The village of Morrowdeep is filled with people. Tourists and the workers of the village far outnumber Morrowdeep’s miners and minors – the people who risk their life in the mines and those to young to know any better. This week we meet a few people in those categories, young and the old who call this city home – both are prey to the evil that now stalks this land once again.
Will history repeat itself or will the people of Morrowdeep learn from their past mistakes – only time can tell now. But without dawdling any more let’s look at Morrowdeep’s Miners and minors – the NPCs of this weeks adventure.
Morrowdeep’s Miners and Minors
402TuMoMiMi
The young dwarven lass pushed through the large oaken doors to the Wispy Willow, one of the few drinking establishments that still let her in. She pulled up a stool at the bar and sighed heavily, she had just left this seat not even an hour ago and she was already sitting back down at the table. After a moment she felt the familiar presence of the bartender looming over her.
“What will it be now Hiljor? I wasn’t expecting you at least for another hour or so for lunch.” the older man asked without a hint of malice in his voice.
“That Gregory just riled me up, that’s all Pastor. I’ll just have some bread and cheese – will skip the ale until I can pay you back for the last one you poured me.” she murmured behind her heavyset arms. The man shook his head and disappeared behind the doors behind him. A few moments later a plate of bread, some cheese and some roasted meat was placed in front of her – with a mug of ale.
“If you can look at the lanterns and work out why they aint working that would count us square.” Pastor, the old innkeep, said with a smile as Hiljor looked up. Pastor was one of the last businesses in Morrowdeep that used the old lanterns instead of the Lanternstone. Hiljor appreciated this and was grateful that she could still use her natural affinity for this technical work to good use.
“I’ll have them working by the end of the day. Don’t worry about that, but I will still get the coin to you to pay for your hospitality” she mumbled, she didn’t feel like she could suffer too many blows to her ego today.
“Your dad was a good worker, a credit to the village. I just want to make sure that you have a better life here than he did. You should avoid Gregor, you can’t get in trouble with the guard again.” Pastor said as she tapped her twice on the shoulder and went to serve another customer.
The forest was bright and noisy in the mid-morning sun and Gwen strolled more carefree than normally. Her older brothers stood nearby and stood watch while her and the other girls gathered mushrooms and other herbs. She knew what to look for most of the time and the order was rather large this time and some of it was harder to find. She thought she knew where to find the riverwort but her brothers refused to let her go into the woods.
But the order required it and if they didn’t bring it back they wouldn’t get paid well. As she watched her brothers keep a watchful eye for danger she slunk off. Being slight and smaller than the other older children it was easy to move about unnoticed and soon she was passing the thick bark of the trees that grew close to the river. As she pushed through the last bushes she spied what she was looking for – a fallen log sitting near a small stream.
She was always a studious student and could memorise the herbs, plants and mushrooms that grew in the woods, hills and caves near Morrowdeep. This made her a credit to her family’s name and she prided herself in her ability to source the rarest ingredients. Carefully looking around the trunk of a large tree she paused and looked about the river for signs of danger. Seeing none she moved forward quickly and drew the small knife that she would need to remove the fungi from the log.
She spotted it, there deep in the log the riverwort. Pushing herself deeper into the log she extended her arm and cut off many of the flat, liver looking fungus before crawling backwards. “Riverwort, useful to stop bleeding and can relieve pain and fevers. But you already knew that didn’t you lass?” a voice said from above her.
Startled, she fell backwards and let out a small shout – her brothers called her name in the distance. “I didn’t see you there. I swear I checked. How… Who…?” she stammered.
A young woman sat there in layers of green and brown cloth. She smiled broadly and produced a flower from a basket she had next to her. “Just a friend, I also was looking for riverwort and other ingredients. Do you know where I can find pink tongue? It’s been a long time since I’ve been in these woods and I can’t remember where they are.”
“You can find them closer to the mountains, they grow attached to the underside of the grew stones.” Gwen said as she took the flower the woman offered her. “Thanks, I haven’t seen a starburst lily outside of books.” she replied, looking at the flower.
“Must be the first of the season. Thanks for your help, miss…?” the woman smiled and waited.
“Gwen. Gwen Thistlewick.” Gwen said as her brothers called again, angrier.
“It sounds like you are in a hurry.” the woman said with a wrinkle in her nose. Gwen smiled, stood and as she dusted herself off she skipped off towards her brothers. She looked back towards the woman but saw that she was already moving off towards the mountains. She ran through the short distance of the forest to her brothers and, upon finding them she saw the worry and anger in their faces.
“Where have you been! I thought we told you not to leave the group?” her older brother, Caden asked.
“I found the riverwort – we needed it for the order and I knew where it would be.” she replied. “Oh and I got this!” she exclaimed as she showed the starburst lily.
“Where did you find that?” her other brother, Tom, asked. He was always more interested in the herbalism business than Caden.
“A woman gave it to me. She was looking for riverwort and pink tongue and I told her where to find it.” she replied with a broader smile. Tom looked to Caden, his face wrought with worry. “Starburst lily hasn’t grown here for years. Riverwort and pink tongue you said?” Tom questioned again, his hand going to an arrow and knocking it in the bow. “A curious mix. I think we best return back. I need to talk to the alchemist.”
Thanks for joining me again for another lengthy write-up. Don’t forget that this is just the second day of the week of content. So don’t forget to come back for the other days this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 