ADVENTURE 25: RINDICANE'S WINDOW
PC Roster:
Game Session Date: 29 January 2022
- - -
The sounds of pounding hooves on the road behind them caused Alewyth to wheel her dire goat Pyrite around. Wakuren sat at the front of the wagon with the reins of the two mules in his hands, while Xandro, Thurloe, and Zander each sat astride their respective horses. But any concerns that this might be an attack were diminished at the sight of the man riding up to them: he was a thin human, dressed in the robes of a wizard, but young enough it was unlikely he had gotten very high up in the ranks of the arcane spellcasters and his bookish demeanor hinted he was more at ease inside a library than out combatting adventurers like themselves. Still, their hands strayed close to their weapons and Zander brought the words of a magic missile spell to the forefront of his brain, ready to fire if the man made any threatening moves towards them.
But the stranger did not. Instead, bringing his horse to a slow trot beside them, he called out, "Are you by any chance the people who know how to wake others from their dreams?"
"We are," Alewyth confirmed hesitantly.
"Ah, very good!" cried the man. "My name is Mandorregan. I believe I may have need of your services, then! I have 250 pieces of gold if you would be so kind as to accompany me to my friend Rindicane's keep, where I fear he may have fallen into one of those dream-coma things you're so adept at overcoming."
"We're on our way to awaken our next dream victim," Wakuren replied. "Where is this keep?" Mandorregan explained it was about two miles from their present location, in the Darkwood Forest to the south. Wakuren frowned, for their way led further east; it wasn't like the moogles to have missed a dream victim. "Are you sure he's in a dream coma?" the half-orc asked the young wizard.
"In truth, I am not. However, I have tried contacting Rindicane for the past several weeks, with no luck. His servant is unable to contact him, and Rindicane would never leave for a great length of time without informing his servant of his intentions or his whereabouts. I heard about your exploits in Baron's Haven, where I learned of the dream sickness. It would explain his inability to reply to whispering wind spells."
Wakuren looked over at the others. "What do you think?" he asked them.
"Sure," agreed Alewyth.
"Fifty gold apiece," pointed out Thurloe.
It was soon agreed they would accompany Mandorregan to Rindicane's keep and see if they could find him and wake him. On the way there, the young wizard filled them in on what he could of his friend. Rindicane was a studious wizard like himself, although he was particularly interested in the creatures existing on other planes. And his keep was protected by his servant, a stone face on the door he referred to as a grandfather plaque. "I've argued with it until I'm blue in the face," complained Mandorregan, "but it refuses to allow me entry, even though I've pointed out Rindicane might very well need our help."
When they approached Rindicane's keep, several things stood out about it at once. First of all, there was a pair of stone lions in the front of the building, each life-sized, the one on the left looking quite normal and the one on the right sporting a pair of feathery wings. There was an indentation in the front surface of the ground floor of the building between the two stone lions, and hanging on the door inside that recession was another stone carving, this one of the face of an elderly gentleman, bald but with a full beard. And at the top of the building, in the middle of its third floor, was a large window of stained glass, seemingly a myriad of overlapping geometric shapes colored in all shades of the rainbow. The top floor had a balcony that jutted out just below the window, with a metal rail preventing those on the balcony from falling off. A closed door leading into the building could be seen on the right side of the balcony.
As Wakuren brought the mules to a halt before the stone lions the grandfather plaque open its eyes. "Hello, Mandorregan," it said in a pleasant voice. "What can I do for you?"
"You can let me in so I can see if Rindicane is okay," the young wizard replied.
"One minute please; I'll see if the Master is taking visitors." The grandfather plaque closed its eyes for a moment, then opened them again and said, "I'm sorry, but there is no response from Rindicane and he left explicit orders not to let anyone in without granting his express permission beforehand."
Wakuren climbed down from the wagon and approached the front door. "Careful," advised Alewyth, who had cast a detect magic spell and was warily eyeing the stone lions. "I'm picking up auras of transmutation magic from those statues - I'd bet you anything they can animate and attack."
"Really?" asked Mandorregan. "I had no idea! Still, it fits - Rindicane was at times somewhat paranoid about his privacy."
Wakuren stepped directly between the lions and stood before the grandfather plaque, where it could get a good look at the holy symbol of Cal he wore around his neck. "I am a cleric and paladin of Cal," he announced while scanning the construct's aura for the signs of evil and finding none. "If you let me inside, I promise to take nothing; I seek only to verify that Rindicane is unharmed."
"I am truly sorry, but I am not allowed to let anyone inside without Rindicane's permission," explained the stone carving on the thick, wooden door. By then Thurloe had dismounted Horse and stood by the half-orc's side. He idly wondered what would happen if they just started busting down the front door. It was pretty sturdily built, but he was sure Alewyth's dwarven warhammer Sjondra would be up to the task....
But Alewyth was nowhere to be seen. She had wandered off to the side of the building, concentrating on keeping her detect magic spell active while walking completely around the building, looking for another way in. When she reached the front again from the other side, she backed up to see as much of the roof as she could - and noticed a chimney flue off to the front left of the roof. That had possibilities....
"Anything?" asked Xandro, having seen what the dwarf was up to.
"The stone lions animate if directed, the grandfather plaque is obviously magic, and I'm getting a pretty powerful aura off that big colored window in the front," Alewyth explained.
"So how do we get in?" whispered Zander, not wanting to be heard by the stubborn grandfather plaque.
"I have a potion of gaseous form," whispered Alewyth. "I should be able to get in through the flue on the roof."
"Good idea," Wakuren agreed. "You do that, while I turn invisible and use my rope of climbing to climb up to the balcony. Maybe the door up there is unlocked."
Thurloe, in the meantime, had taken it upon himself to keep the grandfather plaque's attention focused on himself and he chose to do so by arguing. "What if Rindicane tripped and snapped his neck?" the fighter-wizard theorized. "He could be lying dead in there. Wouldn't you want to know if that was the case?"
"Rindicane left no instructions to let people into his dwelling in the case of his sudden demise," countered the grandfather plaque.
"Well, maybe he's not dead - yet," Thurloe persisted. "Maybe he's got a big gash on his head and he's unconscious and bleeding out. We got two clerics who could heal him - save his life. Isn't that worth taking a chance on letting us in?"
"The Master is an intelligent man," replied the grandfather plaque. "He no doubt took all of that into account when he gave me my orders and chose not to include such a 'what if?' loophole. I can only assume he decided the risk was worth it."
"So you're okay if he's dead."
"I intend to follow his instructions as they were given to me."
Alewyth cast a bless spell on the assembled group and then walked over to the left side of the building - she didn't want to drink down her potion in front of either the grandfather plaque or the stone lions - and smiled at Thurloe's failure to convince the stone servant to do his bidding. Then she drank down the potion and, with Sjondra in one hand, dissipated into a cloud of mist that slowly rose up the side of the building. Once at the rooftop level, her dwarven cloud-form squeezed into a much smaller configuration as she entered the flue and sank down its length back down to the ground floor, this time from inside the building. She was glad to see that the "at times somewhat paranoid" wizard Rindicane hadn't seen fit to seal off his chimney interior from trespassers.
Wakuren, in the meantime, had walked over to the right side of the building and activated his ring of invisibility. He then opened his pack and pulled out his rope of climbing, which was also invisible (as was all of his gear) - and would remain so, he knew, as long as he held one end in his hand. Giving it mental instructions, the rope rose up and attached its far end to the railing around the balcony after having twisted itself around and around such that its entire length was knotted every foot or so for easier climbing. The half-orc gave it a quick tug to verify it would hold his weight and started climbing up to the balcony.
Alewyth popped out of a cold fireplace in what had to be a ground-floor kitchen. There were two open doorways out of the kitchen, one leading to a long dining room which took up the entire back length of the keep's ground floor and the other leading to a foyer. The foyer, Alewyth knew, led to the thick front door upon which the grandfather plaque had been fastened; she need only resume her normal form and open the door from the inside to allow her friends entry. However, two things stopped her from doing so: the suits of plate mail armor standing in the back of the foyer. With her detect magic spell still active, Alewyth could see they each radiated the same transmutation auras as the lions outside, meaning they would likely animate and attack as soon as they detected an intruder in the keep. Hoping her gaseous form wouldn't trigger their activation, she remained in a vaporous state and floated over to the dining room. A set of stairs led up to the second floor and she drifted up them, figuring it might not be a bad idea to check the whole place out before resuming her solid form; maybe she'd find Rindicane fast asleep in a dream coma and would be able to justify to the grandfather plaque that their presence was needed.
Drifting silently from room to room on the second floor, the vaporous Alewyth explored a library (where her spell-enhanced vision allowed her to identify two magical scrolls which would likewise animate and attack any intruders who stepped foot into the room), a laboratory with a closet of supplies, and then another staircase leading to the third floor. The third floor contained Rindicane's bedroom, closet, and bathroom, while the entire front half of that upper level was taken up by a large room with the stained-glass window in the front and a magic circle of some type inscribed in the middle of the floor.
Alewyth drifted over to examine the circle more closely. The circle was covered in runes, the whole thing looking to have been painted onto the floor with some silvery-white substance that glowed slightly in the dwarf's detect magic sight. The circle included six gemstones set into the floor at equal distances around the circle's circumference; each gem was of a different color. There was a leather-bound book lying beside the circle, which radiated no magic; nonetheless, Alewyth opted not to touch it, even in her gaseous form. The window radiated magic as well, and it looked different than from outside somehow. But having now explored the entire keep and not finding Rindicane, Alewyth came to an abrupt conclusion: the window had been modified as some sort of planar gate and the wizard was no longer even on this plane of existence.
Mentally deactivating the effects of the potion of gaseous form right before the door leading to the balcony, Alewyth resumed her solid form and tried opening the door. No luck: it was locked and she saw no mechanism by which to unlock it; furthermore, it too was glowing under her detect magic spell and was likely arcane locked. But then she saw what had bothered her about the window: while drifting throughout the keep in vaporous form, she had been relying upon her innate darkvision to see, for there had been no illumination within the keep's rooms. Now that she was in solid form in a room whose window allowed in ambient sunlight, she could see colors once again - but the window's geometric designs were still all in black, white, and shades of gray.
By this time, Wakuren had made it up to the top of the balcony, verified the door was locked from the outside as well, and peeked through the window into the room beyond. He saw Alewyth inside and tried catching her attention before realizing he was still invisible and she wouldn't be able to see him even if she had managed to look over in his direction. He still held onto the rope of climbing, knowing if he dropped it the rope would return to visibility and alert the grandfather plaque below that they were attempting to infiltrate his master's keep - and who knew what actions that would prompt?
Down below, Thurloe was still arguing with the stone face on the door. "Okay, if you won't let us in, could you at least peek inside each room and tell us if Rindicane is actually in there?"
"Such actions are outside my instructions."
"How about telling us what's in each room, forgetting about Rindicane. If I were to open this door and walk inside, what would I see?"
"I'm sure you understand that giving such information to strangers would not be in the Master's best interests."
"Okay, then tell Mandorregan here - you know him."
"I don't need him to tell me what's in each room," Mandorregan interjected. "I've been inside the keep on many occasions - I already know what's in each room."
Xandro and Zander had been standing behind Thurloe and Mandorregan, amused at watching the fighter get nowhere. But then Wakuren popped back from around the corner of the keep, motioning for the bard to come over by him. Xandro complied, curious to see the half-orc had a coil of knotted rope in his hands. Wakuren took him back around to the side of the keep, handed him the rope and his ring of invisibility, and explained about the arcane locked door on the balcony. "Sounds like a job for you," he told the bard.
Up in the window room, Alewyth thought she heard a noise, a buzzing sound not unlike the sound the giant bee from her amulet made when flying about. This was much quieter in tone, though, and after looking around the room and not seeing anything (or any auras of magic that might be present if there was an invisible entity in the room there with her), the dwarven priestess realized the noise was coming from the other side of the door to the stairwell - the door she had slipped beneath while in gaseous form. Walking as quietly as she could over to the door, she put an ear to it and verified the buzzing sound was coming from the stairwell. Something, it seemed, was flying this way.
Xandro made it up the rope of climbing and pulled himself up onto the balcony. He tried the door and verified it was locked, then pulled out his set of masterwork thieves' tools, still invisible as he was holding it - the same with the rope. This is going to be fun, the bard thought to himself as he felt for the tool he wanted and then inserted it into the lock on the door. I've never tried picking a lock when I can't even see what I'm doing! But after a few missteps he got the feel for invisible lockpicking and the door swung open, arcane lock spell notwithstanding.
"Who's there?" demanded Alewyth, turning to face the now open door to the balcony.
"It's me," Xandro said, deactivating the ring of invisibility. But that also returned the rope of climbing to full visibility, and out of the corner of his eye the grandfather plaque in charge of ensuring his Master was not disturbed saw a knotted rope suddenly pop into view, hanging down from where it was fastened to the balcony railing.
"Distraction tactics!" bellowed the grandfather plaque, sending a quartet of magic missiles blasting into Thurloe's torso. "You've been keeping me distracted so your associates can try to break into the keep!" With another mental command, the bearded stone face activated the twin lion statues and they creaked into life. Mandorregan stepped back behind Thurloe, being the more scholarly type of wizard and not one to engage in combat; he didn't even know any attack or defensive spells, seeing the arcane arts as more properly put to use as a means of gathering more information about the world and all of its inhabitants.
Thurloe hurriedly started the incantations and hand gestures that brought a shield spell into existence, glad to feel it snap into invisible effect despite it having been cast while he was wearing his metal armor. He saw the stone lions approaching and slid his bastard sword from its sheath on his broad back. The lion statue to his left took a swing at him but he dodged the raking claws, but then the winged lion bit at him and caught him on the leg. Zander backed up further, giving his fighter friend enough room to maneuver.
Xandro took Wakuren's borrowed ring and tossed it back down to its owner. "I'm in!" he called down to the half-orc, only then noticing the lions were attacking Thurloe below. Wakuren snatched the ring up from the ground and slipped it back over his finger, activating it and slipping from view. The grandfather plaque blasted Thurloe with another set of magic missiles but they dissipated harmlessly against his shield spell. The grandfather plaque's stone face now held an expression of disappointment and disgust. Xandro walked to the far end of the balcony, saw nothing of interest, and entered the window room where Alewyth was back to listening at the door.
"Let's go!" called Thurloe to the others, running for the rope of climbing and taking a swipe from the winged lion's claws as he ran past it. But then he sheathed his bastard sword on his back and started climbing. Zander was right there behind him and the fighter had assumed Mandorregan would have followed...but when Thurloe ran off, the young wizard became the next closest target and the non-winged lion attacked him. One hit and he was down, bleeding out.
Invisible, Wakuren slipped past the two stone lions who were looking about for potential targets to attack. They apparently disregarded horses, mules, and dire goats as non-aggressors and devoted their time looking for intelligent foes trying to infiltrate Rindicane's keep. The only ones visible to the animated statues were currently climbing up the rope, so they headed over to that direction and batted the rope with their claws, giving Wakuren the opportunity to quickly stabilize Mandorregan so he wouldn't bleed out. He had the opportunity to heal him completely but decided he was probably the safest where he was, unconscious and no longer seen as an active threat. The grandfather plaque called up to the climbing heroes, rather impotently, "I will be sure to inform Rindicane of this treachery when next we speak!"
Up on the top floor of the keep, another invisible creature was in action: in this case, opening the door from the stairwell to the window room. Alewyth quickly slammed it back shut as Xandro readied his crossbow to shoot at whatever might come through the door if it opened again. Then Thurloe climbed over the balcony railing and entered the room; Alewyth quickly caught him up to speed as Zander entered the room behind him. The elf activated his magic headband, granting himself temporary true seeing. "Nothing invisible in here yet," he told the others, then went over to examine the book on the floor by the circle with all the runes.
Wakuren leaped onto one of the stone lions and from there caught the rope and started climbing, pulling the rope up after him once he reached the balcony. He then deactivated his ring and stashed his coiled rope back into his pack before joining the others in the large room. "What'd I miss?" he asked.
"This book is a set of instructions on how the magic circle works," Zander informed him and the rest of the group. "It's currently attuned to the Plane of Shadow. Anyone stepping into the circle is automatically attuned to that plane, and then they can step through the window and cross over to that plane. That's probably where Rindicane went."
"So he isn't even asleep here, like Mandorregan thought!" scoffed Thurloe, walking over to the door to the stairwell. "He still owes us the 250 gold, though." Then he pulled the door open suddenly, revealing nobody there at all. But they could still hear the fluttering of insect wings in the general area.
"Invisible pixie!" Zander called out, looking at the doorway with his true seeing spell still active. Xandro, in the meantime, took the plunge and stepped into the circle; instantly, a burst of black flames engulfed his body for a moment and dissipated at once.
"You can see me!" called a voice from the doorway. At once, Sheela released the invisibility effect that had hidden her from view and flew deeper into the room. "I am a friend of Rindicane's," she explained. "I saw you enter the flue in gaseous form and followed shortly thereafter," she told Alewyth. "I hope you won't be offended, but I scanned your surface thoughts to make sure you weren't intending on burglary as I followed your exploration through the keep."
"We think Rindicane went through his window to the Plane of Shadow," Alewyth told Sheela. "We plan on following, to see if he's all right. Would you like to accompany us?"
Sheela shivered at the thought. "The Plane of Shadow? No, thank you - I will stay here and await his return."
The other adventurers stepped into the circle and were momentarily engulfed in black flames. "I guess we're all attuned to the Plane of Shadow or whatever," Thurloe said. "So let's get this over with."
Zander was the first to cross over to the other plane. It was an odd experience, for it seemed the mere act of stepping through the window robbed the world of all color; the darkness of a star-filled sky overcame the landscape, although there were no stars to be seen, and while the wagon and animals were no longer in view the two stone lions could be seen in their normal perches directly below. Rindicane's tower keep - or a shadowy version of it, in any case - existed here on the Plane of Shadows in the same place as it existed in the Darkwood Forest of their own plane.
"I wonder if the inside of the keep is the same," said Zander, stepping through the door at the end of the balcony and entering the Shadow Keep's version of the window room. The elf noticed a few differences at once: the room's entire interior was now in black and white and shades of gray, not just the window; for that matter, the geometric shapes comprising the window seemed to have rearranged themselves, as had the rune-markings along the magic circle (and there now seemed to be different gems in the six spots along the circle's circumference). But perhaps the biggest difference was the dark-robed man standing in the corner of the room, who looked up at Zander's approach.
"Who are you?" he demanded, starting the words to a combat spell against this intruder.
Zander opted not to answer but replied with a question of his own. "Are you Rindicane?"
"Who wants to know?" snarled the figure, continuing with his spell.
"Mandorregan sent us to check in on you," Zander replied. At the mention of his friend, the dark-robed figure immediately ceased all spellcasting. "Mandorregan? Is he with you? Is he okay?" he asked.
"He's outside - well, outside back in the Material Plane," Zander amended. "The rest of my team said he was knocked out by one of your stone lions, but he's okay. But what about you? You've been missing for three weeks or so."
"Has it been three weeks?" asked Rindicane in a startled voice as the rest of the group followed Zander into the room from the balcony and stared expectantly at the dark-clad wizard. "I had no idea; time must move differently here. But my attuning to this plane worked only too well: as you can see, I have become a shade." He pulled the hood back from his head, revealing his skin was as dark as the midnight sky. "You all will be, too, if you spend too much time here."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Thurloe promised the shade. "C'mon, you can come tell Mandorregan the news yourself." He squinted, thinking he'd seen a black dot floating in the air for a moment, but then he lost sight of it as Zander crossed into his field of vision.
"Alas, I cannot," Rindicane replied. "Is it daylight there?" Alewyth confirmed that it was. "I can no longer stand the brightness of sunlight," Rindicane lamented. "But if you could have Mandorregan visit me briefly, I have something to give to him." He provided the adventurers with a pass-code to tell the grandfather plaque they were friends and not to be attacked. The group then went back out onto the balcony of the Shadow Keep, walked through the window back into the Material Plane, and went down the stairs to exit through the front door.
"Relax, Gramps," said Thurloe, voicing the pass code. Then they went over to Mandorregan, where Wakuren roused him with a few healing spells.
"Rindicane is on the Plane of Shadow and wishes to speak with you," Xandro informed him. They went through the front door, back up the stairs, and then got Mandorregan attuned to the Plane of Shadows before having him step through the window. The five dreamwalkers opted to stay behind, none of them sure how much time spent on the Shadow Plane was enough to turn them into a shade and nobody wanting to take the chance.
Mandorregan returned a few minutes later, stepping back through the window. "Rindicane is going to stay there in the Shadow Keep and continue his studies," the young wizard informed them. "He is granting me custody of his keep here on the Material Plane. I have a command word which will transfer the grandfather plaque's loyalty to me."
"He's staying there? Forever?" asked Sheela despondently.
"He said he'll try to visit on dark nights," replied Mandorregan. "But the Shadow Keep is a perfect replica of his keep here, including his library and all of his notes. He's already reconfigured the window in his keep to explore another plane, someplace he calls the Far Realm."
"Never heard of it," replied Xandro.
"In any case, thank you for your help in gaining entry to the keep and checking on Rindicane," the young wizard said. He pulled at a purse at his belt. "I had promised you 250 pieces of gold for your assistance and I insist upon you taking it."
"That won't be a problem," assured Thurloe, taking the proffered purse. "Happy to have been of help."
"I'll continue Rindicane's studies from here," promised Mandorregan, "but I don't intend to alter the current configuration of the window. That way we'll still be able to visit Rindicane on occasion, and he us." That seemed to please Sheela the pixie. "And if you ever pass this way again, please feel free to visit anytime. Should you have need of access to other planes, I'll stand ready to assist in any way I can."
"Thank you," said Wakuren, shaking Mandorregan's hand. "But we must be back on the road. There are many more dream victims out there in need of our help."
"Of course," replied the young wizard. He and Sheela walked with them to the front door and watched as they mounted up. They waved as the group departed back the way they had come.
"That was very nice of them to help," Sheela observed.
"Yes, they seem like very nice people," Mandorregan agreed.
Once he was sure they were well out of earshot, Thurloe said the rest of the group, "That was the easiest 50 gold apiece we're ever likely to see!" He chuckled to himself. "What a sucker!"
- - -
This turned out much differently than I had expected, for Alewyth's potion of gaseous form allowed her to single-handedly explore the entire keep on her own without setting off any of the "lair guardians" I had sprinkled throughout the building: specifically, the dread guards (animated armor) in the foyer and the pair of guardian scrolls in the library. Zander even managed not to get into a fight with the paranoid wizard-shade on the Plane of Shadow by mentioning Mandorregan by name almost immediately. So we finished this adventure in almost exactly two hours - much shorter than I had anticipated.
And speaking of Zander Quilson, while he was there in the window room with Rindicane on the Plane of Shadow, I had Joe roll a d20 for me without explaining what the roll was for; it came up as a natural "1." The implications of that die roll will be revealed somewhere around the 35th adventure or so.
But this, being the 25th adventure in this 100-adventure campaign, meant the PCs leveled up to 6th afterwards. That only took another half hour or so, resulting in a very truncated session. Xandro took a 5th level of bard, Wakuren evened up his cleric/paladin levels (and Thurloe did likewise with his fighter and wizard levels, clearing the way for a first level in the spellsword prestige class when we level up again after five more adventures), and the single-classed Alewyth and Zander each added a level of cleric (priestess) and sorcerer, respectively. Zander continued his continued hit point bad luck streak by once again rolling a "1" for his hit points, bringing him to a grand total of 17 hp at 6th level. (And that after having taken the Toughness feat in desperation at 3rd level!) I think poor Zander might need to stumble across an amulet of health or something fairly soon....
- - -
T-shirt worn: My Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" T-shirt, a good representation of the Plane of Shadow.
PC Roster:
Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 5
Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 2
Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 2/paladin 3
Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 4/rogue 1
Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 5
Game Session Date: 29 January 2022
- - -
The sounds of pounding hooves on the road behind them caused Alewyth to wheel her dire goat Pyrite around. Wakuren sat at the front of the wagon with the reins of the two mules in his hands, while Xandro, Thurloe, and Zander each sat astride their respective horses. But any concerns that this might be an attack were diminished at the sight of the man riding up to them: he was a thin human, dressed in the robes of a wizard, but young enough it was unlikely he had gotten very high up in the ranks of the arcane spellcasters and his bookish demeanor hinted he was more at ease inside a library than out combatting adventurers like themselves. Still, their hands strayed close to their weapons and Zander brought the words of a magic missile spell to the forefront of his brain, ready to fire if the man made any threatening moves towards them.
But the stranger did not. Instead, bringing his horse to a slow trot beside them, he called out, "Are you by any chance the people who know how to wake others from their dreams?"
"We are," Alewyth confirmed hesitantly.
"Ah, very good!" cried the man. "My name is Mandorregan. I believe I may have need of your services, then! I have 250 pieces of gold if you would be so kind as to accompany me to my friend Rindicane's keep, where I fear he may have fallen into one of those dream-coma things you're so adept at overcoming."
"We're on our way to awaken our next dream victim," Wakuren replied. "Where is this keep?" Mandorregan explained it was about two miles from their present location, in the Darkwood Forest to the south. Wakuren frowned, for their way led further east; it wasn't like the moogles to have missed a dream victim. "Are you sure he's in a dream coma?" the half-orc asked the young wizard.
"In truth, I am not. However, I have tried contacting Rindicane for the past several weeks, with no luck. His servant is unable to contact him, and Rindicane would never leave for a great length of time without informing his servant of his intentions or his whereabouts. I heard about your exploits in Baron's Haven, where I learned of the dream sickness. It would explain his inability to reply to whispering wind spells."
Wakuren looked over at the others. "What do you think?" he asked them.
"Sure," agreed Alewyth.
"Fifty gold apiece," pointed out Thurloe.
It was soon agreed they would accompany Mandorregan to Rindicane's keep and see if they could find him and wake him. On the way there, the young wizard filled them in on what he could of his friend. Rindicane was a studious wizard like himself, although he was particularly interested in the creatures existing on other planes. And his keep was protected by his servant, a stone face on the door he referred to as a grandfather plaque. "I've argued with it until I'm blue in the face," complained Mandorregan, "but it refuses to allow me entry, even though I've pointed out Rindicane might very well need our help."
When they approached Rindicane's keep, several things stood out about it at once. First of all, there was a pair of stone lions in the front of the building, each life-sized, the one on the left looking quite normal and the one on the right sporting a pair of feathery wings. There was an indentation in the front surface of the ground floor of the building between the two stone lions, and hanging on the door inside that recession was another stone carving, this one of the face of an elderly gentleman, bald but with a full beard. And at the top of the building, in the middle of its third floor, was a large window of stained glass, seemingly a myriad of overlapping geometric shapes colored in all shades of the rainbow. The top floor had a balcony that jutted out just below the window, with a metal rail preventing those on the balcony from falling off. A closed door leading into the building could be seen on the right side of the balcony.
As Wakuren brought the mules to a halt before the stone lions the grandfather plaque open its eyes. "Hello, Mandorregan," it said in a pleasant voice. "What can I do for you?"
"You can let me in so I can see if Rindicane is okay," the young wizard replied.
"One minute please; I'll see if the Master is taking visitors." The grandfather plaque closed its eyes for a moment, then opened them again and said, "I'm sorry, but there is no response from Rindicane and he left explicit orders not to let anyone in without granting his express permission beforehand."
Wakuren climbed down from the wagon and approached the front door. "Careful," advised Alewyth, who had cast a detect magic spell and was warily eyeing the stone lions. "I'm picking up auras of transmutation magic from those statues - I'd bet you anything they can animate and attack."
"Really?" asked Mandorregan. "I had no idea! Still, it fits - Rindicane was at times somewhat paranoid about his privacy."
Wakuren stepped directly between the lions and stood before the grandfather plaque, where it could get a good look at the holy symbol of Cal he wore around his neck. "I am a cleric and paladin of Cal," he announced while scanning the construct's aura for the signs of evil and finding none. "If you let me inside, I promise to take nothing; I seek only to verify that Rindicane is unharmed."
"I am truly sorry, but I am not allowed to let anyone inside without Rindicane's permission," explained the stone carving on the thick, wooden door. By then Thurloe had dismounted Horse and stood by the half-orc's side. He idly wondered what would happen if they just started busting down the front door. It was pretty sturdily built, but he was sure Alewyth's dwarven warhammer Sjondra would be up to the task....
But Alewyth was nowhere to be seen. She had wandered off to the side of the building, concentrating on keeping her detect magic spell active while walking completely around the building, looking for another way in. When she reached the front again from the other side, she backed up to see as much of the roof as she could - and noticed a chimney flue off to the front left of the roof. That had possibilities....
"Anything?" asked Xandro, having seen what the dwarf was up to.
"The stone lions animate if directed, the grandfather plaque is obviously magic, and I'm getting a pretty powerful aura off that big colored window in the front," Alewyth explained.
"So how do we get in?" whispered Zander, not wanting to be heard by the stubborn grandfather plaque.
"I have a potion of gaseous form," whispered Alewyth. "I should be able to get in through the flue on the roof."
"Good idea," Wakuren agreed. "You do that, while I turn invisible and use my rope of climbing to climb up to the balcony. Maybe the door up there is unlocked."
Thurloe, in the meantime, had taken it upon himself to keep the grandfather plaque's attention focused on himself and he chose to do so by arguing. "What if Rindicane tripped and snapped his neck?" the fighter-wizard theorized. "He could be lying dead in there. Wouldn't you want to know if that was the case?"
"Rindicane left no instructions to let people into his dwelling in the case of his sudden demise," countered the grandfather plaque.
"Well, maybe he's not dead - yet," Thurloe persisted. "Maybe he's got a big gash on his head and he's unconscious and bleeding out. We got two clerics who could heal him - save his life. Isn't that worth taking a chance on letting us in?"
"The Master is an intelligent man," replied the grandfather plaque. "He no doubt took all of that into account when he gave me my orders and chose not to include such a 'what if?' loophole. I can only assume he decided the risk was worth it."
"So you're okay if he's dead."
"I intend to follow his instructions as they were given to me."
Alewyth cast a bless spell on the assembled group and then walked over to the left side of the building - she didn't want to drink down her potion in front of either the grandfather plaque or the stone lions - and smiled at Thurloe's failure to convince the stone servant to do his bidding. Then she drank down the potion and, with Sjondra in one hand, dissipated into a cloud of mist that slowly rose up the side of the building. Once at the rooftop level, her dwarven cloud-form squeezed into a much smaller configuration as she entered the flue and sank down its length back down to the ground floor, this time from inside the building. She was glad to see that the "at times somewhat paranoid" wizard Rindicane hadn't seen fit to seal off his chimney interior from trespassers.
Wakuren, in the meantime, had walked over to the right side of the building and activated his ring of invisibility. He then opened his pack and pulled out his rope of climbing, which was also invisible (as was all of his gear) - and would remain so, he knew, as long as he held one end in his hand. Giving it mental instructions, the rope rose up and attached its far end to the railing around the balcony after having twisted itself around and around such that its entire length was knotted every foot or so for easier climbing. The half-orc gave it a quick tug to verify it would hold his weight and started climbing up to the balcony.
Alewyth popped out of a cold fireplace in what had to be a ground-floor kitchen. There were two open doorways out of the kitchen, one leading to a long dining room which took up the entire back length of the keep's ground floor and the other leading to a foyer. The foyer, Alewyth knew, led to the thick front door upon which the grandfather plaque had been fastened; she need only resume her normal form and open the door from the inside to allow her friends entry. However, two things stopped her from doing so: the suits of plate mail armor standing in the back of the foyer. With her detect magic spell still active, Alewyth could see they each radiated the same transmutation auras as the lions outside, meaning they would likely animate and attack as soon as they detected an intruder in the keep. Hoping her gaseous form wouldn't trigger their activation, she remained in a vaporous state and floated over to the dining room. A set of stairs led up to the second floor and she drifted up them, figuring it might not be a bad idea to check the whole place out before resuming her solid form; maybe she'd find Rindicane fast asleep in a dream coma and would be able to justify to the grandfather plaque that their presence was needed.
Drifting silently from room to room on the second floor, the vaporous Alewyth explored a library (where her spell-enhanced vision allowed her to identify two magical scrolls which would likewise animate and attack any intruders who stepped foot into the room), a laboratory with a closet of supplies, and then another staircase leading to the third floor. The third floor contained Rindicane's bedroom, closet, and bathroom, while the entire front half of that upper level was taken up by a large room with the stained-glass window in the front and a magic circle of some type inscribed in the middle of the floor.
Alewyth drifted over to examine the circle more closely. The circle was covered in runes, the whole thing looking to have been painted onto the floor with some silvery-white substance that glowed slightly in the dwarf's detect magic sight. The circle included six gemstones set into the floor at equal distances around the circle's circumference; each gem was of a different color. There was a leather-bound book lying beside the circle, which radiated no magic; nonetheless, Alewyth opted not to touch it, even in her gaseous form. The window radiated magic as well, and it looked different than from outside somehow. But having now explored the entire keep and not finding Rindicane, Alewyth came to an abrupt conclusion: the window had been modified as some sort of planar gate and the wizard was no longer even on this plane of existence.
Mentally deactivating the effects of the potion of gaseous form right before the door leading to the balcony, Alewyth resumed her solid form and tried opening the door. No luck: it was locked and she saw no mechanism by which to unlock it; furthermore, it too was glowing under her detect magic spell and was likely arcane locked. But then she saw what had bothered her about the window: while drifting throughout the keep in vaporous form, she had been relying upon her innate darkvision to see, for there had been no illumination within the keep's rooms. Now that she was in solid form in a room whose window allowed in ambient sunlight, she could see colors once again - but the window's geometric designs were still all in black, white, and shades of gray.
By this time, Wakuren had made it up to the top of the balcony, verified the door was locked from the outside as well, and peeked through the window into the room beyond. He saw Alewyth inside and tried catching her attention before realizing he was still invisible and she wouldn't be able to see him even if she had managed to look over in his direction. He still held onto the rope of climbing, knowing if he dropped it the rope would return to visibility and alert the grandfather plaque below that they were attempting to infiltrate his master's keep - and who knew what actions that would prompt?
Down below, Thurloe was still arguing with the stone face on the door. "Okay, if you won't let us in, could you at least peek inside each room and tell us if Rindicane is actually in there?"
"Such actions are outside my instructions."
"How about telling us what's in each room, forgetting about Rindicane. If I were to open this door and walk inside, what would I see?"
"I'm sure you understand that giving such information to strangers would not be in the Master's best interests."
"Okay, then tell Mandorregan here - you know him."
"I don't need him to tell me what's in each room," Mandorregan interjected. "I've been inside the keep on many occasions - I already know what's in each room."
Xandro and Zander had been standing behind Thurloe and Mandorregan, amused at watching the fighter get nowhere. But then Wakuren popped back from around the corner of the keep, motioning for the bard to come over by him. Xandro complied, curious to see the half-orc had a coil of knotted rope in his hands. Wakuren took him back around to the side of the keep, handed him the rope and his ring of invisibility, and explained about the arcane locked door on the balcony. "Sounds like a job for you," he told the bard.
Up in the window room, Alewyth thought she heard a noise, a buzzing sound not unlike the sound the giant bee from her amulet made when flying about. This was much quieter in tone, though, and after looking around the room and not seeing anything (or any auras of magic that might be present if there was an invisible entity in the room there with her), the dwarven priestess realized the noise was coming from the other side of the door to the stairwell - the door she had slipped beneath while in gaseous form. Walking as quietly as she could over to the door, she put an ear to it and verified the buzzing sound was coming from the stairwell. Something, it seemed, was flying this way.
Xandro made it up the rope of climbing and pulled himself up onto the balcony. He tried the door and verified it was locked, then pulled out his set of masterwork thieves' tools, still invisible as he was holding it - the same with the rope. This is going to be fun, the bard thought to himself as he felt for the tool he wanted and then inserted it into the lock on the door. I've never tried picking a lock when I can't even see what I'm doing! But after a few missteps he got the feel for invisible lockpicking and the door swung open, arcane lock spell notwithstanding.
"Who's there?" demanded Alewyth, turning to face the now open door to the balcony.
"It's me," Xandro said, deactivating the ring of invisibility. But that also returned the rope of climbing to full visibility, and out of the corner of his eye the grandfather plaque in charge of ensuring his Master was not disturbed saw a knotted rope suddenly pop into view, hanging down from where it was fastened to the balcony railing.
"Distraction tactics!" bellowed the grandfather plaque, sending a quartet of magic missiles blasting into Thurloe's torso. "You've been keeping me distracted so your associates can try to break into the keep!" With another mental command, the bearded stone face activated the twin lion statues and they creaked into life. Mandorregan stepped back behind Thurloe, being the more scholarly type of wizard and not one to engage in combat; he didn't even know any attack or defensive spells, seeing the arcane arts as more properly put to use as a means of gathering more information about the world and all of its inhabitants.
Thurloe hurriedly started the incantations and hand gestures that brought a shield spell into existence, glad to feel it snap into invisible effect despite it having been cast while he was wearing his metal armor. He saw the stone lions approaching and slid his bastard sword from its sheath on his broad back. The lion statue to his left took a swing at him but he dodged the raking claws, but then the winged lion bit at him and caught him on the leg. Zander backed up further, giving his fighter friend enough room to maneuver.
Xandro took Wakuren's borrowed ring and tossed it back down to its owner. "I'm in!" he called down to the half-orc, only then noticing the lions were attacking Thurloe below. Wakuren snatched the ring up from the ground and slipped it back over his finger, activating it and slipping from view. The grandfather plaque blasted Thurloe with another set of magic missiles but they dissipated harmlessly against his shield spell. The grandfather plaque's stone face now held an expression of disappointment and disgust. Xandro walked to the far end of the balcony, saw nothing of interest, and entered the window room where Alewyth was back to listening at the door.
"Let's go!" called Thurloe to the others, running for the rope of climbing and taking a swipe from the winged lion's claws as he ran past it. But then he sheathed his bastard sword on his back and started climbing. Zander was right there behind him and the fighter had assumed Mandorregan would have followed...but when Thurloe ran off, the young wizard became the next closest target and the non-winged lion attacked him. One hit and he was down, bleeding out.
Invisible, Wakuren slipped past the two stone lions who were looking about for potential targets to attack. They apparently disregarded horses, mules, and dire goats as non-aggressors and devoted their time looking for intelligent foes trying to infiltrate Rindicane's keep. The only ones visible to the animated statues were currently climbing up the rope, so they headed over to that direction and batted the rope with their claws, giving Wakuren the opportunity to quickly stabilize Mandorregan so he wouldn't bleed out. He had the opportunity to heal him completely but decided he was probably the safest where he was, unconscious and no longer seen as an active threat. The grandfather plaque called up to the climbing heroes, rather impotently, "I will be sure to inform Rindicane of this treachery when next we speak!"
Up on the top floor of the keep, another invisible creature was in action: in this case, opening the door from the stairwell to the window room. Alewyth quickly slammed it back shut as Xandro readied his crossbow to shoot at whatever might come through the door if it opened again. Then Thurloe climbed over the balcony railing and entered the room; Alewyth quickly caught him up to speed as Zander entered the room behind him. The elf activated his magic headband, granting himself temporary true seeing. "Nothing invisible in here yet," he told the others, then went over to examine the book on the floor by the circle with all the runes.
Wakuren leaped onto one of the stone lions and from there caught the rope and started climbing, pulling the rope up after him once he reached the balcony. He then deactivated his ring and stashed his coiled rope back into his pack before joining the others in the large room. "What'd I miss?" he asked.
"This book is a set of instructions on how the magic circle works," Zander informed him and the rest of the group. "It's currently attuned to the Plane of Shadow. Anyone stepping into the circle is automatically attuned to that plane, and then they can step through the window and cross over to that plane. That's probably where Rindicane went."
"So he isn't even asleep here, like Mandorregan thought!" scoffed Thurloe, walking over to the door to the stairwell. "He still owes us the 250 gold, though." Then he pulled the door open suddenly, revealing nobody there at all. But they could still hear the fluttering of insect wings in the general area.
"Invisible pixie!" Zander called out, looking at the doorway with his true seeing spell still active. Xandro, in the meantime, took the plunge and stepped into the circle; instantly, a burst of black flames engulfed his body for a moment and dissipated at once.
"You can see me!" called a voice from the doorway. At once, Sheela released the invisibility effect that had hidden her from view and flew deeper into the room. "I am a friend of Rindicane's," she explained. "I saw you enter the flue in gaseous form and followed shortly thereafter," she told Alewyth. "I hope you won't be offended, but I scanned your surface thoughts to make sure you weren't intending on burglary as I followed your exploration through the keep."
"We think Rindicane went through his window to the Plane of Shadow," Alewyth told Sheela. "We plan on following, to see if he's all right. Would you like to accompany us?"
Sheela shivered at the thought. "The Plane of Shadow? No, thank you - I will stay here and await his return."
The other adventurers stepped into the circle and were momentarily engulfed in black flames. "I guess we're all attuned to the Plane of Shadow or whatever," Thurloe said. "So let's get this over with."
Zander was the first to cross over to the other plane. It was an odd experience, for it seemed the mere act of stepping through the window robbed the world of all color; the darkness of a star-filled sky overcame the landscape, although there were no stars to be seen, and while the wagon and animals were no longer in view the two stone lions could be seen in their normal perches directly below. Rindicane's tower keep - or a shadowy version of it, in any case - existed here on the Plane of Shadows in the same place as it existed in the Darkwood Forest of their own plane.
"I wonder if the inside of the keep is the same," said Zander, stepping through the door at the end of the balcony and entering the Shadow Keep's version of the window room. The elf noticed a few differences at once: the room's entire interior was now in black and white and shades of gray, not just the window; for that matter, the geometric shapes comprising the window seemed to have rearranged themselves, as had the rune-markings along the magic circle (and there now seemed to be different gems in the six spots along the circle's circumference). But perhaps the biggest difference was the dark-robed man standing in the corner of the room, who looked up at Zander's approach.
"Who are you?" he demanded, starting the words to a combat spell against this intruder.
Zander opted not to answer but replied with a question of his own. "Are you Rindicane?"
"Who wants to know?" snarled the figure, continuing with his spell.
"Mandorregan sent us to check in on you," Zander replied. At the mention of his friend, the dark-robed figure immediately ceased all spellcasting. "Mandorregan? Is he with you? Is he okay?" he asked.
"He's outside - well, outside back in the Material Plane," Zander amended. "The rest of my team said he was knocked out by one of your stone lions, but he's okay. But what about you? You've been missing for three weeks or so."
"Has it been three weeks?" asked Rindicane in a startled voice as the rest of the group followed Zander into the room from the balcony and stared expectantly at the dark-clad wizard. "I had no idea; time must move differently here. But my attuning to this plane worked only too well: as you can see, I have become a shade." He pulled the hood back from his head, revealing his skin was as dark as the midnight sky. "You all will be, too, if you spend too much time here."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Thurloe promised the shade. "C'mon, you can come tell Mandorregan the news yourself." He squinted, thinking he'd seen a black dot floating in the air for a moment, but then he lost sight of it as Zander crossed into his field of vision.
"Alas, I cannot," Rindicane replied. "Is it daylight there?" Alewyth confirmed that it was. "I can no longer stand the brightness of sunlight," Rindicane lamented. "But if you could have Mandorregan visit me briefly, I have something to give to him." He provided the adventurers with a pass-code to tell the grandfather plaque they were friends and not to be attacked. The group then went back out onto the balcony of the Shadow Keep, walked through the window back into the Material Plane, and went down the stairs to exit through the front door.
"Relax, Gramps," said Thurloe, voicing the pass code. Then they went over to Mandorregan, where Wakuren roused him with a few healing spells.
"Rindicane is on the Plane of Shadow and wishes to speak with you," Xandro informed him. They went through the front door, back up the stairs, and then got Mandorregan attuned to the Plane of Shadows before having him step through the window. The five dreamwalkers opted to stay behind, none of them sure how much time spent on the Shadow Plane was enough to turn them into a shade and nobody wanting to take the chance.
Mandorregan returned a few minutes later, stepping back through the window. "Rindicane is going to stay there in the Shadow Keep and continue his studies," the young wizard informed them. "He is granting me custody of his keep here on the Material Plane. I have a command word which will transfer the grandfather plaque's loyalty to me."
"He's staying there? Forever?" asked Sheela despondently.
"He said he'll try to visit on dark nights," replied Mandorregan. "But the Shadow Keep is a perfect replica of his keep here, including his library and all of his notes. He's already reconfigured the window in his keep to explore another plane, someplace he calls the Far Realm."
"Never heard of it," replied Xandro.
"In any case, thank you for your help in gaining entry to the keep and checking on Rindicane," the young wizard said. He pulled at a purse at his belt. "I had promised you 250 pieces of gold for your assistance and I insist upon you taking it."
"That won't be a problem," assured Thurloe, taking the proffered purse. "Happy to have been of help."
"I'll continue Rindicane's studies from here," promised Mandorregan, "but I don't intend to alter the current configuration of the window. That way we'll still be able to visit Rindicane on occasion, and he us." That seemed to please Sheela the pixie. "And if you ever pass this way again, please feel free to visit anytime. Should you have need of access to other planes, I'll stand ready to assist in any way I can."
"Thank you," said Wakuren, shaking Mandorregan's hand. "But we must be back on the road. There are many more dream victims out there in need of our help."
"Of course," replied the young wizard. He and Sheela walked with them to the front door and watched as they mounted up. They waved as the group departed back the way they had come.
"That was very nice of them to help," Sheela observed.
"Yes, they seem like very nice people," Mandorregan agreed.
Once he was sure they were well out of earshot, Thurloe said the rest of the group, "That was the easiest 50 gold apiece we're ever likely to see!" He chuckled to himself. "What a sucker!"
- - -
This turned out much differently than I had expected, for Alewyth's potion of gaseous form allowed her to single-handedly explore the entire keep on her own without setting off any of the "lair guardians" I had sprinkled throughout the building: specifically, the dread guards (animated armor) in the foyer and the pair of guardian scrolls in the library. Zander even managed not to get into a fight with the paranoid wizard-shade on the Plane of Shadow by mentioning Mandorregan by name almost immediately. So we finished this adventure in almost exactly two hours - much shorter than I had anticipated.
And speaking of Zander Quilson, while he was there in the window room with Rindicane on the Plane of Shadow, I had Joe roll a d20 for me without explaining what the roll was for; it came up as a natural "1." The implications of that die roll will be revealed somewhere around the 35th adventure or so.
But this, being the 25th adventure in this 100-adventure campaign, meant the PCs leveled up to 6th afterwards. That only took another half hour or so, resulting in a very truncated session. Xandro took a 5th level of bard, Wakuren evened up his cleric/paladin levels (and Thurloe did likewise with his fighter and wizard levels, clearing the way for a first level in the spellsword prestige class when we level up again after five more adventures), and the single-classed Alewyth and Zander each added a level of cleric (priestess) and sorcerer, respectively. Zander continued his continued hit point bad luck streak by once again rolling a "1" for his hit points, bringing him to a grand total of 17 hp at 6th level. (And that after having taken the Toughness feat in desperation at 3rd level!) I think poor Zander might need to stumble across an amulet of health or something fairly soon....
- - -
T-shirt worn: My Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" T-shirt, a good representation of the Plane of Shadow.
