The bizarre but terrifying battle ends as abruptly as it began.
Liga Bur stands balanced atop his prostrate hound while both are dragged toward the living tree by its, apparently last remaining, exposed tendril-like root. The halfling though, rather than target the writhing appendage to free
Mir Hundur, instead holds one of his few remaining flaming arrows nocked and ready to fly.
The physically enfeebled
Arowe also chooses his teammates over personal safety and instead of fleeing, lobs a flask of oil at the immobile, yet mobile
lightning tree. Weakened as he is, he's just strong enough for the glass to shatter on impact and splash its sticky black contents all over the living tree's vulnerable roots.
It's the mighty, downward, two-handed chop from
Fortu's bastard-sword though, that signals the end. The last visible plant tentacle is cleaved cleanly in two, with the truncated side swiftly retreating to the relative safety beneath the dusty earth.
Already aflame in several areas, thanks to
Liga Bur's magical arrows, the
Lightning tree can somehow see the halfling ready to finish the job. Sensing no way to avoid being set fully alight by oil and flaming arrow and with apparently no way to strike back, the magical tree instead pleads for mercy!
With a whispering voice, alien but understandable, it shrieks,
"Spare me! Spare me! I meant no harm, I just hunger so!"
Fortu, who'd been the only one during the battle to fearlessly advance toward the tree itself, is the one to negotiate and surprisingly chooses compassion over cruelty.
The
Lightning tree offers a small gold casket and information in exchange for its continued existence.
"What can you possibly know?" asks the sceptical Gladiator.
The
Lightning tree however, is much more informed than you'd have expected and soon offers to lead the Party to the 'Dryad pool'.
"And how can a tree lead us anywhere?" Fortu asks, doubtful once more.
The massive tree twists and contorts until it's able to proffer an arm-like branch. At the end of that arm, stretches out a hand-like collection of stalks and at the end of those stalks, it extends a finger-like twig.
...
"Pull my finger!"
Hesitantly,
Fortu reaches up and grabs the offered digit and it snaps off easily, resembling nothing less or more than a kind of wizard wand. The type used by
Rifkin for healing and
Egrow for fire starting.
"Trust in it. Trust in me. It'll lead you directly to the magical pool but I warn you... That water hides more than just one secret!"
With a half-intended promise to return some time with meat,
Fortu is the last to clear the large circle of dead earth.
The burnt and hacked
Lightning tree seems to wave as it whispers...
"goodbye... friend."
