fall but vines burst forth from it in every direction, spearing into the ground around its feet and halting its fall. For a moment however, it is immobalized and heavily slowed, as its anchors must be pulled out one by one and reapplied if it is to move through the slick surface.
Initiative 14
(DM: Rolling initiative on basis Horrence is taking an action, but its more to cover his retreat, so treat as you wish) Initiative: 13
(When my turn is up):
Horrence takes a small bolt from his pocket, peers through his glasses at it and whispers a few word and casts [Tooltip Not Found] before dropping it on the ground in front of him. The bolt begins to expand and mutate (transformer style) into a circular-looking robot (think the gun droids in the first Star Wars prequel).
(assuming ther is no one between the turret and the tree): As a Bonus Actin the turret will make a project a 15ft cone of fire towards the tree and the vines emerging from it (Dex save DC 12, on a failure tree takes 5 fire damage- half on successful save, and anything flammable catches fire). The turret will then move its full 15ft of movement away from the tree in the same direction as Horrence.
Horrence will also use this time to leg it back his full 25ft of movement away from the tree.
Ella’s initiative: 6
When it’s her turn, Ella will call out, “We can’t let that monstrosity reach the town!” and casting up desperate prayers to the goddess above, she’ll use her bonus action to cast Spiritual Weapon in her fear, summoning a ghostly, roundheaded axe hovering in the air to chop at the base of the tree (Attack roll 15, force damage 11). Still feverishly murmuring, riding the adrenaline from missing the tree branches so narrowly, she’ll cast Spare the Dying on the fallen woman in Fodd’s arms
Fodd's initiative = 7
Breathing very hard from the run, Fodd lays the girl on the ground with surprising gentleness, then kneels beside her, placing his bulky form between her and the tree. Rubbing his chubby palms together to warm them he places them over whichever of the girl's wounds are in the least 'personal' places on her body. (Lay On Hands for +5HP to her)
You all wheel about to face the vine covered abomination shambling toward you, except Horrence, who backpedals furiously after depositing his turret.
Horrence, as you retreat your turret spits abruptly at the temporarily mired tree, which now more resembles a shambling mass of vines than an arboreal. The flame strikes it dead on and leaves a small circle of burned vines, but the flames find no purchase and indeed seem to sputter ineffectually against the rolling mass.
In response, the arboreal mound gradually lumbers forward, closing the distance to you by ten feet as it painstakingly pulls itself through the grease patch you summoned beneath it. The vines snaking from it north and south move much faster, shooting across the ground like serpents to begin wrapping around the base of two of the smaller trees on either side of the clearing.
Ella, you call upon the powers of your goddess and urge her to stand between the young woman in Fodd's arms and death's embrace. For a second, to your shock, you encounter resistance. As if some foul residue remains behind on the girl's spirit, willing her to die and churlishly rejecting your attempted interference. Your iron will pushes through however, scattering this obstacle and wrapping the girl's soul momentarily in a protective cocoon, arresting its slide toward oblivion.
At your command, your spectral axe appears directly before the vine-wrapped tree and hacks into it, vines parting and the ghostly blade biting deep into the bark beneath. A hideous cry emerges from somewhere within the creature's depths, half malice, half pain and all maddened rage.
Fodd, after a moment's nervous contemplation you place your hands gently on the girl's upper arms and pour into her the spirit and will of your idealized father. The man in your mind would never let something so trivial as grievous wounds slow him down, and so you will that same healing spirit into the black-clad half-elf girl in your arms. Healing light flows into her, color returning to her pale cheeks and her breathing growing from the tattered gasp of the near-dead to the more regular pulse of the merely exhausted and unconscious.
Ragnar and Corryn, what do you do?
((Note: After these two turns, we'll revert into proper initiative order. ))
((Assuming I'm still hidden)):
Sneak Attack (advantage due to hiding) 22 Damage: 9 (1d6+2 Hand Crossbow; +2d6 Sneak Attack).
He then crawls through the undergrowth and changes position to hide (via Cunning action) again. Stealth: 9
Initiative Roll: 6