RECORD OF EKSTASIA ADVENTURES
CHAPTER 2: MORGAN & STAGG
Part 1: A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH
***
Interlude:
Trolley and the mutual aid band, after playing a series of gigs for a few nights in Morgan town and Stagg village, have finally made it past the ruins of Harrington and Lake Willowbea. A few cold and rough nights fending off the undead, they have arrived at the Great Frog River and are lucky enough to have wind magic to guide the boats against the current toward New Ark Village where they will seek smugglers to get them past the border. However, sinister traffickers seek to take advantage of such well-intended yet naive travelers…
Guy and Fenris travel toward the Zither border, making a pit stop at some travelling spice merchants in the Path Peaks. They pick up a Chalkanian tail, and Fenris discovers a most horrible plot via gossip at the drinker’s circle.
***
The party decides to take a rest in the caverns before setting off to Morgan town. Prior to resting for the night, Third Planet looks to the west and tells the rest of the party that he can’t explain it, but he must ride off and that he will rejoin. (He is on a personal quest triggered by an oath he took many years ago…)
A carrier raven arrives shortly before sundown from Trolley, explaining to the party everything they’ve been through (see: Chapter 1 Interludes). Randir keeps drinking by the campfire as Daeryn and Dyana go to sleep. Dyana seems to talk in her sleep to someone who is annoying her with questions. Aelun keeps watch and talks to a small mouse who tells them about their simple existence of getting hungry, scared, eating, shitting, and getting hungry again, over and over until they get tired and black out only to do it all over again. Scared by the lavender-colored tiefling, the mouse flees. A wolf nearby, probably within 100 feet of camp, howls. Aelun ignores it. Randir rambles incoherently until he passes tf out. The wolf howls again; Aelun can tell something is different about this wolf’s howl, perhaps that it is undead. They transform into a wolf and go investigate.
Aelun (in wolf form) finds the howling wolf who is sniffing, scraping and barking at a holly bush in a small clearing in the woods at the base of the hills that lead up into Moonfall Caverns. Aelun, keeping quiet and stealthy, approaches the bush, and in doing so the other wolf runs off as if its shift is over. The bush smells different, like a creature of some kind.
Aelun returns to camp. Daeryn is awake and has been listening to Dyana talk in her sleep as if in conversation with a mysterious and disembodied acquaintance. This leads Daeryn to become carefully less trustful of Dyana. Aelun, returning to tiefling form, tells Daeryn about the bush. They decided to check on it in the morning.
Dyana, in her sleep, communicates with her Hashalaq Quori which is embodying the body of Cotton Casino, a japanese musician in the band Acid Mothers Temple touring the US in the early aughts.
After Randir eats some cannibal jerky without realizing it, Daeryn tells him the true nature of the jerky and Randir goes green. This concludes the party’s breakfast, and they continue to investigate the weird holly bush. Aelun tries digging up the roots, but the dirt continuously caves back in and refills the dug holes. Daeryn pokes around with her shortsword and in doing so triggers the bush to flip inside out- a mimic has attacked!
The mimic billows out a huge plume of purple smoke high into the sky as it begins to thrash and bite at the party. They strike back one by one; a few hits land, some miss; Aelun sends a guiding bolt which shocks it the pulsing, veiny stomach with sharp teeth. Daeryn calls upon a hail of thorns, mildly damaging Aelun who is standing next to the mimic. As Daeryn lets loose an arrow from her longbow and pierces the mimic directly through the center, her hunter’s mark shreds the insides of the monster and the spattering of magic thorns explodes most of the mimic. Gory ribbons of maroon and purple flesh cloud the area around the mimic as it moves slowly away. Randir slices at it with one of his dual-wielded swords and strikes the vital core of the mimic, killing the creature.
Undigested in the corpse of the mimic they find studded leather armor for Aelun and a longsword with added turquoise in the hilt making its value 20 gold. Aelun takes the sword to sell in town.
They continue for 3 more hours. They are halfway to Morgan when they stop for a quick break when they hear a galloping sound of hooves approaching. Ducking into the thicket, they all successfully stay out of sight as well as yank a meditating Dyana into hiding too. As they hide, Randir and Daeryn hear the group approach and then can see them ride past. The group appears to be nomads, five riders in the front of the caravan, two carriages in the middle, and three more riders in the back. The leader nomad tells their men to spread out and look for the party. One of them mentions that this was where the party was spotted after the purple plume was sent into the sky by their trap. The leader calls out that he wishes to help the party and for them to come out of hiding, all the while he’s slowly unsheathing his scimitar….
***
Part 2: YR MORGAN ME CRAZY
The party approaches Morgan town in daylight, as Third Planet hears a mysterious call from the west. He rides towards it, remembering the oath he took as a travelling bard in a lineage the descends from the great bardpriestesses of ancient Altawam. His training at the Hainted Citadel in Zither was strict, and no instruction seemed more important than to answer the call of the initiation, which he believes he is now hearing.
What will he find in the western Morgan forest?
What will the party encounter in Morgan town?
***
