The party arrives at a town on the outskirts of [main plane of existence here] and are approached by a man selling wares. As they are speaking to him, he starts to exhibit strange behavior.
- First is a quick belch that emits the tiniest of fireballs from his mouth which he apologizes for.
- Second is as he is speaking to the party about his wares he begins scratching his skin. With a Medicine check of 12+ the party notices that the places he’s scratching appear to be rather scaley.
- Third, if the party does purchase anything from the man, he takes the coinage, places it on the ground, and sits on it, hissing at anyone that gets close.
As the party ventures further into town, they see other folks that seem to have the same ailment. They also begin to see signs for what appears to be a drink being sold in town called “Dragonade,” which claims consumers can “feel the strength of the dragon.” The drink is being sold in the town market by a man named Dirk Gozzleswap and his assistant, a half-sized lizardfolk that goes by Larchuk.
When the party approaches Dirk, he will offer to sell them a jug of his finest Dragonade at a reasonable price. If the party confronts Dirk and is aggressive, he will make a scene that he’s being repressed and that he is a commoner trying to make ends meet. A few directions this could go now.
- Partaking of the drink will begin to slowly give the party similar signs they’ve already seen.
- If they decide the drink must be investigated, they can take it to the local alchemist to determine what the drink is doing to individuals in the town. After taking a sample in his lab he can give a full breakdown of what it is doing to the townsfolk.
- They find it is afflicting individuals with Dragonosis, a rare genetic mutation with lingering side effects. The effects wear off after a few days, unless the Dragonade is consumed again.
- If they are unsure of how to proceed, an economist from the town can find them and reveal the town is heading toward financial ruin. He points to Dragonade as the cause of the economic downturn. Not because people are buying too much, but one of the side effects of drinking the Dragonade seems to be that folks are hoarding all of their money (ie the man sitting on the coin). Barring a stoppage of the sale of Dragonade, the town will cease to function. He begs for you to do something.
From here it is all up to the party how they’d like to resolve the issue of Dragonade. If they choose to do nothing it is likely that they will see more Dragonade vendors pop up in every city or town they venture to.
- If they choose to intimidate Dirk he still will not leave, continuing to play the victim
- If they choose to rough him up and or smash up his stall, they will get a poor reputation in town, but Dirk will leave the town
We couldn’t really think of an ending for this one sooooo improvise depending on your party’s actions!
