The Rainbow Tree Harvest
The Rainbow Tree Harvest
“A day's honest harvest hides an ancient bargain beneath the roots.”
— Hook · other
“Old Farmer Bram Tallow needs brave hands for one day's work: his apples must be harvested before nightfall, and he will pay well for every full basket. But he gives one warning with unusual urgency: do not pick a single apple from the tree whose fruit shines in every color of the rainbow. By sunset, something in the orchard will decide whether that warning was enough.”
— Hook · other
Bram Tallow meets the party at the orchard gate with empty baskets, a sun-marked harvest ledger, and an axe he never actually raises. He points out the rainbow tree on the hill, where red, blue, violet, and gold apples glow among silver leaves. Nessa Vale reports that several trees have black roots and that something has been moving beneath the soil. Bram insists the harvest must begin immediately because a hard frost is expected after sunset.
Old Farmer Bram Tallow
Bram approaches the party in town carrying a cracked harvest ledger and a single ordinary apple split open to reveal black veins. He offers food, lodging, and payment for urgent help, then lowers his voice before mentioning the rainbow tree.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01Bram counts the rainbow apples every morning, even though nobody is allowed to touch them.
- 02The orchard was planted over a spring that vanished from every map more than a century ago.
- 03A child who sleeps beneath the rainbow tree dreams of walking through roots beneath the earth.
- 04The farmhand Jory has been asking whether a single rainbow apple could cure illness.
- 05The black roots only appear near trees that have been watered from the old underground channel.
If the party succeeds, Tallow Hill survives the season and the valley's clean water remains protected. If they fail or steal from the rainbow tree, the orchard becomes the first infected farm in a spreading agricultural blight, forcing the party to choose between saving the village and pursuing the source farther upstream.
Background Lore
Every autumn, Old Farmer Bram Tallow hosts the first harvest feast in the valley. His orchard is famous for ordinary red, gold, and green apples, but one tree bears fruit in seven shifting colors. The rainbow apples are not part of the harvest. They are the seasonal seals of a buried spring-spirit that keeps the orchard fertile and prevents a spreading blight from reaching the nearby farms.
Bram Tallow, an elderly farmer of Tallow Hill, has hired the party to help harvest his orchard before an approaching frost. Most of the work is straightforward, but a spreading plant disease has made several rows dangerous, and Bram has forbidden anyone from taking fruit from the orchard's remarkable rainbow apple tree. The party can earn a generous payment by filling the harvest ledger, protecting the workers, and preventing the blight from spreading.
