I am, as ever, indebted to visionaries such as Greg Stafford 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 Moon Design Publications and is used with their permission via the OBS Community Content program. For more information please visit Chaosium’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 - 2 - 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 Apple lane 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 - 3 - 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