Cats is ready to board the boat, but is still uncertain about flying to any moons on it.
”Catterfly, can you get this boat to go? How long will it take to get there, Catiner?”
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Fearless looks at Cats in confusion. "Are you as drunk as the Shapeshifter? We are on the moon. We already flew here." He points to the ghoul on the moon staring at them apologetically. "Sorry, seems we need a minute. Only Captain that is on this boat is Morgan it looks like."
Cats looks uncomfortable, as if he slept the entire trip and doesn’t remember moving at all.
”Uh...well, who is Cattain? You mean old Cattain NoBeard over here?” Cats tries to figure things out, thumbing to indicated Butterfly.
The ghoul’s eyes bounce between the lunatics that just parked a Leng ship on the front lawn of the prison for a moment before holding up its claws.
”I don’t get enough fresh meat for this sort of thing. I’ll bring you to the warden, Yath-Kheph, and he can decide if you are friend or food. Follow me.”
The ghoul turns and stalks back into the prison, passing by some murder holes and arrow slits in the entrance passage.
Cats stares dumbly, but then nods and will follow.
As he leads the Watchmen through the entrance and past guard posts the ghoul introduces himself as Greywick.
”Lots of visitors lately. Denizens, dreamhunters, and now barmies. Kind of miss the good old days when the we just locked up tourists, had some laughs while the torturer made ‘em scream, then had a nice dinner with the leftovers.”
He takes you to a room upstairs where a bloated, pinkish-yellow creature squats in the air a few feet above an ancient rug faded to a shade of nauseating yellow-green. It has a pale, froglike appearance with clawed hands, no eyes, a wide mouth, and a snout ending in pink tentacles.
As you look around you notice a lever within an alcove on one wall that surmounts an enormous contraption of thick gears bolted to the floor.
”Has that upstart piper above the cellblocks attacked yet?” the strange creature calls to Grewick as the ghoul enters. Its face tentacles make horrid smacking sounds as they constantly writhe about. When it spies the Watchmen, it does a double-take. ”What’s this? Who are you and why did you let them in here?” It demands of the ghoul.
Greywick shrugs. ”One of them must have charmed me or something. They’re looking for the “King in Yellow” I think they said.
Fearless looks to Brother Butterfly to 'charm' the undead. "We were sent here from below to look for the King in Yellow. He had us gather a bunch of things for him and come back. When we came back we found he was sent here to the moon." Fearless shrugs hoping he has the jist of it right.
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Trying to figure out what the thing is.
Yes, we signed up for a "folksy style" treasure hunt. The kind you set up for kids where they hunt for rediculous items. Anyway, we are just big kids in a lot of ways and We'd like ole' King in Yellow to tell us what we've won. Does he get a "lunch break" in between torture times? Or is your torturer a nose to the grind stone type guy?
Well, I bet he's probably placing Mr. Yellow's nose to a grindstone... that's a good form of torture...
Cats keeps quiet and given his recent catfusion might be the best course of action. He crosses his arms in support of the words of Fearless and Butterfly.
Diplomacy to aid
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"One of them must have charmed me or something"
The flight to the moon was a white-knuckle ride for the Mariner. Not from the obvious terror of sailing across an ocean of stars, nor from the seeming miracle of Bloodwind’s submission to an even bigger ego. Gripping the rails tight was all The Mariner could do to not throw Brother overboard when mid trip he stepped to the bow, spread his arms and screamed “I’m flying!”.
The alien creature here, in contrast, was a normal expectation. He stands next to Cat and waits in silent diplomacy.
Yath-Kheph listens to your strange request and stranger stories. When it “speaks” again you realize the sound of its voice comes not from its tentacled mouth, but from the air above - or perhaps from within your own mind.
”The King you speak of is here. He carries a madness disturbing even to me, and I will gladly release him to you. For a favor.”
The creature floats slowly closer..
”There is another moon-being here in this prison like myself called Ahrkh-Nar. He was assigned as my assistant long ago but has certain... obsessions. I mean, I enjoy a good torturing as much as the next being, but Ahrkh-Nar enjoys nothing else. When I limited his access to the rack, he began to covet my position and eventually attempted to wrest control of the prison. He has taken the far side of the prison and holds it with a few allies. I would send my ghouls...” He pauses and Greywick rolls his eyes. ”..but quelling insurrection isn’t in their contract.”
Returning its attention to the Watchmen, he says, ”Bring me Ahrkh-Nar’s tentacles on a platter and I will give you the King.”
Cats crosses his arms in the other direction, still considering and trying not to be too annoyed by the mind to mind contact.
”Yeah, we can probably do that. Probably, if we can get Catterfly here focused on something other than getting laid,” Cats slowly agrees. ”I think what we’ll need is a map to where your assistant might be, and for you to tell any females you might have working here to hide so Catterfly doesn’t get distracted. You know, it would be good.”
Fearless nods his head in agreement, "Eight tentacles, got it!" He imagines Pinkie trying to count that high with his missing digits. "Anything we should know about him and his allies? Any weak spots to start at?"
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"If Ahrkh-Nar likes torture, just have Cats read a grammar pamphlet to it for an hour. That ought to do it." Although the Mariner didn't think it'd be that easy, he asks to the point, What's the likelihood of us getting killed and or sh!++ing on ourselves?
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With a map and some preparation. We should be victorious. We have the greatest killer in the Dreamlands right here- The Mariner.
Jasper is happy with this straight forward endeavor. He is still puzzled from the red footed whatever-you-call it item they went after yet somehow already had. Jasper doesn't like it when the dominoes don't line up perfectly for him to knock over.
”Moon beasts like Ahrkh-Nar and myself have no weaknesses, so you will probably sh!t yourselves and die horribly. Not necessarily in that order. But you sound confident, so perhaps you’ll die thinking you did well.”
To Brother Butterfly, Yath-Kheph adds, ”Your flesh is smooth, pale, and round. I hope you at least survive.”
Yath-Kheph digs into the folds of his own flabby flesh and withdraws a key ring. Taking a couple from it he tosses them to the ground at the Watchmen’s feet.
”These will open the doors to the other side of the prison. Greywick will provide a map and show you the way. Happy hunting.”
Turning away, the creature moves to contemplate the machinery in the room.
”Lets go.” Greywick sighs and leads you to a side door that leads to a kind of records room. Rows of stone cubbies of various sizes—hundreds in all—line the walls of this room from floor to ceiling, each with a small metal door covered with script. A table in the center of the room contains a replica of the prison, including tiny cranks to raise the replica’s portcullis and the machine who’s purpose is unknown. None of the areas are labeled, but the replica should give the PCs a good idea of the layout of the prison.
Each of the cubbyholes contains the name of a prisoner in Aklo (or, when a name isn’t known, a short physical description).
Fearless frowns. "They seem friendly enough, but so did Shapeshifter before he stabbed me in the back." Though his words mean little as Fearless generally distrusts everyone. "Suppose we head upstairs and check out the cells first?"
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Jasper is interested at the map. In a lower tone Let's look for the place that might have some riches.... wait, nevermind. All items here are in a fugitive state, they are just fleeting. So, Fearless is right, let's head upstairs and check out the cells first.
BB also thinks about all he knows about Moon Beasts, since the jail keeper just identified himself and our quarry.
Moon-beasts have no voice or eyes, yet they "see" more than most and can project their thoughts into the very minds of those they wish to communicate with. These monstrosities hail not from any physical moon, but rather from the shared satellite of all slumbering minds in the Dimension of Dream beyond the wall of sleep. Here, the moon-beasts raise stone cities on the oily shores of night-black seas found upon the dark side of the dreaming moon, from which they launch long, dark galleys crewed by not-quite-human slaves that sail through the void of space down to the seas of the Dimension of Dream to seek new slaves and stranger, more sinister wares.
Cats shrugs and readies his bow.
”Well, let’s go kill the MoonCat. How bad could it be?” Cats is ready to move on. ”We’ll be cat before you can count to cat. You’ll see.”
"How do you know that?", the Mariner incredulously asks Brother about his knowledge of the beast's reach. "Looks like a job for the fruit picker. If I only had a magical one, might make things easier." he hefts the polearm and stretches his loins.
Cats asks Mariner to wait to open the door until we see that everyone is ready.
”You good to go, Catless?” Cats readies his bow.
Fearless nods. "Ready when you are. Actually, how about you go first." Fearless is trying to be polite but in reality he just wants the moonbeast to pounce on someone else besides him.
Cats wonders if he's going the right way, then corrects himself to go the right way.
"Steel yourselves, men. I'll keep it at bay, you piss on it from a distance." the Marine psyches himself up, "COME TO OLD PAINLESS...
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Two long lines of cells crowd this oppressive stone room. Although stone walls separate adjacent cells, the cells are divided from the corridor with floor-to-ceiling walls of iron bars that provide no privacy. Nearly all of the cells are empty except for leather pallets, metal buckets, and suspicious stains. A grate in the floor at the base of the western wall emits a sour smell. A wide set of stairs leads up to the east, and a pair of double doors stand within a massive slab of stone just south of the stairs.
Only two cells contain prisoners. One is a dark skinned woman in desert-styled robes, seemingly of Osiriani heritage. She sits in the center of her cell, staring blankly through the bars, and takes little notice of the Watchmen’s arrival.
The other is a lean, strong woman with short black hair and an ugly scar across her brow and nose. Her reaction is the opposite of the other prisoner. Her hands grip the bars in white-knuckled desperation.
”You don’t look like guards... who are you? What’s happening out there? Please, let me out! Let me out!”
Fearless looks back at Brother Butterfly. "Any of these look like your moon beast?"
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BB looks at Fearless with unbelieving eyes. He deadpans
Your powers of observation astound me. These are two prisoners.
He looks at the scarred woman. Trying to not show that he recognizes her.
Rest assured that you won't be in that cell for long. We will release you. But first, I need to see about this one.
Do you know anything about her? Or can you share information about yourself?
He bends down to the woman that stares off into space and time.
Hello Fellow Osiriani. Desna is the master of dreams - yet you seem to have a Lovecraftian Dark Tapestry look to you. Come back dreamer. Come back and join the land of the living once more.
Cat looks at the she-prisoner with his Cat's Eyes before Brother probably scores with her.
"Hold on a cat. Who are you?" Cats replies. "Just for the record, you should know that this man, Brother Catterfly, is married. So don't get any ideas."
Brother Butterfly tries to get through to the Osirioni woman. She looks up and he can see a bottomless sense of despair in her eyes. Not since the asylum has he seen such a broken soul. A small smile crosses her lips, and she gives a hopeless laugh.
Kelvetta shakes her bars, calling to the Mariner. ”Tell him to forget her! Last thing she said was some sh!t about fate and just deserves. She’s a lost cause! Give me a weapon and I can fight my way out! Or fight for you!”
"Brother? She ain't worth it. She's trouble. C-A-T, that spells 'bad', which she is. Leave her here and let's go," Cats offers his opinion.
"And notice she didn't answer my questions. You can't cat a woman like that. Nope."
BB looks at Fearless with unbelieving eyes. He deadpans
Your powers of observation astound me. These are two prisoners.
"Give you a weapon?", the Mariner tightens his right nostril and ejects a moon cheese out the left, "I was considering killing you." He looks back to see Cats with fur standing on his collar.
Kelvetta starts at the Mariner’s words. ”Kill me? Is everyone a deranged maniac in the Dreamlands?”
Trying again to get the one person’s attention who seems interested in helping, she reaches through the bars toward Brother Butterfly. ”Hey, please help me! My name’s Kelvetta. I’m a hunter. I don’t deserve to be here..”
Meanwhile, the Osirioni woman just sits and stares, the empty smile starting to fade.
Cats turns his cat’s eyes to the other prisoner, trying to determine if they also reek of evil.
”Let me take a cat here. Hold on.”
”Yeah, they both ain’t cat, Brother. Let’s move on. They ain’t cat,” Kast insists. ”Let’s get the bad thing.”
The Mariner makes the motion of shame with a frown. "Anything you can tell us about the beast in the next room? The truth will set you free."
Fearless shrugs, all for leaving more people to stab him in the back later in their cells. He pushes Mariner onwards. "Let's leave the Moonbeasts be. We can come back."
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Brother stands up straight from his squatting position. The broken soul he was staring at having touched his own soul.
Is everyone a deranged maniac in the Dreamlands?
No, not everyone is a maniac in these lands. Nor are we stupid. There's reasons for people to be in cells, and just releasing you *because you said so* is not our game plan.
BUT, you may be in luck that our gameplan *will* include killing the controlling Moonbeasts. If that comes to pass, we might have to take you.Take my words as you will, but any information you have that prolongs our lives- gives you a chance to get off this moon- in our custody.
Brother moves with the rest of the party to advance into the next room.
He puts his hand on the door to see what's on the otherside.
”I don’t know much of anything!” Kelvetta cries out. ”I only that there’s a woman with red hair that comes down here occasionally, grabs a prisoner, and drags them upstairs. They scream for a day or two, then she comes down for another.”
Fearless moves over to check the stair for any traps or signs of the red woman. "I'll check it out." He says trying to be helpful.
As long as he finds the stair safe he sneaks up them to investigate and scout ahead.