Arrival in the Village

The adventuring trio made it to the village without any more problems, but as the King’s Way led out of the forest they passed by a ring of farmsteads that looked like they had seen better days. Some were occupied, but the people working them didn’t call out greetings, only stopping what they were doing and staring at them until they had walked down the road. Others were clearly abandoned, the elements slowly wearing on the properties, even though they seemed to be in prime agricultural areas.

The village of Tremulous Crook was a collection of about three dozen homes and another dozen buildings that included minor trade shops and businesses, a small Inn, a granary and the Town Hall. The girls headed straight for the Town Hall, wanting to deliver their letter to the Headswoman there, who ended up being a friendly but tired woman in her late forties. They got a bit more of a rundown of the state of things - the Headswoman, Pelli Mason, was a widow whose three sons had all gone off to the war more than five years ago, having expected that they would return well before then. The town was struggling to meet the Duke’s Tax, and she broke down a little when she read the letter the girls had delivered and found out that the King had levied an additional War Tax on the entire realm to help combat the vermin tides of the Dark Tyrant.

The girls spent time trying to comfort her, and she invited them to stay in her home rather than at the Inn - it was the most profitable business in town, so they couldn’t shut it down, but the ne’er-do-wells who had been frequenting it recently were suspected to be the same men and women who were causing problems all over the countryside.

Of course, the girls immediately wanted to confront the first batch of miscreants they could find, but Pelli convinced them that doing so in town would only bring their anger down on the people of the town. If anything was to be done, it had to be outside of town and with a proper Writ of Law allowing them to act as Sheriffs of the Duchy.

That information, of course, led the girls to ask the obvious question.

“Well, how can we do that?”

I’d been DMing for a long time. I was still constantly surprised by what my players would do or say in any given situation, but I knew how to lay down tempting clues for the players to pick up.

“Well, our last Sheriff and his two deputies were conscripted by the Duke two years ago,” Pelli said. “As Headswoman, I have the ability to name a new interim Sheriff, but only if the Village Elders agree on who it is. No one has wanted the job since then other than a few strangers that we haven’t really trusted, so no one can agree or not. We might be able to convince them, though. We can’t send you against the bandits without the title and the writ, but there’s nothing that says you can’t help us out with a different problem.”

“That’s perfect,” Olivia said. “We’ll take care of this other problem, and then we’ll throw a celebration party and invite all the locals in the village.”

“Well, hold on,” Jade said. “What is this other problem? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and leap in without lookin’.”

Pelli told them that there had been strange things happening with the wolves out on the hinterlands to the west, closer to the mountains. There had always been wolves, and every year someone had a story about losing a couple of sheep, or a goat, or even a cow - but this year it wasn’t just one or two. Dozens of sheep from a single flock would get savaged in the night, their bodies dragged into the forests instead of eaten where they were killed. Three cows had been killed on one farm in a single night. Even several wolfhounds and sheepdogs had been killed. Farms, the ones that weren’t bound to fall into financial ruin from the losses, were being abandoned as farmers moved their livestock closer to town, but the wolves seemed to be following their source of food.

And, worst of all, three farmhands and two shepherds had gone missing in the last week. Rumours were going around that a thing had been sighted in the forest, with big golden eyes staring out and watching the farmers from the dark of the tree line. They claimed it was as big as a bull, but could move as fast as lightning and would disappear as soon as someone saw it and looked away.

“Alright, well, wolves we can take care of,” Jade said. “I don’t know about ‘big as a bull, fast as lightning’ monsters though.”

“Oh, that’s just a rumour,” Oliva assured her. “It’s probably just some sort of alpha wolf and is bigger than the rest, and has a taste for human flesh and isn’t scared of people.”

“Because that sounds so much better,” Renee said, rolling her eyes.

“We’ll hunt down the wolves, Headswoman,” Olivia promised. “Count on us.”

The girls then roleplayed through staying the night at Pelli’s, a few more cracks getting made at Jade’s expense about getting shot in the butt. Then, the next morning, they were ready to set out for the hills to the west.

I described the town a bit more as it was waking up for the morning, dropping hints about the various businesses they might make use of in the coming weeks depending on how the campaign went. I had just finished describing a particularly large apple tree that stood beside the Town Hall when I was interrupted by Rhia.

“Wait!” she said, slapping her hands down on the table in excitement. “Is that a Chun-Shi Tree?”

I was a little surprised that Rhia’s knowledge of Firth went back that far. “Actually, it is,” I said.

“OK, I grab Renee and Jade by the hands and I say, ‘Follow me, this is important,’ and drag them over to the tree,” Rhia said.

“Um, what’s so special about this tree?” Jade asked as Tori put her southern accent back on.

“Yeah, aren’t we trying to get out to the wolfy areas before it gets dark?” Renee asked.

“This is a Chun-Shi tree,” Olivia said. “Legend says that Chun-Shi was a warrior who revered all life, and he and his compatriots battled Terror when a cult tried to summon the god in the flesh. At the end of the battle he gave up his enchanted quarterstaff that had pierced the living god’s body, and his ally Isil the White Witch turned it into an enormous tree that would lock the god’s form away for as long as the tree lived on. When Chun-Shi learned of the curse's condition, he dedicated the rest of his life to taking clippings from the tree and planting them far and wide across the land. This tree is over four hundred years old, and some say you can commune with a Chun-Shi Tree to learn what it knows.”

It was a pretty good retelling of the end of the very first campaign I’d run for Dan and Melissa and our crew from college. Maybe a little more flowery than the initial way my players had worded things, but definitely a worthy legend and honestly a little touching to hear it told that way. I managed to keep the heart-warming nostalgia feelings for that campaign inside, and distracted myself as I remembered Aaron describing his monk character Chun-Shi as ‘pulling a Johnny Appleseed, because fuck that demon god and his chance at ever escaping.’

Renee blinked rapidly as she looked at Olivia. “OK, cool story,” she said. “But you want us to… talk to a tree?”

“I mean, it might be able to tell us if there’s any legendary monsters or something that used to live in the area,” Olivia said. “Or a curse on the land, or… I dunno, it might know something useful before we go fight a bull-sized wolf.”

“Pretty sure you said that was just a rumour,” Jade deadpanned.

“Hush, come commune with the tree,” Olivia said.

“Fine,” Renee and Jade both sighed.

I snorted and smiled softly. “Alright. If you girls want to try to commune with the tree, you would usually need a Talk with Plants spell or something even more powerful. But there’s always a chance you can pull this off - this is going to be what’s called a skill challenge, which usually means you need to get more successes before you get a certain amount of failures. This is a sort of long-shot binary question though, so in this case, I need either an Arcana or Religion roll from each of you and each one needs to be a success for you to connect with the Chun-Shi tree.”

“I can do Religion,” Rhia said, looking over her character sheet quickly.

“This is what he means by Arcana, right?” Elyse asked Rhia, pointing to it on her skill sheet. Olivia nodded and Elyse nodded. “OK, I have a +5 for Arcana. I’ll do that.”

“Mmm,” Tori hummed unhappily as she looked at her sheet. “Can I maybe use Nature or Survival for this?”

“Nature could tell you stuff about the tree, but I don’t think it helps with divine communing,” I said. “Survival even less so.”

Tori blew out a breath. “I kinda suck at both Arcana and Religion,” she said.

“Just use the one that’s better. That’s probably religion?” Rhia asked.

“Yeah, it’s just a +1 though. OK, let’s try this. All at once, or one at a time?”

“Let’s go all at once,” I said. “The three of you each put a hand on the tree, trying to focus into a meditation-like state. Renee, you can feel just the slightest tug on your innate magical power, like a child is barely tugging at your sleeve. Olivia, you whisper a prayer to Revelry and feel the chaos of your deity start to form a gossamer strand between your soul and the tree. Jade, your mind goes back to the constant repetition and mental focus during your training in Foot Flurry Wuju. Go ahead and roll.”

All three of the girls rolled and quickly did the math.

“Seventeen on the die, so an eighteen!” Tori said excitedly.

“Nineteen total for me,” Rhia grinned happily.

“Um. Twenty-five,” Elyse said.

“Wait, really?” Rhia asked, looking over at the other girls dice roll. “Holy crap. Natural twenty!”

Tori cheered. “Nat twenty! Yes, Renee!”

Elyse looked happy but confused. “Is that good?”

“Yes!” Rhia, Tori and I all said together.

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