September Short Adventure 1: Innocence in Moonlight

Preamble

A September of Short Adventures is an OSR Challenge initiated by Matt over at the Asshat Paladins blog. You can click on the Moustache Dragon over on the right-hand side-bar (just above Features) to learn more about all of this stuff from Matt directly. All of our 25 (possibly more...) entries are formatted along the lines of what Matt calls the Get Ready, Get Set, Go! format. In a nut-shell, this approach breaks each adventure into a Title, Three escalating sections of adventure details (the Ready section is limited to only 2 sentences...), and a final catch-all section for any NPC notes/stats. The idea is to keep it short, simple, easy to read without any maps, drawings, diagrams or 8X10 glossies. Keep description to a minimum, avoid lengthy exposition, and no casts of thousands -- unless it's an invading horde of three-eyed orcs or goblins riding purple wombats.

We're also going to aim to keep things generic, setting agnostic and thus portable or adaptable to any campaign/setting using the particular rules-set we'll be using in any given September Short Adventure such as Mutant Future, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry (White Box), etc.

Free Rules

Labyrinth Lord: http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

Mutant Future: http://www.goblinoidgames.com/mutantfuture.html

Swords and Wizardry (White Box): http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/whitebox.htm

September Short Adventure Number 1

Title: Innocence in Moonlight

Rules: Mutant Future

Ready

A great warlord has consolidated Her control over a large region of fertile land enclosed by steep mountains dotted with many tiny villages. In one such village a young girl, not yet come into adulthood, has made a friend with a beautiful creature whom she knows will never harm her...

Set

The players are the usual Mutant Future wandering miscreants looking for loot or adventure. They could be in this village to resupply, heal from a recent battle, or because no one can read a map and they are lost, again. They get involved because the girl's parents find out that she is missing one night and come running to the player characters in a panic and attempt to hire the PCs to go find their missing daughter before something bad happens.

Go!

The area surrounding the village is cleared outwards to about 30' at best, then it quickly becomes tangled forest land rich in game and wild-growing herbs and edible plants. Most of the more dangerous beasts have either been captured, killed or driven off by the roving bands of the Warlord's forces who have since moved onward to other areas more desperately in need of their aid and assistance. The local militia consists of an old man with a peg-leg and three mutant-orphans who have since run off to the next village in pursuit of their dreams of becoming mercenaries.

Finding the girl's trail will be relatively easy. She never bothered to hide anything. In fact she has left little ribbons tied to various low-hanging limbs of various trees and bushes to mark her way through the forest to a breathtakingly beautiful glade.

The young girl's name is Larisah and she has made the acquaintance of a Zunicorn (MF p. 104). 

The Zunicorn is using Larisah as bait to attract fresh meat. Like foolish adventurers.

Notes / NPCs

Peg-Leg [AL L, MV 20' (30' running away), AC 9, HD 3, #AT 1 (spear), DG 1d6, SV L3, ML 6]
Larisah [AL C, MV 120' (40'), AC 7, HD 1, #AT 1, DG 1d4, SV L1, ML 10]
Zunicorn [AL C, MV 240' (80'), AC2, HD 6, #AT 3 (2 hooves, horn and poison), DG 1d8/1d8/1d8+Class 7 Poison, SV L8, ML 8] (MF p. 104)