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Dervak wonders aloud. "If I sleep in the Dreamlands, will I have dreams-within-dreams? Where would I go then?"
He decides against sleeping, and looks out the howdah as the massive creature ascends into the air, heading for the Dreamlands moon.
"This is incredible!"
The fierce and formerly sullen warrior is overcome with a rather childlike glee at this voyage. No doubt there are horrors ahead, but this is a wonder to behold.
"Who or what is Weiralai?"
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Mara was used to flying, but not like this! The ground receded as the shantak gained altitude; the caravanserai looked like a miniature model. The line of the horizon slowly turned into a curve. Up and up the great beast climbed. They rose into the sunlight, although it was still night in the desert far below. Yet Mara could still see the stars, even though the sun was shining. She gazed out in silence, feeling at one with the cosmos.
After what seemed like hours, her thoughts returned to the task ahead of her. She said to the shantak, "I've heard people talk about 'moon-beasts', but I don't know anything about them. What are they like?"
The shantak answers Dervak "Weiralai is one of those Leng people, they wear all these clothes that cover most of their bodies and face. They sail those black ships. I overhead her saying that she's getting revenge for these people that killed her or something. They must be awful people cause Weiralai is always so nice to me."
The Shantak answers Mara's questions, "Moon beasts are small, well not as small as you but are so mean! They don't really have faces. So I don't know how that one saw me drink from their lakes. But it clawed my tail and that hurt so much. They build the buildings by those lake, no color at all. Oh I see those black ships sailing to the moon all the time."
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Dervak is shocked as the shantak responds, but only says "Ah."
The one who bought and sold me... maybe I have to kill her in the Dreamlands for it to take? She can die in the real world and 'wake up' here, the opposite of us? Or cut off her head and dunk it in holy water or something? Theophilus will know what to do.
He fidgets with the Vorpal Scimitar.
Mara followed up and asked the shantak, "Is your tail still hurting? I'm a healer.
"Do the moon-beasts have a prison in the buildings by the lake?"
The White Rabbit face palms!
Kat grips on all the tighter. "Well ain't that just capital. More a' those Leng blighters and their bloody black ships." She maintains an air of exhausted complicity in regards to the dream experience, as though she was constantly thinking "well, this might as well happen." She always acts similarly in her normal dreams, aware of what's happening but making no effort to control it, so it's unsurprising she would act the same in the Dreamlands.
The unnamed shantak continues to talk as it flied in the airy void between the Dreamlands and its moon, "Really? Wow, I think my tail is ok now though! Yeah they do! That's where Weiralai was headed with the Yellow man."
Kat knows some things about moon-beasts. Moon-beasts have no eyes on their pale faces but are able to function just as well, if not more so than sighted creatures. Despite what Shantak says they are not small and average 9 feet tall weighing around 800 lbs. They are telepathic and will not communicate verbally. They have a number of pink tentacles that project from their faces. They are slavers first and foremost using a regimen of physical and mental torments to break the spirits of their captors.
"Can you take us near there, so I can see what a moon-beast looks like? Not too close, mind you; they sound ill-tempered!"
After talking with the Shantak for a while, Mara decided to get some rest. The moon-beasts sounded like they were going to be nasty, and she was going to have to be at her best.
Upon arrival, the shantak descends quickly to the rocky surface of the moon at a wide-open paddock on the shores of a vast sea of dark, viscous liquid. The terrain is stony and barren, with hills rising around the lake. About a half-mile away a large, windowless building squats at the edge of the lake, constructed of enormous, close-fitting blocks of the pale stone from which the moon is formed. The other end of the structure rises several dozen feet above the level of the lake like the humped back of a great stone beast. The paddock is eerily empty.
Don't think that we are in Kansas any more!
[spoiler=Spells Memorized]
Orisons: Detect Magic, Light, Guidance, Read Magic
1st lvl (5): Ant Haul, Cure Light Wounds, Liberating Command, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear
2nd lvl (4): Barkskin x3, Calm Emotions
3rd lvl (4): Heroism x3, Stinking Cloud
4th lvl (3): Divination, Threefold Aspect, Wandering Star Motes
Mara awoke shortly before the landing. "That was a wonderful trip!", she told the shantak, as she disembarked.
She recite a couple of prayers and looked towards the building trying to spot a moon-beast.
Dervak disembarks and says "Thank you" to the Shantak. He reaches down and touches the surface of the moon. Then he looks at the building in the distance and draws the Vorpal Scimitar.
"Shall we proceed?"
He casts See Invisibility.
The shantak bobs its head and says, "Byeeeeeee!" It flies off leaving the party alone on a hostile moon.
Theo reluctantly disembarks down from the shantak. He wistfully watches it depart away. He then takes his hat off, scratching his head, wondering how they were getting back.
He casts his normal buffs. He also casts Feather Step on Dervak.
Mara waved as the shantak flew away. She wasn't worried about how she personally would get off the moon — she could just wake up. How to get the Yellow King back to the main Dreamlands world, so he could show them the way to the Mad Prophet — that was the question.
She said several more prayers to prepare the group for the rescue mission, then said to them, "Let's get a closer look at the prison."
Kat does her usual suite of extracts as well.
"Ready as ever."
A closed metal portcullis fifteen feet wide and fifteen feet high blocks a long hallway into the stone building. A squat guard post stands to the right of the portcullis as though budding from the building, its blank three-foot-square windows resembling empty eye sockets. There are no apparent doors inside the guard post. Beyond the closed portcullis is an empty killing room, with six arrow slits looking into it.
Within the guard post is a single Leng Ghoul that leers down at the party with its long canine face and says, "State your business."
Theophilus peers inside the portcullis.
Mighty sweet kill zone you got there! You ever ride on a shantak? Highly recommend it! The cool wind in your hair; Hotel California! Oh, yea, we represent the lollypop guild. Heard of a lollypop crisis. We came straightaway!
He grins.
Mara addressed the guard politely, "Hello, we have come to visit a prisoner being held here. He's an eccentric human who calls himself the Yellow King."
The Leng ghoul shifts uncomfortably when Theo mentions a lollypop crisis and the more perceptive of the lollypop guild get the sense that Theo might have accidentally struck on something that's bothering the guard. Probably not a literal lollypop crisis though.
He give Mara a rictus grin, "I apologize but no one is allowed to visit the prisoners." After a moment he volunteers, "I saw your prisoner brought here several days ago by some big wig named Weiralai, she left without him of course."
Theo slowly turns his still grinning face towards the guard.
My good ghoul. This crisis shall not fix itself! Now, perhaps, a bit of turn the other check after pointing us in the correct direction would be a sufficient claim to assistance in this crisis!
Dervak has little to add, knowing that sharper minds than his own are figuring out this problem.
The ghoul protests, becoming agitated, "There's NOTHING wrong. I don't know what you're talking about."
My good and hard-working ghoul; sitting in this oppressive moonlight for tedious upon tedious hours; only to be unaware of the absolute precariousness of the crisis of the century! Now, do spill the proverbial beans before your unrelenting and unrepentant superiors hear of this most egregious lack of duty!
Check: You can use Intimidate to force an opponent to act friendly toward you for 1d6 × 10 minutes with a successful check. The DC of this check is equal to 10 + the target’s Hit Dice + the target’s Wisdom modifier. If successful, the target gives you the information you desire, takes actions that do not endanger it, or otherwise offers limited assistance. After the Intimidate expires, the target treats you as unfriendly and may report you to local authorities. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the target attempts to deceive you or otherwise hinder your activities
The ghoul clambors down one if the windows and says, "You know what, I'm not gonna stop you. I quit. If you get to whichever unrelenting and unrepentant superior has won let them know they owe Graywick a corpse, I'm overdue for my salary." The ghoul begins to stalk off.
"So what now? Want me to try to lift the portcullis?"
Theophilus says, And leave the keys!, to the retreating--and mistreated-- ghoul.
Mara looked to see if she could make out any interior areas of the prison. She was looking for any clue of where the portcullis mechanism might be, and how to open the inner doors.
Theophilus says, And leave the keys!, to the retreating--and mistreated-- ghoul.
Graywick calls back as he goed, "Keys are above my paygrade. The portcullis is operated on the second floor."
The only way in that Mara can see is the set of large metal double doors past the killing room, which is itself behind the portcullis. There are no other apparent windows or doors.
Mara notices something else, none of the killing room's ceilings meet the walls at a corner. Instead is a disturbingly organic curve.
I can dimension door only 3 of us.
Theophilus will dimension door himself and 2 others.
Where?
The color drained from Mara as her eyes turned pitch black. She concentrated, opening a tear in the fabric of space, to allow one of her friends to follow Theo.
"You can't Dimension Door into a solid object because that would be bad, right? But we don't know the layout of the space beyond the double door. I would guess there is open space immediately behind the doors. If Mara sends me there and I have the Bracelet, I can summon all of you because I'll be able to see where the open space is. And if it's dangerous, I will be okay until you get there."
Dervak casts Shield, accepts Haste from Mara, and will Dex-rage before going.
I could summon a fiend into another part of the place to cause a distraction?
Kat drinks her extract of shield and enters her battle stance.
Theo, Kat, and Dervak teleport just beyond the door and find that they've found their way into a fairly nondescript and wide hallway. The interior is made of the same monolithic stone as the outside and the same nauseating curves join the walls and ceiling.
Mara decided to wait a moment before following; she preferred not to guess which way to enter. "Mommy, give me courage", she entreated, clutching her human doll and casting a spell.
If we open the door; Mara could see us?
Dervak grasps the charm on the Bracelet, thinks of the half-orc shaman, and says "Mara bint al-Katheeri."
Kat closely analyzes the nearest foe and launches a probing stab at them.