(July 18, 2004) Chronicler: Isaku
The party spends a month in the Dragon capital, spending money on various magical items and upgrades.
After a nice vacation, the Dragon clan asks us to bring back a "lost member of their flock", so to speak. His name is Master Yu, a human elder master tattooed monk, who inhabits the ruins of an island which is about a 2-day sail away. The monk is an adopted member of the Togashi family, as are many members of the order of Tattooed Monks. He went to the island decades ago and seems to have entered the spirit world, or at least is in the spirit world whenever they are able to scry him. Only a narrow area seems to allow scrying, so they don’t see him often. They have also seen other odd creatures being pummeled, but they regenerate. The monk has the Mighty Works mastery, and 5 tattoos: crab, dragonfly, falcon, tiger, and wasp. They imply that the monk is a bit of a thug, but they would like us to bring him back alive so they can talk to him, though they do not elaborate further. The monk might even agree to come with us, if he’s bored after being on the island for so long. They ask this favor of us, since we are known to have ways to reach the spirit world. The monk’s possessions are long since forfeit, and will be our reward.
The odd creatures sound like Kyoso-no-oni and Shikibu-no-oni, based on our knowledge of spirits. We need +2 enchanted or jade weapons to hit them.
Month 7, Day 29, Year 1562 –
We set sail for island, and arrive two days later.
Month 8, Day 1 –
We arrive on the island and travel through the woods. Eventually we find two very large, dead centipedes that appear to have been gouged out, perhaps by a giant badger? We decide not to pursue the badger, and continue on to the ruins.
Once we reach the ruins, Hatori opens a portal to the spirit world, and we pass through with Zenako guarding the portal until it closes. We still appear to be on the island, though the landscape seems enhanced in color. Noku, Gorvak and Birkat try some nearby plums, which taste really good and do not seem to be poisonous.
Noku and Ashi detect some kind of fire magic from an opening in a pure white wall ahead of us, but are not sure of the exact nature of the magic. The wall turns out to be part of a building, with openings of one energy type on the each side (sonic, cold, acid, fire). The trackers find a lot of footprints going in and out of the fire opening, but not the other openings. Til’k finds signs over each door, saying "Welcome to the Palace of Pain".
Raji won’t enter the building, so I leave him outside to guard the fire door. Huut finds a comfortable tree. Noku charges through the fire door first, with Til’k close behind. They seem to disappear as they pass through, and the rest of us left outside can’t hear anything inside the building.
Everyone who passes through the fire door gets hit by fire damage, and enters a small room with more energy doors. Once in the room, they get hit by Dispel Magic cast from snake-man paintings on the murals inside the room. On close inspection, the figures in the paintings actually seem to be moving slowly.
Zenako decides not to hang around. She goes through the sonic door straight ahead in the small room, and enters what looks like a dining room with more disturbing murals on the wall. The murals are of gluttonous snake-men eating various disgusting things, with other humanoid types acting as waiters. Zenako goes through another sonic door on the right of the dining room and enters a room decorated with ocean scenes. The tattooed monk is seated in this room, wearing somewhat tattered robes. Hatori soon follows, and tells the surprised monk to surrender in the name of the empire.
Noku goes through the sonic door to the dining room. Not knowing where Zenako and Hatori went, he chooses the electric door to the left, and enters what seems to be a battle training room, with murals of sparring figures. Noku steps into the battle room and casts a fireball, but the mural figures just seem to stop and look at him for a moment, then go back to what they are doing.
Til’k and Mulan eventually join Zenako and Hatori in monk’s room. The monk looks around him, and wisely decides to surrender and go back with the party. Ashi joins them later, and creates a small whirlwind around the monk, to hold him in place, even though the monk has already surrendered.
Birkat goes through the acid door on the left of the first room, and enters a very hot room with Volcano murals. He keeps going and enters the battle training room where Noku is. Noku goes back into the dining room, while Birkat passes through another door into what seems to be a music room, with murals of bad musicians. He sees a Kyoso-no-oni apparently swaying to the music played by the murals, in some kind of smoke cloud. Birkat attacks, but his weapon bounces off her rubbery hide. The creature continues swaying, unaware of Birkat’s presence. Birkat moves on and eventually finds his way outside the building. Gorvak goes through the electric door on the right of the first room, and enters a room with slow moving manacles. He manages to avoid the manacles and passes through to the next room, with slow moving grey slime. He quickly moves through that room to a hallway with more spell-casting murals, not that it matters, since all his prep spells are already gone.
Isaku, left alone in the first room, goes through the sonic door and enters the dining room. Not knowing where the others went, he chooses the fire door and enters another room with spell-casting murals. Again it doesn’t matter, since Isaku’s prep spells are gone. He passes through another fire door into the casino, where 5 Shikibu-no-oni sit around a table, shooting dice. They look at Isaku and go back to their game. Rather than taking them on alone, he goes back through to the previous room and chooses the acid door, which leads back outside. He catches up with Birkat, who has suffered a bit from the various energy doors, and casts Cure Light Wounds on him.
Gorvak eventually finds the casino with the Shikibu-no-oni, just missing Isaku. The gambling Oni again make no threatening move, so Gorvak leaves and makes his way back outside.
Eventually, everyone meets back at the original entrance. Ashi tries to convince everyone that the monk could be an Oni in disguise, but it’s soon obvious that the monk really is who we are looking for. He explains that he did something a long time ago (he can’t remember what) and had to leave town, so he hired a sorcerer to send him into the spirit world. He has been in this building most of that time, and fighting the Oni occasionally to vent his frustrations. He is pretty much bored with the place, but has no way of getting back on his own.
The outside entrances all lead to Dispel Magic rooms, the dining room and ocean room are safe, and the corner rooms of the building are the torture rooms (manacles, grey ooze, sauna, dark/silent, bright, bad music, and the addictive casino).
We have to wait until the next day before Hatori can open a portal back to the real world, so we spend the night in the ocean room, with healing circle spells from Ashi to take care of any damage from the energy doors.
Month 8, Day 2 –
We go back outside to where we originally entered the spirit realm, and Hatori opens a portal back to the real world. We pass through and wait until the portal closes to ensure that nothing follows us. Mulan sends Huut ahead with a note warning the ship’s crew that we’re on the way, so they don’t panic when they see us all flying back via Ashi’s spells.
Month 8, Day 4 –
We arrive back in the Dragon capital, and bring the monk back to the representatives of the Mirumoto family. Resigned to his fate, the monk gives up his possessions, which Zenako will distribute among our group. We also are awarded some gold by the Dragon clan in thanks for bringing the monk back alive.