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Bend the Leaves of Jonquil Low - Part One: Over a Withered Moor

It is late Descending Water, the rainy season for the East. The PCs begin on a dusty road between Nexus and Great Forks, surrounded by farmland and meadows. The view is initially peaceful, even idyllic -- however, as they continue down the road they begin to notice the signs of drought and blight: the road is very dusty, despite how well packed the dirt is, and there are none of the usual signs of animals or even insects. The countryside is eerily silent, and the sunlight brassy.

Appropriate rolls will allow players to discern that lack of rain to the area has caused much of the damage, though the drought certainly seems supernatural in origin, especially with the bordering lands seemingly unaffected.

Ahead, there is a crossroads. Perceptive PCs may see a young woman dressed in whites and dark blues before they reach the intersection -- she makes no effort to hide herself, and her attention is focused on a bauble dangling from her clasped hands.

NPC: Glance Pleases the Child
Glance Pleases the Child (known as Lady Glance to most of the villagers) is the youthful priestess and shrine-tender of Ten Thousand Thunders, the local storm god and patron of the town of Jonquil. Like all of Ten Thousand Thunders' priestesses (who, incidentally, are all members of the same family, and take the name "Glance Pleases the Child" as a homage to the first and greatest of their number), Glance was born during a furious thunderstorm, and took the mantle of priestess on her thirteenth birthday. The god awakened her Essence with one of his charms, and gifted her with the heirloom Dousing Stone used by all priestesses before her.

Glance's main duties in the village are to mediate between the god and her people, act as a judge during disputes (along with the village elder and the local midwife), and tend to the shrine of Ten Thousand Thunders.

Glance is a pretty young woman with long brown hair and surprisingly bright blue eyes. She is quite formal in speech, and seems both nervous and determined when speaking with strangers. She knows that the good of the village is in her hands, and while overwhelmed, she is willing to do anything she can to make the god answer her again.

The Dousing Stone (Manse **)
The Dousing Stone is the hearthstone of Ten Thousand Thunders' earthly manse, a small but geometrically perfect pagoda about an hour's walk from the village. The pagoda, aspected to Water, acts as both his shrine and the entrance to his sanctum. The Dousing Stone appears to be a teardrop-shaped piece of black jade that glows with white, crackling energy when the bearer uses it. For one mote, the Dousing Stone will gently tug on its chain, leading the bearer to the closest source of fresh, clean water. The Stone's second function requires that the bearer commit ten motes to the stone and pray for guidance; For as many days afterward as the bearer has Essence, the stone's dousing power will instead lead the bearer toward the person (or persons) most likely to help her. Glance keeps this stone with her at all times, and does not allow anyone to touch it.

Regardless of whether the PCs approach her or not, Glance will look up as they reach the crossroads. Observant PCs will notice that the black teardrop-shaped stone hanging from a thin chain is pulling very gently toward them.

Glance is very polite and deferential, and bows often. She explains her village's problem: The god of storms, Ten Thousand Thunders, has fallen mysteriously silent over the past three months. None of Glance's prayers seem to reach him (something that has never happened in her 7+ years as his priestess), and the rain he usually sends during this, the rainy season, has not appeared. The young crops in the fields are dying, the village well has dried up, and to top it off, the villagers themselves are feeling the toll of starvation and drought. At the end of her rope, Glance performed a ritual said to grant the bearer of the stone she holds aid in the time of need. Since sunrise, she's been standing at the crossroads, waiting for the stone to show her the way. And, as she's just noticed, the stone is pointing straight at the PCs. She doesn't know why, nor does she understand how the stone works, but she can tell them that the previous night, during the ritual, she received a vision of a whole, healthy sun rising after a long night of darkness, and healing rain washing over the village at dawn.

Glance can offer payment in the form of services, some goods and silver, and the eternal gratitude of the villagers of Jonquil. If the PCs seem resistant, she begs and pleads, frustrated tears rolling down her cheeks. If (and when) they agree, she thanks them profusely, bowing deeply and offering any aid she can to them. She answers any questions they have to the best of her knowledge as she leads them down to the town of Jonquil.

Jonquil
Jonquil is, normally, a bustling center of activity surprising for how small a town it actually is. There are about 50 people living in or around the town, but its location on the route between Nexus and Great Forks makes it a stopping point for many travelers on their way to and from the cities. Important people in the town include Glance herself, as priestess to Ten Thousand Thunders; Jade Dragonfly, the Elder and defacto political leader of the town; and Carmine, the local midwife and herbalist.

With the drought and the missing god, however, Jonquil has become a silent and superstitious town. Villagers make signs to ward off evil eyes and bad luck, speak in hushed whispers, and keep their doors and windows shut tightly when night falls.

With careful questioning of the locals (they are suspicious, after all) and some investigation, PCs can uncover the following facts:

• The well has indeed been fouled, with the water level dangerously low to boot. Observant and athletic PCs can climb down the sturdy rope-and-bucket and examine the water up close, as well as discover strange black lotus-like flowers, complete with thorns, blooming in the stagnant, dark water.
• Those villagers stricken with the strange weakness are being treated by the midwife Carmine. Carmine is a healthy-looking middle-aged woman with deep red hair and a fair complexion that knows much about herbalism.
• Most of the villagers attribute the lack of rain and the apparent blight to Ten Thousand Thunders' anger at them, without thought for any other forces at work.
• The villagers suffering from weakness all suffered from the same dreams the night before they fell ill, all of which feature an oddly cloying smell of flowers and decay.

Word spreads fast as the PCs approach, and as they reach the village center square (a literal square), a group has assembled, led by Jade Dragonfly, the village elder. Glance and Jade have a short, hushed conversation as the rest of the villagers gawk at the PCs, and then Jade welcomes them to the town and offers any aid he can. If the PCs wish to talk in private (and if they don't ask to, he'll offer), he offers hospitality at his own home, and leads them and Glance to it.

For information, he can offer this: The village has been suffering under the drought since the rains stopped about three months previously. He and Glance have surmised that it has something to do with the disappearance of Ten Thousand Thunders, and of late Glance has been unable to open the doors to his shrine (they seem to be held closed with an unknown force), of which the Essence flows feel off to her. The town well became fouled not long after the rains stopped; there is a stream in the woods nearby that water can be hauled from, but it's an arduous task, and time-consuing as well. If the drought continues any longer, the villagers will start dying. Additionally, there seems to be something foul at work; the villagers have been falling sick overnight, complaining of weakness and a general bad feeling, and one child has died.

If questioned about any other visitors to the village in the past few months, either one will say that aside from the regular traders, scholars, and young Dragon-bloods looking for adventure, the only one that stands out in their minds is a strange, dark-haired woman that rode through town about a month before Ten Thousand Thunders fell silent. She wore black silk and carried a sword, and was quite polite, if also cold and haughty. She stayed only one night, leaving to head east to the rocky hills that border the land (there's a building up on top of the nearest hill, locally known as the Tabernacle, that many of the town's visitors head to). The first of the villagers fell ill not long after she passed through.

Glance and Jade are both as helpful as they can be. Both are obviously worried, and fully aware of what they're asking the PCs to help with. They do, however, trust in what the dousing stone showed Glance.

If asked for a suggestion as to where to head first, Glance offers to show them to Ten Thousand Thunders' shrine, where she first felt the inklings of something being wrong. The shrine is only about an hour west of the village by foot.

The Shrine of Ten Thousand Thunders
Ten Thousand Thunders' shrine can be found by following a well-tended path west for about an hour on foot (it is, obviously, much quicker by horse or cart). The path is normally clean and lined with hardy vegetation, but the drought has caused the flowers to wilt and the trees to drop their new leaves. The path is, like the village and the surrounding fields, eerily free of wildlife.

The shrine itself is surrounded by a short fence, and inside that, a small, currently wilted garden. A set of steps flanked by white stone birds of prey leads up to the shrine proper, a tall, impressive pagoda decorated with stylized symbols of rain, wind, and lightning.