Adventure Created By Family Fantasy RPG (familyfantasyrpg.com)
Our heroes Pixie the Mage (Cordelia, 7yo), En Guard the Paladin (Victor, 5 yo), and Axel the Run Warrior (Justice, dad) return for another adventure in the Mistglade.
The harvest is nearly over and the market is electric. Food, crafts, tools, and toys; the selection is eclectic! The fledgling fairies are helping out, the work is hard for sure. They carry boxes, they set up stands, their intentions are kind and pure. They take a break mid-afternoon to relax and rehydrate. They hear a voice call out their names – it’s Milton, their old classmate!
Milton: Axel! Pixie! En Guard!
He seems to be quite nervous with confusion on his face.
Milton: Someone or something is stealing things and vanishing without a trace! The villagers are saying that a creature is around. Dark and mysterious, it moves without a sound.
Axel: Are the things being taken random or are they specific things?
Milton: It seems random.
Axel: Pixie, do you have any questions for Milton?
En Guard: I would never steal things. What steals things?
Milton: I haven’t seen it myself but some of the villagers may have.
Pixie: What did they see? (investigation, 13)
Milton stops to think for a second.
Milton: One villager thought they heard giggling in the room where she discovered her missing items. But now that I think about it, I remember seeing some muddy footprints in the market awhile back even though it hasn’t rained in a while.
Axel: Should we go check for footprints?
Axel (nature 12) knows of a couple of creatures that would leave muddy footprints. He knows that the area is known to have been bothered by the occasional boggle or twigjack that would pull pranks on unsuspecting fairies. Pixie (adjusted 20), however, knows that while twigjacks do love tormenting good creatures the fact that things are going missing sounds more like a boggle.
Pixie: I think this sounds like a boggle.
Axel: So Pixie, what’s a boggle?
Pixie describes a boggle, which oozes oil and mud. The boggle itself can choose whether the oil is oily or sticky and can change it from one consistency to another. Right now this boggle is muddy. En Guard raises his hand.
Axel: What is it, En Guard?
En Guard: Muddy things…
Axel: Yeah, we’re going to go fight muddy things maybe.
En Guard: They’ve got muddy feet, and muddy hands. They can’t attack me with my shield!
Axel: You’re correct. Your shield is going to help if we’re going to go fight it. Okay, so we are looking for a boggle.
They make their way to the Redcap Market at the base of the giant tree. Milton begins to show them around to see what they can see. Colorful tents and wooden stands line the crowded streets. Exotic goods, fine furniture; cheeses, juice, and meats! The fairies in the market are busy with their stalls. They find it hard to focus over shouts and livestock calls.
At this time the party members worked together to create a map of the market. Taking turns, they created the road, trees, tents, and decided what each tent was selling. The various tents were selling toys, pizza, different flavored lemonades, fruit, bananas, and a variety of knick knacks.
The party began to walk around the market looking for clues. Axel headed off towards the knick-knack tent and looked around in search for footprints (investigation 14). Unfortunately for Axel the knick knack tent was a popular spot at the moment. With so many fairies trying to buy knick knacks Axel wasn’t able to tell much of anything. En Guard heads over to the fruit tent, looking for footprints (investigation 12). His keen senses guided him, his skills are improving. He notices something in the grass, a puddle that is dark and oozing by the fruit tent.
En Guard: I see a ton of mud muddles! And muddy footprints.
Pixie decides to head over to the toy tent and ask the vendor if anything has been stolen from them.
Pixie: Do you have anything missing?
Toy Vendor: Yes, actually. 2 toys went missing just this morning! I went to go help someone and turned around and found a little wooden puppet missing, and a doll.
With this information Pixie starts looking around for mud (investigation 17). As she searches around the tent she finds another pool. The market fairies are catching on and start searching around their tents. A commotion arises by the banana tent, where they find another puddle and set of muddy footprints. Three puddles have appeared so far.
Axel: I have a suspicion, but Pixie I want to check something. Can you check the puddles for me? Can these creatures actually turn into mud?
Pixie doesn’t really know for sure. Axel wants to test his theory and decides to go buy something from the knick knack tent, a pixie sized thimble. He drops it into the nearest mud puddle and… nothing happens, except for the thimble getting covered in mud.
Axel: I thought maybe the puddles were actually the creatures and thought if I dropped the thimble in the puddle they would take it.
En Guard goes to check things out by the lemonade stand. Axel joins him and together (investigation 4) they try to search for mud puddles, but the lemonade stand is a happening place. There’s a crowd of fairies lined up trying to buy all the delicious raspberry and strawberry lemonades, making it tough for En Guard and Axel to find anything. However, since everyone is at the lemonade stand the pizza tent and knick knack tent have freed up for the time being. Pixie makes her way to the pizza tent to search for more mud (investigation 10) but she’s too distracted by the smell of delicious pizza to find anything. En Guard hangs out by the lemonade stand and waits patiently for the crowd to disperse. Once things have cleared up he searches for mud (investigation 19) and finds a fourth icky puddle hidden among some lemon crates.
En Guard: I found another puddle!
He talks to the lemonade vendor and discovers that some lemon crates had gone missing earlier in the day. One more final spot of dark muck is found next to the pizza stall.
Pixie: Okay, there’s going to be mud just everywhere!
The smell of that delicious pizza had also distracted the vendor, who only just realized that some pizzas were missing.
Pizza Vendor: My bad…
The party feels they have enough clues and are ready to try to catch the creature. Suddenly, they hear a laugh and turn to see a purple figure covered in ooze.
Boggle: You’ll never catch me!
He yells with a grin and slips down into a puddle of mud. Across the way he pops out of another puddle.
Boggle: To try shows you are a fool!
Before they can act he is gone again, back into his muck. They must figure out where he’ll go next and hope for a little luck! Axel decides to run to the knick knack shop to buy some rope before engaging the Boggle. Initiative (Pixie 15, Axel 14, En Guard 12).
Begin Boggle Encounter
Pixie begins by waiting next to the puddle by the pizza shop. Axel observes where the boggle just disappeared from and places himself next to the puddle by the lemonade stand. En Guard likes his idea and waits next to the mud puddle with him. The boggle poofs up in the puddle by the banana stand and begins to taunt the party by making rude faces at them.
En Guard: Let’s try to catch him because he’s so muddy. I wish I had a net.
Axel: Here, En Guard, you can have my rope.
Axel tosses his rope to En Guard. Pixie takes a few steps back from her puddle and waits, ready to pounce. Axel starts heading towards the puddle where the boggle appeared by the bananas. En Guard takes a few paces in the opposite direction, heading towards the puddle by the toy tent. After making one last rude face the boggle disappears into his puddle.
Axel: Pixie! Try standing an equal distance away from each of the puddles!
Pixie heeds his advice and centers herself between the puddles between the pizza stand and the toy tent. Axel moves just a little and centers himself between the puddles by the banana and fruit stall.
Axel: En Guard! Stay right where you are!
En Guard: Got it!
En Guard is already centered between the lemonade stand and toy stall and stands ready. The boggle appears by the lemonade stand! Pixie makes a run towards the stand but cannot make it. Axel turns around and dashes towards the boggle. He attempts to grab the boggle (strength Nat 20) and succeeds in his grapple.
Axel: Hey En Guard, come help me tie him up!
En Guard runs in with the rope and helps tie up the struggling boggle.
Got Him
After successfully tying up the creature and catching their breath they take a moment to observe the boggle. Dark skin, bald head, but the muck is his main feature.
Boggle: Let me go, fairies! I’m just looking for some snacks! *snickers* I was searching in their packs… See, us boggles are poor and cannot afford to eat. So we come to fairy markets and steal right off the street.
En Guard: Why did you steal everything?
Boggle: Because I have no money and I’m hungry!
En Guard: Why are you hungry?
Boggle: Because I’m hungry! I haven’t eaten in a couple of days and there was a market going on.
Axel: But why are you stealing non-food items, too?
Boggle: I don’t know what fairies eat! There’s vendors and there’s food everywhere that I can smell.
En Guard starts acting like a spider.
Boggle: Okay okay… So where I am from, I am Lyle, we only have muck! No toys, no games, I often feel stuck. I came to the fairy village for excitement! You can spare some, right?
Pixie (insight 8) can’t really tell if Lyle is telling the truth or not, but Axel (clue 22) knows that boggles are known for lying. They give him another look over (perception Pixie 12, Axel 13) and it doesn’t look like he’s missed any meals lately.
En Guard: Please tell us the truth. It’s nice to tell us the truth. (persuasion Nat 20)
Lyle: Okay fine! Maybe I’ve eaten recently. But we are bored! All the time! We just wanted some things to do.
We took some time to discuss other things they thought Lyle could do so that he wouldn’t need to steal.
Pixie: Why don’t you get a job?
Lyle: Getting a job? What would that do?
Axel: Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
En Guard: You can earn money to buy things instead of stealing. (persuasion 19)
Lyle: Okay… so I could earn some money and buy some things instead of stealing, but isn’t stealing easier?
Pixie: No, and it’s not right. (persuasion 3)
Lyle: Yeah, but so what it’s not right. It’s easier.
Axel: Listen, if you keep doing something that’s not right you’ll get punished for it. (persuasion 18)
Lyle: Oh, I don’t like that.
Axel: Yeah…
Lyle: Okay, okay, I’ll try getting a job. But do you really think this plan will work? They won’t be scared by me?
En Guard: Don’t be scared.
Lyle: Alright, I guess I can give this a try. Can you introduce me to someone who would give me a job?
Axel: Where do you think a mud monster could work, Pixie? A pizza shop?
Lyle: I don’t think I could work at a pizza place, I tend to ooze.
Pixie: How about… hmmm…
Axel: The knickknack shop?
Lyle: I stole some things from there. I guess I’d have to give them back, huh?
En Guard: The knick knack shop has knick knacks!
Lyle: Yes it does. It has a lot of knick knacks that I like.
Axel: So how about we work out a deal? You work and you won’t have to give back the things you stole. Because you’ll work and earn money that you can use to pay back for the things that you’ve stolen.
Lyle: Okay…okay.
With the party’s assistance Lyle goes up to the fairy in charge of the knick knack tent, who agrees to give Lyle a chance. Lyle goes to work right away! The party now has some free time to spend at the festival, but they will go back to check on Lyle at the end of the day. Axel spends his time eating some delicious pizza. En Guard decides to take some time and just drink some lemonade. Pixie decides to spend her day at the knick knack shop, letting Lyle work but enjoying looking at all the various knick knacks.
After a few hours our heroes return to the knickknack shop to check on Lyle. They find him working hard and smiling!
Lyle: Thank you! Not many trust my kind. Most of us don’t wish to cause harm, but work is hard to find. I will work hard and practice! I want to make a good name. Maybe one day I’ll return to my hometown and rejoice in newfound fame!
En Guard: Do you have a baby?
Lyle: No, not yet. Maybe one day.
At the end of the long day the market cheers praise for our heroes! A new friend they have found in Lyle, who will work towards better days.
Milton: The townspeople all agree, you really saved the day. They even brought gifts for you to help you on your way! And please, tell my boss I helped or he’ll take my job away…
Pixie is gifted with a Darkstar Amulet that can absorb dark energy. En Guard receives a potion made by Milton’s parents, which can turn the drinker invisible. And Axel receives a trick rope that can freeze and hold in its place.
Once again our heroes have saved the day! What adventure will they go on next?
Review: Another really fun adventure in the Mistglade! If you are unfamiliar with the mechanics of the game it runs like D&D Jr, with different tier levels to support the age and abilities of the players. Our boggle encounter would have been a little longer and more exciting if it weren’t for our experienced player (dad). Having him play with the kids was a lot of fun, but he was able to clue them in on what was going on a little too quickly. For anyone wanting to play this with their children we suggest giving the children more time than he did to figure out the pattern of the boggle’s disappearing and reappearing. It did help that I set everyone’s DCs at different levels – our 5yo on easy, our 7yo on medium, and dad on hard.
One thing I love about these games is the option for a non-violent solution. Had they wanted to, my children could have engaged Lyle in combat; however, they immediately chose to try to catch and persuade him, instead. These games provide a great opportunity to teach children how to find creative solutions to problems that don’t involve getting upset, angry, or resorting to violence – that words are more powerful than swords.
Again, one of our favorite elements of the game is the collaborative map making. It gives the players a chance to work together in a different form besides the game, which builds teamwork and cooperation skills. It also gives the younger players a slight break from the roleplay, which can sometimes be hard for younger kids to focus on. It’s our son’s favorite part of the game besides combat.
The concept and story of the game is just so much fun. Our daughter loves the magic and whimsy of the world and its characters. My son, who isn’t too interested in regular D&D unless there is combat, is eager to speak and roleplay as his character here. He was even more involved in this session than the last one. If you have young children and want to find a way to introduce them to TTRPGs I cannot recommend this game enough. Family Fantasy RPG has more games coming out soon and we are so excited to try them!