Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9791788" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 7: ALL DOWN TO THE FOXESPC Roster:Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 2                     Brendan Conaill, human monk 2                     Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 2                     Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 2NPC Roster:Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 2Game Session Date: 25 October 2025 - - -"This came for you," said Mizuki, one of the maids working in Mrs. Geshuku's boardinghouse.  Shiroko thanked the young woman and took the parchment from her; it was folded and sealed with a blob of red wax, upon which had been stamped a seal depicting a fancy letter "V.""What is it?" asked Adrielle.  The two young women had just gotten up in the morning, dressed, and had been about to head over to the dining area to sample some of Mrs. Geshuku's breakfast fare."I'm not sure," the wu jen replied, noting her name written on the outside of the folded parchment.  Opening it up, she read:Over breakfast, Shiroko shared the message with Brendan, Kruz, and Hoppy.  "Any idea what this is about?" Brendan asked, and Shiroko admitted she had no idea.  But both Brendan and Kruz, who had lived their whole lives in Port Duralia, knew who Lady Vulpina was: a rich noblewoman, and now the head of her estate since the death of her parents a decade or so back.  She was in her early forties, still plenty good-looking, and was reputed to be a formidable hand at cards.  They both knew how to get to the Vulpina Estate, and the group opted to go meet her as requested.Upon arrival, they were met by an elderly butler who escorted them into the entry hall and then insisted Shiroko leave her amagasi michi umbrella in a stand before being taken to the library to await Lady Arabella.  The wu jen, fearful of letting the magic umbrella out of her control, explained she'd rather keep it with her, as it as all she had of her brother's, who still lived in their faraway island country, but the butler was quite insistent it was not proper to carry an umbrella throughout the manor home.  Shiroko found an alternative that satisfied both parties, by passing the umbrella over to Hoppy and having him wait outside for them to complete their business.  The butler, looking the mongrelfolk over with some disdain, sniffed and agreed perhaps that was for the best.The library was a large, open room, and no sooner had they been ushered inside than a young maid brought in a tray of fruit and cheeses.  "The Lady will be with you shortly," she promised with a smile, and Brendan found himself smiling back at the pretty young thing, but she was gone before he could think of anything clever to say.When Lady Arabella entered, she did so with a regal posture making the most of her short frame, for she was no taller than Shiroko herself.  If she was surprised by the hengeyokai's appearance - human-looking save for the large, foxlike ears covered in white fur and the bushy white tail sticking out from the back of her kimono - she did not let it show upon her face.  She got right down to business, joining them sitting in the comfortable chairs and sofa arranged around the room.  "I have no doubt you are wondering why I asked you here," she said to Shiroko.  "I will be blunt: did you or did you not steal an item or two from the wizard Dhagron in his tower last night?"Shiroko nearly choked on the grape she'd been eating.  "Wh-- what?" she stuttered.  "No!  I did no such thing!"Lady Arabella went on to explain that she was a friend of Dhagron, who entered the laboratory in the upper floor of his tower the previous evening to see a thief wriggling through one of the upper windows.  It looked back at him before departing, and Dhagron insisted it had the head of a fox.  It also looked as if the thief wore a red cloak, which flapped in the wind as the thief dropped from sight."What all was stolen?" asked Brendan."Two items," replied Lady Arabella, answering the monk.  "A small bottle of ink and one of the iron bands of Boralis."  Then, turning back to Shiroko, she said, "I am rather astute at reading facial expressions and consider myself a good judge of character, and I am convinced you are telling me the truth.  However, I am certain you will realize if I was able to hunt down a hengeyokai in Port Duralia with fox features, others will quite easily be able to do the same; it's not as if there are many fitting that description.  I would therefore recommend you pay a visit to Dhagron and offer your services in hunting down the real thief.  I will pen a letter of introduction for you."  Gliding up from her seat, she crossed the room to a small desk and started writing upon a sheet of parchment.  Once finished, she dried the ink with some sand, folded the parchment, and sealed it with a blob of melted wax and a signet ring bearing the "V" of the Vulpina family crest.  She then gave them directions to Dhagron's tower."Lady Arabella," interjected Kruz, "forgive my curiosity, but how was it you were able to track down Shiroko so quickly?  You said the items were only stolen last night?"The noblewoman simply responded with a small smile and said, "I have many contacts throughout the city."  Then she wished them happy hunting and offered her wishes they'd be able to track down Dhagron's stolen items for him.The wizard's tower turned out to be a smooth-stoned structure rising up 40 feet and coming to a point at the top; Kruz judged it to be quite impossible to climb without magical assistance.  There was only a single entry on the ground level - the front door - and four circular windows up towards the point of the tower's tip, each some 35 feet from the ground.  Kruz and Brendan did a circuit around the round building, looking for telltale footprints in the soft earth surrounding the tower, and came up empty.  "If they entered through one of those windows," Brendan offered, "they probably flew - potion of fly, carpet of flying, something like that."The front door held a brass plaque with a door knocker and the legend "KNOCK HERE."  Adrielle gave it a good knock and heard a magic mouth effect coming from inside, announcing there were visitors at the door.  A moment or two later, the door was opened by the wizard Dhagron himself, a scholarly-looking man in his late 30s.  "Yes?" he asked, looking at his five visitors.  "May I help you?"Shiroko noticed his gaze slide over her without any surprise, which meant her amagasi michi umbrella was doing its work; those who saw her were usually left with only vague memories of what she looked like, and only the strongest minds could overcome the magical memory-blurring effect.  She passed over the parchment she'd been given and told him, "Lady Arabella Vulpina asked us to give you this."  Dhagron opened it, skimmed over its contents, and then smiled, opening the door wide.  "Please, come in," he offered.  A black and white cat looked up at them as she partially hid behind his ankles."I was preparing the casting of a scrying spell," Dhagron announced.  "You're welcome to join me upstairs in the lab; that's where the items were stolen, if you'd like to look around for yourselves."  He scooped up his cat familiar, tucked her in the crook of his arm, and led the group upstairs to the top floor; the tower had three floors, but the upper story was twice the height of the other two.  Kruz, the only one with any formal thief's training, gave the four windows as good a look-over as he could from his position, as they were each 15 feet above the floor.  Each window was circular, spring-loaded to stay shut but capable of being opened by pulling on a rope dangling down within reach.  "It gets stuffy up here," Dhagron admitted, "so it's not unusual for me to keep the windows open, to let in a bit of air."  Kruz couldn't get too close a look, but he didn't see any marks that might indicate a grappling hook was used to reach the windows from below; it looked like Brendan's theory of flight magic being used was likely the way the thief entered."The windows were open last night?" Brendan prompted."Yes.  They're 35 feet up, and it's practically impossible to scale the walls, so I wasn't particularly concerned about trespassers."  While the others were giving the place a thorough look, Shiroko unrolled the scrolls she used as a spellbook and began preparing her day's allotment of spellpower.  Once she was finished, she shifted into fox form and decided to search the lab herself in a way the others couldn't: by scent.   She definitely picked up the scent of a fox having been there recently, and traced the odor over to a specific table among the half-dozen lined up against the outer wall of the lab, each holding the items needed for a different project upon which the wizard was apparently working.  "That's the table where the iron bands of Boralis were kept," Dhagron told them.  Shiroko resumed her hybrid form (unlike other hengeyokai, this was not a humanoid build with a fox's head), the form she spent most of her life wearing, for her first wu jen taboo was not to assume spirit folk form - to do so would be to take away her spellcasting power for the rest of the day.  But with her humanoid fingers back in form, she deftly plucked up a bit of reddish fur she'd found caught in a crack in the wooden table."I believe this came from your fox-headed thief," she said, turning it over to Dhagron.  "It will probably aid in the casting of your scrying spell."  The wu jen was familiar with the spell, although casting it herself was currently beyond her capabilities."No doubt," Dhagron agreed, and then a look of surprise covered his face.  "And even better," he said, heading to the next table over and opening a drawer beneath it, "I forgot until just now - I have a little bit of the same ink the thief stole, since it didn't all fit in the same bottle.  This will give me a direct connection to the thief!"  He chuckled to himself, now certain the scrying attempt would be successful.  He moved over to another table, upon which stood an upright mirror - the focus upon which he'd be casting his spell.  The others watched over his shoulder as he performed the required gestures and spoke the proper incantations, and an image began to form in the mirror's reflective glass.At first, the only image in the mirror was a single fox, but one sporting a pair of red-scaled dragon's wings.  Then the scrying sensor pulled back, and a second fox became visible, this one quite normal-looking in all respects.  The pair were inside a large cage with metal bars, and as the sensor pulled back even farther, the watchers could see the cage was positioned next to a large, glass enclosure, inside which was a thick-bodied snake the size of an anaconda; this creature not only had the head of a fox, but also a pair of thin forelegs dropping down from its serpentine body.  The entire creature looked to be covered in reddish fur, save for its snakelike belly, which was covered in the traditional serpentine scales.Then, as the group watched, another figure stepped into view in the mirror's image.  This was a bald, bearded man in a wizard's robes.  Dhagron gave a gasp and announced, "That's Demetrios!  I didn't know he was into transmutations.  But to send his creature here to steal from me - it's unconscionable!  It's not like him at all, from what I know of him.""He's certainly got a thing for fox-hybrids," muttered Brendan.  "Any idea why he'd send his winged fox over here to steal from you?  Or why he'd have it take the specific items it took?""Well," replied Dhagron, "the ink is a special ink used for transmutation rituals; I'm planning on putting wings on my familiar."  Kitty just looked up at him and meowed.  "As for the iron bands of Boralis, those are used to bind someone tightly, so they can't escape.  I imagine they might be used to immobilize a subject animal when creating a magical hybrid.""But did this Demetrios know you had the iron bands of Boralis?" asked Adrielle."Why, yes - we were both there, bidding on items being sold by another wizard we both know.  Demetrios saw me purchase them, but he didn't bid on them himself."  Kruz asked for the name of the wizard, and realized he knew him by reputation once Dhagron mentioned his name.  He also knew where he lived, as the Silent Sodality had done business with him once or twice before."So, now that you know it was him, are you going to confront him about the theft?" prompted Shiroko."Me?  Oh, uh, no, I rather think not.  I'm not very good at confrontation...and although I'm a much more experienced wizard than Demetrios, I prefer dabbling in esoteric magics; I never was one for fireballs or shocking grasps or the like."  His face brightened as a sudden idea struck him.  "Say!  You can go on my behalf!  I'll pay you each a hundred pieces of gold to retrieve my stolen items!"  It didn't take the group much discussion to agree to Dhagron's plan, as they wanted to put a stop to any thefts performed by fox creatures that could end up with Shiroko getting the blame in any case.  Dhagron reinforced he only wanted his own stolen possessions returned to him; anything else they might take from Demetrios was between him and them - Dhagron didn't want to be involved.  He gave them directions to Demetrios's manor home and sent them on their way.The Demetrios estate wasn't all that far away.  The group checked out the house from across the street: it was a single-story affair, made of solid stone.  Oddly, the front door was off to one side, part of a wing that jutted out from the sides of the building.  A quick stroll around the building led to the discovery of a second door around the back of the house, likely leading to a kitchen.  There were no other visible entrances, merely some windows much too small to crawl through."How do we want to handle this?" asked Kruz.  "Kick in the doors and force our way inside along two fronts?  Try to sneak in quietly and see if we can find the stolen goods before we're discovered?""He likes foxes," pointed out Brendan.  "Maybe we can have Shiroko change into a fox and we can try selling her to him.""What, we're just your average door-to-door fox salesmen?" scoffed Kruz.  "How would we explain how we knew to try to sell him a fox?""We should probably find out what we can about him before we confront him," suggested Adrielle.  Since there wasn't any particular time constraint on getting Dhagron his items back, the group decided that wasn't a bad idea.  Adrielle and Shiroko volunteered to go visit the Pantheonic Temple and see if the clerics of Delphyne, Goddess of Magic, could shed any light about the wizard, while Kruz and Brendan visited the Silent Sodality to see what all they could tell them about him.  After all, he was sending his flying fox out to do thievery, and the Silent Sodality kept an eye on rival thieves guilds working in Port Duralia.  But they struck out there, for the wizard wasn't even on the radar of the Silent Sodality; if he was an ongoing thief, he was relatively new at the job.Over at the Pantheonic Temple, Adrielle and Shiroko asked to see a cleric of Delphyne and a page led them to her office, where she asked them to have a seat and pushed forward a donation tray.  Feeling she should donate something, Adrielle dropped three pieces of silver onto the container, which caused the priestess to look down in amazement.  "Three silver?" she asked incredulously.  Sensing that wasn't an appropriate amount - the mermaid in human form was still getting used to the monetary denominations used by the land-walkers; her tribe used colored shells for currency - the scout dropped a gold coin as well.  This caused the priestess to shrug, as if to say "What are you going to do?" to herself, and ask, "What exactly was it you wished to know?""First of all," began Shiroko, "are there any fox hybrids that occur in nature?""Fox hybrids?  You mean like how chimeras have the head of a goat - that sort of thing?""Um, yes," hazarded the wu jen.  Neither she nor Adrielle had any idea what a "chimera" was, as there were no such creatures in either of their respective homelands.  But the priestess, after a moment's thought, replied, "None that come to mind.""So a fox with red wings would have likely been created by a wizard?" pressed Adrielle."Sure," agreed the priestess, "unless it was a half-dragon.  But as there are no longer any dragons on the continent of Armaturia" - this was a fiction spread by the Royal Family of Armaturia and generally believed as the truth by its populace, which provided a great deal of amusement to the dragons living on the continent in humanoid form - "it would have had to have been brought in from elsewhere.""Is the wizard Demetrios known to you?" asked Shiroko."Why, yes.  He's been a regular attendee to the services for the Goddess of the Mysteries for the past several years...although his attendance has dropped off in the past couple of months, now that I think about it.  No, I don't think I've seen him for at least two months."  Adrielle thanked the priestess and, on a whim, dropped two copper pieces onto her offering tray, hoping that was an appropriate amount.  (Judging from the cleric's expression, she doubted it was.)Meeting back up, the group decided to go visit the mage who sold Demetrios the iron bands of Boralis.  He confirmed that Demetrios had been there when he was selling off some unneeded paraphernalia, but hadn't purchased anything himself.Finally, the group decided to interview some of Demetrios's neighbors.  They learned the wizard had recently - a few months ago - hired on a good-looking female servant from Sokoku, who had dark hair and wore flowered kimonos.  Shiroko formed a theory she shared with the others: this female servant had likely charmed Demetrios, and was the one behind the sudden fox fixation and thievery.  "There are several creatures from my homeland who fit the description," the wu jen told her friends.  "It could be a fox hengeyokai, like myself, or even a kitsune.  Either one can take on a form that would easily pass for that of a human."  Humans were not native to Sokoku, but many races - predominantly the spirit folk - looked very much like a human."So, what's the plan?" Brendan wanted to know.  "Sneak in, or barge in?  Or, hey, how about this?  We give Demetrios the letter Lady Arabella gave to Shiroko and get him to go meet with her, then while he's out, we break in and deal with the servant girl!"  Talking over the pros and cons to each of the plans, the group finally decided to just knock on his door and confront him with the fox fur Shiroko had discovered in Dhagron's lab.  "We'll see what he has to say about it," suggested Shiroko.  "But let's do it tomorrow - it's getting late, and I want to make some preparations before we confront him."The next morning, Shiroko went to a local magic shop and purchased two scrolls containing the knock spell (in case they needed to break into Demetrios's manor) and six scrolls of the spell protection from evil; if this "Sokokuan servant girl" was using charm magic to control Demetrios, she didn't want her to be able to do the same to any of them.  Brendan and Kruz tagged along, the monk purchasing two thunderstones and the rogue buying a tanglefoot bag.  Adrielle, in the meantime, tracked down Aenus Feysputter at his cart and purchased two pieces of spider climb gum from him.  Then, their purchases all made, they headed over to the wizard's home.  Shiroko used up five of her protection from evil spells, ensuring any mind-influencing spells cast upon them would fail, and then Brendan pounded on the front door.  Kruz was at his side, with the women nearby but out of view of the door, and Hoppy behind them.  Scruffy, the sinborn's rat familiar, was sitting inside the adept's loose sleeve.A young Sokokuan maiden answered the door, bowing before the visitors.  Shiroko took the opportunity to step into view and cast a charm person spell upon the young servant - see if she liked it! - but the spell seemed to have no effect, and the woman, Noriko, either didn't even notice the wu jen's spellcasting or pretended not to have done so.  She ushered the five into the house, leading them to wait in the library while she fetched her master.  This library wasn't anywhere near as big (or impressive) as the one in the Vulpina Estate, but there were enough seats for all five of them to sit and be comfortable.There were two doors leading out of the library in addition to the open doorway they'd gone through to enter the room.  Brendan opened one and saw it was a kitchen, currently unoccupied (and he noted that was indeed where the other door leading outside was located), while Adrielle opened the other door and found a bathroom.  Both closed the doors and returned to the library before Noriko returned, trailing her master."Now then," said Demetrios warmly as he entered the room, "how may I--?"  But he was interrupted by Shiroko, lunging out at him to place a hand upon his robes as she cast the protection from evil spell from the sixth scroll she'd purchased that morning, hoping to undo - temporarily at least - any charm effects the wizard might be under.  But he instinctively flinched away at the wu jen's sudden lunge, and the spell misfired.  "What's going on?" he wanted to know.Even in her hybrid form, Shiroko's sense of smell was on par with that of a fox, and she was definitely picking up a foxlike odor from this Noriko.  (That was only fair, as Noriko's own foxlike sense of smell was simultaneously letting her know of the wu jen's fox hengeyokai heritage.)  Shiroko cast a sleep spell on the pair, but the human wizard shrugged off the effects and the kitsune was too powerful a being to be affected by such a simple spell in any case.But now that any potential subterfuge was off the table, Kruz pulled the club from his belt and attacked Demetrios, hoping to simply knock him unconscious.  The wizard leaped back at the rogue's attack, and there was now no doubt at all in his mind that these strangers meant him no good.  Brendan only further crystalized that view when he stepped forward and sent a stunning fist attack straight at Noriko's face, but she too dodged at the last moment and the monk's blow struck only empty air.  Hoppy moved behind Shiroko, where he'd be out of the way, but his mismatched eyes watched the fight with great attention, for he was ready to step in with healing spells when he deemed it necessary.Not wanting to catch Demetrios - who she considered to be a helpless dupe - in the blast, Shiroko cast a hail of stones spell out in the Great Hall, just outside the library, such that the stones falling from the air above landed only upon Noriko.  The kitsune, for her part, cast a charm monster spell at the wu jen and was surprised to see it had no effect.  But Shiroko had recognized the words and gestures, and knew exactly which spell the "servant girl" had tried casting upon her - it was far more powerful than anything she herself could cast!  She suddenly started to worry that the group might have bitten off more than they could chew.Adrielle stepped past Demetrios and swung her short sword at Noriko, but the nimble foe ducked the attack, even in her tight-fitting kimono, which restricted the movement of her legs to some extent.  (She personally couldn't see how anyone could even move at a decent speed wearing one of those tight robes, but Shiroko seemed to do okay with a lot of quicker, smaller steps.)  Kruz had a better time with his club, clocking Demetrios along the side of his head and sending him reeling.  Brendan followed up with an open-handed blow that almost knocked the wizard off his feet.  But Shiroko was focused upon the fox-woman, and sent a magic missile from her wand flying at Noriko.  It hit her, but seemed to do minimal damage.Seeing Demetrios nearly senseless from the blows he'd taken, Noriko reached out at him and spoke a few arcane syllables  - and the wizard faded from view.  She pulled him out of the library by his robes, sending him into the Great Hall beside her where the fool would hopefully be safe while she dealt with these interlopers.  Adrielle tried stabbing the kitsune with her blade while she cast the spell, but once again she failed to hit her fast-moving target.  The invisible wizard, realizing he needed healing, staggered towards the door to the residential wing, to fetch a potion of cure light wounds or two from his lab.Adrielle finally hit Noriko with her blade, but short of carving a gash through the outer layer of her kimono, the woman seemed nonplused about the attack.  Frowning, the scout recalled Shiroko's warning that this likely wasn't a human they were dealing with, and whatever it was, she probably had some sort of natural resistance to nonmagical weapons.  Kruz came to the same conclusion when he sent a crossbow bolt flying across the library to strike Noriko in the shoulder, only to have her brush it off like it was little more than a pin.Brendan saw how ineffective the others' weapons were against the "servant girl," and decided to try a new tactic.  He tossed a thunderstone onto the floor of the Great Hall, where it exploded in a cacophonous blast of noise that deafened Noriko.  (He obviously couldn't see it, but the blast also deafened the invisible Demetrios, who was fumbling at the door.)  Shiroko shot the kitsune with another blast from her wand of magic missiles, disappointed to see how little it seemed to affect her.Noriko took a step away from her attackers and tried casting an invisibility spell on herself, but unable to hear her own voice, she fumbled over a few of the required arcane syllables, ruining the spell's chances of success.  Behind her, the door ot the residential hall opened and closed as Demetrios went through, but her back was turned and she couldn't hear it.  But Kruz saw it and ran over towards the door; he could hear the wizard's footsteps receding as he ran down the hallway on the other side.Adrielle struck at Noriko with her short sword and connected, to little effect.  Kruz did likewise with his club, hitting the kitsune only for it not to have made much of a difference.  He, at least, was convinced she had some sort of magical protection keeping mundane weapons from doing her much harm.  Brendan came to the same conclusion and pushed his way past Noriko, running around to get behind her.  She surprised him by pulling a lengthy hairpin from her jet-black hair and stabbing him with it, holding the makeshift weapon like a stiletto.  When she pulled the hairpin back, its tip was stained with the monk's blood.Shiroko blasted Noriko again with her wand, while the kitsune stabbed at Brendan a second time with her hairpin - but now that the monk was aware of the weapon, he was able to avoid getting stabbed again.  Kruz had his ear to the door and distinctly heard the rattle of chains and Demetrios's voice - louder than necessary because he was overcompensating for not being able to hear himself - say, "Go and aid your mistress!"  The rogue looked down at the door to see if it could be locked, but it was just a standard household interior door and had no locking mechanism.  So, not wanting to find out what all Demetrios had just unleashed - the clanking of chains was getting closer to the door - Kruz used his tanglefoot bag to adhere the door in place, temporarily cementing it to the floor of the Great Hall, so it couldn't be pulled open.  That, he reasoned, would allow them to concentrate on bringing down Noriko before they had to deal with anyone else.Adrielle pulled back from the fight, as she wasn't getting anywhere fast with her nonmagical short sword in any case; maybe she could take her by surprise with a burst of speed when Noriko had already dismissed her as being too far away to be an immediate threat.  But Brendan had a plan of his own; rather than try to punch her into unconsciousness, he stepped close and grabbed at her, pulling her in tight against him.  Fast as she was, the monk was even faster, and he soon had a grip upon both of her arms, preventing her from escaping.  Shiroko had no qualms about blasting the grappled foe with another charge of her wand of magic missiles, especially with there being no chance of the spell accidentally hitting Brendan instead of her intended target.  Noriko flinched under the magical assault and tried wriggling free from the monk's powerful embrace, but it was no luck - he was too strong for her.By now, there was the sound of several beings pounding upon the door, trying to get it to open, but the tanglefoot bag goo was doing its job.  Kruz smiled in satisfaction and returned his attention to Noriko and Brendan, now in the middle of an upright wrestling competition.  Adrielle suddenly rushed forward, carefully stabbing the tip of her blade at the kitsune while Brendan held her in place, but even so it seemed as if the blade did little good against the woman's preternatural defenses.  Seeing this, Kruz called out, "We need silver weapons!"  (He knew they were especially good against werebeasts, so maybe they'd be of use here?)  "Hoppy!  See if there's any silverware in the kitchen!""On it!" promised Hoppy, shambling off to the kitchen in his waddling gait.  Kruz, in the meantime, had unstoppered a flask of oil and was splashing it on Noriko, hoping to maybe set her ablaze.  Of course, he got some on Brendan as well, but he reminded the monk they'd be able to heal up any of his burns with Hoppy's cure spells.  (Whether this was of any reassurance to the monk remains a point of pure speculation.)  Brendan didn't bother answering, merely grunted as he pulled Noriko in closer and wrapped his arms around her, doing his level best to crush her ribs.  And Shiroko shot another magic missile her way for good measure.Hoppy went through the kitchen, pulling open random drawers until he found where the silverware was stored.  Pulling out a sharp knife that looked to be silver - one of a set of six - he raised it in triumph and hobbled back the way he had come, to pass the blade over to Kruz.  The rogue stepped over to meet the sinborn adept, moving away from the door behind him and thus failing to notice the pounding had stopped, as the forces behind the jammed door were moving back down the hallway to seek another way over to Noriko.Noriko, finding it difficult to breathe in Bendan's crushing embrace, shifted into fox form, thinking she could wriggle her way to freedom in that fashion.  It almost worked, too, for the sudden transformation caught Brendan by surprise, but he grabbed hold of her forelegs and maintained his grip on her.  Holding her up against his chest allowed Adrielle to dash forward and stab the fox through her stomach, but the scout was disappointed to see whatever natural resistance to nonmagical weapons the kitsune enjoyed in human form was just as powerful when she wore the shape of a fox.Kruz discovered, though, that his guess had been correct: silver weapons slid right past whatever inherent defenses she had.  He plunged the silver knife from Demetrios's own kitchen into her flesh and she barked in pain.  Brendan shifted his stance and got an even tighter grip upon his animal foe, while Adrielle called for Hoppy to get more silver knives.  Mentally kicking himself for just having gotten the one (he was definitely a novice when it came to combat!), Hoppy hobbled back to the kitchen to fetch the rest of the silver knives.  And Shiroko sent another magic missile into the struggling kitsune's body; at long last, it seemed like they were whittling down her defenses.  She struggled to get free, nipping at Brendan's wrists with her teeth, but it was no use - she was pinned tight.Back in the lab, the two bakemono - Sokokuan goblins - Noriko had brought with her from her homeland and set up as guardians for Demetrios released the half-dragon fox the wizard had fleshcrafted and activated the secret door in the lab's outer wall.  The three of them - along with the still-invisible wizard and his owl familiar, Ghostfeather, raced out the secret door and went around the house to get to the front door.Hoppy returned to the Great Hall, dropping silver knives in his haste, but he managed to pass one over to Adrielle and she immediately began putting it to good use, stabbing at the kitsune (but almost slicing open Brendan's forearm in the process; fighting someone who was already being wrestled into submission wasn't as easy as she had anticipated).  Kruz was putting his own silver knife to good use, and Noriko was bleeding now from several open wounds.  Seeing her weakening, Brendan released one of the fox's forelegs and used his free fist to batter her on the side of the head, causing her tongue to loll out as she nearly lost consciousness.  But then he heard - as did Kruz and Adrielle - the front door rattling as the cavalry tried getting in.  Fortunately, it was the bakemono and the door was locked; they had to wait for Demetrios to catch up, as he was the one with the key.Shiroko shot another magic missile at Noriko, wondering how many charges she'd used up already against this single foe.  But then another wound from Adrielle's silver knife caused the kitsune to go limp; Brendan could tell she wasn't faking, so he dropped her roughly to the floor of the Great Hall, where pools of blood started gathering beneath her stained fur.  Kruz dropped his knife and bent over to scoop up the unconscious fox, rushing her over to the kitchen, where he unceremoniously dropped her into the largest pot he could find and looked around for a means to light her on fire.Brendan, in the meantime, had gone over to the front door and unlocked it.  Opening the door, he saw the two bakemono, each still dragging the chain from its slave-collar behind it as the red-winged fox-thing came flying towards them.  Brendan slammed the door shut again and relocked it, then moved back to the Great Hall.  He didn't hear Demetrios put his key in the lock and open the door until it was too late.  Hoppy was standing there in the open doorway to the kitchen, asking if anybody else needed a silver knife.  Shiroko ignored him, as her focus was on opening the door Kruz had wedged shut with his tanglefoot bag, now that enough time had lapsed for the goo to dry and begin to crumble away; the wu jen pushed with all her might and finished the process, slamming the door open and seeing the dog-legged residence hallway that led to Demetrios's lab - the one they'd seen through the mirror when Dhagron had cast his scrying spell.  Adrielle followed her roommate down the hallway, peeking behind doors (and finding the bedroom and adjoining bathroom).Ghostfeather flew silently through the open front door, headed for Brendan and scratching him across the back of the neck with his talons.  Kruz, hearing Brendan's sudden cry, left the kitchen and returned to the Great Hall, swinging at the owl with his club; he missed, but he got the bird to fly back away from the monk.  Brendan spun in place, realized the front door was now open, and ran to block the doorway into the Great Hall from the main foyer.  He arrived just in time, to, for with a rattling of their trailing chains, the two bakemono entered the building through the front door, their wicked teeth gnashing and biting.  One caught Brendan on the leg before he could swat it away.  Then the half-dragon fox flew in above their heads and bit Brendan as well.  The monk crumpled to the ground, bleeding at the neck and leg.But Hoppy saw the monk fall and raced to be of assistance, inadvertently blocking the doorway to the Great Hall with his misshapen body as he reached out to cast a cure light wounds spell on the fallen monk.  Brendan returned to consciousness but gave no indication he was awake, playing dead for the moment.Shiroko, hearing new sounds of combat behind her, spun about and raced back the way she had come.  She caught sight of the winged fox and called out in the language of foxes, "We don't want to hurt you!"  (To the others, it just sounded like a bunch of yipping and yapping.)  One bakemono stepped over Brendan to get at the mongrelfolk adept, and that's when Brendan stopped playing dead, striking up at the bakemono with every ounce of strength he had, catching him right between his little legs.  The blow crushed a rather delicate part of the little goblinoid's anatomy and lifted him physically from the ground; when he fell back to the floor, the shock had killed him.The other bakemono, ignoring the death of his fellow guard, leaped forward and sank its teeth into Hoppy's leg.Ghostfeather swooped down at Kruz, raking the changeling with his talons, while Adrielle pulled Hoppy out of the way and took up his position in the Great Hall, her short sword out and ready to do business.  Kruz had just loaded his light crossbow and sent the bolt flying down the length of the Great Hall to bury itself into the sole remaining bakemono's eye, causing it to fall over, dead.Then Demetrios called out, in an overly-loud voice (for he was still deafened from Brendan's thunderstone), "Cease fighting, everyone!"  He hadn't heard what Shiroko had said (nor did he realize she'd been speaking in the languages of foxes), but he'd seen her "Calm down, everyone!" gestures with her hands and realized she was trying to put an end to the fighting.  The half-dragon fox immediately sat on his haunches, and Ghostfeather flew back over to the front door, landing on the floor behind a slain bakemono.  They had to wait until the deafness effect wore off before they could start talking, but Demetrios canceled the invisibility effect and dragged the slain bakemono into his lab, where he locked the winged fox back into his cage with his still-normal mate.  The fox serpent was still there in its glass enclosure, the top being out of reach for the little goblinoids to have wanted to waste the time it would take for them to free it.But eventually, Demetrios shook his head, wriggled a finger in his ears, and announced, "That's better - I can hear again!"  Then the heroes explained to him about Noriko's true nature, and that she'd had him under charm monster spells to control his behavior.  "That certainly explains a lot!" the wizard sighed.  Kruz showed him the fox's body, still drenched in oil (he hadn't had time to find a fire source, as Brendan had the group's only tinder box in his backpack, and he'd been busy), but she had already bled out."I imagine Dhagron will want his stolen items back," Demetrios said, going back to his lab and gathering them up.  "Please apologize to him for me, would you?" he asked, passing over the iron bands of Boralis and the bottle of transformation-ritual ink.  "I literally was not my normal self."  Shiroko took the items, bade the wizard farewell, and led the group back over to Dhagron's tower, where the scholarly wizard was overjoyed to have his stolen goods back."Well done!" he enthused.  "That only took you a single day!"  He happily paid them the fee he'd offered, and promised to look them up if he ever found himself in need of a group of adventurers."Not a bad two days' work," admitted Brendan as they returned to Mrs. Geshuku's boardinghouse.  "We've proven ourselves to two different wizards, and a noblewoman of good standing.  I think we're moving up in the world!" - - -This adventure was a bit different than most in our campaigns, in that we were two hours into it before we even started up with any combat.  I think the players enjoyed the change of pace, although we're usually a more combat-focused group.  Logan, however, did not enjoy the string of natural 1s he was getting when rolling up his magic missile damage; I think he shot off six or more charges, and over half of them dealt minimal damage. - - -T-shirt worn: My "Jade Warrior" T-shirt, which features a female samurai-type wearing ridiculously skimpy armor.  My wife pretty much hates the shirt, so I only wear it when it's thematically appropriate (like when the adventure features a kitsune woman who uses a spirit folk guise).</blockquote>

Verification