Character 14 - Halfling Druid

You were born in Feybridge Crossing to halfling parents that had decided to settle down there after an earlier life of traveling. The modest home you grew up in was typical for halflings of the Collector heritage: every flat surface was cluttered with some sorts of mementos of places visited and adventures experienced. You started your own collections at an early age, but you weren't interested in the shiny and glittery things -- it was plants that fascinated you. You would come home from a trip into the woods with a collection of different leaves to press, preserve, and display. In your teen years, you brought home whole plants to carefully replant either in pots or in your little garden outside. You learned about the many uses for the plants you collected and tended, as medicines and flavorings.

You were twenty-two years old when, on one of your gathering trips into the Feywood east of the town, you met the person who would change your life completely. Growing up, you had heard rumors of the strange hermit called "Greentop" that lived in the woods. These stories had been around since the village was first established 125 years ago, though, so you believed them to be myths to scare children into staying close to home. But one day, as you stood up after collecting some wild marigolds, you found yourself face-to-face with a stranger dressed in deerskins and a fur hat made of squirrel tails. The hair hanging unkemptly beneath the hat was a deep green color. His skin was tinged slightly green as well, and the deep green, iris-less eyes and long, pointed ears told you this was an Elf. "Those can be used to help promote healing of wounds, you know", the stranger said to you.

Getting over your surprise, you heard yourself answering, "Yes... I know... that's why I was looking for them." The next query was a surprise: "You use the plants, but do you respect them?". You stammered for a moment as your mind raced. "Respect them?" you thought to yourself, "how do you 'respect' a plant? I appreciate them... I use them... I grow them... but... 'respect'?". As these thoughts raced through your head, you heard yourself answering, "I... I don't know". "Then I will teach you." was his reply. "Come."

He brought you to a place in the hilly forest where a low cave entrance was barely visible, hidden by an ancient oak tree. He slid past the tree and ducked into the cave. "Come.", he repeated. As Greentop lit a bear grease lamp, you could look around. A pile of furs marked his sleeping space. Roughly cut pieces of tree stumps served as tables all along the walls. Niches lined with stones formed shelves. One more stump was set as a stool set next to the log table that held the lamp. "The tree was felled by lightning, " the elf said, "not by my hand. Now... sit... let us discuss the plants."

You went to the cave almost daily for the next three years. Greentop first taught you of the life energies within the plants. He spoke of the "respect" due to the green things of the world. He taught you to reach out to the plants themselves... to talk to them... to coax them to do things. He taught you how to draw magic out of nature and use it. He introduced you to the lesser dryads and naiads of the woods and streams. You met the lesser fey and learned there was more to them than just frolicking in the trees and flowers - they were the tenders of the gardens of Cartyrion. And he taught you the secret language of the druids.

Your parents thought it strange when you stopped wearing linens in favor of skins and woolen tunics. It was stranger when you stopped eating the young, tender carrots and beets from the kitchen garden. Stranger still was your polite refusal of the holiday Kaffe drinks last Yuletime, and your mumbling about "poor, innocent seeds". But they knew they were losing you when you announced that you did not want a big party for your upcoming twenty-fifth birthday - the birthday that marked your passage to adulthood. "I'll be leaving that day." was the only explanation you offered. Greentop had recently been telling you it was time for you to leave your village and go out into the world to teach what you had learned. Nature was constantly threatened, he told you, and the Folk needed to be taught how to live better with the variety of green life around them.

On your birthday, your said your good-byes to parents and siblings, then headed to Greentop's cave. He had one more gift for you, he said while handing you a strip of sheepskin with a ritual written upon it. "Step outside... perform the ritual" he commanded. As the ritual completed, a being stood before you. It was clearly a plant, but it was not rooted. It was fully animate! It had a head that looked like a cabbage with eyes and a mouth. It had arms and legs, and appeared to be wearing armor made of pine cone bracts. It spoke, in the druidic langage, saying simply, "I am Bristlecone... here to serve.". Greentop explained that Bristlecone would assist and guide me from now on. He suggested heading to the Southwest - there was great need for "our kind" at the fringes of the Feywood in that direction. But he also told me to take my time, learn along the way, and suggested I try to find friends with "other skills" to help me in my travels.

This is how I find myself sitting in the Bugbear's Head Inn, sipping honey mead since beer disrespects the barley. The proprietor smiled and didn't seem too put out when I made him find a clay tankard instead of the wooden ones; I got the impression he had encountered druids before. 'Find companions,', Greentop had suggested. You wondered what sort of companions you would end up with.