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Map Of Woods Way By Bre
Posted on 2024-08-14
Session Summary
Milyagon Adventures
Just Quest Sandbox
Library Game Day
August 10, 2024
Amberly, an elven ranger, and Ukelele Elf, a human rogue, traveled from Milyagon across Wilken Woods to Tobbins Shire for the fair. In Tobbins Shire they meet Flower, a Halfling Cleric who loves nature. She decided to return to Milyagon with them for the scenery and the company.
Our story begins when they leave Tobbins Shire, cross the bridge, and step out on Woods Way. Amberley is walking lead point and after about an hour she notices something ahead, just off the trail on the left, that looks like a nest except that it's a little bit too orderly.
As she approaches she can tell it's a basket so she takes a step off the road where she can see a human baby sleeping in the basket.
The babe wakes up when Amberly picks up the basket and brings it onto Woods Way. Flower immediately loves the baby and lifts the babe out of the basket and gives it a gentle hug and a rock. Ukelele Elf has no experience with babies and he is also quite afraid of Wilken Woods as he has heard the story of Yon Rogar's Hat.
After a short discussion the party decides to take the human baby on to Milyagon, a human village, rather than back to Tobbins Shire. There is a Biguns Road in Tobbins Shire but if a human babe had been missing it would have been the talk of the fair.
Generally speaking, Woods Way is safe for travel during the day, so the party hikes on for several hours without incident. They can see a large tree on the right with branches overhanging the road when suddenly they hear a loud noise behind them, like a tree falling in the woods. They turn to look but don't see anything. When they turn back there are three owls perched on a branch in front of them, above their heads.
Their eyes all open wide and Flower waves a hand and says, "Hi", feeling kind of silly talking to some owls in front of her new friends.
The owl in the middle says, "Hello. I see you have a baby." Everone is surprised to hear the owl speak but, after all, they are in a magic forest so they're not that surprised.
Amberley and Flower both speak to the owls asking what they know about the baby, do they know where it came from, have they seen it before?
The owl in the center says, "We don't know where it came from but we did see it before. The fairies had it in the woods."
Amberly and Flower wonder if it is a human baby, since the fairies had it.
The owl in the center says, "Indeed it is a human baby. It's often hard for us to determine what the fairies are up to since they are so flighty."
Amberly thanks the owl for the information and says they are taking it to Milyagon to see if they can find the baby's mother or at least someone to take care of it.
The middle owl says, "That's probably wise.", and then all three of them are gone in a frenzy of flapping wings and feathers.
After about another hour of hiking the party crosses the bridge over Rune River, they see Milyagon ahead and to the left they see Yon's brother, Jon Rogar, over by the docks.
Ukelele Elf shouts out, "Jon, we found a baby.", and Jon waves them over. Ukelele Elf works for Jon in an informal capacity and he sleeps in the stables so he is glad to leave the magic forest behind and be back home.
Amberley carries the baby over and Jon and the baby grin at each other.
Amberley asks Jon, "Have you heard of a missing baby? I found it just off the road on Woods Way."
Jon says, "No. I haven't heard anything about a baby but it sounds like fairies to me."
Ukelele Elf shouted out, "The owl said he saw the baby with some fairies."
Jon nodded and said, "You better take it to town and ask around. That baby can't take care of himself", assuming the baby is a boy without actually checking.
Now Milyagon is a small village centered on an old army fort with log walls and lookout towers. Since they are no longer at war the gates always stand open. Mayor Bannych and Sherrif Slykver oil the hinges and close and open the gates on the first day of every month just in case there's an orc raid from the north or possibly a group of bandits hungry enough to try to get at their stores. Since the end of the war several buildings have been built inside the walls leaving roads and alleys between them. (See the Milyagon Players Handbook One Page pictured below for maps and NPC descriptions.)
Just through the gates is the inn so the party decides to stop there first to quench their thirst and ask about the baby. Tyad Miggles, the innkeep, approaches the party with a grin. "Amberly, Ukelele, what's this?", he says, "A halfling and a baby?"
Amberly introduces Flower to Tyad and says, "I found the baby just off the road on Woods Way. An owl said the fairies had it."
Tyad nods his head and replies, "Oh, so you talked to the owl. That's probably right then. Fairies have been known to play tricks like that."
Flower says, "Do you know about a missing baby?"
Tyad shakes his head, "No, you better try to find the Sherrif. He was here a few minutes ago. He's probably still in town."
So after a quick quaff the party is back outside looking for the sherrif. Making a circle past the well they pass the mayor's house and go into the Town Hall. They are greeted by the clerk and they ask for the Sherrif. The clerk says the Sherrif is with the Mayor.
So it's back to the mayor's house where they knock on the door. Mayor Bannych and Sherrif Slykver come out onto the porch.
"So Amberly", says the sherrif, "When did you have a baby? And who is the cute halfling with the big stick?"
Amberly introduces Flower and says, "It's not my baby. It's human. Do I look human?"
Ukelele Elf shouts out, "We found him in the woods. The owl said the fairies had him."
The mayor says, "So you talked to the owl? Probably fairies then. But we haven't heard of a missing baby. In fact there's been no baby born recently in town."
The Sherrif says, "You probably better go see the witch. She delivers most of the babies around here. And she always knows who's had a baby."
The witch lives about three miles north of town so after a few more hat tips and nods the party takes their leave and heads north through the back gate.
Ukelele Elf shouts out to the gatekeeper, "We found a baby and we're going to see the witch."
After being introduced to Flower the gatekeeper says, "You should be safe enough with Amberley and her bow. There have been some bandits a little bit too close to town for my liking. The Sherrif and I will probably have to clear them out soon. If they've got any sense they won't get crossways with the witch."
Amberley ties the baby and basket around Flower's shoulders like a back pack to make the hike easier and so their arms can be free in case of trouble.
After walking about a mile they see four ruffians off to the right up a hill in front of a wood lot. They don't look like woodcutters so Amberley grabs her bow and Ukelele Elf pounds his club into his hand hoping the ruffians will stay where they are. But no, here comes the tallest one with the other three not far behind.
The bandit leader shouts out, "Don't look like you have much. What's in that basket, a picnic."
Flower bangs her staff on the ground and shouts back, "No it's a baby and you'll have to come through me to get to it."
Now Flower's staff has a crystal attached to the top of it mainly because Flower thinks it's pretty. She's a cleric, so she doesn't need a focus for her magic, but the bandits see a fierce halfling wizard threatening them with a staff. (The crystal does make a pretty good head conker.)
Amberley and Ukelele step forward in front of Flower and the bandits can see that they're ready to protect the baby too.
Now they are closer, Amberley and Ukelele Elf recognize the bandit leader and he recognizes them.
He shouts out, "Oh, hey Ukelele, don't mean no trouble. We don't want a baby anyway. All that crying and mess. You all just go on your way and forget you ever saw us."
Ukelele Elf leads the party on towards the witch's cottage with Flower following. Amberley takes tail point walking backwards with her bow still in her hand. The bandits retreat back up the hill to the shade of the wood lot.
After they are out of earshot Amberley says, "Looks like we might have a problem to take care of after we see this baby is safe."
They hike on and get to the witch's cottage without any further problems. The witch is out in her garden tending her herbs.
Amberley calls out, "Grandma Mary, we found a baby on Woods Way. Come and see."
The witch looks at the baby and you can see the gears whirring around in her head.
Flower says, "I love your garden. The plants are so beautiful. I wish I could grow plants like that."
The witch says, "Plants grow themselves. If you have trouble gardening it's almost always because of too much care."
Flower says, "Any time I try to grow anything it dies."
The witch says, "Well, you have to take care of this baby first. But then come back and enjoy the plants and I may have a pot or two around here where I can help you start a hardy herb and you can gain some confidence."
Amberley says, "I love plants too but what about the baby. Do you know who the mother could be?"
The witch looks at the baby's tiny fingers and says, "This baby is young. The last time I saw Goodwife Jones she was big but I haven't heard any bad news from that way. The Jones farm is on the right a few miles up the North Road. I think you should take the baby up there. But you need to watch out for bandits. I've been so busy I let them get too close. Of course, they don't come around my place."
Amberley said, "We already saw them and sent them on their way. I think the Sherrif has got the word too. Someboy's going to have to deal with them bothering people just a mile out of Milyagon."
So the witch repeats her invitation to Flower and the party is back on the road heading north again. In less than an hour they saw the Jones farm on the right, a nice little house and an open pole barn for the animals to get under during a storm.
They go up on the porch and Flower knocks on the door. Goodwife Jones steps out onto the porch and immediately notices the baby Flower is carrying in a basket strapped to her shoulders.
"Ohhhh, my baby!", Goodwife Jones says as she lifts it out of the basket.
She cuddles the baby in her arms and the baby grins and says, "Gooooo."
Goodwife Jones gets a confused look on her face and says, "But how could you have my baby out here when I just put her to sleep in her crib." Amberly and Flower notice just how wrong Jon had been.
Goodwife Jones turns and walks into the house as the party follows. Standing by the crib they see another baby that looks exactly the same as the baby they had found. Goodwife Jones carefully lays her baby down next to the other one.
Everyone sees two identical twins laying in the crib, one sleeping and the other slowly reaching out. When the babies touch the glamour falls away from the fairy baby and now everyone see two babies laying in the crib, the one they brought, human, and the other one, fey. The fey baby wakes up and they both gurgle and goo at each other.
Now Ukelele Elf doesn't like fey at all in fact he's quite scared of them. He also has poor impulse control and before you know it his club was in his hand and heading straight toward the fey baby.
Fortunately Flower quickly intervened with her staff and reprimanded him saying, "Ukelele Elf, it's a baby." She snatches the fey baby out of the crib to give her some love.
Goodwife Jones says, "All day long I've been loving a fey baby and my baby was missing. I didn't even know it." But she still loved the fey baby and she took her from Flower's arms.
Goodwife Jones' baby suddenly noticed she was all alone in the crib and started to cry. Flower reached down and picked her up, comforting her.
Then Goodwife Jones said, "If those fairies don't care enough about their own baby to care for it I'm just going to keep her and raise her with my own. I've got enough love in me to raise two babies and we certainly need the help on the farm."
Amberly says, "What about your husband? What will he say about a fey baby?"
And Goodwife Jones says, "He's going to love both babies because I'm going to tell him to."
All present laughed and grinned, even the babies who didn't get the joke but still caught the mood. Goodwife Jones put the kettle on so they could all have tea before walking back to Milyagon. (With a couple of side quests on the way.)
Actually the party was quite relieved that they didn't have to care for a baby any more.
The end.
(Everybody levels up.)
Links
Milyagon Players Handbook Minizine and One Page
https://www.minizines.cc/flat/?x=entry:entry190604-070157
Just Quest Minizine and One Page
https://www.minizines.cc/flat/?x=entry:entry200105-065552
Yon Rogar’s Hat, a short story by Larry Heyl
https://sffshortstories.com/?x=entry:entry190818-150004
https://www.minizines.cc/flat/?x=entry:entry190819-072948
Amberly-2024-08-10
Ukelele Elf-2024-08-10
Flower-2024-08-10
Scrivener-2024-08-10
Milyagon Players Handbook-1P
Just Quest-1P
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