Miniature Monday! Not Just Your Garden-variety Farmer

We’re growing another side quest for our party’s current village pitstop and thought a kooky farmer could blossom into yet another fun one-shot DnD encounter. Let’s see if DM Ben can reap what he sews.

Our homestead miniature comes courtesy of EC3D Designs and their oh-so-good Everyday Folk P1 Kickstarter. This supportless mini set is a must-acquire – hard stop, do not pass go, no further questions your honor.

Every town is naturally filled with nearby farms and fields so bumping into a needy country bumpkin shouldn’t come as a big surprise. These clodhoppers are one with the earth…but certainly not one with the monsters, right?

So that got DM Ben thinkin’…

This hard worker has his back to the field all day long trying to make ends meet for his family and certainly doesn’t have time for anything else. He can’t offer much in the way of gold since cultivating isn’t a rich man’s game but maybe there’s still a deal to be struck (which we’ll get to shortly).

First off, our local peasant producer needs a name, a face, and a backstory! Once again, we reached into SkeletonKey Games incredibly useful library of Dossier Decks and found this guy: Huckle Riverstone. “Perfect!”says DM Ben as he wants a little crazy injected into this particular Dungeons and Dragons NPC.

Now purists might cry foul here because our miniature doesn’t exactly match our facecard! Take a breath, people. Don’t let those minor details curtail your fun. Sometimes things just won’t align perfectly and that’s ok. Stay calm and cool like our grandmaster Matt Mercer always does.

So now our budding farm one-shot mission has a:

• miniature
• face card
• NPC name
• Mission?
• Reward?

Three down and two to go. Easy peasy!

As we stared down our 3D-printed library, there they were in all their orange glory – our pumpkin mimics from our office Halloween contest! As it turns out, Ol’ Huckle Riverstone is sick and tired of pesky varmints eating away at his precious crops! Consequently, he’s decided to grow a small army of these melons to squash all the uninvited predators inside his fenceline.

Alas, Huckle is a farmer, not a fighter so there’s no feasible way for him to hunt down some of these rare gourd gnashers and procure the necessary seedlings to build his sentinel army. So that’s where your game group comes in! Farmer Riverstone knows the whereabouts of these freakish pumpkins but needs some experienced swords to finish the job.

However, Huckle says, “ya gotta smell for it…really dig down deep and inhale like you never inhaled before…farming is all about your five senses. Become one with the earth!” So he temporarily injects the mystery mimic’s subtle aroma scent into the hilts of a couple of the party’s weapons and points to several pumpkin patches on a forest map. As the DM, just be sure to really play up the smell as you act out him out to the group.

And what’s the reward for punching these “peopons” into oblivion, you might ask? Welp, Huckle is no agricultural slouch, you see. Turns out his sprinkle soil formula is some of the finest in the realm. In exchange for a handful of perfectly cultivated pumpkin seeds (survival, DC 15 per harvesting creature attempt), he’s willing to give you a bag of his finest… ummm…well, dirt. He keeps the very best hidden in his dilapidated barn.

Now what on earth would your party do with this paydirt?! Why you would take it to the local wizard who in return for this terrific bag of topsoil, will quickly grant you several restoration spells to cure the unexpected effects of petrification, charm, various curses, and even level drain. And what adventuring party doesn’t always need a few of those anecdotes in one’s backpack?

Now this a DnD mission DM Ben thinks we can all get behind (and plow)…no seriously, these fields aren’t going to take care of themselves!