Hopefully you all got home safely, it looked sort of nasty out there. Ernie left a little later, and we shoveled him out again since the plow had come by again.
As we finished up tonight we had defeated the HNO and her entourage. HBO had Teleported without Error somewhere. Her two Hannya had gone snake and into the cracks, perhaps not to emerge for months. Not too much we can do to extract them, unless Hatori wants to go mano-a-mano in snake form. We only spotted some jewelry and perhaps some rings on them, maybe something was magic, maybe not. AS for the Nagas, they too went snake form and into the cracks as well. We had never spotted anything of treasure-like nature on any of them.
Wang-Liang surrendered and gave us the agreed ransom, and the 4 sisters went with him.
We slew the snakes, giant constrictor, 4 Tsuno and 2 Yuan-ti. They had some treasures.
We gained from this room:
No-Dachi +1 (wang-liang)
Ring: Prot +3 (wang-liang)
4 huge non-magic falchions
4 suits of non-magic Tsuno Great Armor (6 pt)
2 x Ashigaru Armor +1 (human size)
2 x Large Shield +1
2 x Scimitar +2
2 x Daiyku Masterwork, Mighty (+2 STR)
30 Masterwork long Arrows
Set of Ivory Mahjo tiles with gold inlay worth 1000 Au (on floor near Nagas)
Treasure that HNO didn't grab from her back shelf:
Lesser Rod of Silence - 3xday can cast a 1st - 3rd level spell with Silence Feat (in Tome and Blood) she also left a number of gems and jewelry and coins worth 13,700 gold total.
We found the door to the lower hall where the Jade Yari is believed to be kept.
We went out and secured the Incense, finding as total of 12 blocks of the stuff to return to the temple. The Murimoto clan turned over to us a significant quantity of scrolls, ledgers, and writings. They uncovered nothing that they wished to consider trading with us.
As an aside, when we get back to the village, I intend to ask the Barbarians there if we can make any other trades with them for some of the +1 items we captured, assuming they have anything of worth to us.
The hall to Jade Yari is protected by a powerful spell which hinders non-lawful types from entering. I expect that Hatori, Zenako, Isaku, Til'k and Ashiko (who forced her way in with a high saving throw roll) will enter the hall and meet the wielder of the Yari. Noku, Mulan and Gorvak will wait outside.
Ernie will be providing some info on the yari, and the encounter with the current holder of the item. I have learned that the new owner, if any not only has to want to use the item, but that the current owner has to deem that person worthy of the item (by whatever metric they are using). The Yari has some constraints, but also much power. From indications, only the first four on the list above would have any chance of being accepted. (ie Lawful). After that, further questions remain to be answered. We shall see how it plays out.
Ernie also looked over the experience of the characters. Almost certainly going up a level will be Zenako, Noku, Hatori and Til'k. The other four might go up with some good experience totals from this battle, but it is not a sure thing, but cannot be ruled out.
As we dicussed in the past, the in game plan is to complete our encounter with the Yari. Gather up our treasures, bid goodbye to the Murimotos, (I assume that Magoun and the others have left after speaking with the Duc-oc-cuoc (sp)), head back to the encampment, make ready to return to the village on the 21st, perhaps trade a few things with them (If anyone has specific desires for any of the +1 items, let me know beforehand), and then head back to the Waterstone Abbey on the 22nd, and 23rd. Spend a few days or more there debriefing the Abbess on our activities, and perhaps going up a level. Then some of us should plan on returning to Marike. Various masterwork arms and armor will be getting completed in the next month or so. By 3/1/1562 the following will all be ready. Mithril Four Mirror Armor for Mulan (968 gold), Masterwork Mighty Daiyku (+4 STR) for Mulan (800 gold), Masterwork Mighty Daiyku (+4 STR) for Zenako (800 gold), Masterwork Mighty Yumi (+2 STR) for Tilk (535 gold) and Adamantine Short Sword for Gorvak (2702 gold).
On a related topic, I might try and run an Underdark in January to give Ernie more time to prep up the next set of situations for the characters. Any dates good or bad in the month for those players? Ernie might be willing to have a non-encounter type session resolving lots of off-line type activities at once if people want, like enchanting things or stuff like that.
Enough for now.