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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9885300" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 17: DOWN, BOY!PC Roster: Adrielle, human/merfolk scout 4                     Brendan Conaill, human monk 4                     Kruz Taszan, changeling rogue 4                     Shiroko, snow fox hengeyokai wu jen 4NPC Roster:Hoppy, mongrelfolk adept 4Game Session Date: 14 March 2026 - - -Kruz entered the Geshuku boardinghouse and met up with his team in the dining area, where the others had just finished eating breakfast.  "Where've you been?" asked Brendan."Checking the drop spots," replied the changeling.  "I got a message from Lucky Eddie - check it out."  He passed over a folded piece of parchment, upon which the following message had been hastily scrawled:"I understand 'SS' is the Silent Sodality," remarked Shiroko.  "But wha does 'knock 313' mean?""Door-knock code," answered Kruz.  "Three raps, pause, one, pause, three more.  It's how he'll know it's us, and it'll be safe for him to open his door.  C'mon, grab your gear, Lucky Eddie's place isn't too far from here, and he says he needs to meet with us as soon as possible."Ten minutes later, the group of five were walking into Lucky Eddie's building, a single-story brick structure containing a group of four apartments, side by side.  The Silent Sodality informant had the apartment at the far east end of the building; both Kruz and Brendan had been there before, listening to intel the informant had picked up and paying him for his services.  But this time, as they approached down the front hallway, they could hear frantic barking from behind Eddie's door - that would be Roscoe, his loyal hound dog.Adrielle got to the door first, found it to be locked, and gave it a solid kick with her foot.  It wasn't a particularly strong door; this was the poorer section of the city, and the builders had taken whatever shortcuts they could when constructing the apartment building.  The scout's kick burst the door inward, where she got a quick glimpse of an elf in a dark cloak standing over the prone body of Lucky Eddie, a bloody blade in his hand, and Roscoe barking at him furiously.  The elf spun at the sound of the door shattering, and tossed what looked like an egg upon the floor by Eddie's head.  It exploded upon impact, sending billowing clouds of oily vapors covering the room, obscuring the bloody tableau before the scout and those who were coming down the hall behind her.The scout dropped to her hands and feet and crawled towards where she remembered seeing Lucky Eddie's prone form.  Her hand hit a patch of wetness; lifting it to her face, she smelled the unmistakable coppery scent of recently-spilled blood.  But she bumped up against Eddie's form, got a good grip on his clothes, and started pulling him backward across the floor and out into the hallway, which was still clear of smoke - maybe she could get a better look at his wounds, and Hoppy might be able to do something about them.  But as they emerged from the thick, black smoke, she saw the informant's throat had been cut, and he was spitting up blood.  He seemed to be trying to say something, though, so she bent her ear to his mouth and distinctly heard him say two words before he gave a death gurgle and expired there on the spot.  Hoppy limped up beside her, ready to apply a healing spell, but it was too late: Lucky Eddie was dead.Shiroko ran back out of the apartment building's front door and started around the east side of the structure, hoping to cut off the assassin's escape.  Brendan did likewise, but he pulled himself effortlessly up the side of the brick wall and ran across the rooftop to the back of the roof, where the fleeing assassin was already out of view - but the monk could hear his footsteps as he raced down a back alley.  Pursuit would be useless; it was a maze of back alleys that way, and the elf would easily be able to lose himself from any attempts to chase him down.  But Brendan looked over the edge of the roof and saw the shutters to Lucky Eddie's bedroom wide open; that, no doubt, was how the assassin gained entrance to Lucky Eddie's apartment.Kruz entered the darkened apartment - the smoke from the assassin's bomb was still plenty thick, preventing him from seeing anything - and called for Roscoe to come to him.  Kruz was a known entity, and the dog stopped his barking and followed the rogue's voice and scent, allowing himself to be petted and comforted.  "I'll get you a treat once this smoke has cleared," Kruz promised the dog, and Roscoe barked at the word "treat" - he knew perfectly well what that word meant!Once the mist cleared from the apartment, the adventurers regrouped inside, pulling Lucky Eddie's body in with them.  While Kruz found a treat in the kitchen area and fed it to Roscoe as promised, the others searched the place, looking for clues as to what the informant had wanted to pass on to them.  Adrielle told them the man's last words."'Birthday cake?'" Brendan repeated.  "Are you sure that's what he said?""Absolutely," replied Adrielle."That's the big plot against the Silent Sodality?" asked Kruz.  "Somebody's going to bake a birthday cake?""Maybe it'll be poisoned," suggested Shiroko."Well, there's nothing here indicating any details about this information he was going to pass our way," griped Brendan.  "Now what?"Hoppy stepped forward with a suggestion.  "Such spells are outside my ability to cast," he began, "but there are those who can cast spells allowing them to speak with the recently slain, and others that allow you to talk to and understand animals....""Great thinking!" exclaimed Kruz, slapping the sinborn on the back.  He turned to Shiroko.  "Can you cast either of those?"  The hengeyokai admitted she could not, and she tried interrogating Roscoe about what he knew in the language of foxes.  "It's no use," she said.  "The language of dogs is not the same as the language of foxes."After some quick planning on the best course of action, it was decided to send Adrielle back to the stables where their horses were sheltered.  She'd fetch her horse Conch and bring him back here, so they could carry Lucky Eddie's body to the Pantheonic Temple, where there were clerics of all the main deities; surely some of them could cast the spells speak with dead and speak with animals.  And on the way back, she'd swing by the city guard station to report their finding of Lucky Eddie's body.  The fact the group were official members of the Port Duralia Adventurers Guild went a long way toward getting the guards to believe they had merely discovered the informant's death, and not caused it - adventurers were given a lot of respect in the city, which was one reason the Silent Sodality had wanted Kruz and Brendan to become members; it gave them a respectable cover identity when going about Silent Sodality business.Lucky Eddie's body was wrapped up in the blanket from his bed and tied across Conch's saddle.  Adrielle took her horse by the reins and started leading him towards the Pantheonic Temple.  The rest of the group followed.  They had made it far as the marketplace when they were approached by a pair of street urchins.  Oddly, one of them held a cut of meat in his dirty hand.  "Can we feed your dog?" he asked, holding the meat out in front of Roscoe, on a leash held by Hoppy.Adrielle's response was as emphatic as it was sudden.  Whipping Galrich's fang from the scabbard at her hip, she sent it through its forms until the stiletto had become a shortspear, then a longspear, and finally a trident - whose three sharp tines she held pointed at the two children.  "Back away," she threatened them."We just want to feed your dog," the boy with the meat insisted, trying to get the morsel past the trident and close enough for Roscoe to gobble it down."I said back away!" snarled Adrielle.  Then, softening her voice, she asked, "Who put you up to this?  Did someone ask you to feed the dog?""Yeah," admitted the other boy, proudly holding up a copper piece.  "He paid us a copper penny - each!"Adrielle held out the hand holding Conch's reins.  "Give it to me," she said.  "He'll only eat it if I feed it to him."  The boys, looking at each other, shrugged in indecision.  "I'll pay you each another copper to give the meat to me," she added.  That was enough to make up the boys' minds, and they eagerly passed over the piece of meat after Adrielle gave them each another copper piece.  Then they scampered off back into the crowd, pleased with their transaction."What was all that about?" asked Shiroko, looking at the meat in Adrielle's hand.  But the scout was examining it closely, and replied, "It's covered in poison.  Somebody paid them to try to poison Roscoe.""Put a hit on a dog?" asked Kruz.  "Why?""He was probably with Lucky Eddie when they overheard the plot," suggested Brendan. "Now they want him dead before he can tell anyone what they said.  C'mon, let's get going; now I'm really interested in what Roscoe might have to say."  But Shiroko had them remain in place long enough for her to cast a bear's endurance spell on Roscoe, and feed him a potion of mage armor.  "We can't be too careful," she suggested.  The monk steered them down a side street towards the Pantheonic Temple, gulping down a vial of antitoxin himself as they walked.  Just to be ready for any other such attempts on the dog's life, Shiroko cast a coldflame foxfire spell and had the luminous orbs circle above her head as she walked, ready to be dropped on anyone trying to harm Roscoe.A few streets later, four rough-looking toughs stepped out of adjacent alleyways and threatened Adrielle with their short swords.  "We'll take that horse off your hands," one informed the scout.  "Pass over them reins, and there won't be no trouble.""An' I'll take the dog," said another, around a toothpick he held at the side of his mouth.Adrielle was in no mood for games.  Rather than waste any breath responding to the thieves, she skewered the first one through the belly with the three tines of her trident.  The shock on his face as he died expressed his disbelief the frail-looking woman hadn't broken down and acquiesced to his demands, as he'd imagined the scenario playing out in his mind.  Adrielle didn't give his death a second thought; unlike the street urchins, these were grown men capable of weighing the decisions they made, and she had no pity for those who opted to make stupid ones.Shiroko followed Adrielle's lead and cast a hail of stone spell directly over the two thieves who'd emerged from the opposite alleyway of the one the scout had just slain with her trident.  The rocks pummeled down upon the wicked pair, dropping them lifelessly in the street.  And then an arrow went flying by Adrielle's head, to strike the wall to her side and fall to the street.  Looking up, she saw an elf standing on the rooftop ahead of the group to the right, fitting another arrow in his composite longbow.  A hawk leapt from the elf's shoulder, soaring down to street level with a hunting cry.  It went straight for Adrielle as well, and she swung her trident at the bird, swatting it away.Kruz had his light crossbow out and fired a shot up at the elf ranger, likewise missing.  But the sole remaining human thief, one of four who'd been hired on by the elf for a quick job, decided to at least grab the dog and make a run for it.  He dodged back into the alleyway and went down a block, figuring he could approach the group from behind and snag Roscoe's leash from Hoppy.  But when he popped back onto the street and made his move, he was surprised when Hoppy pulled his seldom-used wooden club from inside his robes and tried to strike the thug on the head.  Apparently the sinborn did not appreciate anyone trying to harm a defenseless animal.  But Hoppy was no seasoned combatant, and his swing went wide when the rogue dodged to the side at the last moment.Branden, however, was no stranger to combat situations.  In a flash, he had his spiked chain out, swinging, and its weighted end crashing into the rogue's temple.  He dropped his short sword and staggered, trying to keep his balance.  Shiroko sent her orbiting, glowing spheres crashing into the man's body, slaying him instantly.  He fell lifelessly to the street, frost covering his hair.Up on the rooftops, the elf ranger lined up another shot at Adrielle, who was paying more attention to the hawk who had swung down for another dive at her.  This time, though, she didn't simply swat it away; rather, the trident pierced the hawk in the middle of its torso and through each extended wing.  It died upon her weapon, and she flicked it off into the gutter of the street with a contemptuous glare up at the elf ranger.  Unnerved by the death of his trained hawk, his shot missed by even more than his first one, and he decided enough was enough - best to cut his losses and flee.  He leaped off the far edge of the rooftop upon which he'd been perched, and the group of heroes opted not to pursue.  They arrived at the Pantheonic Temple without further incident.Once there, the group split up.  Brendan and Adrielle entered the temple and headed for the offices of the cleric of Akari, God of Death and Undeath, with the wrapped body of Lucky Eddie carried between them.  Kruz and Shiroko, meanwhile, took Roscoe to the office of the cleric of Feron, Goddess of Nature, while Hoppy waited outside with Conch, thinking wryly that while this temple claimed to cater to the entire pantheon of deities worshiped in Armaturia, they had no such office for Hoppy's personal deity of choice, the Hidden God, God of the Mongrelfolk.  But that was as expected, as most did not know of the Hidden God's very existence.A cleric named Leandra Newbloom was on duty in the office of the cleric of Feron.  She had a speak with animals spell prepared, and for the appropriate fee she was willing to cast it and interrogate Roscoe for the two heroes.  Unfortunately, even once she was able to converse with the hound dog, he wasn't able to provide much information, other than he and Lucky Eddie had heard two men talking at an outdoor cafe the previous evening: a cloaked elf and an old human with thinning hair and a cane.  He didn't know what they'd been talking about, but he was able to state with absolute conviction the cafe had been serving rabbit stew.  Shiroko had Leandra tell Roscoe they'd buy him some rabbit stew if he could take them back to the cafe in question, and the hound readily agreed.The cleric on duty in the office of Akari was apparently an animated skeleton named Father Bones - not surprisingly, as all heads of Akari's temples took on that name, and drank potions of skeletal invisibility to turn their bodies - all but their bones - invisible.  He also wore the black top hat associated with Father Bones; most people assumed every Father Bones they saw was the same man.  But the cleric cast a speak with dead spell upon Lucky Eddie's corpse, and turned to the pair so they could ask their questions.  Before casting the spell, he'd warned them that they'd only have two questions, which had to be asked and answered before the duration of the spell ran out."What was the information you wanted to tell us?" asked Brendan."I was out with Roscoe last night," replied Lucky Eddie through his own dead lips, "and I overheard two guys talking about a plot to kill Guildmaster Ingermann at his birthday party today."  Guildmaster Felix Ingermann was the head of the Silent Sodality, the thieves guild in which Kruz was a member, and to which Brendan often hired himself out as extra muscle, as needed.  As far as anyone outside the circle was aware, however, the Silent Sodality was a benevolent organization, providing assistance to the city's poor through soup kitchens, fundraisers, and the like.They had one question left.  Brendan asked, "Where is the birthday party being held?""No idea," admitted Lucky Eddie.  "Presumably, at one of the reception halls owned by the Silent Sodality, I'd guess.""Shoot," groused Brendan, turning to Father Bones.  "Can you cast the spell again so we can ask him a couple of more questions?""I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," sighed Father Bones.  "A spirit, having been interrupted on its journey to the afterlife by the casting of such a spell, cannot be bothered further by repeated applications.  Now then, as to the stated payment....""About that," began Brendan, who'd hatched a scheme to get the spell cast and Lucky Eddie's interrogation accomplished without having to pay for it.  "Lucky Eddie didn't have any family, and I'm sure the Church of Akari would have a use for his body now that he's no longer using it, correct?"  He and Adrielle ended up leaving the corpse behind, no doubt to be animated into a skeleton providing endless toil without complaint on behalf of the church.The group met back up outside with Hoppy and told everyone what all they'd learned.  Then they decided to split up again, with Kruz riding Conch to the Silent Sodality headquarters, where he'd find out where Guildmaster Ingermann's birthday party was being held and to warn them of a plot against his life involving birthday cake.  The changeling rogue was a member of the thieves guild, but he wasn't of high enough rank to be invited into the Inner Circle of the Silent Sodality.  The others, in the meantime, would let Roscoe lead them to the cafe where Lucky Eddie had overheard the two men plotting; perhaps they could interview the staff and pick up some additional information.  They all agreed to meet back at Mrs. Geshuku's boardinghouse when they were done with their information gathering.Kruz had to work his way up several layers of Silent Sodality bureaucracy before learning which reception hall was hosting the Guildmaster's birthday party, and that it was due to start in about an hour.  He was told which bakery they'd used to order the cake, and instructed to go see what he could learn from them.  While he was doing that, the others were lunching on rabbit stew - even Roscoe, as promised - and the wait staff could only give a description of the older man: he had a cane with a silver horse's head at the top.Meeting back up at the boardinghouse, they once again told the others what all they'd learned.  They left Roscoe in the care of Kenji Geshuku, much to his delight, and then - as the bakery was on the way to the reception hall - rode their horses there at top speed.  The bakery staff was able to confirm they had made a large, hollow cake big enough for a woman to pop out of, the top frosting said "Happy Birthday Felix" as requested, and that it had already been picked up, presumably by the young lady who was going to pop out of it.  "She was already in full outfit, too," the owner revealed, "not that there was much too it.  Skimpy, that's for sure, only with a red-and-gold cape for show, I guess.  And the weirdest thing: she had a snail sitting on her shoulder.  How do you like that?""Wizard and familiar," surmised Shiroko."A snail familiar?" scoffed Kruz.  "Really?""I've heard of stranger," the hengeyokai assured him.In any case, that was all they could get from the baker, so they leaped back onto their horses and dashed to the reception hall.  It was a fairly large building, single story, with a pair of double doors in the front on the porch and two wings that went further back; the whole thing, from the top, looked like a staggered "V."  But there were two powerful men in full plate mail guarding the doors - likely to prevent gatecrashers - so Brendan rode his horse Nag past the reception hall and turned the corner, approaching it from the side, where there was another door, this one unguarded.  He noted a wooden wagon parked on the side of the street, with two black horses standing before it, and a pair of burly half-orcs at the front, apparently waiting.  The monk slipped from the saddle and approached the wagon from the rear, opening the two doors at the back.  The interior was empty, but the drivers heard the rear doors being opened and called back, "Whoozat?""I was told to help you guys deliver the cake," Brendan lied smoothly."Whatchoo talkin' about?" asked one of the drivers.  "The cake's already done bin delivered.""Must be a mistake, then," he told them, closing the wagon doors and turning away, unstoppering another vial of antitoxin and drinking down its contents, following it up with a potion of mage armor.  Hoppy, in the meantime, had slid off of Nag's back and had grabbed the mount's reins.  Adrielle rode up on Conch, with Shiroko - in snow fox form - wrapped around her shoulders like a stole.  She dismounted and tossed the reins to Hoppy, who gathered them up.  Then Kruz arrived on his own horse Donk, and did likewise.  Hoppy didn't mind; he liked animals, and amused himself by expertly repeating the sounds they made.  He cast a bless spell on the group before they got too far away.Adrielle went straight for the side door and pulled it open, finding a busy kitchen within.  The cake was being wheeled into another room off the kitchen, to the appreciative cheers of a fairly large group of people - over a dozen, the scout guessed.  At the surprised looks by the kitchen staff, Adrielle said, "I'm a late addition to the entertainment - an animal act," she added, indicating the white-furred fox draped over her shoulders.  One of the scullery maids pointed to the door to the north, through which the cake had just disappeared and a rousing birthday song could be heard.  Shiroko prepared the only spell she was able to cast while in animal form: a still version of the ice knife spell she planned to use on whoever popped out of the cake if they even looked at the Guildmaster funny.Kruz entered the kitchen next, his crossbow out.  He didn't even try to come up with an excuse for his presence, merely pushing his way past the help and trying to enter the dining hall to the north - but the large cart upon which the cake sat, and the two kitchen workers pushing it, were in the way.  It looked like he was too late, for the top of the cake went flying and out popped the caped woman barely wearing a skintight stocking.  "Surprise!" she said, smiling at Guildmaster Ingermann - at which point Shiroko's still ice knife struck her in the back.  She staggered only a second, then said, "I hope you get everything you deserve!"  Then there was puff of smoke and she was suddenly gone - to reappear in the back of the enclosed wagon.  Rapping on the front walls, she called out, "Let's go, boys!" and with a snap of their whips, the half-orc drivers sent the horses trotting away.  Brendan watched them go, applying a coating of oil of shillelagh to his quarterstaff before heading over to the reception hall kitchen.Shiroko was already down on the kitchen floor, sliding past the legs of the startled kitchen workers who had wheeled in the cake.  She approached the cake, smelled a distinctly reptilian scent, and hurriedly backed away, heading over to the eastern wall of the dining area as the sides of the cake started falling away like petals from the center of a daisy.  And there, in the middle of the fallen side panels, hunkered a basilisk, an eight-legged reptile with eyes capable of turning living beings to stone.  The noblemen in attendance had just noticed Shiroko's presence and were calling out "Hey, a fox!" and "How did it get in here?" when the basilisk's presence was suddenly a bigger concern.  But cramped as it had been inside the cake when it had been restored to its normal form after having been polymorphed into a snail - the very snail the baker had noticed on the shoulder of the woman in tights and a cape of the mountebank who had picked up the cake that morning, and the very same basilisk the heroes had caught several days ago as an official quest for the Port Duralia Adventurers Guild - and it happened to be looking in Shiroko's direction when the cake sides dropped away.  Shiroko had the presence of mind to realize with horror they had been responsible for the basilisk being the means by which an attempt upon Guildmaster Ingermann's life was being made, before her body turned to stone and all thoughts instantly ceased.Hoppy, having secured the reins of the three horses to nearby trees, limped into the kitchen door, wanting to be there for the four heroes to whom he owed his life should they need his healing spells.  He kept his hood up and looked away from the kitchen staff, not wanting to frighten them with his hideous appearance.  But he could hear a big commotion going on in the next room and started heading that way.The basilisk started crawling forward, into a group of Silent Sodality rogues who had pulled out short swords and were advancing upon the reptile in an effort to keep the Guildmaster safe.  In looking its way, a few made indirect eye contact with the beast - including the Guildmaster himself - but each was made of stern stuff and avoided being turned to stone.  A few of the more elderly noblemen attending Ingermann's party were not so lucky, and joined Shiroko in having their living flesh transformed into unliving stone.  As the basilisk spun about in a frenzy, looking for a way to escape, it also caught the eyes of the two kitchen workers who had pushed the cake into the dining hall, and they too became statues.Adrielle converted Galrich's fang from stiletto to shortspear to longspear, and reached inside her magical haversack to fetch the one jar of stone salve the group had in reserve; she'd purchased it with her own money as additional insurance when they went to go fetch the basilisk for whatever unnamed wizard had requested it for "his studies."  She now knew that had been a ruse, and the basilisk's true reason for being captured alive was to use it as a living weapon against the Silent Sodality's leadership, for not only Guildmaster Ingermann but a half dozen of his lieutenants were there at his birthday celebration, all of them under threat of petrification. Kruz risked a peek at the basilisk to properly target it with his light crossbow from the kitchen and fired off a bolt, which bounced off the beast's scaly hide.  Hoppy cast a touch of fatigue spell into his rat familiar Scruffy and lowered him to the floor so he could go deliver the spell to the basilisk.  Scruffy, happy at an opportunity to be useful, scampered blindly through the legs of those party attendees trying to escape the basilisk (for he had been cautioned by his sinborn master not to look at the basilisk, lest he be turned to stone, and he relied instead upon his keen sense of smell) until he reached the creature's scaly hide and the spell was triggered.  But it wasn't a particularly powerful spell, and the basilisk avoided its effects entirely.  Scruffy turned away and scampered back towards Hoppy - it had been worth a try, at least.Two more of the noblemen turned to stone after making inadvertent eye contact with the basilisk, but now Ingermann's rogues were stabbing at it from all directions.  Two of them got petrified by the reptile's direct stare, but several others buried their blades deep into its hide.  Guildmaster Ingermann took a wealthy benefactor by the arms and guided him away from the danger, through the kitchen, where he bumped into Kruz.  "Aren't you one of mine?" he asked the changeling."Yes, sir," Kruz replied.  "But let's get you to safety."  Brendan was finally entering the kitchen at this time, having taken a moment or two to apply oil of shillelagh to his quarterstaff.  Adrielle ran into the dining hall, scrupulously avoiding looking in the basilisk's direction, and ran over to the fox statue, covering it with her stone salve.  Shiroko returned to living flesh, turned away from the basilisk, and reverted to her hybrid form: that of a young spirit folk woman with the ears and tail of a snow fox.Once Kruz had seen to the Guildmaster's safety, he returned to the doorway to the dining hall and shot the basilisk with another crossbow bolt.  His shot buried itself at the back of the beast's neck and the basilisk roared in pain.  The Silent Sodality rogues continued their assault (resulting in another of their number being turned to stone), and Brendan fought his way into the crowded dining room to bring his quarterstaff crashing down upon the basilisk, but the weapon bounced off the creature's scaly hide and did little other than bring the monk to the basilisk's attention; one glare from its reptilian eyes and Brendan was also turned to stone.Realizing the longer the creature was allowed to live, the more people were likely to be petrified, Adrielle spun in place and sunk Galrich's fang - now in its trident form - deep into the basilisk's body, piercing through its think scales.  Kruz got off another lucky shot, and Shiroko finished it off by casting a second coldflame foxfire spell up at the ceiling directly above the basilisk, and then letting the glowing orbs of cold fire drop down upon it.  With that, its eight legs gave out and it collapsed dead to the floor, its dangerous eyes closed in death and no longer able to do further harm.Cleanup took a while; Guildmaster Ingermann sent a couple of his rogues to headquarters to return with as much stone salve as they could muster, and in the meantime, Kruz filled him in on everything they'd learned, omitting only their unwitting role in obtaining the basilisk in the first place.  When he got to the part about the older man discussing the plot at the outdoor cafe, and mentioned his cane with the silver horse's head, Guildmaster Ingermann jolted as if stung.  "Destrier!" he exclaimed.  "That bastard Destrier is behind this!  He runs a rival guild, trains thieves and assassins.  So, he decided he'd go up against the Silent Sodality, did he?  That's it!  Tomorrow morning, at eight bells, we're going to strike at every single one of his locations and wipe that accursed guild off of the map of Port Duralia!" - - -I kept waiting for the light to come on about the snail's role in the assassination ploy, but it wasn't until the cake popped open and the basilisk was revealed that I finally got the "Holy crap!" moment I'd been waiting for from my son Logan, who runs Shiroko.  But the group had a lot of fun with this adventure, in part (I think) because it wasn't just fighting - which, admittedly, they enjoy most about D&D - but also because there was some investigation and clue-gathering going on.  Every once in a while, it's good to shake things up a bit. - - -T-shirt worn: MY TSR Silver Anniversary T-shirt, for two reasons: 1) it's gray, representing the stone results of a basilisk's petrifying gaze; and 2) it has various D&D monsters wearing party hats and carrying birthday gifts, a good representation of Guildmaster Ingermann's birthday party at one of the Silent Sodality's reception halls.</blockquote>

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