Erevel was raring to go, she wanted to get back to the roof and on to the Moon.
"Slow down, wait for the rest of us to gather," Ciprian demanded, "There are probably two Denizens of Leng in there and who knows what else."
The rest of the party ambled to back up Erevel, who stepped through the secret door and moved left in the hallway. Gavril followed into the hall and crept up to the door to the office on the right. Cracking open the door he saw a room filled with bookshelves, a desk and chair. The bookshelves were loaded with books.
There was a human standing in the room apparently reading one of the books.
Ciprian moved up into the hallway to back up Gavril. A Leng Denizen moved from behind a basin to the north and attacked Gavril from behind. The bite landed and Gavril felt somewhat less dexterous.
Another Leng Denizen moved up the hallway to Erevel and also bit her. Erevel already having coordination issues felt even more dexterity drain away. Paullus rushed into the hallway and fired arrows at one of the Denizens. Ciprian cast haste on the party. Ursina tried to move in but the area was getting very crowded. Armania was behind the line of party members trying to enter the area.
Suddenly the party again heard the baying of a hound. All but Armania stood their ground. Armania dropped her staff and headed further into the caravanserai, fleeing up the eastern hall to the pile of rubble, which she tore at with her bare hands ineffectually.
The battle continued with the party trying to fend off the two Leng denizens while wondering where the hounds were located. Ciprian and Gavril successfully flanked one enemy between them. Ursina moved in to help Erevel while Paullus fired away at the enemy. Armania continued her scraping at the pile of rubble.
Then two hounds and another Leng Denizen appeared south of Erevel. A ten foot area of fascinating lights appeared around Erevel and Ursina but seemed to have no effect. Ciprian called for a retreat into the larger hallway and the whole party followed his command and gathered around the area after attacking their creatures. Ursina found herself the focus of a bite and felt a little more clumsy. Gavril took a mighty attack bite and found he could not efficiently attack two handed. One of the Denizens fell stuck between Ciprian and Gavril.
Since the party moved to the rear the enemy advanced from being stuck in the hallway. The hounds moved in, one of them tripping Erevel. That was not the worst as Erevel found herself flanked by two Denizens, who delighted in the extra damage this allowed them.
A poised elf-like archer, his eyes swirling with vibrant colors appeared flying above Ciprian. Her silver-white hair the color of a lightning strike whipped her. She fired a lightning bolt catching two of the hounds, who expired without a cry or whimper. The last hound was swiftly dispatched and the group set about healing the most injured members.
"Say chaps what do you know about accounting or mathematics?"
"I don't know much, but I looked at those books before and believe they are the ravings of a madman." Ciprian responded.
"I must say, you are mistaken, they have some hidden meaning," the sharply dressed man replied.
There followed a long conversation on the meaning of the symbols and the man's contention that they were ledgers of some sort. When Ciprian tried to turn the conversation to Weiralai, the top hatted man clucked his tongue, chided Ciprian for getting off-topic, and refused to answer. The conversation about mathematics continued until Ciprian brought up the topic of the Yellow King.
"By the way I am Mister Wanderlust, who might you be?" the nattily dressed man stated.
"Ciprian by name and we are a group looking for the Yellow King,"
Mister Wanderlust expounded that he had met Weiralai many times and knew that the denizens of Leng here all serve her. Weiralai came to the Forsaken Caravanserai—which Mister Wanderlust recalled fondly from the days long ago when it was still operational—to capture Lowls’s dream fragment.
"I am not sure what Weiralai intended to do with the Yellow King when she found him—kill him perhaps. I suggested stranding the Yellow King on the moon in case he might come in useful at some later time. I hope that Weiralai followed my recommendation," Mister Wanderlust expressed.
He also related that Weiralai came with several denizens of Leng, several yeth hounds, and two lumbering, irascible winged creatures that he didn’t know much about.
"We have already met the Denizens and hounds," Ciprian said.
"As far as I know, Weiralai is still upstairs, as I haven’t seen her come back down."
"I beg your leave," Ciprian asked politely and started for the stairs to the chamber above.
The rest of the party followed minus the Bralani, who had disappeared partway into the conversation. The office above was empty with a broken chair and table, art askew and cut with daggers on the walls.
"Let's go to the moon, maybe we can catch Weiralai and get the Yellow King back. We don't want her to kill him!" Erevel interjected.
Ciprian and Erevel led the group out onto the rooftop to negotiate with the Shantak. Ciprian moved up to the huge creature, noting the howdah strapped on to the back of the monster.
"I saw you defeat those winged creatures. I feel so much less antsy now," came the reply in the familiar high pitched voice.
"Can you take us to the moon now?" Ciprian inquired. "How long does the trip take? Is there breathable air between here and the moon?"
The Shantak related that the journey to the moon atop the giant shantak took 10 hours, the air is breathable but it is very cold. The Shantak told the group that the howdah would protect them from the cold.
The howdah showed up as magical, with moderate abjuration and transmutation. It was large enough to hold eight humans. The construction was of teak with upright bronze posts supporting a thin wooden roof and silk curtains.
The group began to climb on board as Ciprian continued to query the Shantak about the moon and whether he could bring them back to the caravanserai. The answer was affirmative. Ciprian also learned that ominous dark galleys traveled from the Dreamlands to its moon frequently, and that the moon is the home of the wicked, froglike moon-beasts, who live in cities of pale, hard stone.
The Shantak lifted into the air smoothly as the party settled in the howdah. Restoration was done to restore drained damage for Erevel, Gavril and Ursina. Then the party slept with no ill effects, in fact they awoke feeling even better than a usual night sleep.
Upon arrival at the moon, the shantak descended quickly to the rocky surface. The terrain was stony and barren, with hills rising around a lake of dark, viscous fluid. The shantak landed in a wide-open paddock, about a mile west of a large, windowless building squatting at the edge of the lake, constructed of enormous, close-fitting blocks of the pale stone from which the moon is formed.
"Oh no, Weiralai is not here nor is my sibling. We should return to the Forsaken Caravanserai to avoid trouble," the high pitched voice stated trembling.
"We need to see if Weiralai left us a note. Can you wait here for some time, so that you can return us to the Caravanserai?" Ciprian requested.
"I suppose I could wait for a day or so," the Shantak replied.
Meanwhile, Erevel was checking for prints on the ground of the moon. She saw that learn that another giant shantak landed here a few days ago, remained for a few hours, then departed. She also detected two sets of contemporaneous footprints headed toward the prison—one shuffling as though bound—and only a single set of returning footprints.
The whole party clambered down to the moonscape and headed for the structure, moving wide of the lake but trying to follow the direction of the footprints. They came upon the large structure seeing no doors or windows. The western end had second and third floors and the prints headed to the south side of the building. Barnabas flew over the whole structure finding no apparent entrance on the flat roof.
"Lets go around the north side," suggested Armania.
The whole crew followed her suggestion with Gavril and Erevel in the lead as normal. They saw that the eastern end also had a second floor, although the second floor was not continuous east west. About two thirds of the way to the front of the structure, the stones had a slight porch like enclosure sticking out from the walls. In its middle was a closed metal door. Webbed footprints came from the east to this door and back.
"Lets keep moving around before we try to enter anyplace," Paullus suggested.
As Erevel and approached the eastern edge they saw a squat guard post budding from the building, its blank three-foot-square windows resembling empty eye sockets. Erevel approached and noted dirt and dust on the windows, which seemed to be made of glass. She rubbed some off which dimly revealed the empty squared interior and a semi-canine humanoid with rancid green flesh.
"Leave now!" came a voice from with the low extension. "You have no business here. Go back the way you came."
Erevel ignored the command but Ciprian shot back "We are here under Weiralai's direction. We are to pick up a note she left us."
"No she didn't! She would just have killed creature like you, or maybe taken you for slaves!"
"Really we are here to help her."
"The prison does not allow prisoners!" came the voice again. "You should leave now."
"We will not leave, you can't stop us from in there," Ciprian taunted.
Suddenly the semi-canine humanoid with rancid green flesh and hoof like feet, appeared outside the post, its eyes sparkled with the gleam of intelligence.
DM's Notes: The party earned 4,800 XP for the night and now have 83,288 XP on their way to 10th level at 105,000 XP.
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