AAR: [11M] Morgan and the Stormcrows. (2021-02-20 @ 1900 gmt)

[Montaugh]

My Name is William Carver. I am a Circle 11 Scout, Circle 8 Thief, Journeyman of the 5th rank, and a Circle 7 Cavalryman.

For the past year I have been searching for information regarding the location of the events that took place in which Morgan gave his life protecting the shepard and his flock from Storm Crows. I could no information regarding Shepard's Staff in the library of Throal. One day a giant sheep dog the size of a pony appeared when I awoke holding Shepard's Staff. He did this each morning, I could not talk with spirits so I sought the aid of people more adept in such matter than I. I contacted the shamen Zivilyn and the Nethermancer Daldorer. I also contacted Jael and Xeviouz to join us as having more heavy hitters traveling with me would be better than to not have them.

We managed to speak to Morgan, he's a good dog and he told us of a rough location as to where we would need to travel to. It was a place that was once living with fields and hills that the sheep and rabbits liked to travel in. It is a place that is now dead though. It was also south west of us many days travel at least 2.. according to the Spirit Dog Morgan.

We traveled to Travar and we did some work on a fire mining vessel, it is grueling work. We were able to get a more exact location as to where we needed to travel to within the badlands, 32.29. We outfitted ourselves for the trip. I purchased four traveler's mugs while the others were content to bring along barrels of water that were lightened. We also brought along some Bedrolls of comfort, the troll sized one I purchased was able to do a fairly ok job of keeping charlie warm. Between that and the Haslam's Saddle we were comfortable enough. I was glad that I learned to survive in such a hostile environment.

Now let me take a moment and talk about the badlands and what one can expect to encounter out there. First of all be prepared or you will die. If you think you have enough food or water, you do not have enough food or water. I would really recommend traveler's mugs. I could produce four pints of water per day, and still Charlie and I needed to dip into the barrel's supply of water. The nights are freezing cold, and the days are burning hot. Winds and storms are not uncommon, and the creatures you encounter within the badlands are going to amongst the hardiest, smartest and deadliest creatures I have encountered. Take the opportunity to gather up water in whatever form you encounter it, we gathered up hail to replenish our water supplies. Beware of flash foods from the storms, don't worry by early morning all of that water from the storms will be almost all gone and by early afternoon the ground will look like it has not rained in hundreds of years. Talents such as Safe Path simply tell you that the safest way to travel is behind you and out of the badlands. Travel at night and it is cold. Travel during the day and it is hot. There is not good time to travel in the badlands, each has advantages and each has disadvantages.

We managed to talk the Fire Miners that we had worked with into dropping us off on a mountain at 23.32. From there we traveled north to our destination. We traveled by night. On our first night into the badlands we encountered a pair of giant scorpions fighting, I was able to hide us and move us out of their path.

The next night the ice storm hit along with the stormcrows. We left the stormcrows to play in the storm and sought shelter in a cavern at the bottom of a gully. We knew it would flood, so we made plans to move out the back. Spirits were summoned, tunnels were dug, and we found a large sum of gold bars in an old cellar that we had found.

This is where things went from bad to worse. We were about 10 miles from our destination, slept for a few hours and approached it well rested. We met spirits that were taunting us, Xeviouz engaged the spirits. One of the mages tried to banish them. Both failed. Then the antlions sprung their trap. Almost all of us were entangled, Xeviouz was nearly killed in the initial ambush. I was entangled and dragged towards the pit of the giant creatures. We were all fighting for our lives and Jael and Xevious managed to kill them all. The best that I could manage was to take the creature's sense of touch, I was hoping that once it lost a sense of feeling it would let me go as it wouldn't know if it was holding me or not. That did not happen.

We did spend a few days building a tribute to Morgan. We carved a shepard's statue, a sheep, a rabbit and a nice statue of morgan out of stone. We traveled back the airship with the fire miners, returned to Travar and then made our way home.

William Carver.