The Adventure Begins
Important: Let everyone know they are currently at half hit points. Each spellcaster has exhausted all spell slots except for three 1st level slots.
Read aloud
In the lofty heights of the Grandspire Mountains, where the air is as thin as a miser’s soup, you find yourselves low on rations and desperate for warmth. For the past week, you’ve been shepherding a group of travelers from a quaint town in the foothills up towards the most inhospitable mountain pass known to man and goat. Ratstew Gap may be the shortest route across these rugged peaks, but it has also made short work of your caravan.
Of the ten people and nine animals who began this journey under your protection, only three souls remain– two pilgrims and a dog. Brother Mazlo Merryshadow and Sister Rosy Rumblegarden are both followers of Fharlanghn, the god of travelers. Despite both being halflings and sharing the same faith, neither had met before undertaking this adventure. The dog, Buttercup, having lost her elven master to an ogre attack on the second day, has since become something of a mascot to your group.
One by one, members of your caravan and their beasts have been killed or carried away by various mountain-dwelling monsters. Your acts of heroism, while undeniably impressive, have been tarnished by a sense of self-doubt, which has worsened with each body you’ve committed to the mountain’s cold embrace.
Skill Check
Have your players each roll an Insight check. Then share the image found on the next page entitled “Buttercup, Mazlo, & Rosy.” Address the following to the character(s) with the
highest Insight check results:
Read aloud
You notice that Mazlo and Rosy have not fallen under a cloud of sorrow one might expect from such a cascade of tragedies. The apple-cheeked halflings appear to be falling in love, which is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all, because each of them undertook a vow of celibacy before embarking on this pilgrimage. Despite the sparks between them threatening to ignite their cloaks, the two have managed to maintain their pious composure thus far. Until they complete their holy mission of building a shrine to Fharlanghn at Ratstew gap, they must refrain from indulging themselves. The romantic tension has only added to their urgency to complete this pilgrimage with haste.
Continue addressing all your players. Ideally, you will use two distinct voices for Mazlo and Rosy’s dialogue:
Read aloud
As hunger and cold grip you, and falling snow begins to obscure your path, Mazlo and Rosy decide to lighten your steps by, once again, retelling the tale of the miracle which has inspired their pilgrimage.
Rosy: “It all started when Father Cliffcaster passed through Ratstew Gap about six months ago.”
Mazlo: “Back in the spring.”
Rosy: “That’s right, just after the thaw. The gap has always been known for the voracious mountain rats that are so common there. Hardly anyone gets through the pass without bites on their ankles or holes chewed in their provisions.”
Mazlo: “Tell them why it’s called Ratstew Gap.”
Rosy: “I’m sure you tell it better. You go ahead.”
Mazlo: “If you insist. Since the rats got so good at eating up everyone’s provisions, sometimes the only thing left to eat is… well… rat. So then, travelers started sharing their recipes for rat stew. It became a right of passage, so to speak, for a traveler to eat rat stew when they reached the gap. Hence the name. I’m sorry, Rosy. You were telling them about Father Cliffcaster.”
Rosy: “Well, Father Cliffcaster, he’s a real priest of Fharlanghn, not like Mazlo and I. We’re just novices. Anyway, he was passing through the gap last spring and had a real time of it. There’s an inn there these days and Father Cliffcaster got himself a room. But wouldn’t you know it, he woke up covered in rats! They put holes in all his clothes and when they didn’t find any food they started nibbling on him!”
Mazlo: “He was steaming mad.”
Rosy: “He sure was. And you know what he did? He prayed to Fharlanghn to spare travelers from the curse of rats and to banish them forever.”
Mazlo: “And it worked!”
Rosy: “It sure did, but not right away. Over the next few months, the rats have been fewer and fewer and now they say you can’t find a ONE no matter how hard you look!”
Mazlo: “It’s a true miracle! When I heard about it, I knew I needed to go there and leave an offering to Fharlanghn.”
Rosy: “And so did I. Ain’t that something?”
Then Rosy and Mazlo smile and stare into each other’s eyes while the snow continues to fall.
Skill Check
Have your players each roll their choice of a Nature or Survival check. Address the following to whomever has the highest check:
Read aloud
The snow and the wind are getting heavier by the minute. A pale reddish glow, all that is left of the day’s sunlight, fights through the swirling blizzard. If you stop to make shelter, you are certain you will be entombed, but if you press on there’s a chance you’ll still make it to Ratstew Gap where warmth and food await.
Saving Throw
Have each player roll a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, with advantage if they are resistant to cold. On a failure, the character suffers one level of Exhaustion.
Note: Mazlo makes his check but Rosy and Buttercup each fail and are visibly exhausted.
Continue narration…
Read aloud
You fight through the dark, the cold, and the wind, running a hand along a craggy cliff face to keep from being disoriented. Over the howl of the wind Mazlo screams a desperate prayer to
Fharlanghn to guide your steps. At times, each of you falters and needs the help of your comrades to continue.After what seems like hours, Mazlo shouts, “It’s here!” He brushes snow off the face of a wooden sign marking your arrival at Ratstew Gap. Ahead, a handful of buildings stand between the unforgiving stone walls of the gap. Trudging up to the inn, light peeks through shuttered windows. You pound on the door until someone within unbars it and you tumble into the inn’s greatroom. The inn’s patrons rush to your aid, dragging you from the door before pushing it shut once more and barring it against the raging blizzard. Buttercup limps shivering over to the hearth and collapses on the floor without even shaking the snow from her fur.
Some room is made for you at a table with bench seats. “Girl, bring some stew!” shouts a red-bearded man.
There are twenty other travelers here, a mix of races, men and women. They are all merchants, traveling as a caravan. They arrived earlier today coming from the other side of the mountains. For easy reference, at right is a quick list of names and a few words of description.
What Happens Next
An eleven-year-old girl (Penny Pickles) brings a tray loaded with steaming bowls of stew to the table. She picks one up and sets it down on the floor next to Buttercup, stopping to pet her. Buttercup wags her tail.
Rat stew is the only thing on the menu tonight. If anyone asks how they have rat stew when all the rats have supposedly vanished, the girl says her Granny still has plenty of salted rat meat. The girl believes this to be true because Granny has lied to her.
The inn is run entirely by the Pickles family. Granny is in the kitchen. Daughter Penny (age 11) is tending to the diners while her brother Lendle (age 9) stands at the innkeeper’s desk, taking money and assigning rooms. The parents, Olaf and Shwoda, are in the stables tending to the animals which arrived with the other caravan. They will have to stay out there all night.
Read aloud
The humble peasant’s stew brings much needed warmth and nourishment to your weary bodies. If you had doubts about how good rat stew could possibly taste, they are banished by this truly wonderful dish. The meat may be tough and stringy but the flavor is truly a work of art. While you eat, the rest of the visitors slowly retire upstairs to their rooms. Each hands a young boy by the stairs a coin, and the boy politely assigns them a room.
Skill Check
Perception check DC 12. The members of the other caravan seem to have a lot of gas, farting with every step as they ascend the stairs to the second floor.
Read aloud
Mazlo puts a sack of gold on the table and one extra coin beside it. “This is your payment for getting us here alive and an extra gold to pay for your room. My thanks.” (suggestion: each PC gets 15gp x character level)
“And my thanks as well,” adds Rosy. “Mazlo, would you help me upstairs to my room?”
“Hm? Yup. I can do that. Now? Okay.”
And you watch as the two halflings nervously retire upstairs for the evening.
The wind howls outside, shaking the front door and the shuttered windows. A few flurries of snow sneak in before dissolving in the warm air of the inn.
Read aloud
The young girl comes to collect your bowls and cups. In a sweet little voice she says, “I need to close the dining room now. You can go upstairs to your room if you don’t mind please.”
When they approach the boy, Lendle, he has to break the news that there are no more rooms available.
Read aloud
The boy counts up to ten on his fingers and says, “I’m so sorry, but we don’t have any more rooms.”
“There’s the one at the end of the hall,” says the girl.
The boy starts counting on his fingers again. “No, I think they’re all full, Penny,” says the boy.
“Ugh! I was just up there. There’s a room at the end of the hall with no one in it. Follow me, folks. I’ll show you.”
“Costs a gold!,” says the boy.
As Penny leads them up, she enthusiastically asks them questions about life beyond her mountain home:
- “If it’s not rude to ask, where are you from?”
- “What’s it like there? Is there music and dancing?”
- “I’ve never been nowhere else. Now and then travelers pass through and tell all kinds of stories about their lands.
- I made a list of all the places I want to visit when I’m old enough. I’m twelve now so it won’t be that many more years before I can join a caravan and leave these mountains behind.”
Read aloud
You reach the top of the stairs and head down a hall with doors on either side. The sounds and smells of rancid farts emanate from each room you pass.
Penny: “Everyone gets a little gassy from the salted rat meat at first, but they adjust to it eventually. I bet you eat all kinds of wonderful things where you’re from. Maybe you can tell me about them tomorrow. Here is your room. It’s a new one my dad must have add…”
As Penny steps into the empty room, teeth close around her and she is gone. That was no room, it was a huge mimic! Yellow eyes suddenly appear in the woodwork, seething with hunger.
Infobox
table-of-contents
Introduction
Link to original
The Adventure Begins
The Hallway Battle
The Leisure Room
The Stable
The Alley
The Solution
NPCs
Mazlo Merryshadow
Rosy Rumblegarden
Buttercup
Lendle Pickles
Granny Pickles
Monsters
Room Mimic
Baby Mimic Swarm
Tiny Mimic
Small Mimic
Medium Mimic
List of other patrons
- Elara Thistledown, female, half-elf, silver hair woven with ivy.
- Borin Ironfoot, male, dwarf, tattooed arms depicting mountain landscapes.
- Jalia Mirthsong, female, human, wears a wide-brimmed hat adornedwith feathers.
- Tormund Giantsbane, male, human, noticeable scar across left eye.
- Zara Blackwater, female, tiefling, piercing yellow eyes.
- Grendo Gobblepot, male, gnome, oversized spectacles and buckteeth.
- Nissa Starshadow, female, human, old and heavyset.
- Harbek Stonefist, male, dwarf, bald with intricate runic brands on his head.
- Lyris Moonbeam, female, tiefling, dressed in flowy fabrics with delicate floral patterns.
- Milo Quickfoot, male, halfling, always juggling small objects when idle.
- Cedric the Stout, male, human, remarkably rotund with a booming laugh.
- Anwen Willowbark, female, wood elf, deaf from birth.
- Dax Ironhide, male, half-elf, scale mail that shimmer like polished silver.
- Selene Nightwalker, female, human, old and thin with white hair to her knees.
- Zebron Toppilshop, male, gnome, wears golden jewelry and has gold teeth.
- Mungus Broadback, male, human, towering figure with a surprisingly gentle voice.
- Iridessa Lightwing, female, high elf, ethereal beauty and soft voice.
- Fargrim Frostbeard, male, dwarf, white beard knotted into little spikes.
- Eldric Vane, male, human, with long shaggy eyebrows.
- Bram Wellfound, male, human, has an intricately tattooed map of the trade routes on his arms.
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