# Intro ## Goal Get [[Eren Marlowe]] and their caravan to [[Emberwood Village]] safely ## Reward 25gp ![[Eren Marlowe#^SuppliesForEmberwoodVillage]] %% # Events on the Road While most of the journey is uneventful, once characters are a few days from Drakkenheim, read: >[!Read] >After two weeks travelling on the road, the countryside turns dreary and desaturated. You pass many abandoned villages with dilapidated homes, crumbling farmsteads with sallow empty fields, and forests of dead trees. Thorny brambles and harsh scrubgrass are all that grow along the mud-slick road. Drizzling rain fills most days, and the wind howls at night. Aside from the creaking wagon wheels, you only hear the cawing of crows. # Marlowe's Caravan ![[Eren Marlowe#Marlowe's Caravan]] # Bandit Shakedown > [!Quote] Bogdan > “Oi, oi! Hold there, friends... you’re travelling on a royal road, eh? In these troubled times it falls to loyal servants like ourselves to keep these highways free of reprobates and outlaws, eh? I’m afraid we’ll need to collect a fee to ensure your safe passage to the capital, eh?” During one afternoon on the road, several cutthroats emerge from the ditches and rubble of a nearby farmhouse with crossbows at the ready. **Bogdan**, a thug mounted on a riding horse, leads four [[Bandit|bandits]]: **Hosh**, **Mildred**, **Sanna**, and **Mudface**. They demand the horses, all the booze in the wagon, a pound of food each, and a payment of 25 gold per character (including [[Eren Marlowe]]). **Negotiation**. The bandits can be talked down with three successful Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion) checks (in any combination). It’s DC 10 if the characters offer to pay the bandits something, but DC 15 if they try to convince the bandits to walk away empty-handed but alive. However, after three failed checks, the bandits are convinced the characters are full of hot air and won’t entertain any further negotiations. **Combat**. If it comes down to a fight, the bandits try to gang up on the most vulnerable target. Then, **Bogdan** threatens to finish off an [[unconscious]] character unless his demands are met. Otherwise, the brigands disengage when wounded. They flee if one-third of their number are killed and none of the player characters are downed. **Developments**. These bandits are only loosely associated with the [[Queen's Men]] and don’t venture into Drakkenheim themselves. If captured or questioned, they don’t know anything about the [[Queen's Men]] or Drakkenheim that isn’t common knowledge. They have a hideout in an old barn a few miles off the road. If the characters follow up, the barn is guarded by six bandits. It contains their spoils: 75 gold in trade goods and coins and a *potion of healing.* ## A Night on the Road A trio of harrowed adventurers approach the characters’ campsite on the last night of their journey. They are tired, hungry, and hoping for a place to rest. They are leaving Drakkenheim after failing their quests and losing two of their other companions. They are bitter, defeated, cynical, and never plan to return, but share one or more rumours about the city as they sit and share stories by the fire. They are hesitant to talk about their fallen friends, but suggest watching out for the rats in Drakkenheim. They include: - **Ludwig von Graff**, a penniless human noble who was trying to find the deed to his ancestral estate. - **Endra Jansen**, a human scout who was seeking fortune to pay off an old debt. - **Rikard Vos,** a human veteran who survived [[the civil war]] and had returned to Drakkenheim searching for lost family members. **Vos** has accumulated five levels of [[contamination]] and is now [[Conditions#Incapacitated|incapacitated]]. He follows his companions in a daze, and cannot speak as his tongue has rotted out from a rasping [[Contamination#Mutation|mutation]]. His friends have covered him in a heavy cloak to conceal his wasting [[Contamination#Mutation|mutation]] and the tentacled limb growing in place of his left arm. If the characters detect **Vos**’ [[Contamination#Mutation|mutation]] or pry the adventurers about his illnesses, they confess that he became sick after picking up one of the strange crystals in Drakkenheim. They insist the illness is not contagious, but rather caused by overexposure to the [[contamination|Contaminated]] magic in Drakkenheim. They’ve heard expensive magical medicine might be able to help, but they can’t afford it. Instead, they’re hoping he’ll get better once they bring him far away from the city. Unfortunately, during the night, **Rikard Vos** succumbs to [[contamination]] and transforms into a tentacled [[delerium dreg]]. The monster flies into a rage and attacks one of its former companions. It’s up to the characters to decide how to intervene. The creature is beyond reason and attacks unceasingly until killed. If **von Graff** and **Jansen** survive, they are deeply troubled by this incident. They solemnly warn the characters about the horrors of the city as they set off in the morning. [[Eren Marlowe|Marlowe]] has heard stories about [[contamination]] and [[delerium]], but never witnessed it first hand. They note that handling [[delerium]] should be done with extreme care, and that far more terrible creatures are said to dwell in Drakkenheim, many the result of those who suffered a similar fate as **Rikard Vos.** # Conclusion [[Eren Marlowe|Marlowe]] has no intention of turning back, and insists the caravan press on towards [[Emberwood Village]]. In town, they will meet agents of the five factions. %% ^c841d1