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Treants appear in the MM1 in a generic form. Here we see not one but two specific treant factions present in the Vale.

The Lore

Before the hillfolk, before the Tigerclaw, before even the elves, the Nentir Vale was covered by a single, vast forest. And in this forest, the treants ruled. They feared no one, not even the mighty dragons, for the entire region was under the protection of Malorunth the Eternal Ash, a gigantic tree who as also a powerful archfey.

One spring evening, however, Malorunth died under mysterious circumstances. The once vigorous tree was now entirely petrified, leaves falling from its brittle branches in droves. With Malorunth dead, its blessing left the Vale, and the dragons who coveted it were quick to capitalize on the opportunity, arriving in large numbers.

The battle that followed between treant and dragon was called the War of Endless Branches, and it’s because of this war that the Nentir Vale looks like it does today. Draconic magic and breath weapons cut a swathe of devastation across the center of the region that created the large open area there, and separated Winterbole Forest to the north from Harken Forest to the south.

The dragons would go on to win the war and move into the “cleared” area. They were powerful, but what really brought them victory was the growing distrust and suspicion among the treants themselves, which caused them to stop working together and turn on each other.

You see, the deciduous treants began to think their coniferous relatives had something to do with the death of Malorunth, and this suspicion festered enough that they began voicing it aloud for everyone to hear. Arguments turned to fights, and soon the treants were more concerned with their brand new civil war than with keeping the dragons out.

This civil war caused the conifers to migrate north to Winterbole forest, where they would eventually begin venerating the archfey of winter known as the Prince of Frost. The deciduous treants stayed in Harken Forest, paying homage to the petrified corpse of Malorunth, which still stands today. They believe the Eternal Ash will be brought back to life if its murder can be avenged.

The war technically still rages, but it does so at a treant’s pace. There’s a battle every century or two, when one of the group manages to organize a Great March to attack the other’s territory. The fact that they must cross the entire Vale to do so makes these marches even harder to organize, and slower to happen. The last one was two hundred years ago, when Harken attacked Winterbole. The next one will probably be a Winterbole attack, but sometimes it happens that the same side will launch two attacks in a row.

Yes, the last battle in this war is older than the fall of Nerath, and there probably are no surviving Nerathi records of it. Maybe there are a few very old elves and eladrin who remember it. And maybe the Frost Witches or Harken’s Heart druids might know, since they live in those forests. But almost no one else has any idea that a new Great March might be in their future.

Winterbole Treants

Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

These conifer creatures consider fleshy humanoids to be annoying pests and parasites, and try to keep their territory free of them. This is made more difficult by the fact that their slice of Winterbole Forest has a lot of Arkhosian ruins and Shadowfell crossings in it, so delvers and explorers often seek those out.

They also have an alliance with Bitterstrike, whom we already met. The dragon believes the treants to be her vassals, and they put up with this delusion as long as she holds up her end of the bargain and assists them in the next Great March.

Like all treants, they are Fey Magical Beasts with the Plant and Treant tags. In addition to low-light vision, they have both Forest Walk and Ice Walk, ignoring difficult terrain with either or both of these themes. Needless to say this type of terrain is plentiful in their home ground. They also have Resist Cold 10 - even the minion.

Winterbole Sapling

These Medium saplings are energetic and aggressive, and often team up with Winterbole-aligned Wood Woads in raids against the Tigerclaw and other trespassers. They’re Level 11 Minion Soldiers with a Speed of 6. Their Slams deal a bit of damage and immobilize for a turn, and their Numbing Branches aura (1) deals 3 damage to immobilized enemies that start their turns inside.

This makes for enemies who likes to mob and surround a single target. If even one of them hits, all of their auras will deal damage that round.

Winterbole Rimeneedle

Rimeneedles are the most intelligent of the “lesser” conifers, and tend to act as scouts. They’re Large, and Level 12 Skirmishers with 122 HP. It has a Speed of 8.

Rimeneedles are probably going to start the fight with Winter’s Step, a move action encounter power that lets them teleport 5 squares and make a Close Burst 2 attack on arrival. This deals cold damage, half on a miss. It probably involves forcefully ejecting those rime needles.

Since this is a move action, the treant can immediately follow it up with a basic slam or with Tree Stomp, which lets it shift its speed and move through enemy spaces while doing so. The rimeneedle can make one slam attack against an enemy along this path, and will additionally knock the enemy prone if it hits.

Fortunately as a non-minion treant, it has the Wooden Body weakness, which causes it to ignite and take ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends) from any attack that deals fire damage.

Winterbole Frostbeard

The leaders of the Winterbole treants are the venerable Frostbeards, who can command the winter. They’re rare and seldom seen by others, but they’re out there.

Forstbeards are Level 16 Elite Controllers with the Leader tag and 308 HP. Their size is Huge, their speed is 8, and they’re immune to being knocked prone. Their Deep Roots reduce any forced movement inflicted on them by 2 (which can negate the movement entirely), and when they spend their action point every ally within 10 squares can make a free basic melee attack.

Their opening move is likely a Howling Blizzard, an encounter power that deals heavy cold and thunder damage in an Area Burst 2 within 10 squares, and knocks prone on a hit. The blizzard lingers as a zone that deals 10 cold damage to people who end their turns inside. The frostbeard can move the zone up to 5 squares with a move action, and sustain it with a minor action.

Once the zone is in the battlefield, the frostbeard will likely wade inside it and begin hitting people with Slams, which it can make as part of a Double Attack. If things begin to look dicey, it can call upon the Spirits of the Forest (move action, recharge 6+) to teleport itself and up to 3 nearby allies up to 5 squares, granting them +2 to all defenses for a turn on arrival.

I guess their main weakness, aside from the usual Wooden Body, is that they have three different things they can do with their move action: move the blizzard, use Spirits of the Forest, or make normal moves. If they’re doing one of them, they can’t do the others unless they give up their standard action. Therefore, it’s possible to play “keep-away” with them to make them fight at less than optimal strength. If you stay rooted to one spot, though, they’ll fight you with slams while pulling the blizzard to sit on top of themselves.

Harken Treants

Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast.

The deciduous treants of the Harken forest are quite standard as far as rules go. They use the standard stat blocks for the Treant and Bramblewood Treant from the Monster Vault. They do often work alongside wood woads, so we have a couple of stat blocks for those in addition to the (by now slightly outdated) basic stats from the Monster Manual 2.

Their leader is the most exceptional thing about them: Mysteriphal is the oldest living creature in the entire Vale. He was there when Malorunth fell, and swore to forever protect his petrified husk. As mentioned above, Mysteriphal believes Malorunth will return to life once his murder is avenged. In our narrative present he’s a huge fire-and-curse scarred thing, any hints of his former kindness and nobility long gone.

Wood Woad Druid

I guess the existence of these guys explains why the Harken treants wouldn’t be allied with the Harken’s Heart druids. They’re Level 14 Skirmishers with the Leader tag and 145 HP.

The druid only has a speed of 5 and no Forest Walk, but it’s immune to the Immobilized, Restrained, and Slowed conditions. It will likely try to approach a squishy PC and use Polymorph Into Plant on them. This targets Fortitude, and does what it says on the tin. It lasts for a turn or until the druid drops to 0 HP, whatever comes first. The polymorphed target is considered stunned, and gains Vulnerable 15 to fire. This recharges whenever the druid misses with it, so he can keep trying until it sticks.

If the polymorph attack doesn’t look like an attractive option, the druid can hit people with his cudgel, using either basic attacks or a darting strike that lets him shift 2 squares before or after the attack.

His leaderly options include Earthen Stride (at-will, move action), which lets the druid and an adjacent ally shift 2 squares; and Nature’s Boon (minor, encounter) which gives a plant ally 25 temporary HP.

Wood Woad Juggernaut

This Level 15 Brute is Large instead of Medium. He has 160 HP and fights mostly with his powerful slams. He will charge if at all possible, since he has Resist All 15 while charging.

Once his preferred opponent is within his melee reach of 2, the juggernaut will try to tag them with Nature’s Reign (recharge 5+), a more damaging strike that also inflicts ongoing 10 damage (save ends), and heals the juggernaut for the same amount whenever the target takes this ongoing damage.

Mysteriphal

The leader of the Harken treants is a Huge specimen, and a Level 20 Solo Controller with 768 HP. This probably makes him the most powerful individual in the whole Vale. Everything about him hints at his tremendous age, from his scarred look to his stats. He ponderously drags himself at a speed of 4 without Forest Walk, but is immune to poison since he has had time to build a tolerance to all of them.

As an Ancient Entity, Mysteriphal automatically downgrades the Dominated and Stunned conditions to Dazed. His long fighting experience gives him Threatening Reach 3, but he’s even more flammable than a typical treant. He takes ongoing 10 damage (save ends) when he takes fire damage, but while on fire his melee attacks also deal an extra 10 fire damage.

Mysteriphal’s powerful Reach 3 slams damage and push the target 1 square, and he can make four of them with a single standard action. If someone in reach deals fire damage to him, he can make a free slam against the offender as a reaction (which will already benefit from that bonus fire damage).

He also has several other tricks he can surprise his opponents with. Instead of slamming he can use a Reverberating Word that attacks all nonplants in a Close Burst 3, deals heavy thunder damage, and dazes for a turn. This is perfect for use with an action point, since it lets him do this and still punch his enemies. It also recharges when Mysteriphal is first bloodied, so that second solo action point also has an easy pre-defined use.

As a minor action he can use a Reach 3 Root Grab to grab a target (DC 25) and pull them up to 2 squares. He can have up to four different creatures grabbed this way. This doesn’t deal damage… unless Mysteriphal is on fire, when it benefits from the bonus. And if you think you’re safe by putting some difficult terrain between Mysteriphal and yourself, the wily old treant can Teleport 4 squares as a move action (recharge 4+) and reach you anyway.

PCs fighting Mysteriphal might want to consider avoiding fire attacks. While they’re still effective, they also make him much more dangerous.

Final Impressions

This is a tragic story all around. Probably only the treants themselves remember why they’re fighting, and barely anyone else would remember they’re fighting at all due to the long quiet periods between Great Marches.

The truth about Malorunth’s death is a mystery literally older than mortal civilization, making it almost impossible to solve. And even if our nearly-Epic PCs manage it, it’s probably still not enough to get the treants to end their war. It might have started over this murder mystery, but after millenia of conflict both sides have plenty of reason to keep hating each other.