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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 1183629" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter 9, “All Aboard”, September 13th, 1019, 10:30 A.M.Purge is the first one into the Bag of Holding, followed by Mark.   Mojo starts to climb in when Narg says, “Wait a minute, take this” and unstraps the round magical shield from his back.  He hands it to Mojo commenting, “Those straps were too constricting in this gnoll body.”  Mojo replies, “Why do you even bother to carry that thing with you?  You never use it!”  Narg answers, “That’s not true.  In the winter I use it as a sled.”   Mojo says, “Well, most people wear them on their arms, you know, like a shield.”   Cassie comments, “Why do you carry it around on your back?”  Narg replies, “I keep it for sentimental reasons.  It was the first magical item I even acquired.”  [DM’s Note: Way back during our second game in May, 1982.  Mojo climbs into the bag just as the gargoyle checking out that side of the pass arrives.   Narg, Cassie and her owl Deanna remain perfectly silent on the edge of the cliff.    They momentarily panic as the monster appears to see something and flies in their direction.   However, he bypasses them flying about thirty yards beyond them.   It stops where Alton’s wyvern form had slept the night before, and had broken and bent the vegetation that was in that spot.    The gargoyle flying along the center of the pass comes over to join his companion.   This gargoyle is taller, wider and has a leader belt with a magical sword attached.    The larger gargoyle picks up a handful of dirt, he smells it, and the two converse.   They then fly off again, without looking overly concerned about their find.    Once out of earshot both half-elves let out a sigh of relief.   By this point the ground is shaking with each step of the approaching behemoth.   Narg and Cassie move out to the very end of the ledge, and she climbs onto his back.    Looking down, they are right above the left flank of the monster.   The head now passes by, and they notice smaller buildings hanging from each ear in addition to the one atop the creature’s head.  Next is the yoke, with a large building atop it.  The next building is the first one along the torso, and while it is only around twenty-five feet lower than they are it is about forty feet out, so they opt to let it pass.   The next building roof is forty-five feet directly below them, but has a small flat roof with nothing for the rope to latch onto.  The middle of the beast comes next, with the largest building on the creature atop it, and only twenty-five feet lower, but around fifteen feet outward.   It has a fifteen-foot diameter crow’s nest on its top with two gnoll archers.   The only other choice for getting on board is a tower further back along the creature’s flank, which will be directly below them momentarily.  It has an eight-foot diameter crow’s nest atop it with one gnoll archer.   Narg decides against that one, feeling that the crow’s nest is too narrow to get onto without being heard or smelled by the sentry.  He tosses the Rope of Climbing towards the larger turrent, which is now past him, grabbing onto the railing near the end.  Narg does not have to jump from the ledge, as the creature’s momentum pulls them off.   While Narg falls he has the rope contract, hitting the tower with his feet he is about fifteen feet below the railing, near the bottom of where it starts to taper upward.   At this point they notice something that they hadn’t seen before from the distance or from above, namely that a dozen open windows just a few feet below where they are now standing ring this building.    Cassie has her invisible owl fly down and peer inside, with the familiar seeing four gnoll archers within the room, but at the opposite side of the room as the window they are above.   Cassie whispers this to Narg, who whispers back “Then I’m going down.  Hang on tight.” Narg repels down, bracing him feet on the outer ledge of the window.  He then carefully lowers himself from the window ledge into the room.  Cassie follows.   They notice that each of the twelve windows has a bow and large quiver of arrows beside it.   With the front window at twelve O’Clock, they had come in from the one at seven O’clock.    The four gnoll archers are looking out of the windows at one, two, ten and eleven O’clock.  Also in the room are two piles of rocks and debris.  Cassie holds the Bag open and sticks her upper body into it.  She then recasts her Invisibility spell over the others, the audible component of the spell only being heard within the Bag.  Narg then carefully pulls out Mark out and onto his feet.   All three prepare to fight the archers if necessary, as Cassie lies down by floor with the bag and gestures for Mojo and Purge to crawl past her and out.   They then carefully all stand up.    The room has a ladder in the center of it, going up to the crow’s next and down into another chamber.   Narg gives each a silent signal to head down.   Mojo activates his own Ring of Invisibility, allowing him to step outside of Cassie’s spell, and goes to the ladder.   He looks below, seeing a larger chamber beneath.   The larger chamber is thirty-feet in diamater, with the floor thirty feet below.   The front part of the room is filled with chests, boxes, casks and kegs.  The back half of the room is taken up with a large iron cage.   Inside the cage are three individuals, a human female, a human male, and a male gnoll.    Mojo carefully makes his way down the ladder.  Once he is around ten feet down Narg follows, and is then followed by Cassie to keep the invisibility centered.   Mark comes after her and then finally Purge.   Once beneath the floor of the archer room Purge pivots around to descend faster down the back of the ladder to the cage roof and then to the floor via the cage bars.   Inside the cage the prisoners notice the ladder swaying, and look up to see who might be coming down from above.   Mark then loosing his footing, and falls off of the ladder.  Cassie and Narg hug the ladder to keep him from knocking them down in his twenty-foot fall to the bottom.  Mojo has thankfully already reached the bottom and moved out of the way when Mark lands ungraciously onto the floor with a very loud thud, causing himself eight points of damage.   He has also fallen out of the range of Cassie’s spell, so is now visible.   Concerned about the sound having been heard by those above, the party all look upward.  They then see one of the gnoll archers peering down through the opening at Mark.</blockquote>

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