Session 24: Wild Things

Recap

The party is in Belleville, a small port city built on stilts above the jungle floor, everything connected by walkways through the canopy. It is cast in a permanent greenish light filtered through the canopy. Mayor Barnaby Highbrow has given them rooms at the Coconut Grove Inn and briefed them on the problem: something in the surrounding jungle has been terrorizing traders and travelers. Attacks mostly at night, sometimes in the afternoon. Terrible roar, huge teeth, yellow eyes, ferocious claws. Nobody hurt yet — but the mayor is worried.

The party has already spoken to four locals in the previous session.

Witness Testimony: What the Party Knows

Witness	What They Said
Trader Joe	Has PTSD about the whole thing. Keeps twitching at loud noises. “It just kept saying, ‘I’ll eat you up!’ Over and over. Huge yellow eyes in the dark.”
Troutnose Dave	Convinced there is a whole pack of them. “It’s not one creature, I tell ya. There’s a whole pack of ’em. Different sizes. Moving together, like a family.”
Little Danny Carp	A small boy who speaks in a careful, rehearsed tone, like he’s choosing every word. “A little boy used to come and visit the creatures. But he hasn’t been here for a long time.” He will not say more.
Elvira Oldlace	Matter-of-fact elderly woman. “One of them calls itself Maurice. I heard it plain as anything. Maurice. Like a name.”

In the Jungle: What Can Be Found

When the party heads into the jungle surrounding Belleville, use the following checks to control the pace of discovery. Roll or choose based on how much tension you want to build before the reveal.

Investigation Checks

DC 10 — A large footprint in the mud near the treeline. Not an animal — the shape is wrong, too upright, too many toes. Something walking on its hind legs, heavy but not enormous.

DC 13 — A tuft of white fur caught on a branch about five feet up. Soft, not coarse. Not from any local animal. It smells faintly of salt water.

DC 16 — An abandoned nest structure in a large ceiba tree: sticks and vines woven into a wide, shallow platform, big enough for several large creatures to sleep in. Scattered around it are the remains of food — mostly fish, some fruit — and, tucked into a root hollow nearby, a small wrapped bundle containing a child’s drawing of a wolf with a crown.

Perception Checks

DC 10 — Something large moving in the foliage ahead. More than one. Moving parallel to the party rather than fleeing or charging.

DC 13 — A brief glimpse of several large creatures running between the trees. They look like nothing in the natural world: round-eyed, horned, shaggy, walking upright. They are watching the party.

DC 16 — The voice of a child, high and clear, from somewhere deeper in the jungle: “Let the wild rumpus start!” Followed by a chorus of roars, heavy footfalls, crashing foliage — and then, abruptly, silence. Then laughter.

First Contact with the Wild Things

The foliage parts and five of them step into the light. They are enormous — the smallest stands six feet tall — with horns, claws, and eyes like golden lamps. Their fur is every color of muddy brown and rust. They are terrifying by design and ridiculous by nature. One of them has a fish hanging out of its mouth. Another appears to be wearing a wreath of flowers it made itself. They stare at the party. The one with the fish drops it. A very long pause. Then, from behind them, a small voice: “Maurice. Don’t just stand there. Ask them if they brought snacks.”

Maurice — the largest of the Wild Things, horned and shaggy and deeply earnest — turns to the others, then back to the party.

“Did you… bring snacks?”

The Wild Things: Quick Reference

Name	Description & Personality
Maurice	The largest. Designated spokesperson. Deeply literal. Trying very hard to be intimidating; constitutionally incapable of it. Will offer to fight anyone who threatens Sable, then look at her for instructions.
Bernard	The flower wreath one. Collects things — buttons, interesting pebbles, lost earrings. Has picked several items off the party already without them noticing. Will return everything if asked nicely. Mostly.
Emil	The one who was holding the fish. Never speaks. Communicates entirely through eyebrow movement. Extremely expressive eyebrows. Will fall asleep if the conversation goes on too long.
Judith	The smallest. Highest voice. Asks constant questions. Has been trying to understand what money is for several weeks and keeps asking any new arrival to explain it.
The Big One	Unnamed. Doesn’t interact much. Mostly looms. Occasionally sneezes, which sounds like a cannon shot and startles everyone including itself.

Sable

Sable appears. She is thirteen, small, dark-haired, with her mother’s sharp cheekbones and her own steady, watchful eyes. She looks at the party the way someone looks at a problem they have already planned three solutions to.

“I know who you are. You traveled with me on the river. You’re the ones who brought me to Germonia.” A pause. “I’m not going back. I want you to know that before we talk about anything else.”

What Sable Knows and Will Say

Sable is not going to monologue. She will answer direct questions honestly and deflect ones she doesn’t want to answer. She is thirteen and has killed her mother and made a deal with an ancient sea god and she is not going to talk about how she feels about any of that. She will talk about facts.

What She Will Volunteer

• She killed Snow White. She is not sorry. Her mother was going to give her to Dagon as a sacrifice to reclaim all of Grimm. “She told me herself. She thought it would help her case.”
• She made a deal with Dagon after: her mother’s body, in fulfillment of the bargain, in exchange for being left alone. “He took it. The deal is done.”
• She found the Wild Things in the jungle a week after arriving in Neverland. “They were scaring people. I told them they didn’t have to do that. Then Maurice asked if I wanted to be their queen and I said sure.”
• She is the Queen of Germonia by succession and she does not want to be. “Someone else can have it.”

What She Will Say If Pushed

• On whether she’s safe: “Dagon took what I offered. The deal is sealed.” She believes this completely. She is wrong.
• On her mother: A long pause. “She was my mother before she was a queen. I keep trying to remember which one I miss.”
• On Germonia: “Grumpy will handle it. He’s been the conscience of that court for thirty years. He doesn’t need me.”
• On the Wild Things: “They’re mine and I’m theirs. That’s the whole deal.”

What She Will Deny

• That she is frightened. (She is.)
• That she needs help. (She does.)
• That she has thought about what happens if Dagon comes to collect anyway. (She has thought about almost nothing else.)