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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 523353" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 58, “An Unexpected Turn of Events”, September 27, 1018, 6:15 P.M. The group heads down the hallway, not bothering to check doors along the way, as they now wish to get to Morgarth’s tower as soon as possible.   They see a mirror mounted in the corner at the ceiling of the next intersection, and speculate that these mirrors may be used by Morgarth to monitor the castle. Lannon peers around the corner under the cover of invisibility.  He sees a group of eight young oriental women exiting a door down the hall, and head away from the party.  They appear to be  carrying empty dishes and cups.    Another door, further down the opposite wall then opens up, and out walk four Hengeyokai, all in their humanoid form, their sub-races being dog, duck, panda and rat.  They are also carrying dishes and cups, and head into the same side alcove where the girls went.  Lannon relays this to the others.Fiona suggests, “Why don’t we wait a while, until the dinner traffic lessens.”  “What, you mean wait until the theatre crowd arrives?” Mojo comments.   Mark suggests checking the map to see where they went.  The alcove looks to go into a short hallway with two staircases, one up the other down.  “Kind of like an escalator,” Narg comments.  Mojo says “Yeah, except for the fact that they are not moving and very wide.  They’re called stairs you idiot.”  “I liked escalators better, we did come here for the shopping, right?” comments Fiona sarcastically.  Narg answers, “We came here to make Morgarth dead.  He touched my still.”  Cassie speculates that “Morgarth may already be dead, as in Lich”.   The door that the women came opens again, and out walk six adventurers, heading away from where the party is.   Lannon recognizes them from the prior month back on the Island as the half-dwarf Barthrock and his party.   [Background:  Barthrock and his team had negotiated a truce with the Silver Moon.  Barthrock had become convinced that Morgarth could not be trusted and was only using his team as ‘cannon fodder’.  The Silver Moon had allowed them to leave the Island unharmed, and taking two of their dead, with the impression that this team would no longer work for Morgath.]    Two members of this team, its male druid and the female fighter/thief (who had died on the Island) head into the alcove with the staircases.  The other four, the half-dwarf, his dwarf fighter sidekick, human cleric (who had also died on the Island), and a human mage that they do not recognize (he had remained invisible during the entire Island battle), head to the door on the opposite wall which the four Hengeyokai had come from, and go through it.  Lannon tells the rest of the party about who he saw.  The party has a brief discussion about this.   Narg is upset that Barthrock apparently lied to them, since he is clearly still working for Morgarth.   The Silver Moon discuss the fighting strength of these four.  Fiona reminds the group that this was one of the most formidable teams who they had fought, which was one of the reasons that a truce had been negotiated with them in the first place.    She also reminds them that this group of foes never returned a key item that they had taken from Alton, namely his 45 caliber handgun (She would definitely remember this given her high intelligence, plus the fact that Fiona and Alton are played by the same player).   The group discusses fighting these people.  Cassie says she would first like to know where the other two went, not wanting to caught in a crossfire between two groups from this team.   She also reminds them that Barthrock’s team previously had another member, an Oriental monk.  The party continues single-file down the long corridor, being watchful of the doors.  As they near the corner alcove where the woman and druid disappeared, Lannon tells the party to wait, and  he invisibly heads into that section.  He peers into the opening, seeing the two large staircases, one ascending the other descending.   More importantly, he sees an Oriental gentleman attired as a monk, coming down the ascending staircase and heading directly towards him.   Lannon invisibly hurries back, but before he can inform his party the rapidly moving monk also reaches the intersection.  Aradyn had been on high alert, and immediately releases an arrow point blank as the man walks into view.   The monk has good instincts and very quick reflexes, and spots the arrow at the last possible second, catching it in mid-air.  The monk then uses this arrow to deflect Aradyn’s next  arrow, ricocheting it against the wall.   The monk holds up his hand with the arrow, and makes a “stop” gesture with his other hand.  This is followed by a “come here” gesture.   The party cautiously approaches.As they near him the monk speaks softly in common, saying “We have been expecting you, but not this soon.  Morgarth uses mirrors to monitor what is going on in the castle.  He is currently preoccupied, but that will not last long.   Quickly, get to the rear tower of the castle, as it is the only part of the castle without mirrors.   My team leader will then contact you.  Do you know how to get there?”    The party is taken aback by this response to their presence.   “This may be a trap,” Mojo cautiously advises.   Timothy is asked to check the man’s alignment, telling the party “lawful neutral”.  They decide to trust him.  They tell the monk that they know the way.  The monk hands Aradyn back his arrows.  [DM’s note:  Big experience for everyone, especially Lannon, for their unexpected restraint.   I had anticipated that either Lannon would stay invisibly backstab the monk or that Fiona and Cassie would blast him with Magic Missiles.  This monk only had eighteen hit points, and either type of attack would have probably been fatal.  If that happened it would have seriously jeopardized their getting Barthrock’s team as both an information source and potential allies.]</blockquote>

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