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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rune" data-source="post: 219493" data-attributes="member: 67">Ingredients:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tea Party</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Opium</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Talking Mouse</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Murlynd’s Spoon</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pixies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dire Bear</li> </ul>Optional Ingredients Used:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Serving Wench</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dead Horse</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Nagging Wife</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Child’s Toy</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sexy Dancer</li> </ul>An Unusual TripA short adventure for characters level 8-12This adventure is designed to be run with the core rules, but would be nicely complimented by the use of the Oriental Adventures Handbook.  Suggestions for replacing the classes of some NPCs with classes from that book will be given in parentheses after the original suggestion.The HistoryAn insular island exists off the eastern coast of the Western Continent.  Until recently, no traders or visitors of any kind were allowed to approach the island, under any condition.  Those who managed to get past the naval defense and reach the island, for some foolhardy reason or another, have never returned.  Until recently, nothing else was known of these reclusive people; nothing was known of their home, or their ways—the islanders were a complete mystery.In truth, they had developed a highly organized feudal society, under the leadership of an increasingly weakening empire (the Sunlit Empire).  Their customs and traditions are extraordinarily rigid in comparison to those of the rest of the (known) world.  Naturally, they had developed a completely self-sufficient economy in the process.This is not to say that the island is free from conflict; recent events are certainly bloody enough to dispel that notion.Recent EventsNearly a year ago, this self-imposed embargo and isolation was lifted by the young emperor, Golden Sunrise Reigns, who had hopes of increasing the wealth of the Empire through trade with the great Western Continent.  Many fine products and materials were introduced to the island, while a multitude of exotic products and spices flowed out into the larger world.By far, the most influencing product to be integrated into the Empire was an insidious substance called opium.  The popularity of the drug spread throughout the island with an rapidity that could not be believed and with consequences that could not yet be fully understand—a terrible addiction coupled with a dependence upon the Western Continent for the intoxicating substance.For his visionary action, Golden Sunrise Reigns was assassinated within a few months.  The employers of the assassins have never been verified, but they are most likely one of a few noble Houses who disagreed with the emperor’s goals.  Several of these Houses had vested interests in certain trades within the Empire, amounting to monopolies.  Furthermore, a number of Houses may well have guessed at the cruel nature that the opium trade would take on and desired to prevent it.Regardless of the actual employers, the results of the assassination were catastrophic.  The fragile bonds holding countless fiefs together were sundered and civil wars began to spring up all over the empire between the fractured, feudal lords.Golden Sunrise Reigns left behind a successor—his son, Ancient Sunrise Returns—but the boy is barely eighteen months old.  Until he has reached maturity, Golden’s brother, Winter Sunrise Hides, has been assigned the duties of the acting regent.The SetupThe PCs will need to travel by sea to get to the island of the Sunlit Empire.  The PCs could be traders, or could simply be traveling with traders to visit a new and exotic locale.  If the PCs do not particularly wish or have plans to travel to the Sunlit Empire, it should be no difficult matter to have the ship boarded by pirates or the navy of the Empire (factions of which are run independently by various warring Houses) and brought to the shores of the island Empire.  The ship that the PCs are on will inevitably carry a large quantity of trade goods—including, especially, opium—if it is intended to dock at the island Empire at all.  Some of these goods may well belong to the PCs, if they are traders.The PCs will dock in the Sunlit City, a massive port, which serves as the seat of the Empire.The PCs will be unable to understand any of the denizens of the island unless they speak Draconic, the language of the Empire (presumably because the main structures of worship appear to revolve around draconic idols).  If none of the PCs can speak Draconic, an interpreter (level 3 Expert) will be made available to the PCs almost as soon as they step off of the ship—the powerful Houses of the Empire have reason to greet Western visitors with surprising—and suspiciously conspicuous—warmth; with the recent warring, trade with the island has diminished noticeably and the demand for opium only continues to increase.Consequently, many of the people on the docks are servants of the Houses and have been ordered to greet foreign traders and invite them to the palace of that particular House.  Whether the PCs are actually traders or not, the locals will assume that they are.  If the PCs explain that they have no goods, or that their goods have been raided, the servants are likely to assume, wishfully, that the PCs are lying in an attempt to drive up the trade price of their goods.As it happens, the House Sunrise has servants at the dock on the day that the PCs arrive on the island.  As the House Sunrise is the House of the acting regent and the infant emperor, none of the other servants will approach the PCs; to do so would mean imprisonment or death for the offender.  These servants will not take any foreigners with them until after House Sunrise has left with some.The Sunlit PalaceIf the PCs opt to accompany the servants of House Sunrise to the Sunlit Palace (the home of House Sunrise), they are likely to arrive in the early afternoon at the fantastic and unusual towers of a beautifully exotic palace.  If the PCs opt to make their way in the City on their own, instead, they certainly will have to do so without the aid of a translator.  Even if the PCs can speak Draconic, they will find that the rest of the City is much less civil to foreigners, as old isolationist tendencies are still quite prevalent within the Empire.  Eventually, the PCs may realize that it would be in their interest to accept the House Sunrise’s hospitality and return to the docks to accompany their servants to the Palace.  If this is the case, they will arrive at the palace somewhat later.  In either case, the PCs will be invited to join the regent and several lords of some of the most powerful Houses in a Tea Ceremony.Winter has invited a few lords that he least trusts to drink Tea with him, enjoy some entertainment, and converse.  Only three of the five invited lords show up.  These are Roaring Waterfall Rages, Sleepy Shadow Lies, and Hunting Arrow Whispers.  Winter is operating under the theory that the enemy is less able to cause mischief if the enemy can be seen.  He is also hoping to kill two birds with one stone, using the opportunity to impress his unexpected guests (the PCs) at the same time.The Tea Ceremony takes place in the Throne Room—a room almost utterly devoid of furniture, save several cushions (apparently for kneeling on!  Nobody appears to sit down anywhere on this island), several very low tables, and one massive, low platform constructed, or at least adorned, with the remains of a massive bear.This is the Sunlit Throne (although, not a throne in the sense with which the PCs will most likely be familiar—it is merely a large platform to be kneeled upon).  The throne has a history, which Winter will be most pleased to relate, if the PCs show interest.  Several generations in the past, the Great Uprising saw the end of one dynasty’s control of the throne and the beginning of another—the Sunrise dynasty.  The new emperor, Bitter Sunrise Chills, was said to have been a tough general in his day.  Legend tells that the general traveled, alone, into the wilderness (which, at the time, was much more vast than currently, Winter assures the PCs) and personally killed a dire bear, twenty feet long and nearly 6000 pounds.  The remains became the Sunlit Throne.Silent women wearing revealing silk robes and wearing white face-paint fulfill the role of serving wenches.  The women are uniformly graceful, patient, and watchful as they serve the tea, but the lords of the Houses and the regent never seem to notice that they exist.One more feature of note is that the room is absolutely saturated with the heady, pungent aroma of some kind of incense.  In fact, this is opium and prolonged exposure to the tainted air will cause the PCs (and the NPCs) to loose a degree of control over their senses.  The drug should be treated as a poison, with an immediate loss of 1d4 points of Dexterity if the PCs fail a Fort save against DC 20 and a further loss of 1d6 points each of Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence on a failed Fort save against DC 25 one minute later.  Furthermore, a PC who fails both saves has developed an addiction to opium and will suffer 1d6 points each of Constitution and Strength damage in the first week without exposure to the drug.  The PC will suffer 1 point each of Constitution and Strength for every day thereafter for 2d6 more days, after which, the addiction has been overcome.  However, every time that the PC is exposed to the possibility of abusing opium hereafter, the PC must make a Will save against DC 20 to avoid being compelled to give in to that possibility.  Opium also has one other important quality, which shall be discussed later.The evening’s entertainment consists of a group of very seductive dancers.  Only a Spot check at DC 20 will reveal that the dancers follow a strange tradition unfathomable by the outer world; that is to say, that the dancers are not the females that they appear to be…The AssassinsSometime during the ceremony, a servant will run in and yell that Winter’s prize stallion has been slain.  This is the only warning that the opium-affected partygoers will have that something is amiss.  Within a round, two assassins leap from the shadows to attack.  Their primary targets are the nobles (and the royal), but they will readily engage in combat with the PCs if the PCs attempt to get in the way.The PCs will have a chance to avoid a surprise round by making a Spot check against the assassins’ Hide checks (remembering the effects of the opium).  The opium will affect the assassins in the same manner as the PCs and the other NPCs as soon as they enter the room.  They will escape immediately after they have slain all three nobles and the regent, or when five rounds have passed, whichever comes first.  The assassins are both actually Rogue 7/ Shadowdancer 3 (if you are using the OA rules, you may wish to replace some or all of the Shadowdancer levels with Ninja Spy levels).  They have been hired by one of the two Houses that did not show up to this evening’s tea ceremony, in order to eliminate four of their rivals at once.If the PCs survive and their host (and his other guests) do not, the PCs may be blamed by the house for their deaths, but most among the household are aware that there are much more likely causes for the deaths than a wandering pack of homicidal foreigners.  Even so, the situation should become pretty tense when screams start echoing down the hallways from the personal chambers, which is precisely what happens within a few moments.The EmperorAs it happens, the emperor-child is missing.  A woman wails in the infant’s room, while she stirs a porcelain bowl of rice-paste with a pair of the strange stick-like eating utensils of the locals in an absentminded daze.  The sticks are actually magical, and function as a Murlynd’s Spoon, save that the gruel is rice-paste and the utensils are impossible for an unfamiliar connesuer to eat from—in all other respects, the sticks are a [Murlynd’s Spoon[/I]; this was the emperor-child’s private dining set.  Strewn across the room are various toys, an open cage constructed of some sturdy reed common to the island, and a closed cage of the same material, inside of which, a mouse chatters to itself quietly.  In Draconic.The wailing woman, the PCs may soon discover, was the wife of Golden Sunrise Reigns—and is the mother of Ancient Sunrise Returns.  She is Meadow Gently Rolls.  She is obviously distraught, but manages to take time in between her wails to pester the white-faced servant women (whose role it was to care for the child) unceasingly.  She repeatedly asks them for an account of what has happened, but the women are all unable to give satisfactory answers.  Invariably, they respond that they have no memory of the night’s events.  A Spot check made at DC 25 will reveal that each of them has an almost invisible, tiny arrow protruding from some part of their body.  Meadow is annoyingly critical of everything at this moment and the PCs should not feel that their status as “honored guests” will exclude them from chastisement.  It most certainly will not.Meadow is currently irrational, but when she regains her senses, she will remember that she has, perhaps, a reliable witness.  Meadow is a follower of spiritual magic—treat her as a level 9 Druid (or a level 9 Shaman from OA)—and has crafted a “toy” for her infant—an intelligent mouse, from a normal one (through the awaken spell; if Meadow is a Shaman, the mouse will have to have been purchased from overseas, as Shamans do not have access to awaken).  The mouse has, indeed, witnessed what happened to the infant, but is unable to make any sense of it.  The mouse heard laughter with no source and saw the other cage open—the cage holding a one-foot tall half cricket, half humanoid-type creature (a grig—a fey sold to the House Sunrise from overseas with the claim that it brought good luck—the baby’s other living “toy”) with the strange stringed instrument (a tiny fiddle, used, the household presumed, for entertainment, but actually played as a distress signal—and a beacon to the fey realm).  The cricket-creature hopped out and…disappeared.  A moment later, still accompanied by the strange laughter, the baby rose into the air, floated away a few feet, and…disappeared.If the PCs are still under the influence of the opium, they will soon discover its secondary properties—that is, people can see the traces of overlap between the fey realm and the mortal realm.  In the present case, the PCs will see what appear to be trails of glitter suspended in the air.At this point, the PCs may begin to suspect the truth, that is, that the baby was not kidnapped by rival Houses, as many within the Empire are likely to suspect, but that the baby has been kidnapped by fey (which are completely unknown to the islanders) at a mischievously coincidental moment.  In actuality, two pixies answered the call for help sent forth by the grig’s fiddle, rescued him (invisibly, of course), and stole the baby emperor, for no reason other than one simple constant law of nature: that’s what pixies do.  On their way out, they made a point of shooting the servant women with their Memory Loss arrows, but, having no idea that the mouse was intelligent, took no such precaution with it.If the PCs are still under the influence of the opium, they may find the portals used by the pixies (which have not yet faded, but will within 1d4 days) to the fey realm on a successful Search check of 20.  These are two-way portals, which may only be used if the person traveling through them is conscious of their presence.Through the Looking-GlassAt this point, the PCs will be confronted with a number of options, a few of which follow.  They may:a) leave the Sunlit Palace and charter a ship home from the island.  This course of action should not be very palatable for the PCs; if the PCs choose this course of action, they will be leaving behind an Empire in the throes of collapse.  A multitude of crises confront the island—from a dependence upon opium that far outpaces the availability, to multiple civil wars, to the inevitable change in dynasty.  If Winter Sunrise Hides has been killed, an immediate power vacuum will be created.  Otherwise, it will take a little while.  Ironically, in a few weeks, the baby emperor will be returned to the household, but no one will ever trust that the child is exactly what it seems from that moment forth.b) become involved in one of the civil wars that are breaking out all over the Empire.  The PCs may find that they have been swept up into the schemes of one House lord or another and could be recruited or manipulated into serving, directly or indirectly in the coming wars.  If the PCs find themselves in this situation, they are very likely to find themselves conspicuous targets for assassins and rivals.  If the House that the PCs sides with wins the wars (through hard years of fighting), the PCs may be awarded honorary positions of authority, at best.c) help to inaccurately accuse someone of the crimes committed during their stay.  If the PCs are not able to discover that fey are responsible for the kidnapping of the emperor, they may well help to pinpoint the wrong person or persons for the crime, should they aid in the investigations.  The most likely suspects will be whatever House or Houses are implicated in the assassination attempt.  However, the PCs may also suspect Winter Sunrise Hides, who could possibly have arranged the kidnapping out of jealousy (he will never, after all, be able to kneel on the Sunlit Throne) and, furthermore, has a sinister name.  The PCs may also suspect the Houses present at the party were involved, as they certainly have as much reason to cause discord within the household as the other Houses and could possibly have disproved Winter’s theory that observation would neutralize their threat.  Finally, the PCs may suspect Meadow Gently Rolls is behind the kidnapping.  Evidence for this is sketchy, at best, and the motive is nearly non-existent, but most of the people within the household do not like her and will be willing to believe that she is the culprit, if a minor attempt to convince them is put forth.  The House Sunrise will gladly reward the party 10,000 gold-worth of exotic trade-goods for their help in bringing closure to this situation.d) attempt to fill the power vacuum that will inevitably be left when the House Sunrise is absolved of authority.  The only real way to accomplish this task would be through a successful war against all of the vying Houses.  This may be possible if the PCs have an army across the sea and go to retrieve it, but will be fruitless, even so.  Not only would the PCs have to contend with all of the problems outlined in choice “a,” above, they would never be accepted as legitimate rulers by the people of the island.e) journey through the portals in Ancient Sunrise Returns’ room to the fey realm to retrieve the baby.  The fey realm is an unsettling place.  The landscape seems to shift under the feet of the PCs and the weather is in constant flux—as are the seasons.  Most of the inhabitants of the fey realm are grigs, nixies, and pixies, but the PCs will confront many creatures that are only illusionary—usually bizarrely so—from insane tailors with facial features that stretch beyond the bounds of nature to giant caterpillars which rest atop fungi while they blow multicolored smoke rings from long pipes and spout a fount of incoherent poetry.  This is the nature of the fey realm.  At some point, the PCs may finally find the young emperor, suspended in mid-air.  The fey are willing to give the baby back in return for one favor (they don’t have any real reason to keep him, anyway).  The fey are genuinely concerned that the use of opium can allow mortals to enter their realm at will and would like to enlist the PCs’ aid in staunching the flow of the opium trade.  Should the PCs agree, whether honestly or not, the fey will allow them to take the baby back with them through a newly created portal into the child’s bedchamber (if the PCs do not agree to the terms, they will be forced through the portal by masses of fey, many of which have the polymorph self spell-like ability).  The fey will, from that point on, keep an eye on the PCs.  If the PCs ever break their promise, they will very likely come to regret it.  If the PCs return with the emperor, the House Sunrise will gratefully reward them with friendship and 20,000 gold-worth of exotic trade-goods.The CastWinter Sunrise Hides was the brother of Golden Sunrise Reigns and is the regent of the Sunlit Empire until Ancient Sunrise Returns reaches maturity.  Winter is a Lawful Neutral Aristocrat 7/Fighter 3 (if OA rules are being used, replace the Fighter levels with Samurai levels).  He is well practiced in the art of politics and relishes the power that his position implies.  Winter has always coveted the Sunlit Throne and many suspect that he may well have had a part in the assassination of his brother, nearly a year ago.  Winter may never be the emperor, but he knows how to take what pleasure he can from what is available to him.Roaring Waterfall Rages is a violent warlord and the head of House Waterfall.  His House and House Sunrise have long been rivals—since before the time of the Great Uprising.  Waterfall controls a very large army and is waiting for the tiniest excuse—any breech of law by the regent will do—to unleash it.  Waterfall is a Lawful Evil Aristocrat 1/Fighter 10 (if the OA rules are being used, replace the Fighter levels with Samurai levels.Sleepy Shadow Lies is the head of House Shadow, a relatively minor house quickly growing in influence.  Shadow is adept at trading information and is said to have an extensive network of spies.  Shadow’s animosity with House Sunrise stems from a slight from Golden Sunrise Reigns in childhood.  The nature of the slight is known only by Shadow.  Shadow would leap at the opportunity to destroy House Sunrise, with or without the promise of the Empire waiting for him.  Sleepy Shadow Lies is an Chaotic Evil Aristocrat 5/Rogue 5.Hunting Arrow Whispers, the head of House Arrow, does not particularly dislike House Sunrise, or Winter Sunrise Hides, but he distrusts them.  He fervently believes that the decisions of Golden Sunrise Reigns damaged the Empire beyond repair and that Winter is doing nothing to slow the demise of the Empire.  If the regent is not willing to save the Empire, Hunting Arrow Whispers will not shy away from his duty to assume the leadership of the Empire…Hunting Arrow Whispers is a Lawful Neutral Aristocrat 1/Fighter 9 (if the OA rules are being used, consider replacing the Fighter levels with Samurai levels).Meadow Gently Rolls is the mother of Ancient Sunrise Returns and was the wife of Golden Sunrise Reigns.  Meadow is not a likeable person—she is cranky, irritable, and generally unpleasant.  Furthermore, she consistently finds fault with everyone she knows.  These annoying tendencies are balanced only by her connection to her spirit ancestors and her great love for her son (she didn’t particularly like her husband and many people, perhaps wishfully, tend to blame her for his death).  Meadow is the equivalent of a level 9 Druid (if the OA rules are being used, she should be a level 9 Shaman).The fey presented in this adventure are much more mischievous and potentially malevolent than the sprites in the Monster Manual.  Hopefully, these fey are a bit more reminiscent of the fey of folklore.  Assume that all of the fey in this adventure are chaotic, ranging from good to evil (but more likely neutral or evil).</blockquote>

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