Dirty Secrets

While visiting a town, the PCs are relaxing in a local tavern. While sitting there drinking and socializing, a man of importance walks into the room. This person is the town’s mayor. The PCs do not really need to know this. He walks directly up to the PCs and asks them to meet him at his manor. He needs their help. After saying his piece, he leaves.



When the PCs go to the manor, they will be warmly greeted. The mayor will invite them in, offer them a drink and perhaps a small snack. He will then get down to business. He will say that by their clothes and their rough look that he can tell the PCs are adventurers. The town has been the victim of numerous raids by nearby lizard men. Taken in the raids are various foods, mostly vegetables and some meats, and many of the village’s children, no doubt to eat them. The food is secondary, they had a very good harvest this year. But the town wants the children back. If needed, the mayor is prepared to offer them compensation for their troubles.



If asked why he can’t send some of the town guard after the lizards, he will say that he has lost confidence in their abilities. The guards, you see, cannot defend their own hometown from small raids. How could they be expected to go into the lizards’ home and live? Because the PCs are adventurers, they stand a much better chance of success.



If the PCs choose to accept this task, they will be told that the lizard men come out of the north for every raid. A search to the north will show that there is a large hole in the ground about a half mile out of town. This is the closest entrance to the lizard men’s home.



When inside the hole, the PCs will eventually encounter lizard men. But there is something strange about these ones. These lizard men will not attack the PCs unless in self defense. Most of them are unarmed to begin with. They will kneel on the ground with their hands above their heads. After walking a while down a corridor, they will hear human children’s voices. When the PCs enter the room, they will see many children playing with each other. And among these children are some of the lizard people’s children, playing!



Off in the shadows there is a lizard man, watching the children. When the PCs enter the room, he will approach them in a very non-offensive manner. He will speak in a very broken common “no…harm…to…young…ones. Please…weapons…down.” If pressed on what is going on, he will say “follow.” If the PCs want to take the children, he will not let them. He will defend them with his life if needed. The PCs will also notice a sort of a whistle dangling around his neck. If he blows on the whistle, many armed guards will appear and slay the PCs.



If the PCs do follow him, they will be lead down a corridor to a large, well decorated (relatively speaking) chamber. In the chamber there will be an elderly looking lizard. He speaks common quite well. When asked of the events, he will go into a story. That summer there had been a terrible harvest and his people were in danger of starvation. So, they had sent some of their people to the village to try and work out a trade agreement with the village. But without a word being said, the humans attacked the negotiators, killing all but one, who escaped to the village.



After exhausting all other options, they decided to survive they would steal some of the crops. The village had a very good harvest that year, so no one would be suffering. It was a regrettable decision. When the first group was taking some of the food, they saw that many of the villagers were beating the children, forcing them into hard labor. The elder had then decided to rescue the children from their captors. The lizard people would then raise the children as their own, teaching them the skills necessary to survive in the wild. And he’s telling the complete truth.



The PCs are now faced with a dilemma. Do they bring the children to their rightful parents who would probably continue to mistreat them and get the reward? Do they allow the lizards to raise them in surrounding unnatural to them, but knowing that the children would live well? The choice is theirs.

Quarantined

The PCs are traveling towards a town (by coincidence or not) and they see someone lying in the middle of the little traveled road. Upon closer examination, the PCs will see that the person is dead. There is a hole in the chest of the corpse and the ground nearby is all bloodstained. But the hole does not look like a standard wound. It almost looks like something ate away at it. Maybe an acid?



It’s getting late, so they had better get into town and find an inn. They get there, and there is an unusually small amount of activity going on in the streets. It seems like everyone is staying inside. Those storm clouds in the west may account for that, though. The PCs get their room, they wind down in the bar, and no one approaches them for an adventure request there. Maybe these bars are a little safer than they had thought? After all, how many contracts have been negotiated over an ale?



When the PCs wake up, there is a group gathering in the street just outside the PCs room. When the go outside to see what is happening, they see someone important looking reading from a scroll. He is saying “Under the order of King [X], this town of [Y] is under quarantine. Anyone caught trying to leave town will be killed on site.” And with that, the man leaves. Looking around, the PCs will see that there are many very tough looking guards around town. There are also white tents set up just outside town. And there are workers creating a makeshift fence to cut the town off from the outside world.



At this point the PCs should be completely baffled as to the reason for the quarantine. When they ask around, they find out that there is a disease going around town. Because of this, the people are usually staying inside, avoiding contact with potential sick people. The disease, it’s said, eats away at the person’s body. It is always fatal. The cause is unknown and it is also unknown how it is transferred from one person to the next.



After hanging around for a day, the PCs will be very bored. During the evening, a woman in a robe will approach the group, specifically the cleric. The approaching woman will ask if the person is of the cloth, the god does not matter. She is from the healing effort. It seems that they are very overwhelmed and need every bit of help they can get. There is no reward involved, but the cleric will probably accept for one of two reasons. One: it is her duty to heal people and spread the word of her god. Two: there’s nothing else to do.



While healing someone, the cleric discovers something very unusual and disturbing. It seems that every sufferer of this illness has magic in his or her bloodstream. This is very unusual indeed; wizards know magic, they don’t have it in their blood, literally speaking. Simply put, this illness is magically induced. This quarantine just got a lot more interesting…