Scouting The Grove

"This is bad. This is really bad." Amelia said in a small voice. "Only something truly awful could corrupt a grove like this. We should leave. We should get out while we can."

The group had arrived at a carved stone marker that designated the edge of Greensplinter Grove. Hanging from a twisted tree branch above it was a broken glass orb, its surface covered in filth and shot through with cracks. It swung slightly in the faint breeze, dripping black goo into the rotting mix that covered the entire grounds.

"Enough panicking!" Verena snapped at Amelia, "What do you think the Guild will make of a party running away from a job? The Chiming Spring will not be a joke! I will not let that happen."

"We need to plan our next move carefully." Ilia said "We are in a perilous position right now. We don't have any intelligence on what we will face within the grove. An unknown enemy is undefeatable. And all we have are unknown enemies."

"You're right Ilia." Verena said, "We need to know what we are getting ourselves into."

"Let me check things out!" Mimi said excitedly "No one will see me, I guarantee it!"

"Alright. Mimi will go scout out the grove before we make a move." Verena said, trying to hide the shake in her voice.

"Please Mimi. Don't touch anything within the grove. Who knows what the corruption has done." Amelia pleaded with the demkin.

"Righto!" Mimi said cheerily, before disappearing away from the group before anyone else could say anything. Verena couldn't shake the feeling that Mimi had been waiting for a chance to explore the grove and hoped the demkin would focus on what was important rather than what caught her attention.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ilia asked. She set her staff down against a tree and sat with her back against it.

"Mimi is a damn good scout. She can get in anywhere unnoticed." Verena felt a little doubt gnawing inside her. She could have just sent her friend to her death or worse, but she was the party's leader and had to stand by her decision.

Meanwhile, Mimi moved out of the forest and into the open land of the grove. Beneath her feet was a sickly mess of rotting vegetable matter that had once been grass. If she moved too slowly her boots sunk a little into the foul decomposite making it hard to move quickly and quietly. Among the mud and rotting plant matter, Mimi found the corpses of many animals. Birds and small creatures, their pale bones and blackened flesh were like foul islands gradually sinking into a sea of fetid mush.

Above her, the branches of an immense tree twisted, bare and grey against the overcast sky. She could imagine a little of how the place was before. Stretches of grassland dotted with wild flowers all under the shade of the tall tree's canopy. Now it was nothing but mud and rotting filth. It smelled so horrific that even the cheerful demkin had to move on.

Ahead, Mimi found a circle of large metal monoliths set about some kind of altar. Unlike the pillars, the altar was made of stone and carved into its surfaces were runes and symbols none of which Mimi had any idea what they meant. The altar looked like a recent addition, with lines in the ground beneath it like it had been dragged there.

She approached the edge of the circle and peered in. She was curious about the altar. Maybe it was magic. She loved magic and was always begging Ilia to show her a spell. Sometimes Ilia did show her a spell. It usually involved Mimi being flung bodily from the room.

“Just a peek won't hurt.” Mimi said to herself out loud, “Plus I might find some information there.”

The altar was old and worn. It once would have been a perfect block of stone with sharp corners but time and weather had worn the sides soft and curved. Carved into the front was the face unlike anything Mimi had ever seen before. A pair of eyes glared out of an oval face but where there would be a mouth or nose there was nothing. Strangely the face didn't seem incomplete to Mimi. The eyes were more than enough detail. Mimi reached out and traced a finger along the face. The surface was warm in a way a stone shouldn't be, as if someone was heating it from below.

"Maybe you are magical. I like magic."

Suddenly, as if in response to Mimi's words, the altar shivered. Mimi leapt backwards and drew her daggers before her. She steadied her breathing and prepared to fight, but there was no sign of an attacker. Her eyes darting around nervously but after what felt like an eternity she was still unassailed. Mimi relaxed and let out a little chuckle. There was nothing to be scared of here. She was as jumpy as Amelia. What she didn't notice was that something was gathering behind her. Vines and bark and wood twisted and spiraled together. They formed together into something that was vaguely humanoid in shape. It had two arms and two legs, all made from plant matter and covered with a layer of bark. Above this a head formed with a crown of branches like antlers above them. A pair of burning blue eyes appeared and around it formed a face of shifting layers of bark and wood. It was a wood-wraith. An ancient spirit of the grove. There were signs all over its body that it had given into the corruption that affected the rest of the grove. Black tar like sap clung to its limbs and dribbled from holes in its torso. Its antlers would normally have borne leaves and sometimes flowers but they were bare and grey. The fire in its eyes burned cold as it looked over the little demkin before it.

Mimi turned around just as the wood wraith stepped towards her. Her eyes opened in shock for a moment before she raised her daggers and slashed at a pair of vines that shot across the stonework. The vines dropped at the touch of her blades and Mimi was already moving forward to attack the wood-wraith. She moved erratically and with irregular steps to stop the wraith from aiming its vines at her and she quickly closed the distance. Her knife cut into the wraith's torso and it let out a tortured cry as blackness sprayed out.

"Not so tough are you. Wood man." Mimi taunted as she tumbled out of the way of the wraith's counter-attack.

She darted forward again and slashed at its legs hoping to hamstring the wraith but all she managed to do was send more of the black liquid flying from another wound. Mimi twirled her daggers in her hands and prepared for another attack. The wraith was slow and even if she could not take out vitals on it she would reduce it to kindling and black goop in no time. She attacked again and darted back from the wraith's wooden claws. This was too easy, Mimi thought as she kept up the pressure.

She didn't notice that behind her, on one of the large stones that lined the circle, the vines had pulled themselves off its surface and slid like vipers across the ground. As she made to dash at her enemy again, the vines shot out and snapped around her ankles. Mimi let out a squeak as she fell onto her stomach, her blades dropping from her hands and clattering noisily across the stonework. The vines pulled and Mimi was soon airborne, suspended upside down. She flailed at the vines holding her aloft but to no avail.

The wood-wraith moved towards Mimi with a careless slowness. As it came up the vines raised her up till she was at eye level with it. She stared into the hollow blackness of its sockets as she swung back and forth upside down.

"What do yo-'' Mimi's question was cut off as the wood wraith's mouth opened and a puff of green gas came forth and engulfed her head. The demkin's voice caught in her throat and she inhaled. The gas was sweet tasting and Mimi felt light headed and a little giddy.

“That was nice.” She giggled as the wood-wraith loomed over her, its wooden claws slowly approaching the dangling demkin.