As the party ventures through [forest here] they here high pitched squealing in a clearing up ahead. Exiting the trees, they come upon what seems like a new, but also dilapidated homes, built of straw, sticks, and bricks.
In front of the home, an upright pig (likely a Hog Folk) stands in a grubby but colorful button-up shirt. He’s shrieking and squealing at three perytons, and a few smaller swarms of birds, that are dive-bombing the straw home.
He sees the party and wails for help, squealing that the perytons are destroying his home. “You have to help meeeeeee!” A siren pops out of the ground throughout the field and starts a high-pitched “wee wee wee” noise that drones on and on.
If the party intervenes and assists the pig, they will square off with 3 perytons, and two swarms of ravens. After most are dead, the third peryton will fly away. If the party stands by and watches, the perytons will continue to dismantle the house, flying off to the edge of the forest where they are using the straw to build nests.
After the resolution, the party sees two more pigs emerge from both the stick and brick home that is nearby. They come over to console the third pig, each of them sniffling about what a pain home ownership is.
They will invite the party into their stick home for tea, and to ask for an additional favor. The three pigs introduce themselves as James, Halliwell, and Phillip, three brothers that recently moved out here.
“Tweren’t our desire to live in these here parts,” James whines, “but Ma said we needed to show that we were ‘big pigs’ and that we could take care of ourselves.” Halliwell continues his brother’s line of thinking as they sip tea from broken mugs, “if we want to be a part of the inheritance, we have to prove that we can take care of the family home.”
Turns out that the rest of the family lives just over the next ridge on a 1,000-acre estate, but were so worried about these three pigs not being able to live on their own that they exiled them to build properties for themselves. If they can do so for two years (they’re a year and a half in) they will be written back into the will and granted their inheritance, someday in the future. If the party helps them with some basic homeowner tips and tricks, along with some barrier defense, they will give them a cut.
Battle of Wills
As they continue drinking tea, the ground trembles, making the cups and mugs shudder and shake. The brothers look at each other, fear in their eyes as a booming voice from outside rumbles, “where is our brotherrrrrrr.”
Before the party can move, the roof of the stick house is removed, revealing two treants, their wooden gazes sending the pigs below the table to hide.
“Tell ‘em ta go, we don’t know what they’re on about,” Phillip weeps.
“Not only have you murdered our brother, but now you adorn your dwelling with his dismembered corpse?! I, Will Oeauh, demand retribution.” bellows one of the treants.
The party can try to reason with the treants, but the pigs will not help any diplomatic endeavors. They aren’t trying to actively sabotage the discussions, they’re just idiots. If things are nearing closure, they will turn on their “wee wee wee” siren, causing the treants to cover their ears in disdain.
Ultimately the treants want to collect all of the sticks that were gathered from their brother Woodrow, who was mysteriously murdered a few weeks ago. After a long investigation, the sap led the treants to this house. The evidence is pretty strong that Woodrow is in fact what the pigs used to build the house.
Throughout the fight, the treants will continue to dismantle the house, chucking furniture, etc, while collecting sticks and putting them in some sort of ceremonial bag on their back.
While the fight ensues, or post-resolution, the pigs will retreat to their third home, which is made of brick, though the mortar work is pretty shoddy.
With the treants resigned to the woods, or in a fresh pile of sticks, the party should head to the brick house. The pigs will be grateful, though they’ll lose interest quickly and begin discussing how they will make it through the next several months and what they’ll spend their part of the will on.
Likely annoyed at this point, the party can press the pigs for payment or anything else along those lines, but they have nothing to offer at the moment other than food and drink.
Huff & Puff
As the pigs bicker and argue, there’s a knock at the door. Phillip gets up to see who it could be and opens the door to reveal two well-dressed tabaxi. They introduce themselves as Huff (female tabaxi LN) and Puff (male tabaxi LN), the co-heads of the local B.B. Wolfe Home Owner’s Association. It has come to their attention that the brothers have recently been building new homes without permits and the neighbors are displeased.
The two tabaxi enter the home to discuss further, much to the dismay of the pigs. Pulling a scroll from her bag, Huff reveals all of the complaints from neighboring HOA members (mostly forest gnomes who view the pigs’ ownership to be an eyesore).
Of the complaints, they are requesting changes to at least three (one from each severity level) in the coming days:
Minor Eyesores
- Must take down the statue of trash that was built when James was trying out a new hobby
- Philip’s friend Klayven insists on doing yoga in the nude in a prominent area of the field, horrifying passersby
Medium Miscreants
- Vines have overtaken a nearby wall. One of the forest gnomes that complained has not been heard from since investigating. Vines are Yellow Musk Creeper
- Get rid of the cursed fountain that was purchased and then put in a corner of the field. Instead of water, the fountain has snakes streaming out of it at all times. The snakes have bitten some of the neighbors
Major Maladies
- A boneclaw stalks the eastern wall after being recently uncovered as the pigs were building a strange compost/garbage collection area
- Two shambling mounds that are courting continue waking the forest in the evening with their “noises”
Once a few of these are resolved, Huff & Puff will be blown away by the quick work and head out. If these items are not resolved they will put a foreclosure sign on the door, which will cause the pigs to cry and lose out on a chance to get back in the will.
If the party is able to resolve all of the above, the pigs will thank them again and pledge a hefty sum of their inheritance to the party (500gp or whatever feels right). This sum will not be available for a while, or until something bad happens, “not saying it will,” James assures.
