We decided to head to the tree we were told about on our last job. The druid's name was Khorshad if I'm remembering correctly. He said its the largest tree in the forest but...that may be near impossible to find considering its, y'know, a FOREST.

But I digress.

We headed out with me, Arlie, Assy, Fenris, and a new guy called Yargol. The badges we were given didn't have anything marked but they did have some type of magic on them that after I identified it, I learned was divination magic of some kind.

We headed off into the forest and followed the badges directions as it seemed to heat up while we kept walking. While we kept going, it just felt like we were walking for hours, much longer than we actually were. Having detect magic up was like a beacon of light--everything was magical. It was almost painful.

Fenris seemed to find the right path but then he sunk into a mud bog and we had to drag him out of it. So Arlie checked a different path and found another symbol carved into a tree. This one a bit different than what we've seen previously but Yargol was able to tell that it is the Druidic symbol for "Road". Arlie checked another road and that one had symbols indicating "Pain". We decided to not go down that road.

We went through the path and came to a pool of water that was surrounded by stones with runic symbols on them. Using magic that aligned with the symbols and their meanings seemed to make them glow but there wasn't anything that happened. It took us a moment but we managed to figure out the riddle and a tunnel opened up.

Against better judgement, we went through the tunnel and the magic here was ancient...much older than anything else I've felt. Roots were stacked together into the form of a giant face. It spoke in our minds and asked what we were doing there. Arlie gave a very direct response but there was no interaction from the form face. I told it about wanting to help with the animals that are suffering and the brand and was invited inside to enter the tree essentially.

It took them a moment, but everyone else joined in behind me and we found ourselves in the heart of the Emerald Enclave. We saw Falken who introduced us to the others in the Circle of Leaders. He said one is a researcher so I beelined it to her. She'd be the best person to talk to in my opinion. I explained to her about the runes we found and she says they seem to be ruins that change a creature's natural instinct. The symbols seem to be returning to how it was before people started settling on the land and once it was returned to how it was supposed to be--the brands magic fades because that is no longer a target.

We explained everything and the Warden said there was a prior Enclave member that broke from the Enclave itself and may be one that would have the strength and belief to do this. A couple of the members got into an argument-- one believes there is too much industrial growth while another does not think that should be halted.

We agreed to assist the Emerald Enclave in following this through.

Party: Astra, Arlis, Sal, Fenris, Yargol

Location: Uh... forest?

So... not sure how well I can explain this, but... here we go.

So last job we were told to go find the Enclave people at a big tree and that's what we decided to do. We kinda found a guy from the Syndicate along the way and he came with us. Found out the guy that told us to go there is named Khorshad. Said it was the largest tree in the forest and we found out that the emblems he gave us kinda sorta pointed us in the direction we needed to go.

We played warmer-colder for a bit until we came to an area with multiple paths. Big Guy tried to look down a path and got stuck in some sinking mud. Had to get all of us and a magical pigeon-horse to get him out. Figured that's not the way to go. So I started looking at some of the different paths and found that there were more symbol thingies carved in the trees. One of 'em the guy we found could read. Said 'road'. We checked another one just to be sure that would be the right one. Figured it's not the best to go down the route that said 'pain'.

We came to a clearing with a pool of water and a bunch of stones with more runes. The others were able to figure out what order to activate them to make a hidden pathway reveal itself. Once we got through we were welcomed to the Emerald Enclave hideout.

We met a bunch of members who... were oddly friendly. Were they expecting us? Guess so. We talked a bit to 'em, they talked to us. Sounds like Astra was making friends with one of the dwarves... one of which kinda reminded me of what Solia was talking to me about earlier in the day... About what her brother said about nature and preserving it and shit. I wonder if the two know each other.

Writin' this in their hangout. Still got more questions to ask... a lot of questions...

The group gathered at the Syndicate and proceeded to follow up on the mission we were given to find the Emerald Enclave bastion in the nearby woods around the Greypeak Mountains. The only real clue we were given was that the tree the bastion was located at was in the middle of the forest. Using the skills at our disposal, we trekked further and further into the forest being lead by Yargol who seemed to be pretty familiar with forest travel. We eventually found ourselves at an area where the path split off in multiple directions. I spotted a large set of exposed roots by on of the paths and thought they might belong to this large tree we had been looking for. The others agreed but when I continued forward, I immediately sunk up to my midsection in mud. Feeling myself starting to sink deeper, I managed to pull from my pack my coil of rope and toss one end to the group. It took quite a while but they were finally able to pull me free. Astra slapped my backside again, not really sure why she's so keen on doing so but afterwards the mud was cleaned from my clothes magically. A few of the others spotted more runes and Yargol was able to read them. Finding the one labeled "road" we followed that path to a small opening. In said opening was a ring of stones with runes with a well in the middle. As we entered the forest closed behind us and the path we had just been on disappeared. Through some trial and error, we managed to figure out the right way of activating a few of the stones that allowed us to travel deeper into the forest where we came upon a massive tree with what looked like a face on it. It asked us why we were there. We each stated our reasons and were teleported onward where we met with the Enclave. Each of us spoke with different members, well Astra did less talking and did more beard sniffing but I digress. The leader wished for us to form an alliance with them and work with them to figure out who was behind all the goings on lately. We agreed and then were given pins with magic upon them to make travel easier between the Syndicate and the Heartwood Tree. I returned to the Syndicate while a few of the others stayed and spoke with the Enclave further.