How clever! That's only the third time this week someone's called me "tree hugger." Hey, you want to wager that artifact of yours that you'll suffer a Harrowing before you make it out of this park?

Verdis, the unique mysticism of the woods-loving Dryads, is virtually unknown in Stygia. It was practiced by the Celtic and Gothic wraiths of Europe before the coming of Stygia's armies. Little is known of these wraiths' history and culture, other than what can be deduced from their living counterparts during that time, and Verdis -- along with at least one other unique Arcanos -- was wiped out along with the Restless who practiced them. While some wraiths in the Kingdom of Ivory and the Kingdom of Clay are believed to practice similar plant-magics, until the middle of the 20th Century no Stygian wraiths were known to practice Verdis. The Arcanos was lost to time, and its existence faded into the realm of legend.
Then, in 1962, the famous Scottish botanist William McCay died from a "freak accident" while doing research in Scottish peat bogs. His death was widely publicized, and an Overlord by the name of Irving Mackaey made retrieving William's soul a priority, as he claimed common lineage with the scientist. It took months for the Hierarchy to determine that McCay had indeed become a wraith, and another two years to track him down; he was found close to where he died, far away from any nearby Stygian strongholds. By the time he was "discovered," McCay had apparently been reaped, had learned several Arcanoi (including Verdis), spoke fluent Pictish, and had even Moliated blue woad tattoos onto his body. McCay went back with the Stygian wraiths only under threat of force, and dwelt in a Glasgow citadel for five years before disappearing; many believe he went back to rural Scotland, others claim he departed for the Far Shores.
While in Glasgow, William McCay taught the Verdis Arcanos to all who would learn it. While it never really caught on, it was embraced by a few subcultures -- namely, rural wraiths and those who supported the burgeoning environmental movement. Recently, the Arcanos has migrated to North America, and has been adopted by several Restless with Wiccan and pagan leanings. However, despite the stereotype, not all Dryads are "tree-huggers." Former lumberjacks, survivalists and others that lived (and in in many cases, died) in woodlands practice this Arcanos. All told, only a few dozen Stygian wraiths currently practice Verdis, and those that do tend to keep to themselves.
While Verdis has a narrow focus, it's fairly potent within that niche. It combines elements of several Arcanoi -- including Argos, Inhabit, Moliate, Puppetry and Usury -- giving a Dryad a unique and interesting range of abilities. A wise and skilled Dryad can set herself up nicely in a small patch of woods, or even in the park of a city, and become quite powerful before anyone is the wiser.

Guild
As Verdis wasn't practiced by or known to Stygian wraiths, there never was a Dryad guild. The Arcanos has a few devoted adherents, who sometimes come together to share secrets with one another, and enough wraiths learn the Arcanos to ensure that it is not moribund... yet. It's not hard to spot Dryads, as they begin to resemble the trees they protect and inhabit: their skin takes on the appearance of bark, and their hair and extremities turn green.

Botches
Botches often have the unfortunate effect of damaging or killing the tree or plant the Dryad was trying to affect (possibly granting Angst in the process), or trapping the wraith within the tree she is currently Subsumed within.

Basic Abilities
Sense Verdis: A Dryad can tell when a plant has been affected by Verdis, whether a tree has been claimed or not, and if a wraith is currently possessing the tree. This requires a successful Perception + Verdis roll (difficulty 6, or 5 to detect current possession).
Verdant Growth: A Dryad can channel her Pathos into a small plant, bush or sapling, invoking growth and healing it of any blight or infestation. This player makes an Intelligence + Verdis roll (difficulty 6 for a health plant, 7 for a blighted or parasite-infested one). Due to the unnatural death energies introduced to them, plants so "tended" by Dryads tend to warp, sprout grayish leaves, knots and patterns, and bear odd fruit. This ability costs one corpus.

● Subsumption
The basic art of Verdis, Subsumption allows the wraith to enter a living tree. The wraith has few capabilities while interred within the tree: she can get a general feel for the health and status of the tree, or heal it if it is damaged.
Systems: A successful Stamina + Verdis roll (difficulty 5) allows the wraith to slip into a tree. The wraith has only a vague sense of what happens in the immediate vicinity of the tree (Perception + Alertness, difficulty 8, to hear anything spoken or happening). Healing a tree of infestation or blight requires only that the wraith spend corpus; Storytellers should assign "health levels" to trees (assume one level per five feet of height for a tree five feet in diameter) and then determine the damage done to the tree. corpus expenditure to heal a tree is usually sufficient to cure any ailments permanently. However, as with the basic ability Verdant Growth, the "healed" plant tissue is often distorted and strange-looking.

●● Assimilation
The wraith's bond with trees becomes deeper. By investing her psychic strength in a tree, she can almost become that tree, and turn it into a consort and spiritual locus.
Systems: Once a tree is attuned (which requires three Willpower), the Dryad can hear and see anything that goes on around the tree while in it; she can move her perspective up and down the tree and along its branches, and can even feel through the tree. If near an attuned tree, the character can sense its surroundings as if she were within it; the player must make a successful Perception + Verdis roll, difficulty 8. The effective range of this remote sensing is one mile per level of Verdis. The Dryad can now spend Pathos directly to heal the tree, instead of having to invest corpus, and can boost the tree's growth by spending extra corpus or Pathos. Finally, a Dryad can slumber within an attuned tree to heal damage, as if it were a Fetter.

●●● Blight
Though Dryads are loathe to do this, especially those who had environmentalist leanings in life, desperation sometimes makes this art necessary. The Dryad can draw the very life from the plants and trees she touches, using the energy gained to heal herself. The visual effects of this Arcanoi are dramatic: the tree or plant instantly wilts and decays, dying right before witnesses' eyes (which will definitely cause the Fog to kick in). Wraiths almost never kill attuned trees, and many seek out dying or damaged trees to draw from.
Systems: A wraith must be Subsumed within the tree to drain it. Every two tree health levels converts to one corpus level, up to the wraith's maximum rating; one health level is transferred to the wraith per turn, allowing her to regain one corpus level every two turns. Small plants the Dryad touches grants energy, as well; assume every ten square feet of foliage destroyed gives one corpus to the wraith.
The wraith gains one Angst every time this art is used, plus another Angst if more than three corpus levels are drained.

●●●● Woodland Step
By entering an attuned tree, the character can instantly travel to any point in or on that tree, or even from it to another attuned tree far away. This gives her impressive mobility, as well as the ability to confuse and misdirect pursuers.
Systems: When within an attuned tree, the Dryad can move to any point within or on it by making a Dexterity + Verdis roll (difficulty 7). For example, the character may run into the trunk of the tree and reappear on a top branch. Moving from one attuned tree to another is more difficult; the character's player must spend a point of Pathos and roll Dexterity + Verdis (difficulty 8); the target tree can be no further than one hundred feet per dot in Verdis from the starting point (so a character with Verdis ●●●● can move to an attuned tree no more than four hundred feet away). In both cases, the wraith reappears at the beginning of the turn after the turn the art was activated.

●●●●● Verdant Aspect
Verdant Aspect, the pinnacle art of Verdis, is a refinement of the Blight art (●●●); instead of healing herself, the wraith augments herself with the energy gained. Dryads as a whole tend to be more pacifistic than most wraiths, but practicality and self-preservation led to the development of Verdant Aspect. A vital, non-combative use of the art allows a Dryad to better withstand Maelstroms, if she is unfortunate enough to be caught in one. By touching a tree and absorbing some of its essence, the Dryad can take on some of its characteristics, gaining a corpus as tough as bark, as resilient as wood, and as flexible as a branch. The character will appear as an amalgam of herself and the tree she touched, with "wooden" skin, occasional leaf (or pine needle) spouts, and splinters for claws.
This art cannot be used in conjunction with any Moliate arts.
Systems: To activate Verdant Aspect, the wraith's player roll Stamina + Verdis (difficulty 7), and spend 2 Pathos while the character is in contact with a tree; the tree takes two health levels of damage as the Dryad draws forth the tree's energy. She gains an Angst from the damage inflicted to the plant.
A successful activation causes a physical transformation in the wraith, granting the following benefits for one scene:
The wraith gains a bonus to her soak pool equal to the successes rolled during activation, which reflects the density and flexibility of her corpus. Her fingers become splintered talons, capable of inflicting Strength +2 normal damage (or Strength + 1 lethal damage, if using Revised rules).
Once a wraith has activated Verdant Aspect, a successful Strength + Verdis roll (difficulty 6) roll lets her extend roots into the ground. These prevent her from being knocked off her feet, picked up, or moved; any character or force attempting to do so must make an opposed roll against the sum of the character's Strength, Stamina and Verdis. A "planted" wraith assumes a tree-like form, and only has a passing resemblance to the wraith herself. Of course, during this time the character is completely immobile and cannot Dodge. However, she can attack anyone within range of her.
Finally, the Dryad may tap into the power of the Tempest itself to resist the effects of a Maelstrom. She extends roots into the ground, as above, and spends a point of Willpower to send the Dryad's roots from the Shadowlands partially into the Tempest (Willpower must be spent again every scene she remains in the storm). While so rooted, the character's combined Strength, Stamina and Verdis is subtracted from the damage dice inflicted by the Maelstrom; if this leaves the Maelstrom no damage dice, she takes no damage from the storm. Any remaining dice are taken as damage, though the wraith may roll her Verdis rating in dice to soak this damage. Spectres and other horrors from the Tempest will be inclined to overlook the Dryad, as she's infused with the power of the Tempest and will seem "friendly" to them. Unlike the basic Castigate ability: Bulwark, this protection only affects the wraith using the art, and cannot be shared with others. By tapping into the Tempest, the wraith gains a number of Angst equal to the level of the Maelstrom, in addition to the one Angst inflicted by activating this art (above); a steep price, yes, as it has sent many Dryads into immediate Catharsis, but this is better than certain Oblivion.