An adventure for characters level 6 to 8.
Background
Mulla, the wicked maiden, has cut out a prosperous life in the screaming fields. The fields stretch hundreds of miles and are littered with small farming communities. The townsfolk tell travelers that the fields are named for the sound the wind makes cutting through the wheat, which is true, but it’s not the only reason.
About 13 years ago Mulla moved from her dull hole in the underdark to a cottage which was built near the caverns which lead into the underdark. There she encountered the peaceful golden gnolls who lived near the farming communities with little conflict. Most of the gnolls gave wide birth to the clearly toxic maiden that lived in the hut, but a few approached her willingly when Mulla promised them power. She was willing to give them tremendous power in exchange for two tasks. First, each gnoll must bring her a child and its parent. Upon completion, she then immediately released the parents and told them to run. In exchange for the exotic meal, the child, she transformed the gnoll into a horrific but powerful fiend. She then gives the gnoll the second task; to hunt down the child’s parents and eat their heart. If the gnoll fails to eat the heart by sunrise the gnoll dies.
Over the past 13 years a tradition was formed of this test. A few gnolls break away from their golden traditions to complete Mulla’s tasks for power.
Quest
While traveling along a road in the screaming fields, Ruffus Cutter stumbles into the heroes. He is being chased by a gnoll who wants to eat his heart. He begs for help, and if he survives explains what happened to him.
He and his son were harvesting wheat when a pair of gnolls captured them. They dragged to a cottage Northwest of here where he saw the six more captured families. The wicked maiden has caged the 7 children in her cottage, and freed the parents to flee the gnolls again. We scattered, and that’s when I ran into you. Please save us and our children.
Notes
- Mulla is a tall elegant**oni** with deep blue skin and golden eyes. She dresses and speaks in a civil tongue which masks her monstrous nature. She helps the gnolls solely because she lives for the despair of children and the taste of their baked flesh. She has chained the 7 children in her cottage’s cellar and intends to slowly eat them over the course of about 2 months. Anyone near the cabin can hear her singing sadistic nursery rhymes about cooking children.
- There are 7 **gnoll fang of yeenoghu** on the hunt. One of them should have been defeated when Ruffus encountered the adventurers. Each gnoll is paired off to hunt a different target.
- The parents of the children have split up in their attempts to evade the gnolls. Ruffus was the first to escape and meet the adventurers, but the other 6 are not so lucky. 2 of them attempted to escape in the caves near Mulla’s cabin. They encountered a **gelatinous cube** who quickly ate and dissolved one of them to bones. The two gnolls that have been hunting the pair are scuffling over the one remaining living heart when encountered by the heroes.
- 2 more of them are familiar with the area and fled to a ravine where a pair of mated **owlbears** have nested. Their dangerous plan backfired with the owlbears ripping apart one of the two, but they did change their target to the two gnolls when they entered the scene. When the heroes enter the encounter the one remaining owlbear and gnoll will be fighting, and the one remaining fleeing captive will be hiding to the best of his ability.
- The last two attempted to flee down a different cave with their gnolls in pursuit. However, all four of them were killed by a **roper* and a *cloaker* that live in the cave.