Now across the last river, we came upon the structure Kharn had sensed with his Commune with Nature. It turned out to be a gazebo. The players approached it with caution, as usual. It appeared to be a relaxing place for tea and quiet contemplation. Once close enough, we noted a magical glimmer that turned out to be a portal. On the other side was a mansion in a pocket dimension. Our hales were unanswered so Loki decided to ring the little bell on the table. A wise wizard appeared. Despite the “mad wizard” rumors, he seemed quite pleasant. He served coffee and donuts. Or his invisible staff did. What followed was a big exchange of information. His name was Mord, as in Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion. He did fight and defeat Stradanya however he found himself still trapped and she came back a couple days later. Since then, he has been laying low, working on long-term research on how better to defeat her. We told him our ideas, she’s being supported/trapped by dark powers that prevent her from being killed. Killing them first, possible with her help seemed reasonable to him. “Good luck with that”
And then a whole bunch more stuff, some of which I’m sure I’ll forget. We showed him her diary which he made a magical copy of. We asked about the Amber Temple to the south where we’re led to believe these dark powers reside. He thought it sounded dangerous. We offer to fetch him anything that might speed up his 4–5-year research timeline. Head of a gorgon, broom of the wicked witch, etc. But he was only interested in information. He did mention that he’d recently constructed a factory in the middle of the lake for the toy company. But would reveal nothing about it. That was a common theme. Helpful but not really. Confirming what we already suspected but not really adding much. He did tell us that the giant gem in her castle we saw at our last dinner with her, was holding part of her soul and so destroying it might be helpful. He had seen no evidence of a red dragon in the area, by the way. Nor any knowledge on the Tree of Life. Our requests for spells or items to aid in our noble quest were denied with his increasing annoyance. He did say that his Staff of Power was lost during his fight and if we retrieved it, we could use that. He gave us the command word. It should be at the bottom of a 1000-foot falls near her castle. That shot up to the top of our to-do list. Eventually, we just had to stop and move on.
He did offer to loan us a boat to sail back across the river. And to make us invisible since we feared the lake monster. (But no information on it, of course.) We reluctantly took him up on that. The boat turned out to be a Folding Boat but the small one only held 4 mediums “comfortably” and the large was a bit large for this lake. We sailed south and saw the island factory castle. After some debate, we decided to take advantage of being invisible and go check it out. We assume it was using enslaved child labor or some other evil. Loki cast Pass Without Trace but that didn’t really do us any good. There was only one door and once approached, it opened automatically with great fanfare. Inside was a toy factory in disarray. There were two bodies, a floating fluff, a giant stuffed pink octopus, and various toy making stuff. An Arcana roll from Lady Petrina identified the fluff as a psychic Underdark dweller of generally peaceful intent. We were slowed by role-playing the fact that we were all invisible but eventually Kharn moved up to examine a body. He ended up slicing it open to prove it was not an elaborate doll. And then a swarm of army ants emerged and attacked him. About half of us were surprised. How, I cannot fathom since every new building attacks us. Initiative was rolled.
The swarm was formidable although it did not take half damage for a change. It did carry Kharn away 15 feet a round without a grapple or anything. And, of course, there was a second swarm in the other body. (They turned out to be toys, too.) And the pink octopus attacked as well with multiple attacks, a big reach, and a ton of hit points. And free grapples, of course. Ezra crit it with a 2nd level smite and barely dented it. During all that, Loki was getting thoughts, via GM only chat, from someone claiming to be stuck in costume. That turned out to be a gnome customer stuck in the fluff costume. He used an action to free her so that reduced our targets by one. And then the octopus unleashed an AOE blast. All but Loki saved and he was instantly incapacitated with stuffing down his throat. That was a little dicey since he was still invisible. But he managed to save the next round. I think only Patrina took any serious damage but we won without too much effort.
The gnome said she and others had come over on the tour. She had gotten stuck in the costume when all hell broke loose. Loki used his Detect Magic wand since BQ was under the weather but it didn’t do much good. All kinds of things were magical in here. What we needed was a Wand of Detect Useful Magic. Kharn grabbed the costume and put it on. Basically, it polymorphed you into a flying fluff. But you had to attack with its meager attack and it only moved 30 so not that useful. Whether it had telepathy or not was yet to be proven. It’s probably more useful as an out-of-combat thing. Maybe to allow a non-sneaker to sneak? We also found a Magic 8 ball. We stopped there with the rest of the factory to investigate. The gnome was unsure how many were on the tour and there may be employees to rescue as well. And a puppet master at the end? Or maybe it was just a magical mishap. Next time. Assuming we survive, I think we were going to swing by the Tree of Life again and then back to Valaki. I suspect the promise of a Staff of Power will divert/delay any Valaki regime-changing plans.
