Sunday is here and with that comes a bit of a writeup on what we explored this week!
Leaving everything to chance today I rolled my trusty math-rocks and let them decide what plot and NPCs would be here for us this week. I grabbed what twists I think would be releant (spoiler alert – it could be any and all of them) and the relevant map and encounter for this week.
Without further waffling from me let’s get into the main dish of waffle!
The village Starfall
Ren sat down after as long day of tendering to get crops. Taking of her dirty boots she remembered the encounter with the elves that live in the woods nearby with a small snort.
‘not sure what they meant by the Shephard’s of the forest but I see no such thing’ she laughed pouring a mug of hot mulled wine to have with her hunted rabbit and roasted corn.
A week ago the elves had approached her as she tilled the soil of her land next to the trees that formed a living wall between her land and the village of Starfall and the elves home, the Deepwood. Elves had warned her that the village had become to greedy and the latest patch of lands they had claimed as their own had alerted the Shepard’s of the forest and her farm was in danger. They warned her to leave so that no harm would come to her and encouraged her to persuade the other villagers to do the same.
Ren had remembered speaking to the other villagers who laughed at her, claiming she was too close to the elves, and they were right. Over the past few years she had always had a better relationship with the elves than the over villagers – occasionally she would find that her crops would be healthier or yield more than the other villager’s crops which had caused her a few issues when trying to sell – not many people liked the elves due to past tensions.
A creak in the wall drew her attention even through her slightly fuzzy state due to the wine. Unbolting and opening her door she noticed that there was a lot of movement through her crops – a strong wind perhaps. Feeling the aches of the day she went to bed.
In the morning she found that great swaths of her crop had been cut at just above the ground level and large boulders had found their way amongst the destruction. Another farmer had a worse fate – his entire crop had disappeared overnight, also cut at ground level.
This continued for a week before it happened. Waking in the middle of the night to a large creaking her wall exploded inwards sending stone and wood throughout the room, knocking her unconcious and burying her under the rubble. In the morning the villagers found her unconcious amongst the ruins of her home, injured but alive, and a large moss coverd boulder sat in where she would normally have her meals.
Using what materials they had the villagers constructed a wall, 6 feet tall and 2 feet deep and decided to take action, confronting the elves as surely they are using druidic magic to turn on the villagers who had so far left them to their own devices. A request for arms had been given to a travelling merchant of some sort who had connections a town over. That was 2 days ago and they were expecting the supplies any day now.
Mid-morning the following day a cart, the same one of the merchant they had requested aid from, came into town with not weapons but adventurers.
The plot
07MoRo
The party sitting down in the tavern, after a long week of adventuring, are approached by a wealthy merchant who has given them work in the past. The merchant has a problem. A farming village a few days travel from here has requested an unusually large order of military supplies. The merchant needs the supplies delivered but also wants to try and prevent any hostile actions that they may be planning as he has invested interest in what he suspects is the target of the farmers’ ire.
Upon reaching the town the Party notice that a hastily built wall has been built midway through a large field, on one side there is crops of corn and wheat and on the other side is what remains of the same crop, except great swaths of the harvest is cut off at the ground and huge boulders that seem to be the cause of the destruction have appeared in the field. Talking to the farmers they suspect a tribe of wood elves is ransacking their farms, destroying their crops by use of large boulders. One of the boulders even crushed one woman’s house who has yet to wake up from the ordeal.
The Farmers want to take up arms and defend their land in the easiest way they know, attacking and killing the elves to prevent future attacks.
The people
Brok Mason
07TuBM
Brok is a rugged, but handsome, half-elven male of around 50. He has a fine layer of stubble, large amounts of muscle and short cut black hair that is yet to see that caress of grey that human males of his age tend to show
Brok is slow trusting of people. Putting his faith in hard work, animals (like his dog and horse) and gold.
Once a well respected silk merchant in Lillydale he suddenly sold his shop and took to a darker business path, the movement and smuggling of people in who need to leave without a trace. This change in business venture caused his humans wife and his daughter to leave him.
What his wife and daughter didn’t know is the sale of his shop and pursuit of new employment was a deal made to prevent bankruptcy and his family becoming homeless.
Quick to judge and see the flaws in most people, Brok doesn’t make friends with many people, let alone clients as gold is worth more to him than the bonds formed between people.
Sincerity
07TuSS
Sincerity, or Sin in other circles, is a female Tiefling of around 30 or so. She is just shy of 5’2″ (157cms) with a curvey figure and long raven black hair that is occasionally tired back in a pony tail whens she starts to conduct serious business.
Sincerity is a merchant by trade and a damn good one at that. Able to source just about anything given enough time, she has quickly given herself a name in the towns and cities she prowls. Not only that but she has an almost supernatural ability to broker trade between people’s and before they knew they even wanted something she had already sourced it and delivered it to them for a ‘competitive fee’.
Not much of her past is known except she was the only adopted (?) Daughter of a sage who taught get linguistics and business very early on in her youth.
Some rumours have said that she is the product of a one night fling between her sage father and something summoned by him to grant him knowledge. Others say that her father was lonely and merely happened to help an old friend when they couldn’t look after Sincerity.
What ever the reason many people who cried metaphorical, or not, swords with Sincerity end up in a worse state than they were in before.
Ren Miller
07SuRM
A woman in her late 20’s Ren is a hard worker. Leaving the village she grew up in Ren has come to Starfall to escape the bad memories of her parents and how their life riddled with bad luck came to a unpleasant end.
Ren is about 5ft 6 tall with hair the colour of fresh wheat. Her skin is tanned and skin is rough – a sign of a life spent working hard and in the sun.
The Road
On the road the Party could be expected to run into a group of 3-5 bandits or just as many wolves.
Encounter with the villagers
Once the party reach the village (without any weapons!) the villagers do not take kindly to them, on the verge of hostility. They are relucatant to provide them aid, a room to stay or any form of assistance. One of the villagers may recognise one of the party and either shout their praise for a deed well done, or shout insults and bring up a past failure (rumoured or otherwise).
Encounter with the Elves
The elves are peace loving folk. If the party are to seek them out they would find them half a day travel into the woods, they reveal themselves to the party and spoke extremely broken common but would explain in elven that they are noit responsible for the damage at the farms – that it is the shephard’s of the forest and that the villagers should just leave until they are stated with what they deem to be tribute to the forest at which point they will leave. The elves don’t seem to understand what the party is asking but insists that they are innocent and to watch out for the hours after dusk which is when the shephard’s appear.
Encounter at night
07FrRo+07ThMa3
At night, when the party return from the elves OR if they go out at night and investigate the crops they would encounter the boulders.
The boulders would remain hidden until they sense the party next to their shell – at which point they will sneakily attack one of the party trying to eat them. They whistle when they attack as air seems to rush through their bodies and out holes in their rock-like shell. This whistling will alert the other snails which will crawl forward and attack the nearest party member.
Per turn of combat roll a d20 and add the combat round number. If the value is over 10 then a villager will come and look for the source of the commotion.
Map
Shephard’s of the forest (Giant Rock Snail)
Once the snails take 40 damage (or more) they will start to move towards the forest, whistling as they retreat. The other snails will also retreat. If anyone can communicate with beasts they will understand that the snails are fleeing the farms and will not return unless the forest calls for a tribute from those who encroach upon it’s territory.
The snails would also be open to leaving the farmers alone if one was to commuicate with them – as long as the farmers felled no more trees they would not likely return.
The outcome
The Party having defended the village from the snails, by their demise, escape or a parley would be branded heroes from the village and Brok would take them back to the town where they originated from to reclaim a reward from Sincerity.
Thanks for joining for this weekend writeup – Having rolled up Brok to join this adventure as well (thanks to the gods of chance and fate!) I decided to make him the messenger and escort for the party. The biggest reason for doing this is to introduce him to the party so that he could ask a favour of them in the future to help him escort his daughter and gain some respect and favour from his estranged kin.
Don’t forget to join again for this coming weeks content and remember that this coming week will be a bit lighter with just a single adventure (not 3 or 4 potential adventures) being created. If you like what you are reading here don’t forget you can subscribe and remain upto date on what I publish here. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
You must log in to post a comment.