In this short adventure the Ikons are assumed to be a functioning party that knows each other and is already travelling together.   They are passing through a small village in a rural area of no great importance.  The crux of the adventure is that a local farmer is desperate for help from anyone brave enough to watch over his farm at night.  Strange things have been happening on the farm and livestock and pets have gone missing on his land.  The village folk think the farm is cursed and no one is willing to help for fear of the curse spreading.

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The Setting

The adventure begins in the small farming village of Fisher's Well.  It is situated on a carriageway the leads to the Queen's road, which the party is trying to reach so they can travel to the capital city.  The village consists of less than a dozen buildings, with a small inn, smithy, general store, and farrier with stables being the major points of interest.  The Jennings farm is about 3 miles from the village, one of the further out farms, bordering a large forest to the south.

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The Natives

• Ross Jennings - The Farmer

  • Farmer Jennings is desperate for help.  He will be first encountered by any party members who go to the inn for goods, food, or shelter for the night.  As the party approaches the inn, he is in the process of being thrown out onto the street.  Various inn patrons are involved, and they are all yelling at him to leave and not come back.  Jennings will look imploringly at the party, but will not initiate conversation, instead just picking himself up and running out of town toward home.

  • If the party follows Jennings or heads to his farm after this event he will be found tending to his usual chores (depending on the time of day they arrive).  He is wary of strangers, but desperate enough for help that he will plead for assistance in saving his farm.

• Goodwife Molly - The Jennings Head of Household

  • If any party members head to the farm before Ross returns, they will be met by Goodwife Molly and two of her sons out searching for missing chickens.  She will greet the party and inquire if they are there because of her husband.  If not, she will tell the party about the mystery surrounding the farm, the townsfolk superstitions, and her need for help.

  • When engaged at the farm itself, she will thank the Ikons for helping save their farm and offer them food, a spicy chicken and pumpkin stew with flagon of watered down mead.  She will bring it out to wherever they decide to stake out the farm for the night.  She will also explain that the boys are staying with family friends at night until the farm is assured to be safe.

• Delbert - Farmhand

  • Delbert is older than Ross and has been their farmhand for nearly the entire time that Molly and Ross have been working the farm.  While not the smartest guy, he knows the goings on around this farm even better than the Jennings family.  He is currently terrified of working the farm during dawn and dusk and is currently unwilling to do any work at night.

  • If tracked down during the day and questioned he will talk about seeing strange moving shadows at night, often near the barn and out in the fields.  He hasn't seen any animal tracks, but has spotted small shallow holes or depressions in the softer soil, like someone was poking the ground with a stick.

• Henry Beechwood - Innkeeper

  • Henry acts as the innkeep, barkeep, and the town mayor.  He can be found in and around the small inn that serves as the town's social and political center.  If spoken to, he will claim that he is not superstitious and that he has been trying to talk sense into the townsfolk, hoping to drum up help for the Jennings.  He is clearly uncomfortable talking about it however, and if pressed he will hint that a curse can't be ruled out, and he unfortunately doesn't have any spare money in the town treasury to help deal with the issue.

• Margaret Hollins - Village Gossip

  • Margaret hangs out near the village well, presumably to help the elderly and children get water when she takes breaks from selling fruit and nuts from her family farm.  She is really there to absorb town gossip and pass it along to anyone who will listen.  Margaret is very friendly and doesn't gossip just to be nosy or spread rumors - she just likes to be well informed of the goings on around her.

  • She knows the timeline of what is happening at the farm better than anyone.  Talking to her will reveal the following bits of information:

    • The trouble started at the farm about 3 weeks ago, a few days after a small forest fire occurred in the woods bordering the farm.​

    • Some of the townsfolk think that one of the Jennings kids started the fire in the woods and upset the spirits of the forest, which in turn cursed (or are haunting) the farm in retaliation.

    • Others think that Jennings is behind the whole thing, trying to drum up sympathy because his farm isn't doing very well.  Their radish crop is weak and pumpkins grow wild in the woods nearby, so that crop isn't highly valued.

    • Margaret thinks it is something else because animals have started going missing.  Family pets, young goats and sheep have disappeared.  Which doesn't make a lot of sense for either rumor.

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