Archdruid of the Tallwood
Elf female druid 12: CR 12; Medium humanoid (elf); HD 12d8-36; hp 15; Init -2; Spd 30 ft. (6 squares); AC 8 (8 touch, 8 flat-footed); BAB/Grapple +9/+6; Atk +7 melee (1d6-2, +1 quarterstaff) or +7 ranged (by spell); Full atk +7/+2 melee (1d6-2, +1 quarterstaff), or +7/+2 ranged (by spell); SA spellcasting, spontaneous casting, wildshape (Large, plant, Tiny) 5/day; SQ +2 racial bonus to saves vs. enchantment spells and effects, +2 racial bonus to Listen, Search, and Spot checks, animal companion, detect secret doors, immunity to sleep spells and effects, low-light vision, nature sense, resist nature’s lure, trackless step, venom immunity, wild empathy +17, woodland stride; AL NG; SV Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +13; Str 5, Dex 7, Con 4, Int 16, Wis 21, Cha 16; Age 525 years; Weight 108 lbs., Height 4 ft., 8 in.
Skills and Feats: Concentration +7, Diplomacy +14, Handle Animal +8, Heal +10, Knowledge (nature) +22, Listen +11, Search +5, Speak Language (Common, Elven, Druidic, Sylvan), Spellcraft +18, Spot +11, Survival +18*; Augment Summoning, Brew Potion, Martial Weapon Proficiency (longsword), Martial Weapon Proficiency (longbow), Martial Weapon Proficiency (rapier), Martial Weapon Proficiency (shortbow), Natural Spell, Spell Focus (Conjuration), Track.
Skills: *Winilistrae gains a +2 bonus to Survival checks made in aboveground natural environments (aquatic, desert, forest, hill, marsh, mountains, or plains).
Typical Druid Spells Prepared (save DC 15 + spell level, or 16 + spell level if the spell is a conjuration effect): 0th-detect magic, detect poison, know direction, light, mending, read magic; 1st-cure light wounds (x2), entangle (x2), pass without trace, produce flame, speak with animals; 2nd-animal messenger, chill metal, flame blade, heat metal, lesser restoration; 3rd-call lightning, quench, remove disease, plant growth, spike growth; 4th-cure serious wounds, dispel magic, freedom of movement, scrying; 5th-animal growth, call lightning storm, commune with nature, wall of thorns; 6th-fire seeds, transport via plants.
Possessions: +1 quarterstaff (Winilistrae customarily uses spellstaff to store an extra call lightning storm spell for emergencies), druid’s vestment, rod of flame extinguishing.
Widely esteemed throughout the Tallwood for her wise leadership as well as her care for the forests, Archdruid Winilistrae resides in a humble cottage on the outskirts of the thorpe of Aspenstar. The Archdruid spends most of her time roaming the forest surrounding the little hamlet, and is much admired for her ability to survive almost entirely on what she gleans from the woodlands as she roams, assembling her daily meals from gathered mushrooms, berries, eggs, and tubers, and from the occasional snare or trap set for fish and birds. Her skill at foraging is sufficient to feed not only her, but also to assure that ill or injured citizens of her chosen home will never go hungry.
Winilistrae’s skill in concocting herbal remedies, diagnosing illness, and tending to the sick has also helped to cement the good feelings of her neighbors both within the hamlet and in the elven population of the woods in general. In the course of her 525 year-long lifespan, the Archdruid has acted as the midwife for a broad swath for the infrequently fertile elven folk, who have also benefitted from her expertise in the face of sickness, wounds suffered from forest creatures or from monstrous or human invaders, and the inevitable grief of a loved one’s passing into death.
With the passing of years, the Archdruid has felt the touch of old age, and is beginning to slip into the final twilight of her lifetime. Weakened at long last by the infirmities of extreme age, Winilistrae finds it increasingly necessary to rely on her spells and her ability to change her shape when she ventures into the countryside, and has lately begun to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle, quietly accepting more and more help from the younger members of her druidic circle. She hopes to leave behind a legacy amongst the druids of the Tallwood in the form of these young elves, to whom she will need to entrust the maintenance of the elven homeland when she passes.
For this reason, above all others, she is saddened by her recent estrangement from the young druidic ruler of Woods End, the militant Mintinarn Ceretheliaul, of whom she had had great hopes of a suitable successor before his youthful anger at increasingly frequent incursions into the Tallwood led him to strike back against the human culture that gave rise to the logging he hates so much. In the division which has begun to spring up among the elves, with her own followers diminishing on one side and Ceretheliaul’s increasingly militant and xenophobic disciples becoming ever more numerous on the other, Winilistrae sees the beginning of the end for her people.