"Return of the Rod of the Seven Parts" - D&D

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 47, “Hendry’s Tale”, September 24, 1018, :

Once back at the Elorra-Eng camp, the members of the Silver Moon Party decides to question Hendry Junior about how and why he just happened to have been around.

Hendry thanks the party for helping his brother Rainville escape from Shosun a week earlier, and explains that during the past week his family has been very busy. A few hours after Rainville last saw the Silver moon he was teleported to the city of Lai Sao by his father, Hendry Senior. Lai Sao was where the caravan that the Hendry family was traveling with had stopped for the night. Hendry Senior had decided to leave the caravan at that point. They sold the wagon, cloth and silks at Lai Sao.

That night, Kenneth and Barry went out drinking with two of the slavers traveling with the caravan who they had gotten to know during the previous week. After leaving the tavern, they led these men into an ambush where the men were knocked out, tied up, and hidden where they would not be found for a couple of days. Hendry Senior then polymorphing Kenneth and Barry into the appearance of these men, and these two then replaced them.

The caravan left Lai Sao the next morning, with their Hengeyokai thief, Ling, smuggled in by Kenneth and Barry in cat form. As Kenneth and Barry acted out their parts, Ling discreetly communicated to the eight captured Hengeyokai that a rescue was in progress. Meanwhile, Hendry Senior and his two sons used Fly spells to get ahead of the caravan. They then started an avalanche at a mountain pass the caravan would reach the following day.

The plan went off without a hitch. When the caravan stopped Kenneth and Barry offered to stay and guard the Hengeyokai while the other slavers went forward to help clear the rocks blocking the caravan’s path. They then released the Hengeyokai and discreetly led them to safety. Hendry Senior was convinced to refrain from attacking the slavers, but he couldn’t resist the opportunity to fireball their slave wagon. He rationalized that this would prevent the slavers from seeking to recapture the Hengeyokai, as they would assume that the fire killed them.

That night Hendry Senior teleported the Hengeyokai back to the biosphere, accompanied by Hendry Junior and Ling. As the two mages waited outside of the anti-magic shell, Ling accompanied the eight back to their homes. She soon returned with distressing news. A new group of slavers had set up a camp nearby, and had captured more Hengeyokai.

Hendry led his trio to investigated this new camp, which numbered nearly 200 slavers. Hendry Senior deduced from his observation that the slavers were still busy training and did not appear to be planning any raids for the immediate future. Hendry Said that it would be best to wait and take this group on with the full team. Hendry Junior and Ling were left behind to continue observing the camp, as Hendry Senior teleported back to the remainder of the party. During the next four days Hendry Junior communicated with his father each evening via use of the Astral Plane. Hendry Senior’s group was now heading in the direction of the city of Chunming as they came across the trail of an individual Hengeyokai captive and its captor.

Hendry Junior thanks the party for attacking this slaving camp and freeing the six Hengeyokai. He is elated to also hear of their purchase and release of the other five from Y’Cho Kang. Hendry is filled in about the other five scheduled to be auctioned in Y’Cho Kang on the 27th. He and Ling offer to accompany and protect the six Hengeyokai that were just freed back to the biosphere, as the remaining slavers are most likely actively looking for them. They then leave, taking with them the slaver prisoner that Toshiro had captured. The Silver Moon asks that the Hengeyokai Elders contact them at Chong-Tai’s home the following day. Everyone then settle down for the night

September 25, 1018:

May-Elorra thanks the Silver Moon for their assistance. She says that she and her team will be returning to the elvan forests, and take with them the captured sister of their monk Chi. They request that they also be given any extra horses that the party doesn’t need, stating that the elves could make good use of them. Fiona comments “We should give the elves something, we owe them for taking those three relatively useless adventurers off our hands.” Mojo glances at his cousin Lono, and mutters “Too bad they couldn’t take one more.” The Elorra-Eng team rides off, taking with them all of the horses except for the fifteen that the Silver Moon and the druid Chong-Tai retain.

The party rides back with Chong-Tai to his home. They find evidence that the slavers had been there the previous evening, but then moved on. The party wait here for the Hengeyokai to return, with Lono and Lannon using the time to set snare traps in the event that the slavers come back. Late in the morning Hendry Junior and Ling arrive at the druid’s home. They state that the eight Hengeyokai have made it back safely to their home. He also reports that the remaining slavers have now intensified their patrols.

Hendry and Cassie then wander off for a private discussion. They talk of Hendry’s future plans. He states that he contacted his father the previous night. Hendry Senior’s group successfully rescued the Hengeyokai they were after and are now heading towards Y’Cho Kang to see about the five scheduled to be auctioned off in two days. He states that he and Ling will be picked up later this evening when his father next comes to the biosphere to return the freed Hengeyokai. Hendry says that his father is thankful to the Silver Moon for their assistance in freeing these Hengeyokai, and apologies for his prior involvement with the attack on the Silver Moon’s home.

Hendry asks about the man named Hiroshi Mitsubishi, who had assisted in helping Rainville escape from the city of Shosun. He asks if the man is from the same Mitsubishi family that serve as advisors to the Heian Emperor. Cassie asks why? Hendry explains that twenty-five years earlier his father served as Ambassador for the Forrest Dawn Empire. At that time Hendry Senior visited the court of the Heian Emperor, and was taught the local language by a translator of the same name. Cassie acknowledges that Hiroshi is indeed the same man, and that he is now also her apprentice. Hendry tells her that she has chosen a good man to teach, albeit a little old. Hendry Senior said that the Hiroshi Mitsubishi he knew had a brilliant mind, and that they had played many games of chess together on the Astral Plane. He adds that “Chess is far more challenging when you can also read your opponent’s emotions.”

Cassie asks him about their plans once all of the Hengeyokai are found and returned. Hendry says that he does not know what his father will want to do after that, but that finding the remaining ten might take considerable time. While they now know the locations of six of these the last four could now be anywhere.

Neither Cassie or Hendry bring up the subject of the feelings that they have for each other. The closest thing to any discussion of relationships is the comment from Hendry that “Aradyn appears to be a good man, and seems to care a lot for you.” She replies simply “Yes, he is and he does.” They then return to the others, with Hendry and Ling then heading off on their own away from the party.

Early in the evening a pair of the previously rescued Hengeyokai arrive at Chong-Tai’s home, both flying in as birds and then transforming to human. One is the authoritative female spokesperson of the falcon sub-race rescued in Y’Cho Kang, the other is the female of the owl sub-race who was rescued from the slaver’s camp the previous day. They announce that the Hengeyokai Elders have agreed to meet with the Silver Moon.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

DM’s Note to the Reader: You may notice that the next four chapters of the story have a different style and tone to them. I had been scheduled to go away on a business trip and one of the group’s newest players volunteered to Game Master the story in my absence. The player had also indicated an interest in turning one of the Hengeyokai into a new playing character, so I let him flesh out the details of the Hengeyokai origin and their home inside of the Anti-magic sphere.

The player was DM for the Silver Moon’s travel through the Biosphere and Tomb of Li-Tak, having created the tomb entirely on his own. That segment was played after I had retuned from my trip so I played the Hiroshi NPC during it. I thought that he did an excellent job, especially being a novice DM, although a few of the other players felt that he overindulged on the traps. Much of the Hengeyokai background material never made it into the narrative story, so I have posted these details as the message thread “Village of the Blessed Children” on the “Plots and Places” message board. That thread explains the Hengeyokai culture, history, and the specifics about the lawful good village within the biosphere.

Chapter 48, “Village of the Blessed Children”, September 25, 1018, 5:00 P.M.

The party is waiting at the home of Chong-Tai, the druid friend of the Hengeyokai, when two of the Hengeyokai return. They recongize them both, one being the female spokesperson of the falcon sub-race, who finally tells the party her name, Syrendel. The other is the one of the owl sub-race who they had rescued from the slavers camp, who says that her name is Min-Mae. They announce that the village Elders will meet with the party, and that they will lead the party through the Biosphere.

The party soon reach the wall of the 40-mile diameter anti-magic sphere. Everything is emptied out of the Bags of Holding (just in case), and the party approaches the dark gray semi-opaque wall that covers the bottom hundred of so feet of the structure, it becoming translucent above. The party enters the biosphere and their magic items and spells cease working. Syrendel announces that the party must now all be blindfolded, which Narg and Mojo both strongly object to. A lengthy debate ensues, with the party enventually convinced to go along with the restriction.

The party are all led blindfolded for the next several hours, which they find to be a long and frustrating ordeal, given that the path they take is heavily wooded and not well traveled. Well after dark they eventually reach the Village of Kelithin, which translates as ‘Village of the Blessed Children’. The party are now allowed to remove their blindfolds, seeing that they are in the middle of a forest, in a place with houses built up and into most of the trees and a large number of burrows going down into the group as well.

Hengeyoki in human, humanoid and animal form are everywhere in sight, the majority of them being unclothed. Serita estimates that there are at least 500 of them in the immediate area. Lono comments “A lot of nice looking women. I’ll bet they could teach me something about the birds and the bees.” Noticing that the vast majority of the villagers appear to be from the crane, falcon, owl, sparrow and panda sub-races, Lannon comments “Better make that the birds and the bears.” Timothy’s Detect Alignment ability indicates that nearly everyone in this village is Lawful Good, a fact that he relates to the others in the party. “Lawful good Damn, I guess that means I won’t be getting any tonight,” Lono replies.

The party are brought to a large multi-story treehouse, which Min-Mae says is the Heartwood Inn, where they will have lodgings for the night. They are surprised when an elevator, operated by a series of weights and pulleys, is lowered to bring them up higher. They ride up and then enter a large dining room, which looks surprisingly like a regular inn, complete with wooden tables, metal dishes and silverware. The inn owner, who is in the humanoid form of the turtle sub-race, welcomes them (some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jokes then follow).

The group enter the dining room and are surprised to see a Chinese Dwarf eating at one of the tables. The dwarf greets the party, welcoming them to the village, and introducing himself as Bilrio. He offers them a drink, which the party are disappointed to find out is non-alcoholic fruit juice. He tells them that he has been living here for the past 125 years as a guest of the village Elders, and that he is the only non-Hengeyokai to reside within the village. He acts as their metalworker and smith, a skill that the Hengeyokai avoid due to their general aversion to fire. He also indicates that he was the one responsible for the construction of the elevator. The party ask about the castle in the center of the Biosphere, and are told that they will have to find that information out the following day from the Elders. Following the meal, Syrendel and Min-Mae show each member of the party to their rooms.

 

[Corwyn]

Up and up we go!
bumping this back up.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Thanks for the bump Corwyn. I was travelling on business for the past week, and had hoped to get online a few times to post new chapters, but that never happened. I'm back now, so the story will resume.

Chapter 49, “Meeting with the Village Elders”, September 26, 1018, 5:30 A.M.:

The party wakes at dawn, to the sound of music being sung by over a hundred residents of the sparrow sub-race. While most of the party appreciate the beauty of it, Lono, Mojo and Narg complain about it being “Too damned early for all of that racket.” The party notices that about half of their magic items are now functioning again. Over breakfast they discuss that they should probably stay put until all of their magic is again working, and until after the spellcasters have been able to regain all of their spells. Both Cassie and Fiona confirm that some of the words and letters are beginning to now reappear within their magic books, but that none are complete enough to actually study yet.

They travel through the village, being brought to the Elder Council Quarters and Meeting Place. The party appear before the Elder Council, a group of seven, all of whom are in the form of aged humans and attired in simple robes. The meeting begins with the Elders thanking the Silver Moon for rescuing the captured Hengeyokai at both Y’Cho Kang and the slavers camp.

The party asks the Elders what they know of the person that the Hengeyokai call ‘The Storm God’. The Elders say “He first arrived here three years ago. During the three centuries since the death of Li-Tak a number of powerful humans have attempted to breach the castle’s defenses, but none had succeeded until this god arrived.

The god and his followers first arrived by ship on the river that flows through the biosphere. The ship had powerful weapons that obliterated the stone barriers which had been placed in the river by us to block the entry of vessels into this region. The large gray ship was made of metal and was propelled by magic, as it had no sails and traveled far faster than the current. The anti-magic barrier had no appear to have any effect on the magical propulsion of this craft.

The ship sailed to where the river is closest to the castle, about a mile away from it. Two large black eagles then flew from the ship and surveyed the castle from the air. The clouds within the Biosphere then grew dark, and begin to swirl in a circular direction, with the ship being the eye of the storm. By this time three Pride Fists, the Squadrons of the Hengeyokai standing army, had arrived and surrounded the ship.

One of the eagles returned and landed in their midst of a Pride Fist. Lightning bolts then struck the ground between the Pride Fists and the Eagle, as the Eagle transformed into a human. He called himself as Spring, and said that he was a servant of the Storm God, who had been sent to prepare the castle for the God to take up residence. He stated that the Storm God had no wish to harm those who lived within the Biosphere, but would strike out at them if they interfered with him or his followers.

During the next week the Storm God’s followers moved equipment from the ship to the castle, using metal horse-less carriages to carry these items. When the ship was finally unloaded it was sailed back up the river and exited the Biosphere. The metal ship has returned four times. The first two times were long ago, and brought more supplies. The last two times were at the beginning of this summer, and during each of these times they brought over a hundred bugbears as well as supplies. The bugbears set up positions around the castle as guards.

During the Storm God's first year of residency, fourteen Hengeyokai of various sub-races disappeared. Each of these disappearances occurred when the individual was alone and within a mile of the castle. We then instituted restrictions that no Hengeyokai was to travel within two miles of the castle, and following that provision there have been no further disappearances.

The only time we ever attempted to enter the castle was six weeks ago, on the day after the anti-magic barrier disappeared. We sent a contingent of two Pride Fists, along with an Elder from each of the five villages, to ask the Storm God as to why the barrier was gone. These Hengeyokai were attacked by the Bugbears guarding the castle. In the battle that followed, four Hengeyokai were killed and at least sixteen bugbears died, with an equal number of bugbears severely wounded. A group of thirty elephant-footed hairless giants then exited the castle to reinforce the bugbears, at which point the Elders ordered a retreat, and the bugbears and giants did not follow them beyond the outer wall.”

Cassie thanks them for the information, and inquires about what they know of Li-Tak. The Elders say that Li-Tak was the founder of their race, but do not elaborate any further than that.
Cassie then asks if there is any way to get to the castle undetected. The Elders confer privately about this for a few minutes.

The Elder who had been leading the discussion then says “You should know that there is an underground temple and crypt, one mile from the castle, that exits along the hillside a half a mile beyond the castle. The crypt and temple are belived to be even older than the castle itself. Li-Tak was buried in this structure. His last two surviving children brought his body there, entered, and sealed the building behind them. It has remained sealed ever since then. We do not think that the Storm God has any knowledge of this structure, as the weather and vegetation growth during the last 300 years has obscured its entrances.

The Silver Moon indicate that they would like to go there. The Elder states that “Our ancestors entrusted the Council of Elders with a key to this temple. We will allow your group to use it to get nearer the castle unseen, provided that you promise that you will not to take anything from within the Tomb. The party agrees to this, forcefully telling Lono that he will abide to that agreement. They party are also given the written text of two spells, which had been passed down to them by Li-Tak.

Timothy points out that it is probably best to avoid tombs at night. The group agrees, deciding to spend a second night in this village, and then head out to Li-Tak’s Tomb at dawn.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 50 “The Tomb of Li-Tak”, September 27, 1018, 5:30 A.M.:

At dawn, the party is led, again blindfolded, to the temple. They are given the key, and are joined by Syrendel and Min-Mae. The Hengeyokai decide to send a party of Hengeyokai around on foot to try to scout out the area, and also provide a distraction in case Morgarth’s group is actively watching the area. Both Duegar and Toshiro volunteer to accompany this group.

The party enters the temple, Lannon is in the lead barely escaping a guillotine blade that slashes by, and then recedes back. Lannon stops, and uses a piece of chalk to notate where in the floor the trap is sprung. He yells back to the others “There’s a mark on the floor, don’t step on it.” Further back in the line Lono asks, “What did he say?” Narg answers, “I think he said that Mark is on the floor, and not to step on him.” “Mark? On the floor? He doesn’t drink.” comment Fiona. As they get up closer they see the chalk. Narg says, “Oh, I get it a “mark” not “Mark”. Lono quips “Well, our Mark is sort of like a chalk outline, only less substantial.”

The group continues to check out the room, which has multiple exits. Lannon and Lono go to check out one hallway, and the wall immediately slams shut behind them, catching and crushing Lono’s leg. Both of them are on the other side of it, and Lono is on the verge of unconsciousness, with his body trapped by the leg between the stone wall and the floor. Lannon tries to help him out, finding the leg is destroyed below the knee. As Lannon cuts it loose to free him Lono passes out. Lannon uses his healing slave to then stop the bleeding.

The group on the other side of the wall ponders how to get through. “Is there a hole on the bottom to slide through?” asks Cassie. “Only if we were amoebas,” answers Aradyn. “That has a catchy name, the Silver Amoeba,” comments Fiona. “One cell, no waiting,” Mojo answers.

Mojo suggests that the party leave. Timothy chides him “How can you make jokes and consider leaving Mojo, you cousin is trapped on the other side. From his scream as the wall shut he is probably either hurt or killed!” Mojo replies, “I’d call that a full day’s work, let’s go.” “Lannon is also missing,” Serita states. “Consider that a bonus” is Mojo’s reply.

On the other side of the wall Lannon tries to revive Lono, who barley comes to, muttering “I really think that you should have a talk with the concierge and have us change rooms,” then passes out again. Lannon checks out the room that they are in, finding nothing of importance. Meanwhile, Cheveyo unsuccessfully tries to wedge the door open, getting a broken axe as a result. Aradyn checks out a side passage and finds a mechanism to open the doors.

The group gets back together, immediately putting one of the Rings of Regeneration on Lono. They decide that Lono cannot move on without assistance. Lannon suggests that Mojo help by carrying his cousin. Mojo refuses, telling Lannon “He’s your responsibility.” “How do you figure that?” Lannon answers. Mojo replies “He was in one piece when he left with you. You broke him, you bought him.” The group decides to put Lono inside of one of the Bags of Holding.

They continue to find more traps. Mojo comments that “This is like a fun house, only without the fun in it.” “What do you expect,” comments Narg, “It’s dwarven construction. You know how neurotic dwarves are.” This gets him dirty looks from Lannon, Kim-Sung and Hiroshi.” A locked door is found. Lannon is unable to open it, so the party removes Lono from the bag to have him try. The barely coherent Lono mumbles “Is that you Auntie Em?” Timothy casts a cure spell on him to make him more lucid. Lono attempts to open the lock, but fails miserably, so is told to get back into the bag. “Great, I’m being sent to my room as punishment,” he mutters.

They eventually get the door to open, but everyone is reluctant to enter the room. Since Narg’s player is absent this game night they decide to send in Narg. The guest DM reaches over and inquires as to which figure is Narg’s. Another player answers “The one who looks like Ajax the White Knight, although the character has never actually been near anything resembling detergent.” “Is he just going to walk forward?” the DM asks. “Sure, right into the dragon’s mouth,” answers Mojo’s player. “Well, shouldn’t he first roll through the tartar sauce?” the DM replies. “I think we’ve just invented Narg McNuggets,” the player replies.

The room is relatively empty, other than having a trap door, which Narg discovers the hard way by falling thirty feet down the passage. He slows his fall near the bottom by jabbing the Nargblade into the wall. The only thing that he finds at the bottom are piles of old bones, apparently belonging to former victims of the trap. Deciding that he has nothing better to do for the moment, he pours himself a drink.

Up above, those in the back of the line ask that in front what they found. Peering into the void that Narg disappeared into, Lannon answers “A deep dark pit that people fall into and disappear.” “Ah, the Senate,” Mojo answers. Lannon is given a Bag of Holding, and uses his Boots of Spider Climbing to go and retrieve Narg. Timothy casts a cure on to heal the damage that Narg sustained from the fall.

Lannon and Aradyn discover a secret door, leading to a room filled with dwarven ale. The party exercises great restraint in not taking any, even after Mojo and Lannon attempt to rationalize how drinking it will not constitute stealing, but only borrowing, as long as they pee before leaving the temple. “This must be the ultimate trap for the Silver Moon,” Cassie concludes.

The group continues to check out the immediate area, finding that most corridors exiting this section have collapsed. There does not seem to be any way forward other than a narrow hallway with a collapsed roof, so the group decides to retreat and try the other direction off from the main entrance. The elves continue to check for secret doors, and Cassie casts a detect magic, which does not help as there appears to be residual magic through the cave making everything appear to be magical.

A room is found, that appears to be a dwarven-sized office. The room is investigated, and found to be in excellent condition. The desk is searched, with the party finding notes regarding the construction of and repairs to this tomb. Unfortunately there is no map or any detail about exits or doors. Lannon finds a box that he cannot open. Lono is again dragged from the bag to try, with Lannon’s tactful preamble of “Sorry about the leg, can you open this?”

The box is opened, containing three platinum bars. Lono peers in, not letting anyone else see around him. “Don’t take anything, Serita says” “What’s in it?” asks Aradyn. “Only two platinum bars.” answers Lono, reaching for the third, the movement allowing Lannon to also peer inside. Lannon’s hand reaches over and grabs Lono’s, to stop him from removing a bar. Lono exchanges looks with Lannon, and says “No, I miscounted, there appears to be only ONE platinum bar.” Lannon refuses to go along with this tacit agreement, saying “He means ONE MORE, for a total of THREE.” Lono withdraws his hand from the box, muttering softly to Lannon “And you call yourself a thief!”

The box is returned to the desk drawer, and Lono is returned to the bag of holding, with him complaining while getting back in. “Do we have to put him back, hasn’t he suffered enough?” asks Kim-Sung. “If we keep him out it will be us doing the suffering,” answers Narg.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 51, “Will somebody please give Mark a hand?” September 27, 1018, 7:00 A.M.:

Nothing else noteworthy is found in the room, until a rug is moved, to reveal a trap door in the floor. Lannon does not detect any traps, and removes the floorboards. A small square hollowed out section of floor is immediately below, in which sits a small chest, about a foot long by eight inches wide and six inches high. The top of the chest is about a foot down. Mark reaches his hands in to remove the chest. A blade from below the floor slices across the top of the opening, just above the chest, which slices off Mark’s hands just below the wrists.

Hiroshi immediately applies direct pressure onto Marks arm wounds, to stop him from bleeding to death. Lannon uses his axe to again activate the blade trap, using the axe to then jam the blade in place. With the blade stooped Mojo reaches down and retrieves the two severed hands. Both Cassie and Timothy charge forward to assist.

Cassie is the party’s surgical expert, and she and Hiroshi then precisely place the hands where they belong on the arm stumps as Timothy casts a Cure Serious Wounds spell to seal the wounds. Cassie comments how she suspects that the hands were probably reattached before permanent damage would have set in. She recommends that a Ring of Regeneration be worn by Mark to fix whatever damage did occur. They put the ring onto the hand that appears to be most functional. After a turn of wearing the ring he is able to wiggle the fingers on that hand. The ring is then transferred to the other hand. The party decides that he should probably keep the ring on for the rest of the day in order to guarantee a complete recovery. Lannon complains “This is just great! Lono has one ring and Mark has the other. If somebody else looses a limb what will we do?”

Meanwhile, Mojo pulls out the chest. It contains two keys, one gold and the other silver. The party decides to retain the box and keys, concluding that they may need them later on to exit the tomb. The party finds no further exits, so Aradyn, Cassie, Fiona and Mark decide to go down a narrow hallway with a partially collapsed roof. They find that this leads to a large chamber, so get the others to follow. Getting through this is a tight squeeze, especially for Cheveyo.

The chamber has multiple exits and also a pair of stone statues of dwarves. The party examines the statues, concluding that they are carved statues rather than petrified dwarves. Hiroshi recommends that the group head down the exit directly opposite, concluding that it heads the direction they need to go to exit the temple.

They soon approach a section of corridor with very wide doors. An oriental man appears before them. He is wearing flowing oriental robes and carrying a black staff. Hiroshi notes that the man appears to be in his mid-fifties, too young to be Li-Tak. Hiroshi approaches him and speaks to the man in the languages of the Heian Empire, the local tongue as well as common, with no response from the silent door guard. Hiroshi concludes that person is not really there, but that it is some type of apparition.

The party cautiously walked past staying in a single file line. Hiroshi fears that taking the two keys past this man might be perceived as stealing. He makes a presentation of the chest and keys to the man, leaving them in front of the apparition. The group moves on. Hiroshi looks back, and sees that the is still standing there but the box had vanished.

The group presses on, picking up a slight breeze ahead, and following that direction. They eventually reach a staircase up. The group cautiously proceeds, passing through a series of circular rooms. The final room has a spiral staircase going down, as well as a statue on a pedestal. Lannon does not detect any traps, but upon reaching the sixth step down, the rocks shift, making a solid ramp. Because of his magical Boot Lannon does not slide down the ramp. He is able to string a safety rope for the others to follow.

They reach the bottom, into a room with a large gate attached to a wall. In the center of the room is a statue of a bare-chested dwarf with a Mohawk haircut standing on a platform and pointing to the gate. “I think we’re looking at the Mr. T. of Dwarves” is Mojo’s comment. This leads to a side discussion of the current television commercials for Stir Fry vegetable dishes, the current one featuring Mr. T. and other 1970”s and 1980’s has-been celebrities. “What did you find” yells out Serita from the back of the line. “A statue of a bare-chested short guy,” answers Aradyn, adding “You’d better put a blindfold on Timothy.” Lannon reads the inscription on the base of the statue, adding that it is old dwarvish and mentions a Chaos-faction of dwarves, with references to destruction and warfare.

The adjacent room has a statue of a majestic elf. This leads to a room with marble walls and a silver gate. The gate has intricate silver guiding on it, giving the appearance of vines. The corridor continues in the direction where the elf statue was pointing, Lannon moves one of the metal leaves, which triggers the gate in the first room to open. The wall behind the gate can now be slid to the side, revealing another long corridor. The temperature in the room becomes cooler as a breeze flows out from the corridor.

The group moves on and another gate is found, which is also opened by the turning of the silver leaves. From there, they precede down a series of corridors which have plush red carpeting on the floor. They pass through alcoves with more statures, each with a symbol in front of it on the floor. The statues on the left are of dwarves, and the statues on the right are elves. The dwarves respectively have the words Chaos, Death, Loyalty and Friendship before them while the elves have Law, Life, Love and Truth before them. The party comments about the association of law with elves and chaos with dwarves to be backwards from what they are used to. “Well, we are on the opposite side of the world,” comments Mojo.

The party discuss how the first two pairs of words, chaos & law and life & death, are opposites but how the next two pairs love & loyalty and truth & friendship are not. Mojo comments “I don’t know, I’d say that they are based on some of my past relationships.” The statues end with a passageway and narrow staircase, with the wording before saying “Test Thy Self” This leads to a long debate of who should test this first, and if class or alignment would make a difference.

Timothy tries to use his alignment-detection ability to check out the area, getting a headache as a result. The players decide that, for the first time this night, they won’t use characters of the absent players as the guinea pigs. They decide that Lannon would be the best to try, as he is a walking mix of conflict regarding chaos and law, and while he is currently living, he has died before, so has that pair of words covered too.

Lannon steps forward, during which the eyes of the statues light up and the symbols on the floor before them begin to glow. Lannon walks forward on the stairs and then vanishes into a wall, yelling back “I’m through”. “Are you dead?” asks Mark. “I’m fine,” he answers. The group eventually decide to all undergo this test, and step forward, disappearing on the other side.

On the opposite side of the wall is another corridor, from which an even stronger breeze is blowing. The group moves on, arriving at a large room filled with mist and condensation. The air is swirling around in this room, but there is no apparent place where the breeze is coming from. This room contains a statue of a dragon. There is a doorway with a large stone door with a keyhole on the opposite wall. The key that they had been given by the Hengeyokai is used on the door, which causes the stone to turn to liquid and melt, opening into a final room, containing another door. As they approach the door it slides open, revealing the outside of the temple.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 52, “OK, there's the Castle. How do we get to it?", September 27, 1018, 11:00 A.M.

The group exits the temple and removes Lono from the Bag of Holding. Not far away from them they seen Duegar, Toshiro and two of the four Hengeyokai who had accompanied them, who all appear to be wounded. The group reunites. Duegar says that a roving team of bugbears attacked them. The bugbears were defeated, but at the cost of the lives of the other two Hengeyokai. “We didn’t exactly have us a picnic either” is Lono’s reply.

The skies are overcast, there is a mild breeze, and there is a smell of an impending storm in the air. The group cautiously looks out from behind an outcropping of rocks near where they are, seeing the Castle of Morgarth approximately half a mile away. Smoke is coming from the tops of two of the four towers of the castle.

The castle is up on a hill with step cliffs coming down on three of the four sides of the hill. The fourth side of the hill extends downward from the castle for almost a half-mile at a rather gradual angle, and has a road leading up to the castle on it. On the incline the group can see at least sixty bugbear guards, congregated in groups ranging between four and ten. Near the base of this hill are a series of buildings. Near the buildings are bugbears and a group of ten of the elephant-footed giants. Also at the base of the hill is a metal vehicle, which from a distance looks similar to a Jeep belonging to their party member Alton, who originally came from a 20th century world. (Morgarth once worked with the evil mage who had a magic portal that linked to that world, so it is not surprising to the party that he has some items from there.)

It does not appear that the party has been spotted, so the group takes cover behind some rocks.
The Hengeyokai explain how they have orders to remain where they currently are, as observers, and only to go closer to the castle in the event of an emergency. They offer to guard and protect the party’s wounded, which at this point are Duegar, Lono and Toshiro. Lono refuses to be left behind with “a bunch of stinking animals”. “Duegar and Toshiro will be staying here too,” Serita suggests. “I was talking about them,” is Lono’s reply.

Hiroshi insists that Kim-Sung remain behind, feeling that Morgarth will present too great a risk for his young daughter. He commands Toshiro to “Stay and protect your cousin.” Mojo comments “Seems to me that he’s been protecting her during this whole adventure.” "Yeah, but mostly from you," is Fiona's comment. The party decides to also have the part-minotaur Cheveyo remain behind, as his size and appearance would make a stealth-assault problematic.

The group gets into a lengthy debate about whether or not to leave Lono behind. Narg says that “He is just deadwood. We’ve always had loose standards with this group, but it seems to me that having two healthy functional legs is a minimum criteria.” “The only thing Lono is good for is sneaky stuff,” Cassie comments. Lono yells out “Hello! In the room!” “Hey,” she says “That comment was meant as support for you.” “Don’t do me any favors,” he replies, “It sounds to me like this is conversation is along the line of whether to ‘put Lono in a home’.” Narg interjects “Look kid, I’m not known for my diplomacy.” “That’s for sure,” several people say in unison.

Hiroshi interrupts, pointing out that since Mojo has exceptional strength he could carry his cousin. Mojo immediately interjects “Wrong! You’d better phone a friend, because you’re not even close to the right answer.” Lono looks at Hiroshi, and says “And who are you to talk about being a liability, you old geezer.” “He won’t let any one try to support him, will he?” Fiona mutters. The group comments that Lono may actually have a valid point about Hiroshi also being vulnerable. Hiroshi says that his translation skills will probably be needed. He then reminds them of the magical animal statues that the group obtained back in the Heian Empire. The group did not need to use them to get past the Hengeyokai as they had originally planned, and he has experience with these magic items and could use some of these to help protect him if necessary. He says that he has used both the rhinoceros and spider monkey forms, and asks for a pair of those as well as some type of avian. “I don’t think we took any avians,” says Mojo, “how about a bird instead.”

The party also considers having Lono also use some of these statues, with Serita asking, “How long did they say these would work?.” Hiroshi answers “Generally from sunup to sundown, less for magically resistant races like gnomes and dwarves, and longer for magically inclined races like elves and half-elves. “One of the many advantages to being an elf,” Mojo states. Narg comments, “Once you go elf, you never go back.” This gets him looks from several party members.

Narg suggested Lono use just one statue, rather than a pair, to change into a humanoid biped form. Hiroshi says that would not work, as half his present form would remain, so the biped form would still be partially crippled. Two would work as the animal template has no relation to the former person’s form. Cassie asks for more information about this “animal template”.

Hiroshi explains that the animal statue is magically modeled after an actual animal of the same species, duplicating its body, form and part of its intelligence. “Wait a minute,” says Narg, “Just what do you mean by part of its intelligence?” Hiroshi answers that if none of the animal’s mind were present it would take the person too long to adjust to the new body to effectively use it, for example, what would be the point in turning into a bird for twelve hours if it takes eight hours just to learn how to fly. By retaining part of the animal’s intelligence then the person will instinctively know how to use the body and its unique abilities. “That makes sense,” Serita comments.

Hiroshi then continues: “The disadvantage is that it sometimes takes a short while to initially adjust to having dual mental patterns, especially if the form taken is an animal that is anxious and easily threatened. For example, if you transformed into a rat or squirrel, and Cassie’s owl familiar was present, the animal mind would immediately detect its natural predator and panic. It might take a few rounds for the rational mind to take over and counter this instinctive reaction. Similarly, if you become wounded and nearing unconsciousness, down to your last hit point, the animal’s strong sense of self-preservation would take over and attempt to flee to safety. Fiona states “That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing for some members of this party.” Mojo comments that “Dual mental patterns shouldn’t be a problem in Lono’s case, he barely has one of his own.” Lono raises objections to using these statues.

The group reconsiders leaving Lono behind, but it is pointed out that if Toshiro were forced to spend a few days with Lono he might prompt him to commit ritual suicide. They also might need the second set of thieving skills, especially if Lannon were to get hurt. It is decided that it would be best for Lono and Hiroshi to travel in the Bag of Holding.

Aradyn borrows the Ring of Invisibility to scout closer to the castle. The group discusses the possibility of Morgarth spotting him with a Detect Invisibility,. Cassie concludes that the spell range even for Morgarth’s level would be limited to the top of the hill, so Aradyn should be safe scouting up to the cliff side.

He returns an hour later, informing the group that the metal vehicle is like Alton’s Jeep only much bigger. Mojo says it is called “A truck”. Serita points out that her apprentice Alton taught her how to drive his Jeep, so she would be able to drive it. Mojo answers, “It’s probably even easier than a Jeep. Every truck driver I saw on the planet Carvel only used one hand to drive, using the other hand to make gestures" (Carvel is another 20th century world where Mojo and Lono once lived). Cassie contemplates whether these gestures might be part of a magical incantation needed to drive these devices. Mojo answers, “Gee, I don’t think so. The verbalization that went with them sounded a lot more like random obscenities than spellcasting.”

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 53, “Have Fun Storming the Castle”, September 27, 1018, 1:00 P.M.

The party has a lengthy discussion upon how to get to the castle. A variety of ideas are thrown out, the primary ones being (1) Fly in invisibly; (2) Use the animal transformation statues to resemble Hengeyokai and sneak in as guards; (3) Quit and go home. The first idea is rejected as they do not want to send anyone alone, and the logistics of flying together while invisible is not feasible. Another factor is that Morgarth or some of his minions may be able to detect invisibility, in which case flying across the empty skies would be the same as sending up a flare. The second idea is rejected when it is pointed out that the parameter guards are bugbears, whose job is to guard the castle from the Hengeyokai. The third idea is seriously considered, especially when the players realize how much doing so would tick off Narg’s player, who is absent this evening, but this idea is eventually rejected.

They consider the traditional plan of “Get’em”, but feel that if it fails they have no exit strategy, not being able to teleport home due to the anti-magic shell. “How about we plan for an organized retreat” Fiona suggests. “Organized retreat?” comments Mojo, “Have you ever seen how this group retreats when we have to? We look like a group of junior high cheerleaders who have just been set on fire.”

The group ponders what to do for the next two hours of game time. Serita’s player eventually gets impatient and yells, “Do Something!" which is then followed by another long period of silence. Narg and Duegar’s players have initiated nearly all of the decisive action during this module so far, and neither of them are present. Eventually the equally frustrated DM assigns a number to each player, rolls and dice, and hands the winner Narg’s character sheet, stating “You are now playing Narg, make a decision.”

Narg yells out “OK, everyone get into the bags, we’re going. Cassie and Lannon, you take the bags, just be sure to get me out first so that I can kill someone.” Most of the party does as instructed. Duegar, Kim-Sung and Toshiro decide to stay behind with the Hengeyokai (as their respective players will be away for the next month of game nights). Lannon picks up the bags and then activating Mojo’s Ring of Invisibility. Cassie then casts Invisibility on herself, and the two of them march off in the direction of the castle. As they reach the bottom of the cliff Cassie uses her Belt of Shape Change to become a parrot, and rides on Lannon’s shoulder as he uses his Slippers of Spider Climbing to scale the cliff.

They head across the hillside towards the castle, with Lannon finding the place where the moat is the narrowest, at about six feet. He considers a running long jump, saying, “I should be able to make it.” “Only if Cassie lights you on fire first,” is one of the player's comments. The parrot Cassie says, “Get in the bag.” He does, landing on top of Lono. Not expecting an invisible dwarf to fall on him Lono yells out “Hey, I specifically requested the cruise director that there be no dwarves in my cabin during this voyage.” The bags are flown across.

Lannon climbs out, and then scales the castle’s outer wall. The top of the wall is twenty feet across, with a four-foot high battlement at the top. Lannon sees two Bugbears on guard duty on top of the wall, one 130 feet from him, the other over 200 feet away. He also notices dirt, sticks and leaves on the top of the wall, with recent bugbear footprints indicating that they occasionally patrol on this part of the wall. Lannon’s player says, “I’ll step into the cleanest bugbear footprint. Another player interjects “Personally, I would like to see the tool that is used to measure the cleanliness of bugbear footprints to determine which is cleanest.” Stepping in these old tracks, Lannon makes his way across to the opposite side of the top of the wall and up that battlement. He examines the castle from here, seeing smoke coming from only two of the four towers.

Before climbing down, he looks into the courtyard below. He doesn’t see anyone between the wall and the castle, but one thing does stick out, namely a helicopter sitting in the widest section of courtyard. (Morgarth had previously partnered with an old enemy of the Silver Moon who had a device that could open a doorway to a world resembling 20th century earth). The player comments about being glad that Serita is in the bag of holding, as she would have probably immediately blown it up and ruined their element of surprise [She’s blown three of them up before in prior modules, and needs two more to become an “Ace”]. Serita’s player confirms that the statement is correct, and asks if Serita can perhaps sense that it is nearby, helicopters being a nemesis of hers.

Lannon climbs down, and heads over to the helicopter, planning to pour his oil of slipperiness onto the controls. The doors to the copter are shut, and after he sees magical runes on them, decides it best to just leave this vehicle alone. He heads over to the rear tower, which is one of two taller towers, this one without any smoke coming from it. The only windows are near the top, about 150 feet up, and look to be huge.

He quickly climbs up, to a stone windowsill, twelve feet long and six feet deep. The window itself is twelve feet wide and twenty feet high, one of three equidistant windows in this sixty-foot diameter round tower room. He immediately notices long deep scratches in the windowsill that look to have been made by dragon claws. Based upon the dirt, leaves and bird droppings covering them, none appear to be fresh. The windows are open, and the room has a dank smell to it. Even though it is overcast outside, enough light is going in through the huge windows for him to discern that the room is currently unoccupied. After checking first for both traps and dragon droppings, Lannon enters the room, and empties the party out of the bag of holding.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 54, “Lannon cases the joint”, September 27, 1018, 2:30 P.M.

Both Aradyn and Mark check the room for tracks in the accumulated dirt and dead leaves on the floor, concluding that nobody has been in here for years, possibly even decades or centuries. In spite of this long period without any maintenance, the room itself is in excellent physical condition, due in part to the exterior walls being four-feet thick. The only floorboards that show any sign of rot are those immediately below the three windows, but even those are still solid enough to walk upon, being close to a foot thick.

Within the room are several old, nearly petrified, logs, which based upon the claw scratches were used as perches for dragons to stand upon. Also in the room are some three-foot high stone walls, which make two four-foot square storage areas, which Cassie concludes is “Where they must have put the Purina Dragon Chow.” In the center of the room is a ten-foot diameter stone chimney running floor to ceiling. Large rusty metal grates are built into the chimney, to allow for heat from below to vent into the room. Also built into the chimney is a fireplace where a fire can be built and openings, at both human and giant height, that could be used for cooking. Mounted on one side of the fireplace is a rusty metal human-sized ladder going up to the ceiling to a closed trap door, apparently having been used to perform maintenance to the tower’s spire. The only other thing in the room is a large trapdoor on the floor, ten-foot square, made of the same foot-thick timbers as the floorboards. Three huge rusty metal hinges hold it in place. A two-foot round rusty iron ring is mounted to the other end.

The players have no plan as to how to proceed and look for suggestions from the DM. The DM tells them “Don’t look at me. I expected you guys to either fly in and enter the castle high up, or to come in on the ground and enter the castle from down below. With either of those strategies you would have been detected. Instead, you came in low and then enter high, so Morgarth’s forces still don’t know that you are here yet. The next move is yours, not mine. All I can tell you is that it is starting to rain outside.”

Serita tells Narg “Why don’t you use those fancy Mittens of Lifting Things Up to open the trap door.” “Mittens?” he answers “They’re called Gauntlets of Ogre Power.” Mojo interjects “Yeah, if they were mittens he’d have strings to tie them to his armor.” Narg answers “They still do, my mother would kill me if I lost them.”

Narg declares that he has come up with a plan. “You? A plan?” comment Fiona; “All that you ever come up with for a plan is ‘Get'em’.” He answers “That is not true. As I age, I become more mature, and say ‘Get'em’ in different ways.” Mojo interjects “You…get more mature? When has that ever happened?”

Lannon decides to play “Santa”, and head up the fireplace chimney to get to another part of the tower. He finds himself inside of the 150 long ten-foot diameter shaft. He also finds that iron grates have been set between each level, to prevent people from using the chimney to travel between floors. Fortunately for him, a rain deflector in the tower spire has rusted through during the past three centuries of neglect, and he now sees a steady stream of water dripping down through the chimney, hitting the grates. The water is now falling onto a one-foot diameter section of the grate that has rusted away over time. Lannon has no problem breaking off the thin rusted bars beside this hole, to make the opening big enough for him to climb through, and heads towards the fireplace on the level below.

He enters a room, walled in to comprise approximately one-third of this level. He finds it to be furnished and looks lived in. He notices a thin layer of dust covering everything, and concludes that nobody has been here during the past several weeks. He checks out the bed, dresser and a trunk inside the room. The trunk has an easily picked locked. Inside he finds several wool robes, a rope belt, rope sandals, and some cloth clothing. Also inside is a wooden box that is padlocked shut. He detects a needle trap in the lock, and springs it, prying back the needles, and then opens the lock. Inside is a pouch with non-oriental gold and platinum coinage, but not from any place that he is familiar with. Also inside are two scrolls. He pockets the coins and scrolls.

The room is locked from the inside, and he unlocks it and opens the door. This door, like others in the castle, is giant-sized, measuring five feet wide and twelve feet high, with the knob five feet above the floor. He sees a room occupying another third of this level, comprised mostly of a door to a third room and a spiral staircase, going both up and down from this level. Up leads to the trapdoor above where the party is, which has been bolted shut from this side. He climbs up, but soon discovers that the bolts require far more than his ten-strength to move. He decides to return to the party, going back through the chimney the way he came.

The party comments about him having been gone a long time. As Lannon returns Lono immediately blurts out “What did you bring me, what did you bring me!” “You, nothing,” Lannon says, “But you spellcasters may want to look at these,” and he hands over the two scrolls. Cassie cannot identify them, but Serita has no trouble recognizing them as scrolls containing Druidic spells, mostly low level spells but one containing a sixth-level “Anti-animal shell” spell. Lannon says he is not surprised, as the clothing found with them indicated either a druid or monk lived there. He relates the condition of the room, and the amount of dust. They ask to see the room, so he brings them all there in the bag of holding.

The party looks around. They recollects the during the island attack a high-level druid was working with Morgarth, and that he had fled long before Morgarth came to collect his allies. They conclude that this tower must have been where the druid lived, and that he did not return here following the battle. Serita is surprised that a druid would be living in a windowless room this high up, until Lannon points out that the chimney would have provided a readily accessible exit if the druid changed into bird form. Cassie adds that the dragon tower room above would have been ideal for the chimera. As Morgarth’s ally, the cleric Roger, has a chimera for a pet they group concludes that Roger is probably in one of the other towers.

 

[Silver Moon]

Chinese Take-out

Chapter 55, ”Be Verwwwy Qwiet, We’re Hunting Morgarths”, September 27, 1018, 3:15 P.M.

The party head out into the room with the staircase and decide to check out the other room on this level, but neither Lannon nor Lono are able to pick the lock. They head downstairs to the next level, finding it to be one large room, used for storage. There are statues and several rows of picture frames leaning against the walls, many of the paintings rather deteriorated. Based upon the cobwebs and dust outlines on the walls and floor they conclude that several paintings and statues look to have been removed from the room within the past year or so.

They continue to head downstairs. The next room is on the second level of the castle, but this room is sixty-foot square rather than round, therefore part of the main building rather than just the tower. In this room maps cover all of the walls, with a huge map, twenty-five by fifty-feet in size, covering the far wall. All of the maps are yellowed, and many show tears and cracks. Several are mounted on wooden backings and have pins of various colors stuck into them.

There are two large tables in the room, one with sand, and the other marked off in one-inch grids. Cassie concludes that this was a “Strategy room”. They start to examine the maps, seeing none of their home continent of Phlooredah, or any other place that they are familiar with. Hiroshi finds a map on a wall of the continent that they are now on. Mounted on wall is a rack, with several poles with broom and brush ends, which Cassie says would be to mark the sand. Drawers beneath the tables are filled with lead miniatures, Mojo commenting “How silly, people who play with little miniature figures.” The other drawer contains paper scrolls, with deteriorate when touched. Cassie manages to get one spread out, concluding that they are 500-year-old military orders.

The party decides that “war-room” was used by the Zhentarum during their rule, and left untouched by Li-Tak. The party notices that globes floating in the corners of the room brighten as the party’s voices rise, faintly lighting up the room. Fiona suggests they all leave the room, as Morgarth might be able to detect that the castle’s magic is being activated.

They head down to the lowest level of the tower, finding themselves in at a room once used as a forge. At the base of the chimney is a twenty-foot diameter forge stove. The room has many benches, anvils, and shelves and racks of hammers, tongs, pliers, and other assorted metalwork tools. Pieces of weapons and armor in various states of production are also hanging on hooks and racks, as well as well-worn leather aprons and gloves. The party concludes that the room is large enough to accommodate several blacksmiths at one time, and that the heat generated would have kept this tower toasty warm. This is most likely why the dragon chose it for his home. Some of the party help themselves to a few tools.

The only door from this room is locked, but that is soon rectified. The group finds where they are on the schematic of the castle’s first floor. They move out, discovering that, like the towers, each floor has ceilings thirty feet high. They stop when they smell food cooking ahead. They turn around, Narg deciding “Not to blow our element of surprise on a bunch of cooks.”

They proceed down a long hallway, heading through the first doorway, into what is clearly the “Great Hall” of the castle. It occupies close to half of the interior space of the building, being 300 feet long and 120 feet wide, with a vaulted ceiling going up 90 feet (three stores). The vast room is presently empty. They are near the back of the room, where there is a wooden stage and giant-sized wooden throne not far from them. The room has two balconies, one on each side of the room, made of thick and sturdy hardwood, with elaborately carved columns. Narg leads the party to a metal spiral staircase going up to the closest balcony. They reach the second floor, finding two doors off from the balcony, one at this end the other at the far end.

Mojo is very impressed by this room, and declares that “This castle would make a better home for us than our island.” It is pointed out to him that twenty miles of Hengeyokai surround it. He answers “No big deal, we’ll just sit in the castle towers and pick them off.”

Narg leads the group to the far end of the balcony, where voices are heard on the other side of the door. Aradyn and Cassie are able to identify that the speakers are talking in the Bugbear language, which Narg concludes, are “Also not worth blowing our cover over.” They head to the door at the other end of this balcony, entering into a thirty-foot wide corridor that runs outside of the entire 300-foot length of the Great Hall. There are no visible exits, which convinces Narg that “there must be a hidden one.” He leads the party down it to the very end, with none of the thieves or elves finding any secret doors. It is pointed out to Narg that they are now at the end of a long, stone, exit-less hallway, and if anyone comes around the bend at the opposite end they will be seen and trapped. The party makes haste to get back down the hall, and proceeds cautiously from there.