In the far reaches of [insert world here] the party stumbles along a mount dealership on the side of the road. There are large gaudy signs talking about “low, low prices” with wacky inflatable flailing arm rats dancing in the breeze.
Approaching the storefront, a sharp-dressed tiefling introduces herself as Ovi Saries. Ovi is a mount saleswoman and she has been in business for only a short time, taking over the business after her late father. His death was a suspicious one, but Ovi hasn’t had time to mourn nor delve deeper because she is losing all of her business to a competing mount lot down the street.
As she explains the complications of her business, the party begins to notice they are surrounded by sheep. Too many to count, Ovi notes that she specializes in sheep mounts for the neighboring gnome communities. Her top of the line sheep have been bred year over year to produce the most rugged, durable sheep offspring, further increasing their product line. Walking the party through the lot, she begins slapping sheep on the side or butt, noting “these here make of the Sheep Grand Cherokee, which continues to set the standard for full-size SUVs, or Sheep Utility Vehicles.”
She continues, “you see, when we lash eight of these sheep together, you can go anywhere, see anything, all from the comfort of the backs of these sheep. In fact, it feels like you’re on a cloud.” The sheep baa in agreement as she walks further into the lot, citing the following “vehicles”:
- The Sheep Wagoneer – Two hefty sheep pulling a makeshift wagon
- The Sheep Renegade – A sheep standing on two legs, folding his arms and chewing on a long piece of grass
- The Sheep Gladiator – An extremely musclebound sheep pulling a chariot
- The Sheep Wrangler – This is just a human named Gary who yells “yahhh” at the sheep and passersby
Finishing the product line, Ovi breaks down (between fits of sadness, anger, and deeper rage) and says she is nearing bankruptcy if she can’t figure out how to offload most of her stock in the next few days. Before the party can learn what she needs from them they hear a growl from behind them.
The Competition Is Fleecing His Customers
The growl is a smug half-elf man, draped in a gigantic wolf coat, riding into the lot on a shoddily made wood “vehicle” which appears to be fifteen sheep covered in a strange bright yellow box. A low growl from the man emanates as the vehicle stops, he opens up what can most closely be called a car door, and exits the vehicle.
“Well, well, well,” he says. “If you’re done annoying my customers, you can go Ovi.”
Ovi snarls at the man, but retreats, kneeing a sheep on her way past her signs and into her office.
“If you’re looking for a real vehicle, I’ve got what you’re looking for. Nothing says style and class like one of Tristan Hunter’s Lamb Ore-guini’s.”
One of the sheep baa’s and Tristan kicks the wooden exterior. Tristan will proceed to discuss why his vehicles are top-of-the-line and offer a test drive if the party is interested. As they look toward Tristan’s lot, they can see folks from the gnome communities running their hands down the slick exterior of the vehicles. One gets a splinter stuck in his hand and yelps.
Tristan will continue to poo-poo on Ovi’s lot, saying she doesn’t have what it takes to properly sell mounts and neither did her bum of a father. He is a little too proud of his lot, and if the party takes a test drive, they might notice something suspicious about the vehicle. It turns out that while Tristan touts the Lamb Ore-guini or LAMB-bow, as Tristan calls it, as a sheep-propelled vehicle, if the party looks closely, they will notice it is actually several badgers that have been tied together, but given prosthetic sheep legs and sheep leg coverings to make appear as though the vehicle is sheep-powered.
Revealing the badgers will result in them hissing at the party and potentially attacking them if they attempt to dislodge or call out any of the badgers.
Helping Ovi Saries
When thinking about how to help Ovi and how to increase her sales, the DM should think of the situation as a sliding scale, with Ovi starting at 3 and Tristan starting at 7.
- If Tristan gets to 10 or Ovi goes to 0, he wins the sales for the weekend, bankrupting Ovi.
- If Ovi gets to 10 or Tristan goes to 0, Tristan will be revealed as a fraud and be laughed out of the area (or murdered, depending on the type of world your party is in).
Some different tactics for improving Ovi’s score:
- Take to the lot and work on selling the cars to individuals. +0.5 for each person convinced, max of 3 points. There can be six attempts in total and will require a Persuasion check of 15 or more to succeed. DM can choose to award advantage if the sales pitch is well done. For every failure, Tristan gets those points. Each pitch must be unique.
- The party can make signs attracting more customers to the lot. DM’s discretion, with the best signs gaining Ovi +0.5 for each clever sign, max of 2 points. There is no downside for this particular tactic, unless the sign is horrendous and the DM can give the +0.5 to Tristan.
- If someone in the party has Suggestion or is able to Charm folks into checking out Ovi’s mounts, Ovi gets a +1 bump. There is no downside to this tactic if it fails.
- Sign-spinning contest. If the party is interested, they can perform a sign-off against Tristan and his assistants. Two representatives from each side can participate, winner giving +1 to their side. There are two waves to the sign-off, each a best-of-three Acrobatics check against the opponent. If the rounds split between the two sides, each side will choose their favorite competitor for a final best of three. The winning side gets +2.
Some different tactics for reducing Tristan’s score:
- Using stealth, the party could uncover evidence that Tristan was responsible for Ovi’s father’s death. The murder weapon is entirely up to the DM, though it’s more fun if it’s sheep-themed. Even without physical evidence, a compelling frame job could inflict damage to his reputation. This will reduce Tristan’s score by 3.
- Somehow unleashing all of the badgers within the Lamb Ore-guini’s will also reduce Tristan’s score by 3, as the badgers will likely begin attacking the customers on his lot. He will calm the situation but will lose a chunk of his score.
- This is a hidden tactic, but the party could go full nuclear and set Tristan’s lot on fire. Doing so will give a -1 to Ovi, but will be -3 for Tristan. He is capable of putting the fire out with some of his assistants, but half of the vehicles will be burnt to a crisp.
If all options are exhausted, and neither Tristan nor Ovi is at 10, the DM should call it and review the scores.
The Resolution
Depending on how the competition goes, the party will reach one of two resolutions.
- If Ovi wins, she will thank the party, stay in business and offer them any two of the mounts that she has on the lot. Up to the DM as to whether they are leased or not and if the party will need to return them at the next town or further along in their adventure. The mounts will double their travel speed, taking half the time to get to any location.
- If Tristan wins, he will continue to be smug and rub Ovi’s horns in the loss. Upset, Ovi will collect her sheep and head off down the road, unsure of where to go or what to do with her life. If the party offers for her to tag along, she will follow them to the nearest town and sell off her flock, using the earnings to concoct a revenge plot against Tristan.
Remember, the more sheep puns throughout, the better!
