I am, as ever, indebted to visionaries such as and Sandy Petersen for the inspiration to throw out my DMG and do my own thing. Somehow, however, I circle back to RuneQuest every time.

The idea for this scenario broke at the same time as covid hit us. I made a flippant comment on a RQ page online that I had accidently written a scenario about a Malian priest with nineteen broo followers… I’m calling her Kovid. Someone else suggested that I publish it on Jonstown Compendium. Much editing and re-jiggering later, here it is. Her name really isn’t important though as you’ll find out if you read on.

Thanks to my ex-employers for making me redundant and giving me the time to write this up and to my wife for forcing me to build an office in the house that made writing this so much easier.

The art in this one is either mine or by Mike Hudson, you can tell which is which, his are the good ones.

RuneQuest is a Trademark of and is used with their permission via the OBS Community Content program. For more information please visit ’s website: www.chaosium.com

Sample file

The Chaosium and RuneQuest Logos are used under license.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ...... 3 Dragonsnails ...... 44 Authors Note ...... 5 Walktapus ...... 46 Whip Scorpions ...... 47 CHAPTER ONE The Broo Gang Moves On ...... 48 Hook One – The Runners Running ...... 6 Watchtower ...... 49 Broo Scouts ...... 7 The Inn ...... 50 Hook Two – The Bloody Ford ...... 8 The Latrine ...... 50 Hook Three – Orlanth’s Last Sigh ...... 9 The Bath House ...... 50 Fight at the Grove ...... 9 Rubble Runners ...... 51 Broo Scouts ...... 10 The Tower ...... 51 Druids Tree ...... 13 Broo Warriors ...... 51 Aldryami ...... 15 The Road Back...... 54 Quercia ...... 15 Mop-up and Rewards ...... 54 Walnut ...... 15 Consequences ...... 55 Wartrees ...... 16 Bestiary ...... 56 Elves ...... 16 Whip Scorpions ...... 56 Laugha ...... 18 Mattanasta ...... 18 CHAPTER THREE Mattanasta’s Spirit Cult ...... 19 The Haunting ...... 57 The Hook...... 57 CHAPTER TWO A Grove under Siege ...... 58 Introduction ...... 20 A Hurried Response ...... 58 The Broo Retreat ...... 20 A Casual Response ...... 58 Pit Stop ...... 22 The Plan ...... 58 Spirit of Creeping Crud ...... 22 Kovid’s Wraith ...... 59 Snail Caves ...... 22 Kovid’s Ghost ...... 60 Mushrooms ...... 23 Rewards ...... 61 The Caves ...... 25 The Walnut ...... 61 The Slide ...... 26 Consequences ...... 61 The Entrance ...... 31 Adventure Seeds...... 62 The Sump ...... 35 The Old Road ...... 62 Gorp ...... 36 Tree House of Horror ...... 62 Newborn Dragonsnails ...... 40 The Grey Sage ...... 62 Dehori ...... 41 Found Items ...... 42 Occupants of the Snail Caves ...... 44 DiseaseSample Spirits ...... 44 file

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INTRODUCTION

Set in Dark Season in the wooded hills of eastern Dragon If you wish the scenario location can be altered to suit Pass the adventurers are confronted with a desperate plea your campaign but some of the details will change, some for immediate help. The adventure should force them to options might be as follows. confront hated chaos foes and introduce them to some local elves. In the Dark Season however, the aldryami are • Almost anywhere around the Smoking Ruins works. sluggish and they need the adventurers to help protect There are lots of wooded areas and the dryad forests them and their allies. are off to the west. The adventure can be inserted as a The adventure comes in three chapters. The first side quest for the Smoking Ruins campaign pack. The mountains might then be Ten ridges or the chapter relates to that initial encounter and should be Dragonspine Mountains. played out before the others. The second and third chapters were designed to follow on in a linear fashion but • Tarndisi grove between and Clearwine, as do not have to be completed in order and may be resolved outlined in the Gamesmaster Adventure book might according to the wishes and actions of the gamesmaster also serve, replace the dryad in the adventure for and adventurers. Tarndisi from that publication. This works best if you If the gamesmaster wished he could replace the dryad have not already played that adventure. The that appears in this scenario with the dryad, Tarndisi, gamesmaster should also replace Tarndisi’s green from the Gamesmasters Adventure book. It would give elves with brown elves to facilitate the need for them to hibernate and remove the naiad, Mattanasta. the new Thane of Apple Lane a hook into “The Dragon of Thunder hills” scenario if your gaming group plans to play The adventurers will be given multiple opportunities that out. to assist a small aldryami dryad grove in winter. The handful of brown elves here are typically dormant this time of year and therefore vulnerable, they are currently STOP! wintering in the dryad’s tree and resemble gnarly branches to a casual observer. If your planning to play in this adventure then stop Quercia, the dryad has a troop of runners, small shrub reading now. Give this book to your gamesmaster. If you based aldryami similar in appearance to chimps. These are the gamesmaster, read on. runners typically lack courage, they are desperate for help to defend the elves and Quercia, while the elves hibernate. It is Dark Season and the adventurers are travelling Running for help, the runners desperately hope to somewhere in south eastern Sartar. The scenario was encounter yellow or green elves but run into the designed to play out near the location of the dragonrise. adventurers instead, these strangers are not broo and they The ideal location would be southwest of Boldhome where will just have to do. there is plenty of scattered woodland bordering the royal Chapter one sees a band of broo, as usual Malia and roads. Thed worshippers, secretly travelling via some old krarsht The broo have come into Dragon Pass through passes tunnels under the general area of the grove. A cave-in in the mountains, closed or hidden until the dragonrise collapsed a short section of the tunnel at a weak point and revealed them. The adventurers may be travelling to or buried the broo gang’s leader. The cave-in split the broo from Boldhome on some errand for their clan or cult, or gang in half. The main body and best warriors of the gang they may just be passing through. One idea for this might were trapped behind the cave-in and have turned back. A be that Queen Leika wants any of her prospective Thanes smallish group of young and expendable scouts were or followers to make a pilgrimage to Boldhome to swear ahead and have forged on, emerging leaderless from the an oath of allegiance on the Flame of Sartar. Ultimately tunnel. It is these scouts that the adventurers will have to however,Sample its up to the gamesmaster. deal with first. file

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With the tunnel blocked behind them and lacking During a lull in the fight, two runners get away and run effective leadership, the broo scouts came to a point where for help. They are pursued by four of the broo scouts but a fallen tree on a riverbank above has broken the tunnel have managed to keep ahead of them moving through the open. Here they left the tunnel and proceeded to follow woodland, jumping from tree to tree. It is these two the river with no real idea where they were going. This runners that will first encounter the adventurers. part of the river is shallow and lazy at this time of year, Two more follow up hooks are included just in case the little more than ankle deep, but during the storm season adventurers do not take the bait, after which there will be heavy rain and winter run off from the mountains will consequences. swell it to a raging torrent that empties into the Chorms The runners are not dormant like the brown elves that river south of Wilmskirk. they are defending, there are three main reasons for this. The river runs through a gully at the place that the tunnel emerges, the tunnel breaks the surface at the base • First the dryad, Quercia, has blessed them and of the gully riverbank. Above the tunnel here is a dying charged them with her defense. They take this oak tree, its roots have been undermined and it is seriously and as long as they stay within the area of probably just one windstorm away from being blown over. the grove they do not need to hibernate. The rising water levels in stormseason will likely flood and • Secondly, they are largely moss based and do not collapse the tunnel, washing any trace of it away. There is really sleep much in the winter anyway; they are just already a little water turning the tunnel bottom soft and a bit slower to act and do not breed. muddy underfoot, a boon that makes tracking easy. The broo scouts followed the shelter of the river gully • Finally, there are hot springs complete with a resident to Quercia’s grove and by sheer bad luck looked up and naiad only 150 meters from the grove. The runners spotted the runners in the largely leafless winter and some of the other foliage in the vicinity resist the branches. The runners, fearing the broo, fled to the upper onset of winter better than those further afield. The branches. Here they set about throwing sharp sticks and naiad is not much help in the fight as it costs her feces at the broo below. The broo, in turn, set about trying considerable magical strength to leave the springs, to burn the tree down, throwing sharp sticks and feces about 20 magic points to travel to the dryad’s tree. back up at the runners. Both contingents having an Chapter two then has the grateful Quercia and the unenviable supply of the latter. The broo do not know elves suggesting that the adventurers track the broo back about the dormant elves among the tree limbs or the whence they came. They should not let the broo come and dryad within. The dryad Quercia’s door is well concealed go as they please and if there is a hidden way into Dragon by a guardian spirit creature in the form of a moss curtain Pass nearby, it should be identified and the broo taught and the sleeping elves resemble gnarly branches and boles that the price of trespassing in this region is heavy indeed. in the tree above. Finding the krarsht tunnel may occur as part of The runners, who fear the fire more than the broo, chapter one but bypassing the cave in and following it to have decided that they must act. Although the runners are its point of origin is the stuff of chapter two. largely out of reach and the broo lack effective missile Chapter three may or may not present itself while the weapons, they are running out of effective projectiles adventurers are present. Kovid, the now dead Malian themselves. The runners are resorting to breaking off and priest that lead the broo to Dragon Pass, is buried in the throwing branches, which sadly is providing the broo with collapsed tunnel and will rise to haunt the area as a more fuel for the fire. Without aid it is likely that the better powerful wraith. Others that would control her or learn armed broo will eventually win by burning the tree. They from her will eventually come. If the adventurers are still have already killed some runners with lucky hits, hacking at the grove when this first happens, the attack will come the bodies apart where they fell. At the start of the as a surprise early one evening. If not, they will be called scenario they have been making some rudimentary siege back to the grove. Either way, the adventurers must defeat protection from the runners’ projectiles so that they can the wraith and find a way to confront Kovid’s ghost, approach the tree with incendiary brushwood. They will otherwise the wraith will return in a week and disease will soon haveSample a decent sized pyre ready to light at the tree’s file spread and the animals and plants around the grove will base. sicken and die.

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Stormseason is only weeks away and to prevent the Reward good ideas and remember that Your storm season rains from swelling the gully stream and Will Vary. washing the disease down to more populated areas, such Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun and thanks as Wilmskirk and the surrounding Locaem lands, the for playing. adventurers will likely need to get help. More so if they are not confident taking the battle to the spirit plane.

AUTHORS NOTE As a gamesmaster the ability to adapt is important and while chapters one and three are specific encounters at set locations, chapter two is a sprawling run through tunnels and caves. Various options have been given that seem likely choices that players may take but when presented with any two options, players will likely pick a third. Chapter two is the more problematic. There is a string of encounters, and a cave system to explore. The best laid plans, however, do not survive first contact with the dice. In Runequest combat can be vicious and decisive and A NOTE ON THE NAMING OF even the weakest opponent can get lucky. Players may find the road difficult and want their plucky heroes to turn BROO back or even give up. Don’t panic! This is OK. The broo have names, after all they must call A section on consequences is included for each chapter. A small deviation from the plot is easily each other something. accommodated by the scenario. The broo linger longer on the road to the ruins or spend an extra day or two at the Sadly though, there isn’t time for caves. When the adventurers get there, the broo only introductions so each broo has been given a recently left, and so on. Thus, the linear nature of the descriptive name to use when describing an narrative is not lost. The adventurers may choose not to explore the caves opponent to the adventurer that might be or suffer some serious reversal within. Again, this is not facing them in battle. an insurmountable barrier to the adventure. The broo will grow in strength as outlined in the consequences section Even more sadly, nobody cares what their and Kovid’s wraith will still rise to attack the grove. names are. They do not have to fight the walktapus unless their cult affiliation or some maddening bravado demands it. A random element to the disposition of the cave’s inhabitants may even mean that the adventurers don’t encounter the walktapus. Many of the encounters in the caves were designed to be a nuisance at best. A smart ? party of adventurers may find a way past, the goal at the outset is the broo warband and everything else is an obstacleSample or distraction to be bypassed or defeated. file

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