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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 542425" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 63, “The Audacious Charade”, September 28, 1018, 12:00 A.M. Fifteen rounds earlier Aradyn had been listening at the door, then he instantaneously appeared elsewhere.   His unclothed body, devoid of possessions and made of golden light, appeared floating in air on a land comprised of open spaces and misty clouds, with pink and crimson colored skies in all directions.  Also floating around him were porous light to medium green rocks of various sizes [visually like the Astral Plane as depicted in Marvel Comics early Doctor Strange stories drawn by Steve Ditko.].  Aradyn grabbed onto the nearest rock, a five wide by ten long foot boulder, noticing for the first time another unclothed being floating forty feet away.  The person was a tall bald human male with a long beard, apparently Morgarth.  The light that comprised this man’s body was a deep blood red color, with parts that were nearly black in shade.   The man stared at him, and said “You fool.  Your band thought that you could defeat me, but now you are all mine.”   “Morgarth I presume,” is Aradyn’s casual reply.  “And who else would I be?,” he answers.   Before saying anything further Aradyn sees that Morgarth became mentally distracted, the Mage then yelling out “Damn, I almost had Cassie-Andra”.   Morgarth then rattles off to Aradyn about how Narg’s team will soon be defeated, and how they are nothing compared to his might.  He finishes with “So, are you prepared to grovel and beg for a swift death, or should I make it slow and painful?”Aradyn is astute enough to realize that, with no weapons at his disposal, he won’t last long in combat against a 26th level mage.  He also realizes that with Morgarth mentally on the Astral Plane, then the mage’s unmoving body would be back at the castle, so the best strategy is to stall for time until the Silver Moon can find and destroy it.   To keep Morgarth busy, he asks “OK, so what is your master plan?”  He is shocked when the villain replies “None of your business.” Morgarth then goes into another period of deep concentration.  From the Mage’s facial expressions Aradyn concludes that whatever he is doing is not working.  After a few rounds, however, Serita appears on the astral plane.   Her body is comprised of a grayish-white light.  She quickly orients herself to her surroundings, and starts to experiment with how to move about the plane, swimming through the air over towards Aradyn. “Well, that’s two of you insignificant whelps that I’ve captured,” Morgarth bellows.  “Can’t you see that it is hopeless for you to defy me!”  Serita remains her typical obstinate self with a  response of “Yeah, sure.  Did you miss the part where your Pit Fiend bodyguard got its head cut off?”   This comment has a visible emotional impact on the mage, with his shading temporarily changing from to a very deep black.   Both Hiroshi and Lono then appear about one hundred feet away, well behind where Morgarth is standing.  Hiroshi quickly pulls Lono over with him behind a rock, since Morgarth has not seen them yet.   Aradyn and Serita both saw the other two and decide to continue to press Morgarth’s buttons to distract him from the others.  Aradyn exclaims “If your are in such a superior position over us, then how is it that we managed to infiltrate your impregnable castle undetected?”  Serita adds “Yeah, and for such a brave man you sure ran off in a hurry an hour ago.”  Morgarth looses his temper, and lets loose with a Magic Missile spell.  Thirteen missiles dart out from his fingertips, seven striking Aradyn for 28 points of damage and six striking Serita for 24 points of damage.   Watching this, Hiroshi softly mutters an expletive in the Heian language, and then tells Lono “That was only a First Level spell.  Those two don’t stand a chance.”   “What can we do?” Lono asks. Hiroshi tells Lono “I’m going to have to distract him.  Listen up, moving on this plane just requires thinking about where you want to go.  Once Morgarth is watching me, go over to the other two and garb them.  I’m mentally anchoring you here, and will let you go if I am injured or worse.  Hopefully you’ll be able to pull them back with you.  Have Serita wait until I appear to really need help before throwing any spells.”  Lono starts to ask a question, but Hiroshi is already gone.  He appears twenty feet behind the evil Arch Mage, standing beside a large green floating boulder.  “HOW DARE YOU!” Hiroshi screams, catching Morgarth by surprise, and the mage quickly turns around to face the elderly Japanese man.  Lono thinks himself next to the others, and he appears there.  Hiroshi continues to yell “You have one hell of a lot of nerve threatening these people!  Haven’t you caused me enough aggravation already!  Give me one reason why I shouldn’t destroy you right now?”   Morgarth is taken back by this confrontational verbal assault, and asks the obvious question “Who are you?”  Hiroshi feigns disbelief, saying “Who am I?  You honestly don’t know?  I’M LI-TAK!”   Lono, Aradyn and Serita briefly exchange glances at this, as Hiroshi’s tirade is so convincing they each wonder if maybe he actually is Li-Tak.   A now befuddled Morgarth answers “You can’t be.  Li-Tak died over three centuries ago.”  “Oh really,” Hiroshi counters “Then let me ask you this.  If I had died, then where is my grave?   You’ve combed every inch of my castle, and by now you must have noticed how much my daughters and the Hengeyokai revere me.   Don’t you think they would have left some sort of shrine or tomb in my memory?  But you haven’t found that, have you?  I have no tomb because I haven’t died yet, I just left the castle for a while.   Nor have you found my most precious texts, and do you know why?  Because they are not there, I took them with me.”  Morgarth appears very troubled, so Hiroshi presses the advantage, raising his voice to new levels, and yelling.  “And look what you’ve done!  You’ve trespassed in my Castle!  You’ve disturbed and destroyed my things!  You forced my children to wait on you as if they were your servants!  You even have had the nerve to offer my daughters as prizes in a contest to your lackeys!”Morgarth appears ready to cast a spell at his accuser, and Serita prepares to cast one as well.  Hiroshi then interrupts Morgarth saying “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.  Exactly where do you think I’ve been these past centuries?”  That causes Morgarth to stop his casting, and he asks “Where?”  Hiroshi answers “I’ve been visiting with the deities on their planes.  It’s only due to the calming influence of the Lawful Good deities who I spent the last century with that I haven’t destroyed you already.  Oh, I suppose we could now fight each other using spells, but a mere mortal like you is limited to what?  Ninth level spells?  You haven’t been taught the tenth, eleventh and twelfth level spells that the deities have taught me.  So where would be the contest in that?”Hiroshi presses on “And if we don’t use spells, where does that leave us?  Hand to hand combat?”  Hiroshi yells out in Japanese, and swings his right arm, striking the boulder next to him with a karate chop.   This causes a triangular section, about three feet on each side, to break off and float away.   Looking back to a now visibly shaken Morgarth, Hiroshi says, “Then again, hand-to-hand might not be very fair either.”   Hiroshi continues “So, I’ll tell you what I am going to do.  If I were to kill you within the anti-magic shell, either here or at the castle, it would leave part of your essence behind.  Since I don’t want your vile filth soiling my home, I’ve decided to give you an opportunity to leave.”   Hiroshi holds up his left index finger and announces “I’m going to start a Firefinger spell.  It will serve as a timer, and last for about half an hour.  When it goes out, I’m returning to my Castle, and if you are either there, of anywhere within the territory of my sphere, you will then suffer the consequences.  You had better go now, this is your only chance.”  He casts the spells, the finger lighting up in flame.     Morgarth wastes no time in exiting from the Astral Plane.   Hiroshi’s Firefinger spell then goes out, and he moves himself over to where the other three are.  “Very impressive,” Aradyn comments.  “You are some B.S. artist,” states Lono.  Hiroshi answers “Well, I got nervous for a while there, thinking that he would notice that my Astral aura was the wrong alignment color for a druid.  That is why I threw in that cow manure about Lawful Good deities.  Thankfully, he couldn’t differentiate from my aura that my flares of emotion were my telling lies rather than anger.”  Finally relaxing a bit, Hiroshi adds “I guess it’s not every day when an apprentice mage, who only knows one cantrip, can outclass an Arch Mage.”  He turns to Serita, and says “Could you please do me one huge favor?”  “What?” she replies.  With his left hand he now holds up his limp right arm and says” Could you give me a cure spell before I pass out.  I haven’t tried to do martial arts in thirty years, and I think that I may have broken every bone in my hand.”</blockquote>

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