Thursday, July 17, 2008

Hollow’s Last Hope (part 1)






The Characters I introduced in my previous blog have finished the adventure and have saved dozens of people from the plague. It was a wild ride and below are the highlights of the game. Enjoy!


Perched at the edge of civilized lands, the small town of Falcon’s Hollow has always had to rely on itself to solve its problems. Meanwhile, the uncaring lumber barons squeeze the common folk for every last copper, deaf to their pleas. Now the hacking coughs of the sick are heard throughout town. The plague has come to Falcon’s Hollow and the town’s leaders can’t be bothered to stop it. Several dozen people in Falcon’s Hollow have contracted a fungal disease called blackscour taint. While the malady is not exceptionally deadly, poor conditions and a general lack of supplies mean that many of the sick—especially the elderly and young—face mortal consequences. Slowly deteriorating, most of the afflicted can hang on for several more days, but already the weakest have succumbed, with their number growing daily. Blackscour taint is an ingested disease with an incubation period of 1 to 3 days. Those who are infected develop a hacking cough that quickly turns bloody if the disease is allowed to progress. But not all the people of Falcon’s Hollow are helpless labors. Among the residents are a handful of locals that are more then what they seem and find themselves compelled to help their friends and neighbors no matter the danger.



The heroes each have a friend, family member or neighbor that has come down with this painfully lethal disease. Eja Clayborne has learned that a little girl and her mom, who shop at the general store Eja works at, have both gotten sick with Blackscour. Br. Bjorn "Ghostsbane" Hammerstein’s mentor and close friend Lady Cirthana, the priestess of Iomedae has also fallen deathly ill. Eilo Buckram’s Father has come down with Blackscour and he has been bedridden. Surinder Murali has always been sweet on one of the waitress at the Sitting Duck tavern, she has contracted the sickness too.



The heroes visit the local herbalist, Laurel to help find a cure. She tells them of a strange medicine she has never made before, but she has tried everything else and nothing is helping. She has most of the ingredients but lack the three major ones that would possible cure the 40 people that are dieing of the Blackscour.



“Some rare roots and concentrations, most of which I have here, but there’s three I don’t. Elderwood moss, which I’ve never heard of, but granny says the stuff only grows on the oldest tree in a forest. A specially pickled root called rat’s tail, again, sounds like hoojoo to me. And seven ironbloom mushrooms, stunty little things that only grow in dark places thick with metal, a favorite among dwarves, or so I hear.”



She gave some suggestions as to where to find the ingredients. “Well, for the elderwood mold, there’s gotta be an oldest tree in the vale. Damned if I know where it is, though. The rat’s tail and mushrooms are even longer shots. Way north, toward the mountains, people say there used to live a bunch of dwarves. They’re not there anymore, but I’d bet their forges are. If you can find ironbloom anywhere around here, that’d be your best bet. “As for the rat’s tail, who knows? Well. Actually. Ulizmila, the witch that lives deep in the woods might. She’s a crafty, mean thing that knows all sorts of strangeness. She might even have one. I don’t know what she might want for it, but I doubt it’d come cheap. My grandmother traded her sight to the old crone for a few pages of what she knew, and that was years and years back, and I don’t know a soul who got any nicer as they got older.”



The heroes seek out Br. Bjorn Hammerstein’s father who works for the lumber consortium in hope that he may know the location of the oldest tree in the forest. He doesn’t but refers them to Milon Rhoddam, the most experienced woodsman in the Lumber Consortium.
The heroes gather their supplies and head out of Falcon’s Hallow. There first stop is at one of the cut yards a few hours out of town near the edge of the great forest, Darkmoon Vale. After intimidating the pompous camp foreman, Jarlben Trookshavits, they meet with Milon Rhoddam. Milon Rhoddam a blunt, quiet man, is one of the most experienced wanderers and woodsmen in the region. His nephew has taken ill with blackscour taint when the heroes explain they’re trying to find reagents to brew a cure, he gladly sketches them a rough map of the forest, marking the location of where he believes Ulizmila’s hut, the oldest tree in the forest, the dwarven ruins stand and advises them of a short cut across the river that could save them days of travel. The heroes examine the map and decide to head to the river and than to Ulizmila’s hut first.







Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!!!

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