"Wow," you think, "That is a huge tree." Indeed it is, almost 20 feet tall, and 6 feet wide at each of its bases, as it appears to be two trees which melded together. It looks like the perfect spot to make camp. As you settle in for the night, lighting your fire and laying out your bedroll, you hear some strange groaning and creaking coming from the tree. Before you have time to act, the trunk you are leaning against suddenly lifts up, roots and all, before coming crashing down on top of your fire, smothering it instantly. You hear a wail of anguish, and then a barrage of needle-like barbs fly through the air and land just inches from your hand. The Old One has you trapped. Instinct: To crush

• Pin them to the ground

"Don't go into the Thornwood," they said. "People who go into the Thornwood never come out," they said. "Ha!" you shouted to their faces, "I'll show you guys!" But now- now you're not so sure. You keep hearing whimperings and murmurs, and you keep swearing that the branches of the trees themselves are running around you. There is one thing, though, one thing that is oddly calming about this place. You can't quite put your finger on it, but you feel like this might be a nice place to rest for a while. You'll go prove the other townsfolk wrong later, you're terribly tired. "Sleep," a voice urges you, "Sleep, my child." The voice is soothing, it reminds you of your sweet grandmother, who also vanished into the Thornwood so long ago. In fact, this is exactly what your grandmother sounded like! "No! They were right! I never should have come here! Let me go!" you want to scream, but you can't. You can feel the forest around you, hear its thoughts. They calm you, reassure you. "Maybe it is a nice place to rest, at least for now..." You think, and then the darkness overwhelms you. Instinct: To continue the growth of the forest

• Make them a part of the forest
• Make them hear voices
• Call the natural spirits to its command
• Make them want to stay
• Summon Thornlings

The Dryads of the Greenlands have once been strong allies of the high-elves of this region, until one day a youngling of the elves practiced his fire-magic in the woods. He and all of the other elves in the dryad forest were obliterated by hundreds of angry wood-nymphs. Instinct: to purge its forest from humans

• Despise mortal meatbags
• Charm - every mortal who lays eyes on a Dryad is either stunned or even charmed into fighting for it.

The soldiers from the eastern kingdoms may not be the brightest, but they are comparatively well armed and trained. The combat value of a group of soldiers rises dramatically, if they are lead by superior. Instinct: to spread chaos

• it follows orders from its superiors
• Only 1d8 damage if alone

It is a common hog. Older members of this species tend to have a greyish colour as opposed to the normal brown. While normally peaceful, it attacks as soon as it feels threatened. Instinct: to defend its territory

• search truffles

Instinct: Stop trespassers

• fight with the strength of long forgotten ages

The Warlords of the eastern kingdoms are among the fiercest warriors in the world. Trained in both sword-and-shield-combat and magic, there are few that can encounter one of these terrible menaces and live to tell the tale. They are more intelligent than the average soldier, and keep their group or army in fighting-shape. Instinct: to spread chaos

• Blink - it can teleport its way out of danger or to attack from behind
• Pull - an object or person is pulled in fast

A typical Barfly, these patrons frequent the local taverns - singing baudy songs and drinking heavily. More than one has tried to skip out on their tab, and fights are frequent. Instinct: To drink and not pay

• Drink, Brawl, Tell Baudy Jokes

Instinct:

A swarm of a sort of mechanical mosquitos, the size of a halfling-fist, made of dark metal-alloys. Too small to have own powergenerators they rely on recharching their accumulators in their hive. Since they are only active and using much of their power when activated by special cause this is by far sufficent enough letting them do their job. Mainly used for scout-purposes they are a fine method of detecting and holding off intruders, sedating them for some time until the cavalry arrives. Being very agile in midair and resistent against most elements comes with poor resistance against physical threads as well as the poor possibilities in attacking amored targets. They mostly rely on finding unprotected areas of their victims. Instinct: To swarm out and to sting

• Scout and sedate intruders.
• Several stings will daze or paralyze the target.
• Glows faintly when active and powered.