Encounter-a-Day

While traveling along an ill-used road through the forest in an unfamiliar kingdom, the players find a woman sitting on a log. Her clothes are dirty and tattered, but are the clothes of a noble, and she is very obviously in the late stages of pregnancy. Observant characters will note that she appears to have been crying recently, though now she simply looks frustrated.

She introduces herself as Aksana, and she has twisted her ankle. Despite her noble clothing, she has little in the way of valuables, and says she is just a peasant traveling to see her grandmother in the small village of Maybridge, her grandmother being a midwife. She has little to offer the PCs but her undying gratitude if they’ll help her reach her destination. If pushed about her clothing, she will grudgingly admit to being the daughter of a minor duke.

Complication: Aksana is not who she claims to be. She is in fact the missing Princess Cyzarine, who’s been missing for months. She ran away when she discovered she was pregnant for fear that her parents would kill her lover Vadim. The grandmother she spoke of is in fact Vadim’s, not her own. Along the way to her destination, some thuggish brutes recognize her and accost the party, trying to secure her and ransom her for a reward. To make matters worse, soon after the fighting breaks out, Cyzarine goes into labor!