The Legend of Wauphol's Windfall

INTRO

As you approach the farmhouse on the small island, you see the owners have done reasonably well for themselves, and you spot a pair of halflings waiting outfront, Mr. Wauphol and his wife presumably. They look eager to give a tour, though you hope they'll forgive any tangents you might take as you explore the island yourself. 

• Let them introduce themselves and describe themselves as they see fit
• Then let the Wauphol's take over

A fine field of high grass ripples in the breeze, a verdant green ocean splashed with speckles of buttercup yellow. You sense more than see that somewhere in the depths, where the dark earth lies cool and calm, rabbits bound through emerald tunnels that swim beneath the glistening surface. No crop is being grown. No livestock grazes here. The Wauphol's must be leaving the field fallow for a future season’s growth.

From the tree line you hear a crash, and then a giant boar launches itself into the field. The hulking beast makes a sound like rolling thunder as its hooves pound across the grassy floor, charging after some perceived threat to its safety. You try not to think about what its oversized tusks would do to your body at that speed. Yet, even as you do, it turns in your direction, unrelenting in its speed. 

• Fork on the road, Wauphol's usually take people on the mountain pass, but the more adventurous types like to check out the swamp
• Map the travelers have says to go to the SWAMP
• Attacked by giant WILD BOAR - find his NEST nearby (DC PER or INV 12) - Find Loot (below)

• MAP - https://www.dndbeyond.com/games/4923164
• ENCOUNTER - https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/b98a153d-7bba-4da6-abaf-c5c86fb171de

• Survive the wildlife of Wauphol's Island

• Net https://www.dndbeyond.com/equipment/net
• Potion of Hill Giant Strength https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/4706-potion-of-hill-giant-strength\

SWAMP OF FATE

SWAMP - The bleached skeletons of trees stand in an expanse of dark water. Brown reeds crowd the rotting trunks, whispering against them in a chill wind. The marshy ground you stand on serves as shore to a drowned forest tangled with fallen timber. The water might not be deep, but it looks cold—and there’s no telling how far you’d sink into the mud beneath it.

CHAPEL - Little remains of the squat, stone structure, but one can discern its previous silhouette: a chapel of sorts, with a soaring bell tower and wide, oaken double doors. Decades, possibly centuries, have passed since its toppling. One wonders—was it the slow, inexorable march of time that brought the chapel down, casting its stones to the surrounding fen and allowing the soft, grasping earth to reclaim its foundations? Or was it a sudden calamity, a world-ending storm that toppled the belltower and sundered the walls? Either way, the ruins now house only shadows and slinking predators.

LIZARDFOLK - This humanoid’s body is covered in tough, scaled skin and bears a thick tail, much like a crocodile, but its head—although frighteningly toothy and still reptilian—is much more manlike. It uses a spikey shell as a shield, seemingly from a tortoise you’ve never seen before; in its other hand it holds a wicked-looking club made from wood lashed to a smooth stone.

GIANT CROCODILE - The size of this reptilian behemoth is enough to give you pause, but the power of its mighty jaws would probably allow it to crush solid rock. Despite its usual immobile stance and lazy demeanor, as it currently battles the lizard folk nearby, you can seethat it can move lightning-fast when a meal comes into view.

• Hear sounds of fighting in the distance
• Come across a group of lizardpeople struggling to put down a GIANT CROCODILE, asking for help
• Once croc is defeated, Lizardfolk ask what they are doing in the swamp, laying it on thick
• Guide them to hidden enchanted dingy "the little boat that steers itself," let them have loot below as gratitude and "Because you'll need it!"
• If asked, confirm the boat takes them to the WRECK OF THE COMPASS ROSE
• NOTE - they will find other DINGYS (boats) but they are all wrecks that sink with any weight)

• MAP - https://www.dndbeyond.com/games/4923164
• ENCOUNTER - https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/877a1b49-6896-4df3-a6b8-2615113bfb06

• Find the "magical" dingy that will take them to the "Compass Rose"

• Potion of Water Breathing https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/4715-potion-of-water-breathing
• Potion of Healing https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/4708-potion-of-healing

THE WRECK OF COMPASS ROSE

FOGGY BAY - A ring of swamped land barely rises above the gentle waves. Shallow ponds and streams make up more of the landscape than do expanses and mounds of soggy earth. All the water flows toward a fog shrouded bag, jagged peaks of rock barely visible through the murky air. The choppy waves toss your little boat back and forth, but its magic knows the way, with you narrowly averting disaster one or twice as sharp tongues of rocks appear almost out of nowhere as you make your way toward the wreck of the Compass Rose. 

OLD SHIPWRECK - The skeletal forms of masts, tangled with tattered sails and knotted riggings, protrude from the shallow waters. The ship ran aground long ago, lost in a storm or blind in the fog. The rocks jut upward like curving tusks: barbed daggers waiting to puncture the soft underbellies of wayward vessels. A wave crashes with a flurry of salt-laced mist, and you catch sight of the ship itself, buffeted by the tide, half-drowned, overgrown with barnacles and kelp. What treasures did old Wauphol leave within? And might still be guarding his lost fortune?

MERFOLK - The humanoid creature's torso slips fluidly through the water, their skin an iridescent blue-green. Scales shimmer, and in place of hair, a crown of fins crests the creature's skull. Their webbed hands tread water, and you realize their lower half is that of a finned tail, powerful and capable of propelling the creature quickly through the water.

BANDITS - You find yourselves surrounded by 5 rough looking individuals, clearly criminals, all armed and looking exceptionally dangerous. The leader looks especially gruesome, missing teeth, a massive scar splitting his lip down into his chest. The curved sword in this warrior’s hand writhes through the air like a wary serpent, as if hypnotized by the movement of the long dagger in the other hand. This fighter’s feet are just as nimble, carrying himin erratic but entrancing circles. It is a deadly dance, but at the moment he lacks a partner.

• Magical boat leads them to a mostly submerged galleon, through a mist shrouded lagoon, where jagged rocks appear out of nowhere, hence the amount of broken boats you can see beneath the waters
• They go down to find the treasure, spot some friendly merpeople (one male Rello, one female Iris), who may help them
• Find a CHEST, but it is locked (intimate they need to bring it back above the water)
• When they get back above the water, ambushed by BANDITS who also got a map, and they want the chest (Wauphols are very confused)

• MAP - https://www.dndbeyond.com/games/4923164
• ENCOUNTER - https://www.dndbeyond.com/encounters/2261e599-c0f9-4798-9a29-3b

• Find the chest in the HOLD (bottom section) of the ship, keep it from Bandits

CONCLUSION

• Chest is empty, nothing but alge and a fine film of sand within. 
• Let them play it out, but the "enchanted dingy" is waited to take them back to shore.