RECORD OF EKSTASIA ADVENTURES
CHAPTER 2: MORGAN & STAGG
Part 1: A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH
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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.
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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….
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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?
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As the nomadic caravan of what appears to be humans and orcs with unusual clothing (for the Northeast Kingdom) searches for the currently well-hidden party, the party prepares for battle as they look at each other and try to signal as discreetly as possible. Aelun uses their magic to powerfully shout at their pursuers, who become unnerved by this and sheath their weapons. Daeryn, with a nocked arrow in her bow, lowers her weapon and steps out. The rest of the party follow suit. Dyana, who has been meditating quietly next to a nervous Randir, exits her meditation when she becomes aware of the presence of humans.
The party then intimidates the leader of the caravan in front of his followers, leading him to lose respect from them. The entire caravan stands down, including the leader who explains that they had marked the party to be ambushed and robbed but despite outnumbering them they are fearful of the aura of death (and prejudice against humans) that surrounds Dyana, who continues to belittle and intimidate them. One of the henchmen, a taller orc of ambiguous gender and half a face of yellow warpaint, smirks at Dyana’s show of power.
Suddenly, from one of the carriages, a mystical orc granny steps out. Hobbling with a cane and cloak over to the party, she tells them that she can sense something about them that is special. She continues, explaining that the threads of fate have brought them together and is pulled even tighter at Mount Willowbea. Dyana remembers that this is where her vision brought her. The orc elder then offers advice to visit the town of Morgan, where their journey will receive a boon important to their quest. The party offers to return the longsword with embedded turquoise, but she refuses. With that, she returns to her carriage and the caravan departs back north.
The party then continues and arrives at the outskirts of Morgan town around midday. Randir sees a fantastical little pixie creature that no one else seems to see, so he pursues it deeper into town. The rest of party enter the town as they cross through the derelict buildings and stables of Cutwell Square and enter the Merchant Ward, an open air market with snow-topped canopies that run over the narrow walkways between various peddler booths, half of which are currently occupied by bundled-up vendors and salesmen and the other half are abandoned and in disrepair. The party then comes to the end of the Merchant Ward to rows of shabby but standing buildings, one of which is clearly the town watering hole. A decrepit sign that reads “Morgandark Inn” loosely hangs over a double door. Outside a man is talking to what appears to be a corpse, or someone bored to death. A couple of orc and half-elf children exit the bar acting like adults who are wasted drunk, an older half-orc man chasing them out and scolding them. A prostitute rolls her eyes as she’s being led by the hand of a vomiting drunk man.
Daeryn says that they should try and find a blacksmith so they can get new weapons. They listen for the sounds of a smithy, and can detect the sounds of a hammer and anvil. They follow the sounds to what appears to be a dilapidated smithy with a broken forge bellow and cold stove. In the center of the forge is a senile old elven man. He slowly hits the anvil with no weapon on it with a hammer and just blankly stares forward at nothing. He fails to notice the party entering the forge. They ask him if he’s open for business, to which he replies cryptically. He asks if they have any Elvish Bastard whiskey, to which they reply that a missing member of their party, Randir, has some bottles of the whiskey but has wandered off. The old man tells them his name: Beigolor, and then lets them know that if they wish to have him buff their equipment that they must bring him three bottles of Elvish Bastard Rye Whiskey (specifically that exact brand). They agree and give him Dyana’s shield and Daeryn’s shortsword. Aelun then asks if he’s interested in buying their longsword with turquoise embedded in the hilt, to which Beigolor declines, citing his lack of funds as well as that he doesn’t know if it's cursed or not. The party, having attempted to detect magic on it and not finding anything special about it except for perhaps its monetary value, tries again to get him to take the sword but he again refuses. Beigolor tells them that the weapons will be ready by the following morning.
Aelun, Daeryn and Dyana leave the alleged smithy and Dyana states that she wants to find a chapel to see if her deity Anubis is revered in this town. Aelun and Daeryn haven’t heard of Anubis, since Dyana is from another world. They find a decrepit church-looking building that’s adjoined to the Morgandark Inn they passed earlier. The stained glass looks to have been removed in places and much of the building has been boarded up. They enter the church and find narrow hallways built with a dozen or so doors to rooms off of the hall. They suddenly realize that this church has been converted into a brothel, as the sounds and occupants give off several undeniable clues. They leave the brothel and stand outside the Inn next door when all of the sudden Randir approaches from the Merchant Ward drunk as fuck. Annoyed, they ask him for the rest of his whiskey which they will use as payment to Beigolor for upgrading their weapons. Randir obliges and then sees a tiny sprite-like being again and follows it off toward the derelict-looking buildings of Cutwell Square.
Randir busts into a random hut to find five orcs playing rummy on some broken crates. Their weapons are laid up against the wall. They are all drinking swill and smoking when Randir busts in, and now are just staring blankly at the interruption. Aelun pursues Randir and follows him into the orcs’ hut, transforming into their direwolf form on the way. Fortunately, the orcs are friendly and offer to deal Randir into the game. Randir drunkenly says yes but then immediately passes out on one of the makeshift cots. Aelun, in direwolf form, keeps watch over Randir as the orcs continue drinking and gambling.
Daeryn and Dyana, back at the entrance of the brothel and the Morgandark Inn, decide to split up. Dyana goes into the brothel and Daeryn enters the bar. She walks through the dingy tavern, passing patrons whose behaviors range from drunken tomfoolery to stoic silent sipping. Two patrons are being dragged out of the bar by two other patrons. At the back of the room is the bar where a tall human woman, fair-skinned and dark-haired, curses and cleans up what appears to be blood on the bar. Daeryn sits down and orders an ale, and sparks up conversation with the bartender. The bartender gives her name- Leonda - and tells Daeryn she’ll answer any question- for the right price. Daeryn slaps down 3 gold pieces and Leonda opens up, explaining that Allvan Morgan is the head of the Morgan family. Allvan’s right hand man is Reade Flatcrest, and they run the organization as the first and second in command, overseeing teams of captains and bandits who run specific jobs. Juulestra is the captain in charge of the north-most territory Koldensnoh. Allvan is the son of Henley Morgan II, who started the Morgan crime family when his cattle were slaughtered during a skirmish between current Thief King Tostig and previous Thief King Milo Burgess. King Tostig in turn gave Henley many riches and made him agree to tithe a portion of his spoils to him. Henley disappeared 13 years ago; since then, his son Allvan has come of age and has taken control of the family. Daeryn gleans this information after slowly sipping three pints of ale, and due to her elven constitution and relatively low ABV of the ale is able to not become intoxicated.
A couple hours have gone by. Back at the orc hut, the orcs are having a grand old time. One of them is sketching a “selfie” with the passed out Randir as the other orcs pet direwolf Aelun who is unamused. Suddenly, Randir wakes up; he’s a bit freaked out, as he’s had an insanely deep and confounding dream of a far away land, and is now completely sober with no hangover. Perplexed, he is nudged up by Aelun who leads him out of the hut and back toward the Morgandark Inn. Aelun resumes their tiefling form and tells Randir about the blacksmith situation. Randir is unable to explain his situation as he’s mystified by the experience.
The two of them catch up with Daeryn who is sitting at the bar and starting to get tired of being social. Daeryn pays for two rooms for the night and Leonda shows them the way to their rooms. Randir goes into his own room and Daeryn and Aelun take the other room. Randir, who was psychically linked with Dyana up until she went into the brothel, becomes curious as to her whereabouts. He leaves the inn and walks over to the brothel, where he is denied entry because one of the brothel workers saw him acting a drunk fool earlier in the day.
Dyana, meanwhile, is in a room explaining to several of the brothel workers about unionizing and is successful in instilling an attitude of comradery and workers’ consciousness.
The party is able to experience a full rest.
The next morning, Daeryn goes to the brothel to find Dyana so they can go to the so-called blacksmith Beigolor and retrieve their newly upgraded weapons. She finds Dyana out in the alleyway behind the church-turned-brothel with all of the brothel workers who are planning on striking that day to demand better conditions and protections. Dyana and Daeryn meet up with Randir and Aelun and they make their way to Beigolor’s. Once they arrive, there is no sign of Beigolor, their weapons, or any evidence of the smithy and stove being used (it’s ice-cold). Frustrated, they begin to get angry when suddenly Beigolor appears sitting at the edge of the stove, meditating. They give him the two bottles of whiskey; he slams one of them, completely emptying it, and lays it down next to another empty Elvish Bastard bottle (presumably from the night before). Frustrated by this, the party starts to turn and leave but when they do, Daeryn’s upgraded shortsword and Dyana’s upgrade shield lay on the ledge at the edge of the smithy. They turn around to thank Beigolor but he has mysteriously disappeared…
It is noon time when the party plans their next moves.
Will they be successful in warning Allvan of the Chalkanian attacks? Will they be able to glean information on how to deal with the necromancer? Find out next time!
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