A Feast of Fowl Play

A family friendly D&D "Save the Feast" quest with a focus on humor, quirky monsters, and social roleplaying

A Thanksgiving themed, family friendly D&D Adventure for a party of 3 to 5 characters.

DM Notes

A critical part of this adventure relies on the party communicating with NPCs about the BBEG. The important clues are spread across several NPC’s some of whom have been transformed into animals. If none of the player characters have the ability to communicate with animals, you may want to arrange for them to acquire a Ring of Spell Storing with 3-5 charges of Speak with Animals or some similar potion/magic item. I have tried to make sure that there are at least 2 sources for each piece of information.

Adventure Hook

The party is attending the annual harvest feast in the small town of Gravy Gulch. It is the morning of the feast and townsfolk are busy decorating the town square. The smell of cooking food and roasting meats can be smelled for miles around. As the first batch of pies hit the table to start cooling, disaster strikes. A wave of magic sweeps over the town square and the townsfolk are suddenly transformed into various types of poultry (mostly panicked turkeys, geese, and chickens). Then the prepared food begins to animate. Half cooked turkeys and roasting pigs begin running around… mayhem ensues.

Hearing the commotion, the Mayor Applebottom, arrives and explains in a panic: “It’s Ol’ Granny Giblet! We forgot to send her an invite to the feast this year, and her feelings get awful hurt. She aint above cursing anyone who snubs her!” Granny Giblet is an eccentric, low-level hag who lives in a shack in the nearby marsh.

The Mayor asks the party to find Ol’ Granny Giblet and get her to lift the curse and promises a fitting reward.

Ol' Granny Giblet - The BBEG

Ol’ Granny Giblet is a Green Hag who, despite roomers to the contrary, likes going to parties and hanging out with “regular” people. She uses her Illusory Appearance to disguise herself as a kindly, middle aged woman (human) or a beautiful wood elf to blend in better with the locals. However, she does have a bit of a mean streak when she feels rejected or slighted. Her usual revenge for such things is petty and involves things like causing cows to give spoiled milk and food and fruit to spoil before it can be harvested.

This year she as been particularly well behaved and even used her magic to help a couple of farms to produce bumper crops. So, when she didn’t get invited to the harvest feast… well that was an unforgivable insult.

Granny has been working day and night for a week to work her magic and curse the town. While she can’t get them all, she can curse everyone and everything in the town square and that is exactly what she has done.

Now she is relaxing and scrying on the townsfolk, enjoying the mayhem she has created. As long as her caldron is safe and stirred by her unseen servant all the way to midnight, then her curse will become permanent.

Quirky Threats About Town

The feast tables and town square are littered with small, aggressive food monsters, like a sticky Cranberry Ooze (a re-skinned Ooze with lower health) and animated hard-shelled dinner rolls with tiny arms wielding dinner knives. The monsters grow more aggressive as the day goes on.

See the monsters section below.

Interviewing the Townsfolk

The party’s first challenge is navigating the chaos of the transformed village.

The cursed townsfolk retain their minds but can only speak in gobbles and clucks. They are frantically running around. If the party wants to try and communicate with them, they need to catch and calm them down (see challenge below). The spells Speak with Animals and Animal Friendship or any ability or magic item that allows players to communicate with animals will allow the party to communicate with the cursed townsfolk.

Challenge: The party must succeed on a series (3 out of 5) of Wisdom (Animal Handling) or Charisma (Persuasion) checks to get a crucial pieces of information from the townsfolk. Here is a list of things they could learn:

A large rooster (a woodsman) has pecked a crude map to the hag’s cabin into a pumpkin. He can be found sitting atop the pumpkin crowing for attention.
The baker, now a nice fat goose, knows that Granny is particularly fond of green apple pie, one of which is currently chasing a group of ducklings around the square with a knife. There are several more inside his store, which is on the town square.
The butcher, now a very large hog, knows that Granny loves bacon and she can be convinced to do almost anything for a pound of candied bacon. He has some for sale in his shop down the street. The butcher’s apprentice is not cursed and can be found in the butcher’s shop.
The tailor, who is now a large goose swimming in the fountain in the center of town square and his wife, the dress maker, know that Granny uses magic to make herself look “pretty.” Ol Granny has been by their shop several times eyeing a beautiful green dress in the window. The dress maker is not cursed and can be found in their shop just a few doors down from the town square.

The Road to Granny's House

The journey to Granny Giblet’s lair is hazardous and highly food themed. In order to get to Granny’s lair, the party must traverse the swamp starting with Gravy River.

The Gravy River: A narrow, deep, fast-moving stream that requires 3 out of 5 Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) checks to cross.

5 Failures – The character is coated with thick, magically binding Gobbler Gravy, which halves their movement speed and imposes disadvantage on all dexterity and strength based checks until the character can be cleaned either by magic or a 1 hour bath with clean water. The character can be smelled from up to 60 feet away eliminating the ability to gain surprise on attacks.
4 Failures – Same as above. The cleaning process only takes 30 minutes. The character can be smelled from up to 30 feet away eliminating the ability to gain surprise on attacks.
3 Failures – The character can be smelled from up to 30 feet away and has disadvantage on any charisma based (persuasion/intimidation) checks.
4 Successes – The player can provide advantage on a single skill check roll for any single character crossing the river after them.
5 Successes – The player can provide advantage on one skill check roll for all the characters crossing the river after them.

Mashed Potato Mire: The section of swamp surrounding Granny’s lair has pools of thick, lumpy quicksand that looks like mashed potatoes, requiring a Strength, Dexterity or Nature check to avoid sinking in and becoming stuck. The quicksand may be avoided with a successful active Wilderness check (DC 15). There are many of these pools, so actively checking for them will halve the party’s normal speed through this area.

“Well, you went and got yourself good and stuck didn’t ya?”

5 Failures – The character is stuck, their movement is 0. It will require a combined strength of 25 and 30 minutes to pull them out. For every point under 25, the process will take an extra 10 minutes. They loose 1 inventory item for every 5 points by which they failed each check.
4 Failures – Same as above. The process only takes 15 minutes. For every point under 25, the process will take an extra 10 minutes. They loose 1 inventory item for every 5 points by which they failed each check.
3 Failures – The character is able to get themselves out of the quicksand with minor help from another character in the party. They loose 1 inventory item for every 5 points by which they failed each check.
4 Successes – The player can provide advantage on a single skill check to avoid one of the patches of quicksand.
5 Successes – The player can provide advantage on one skill check roll each of the characters to avoid a patch of quicksand.

Minions: The hag has posted enchanted sentinels, such as Animated Scarecrows (reskinned animated armor or constructs) or perhaps a flock of surprisingly vicious, awakened Wild Dire Turkeys.

Granny's Lair

Approaching Granny’s Lair.

Granny’s lair is a small, ramshackle mud and wood budling in a clearing atop a mound surrounded by swampy marshes. The windows are shuttered closed and smoke rises from a chimney.

Granny’s lair is guarded by one of her favorite creations, a trained attack Poultrygeist, which is a giant turkey re-skinned using the Velociraptor stats. In addition to the normal velociraptor attacks, the Poultrygeist has a sonic Gobble attack (Thunderwave). The Poultrygeist will gobble loudly, charge and Gobble attack intruders on site. Just off the main path leading to Granny’s home is a basket of corn. The Poultrygeist can be distracted/pacified by throwing it some corn or other grain.

To enter Granny’s home they will need to solve a puzzle. Her front door is magically locked (arcane lock). There are multiple ways to unlock the door. The password is “green apple pie”. There is a cinnamon stick boor next to the door. Brushing the door with the broom will temporarily unlock. Picking a successful lock picking skill check with a DC of 20. Brute forcing the door requires a DC 20 strength check.

Inside Granny’s Lair

The interior of Granny Giblet’s hut (Magnificent Mansion) is surprisingly spacious, nicely furnished and decorated. Not at all what one would expect from a Hag’s hut in the middle of a swamp. The open floorplan is filled with strange magical instruments on tables and shelves, various dried herbs and strange plants are hang drying from the celling. There is a large, bubbling cauldron hanging on an iron hook in the fireplace. An unseen server is stirring a fowl smelling concoction in the cauldron.

If the characters manage to sneak up on her Granny, she will be sitting in a beautifully carved wooden rocking chair using an orb of scrying to observer the mayhem in the town square. If Granny was able to hear or smell the adventurers, she will be prepared to defend herself.

Reversing the Curse

The curse will be automatically be lifted at midnight if the party can stop the cauldron from being stirred.

Social Solution: The party can appeal to Granny Giblet’s sense of loneliness. She only wanted to be included. They can offer her a written, formal invitation to the next 10 years of feasts, promise to bake her a special pie, or perhaps give her a rare, sweet ingredient she can’t get in the marsh. A successful Charisma (Persuasion) check (DC 15 or 18) convinces her to reverse the spell.

Combat Solution: If they fight, Granny Giblet, a re-skinned low-level spellcaster or a Green Hag depending on the party’s level, relies on curses and animated food in combat. She uses spells like Polymorph on herself to escape, hide or become a more powerful mealy threat, and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter to paralyze a foe with uncontrollable giggling. If the fight is too easy for the PCs, Granny can animate a final boss: a towering construct made of rotting vegetables and enchanted stuffing—the Colossus of Cranberry.

Resolution: Once Granny Giblet is defeated, she will command the unseen servant to stop stirring the cauldron and explain that the curse will be lifted at midnight. The food monsters return to normal immediately and the townsfolk will return to normal at midnight. If Granny is appeased (peacefully), she will have the unseen servants dump the cauldron’s contents on the floor and the townsfolk are instantly restored (some mid-gobble). The party is celebrated as the Saviors of the Feast, enjoying the most thankful (and now non-hostile) meal of their lives.

If she is positively inclined toward the party or sufficiently threatened, she will offer to show them the town square using her orb of scrying to prove that the curse has been lifted.

Monster Art

Food monsters should use the 4th edition “minion” rule where it only takes 1 hit to kill/destroy. They are intended to be low damage dealing (1-2 points) nuances, not real threats. Their AC is 10. Think of them as mayhem and good “smash ’em” fun to get the players in the mood of the adventure.