Quest: The Apple

Rumors of magical apples with the power to cure any ailment drew (most) of the party to Greenrest.

Quest Summary
Quest-giver - Rumors

Task - Find an apple and make some friends along the way.

Location - Greenrest

Reward -


 * Apple(s)?

Background
According to rumors and gossip the town of Greenrest is occasionally visited by a group of Goblins, typically around Midsummer. The goblins come to the town and sell a single apple, usually for several hundred gold. Amazingly, when this apple is consumed it cures all ailments of the one who consumed it. As our adventure begins, Midsummer is only a few weeks away. Seeking the apple, or just seeking their next meal, all our heroes happen to converge on Greenrest on the same fateful summer night.

Quest Synopsis

 * 1) Kobolds raid Greenrest after nightfall.  All members of the party eventually get drawn in to responding to the threat in one way or another and then spend the night at the same Inn.  Though their personalities and motivations are disparate they all seem to realize they are the only competent people in town and feel compelled to lend assistance to what passes for a government.  They more or less group up.
 * 2) Miriam, the mayor, gives the group information and leads on the Apple and the Kobolds, which come from the same "Forest of Darkness" that the Goblins arrive from each visit.  She also mentions a "White Apple" which the goblins have brought at Midwinter in recent years.  This apple slays instead of heals.  Finally, she tells them of her husband Sir Bradford and the small adventuring party he lead in search of the Goblins and Apple a few weeks ago.  She was concerned for her husband and offered a reward if the group goes after them.  They agree since they are looking for Kobolds / Apples in that direction anyway.
 * 3) After learning what they can from the townsfolk the group heads into the forest, following the tracks of the retreating kobolds.  They eventually find a deep hole leading to a cave system.  Inside the cave they come to an underground castle, apparently sunken into the ground long ago: The Sunken Citadel.
 * 4) Inside the Citadel they soon encounter Meepo, a kobold distraught and isolated after losing his charge: The kobold tribes captive Dragon, Calcryx.  After the group offers to help the kobolds find Calcryx, Meepo guides the group to the Matriarch of their tribe, Yustryle.
 * 5) Yustryle tells the group that she previously lead Sir Bradfords party to the goblins and she could do the same for them. However, she denied affiliation with the kobolds that attacked Greenrest and negotiations broke down when Felegum and Harry pressed her about her lies.  Upon hearing the group was involved in killing her some of her kin Yustryle and her tribe attacked the group.  A massive fight ensued, the group was attacked from all sides but slew a massive number of kobolds and nearly Yustryle herself before Awk and Harry negotiated a ceasefire and the kobolds retreated deeper into their den.
 * 6) The group again encounters Meepo, he feels banished by the kobolds and still holds out hope the group will find Calcryx for him. The group lets him tag along.
 * 7) Set acquires a lizard when the group rests above ground for the night.
 * 8) Further exploration of the Citadel reveals an ancient burial chamber of a dragon priest. The group decides to leave the giant creepy sarcophagus unopened, Awk is the primary dissenter but is overruled.
 * 9) After battling rats and skeletons for a while, the group encounters the goblin tribe. Again trying their hand at diplomacy, they are brought to the goblin matriarch and the interloper who recently conquered the tribe, a big fighty guy named Durnen.
 * 10) Durnen exposits like a proper villain, telling the group all about how he had dominated the goblins and kobolds and that both Sir Bradfords group and the source of the Apples was down the giant pit next to him. Definitely not ominous.  Awk does what's on everyone's mind and attacks Durnen and the hobgoblins. They eventually defeat the hobgoblins and make peace with the remaining goblins, unfortunately Durnen doesn't go down easy and escapes down the hole as a red cloud after leaving his hobgoblin host.  Meepo is pushed down the hole in the chaos.
 * 11) After a short rest and some talking and trading with the Goblin Shopping Network the party descends into the pit. They find no sign of Meepo but a lot of signs of monsters attacking them in some sort of bizarre underground garden.
 * 12) Exploring the garden they encounter skeletons, twigblights, hobgoblins, Puffballs, Baneberries, a weird lab, and several dragon statues. Eventually the end up in The Grove
 * 13) In the Grove the group confronts Durnen and his coterie of barkified adventurers and twigblights. Due to egging on from Felegum, Awk charges in as a bear and the group skips the diplomacy this time.  Eventually, Durnen is defeated and escapes again as a red cloud while hinting that there are other "Conduits".  The centerpiece tree of the Grove appears to slowly produce Apples in response to being fed corpses.  They intervened right before Meepo's body met this fate.  Faced with this knowledge and the lack of any apples actually on the Tree the party gives up on acquiring them (other than Set who slices out as much as he can of the one currently being formed).  Unsure of what to do with the Tree the party leave it alone for now.  They bury Meepo and the fallen adventurers and then return to town after some GSN shopping.
 * 14) Miriam was saddened by the news of her husband's death but rewarded the group for trying. They sought out the town historian, Francis, for leads about the "Conduits".  Set snuck back later and gifted the feeble, old historian with the apple slice giving a bittersweet conclusion to this adventure that created more questions than it answered.