10.28 Dryads: wood-spirits renowne for guiding the lost.

Dryads are little woodland spirits, around half a foot in height - luminous white, rough-cut humaniforms, as if chiselled out of limestone. Their faces are round, features of the face little more than holes of varying size. The dryads have a habit of rotating their faces and "talking" with a clack-click-clack sound. Few know their language, but it is said the more rapid their clacking, the more agitated the dryads have become. They are found in the ancient forests, around older trees and tend to originate in trees with particularly strong sentient potential (e.g. old and ancient oaks). These little wood-spirits communicate with the sylvan and animism practitioners and can be called upon, by those forest-sympaticos, to perform a variety of actions.

The dryads are most commonly found in company of those with Animism or Sylvan Lor specialisation, or on occasion in the branches of an ent (sentient trees, shepherds of the forest). The little wood-spirits can be directed to repel enemies from their forest, to guard friends from harm, to hunt foes, to heal those within their region and - perhaps of most interest - to guide folks as they trek about the land. Dryads lose effectiveness and indeed shy away from locations outside the boundaries of the ancient forests. They are almost entirely disempowered when out of sight of at least a small copse of trees.

You may find yourself given a dryad to guide you and these can be most useful. If you find yourself fortunate enough to have wood-spirits on your heels offering their aid, type ASK GUIDE to confirm it and then use ASK GUIDE followed by a question or instruction and you will gain benefit from the dryads' favour. Syntax: ASK GUIDE followed by question or instruction to pass on the question or instruction to guiding dryads in your entourage. If understood the dryads will endeavour to help you. Peruse in detail the contents of HELP GUIDANCE and you will gain all the information you need about seeking guidance from the dryad wood-spirits, via the ASK GUIDE command.

It is not generally advisable to go around attacking dryads. These wood spirits are elusive and tend to keep together in large groups. Attacking a dryad group of a size greater than five times the "blades" used at the moment of strike will be entirely ineffectual. Examples: a single JAB with a sword against more than five dryads is useless, while the knightly double JABJAB using two blades is only effective on ten dryads or less. Bite attack counts as four blades - each canine being a single blade; claw attack counts each talon as a blade - thus each claw can impact up to twenty-five dryads or the double-claw up to fifty.

See also: HELP FORESTS, HELP ENTS, HELP HUORNS, HELP ANIMISM and HELP SYLVAN.

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