Woodling Den

A dug-out warren of little plant-people (the "wood-folk" or woodlings) just off the central chamber of the Grey Vale Cave — the home of the lost sprout Dee's kind. The woodlings stand about 3.5 feet tall, with wooden mask-faces and glowing yellow eyes; they communicate in clicks, taps and creaks. Their children are faceless — blind and forever running into things ("as you're an adult your face opens"). They live by digging, trade old trinkets, and pray to "the witch" of the island (one of Orathos's dozen-plus witches). The den has a health-ward by the entrance, lived and abandoned chambers, and a deeper tunnel guarded against intruders. The wood-folk survive the Queen Grabbler by staying quiet, staying high, and "making many of us so that we can stay safe."

Named woodlings: Lorto, the tiny "Queen Woodling" / leader (speaks via a reverse Speak-with-Plants spell, draws a smile on her mask with a red pencil, and senses her scattered children); Movo ("I move" — relocates whoever's nearby when his name is spoken); Ono / "No-Go", a fearful guard; and the dead child Dodo, killed by the Queen.

(Names heavily garbled — "Lorto"/"Lordo"/"Lorde"/"Florido"; "Movo"/"Mofo"/"Moopo"/"Murva"/even "Voivode"; "Ono"/"Oh No"/"No-Go." See Canon Questions.)

Session 25

• The party brings the dead child Dodo and two rescued sprouts; Lorto welcomes them, thankful, and tasks them with finding 3 more missing sprouts and 1 missing adult woodling (the adult sensed on this level, "a little lower").
• Lorto gives Silithane a painted sigil-staff that pacifies the under-cave "Watchers" (to be returned) and draws the party a crude cave map.
• After clearing the gobblers, the party carries seven of the Mush Mother's faceless children back here, reuniting the wood family; the den serves as the party's long-rest refuge (level-up to 6). Fenric and Lash propose building the running children a fence / barrel-barrier.

Session 26

• The missing adult woodling of Lorto's quest is found: Gono, injured by a groundwater pool and convinced he is the last of his kind (he draws an X over the village). Valmora heals him; Jex gives him a meteorite (halocite) rock for his collection.
• Gono is married to the guard No-Go — for 50 years — and keeps trying to "live up to his name" and wander off, until he is reunited with the rest of the den: "My name is Gono, and I will never go again."
• The sprout-count reaches 11+, but the chief (here voiced Mordo) had a "dozen children" — and the last one proves to be imprisoned in a cell of the under-prison ("wrongfully convicted"). Lash also recovers a Damp Sprout swimming in the deep water.

Session 31

• The woodlings joined the Queen fight with makeshift clubs and shields (drumming on their own armor and each other's heads), chief Lordo channeling energy alongside the big Mofo; Golo still crawled, unable to stand. Facing three Grabblers, they were the most at-risk faction.
• No woodlings died — against odds of up to ten casualties. The homeless Hobo was downed but Healing-Worded back to life at 1 HP by Valmora; the party's repositioning (especially Thalia's whip) freed the low-HP sprouts to fight without dying.
• The last lost sprout, found. The malnourished sprout trapped in Caressa's lair (revealed earlier to be a full-blown Grenkh Jailer of the Deep) was rescued and given conjured water by Valmora, reuniting with his people "like the ending scene from Indiana Jones." The woodlings were baffled one of their own had become a deep-jail guard; Harfgore, by Grenkh size-logic, assumed the biggest woodling must be their leader, not the tiny Lordo.