Tracking the Leader

After the battle of the Manse, we took a short rest and then began tracking the escaped leader North. On the way we came across a burned out tree with stick "dolls" hanging from it. Of course Arget had to investigate and meddle. Arget crushed one of the "dolls" and all Hell broke loose. The tree's roots attacked us, entangling and restraining two of our members. I threw fire at the tree, which seemed to have no effect. Aldrin used a spell that emulates the force of thunder, and that seemed to drive the roots back. Several of us also tried to use acid on the tree, but force damage seemed to be the only thing to harm this creature. Aldrin took flight, and spotted the leader watching our plight. I believe he led us here to encounter the tree. I will have to have words with him, if he survives our next meeting. Finally we realized that, if we destroy the dolls the tree will stop moving. After that encounter we decided to take a full rest. Several of us were injured and I had no more spells to cast. We had an uneventful rest, and started out after the leader again. We came upon a large, some what deep gully and just as we crested the edge of the gully a group of Orcs crested the opposite ridge. Among them was the leader we have been chasing. I hit the leader with 3 rays of burning magic right away, and after instructing his minions to attack us, he ran away. During our battle with the orcs, Ryu and Arget both went down. Fortunately the spell casters and archer in the group were able to kill the enemies and revive our companions. After that battle we tracked the leader to a hill with a circle of standing stones on its top. We have hidden ourselves to determine our next course of action.