[williestargell]

I'm pretty sure it failed due to lack of faction, the message attached is just misleading.

Withered Treant is on True Spirit faction. I believe being apprehensive to them at character creation is completely normal without killing anything. IIRC I had to open the trade window then hide to complete it (sorry that doesn't work any more) after failing the first time myself.

Raising True spirit from apprehensive to indifferent is easy if you have someone to charm a lesser spirit for you. You can spawn a lesser spirit in any of several zones (see the shaman epic) but Butcherblock is easy for a druid. In BB kill peg leg and a true spirit will spawn. He will not talk to you because you are apprehensive, but if an enchanter, bard or puppet strings owner is handy they can charm it and it will then talk to you. Say the lines listed under shaman epic writeup and you get a tiny gem which you then turn in to Bondl Felligan in NFP. (Bind there to make it easy).

Peg leg repops every 6 minutes so you can repeat this fast. If you bind in NFP you can even visit the lesser spirit a 2nd time before it despawns if you're quick. Do this 3-5 times and you will be indifferent.