Lost Child

Synopsis
"What kind of parents would let their child roam through woods where even seasoned adventurers might become something's snack? Looks like our baron{ess} may have to babysit {his/her} subjects — literally!"

Find the missing child

 * Heeding the hopeless pleas of a poor village woman named Jenna Tannerson, we're heading out to look for her missing son, Tyg an innocent child who was fool enough to take a stroll through the dangerous forest. We should hurry, or the little brat could end up as a little pile of bones!
 * An old witch lives in the swamp that locals call the Narlmarches. Jenna's convinced that it was the witch who stole her boy.
 * The witch doesn't know anything about the missing boy. She may be pretty cranky, but she didn't seem to be lying. So, where's the kid? And why would Jenna accuse the old lady?
 * The old hag preferred dying in battle over confessing her crimes. Actually, there may not have been any crimes — we didn't find any children in her hut. Awkward! I wonder why Jenna would accuse the old lady?
 * Mommy dearest confessed that she shouldn't have blamed the witch. The real story is that she got angry and shouted at the boy, demanded he leave. So he did. So irresponsible! The neglectful mother recalls saying she wished he'd go drown in Candlemere Lake. We have no better leads, so we may as well start looking there!

Save the child from the Lizardfolk Village

 * Lizardfolk live in a village near Candlemere Lake. They're savages who won't hesitate to eat human meat (they'll even crunch on each other). We found out that they captured a human child. The boy is still alive... but for how long?
 * The village is surrounded by a high palisade, and there are armed guards at the gate. How are we going to get inside?
 * An evil spirit keeps the boy hostage — he promises to let the kid go if we bring the old rattler to him in exchange. What do we do? Should we save a human life if the price is sacrificing an old lizard who never did us any wrong? Are there any other options?

Talk to the boy's mother in the capitol

 * We saved the boy from evil spirits, man-eating lizardfolk, and who knows what else! Before the little brat runs off somewhere else, we should send him to the capitol, where his parents are.
 * (The woman "Jenna" and her child will appear in the tavern, in your capitol city of Tuskdale - in the top left corner of the main room of the tavern, just to the left of the bar. Speak to Jenna to finish the quest.)

Talk to the boy's mother in the capitol

 * Sadly, we couldn't save the boy — an evil spirit killed him. We need to find his parents and deliver the tragic news.

Walkthrough

 * Around the same time that Kesten Garess advises the player to visit the Lone House, Jenna Tannersen will appear in the the player's court to ask the baron/baroness to search for her lost child. Jenna will suggest the witch living at the Swamp Witch's Hut as a potential cause for her child's disappearance.
 * When the player arrives at The Old Beldame's hut, there is a chance that things may go south from the get-go depending on how they interact with the gate leading to the hut:


 * 1) [Detect Magic] Reveals that the gate is enchanted to alert the caster when it is opened.
 * 2) [Detect Magic] Reveals that the scarecrow is actually a magical ward.
 * 3) [Dexterity 15] Allows the player to toss a pebble at the window of the hut. Failing the check will cause the window to shatter, in which case the scarecrow to become hostile, and The Old Beldame will emerge to attack the party. A bit of an overreaction to be sure.
 * 4) [Ring the Bell] Ringing the bell will cause The Old Beldame to emerge and investigate the racket.
 * 5) [Open the Gate] Opening the gate will cause the scarecrow to become hostile, and The Old Beldame will emerge to attack the party.


 * If the player ends up fighting The Old Beldame for any reason, the journal will update with the fact that there is no child found in her home. If the player manages to engage with the witch in a non-hostile manner and asks about the lost child, she will deny having anything to do with the boy's disappearance; there is a hidden [Perception 26] check to determine that she is being entirely truthful with the answer.
 * At this point the player may return to Jenna to find a new lead, but since the player is out and about they can head northeast from the Swamp Witch's Hut and discover the Lizardfolk Village on their own, which is the true objective of this quest. If the player has access to Glitterdust, prepare it before entering the village, and keep at least one slot with it available for later.
 * Upon arrival an elderly lizardfolk shaman named Kagar will approach the party. The lizardman will give the player some details about the supposed return of the spirit of an ancient lizardfolk hero, that he suspects the party is there to retrieve the missing 'youngling', and that the two subjects are not unrelated.
 * Before we approach the village, we're going to explore the rest of the wilderness. Head east to pick up a Token of the Dryad in some brambles, and face a handful of greater monitor lizards and giant poisonous frogs. A [Perception 21] check near the frogs can reveal a hidden chest.
 * Continue north along the wall of the village to discover a hidden entrance with a [Perception 15] check. If the party enters this way the whole village will be hostile on arrival.
 * Follow the curve around the exterior of the village; in the northwestern corner of the map are a pair of Venomhodags waiting in ambush to attack the party. The hodags have the benefit of surprise and the ability to attack from stealth, and are capable of dealing some serious damage in a short period of time. To make matters worse, there is a natural choke point where the hodags attack, so it is best to have a character with a high AC leading the way. Just south of where the hodags ambush the party is a hidden chest with a Cloak of Shadows requiring a [Perception 25] check to notice.
 * This would be a good point to make a hard save, as some of the interactions that follow will lock the player into specific outcomes that the player may not prefer.
 * Continue in a circle back around to the front of the village; once the party gets close enough to the front gate the guards will initiate a conversation which can go several ways:
 * [ Diplomacy 15] The player can attempt to convince the guards that they came to trade for the child in peace.
 * [ Intimidate 15] The player can attempt to convince the guards to let them in or they will take the child by force.
 * [Attack] The player can attack the gate guards, which will cause the whole village to become hostile.
 * [Leave] The lizardfolk will actually let the party leave without any issue. If the player is planning on attacking the village and hasn't already buffed up, it's best to take this moment to leave and come back better prepared.
 * Either of the Persuasion options will earn the player an audience with Lizardfolk King Vesket. There is a hidden [Perception 20] check upon arrival to determine that the king is exhausted and hasn't been sleeping well. The king will give the player some background on himself and his tribe, and the player will be given several options when asking for the child back:
 * [Requires Lawful] Allows the player to accuse the king of leading his tribe to ruin by following a monster.
 * [Requires Evil] Allows the player to make some rather imaginative threats towards the king and his people.
 * [Diplomacy 20] Allows the player to attempt to negotiate peacefully with the king for the return of the child.
 * [Intimidate 20] Allows the player to make a gentler threat than the evil option while demanding the child be returned.
 * [ Lore (Religion) 20] Allows the player to attempt to convince the king that their supposed 'Great Ancestor' is actually an evil spirit in disguise.
 * Succeeding in any of the above option will allow the player to visit the Great Ancestor in the Spirit Hut to convince it to let the child go, but the alignment option will award a significantly larger experience reward than any of the skill checks. The party may also attack the king and the rest of the lizardfolk outright no matter how the conversation goes.
 * Once the party is free to go one way or another they may explore the village, speaking with the inhabitants and even taking anything they want from interactable objects.
 * Speaking with an injured lizardfolk named Virish in the Clutch Hut will give the player some more background on what has happened, as well as two alignment options:
 * (Neutral Good) Allows the player to heal Virish.
 * (Chaotic Neutral) Allows the player to finish Virish off; the lizardfolk welcomes his death with dignity.
 * Interacting with Fashor by the lizard pens gives the player some more background information on how the lizardfolk live, and several more alignment responses:
 * [Diplomacy 20] Allows the player some insight into why Fashor seems nervous.
 * (Neutral Good) Allows the player to assure Fashor that the party intends to leave in peace once they have the child.
 * (Lawful Evil) Allows the player to threaten Fashor to return to the village in the future in retaliation for the kidnapping of the child.
 * (Chaotic Evil) Allows the player to attack Fashor, which will turn the whole village hostile.
 * Next to the garden on the eastern side of the village two lizardfolk, Tassath and Shalur are arguing about some of the 'Great Ancestor's' edicts on the crops they should plant. The two ask for the player's opinion, which has an array of alignment responses like most of the other conversations in the village:
 * (Chaotic Good) The player suggests that the lizardfolk think for themselves rather than listen to the Ancestor.
 * (Chaotic Neutral) The player suggests that the pair flip a coin to decide what to plant.
 * (Lawful Evil) The player declares that the lizardfolk should listen to the Ancestor, knowing full well that the new crops will be less helpful to the tribe.
 * (Chaotic Evil) Allows the player to attack the duo, which will turn the whole village hostile.
 * Once the player has spoken with the tribe members and looted to their heart's content, enter the Spirit Hut to get to the bottom of this 'Great Ancestor' business.
 * Upon speaking with Tig it is obvious that there is some other entity at work here. Before demanding that the child be released, exhaust all of the other speech options. This will include a [ Knowledge (Arcana) 20] check to deduce that whatever being is controlling Tig is not actually possessing him, but is nearby, followed by a hidden Lore (Religion) check following its boasting of belonging to the 'court of a particularly important personage' to deduce that no such religion exists in common knowledge. This will goad the spirit into sharing that it belongs to the court of a First World being.
 * If the player previously convinced King Vesket to release the child using one of the alignment based speech options, then the spirit will release Tig immediately, which causes the player to miss out on some nice rewards.
 * Once the player has exhausted all speech options with the exception of demanding that the child be released, there are several potential outcomes:
 * If the player has Glimmerdust prepared as mentioned earlier in the guide and they passed the Knowledge (Arcana) check, they can cast the spell through a dialogue option which will reveal Count Shimmerglow and immediately begin combat. Unfortunately, this option will cause Count Shimmerglow to kill Tig with his final action, which is not ideal for a good aligned protagonist.
 * When the player leaves conversation with Count Shimmerglow for the first time he will call King Vesket into the hut, and unfortunately proceeding to reveal the Count with Glimmerdust will actually turn the king and his lizardfolk hostile rather than convince him that the 'Great Ancestor' is really a malicious spirit. Despite the added difficulty, Count Shimmerglow will still kill Tig when he dies following this path.
 * If the player passed one of the skill checks with King Vesket earlier which allowed you to speak with the 'Great Ancestor' but didn't have the right prerequisites to convince him to release Tig outright, then Count Shimmerglow will want a trade in order to release the child. In exchange for releasing Tig, Count Shimmerglow will ask the player to bring Kagar as a new plaything and sacrifice. Bringing Kagar to Count Shimmerglow has its own alignment implications:
 * (Lawful Good) The player will warn Kagar that the 'Great Ancestor' is really an evil spirit. This option will result in Kagar revealing Count Shimmerglow to the lizardfolk, at which point King Vesket will attak the Will-o'-wisp and be killed. Tig will be freed as promised this way.
 * (Neutral Evil) The player brings Kagar to Count Shimmerglow without any warning. This option will result in Tig being freed as promised, but Kagar will be killed by the lizardfolk in the process.
 * As you can see, there are a lot of potential outcomes to contend with, and the most ideal scenario will depend on the protagonist's alignment. A good protagonist may want to pursue the path where no one is killed or only King Vesket is killed, while an evil player may reveal Count Shimmerglow either alone or around the lizardfolk, leading to Tig's death in both cases, and having to kill the entire village in the latter case.
 * Regardless of whether Tig is alive or dead, or if the lizardfolk are alive or wiped out, the player will need to return to Jenna at The Beer Mug Inn to report the outcome of their choices.

Outcome
"Well, that's not what we expected when we went looking for that missing kid! But that's what the Stolen Lands are like: take a step past your fence, and you're likely to meet lizardfolk, evil spirits, or gods know what else! A paradise for adventurers, sure, but why do normal people still live here?"