A low level adventure. Which honestly most of my games are. And it is more of a collection of thoughts than an actual adventure.
While staying at Windemere, the players are in need of healing potions and the like. While they can certainly purchase some at 15 gold each, one of the town's herbalists can create them using various herbs and such. Unfortunately, he is running low on what he needs. Lucky for both the friar and the adventurers, Sharn is in town and knows where to collect those herbs and plants. It is a full day's journey to the south into the mountains, so the trip should take 2 full days with an overnight stay in a spot Sharn has camped at before.
While they could rent horses from Lurbuk, that would cost a few gold and defeat the purpose of trying to get some free healing potions. If the characters have horses, simply make it a day journey for horses, so more like 25 miles or so versus 15.
Of course, travel times are always interesting. Many game books have fully laden adventurers able to cover 25 miles a day, every day. While I am not a seasoned adventurer, back when I did do backpacking trips, 15 miles a day was pretty good. And some days it was only 10 miles depending on the terrain. I also used to run marathons, and so while I could run 26+ miles in a few hours, I was only carrying water bottles. And I am waiting on the Wondrous Expeditions book to see how those rules and ideas may play out. I do know they originally had some crazy distances people could travel in the review PDF. I think several people, including me, pointed out that it was entirely unreasonable that a group could go 30+ miles a day on foot for days on end. Carrying everything they need. Yes, we are playing fantasy games, but I like at least a nod at something being based on reality and reasonable rules. And we'll just ignore the entire Traveller magical heat sink for fusion plants. Because any sufficiently advanced technology is magic.
The trek south quickly changes from the scrublands bordering the desert to scattered clumps of trees and heavier brush. The path, with some ruts from the heavy salt-laden wagons that come down from the salt mines every few weeks, is an easy path to follow. But the travelers will go from flat to rapidly steep trails as they enter the mountains, the once open views now blocked by trees all around, and the mountains in front of them. While one day is only about 20 miles or so on this easy path, they group is well into the hills by mid-day and starting up the mountains proper towards the end of the day.
You may roll for a random encounter along the route. Though I would like to make them somewhat meaningful in some way. Link them to future adventures, something in the town? Perhaps they meet a goblin merchant who is wandering into town and has some rumors about the ancient castle in Tuvano or the woods beyond the mountains. The merchant may mention something about squirrels guarding ancient knowledge, or that he has seen something that looks like a Sasquatch up higher. These are all leads to various adventures and settings I have and want to play in! Another random encounter could be a small salt caravan heading down. If they stop and talk, they may mention that the mines have opened up something deeper and older than the mines. We could even do the interesting Little Red Riding Hood encounter from the special Oracle/Grinning Frog book (a girl and a wolf are fighting ferociously, both dealing and taking damage that seems high even for seasoned adventurers. Who do they help and why. It is an interesting twist on things that I like). This would also be the place to perhaps to put in an occasional archer bush (from the Old School Monsters book) along the path.
Once they get closer to the place where Sharn knows the plants are growing, the maps below can be used. The plants are growing near that felled tree, and there is enough to fill a few bags up and leave enough to let more grow. Sharn is very adamant about ecologically sound harvesting: her livelihood depends on knowing which plants are where and keeping them alive for future harvesting.
Crossing the creek above the deep pond there is always a chance of some interesting encounters there. Looking through Rackham Vale, there are several interesting ones. If there is a wizard in the group that looks like a wizard, the Frog Prince and his army of toads. He wants to be human again. Or there could be a variety of fae in the pond, ghorkerel trees (think bloodtrees or am bushes) near the water. While the Fantasy Trip book only has a few water creatures, I like the idea of a selkie or mermaid. One of my books, Cryptids, Creatures and Critters by Rachel Quinney, has the Rusalka from Eastern Europe. These can be the spirits of women who were murdered or committed suicide. They are vengeful towards men which is why they have never bothered Sharn. They would appear as beautiful women to lure the men in the water to drown them. Very similar to various forms of mermaids or sirens. According to some legends, expensive gifts can keep them away. Perhaps this would be a good way to get rid of the zombie ring my group is using: Crut, the rogue, is being drawn in and if he can't make a hard IQ roll, the Runt Gubbler may have to try something. Sharn may know that an expensive gift may work to appease the spirit. If we want to go a bit lighter, the water leaper or llamhigyn y dwr (from my Welsh Monster books) may sneak by at night to steal food from the camp above.
Gathering the herbs is not an issue. Looking through my poisonous plants PDF from Bloodstone Press (yeah, I have a lot of things, don't I?) it could be baneberry. Sharn will also be picking other plants as you go along, such as clochium for fevers, cunjevoi for boils and sores, daphne and other plants. Some may have more sinister usage: this would be a hard IQ roll unless the characters have the naturalist skill. If I ever play that type of a character, I'll have to read through that a bit more: it is based on actual real-world plants with magical extrapolations.
That night, the characters may notice a glow a couple hundred yards away. A fairy circle is there and may be calling to the characters. A difficult IQ roll to resist. While the Fantasy Trip does not have specific rules about fairies, pixies and the like, the Goblin book I recently bought has some fun ideas about fae in general, and Goblins in specific. As does the Rackham Vale book, which I am thinking about getting the revised version that has color images. Then I can give away the current version to someone who would enjoy it as it is a really nice book. We could also introduce the Pixie Liberation Front - one of the Lazy Liche's books has a very funny (to me at least) world building: pixies are used for magic, or in the case of the salt mines, used as canaries or lights. This could lead to a larger quest of sorts.
Going back down the mountain the next day they will at least know where some of the dangers are. Sharn and the characters will have bags full of the herbs and plants they need. More rumors if they meet anyone. Perhaps they notice a decrepit sign to the Green Wand.
The mountain path: full color and printer friendly.
No comments:
Post a Comment