Back at the festival the Mayor and the others await anxiously for news of an attack but when the fire goes out and there aren't screams of concern everyone slowly shifts their attention back to the festival. Townsfolk whisper about what all these dangers could mean but strong drink and good food are enough to get everyone back into the spirit of the night.

For the mayor's third toast he steps up once again with a big grin on his face. Given how many drinks he has had it is no wonder that he sways a bit in a small circle as he gives his speech.

"I would like to take the time to thank our wonderful traveling chef. When I hired him I wasn't sure what to expect but I think we can all agree that he has brought a certain flair to this party that Ashford has not seen for ages. Come on up Mordin! No...Morin? Oh I know Morren, yes of course. Morren everyone!"

He gestures towards the large man that has been diligently stirring soups and seasoning trays of meats and vegetables that everyone has been partaking of.

Large doesn't quite do the man justice, though his imposing stature is made a bit more amenable by the startled jolt with which he looks up from his formerly intense focus on his current culinary project, which is a very robust yet artistically tossed salad of vibrant yet balanced color.

He stands out of his hunched position and is in fact even taller, and awkwardly moves to the mayor as he was bid to. The mayor is of decently average height but this Morren fellow stands at least three entire feet taller. He must be over eight feet in height. If not for the goliath already in town, he would be quite startlingly large. His frame though is fairly lean but still quite muscular in a sheerly athletic sense and his sleeveless shirt shows off intricate tattoos on his arms, much like the accenting ones on his face.

"Um... I duneed any praise.", he speaks with a rough tone and an obvious giant accent. Equally obvious is his discomfort with public speaking, "This party is all 'bout tha' party tha'slew the dragon. An' this party is fer ya, the ones that suffered an cou' use a bit o' merry. Um... so... who... who ordered the salad?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Wed 30 Sept 2020.

Talia ignored the chef as well as she ignored Angel's arrival and sat with Alyssa. The shorter woman's company was well welcomed and she filled her cup many times as she ate and celebrated. She did look around for Yry and Pinna from time to time. Mostly, recent events filled her thoughts and turned them dark as her cups drained.

Yeah Yeah, I heard you. Angel thought in annoyance at the bubbly woman's insistence that she pay attention to the fact that Talia -- which she guessed was Miss Bad-Manners -- had slain a dragon. I've done important stuff too! ... Just wish I could remember what they are... She mentally added, her lips suddenly tingling with the feeling one gets after a really good kiss. Did I kiss a dragon? ... Eww! She inwardly shivered and forced her wayward thoughts back to the conversation with the bubbly woman.

"Was that dragon, Rivug?" Angel asked, having perceptively caught the passing reference Miss Bad-Manners... Talia She corrected herself... made earlier and cleverly put two and two together. From the other things the bubbly woman said, it certainly sounded like an interesting story -- maybe when she felt more at ease she'd want to hear more. Right now safety was more Angel's primary concern. Two of these strangers had already leveled weapons at her and now the bubbly woman seemed to be changing tactics to try and draw her in with honey. Angel smelled a set-up... but she also caught the faintest whiff of food and her stomach growled loudly in response. Yep, there's a reason they always bait traps with food... She thought wryly as she reached out to take the bubbly woman's hand.

As the bubbly woman lead her by the hand into the village, Angel suddenly realized she didn't even know the bubbly woman's name. "This isn't some weird thing where we walk into the village hand in hand and now we're engaged or something, is it? 'Cause you're probably a lovely lady and all, but I'm not even sure I'm into girls... ummm... what's your name again?"         

"Oh yeah, of course."

The woman grins and bows.


"I'm Pinn! Local hedge wizard of...middling talent. The heroes up there are Talia, Yry, Orila and Alyssa. She's the halfling, the one you can barely see right now. Up there giving toasts is Mayor Osric..."

She starts pointing out people and listing off names one after another in a flurry.

Sitting with Talia, Alyssa continued to try to lift her friend's spirits, ".. and a group of gnomes would then be a 'shortage of gnomes!' Nothing? Well. I didn't want it to come to this but I'm going to have to drink you under the table. You brought this on your self."

The thought and the threat both left her mind when Major Osric called the chef to the front. Alyssa sat there transfixed as the tall man spoke, a little color rose into her cheeks. "He has a nice beard." Realizing she said that out loud Alyssa straitened in her seat too quickly knocking the tankards enough to send a small spray of ale onto the table.

Talia spit her ale out when the little halfling seemed to eye the firbolg, "Seriously Alyssa? He'd split you in half! Hell's bells, he might split me in half. Is your head screwed on straight?" She laughed good happily at her friend and slapped her back then refilled her cup. "Or maybe..." She raised her free hand with only the pinky up and wiggled it limply. She raised her eyebrow, raised her cup, and grinned broadly. Draining it she reached to refill it and accept Alyssa offer to drink until they dropped.

Angel didn't miss the fact that the bubbly woman -- Pinn, who was also a wizard it seemed. Yeah! Just my luck! -- had completed ignored her quip about holding hands. Yep, honeyed trap. She confirmed to herself. She took note of the names and faces Pinn pointed out along with the layout of the town and inwardly shrugged. Eh, there's worse places to spend a night or two in jail... Maybe? She'd feel along about things if she could just recall something specific about her past instead of all these vague impressions.

"So you said the dragon, Rivug, tried to take over the town and had fully half the folk under it's sway? Why? I mean it's a dragon. What's it want with a town? Once it takes over it's just gotta take care of said town or the whole effort was wasted -- and the finer points of running a town don't strike me as anywhere near the top of any dragon's I-Gotta-Do-This list."  As she spoke, they passed by a local vendor's stand and Angel reached out and snagged an apple without even bothering to try paying for it...

The man looked at Angel confused.

"Hey, the free food is over there!"

Angel halted before she'd taken a bite of the pilfered fruit and spun back around to face the agitated vendor. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry!" She said, a sheepish look on her innocent-looking face. "I certainly meant no offense. Here," she continued, holding back the apple for the man to take. But just as he reached for it, Angel fumbled the apple and it fell from her hands...

... and promptly disappeared! "What the...?!" Angel gasped, spinning around and looking for the lost fruit, her dark cloak flaring out slightly at the movement. "Where'd it go?!" She continued, frantically searching the ground and then looking up to the vendor with shocked mortification. "I swear it was right here! I..." She paused suddenly and gave the vendor a curious look. "Wait a minute... what's that?" She asked, reaching for the man and suddenly pulling a coin from his ear. She almost choked when she saw that it was a gold crown, having intended to only present him with a copper or at most a silver. She maintained her composure though and finished the act, flourishing her other hand and revealing the lost apple. She winked at the vendor and grinned as she held out the gold coin for him to take... probably the most he'd ever make from a single apple.

OOC: The DM and I worked this scene out in PM's, so please put to rest any concerns that I God-Moded an NPC.  :)

Yry frowned, watching the proceedings and waiting for the act with the applemonger to finish before answering. "He was young for a dragon. Adolescent with the intellect of a wyrm. Probably had a superiority complex and had access to mind enslaving magic, only wanted worship and adulation. I suppose the dragonlings who try to push their weight around too early don't make it to adulthood. Rivug certainly didn't."

Orila watched as Angel moved into the mist of the town's celebration. She didn't seem to be a threat. She leaned the maul against her shoulder and used his off-hand to grab another bite from the chef. "Morren, this is good meat. What's a salad?" She seemed quite pleased with the variety of meats at the table.

The rest of the evening was spent enjoying good food and company. Angel's feats of sleight of hand entertained the children while the heroes ate and drank to their hearts content. Morren meanwhile kept the platters full and everyone was waddling clutching their full stomachs by the end.

While Talia was able to go back to her home for the evening the rest of the heroes (and the new guests Angel and Morren) were given rooms at the Mayor's inn.

"Free of charge, in honor of the festivities" he said while heavily intoxicated, much to the chagrin of his much more sober wife.

The next morning the whole town seemed to emit a groan from their collective hangover and slowly folks started dragging themselves out of bed and back to their daily lives. Utterances of "someone block out the sun" or "the damn birds are too loud" are heard here and there.

Still things get back to normal, if an hour or two behind schedule and the town is once again as bustling as it can be with only about two hundred people living in the area.

The heroes (and guests) were flush with gold but there was very little to spend it on in Ashford. The town didn't have a weaponsmith or armorer so unless they needed cooking pots or nails there wasn't much for them at the smithy. Even Pinna's shop had little more than a few healing potions among the farm focused magics like cures for sick cows or powders to make crops grow larger.

Instead if asked everyone just shrugged and suggested going to Spire Keep which had become the central hub of trade in the region. It was only about two days ride there were plenty of rest stops on the way.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:30, Mon 05 Oct 2020.

Talia walked slowly, gingerly, the next morning and constantly tried to keep the morning out of her eyes. Groaning, she regretted everything. She couldn't tell which was worse, the pounding headache or the twisting in her guts. Drinking too much was one thing, eating too much atop it was a whole new type of torture. Her mother had been no help with her chipper, high-toned greetings as she went about her business. If anything, there was a surplus of homes now but the elder Alden had managed to find work for her mason's skills.

To escape, she fled to the the Mayor's Inn to see her friends. Shopping, shopping would fix her problems. Her mother yelled at her about a proper breakfast as she fled.

When Angel was done entertaining -- making coins disappear and reappear out of ears and noses to the delight of children; causing the older folks to cringe and gasp by seeming to drive sticks through her arm, and even a couple of real-magic illusions once she borrowed a piece of wool yarn she had one of the little ones tie around her finger -- she graciously accepted the offer of a free room for the night. After all it was the least the villagers could do after not even tipping a single coin after her impromptu show. After a bit of angst and emotional soul-searching when she was by herself, Angel slept soundly through the night...



Due to her suspicions that the whole set up was an elaborate trap, Angel was one of the very few that woke without a hangover, having not over-indulged in the free-flowing drink to avoid having her wits compromised if she needed them. Plus it was really hard to do magic tricks while inebriated and she'd been kinda enjoying being the center of the attention, especially for the young ones. She felt she liked children in general, though she couldn't remember anything specific that lead her to believe that about herself. She did feel a several pounds heavier from stuffing herself with all the great food though and when she woke in the room the mayor lent her she groaned that her belly still felt full and not even a good night's sleep had been enough to relieve the pressure of her gluttony.

After dressing she made her way downstairs to look for some tea, or some other notably strong 'wake-me-up' drink that the villagers had. After finding what she looking for and mixing it with a generous supply of cream and honey -- which was all she could stand for breakfast on this grand morning-after -- she spotting Talia coming into Inn and looking like she assumed most of the folk in the little hamlet would. Talia had already made her desires about avoiding Angel's company quite clear and so the elf probably should've just held her tongue... but that was about as likely as the sun rising in the west.

"Morning Sunshine!" She greeted the human woman brightly. "Tea?" She offered, gesturing with her own cup...

The goliath woman emerged from her room. She was worse for wear, but forced a grin. "It's a fine day. But I guess the town is business as usual... no more celebrations?"

Orila wandered around the town for an hour. The people were trying to achieve normalcy. It was good for them. She found Angel and Talia, "Not much to do around here. But I heard about a city nearby. I'm planning on going there, spend some coin. Unless, we want to clear out the tunnels that we found. In fact, I think that's a very good idea. We should take some more bags to bring back more coins. Talia, what do you think about get ourselves together to go on a retrieval mission?" The goliath seemed eager for something.

The idea of going to a place to spend some coin -- with hopefully a better selection than this Ashford place had! -- sounded nice, but the thought of going to get MORE coin sounded even better. "Oh! I could help!" Angel offered brightly on hearing the large giant woman, (Orila if she remembered correctly), propose to Talia. "I'm pretty good with coins," she added with an impish grin, the gold piece suddenly spinning through her fingers emphasizing her point.

After a night engaging in talks of various subtleties of food with various people, Morren humbling accepted the offer of accommodations but was up bright and early to work in the inn's kitchen both to earn his keep and for his own entertainment. So, when the inn's cook comes out with a hot breakfast ready for each of the heroes and places it before them, it is in fact Morren, who talks to the group as a whole but more often more directly to Orila since she is of similar height.

"Thinkin' off headin' to the city of Spire Keep? Strange happenin's around that place. Some weird murders afoot. I'm sure a place that place would have more than just shops for you heroic types. If you could use some extra hands I'm headed that way myself. Lots of odd things happening these days. Dragons aflictin' towns, strange portals, an' the like. Lots of people that need a helpin' hand. WOuldn't mind helpin' you clear those tunnels out either. Wouldn't do to just leave such a place uncertain."

Alyssa had kept a low profile at the celebrations after her little slip of the beard. But she had sat by as Talia had her fill. The following morning she hurried out into the town to busy herself and to hopefully put the night before out of her mind (and by extension, other's as well).

Coming across Orila, Morren, and the new one she stopped to say hi. Nodding at Orila and the Morren's comments about Spire Keep the handling chimed in, "Spire Keep sound like as good a place as any to spend the coin. Yondalla knows we've already flooded Ashford's coffers! And I happen to know an excellent inn and even better brewer about halfway to Spire Keep! What do you think?"

Talia frowned deeply at the elven woman as she chimed in. Her mouth snapped open to make an ill-advised acidic comment when Orila arrived and Talia brightened. "I think celebration enough was had, Orila. At least, my aching head tells me so if not my overly stuffed belly." Slapping her gut she greeted her fellow warrior and then sat to chat. The suggestion of Spire Keep was met with a satisfied sound, "Yeah, there are some things I want to acquire. I've been training with Mother the last couple weeks. And... the other thing, too. I definitely want to clear out Rivug's caves of whatever is left down there, but I think it can wait just a bit. A week to Spire Keep and back isn't too much?" She looked the question at Orila then included Alyssa.

She frowned again when the massive cook invited himself to their table. Were they collecting strange people now. Still, yesterday's antics reared their head in her memory, so she tried to be more cordial. "Uh, yes, well..." Only acerbic thoughts were forming in her head though, so she chose silence. She looked to Alyssa for help. Why were all these strangers just butting their heads into affairs not their own? "Well, if you need to go that way, safety in numbers and all that..."

The suggestion of a night at Alyssa's family inn was a marvelous one. "Oh yes. But let's not repeat the infamous Lost Keg Caper this time!" She laughed deeply. She glanced out the side of her eye at Angel again and seemed disappointed the elf was still there. What they might be, Talia's thoughts were kept to herself.

"Well if there's some things that you want to acquire from Spire Keep, then we should do that." Orila suggested a course of action for the group. She looked at those gather to see if another suggestion was offered.

"We should be prepared." She took a somber tone, "Perhaps Arthua would still be with us if ..." Orila became silent... looked embarrassed and turned to Morren and grabbed some food.

"How about we check with the farmers here and see if they have any plans to take their produce to Spire Keep." While the others may have thought it was a smart business opportunity, Orila was hoping to get some square meals while traveling.

"Oh! A trip to Spire Keep!" Angel said brightly, apparently not caring one bit that she was inserting herself into the affairs or conversations of others. "That sounds fun! When are we leaving?"

Maybe it was strange, But Talia turned to Angel with a bright grin and nodded but then turned to Orila, "Perhaps on the morrow? Unless..." She looked to Alyssa, "Could we make it to your family's establishment yet this day? I could run home and pack by bag inside an hour in that case. Well, and let my mother know."

Alyssa gave a groan and shook her head at her friends mention of that fateful night. With a laugh she responded, "Talia, again, just because we ended up spending the night on the floor of my family's brewery's doesn't make it an inn. Yry's family owns the inn. Although I do think my parents have a corner reserved for you now..."

Angel blinked and appeared slightly taken aback by Talia's sudden change of attitude, but the copper-haired she-elf quickly recovered and flashed the human an equally bright grin. "Sure!" She said in reply and simply left it at that, content to listen to the others hash out the plans...