Friday Encounter: It's Just a Prank, Bro

This encounter is meant to subvert your players' expectations and present them with a situation with some wider consequences that might not be so easy to solve as it might appear on the surface, as well as giving them a mystery to solve. It is best suited to a town - perhaps one the PCs are staying in, or one encountered on the road.

The Encounter

The PCs should come upon the townsfolk dealing with a spate of strange activity. Farmers on the outskirts of town have been complaining about chickens going missing, pumpkins and hay bales being overturned, and fences being knocked over, and the incidents have gotten more and more frequent as of late. The PCs might hear this news as rumors being passed among the people, or they may hear it from farmers coming into town to hit the taverns.

At some point, they should also meet the town's resident delinquents, Wilhelm and Klaus. Two boys of about 14, their parents are often at work and pay them little heed, leaving them to their own devices - and they have nothing better to do than to cause trouble, finding enjoyment in antagonizing others. They aren't particularly bright, but enjoy mayhem as its own reward. They find anything particularly novel amusing, and will surely have many questions for the PCs on their adventures. Wilhelm is distinguished by his red hair and freckles, while Klaus wears a pair of hobnailed boots a bit too big for his thin frame.

If the PCs go to investigate the farms, they will find a number that show signs of these attacks. One woman, Else Kaufer, even reports hearing rustling noises in the bushes coming from outside her bedroom last night, but she didn't investigate out of fear for her safety. Another farmer, Soren Hirschilgard, feels this promises ill tidings. The farmers know of a cave in the woods not too far from town where a tribe of goblins dwell, and suspect that they must be raiding the farms at night. Surely it's only a matter of time before the goblins attack the town!

If the PCs follow Soren's directions, they'll be able to reach the goblin cave in about two hours. The goblins have not had much trouble lately and have grown lazy; there is a 75% chance that when the PCs arrive, the entrance will be unguarded. If the PCs are detected inside, however, the goblins will scramble to arm themselves with whatever weapons they can to defend themselves; for many, this means grabbing whatever crafting tools happen to be lying around, since they aren't used to having to fight. Furthermore, the majority of the goblins are visibly well-fed. The goblins do not have any chickens; there are some bird bones scattered around their dining hall, but a DC 20 Nature check will determine these are from pheasants, not chickens.

If the PCs confront the goblin chieftess, Rothmuk the Stout, she will claim no knowledge of any raids on the town, insisting that the tribe has had no need to do such things - they hunt in the woods and have plenty of food; in fact, they recently brought back a wild boar, which is being housed in a storeroom to be roasted the next night.

She is telling the truth. The commotion was actually caused by Wilhelm and Klaus, who grew bored of messing with the townspeople (who had become quite familiar with their antics at this point) and decided to go harass the farmers instead, not realizing that goblins lived nearby. When the farmers saw the damage they caused, they assumed the goblins were behind it. The boys have since heard the farmers demand the goblins be dealt with, but haven't come clean about their deeds - that would mean they would have to face punishment, and besides, they think it's pretty cool that they could be mistaken for goblins.

There are only a few clues that point to the true culprits. Wilhelm is hiding a chicken he stole from one of the farms in his room - he keeps the door shut during the day and refuses to let anyone inside, but the hen may be heard crowing if one listens closely at the door without being detected. Meanwhile, searching in the bushes around the farms may eventually turn up footprints that were clearly made by Klaus's hobnailed boots. To search the area takes an hour and requires a DC 30 Investigation check to successfully find the tracks. If the check is failed, it can be repeated any number of additional times, with the DC decreasing by 5 each time, but this of course will waste time.

Further Developments

Though Wilhelm and Klaus might think they were just playing jokes, the consequences may prove more dire than they bargained for. If three days go by without the culprits being identified, the townspeople will form an angry mob and attack the goblin caves. If this happens, the goblins will declare war, and at nightfall on the following day they will launch a raid of their own (for real, this time), killing many villagers and setting fire to the town. It's best to kill off some NPCs the party has already met here, so they are personally impacted by the consequences; this might also disrupt the structure of the village and it may not be a safe base of operations.

The goblins' attack will also happen if the PCs kill any goblins, again at nightfall the next day after a body is discovered. If the PCs kill any goblins but prove the tribe's innocence before they launch the raid, Rothmuk will be willing to call off the raid if they pay weregild of 20 GP's worth of treasure per goblin slain. The party might have to go into this carefully to avoid starting an all-out war.