Pando's Noble Pines

2025-12-29T00:00:00Z

Pando Cornelius is the proprietor of a moderately sized logging camp. Although they make most of their money cutting down white pine, a rare tree called the Noble Pine also grows on his property.

Two nights ago all but one of the Noble Pines were destroyed in the middle of the night. If the last Noble Pine is destroyed the logging camp will go out of business and Pando will be forced to sell the property at a major loss.

When the players arrive to the camp they see Pando crying sitting against a dead Noble Pine. He will pay the Adventuring group handsomely if they defend the last Noble Pine until he is able to collect enough pine cones to plant new trees. He will give them a significant bonus if they find whatever is behind this and put it to an end.

Noble Pine Properties

• The wood has a pleasant scent and is perfect for carving intricate gifts.
• The pine oil of the tree is much stronger than regular pine oil.
  • Sought after to be used as a disinfectant, sanitizer, microbicide, virucide, insecticide, antiseptic etc
  • Must be diluted before use as over application to even bare skin can cause poisoning.

Dead Noble Pine

• Withered and raisin like with no branches.

Characters

Camp Boss

Pando is a proud longtime lumberjack. Is always out chopping trees with his men. Keeps order by any means necessary.

• Very trusting of his men. In love with Jorge.
• Implied to Jorge that he would leave the camp to him when he was ready to retire.
• Believes that The Traveling Elf is behind this.
  • Since he established this Lumber mill the elf has been seen collecting pine cones from his property.

Fallen Angel

Onjelido was once a proud Christmas Tree Topper.Last Christmas, as midnight came and Pando's kids began opening their gifts with glee, Onjelido launched himself from the top of the tree to join the fun. When he hit the floor he shattered his body. He was swept up and discarded by Mrs. Pando shortly after. He woke up after a long sleep on the Island of Misfit Toys now the size of a person with fractures across his porcelain skin.

Onjelido (Long Covering Robes, Long Flowing Hair)

• Pando is going to replace him this year with a carving made of one of his Noble Pines. Onjelido is dedicated to preventing that and will destroy every last Noble Pine.
  • Made a deal with The Deputies. In exchange for being allowed to collect as many branches as they want, they delivered poison to all the noble trees they could find.
• Has access to ritual magics and can use magical items.
  • Talisman of Transportation
    • When crushed will cause the user to turn to mist and reappear at the point where the Talisman was created. Will send Onjelido back to his cave.
  • Magic Flute of Hypnosis
    • All Toys that can hear the flutes song are compelled to act as the user of the flute visualizes. Toys can not be commanded to harm themselves or others unless the song is focused to affect a single toy. This focusing is explained below. The effect of the flute ends when the song does.

The Created Captive

Muddie is a nine foot tall person made of mud and clay. At her core is a chunk of the Winterbolt tree. A Christmas elf can determine that magic that animated her is similar to what gives toys life.

• Has her own personhood but is kept imprisoned by Onjelido to be used as a weapon of war. Onjelido can concentrate the Magic Flutes effect to command Muddie and make her fight to the death. The Magic Flute can not affect any other toys when used in this way.
• Locked up in Onjelido's cave.
• This is the only life she knows.

The "Deputies"

Local ne'er-do-wells (stat as bandits) who have set up camp on the other side of the river to the logging camp. They carry staffs and are quite fond of ones made of the branches of a Noble Pine.

• Agreed to work with Onjelido and poison the trees in exchange for being able to to collect as many of the branches as they want.
  • Delivered all the pine cones they could find to Jorge as part of their deal with him.
• Noble Pine Staff: Damage as a staff, on an even damage roll pine oil seeps into your bloodstream. Each staff has 3 doses of oil.

1d4-1	First Dose	Second Dose	Third dose
0	Burning Eyes: Your next attack is harder to hit.	Dizziness: Avoid sudden movements or fall prone for the rest of the day.	Confusion: For 1d4 hours, when you roll damage for an attack if the damage total is odd take that much damage yourself instead of dealing it to your target.
1	Nervousness: Act last during a fight for 1d4+1 rounds	Irritability: Attempts to negotiate or persuade are much harder for the rest of the day.	Aggression: For 1d8 hours act first in combat, if Aggressive and Nervous at the same time replace both conditions with Hyperarousal.
2	Breathing Trouble: You are easier to hit due to you having to stop and catch your breath	Stupor: For 1d6 hours or until aroused by vigorous stimulation, prevent all damage. When the stupor ends take damage equal to damage prevented. This damage takes twice as longer to recover from.	Coma: Unresponsive for 1d6 weeks.

Hyperarousal - For three days you act first in combat, can not be surprised, and have increased sensitivity to all stimuli but you can not sleep.

When a character is dosed they remain dosed until they rest, even if the effect of the dosing has worn off. The effects of pine oil poisoning can be reversed with an Antidote, a substance that causes purging or a spell of Neutralize Poison. This also removes all doses from the character.

A fourth dose kills you through irreversable damage to the nervous system.

Second in Command

Jorge Trundle was one of the first lumberjacks hired by Pando. He has been saving up to buy the logging camp when Pando retires. Sells pine oil under the table to his clock making cousin. He let the deputies into the logging camp and showed them what the Noble Pines look like. In exchange he was given a supply of Noble Pine Cones so he could start farming them after Pando is driven to ruin.

• He is the only lumberjack aware of the value of the pine oil. Once he owns the logging camp he will maximize oil production.
  • Has a secret supply of Noble Pine seeds.
  • Learned about the Noble Pine Oil through his workings with The Traveling Elf.
• Has an intimate relationship with Pando.

The Traveling Elf

• One of many nomadic elves that travel the lands.
• Dedicated to conservation of the natural world.
  • Worried about the farming of the Noble Pine so he has been keeping a stash of pinecones and replanting them elsewhere.
• Well educated on the properties of the Noble Pine and it's oil.
  • Carries antidotes for pine oil poisoning.
  • Knows how to properly dilute the oil to create powerful treatments.
• Willing to teach Pando and him men more sustainable ways to farm the trees.
• Investigating rumors of Toy Animation magics being used by a non Christmas Elf.

The Logging Camp

Daily Schedule

The Player Characters arrive as breakfast is starting. When they finish getting the rundown from Pando breakfast is ending.

4am: Early Risers
6am: Breakfast
11:30am: Lunch
5:30pm: Last Meal
Sundown: Stop Working

In between meals the lumberjacks are working. The Lumberjacks named below are at their location during work time but have a 50% chance of being there during a meal time.

ie: Herb is sleeping in the Bunk House during work hours and has a 50% chance of being asleep in the Bunk House during a meal time.

This is the play procedure for the adventure. The night following the characters arrival will be when the Deputies attack so it is important for time to pass as the characters do things and investigate. Pando also explicitly asked them to defend the tree tonight. One turn represents a zoomed out team action and rounds are used in combat or during the trunk searching minigame.

4am-6am : A
6am-6:30am : B
6:30-11:30 : C
11:30-12:00pm : B
12:00pm-4:00 : C
4:00-6:00 : A (sundown)
6:00pm-4:00am : D

A: One turn. Investigate one location or Travel to a point. (don't need to travel within camp.)
B: One rushed turn. Investigate one location very quickly, will be noticed that this place was searched.
C: Two turns. Investigate two locations or Travel and Investigate
D: Five turns. Investigate five locations, by the time the fourth location is chosen the Deputies will raid the camp looking for the last Noble Pine. They will not find it until it is time for the fifth location to be searched.

Investigating a location can also be some other equivilant action.

1. The Bunk House

Rows of bunk beds, trunks, and dressers. Each trunk is labeled with a lumberjack's name.

Herb is the only lumberjack in the Bunk House. He is asleep but as the characters move through they notice that they risk waking him. The players can find Jorge Trundle's trunk easily but it has a lock.

Give Herb a clock with three sections. If the players fail to break the lock quietly, fill in a section.

Trundle's trunk is home to a tiny spirit that flies towards him if someone other than him opens his trunk. It does not identify who opened the trunk. He will be here in 10 rounds after his chest has been opened. A player with relevant knowledge (magic, spirits, rituals etc) can indentify the runes on the trunk and know what will happen once the chest is opened.

A player can take two rounds to open an Unlocked Trunk quietly. If they go quick (opening the trunk in one round) there is 50% chance of a clock section being filled. Once three sections are filled Herb will wake. He wakes up very aggressive and will spread that the characters are theives arounds the camp. It will be very difficult for the characters to get help from other lumberjacks once this happens.

• Jorge Trundle's Trunk (locked | cheap lock, enchanted | noticable runes)
  • Eight cans of undiluted Noble Pine oil. Each can holds 6 doses.
  • Blueprints to build a Pine Oil Extraction Plant.
  • Lock box (very secure)
    • Life savings in gems. About 40% of what is needed to purchase the logging camp.
  • Shipping receipts for cans sent to a Joshua Trundle.
  • Bag of Noble Pine Pinecones and notes for growing Noble Pines from seed.
    • Notes are from a conversation with The Traveling Elf.

Eight Unlocked Trunks

1d8	What's Inside?
1	(Wiley) Hellish sketch of a winged silutte hidden in the trees.
2	(Earl) Weeks wage.
3	(Herb) Family Photoalbum. Five Joints. Absinthe.
4	(Sawyer) Diary Entry: Jorge Trundle met with some strange figures near the river border.
5	(Shelly)'s Lucky Axe: Hits as a battleaxe. When max damage is rolled sever one of the target's limbs.
6	(McCoy) Diary Entry: We are being watched. Stalked by a winged creature the size of man.
7	(Big Joe) Diary Entry: Got in another fight this those so called deputies. Their weapons seemed to weaken and confuse me the more they hit me. It did leave me smelling quite nice.
8	(Silas) Full of beef jerky, causes gastroenteritis for the rest of the day. (Gone bad but passes for unspoiled, relevant skills or backgrounds can reveal this).

2. The Cook House

Earl works the Cook house. With him he has a crew of two cooks and a 1d6 cooks in training.

Earl (Stained White Apron, Hairnet over beard)

• Earl knows where the Deputies camp is. At the end of the day he sells them all his leftover bread and some shaved meat.
• He's tired of the daily grind so he is easily motivated by money. Will spill the beans for money.
• Has the loyalty of all the lumberjacks since he feeds everyone. (they eat about 9,000 calories a day each)

3. Outhouse

50% of the time Silas is using the Outhouse. Silas is the "Lobby-Hog" meaning that they clean up the bunk house and keep things tidy. Since they begun getting sick Pando has threatened them with firing.

Silas (Heavily Tattoo'd, Baggy overalls)

• Their beef jerky has gone bad and causes them to empty their bowels constantly. It smells fine enough to them.
• Wants the suffering to end.
• One late night on the outhouse, over heard Jorge speaking with multiple people they did not recognize. (Jorge was pointing out Noble Pines to a "Deputie")

4. Office

Big Joe works the office. Lots of all sorts of paperwork.

Big Joe (Average Height, Huge Crazy Spiky Hair)

• The dying Noble Pines has Big Joe calculating the value of the logging camp without the Noble Pines. They are also writing letters to potential buyers to see how much money Pando can get.
• Flooded with Christmas mail from home, needs help delivering letters to Herb, Shelly, and Wiley.
• Sends out mail, has noticed the many packages Jorge has sent. (These are shipments of cans of pineoil to his clock making cousin.)

5. Barn

Sawyer tends to the oxen and some horses.

Sawyer (Huge Black Boots, Very Smelly)

• The animals she has been dealing with have been acting up since the Noble Pines died.
• One of her horses was stolen by a bandit and taken to the other side of the river. (Players can spend an Investigation after traveling over the river to find the Deputies Camp)
• Will give the characters a horse if they agree to find something to sedate the Oxen with. (Makes travel free / not taking a turn in the procedure)

6. Blacksmith Shop

Wiley is an Independent Blacksmith that set up her own shop at camp. She sells axes to Pando through Big Joe but also has to deal with actually making all the tools too.

Wiley (Thin Tall Wiry Frame, Gold Colored Hammer)

• Suspects Pando is getting some cheap axes delivered in with the food to spend less than buying from her.
• Opening up to clientele from outside the lumber camp. Has made tools for collecting pine resin for Jorge
• An intricate axe with a nice leather strap is displayed in the shop.
  • The Imperial Divide: Hits as a great axe. Can be spun for 1d6 turns and you move slower while maintaining the spin. While it's spinning if any medium creature ends its turn in melee range it gets cleaved in half. When you start spinning, it pushes all creatures out of melee range and deals 1d4 damage to them.

7. Filer Shack

Shelly the Sharpener hold the world record for sharpest axe. Rumor has it she felled an axe breaker tree in one swipe. Here she sharpens all the labor camps axes and saws.

Shelly (Athletic Sturdy Frame, Chain Gloves)

• Her chain gloves allow you to try to catch an incoming bladed weapon.
• Will sharpen your weapons.
• Can connect the characters to The Traveling Elf in exchange for The Imperial Divide.
  • Knows the name of which Elf is currently traveling through these lands.

8. Camp Store

McCoy manages the incoming shipments, both the receiving and ordering.

McCoy (tiny glasses, Long Mustache)

• Related to Silas and not happy with how he is being paid and treated by Pando.
• Worsening winter storms has made one of the camps suppliers go out of business. In need of a new potato supplier.
• Has seen a flying man sized creature stalk the camp at night. They know the direction it flew when it left. (enough to start searching for Onjelido's cave.)

The Woods

Hundreds of lumberjacks working nonstop during the day. Shriveled dead trees dot the woods. The logging camp can only work the section of the woods to the right of the river.

1d4+x	Woods Encounter Table
1	Tired Lumberjack
2	Tired Lumberjack
3	1d4 Spooked Oxen
4	2d4 Agropelters
5	2d4 Flitterricks
6	Hidebehind
7	Onjelido
8	Onjelido and Muddie

Roll a 1d4+0 when entering an exiting the portion of the woods where the Lumberjacks work. Roll a 1d4+3 when in the area around the Deputies camp. Roll a 1d4+4 when in the area around Onjelido's camp.

Stat blocks below will be using Cairn stats using this framework. Translate to your system accordingly.

Tired Lumberjack

(Strong and Hardy, Sharp Axe)

4 HP, 12 STR, 9 DEX, 8 WIL, axe (d6) (Boar Stats)

• Appreciates being given food. Willing to join the party if offered a higher wage. (twice a days wage)
• Sneaking in a small break from the nonstop work
• If speaking with a Lumberjack roll a d6 and look at the woods encounter table.He will speak of an encounter he just had and reveal information about the critter.

Spooked Oxen

(Jumpy, Agressive)

6 HP, 14 STR, 10 DEX, 12 WIL, horns (d8) (Bull Stats)

• Charge: Nearby targets must make a DEX save or be trampled underfoot (d12 STR damage, ignoring armor).
• Can be calmed with a correct dosing of pine oil.

Agropelter, Anthrocephalus craniofractens

(Defensive, Stealthy, Protector )
The Agropelter inhabits hollow trees. It has a slender, wirey body and the face of an ape with muscular whip like arms.

5 HP, 8 STR, 12 DEX, 5 WIL, Thrown Branch (d4+1) (Spider Stats)

• Climb Trees
• Silent: if not spotted they surprise the party
• Branch Projectile 1d4: Throws sharpened branches at Lumberjacks and other forest tresspassers

Flitterricks

(Agressive, Flying)
A type of flying squirrel known for flying at high speeds and ramming its own body with its target. In one instance this was enough to kill an ox on impact.

4 HP, 5 STR, 13 DEX, 12 WIL, body (1d6) (Hawk Stats)

• From the top of a tree will fly towards a target and deal 1d6 damage to both itself and its target.
• Will attack anything not native to the woods.

Hidebehind

(Ambush, Assassin, Stalker)
Stalks an area of a forest within 100 meters of its lair. It's lair is a hole in the ground big enough for itself and its victim. Can disappear behind a tree and be completely unseen. It is a large man sized beast. It makes a quiet hissing noise while dragging its prey.

6 HP, 14 STR, 14 DEX, 6 WIL, claws (d8) acid spray (d6) (Tiger Stats)

• Silent: if not spotted they surprise the party
• Hides behind a tree and attacks the last person in the marching order when the y walk passed it's tree.
  • Makes a claw attack and on a damage roll of 4 or higher its claws are impaled into its target. This grapple allows the Hidebehind to start dragging its victim towards its lair.
  • Its lair is 1d4 rounds away. It will break the bones of its target shoving it into its lair.
  • Expels acid from its stomach and fills the hole with it to partially digest its victim.
• If it misses its grapple it will attempt to disengage with a wide acid spray followed by running away.

Onjelido

(See Characters)

4 HP, 8 STR, 14 DEX, 6 WIL, seeking missiles (d4) (Deer Stats)

• Nimble, glides from treetop to treetop.
• Attacks from the treetops with 1d4 seeking missiles that deal d4 damage each.
• Once he takes any damage will use his Talisman of Transportation to retreat back to his cave

Muddie

(See Characters)

12 HP, 2 Armor, 14 STR, 15 DEX, 18 WIL, fists (d12) (Dragon Stats)

• Non-Violent.
• Forced into fighting Onjelido's enemies through the use of his magic flute.
• Kept locked up in Onjelido's cave when not under his control.

"Deputies" Camp

Wayne is the dude in the cowboy hat running the place. A dozen or so tents organized around a large central firepit. One tent in particular is always guarded by two Deputies. Inside that tent they store their supply of noble pine staffs.

An unguarded yet frequently entered tent also stands out. Inside of it is a map of the local area and a cave to the north has been marked. (This is where they have tracked Onjelido back to).

A few seem hurt from a recent battle.

Wayne (Black Cowboy Hat) (Stat as a bandit leader)

• Planning on raiding the King-in-Red's Keep and taking him out. This is their main motivation. They are committed totally to taking him out.
• Need to resupply on weapons after a fresh new recruitment drive.
• They want to put the King-in-Red into an internal sleep with the magic of the Noble Pine Staff.

Clue Tips

• Unnamed Lumberjacks are not tuned in with the interpersonal drama. When speaking with one of them, they talk about the winged creature they are being stalked by(Onjelido) or some of the critters found in the forest. Can suggest a direction for the players to search if they seek Onjelido.
• Players should get enough information to want to investigate Jorge.
• Once the players get enough to confidently confront Jorge they should get from him the truth about him working with the Deputies.
• The Deputies are quite open to discussing why they are doing this.
  • They are totally commited to taking out The King-in-Red.
  • When pressed they may reveal their shame in working with Onjelido but Pando would not sell him Noble Pine branches since he is a follower of The King-in-Red.
  • They have heard Onjeldio controlling Muddie and patroling the area around his cave at night.
  • If they can be setup with a better relationship with the logging camp, they can send two Deputies to support you in battle against Onjelido.
• Onjelido wants to ruin Pando.

Hexmas Blogwagon

We are located at Hex 0207 with the Postal Coastal Town to its left. To the north is the Sea of Swirly Twirly Gumdrops. Nearby is the Island of Misfit Toys. (will add links soons need to go to work)