The Party
CW: Torture, Abusive Family Dynamics
On a special mission from
The Guild of Genasi Adventurers, Reese, Buxton, Enna, Etyo, and Cora all make their way to the Presch Estate. They are given a job by Suriel Presch, the matriarch, to find their missing son Azriel. They are given permission to look in Azriel's room, where they find that it's more a prison than a home, and eventually find a secret room that links two of the bedrooms. In this room, there's a lot of information about the ghost town of
Leeside and Azriel's motivations, and it's clear he did not want to stay in the Presch manor for his whole life.
The group sets out on their mission to Leeside, and along the way meet a traveling harengon salesperson named Binby Bleeker. Binby has a lot of junk, but they sift through it and find some magic items. Instead of paying the whole (overpriced) price, Reese threatens to eat Binby and gets a generous discount.
They head off for the rest of the journey, and on the second day, Enna gets a Sending from her fiance Ta'estra, and Reese has a very uncomfortable conversation with their father, Baron Strika (House Strika), who doesn't have a lot of information to offer. They make it to the farmlands of Leeside, where they encounter some ghosts and promptly fend them off. Notably, they find a note that says something along the lines of "don't stay here, it's not safe."
They continue into town, where they head into a broken down tavern that appears to house a trio of
Vampires. However, as they fight, they quickly realize that these are not vampires, but instead hags posing as vampires. Reese flies with one of the hags out of the window and up into the air, killing her by dropping her hundreds of feet, then reviving her, then killing her again out of bloodthirsty anger.
After that, they take a rest and head to the church, which actually seems to be calling for Reese and Enna. They don't want to, but find it hard to resist, and they make it to the church. There's a bubble around it, keeping people out presumably, and Enna and Reese get through it easily. Cora, Etyo, and Buxton take their chances and force their way through. The compulsion calls Enna and Reese even more, until they run into the building where they meet a warforged named Watcher. He's continuing in repetitive motions and not responding, until Enna and Etyo degunk his systems and he kicks back on.
The church is a church of
Helm, and Watcher is the keeper of the church. He gives them some information about when Leeside first became a ghost town, and how he's the only one left because he has to watch the church. Helm, the god of protectors, presumably urged Reese and Enna to help Watcher. He hands them all a potion of healing and they head out to a blur of a place on the map they found in the secret room of Azriel's.
They continue on the path, Buxton taking a moment to rage and run through a dilapidated building, they reach what appears to be a cave that was turned into a mine. The outside of the entrance looks to have been broken apart and rebuilt to accomodate something larger, and when they listen at the entrance, they can hear the voice of someone speaking in a language they don't understand initially. They test out the echoing, finding that it repeats whatever sounds from outside echoes through it, and about this time is when Buxton realizes he can't speak or understand anything but Primordial. They continue into the cave, taking a pause to deal with Buxton's situation, and find that one of the items he got from Binby was cursed. He used it, discarded it, and found himself able to speak and understand other languages once again.
They head down the left branch of the cave, where they are attacked by a Roper and a Huge Grey Ooze. Throughout this fight, they come to suspect some more of the items they received from Binby were also cursed, and Enna leaves one of them behind. Buxton takes them, and Enna clocks this but says nothing. As they exit this section of the cave, a dead end, they hear the echo has changed from what was previously Reese speaking in Deep Speech. Now, they hear the singing of someone in Draconic, a laguage that Cora actually recognizes. It sounds like a young woman's voice.
They come across a puzzle that resembles hopscotch in front of a metal door, and instead of dealing with the puzzle traditionally, they either avoid it or run across it haphazardly. Buxton breaks down the door, and inside is a lavishly decorated room, the floors and walls made of melted stone. They also find a girl in there, Rowan, who greets them warmly and they have a nice conversation. It's revealed that she is a dragon, she did not kill Azriel, that Azriel is a penpal of hers, and
The Presch Family is paying her off to stay in the town without moving further south to
Glimmerbrook. She thinks its nice here, and is willing to pay them off to leave Azriel alone. It's also revealed that she may have massacred the whole town in a bit of an adolescent temper tantrum. Buxton and her arm wrestle and he wins, Enna fixes Rowan's door that Buxton broke, and Reese is understandably very wary and scared of the literal dragon they are dealing with.
They head back to the Presch estate with a letter from Rowan basically telling them to fuck off and leave Azriel alone and are paid the remaining balance of their job. Suriel is not pleased, but when your literal enemy is a dragon, you do what you must.
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