The Quality of Gold

Part 5: The remainder of the Lower Village

Comments in Blue have been added after publishing.

Details

SH7 – Smithy

Dundali Thweith is a female half-elf who serves as the village smith and iron worker. She can shoe a horse just a proficiently as repair a broadsword. She feels more at home among humans than elves, but is always eager to hear news from her ancestral homeland in Kyonin. Dundali is also popular with a few of the knights from the Citadel since she does superior work to the resident armorers. But she knows this and charges appropriately – high prices for nobles, discounts for youngsters.

Dundali has quite a few minor magical weapons and runes at her disposal, but she will only offer them to people the village trust. She keeps them in a hidden cache under her anvil. She will refer them to the Citadel, who will likewise not sell magic unless they sign up for service.

SH8 – Kommin’s Provisions

The local general store is owned and operated by Karl and Marta Kommin. They are fonts of knowledge about the locals, anyone passing by and also have a penchant to pry and wring as much info out of anyone who stops in. (they also deal in information and know what is valuable and what is not) Almost any mundane item can be found here and Karl is a collector certain oddities as well. (see merchant for details)

The couple have a private residence on the second floor.

SH9 – Grocery

Thad Dugger runs a grocery store that sells vegetables, fruits and dubious quality imports. He gets regular stock so his prices are reasonable and he even has pre-packaged ‘foot-rats’ that he sells to hunters, explorers and travelers.

SH10 – Possum’s Outfitters ** Side Quest Available **

An old codger named Possum owns a small outfitting shop popular with fishermen and hunters. He always has what the outdoorsman needs as long as the customer ‘sits a spell’ and visits. He can usually be found rocking in an old chair on his shop’s porch, chewing someone’s ear when he has a chance.

Side Quest: They Rented Poles!

Possum is chewing on his pipe extra hard today due to a pair of local teens who made a deal with him to bring back some fish in trade for allowing them to ‘rent’ the equipment. They told him they were heading upstream about a day from here, but have not returned in 2 days. Possum would be grateful if someone would try to find them and haul them back. They are probably not even fishing – lazy kids these days!

If the group decides to head upstream upstream, after about 4 hours they may (DC15 Per) notice the remains of where the two teens took a break for lunch and some quality time throwing rocks. They then swam across the river, since it is shallow here and continued on their journey leaving easy-to-follow tracks in the wet bank. After another couple hours, the tracks stop and  get confusing.  they appear to stamp around, then can be seen heading upstream, then back downstream, then back to the original stomping area, then they end. There don’t appear to be any more of the teen’s tracks at the river, however a set of huge booted tracks can be seen coming from nearby trees where the teen’s tracks end and then heading back into the forest. A pile of fishing gear lies in the area where the huge tracks arrived.

The teens heard some noise coming from the tree line and at first thought a wild animal was going to emerge but when the 9 foot tall ogre lurched out, they panicked. He was too fast for them and scooped them both up into a large sack before they knew what had happened. The ogre now has them back at his makeshift camp where he is planning to roast them this evening and pair them with a fine cask of ale he also stole recently.

The ogre tracks are easy to follow and if the party makes a DC 15 Survival check, they’ll find the beast after about 20 minutes. The boys are still in the sack with a tight knot holding it closed. The ogre is very distracted so there’s a good chance the party can sneak up on him if they plan it correctly.

Ogre

If the two are brought back alive, Possum will award each person 1 gp.

SH11 – Possum’s Shack

Not much to brag about, old Possum lives an austere life in this simple dilapidated building. He refuses

SH12 – Anna’s Earth Gifts ** Side Quest Available **

Anna is the local herbalist who also dabbles in alchemy, potions and medicinals. (see shop for inventory) Anna is a middle-aged widow with gray hair, dirty fingernails and wears a leather smock with numerous tools, vials and measuring devices stuffed in it.

Side Quest: Rare Collectibles

Anna is not advertising, but if someone wants some extra work and has any kind of aptitude in herbology (Nature or Survival) she offers them 1 gp per basket of Winterthistle, up to 10 baskets. She explains that the herb grows on the sunrise side of large rocky formations. She tells then that across the river and to the west there are some good rock formations. The group can find the herb with a DC16 Nature/Survival roll (in the right location) and can collect 1d2 baskets full per location. Each location takes about 2 hours to find.

At the end of hour 5, the party will run into a pair of hungry giant frogs who attempt to make a quick meal of them. They lash out their long tongues and pull them toward their toothy maws.

4 Giant Frogs

SH13 – Anna’s Home

A simple residence for Anna. She has neatly potted plants inside and organized beds outside the structure which she uses for her business.

SH14 – Inbrus Elkenhurst, Bookseller ** Side Quest Available **

Inbrus is a local dwarven sage and collector of books, scrolls (and other rarities). He is more of a curiosity in the village, but he is affable and helpful to travelers. His stock of maps in limited, but he’s always willing to whip something up if paid enough. His back area is where he sleeps and stores some of his more valuable ‘collectibles.’

If asked about magic items or spells, he will always tell people “I’m not a blamed Wizard!” If they ask him where they could find a spellcaster, he’ll shrug and suggest the Crow, the high and mighties in the upper village or even the citadel.

Side Quest: Farking Imps

If asked about his rarities, he will stop at one request and scrunch up his face saying “Farking Imps!” He explains that he was taking a small cart up to Upper Stonehaven when a group of some small creatures rushed his wagon and started helping themselves to his goods he was hoping to sell to the high and mighties. He tells the group that if they can find the little creatures and retrieve any of his items (he doesn’t tell them exactly what they do – they are valuable after all) he will reward them with either gold or a few of the items. He tells them that he especially wants his bronze mug back. He says that he will make it worth their trouble if they help him out.

About halfway between the lower village and upper village is a small valley of dense bushes and rocks. Amongst the rocks, a group of small fey reside. Although they normally keep to themselves, a few of the more adventurous younger ones sometimes like to play tricks on the humans of Stonehaven. If the group looks for signs of the theft, with a DC 15 perception search check, they will see the small footprints leading east towards the rocky depression. It takes about 20 minutes to reach this area by foot.

Brownie Den

The brownie den is a small hollow between a few large bounders and hard to miss without a good Per check – DC18. Anyone entering who is over 4’ tall will need to stoop over to enter the area. The brownies had no ill-intent, but just stole the items for fun. They have arranged the stolen gear in the shape of a fat human and are expecting that the party is there to negotiate for its return. What the Brownies value as a good trade is probably much different than what most humans believe.

Brownie-isms (“they say” or “as everyone knows” or “is it true that”)

1. Spicy tubers cause gooey boogers
2. The size of a hooman’s foot can tell you the name of his dog
3. The bigger the mouth, the smaller the purse
4. If a sparrow lands on your hat, you can expect rain tonight
5. Six is only three more than four
6. But if you look at it through closed eyes, you’ll see the difference!
7. Mug of ale, cask of wine, hoomans sing and wee folk shine
8. Give a cross-eyed racoon the right of way

If the party either defeats the brownies in combat or comes up with some sort of creative trade, they will be able to recover several items. The ones in Green will be offered by the old Sage upon their return.

Ring with Large (blue) Topaz, Bull’s Eye Lantern, Rope (Lesser Rope of Climbing), +1 Dagger with Onyx Pommel, Carved Darkwood Bowl, Cantrip Deck (Light, Mage Hand, Spout, Gale Blast, Acid Splash), New Broom, Blacksmith Tongs, Coin of Comfort, Jade Urn, Mug (false bottomed, with aquamarine wedding ring (150gp) hidden inside DC15 Per to find), +1 Studded Leather Armor, Small Pouch of Marbles, Cloth Doll

Something in the Water

Early in the morning before the party is going to head to the Upper Village to seek out the young couple, a wild-eyed teen will come into the Inn, sweating and panting.

“They’re coming this way!” He yells.

Tolin meets him at the door and guides him to a chair.

“Slowly, Gabe, catch your breath and tell us who’s coming.”

The young boy, who looks like he is either a farmer or field hand looks around him, then over his shoulder as if expecting something to burst through the door. He will tell them that he was working on clearing a drainage ditch near “Reaper’s Gulley” when he saw 2 people slowly walking toward him. They looked sort of familiar – like the missing shepherds they were searching for last month. But when they got closer, he could see that their faces were shrunken and hollow and he could see bones visible through broken skin. There was a yellowish light in their eyes too! They are walking slowly, but coming this way down the Gulley and will be here any time.

Tolin will give the party directions to Reaper’s Gulley (named for the shape – like a large scythe) which is only about a ¼ mile north west from here. If they want Gabe to show them, they will need to succeed with a DC18 Diplomacy roll to change his mind.

The Missing Shepherds ** Side Quest **

A few months ago, a pair of shepherds went missing one afternoon. The village and a few knights put in some work to try to locate them, but no one was able to find them. The truth is that they got into a deadly knife fight over a local girl and ended up mortally wounding each other. They were near the river and a pack of wolves found their dead bodies and after feasting for a bit, dragged them into the water. Unfortunately, an alchemist working for the necromancer purposely dumped a few failed creations into the river and the negative energy infused into the corpses raising them as zombies! Now the undead are slowly ambling back upstream.

2 Plague Zombies

Once these two are defeated, the party will find an old dagger lodged between the ribs of one of the zombies. The dagger is actually a kitchen knife from their farm. If someone brings back the remains, someone will be able to identify them by their ragged clothing as belonging to the two missing shepherds. Someone will ask the group if they would return the boys’ remains to their farm (farmer Kole).

Revenge of the Moo ** Side Quest **

The alchemical reagents spilled into the river did not just affect the two shepherd men. Unfortunately, a local farm that uses water from the river to irrigate their farm has a new problem with some transformed cows. About a week ago, Farmer Kole awoke to find 5 of his best producers dead at the edge of his field. He could not determine the cause, but to be safe, decided to bury them away from the river to avoid contaminating their water supply. Two days ago, Farmer Kole found open holes where his cows were buried, but he assumed some poor fool or wild animal just dug them up for food. Now there are 5 undead cows roaming the fields outside of Stonehaven looking for fresh, live meat and they appear to have found the Kole’s!

When the party arrives, they will find 3 Zombie Cows feasting on freshy killed cows in the field and another pair terrorizing the Kole’s. One of the cows has chased Farmer Kole into the barn, sensing the live animals and battering the barn doors repeatedly. The other Zombie Cow is trying to break through the front door of the house to get to Kerin Kole, the farmer’s wife.

If the party attacks the cows in the field first, the two cows attacking the Kole’s will breach the buildings. If the party attacks one of the terrorizing cows, the other will breach the building just as they are done defeating their cow.

5 Zombie Cows

XP Award – Milestone for 2^nd Level