September Short Adventures 16: Where There is Smoke...

Preamble

A September of Short Adventuresis an OSR Challenge initiated by Matt over at the Asshat Paladinsblog. You can click on the Moustache Dragon over on the right-handside-bar (just above Features) to learn more about all of this stufffrom Matt directly. All of our 25 (possibly more...) entries areformatted along the lines of what Matt calls the Get Ready, GetSet, Go! format. In a nut-shell, this approach breaks eachadventure into a Title, Three escalating sections of adventuredetails (the Ready section is limited to an elevator pitch only 2sentences...), 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 aninvading horde of three-eyed orcs or goblins riding purple wombats.

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

FreeRules

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

SeptemberShort Adventure Number 16

Title: Where There's Smoke...

Rules: Labyrinth Lord

Ready

The Bee Keepers of Connallarra have aproblem. Autumn is fast approaching and they need to transfer theprize queen-bees out of the flimsy summer apiaries into the recentlyre-built winter hives. Perhaps the Player Characters could beprevailed upon to assist them in this effort. The pay is prettydecent...and includes all the top-quality mead they can guzzle...but no one probably mentioned that these are Giant Bees that they keep...

Set

The old Winter Hives were sabotagedlast season. No culprit was ever caught, but everyone suspects one oranother of the rival bee-keeping villages in the area. What theydon't know is that several of the other villages were likewisesabotaged over the winter by agents of Aleedri, a mysterious criminalmastermind seemingly determined to set up some sort of extortionracket whereby she will sell each of the bee-keeper villages'protection' from such unfortunate accidents as what happened lastyear.

The Council of Combs that runs thingsin this village has received a formal letter offering them'protection' against further off-season calamities. The letter iselegantly inscribed on an expensive sheet of custom-made vellum andcompletely cleansed of any and all traces of identity by clever useof criminal sortilege and magics sure to confound any attempt totrace its origins.

At first the Council was going to stayquiet and ignore the letter, but then one of the Summer Hives was seton fire in the middle of the night.

The Council is still arguing about whatthey ought to do, being split evenly down the middle, one sidewanting to pay Aleedri so that nothing more happens, the other sidewanting to find out who this Aleedri might be and send someone toteach her a violent lesson in manners and to get herself out of theirbusiness.

The Player Characters have beenapproached to help with the transferring of the Queen Bees. If theyhire-on, then they can either help with the insect-wrangling orprovide defense against any rogue bees or 'interference.'

If the PCs turn down the opportunity tohelp out with the transfer, there is a 50% chance that things gohay-wire due to more sabotage and one or more of the Queens aredestroyed or injured. This will provoke a -2 penalty on all futureReaction Rolls in the village as the Bee-Keepers won't appreciatethe PCs not helping them out and might even begin to blame them, orsuspect them of being behind the sabotage. If the transfer goes offwithout a hitch, the Council will consider hiring the PCs toinvestigate this Aleedri and whomever is behind the sabotage.

If the PCs dither about and try not toget involved, they wind up making themselves into excellent fall-guysand scapegoats for Aleedri's agents to set-up in order to hide theirown tracks and to continue stirring-up trouble.

Go!

The sabotage willcontinue and even escalate until the Council gives in and paysAleedri, or the bees are all driven-off or dead and the Bee-Keepersare ruined.

Rogue Bees will bea regular problem and a constant encounter until things get settledonce and for all, or the PCs leave the village behind them. Ofcourse, if they do leave the village, the informers will alertAleedri's agents who will in turn alert the bandits who'll prepare asuitable ambush for them somewhere down the road. (If the party isexceptionally well-equipped and obviously outclasses the bandits,they could decide to attempt to recruit the party...)

Aleedri has atleast one agent in the village, and possibly 1d4 conspiratorialinformer/collaborators who are getting paid in foreign coins fortheir passing along information and keeping an eye on things.

Aleedri's letterspecifies that the village's payment is to be several hundred goldpieces bundled into a stout leather sack to be left hanging from anold, gnarly oak tree just down the road about five or so miles southof the village, in a heavily overgrown area that is a perfectambush-site.

Since the agentsand informers have had a chance to notice the PCs, the letter mightspecify one or more of them as the preferred money-carriers, orperhaps the Council wishes to hire the PCs to deliver the moneybecause none of them trust one another or are too afraid to make thedrop on their own.

The bandits thatare watching the old oak tree for the village's payment will have 1d4of Aleedri's agents in their midst and there's a good chance that thePCs could learn a clue or two from these bandits if they take aprisoner or two to place under questioning, or from examining theirremains.

One ofthe bandits is carrying a map of the route to be used in Short Adventure 15: The Nervous Bride, and yes, there is a connection, if the DM/GM wishes to make it...

Puffers

The Bee-Keepers use a Smoke-Bellows or 'Puffer' in order to mollify and calm-down the giant bees. A Puffer is a small bronze pan affixed to a bellow, the pan holds a few smoldering coals and the keeper adds bundles of dried herbs or some resinous incense to the pan in order to produce smoke and they then use the bellows to direct the smoke at the bees. This creates an area effect due to dispersal of the smoke and grants the wielder a +4 Reaction Roll in terms of mollifying otherwise agitated bees. The smoke causes the bees to become docile and sluggish for 1d6 turns per exposure, which allows Bee-Wranglers to get them moved and transferred from hive to hive, etc.

Comb-Stone

A 3' long section of fossilized honey-comb is kept within the home of whomever currently leads the Council. This stone is enchanted to emanate a strong Sympathy effect that only affects Bees (giant and otherwise), attracting them to the area and making them comfortable with the people in the area. It would be a pity if the Comb-Stone were stolen or lost. It would be very bad indeed if one of the PCs was either implicated or found to have had the Comb-Stone planted on them. A very angry mob intent on a lynching can almost be guaranteed. The Comb-Stone might wind up in the hands of an informer or even a doppleganger agent of Aleedri...and that would be even worse...

Notes / NPCs

Rogue Giant Killer Bees(1d6/10d6) [AL N, MV 150' (50'), AC 7, HD 1d4 hit points, #ATK 1(sting), DG 1d3+poison, SV F1, ML 9] (LLp. 65)

Queen Bee(2d4 – but only one in any hive) [AL N, MV 150' (50'), AC 6, HD 6,#ATK 1 (sting), DG 1d8+Poison, SV F3, ML 12]

Doppleganger Agents ofAleedri (1d4) [AL C, MV 90' (30'), AC 5, HD5, #ATK 1, DG 1d12, SV F10, ML 10] Uses a small polished bronze enchanted mirror to contact their mistress via a variant form of embedded Arcane Eye spell (LL p. 27).

Bandits of the OldForest (6d10)[AL C, MV 120' (40', AC 6, HD 3,#ATK 1 (Short bow or spear), DG 1d6/1d6, SV F3, ML 7] Mostly human with some slight scaliness here and there on some of them, which suggests some sort of ancestral hybridization or degeneration of some sort...

If you need a few random villagers you might consider trying out Chaotic Shiny's Random Generator for Crowds: http://chaoticshiny.com/crowdgen.php