The Troenka are cruel, wood-like beings of the deep forests of Ichneum and Tenekee. Standing still, they cannot be told from a tree, and they use it: a Troenka will hold motionless for days over a path, waiting for a traveler to pass beneath its branches, and take him not for food but for the pleasure of it. Their bark-hide turns most weapons, and their root-tendrils can wrap and crush a grown man. They hold that the forest set them to punish what enters it, and they are not wrong about where they came from, only about who meant it.
The druids made the Troenka, the same dying nature-race that shaped the elves from wood and stone and river-mud. Near the end of their long thinning, the druids bound living spirit into standing wood to make wardens for the deepest groves, guardians that would never tire and never leave. The working that made the elves had carried the druids' own harmony with growing things into the new people. The warden-working in Ichneum did not. The spirit took to the wood and stood up strong, patient, and clever, and the love of the forest that was meant to come with it never set. What the druids built as a guardian came out a thing that keeps the guardian's single instruction, let nothing through, and feels nothing else around it. The flaw bred true. Every Troenka since is born to the same broken making: the mandate intact, the care left out, and a forest to enforce it on.
The Tenekee charcoal-cutters teach the rule to their children. Count the trees along your path going in, and count them again coming out. If the forest has grown one while your back was turned, do not walk back under it.
Vitals
- Size: Large
- Height: 7-9 feet
- Weight: 300-500 pounds
Aspects
- Forest's malice
- Patience of the ancient wood
Game mechanics
Tree Form
Passive ability. As an action, you can take root and become indistinguishable from a normal tree. While in this form, you cannot move but are aware of your surroundings within 60 feet through your roots. You have +4 to defense rolls against all damage while rooted, and you automatically succeed on stealth checks to appear as a normal tree. You can end this form as a free action on your turn.
Root Strangle
Major ability. You can animate the roots around you to entrap your enemies. Once per combat, as an action, all creatures within 15 feet of you must make a CN 12 Agility saving throw or become grappled by roots. Grappled creatures take 2d6 bludgeoning damage at the start of each of their turns and can use their action to attempt a CN 12 Might check to break free.