My in-person Wednesday-night campaign is still on hiatus due to scheduling conflicts, but it looks like we'll be resuming the campaign in the next few weeks. One day, I'll be caught up with these gameplay reports.
This particular session was super-fun and mostly spontaneous. The girls really latched on to Emelia, and they had some impressive role-playing moments with her and her father, Lord Ferril. I had decided to expand the party's involvement with the lord's affairs, since the girls seemed content to remain in the village and serve as its protectors.
I planned a "heavy" session with an important event to shake up the status quo and give the heroes a chance to step up and become major players in the town, but I wanted to give them a bit of a breather first, while also lulling them into a false sense of security. I came up with the idea for this adventure a few hours before the session as a series of amusing skill challenges and a test of their general organizational and time management abilities. It was also a good way to introduce more of the village and its townsfolk to the players.
This session occurred on 07/08/20 (and now feels like a lifetime ago).
Previously…
Inside the goblin cave, the heroes slew several goblins and their boss, a hobgoblin called Gurd. They rescued Emelia from his clutches and recovered some stolen supplies, including four of the six stolen barrels of dwarf ale. They hurried back to Brackleborn Keep to reunite Emelia with the grateful Lord and Lady Ferril.
Session Events
A few days after rescuing Emelia, high drama erupts at the Half-baked Bakery! Lord Ferril is hosting a feast that very night and has ordered a boar meat pie and a berry cake for his guests from the establishment owned by halfling sisters, Aldi Grubb and Lidl Bottomtooth (Belba and Ellie-Mae's mums).
Unfortunately, doddering old Mr. Mulberry—the bakery's landlord and the local halfling liaison to Lord Ferril's court—completely forgot to deliver the order to the bakery until this morning (two days late). The food is due to the keep by 6:00 that evening and it is currently 10 in the morning when the moms get word. The ladies have just 8 hours to make everything and get it to the keep in time to be served.
The frantic moms need help gathering all the ingredients, so they enlist their daughters and friends to retrieve a list of what they need...
- 15 lbs. of boar meat from the butcher (northwest of town)
- 5 lbs. of flour from the grist mill (east side of town)
- 4 dozen eggs and 6 lbs. of butter from the dairy farm (northeast of town)
- 10 lbs. ea. of potatoes, carrots, and onions from the vegetable farm (south of town)
- 1 basket of berries and a pint of honey from the berry patch (southeast of town)
The girls become angry about Mr. Mulberry’s incompetence, but the moms don't dare accuse him if they fail to deliver because, for one, he is a kindly old man who simply made a mistake; it would be unseemly to shift the blame to him. For another, they might be kicked out of the bakery (and their home) for good if Mr. Mulberry suffers repercussions from Lord Ferril.
So, the clock is ticking... It will take four hours to cook the meat pie and bake the cake, which leaves the girls four hours to organize, travel about town, and secure all the ingredients.
Belba and Ellie-Mae pair up and take off to the butcher's to retrieve the boar meat. The village butcher is Cutter Marrow, a local hunter and pig farmer. When they arrive at his shop, they find him in bed nursing a leg injury. He explains that he was recently attacked on the fringes of the Gloomy Forest by vicious little men (who sound to the girls a lot like the goblins they recently encountered). He has been unable to hunt for any meat lately and some of his other hunters have been chased away as well. As a result, his stocks are depleted.
He mentions that the boar are rutting in the fields northwest of town; if Belba and Ellie want to go kill one and bring it back, he will butcher it up and pay them for any excess meat. He even gives them a sachet of sow musk to attract a big boar. Resigned to the task, the halflings depart the shop and head out of town.
Meanwhile, Dixie heads over to the vegetable farm just outside of town. The farm is run by Mrs. Ida Muhwiggins, who inherited it from her father. Dixie finds the matronly, no-nonsense woman rocking on her porch smoking a big wooden pipe carved in the shape of a sitting dog. Dixie shows her the list of ingredients and explains the situation, but Ida tells her that her husband, Ralph, took what's left of their stock to sell in a neighboring village and hasn't been back to harvest this week’s vegetables.
She points toward her fields and tells Dixie: "Yer welcome to take that shovel and dig up what ya need. Taters is over there; onions is there, and carrots are down yonder." Dixie gets to work harvesting the vegetables she needs and makes fast work of it. Her work complete, she gathers up her sacks of produce and takes off for the dairy farm to get eggs and milk.
From the bakery, Armolas first heads for the grist mill to pick up the flour. The miller—Woodrow Worthy—is in his early sixties, with a doughy midriff, a bushy head and beard of white hair, and tiny spectacles. When Armolas arrives, the miller is struggling to repair the water wheel, which "...snapped a few struts after the heavy rains we had last week." The work is heavy and precarious, and his handyman is away in the neighboring province with a sick mother.
The elderly man simply can't get the wheel working, and his stocks are still depleted from market day because the wheel hasn't been working properly. If Armolas can help him fix the wheel and keep it running, he can grind the flour she needs. Her skill as a woodworker comes in handy, and soon the wheel is operational and she gets her flour (along with a few silver coins for her help). She bids him farewell, then races off to the berry patch.
Making their way to the fields northwest of the village, Belba and Ellie-Mae try to attract a boar by rubbing the musk sachet on logs and rocks. At first, they don't have much luck, bagging only a runt after an hour of hunting. Suddenly, they hear a loud snorting, and from the tall grass charges a giant boar with black fur and a large scar across its face. After a hard-fought battle, the cousins manage to bring down the great beast.
When they return to the butcher, he is shocked to see their catch: “Why, that's Ol' Blackie!”—a legendary and infamous boar known to all hunters in these parts. Suitably impressed, he carves up the boar, gives the girls the meat they requested, and pays them handsomely for the extra meat. At their request, he also gives them the creature's pelt and tusks.
When Dixie arrives at the creamery, she sees the proprietor, Beulah Holstein—a hefty, milk-fed woman and mother of eight—chasing a bunch of loose chickens around the farmyard with a baby on her hip. Beulah bellows for Dixie's help because the chickens got loose after "...dang ol' Earl left the henhouse gate open when he went into town."
Dixie loses precious time chasing down the wily chickens, but she finally captures all of them. Beulah offers to gather the eggs Dixie needs if she will milk the cow and churn the butter. Dixie gets to work, and fortunately the cow ("Daisy") takes a shine to her so she soon has all the milk and butter she needs. Beulah gives Dixie the butter for free, for her trouble. Dixie races back to the bakery, hopeful that there is still sufficient time.
Meanwhile, Armolas finds that the berry patch covers part of a hillside overlooking the entire village. Behind the patch is the meadow, which buzzes with bees. A cozy cottage—the home of Tom Comb, the local berry farmer/beekeeper—stands between them. Tidy rows of wooden beehives are lined up behind the cottage.
Armolas shouts for the beekeeper, but no one answers. Looking around, she spies a note tacked to the cottage door explaining that Tom is away for a bit, but gives instructions and prices for customers to "pick-your-own." Armolas gets busy picking berries, but has to fight off hungry crows the whole time. (In her frustration, she fails to notice the peculiar scarecrow that seems to turn and watch her every move.)
Once she gathers the berries she needs, she finds a wicker chest on the porch containing a beekeeper's outfit and honey-gathering tools. She puts everything on and gathers a pint of honey without disturbing the bee swarms. Satisfied, she heads back to the bakery.
With all the ingredients gathered in time, the cooking and baking gets underway. Shortly, Mr. Mulberry shows up at the bakery, looking chagrined. He apologizes, saying he also forgot to deliver a letter for each of the heroes. The letters are (belated) invitations to Lord Ferril's feast, which is being held that night in their honor!
With not much time until the feast, the moms tell the girls to rush home and get ready while they finish up. They'll make Mr. Mulberry help them haul the food up to the keep. When the girls get back to their respective homes…
- Armolas notices a sigil marked on her cottage door that tells her a friendly elf has visited recently (within the last few hours).
- Madam Enorca dabs some special perfume on Ellie-Mae (which gives her advantage on Charisma checks for the next few hours).
- Belba's mom brings out her fancy courting dress ("The one I fooled around with your pappy in..."). The dress gives Belba advantage on Performance checks she makes while wearing it.
- When Dixie gets to the brewery, she discovers that Murph has gone to the keep to deliver a shipment of ale for the feast. Meanwhile, the dwarves have cleaned, polished, and sharpened her armor and weapons, mended her adventuring kilt, and patched her shield cover like new. Finally, Stinky Pete has perfectly combed and braided her false beard, and laid it out on her too-short bed.
The session ends here...
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