Dryad Raiders II - The Path of Wood

I wrote some more on these, when I had some further inspiration.
Sorry about the lack of section headings, this spec just sort of
grew...


The Path of Wood - ROM, 21/Apr/05

This continues the notes on spelljamming dryads, started in
"Dryad Raiders", which gave a sketch of where the dryads came
from, and some rough notes on using them in a spelljamming
encounter.

There are four main groups, the largest being those who match the
monster description of Dryad, and are the human equivalent of
zeroth level. The next two groups are far smaller, and each is
about 10%: the necromancers, and the priests (some might refer to
the later as 'space druids'). The final and smallest group at 5%
is the warriors. Less than 1% are other varieties of dryad.

There may be a number of groups of dryads, depending on how long
ago the DM wants them to have appeared in the campaign, and how
they have interacted with other races. If they have only been
around a few hundred years, then a single group, the Dryad
Raiders, may be sufficient. If they have been around longer than
that, there may well be several groups, in different spheres.

If at least some races know of them, they may be allied or
hostile to one or more races, and if a group of elves approached
them in the right way, and were prepared to trade them at least
some of the secrets of growing elven spelljamming ships, they
might even be elven allies.  They might be allies of races which
have a real respect for nature, in some form, or even worshippers
of an earth or nature god or goddess, who felt they could
tolerate them. If pressed hard, they might be allied with a race
with a fleet of wooden ships, who could use magical 'space
marines'. Some races would be really interested in enslaving some
of these dryads, but to do so they would probably need a lot of
ingenuity, or magical power.

The main difference between these and standard dryads, is that
these are not tied to a 36"/yd radius from their individual oak
tree. Instead they have a piece of necromatically enchanted
wooden 'Life Jewelry', made from the heart wood of their
individual tree, which they cannot part with more than about 4"
away, and causes them pain if taken more than about 4' from them.
If this jewelry is destroyed, they die; it is as difficult to
destroy as a large tree (if damaged, it heals at the dryad's
normal healing rate). While the dryad is not on negative hit
points, unless the jewelry is specifically targeted, assume it is
not damaged.

If their jewelry is taken more than 4" from them, then they
automatically Dimension Door to it, or if it is in too small a
place for them to get into, it Dimension Doors to them. If the
jewelry is up to about 4" from them, then they can Dimension Door
to it at will. If there is something preventing the Dimension
Door, then just as normal dryads too far from their individual
tree, they will become weak, and if not reunited, will die after
6D6 hours. Assume that dryad Dimension Door is at the 12th level
of effect, and that the range is 36".

Note that the Life Jewelry does not detect as magical, just as a
dryad tree does not; that as normal dryads they can walk through
living wood at will; that normal dryads are assumed to live
indefinately, as long as their tree does. These dryads also live
indefinately, and they don't have a tree which will eventually
die of old age.

Note that necromancer dryads can reshape their Life Jewelry at
will, with just a day's concentration per level they are. They
have magics which can reshape the Life Jewelry of any dryad, in
only hours rather than days per level, but this is quite a
painful process, rather like having hair pulled out.

If a fully healthy dryad is within the wood of a (pseudo) living
ship, then the DM may choose to say that the dryad's natural
ability to heal her own body affects the ship. The ship recovers
a tenth of one hull point per day the dryad stays there. This
repair only affects the wooden parts of the ship, not things like
rigging and sails, and structural parts will heal first, with
detail work like railings and belaying pins last.

A carpenter may not be used at the same time, as this will
irritate the dryad and prevent healing, but healing spells which
work on plants can be used. As a rule a dryad cannot use this
healing on a ship that has lost more than 50% of its hull points;
it is too badly damaged. Though, if other means of repair are
used to bring the ship to at least 50%, a dryad can take over.

Using multiple dryads does not speed things up, though it means
one or more can leave without stopping the healing. A dryad must
be within the ship continuously for a whole day to cause any
healing, DMs keep track of fractional hull points healed, but
only count whole hull points for combat purposes.

Note that if a ship looses all of its hull points, and hence
becomes wreckage, any dryads within the wood are ejected from it,
and must make a Save vs. Death Magic or be stunned and incapable
for D4 rounds. Anything else within the wood of the ship is also
ejected, including any captives.

Priestly dryads are the ones with the magic which allows them to
do things with (pseudo) living wood. One of their magics allows
'Wood Sleep', for those they take within the wood, so that they
drop into an indefinite deep sleep, in which they do not need
food and water, or air, and do not even age. This is what is
typically done to captives, so they do not get in the way, and
what is done with them in the longer term depends on the policy
of the particular dryad group. Even the most militant dryad group
will take sleepers out of combat areas, though they may have no
intention of ever letting them awake, unless they see a use for
them. If someone in Wood Sleep is dumped into wild space, in an
individual air envelope, treat them as being subject to a
Softwood spell.

Another priestly magic is 'Regeneration in Wood', which allows
the body of a dryad, as long as both this and their Life Jewelry
has been retrieved, to be restored from the dead, by slow healing
inside living wood (pseudo-living wood cannot be used). Healing
is at one hit point per hour, and all negative hit points, then
the dryad's full set of normal hit points, must be restored before
they wake.

As long the Life Jewelry has not been destroyed, and a fragment
of the body is retrieved, regeneration is possible - things like
Disintegration of the body prevent this. There is no normal time
limit. This is one reason that the Life Jewelry for necromancer
dryads is often a wooden locket, containing a lock of her hair.
If just a body fragment is retrieved, treat the dryad as being on
double her hit points negative.

There are stories that the greatest of the priestly dryads can
reincarnate non-dryads as dryads, tied as normal to an individual
oak tree. However, if a skilled enough necromancer dryad is also
involved, the reincarnation can produce a dryad with Life
Jewelry, without there being any more involvement of an oak tree,
than needing a blessed piece of oak wood.

Necromancer dryads are the ones with the magic to make the heart
wood Life Jewelry, though they can do a wide range of other magic
on wood, including making other sorts of jewelry. If several
dryads have talismans carved from the same piece of wood, these
may be enchanted so that they can verbally communicate with each
other, in a way very difficult to tap into, as long as the
talismans are in the same crystal sphere. Dryads captaining
different ships often use this to communicate with each other, to
coordinate - the standard talismans don't work for non-dryads.
These are called 'Wood Links', and make use of communication via
the astral plane.

If a dryad has a talisman carved from the wood of a (pseudo)
living ship, this may be enchanted so that they can verbally
communicate with any dryad who is within the wood of that ship,
as long as ship and talisman are in the same crystal sphere -
this also only works for dryads. This is referred to as a 'Ship
Link'.

A slightly more sophisticated version of Ship Link allows
communication, and the dryad Dimension Door, between talisman and
ship, allowing a single dryad to board, and reinforcements
Dimension Door in, or the dryad to retreat via Dimension Door to
the ship. A 'Dimensional Ship Link'. Even more advanced is the
version that allows communication, and Teleport without error
both ways, anywhere within a crystal sphere. An 'Astral Ship
Link'. There is also an 'Enhanced Dimensional Ship Link', which
has an extended range of 1,800 yards, normally assumed to be four
500 yard tactical hexes.

Versions of Ship Link which allow dryads to send (willing)
non-dryads either way via the link exist, but are far less
common. A special version which allows just dryads and those in
Wood Sleep (who don't count as unwilling) is a little more
common. Those charmed almost always count as willing.

Note that if dryads in the wood, on two different ships, each
have a transfer variety of Ship Link for the other ship, they can
move freely from one ship to the other, and also transfer
non-dryads. This works as long as there is at least one dryad on
each end, with the Ship Link. Transfer takes place without
leaving the wood, which means those in Wood Sleep do not awaken,
and those observing either ship may not realise what has
happened.

Warrior dryads make use of enchanted wooden weapons, including
swords, which are as sharp and as tough as mithral (made for them
by the necromancers). Bows are quite a common weapon for them, as
are wooden throwing knives, usually found in sets of three, that
return to their hand after use. All these weapons are magical +1.
They make highly effective use of their ability to move through
living wood, with acrobatic tumbles and rolls, and often carry
talismans that allow them to move as freely through non-living
wood, which makes them terrifying enemies in ship-board combat.
Assume small non-wood objects like nails, rope, pitch and
calking, do not give them any problems, but they cannot pass
through metal objects at least a pound in weigh, or the walls of
metal-sheathed rooms (sometimes used to protect against
clairvoyance, etc).

Warrior dryads are fond of means of confusion and diversion in
combat, such as Displacer Cloaks, Boots of Travelling and
Springing, and Rings of Invisiblity. They don't use any more
armour than leather, and bracers. Their combat style is that of a
fast-moving swashbuckler. Some of the really dangerous ones mix
this with unarmed combat, and nasty magical tricks that let them
leave opponents trapped part-way through wooden objects. They are
trained to be able to sense even invisible opponents around them,
by the opponent's contact with things like the wood of the deck.

One of the main reason there are so few warriors among the dryads
is that very few have enough enthusiasm for combat, no matter how
much they train.

Assume that all of the dryads have their 'winter' season look,
with white skin and hair, under normal circumstances, and can be
confused with elves or those with elf blood. Both the priests and
necromancers can change to the other seasonal looks, the priests
by infusing their Life Jewelry with life, and the necromancers
using minor Polymorph effects. It is possible that a warrior dryad
might have an enchanted item that could change her appearance.

If these dryads were used in a campaign setting, and the adventure
was to do something about them, then the characters could do
worse than to track down and free Elberan. This would likely
involve visiting the sphere where he did his researches, finding
out what had happened to him, and then making a deal with the
priests, or even the earth goddess herself, to free him. Elberan
might well be in a bad mood, and handling a powerful elven
necromancer may well take care and tact.

If Elberan can be persuaded to cooperate, he certainly has spells
which allow him to locate (tree-bound) dryads at considerable
range, even from low orbit, protect from their charm spells,
block their Dimension Door, and other useful tricks. With a
little thought, he can probably detect 'his' dryads by their Life
Jewelry, certainly at a range of several miles. He may have an
item which can easily detect if there is a dryad within a
(pseudo) living ship.

Though, at the time when he got 'stoned', the dryad necromancers
had not worked out how to make normal wooden ships into
pseudo-living ones, so this may surprise him. Nor did they have
Ship Links, or the priests have Wood Sleep, etc. He will expect
the dryads to be little more than normal dryads, with some extra
'simple tricks', and will very likely be surprised at what they
have developed into. It is also possible he may regard the dryads
as his, or elven property, or at least owing a big debt to him
and elf kind, that they should pay off.

--
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/