The Verduran Saga
On the Taldorian outskirts of Verduran Forest, a small commune of Leshies had lived peacefully for many years. However, industrial expansionism comes to all doors eventually, and the more capable of the community had to step up and defend their town.
A Fistful of Flowers
One summer morning in late Erastus 4722AR, four leshies awoke to find their commune markedly depleted - many smaller leshies had seemingly gone missing, some having been seen in merriment and good spirits only the day before. The sharp-eyed stewards of the commune set off toward a local brook, where the smaller leshies had been known to play. There, they found a trail of somebody in hob-nail boots which led towards a campsite nearby. A local scoundrel fey named Glimmer greeted them there, and after a bit of teasing, revealed that a ginger-haired man from Petalbrook had been camped here, and had a bag that was squirming as he chided it.
Keen to stay on the trail whilst it was hot, with Apricity tracking the mysterious man, the group soon reached Petalbrook. Flat-top enquired in town as to where they might find a ginger-haired mercenary, and the group eventually found their way to Crystals and Candlewax, the shop owned by the ginger-haired Darius Wick. Inside, after tricking their way past a bored shop attendant, the leshies found Darius and a pair of wax homonculi in his workshop. Darius immediately attacked the leshies, and after a brief skirmish, he was slain by Stabroot.
In Darius' ledgers, Citrus found evidence that he had been paid by a Lady Constance Meliosa to kidnap smaller leshies and deliver them to her as party ornaments. So it was that the leshies decided to make their way to Rosentry.
The next day, after camping in a nearby copse, the leshies made their way to the gentrified hamlet of Rosentry. They were greeted by hedgerows devoid of life, manicured lawns, and fruitless orchards. The whole hamlet reeked of falsification, but the leshies steeled themselves, and pushed on through the estates to find Lady Meliosa's garden. On the front lawn of the noblewoman's estate, there was a small garden party taking place in a hedged-off enclosure. The leshies broke in, much to the shock of the guests, and demanded Meliosa return their kidnapped comrades to them. Constance at first tried to feign ignorance, and claim the little leshies on the table were her own creations, but once it became clear that the party weren't going to leave without the little leshies, she set her own squad of leshies on them. The manufactured leshies were defeated after a tricky skirmish, and Constance fled to the safety of her manor. Vicotry secured, the rescue team returned to Verduran Forest with the little ones.
A Few Flowers More
Three months after the rescue of the little leshies, peace had settled into the Verduran Forest commune once more. Humans had not trespassed into the leshies' lands for some time, and the threat posed by Lady Constance Meliosa had been all but forgotten. One night, after Flat-top had handed over the night watch to Citrus, the entire commune was awoken by a baleful scream. Citrus woke up every member of the original rescue team, and guided them to a grisly sight. A small pumpkin leshy, who Flat-top had been friendly with, was strung up in a tree, bisected. There was a note pinned to his body with a dagger, a note from Lady Meliosa; the threat warned the leshies that since they had allegedly ruined her life, she would send mercenaries after them until they were all dead.
Incensed by the threat, the rescuers made ready to set off in pursuit of the attackers, down a well-beaten track. However, they were interrupted by a leaf leshy, previously known for a slow wit and practical jokes, which had adopted a rather more alert demeanour. The little one had gained sentience suddenly, and was now calling itself Pippin. It agreed to take Citrus' place on the defence team, whilst the latter stayed behind to protect the commune. So it was that the new party set out to find the people responsible for slaughtering the little pumpkin leshy.
After half an hour following a suspicously well-beaten trail, the party came upon three well-armed individuals around a campfire. The mercenaries did not seem to notice the leshies at first, but as soon as the defenders closed in enough, the trap was sprung. The two heavily armoured warriors rushed The Verdant Force, and with the help of the charaltan's magic, they sent the sylvan wolf back to his home plane, knocking Flat-top unconscious in the process. However, Stabroot's unusual sword technique proved to be greatly effective, and the mercenaries were defeated whilst Apricity revived Flat-top. The Verdant Force was unhappy with his spiritkin, and Flat-top seemed rather rattled by his eidolon's anger.
As Petty looted the mercenaries' corpses, they discovered that they each wore a distinctive green crystalline necklace, and the men had their mouths crudely sewn shut. The moment that Pippin touched the crystal, it exploded with verdant energy, and a nearby tree animated into rageful pursuit. After chasing the leshies across a river, up a cliff, through dense undergrowth, and across a ruined stone circle, the corrupted arboreal warden eventually caught up to the defenders on the edge of the forest. The leshies took it down with some ease thanks to strong teamwork, but on its death, it erupted with strange spores.
Apricity recognised the spores as that of the Yellow Musk creeper, and pulled her friends away from the dead arboreal. However, Stabroot was not quick enough to back away, and started to be consumed by the spores. To save itself, it formed into a bush, and started regenerating. Whilst the other leshies rested, they saw a red flare shoot into the sky from the direction of Petalbrook - clearly somebody was in need, and the defenders were quick to respond. They approached the town, but spotted from some distance that things were not right - a shambling humanoid mass of mushroom and rot trudged around the borders of the town, and as the gang grew closer, it was joined by two more comrades and an even larger creature of the same ilk. Choosing to avoid a dangerous skirmish with these creatures, the leshies snuck through the back streets of Petalbrook and evenutally arrived outside Crystals and Candlewax. In the small square in front of the shop, the shop assistant, Alec, was locked in battle with two of the huge yellow musk brutes and a nasty-looking flytrap leshy. As the leshies dove into the skirmish, Alec was pulled down from the rooftop he was raining fire from and knocked unconscious by the yellow musk brute. Undeterred by this devlopment, the defenders continued fighting, but in quick succession, each of The Verdant Force, Apricity, Flat-Top, and Pippin were beaten unconscious by the flytrap leshy.
