Oddities, Guild Dungeon Brief Options

[ChrisAndrews]

Hullo everyone,

I've been contacted by a largish village that are after some help with what could be druidic issues. I got a letter about it:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you to solicit your help on behalf of the village of Bellwright’s Folly. We are a rural settlement on the coast south of Scarlene, and have several small hamlets attached in the surrounding farmlands – some three thousand citizens in all.

Over the past year, we have been experiencing a slow decline in the quality of our harvest and the wellbeing of both our livestock and residents. We are quite isolated, and as such have been self-sufficient for a very long time. As such, this change is not only debilitating but dangerous.

Most notable amongst the troubles have been the starvation of crops despite favourable weather conditions and all attempts to conserve them; the sudden death of healthy livestock; and an unexplainable illness amongst both our frail elderly and fragile young. None of our local experts in either agriculture or healing have been able to explain anything that has happened – and my colleague and I have estimated that, should decline continue at the same increasing rate as it has reached, the village and surrounding settlements shall not survive the Dawn.

Though unsupported by our local mayor, who does not give credence to the figures that we have collected, we have managed to secure the funds to hire a mercenary group to investigate this decline. We have chosen to approach your guild in the hope that you shall have the foremost experts on the natural world amongst the mercenary community.

Should you or any of your guild wish to visit the village in advance of your hire, you need only write me and I shall make arrangements. I regret that we cannot allow this to interfere in the daily running of things, but perhaps it shall allow you to glean something of a plan.

I cannot impress upon you enough that this is very much a final attempt for us. There is no more that we can do that we have not already done. Our fate, sir, lies in your hands – and those of your fellows.

With hope,

Cila Karil and Mayel Forren

I had a quick pop over in case it was something really easy but it wasn't so I suppose it's the sort of job for a group of people to gather up and sort out. Possibly lots of it could be done by one or two people just wandering about and working out what such a group should actually go and do. They have a nice village hall and a really big house where someone important probably lives. Possibly there's a dark cult hiding there. They like nice houses I think?

From my brief trip over there I know that there's no big obvious ritual thing doing it as I'm pretty well practised at spotting big evil rituals. It's just sort of all a bit yucky all over. It's not natural and I can't scry about it nor find anything out about the mystical nature of it or anything clever like that. I reckon it might be a bit dangerous for place spirits if it gets too strong, like when Talthar did the heaven thing maybe.

I can say that it's not a problem with the village well which is lovely and everyone gathers there to talk and sit around it. It's really very nice. It's a wishing well which is extra good. You should all probably visit it at some point.

Oh and some people are digging stuff up nearby. Might be they uncovered Ancient Evil. Maybe it's a lataramese pottery golem. Someone should probably chat to them - I'm not very good with real people.

If people want to take a look that will be excellent and we can sort out where we should go and when to meet. I'll make an extra effort to show up this time, or at least to send some talismans along.

Argo