((for BE if they're still in exams - feel free to override))

Ice coming from somewhere, vague shapes of frozen dead giants. Mindartis gently gathers whatever fallen satyrs he can find and steps out of the cloud to see who did that and look around for more enemies

Del watches the fomorians flee, ready to blast some more if they turn back, but happy to let them disappear. He looks around for any allies he might be able to stabilize Medicine 18, and askes Ziia if she can make contact with the mighty tree

Flitterbug hears Del's booming and very persuasive voice, and kicks the air in frustration seeing the fomorians falling for it. Still, she wasn't really likely to kill anything mad though she was. Poopy luck! Enough of this! before she remembers to ask the elves Can anyone help the poor sprites? And did you see the children get out ok? I sent them up from below

Quote from skuk >>

If 19 wants to run, Del can drop concentration (as soon as he sees every fomorian buggering off) and let him go

 19 will definitely run, given the chance!

And if nobody is pursuing, the battle is over. You are victorious! Everyone goes up a level. The junior party members (Cup, Ethen and Flitterbug) go up two levels.

The satyr with the key continues to unlock the Eladrin, as the children and remaining smaller fey nervously come up from underground.  Some of the children are Eladrin, some of whom run to their captured parents.  About half the children seem to be wood elves form the material plane, looking lost and frightened.  You see Cara and Toth among them.

Working diligently, you and the freed prisoners manage to revive about half the downed satyrs and sprites.

Theocarus and Maendria rush to embrace their children, Mindartis and Althaea. "Welcome back, my children!" Maendria says. "I only wish it could have been a happier homecoming."

"We can not thank you enough for our freedom!" says a battered Eladrin man who seems to have some authority. "I am Vendicaris, council chief of the village of Athenvale...or what is left of it. You see only a fraction of our people. Some were killed in the attack on our village, but hundreds were taken away, we know not where, by the bulk of the Fomorian army. You are welcome to stay in Athenvale as long as you would like...though I fear our hospitality will not be up to our usual standards. I imagine there is little left of our village."

Ziia and Del communicate with the tree. It warns you that its roots have taken terrible damage, and that only the surrounding briars twisted among its branches are holding it up. A strong wind may bring it crashing down.

"Can you get a message to those who aided the other tree?" Raven asks the group. "Maybe they can send the druids here to tend this one. It would be horrible to see it fall."

Don't forget, Sister Raven, we know the ritual, we can teach it to the people here and they can save the Everlost. Del explains about the chant to the eladrin leaders It is designed for people with any magical ability to contribute what they can. I am not sure if the chain about its root will impede, but I imagine your native son Lord Mindartis can make short work while he is temporarily titanic.

Other things Del wants to do soon - talk to and free the tortoise. Rest like crazy. He can raise dead for the heroic fallen, but we do not have the diamonds. Can Sister Althaea's amulet power help anyone?

As soon as the battle is over Quentin and Cup collapse onto the ground, the two wizards panting as they expended most or all of their magical energies. Cup not lasting long before she falls asleep from pure magical exhaustion as Quentin holds up a hand and says, "I vote...we.....take a short rest....at least...maybe a night stay here...." 

The Eladrin rummage among the giants' huts until they find a set of smith's tools, and set to work breaking the chain.  Others eagerly learn the tree-healing ritual, and start singing it as soon as they can.  Althaea is able to quickly restore those still suffering from Fomorian evil eye curses.

Del frees the tortoise, who is very grateful to have the tight rope around its foot untied, and to not be a target for rock-hurling any more. It is just a normal giant tortoise of the fey forest, but has warm feelings toward you.  It's large enough to carry probably fifteen people or a lot of gear...but not very quickly.

((Glad we did interrupt the battle to free the tortoise - I was thinking it was a possible asset. But the spell-casting eladrin turn out to be the right save - which all came from M thinking of blowing the satyr horn))

A & M are likely busy catching up with their parents, so Del can fill in the eladrin elder. We do have some great news then, Chief Vendicaris, some 300 of your people are at the dormitory of the Thamasaille - we have been testing hoops captured from the hags - you may have seen them used? - just to find your village. So now we can bring them home, and repatriate the Westwoods children. Del turns to them, and checks if any are from the Free City missing poster (27 still not accounted for?) Cara! Toth! Remember us? I thought you were free already - we saw your parents and rescued your horse from the gnolls in Slate City - they were traveling back to your farm by way of Lomolos(?) last I saw, though Feather may have been pressed into other work

Ethen takes a seat, wiping sweat from his forehead as he looks around. He rests his bow across his knees, glad the battle is done.

It was a whole day travel back to where the village used to be, so we should spend the "night" here. We can open the tapestry - there are 30 days rations, plus what we all have personally, and Ziia can add 30 Goodberries to the 25 we are all carrying - we can probably feed everybody. Plus there is a barrel each of beer and wine in there. And dragonlings. We got a party basically.

With the danger past Raven would allow the dragonlings out of the tapestry. "Stay close." She tells them. She would start to look through the hovels and even the tunnels, trying to see if these giants had anything of interest. As she moves around her Tressym is now on her shoulder, helping keep an eye out for anything invisible.

Raven has competition/help checking out the huts, as the eladrin, satyrs, pixies and sprites rummage around for anything they can find useful.  Nothing unusual is found. Raven does find a bag with 2500 gold buried underground beneath one of the less smelly and tattered beds of furry animal hides, and there is plenty of non-magical practical gear...smith's tools, carpenter's tools, spare manacles and locks and chains and LOTS of axes and saws. You also find 3 potions of supreme healing.

The 24 dead Fomorians are all wearing rings, and Raven determines that they are magical, and make the wearer immune to being charmed.  You can probably sell them for 300 each to non-elves. (Maybe less to an elvish trader planning to make a profit.)You find about 1992gp in varied coinage on the dead bodies.

Vendicaris says, "It would probably be best if we all spend the night here. This camp is probably in better shape than the village.  If only the enemy did not know the way into the brambles. We will have to keep a watch all night, in case they return."  He sets his people--the ones not singing the ritual--to cleaning up the huts and making them somewhat sanitary and livable.

Using Ziia's Speak with Plants in combination with "plurdlegootz" can we change the bramble password - or at least does "plurdlegootz" work for us?

We will still want watches set. Hags could hoop in

M can use the remaining time as a giant to help break the chain and move stuff that needs moving

After a small rest Quentin gets to work with Cup, the wizard teaching his apprentice a couple of more spells. The young tabaxi being observant and learning quickly. As they finish he then teaches her about the ritual to help the trees starting it himself while they’re here. 

Working with Ziia, and possessing the password, Del is able to make the brambles much more cooperative...and yes, you can now change the password.

Del will change it to something abhorrent to the hag team: "I love Randel Styles", unless the locals have a better idea

Let's take a short rest, with Song of Rest, to recover what we can in case we are attacked in the "night", then a long one to really recover. 

Sometime in the span, Del can consult with the Chief Were there once defenders of the Everlost Tree, Lord Vendicaris? Would you consider moving your village here? Or perhaps in the Feywild "here" is not a consistent "here"? Because I could Hallow an area, excluding elementals, fiends, and undead - I had better not exclude fey - and lay on a specific effect for enemies of the Tree and members of the Archwitch / Indri'in conspiracy. Perhaps vulnerability to cold, seeing your people's specialty, or something else you like.

 Could we get the herbs and materials for Hallow in exchange for gold or gems if the eladrin approve?

"Our connection with winter is a temporary thing," Vindicaris says. "Our seasons change with our moods, as the seasons change at the whim of the archfey of the great courts. But this place is surely better protected than our village. Sprite scouts have reported back already, and it does not sound like our home is in any condition for us to inhabit, and will not be for some time. Perhaps, if we need to rebuild from the beginning, this place is as good as any.  I know not why this tree was chosen by the hags, of all the powerful and ancient trees of the Feywild, but if they want it, we are ready to stay here and defend it. As to your offer, the Fomorians are our greatest enemies, and now they work for the hags. Any magic you have that could keep giants out--or at least the unfriendly ones--or hags would be welcome."

(( Hallow does not quite do what he wants - giant is not normally a creature type you can exclude - but there is wide DM latitude written into the spell description ("...or choose an effect offered by the GM...") so could Del specifically exclude fomorians and their allies, and give the villagers and allies protection from psychic (to protect against evil eyes) as the extra effect? And (b) the tree trunk is 60 foot radius, the size of the Hallow effect. Would they be happy with a circle next to the tree as a safe retreat? And can I expend 1000 gold and get the supplies, or would I have to come back? If it is too much trouble, one of them should just cast Druid Grove every day))

I am confused - is this not the "Everlost Tree", or is that a kind of tree? Del explains about the hoops Perhaps there are many trees under threat in the Feywild, or perhaps this specific tree has the right connection to our Great Pixie Tree &/or the Shadowfell's Twisted Tree. Or the High Druid's lore is incomplete, or - most likely - I have misunderstood. 

The village chef looks confused, but one of the passing sprites assures you that , yes, this is indeed the Everlost Tree.  "It is beside this tree that the firbolg Everlost Druids founded their order, and the last of their order is said to be buried beneath its roots, though we didn't come across any sign of her. Every year, the local sprites hold their Feast of the Rushlights here, and the pixies celebrate the Snowball Jamboree in its branches. To say nothing of the squirrel races."

"Ah," says Vindicaris. "As I said, there are many great and powerful trees in the Twilight Lands.  As to why this one in particular was chosen, you would have to consult with the hags."