Honeypaste Haul - The Forest

After taking on the quest, the adventurers will leave the city of Morhan through the Northan Gate. Their equipment and belongings are routinely checked by the guards, as are the contents of all carts and carriages going in and out of the city.

Finding the Stash

The adventurers are tasked with finding the exact place of the stash of Honeypaste. The innkeep has told them that the stash is located in an old hollow oak tree and roughly given them the direction into the forest to find it. Have the character leading the search roll a Survival check (DC 13). On a failure they spend 1+1d4 hours to the oak tree. On a success they find the stash without too much effort after about 1 hour after leaving the city by following the directions of the innkeep. When the adventurers find the oak tree they can easily see a large cave bear lying next to it fast asleep. With a successful perception check (DC 12), a character spots that the bear has some sticky translucent substance on its muzzle, which they can identify as Honeypaste.

Taking the Contraband

The characters can choose to kill the bear. If they initiate combat, the cavebear has disadvantage on all saving throws because it is under the influence of Honeypaste. If the characters choose to attempt to sneak past the bear and steal the remainder of the Honeypaste, they have to make a successful stealth check (DC 14). On a failed check the bear will wake up and attack. On a successful check the character(s) may attempt to lift the crates from the tree trunk. Taking the crates requires a single character to make a successful Athletics check (DC 15), two characters can simply take the crate together.

Variants

Instead of a cave bear guarding the stash, you could have one or more trolls, a hill giant or a cyclops guard it instead if the characters are level 4 or higher for an increased difficulty. Keep in mind that these creatures should also be affected by the honeypaste and have disadvantage on all saving throws.

More than Expected

There are two crates within the trunk, one that is intact and one that is half smashed by the bear. This is one more crate than the innkeep of the Friend's Factory told the party to smuggle into the city. The crates hold many jars of honeypaste that are disguises as regular jars of honey. In the daylight, the substance appears as amber honey with a slight pinkish tone to it, but in the warm color of torchlight it appears as regular honey. The party may decide to take the remainder of the smashed crate or leave it there. There are different outcomes to the ending of this quest depending on their choices what they do with the extra contraband.