The First Good Morning
The First Good Morning
“Protect one frightened mother long enough for her child to see a kinder world.”
— Hook · Escort, protection, social investigation, and defensive finale
“A wounded gnoll woman emerges from the rain with one hand pressed to her belly and the other raised in surrender. She says her child will be born soon, her pursuers are close, and she needs help reaching a safe refuge before the birth begins. Then she adds, quietly, that she does not expect to live long enough to teach the child what goodness looks like.”
— Hook · Escort, protection, social investigation, and defensive finale
The adventure begins on a rain-dark road outside Lantern Hollow. The characters find Veyra beneath a leaning milestone, exhausted and bleeding from old wounds, while distant howls move through the hills. She refuses to attack unless threatened and explains that she has only a few hours before she must find shelter. She offers a silver pendant shaped like a sunburst as payment, though it is clear the object has great personal value.
Veyra Ashfang
Veyra approaches openly from the roadside, exhausted but alert. She keeps her hands visible, speaks plainly, and offers to surrender her weapons if the party agrees to protect her from the pursuing pack.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01A gnoll woman has been seen near the old road, but she attacks only those who attack first.
- 02The Ashfangs are hunting something important enough to risk a direct assault on Lantern Hollow.
- 03Sister Ameline once treated a gnoll child during a famine and has never spoken about what happened afterward.
- 04There is an abandoned shrine in the hills where refugees used to seek sanctuary.
- 05Captain Orra Pell has orders to keep gnolls outside the settlement, but she has never enforced the order against a visibly injured traveler.
If the party fails, Veyra may die without shelter, the newborn may be taken by the Ashfang pack, and Lantern Hollow may become more fearful and violent toward gnolls. If the party succeeds, one child begins life surrounded by people who chose mercy despite fear, potentially changing the future of both the settlement and the Ashfang survivors.
Background Lore
For generations, the Ashfang gnolls were driven from settled lands and taught to expect cruelty from every stranger. Veyra Ashfang, a pregnant scout and former raider, broke from her pack after refusing to take part in a massacre. She now seeks a safe place for her child to be born, even though an old injury and a dangerous pregnancy mean she may not live long after the birth. The adventurers become the final people she trusts with her child’s future.
Veyra Ashfang is a pregnant gnoll fleeing her former pack. She believes the child will be born within hours and asks the adventurers to escort her to Lantern Hollow, where a healer may be willing to help. The Ashfang pack is pursuing her, and the settlement may reject her unless the characters can prove that she means no harm.
