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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 459469" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 40, "You guys have a guest room, right?", September 20, 1018, 10:00 P.M.              Because of the time difference from the Orient it is 6:00 A.M. on Lendore Island when the group teleport in, arriving near the Laughlin & Whitehall Shipyard.   The crisp sea air blows onto the beach, as the group looks out at the sea.  "Well, at least the company is still in business" Laughlin notes, looking over at the business where three of the five dry-dock facilities have ships under construction, including a large six-mast merchant ship of the same design as the one that was lost to the pirates.  He says it is too early for them to go see the half-elf’s father, so it would be best to check in with his partner or ex-wife.   “Which one first?” Serita asks.  “Both,” he answers, “They’re at the same house.”  They arrive at the house, Laughlin knocking on the door.  A butler answers, and is totally flabbergasted at seeing who has knocked.   “Hi there, me again!” Laughlin says, “Don’t bother announcing me, I’ll just do it myself,” he says, and rushes past the still shocked servant.  The other three follow, Serita commenting “You’re enjoying this far too much.”  He answers “Allow me this one indulgence, the rest of my day will be far less enjoyable, with me visiting the families of my deceased crew.”     He then busts into the dining room, where his partner and his ex-wife are both sitting down to breakfast.  Laughlin blurts out “Hi honey, I’m home!” to the shocked expressions on their faces.  She recovers quickly, and demands to know what happened to their daughter.   Laughlin tells her “She’s safe, these people rescued us,” while pointing to Duegar, Mark and Serita.   Duegar exclaims, “Great, breakfast time,” and pulls hops down into a empty chair at the table while grabbing a bowl full of fried eggs, using the serving spoon as his personal utensil.”   Laughlin goes on to explain how the ship was attacked by pirates and of their spending the last five months as property of slavers.  He explains how the party bought them out of slavery, but had to borrow money to do it, and need to be reimbursed.   The partner, who Laughlin warned the party is quite frugal, is reluctant to pay.  Laughlin pressures him into coming up with the 55,134 gold pieces for the four employees.   He then gets his wife to commit to paying the 15,433 gold pieces for the daughter.  “You’re paying half,” she tells him.  “And what is the status of my personal wealth?” he asks her.  She and her current husband exchange glances, with the maneventually saying “They found four bodies in the water, we thought you were all dead.”  “Just as I suspected,” Laughlin says, “Well, we can work that out later, just pay these people.”  The partner says “It will take a while to get that much currency together.”  Duegar leans back, propping his feet on the fancy table, and with a mouth full of food says “No problem, take you’re time, I’ll just stay here as long as it takes.  You guys have a guest room, right?”   A panicked look crosses the woman's face, and her husband says  “I’ll get it today.”  Serita tells him to add in 2,000 gold pieces each for transportation back to the island.  The partner balks at the amount, until Laughlin points out that they are now approximately ten thousand miles away, so would cost a lot to get home via any means.  The party then leaves, Duegar gabbing some food “for the road,” as they leave.  Serita comments to the dwarf “Well done, you have some uses after all.”  Next they visit Xavier Pace, the human father of the half-elf fighter.  Laughlin decides that it is best for him to wait outside as they go to enter.  The door is locked, but gives way with a little force from Duegar.  The man, a distinguished and well-dressed middle-aged man sitting in a leather chair by an oak desk looks up, and says “We’re not open yet.”  “You are now,” says Serita, “This is about your son”   She gives him the sword and note, which basically instructs the father to “Pay these people”  Serita tells the man that they need 40,000 gold pieces, which causes the man to hesitate, and ask for confirmation that they really have his son.   They then call in Laughlin, who enters the room, with Mr. Pace immediately yelling  to him “What happened to my cargo?”  Laughlin quickly relates what he and the boy have gone through for the past five months.   The man agrees to get the money.   Two hours later the group are at the local bank, geting their money from the accounts of the shipping firm, Pace’s trading firm, and the Whitehill’s personal account.   The party tells both Pace and Whitehill to expect the return of their children and crew within the next day.  They four leave the bank, bidding farewell to Laughlin.  Only then does Serita finally remove the slave collar from Laughlin’s neck, pocketing it.  They teleport back to the hotel room in Y’Cho Kang.September 21, 1018, 1:00 A.M.Serita dumps Duegar and Mark from the bag of holding, and talks to Aradyn, who is on guard duty.  He says that the Ming Estate has taken the two gnomes and the dwarf, reimbursing the party the 40,300 that they paid for them.    Aradyn is told how much they were able to obtain in Lendore Island, and does some quick math to conclude that they now have enough to clear up their auction house debt with 198 gold pieces to spare.   Serita gives Aradyn the bags of holding, telling him to closely guard them, and heads off to sleep.  Duegar and Mark also conclude that sleep would be good.In the morning, Serita teleports the five agreed upon acquisitions back to Lendore Island, leaving from that group only Ellowin, Hunter and Maple-twig.   Mojo suggests that these three be dumped onto their spin-off group, Da’Bears, but Serita refuses to use up two teleports to do this (her ring has a maximum of six charges, and self-recharges one per day).  It is decided to just keep these three until the party can come up with another alternative.The group of Cassie, Fiona, Duegar, Hiroshi, Kim, Lannon, Mark, Serita and Toshiro head over to the auction house.  They pick up the potions, then ask for the part-minotaur.   He is brought out and given to the party.   The party decides that it is best to engage him in conversation earlier rather than later, to let this massive and well armed (no pun intended) individual know their intentions.   Cassie explains to him that they are familiar with his religion, the Twin Gods, and that they have a party member who is a Twin Gods cleric.  They explain that they did not purchase him to be a slave, but rather to help him.   Duegar then starts telling him how they will make “A spot for you on our Island where you can bring your whole village to live.”  Mojo stops Duegar, telling him, wait-a-second, we still haven’t decided if there’s a spot on the island for YOU yet.”   Cassie tells the creature “We can figure out future arrangements later, right now we have rented rooms at a nearby inn, where we can go now to continue the conversation.”  The creature indicates that this is acceptable, but that he would also like them to find out what happened to the other four half-minotaurs who had been sold.”   “Fine,” says Serita, “but first things first and before we go to the inn we have one more lot from the auction that we have to pick up.”  The group decides to wait until they are back at the inn to engage the Hengeyokai in conversation.  The Hengeyokai are brought out.   The two females have been attired in bikini-style clothing.  One of the men is in simple robes, another in armor and the third with a hooded cloak over robes.    Kim speaks to them in the local language, telling them “We are not going to keep you as salves.  We got you to set you free, but we also need your help.  This is not a safe place to talk.  Will you please come with us?  We have lodgings nearby.”</blockquote>

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