Player version: Town Malachite Outbreak on the Farm Player Version
Prerequisite
The party gets the quest early from Grothor Morain or Dwargon Malachite in Malachite.
Quest Content
There has been an outbreak of an illness on a farm. The party is tasked to go there and identify it, find the possible sources of it and bring the information to the medical facility in Chrysalis.
The farmers that work the fields closest to the mines are afflicted. The party is greeted by farmer Robert and his son that are still working the fields despite their condition. The people need their food.
The adventurers upon examining the illness will find signs of a kind of black obsidian like crystal growing on parts of their skin.
The crystal growth resemble the kind of crystal you would find in the mines. When the party searches the mine for clues they will discover this connection.
Hooks:
- Characters who have already seen or heard about the public petrification incident outside Chrysalis Labs (“Man turned to crystal!”)
- Those with a connection to Dwargon Malachite, who is visibly suffering from the same condition and has a personal stake in understanding it
- Grothor Morain may frame it as a Dragon Logistics concern — sick farmers mean disrupted supply chains
- The party may have already encountered Magallan near the goblin camp; she can point them toward the farm as another data point in the same outbreak
- Characters afflicted with early-stage Oripathy themselves have obvious personal motivation
Starting Point:
The farm lies on the western outskirts of Malachite, an hour on foot or half an hour by wagon. Dwargon or Grothor gives the party directions. Farmer Robert and his son are still out in the fields when the party arrives, working despite black crystal growths visible on their skin. Robert is cooperative — he just wants answers.
DM-Notes:
The crystal growths are Stage 3 Oripathy. The mine on the farm’s eastern edge connects to a vein of active Originium — the same material the forges have been using. Investigating the mine reveals crystal dust in the air (DC 10 Con save on entering, or advance one stage of Oripathy).
This quest is an early, grounded introduction to the Oripathy system before it becomes a political crisis. Robin Bauer’s case is one of the data points Chrysalis Labs has been quietly suppressing.
Magallan (Rhine Lab researcher) may already be observing the goblin camp nearby, which also has stolen Originium samples. The goblin camp and the farm outbreak are connected — the same active Originium vein is the source of both. Connecting these threads leads naturally into the broader Flesh to Dust incident and the Labs’ cover-up.
Ways the party can source Originium samples for further investigation: from Dwargon Malachite directly, from the goblin camp, or from animal remains in the tunnel system.