ACT 3 - The Dryad

**The Dryad -** Valeria

The ability to sense the energies of organic beings, honed over years by adapting at a moments notice to new enemies with little indication to their nature, allows Claire to detect the presence and intentions given off common organisms with hardly a second though. Being capable of reading the intentions and moods of those around her to a degree akin to empathic mind reading stripped a great deal of the mysteries of others over the years.

It was not until their discovery of a unique sentient being made up of plant matter, but sharing the form and behaviors of a human being, that Claire was able to, for the first time in a long time, find herself utterly stumped. The inscriber and dryad were able to, upon meeting, to act like how Claire believes regular humans normally do, when meeting one another.

She was drawn to the mysteries of a being she was unable to read and the dryads own deep, though wholly organic link, to the elements of the natural world, similar to her own abilities.

By observing how the dryad was always connecting to the earth via physical contact, usually through the use of her bare feet, inscriber Claire learned to supplement her own energies with those given off by the earth.

*Her Shared skill is **Ageless** with the Physicist.*

**Skills**

**Vine Spear -** By extending vines from her limbs and lashing at enemies, she is capable of lashing foes from a distance. By changing her attacks to thrusts and learning how to move her tendrils en route, she maximizes her chance of causing critical injury while improving accuracy.

**Enchant Spear -** Whenever she channels mana through her limbs, the residual energies boost the damage and penetration of her piercing tendrils.

**Ageless -** Her ability to continue growing while being nourished by her surroundings prevents stamina loss. She is able to incorporate beneficial energies into her body structure, getting additional boosts whenever they are applied while lengthening their effects.

**Arboreal Aid -** Her connection with nature grants Valeria several abilities for manipulating living things. She can assist allies by helping regenerate some wounds, boost their endurance and resistance to poisons through a channeling of natural vitality, and cause an eruption of vines at a targets feet. Her offensive vines not only cause crushing injuries but also trip up foes for a penalty to speed and reflexes.

**Charm -** By using her natural appearance and exploiting pheromonal cues, she is able to manipulate an enemy to temporarily try to defend her by attacking her enemies. The desire to impress is enough to increase their damage output. Since joining up, her experience with different lifeforms has enabled her to tailor the pheromones giving a chance for persisting effects.

**Vine Armor -** Her ability to harden her skills and alter both density and circulatory pattern allows her to block out damages by focusing on her physical characteristics. Her resistances never drop below baseline and all physical damages never do more than 2/3s damage.

**Healing Wisp -** By calling upon a spirit of nature to accompany her, she can request it to continually channel the energies of nature into her allies, bolstering their abilities to heal. By developing her relationship with these spirits she can request to always be in their company.

**Hide -** She is capable of camouflaging herself into her surroundings well enough to fool foes, no matter how well their sight. By shifting her body surface into the same material as the surroundings, she channels many attacks straight through herself. Eventually being able to shuffle off virtually all toxins and ill effects through the surface of her body.