Jerry's To Help A Farmer

Title: To Help a Farmer

• Game: Shared DM Playtest Tapestry
• Date: 2008DEC13
• Author: Jerry Phelps

Summary of Module: The party is hired to help Farmer Thaela guard her land while a Fixer relays the ley lines to protect it from the Undead Dread to the north. They are attacked several times and experience some competition from the farmer next door who has his own agenda.

Scene 1: The Boy Who Could [1 week]

The Sourtusk Inn is several hours north of Strongwind Castle in Cinnamon Valley on the road up to the Dread border. While there, a dwarven boy that “looks” to be about 10 years old approaches the party. The inn is where many farmers come south to hire help and to bargain with traders that won’t go further north towards the Dread or go farm to farm to sell their wares.

Sourtusk Inn: Trader’s Inn. Farmers come south here to hire help and to bargain with traders that won’t go further north towards the Dread or go farm to farm to sell their wares. Any further description can be added by the DM freely.

Along with the party there is a group of “tough guys” who hire out to farmers charging high prices to protect their lands.

When the boy enters, he gets offers for beer, told to go home to mommy, etc. by the tough guys. This gives the party a chance to help him out and also to meet him. He formally introduces himself saying his name is Dugan. He asks the party to come to mom's farm and help protect it from "invasion." Boy says this with much aplomb. He thinks it’s fun and neat. The boy has 5 platinum coins (500g) which he says is the entire take from their crops last year. That is the party’s reward for one day's "heroism." "Not bad huh?" the boy chimes.

Dugan, son of Thaela: about 10 “looking” in Dwarven years. This means he is much older, but as a Dwarf, still a child. Still has a boy’s voice, but it is filled with much bravado, which the boy actually has and is not an act. Red hair in a Mohawk. Wears hand-me-down farmer’s clothes. Pinned to his chest is the “Family pin” designating him as the elder boy in the family. The pin is silver and very old dating back many generations.

A Fixer comes and says, "Ready to go boy." When the party questions him, he explains that he's the Fixer hired to help. His name is Shod Rivenstone. [See below for description.] The party, if they agree, are to be protectors of Shod and the farmer’s property for 24 hours while the ley lines of the farm, which keep out the Dread Undead are rebuilt lines and set.

Shod Rivenstone: Fixer of Alemi. Shod is a human, but built like a dwarf. His voice is weathered and tough. He is short, but covered in muscles on muscles. Has a rather large vial of Woldsblood hanging on his neck as a holy symbol. He is originally from the Red Dwarves of The Scab, but now wanders the Wold healing all the things destroyed by the Year of Ascension and the Dark Fey Rising events and helping people when and where he can.

“See,” the boy says, “The Ley lines are totally busted. The Dread have been raiding for a week now.”

Shod adds that “The lines must be rebuilt immediately before they totally fail or this farm will be razed to the ground and the family killed or taken to be added to the Undead Army of the Dread. Will you provide aid in their time of need?”

The trip of 3 hours to Thaela’s farm is uneventful. Cloudy cold winter's day.

Scene 2: Thaela’s Farm [1-2 weeks]

As the party approaches the farm, they can observe by asking about the farm and making Spot checks. Give them common information with a low check. More detailed and important information with a high check. Do not “ask” for checks. If they ask about the farm beyond general information, then ask that character for a check.

Thaela’s Farm: Thaela’s farm has 3 fields, a vineyard, a barn, blacksmithy, school, winery, two lava pools and house. The farm is named “Norhig” which means “spirit and heart of the land” in dwarvish. The vineyard is exceptional. She grows white and green grapes here which she sells south to the Wine District in the Kingdom of New Elenna. One field has grain, one is a traditional dwarven root farm adapted for surface farming, and one is empty growing wild at the moment. Her house is made of large stones as are the other buildings on the farm. The barn has a wooden roof. The soil is so black that you can smell its richness. Anyone detecting magic on the farm detects both the ley lines, which come off as faltering, and the natural magic from the two lava pools on her property: evidence of her faith in the Gods of Wold as a distant descendant of the Hmanas (farmers of old—see Cinnamon Valley article on Woldipedia.)

When arrived. They meet Thaela, a female dwarf widow who manages the family farm. She is every bit the independent woman. Part blacksmith, farmer, and even schoolteacher in the winter months, she is jovial, but brokes no nonsense from her 7 remaining children.

Thaela: Dwarven widow. One can see that she had that infamous sturdy beauty in her past, but now is weathered and her appearance shows wear and tear beyond her years. (35 years old in human years by appearance.) She is very independent and has skills in several areas: farming, blacksmithing, teaching, and parenting. She loves a good joke, but they must be clean or she will preach at you like a child about morality and its importance to the Hmanas. She brokes no nonsense from her 7 remaining children.

Facts Thaela can share:

• Their family dates back before the “Farmer’s Revolt” 450 years ago when they refused to leave their lands and Donyra (now a dead god) blessed their lands with the ley line protections as well as the magical earth pockets, geysers, and lava pools, etc. that enrich the soil. They are Hmanas and have been traditional farmers of the earth for many generations.

• Her husband died 5 years ago defending a neighboring farm against the Dread Undead.

• Her two oldest sons, Bastion and Urdal were carried off by the Dread Undead two days ago while defending the barn at night. They are brave. She will not mourn their dwarven bravery.

• She has 7 remaining children (you can name them if needed) who are all too young to fight. If the farm cannot be defended, then she will have to take them to the orphanage and then return to make her last stand alone.

• The Farm Estate is named Norhig which means spirit and heart of the land.

• She has seven fields, but the northern lot is the place where the ley lines are thickest and also there is where they are failing.

• It has taken her 4 days to get help to come.

• An average of 10-20 undead usually led by a Ghoul or Wight come every night to work on further weakening the ley lines so that they can cross and raid the farm. It usually takes them 2-3 hours to weaken the ley lines enough to pass through. They use poison magic to make the ley lines glow so that they can be attacked physically. The ley lines partially regenerate during the day but damaged, they cannot fully recharge or repair themselves.

• [Feel free to make up more facts here if the party wants other types of information. Just add them to your scene and send back to the author of the module once your DMing time is done.]

After the initial meeting, Theala takes them out to the fields to show where the undead are entering her farm. The undead, fortunately, are entering through the currently empty field. Crop rotation leaves one of her fields empty each growing season. She describes skeletons, zombies, ghouls, wights made out of various dead people and monsters. She also describes a creature darker than night that drains your life away from a distance. She continues to give shared facts from above during the tour of the farm. She answers any other questions and then leaves them and the fixer to their task.

Scene 3: Here come the Dread! [2 Weeks for fight and aftermath]

Allow the party to get set and make plans. When the tour ends, it is dusk. The undead could start arriving any time. Give them one or two days of posting to make plans and set defenses if they choose to do so. Do NOT let this drag. Then bring the monsters on then. Not to be mean, but to keep the action flowing. They should be dying for a combat by now anyway. You can let the party have Listening Checks to hear them approaching the area. DC 15 Listening checks hear the Undead coming along. A DC 20 Spot check (ask the players to make them) lets them, in the distance, see a “general?” on a shadowy horse directing them to begin and then fading out.

The knowledge that the undead are coming should get them into a defensive position quickly.

The monsters will spot the party unless they are hiding for an ambush. I is the PCs worst hide check vs. the monster’s best Spot check to determine if the PCs are spotted. (use your discretion on this)

If the party is seen, they rush forward to test them. There is always good booty from adventurers!

COMBAT ONE

Monster List: 5 Ogre Zombies. (This is from the Monster Manual p. 267)

Changes to Monster Entry below:

• Raise the AC to 23 or the party will run over these guys with an AC of 15.)
• Turning, due to the damaged Ley Lines is at a -2 (that’s a penalty of 2.)
• Note magic items that may be used by the monsters in the treasure listing below.

Notes on the battle: I expect this battle to last about 4 days. Important Change: These Undead have intelligence. They can talk and think. So it is possible to capture and interrogate them after the battle.

Strategies: The Ogres are brutes. Any vocal taunt will bring them to the taunter. Otherwise, they head to the tanks ... until spells go off. They hate casters. They will take attacks to go after the casters. After all, it was evil priests who made them what they are now with dim memories of what they were before.

Leader Strategy: One of the Ogres seems more intelligent. (you can pick which one) It has a Ring of Invisibility which it will use to go report in round 3 once the battle has been joined. If they can kill that one before then they get the ring too. If he loses more than 50% hit points, it will go invisible earlier and try to run and report.
XP: 725 per character.
Treasure:

• Total of 435 gold, 736 silver on them in “loot sacks.”
• Also foodstuffs, rakes, hoes, a bridle, dead farm pig, and and anything else like that you want to throw in for flavor.
• Special: A dead man’s head. Speak with dead can speak of other farms in the area that are being attacked. He can’t remember much though, cause his body was joined with something else to make something horrible that is undead. The fixer can put him to rest. His soul just wants release and not raising.
• Staff of Plant Growth. Allows the use of the Plant Growth spell on a field before crops are planted. (PHB p. 262). Helps farms with crops.
• Possibility of a Ring of Invisibility. (see above)

After the battle, allow a couple of days to go through treasure and to discuss what happened. They may have a hostage to interrogate. This week is meant to deal with the aftermath of the first battle. Just go with the flow and let the party prepare for more.

If the invisible ogre zombie leader gets away and the party decides to track it, then lead the party on a tracking expedition into the Dread, describing the cold wind, a sickly landscape of undulating hills, and mostly dead vegetation. The tracking expedition will go about 4 miles into the Dread, ending up at a large bog, with the danger of quickmud sucking anyone down. The leader (who does not have to breathe), knows a way under the bog.

If the party just sits there, have the fixer, Shod, comes and tell them, "There will be more. I have divined it. Prepare. Find out what you can from these captives or their dead bodies and get ready for something more substantial."

Shod will not fight. He must stay focused on the job. Any challenge to that brings his verbal wrath down upon them. “You have your job. I have mine. Both must be done.”

Information obtainable from any captive undead:

• They come over the border from the Dread each night.
• They have a magical poison that can damage ley lines and make then glow so that they can then be physically attacked.
• Leader named Gothikus. A vampire.
• Much loot being taken.
• They were captured and made undead. Used to live in a spot with volcano. (Probably the southern side of Mount Glitterox in the south of Cinnamon Valley.
• They raid every night. 2 to 3 farms per night.

Scene 4: Farmer Felix [1-2 weeks]

To stir the pot, about Midnight of the same night as the 1st battle, have the farmer next field over come and say, "I can't believe you're working for that dwarf woman. You know she murdered her mate, right? She was messing with the ley lines on purpose and getting paid crazy money from the Dread for it. What? No I have no proof. But no one likes her. Go ask her about it and watch her guilty face! Let the party interview this guy for a bit and then go talk to Thaela if they want.

Felix: a short wiry human (Think what Quark from Star Trek DS9 would be like if he was human.) A pest in every sense of the word. Very nosy and controlling too. A wimp. His voice is whiny and self-important. However, when stood up to, he will back off for the moment and later get his revenge with a put down or by spreading rumors among the farmers later. Fake bravado. Unless you are shorter than him. If he is taller than the person he is talking to, he refuses to back down unless hurt. He is 5’2”.

During the conversation with Felix, the weather begins stirring up and getting colder. This is his reason for leaving before the storm hits. “Weakened leylines bring storms every time! Not good for the crops.”

Let Shod join in on this conversation if you want to extend it a bit. Let this conversation run for about 3 days and then start the 2nd fight.

Here is information that Felix can provide during the conversation.

• His grandfather used to own most of the land around here, but when hit upon hard times, he sold off most of it to those families who have it now.
• Felix’s family have always been the benevolent leaders of the farmers around here and he’s concerned that Thaela’s reputation is soiling the grand honor of the farmers.
• Felix sacrifices profit for safety and he wishes Thaela would do the same. She wants to risk it all though preferring to spend money on druids to make her crops grow. Foolish!
• Felix is and has always been single. He’s proud of the fact that ‘no woman would ever manipulate him!”
• He has too seen a mysterious figure on a shadowy horse. He agrees that the guy looks evil and powerful. Must be one of the Sons of Dread. Maybe even one of the Dread itself.
• He has politely petitioned the Pitchfork Council to have stricter laws regarding the levels of defense necessary to protect the farmers from attack from the Dread. He has even run 3 times to be on the Pitchfork Council himself, but being a farmer, he’s not known enough to get elected.
• He took the risk to come over here and ask if Thaela and her family survived the night. He hopes she is ok.

Scene 5: Bad to the Bone [2 weeks with combat and aftermath]

When the conversation with Felix is done, and he departs, the next monsters come. It is now after midnight. Rain falls turning to sleet.

COMBAT TWO

Monster List: 3 Boneclaws: (This comes from Monster Manual Three p. 17)

Changes to Monster Entry below:

• Raise the AC to 24
• Turning, due to the damaged Ley Lines is at a -2 (that’s a penalty of 2.)
• Note magic items that may be used by the monsters in the treasure listing below.

Notes on the battle: I expect this battle to last about 4 days. Watch the combat and give me feedback on how tough it was. I can raise or lower the power of future encounters later the module depending on what you tell me.

Important Note: These Undead have intelligence. They can talk and think. So it is possible to capture and interrogate them after the battle.

Strategies: See the Combat section of the monster listing. Play them as bloodthirsty. Have them say things during combat such as “Soooo thirrrrsty.” and “Yummie ...”

Play up their toothy grin. Make then show individual personality by havin these traits spread out among the three:

• One picks teeth absently after a kill
• One has a pronounced limp
• One sports fancy gold and jewel studded teeth.

More roleplaying: Have the shadowy horse (from earlier) appear to watch one round during battle as a distraction. Then it fades again. If it didn’t appear in the prior battle, be sure everyone notices it this time. It can say,

“Feast my bony ones! Feast!”
Interrogation: If they capture one to interrogate, then they can get no information from them that the Boneclaw’s do not want to give them. They love the pain and grin all the way through it saying their catchphrases.

Information the Boneclaws will give under interrogation:

• They come over the border from the Dread each night.
• Leader named Gothikus. “He will destroy the Farms of the Valley and Evil will reign!” Pompous stuff like that. (feel free to have fun here with this interview if it happens.)
• Much loot being taken. [I’m not giving more information about Gothikus yet. It comes later in the module.]
• “If you kill me here I will rise again!” (He won’t but he says that.)
  

XP: 750 per character.
Treasure:

• Total of 635 gold, 1236 silver on them in “loot sacks” hanging from their belts.
• The teeth of the one undead is worth 1500g to a necromancer. One tooth is magical. It increases Charisma by 1 when “attached?” (This if brought to the fixer, Shod, disturbs him greatly, because he can reveal that this can only be implanted in a jaw by a fixer with a drop of woldsblood. This means the Dread has a Fixer in their employ. When this job is done, he will have to report this to his order.

There are no more attacks that first night. But Shod the Fixer says that he’s going to need a second night to finish things. The damp weather is slowing down the setting process and the ground here is especially potent with elemental earth energy which hurts things too. The undead have only been attacking at night, so they can get some rest and prepare for the 2nd night.

Scene 6: Love and Marriage [1 week]

I suspect that the next morning the party will want to go talk to Thaela about Felix. She says that Felix has wanted her to marry him so he could own her farm for years now. He's just spreading rumors. She thinks its a possibility that Felix damaged the ley lines so she'd have to come to him for help--or marriage so to speak. [DM feel free to add to this part of the story with Thaela answering any other questions that the party has. Just write here what you add to the discussion and email it back to the author so when we log this module, it has all the relevant material for future DMs and writers to refer to.

The youngest daughter of Thaela is an adopted Gnome girl named Gingeroot or Gingee for short. She pipes up and says, “I think mommy should marry Felix. She needs a MAN.” Gingee is a bundle of energy and will try to engage the most macho of the group into playing dollies with her.

Gingeroot or Gingee: Red haired like her brother, into everything. Hyperactive. An obsession with keeping the house clean, which Thaela worries about. Speaks her mind about everything without any seeming ability to know what is appropriate and what not. Appears about 5 years old. Gingee kinda thinks she might be a dwarf, but was polymorphed to be “more beautiful, don’t you think?” She has some perfume hidden in her bed which she puts on (uses way too much). Think Dora the Explorer for attitude?

Xp and treasure from the larger group of monsters. Interview captives and go through treasure, etc. One of the bodies has a map of the raiding area showing Thaela's farm as the entry point. The Fixer says that the ground is now "tender" and can't be trodden upon or crossed for 6 hours until the magic has set in. So they have to exit the farm area and stop any other attacks from entering the farm from the outside.

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