Elder Blood Witcher

Reima wakes up with a start and scrambles to push himself off of the cold granite fool, looking around he sees Arie still unconscious and metal shards piercing various blackened wooden crates around the room. The forge still giving off a warm glow that lights the area enough for Reima to properly examine it. He first checks Arie to make sure his makeshift first aid had done enough to save his life.

His wounds have scabbed over and it looks like he will recover, albeit without his arm. Due to the loss being partly his fault he feels rather guilty. Maybe this world would be able to make a magical bionic arm of some sort? Or if it's not possible attach a blade to replace his missing arm... Either way it would have to wait until Arie's awake. Reima examines himself and doesn't find anything serious except for the pain on his face, he tries to rub it but flinches away from the wound on his cheek as it almost burns with pain, he decides he would check it over when he can.

While he waits he looks around and sees various thing stored here, rotten food, a varierty of weapons in a variety of different conditions... From pristine to completely rusted through. He also finds a small box that contains 5 Witcher Wolf medallions, taking one Reima wraps it around Arie's neck which leaves the Wolf's head proudly resting on his bare chest.

Reima also takes two more, one for himself and one for Ciri... Not that Geralt will know that until then. He wraps the medallion around his neck and marvels at it, the weight of it more than just it's heaviness but the emotional weight... Finally he's got one, he'll be a Witcher when he returns and receives his silver sword.

Reima looks at the forge and ponders whether or not to destroy it. He decides it's better that the other two medallions are protected by a monster, so a true Witcher can take them instead of some thief pawing through ruins. He gathers up all the metal and places it in the forges glowing coals so that another Golem eventually forms.

After a couple hours of meditation Arie still has not awoken... This is a problem due to them having to travel back through the Leshens forest.

Reima decides the he will have to find a route through the thinnest part of the forest or around it... He cautiously drags Arie and rests his head on some scraps of leather before grabbing the rock salt he had found and drawing a line at the entrance of the forge. Reima grabs the best looking Silver weapon he can find which turns out to be a spear, maybe due to lack of silver they only made the spearhead silver and used Ash wood as the shaft. It stands 6 foot in height and should be enough to defend himself with.

Reima makes his way back through the cave and comes out on the mountain path, it seems to be morning, a couple hours past sunrise. Perfect. He climbs the mountain to get a better look and finds that the forest goes far an wide, almost wraps around the entirety of the mountain... Shit.

But after looking more closely he finds a spot in the vast trees that seems to have been cut, the tree stumps clearly visible and cutting through the forest like an artist had just painted a line through.

There's the exist... But who is stupid enough to cut down a forest with a Leshen inhabiting it?

Reima decides to scout it out before carrying Arie across it. He heads down the familiar mountain path and approaches the desecrated tree line, looking around he just finds a trail of chopped trees going in a straight line... He cautiously heads inside tightly gripping his spear, as he walks he spots various totems also chopped in two... They look pagan, must have angered the Leshen to have them destroyed.

Reima spots a small log hut standing amidst the stumps and looks inside, he finds nothing but a broken bed, cobwebs and... A journal? Flipping through the pages it seems to be written by a mage looking for a secluded spot to do experiments, the experiments were... Unsavoury and included necromancy from what Reima can tell. The mage thought he had found his spot due to the ambient magical energy and failed to notice his neighbour... The ink on the last page looks pretty recent, the mage might still be around.

Slipping the journal in his leather trousers he exits and goes deeper into the path, as he walks he sees signs of lifeless flowers, they're dead... Looks kinda like when Yennefer used necromancy to talk to that dead guy.

...

Reima keeps walking but fortunately finds the mage... Unfortunately the mage seems to have been strung from the treeline by his intestines, seems like the Leshen wasn't all that happy at him desecrating the forest. The blood as already dried and the body seems to be on the first stages of decomposition, must have been around a week ago... Thinking about it, the amount of ambient magic is strong enough to even cause his medallion to shake and shudder, it's almost strong enough to be the centre of the.... Forest...

Reima quickly looks around and spots a single crow staring at him... He hears something massive shifting amongst the foliage, while he isn't currently in the forest... It doesn't mean the Leshen can't deal with him itself.

He dives to his left as a wooden clawed hand materialises where he just was. Looking at the aggressor he sees a 9 foot tall Leshen, it's oaken flesh barely covered by leather strips. It has giant clawed hands and a deer skull with relatively small antlers, must be a young one. Reima thinks he has a chance to end this... Outside of it's domain where it's control of it's beasts reside and it is currently weakened by the loss of it's totems.

"I never ment any harm to you creature! But you have forced my hand!" He shouts as he prepares for combat, he uses Quen to provide a buffer in case he makes a mistake.

Reima also casts a powerful Yrden on the ground that covers around a meter to surround him, the Leshen gives a ghastly roar and disperses into green particles before reforming outside of the Yrden trap and attacking him with a giant swipe.

Reima manages to dodge the swipe as the Leshen steps into the trap, while it's movements are effected he pokes the spear at it's chest causes some sort of sap to drip from the wound.

It tries to grab the spear but Reima spins it around and scratches it arm for it's attempt. He steps back and pokes again but uses one hand while it's distracted to shoot a stream of Igni at it's face.

The leshen quickly covers it's face with it's arms and backs away due to the searing heat, as it leaves the Yrden trap it disperses again into green particles.

The trap loses it's glow as it disperses causing Reima to growl "Shit" As he uses the Elder Blood to teleport two meters in front of him, narrowly avoiding being penetrated from his back through his stomach. Looking back the Leshen disperses again and tries to attack, Reima uses Aard on the ground causing a shock-wave and knocking the Leshen off balance. Reima uses this oppertunity and blinks forward while thrusting the spear at it's neck, going clear through it's target.

The Leshen gives a guttural roar as it sputters to it's knees an expelling a large amount of sap from it's wound. It's dead... Reima decides to make sure of it by slowly cutting it's head off with his knife.