On the Chopping Block, Part 2
We have reached our breaking point. Our beloved forest is being corrupted and destroyed while we are starving and beaten in our own homes, all in the name of progress and industry. Our attempts to stop Greenwood have been thwarted and we need someone who can help us make them go away forever, before it is too late.
- Elara Stark
Recap
Merrick continues his work organizing the Revolution and coordinates with the Mayor, who had all but given up on himself and the town, inspiring him to get it together and get the townspeople to work as a unit to kick Greenwood out of their area. He continues to sow chaos and fear into Greenwood by sending an arrow with an ominous note through an open window at the Mansion where they are holing up. This quickly leads to the windows being boarded up. Heading back to the rebel base at the tavern…
He coordinates with the local part-herbalist part-alchemist Nina to create smoke bombs and poison, which requires some time for her to research. While she researches poisonous possibilities, he goes out with Fang to try and burn down the rest of the warehouse. They manage to get a good fire going and then keep them busy while Fang taunts the people trying to handle it and Merrick snipes them from a distance. While the flame gets going and Merrick keeps sniping, eventually a crew comes his way to try and dispatch him. Despite there being even stronger units sent this time, Merrick makes them look like mere twigs as he chops them to bits with witty banter and even tries to advise them on how to fight more strategically.
He gets back to Nina and they talk again, this time he goes to collect poisonous resources from the forest and gets setup to poison the guard’s water supply while she works on preparing smoke bombs. Everyone continues preparing for the revolution to fully go into effect the following morning. This includes poisoning the water supply at the barracks near the Mansion in hopes of negating the ability of the guards to cut their way through the townfolks’ uprising while Merrick handles the bigger threats. The night passes uneventfully but with an anticipatory buzz.
The day of the Revolution has come. Merrick leads the people to the Mansion where the Greenwood folks have fortified. As they come out, the treacherous lumberjack foreman called Lorik Stonefist who betrayed his people for wealth comes out to confront Merrick and tell him he doesn’t know what he’s getting into, offering a huge sum of money to make Merrick go away. Merrick scoffs and lays into Lorik verbally, mocking the armor he barely knows how to wear and expressing his extreme disgust for people like him. Lorik uses his fancy experimental weaponry and strikes hard in retaliation, sending three lightning strikes jolting through Merrick. Merrick of course strikes back just as hard, leading the foreman to try and magically force him to retreat… which almost works but Merrick knows better and would rather break his own nose than listen to the likes of a greedy traitor like him! Lorik continues trying to get back to the Mansion but Fang and Merrick put him down before he can reach the door.
Once inside… Merrick rages against the walls as he searches for the self-proclaimed Lord Lovelace, the Griff who has been rumored to be staying out of public view because he is sick. He finds him alone in what amounts to be a conference room or war room. He does appear to be exhausted and cannot get through a single sentence without extreme coughing fits. Merrick attempts to use Truth Serum to make him explain what he’s done to the Forest Spirit, but unfortunately Lovelace is a huge, sturdy guy and withstands its effects. So, Merrick goes the alternate route: Beat it out of him. Lovelace tries to lie, twist the facts, and hold out… but after failing to escape and being brought to the brink of death, he says he simply harnessed the Forest Spirit inside a tree so its powers could be used for Progress! Imagine the Wealth! Merrick could share in it, too! Merrick leans in and tells him… men like him don’t deserve to live… before delivering the final death blows. On the Chopping Block Part 2 of 2 Recap Part 2 of 2
The deed done, what information can be gleaned collected… Merrick heads outside to see how the villagers are faring. Between the foodsick guards and overwhelming uproar, the townsfolk seem to be prevailing with only a few casualties. The few guards still attempting to corral them see Merrick emerging from inside the Mansion heaving from the adrenaline of a fight covered in blood spatter and sweat, and decide to choose life instead, fleeing the town.
Merrick collects the band of young rebels who helped start this Revolution in the first place and they head into the forest to figure out how to free the Forest Spirit from whatever exactly Lovelace did to it. It takes a few hours but they find a twisted, cruel looking tree that emanates a necrotic evil Merrick has felt too many times before. As he goes to investigate… one of its vine snaps down, initiating combat. Talia, the druid, is able to provide some healing support but otherwise, Merrick, Fang, and the tree engage in a brutal fight, and though stationary the tree packs a mighty slam and vines that crack like a giant whip. Right when it manages to grapple Merrick in its twisted vines, he can feel a huge necrotic energy swirling around him as if it were about to inject him with mighty and terrible energy, he gets in one last round of attacks with his axe… cracking it and splintering it open, felling a good chunk of it as he wrenches his strong arms upwards after he hits.
Inside is revealed to be the Bear King spirit of the forest, Attia. He had been trapped in the tree, which had been perverted to channel his energy which was then bound to Lovelace to offer him great power and influence. But that power was also a curse - at minimum, he could hardly speak without coughing. And if Lovelace did not commit atrocious evils every single day, he would eventually grow more and more ill. It seems being holed up in his mansion for several days was making it harder to commit his heinous crimes, leaving him in a somewhat more weakened state when Merrick found him.
Ultimately, Merrick asks Attia to watch over and guide the Druid who helped him survive the fight with the tree, and after handing back the Amulet of Attia, fades into the forest, forgoing any gold that might have been offered him as a reward. However, he does keep the gift of a Dagger of Blindsight from Old Man Torik, though it’ll need some work to function properly after its transit to Luck.