The Frogs of Avery’s Garden
The Frogs of Avery’s Garden
“Save the last pools before the garden falls silent.”
— Hook · Rescue
“Raven needs your help in Avery’s Garden, where awakened coyotes are eating the frogs that supply her best healing brews. The garden’s dark-red roses have begun attacking anything that enters their reach, including the coyotes. Clear the predators, gather enough frog secretion, and bring it back to Feathered Rest before the last pools fall silent.”
— Hook · Rescue
Raven waits beside the Hot Spring of the Crescent Moon with a cedar-mint smudging bundle in one hand and an empty gathering vial in the other. She explains that Avery’s Garden is about an hour away, that the frog population has sharply declined, and that she fled through an old drainage course when the coyotes began closing around her. Her voice stays steady until she mentions the quiet pools, and then the fear beneath her professionalism shows. She can describe coyote travel routes, depleted pools, resting areas, and the crucial distinction between ordinary roses and the dark-red variety that attacks. She promises ten Potions of Healing and the Heart-Root Cup if the party returns with the threat ended and enough secretion for her work.
Raven
Raven approaches the party near the Hot Spring of the Crescent Moon, carrying a cedar-mint smudging bundle and a small empty vial. She offers practical reconnaissance rather than exaggeration, explaining what she saw, where the coyotes travel, how the hostile roses differ from ordinary ones, and how she escaped through the drainage course.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01The frogs of Avery’s Garden have become quiet, and quiet places in The Riverwood rarely stay harmless.
- 02Raven returned from the garden smelling of cedar and rain, but she would not speak about what followed her through the drainage course.
- 03Some roses in the old garden are only roses. Others seem to notice when something passes.
- 04The coyotes are not merely animals. They hold conversations at night and know every path beneath the thorns.
- 05Avery’s name still appears on old garden stones, though no one in Feathered Rest remembers exactly who Avery was.
If the coyotes continue feeding, the frogs may disappear from Avery’s Garden entirely. Without their secretion, Raven cannot continue producing her strongest healing brews for the Druids of Feathered Rest. The party must also avoid treating the ordinary roses as enemies, because needless destruction could damage the garden’s remaining habitat.
Background Lore
Avery’s Garden lies about an hour from Feathered Rest, where old cultivated paths have vanished beneath wet ground, tangled wild roses, and dense woodland growth. Its sheltered pools support frogs whose skin secretion is essential to Raven’s strongest healing brews. Recently, awakened coyotes have made the garden their territory and are consuming the frogs faster than they can recover. The garden’s dark-red roses have also awakened into independent predators, while its white, pink, yellow, and other roses remain ordinary.
Raven asks the party to travel from Feathered Rest to Avery’s Garden, clear the awakened coyotes preying on its dwindling frog population, and return with enough frog secretion for her healing brews. The garden is overgrown and difficult to navigate, with dense rose walls, wet ground, old paths, frog pools, and an old drainage course beneath the growth. Only the dark-red roses are hostile. White, pink, yellow, and other rose varieties are ordinary.
