Silverymoon

How about some 3.5 version D&D, set in the well known Forgotten Realms world?  You like?  Ok.

Well, I love the feel of some low-level D&D.   Where wolfs and orcs are a real menace.  When the players are just starting a good multi-year campaign, and you can just feel that they are putting in lots of effort to establish their characters.  I feel like a kid again.  Is 19 a kid?

So we're starting off in Silverymoon.  The Gem of the North.  Very diverse, with some magic colleges, music colleges, and smattering of temples and whatnot.  A great place to start some 1st level characters.   Go out, mix it up, then get back into the city walls, and cash in.

We've had a couple of little adventures with this group, where they go into the Moonwood (the nearby forest) to investigate some troublesome druids. And they have a small battle, (which they lose) and it turns out that the druids are in league with some werewolfs.  It's called The Moonwood, duh.

So what happens is that one of the characters (a halfling priest) is bitten by Mr. Werewolf.  Some good guys show up and save the day and dispatch all the bad guys.  They then take everyone to the keep to administer their werewolf cooties cure.

You with me so far?  Good.

So the cure for werewolf cooties (right out of the rulebook) is to eat some fresh belladonna, which is superpoison.   First you take a check to see if it cooks out the cooties.  Then you take a second check to see if it kills you.  As stated my one of my players "It's werewolf chemo."

He chews up the leaves, states that it tastes like cilantro, then starts throwing up and is pretty much a physical wreck.  It doesn't cure the lycranthopy, but it doesn't kill him either.  Which is kind of nice.  It was a pretty cool scene that everyone roleplayed really well.  It was a bit tense for a moment, because they really like their characters.

So I read a little bit more in the DM guide, and it says that it can also be fixed by casting "Cure Disease" from a 12th Level priest.  Which they happen to have at the Keep.

So the agents bring in the old lady priest who twiddles her fingers and rubs her palms together.  Bingo!  You're cured!  Everyone's happy.

Then the halfling raises his hand and says "I have a question, if you don't mind.  Um. Why didn't you try the least invasive method first?  You know... the one with a 100% SUCCESS RATE!?"