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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 502415" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 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.</blockquote>

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