- DONE.
- DONE.
- DONE
- Level-up (4th) - Resilient (CON +1) - to make better CON saves to keep Concentration in Wild Shape form
- Level-up (5th) - DONE
- Level-up (6th) - DONE
- Level-up (7th) - DONE
- Level-up (8th) - War Caster - to have advantage on saves to keep Concentration in Wild Shape form, cast while holding weapons
- Level-up (9th) - DONE
Fears: Loud noises, humanoid children freak him out.
Loves: Climbing trees & napping there.
Alignment for Vaxz: Chaotic Good
Choose Vaxz's default prepared spells (see spellbook):
- Absorb Elements
- Cure Wounds
- Entangle
- Healing Word
- Continual Flame
- Spike Growth
- Revivify
- Dominate Beast
- Fire Shield
- Polymorph
- Greater Restoration
- Wall of Stone
After escaping the Underdark
Runi decided to head to her homeland to mourn and honor her father. The journey included traveling to meet with his friends along the way - including Daran Edermath in Phandalin . Vaxz j oins Runi for the first part of the trip, heading back to his grove at the Place of the Unicorn.
Phandalin has drawn the interest and protection of a variety of odd allies - from the Dragonslayers who remained on to assist in rebuilding, to a necromancer, one of the Red Wizards of Thay, named Hamun Kost (who has a very weird dwarven friend named Mormesk), to a band composed of Goblins and Hobgoblins, under the command of Targor Bloodsword. Leaving this strangely-patrolled (skeletons and goblins) town and the huge blue dragon carcass, Runi headed further eastward on the Triboar Trail and Vaxz returns to his grove.
He is long overdue for a report to the druids back home, so upon the moongate revealing itself on the next full moon, he travels across the continent to his homeland - the forests of the Yuirwood.
The Yuirwood and the Emerald Enclave
In the Yuirwood, the Emerald Enclave convenes a moot of High Druids following a number of disasters, including the Demon Lords running loose in the Underdark, the Cult of the Dragon seeking to bring Tiamat to Faerûn, the Cult of Talos up to something in a growing war with the Church of Myrkul, the complete disappearance of Elturel, an Everlasting Winter covering the Frozenfar, the continued conversion of living things to (un)dead things in Thay, and among all these world-threatening monumental problems - Vaxz's strange mind picks up on the most trivial of details that he finds impossibly curious: the discovery that Foxes are not native to this world / plane of existence (reference), but from another plane called "Earth".
Putting aside demon lords, dragon queen-gods, storm gods, death gods, vanishing cities, armies of undead, and the failure of Spring to come to an enormous region for multiple turns of the sun... Vaxz becomes determined to get to the bottom of this fox thing!
He finds there are rumors this Earth place may be tied to the ancient slaver kingdoms south of Wizards Reach, across from each other on the Alamber Sea: Unther (of the Genasi) and Mulhorand (of the Pharoh's Gods). But he is very much not excited about desert places, and he is more interested in the sleek red foxes of the forest, not the dingy desert foxes. So he decides to go to the very center of druid power and spirituality - and perhaps the largest and most ancient of the forests known, and employs a moongate to arrive in the High Forest.
Cormanthor
In the ancient forests of Cormanthor, xxx__fill_in__xxx
- perhaps where he gets his Boots of Elvenkind
- once called The Great King Forest, and one of the vast Elven Empires of ancient times, Cormanthor lost most of its powerful residents in the Retreat (the mass migration of elves to the legendary isle of Evermeet)
- Cormanthor is now a mystic and haunted place after the fall of the capital of Myth Drannor
- following legends of his own kind in Yuir, Vaxz finds himself drawn into a community of Eldreth Veluuthra elves in the Tangled Trees region, but sensing how their xenophobia and militant hatred of non-elves was seeping into his heart and mind, he fled in a most careful guise
The High Forest
In the High Forest, xxx__fill_in__xxx
- perhaps where he gets the Antlers of the Hart item
- hears about, but is not permitted to try to find The Grandfather Tree, if it even really exists - it may relate to the fox thing because one legend says Grandfather Tree guards a "Hall of Mists" that may connect to other worlds
- weirdly, relating back to the whole Underdark mess and Sarith Kzekarit, there are "good Drow" inhabiting part of the forest in a place here called Darkmaiden's Leap
- learns of some disturbances on the southern border of the forest that bear similarities to artifacts from Earth, but does not have much luck finding something solid, and is coaxed away from the region soon after
- Vaxz seems to be asking too many questions about things not comfortable to the fairly xenophobic wood elves and druids of the region, and opts to leave
- a very charismatic and beautiful wood elf bard that has attracted Vaxz's attention happens to be headed to the Misty Forest, and Vaxz joins him on this trip
The Misty Forest
In the Misty Forest,
- This forest forms a kingdom ruled by a many-centuries old elf named Melandrach.
- The elf strongholds in the region have recently suffered merciless raids by a Nieznane. Some survivors have claimed to have seen an elf riding the dragon in the attacks.
- Not a fan of towns and villages anyway, Vaxz follows the elf companion into the deeper parts of the forest, which earn their name in the thick mists that linger everywhere. These mists greatly emphasize the locality area to area quite significantly, making the forest dense with spookiness, hidden dangers, and mysteries.
- It seems this elf companion has been part of a rebellion against the king for some time - and they have allied with the Green Dragon behind the raids. The bard's behavior becomes increasingly suspicious and it is clear he seeks to recruit Vaxz. But one night Vaxz is exploring in Wild Shape form as an owl and his hearing picks up a startling conversation revealing this group is in fact a cell of the Cult of the Dragon with far more ill intentions than a rebellion. So the druid immediately flees the bard and his associates, seeking the safety in the depths of the heart of the forest.
- Vaxz becomes acquainted with the "wild elves" (Sy-tel-quessir) of the Misty Forest, who are even more feral and stealthy and reclusive than those of the Yuirwood, who are more like wood elves (Or-tel-quessir) who have simply stubbornly avoided civilization and its settlements.
- While learning much about living closely among / as one of the forest beasts, Vaxz realizes the lifestyle of these tribes (packs?) starts to turn his mind to simpler and simpler things - like merely day-to-day survival, ignoring any goings-on of the world around them.
- This awareness reminds him he has also failed in his duties to the Emerald Enclave and the urgencies in tending the wilds of Faerûn.
Having been through a great many ordeals, Vaxz's mind turned to the last time he remembered truly trusting his companions - that time in the Underdark. And he sets to find them once more: Alyks Askaria, Dex, Nass Lantomir, and Runi.
It would seem fate has aligned for these four, as Vaxz and Runi cross paths almost immediately south of the Misty Forest at The Way Inn on the Trade Way road. Runi is en route to the city of Waterdeep with urgent news from Cormyr. This news is frighteningly similar to what Vaxz had learned of this dragon cult, and so he joined the envoy squadron of knights to the City of Splendors.