There was once a great hero, a paladin known as Sir Glorious. Early in his career, Sir Glorious was entrusted with a vile artifact known as the Narpa Sword. So great was Sir Glorious’s piety, that he was able to turn the Narpa Sword from evil into a vanguard of good, and it was renamed the Glorious Blade.

Many years later, when he had to start thinking of such things, Sir Glorious decided that he could not entrust the Glorious Blade to anyone, for the forces of evil had hounded him since he first received it. They wanted it back, and they wanted to redeem its foul past.

After communing with his goddess, Sir Glorious thrust the blade into the stump of an oak tree cut down long ago. In but three years the stump regrew to its former majesty, and the Glorious Blade was trapped permanently inside the tree.

Today, the small hamlet of Valorvale has sprung up around that tree. Each year, the tree produces a few golden acorns which heal those who eat of them. Some in the town would monetize the nuts, but it is jealously guarded and they are only given to those who live there. The caretaker of the tree is an old man named Emmit Doxan, a surprisingly fit old man in his late nineties. Emmit is also the only one in the town who knows the tree’s history, a secret passed down from caretaker to caretaker.

Encounters with the Hamlet Under the Tree

One of Sir Glorious’s old nemeses is attempting to resurrect itself, and only the Glorious Blade can stop it. Needless to say, the townfolk won’t allow the tree to be chopped down, and even if they did losing the golden acorns would ruin the town. To add some pressure, the same foe the PCs are trying to defeat discovers the location of the Glorious Blade and sends minions out to get it for him.