"Bogs are caused by water. Springs, underground steams, or the spread of a river across a big area. Iron bogs are always from water coming up from deeper down, carrying iron particles with it, dissolved into the water. As the water lays in the bog a few things happen. You get the formation of peat, for one. It would be nice to find a peat bog. Good soil, and makes a nice slow-burning fire. Look for spongy moss and a lot of decayed vegetable matter."

"But for the iron, the telltale signs are an oiliness to the water and maybe some red tinge to exposed rocks. The iron slowly accumulates. Sometimes it's just pea sized nuggets, but you can get very large chunks if the area has been undisturbed for a long time. In ancient Europe, the first iron weapons were made of bog iron and the Vikings used a lot of it. It was also found in the Americas in the early days of exploration. Not as good as a mine, since the quantity is limited, but it was easier to work with and didn't have the sulfur of the mined ore."

"This stuff you have isn't bog iron. It looks like it, but it's dark steel ore. Hard as hell, a tier 2 material. I can work it, but just barely. I'd be really happy with you boys if you find some big chunks. My blacksmithing is lagging behind with all this building I have to so. Let's just say I'd be happy to make some nice dark steel axes with iron wood handles. Now those would cut down a tree fast."

=*=

Having been giving a lecture on bog iron from Jorges, the two lumberjacks made plans to enter the area of warring trees again. They circled further around the city, climbing tall trees to find a quicker route to the meadow that the one they had taken the day before. They found a path in the form of a dried stream bed. It had recently had water in it. The shallows were dry, but the largest of pools were still there. The fish were worried and hoping for a big storm so they could escape downstream.

The forest slowly changed from the mixture of oak, holly, sassafras, apple, and rowan to a wood completely comprised oak trees. Either the other trees hadn't been invited, or they had chosen to not be part of the war. The trees were growing close together, but the two lumberjacks had no trouble walking to the meadow. The squirrels left them alone, and trees seemed to pull branches out of their way. Even without the streambed, they could have walked through the forest easily. As they neared the meadow, a quest box appeared.

Rejoice Brothers! No longer shall the Iron Lords of the Hickory ignore us, content to live their long lives free of fear from axes and fire. They shall share the magic waters of their sacred spring or they shall die!

The age of the Hickory is ending. This is the age of the Oak!

Though you are sap-handed tree-slayers, the Brotherhood of Oaks accepts you. You too have struggled against the Hickory and felt the wrath of their Iron Branches. Join us and be rewarded.

-Assist squirrel scouts to plant 20 acorns. Reward: 1 magic acorn

-Uproot and slay 20 Ironwood Saplings. Reward: 5 magic acorns

-Cut down 10 Ironwood trees. (Repeatable.) Reward: 7 magic acorns

-Fell the evil BarkRoar, oppressor of the forest Reward: 100 magic acorns and you may join the forest forever!

"They expect us to work for nuts?" John was unimpressed by the offer.

Cham looked to the hordes of squirrels running through the trees with acorns. "Maybe we can trade them to the squirrels. Do you think they have anything?"

"I think that maybe the girls are right, we need to think on things a bit. Plan A doesn't look like it has a lot of rewards. Plus, I think they'll revoke our membership cards once we have to go back to work cutting them down for building projects. Let's go with plan B for now."

Cham agreed and they moved forward, right up to where the dried streambed came out of the meadow. The oaks had damned the stream with roots and rocks. Only a trickle came from between the stones. But no trees grew in the gap on either side. It was easy to jump from the dam and into the meadow.

They took a few minutes to get their bearings and look over the meadow. Knowing what to look for helped. Oily black water stood stagnant above thick peat. The moss and grass growing on the hummocks grew and decayed, making the whole area a mass of semi-solid land.

John looked down at the damn, and thought he could see several other spots around the perimeter where piles of stone indicated similar dams. "Good plan by the oaks. Hem in the hickory, dam things up, and let rot and rust take them out. I wonder how trees decide to go to war?"

Cham shook his head sadly. "Shit, I don't know why humans go to war, I'm not about to try to figure out trees. You ready?"

Both of them yelled to the other, "Plan B!" They dropped their packs, and their walking sticks, no axes were in sight. Each did carry an adze, with another in their belts, but they had flint heads instead of metal. No threat at all to an oak, let alone an Ironwood Hickory. Across the meadow they saw BarkRoar killing squirrels by throwing his Big Nuts at them. His aim was deadly and no squirrel survived contact with his nuts. Cham and Jon moved around the circle of the meadow to keep their distance from the angry treant.

Their targets were the small oak saplings that had been planted by the squirrels. They were easy to pull up out of the soft ground, or chop with an adze. Some of the squirrels became angry, and started to chitter at them. No squirrel wants to see its work undone, and they weren't going to finish their quota if the humans kept uprooting saplings.

Twice they found Ironwood Saplings laying on the ground. They did the best they could, moving them further into the meadow and replanting them.

Round and round the meadow they ran, tearing out oak saplings, saving Ironwood Saplings, and incurring the wrath of squirrels. A pack of angry rodents followed them, more chittering from the trees.

Finally, the squirrels had had enough and went for re-enforcements. When they had gathered enough to deal with two humans, dozens of fuzzy-tailed warriors leaped from the trees and chased the lumberjacks as a pack.

"Oh shit! We have a rodent problem Cham. I think it's time to do some pest control!"

Both lumberjacks pulled their second adze from their belts and prepared to fight. Unlike their earliest fights against creatures in the wilds, the situation wasn't hopeless. Back when they had first arrived a lone goblin had killed them. Also, a woodchuck, a carnivorous flower, and a large, muscular rabbit.

Now though, they had weapons. An adze wasn't a great weapon, but it wasn't categorized as a default weapon. Both men had used them extensively to cut branches, and strip bark from trees. At Level 7 and STR 12 the adze in each hand had a good chance of chopping a squirrel in half with one blow.

Adze Damage: 10 points + 5xLevel +5xSTR = 105

Adze Chance to hit: 10% + 5xLevel +5xSTR = 105%

The squirrels were small, fast, and hard to hit which gave them 30% evasion, but a Tier 2 creature had a 20% advantage to hit a Tier 1, cancelling most of that bonus.

In addition to squirrels being easy to hit and every hit being a kill, the two lumberjacks had earned some abilities with their Core Skill Points:

'I can do this all day.' decreased any stamina costs.

'Tough as the trees you fell' gave them 20 points of mitigation to physical damage. And of course, the curse added another 5, reducing all squirrel bites or scratches by 25 points.

And 'Reaping like a Whirlwind' let them use a hand-axe or adze in each hand.

With close to 2000 health each, it wasn't going to be easy for the low-level squirrels to kill them.

Squirrels were used to punching above their weight and knew to bring a horde to deal with the humans. Nearly two hundred squirrels converged upon the lumberjacks. And to add to their fun, not just BarkRoar, but also two other Ironwood Treants were chasing behind the horde of chittering rodents.

"Kill and Run! Kill and run! It's worth taking some squirrel bites to the ankles to keep ahead of the treants!"

They killed squirrels as fast as they could. With weapons preferably, but stomping on them also worked. So did biting when they tried to go for the eyes. Before the rodents could overwhelm them, they would race away to another part of the meadow. The treants killed the slow or wounded squirrels behind them.

Slowly their health went down. The furry opponents bit at ankles and clawed at all parts of their bodies that were exposed. While they were killing one fuzzy little assassin, two more were trying to find tender spots to bite.

Potions were drunk, wounds healed, more wounds were taken. The ankle bites finally took their toll. Jon stumbled and fell, regaining his feet but limping heavily. "Hey, Cham. I can't run anymore. Last stand time for me."

Cham put his back against his friend. "Sounds good. Get the kill count as high as you can, and don't accidently clip one of the trees." Within seconds they were covered in angry, blood crazed, rodents.

More squirrels died. They heard the heavy steps of Branchroar. The three treants encircled the madness of 54 squirrels still gnawing away slowly on two humans. The treants sent wooden spikes thrusting up through the ground, hitting all the combatants. Any squirrel on the ground died, and a few in mid-leap.

Roots speared through both feet of each lumberjack, nailing them to the ground. They weren't dead, but that could be rectified easily. They weren't going anywhere.

The lumberjacks took out their frustration and pain on the squirrels still crawling on them, killing them or throwing them to the ground to be killed by roots. And then slumped against each other, exhausted.

"Tree-Murderers..."

Jon smiled through the pain. "That's us. Thousands of trees have fallen to our axes. But I'll point out that they were mostly oaks, and no Ironwood Hickory have we ever cut down."

"The sapling...young Sunleaf..."

"...is doing just fine. We saved him. He's about two foot tall and doing great. We'll bring him back after we kill all the oaks."

"Hurm....kill ALL the oaks?

"Well, a lot of them. All the ones causing you problems. We've been cutting oaks every day for months. They really do grow back fast. But Baron Billy has some big plans, and needs a lot of oak to build things. We can murder oaks like you wouldn't believe. And we have friends to help."

"And then you would turn your axes upon us!"

"If we were going to do that, it would be easier to just let the oaks win in the first place. But I bet we can work out a treaty. You need room to grow, and the water of your spring. There are things we need, and we're willing to protect the saplings and help you win this war. You need the streams fixed? We can help with that."

"And the cursed rocks that bring the Rust Blight? Would that they were gone from this land!

Cham added his voice to the discussion. "Oh, we have friends that will make that happen. They can move the peat and soil, pull out the cursed rocks, and put thing back looking nice. We'll get this meadow looking like it should."

"Even better, the little guy? Sunleaf? We found something that he really loves to eat. We'll trade the cursed rocks for good metal and put a chunk in the ground next to each sapling so they can grow strong."

"You must also remove the fallen. We ask this of you! When the ground shook and the great walls of the city pressed the oaks against us, then the water no longer drained from the land. The Rust Blight grew quickly and took many of the older trees. The blight covers their corpses, a constant danger to those who remain. I would have them gone from here."

Jon tried to move his feet. "Do you think, seeing as how we are talking nice and friendly, that maybe we could get rid of these roots? It's going to be tough to talk if we bleed to death."

The roots disappeared into the ground. The youngest and smallest of the treants moved forward, extending two small hickory nuts to the lumberjacks.

"Though young, Deezlebranch is an accomplished healer."

"Eat Deez nuts."

With great reservation, the two chewed the woody flavored, tough nuts. After choking them down, they saw their health start to slowly increase as the shallow cuts and bites started to heal. A feeling of contentment washed over them as the pain faded and they sat in the sunlight for long minutes. Jon looked at Cham. "What happens in the meadow, stays in the meadow!" Cham nodded his agreement.

Turning to BarkRoar he spread his hands wide. "Alright, I think we are close to a deal. How about we agree to murder a lot of oaks, start digging up the cursed rock, remove the fallen bodies of the old trees, and protect the saplings?"

"And what does your kind expect in return?"

"Well, the dead limbs of the Ironwood are valuable to us. Some fall off naturally, and we can remove them so the Rust Blight doesn't grow on them. And if an Ironwood dies, we will remove the body."

"But we can also help keep the trees healthy. We can trim the dead wood, protect them from the blight, and care for the trees. I think this can work good for all of us. A little tree murder, some corpse stealing, cutting off limbs. All good stuff."

"We have long memories. You will need to prove yourselves to us further, but let us begin. We offer you safety in this meadow. You will begin your work. Let the oak-slaying begin!"

There is unrest in the Forest

There is trouble with the trees

For the Hickory want more sunlight

And the Oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble for the Hickory

(And they’ call it a disgrace)

They say the Oaks are just too many

And they grab up all the space.

But the Oaks won't stop their war

And they like the way they’re made

And they wonder if the Hickory

Can be left rotting in the shade?

There is trouble in the Forest

And the creatures all have fled

As the Hickory call for lumberjacks

And the squirrels just shake their heads

So, the Hickory hired workers

And demanded equal rights

‘The Oaks are just too greedy

We will make them give us all the light’

Now there’s no more Oak oppression

Because the Baron needs the wood

And now there's only pepper fields

Where the noble oaks once stood.

-With apologies to Rush.

The Oaks began this War. The Ironwood Hickory will end it.

(With a little help from our friends.)

-Kill 20 squirrel scouts. Reward: One blessing of the Glade

-Kill 50 squirrel scouts Reward: Three blessings of the Glade

-Kill 100 squirrel scouts Reward: Seven blessings of the Glade

-Kill Razortooth Fluffytail Reward: Ten blessing of the Glade

-Fell 100 Oaks. (Repeatable) Reward: Ten blessings of the Glade

-Remove cursed stone from the Glade Reward: One blessing of the Glade

-End the Scourge of Rust Blight Reward: A place in the Glade.

-Remove the bodies of the fallen Reward: 20 blessings of the Glade