"Humans, I cannot understand them - everything they plant only fruits death."
- Mylanthrevdi, the Greenwarden
Break the Stereotype
Tree-men, children of nature, they dwell in the deep woods. Treants spend days if not seasons in deep thought, pondering the health of their demesne, and wandering their woods tending their charges. Often sagacious sages, and sometimes solitary defenders of the woods, tree-men rarely have a reason to interaction with the outside world. Hoooo-huuummmmmm.
Life from a treant's point of view: daily men enter your wood to fell your silent brothers and sisters. And for what? Their fires choke the sky, their fields dominate the land that was once forest - their ways are wasteful and destructive. And worse, their numbers constantly increase, and they continue to require more land.
As nature is tamed and the wilds are slowly pushed back, one treant has had enough.
Birth in Flame
Mylanthrevdi awoke over a hundred years ago in the woods he still calls home. He spent his first couple decades in quiet solitude - wandering his woods, communing with his charges, and contemplating why he had been given the gift of sentience. Then the humans came. A foreign king had granted the land to a noble, if he could tame the wilderness. The noble's men entered the woods and cut down trees for their lord's manor and the new village. When the first tree fell, the treant felt it like a dull ache.
He immediately sought out the lumberjacks to ask their intentions, but the peasants ran in fright. Angered at the setback and the fact that "a monster" opposed him, the noble hired a band of mercenaries and entered the woods with his most faithful servants. Under guard, the servants began once more to cut down trees. The treant responded and walked into the trap - the mercenaries and noble attacked without listening to Mylanthrevdi entreaties. The treant tried to defend itself and it crushed the life from a number of mercenaries, but there were too many.
Mylanthrevdi begged and pleaded for his life, and the noble granted a reprieve. The noble proclaimed himself lord of the woods, not the treant, and he and his men would cull the forest as they saw fit. If the "abomination" wanted to live, it would leave the region and tell all the other brutes lurking in the wilderness to do the same.
Shocked by the brutal attack and the audacity, the treant retreated to the forest's heart to heal his wounds and plan. Mylanthrevdi was torn, he did not want to fight, but he could not leave the wood, he was part of it, and every day he stalled in acting he felt more of his charges falling to the ax. First, he tried to seal off his woods, but the humans came in droves and used force and fire to open paths. Resigned, the treant then called upon his charges to expel but not kill the invaders.
The noble responded with force, he gathered more mercenaries and rode into the forest. They set fire to the treant's personal grove and fought Mylanthrevdi once more. The treant knew there be no mercy - it barreled through the wall of humans and into the flames. A quarter of its body was charred and withered from the intense heat and flames, but Mylanthrevdi survived and escaped. (More...)
The treant lost itself in the foothills and mountains. It mourned the lost of its forest and spent years pondering what it should do. Then Komurra found it.
Komurra was a cougar awoken by a twisted orc druid. Her upbringing and experience had left her scarred emotionally and physically, and the cougar latched on to Mylanthrevdi initially as a means for personal revenge. However, the longer she spoke with the treant the more her agenda evolved. Komurra kindled a desire for revenge within Mylanthrevdi that fit her grand designs.
The two started their trail of retribution in the mountains, the orc druid and his tribe quickly fell to their combined might, but they soon pressed down into Mylanthrevdi's former demesne. It amazed the treant how easy it was to destroy the village and the noble with Komurra's guidance, a simple matter of stealth, surprise, and focused force. Initially content to have his forest back, the obsessed cougar convinced the treant to extend his protection to other nearby forests, and so their campaign of guerrilla warfare against humanity began in earnest.
Eco-terrorists
Mylanthrevdi's main goal is to curb humanoid destructive tendencies. Pragmatic, it realizes the futility of trying to stop them, so it only works to oppose their worst pursuits. Its encounters with humanoids shaped its method: it won't seek them out to discuss the matter or ask them to stop. Action and force speak louder than words. Mylanthrevdi feels it is simply giving nature the chance to fight back, and it has no qualms about killing a few humans, since they've given no consideration to it or its charges.
The Greenwarden relies on guerrilla tactics in its crusade. Any site near a forest that it sees as being destructive (a saw mill, stone quarry, large farm, etc) is a possible target. It or one of its agents enters an area, animates trees and brush to do his bidding, and leaves quickly once the damage is done. Initially it focuses on sabotage and property damage, but if it has to mount a third assault, it will order its legion to use force against humanoids. It repeats as many times as necessary, and it escalates the intensity of the assault each time until it achieves his desired effect.
Komurra's goals differ from the Greenwarden's: she won't be happy until all humanoids are brought low and nature once more rules the land. She hasn't revealed her ultimate goals to Mylanthrevdi yet, and in many ways she acts as the power behind the throne. She constantly urges the treant to action and pushes him towards her goals - Komurra is grooming him. Eventually, she hopes Mylanthrevdi will declare war on civilization, and it will look to her for its general.
The Greenwardens
Through Komurra's tutelage, Mylanthrevdi has become a consummate druid, in ways exceeding its teacher. All of the treant's forces are animated or awoken plants and charmed or awoken animals. It is more likely to use animated plants and objects in dangerous assaults since it won't loose any of his real forces if they're slain. All intelligent followers of Mylanthrevdi call themselves greenwardens, and the treant is often referred to as the Greenwarden.
Basic force - Secret sabotage squad - Tiny awoken plant or animal leader and 6 tiny animated plants or charmed animals. Advanced force - Strike squad - Medium awoken plant or animal leader and 4 medium animated plants. Advanced force - Terror squad - Medium awoken plant or animal leader and 3 large vermin. Advanced force - Heavy assault squad - Large awoken plant or animal leader and 3 huge animated plants.
Mylanthrevdi success has also brought it notoriety. A surprising number of humanoids - namely hunter-gather tribes, druids, and true lycanthropes - have sought out the Greenwarden to pledge their allegiance to its cause. Komurra wants to turn all of the humanoids away - she firmly believes that they will never be as loyal as another awoken animal or plant. Mylanthrevdi is undecided however. It wonders if allowing humanoids to join it will cause more of their kind to view its goals differently, perhaps making some conflicts unnecessary.
Charred Grove
The Greenfang Forest itself has a dark reputation among nearby residents and travelers. Many remember when all the residents of the nearby village simply disappeared. Another group tried to take advantage of the vacant buildings and rebuild the community, but they disappeared as well. This has lead many to claim the woods are haunted, a reputation Mylanthrevdi and its minions cultivate in order to keep their presence in the forest a secret.
At the heart of the Greenfang Forest a copse of new trees grow. The hectare of new growth looks out of place amongst the venerable trees of the rest of the wood, but on closer inspection the charred remains of mighty trees, some standing, some fallen, can still be seen. The Charred Grove suffered the brunt of the noble's wrath when he first chased off Mylanthrevdi, and it wasn't until the treant's return that the Grove began to recover. The Greenwarden resides within the Grove when he's not engaged in a campaign. It is a grim reminder of what humans are capable of and is a source of reaffirming strength.
As a base of power and residence the Forest and Grove are non-ostentatious. There are no grand buildings or lofty court, only acres of stately trees and natural wildlife. It would take a trained eye to tell that some of the trees move of their own accord and that some animals eye intruders with all too intelligent eyes.
Campaign and Adventure Use
The Greenwarden and its machinations were designed to be incorporated into a campaign world with minimum effort - any bit of civilization on the edge of wilderness will do. Using d20 rules, Mylanthrevdi's forces are either treants, animated objects, and charmed or awoken animals.
The number and extent of his forces can vary. If it is early in the Mylanthrevdi's crusade, it only has a dozen awoken animals and treants at its command, most of its attacks will be close to the Greenfang forest, and it or Komurra will lead many of them personally. However, if the treant eco-terrorist has had years to work, it will have hundreds of loyal awoken animals and plants along with thousands of humanoids to do its bidding. A Greenwarden cell under the command of an awoken plan or animal could be located anywhere in the world.
Encounters with the Greenwarden or its forces would fit well into any wilderness or frontier campaign. The players could save a group of lumberjacks or a simple farming village from Mylanthrevdi's minions. Another interesting possibility is for a cell to start operating from a large city park.
Mylanthrevdi's is a treant and a druid. When not on an assault the Greenwarden actually prefers to talk things out, but if attacked it will respond with force, usually hanging back to uses it spells while its minions keep attackers busy. Komurra is a cougar (use the leopard stats) that has training as a druid as well as a fighter. She won't waste her breath on humanoids (except to roar in defiance) and enjoys ripping them to shreds.
Greenwarden encounters could be simple black and white affairs, but Mylanthrevdi's usually only chooses targets because they are wantonly destroying nature. Fending off nature's wrath, while trying to understand the reason for the attacks, and then brokering peace with a treant terrorist sound like tasks fit for heroes.
