How about an adventure front based upon an obscure fairy tale.
A king had his castle shadowed by a great oak tree, and had no well that held water year round. He declared that whoever cut down the oak and dug the well would have the princess and half the kingdom.
Three brothers, who had set out because their father was too poor to give them anything, were going to his palace. The youngest son heard something hewing, and went off. He found an axe that was hewing by itself, and it said that it had been waiting for him. He took it and went back, telling his brother that it had been an axe, and endured their ridicule. Again, he heard something digging, found a shovel digging by itself, and took it as well; then he wondered where a brook came from, and found not a spring but a walnut, which he stopped up with moss.
When they reached the king, he had decreed that whoever tried and failed would have his ears clipped off and be put on a deserted island. The two older tried, failed, and suffered the punishment. The youngest set the axe to cut down the tree, the spade to dig the well, and the nut to fill it.
The story says that it was just as well that the brothers lost their ears, because it spared them hearing people’s comments that their youngest brother had not been a fool to wonder.
Three deathly hallows?
IO∆
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_and_His_Brothers
how do you see developing this for an adventure?
Brian Vinciguerra cool!
cole long The story gives enough detail to build all the basic components to build an Adventure Front.
The essence of the story is the king, and the youngest brother. With the youngest brother being the only one to solve the problem creatively. The story is a bit benign but can be used as a springboard to something much darker. So for the purposes of this story we could turn the king into a benevolent ruler that his slowly slipping into madness. His behavior is becoming more brutal. Originally he says that anyone that can cut down the tree and dig a well wins the princess and half the kingdom. Then he changes to failure to succeed in the task = ears being cut off and banishment/imprisonment.
Adventure Front:
Danger: The king is slipping into madness.
Impending Doom: The kings increasing brutality causes few to step up to the task and soon the kingdom starts to thirst.
Grim Portents:
1. The summer is exceedingly hot this year and the castle’s water reserves are drying up.
2. Water is nearly gone and subjects have to rely on other methods of slaking their thirst.
3. People are beginning to die from the lack of water driving the king into further madness.
what about the fantastical items?
The tree cannot be cut down by mundane items. The earth is of a type of stone that normal chisels, and digging implements are ineffective. The water source below the ground has dried but they only discover this after digging the well.
Each of the magic items in the story are rife for mini-quests. Having one will certainly make success of the king’s demand a possibility but not a certainty.
Knowledge of these items could be passed via NPCs in the castle that have heard legends of these.
The party must undertake perilous journeys to acquire them. All the meanwhile the King’s madness progresses with the continued failures.
Just a random thought: perhaps the slaying of a basilisk has caused the earth and trees to turn to stone. Could consider it a trait of basilisk blood.