Wednesday, 14 May 2014
Ashland, Oregon
Sir Thomas Leaf, Lady Etain, and the young Prince Cian explored the village of Ashland, Oregon as they prepared for a move to this fair city of Shakespeare. A sleepy town it was, but one with vibrant cultural affairs and entertainment, tourism, and a heart of gold. Hosting one of America’s oldest Elizabethan theaters, this town attracted the attention of Sir Rob Wildwood’s Jelling Dragon and Sir Thomas & Lady Etain’s Tree Leaves Oracle. As Sir Thomas Leaf and Lady Etain received unfortunate news a month earlier after coming back from festival that their landlord, the evil land baron Sir Markey had broken their lease and sold the kingdom of Vegantopia out from underneath the promise of holding it for them. While the adventurers were teetering back and forth about purchasing the land and house, they were promised until the end of July that he wouldn’t sell it to anyone else and they had pre-paid tenancy until July 31st. There were problems with the property and the explorers were having numerous issues with the bitter volatile old man who lived beneath them like a troll under a bridge. They always had to walk on glass around him. So in some ways, it was a relief that they would escape his oppressive hold on them staying there until the end of July. He wove it into the illegal lease of demanding a full year’s rent paid in advance for him to take the property off the market and put in a clause that if the trio decided to leave early, they would forfeit their paid rent. However, if he broke the lease, he would pay them back the pre-paid rent. That however was being delayed and he refused to give the last month’s rent back until they moved out. In good faith the delvers said they would move 2 months early to make his sale go smoothly so that the new land owners could move it sooner – which they did on the 1st of May. They were extremely wonderful kind loving folk – so the adventurers were very pleased that the evil baron was gone and amazing spirits replaced him. However, it caught the explorers off guard as they scrambled on deciding where to move and what to do. They’ve been bouncing all up and down the Oregon Coast in search of a store front to open a Pirate Shop within – but alas, traffic and tourism seemed seasonal and they were fearful it wouldn’t survive the cold of winter.
With Sir Rob Wildwood’s offer of splitting the store in Ashland, changed their focus from the coast to the valley and mountains – nestled in this amazing little town. Before Sir Rob was off to England again, they hunted high and low looking over the town and found a potential gem … high rent but a charming location, pretty central and across from the post office. So they made arrangements and signed the lease together to create “The Leaf and Dragon” on the corner of N 1st street and Lithia Way.
The deal was made the lease signed and sealed. Off went Sir Thomas Leaf and Lady Etain with the Prince of Endurance in tow as they headed off home to Blodgett to finish packing up their house, moving their RV, and the slow tedious journey of driving their belongings down to Ashland. As the evil land baron with-held and delaying returning their pre-paid rent, they were unable to get a moving truck together to take everything down in one move. Of course, they had three vehicles so one move was never possible in the first place. Luckily they also had a cargo trailer which was like a mini-uhaul that they could move everything down with. So the journey began.
