The following is a detailed description of a herbalists kiosk in Cauldron. I would be thrilled if any of you use it in your adventure path campaign. I would love to hear any thoughts, corrections, clarifications, additions, etc... that you have concerning the description. I would also encourage any other DM’s on the message board to share any other commoners that populate “their” Cauldron. I have done my best to adhere to the Dungeon Submission Guidelines, and have done a moderate amount of proofing to the piece. Enjoy. Hopefully.
Yohan’s Herbs and Tobacco
Yohan Mur deserted the Chalmon Militia (change name to fit campaign) at the age of 13 after he was drafted as a “bandage runner” (youth medic) where he learned healing skills. He fled to the forests west of Cauldron and took up with a small community of elves, half-elves and humans who philosophically rejected the greater social structures of the Kingdom. Here he studied the special medicinal and spiritual properties of the flora of the forrest. Now on his own, he supplements his “living off the land” life style in Cauldron’s Tradesmen’s Market. His secondary motivation for spending time in town is to educate the inhabitants of Cauldron on the importance of maintaining the richness of the forrest and to monitor activities that might affect the forrest.
Yohan arrives each morning in Cauldron a few minutes after sunrise. He passes through the West-gate walking along side of his mule “Laurel” Mule (1): hp 19; Monster Manual 276. Laurel pulls a medium sized cart the 4 miles from their forrest home. The cart is packed with all of Yohan’s sale goods. Yohan and Laurel follow Cauldron’s streets to the Tradesman’s Market on the extreme Western side of Lava Avenue, between Lava Avenue and Tradesman’s Alley. (seen on the Cauldron Map as six white roofed canvas kiosks with Lava ave to the west and Tradesman’s Alley to it’s east). Yohan’s Kiosk is the one one the extreme south west corner. He immediately begins to brew his morning teas (see Goods List) in small kettles over a modest fire. He then begins to arrange his herbs and tobaccos for sale on the cart that has turned into a stall.
(Read Aloud Text)
As you approach the kiosk a tall thin man in his late twenties with a long straggly beard in well worn clothes greets you with a warm smile that begins and ends in his bright gray/blue eyes. He has a impressively wide array of different herbs and tobaccos for such a small cart. He feeds a mule behind him with one hand as he asks you, “Hello friend, are you interested in any fortifying herbs or tasty tobaccos?”
(End Read Aloud Text)
Yohan Mur, Male Human Exp3: CR 2; Medium-size Humanoid; HD 3d6+4; hp 14; Init +1; Spd 30 ft.; AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 10 [[+1 Dex]]; Atk +2 melee (1d6, quarterstaff) or +2 melee (1d3 subdual, unarmed strike); AL NG; SV Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +3; Str 10, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 15, Wis 15, Cha 14. Height 6 ft. 2 in. Weight 180 lb.
Skills: Handle Animal +6, Heal +8(+2 Self-Sufficient Feat), Knowledge: (Nature) +6, Profession: (Brewer) +4, (Farmer) +4, (Herbalist) +6(+9 Skill Focus), Ride +2, Search +6, Survival +8(+2 Self-Sufficient Feat), Swim +6. Feats: Skill Focus (Herbalist), Self-Sufficient, Run.
Possessions: Quarterstaff, Explorer’s Outfit, Mule, Cart, Healer’s Kit, 10 gp, 30 sp, 17 cp, 2 potions of Cure Light Wounds, Goods (see list).
Yohan’s cart is extremely popular in the morning for his Coulosis Tea that all hard working Cauldronites swear by. Yohan is a square dealer and will never overcharge a customer but he will also never under sell himself. His prices are already discounted and barely give him a profit. Instead of giving an extreme discount he will rather give the needed product away based on his perception dire need combined with extreme poverty. He will only do this with healing herbs never tobacco or teas. Yohan will continue to talk to characters as long as he thinks he is not boring them. He loves to talk about the bounty of the forrest and stories of his mule. Yohan is inquisitive and loves to learn about new people so he will ask questions until he feels he is being rude, which he never is, and will always apologize for asking too many questions. Any Good character with the Knowledge (local: Cauldron) will be an acquaintance of Yohan if not a good friend. He is always a good source of obvious information, current events and polite gossip. Yohan used to sell a mildly hallucinogenic tobacco chew called Abelb. This was put to a stop since Jenya Urikas of the Church of St. Cuthbert complained to the Lord Mayor (who was known to enjoy in partaking in the plant) who asked Captain Skellerang to talk to Yohan about becoming a bit more discreet in the activity.
Goods List
Hot Teas
Coulosis Tea 3 cp +1 on all Concentration checks for 1d4 hours
Mara Tea 2 cp relieves stress, +1 on Will saves for 1d4 hours
Herbs
Cardamom 1 sp +1 to Fort saves for 1d4 hours
Enramom 2 sp cures 2 hp, only one dose a day is effective
Agrenom 5 sp +2 to poison related heal checks for 1d4 hours
Nogarad 5 sp +2 to disease related heal checks for 1d4 hours
Tobacco
Mint Chew 1 cp
Earthy Red 2 cp
Suchacha 1 cp
Black 3 cp
Contraband
Abelb 2 gp -1 to all attack, skill, save checks for 1d4 hours. Except for Perform (music) checks which are +1 and any divination checks which are +3
Plot Ideas
Yohan learns of a Chaotic Evil Gnome Nec3/Rog2 who has moved into an apartment on Ash Avenue who has been selling a highly addictive narcotic made from liquid human remains. He knows that some one or two of the town guard is involved so he tried to speak to Jenya Urikas about it because she has the Mayor’s ear but she ignores and dismisses him due to their history. Yohan implores the player characters
to discreetly inform the authorities without alerting the town guard or to take out the gnome directly and find where he is getting his bodies.
Excellent Job. He will be useful in many a campaign.
I was thinking you might want to add the total value of the trade goods he has. It is probably not much, but I know my rogue pcs would look forward to stealing his shirt at some point. Considering most items are of in copper I would think he has only 50 gp in total trade goods.
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My party is about to take on Kazmojen tomorrow night down in the malachite fortress. I kept him in the game after the first adventure, for reason I can't state here, but he's got some nasty surprises up his sleeve for the party. Once he's been dealt with, I'll post his updated stat's here and reveal what his extended use in my campaign had been.
"Excellent Job. He will be useful in many a campaign.
I was thinking you might want to add the total value of the trade goods he has. It is probably not much, but I know my rogue pcs would look forward to stealing his shirt at some point. Considering most items are of in copper I would think he has only 50 gp in total trade goods."
Hey Random Jack,
Yeah, I forgot that. 50 gp sounds right. Yohan is a man of modest means. Although, if he is carrying a great deal of Abelb it could be a bit more. Anyway I heard that he doesn't carry that anymore, or does he?
Thanks for the input.
Any more suggestions or Ideas?
thank you , thank you very much. As a matter of fact I'm going to use him this weekend.
This is a cool NPC for sure. He fills a very specialized niche. I could plant him in the Cusp of Sunrise. That is where all the illicit herbs have been sold in my campaign. I think I brought this up in another thread. Oh well, now that my campaign's party (and DM...me) sounds like a bunch of stoners I will sign off.
Just say no kids!!!
There is no evidence that Johan Mur has partaken in any illicit activities. He is a law abideing citizen (o.k. he's neutral, he usually follows the law). I have never heard of Mr. Mur being a member of the Cusp. (though he has been seen entering through the back door).
Dominecus, glad you liked it.
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...I would also encourage any other DM’s on the message board to share any other commoners that populate “their” Cauldron...
Ok, here it is:
I just want to share a bit of "my Cauldron" and how the campaign went so far:Btw. wouldn't it be great, to have some things from the readers (like the awesome Yohan's Herbs and Tobacco shop)
incorporated into this "all parts in one module" that we all want to have?!
Anyway, just a thought ;)
Here are (in short) the major changes I made to my AP-campaign:
1) Because my group don't like big dungeons, I cancelled the Kopru Ruins totally and inserted the "Three days to kill"
module from Atlas Games. The villa in this module was Triels hideout and there she met with Tarkilar and Skaven! That
was damn hard, because my group met all three of them amlost in the same encounter...
2) One of my players is a Cauldron resident, who works for the St.Cuthbert temple and is in love with Jenya, just don't
dare to tell her! Alek Tercival is also in love with her, and always tries to met her... Jenya don't want that and is constantly turning Alek away. During the Lucky Monkey encounter, Alek was sent on his mission and is away from town since that day. The group will find him later in the adventure. I wonder, if the one in love with Jenya will try to help him, or if he will just be happy to be rid of him...
3) Sacrem Delasharn has been resurected, and I plan to make him a Cagewright agent. I presently don't know how he
changed his ethics, but I will work something out! Anybody out there who has an idea for this?! I am sure my players will be really surprised, if Sacrem, after helping them a couple of times, turns out to be an agent of the enemy ;)
4) Because, after playing the changed second part of the series, my players weren't of sufficent level to take on the Umber Hulk, I threw in the Tammeraut's Fate adventure! That was cool. Next weekend we will start the third part (the Umber Hulk Smash!!!).
5) Jil (from the very first encounter), happens to be a constant nuisance for the group! The party thief told her he will find and kill her (long story) and in the meantime they had two fights against each other, where Jil always made the escape soon enough, laughing...
6) My commoner of Cauldron is a little boy named Silas: He is a 12year old boy from the orphanage who is on a constant run from the authoritys (who put him into the Lantern Street Orphanage, because his parents died in a fire) and from Gretchyn, who always searches him! He loves adventurers and is always in search of a group who he can serve as a message-runner. He loves to hear storys from them and hopes, that one day, he will find a group he can join!
What nobody knows - he bears the carcerian sign and is one of the shackleborn!
My group started to like him and he always gets a mission from the group to fullfill (getting a message from A to B, fetch something there and bring it to there, and so on...). I spare you his details (you can get them if you like), because they don't really matter. I hope, that in making him someone my players care for, I can make the whole plot even more dramatic, if they find him later on in one of the cages. Maybe this will be enough to give them a hook for the last parts of the AP.
The will definiately search him during the attack of Hookface, and will most propably think he died while the vulcanpo blew off.
That's it! I hope I didn't bore you, but for me its always VERY interesting how things work out in other groups!
So what's your story???
One NPC that I placed in Cauldron was Hugo Verdtubb, a gnomish gem merchant/moneychanger from Dungeon Issue, 115. I placed his shop on South Magma Avenue, North of Taskehill Manor, and South of Ghelve's.