@Searat @Ozzy Cross @Kumbaris @Forsythe

As the group slowly made their way through the forest, Shina felt less and less comfortable. A shiver continued to go through her whole body and the smell of trees gave way to an unusual musty smell. Suddenly, another root appeared from nowhere; but Shina had been watching the ground so saw this appear in front of her.

She went to side step it and before she knew it, another root had grabbed her other foot and tied itself around her. She was lifted high into the air with such force, the wind was knocked out of her. 'HELP! Someone chop this piece of fire wood off me!!' Shina tried to reach for her dagger but it had fallen out of her satchel and lay on the ground. 'Lapoo! Get my knife buddy, you can do it' But Lapoo had no time before another vine had grabbed its tail.

Vines started to appear all around the group...

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

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"On it!" Rudolph then aimed his palm at the villainous vine and uttered a single word in the arcane tongue. "Fotiá." Instantaneously a ball of blue flame shot from his palm and struck the obtrusive vine that was causing Shina trouble. The disguised wizard's firebolt made short work of the vine as it carbonized in less than a second. He didn't even hit the blacksmith to boot! He had little time to celebrate as vines shot from the ground and bound one of the wizard's arms and both legs. "Uh-oh." With a sudden jolt of the vines the wizard was knocked flat on his ass and a vine seemed to level itself with Rudolph's neck before shooting forward. His unbound arm shot up and grasped the vine. Stopping it shy only a handful of centimeters to his throat. "Oh dear. Now I'm in a pinch." Rudolph said as he struggled to prevent the living plant from piercing his throat.

@Ozzy Cross @Searat @Kumbaris @Forsythe

Shina turned to see a stranger appear from nowhere 'Wait...is that...Thomas?! Thaddeus' boy??!' Shina blinked hard as she could feel the vines tightening around her. What on earth was the boy thinking?! This was no place for him and she watched helplessly as he too got caught by the same vines that had by now, tangled the whole group.

She saw Lapoo fly around her, squeaking with fear, not being super helpful. Then as she felt her mind start to spin, she heard something, or was it someone? It was familiar but all at once strange and frightening. She could feel her heartbeat pulse quicker and quicker, her very soul felt like it was aflame, as though someone had thrown a fresh piece of wood on a fireplace. As she opened her eyes again, the world looked completely different. She saw her friends as, well as other beings! But what came to her was the dragon lady, Shina saw her as a dragon again! But not in its real scale this time, almost as though she could see the aura of the human (or in this case elf form) and within it, a small version of the very real dragon she was. She turned to Rudolph, again a faint outline of the wizard but within, a glowing blue magical being existed.

Shina shook her head again, this must be a hallucination, caused by a lack of air. But as she looked down, she saw the same with her, the outline of the elf form but within, a fiery flame red panda burned!

Her heart quickened...and kept quickening...and then.....she saw Guan. Or was it?

'Guan?...Is that you?....ple..ase...he..l..p...us' As she was losing consciousness again. Guan walked up to her and whispered...'You don't need me Shina, you know what to do.' And just like that, he disappeared.

Lapoo started squeaking louder and louder, becoming more primal. Suddenly, Shina felt a surge of power course though her and yelled 'ESTELIAR!!!!!' Her eyes burned red and she doubled round, grabbing her dagger from her satchel and sliced through the vine holding the wizard. The vine slithered back, giving her time to jump down and run towards the others. As quick as lighting, she started to cut through the vines, one after the other.

Taraah for one was not particularly worried. She would just tear through the offending vines with her talons, and then go to an all elf you can eat restaurant. With a forest sized barbecue pit. She reached for the vine creeping up to her throat-

Right. Elf disguise. One she this time had no control over. A pit of panic appeared in her core and threatened to implode. She furiously grappled qith the vine and pried it off of her throat. Thank heavens her draconic strength remained at least. Still, the vines threatened to overwhelm her soon if she did not get rid of them quickly. "Wizard! They know, dispell the disguise!" she called over.

Then she noticed Thaddeus' boy in jeopardy. Something that she didn't feel before set fire to her blood. She did not have time to speculate about the feeling, because she was seeing red. Reaching to the scabbard at her side, she drawn her battered silver blade and chopped at the offending vines, wishing she chose a blade with more mass. Still, after a few hews, the vines around her gave way and she leapt over to the youngling. "Young lord!" she shouted as she worked the vines around him, only catching Shiina going on a similar rampage in her peripheral vision.

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

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"Thomas!?" Rudolph said with a look of disbelief as the young man burst from the back of their carriage, makeshift firebomb in hand. Fire burned a number of the newer aggressive flora but soon even the young man was overwhelmed by an unseen vine. Things were looking pretty grim for the group of impromptu adventurers, but fate smiled on them. Shina was reinvigorated by a fiery passion and was a flurry of cuts and slashes. One being able to free his arm. Just in time to hear the dragoness call to dispel the magic. True enough, there was no reason to maintain the illusion now that they were in active combat for the denizens of the Thousand Year Old Forest to see. With a quick cutting motion with his free hand, he dispelled the polymorphic magic affecting them and once again they were in their old selves. "Polymorphic magic down! Go wild!" He said before incinerating the vine trying to stab his neck. Their jig was up and the only thing they could do now is fight through the forest and hope that Thaddeus was still keeping Nemnon and the rest of the wild elves' attention on him.

@RedPandaGamer@Searat@Forsythe

The journey through the forest was already making Yoshina regret her decision to wear the maid outfit. Her standard getup would easily make her comfortable enough to trudge into the thick foliage. But the unnecessary frills and thick coating of the maid uniform was not making the journey for the Sangakuan Princess easy.

At all.

"Gods, I knew I should've went with the more practical outfit." She muttered in her native language, mentally beating herself for valuing the quick response from her to the journey rather than bothering to change outfits and make them wait a lil bit more.

She has seen the little bit of conversation between Thaddeus and the group, and him vanishing into the forest. There were some sounds coming from the forest the moment he vanished, but nonetheless. The group decided to go inside, and the Princess, while very nervous, still decided to continue.

"I have went through battles with tens of thousands of men, seen the horrors of war and uncountable atrocities, and yet I'm still afraid of a dark forest. Just what is-"

Her inner monologue was cut short when she noticed something grab into her ankle. She looked down, and saw a vine, a shiver ran down her spine, a part of her telling Yoshina that she's in great danger. Then she heard the Firetail's call for help.

'HELP! Someone chop this piece of fire wood off me!!'

Seemingly out of nowhere, vines shot out from the darkness, quickly gagging the Sangakuan Princess, grabbing both her arms, and dragged the Red Haired woman deep into the woods, the Princess screamed for help, her heart rate rapidly quickening and her eyes widening and scanning the treeline for anything she could put her hands to hold on to. Please please please find something Yoshina The Princess talked to herself as she tried moving her hand to grab a branch.

Much to her distress, even her well muscled arms are still no match for the grabbing power of the vines, eventually dragging her into a tree where they originated and slowly entombing her into it. Yoshina is not sure what this tree has planned for her, but she didn't stop her incessant struggling. She NEEDS to get out of here, best case scenario, she will be connected into the tree itself, becoming a dryad, worst case scenario though?

Either way, she has no desire to turn into a dryad when she's already a wood elf for the moment. Her muffled scream didn't reach the distance needed to alert the group, who were already occupied with their own issues among the hostile trees. At least the tree hasn't choked her... yet.

But then the vines seemed to recoil, Yoshina could barely see Shina doing something. But the sudden recoil was not enough for the Sangakuan Princess to do much of anything.

Including a sudden series of soft vines prodding her backside, it seems like the tree really wanted her to merge with it.

Oh gods no!

"HMMMM!!!! HMMMMM!!!" The Princess shouted as strong as she could, faintly hoping anyone in the group would notice the missing Princess.

@Forsythe @Kumbaris @Searat @Ozzy Cross

Shina almost felt as though she were a ghost, watching this different version of her below - slicing through vine after vine, like some crazy person! She didn't feel herself at all, but all she could remember was Guan's face, clear as day. Her soul was on fire, her ears and tail seemed to glow with a soft ember and her senses were keener than they had ever been.

As she cut through the vines, she saw that the wizard had lifted the spell they all had, so there was no hope of going through this forest without a fight now. She had also realised that Thaddeus' boy had somehow appeared, how very like his father, "Thomas, what are you doing here?!?!" She helped with the others until they had all been freed. It looked like the dragon had everything covered, it would have been good if she could turn and set this whole awful forest aflame!

Suddenly, she thought she could hear a muffled scream...the princess was almost completely covered in vines!! Lapoo had already made its way over and was started to try (not very successfully) to bite through... "Thank you my friend, i've got it from here" Shina sliced through until she could see the princesses face, looking so frightened.. "I'm so sorry Princess, you should never have got caught up in all this" Finally she got her free and it looked like they were all untangled.

They all gathered around and Shina grabbed Thomas by the arm "Thomas! What are you doing here, does your father know?! She felt that Thaddeus would never have let his son join, especially with the danger of the elves. As she thought this, she suddenly felt many eyes watching them. Lapoo confirmed her fears when it let out a squeak and hid behind her.

The canopy above them shifted as elves surrounded them, most aiming bows at them. Things were about to get complicated.

"You, come with us!!" One of the elves shouted in broken English.

Yep, thought Shina, thing's are definitely going to get complicated.

@Forsythe@RedPandaGamer@Searat@Ozzy Cross

The help from Shina came at a very opportune time. Yoshina felt like she was about to be completely subsumed by the tree in minutes, but the rapid slashes from the Firetail managed to get the vines completely out of her body, grabbing her Naginata, she quickly make short work from the tree that, just a couple minutes ago, tried smothering her inside of it.

"Die!"

The multiple slashes from her Sangakuan polearm managed to fully down the tree. Bursts of sap and splintering wood follow her wake as she finally regrouped with the party. "Sorry, I was taken by surprise back there, did anything happen?"

Sure enough, her questions was quickly answered. As one of the Elves shouted something Yoshina could barely decipher, she knew that following the Elves would probably mean incarceration for all of them, potentially execution if they're not careful. The Sangakuan has had enough time being incarcerated throughout her journeys. No more spending time in Oubliettes and Pillories, humiliated in public or potentially even worse. Screw that!

"I recommend that we move as fast as possible, if we don't want to get captured by the Elves, we have to move and move deliberately. Taarah, can you get a view from the sky of where we should go? I'd rather not stick around and potentially kill even more lives today."

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

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Just when the half-elf wizard took notice that the crimson haired warrior was strangely quiet during this encounter, the spirits of the Thousand Year Old Woods decided to pull one more trick on poor Rudolph. A vine silently crept behind him and when the wizard was about to look for the missing woman, the vine lashed out and swept the wizard off his feet and causing him to land flat on his back with a thud."Makers above I am sick of these oppressive plantlife!" The wizard said as he snatched a half a broken branch and channeled his mana into the mundane stick. A blade of pure magical energy appeared at the tip as the entirety of the branch carbonized in mere moments. But it was long enough for the wizard to perform a broad slash that severed the vine as if it were made of air. At the end of it all only ash remained in the wizard's hand.

Luckily enough for them, Shina had taken care of their missing warrior. But celebrations were ended abruptly when they took notice of the wild elves had surrounded them and were ready to turn them into pincushions for arrows. They seemed that they wanted to capture them, but Yoshina had a plan. Guess he had to make a distraction while they set their plan into motion. Rudolph began speaking in Elvish."<Lend me your ears, kin. I am Rudolph Admoss. Finder of Masf'kaymar, First Seat of the Arcane Academe, Realm Walker,...>" Rudolph would keep rambling on and on about his titles of genuine merit and ones he'd made up on the spot.

@Ozzy Cross @Kumbaris @Forsythe @Searat

Shina cursed under her breath - this was not what she wanted to happen. As it was, the encounter with the vines had slowed them down considerably and she was getting more and more anxious of the fate of her friend.

The wizard started doing what he did best, speaking very verbosely to the angry looking sets of eyes looking down at them. It was clear he was buying the group time but she couldn't see how they would get out of this.

As the wizard spoke, Shina, the princess, the dragon lady and young Thomas turned and started to walk further into the forest. Of course, they were quickly stopped by one of the elves. A woman, who was clad only in nature's leaves and with a face covered by a mask made from tree bark pointed to them. She shouted something, which didn't sound very friendly and proceeded to jump to the ground, a long spear pointed right at them.

You trespass here! You come with us! She snarled.

'Damn it, we don't have time for this' Shina thought. Lapoo kept close to her side, while the elves eyed it, as though it seemed strange for an animal to be close to a human.

'What do we do wizard? I would love nothing more than to fight my way through them, but I fear we are outnumbered.'

With that, she saw in the corner of her eye, more and more of them started to descend from the trees to surround them. It definitely wouldn't end well to fight. Follow them they would have to do...

As the half elf's spell went down, the dragoness in disguise was surrounded by an ominous black and red glow. As her shape expanded, her shadow loomed over the elves. "Enough!" her voice resonated through the air, the volume making her words being felt rather than heard. A slam of her tail into the ground caused it to shake beneath everyone's feet as well.

With a wave of her front paw, a wall of black flames surrounded the group, separating them from the elves and their arrows. The plants that were grasping at the group found themselves seared in half, now limply slacking off on their bodies. She walked out from behind the cart, towards the wall of flame and looked the elven leader in the eyes. "I am doing my very best not to resort to violence, child of the forest. We are merely travellers passing through these parts. Beforehand, I might have even purchased some of your wares on my way out. Now however, I am thoroughly nettled."

She blown some smoke out of her nostrils into the elf's face: "Now, we are going that way," she pointed, and the flames formed a corridor in the direction, "If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Oh, and if you find a pirate looking guy... For every drop of his blood, I will drop one of you. So run along little elf, and tell your king to behave." she threatened, before turning to the group, "We are leaving!"

@Ozzy Cross@Forsythe@RedPandaGamer@Searat

Yoshina quickly nodded her head and departed along with the rest of the group. The wood elves seemingly threatened enough that they don't want to mess with the party. Soon enough, the group quickly exited the forest. Yoshina herself feeling rather exhausted after the seemingly short, but felt like a lifetime endeavor. "Whew. I'm glad that we got out of there safely." The Princess commented. "Perhaps, it would be better for all of us that we stick towards the edges of this forest later. Those wood elves seem to have murderous intent on their eyes. I can see that even from afar."

"Well, it can't be helped." The Princess finished in Sangakuan. "Now uhh, where's Thaddeus? That Privateer? I'm getting really concerned that he might not make this one out alive."

In truth, Yoshina feels a bit of dread pinging throughout her body right now. The fact that Thaddeus isn't here might indicate the worst outcome. But nonetheless. Yoshina calms herself, the horrors of the past does not have the conditions to resurface again, hopefully. "Ashwing, do you know where Thaddeus is currently located?" She asked. "I kinda don't wanna continue our small quest unless that guy's back with us."

"Also, Rudolph. Do you know of any tracking spells that might be useful right now? Just curious."

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

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"What? I thought you and the rest were planning something!" Rudolph said, eyes wide and mouth agape in shock. Oh no. There was no plan. As much as a prodigy he was in the arcane arts, his brain was devoid of good plans. Lucky for them, the dragoness had just about enough of the Wild Elves' antics against them.

The half-elf wizard was rather shocked to suddenly see the dragoness' black flames but also rather relieved as he was scraping the proverbial barrel of real and fake titles. "Well said, Ms. Taraah." Rudolph said as he briskly walked through the path created by the black flames of Taraah. Soon enough they'd leave the Thousand Year Old Woods and into relative safety. Well...from the Wild Elves' arrows and throwing spears at least. "Maker above that was the most excitement that I've experienced in the past fifty years." Rudolph said as he wiped away the sweat from his brow. Only to smear some across his face, much to his embarrassment and chagrin. But if they were safe, what of their Mesmer companion and the Lord of the Thousand Year Old Woods?

Yoshina had similar concerns and asked him if he knew of any spell that could assist in locating Thaddeus. "I do. Though those kinds of spells would require a catalyst of very high quality, and..." Rudolph picks up a stray branch and by simply imbuing the branch with the magics he used earlier. As expected the branch carbonizes and turns into ash after a brief six seconds. "...we are severely lacking in those. But I suppose we can try regardless. We'd need a lot of branches though."

@Forsythe @Kumbaris @Searat @Ozzy Cross

Shina couldn't help but feel fear rise in her as she saw the dragon lady turn into her 'true' form. How could someone not feel dwarfed and vulnerable when a human form becomes so many times bigger, fiercer, deadlier?! However, she couldn't argue with the results as she watched the same fear on the faces of the elves that had surrounded them - no more as they had been separated by a literal fire wall.

'Well, can't argue with that huh Lapoo? ' The little squirrel shaking behind her, tail firmly tucked under itself.

She watched as the group started to follow the dragon and Shina promptly followed. She looked back at the still stunned looks of her would-be captors - the one that had spoken to her had now shifted her gaze to the group - in particular to look directly at Shina. She had seen that look before. The look of a predator watching its prey escape. It wasn't a look she appreciated, but she held off making a witty comment.

Shina ran a little quicker to catch up to the front, where the dragon lady led the way. Catching her breath she said 'We...I owe you my thanks dragon. Without your intervention, we would have been dragged off by the elves, and we just don't have that time. You have my gratitude....and my thanks'

The princess was right too, we did need to track Thaddeus, before they progressed too far without him. Shina wished she could track, but her teachings had only ever helped her in battle. And whatever that light show was earlier, it hadn't come back.

The wizard seemed to have an idea though - she was so glad he had come with them!

'So wizard, what do you need us to do to help with a tracking spell?' Shina was conscious she didn't want to take too much of a detour finding Thaddeus, ever minute they spent dawdling was more time Guan could be in mortal danger.

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

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"A whole bunch of branches would be a start. Without a proper magical catalyst like my wand, my magic will be eating through those branches faster than a skulk of hungry foxes in a chicken coop." Rudolph said as he started collecting his share of branches. They didn't know how far the Mesmer was and the half-elf wizard believed that it was better to have a surplus of materials than a shortage of it. Any magic user worth their weight in gold knew how to use mundane items as temporary catalysts for their casting. It could never compare to the efficiency and ease of using an actual catalyst but it was always better to have a catalyst than to cast without one. "I don't want to sound negative, but...what do we do if we can't find Thaddeus or, Maker forbid, discover that the worst had happened to him?"

@Ozzy Cross@Forsythe@RedPandaGamer@Searat

"Alright, if a bunch of branches is what you want, a bunch of branches you shall get." Yoshina responded, quickly putting her hands to work gathering any remaining branches scattered around her. They are in the edges of the forest after all, and thank goodness that the trees in this forbidden forest tend to shave a lot of branches off. It almost feels like the expansion of this forest is being hampered by something rather... magical.

But that is a mystery for a later time. Yoshina brought Rudolph a bunch of branches, and then quickly parted off again, the Princess highly intent on continuing her temporary mission of... gathering branches...

She knew that this is not necessarily the most exciting thing to do right now, but in a way she is glad that she's doing this. All that action for today, the time with the bandits and then the time with the branches, are slowly winding down for the day. And Yoshina feels like the group needed some respite from all the nonsense pouring their way.

"I got more branches." Yoshina replied, bringing another huge stack of branches and dropping it in a growing woodpile in front of Rudolph. "Do you need more? That seems like a lot of branches to do an advanced spell."

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"As I mentioned a little earlier, without a proper magical catalyst, my magic will be eating through these makeshift catalysts very quickly. Approximately each would last six seconds give or take." Rudolph explained to the warrior as he began counting the collected branches. There were roughly fifty branches in the pile they collected. That would mean five minutes of the scrying spell taking effect. He would have hoped that 5 minutes would be enough for him to pinpoint or, at least, generalize the direction where Thaddeus was. "If everyone is ready, I'll begin the divination." Grasping a branch, the wizard begins to channel his mana into the catalyst and focus on the Mesmer's mental image.

As predicted, the amount of magic flowing into the mundane object was too much and soon turned into ash; but before he could lose concentration on the spell he grabs another branch to continue the channeling. The process repeated itself over and over again as the pile of branches was gradually reduced for the five minutes he was able to keep the spell going. Not a branch was left and not a centimeter of the wizard's clothes were free from ash. Dusting himself off as best as he could he turns to report to his companions. "It wasn't much to work with but I can say with 78% certainty that Thaddeus is North East of our position and is still in combat with Nemnon." He wasn't sure the next step considering that they just narrowly escaped capture and now know that Thaddeus was still alive and, more importantly, inside the Thousand Year Old Woods fighting against a monster of an elf.