Despite having an undead guardian in Agatha the Banshee, it would seem Conyberry had plans in place for addressing local threats. Volo’s Guide to the North states “the village and surrounding farms could muster about 140 fighters who were very skilled with bows and slings.”

Additionally, The North: Guide to the Savage Frontier notes that “after dark, the townsfolk kept lookout from atop their roofs, wielding scythes, swords, and crossbows.”

Orcs had a well-established history of activity in the nearby hills and mountains. On a clear day you could the see aptly named Wyvern Tor from Conyberry. And there was an Utgardt barbarian tribe native to the area who just happened to be cursed with lycanthropy (werewolves).

Whether or not the people of Conyberry understood the local barbarians were afflicted with lycanthropy, who knows. But they likely knew there were werewolves in their midst. It’s doubtful the Gray Wolf tribe sated their blood lust on rabbits and deer at the turn of each full moon. I’d think there would be sightings and tales around that sort of thing.

So, if you’re living in a community where you’re worried about werewolves, it stands to reason that you’d cultivate belladonna.

“If you fear the changer moon
If befall’d by curse or doom
If you’re in the lycan’s power
Seek the belladonna flower”

— An old rhyme

As the characters enter Conyberry, perhaps they notice an abundance of overgrown shrubs with dark green leaves and violet bell-shaped flowers growing around the weathered empty shells that were once the homes of Conyberry residents.

A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Nature) check identifies the shrubs as belladonna, a potentially poisonous plant when its berries are consumed in sufficient quantities.

A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Medicine) check knows the plant by another name (wolfsbane), and recalls that if the victim of a lycanthropic bite ingests a sprig of the herb within an hour of being bitten, the effects of lycanthropy are neutralized.

The presence of belladonna growing abundantly around homes in Conyberry could serve as foreshadowing to a character proficient in Intelligence (Medicine), tipping them off about the potential for an encounter with werewolves. A fun way to reward a player for the choices they make at character creation.

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