Downtime: A Trip to Paradise

Early in the morning Viggo made his way to the Silverstone City Hall and registered the deed to the keep in the parties names. However, he renamed the property to Widowheart Keep and purchased a safety deposit box at the Silverstone Municipal Bank to store the deed. The party gathered for breakfast and decided that since they are the owners of a new lot of land and a massive keep, they should probably explore it in more detail. They traveled to Calaron Security & Cargo Services and rented a horse and wagon for the week. With that, they travel to Widowheart Keep.

Upon reaching their destination they spent the next week cleaning the keep of the many years of built-up dust and spider webs. Tired and sore, they felt they had the keep clean enough for the time being. They loaded up the wagon with all the valuable items they could part with from the keep and traveled back to Silvertone. Back in the city, they made their way to pawn off the valuables, returned the wagon rental, and hired a single man-at-arms from Calaron's to watch over Widowheart Keep in their absence.

After a week of busting their ass cleaning and moving furniture, they decided it was time to unwind. Later that night they asked around for a good place to blow off some steam. A group of locals recommended a club called Paradise located in the Shyann's Refuge district. After the sun went down the party made their way to the club.

The party took a moment to size up the exterior of the large one-story building. A single window displayed an erotic dancer who was barely clothed seductively dancing in an attempt to lure in customers. The building was covered in dark grey paint with a sign above the main door that read Paradise, written in a fancy font with smoke streaming off each letter. There was a sign that read in a vibrant font, Live Nudes. Exotic Drinks. Live Music. There was another smaller sign on two hooks that stated 'Live Tonight: Twisted Inferno!'. The party had to wait in a line up to get in the club for about thirty minutes, at which point the bouncer sized them up and allowed them entrance.

The interior of the club was very dark lit only by purple stones along the walls and ceiling to create a blacklight effect. A long bar across the far side of the room had two doors leading out to the rear of the building. Above the bar, they noticed a sign painted in a white font that glowed with the unnatural lighting which listed a wide variety of overpriced exotic drinks. Along one side of the club was a stripper stage a few feet above floor level with three poles attached, a single human female danced for the crowd below. The center of the room was broken into two sections, one half had a few dozen tables which were filled with people gambling, making out and doing drugs. The other half of the center of the room was a flat open area near the live band where a crowd of people dancing and taking in the music. The band known as Twisted Inferno stood atop the raised hardwood floor, each with unique instruments, performing for the crowd below.

The Twisted Inferno band consisted of four members. A short-haired, tattooed Elf named Tayzel Nightrick played a heavily modified piano. A sleek black cat sat atop the piano watching out over the crowd. A bald Dwarf with a long black bear and eye patch named Themag Grimflow sat near the rear of the stag slamming down on a drum set. An incredibly old looking Gnome name Bolde Springcord was off to the side of the stage holding a gnomish engineering guitar that had wiring leading down to petals near his feet. In the center of the stage was a tall Elf named Noveth Brassforce with long white hair, scarred tattooed body, and wearing unique leather clothing. Noveth was the lead singer of the band and yelled his lyrics out over the loud music and cheering crowd.

The party listened to this bizarre type of music they had never heard before while mingling with the locals. Viggo and Alvynn sat at the bar speaking with the bartender for a few minutes before Viggo asked how much of a good time a few hundred gold coin could get him. The bartender went wide-eyed at the amount of coin being presented, before heading out back to get the owner. The owner was a ruff looking, dark-skinned man who called himself Trance. He spent several minutes chatting with Viggo and Alvyn. During the conversation, Viggo and Alvyn noticed tucked away, concealed on his belt, Trance had a gnomish pepperbox firearm. They asked Trance how he got his hands on such a thing, to which he said he took it off of a dead rival a long time ago. Their conversation continued for a while until Trance accepted the large sack of coin and led the two back into a rear VIP room. The room was painted a deep purple color with black trim and detailing. Several fine quality soft black couches and chairs were spread out throughout the area. The coffee table held a few bowls filled with an assortment of fruits and nuts. Along the far wall was a minibar with a variety of spirits and empty glasses. Trance told the two to wait here for a few moments and he'll get some entertainment for them.

Meanwhile, Mia continued to watch the lead singer of the band in awe of his performance, finding him strangely attractive. Mia ordered a drink and continued to take in the whole scene. This club was so drastically different than anything she had experienced in her life. Being that she grew up in a quiet druid grove in the Carnsari Realm she was overwhelmed by the loud music, female strippers performing on a stage, and the crowd of people dancing carefree. As she stood there pondering her life the band called for a 5-minute break. Mia noticed the female band member make her way to the bar for drinks. Mia approached the female and introduced herself and got to know the elf's name. The two and made slight chit chat before Mia asked about the lead singers relationship status. Tayzel replied a little snarky towards Mia stating "Him with the likes of you? Now that is something I would like to see. I doubt he would ever go for a wood elf such as yourself, but hey you never know. He has done dumber things than that!" With that Tayzel gathered her tray of drinks and brought them back to the band. Mia pondered for a moment, finding herself in agreement with Tayzel before moving on throughout the bar. Mia was a beautiful wood elf, wearing her battle leathers that were covered in leaves allowing her to stand out in the crowd. She was approached by a few shady-looking individuals who took a fancy towards her, but she shooed them away before going to search for where Viggo and Alvyn disappeared to.

Mia discovered that the two had a VIP room rented down the hall. She made her way into the room and walked in on quite the sight. Viggo stood with one of the human strippers named Kyra Hallewell, his hands placed on her hips as he began to snort some type of light brown powered drug off her breasts. Alvyn sat on a large comfy chair with a pink-haired gnome named Soodinkle Swiftspring, as the two spoke to one another drinking various wines and eating fruits. After consuming the unknown drug, Viggo began to make out with Kyra. Kyra noticed Mia enter the room and invited her to join in, however, Mia feeling awkward to the situation declined. Mia made her way over to the mini bar, found what looked like the most expensive bottle of wine, popped the cork and drank straight from the bottle. Some time went by, Mia's bottle neared empty, Alvyn reached his fill of wine, fruit, and conversation, while Viggo and Kyra made their way over to the long couch and began to get naked. Mia and Alvyn took that as their time to call it a night...morning? With that, the elf and gnome departed the room leaving Viggo to have a wild night that he probably wouldn't remember.

Mia stated she was going to mingle a little longer. Alvyn stated he was going to head back to the inn and get some sleep. As Mia, feeling very tipsy and intoxicated noticed one rather handsome human male, wearing common clothing, but it was clean and well put together. This man was sitting around a table gambling in a card game with a few other patrons. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was Mia finally feeling truly alive as an adult out in the real world, but she made her way over to the handsome man. As the dealer dealt out the new hand to the players, the man noticed Mia watching him closely. He told her to step closer, which she complied. He introduced himself as Strom Craftcutter and asked if he could buy her a drink, to which Mia agreed. Strom played out the next hand and won the round. With excitement, Storm said to Mia "Lady you must be a good luck charm!" and invited her to sit on his lap while he played out a few more rounds. Strom finished up the game and invited Mia back to his place, to which she agreed. He led her to his residence in the Whistler Heights district where the two spent the night involved in intimate relations.

As the morning came upon the city of Silverstone, the party woke not at the Wanderer’s Home, but rather in strange locations. Alvyn woke up with his head pounding, remember very little after leaving Paradise. He found himself in an unknown bedroom, by himself, not sure of how he got there. He glanced out the window and noticed he was on the second floor of a residential house. At that moment he heard movement downstairs. He quietly snuck out of the room and down the stairs enough to peer into the kitchen to see a plump overweight man cooking in the kitchen. Normally Alvyn would have been confident to sneak past the man and out the front door, however, with his painful migraine he decided to head back upstairs and to the bedroom window. He opened it and peered down at the busy streets below and decided to climb down. As he lept to the street below, his three-foot-tall frame looked up in shock as a horse reared up above him, barely coming to a halt before trampling him. The rider yelled at Alvyn "Are you mad Gnome! Get out of the street before you get killed!". With that Alvyn held his head and stomach and finally found his way to the inn.

Viggo woke up with the worse hangover of his life. He felt like his body was drained of energy, his head was spinning out of control. He stumbled his way out of the VIP room and into the main area of Paradise. Being mid-morning the club was closed down, except for a single man who went about his job of cleaning the place. The janitor told Viggo that the owner said he could stay here until he woke up, but then he'd have to leave. So Viggo stumbled his way out into the city street of the Shyann's Refuge district. It was a hot day, and the sun beating upon him made it even more nauseous. He didn't make it far down the street before a few street kids approached him stating "You don't look too good mister". Viggo started to reply but couldn't hold in the urge any longer as he vomited all over the child in front of him. A ruff looking male human bystander noticed this and approached Viggo. The bystander was furious at what he just witnessed and nailed Viggo with a punch so hard it knocked him out cold. Viggo's body crumbling to the cobblestone road.

Mia woke up the next morning, with a mild headache and upset stomach. Strom was not around, however, he left a note. The note stated that he had a great time and very much enjoyed her company, however, he had to head to work at the Mending Docks early this morning. He'd already been late a few times, and if he was late again it could mean his job. He stated that didn't want to wake her up so early, so he told her to help herself to a nice breakfast and he hopes to see her again sometime. With that, Mia made herself a nice breakfast to help settle her stomach and left a note and a few gold coins thanking him for the breakfast. Mia then made her way back to the Inn.

Viggo woke up a second time on that day, except this time it was in a prison cell. He sat there in the Creed Court jail cell for a while clearing his head when a guard came by to check in on him. The guard's name was Elud who stated that he arrested Viggo for disturbing the peace and being intoxicated in public. Viggo asked when he would be released from prison, to which the guard stated that he would have his court hearing within a few days when the judge was available. Viggo didn't like the sound of that, so he began to fast-talk Elud, convincing him that if he let him out he'd make it worth some coin. The guard agreed to release him and discard of the paperwork for a few hundred gold coins to be brought to him at the Plunking Docks later that night. Viggo agreed, and as he departed the prison he noticed a snarling Wolfen sitting in the corner of a cell. When Viggo asked what the Wolfen was in here for, Elud replied "Don't you worry about that beast, he'll get his soon enough." Viggo didn't want to press his luck, so he left it at that and later that night met Elud on the docks in secret and paid him for the bribe.

Continue to the next adventure... Underground Music