It has been some time since I admitted to a certain ability to speak to the spirits of nature and elements. I spent several months on a self imposed skulk campaign -- hate those little... -- for throwing their lot in with the aegis. Traveling the peninsula, their hunting parties fell by the dozens and hundreds, their villages burned from the wrath of the trees and their own fire pits.
Somehow their numbers seem endless, but I at least put a dent in their forces enough for nature to be appeased for at least a time. I plan to return to thinning them beyond what I had already and look forward to making sure they know that we do not forgive the traitors. Murderers are not my concern. They belong to the empire... The aegis though - we will pummel them down one by one until they give up or we die out trying.
I came across a beast spirit in my travels - it was rather impressed and taught me how to take the form of a wolf. It I suppose is not unlike a dragon's khutit form, except this one takes a long time to take and release. It also takes a hardened discipline - not difficult for a monk.
Seems to have benefits. A wolf can travel quickly and this one more-so... its a slightly larger than usual timber wolf. If I am caught needing to fight, I can still do so.
In fact, I had to - after a short fight in the pangai area against an army of elves attacking someone's home, I found using lightning claws to augment my bite is deadly. A bowman fell before his mage ally obliterated him with a bomb... clearly missing me in my more agile shape.
In the end, three of their elves died, one of the magi was stabbed and I removed another's bicep. These mages... I am hunting them now as they summoned ice elementals for their use and abuse. This is an affront to me. They will face justice.