Adventure Created By Family Fantasy RPG (familyfantasyrpg.com)
The Mistglade is a large enchanted forest with many magical and fantastical Fey creatures. Small tribes and communities of fairies, pixies, satyrs, and other peoples are dispersed throughout the dense woods that is ever shrouded in a black mist. Outside these havens of civilization, beasts and monsters roam in the deepest and darkest areas of the wood.
Deep in the Mistglade, a forest of magic and mystery, lives a small town of fairies so nice and happy. Their cute little houses built on mushroom caps, made out of bark, mud, and some magic perhaps. On the ground near the trunk of the giant evergreen, a town square and market, the smallest you have seen! The town of fairies is on its guard, there may be evil all around. Far away from them for now, the danger is profound. The strongest and the bravest have gone to protect the wood, now the fledgling fairies must band together for the name of good!
And so enter our heroes: Axel the Rune Warrior played by Justice/Dad; En Garde the Paladin, played by Victor (5yo), and Pixie the Mage, played by Cordelia (7yo). The story begins…
On a sunny fall day in Recap Village the fairies are preparing. A festival, a celebration, and a time of sharing. You have been asked to bring your prized stew, with yummy vegetables and savory spices, too. You head to Marigold Greenthumb, the gardner of your little town. As you greet her hello, she is sad with a frown! “What is wrong, Marigold, why are you sad?”, is your plea. “Oh no, you haven’t heard, my garden is sickly!”
Marigold: The veggies are bad and the berries are sour. Can you help save my garden? The situation is dour!
The garden is sick and our heroes need to find out what is going on. They begin by asking their friendly but sad gardener some questions.
Axel: Did you see anybody?
Marigold: I did not see anyone. I walked out this morning and my garden was sick! We have a celebration and we need our vegetables and fruits and berries to be okay!
Pixie: I’m going to try to detect magic.
She finds that there is definitely a source of magic around.
Axel: Let’s investigate! (investigation adjusted 20)
Marigold: Now that I think about it, I’m wondering if this is related to the weird whispers and shadowy figures I sometimes see across the river.
Axel: Oh, there’s shadowy figures across the river! What could that mean..?
Pixie decides to do a nature check (nature, Nat 20). She is definitely, positively, 100% sure that this is a magical blight causing the garden to be sick, and the source is coming from across the river.
Axel: Well, I guess we better take care of it.
At this point in time the players worked together to create the map of Marigold’s garden. They marked where her house was, the different vegetable and fruit gardens, the river, and the bridge leading across. They took turns adding things to the map. Victor was particularly excited about drawing an onion garden. Once the map was complete our heroes began to investigate the garden in search of clues.
Axel: I want to investigate the bridge. Pixie, do you think that’s a good idea?
Pixie: Yeah.
Axel: Then I’ll go investigate the bridge! (investigation 16)
Upon investigation of the bridge he finds nothing significant about the bridge itself, but there is an ominous presence coming from the other side.
Pixie: I’m going to investigate the river!
She notices the same thing as Axel. There’s nothing really significant about the river itself, but there’s an evil presence coming from the other side.
En Garde: I’m going to investigate the onion garden!
He finds a lot of flies coming from the onion patch.
En Garde: Ah! *runs away*
Axel: En Garde calm down! They’re just flies.
Pixie: I guess En Garde is scared of bugs.
Axel: He’s the size of a bug, though.
Marigold: There are normally flies around the onions. That’s normal. That’s the only thing that’s normal right now.
Axel: What else can we look at…
En Garde: I want to go investigate the house.
Marigold has a lovely house. There’s a kitchen with a nice tea set out, a fairly sized bedroom, and a very nice living area with a comfy sofa and coffee table. It’s a very nice house.
En Garde: What about her pet?
She has pet butterflies. Upon finding the butterflies En Garde runs out of the house and towards the vegetable gardens. He comes upon a garden full of lettuces and cabbages; however, he notices that there’s no bugs here. Something is strange, but he can’t put his finger on it. He then walks over to the berry garden. Normally during this time of year the butterflies would be all over the flowers here to help the fruits bloom, but there’s no insects here. In fact, the berries are rotten when they should be nice and fresh. Something is definitely weird. The only bugs to be found are by the onions.
Axel: I’m going to check this patch over here by the river. (investigation 21)
He searches around the garden, looking for a clue, a footprint or insects, anything will do! Near the river he finally sees it, a sickly green goo… But the important question is where does it come from and what does it do?
In order to solve the mystery of the green goo our heroes solve a series of puzzles. The puzzle they solve depends on their Tier Level. Pixie/Cordelia completes a word search, and Axel/Dad and En Garde/Victor work together to connect the dots and follow a number maze. Having solved the puzzles our heroes now know that they can use a powerful spell to cleanse the garden.
En Garde: Will a sword help us?
Axel: No, I don’t think a sword will help us.
En Garde: A broom?
Axel: We don’t have brooms! You can use Cleanse. Cleanse it!
En Garde casts Cleanse and cleans the entire garden of the blight. After just a few moments our heroes are able to detect the green oil and its slow assault on the garden coming from across the river. The source of the disease has now become clear spreading across the crops when the river is near. They will now be able to follow the trail and find the source of the problem together.
Their journey begins with the trail heading north, following the river. They enter a dark maze of a forest and follow the trail of the green oily goo. Deeper into the forest they find the source of the green oil – thick dark vines leaking sap! The vines are long and lead southeast, where the shadows are long and color diminished. Our heroes follow the vines through the dark forest, fighting off a sense of dread. Their instincts lead them to where all of the vines are coming from – a pond within a clearing.
Ahead of them now is a sight to behold! A mystical pond with its water so cold. Beautiful flowers both exotic and vibrant, with wicked sharp thorns, a natural deterrent! Across the pond, a small creepy hut, with light in the windows and the door tightly shut. The vines they have followed have led them here, it is time for action and bravery over fear!
Once again the party works together to create a map, this time of the pond, vines, and a witch’s hut. Cordelia had the most fun creating the vines.
As they sneak towards the house they spot an old lady. A witch dressed in black, nose big and eyes shady. Her teeth are crooked inside her wide smile, and her nails are long and in need of a file. There’s a pot on the fire, and it is bubbling with stew. She shrieks a loud laugh and begins staring at the party. She walks out of her house, a wooden spoon in her hand.
Witch: What’s going on out here, tell me! I demand! Oh my little pretties tell me, what are you doing in this wood? This is no place for playing! Run along, now if you know what is good for you!
Since our children were playing on two different tiers I gave them the option of whether they wanted to try to speak to the witch to try to persuade her, or fight her. Victor and Cordelia both chose the fight option, causing Justice to concede his vote of speaking to the witch.
Axel: I wanted to talk, but let’s fight.
Witch: Silly little fairies, you can’t stop me now! I am too smart and too strong; would you even know how? My beautiful plants need nutrients, food for them to grow. They are stealing from your farm, so no! They won’t go!
Roll for initiative (Axel 21, En Garde 20, Pixie 5).
Begin Witch Fight
Axel begins by moving around the pond towards the witch but does not make it into attack range. En Garde follows behind him. The witch casts Hideous Laughter, letting out a huge cackle that echoes around the clearing. Pixie and En Garde stand strong, but Axel fails his saving throw and becomes feared. Pixie, from across the lake, casts Fireball on the witch. The witch succeeds on her saving throw and only takes 4 fire damage. Axel moves right next to the witch and attacks her with his axe.
Axel: I’m going to axe her a question!
Pixie: Good one!
He hits with a 15, but does only 1 damage to the witch. Axel then makes a saving throw to not be feared and succeeds with a 17.
Axel: En Garde, move next to her and en garde her!
En Garde moves next to the witch and casts Divine Strike, doing 5 damage.
En Garde: BOOM!
The witch tries to cast Witch Bolt on En Garde, but misses. Pixie casts Chain Lightning on the witch. Once again the witch succeeds her saving throw and takes only 4 damage from the attack. He strikes the witch again, hitting with a Nat 20 for 6 damage. En Garde moves up and strikes the witch…
En Garde: BOOM BOOM!
… for 2 more damage. The witch is getting desperate and attempts to hit En Garde on the head with her soup spoon, but misses. Pixie, who is out of spells, flies over the pond to get closer but does not make it into attack range. Axel strikes with his ax again and hits with another Nat 20; however, his attack only does 1 damage. En Garde hits her very hard…
En Garde: PBBBSSSHHH!
… for 2 more damage. The witch is not completely and totally desperate. As a bonus action she casts Crow Swarm, sending a swarm of several large crows at Axel. They peck at Axel, dealing 1 damage per round. She once again uses Soup Spoon against En Garde, and once again she misses! Pixie moves in even closer but still cannot attack. Axel swings his axe one more time at the witch, but misses with an 8.
En Garde: I’m going to do a spin attack! PPPBBSSHHH!
He begins to spin and hits for 2 damage!
The witch is slain!
End Witch Battle
Witch: Oh no, it can’t be! No way I am defeated! I will come back for you, my pretties, and the curse will be repeated!
She shrivels away and melts into the floor, leaving nothing but a pile of crow feathers behind.
A few days later now, the festival is here! The party is a huge success, with happiness and cheer! You feel a little sad because your stew you could not make, the garden needs more time to heal, a risk you could not take. A nasty witch you did defeat and saved the fairy town, you summoned up your bravery and your inner strength was found. The townsfolk cheer and chant your names, as they salute your heroic deeds! Now proven in your ability, you are ready to serve their needs!
Marigold: Thank you for your help, my friends. You really saved my wings. To reward your bravery please choose one of these things!
As a reward En Garde is gifted a magical Bag of Seeds, Axel receives Marigold’s Bark Shield, and Pixie receives a Gauntlet of Thorns.
The day is saved and the celebration was a success! What adventure will our heroes go on next?
Review: This was a ton of fun for the whole family. The game runs like D&D Jr, putting children in tiers based on their age level. Each tier has a different set of skills and abilities the players can use, with tier 3 beings the closest to real D&D. For this game my children played on 2 different tiers and it worked out really well. If you could not tell, my son did not make any rolls for his actions but was still able to participate in combat. This is because he is in tier 2 which allows for attacks but does not require dice rolls.
If you have small children and want to find a way to get them into D&D or any TTRPGs this would be an excellent place to start. The story is guided and a lot of fun, but leaves room for the DM to add their own elements. The system is very easy to learn (especially if you already know how to play D&D) and simple enough for small children to participate without confusion. The inclusion of puzzles and collaborative map making was one of our favorite elements. I absolutely love the different tier levels that make it possible for younger children to play and have fun with their older siblings. This would also be great for parents or grandparents new to TTRPGs but want to play with their family. If you have small children I highly recommend checking this system out. We will be playing another adventure like this in the near future.