(Let me know when Raven reaches the combat with the hill giant.)

(Yep, it will take a little while.)

The hill giant starts groping around for another rock to throw...

Quentin makes his way up the tree to find Del sitting beside Zanderfell on the workshop floor.  Zanderfell is dressed in pale lavender silk robes, twined with living vines that trail from a woven vine circlet around his head.  You can see the burns fading from his skin, but he looks completely exhausted, and you can sense that he is aged beyond measure...thousands of years old. "Lord Quentin, it is good to see you in person. I had hoped our paths might cross, though in better circumstances." He has a coughing fit for a while. 

Mindartis gets ready to dodge it.

The giant hurls another rock as Mindartis tries to dodge it.  Attack: 12 Damage: 23  The rock misses and kicks up a divot of earth from the battlefield.

 Mindartis suddenly hears fluttery wings by his ear. "I cen't let you face this alone!" Flitterbug says fiercely. She casts Confusion on the giant.  (Giant save DC12 : 7)

The giant's jaw goes even slacker than it was before...6 He stands still, drooling and staring into space.

Raven can now see that Mindartis is fighting something on the edge of the cleared area.

Elwin, the last of the party actually attending the ritual, sees that the scars on the tree are rapidly healing over, with the dozen professional Restorers and the twenty wizard scholars putting their power into the chant.  Bark is growing over burned places, broken branches re-growing, and new leaves sprouting.  It will not be long before the ritual is complete.

Quentin bows in respect saying, “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person as we’ll Master Zanderfell. I wish it was under better circumstances as well. And I apologize if the back up I brought was......well less than the perfect guests.”

Movement: 40 Towards giant

Bonus Action: Rage if Mindartis get within attacking range
Wild Magic Surge: 8
Necrotic energy bursts from you. Each creature within 30 feet of you takes 1d10 necrotic damage, and you gain temporary hit points equal to the sum of the necrotic damage dealt to the creatures.

Action: Dash if needed to get to the giant, if not greatsword attacks
Attack: 11 Damage: 13
Attack: 27 Damage: 17

Mindartis looks to Flitterbug, "Stay out of range of his rocks okay? Stay as afar away as possible" Before charging in to attack.

Elwin relaxed a bit at the sight, seeing that the ritual was visibly working. He hadn't even known mages could combine their magic like this, although it made sense, now that he thought about it.

With the ceremony seeming to be nearing completion, he looked around a bit, and realized there were new faces here, participating in the ritual... but that Del was no longer with them. Had something gone wrong?

Shaking his head, and a little worried, the warlock decided to trust that Del and the others could handle themselves for the time being. He turned his attention back to what he could do, and focused on finishing the ritual.

(( I know it seems like Elwin's not participating much, but that's fine for now... his personality would have him finish the ritual first before running off (unless something jumped right in front of him.) ))

(Just don't want to leave anyone out, glad you're not feeling neglected too much!)

"Beggars can't be choosers," Zanderfel answers Quentin.  "I suppose i must let them into my library for a short time to show my thanks for their aid.  A very short time." He sighs. "Many scholars treat knowledge as humans treat gold. They will do anything to get hold of more of it than is good for them, then use it carelessly, and usually to their own harm."

Mindartis strikes the hill giant two powerful blows!  As he does so, a wave of deathly energy blasts around him, dealing the giant an additional 2 damage!  It's a good thing he had to run toward the giant, and warned Flitterbug to keep back, or his pixie friend might have met a gruesome fate...

5 The giant runs wildly off to the (3) northwest at full speed, into the forest! 

Raven is within dashing range of Mindartis now, but the giant is quickly making off.

(Done)

"Oh I'm not done with you get back here you bastard," Mindartis roars, charging after the giant. ((Do I need to dash to catch up?))

"Perhaps it would be better to choose out a couple books to let them read in here for a while. Nothing too dangerous." Quentin says with a soft smile, "I cannot say that I don't feel the same temptation right now but I am doing my best to keep myself focused." 

((Also, did I get and AOO for that?))

Zanderfell smiles.  "You and your companions are welcome to make what use of the library you may while you are here.  I know of your quest, and you may find much here that will aid you."

(Mindartis does get an AoO, the giant has dashed 80 feet, you will have to dash also to keep anywhere near him.) 9

(Sorry, giant has moved 40 feet)

Reaction: Attack of Opportunity
Attack: 25 Damage: 16

Movement: 40 feet to keep up with the giant

Action: Greatsword Attacks
Attack: 26 Damage: 13
Attack: 27 Damage: 16

Mindartis slashes at the giant as it flees? He's confused, but he follows after it to attack again.

(With Raven's bonus action to dash, she ought to be able to attack this round.)

"Thank you very much." Quentin replies with a smile, "Is there anything more we can do for you while you're here?" 

Of course Del agrees with Quentin If there is anything: healing or favor or whatever Del will, unless Z asks for something, discretely leave he and Q to talk, and step down stairs. Shall we learn what is known of you, fair Ziia? Del asks, to the manifestation or to her spirit in the crwth if she has disappeared.  He googles asks for for "Ziia, Dryad, and Crwth" from the library

"Well, you might help me up the stairs to my room," Zanderfell says. "I feel I need a great deal of rest, and while I love my workshop dearly, the floor is not the most comfortable place to sleep..."  As you help the old wizard up the stairs, he adds, "And try to keep those academics from ravaging the library while I am napping."  Once you get Zanderfell tucked in, he says, "If you don't mind, Lord Quentin...I would like a word in private."

Del goes down to the library and makes his requests.

When he asks about Ziia, he gets a storybook called Tales of the Fey, a book of wondrous magical items, a ledger, three books about bards, and an ancient journal, .

The storybook tells abut a dryad named Ziia, who dearly loved her sycamore tree, and lived in what later became the western wilderness of the kingdom of Lomalos. Two wicked wizards fought a duel, and the tree was shattered in the fight.  A traveler and his Treeant friend found the dryad there, clinging to the shattered remains of her sycamore, waiting to die with it.  The traveler did not know a way to save the tree, but was skilled in magic and in woodworking.  The treeant suggested that the dryad might let her tree live on, at least in a sense, by creating a musical instrument of it.  The dryad found the suggestion to be the only hope and motivation remaining to her, and the traveler taught her what he knew of making musical instruments and imbuing them with magical power. Ziia put her entire being into creating a crwth of surpassing beauty and tonality, one which could recall the sense of the wind singing through the lost branches and the wood creaking in the breeze, and the dryad's own voice. Each string represented one of the great branches shattered by the duel. She put her entire being into it literally - she worked day and night as her life waned, until one day the traveler found her gone, and nothing remaining of the dryad and the tree but the crwth...dryad and tree joined together forever in an echo of their true lives. The traveler picked up the crwth, but knew that his poor talent was unfit for such a fine instrument, so he carried her on his travels for centuries, until one day, he came to a village where a grubby-faced girl was playing a jig in the street.  The fiddle she played was cracked and lacking a string, but still, her tunes made the passing merchants dance, whether they wished to or not. The traveling magician handed the crwth to the urchin, saying, "A talent such as yours deserves a much finer instrument. Care for her as if she was your sister." He left, and the child never saw him again. But she loved the beautiful instrument, cared for it as if it were indeed her sister, and played upon it constantly, honing her skill and bringing the voice of the dryad back into the world. That child became Liandra the Golden, bard of legend, whose sweet voise and playing could charm pegasi from the celestial planes.

The book of magical items describes the instrument, and several of the bards who have traveled with her.  Other books are tales of those bards, including the storied Liandra the Golden, who traveled with Ziia for centuries, until she and her companions met their deaths trying to defeat a blue dragon.  The crwth was recovered from the dragon's hoard a hundred years later by Edvyll Theringar, another famous bard, though he preferred his horn and lute to a crwth. He lost Ziia in a drunken card game to a merchant, who sold her to the bard/knight Sir Jewll Ghysmallen, a mighty warrior of little musical talent, but great aspiration. Dying of a hundred orc arrows, he reportedly bestowed Ziia on his squire, whose name was lost, and Ziia's whereabouts were unknown afterward. The ledger is from Lomalos, 3000 years ago, cataloging treasures found in the castle after the defeat of Grimmerang. The crwth Ziia was listed among the items recovered from the evil wizard's treasury.

The ancient journal, the ink so faded it can barely be read, seems to be the diary of the traveler who met Ziia and taught her to make the instrument. You realize it might have been Zanderfell himself, and wonder how many thousands of years ago the story took place.

Del also finds books about dryads. And many tales of individual dryads.

And various books on crwths, their construction, their history, playing techniques, sheet music, and various bards known for their talent with the instrument.

Outside the tree, the scars have pretty much completely healed.  The Restorers ask Sir Elwin to let High Druid Talos know that they were helpful.  Lonvari gives him a friendly smack on the back calling out loudly, SIR Elwin now!  Good to see you rising up in the world, my lad!  And apparently well-deserved, well-deserved!  But Grimmerangs jowls, boy, you might have asked us to join in the fun of gnoll fighting, instead of just the clean-up afterward!" He laughs loudly, though several of the other professors look horrified at the though. Some of them slip off to the tables to help themselves to whatever victuals the drunken, snoring knights and soldiers have left over. A few others seem to be examining the tree wistfully.

(Still need to finish off that giant battle, though in the timeline, that will already have been resolved by now.)

"Wow, so many millennia, dear friend" Del whispers to Ziia, "I had thought it was mostly the time in the Lomolos cellar. My luck and The You-Kay-Gee that you travel with a street punk like me" Del looks towards settling down for the night, but realises he can't get out or let the other 3 in without help. He curls up by the ground floor and does his evening prayers and goodberry casting for now, probably fall asleep unless someone comes pretty soon

Pleased that he managed to help restore the tree (which he now looks at with much more reverance,) Elwin eagerly sets out to find the others. (( If he bumps into the High Druid, he'll pass along the Restorers' "message." ))

As he looks, he thought he saw Raven quite a distance away. "Raven?"

(( Is she actually close enough to see? Or Mindartis, for that matter? ))

As Del falls asleep, he hears Ziia whisper, for the first time speaking without being bid, for the first time speaking of her own life... "Liandra the Golden was also a street punk once..."