Root Barrel Farm Is Open Again

Root Barrel Farm was open again, but open did not mean normal. The party passed the farm and found dragonborn workers tending crystals with the nervous focus of people who knew they were being watched even when no overseer stood directly behind them. They asked the party to tell Orval Finkus they were working. That request said more than any sign could have. Root Barrel Farm had already carried ugly history: Havyk, Pink Pony girls, blind cult workers, and the Barney and Marnie potion-farm rent arrangement. Now the farm had shifted into another labor shape, with dragonborn workers under Orval Finkus's feared authority and crystals being tended like the work itself was part agriculture, part extraction, part control system. The lanterns on the road made the approach feel curated. The workers made it feel monitored. Whatever Root Barrel Farm had become, it was not just a neighborly stop on the way to Nick. It was a controlled site with old rot under new management, and the party had to pass through its hospitality before they could reach the mystery they came for.