As the party nears [forest town here] they hear a loud BOOM, and a crowd mumbling. It’s a mix of cheers, shock, and fear. Going further toward the noise, they come to a clearing where a group of forest gnomes are gathered. In the center of the crowd is a gnome artificer with a cylindrical tube of some sort.
“I’ve done it! I am death, destroyer of spuds!” the gnome yells.
Seeing the party looking on, the gnome skips over, excited as can be, and introduces himself as Solanus Tuberos. If the party inquires about his device, he’ll gladly explain.
“You see, I put this contraption together by hollowing out a log, attaching a wand of magic missiles inside, and then leveraging some reforged copper to create a trigger. Put a potato in the open end, pull the trigger, and BLAM-O, we’ve got ourselves a propelled potato. No one has successfully created anything of the sort.”
It being the first of its kind, anyone who sees the potato projectile is slightly horrified, thinking of the ramifications of what it could mean. They don’t know the extent of the damage that could be done, but they fear the worst.
Be sure to play up the chaos that’s been created by the first projectile launcher of its kind.
Gnomes Just Want To Have Gun
Drunk with the success of his contraption, Solanus requests the party run some additional experiments for him. Their forest camp has recently been victim to hordes of Twig and Vine Blights.
Pointing you in the direction of the blight epicenter, Solanus asks the party to take the launcher and only use the launcher in taking the blights out. He’s got two launchers total (a backup in case the other exploded on him again) and will hand them off to the party.
The Tube of Tubers comes with a sling of 1d10 potatoes for use. It cannot be deconstructed and only shoots potatoes. The ranged weapon has a reach of five feet, but can be shot with disadvantage from 20 feet away.
The launcher does 1d6 bludgeoning damage and destroys the potato on impact.
Armed with two Tubes of Tubers and a hefty amount of potatoes, the party should head off toward the blights.
Of Blight and Magic
The party reaches a particularly gnarly area of the forest, where they will see some Twig Blights milling about. Once they notice the party, the blights become enraged and will charge at them.
The first wave will be four twig blights, a light start.
The second wave will be eight twig blights.
The third and final wave will be four twig blights and two vine blights.
If the party gets into trouble, they’ll hear Solanus yell from somewhere in the trees and the blights will be pelted with more potatoes, launched from a” “tuberchet,” that Solanus has also crafted. Each barrage from the makeshift trebuchet will inflict 2d6 bludgeoning damage in a 15-foot radius, including the party.
If the party begins using any other weapons other than the launchers, Solanus will pop up amongst the trees and look extremely sad. He’ll begin yelling “You’re doing it wrong!” and begin cursing at the party, even resorting to throwing potatoes at them himself, doing 1d4 damage with each toss. Treat this as a reaction any time the party uses a different weapon as an action.
The Resolution
Once the party (or Solanus) has taken care of the blights, they should return to the gnome colony.
If they have successfully leveraged the tubes, Solanus will ask if they have any feedback or ideas of how to improve the tubes. If they do, he’ll make some adjustments and send them along with an improved tube that does 1d10 bludgeoning.
If there are no recommendations for improvements, they will simply get a 1d6 Tube, a handshake, and a sincere thank you.
If Solanus is completely disappointed in the party’s approach to killing the blights, he will be extremely frustrated and storm off into the forest.
