To-Do

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What's Going On?

This is the first adventure of a mini-campaign that celebrates the spooky and cozy nature of fall. It is very heavily inspired by the wonderful show, "Over the Garden Wall."

The adventure begins with the party waking up in an unfamiliar wood with no memory of their arrival. Since these are episodic in nature, the next adventure will pick up sometime and somewhere after this one.

About the Fall Wood

The Fall Wood, which is as good a name as any most reckon, is not part of your world. It exists in-between yours and what lies beyond. It is a place for the lost, unwelcome, and forgotten. Always in Fall between the finality of winter, and the warm life of summer.

Many of the things here are strange, scary, but not always dangerous. So it goes for the unwelcome, lost, and forgotten. Those that have their wits about them, will often find they can learn more about the mysteries and avoid a gruesome end.

It is worth noting that the longer one stays in the Fall Wood, the less they remember about their lives before. Those who wish to escape to their previous lives would do well to hurry.

Awakenings

Deep in an autumn wood, the party awakens, but none can remember how they arrived. The sun is high though barely visible through the canopy of red and orange above. The ground smells wet and earthy. In the distance there is the thunk sound of an axe on a tree.

• Everyone awakes in the wood with their equipment with no memory as to how they arrived
  • Mid afternoon but difficult to assess with canopy
  • Sound of wind and critters but very few birds
  • Smells crisp and earthy
• Sound of someone chopping wood to the west
• There is a small game trail leading east-west
  • West leads to Woodsman at work
  • East leads to Woodsman's home

Woodsman's Home

A small cottage made of grey weathered wood and a molding thatch roof sits in a small clearing. Trees with thick trunks, but barely taller than a person dot the yard. Each one has a small ring of rope fencing them off to protect them.

If it is dusk or later, the glow of a fire can be seen from inside, and the woodsman is home.

• Thatchwork cottage made of grey weathered wood
• Numerous stunted trees around with small ropes fencing them off
• Door is locked
  • Can be broken open
• Inside there are embers of a fire, stacks of firewood and very simple furniture
  • One main room and one other room for storage
    • Worn journal by hay mattress and candle
    • Journal contains records of his arrival, despair to escape and return to his family and resignation that he will never leave and cannot remember his past before arriving

After dusk...

The woodsman can be found in his cottage, tending to his fire, having supper. He will welcome the party in, but his demeanor is one of resignation that nothing can change.

• He will ask the party if they are here for him and if it is his time
• He will offer them a place to stay for the night.
• He will explain:
  • The woods are extremely dangerous at night and to never go out
  • Broad overview of his journal and that they must try to leave or stay forever once they forget
  • Overview of nearby POI
    • Appledown - Farming town with lots of orchards, should be their apple festival
    • Blue lake - Cursed icy blue lake, never ripples, stay away
    • Cave of the Beast - Once tracked a large creature there, but dared not go in
    • Fairy Glade - Tread lightly, do not disturb the stones, fairies are petty and selfish and will hold a grudge.

Woodcutter's Glade

A small glade with a tree that has been chopped down and another that has been chopped away at. The sun is able to reach through the break in the canopy, and it feels warmer in the light. All around the glade are bushes and small plants hoping to take hold in the new clearing and it makes the glade feel walled in.

• Glade with a fallen tree and another that hasn't fallen yet
• Waist high shrubs surround the glade making it feel walled off
• Woodsman will yell out to them as they approach, "If its my time, come out here and get on with it."
  • Seems resigned but willing to help
  • Asks party to pick up limbs and they'll head back to the cottage
• Sound of rustling in the wood
  • Wolf in a trap
    • Woodsman says to leave it because it will bring the rest
    • If released it will lick the savior's hand, growl at the woodsman and leave

Blue Lake

A lake so blue it feels cold to even look at takes up hundreds of yards. It is perfectly still and even the wind cannot cause a ripple. No animals drink from it, lest they disturb its calm waters.

• Large lake with water that is a deep icy blue without a single ripple even in the wind
• Disturbing the surface will cause a teenage girl to rise up out of the depths
  • Water constantly pouring off of her
  • She is cordial but listening to her entrances your to walk into the lake
    • (WIL) If entranced they will feel the lake inviting them and drown
  • She wants to play a game. She has hidden something at the bottom of the lake.
    • At the bottom is a doll that if retrieved the girl will give them a fishing pole that will always catch fish
  • The water is icy cold but somehow feels better the more of it covers you

Cave of the Beast

A cave about 4 feet tall burrows into the side of a rising hill. A warm, moist air breathes out the mouth of the cave and it smells like fur and meat.

The cave is a long narrow tube that goes back about thirty feet before opening up into a larger room with enough clearance to stand. The skeletal remains of small game and something much much larger cause the unaware to trip and stumble.

• Chest height cave that has a warm moist feel and smells like fur and meat
• Goes back about 30 feet and opens up to about 6 feet tall
  • Wolf pack lives here including the wolf from where the woodsman works
    • 6 adult wolves 10 cubs pg. 104
    • If they saved the wolf the wolf will join them and the pack will be peaceful
  • Skeletal remains of something much larger here

Appledown

Nestled down in a valley is a small town reminiscent of a picturesque New England town with white wooden buildings, a church, and a simple town square. Surrounding the town are various farms, but the majority are apple orchards that fill the air of a sweet and slightly rotting smell of apples.

• Small farming town surrounded by orchards
• Town is decorated and taking place in a fall festival for the week

Orchards

The orchards go on and on, and while the trees aren't in neat lines they were planted with enough room for people to walk comfortably between and under the tress. The ground is dotted with apples that fell early and squish underfoot. Bees, and other insects greedily eat the soft and sweet guts that spill out of the fallen apples.

• Townsfolk out picking apples singing a song
  • Townsfolk all look sunburned from bright red cheeks and faces
  • Picking through apples and destroying imperfect ones
  • Towns folks hauling carts of apples into town to be pressed
• Apple is a green apple but with blood red flesh and juice. Tastes sweet but also has a savory element
• Eating an apple will cause the townfolk to yell and stop what they're doing
  • They'll explain that the apples are for the festival and town, not for picking up and eating
• Edge of orchard has large holes townsfolk are digging and preparing
  • Explain they're for expanding the orchard and the trees need a deep hole for roots
  • The hole is much deeper than a normal tree would require, and larger

Streets

The streets of Appledown are simple dirt roads with ruts from carriages and wagons. Townsfolk move in groups laughing and enjoying the festival, all red-faced from what is likely one jug of cider too many.

• Townsfolk walking through the town drinking large foaming mugs of cider and joining in songs
• Party will be told to stay and go to town center to get cider and join in

Town Center

The smell of sweet cider and the voices of singing townsfolk converge around the center of town. A platform with a huge cider press is the center of activity with townsfolk bringing sacks of apples, townsfolk working the press, and blood-red cider spilling out into barrels that folks are wheeling away. A man in a green top-hat stands atop the platform, directing the activities with a loud booming voice.

Tents and tables surround the center with food to eat and barrels of fermented and unfermented cider to drink.

All the townsfolk seem to have a mug in hand, and their face is flushed with a bright red as they sing and make merry through the town.

• A huge press is at the center of the town
  • People dumping carts of apples into the press
  • Blood red cider pours out into barrels and townsfolk's mugs
• The mayor in a large green tophat is directing activities
  • HP: 6, Str: 8, Dex, 8, Wil: 8, Cane d4
    • Has no interest in fighting, and will cause the town to mob the party
    • If killed he will leak red juice like from apples and flesh will change to apple flesh
  • Bright red face
  • He has a firm, booming voice that carries through the whole square
  • Invites party up to drink immediately
    • Drinking is delicious, one mug will make them feel warm and slightly flush their cheeks
    • Drinking more than one a day requires a save (WIL) to not turn red and want to become festive
• Child that isn't red-faced sitting off to the side of a building watching and keeping a low profile
  • His name is Gordon and he wants to save his Grandparents from being planted
    • Grandparents are enjoying the festivities and drinking cider
    • Grandparents WANT to be planted as the people and orchard are the same thing
  • He won't drink because he'll forget

Planting Ceremony

As the sun sets the festivities become more somber and the town heads to the orchard and in the cover of night plant the next set of trees and ensure the town of Appledown's future.

• The mayor and others will wear red robes and have branches from apple trees that they wave about in ceremony
• They make a speech about Appledown will always continue as long as the orchard is taken care of
• The grandparents, wearing red robes will drink one last cup, swallow a seed, and climb into the holes
  • The cup is a poison and fertilizer and the seed will sprout
• Several folks stay behind to bury the grandparents but the rest of the town heads home
• After the ceremony Gordon and the family will have the party for one last night, and tell them where they should look next. This ends the adventure

Appendix

Wandering Creatures

Daytime

During the day roll on this chart between any two points of travel. While the distances aren't "Far" in terms of distance, the Fall Wood is a place of danger and getting lost.

Night time

Night in the Fall Wood is no place for mortals. The creatures that wander in the night are terrible things that feed on the lost who dared to stay into the night. Death, and an eternal home in the Fall Wood is likely.

Journal Entries

1 Week in the Fall Wood

I mustn't despair. I will find a way out of this damn forrest and back to Lisa and the kids. They must be worried sick. Even Lisa.

Even as I sit and write about them I feel that trying to remember them is like trying to grab onto something covered in grease and it slips out of my mind so easily. I wonder how long it will be before I don't remember them at all. I've already forgotten so much. I was a lawyer, but I only write that as that is what was in my earlier journal entries. I lived in a place called St. Louis, but even the name feels foreign and strange.

It has been three days since I first picked up that cursed axe. How I wish I had read the journal beneath that tree first! I am bound to this axe and I am always aware of it's closeness to me. I could of course drop it and put an end to my misery and become like those trees out front, but I won't give up yet.

I will get out.

Six Months in the Fall Wood

I should stop writing in this journal. As much as I thought it would keep me sane and give me hope it is like looking in the mirror and seeing someone else's reflection. The entries from when I first got here I have no memory of, and speak of things long forgotten and strange.

I know now I'll never leave. This journal is full of what must have been my attempts to find a way out and failing, or of my cowardice keeping me from going further.

I will continue to cut wood and sell it to the town of Appledown. I am cursed to live on like this, not because of the axe, but because I am too much a coward to be rid of it.

Songs of Appledown

Planting of the Orchard

One More Cider in Appledown