Little Oak
This encounter features a raggedy group of children called the Getaway Gang. Nib can provide directions to the treant that looks after the kids, or the characters can stumble across the treant’s glade in their travels.
Up ahead, a small group of children frolics around a leafy oak tree, their gleeful yelps carrying through the forest. Painted swings dangle from the tree’s branches. Nestled in its crown is a ramshackle treehouse.
The tree is a treant named Little Oak. If they see strangers, the children scamper up ladders and take cover in their treehouse. Their leader, Will of the Feywild, barks at the adventurers, “Stand down or face merry hell!” Little Oak provides a home for this gang of rascals, all of whom escaped captivity in Loomlurch with Will’s help.
Adventurers who threaten the children incur the wrath of Little Oak, which uproots itself and thunders to their defense. If the treant or one of its animated trees reduces a character to 0 hit points with a melee attack, it knocks the character unconscious instead of dealing a mortal wound. Unconscious characters are either tied up and questioned by Will or dragged to another part of the forest away from Little Oak.
If Little Oak is reduced to 0 hit points, the treant topples, destroying the Getaway Gang’s treehouse and dealing 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage to each creature inside it.
Will of the Feywild
Will of the Feywild is not the spindly, 11-year-old boy he appears to be. He’s an oni that has taken human form. His true name is Mugan, and he used to work for Skabatha Nightshade as a kidnapper of children until the hag’s sisters placed a curse on him that warmed his heart, changing his alignment from lawful evil to chaotic good. He now strives to help children escape from Skabatha’s clutches. Skabatha assumes that Mugan simply left her employment; she is unaware of the curse her sisters placed on the oni and doesn’t know that Will of the Feywild is not a human boy. Additional roleplaying notes can be found in the bio for Will of the Feywild.
If the oni is affected by a spell that ends a curse, it regains its evil alignment and attacks whoever is responsible for lifting the curse, shouting, “How could you?” as it fights to the death.
The oni has a pet displacer beast kitten named Star, which it abandons if its curse is ended. Characters who aided Dirlagraun in the Witchlight Carnival (see chapter 1) might guess that Star is the older displacer beast’s offspring. If they show Star the mirrored ball, it leaps about excitedly. If he is told about Dirlagraun, Will of the Feywild reluctantly agrees to return Star to his parent, but only if the characters help him free the remaining children that are trapped in Loomlurch.
The Getaway Gang
The Getaway Gang has four members:
Will of the Feywild, the gang’s leader (described above)
Bobi, a boisterous male dwarf growing his first whiskers
Sloane, a sarcastic, ginger-haired female wood elf
Zennor, a tenacious female orc
Bobi, Sloane, and Zennor are noncombatants (treat them as unarmed, chaotic good commoners) who appear to be eight years old, but they are several years older and wiser than they look. The magic of the Feywild has kept them young.
Speaking to the Getaway Gang about Loomlurch yields the following information:
A squad of tin soldiers defends Loomlurch, but they’re easily lured away by distractions.
The children being held captive in the workshop are haunted by boggles—oily creatures that sprout from the children’s misery.
Granny Nightshade imprisons her most hated enemies in a cell inside her kitchen.
Secret of Wayward Pool. Bobi, Sloane, and Zennor agree that the characters should pay a visit to Wayward Pool and seek out the unicorn Lamorna before heading to Loomlurch. Will is skeptical, because he thinks the unicorn is a “no-good goody-goody” who is too scared to challenge Granny Nightshade.
The Getaway Gang shares the following information about Wayward Pool if the characters express interest in going there:
Only unicorns can reach the shore of Wayward Pool, but the magic protecting the pool can’t tell the difference between a real unicorn and a make-believe one. To reach the lake themselves, the kids created a crude unicorn costume under which they can hide. (They keep the costume in their treehouse and can lend it to the characters, although it’s big enough to hold only two adults.)
Tying a wooden horn to one’s head also bypasses the pool’s magical ward.
On a small island in the middle of the lake, the characters can find an iron bowl filled with fresh coals. Summoning the unicorn can be accomplished by lighting a fire in that bowl.
Guide to Yon. If the characters are searching for a guide to Yon, Will asks one of the other children to fetch Squirt, who is currently tucked away in Little Oak’s treehouse.
Little Oak’s Treehouse
The Getaway Gang’s treehouse is big enough to accommodate up to twelve children comfortably. Rope ladders climb from the ground to a pair of trapdoors in the floor. When the characters can see inside the treehouse, read:
The floor of the treehouse is covered with blankets, cushions, and piles of straw. Hanging from the six-foot-high ceiling by a rope is a basket that holds apples, berries, sugarcane, and a few crumpled-up sheets of parchment. In one corner, lying on a cushion, is a rusty oilcan that looks out of place. Heaped in another corner is a crude unicorn costume made of polka-dot quilts and a wooden horse’s head that has a wooden horn attached to it.
The crumpled-up sheets of parchment in the basket are three of Granny Nightshade’s wanted posters (see “Wanted Posters” earlier in the chapter). Roll on the Wanted Posters table to determine each poster, allowing for duplicates.
Oilcan. The oilcan is an animated Construct named Squirt. Squirt’s excesses and self-indulgences have left it feeling literally empty inside, and it doesn’t have enough oil right now to use its Boggle Oil action. If the characters fill Squirt with more boggle oil, it offers to guide them from Thither to Yon. Squirt knows that Granny Nightshade’s workshop employs boggles and can lead the group there. Additional roleplaying notes can be found in the bio for Squirt.
Unicorn Costume. The Getaway Gang fashioned the unicorn costume so that they could reach the water at Wayward Pool and bathe in it. This costume is big enough to be worn by two adults or four children walking in single file. The wooden horse’s head is mounted on a stick that the person in the lead holds up, and the children have glued a wooden horn to the horse’s brow. Small holes in the fabric allow the costume’s wearers to see where they’re going under the covering.
Unicorn Horn. If the Story Tracker indicates that the unicorn horn is here, it replaces the wooden horn on the kids’ unicorn costume. The children don’t know that the horn is from a real unicorn.
Development
Will of the Feywild has conceived a daring plan to free the children still being held prisoner in Loomlurch, which he shares with the characters if they decide to aid him. Using a stick, Will sketches a rough map of the lair in the dirt and outlines the plan as follows:
The Approach. Bobi, Sloane, Zennor, and Star will creep through the woods to the west of the tree and hide just out of sight of the screaming scarecrows (area L5). Meanwhile, Will will sneak around to the entrance to the kitchen (area L13) on the east side of the tree.
The Distraction. The characters will enter the goblin market (area L2) posing as travelers, purchase some sweets, and arrange for a meeting with the hag. During the meeting, the children will alert the screaming scarecrows and thereby lure the tin soldiers into the garden.
The Escape. While everyone is distracted, the characters will free the captives from the workshop (area L4) while Will climbs into the textile mill (area L12) to free the captives there. Once the children are set free, everyone will run back to Little Oak.
Will’s plan is sketchy, but he likes to live by the seat of his pants. Regardless of how events unfold, he never reveals his true form, fearing it would terrify the children he’s trying to rescue or frighten away the other members of the Getaway Gang. Consequently, he refrains from using his oni abilities in the presence of the children or the characters.