Brigands’ Tollway

Brigands’ Tollway

The Brigands’ Tollway is the headquarters of Agdon Longscarf and his gang of harengon brigands. It is also where the brigands collect tolls from travelers trying to reach Downfall. The brigands’ base is located on an enormous tree stump, 80 feet in diameter and 30 feet above the surface of the bog. Crisscrossing causeways of wooden planks converge on the stump, bringing travelers toward the brigands from all directions.

Approaching the Tollway

A foggy marsh stretches out before you. Rickety causeways made of wooden planks form a wide, web-like structure above the bog. Three hundred feet away, many of these causeways converge on an enormous, ivy-covered tree stump that rises a good ten feet above the twenty-foot-high fog bank that enshrouds it.

The wooden causeways are 5 feet wide and in poor shape. Characters who walk across the planks are assumed to be taking care to avoid unsafe areas. If a character runs across the planks, roll a d8 at the end of the character’s turn. On a 7 or 8, part of the causeway falls away beneath the character, who must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw to avoid falling off the plank and into the bog. While prone in the muck, the character is restrained. A character can use an action to try to free itself or another creature from the muck, doing so with a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check.

Most Notorious Brigand in Prismeer

As the characters make their way along one of the causeways, the character who has the highest passive Wisdom (Perception) score notices something:

An odd feeling suddenly comes over you as you become aware that somewhere along the way, a hunched, hooded figure has joined the group.

The figure is a notorious harengon brigand named Agdon Longscarf, who snuck in among the characters for a laugh. He casts off his cloak with a flourish, revealing his 15-foot-long, bright blue scarf. He holds a hot branding iron in one hand and a small round shield in the other.

As Agdon throws off his cloak, the sound of a bagpipe erupts from somewhere up ahead. After a few notes, the characters recognize it as the song sung by the harengon brigands they met earlier (see “Arrival in Hither”). Agdon sings the song as he takes off at a run, a wide grin on his rabbit face as he bounds from one plank to another in a circle around the party. He and his fellow harengons know the causeways well enough to avoid sections that are too weak to support their weight.

Agdon is backed up by two skiffs, each one containing three harengon brigands and a harengon sniper. The skiffs come from the direction of the giant tree stump. They emerge from the fog and become visible when they are 20 feet away. Each skiff has two rowers, a lookout (the sniper), and a bagpiper. The brigands spring onto nearby causeways, advance to melee range, and try to knock out characters and rob them without killing anyone, while the snipers stay in the skiffs. Any character rendered unconscious by the brigands is stable at 0 hit points.

Dealing with Agdon

In days gone by, Agdon Longscarf made a name for himself as he and his band of miscreants menaced travelers throughout various Feywild domains. It was in Prismeer, however, that Agdon’s antics came to an end by Zybilna’s hand. As punishment for his offenses, the archfey demanded that Agdon give up his beloved scarf. When he refused, Zybilna cursed him so that he would never be able to remove it. She then pinned the scarf to a young sapling with a magic nail made of gold and iron, and she bade the tree grow until its branches raked the clouds. Agdon was thus carried into the sky, where he was stranded for a long time.

The arrival of the Hourglass Coven signaled a reversal of Agdon Longscarf’s fortunes. With Zybilna trapped in temporal stasis, Agdon’s loyal gang was able to chop down his tree prison. But his scarf remained pinned to the felled trunk, and him with it, until Bavlorna struck a deal with him—she agreed to remove the nail and free the scarf in exchange for the best prize from each of his raids thereafter.

Agdon’s scarf is a bright blue length of cloth that he claims was woven from lightning bolts he stole right out from under a dark cloud. The scarf can’t be removed, even if Agdon dies. His branding iron functions for him alone, and it ceases to be hot when it leaves his hand. The brand it makes is shaped like three bounding rabbits connected nose to tail, forming a triangle.

The brigand leader is cocky and boastful. Additional roleplaying notes can be found in the bio for Agdon Longscarf.

Aided by the magic of his scarf, he darts among the characters, using Quick Fingers to steal things as he passes. His speed and agility make him difficult to hit; however, grabbing hold of his trailing scarf can dissuade him.

As an action, a character can try to grab Agdon’s scarf. Doing so requires a successful DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check. While a character has him by the scarf, Agdon has a walking speed of 35 feet, and he can’t move farther than 15 feet from the character. Agdon can use an action to try to pull his scarf free; this attempt is resolved with a Strength (Athletics) contest. If he fails to free himself after one try, he surrenders immediately, blubbering and pleading for his life like a coward.

Development

Either the characters defeat Agdon Longscarf, or he and his brigands subdue and capture them.

Agdon Is Defeated. If Agdon is killed, his followers wander away, crestfallen. If Agdon lives, his former followers shun him. They regard the characters as formidable, and they enthusiastically offer to show them the way to Downfall, providing a skiff for their use if they so desire.

If they are asked about Bavlorna Blightstraw or Downfall, the harengons share the following information:

Agdon made a pact with Slack-jawed Lorna by which he is obligated to give her one item he steals from each victim.

Though Agdon would never admit such a thing, the harengons suspect that their leader is terrified of Slack-jawed Lorna, who moves about on a crawling lily pad.

Downfall is home to the Soggy Court, a society of bullywugs that clings to strange, noble customs and rules of etiquette.

The Characters Are Captured. If the characters are knocked unconscious, they are taken to Downfall and placed in the cages that hang outside Bavlorna’s cottage (area B14).

Big Stump

The harengons have set up camp atop the 30-foot-high, 80-foot-wide tree stump. Wooden skiffs are moored among the cattails and grasses that poke up from the water surrounding the ancient stump, and rope ladders hanging off the edges of the trunk enable approaching creatures to climb to the surface of the stump without having to make an ability check.

The brigands’ encampment is a circle of twelve patchwork tents surrounding a carved wooden throne where Agdon Longscarf holds court. Piled around Agdon’s throne are scores of worthless trinkets stolen from travelers. If the characters want to examine the trinkets, describe a few of them, using the entries in the Feywild Trinkets table in the introduction for inspiration. Lying amid the trinkets is a small bag of truffles (the same ones the brigands stole from Jingle Jangle).

At any given time, 1d4 harengon brigands and 1d4 harengon snipers occupy the camp. These harengons defend their turf only if they outnumber intruders; otherwise, they scatter and hide.