Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2817739" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Ten, “The Villain Revealed”, August 6th, 1018 1:00 P.M. Back in the Kaloon Lordholding, Narg, Mojo, Lannon and Kruk finally make it downstairs for “breakfast”, joining Serita, Adrianna and Timothy, who are having what for them is “lunch”. Also dining at the Regal Carriage Inn are Immy dining by himself, three fighters over by the fireplace, a young couple oblivious to everyone else in the room, a Ukko cleric, a Paladin, and the bartender at the bar. They are soon joined by Ki-Geloryn, and have a pleasant discussion about the previous day’s events and its outcome. Ki says that Queen Jennifer, Lord Kindor, and Lord Aldorn have all left the city at dawn. He also adds that the three ships plan to all dock at the Thenossia Lordholding coastal City of Halla for further discussions among the three of them. Ki departs. All present suddenly feel an aura of tension and uneasiness around them. Timothy, the Paladin, and the Ukko cleric at the bar appear to be especially affected. Immy immediately turns invisible, and activates his Helmet of True Sight, taking in the room around him. Even though the room appears to have unchanged to the other occupants, the visor detects that all of the window shutters have actually been closed, and that brick walls have been erected in front of the door to the street, the door to the kitchen, and in front of the staircase to the second floor, essentially trapping all of the occupants in the room. A tall human, wearing black robes and a black hat appears before them (this is the mage who had been observing them). The man looks to be in his sixties and has a long white beard. He addresses the Silver Moon adventurers, “So, you thought that I would never track you down. Now you will learn that you cannot conspire against me, and steal my things”. None of the group has ever seen this man before, and do not appear to be overly concerned. Mojo yawns, and says to Narg “Did you put in a request for an over-the-top villain.” “Not this early in the day,” is Narg’s casual reply. Timothy has detected the evil aura of the man to actually be to the left of the projected image that the party sees. The man is put out at their casual indifference to him. Kruk interjects “I hate overly dramatic Magic-Users. So guys, who exactly is this guy?”. “Damned if I know,” answers Lannon. “Damned you will be!” the man yells. Kruk then asks him directly “So, are any of us supposed to know you?” The man responds “This does not concern you, this is a matter between me and them (pointing to the five Silver Moon members).” “Fine,” says Serita, “I’ll ask the question then, who are you?” “I am the one who you stole from!” the man yells. “And that answer is supposed to help?” states Mojo. “Look pal,” says Narg, “I think you have us mistaken for somebody else.” Flushed with anger, he declares “You deny that you’ve stolen from me! While she (pointing to Serita) sits there wearing MY RING.” Serita starts to wrack her brain to remember where her Ring of Teleportation originally came from. She eventually remembers that they found it inside a store on Alton’s home world, where the wizard Vaughn had hidden it (In Module 73 ”The K-Mart Kaper”). She says to the group, “I think he’s that mage who was worked with Vaughn” That she remembers Vaughn’s name, but not his, infuriates the man. He yells “You will regret making an enemy of the great Morgarth!" "OK, so now we know who he is," comments Narg. "Was that so hard?" Mojo says to the villain. The mage answers "You will pay for such insolence! I have taken from you all that you hold dear. Everything that you had is now mine.” “Huh?” asks Narg, “Would you mind clarifying that?” "My god," says Mojo, "He took our still." The villain roars “I have taken your precious island from you, and all of your family, friends, and followers.” Mojo yawns and comments “So what, there were too many people there anyway, you’ve probably done us all a favor.” Timothy is noticeably upset, and blurts out “What have you done with them?” The villain responds “I have taken them captive, where my personal guard now watch over them as prisoners. Their only hope is for you to save them” “How many people are on your island?” Kruk asks. “Too many,” replies Narg, “maybe we should look at this as an opportunity.” “And why exactly have you done this?” asks Serita. He responds “To teach you insignificant whelps a lesson. Your continued existence is due only to my patience. This will teach you that it is I who is in control of your lives, and not you. If you can somehow manage to defeat my ten clusters of guards, then they will live.” Mojo interjects “I’m still not feeling real motivated about this.” Lannon reminds him “Your cousin Lono is on the island.” “That makes me even less motivated,” replies Mojo. “Furthermore,” bellows the villain, “there is one other fact, which may motivate you to act. My senior Druid has informed me that your island is directly in the path that the worst hurricane to strike this continent in centuries. It will collide with your island in three to four days, and I can guarantee you that the weakest among your group will not survive. Imagine the fear facing children separated from their parents, familiars and other animals separated from their masters, when the worst ravages of the weather assail them!” “You say there are ten groups?” asks Lannon. “Yes,” states the villain. He continues, “Since there are five of you I have arranged for guards numbering five-hundred, broken into ten separate clusters.” “One-hundred to one odds, “ comments Mojo, “that seems about right.” Morgarth continues “It has taken me three years to reestablish my fortress on another continent, following the assault by you and your allies on my Zalparian home.” (During Module 66 “Assault on the Orc Lair”, although it was actually not the Silver Moon but an adventuring party led by the Cleric Dominic who were responsible for Morgarth’s forced exit). “Your later attempt to ally with my traitorous partner Vaughn, and steal my unique magic's from me, did not go unnoticed.” “Hey, we killed Vaughn for you!” says Narg (In game #500, the concluding game of Module #73, "The K-Mart Kaper”) “For me, I think not,” says the villain, “that merely shows the depths of your ability to betray your allies.” He continues “I have chosen this as a test of worthiness for my new sentries. They have strict orders not to plunder from your homes or from their prisoners until after all of you have been defeated. This will give them further incentive. I will tell you this, my most formidable sentinels are holding the three most powerful from your party. It will take the might of all of you, and any others that you might rescue, to attempt to free them, and still you will fail. Once my guards have finished with the five of you, I will address you again, and decide upon your true punishment for opposing me. Perhaps at that time you will be more humbled, and will grovel before me, as you should be doing now. I may then show you mercy, and execute you quickly, as gratitude for your assistance in training and testing my guardian forces, as well as arming and armoring them with the best of your magic's." "Thank goodness," comments Mojo, "I was afraid that you would just talk us to death instead." While all this is going on, invisible Immy with his helmet of true sight has detected the villain's actual location five feet to the left of his projected image. Immy invisibly moves in and successfully tosses a Necklace of Strangulation around him. The necklace constricts, which would be immediately fatal if not for the Stoneskin spell upon the man. The true villain remains invisible, but the projected image grasps at his throat, as it duplicates the actions of the real mage. This also works as a signal for the party to attack, although all of their attacks (except for Timothy’s, which misses) strike where the image rather than the real foe. Both the image and man disappear, instantly reappearing by the front door. All in the room also now see what Immy had known, that the window shutters are closed, and that brick walls cover the exits from the room. Morgarth bellows at Immy “You foolish creature. This matter did not concern you at all. Now you have made a powerful enemy of me, and once I get this annoying jewelry of yours removed, you too will suffer the consequences of your actions.” He then addresses the party “When you leave this room, do not attempt to go anywhere other than your island, or I will order the prisoners to be immediately executed. You will learn that you should not have ignored or underestimated me. You will fall beneath the forces that I have assembled.” He then teleports away. Narg tells Immy "Nice try with the necklace there." "Yeah, I was hoping it would shut him up," replies the gnome. After he has left Serita asks “Now what do we do.” Mojo says “Well, I’m still not really motivated, but maybe we should go to the island.” The group debates that the mage may have been lying to them, and that everyone on the island is fine, but decide that it is best to proceed as if they had been told the truth. The room itself is investigated, the walls in front of the doors being solid. At the window, a shutter is pried off, revealing the building to be surrounded by a Wall of Force. Beyond the wall they see activity taking place in the city, the tavern still being in Cortang, and conclude that the others present in the room will be safe remaining behind. Immy declares that since he is now on the mage’s enemy list he will be joining them. Kruk and Adrianna also volunteer to go with them. The group discusses who on the island would be deemed the three most powerful. They conclude that Cassie-Andra and the Cloud Giant Herculean are most-likely two of them. Identity of the third is debated. They rule out Milo, Ixnoxsis and Phraakeese, as those three are currently off-Island. Lannon says that a mage would be biased towards magic-users, so it is probably Fiona. Narg suggests Mark. Serita suggests the Pond Dragon Hokuru. Timothy suggests Isaiah. No firm conclusions are reached. Narg suggests the traditional strategy of “Get’em.” Serita says “I like blow-them-up better.” Kruk whispers to Lannon “Not experts on strategic tactical planning, are they?” Timothy produces a map of the ten-mile diameter island from inside of his backpack, and the party debates where to teleport to. A number of locations are discussed. They decide that it is better to choose a remote location, from which they can then scout out the more populated places. An abandoned cabin on the northwestern side of the island, once the home of the magic-user Crystull, is chosen as the group's destination. They take out the two bags of holding for the party to travel in, and Immy produces a third. All seven except for Serita climb into the bags. Serita changes into the form of a large white eagle, dons the ring of teleportation, grabs the two bags, and teleports away. Serita teleports into the area near Crystull’s cabin. The cabin has not been occupied for several years, and the area is somewhat overgrown. Crystull had cleared the timber within fifty feet of the building, but several small saplings and other plants have now grown up around it. The once-traveled road to the east is also overgrown, and barely visible. Serita flies around the area, spotting a pair of goblins on a wooden platform, eighty feet up a tree some 175 yards south of the cabin. She lands in the woods at a mid-point between the cabin and the tree, emptying the party from the bags of holding. While still in bird form, she draws a arrow in the dirt in the direction of the tree. Lannon and Immy head off in that direction. Serita flies on to the base of the specific tree, gesturing upward. Immy asks if there is a strategy. Lannon answers “Yes, fight, fight and then fight some more.” “Wouldn’t it be better to take them by surprise rather than fighting?” Immy comments. “Good point,” says Lannon, “OK, the new plan is violence, violence, and the some more violence.” Lannon and Immy scale the tree. They see two awake goblins on an upper platform, and two more goblins sleeping on a platform six feet below, with a wooden ladder connecting the two platforms. They sneak up to the lower platform, and dispatch the two sleeping goblins. Lannon uses his Boots of Spider Climbing to climb beneath the tree to come up on the first upper platform as Immy charges the closest awake goblin. Immy causes the goblin to loose his footing and fall to his death. Lannon attacks the other one, killing it. Lannon’s goblin is searched, revealing it to have a wand. Below, Kruk heads over to check out the goblin that fell. From this vantage point, they spot another platform in tree 175 yards to the northwest, with goblin-sized shapes on top of it. They realize that these lookout points form two-thirds of a triangle around the cabin, so they also look same distance northeast, see what might be a more concealed lookout post. They then panic as they spot Mojo and Narg approaching the building. Mojo and Narg’s approach is from the direction of this platform, and temporarily shielded by the building from the other two lookout points by the building itself, but Lannon and Immy fear that their fighter allies might decide to move around the cabin and be seen. Narg and Mojo check the door, finding it locked. Using their exceptional strength, they push on the door until the old lock gives way, which releases a gas trap, with a red gas floating upward. Mojo has the good judgment to shut the door, and the two run back to the party in the forest. Lannon and Immy do not notice any excessive movement from the other platform, and conclude that they must not have seen the brief plume of red smoke that escaped before the door was shut. They climb down and head northeast. Kruk sees them and follows, until they stop the noisy fighter, and send him back, with a message for the others to stay put, that there are goblin guards in the trees. Kruk does this. Never being one to take orders, Serita flies on to assist the two thieves, who are climbing the second tree. Using the same strategy as before, they take out the two sleeping, then fight the other two, both awake goblins falling the ground this time. In the third three, the sound and movement of one is the falling goblins is seen by a guard, but not in enough detail to tell what has happened. Their two sleeping goblins are woken up, and told to climb down and go investigate. Lannon and Immy find a dropped wand identical to the one from the other platform. They guess that it must be some form of signaling device. Serita, in bird form, lands on their platform, holding a bag of holding. Lannon and Immy point her in the direction of the suspected third platform, and climb into the bag. As she flies towards that particular tree, she sees two goblins now at the base of it. She lands very near them, and starts to dump the bag. The noise of the dwarf falling out of the bag attracts the attention of the pair of goblins. Lannon, while still half inside the sack, falls onto the ground to see two goblins above him, weapons drawn. He attacks, while still lying on the ground, as Serita dumps Immy from the bag, then flies upward. They soon eliminate their foes, and begin to climb the tree. Serita flies up towards the lower platform, seeing one goblin standing on it peering downward. She flies right into him, knocking him off. The falling goblin very narrowly misses hitting the climbing thieves. Unfortunately for the party, the goblin on the lower platform was waiting to hear back from the scouts sent below, with the one on the upper platform being the one holding the wand. After seeing his ally fall after being attacked by the large white eagle, he triggers the wand, sending a bright lime-green beam of light way up into the air, reaching an altitude of 4,000 feet before bursting into a lime-green and white firework, accompanied by a loud boom. This is the goblins final action, as Serita then knocks him from the platform. Three miles to the south, at the school, the flare is spotted by the other Silver Moon party. They ask Parisi if he knows what that is about. “Yes”, he answers, “Each of the ten teams has their own color-coded wands, which sends up a signal like that when a location is compromised and being abandoned.” He adds “Of course, our team was forbidden to use ours by Cronin, since that would also forfeit our winning the competition among the teams.” They asks if he knows what the different colors are and mean. Parisi says no, that only the team leaders know the colors of the other team, but that he does have knowledge of what this particular lime-green-and-white signal meant. He says that there are three designated “escape locations” on the island, for the adventuring teams to go to once they abandon a location. Each of these three locations is an abandoned building on the island. The thieves of the ten teams were briefed as to these locations, and the location of the hidden traps at these locations. Parisi’s partner received this briefing, and filled him in. The group calculates that the signal came from the home that previously belonged to Crystull. Parisi says that a small team of guards was left to watch over these areas, and signal if they were compromised. The party asks him the location of the other two “escape locations”. He says one is an abandoned cabin at the southeastern edge of the lake, which they conclude is Araby’s former home. He identifies the flare color for this location to be violet. The third is in a building in a rear corner of the city atop the island, with a fuchsia flare color. He also says that there is a fourth escape location too, but that this place and flare color are known only to the team leaders. The group speculate that the “Big Guns” must be involved, and decide to traverse the three miles through the woods to investigate. They set up a single-file marching order, carefully guarding Parisi. Back at Crystull’s cabin, the group discusses the ramifications of the signal flare having gone off. They decide that, rather than running away and putting themselves on the defensive, they will actually make preparations to lie in wait to ambush whoever comes to investigate the signal. Adrianna asks Kruk what he thinks of their new allies. He replies "A druid who thinks she's a giant white eagle, a crazed dwarf who climbs trees, and a gnome that drops goblins hundreds of feet out of trees…I guess I'd say they're about average."</blockquote>

Verification