This is a drop-in encounter for any town or village, compatible with most TTRPG systems. It can be used at any time during a session or campaign, or even as a “Session 0” to set the tone for future adventures. Although the encounter works for all tiers, it is recommended for tier 1 parties, as it sets the stage for many future encounters.
Like most Phase II x Deimos Infinitum adventures and encounters, this one is designed to test the morals of the player characters and help define their growth and story arcs. Whatever the PCs choose to do, the results should have lasting effects for the rest of their adventuring careers.
“A healer’s desperate request sends the party into the woods for medicine. They come back with a death on their hands.”
A healer named Bonaven is tending to several wounded and sick people after a clash between rioters and city guards. The group is sheltered under a canopy of trees in the woods outside of town, and Bonaven has laid the sick out across the floor. Each person has different needs: most have moderate wounds, but a few have more serious broken bones and severed limbs.
A viral infection has found its way into the camp, affecting the vulnerable. The loved ones of the wounded come to visit regularly, but Bonaven is insistent on keeping the wounded calm and free of distractions, so he quickly rushes visitors out when they do come by. But as the infection takes a tighter hold of the wounded, Bonaven is finding himself more reliant on the help of volunteers to bring water and clean rags, as well as plants that help slow the infection.
Mushrooms
The PCs come across Bonaven’s camp, and the desperate man is in dire need of help. Volunteers have stopped coming by after a few of them caught the infection, and he needs the PCs to find a special mushroom to make tea for the infected. He tasks the PCs with finding the red-and-white mushroom and bringing it back to him.
A Cornucopia
When the PCs go deeper into the woods, they find a clearing as described by Bonaven, but the field is host to dozens of mushrooms of different varieties. All types of colors and sizes are growing in this moist area of forest, where the canopy parts to allow rain through and collect on the forest floor below. The PCs cannot take every variety of mushroom, so they must settle for a few different ones and hope the right one is among them, to avoid making another trip into the dangerous wood.
Upon return, Bonaven tells the PCs that the right one is indeed among the ones gathered, and he proceeds to make the tea. He then asks the PCs to give the tea to the patients, but not to a man named Hinton, who is allergic to mushrooms. The PCs serve the teas, and one man, who is coughing incessantly, insists the PCs give him the medicine. If the PCs ask if he is Hinton, he shakes his head “no” and motions desperately for them to give him the tea. Secretly, this is Hinton. He is just so ill that he is willing to take the risk to alleviate his pain.
Complications
As the PCs serve the tea to Bonaven’s patients, a visitor arrives to see Hinton, one of the wounded. Upon drinking the tea, a few of the sick begin to vomit, and one man, Hinton, falls very ill. After about an hour, he dies. During the commotion, Bonaven flees into the woods, after telling one of the PCs to please not reveal his whereabouts. The visitor, Plebon, draws his sword and swears to avenge his father, Hinton, and asks where Bonaven has gone.
“Where is he? Where did the healer go? I will have his head for what he’s done to my father!”
The Dilemma. The PCs may have been the ones who accidentally killed Hinton, so Bonaven’s guilt is not really well-founded. The PCs now have a choice:
Reveal to Plebon that they are the ones responsible for his father’s death, making themselves the target of Plebon’s vengeance.
Double down on accusing Bonaven, but don’t reveal where he went.
Tell Plebon exactly where Bonaven fled.
Say nothing and leave, letting Plebon seek out Bonaven on his own.
Reveal that they are guilty, but try to explain that it was all a mistake.
Whatever action the PCs take, they have made enemies, and will become the target of either Bonaven, if he survives, or Plebon. Bonaven may even be able to convince Plebon that it was, in fact, the PCs who killed Hinton.
This could lead to encounters with either of them now and in the future, and may become a thorn in the PCs’ sides throughout their campaign. These men may even sabotage the PCs in some of their most important moments.
