Following
a lead from Marahaba Asante, the Feinting GOATs traveled to a
perpetually misty and notoriously dangerous swamp in western Krydodan,
known as the "Devouring Swamp," rumored to be an entrance to the
Infinite Swamp. Before braving the marsh, they visited a local Crawmad
village. The curious, philosophical creatures shared a wealth of
information about the swamp's most legendary inhabitant, Emeline
Morningfall, whom they knew by several names including "The Rat Queen"
and the "Mad Monk of the Mire." They spoke of her immense skill as a
drunken master monk, her ancient lineage dating back to the Voidfury
Incursion, and a time when she trained an entire army of warforged
monks. The Crawmads confirmed that none who enter the swamp ever return,
suspecting a high-level predator, perhaps a black dragon or a coven of
hags, was responsible for the disappearances.
Trusting in their skills, the party entered the treacherous swamp. Relying on Lenti’s intoxicating spores to guide them, they quickly lost their sense of direction, wandering for a day and a half before stumbling upon a tall, dark tower. Perched atop it was a young adult black dragon, who spotted the party before they could react. The battle began on a high note for the adventurers, as Loarkon's discordant performance successfully stunned the beast, allowing the party to press the attack. Korloth used his trident and rope to drag the dragon from the sky, while Elyn’s summoned shadow, "Death," weakened it. Adrian, mounted on his newly adult chimera, peppered the dragon with shots as Cut-Cut leaped onto its back to strike directly.
The tide turned dramatically the moment the young dragon was slain. In that same round, its mothe, a massive, ancient black dragon wyrm, appeared, unleashing a devastating cone of acid in a display of pure grief. The battle against this far more powerful foe was brutal. Lenti’s mushroom leshy companion, Dod, was melted in an acid pool, and Elyn's undead gorynych and tembo were also destroyed. Akemi was slain by the wyrm's fury, but Bao Bao was able to restore her to life the following round. The party's red-chitin umber hulk was also killed after landing a critical blow, only to be brought back by Phillip the opossum using one of the magical pomegranates from the Garden of Zinn, which stained its carapace an even brighter shade of red. Near the end of the fight, several party members frantically worked on the puzzle door of the tower, hoping for an escape. The battle concluded when Echo, Elyn's cohort, successfully cast suffocate on the wyrm, allowing Korloth to deal the finishing blow.
After the battle, the party solved the tower's puzzle door, discovering that a sequence of creature icons corresponded to numbers that had to be added up correctly. After a few failed attempts that released clouds of corrosive gas (which Cut-Cut deftly dodged), they succeeded. They claimed the dragons' hoard of gold and magic items before stepping through the portal, where Adrian was the first to realize they had indeed arrived in the Infinite Swamp.
Not long after, they encountered a surprisingly peaceful green ogre named Shrek, who guided them toward a ramshackle tavern called "The Mad Monk of the Mire's Moonshine Market," run by his brother Bruno. Inside, they found the legendary Emeline Morningfall, thoroughly intoxicated and uncooperative after decades of self-imposed exile in the tavern. After Korloth, aided by the party's magic, defeated her in a drinking contest and she slept it off, she remained belligerent. A deal was struck: if Cut-Cut could survive three rounds of unarmed combat with her, she would reveal the path to the Crown of the Rat King. With the party's support, Cut-Cut withstood the master monk's assault and the deal was honored.
Emeline, now vaguely more lucid, laid out the path to the Crown: the party had to pass the three great trials she herself had once endured. The first was the Trial of Stench, a test of fortitude requiring them to meditate for one hour within the nauseating Bog of Eternal Stench. The challenge proved grueling for most of the party, leaving them retching and struggling to maintain their focus against the overwhelming foulness. Lenti and Echo were naturally immune to the bog's effects, while Korloth used his water breathing ability and a flask of air to survive. Their meditation was violently interrupted when a tentacled beast surfaced and lunged for the weakened Akemi. Korloth immediately intervened, dispatching the creature whose death released an even more noxious cloud of vapor. Despite the chaos, Emeline, declared that their resilience in the face of such adversity was sufficient to pass the trial, bending her own rules in acknowledgment of their strength.
The second trial took them to a patch of the Swamp of Sadness, a place devoid of life where the very air was heavy with despair. Here, they had to prove their emotional resilience against the crushing psychic weight of the swamp. The trial nearly ended in tragedy when Akemi fell victim to the oppressive magical depression and began to sink helplessly into the mire. It took the combined strength of the majority of the party to fight through the swamp's influence and drag her to safety. Emeline once again deemed the trial a success.
For the final trial, the party had to defend a sacred mangrove from a horde of the swamp's Unusual Rats for an entire night without killing a single one. Instead of violence, the Feinting GOATs turned to art and diplomacy. Akemi used her Crown of Snegurka to summon a grand, magical feast to distract the creatures, while the party's bards, led by Akemi and Korloth’s new cohort Loarkon, wove a continuous, all-night concert. They supplemented their mesmerizing music with magically produced food, animal handling skills, and spells that allowed them to speak with the rats, turning a potential battle into a night of peaceful, if exhausting, entertainment. During the long night, Adrian even managed to befriend one of the giant rats, choosing to keep him as a pet. Having proven their respect for the swamp's native life, the party had successfully completed the final trial.
Having successfully completed the trials, Emeline bestowed the Crown of the Rat King upon them. She then announced that her long vigil was over and that she would return with them to the Prime Material world, her time in the Infinite Swamp finally done. The party, victorious and with a new, powerful ally, concluded their adventure and departed the dismal realm.
Note: The following writings are from the character's perspective and are often private to the character. They are not considered "in-game" knowledge to the other characters, and any in-character reference to this information would be considered meta-gaming.
Letter to Tom Paranskaft by Syd McVay
Hello Tom,
I'm sorry it's been a while. I hope you and the shop are well. Life has been an adventure out here, and I feel like I've lived many lifetimes. My necromancy skills are suddenly increasing, and I hope one day I can use some of these newfound abilities to improve our lives. I was also privileged to find a master thieves' thumb! I can feel energy radiating from it, and it has already greatly benefited me. I know the charisma I use is a bit unconventional, but I hope you would be proud of the small army I've gathered to serve and protect me. If you see that alley cat that hangs around the store, please give him a scrap or two for me.
You wouldn't guess what we did on our last adventure. Let's just say it involved two black dragons, an ogre, crawmads, and a highly intoxicated but expert monk called the Rat Queen. Let me start from the beginning.
We have a secret informant from the old company we used to work for. We no longer work for them because we found out they were corrupt and were starting to catch on to our side adventures, so they let us go. Our informant let us know that we needed to go to the Devouring Swamp, where we could hopefully find the Infinite Swamp. We were under the impression that the Rat Queen resided in the Infinite Swamp. We knew she was skilled, but I think we underestimated how intoxicated she would be. I keep getting ahead of myself. Once we learned where we needed to go, we gathered any last-minute items and said goodbye to our newly founded underground castle, which was mostly decorated with fungus. It's not how I would choose to decorate, but it wasn't my choice!
We headed to the nearest small village to meet the Crawmad people. Their leader was kind, clearly intelligent, and had heard of our adventures. At this point, the Goats have quite a reputation. The leader spoke of many adventurers coming through these parts but never coming back. They knew of a black dragon and had heard of the Rat Queen, but they advised us not to call her that. She preferred to be called The Mad Monk of the Marsh, which, frankly, was a fitting name. The leader gave us as much information as he knew about black dragons, what to expect if we proceeded, and what he knew about the Rat Queen. One of his people, guided us as far as they could and showed us where people entered but never came back. As a token of our gratitude, we shared some of their spirits, and they gave us a portion to maybe share with the Rat Queen. I didn't partake in the spirits since they were basically poison for my system.
We said our farewells and continued forward. Philip and I proceeded ahead of the group to scout for any potential danger. Everything was good and safe, and we stopped for the night. During the night, Cut Cut spotted the shape of an alligator. They woke up Korloth immediately! Korloth quickly saw that a large bite had already been taken out of the alligator. For some reason, the alligator decided to go after Akemi. An infuriated Korloth attacked and swiftly killed the alligator. The following morning, we heard what happened and knew to be especially careful because whatever took a bite out of that alligator was still alive. Philip and I kept our eyes peeled and spotted something in the distance: a black shape, but it was still a little too far away. I warned the group of what I saw, taking an educated guess that it was probably the black dragon. I hurried back up to the front and got a closer view with Cut Cut. There was a black, gray, misty castle with a figure sitting upon the top of it. Just as I perceived the figure, it perceived me and began speaking. This was indeed the black dragon we feared we would face. I heeded the crawmad's warning and took everything the dragon said with a grain of salt, knowing he was being deceptive. I did make the mistake of trying to buy our safety with gold, which in turn put a target on our back. I guess that's what I get for trying to do something diplomatically with a black dragon.
The fight ensued. Our group immediately felt the raw, unbridled power this thing had. Through a steady and systematic approach, we barely slayed the black dragon, only to find out this was not just a black dragon—this was the son of a colossal mother black dragon. She was incensed by the killing of her baby boy!
The battle continued with no break. It felt like hours of failed attacks from Echo and small successes with my own spells. We slowly damaged her. We almost lost multiple teammates, including Akemi and Lenti, and unfortunately lost our team's emotional support mushroom, Dodd! This truly affected Lenti; Dodd was basically her child. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to mourn Dodd; we had to continue fighting this behemoth of a dragon. Black dragons are acid-based dragons with multiple breath weapons and area-of-effect attacks. I knew that if we killed this thing, I would be turning it into an undead, fiery dragon skeleton. Echo, Cut Cut, and of course Korloth had claims on the carcass, and I had dibs on the bones! Philip stayed alert and saved Akemi's life, and he kept casting a small acid resistance spell on those who were most vulnerable on our team. Finally, after a long, painstakingly tedious, and difficult fight, we killed the mother dragon!
My crew and I desperately needed to rest but didn't have a chance to. I quickly realized we needed to explore the castle we saw at the beginning of the battle. My minion, Death, had seen there was gold on top of the castle, and as any good rogue does, once we solved the ornate puzzle to get into the castle, I immediately meditated on the gold I knew was there and still put some aside for safekeeping. In this horde of treasures, there were many magical items that the team quickly investigated. This gave my friend Akemi a chance to also take some gold for herself. I'm grateful that Akemi understands and supports my endeavors. I think she sees what I'm doing and recognizes that I've grown as a person. I'm now constantly considering the party, even if I may not like it. I have gained a reputation that I will uphold, but there are parts of me that have softened. I can genuinely say I care about this team and our success. Our existence depends on us working together and trusting each other.
Once we were finished dividing our magical items and gold, we stepped through a portal to realize we had found the Infinite Forest. Soon after, an ogre who called himself Shrek greeted us. I was grateful that he was friendly and accommodating; I did not have it in me to fight anymore. Neither did Philip. Philip was pretty tuckered out. He let himself get a little out of shape during our long hiatus. I had to talk to him about that, and that will not be happening again.
Shrek led us to a tavern where the Rat Queen basically lived. Shrek had a brother who ran the tavern named Bruno. Bruno offered us a drink, and we saw the Rat Queen completely intoxicated, barely able to string a sentence together. I thought to myself, "This should be easy to get the crown from her. She's probably too drunk to lie to us." Unfortunately, I was wrong, and she misled us, saying that if we would play a drinking game, she would give us the crown. Of course, once we, with the aid of magic, beat the monk, she passed out. We got no crown. We carried her to the back room of the bar and let her sleep. We looked all over the room to see if she was hiding it somewhere, but she wasn't. The team took much-needed rest and decided to continue to try with this crazy woman to find the crown in the morning.
The next morning came, and we tried our best to keep her sober. We found out she had snuck a drink from a flask she owned. She challenged Cut Cut to an honest duel of two monks. All that Cut Cut had to do was survive three rounds. I figured Cut Cut would be able to give this old, haggardly drunkard a run for her money. Well, once again, I was wrong! The Rat Queen was deceptively incredibly skilled. Cut Cut just barely held on during the fight. Thankfully, three rounds passed, and we accomplished what we needed to in this duel. Now, would we finally get the crown? No... Of course not! This basically qualified us for a three-part challenge. Someone on our team had to successfully finish all three parts; we could all attempt to finish the challenges, though.
The first challenge would be a challenge of fortitude. We had to remain focused and meditate in the Bog of Stench. This indeed presented quite a challenge for our entire group. Echo and Lenti were naturally immune to the rotten stench. Korloth was able to use one of his own personal tools to breathe in water to avoid the stench, but the rest of the team found it quite difficult. Due to the struggle, a tentacle beast was woken by our retching and went after Akemi. Korloth ranged and rescued Akemi. Thankfully, we survived, and Emily Morningstar, also known as Rat Queen or the Maddening Monk of the Marsh, acknowledged our genuine efforts and broke her own rule and said we all passed. We headed to the second challenge the next morning.
The second challenge would be a trial of the mind. We entered a different part of the swamp and immediately became heavy in mental warfare. We almost lost Akemi to the depression of the swamp. She began to sink deeper and deeper into the swamp's earth. It took nearly the entire party's strength to pull her out to safety and push her past the edge of the barrier. We finished the trial and headed back, and Emily declared once again that we had passed the trial. I was grateful for her leniency.
The final trial was the trial of rats! We were taken to an area where there were hordes of rats that we were not allowed to kill. We had to survive one entire night among the rats without causing damage to any of them. I was honestly grateful for Adrian and Akemi due to Adrian's expertise in animal handling and Akemi providing food for the rats. During this trial, we discovered Adrian's pet snake, Ember, could now speak. Apparently, the longer that certain animals stay in the swamp, the chances of them becoming sentient increase. We successfully handled the rest of the night with the rats and had officially won all three challenges. The Rat Queen grumbled, but she did indeed give us the crown. She also asked to join us to leave the swamp. I was eager and ready to leave this dismal realm and never smell that swamp again.
This concluded our adventure through the swamps, and now I must rest, recruit, and train Philip.
I know you're not one for affection, but I do miss you, Tom, and hope we can share a stiff drink soon!
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Letter to Master Kagemitsu at Tengai-no-mori Monastery
Dear Master,
Our most recent adventure was an exercise in humility and a reminder of the dangers of overconfidence. On the advice of Marahaba Asante, we set out in search of another artifact, a crown held by the “Rat Queen” within the Infinite Swamp. Asante informed us that the only way to reach the Infinite Swamp was to find an entrance by becoming lost in a swamp on this plane, so we headed for the nearby Devouring Swamp, a location with a suitably mysterious and dangerous reputation. There was a settlement on the outskirts built by Crawmads, a race somewhat like semi-aquatic Thri-kreen, and we stopped there to rest and gather information. The Crawmads were quite knowledgeable and accommodating, and excited to have us there, since the Feinting GOATs’ reputation had preceded us. We were warned that anyone who ventured too close to the swamp tended to disappear, and they suspected it was home to ogres, hags, or even dragons. We reasoned that we had already successfully defeated both hags and dragons, as well as giants, which are similar enough to ogres, so we proceeded unconcerned.
The necessity of becoming lost provided a bit of a challenge, since my and Korloth’s excellent sense of direction typically preclude that sort of difficulty, but Lenti had a ready solution with her hallucinogenic spores. Soon enough, we were quite deep in the swamp and sufficiently disoriented. The Crawmad’s suspicions about dangerous predators were confirmed when we stumbled on a stone tower guarded by a young black dragon. We did make an attempt at diplomacy, but the belligerent creature would only make threats, prompting the GOATs into battle. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but we made relatively quick work of it, effectively combining magic and might to force the dragon to the ground, weaken it, and swiftly deal damage. There was no time to celebrate our victory, however, because no sooner was the first dragon felled than a second, much larger one appeared. This was the younger dragon’s mother, and she descended upon us with terrible wrath. Both Akemi and Zan-kalak were slain, but they were returned from oblivion thanks to Bao Bao’s psionic healing and a magical pomegranate, respectively. Zan-kalak’s chitin is now a brighter shade of red, but otherwise there seem to be no lasting effects. Sadly, we also suffered the loss of Lenti’s companion, Dod, who was completely engulfed in the dragon’s acid. I had used my abundant step ability to get on top of the dragon and was landing blows from above, but Korloth warned me away before unleashing volcanic fury over the whole area. Afterward, the dragon was still standing, but I realized I was growing fatigued and likely could no longer make it past the dragon’s cone of acid safely. My effectiveness from range is quite limited, so I decided I could be more useful assisting Elyn with the puzzle lock on the tower door, hopefully providing us an escape route. Eventually, though, the dragon was defeated, and we were able to claim the hoard at the top of the tower before proceeding through the door.
Adrian was the first through and the first to realize we had reached our goal: the Infinite Swamp. We were initially wary when approached by an ogre, but he, Shrek, was perfectly cordial and led us to a ramshackle tavern where we would find the “Rat Queen.” In addition to warning us about the Devouring Swamp, the Crawmads had provided some additional information about the “Rat Queen,” most importantly that she did not appreciate that particular title, so we avoided using it in her presence. Her real name was Emeline Morningfall, and the sign on the tavern proclaimed her to be “The Mad Monk of the Mire.” I’m sure you have heard of her, Master, since she is legendary for her part in ending the Voidfury Incursion, and, apparently, trained the monk who trained you! I had hoped to forge a quick connection as a fellow monk, and we had also brought a gift to aid the diplomatic process, but we found Master Morningfall quite intoxicated and cantankerous. Korloth challenged her to a drinking contest to win the crown, but her ogre bartender, Bruno, warned us that there was no reasoning with her in her current state. Indeed, after sleeping it off, she claimed no memory of any such agreement. Instead, she proposed a new challenge: if I could survive three rounds of unarmed combat with her, she would tell us how to retrieve the crown. Now, I have certainly heard tales of drunken masters, and I am not foolish enough to think I could be a match for her centuries of experience, even if she did appear outwardly frail with age, but what choice did I have? I wish I could say I held my own, or at least performed better than expected, but I was thoroughly humbled. I remained standing for the three rounds, but only thanks for Bao Bao’s healing, and I didn’t land a single blow. Meanwhile, Master Morningfall was a blur, striking at a rate that I would have thought impossible for someone with only two arms. I emerged battered and chagrined, but Master Morningfall seemed quite pleased at putting a young upstart in her place, and her mood visibly improved.
True to her word, Master Morningfall explained that we could claim the crown by succeeding at three trials, although I now suspect that the trials, like our combat, were more for her own entertainment than anything. I suppose after decades of exile, one must find amusement where one can. The first trial was a test of fortitude, spending an hour meditating in the Bog of Eternal Stench and resisting its noxious fumes. We were interrupted by an attacking tentacled bog beast but still completed the trial to Master Morningfall’s satisfaction. The second trial involved spending a night in the Swamp of Sadness. Akemi, perhaps still vulnerable after near-death experience, was overcome by the swamp’s oppressive influence and began sinking beneath the surface, but with our combined strength the GOATs were able to pull her free and again complete the trial satisfactorily. Finally, we were tasked with defending a sacred mangrove tree from a hoard of giant rats that wished to devour it. The catch was that we were not allowed to harm any of the unusually sized rodents, so instead our bards distracted them with a magically produced feast and a mesmerizing performance. Adrian even managed to befriend one and add it to his menagerie of animal companions.
With the trials completed successfully, Master Morningfall handed over the “Crown of the Rat King” which bears the angelic sigil of chastity. Thus freed from her position as “Rat Queen,” she agreed to return with us to the Prime Material Plane, and I invited her to visit Tengai-no-mori. I think she will appreciate some like-minded companionship after such a long time away, and we can all benefit from her wisdom and experience. Although the GOATs are growing in strength and skill every day, we clearly still have much to learn. I know I will not have the benefit of Master Morningfall’s extended lifespan, so if I hope to achieve a comparable level of ability, the effort I put into my training must be that much greater.
With Determination,
Cut-Cut