#mokomokuren is my main | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

true-halloween-tales · 7 years ago

Text

2017: #9-THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES 5: RETURN OF THE RAT, THE CAT, AND THE MONKEY

Pandora’s Box of True Halloween Tales has included the ongoing adventures of some Dungeons & Dragons characters in my campaign that I serve as Dungeon Master for. We have twice before heard the continuing adventures of the rat, the cat, and the monkey (see 2012: #10-DUNGEONS and 2013: #8-THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES). Their adventuring party consists of three main characters, all of non-standard Dungeons & Dragons races. Tir’ko is a fighter/wild magic-user who is a Nezumi rat-man; he owns a home the party lives in. Razzmatazz is a bard who is a Tabaxi cat-man; he pursues a college degree when not adventuring. The third party member is Ravi, also a fighter/magic-user and a Vanara monkey-man; he has a sense of wonder and humor. Each separately attempted to start an adventurous trek, but they encountered the same low flying, unmanned, hot-air, runaway balloon they tried to stop. All three ended up being whisked away in the balloon, which is how they met. They landed in the unfamiliar country of Dorse where they began their adventures together. Soon they were all captured and enslaved by a deranged mad scientist, alchemist, fleshwarper named Lesmond, but they eventually escaped (see 2018: #5-MAD SCIENTISTS). They settled in the city of Drexciya which is an extremely diverse city including dark elves, Yuan-ti snake-men, ogres, and even orcs. All are welcome in Drexciya! They found fighter and magic-user trainers so they could rise in experience levels for their chosen professions, and they met other adventurers.

On May 1, 2133, on the planet of Terra in the country of Dorse, Tir’ko, Razzmatazz, and Ravi commenced their third adventuring season. Their quick one-day excursion was to travel to the western Dorse Badlands peninsula, twenty miles south of the abandoned, ruined town of Xanxia. Ravi had recently inherited a vacant property, the Wizard of Wines Winery. They surveyed the ruins of Xanxia and decided they needed to fully explore it soon. Ravi started to clean up the winery to be used as a launching point to explore Xanxia later in the summer. Their second, self-selected, one-day mission was to follow directions in a treasure map they had previously found. They followed the map’s directions west of Drexciya out into the desert. They found a rocky, hilly area, and a small hidden cave was found. The cave was a secret hideout for Vile Bile, a notorious wild mage who had been dead for decades. They did find some of his old treasure, wands, and a scroll containing magical spells. Things started out well.

Our hairy three then traveled from Drexciya by boat west down the Ooty River through tropical jungle to the strange new city of X. The city was actually shaped like an X, and it was even more diverse than Drexciya. X mainly contained monster inhabitants such as lizard men, cyborg-like Warforged, and Yuan-ti snake-men, all happily living together. The head of the town was their friend, King Doom, a lizard man king. The increased diversity in the region originated decades ago from the wild mage, Vile Bile. Vile Bile was consumed by his wild magic and transformed into a bizarre entity known as the Mokomokuren. He started a cult in the Dorse Badlands, bringing together all species including monsters by feeding them mind-controlling giant mushrooms. The Mokomokuren had long been defeated, but the effect he left on the land remains. King Doom was an evil, lizard-man-king warlord before he unwillingly joined the Mokomokuren’s forces. King Doom’s alignment and worldview vastly changed, and he eventually ended up founding the town of X and perpetuating the plurality of the Mokomokuren.

King Doom alerted the rat, the cat, and the monkey to a new prophecy of the destruction of the city of X, and it was traced to a nearby, ancient, stone windmill. Exploring the windmill led them to underground tunnels that opened up into a very large metal construction. They explored this huge underground, metal area, and it was defended by scores of Derro, evil dwarves. They discovered multiple floors or levels, and then the whole area started moving. They soon discovered that they were inside of an enormous magical vehicle that had been buried underground for hundreds of years. The windmill was a piece of the engine, and the vehicle was literally the size of a fleet of tanks. It was a fortress on wheels, an infernal machine, occupied and operated by the Derro. The Derro discovered the buried huge machine and had been repairing and living in it for hundreds of years. The vehicle even possessed a huge central magical cannon. It was the Doomgrinder, from the official Dungeons & Dragons sold module, The Doomgrinder. It could destroy a city easily just by driving through it! And it drove on directly towards X as they battled the Derro through the multiple interior levels. The prophecy was coming true. The Doomgrinder was powered by dozens of trapped Genies and Dao, beings from the elemental planes of existence. Tir’ko, Razzmatazz, and Ravi arrived in the engine room and freed the trapped Genies and Dao. That permanently disabled the engine of destruction with just enough time to park it permanently in the city of X. The Doomgrinder then became the largest building and civics center for the town of X.

Tir’ko, Razzmatazz, and Ravi returned to the Wizard of Wines Winery so they could fully explore the coastal, ruined city of Xanxia. They were surprised what they learned. Xanxia had been destroyed by a tidal wave many years previously. Shortly after the tidal wave hit the town, a blue dragon that lived in the area had swooped into the abandoned city. Melecanthe the blue dragon made excavations under the city until it found the bank vaults, and it confiscated the bars of gold for its own treasure hoard. Melecanthe settled in a tower at the edge of town and used an adjacent, partially ruined, castle as his home. The blue dragon claimed Xanxia as his. He met a lady dragon, she moved into his ruined castle, and all was happy in Xanxia for Melecanthe. That lasted only until human adventurers came into the ruined city and slayed Melecanthe’s mate. The blue dragon then became particularly bitter and vengeful. This motivated him to use all of Xanxia as his hunting ground for adventurers as the decades passed. He retained a human form to even hide that he was a dragon.

When the rat, cat, and monkey once again approached the ruined city, they saw that it had been transformed. It now looked like the ruins of Xanxia had quite recently melted and was magically repaired in some way. They learned the changes in the ruined city were due to a convocation of deathmasters. Deathmasters are evil, necromantic spell casters who specialize in raising and creating new undead such as zombies, vampires, and worse. The deathmasters had taken the central building in Xanxia that resembled a state capital. The deathmasters were busy making new forms of undead, sharing secrets of their dark profession, and networking. Xanxia was now full of dangerous undead stalking about. Tirko, Razzmatazz, and Ravi cleared the streets of the unfriendly undead and explored the castle. The castle had been rehabbed as a labyrinth for the blue dragon to kill adventures. The three got close to getting into blue dragon’s tower via an underground tunnel from the castle. Blue dragons have an interest in electricity, and their breath weapon is electrical and not fire. Melecanthe flooded the castle with an enormous charge of electrical current, frying everything inside. The rat, the cat, and the monkey just managed to escape from the dangers of Xanxia and planned their return at the end of the summer when they would be in top form.

Tir’ko, the Nezumi, rat-man, fighter/wild magic-user, then led the party on two missions for his wild archmage trainer, Sega. The missions involved actions against Sega’s former apprentice, Neo. Neo was a strange, green, half-human and half-otyugh, tentacled humanoid who was Sega’s first apprentice and betrayed him. Sega felt responsible for unleashing the evil threat of Neo, so he had to be dealt with. Tir’ko, Razzmatazz, and Ravi first captured two of Neo’s apprentices for Sega who quickly recruited them to his cause. Then they attacked Neo’s base of operations in the Blackmoor Swamp, a large white building. But the building was a decoy trapped to explode – and the real white building was missing! They soon found and followed giant, Godzilla-sized tracks leading through the swamp. They learned that Neo had magically grown huge tentacle-feet for his building and it walked away like a giant Baba Yaga’s hut (see 2017: #2-WITCHES). Tirko was absolutely apoplectic when they followed the tracks for many miles all the way to his farmhouse outside of Drexciya. Neo’s walking building was invisible, and they made a sustained assault on it and destroyed it. Neo retreated to his last boat hole, a secret base on Danger Island. Sega is preparing for the final assault on Danger Island, an upcoming adventure for the rat, the cat, and the monkey.

Ravi, the Vanara monkey man, fighter/magic user then led the party on two missions. His Vanara people only had three of their own that left their land and sailed north. Two of these Vanara travelers were dangerous and evil, and one was kindly and good, like Cornelius from The Planet of the Apes original films. The good Vanara traveler was dead and had willed the Wizard of Wines Winery to Ravi; he had been killed by one of the two evil Vanara travelers. Ravi was able to track down one of them who had become a criminal in Dorse and had been in prison. They located him in the town of Thisbe in the act of breaking into a bank. They snuck into the bank following the route of the thieves, and Ravi found his quarry. Ravi used a powerful spell to imprison the Vanara down into a limbo near the center of the planet. The third Vanara traveler was tracked down to a mysterious locale known as the Dark Jungle at the southern tip of the southeastern Dorse Badlands. Ravi, Razzmatazz, and Tirko discovered that for eons the Dark Jungle had been contaminated by a radioactive meteor that greatly influenced all life in the region. The Dark Jungle was still full of prehistoric dinosaurs! As they reached the source of the radiation, they found apes had evolved as in The Planet of the Apes. They lived in Ape City which was ruled by the third Vanara traveler. After sneaking through Ape City and running away from a King Kong, Ravi found the last evil Vanara traveler and imprisoned him.

Razzmatazz, the bard Tabaxi cat-man, led the party on a mission for the bards. They were to accompany the bard and actor, Habadash, up the Dorse River to the city of Andelain. Andelain was where the great Dorse playwright, Spearshaker was buried. Spearshaker was a spear-wielding barbarian who became civilized, then a writer, then the founder of great Dorse literature. He had written such plays as King Fear, The Ten Pests, King Henry Ate, The Taming of the Ghoul, and A Midnight’s Summer Scream. They learned as they sailed up the river that Habadash was gravitated towards trouble and was a wanted criminal in the region. He had punched a nasty nobleman in his fat nose many years ago, and the statute of limitations was not quite expired, so he needed accompaniment. After causing disturbances in towns on the journey northward, he gained the attention of the police, and soon they were being pursued by a police inspector. They arrived in Andelain and rapidly ran to Mortisimus Cemetery where they found a secret room in a tomb next to Spearshaker’s grave. There they found the purpose of this journey: the lost folio of Spearshaker. The old tome included three lost plays. Let Them Eat Ham was about starvation, ghosts, and a zombie apocalypse. Back Meth was a play about a drug running operation by three witches who smuggled drugs in their false hunchbacks (see 2017: #2-WITCHES). Chewiest Cheeser was yet another Spearshaker priceless play about food.

The rat, the cat, and the monkey received a lead from King Doom where they might find Lesmond, their alchemist, fleshwarper enslaver. They magically teleported to the country of Oldive and into a very strange underground base. What first appeared to be Lesmond’s secret base was really a living, thinking, shape-shifting, teleporting dungeon. They were all trapped inside, including Lesmond, and the dungeon was devouring anyone it caught, thus acquiring their memories and skills. The first dungeon level resembled a giant mouth and esophagus which they fell down. The second level was a deadly digestive disaster with even a huge stomach. The third level was respiratory, and the fourth level was reproductive. In the fourth level, Lesmond was himself enslaved by the living dungeon to create monsters for it. Lesmond also created a humanoid body for it. The adventure concluded with them escaping, and Lesmond was captured and went to prison. Even though the dungeon was destroyed, its consciousness escaped in its new humanoid body, an extremely dangerous entity.

The rat, the cat, and the monkey have other ambitious plans for this current adventuring season. Tir'ko wants to destroy the rat-men Nezumi deathmasters who have moved into the Dorse Badlands. They tracked the Nezumi deathmasters to a mountainous base. They discovered that the deathmasters have rediscovered the ancient death magic of the Black Wind, a wind that turns all it touches into undead in seconds. The three are currently on this mission. Afterwards, they will all sail back to their island homeland of Aleutia to explore the dark islands of The Shadowlands. Next up, they will finish Neo on Danger Island. And then they will end their third adventuring season by returning to Xanxia to hopefully defeat the blue dragon that holds the ruined city. It’s never a dull day for the rat, the cat, and the monkey!

#true halloween tales #Halloween #shakespeare #nezumi #Dungeons and Dragons #deathmaster

0 notes